INSIDE TODAY:
MEDIA CIRCUS
COLUMBIA’S MORNING NEWSPAPER
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
County registration is unusually low
Voter registration numbers in Boone County
down compared with same period in 2004
By JUANA SUMMERS
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY — While thou-
sands of new voter registrations have
rolled into Missouri’s largest counties,
in Boone County, which has one of the
state’s highest concentrations of stu-
dents, the number of new voter regis-
trations has dropped with just 43 days
left until the November election.
It’s just the opposite statewide.
About 200,000 new voters have regis-
tered since the start of the year, said
Ryan Hobart, a spokesperson for Sec-
A man, a plan
and 3 cottages
A
By MOLLY HARBARGER
A
mir Ziv wants to change the way
Columbia treats the First Ward. After all,
the ward includes downtown, eclectic com-
PHICS DESKmercial and residential
%422
ESTABLISHED IN 1908
retary of State Robin Carnahan, the
state’s top election official.
According to the Boone County
Clerk’s office, 22 percent fewer vot-
ers have registered in the county this
year than during the same period in
2004.
“2004 was our record year,” said
Boone County’s clerk, Wendy Noren.
“But for the last several months, it
hasn’t been quite as much.”
As of Tuesday, more than 13,000
new voters had registered in Boone
County, compared with approximately
Q news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel
spends Tuesday making an
ESPN media tour. Page 1B
50 cents
Q www.ColumbiaMissourian.com
16,000 for the first nine months of souri. Republican candidate Sen. John other parts of the state, where election
2004. McCain has also made tracks across officials are struggling to process new
Missouri traditionally has been posi- the state, and his campaign has also
tioned as a bellwether state. Its voters targeted unregistered voters.
voter registrations by the deadline.
According to state law, new voter reg-
have selected the presidential winner Noren said she’s not exactly sure why istrations must be processed within
in every election since 1904, with the voter registration is lagging in Boone seven days.
exception of the 1956 election. This County, but she thinks the energy sur- “We’re just barely keeping our
year, the state is again up for grabs, rounding the 2006 U.S. Senate race heads above water,” said Rich Chris-
and campaigns have targeted unregis- could have something to do with it. mer, election director for St. Charles
tered voters as prime territory. “In 2006, it was quite a bit higher County, one of the Republican strong-
Democratic than in the nor- holds in the state.
presidential can-
didate Sen. Ba- SMARTDECISION08 mal off-year elec-
tion, because we
The county has hired temporary
staff to help process all the new voter
rack Obama’s The deadline to register in Missouri is had a big Senate registrations. Chrismer said the coun-
campaign set Oct. 8 to be eligible to vote in the Novem- race, so there are ty has more than 237,000 voters reg-
a public goal not as many peo- istered, the largest number of regis-
of registering ber election. Absentee voting for the ple to register.” tered voters the county has ever had.
75,000 additional November election begins today and will But the picture
voters in Mis- continue through Nov. 3. is different in Please see VOTERS, page 3A
Gas prices
gouged,
some say
Residents complain Mo. gas
stations are charging too much
above the wholesale price of fuel.
By JENN HERSEIM
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
After Hurricane Ike threatened the Gulf Coast
oil industry a little more than a week ago, com-
plaints of price gouging started rolling into the
Missouri attorney general’s office.
John Fougere, a spokesman for the attor-
ney general, said last week that his office had
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mainly in Southeast Missouri. Gouging is the
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Yet, Ziv thinks the area and its homes are 
“I like to think I’m pretty creative, and I asSlug:
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neglected by the city.  ,,,,,
got into real estate kind of on a whim,” 

