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WHAT ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

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31 COMMENTS

  1. A link to the Updated Downtown Evansville Master Plan:
    http://media.jrn.com/documents/Evansville+Downtown+Master+Plan+(smaller+file).pdf

    It is easy to be cynical all the time folks. “Well, it doesn’t give ME anything. Who cares about downtown?”
    I read that a lot here. “Downtown is dead. Why don’t I get anything? Somebody other than ME is making money off of this!”
    But it is clear:
    Downtown is not dead. In fact, quite the opposite.
    I don’t blame Winnecke for doing this. He won by a landslide.
    And while I have problems with potential mismanagement and potential corruption (of course), the economic and development momentum and success created downtown is an excellent thing.
    (Cue Chorus: “But what do I GET?”)

    • RE: the “new” downtown master plan. Although I agree that it is time for an updated master plan it is apparent this one has several flaws.
      1. I see nothing addressing removal of the serpantine Main Street congestion design and removal of the present Civic Center complex to reconnect Main Street with North Main.
      2. I see no mention of an upgrade of the North Main Street/Lloyd Expressway interchange which is a main egress into downtown Evansville.
      3. This master plan shows Riverside Drive as both a pedestrian area,and a major arterial road into, through, and exiting downtown Evansville. Including shutting down 2 lanes of Riverside Drive during the day for parking. What are they thinking? Hey, let’s just take a heavily ttaveled road and constrict it? Oh, and by tbe way, we’ll just shut it down completely for every peediddly Tom, Dick, and Harry fund raiser that can come to mind. Get real people; if you’re going to restrict traffic on Riverside Drive them relocate the main thoroughfare furthur inland or elevate it to prevent ttaffic flow constriction.
      4. This master plan appwars to indicate the closure or one point of egress to lower Dress Plaza to access the Ohio River leaving only the entrance at Walnut Street. What were tbey smoking when they came up with that concept?
      5. This master plan reminds me of the last riverfront lunacy concept, the one constructed before the current design, also designed by Hafer in conjuction with HNTB. And that was a complete clusterf**k.
      6. On the plus side, they are lroposing to extend the promenade side of the pedestrian portion of the riverfront 20′ over Dress Plaza. I’m assuming that’s ok with the Corps of Engineers, right? They do recognize that’s part of the Ohio River ptotection lever system, right?
      7. And they are proposing removal of tbe Riverside Drive median (boo!) and those hideous “period” lighting fixtures (yeah!).

      • Ref. PCD, #5, memory serves me that the one before the current design, the one that raised the east/west roadway, was designed by RQAW from the Indy area, not Hafer. I don’t remember Hafer having any involvement.

        • I may be confusing a Madter Plan with a Rivetfront design project. It may have been RQAW instead of HNTB but I’m pretty sure that Hafer was the local A/E contact/consultant. The last Rivetfront renovation design (about 15 years ago) was VPS for A/E (local), Bernardin- Lochmueller for Covil (local), and Stortow-Kinsela for Landscape and concepts (Indianapolis).

          • I apologize for the typos. It’s been late and I’m tired. Andcwe need that “Edit” button option.

  2. An underlying context here is that the owners of the “park” at Fourth and Main have expressed an interest in getting rid of the property. The city would be nice new owners of the spot that is surrounded by empty buildings on two corners and the nearly empty office tower on the other. You have to look at who benefits from everything this administration does and every dollar they “find” and give away. They “found” $20,000 to give to their friend who “facilitates” meetings and acts as a front row cheerleader at most meetings.

    • The hard cold fact is that the med school should have been built at the USI campus. As things stand now, local taxpayers find themselves at the mercy of the establishment and their mouthpiece the Evansville Redevelopment Commission who will confiscate hundreds of millions of tax dollars over the coming years in an effort to make a square peg fit into a round hole, when a perfectly round hole existed already at USI. Of course if it had been designated for USI it would have had a lot closer monitoring and things like no bid contracts and all the other crony practices that are legend in Evansville, and have already taken place with this project, would have been a lot more difficult to pull off, even with establishment members on the USI board. How much will it cost local taxpayers to try and duplicate in downtown Evansville things which already exist at USI like housing, parking, retail food, ball fields, pools, nature trails, intellectual events and guest speakers, the list goes on and on. But NOOOOoooooo! Once again the establishment has had their way, and local taxpayers will have to pay a very high premium for an inferior product.

