Centerra South: Wait, What?

Part 1 about the Loveland City Council Decision to Reverse the Rescinding of the Centerra South Urban Renewal Authority

Reporting and Commentary

by Jessica Schneider, Editor

February 24, 2024

Around 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Loveland City Council voted 7-2 in favor of settling with McWhinney Corporation on the issue of the controversial Centerra South development. This decision came as a surprise to many, including myself… Like most of Loveland, I didn’t know about the reversal of the rescinding of the Centerra South decision until Wednesday.

A few hours later, I was sitting at a red light, watching the clock and waiting for it to turn green. I felt terrible. My head was aching and the space between my shoulders was tight and uncomfortable. Was I getting sick?

As it turns out, I wasn’t. I was processing the decision the majority of Loveland City Council had made while I was sleeping. I was confused. I was surprised. I was sad.

Is it strange to grieve a policy decision? Maybe not.

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“Grief is usually understood as the personal response to loss. Thus, there is a tendency to consider grief as an individual experience, most typically related to the death of a loved one. However, recent research and theory have provided a much more complex picture of grief as a broad, interdimensional experience that can be both generated and experienced at micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

In this context, consideration is given to grief that occurs as a result of events that take place at the sociopolitical level, which can be experienced both individually and collectively. Collective grief may occur when the loss relates to a group where commonly shared assumptions are shattered.*

Harris, D. (2022). Political Grief. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 30(3), 572-589. https://doi.org/10.1177/1054137321999793

*emphasis added

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I know I’m not alone in my surprise or confusion. Many of you reached out to process your own reactions. Others have answered my calls and my questions. I’m reporting what I am learning because I believe this story is as much about our response as a community as it is about the choices of our elected decision-makers.