“(Columbia) should be rehabbing them,
(Columbia) should be helping, but they
don’t. It’s just neglected because it’s lower-
income,” Ziv said. “And I’m going to try to
turn that around the best I can.”
As a freelance TV sound technician, Ziv
has worked with camera crews for ABC,
NBC, National Geographic and ESPN. That
job only occupies about 100 days out of the
year, so he started doing real estate in his
free time. Ziv is not only looking to create
more affordable housing, but he also wants
it to look nice. He wants to use different
colors and building materials than what is
typically seen in the First Ward.
ZONING FOR A COTTAGEE COMMUNITY
describes his upcoming project
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Online a social experiment. “It’s never been
,,,,, done
he before. It’s the first one,” he said.
said. “I just looked into it, started buying
some houses and some rentals.”
Now Ziv has turned his attention to an
idea that could change Columbia’s views
and rules regarding affordable housing.
The “Cozy Cottages,” as his plan is called,
would consist of three small houses built
together around common areas on a double
lot on Ridgeway Avenue. According to him,
the cottages would be as efficient as pos-
sible, using PolySteel for the structure and
rain barrels and gardens for storm-water
management.
To start the project, though, he must have
the Ridgeway lot changed from its current
said.
duplex zoning to a planned-unit develop-
ment that would allow for the three small
houses.
“I just kind of came to the conclusion that
the only way for a developer like me, who
wants to fix up Ward One and start knock-
ing some of these old houses down, the only
way for us to do it is to build more than one
house on these lots,” Ziv explained.
Mike Martin, a writer and blogger who
also owns homes in the north-central city,
praised Ziv’s creativity, noting that he has
already built a moderately priced home out
of PolySteel, which maximizes insulation,
on Alexander Street. Ziv said it is easy to
locate because it’s “the best-looking house
on the block.”
“This is not the first time Amir has
brought a new building design to Columbia,”
hardships turned by extreme conditions, he
“Attorney General Jay Nixon has started an
investigation,” Fougere said. “No legal action has
been taken yet.”
In 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, the
attorney general brought 11 lawsuits against
gas retailers in the state. And after the Sept. 11
attacks of 2001, there were 48 lawsuits against
Missouri gas retailers. In total, the state has
received $69,000 in fines as a result, Fougere
said.
AAA Missouri representative Michael Right
said every attorney general “is looking to catch
someone engaging in price gouging, but what
they are really getting is consumer angst about
paying higher prices.”
Chris Dwyer, who keeps track of petroleum
prices, said he noticed last week that the retail
price he was paying at the pump was almost
$1.30 above the reported wholesale price. He
Please see PRICES, page 4A

Council to
Cozy Cottage Company is attempting to WORLEY
rezone property on Ridgeway Avenue to a MAP AREA ST. Martin said.
public urban development area to build Martin and Ziv met each other from their
70 West Boulevard common interest in rehabilitating old homes
affordable cottage community housing. School
Neighbors are worried the new development in the First Ward for low- and moderate-
Ridgeway income buyers.

weigh in on
might ruin trees and cause unsightliness. Cottages
63 Ziv lives in a rehabilitated house that
other developers once considered worth-
ASH S less. After gutting the building, he rebuilt
T. N
the inside to look like a New York loft, with
500 FEET exposed brick, hardwood floors and wide-

new garage
open spaces.
Unimpressed with what he calls the “stick
houses” built by non-profit organizations
Cottage house 1 such as Habitat for Humanity, Ziv wants to
Garage
5,231 sq. feet build “cottage style” affordable homes with-
320 sq. feet
Tract out grants or city money. The plans include leasable retail
“If you rely on the city, then there are too
Private
Garage
320 sq. feet
boundaries
many ties, too many things that you have to
space in the 10-story structure.
lawn comply with, and I just don’t want to do it,” By CATHERINE MARTIN
space he said. “I want to do it as a developer, as an news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
Common area for the community to develop entrepreneur, just as somebody who wants The parking garage planned for property at
RIDGEWAY AVE.

and use, within guidelines. to help the area and not rely on the city to Fifth and Walnut streets would be 10 stories,
5,069 sq. feet give me money.” stand 110 feet tall and offer nearly 13,000 feet of
The city can help, Ziv said, by allowing retail space, according to designs submitted by
Cottage him to build his houses and then assisting architects for the project.
house 2 the low-income family buyers. Those designs will be the subject of a public
5,367 “The city does have some really great hearing before the Columbia City Council at 7
sq. feet first-time homeowner programs, and that’s p.m. Oct. 6 at the Daniel Boone City Building;
where it’s really more important. Because 701 E. Broadway.
Cottage house 3 I can build these things all day long, but “There will be two elevations, with the side on
5,200 sq. feet if they don’t sell and people can’t get into Sixth Street reaching 95 to 100 feet and the side
Garage them, especially in today’s market, then it on Fifth Street reaching about 110 feet,” said
320 sq. feet doesn’t do anybody any good.” Mike Kurz of Walker Parking Consultants.
N First Ward Councilman Paul Sturtz sup- The plans also include 12,814 square feet of
10 FEET ports Ziv’s project, saying it has good den- retail space on the ground level. That space will
sity and design. be available for lease and, depending on who is
“When it comes down to it, it’s not a par- interested, could be leased to either one or multi-
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 7
2 ple businesses. Kurz thinks the amount of space
Please see COTTAGES, page 4A lends itself to more than one business.
Chris Davis of Peckham and Wright Archi-
Please see GARAGE, page 3A

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