Well if as you note it was really not a big impact on the bottomline of the company then to me all the more reason not to be involved in it. Stand on principle and simply state as a private leader of downtown development that this really is not a projeject we feel is worthy of promoting a healthy downtown so we would rather not be part of it. And I never said anything negative about the Riverwalk. I just feel it was a bad decision on their part to be associated with the garage.
As much as it pains me to side with you since you gratuitously give me such a hard time, I think you're right here. The economy is not deep enough or strong enough for much picking and choosing for Jax companies, however, Haskell is likely one of the contenders in the city that is in a position where it can go down a different direction when it so chooses.
It never struck a positive chord with me to have Haskell as the design-build contractor for the garage. Tilt-wall garages are sort of their bread and butter, so the project makes sense for their business, however, the leadership of that company is hypocritical when it's proud of winning that contract for downtown on that particular site.
I've experienced firsthand too many examples of companies walking their talk or turning down projects that they felt weren't right for the community or tackling projects for half political reasons (FL-based Crescent Heights is very very pro-union, for example, and they try to do union financed and union built projects such as they are doing here in SF right now...that being driven by their executives of course).
Companies are allowed to have political views and ulterior motives driven by feelings of corporate responsibility, etc. If Haskell's executives repeatedly talk that talk, but never walk that walk, that's basically bullshit. So yea, no respect for that.