      • What?
        Building the new Med School at USI is an ignorant, short-sighted plan, always-chases-the-rabbit-into-the-woods idea. It’s the same as lying to the residents of small towns across America that building that new, suburban sprawl Wal-Mart on the outskirts of town was not the reason their City and Courthouse downtown area is vacant. They killed their beautiful towns. To build a Wal-Mart.

        What an infantile idea Pressanykey. Infantile.
        (But I acknowledge, if you like the idea of celebrating your Anniversary at Taco Bell, it is hopeless to discuss strategic development with you PAK.)

  3. I wonder if the owners of the “park” are politically connected. It seems to me that the corner of Fourth and Main would be in great demand in a “vibrant” urban area and that park should be a highly saleable commodity to private sector developers. But, of course. the professional cheerleader couldn’t GIVE away a restaurant on the adjacent corner, could he?

    • The CCO reported on this private owner about 6-7 years ago. The lot at the time was partially owned by ONB and partially owned by a well known local family. You will recognize the name when it is released. The well known family was willing to be very generous at that time to see a great park there. I assume they still are. We actually encouraged and endorsed what this family was proposing. The problem at the time was with the City of Evansville. I assume that with the publishing of this plan the obstacles of the past have been overcome. If that is the case, I say get on with it. There will not be any crony deal needed to make this happen with the private owners. It is ONB and the City that will need to work together with this owner to make this happen.

  5. We have all seen the list of corporations that Hillary Clinton gave “speeches” to, and the associated “fees” she was paid, and the fact that none of theses corporations will release the transcripts of said speeches. It all looks as if it is designed to pay for Hillary’s campaign, and indeed it has been discovered that many deposits into her campaign were made in similar amounts to the fee she received, and shortly after she received the fee. So what did you do about it? Nothing? Well Citizens United did.

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZO.html

    Now it just so happens that the Donald J Trump Foundation donated $100,000. to the Citizens United Foundation. So if you do not believe that politicians should be going around collecting $225,000. to $400,000. from corporations for “speeches” while running for office, then you just might want to thank Mr. Trump for donating his money to such a worthy cause.

    • Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.

      Federal law prohibits corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech defined as an “electioneering communication” or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate. 2 U. S. C. §441b. Limits on electioneering communications were upheld in McConnell v. Federal Election Comm’n , 540 U. S. 93, 203–209 (2003) . The holding of McConnell rested to a large extent on an earlier case, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce , 494 U. S. 652 (1990)

  7. Mayor Winnecke has been brilliant in his strategy of co-opting the Democratic office holders to do his bidding. This has been so effective, the local Democratic party has rendered itself a political non-factor after their suicidal non-support of Rick Davis. The Mayor now implements his agenda without political opposition. All of this makes his Alex Schmitt endorsement puzzling. Could there be more than meets the eye? Is there a plan to have a contested Commissioner primary to get the Republican vote out in primary and in the fall. Did the Mayor know that Cheryl would tirelessly campaign outside the City and bring back Republican voters he alienated in the failed consolidation play? The Mayor has proven far too politically cunning and adept to believe his endorsement of this political novice was an amateur mistake.

    • The opposition to Musgrave….It’s about something else. It’s about the US Treasury Dept investigation.

    • NotJoeBiden, the novice kid with baggage is a test balloon. I he loses to a tough established candidate like Musgrave, so be it. No loss to Winnecke. If he beats Musgrave, Winnecke’s power from endorsement will be huge. Winnecke becomes the sole Republican king maker and crushes the opposition within his own party. Hate to say it, Winnecke is a damn smart politician.

      • Personally, I do not think Winnecke is any sort of a political strategist at all. It was Weinzapfel who dragged Winnecke across the finish line and put him in the mayor’s office. It is Weinzapfel’s agenda that Winnecke is still perusing and that will keep him in office as long as the ERBC runs things here, and when it comes to going after republican politicians you want to replace with someone of your own choosing, well, again who has the most experience in that area? It sure as hell is not Lloyd Winnecke.

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