Remarks by Josh Mandelbaum
12 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 1:06:45
“Just for clarification on the electric easement. Yep. I can bring that back up. And that would restrict...”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:18:57
“I've got some comments and I will say this is something that I struggle with, but I am prepared to support. so long as it is not precedent setting. And I want to be clear, I think this is a unique site. It is an awkward parcel to start with. And then you layer on three different types of utility restrictions. You have railroad, you have transmission, which impacts height. And by the way, the same transmission lines are impacting the design on a much bigger parcel across the street. And we're getting more density across the street, but that is because It's a much bigger parcel and it's limited…”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:24:38
“The challenge is that the next one of these is not potentially that far away from us since we have a proposal. We have a proposal for that Dutch Brothers that is also downtown in a lot where I think we could do better. So that is my concern from a precedent's perspective.”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:26:28
“I have some comments and maybe start with a question for our attorney to see if I can understand a piece of this, because I know this was bid with one bridge is kind of a, that could be separated out. And I'd like to see if we can just go forward and approve the contract, but kind of hold back on the piece that separated out where we have approval to do that. maybe have to come back after some additional due diligence? And is that possible?”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:27:13
“It was bid as an adder. Like, it was bid separately.”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:27:47
“because I have some level of concern with this particular bridge because there's some redundancy there and I think there's an opportunity for some efficiency if we worked with the property owners. And I think we've started the process, but we haven't got all the way down that process. This is a section of Skywalk that requires capital investment beyond just the 80,000 for that bridge. There is 150,000 in HVAC that is going to have to be an investment that's going to have to be made pretty much right now. So there's an opportunity to avoid $230,000 in capital investment. In addition, on the…”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:33:00
“Yeah. You know, if we were to take this down, there would have to be some private sector investment, right? Because there is building repair on the facades. The $150,000 that the private sector would save would maybe be what would cover their investment. Is there... Well... When is the next phase of this work going to be done?”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:33:56
“Well, how long has it been sitting this way? You know, I'm not sure I can answer, but you know that, I mean, it's been sitting this way for years. I mean, we have urgency now, but it's been this way for quite some time.”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:34:43
“It's not a not fix ever. It's work with the property owners and see if they're I mean, because this would be the time if this bridge was ever going to at least for another 20 years and this is a one of the few places that is completely redundant in the in the skywalk and not going to any particular destinations except for the hotel that for the parking is that who you said is it the most well but the owner of that parking garage is okay with this and there's also closer parking it's actually a city lot that is the closest parking that they don't use”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:37:04
“so i wanted to just highlight a few things one i want to thank cameron middlebrooks for his service on the civil rights commission i wanted to call out blake who's kindly sat through sat through a our meeting this evening uh and thank him for his willingness and interest to serve and wanted to to highlight this particular moment um You know, we have a great history in Des Moines from a civil rights perspective. We were early champions of civil rights. This happens to be the 75th anniversary of anniversary year of the enactment of the Des Moines Civil Rights Commission. And we were early in…”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:46:46
“We could, could we have Steve come up and address it? Because my understanding is that that wasn't, it wasn't a prohibited use before.”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026
- Play at 1:47:02
“Or it wasn't an allowed use rather, like we did not make a change on edible plants. It wasn't. It wasn't allowed before it wasn't allowed after that change. There was no change on that.”
City Council · Aug 3, 2026