IS IT TRUE December 7, 2012
IS IT TRUE that it has been over a year since then DMD Director Tom Barnett insisted on putting up a safety fence to protect the children of Evansville from the dangers associated with the big ROCK PILE left where the Executive Inn and its parking lot used to be?…Mr. Barnett was quite insistent that the ROCK PILE posed a serious danger and liability to the City of Evansville because kids like to play on ROCK PILES and sometimes hurt themselves doing so?…the state of that lot right now since the ROCK PILE is gone and the fence has been installed makes Tom Barnett look like a visionary and a genius?…today, that lot is truly a serious danger yet the gate that Barnett built with his fence is unlocked so that children and adults can enter and injure themselves or even worse treat that lot the way the dregs of Evansville treat many of our one immaculate parks?…at least one concerned citizen left a message at for Mr. Barnett’s replacement regarding the dangers and did not even get a call back?…this well known local resident then went to the lot and took the pictures included in this IS IT TRUE for all to see in hopes that the City of Evansville will be awakened from their coma and actually fulfill Barnett’s dream of having a secure fence around that empty but degrading lot?
IS IT TRUE after passing undetected through the open gate shown in the picture that one has the opportunity to fall through an open manhole to serious injury or death?…a pond seems to be forming in the muck of an unmaintained lot behind the unlocked gate that poses a different kind of danger?…it is also disconcerting to find evidence that some of our dregs have been using the lot where a hotel was promised by the Weinzapfel Administration without public money in it as a place to booze it up?…the real tragedy is that we are not even surprised at the neglect within a rock throws distance of the Mayor’s office?
IS IT TRUE a tour of the public cemeteries reveals that the conditions of the tombstones has continued to deteriorate since the CCO exposed the neglect last summer?…the City Council did appropriate money to do some restorative work at the cemeteries but it does not look as though a darn thing has been done?…that the public cemeteries run by the City of Evansville must be using some of that restoration money to pay for banner ads in the Scripps Howard website in town seeking additional corpses to move into their unkempt graveyards?…that once again the City of Evansville has proven that when it comes to fluff and marketing they are all about it but when it comes to maintenance and awareness they are totally inept?…this is the bunch that would be spending over $10 Million on new parks and $25 Million to subsidize a convention hotel if the people of this town and 5 members of the City Council do not keep them in check?…we have also been advised that the wish list for a new hotel includes about 30,000 square feet of storage to be used by the Ford Center because there was not any significant storage included in the original design and that now they operators are finding themselves in need of storage?
IS IT TRUE there are rumors of a private developer interested in turning the civic center into a mall downtown?…if that were to play out, the government bodies currently in the civic center may look to go to the Old National building on Main Street?…the devil is in the details and it would need to make financial sense to the community’s taxpayers?…that a downtown mall helped transform downtown Indianapolis?…such a proposal would need a thorough vetting?…that this early proposal is not getting much traction from local leaders just yet?…that Mayor Winnecke was spotted touring the ONB building recently but we are not certain whether he was there to look for his next office or to determine the feasibility of converting it to a hotel?…with the number of square feet that the old ONB building has that has been empty for many years filling it up should take priority over building anything new including a convention hotel that requires a subsidy?…subsidizing a competitive business like a new hotel is seen by many local business leaders as “BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS†by the City of Evansville?…that doing so will leave a lasting state of disdain for government action with some local businesses?…the massive spending on temples to entertainment downtown has not inspired much investment?…the squandering of money meant for business on Front Door Pride houses that sit unsold by the Weinzapfel Administration has not impacted the prices of the existing homes around them, and the nearly $8 Million in government dollars spent at the old safe house has produced 30 or so apartments that would have a market value of less than a Million Bucks?…the moral of these stories is that the government needs to stay out of free markets?
IS IT TRUE Mole #9 and a few others tell us that Mayor Winnecke will not only be faced with a strong primary challenge in 2015 but that a well recognized Libertarian candidate will be on the ballot for Mayor of Evansville?…if Mayor Winnecke runs on his first year’s record that he better hope people place a high value on trash collection and exercise videos because those are the things he has proven himself capable of doing well?
