IS IT TRUE June 6, 2012
IS IT TRUE the voters of Wisconsin repudiated the recall of Governor Scott Walker last night by an unforeseen margin of 7% which was 2 points (40%) more than he defeated Mayor Barrett by in the Governor’s election of 2010?…the Lt. Governor who was also the subject of a recall election for the same reasons was also confirmed to her position?…that of the 4 Wisconsin State Senators who were also subjected to recall elections driven by self interest 3 of them all Republican prevailed?…that the Wall Street Journal this morning is calling this a “Victory for Self Governance†and characterized the recall elections as a “clear choice of small government ideology†in a state that has not voted Republican in a presidential election since the 1984 Reagan landslide over Mondale?…the WSJ article is on the following link?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303830204577448991023586970.html
IS IT TRUE that neither candidate for President of the United States took an active role in the Wisconsin recall elections?…that President Obama didn’t utter a peep until Monday night when he simply tweeted (Twitter message) that he supports Barrett?…that one of this writers most liberal friends is a born and raised in Madison lady who would rather be dead that vote red?…that last night we exchanged emails about President Obama’s tepid participation in the Wisconsin recall?…that she referred to the President by every derogatory term known that would translate into “self serving cowardâ€?…the term used most often started with chicken and ended with **it?…that Gina has vowed not to support the Obama campaign in November?…that if many other Wisconsinites are as incensed as Gina that the exit polls that showed Obama in the lead last night will be about as accurate as the plethora of polls that were showing the recall election as a tie right up until the last vote was counted yesterday?
IS IT TRUE that now a full 4 years after Mayor Weinzapfel proudly announced a deal in which Browning Investments would be building a $40 Million convention hotel with 4 Stars in downtown Evansville, we have spent $75,000 to learn that Evansville needs roughly a 3 Star hotel with 250 or so rooms and that we can expect it to cost just over $30 Million?…that this is the equivalent of a 6 year old taking 4 years to learn the ABC’s?…that the Ford Center and The Centre are 4 Star or above facilities and now we are being told to settle for a freeway hotel to serve them?…to put anything less than a 4 Star hotel that complements the Ford Center and The Centre is not any more acceptable than putting a trailer between two $350,000 houses?…if we just want to cheapen up downtown Evansville that sticking a freeway hotel down there is the way to do it?…the same words that Gina used to describe the President fit this plan perfectly?
IS IT TRUE we must remind our readers that there was a perfectly genuine overture made to the Winnecke Administration this year to refurbish the McCurdy into what it was meant to be and the call was not even returned?…a refurbished McCurdy would be unique, contain the desired number of rooms, command the kind of rates to have a chance at financial success, and complete a perfect triangle of venues with the MLK Entertainment district, the McCurdy, and Aztar making up the triangle?…this is worth real consideration and we hope that this discussion begins before running out to waste more time on collecting bids for a freeway hotel that will not event be considered “convention†worthy?…someone needs to look into the financial performance of the Fort Wayne convention center and hotels before heading down that same rabbit hole?
Estonia Uses the Euro, and the Economy is Booming
CNBC.COM
05 Jun 2012 | 12:17 PM ET
It’s the euro zone Jim, but not as we know it.
Sixteen months after it joined the struggling currency bloc, Estonia is booming. The economy grew 7.6 percent last year, five times the euro-zone average.
Estonia is the only euro-zone country with a budget surplus. National debt is just 6 percent of GDP, compared to 81 percent in virtuous Germany, or 165 percent in Greece.
Shoppers throng Nordic design shops and cool new restaurants in Tallinn, the medieval capital, and cutting-edge tech firms complain they can’t find people to fill their job vacancies.
It all seems a long way from the gloom elsewhere in Europe.
Estonia’s achievement is all the more remarkable when you consider that it was one of the countries hardest hit by the global financial crisis. In 2008-2009, its economy shrank by 18 percent. That’s a bigger contraction than Greece has suffered over the past five years.
How did they bounce back? “I can answer in one word: austerity. Austerity, austerity, austerity,†says Peeter Koppel, investment strategist at the SEB Bank.
After three years of painful government belt-tightening, that’s not exactly the message that Europeans further south want to hear.
At a recent conference of European and North American lawmakers in Tallinn, Koppel was lambasted by French and Italian parliamentarians when he suggested Europeans had to prepare for an “inevitable†decline in living standards, wages and job security, in order for their countries to escape from the debt crisis.
While spending cuts have triggered strikes, social unrest and the toppling of governments in countries from Ireland to Greece, Estonians have endured some of the harshest austerity measures with barely a murmur. They even re-elected the politicians that imposed them.
“It was very difficult, but we managed it,†explains Economy Minister Juhan Parts.
“Everybody had to give a little bit. Salaries paid out of the budget were all cut, but we cut ministers’ salaries by 20 percent and the average civil servants’ by 10 percent,†Parts told GlobalPost.
“In normal times cutting the salaries of civil servants, of policemen etc. is extremely unpopular, but I think the people showed a good understanding that if you do not have revenues, you have to cut costs,†adds Parts, who served as prime minister from 2003-2004. (more). . . .
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Workers AND politians take a cut for the betterment of the whole? Surely you jest, the mayor want a 35% raise and an assistant @ a salery of 100 g’s. Progress in this town is only the progress toward bankruptcy .
Last week, I posted a link to a wonderfully restored hotel in Dubuque, IA that would serve as a blueprint of what we could and should do with the McCurdy.
The second piece would be to transform the River/Jackson to a boutique hotel paying homage to it’s Mid-Century Modern design. Take a look at this property in the 60’s
http://digital.evpl.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/evapost&CISOPTR=111&CISOBOX=1&REC=1
Picture this restored back, add a little more retro and trendy colors and you would have a very unique and desirable property. Mid-Century Modern is hot and I really think people would flock to stay at such a property. there are groups all over the country, on flickr, etc celebrating this design. Google Jackson House and you will find several different images of this property being celebrated.
We truly have a chance to do something above and beyond and very unique. A elegantly restored McCurdy, a funky and retro Jackson House on one corner of the so called Downtown triangle, the Casino district and the Convention district all anchoring this revitalization. It’s the simple key to success every mall developer in the country uses. Three strong anchors and fill in the middle.
When will the Mayor be questioned about his refusal to consider this option?
Sadly, developers will grease and we will end up with a Baymont Inn beside the Ford, the McCurdy will deteriorate into section 8 housing and the River House will be razed for a CVS store.
Buzzard, you just gave away the ERC’s Master Plan. However, the River House will be raised for a Dollar General Store. Also, Roberts Stadium will be razed for “green space”, just like the “green space” next to the dilapidated Greyhound station.
Must have been a busy week for the Civic Center Moles – No reports on the City Clerk election last Saturday…Unless I missed it?
What you folks don’t understand is that the hotel the people visiting downtown Evansville can afford is a three star hotel, not a four star. Wishing and hoping for a four star hotel that no taxpayer in Evansville will ever stay in does not make good economic sense, or common sense, for that matter. It would be great to resurrect the McCurdy, but I haven’t heard how many rooms there would be in a restored McCurdy, so I am awaiting that sorely needed information.
Between 250 and 300 depending on the sizes chosen. The original hotel was nearly 500.
The answer is simple. Give the McCurty to a local corporation like we’ve given all the other riverfront properties. Maybe Shetler Moving and Storage wants to relocated downtown closer to their patrons.
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