Wow-what an outstanding “IS IT TRUE”.
You can now add Mesker Amphitheatre to the list that the Mayor shall be putting on his “spend the taxpayer money on useless capital projects” for a photo op. Did you realize that it cost the taxpayers of this city $46,000 to take out the seats at Robert’s Staduim so they could take them to Mesker Amphitheatre to store for a future date? The city made about a $180,000 gross profit on the sale of items from Robert’s Staduim auction. Subtract the $46,000 from that figure and you shall come up with @134,000 net profit from this auction. Wow, what a great business deal for the taxpayers of this community.
The Mayor needs to go back to Fifth/Third bank so he can continue to design pens and coffee cups to hand out to future bank customers.
Bottom line, Public relations guy yes, businessman no.
from the Evansville Courier&Press, 7 December 2012
Amphitheatre’s woes ‘serious’
“The amphitheatre adjacent to Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden opened in 1951. It gradually fell into disrepair and is now shut down.” (John Martin)
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Gradually fell into disrepair? How many of Evansville’s publicly owned facilities have suffered the same fate?
They take care of nothing in this town except that place they all call home on MLK Blvd.
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I lament the fact that this facility has been allowed to deteriorate to its present condition, but the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of past city administrations.
Current economic conditions and common sense has placed any taxpayer funded renovation of Mesker so far down the list that it is not even on the radar.
My suggestion would be to ask the West Side Nut Club if they would take this on as a project.
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Like Roberts Stadium, Mesker should be auctioned off so someone who gives a damn about it can have a chance to make it work again. The City is not going to have funds or will to do anything but watch it rot. If the Nut Club wants to bid on it, I think that would be great.
The Nut Club would do a better job of renovating the facility for the city. They would not be interested in “owning” the facility.
I believe that “IF” the Nut Club took on the project that donations would pour in from a lot of businesses and organizations, not to mention individuals.
The idea would be to restore it to a useful facility, not the usual overblown and too expensive project that usually comes out of the Civic Center.
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Then what? Leave it in City hands so they can undo all the good someone else did? Why not just auction it off? What’s the objection to that?
It belongs to the people. Elect people who have enough common sense to know that if you do not put funds for maintenance in the budget, then chances are it will not get done.
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So underneath all your conservative exterior, you’re really just another big government type at heart. That’s what you’re telling me there. You don’t believe in the power of the free market.
Auctioning it off would give you no control over its use after everyone pulled together to restore it to its natural use.
This would be a labor to save a facility that local citizens hold dear and that government has allowed to deteriorate.
I am not the least bit interested in any labels you wish to place on me. Fire away.
What I am interested in is people and governments doing the right thing.
George Mesker very generously donated funds for an amphitheater. I would like to see it continue.
Whatever you like to call yourself, I basically see two classes of individuals in this world – those who believe in free market solutions to problems and those who believe in government solutions.
Some would classify those two camps as “collectivists” and “individualists”. The argument you are putting forth is the SAME ARGUMENT believers in government solutions always put forth – that CONTROL is what’s important. People who believe with all good intentions in the ability of good government to solve all problems and their need to CONTROL every situation is what creates the messes we keep seeing recurring over and over again.
We are basically at the same point with Mesker as we were with Roberts, we could sell it, or keep it in government hands and watch as they mismanage and bungle it because A) they have a lack of funds and B) because a bureaucrat never spends other people’s money with the same efficiency that they could spend their own.
One more thing…
I find it striking, sad, and indicative of a kind of cognitive dissonance that you actually said yourself in an above statement the following:
“Gradually fell into disrepair? How many of Evansville’s publicly owned facilities have suffered the same fate?
They take care of nothing in this town except that place they all call home on MLK Blvd.”
Read again what you said there and then go back and read your subsequent statements regarding wanting to see it kept in government hands. Is it cognitive dissonance or just retardation that leads you to that conclusion? Whatever it is, it just isn’t consistent. I am not trying to insult you here either. I’m just trying to challenge you to actually THINK.
I have seen some of your “thinking” that would be a real “challenge” to accept. You seem to think that you have the answer for everything, especially if you can just put a label on it. That shows me just how immature you are.
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Usually I eschew the common political labels of “conservative” and “liberal” because they are so badly understood and misused; however, the labels “statist” and “collectivist” seem to be much more useful in describing Republicans who are in essence “liberals”… This tends to encompass “compassionate conservatives”, “neo-conservatives”, “evangelical conservatives”, and anyone else who doesn’t understand free markets or trust in man’s ability to be moral without being legislated into morality.
As for having an answer for everything… Don’t know about that. I usually have an opinion on everything though. That’s the curse of being a thinker.
PS: What I actually said was, “Some would classify those two camps as “collectivists†and “individualistsâ€.”
Notice I didn’t necessarily say “I classify” them thus. That is the subtlety of language.
Nonetheless, I challenge you to reconcile your two simultaneously held, disparate beliefs that Mesker shouldn’t be sold yet local government doesn’t give a damn about anything outside the city block surrounding the Civic Center. Also, I beseech you to click the following link and understand the term “cognitive dissonance”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Get ready for the Mayor to ask for big bucks to fix the amphitheatre.
I how do I know this? The Mayors real public relations tool (Evansville Courier and Press)reports so.
If a Libertarian runs for Mayor of Evansville, the Republican and Tea Party vote shall be split and Democrats unite and Winnenke is gone.
I can hear the people sing,”Happy Are Here Again”.
Hopefully Davis runs as an independant, and cleans out all the trash. A united Dem. picked by the central comm. is no improvement.
This Mayor certainly has a talent for inspiring opposition…if not much else.
I have news for you Hoss. The Teabaggers in Evansville are Democrats. The best way to elect a Republican Mayor is to mobilize the local Teabaggers behind some shiny object. That is pretty much how Winnecke got elected this time.
What? It’s puff puff pass you moron. That’s the dumbest thing I have read yet
The former City administrations lack of maintenance on Mesker Amphitheater might not be due to incompetency, as most believe. Given the former administrations goal to eliminate any competition with the downtown arena, the fate of Roberts Stadium was sealed. Mesker Amphitheater used to host major summer concerts. That would be competition with their new downtown arena. The public would not agree with decommissioning Mesker after the City razed Roberts Stadium. But, the City could accomplish the result of eliminating summer concert competition by intentional neglect of the Amphitheater. And neglect it they did.
If that empty convention hotel lot belonged to a private individual, I wonder how many ordinance violation notices they would have received by now. Make one think. Government seems to be seeking a monopoly on dereliction.
I’m particularly excited to hear a Libertarian might be running for Mayor. At least then we will hear more Option C positions and less from the subsidize, tax, spend, and neglect crowd.
Hello Mayor can’t you look out your office window and see the problems at the vacant city lot across the street?
What a dumb a–.
I have always heard a really juicy rumor that they are looking to the Roberts site for a new civic center. It would seem to make sense given they are engineering the hole so that “a building may be built here in the future.” They are also wanting to put up temporary things like skate parks and dog parks that can be easily removed.
Anyone else getting the feeling that our glory days are over?
When I got here in 1985 I thought this was a boom town, an everything is happening here town, the bars were crowded, girls were pretty, guys were talking all kinds of deals.
I don’t see that anymore.
Walk into a tavern now and it’s like dead.
People just waiting.
Sad, horribly sad.
It’s kind of funny how they promised us all this development around the new arena but all there is is MainGate and the Rocky Mountains. Is anyone else kind of worried that the checks from the TIF district may fall just a little short in funding the arena? I guess I better move to Newburgh before it’s too late.
The TIF District funds are falling short. They are using boat funds to make up the difference, but the boat funds have also fallen off recently. Personally, I do not see the TIF District meeting its projected revenue for the service of the arena bonds going forward, period.
This is another crisis that the current mayor is studiously avoiding addressing. It is not going to go away, and Mr. Friend had better pick up the ball if Mayor Winnecke refuses to live in the real world.
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