IS IT TRUE downtown Evansville has been experiencing another of those infrastructure failure moments down at the corner of 3rd Street and Main Street?…yet another water pipe has failed causing a need for emergency repairs and taking up the street to do those repairs?…a couple of years ago the City County Observer did advise our readers that the former downtown walkway was never designed to be driven on and that the weight of cars that had already wreaked havoc on one side of the street would continue on the other side of the street when the direction of Main Street was reversed?…that does not mean that we disagree with changing the direction of the traffic flow on Main Street but what it means is that Main Street itself and apparently some of the infrastructure below it was DESIGNED AND BUILT AS A WALKWAY NOT A DRIVEWAY?…there will in all likelihood be more such occurrences as the sand base under the WALKWAY PAVERS settles under the weight of automobiles?…modern planners must have forgotten that the downtown Evansville walkway was designed in the school of “once a walkway always a walkwayâ€?…there is a reason that the building codes for sidewalks and highways are different and that some of the powers that be seem to have forgotten that when the walkway was opened up to traffic and again when it was reversed?
IS IT TRUE the month of March looks like it will end without any details being officially released with respect to the downtown Convention Hotel?…the MOLE NATION has been busy telling us that the public subsidy for the hotel and its associated retail spots will be approaching $40 Million to get the only real bidder in the process interested?…when public infrastructure like sidewalks, curb cuts, walk bridges, and a new storage building for Ford Center that should have been there the first time are completed the public subsidy for a downtown Convention Hotel will in all likelihood be over $50 Million?…as was pointed out in this space last week the taxpayer dollars associated with this project nearly amount to the entire proposed revenue for the hotel considering the local prevailing room rate of $99 and the average occupancy of 58%?…it would be a similar cost and carry less risk for the City of Evansville or the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau to just hand out $60 vouchers to visitors to be used at any of the existing hotels already in Evansville that were incidentally paid for with private money?
IS IT TRUE the powers that be in Evansville have been overestimating the power of taxpayer dollars to stimulate a tired old area for way too long?…they told us that when the Victory Theatre was revitalized that downtown would come alive?…after $20 Million it did not?…they told us that after the Centre replaced the Vanderburgh Auditorium that downtown would come alive?…after $36 Million it did not?…they told us that when the riverfront was turned into an amphitheatre that downtown would come alive?…after $32 Million it did not?…they told us that an Arena would fill the storefronts in downtown Evansville?…after $127 Million unaudited dollars it did not?…they told us that lofts with a public subsidy of $20,000 per loft would revitalize downtown Evansville?…after $2M -$5M it did not?…they told us Front Door Pride would revitalize downtown Evansville?…after $13 Million it did not?…now they tell us that all we need is a downtown Convention Hotel at a cost of what will eventually be $50 Million will revitalize downtown Evansville?…we wonder “if well over $200 Million in taxpayer dollars has not done the job, why would any reasonable person think that throwing another $50 Million down the same rat hole will workâ€?
This report is refreshing in its’ accuracy, insight and presentation.
Too bad the subjects, facts and dynamics are devastating. …
We are all passengers on this out of control ride. No one wants to own up to steering the wheel. I’m glad I moved to Warrick County.
What happened to the search engine?
What’s interesting about the final IIT today is that in spite of all these past failures to artificially stimulate downtown growth, some among us – I won’t name names, but you know who you are – will still cheerlead for more wasteful spending, sincerely believing the next big spending idea is the one that will turn things around. It would be quite funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Most of the area downtown is cinder or clay backfilled which deteriorates pipes and sidewalks over time. It is just the tip of the iceberg with what we are eventually going to have to deal with.
It is abundantly clear that the Mayor and the City Council will better serve the citizens of Evansville when they stop trying to stimulate economic growth downtown and in the fourth ward.
Why is that area called “Downtown”? Is because the big banks, the Law offices, the Civic center? Just exactly does the word mean? The economic activity there is miniscule compared to the retail temples on the East side and the Westside of the city. DOWNTOWN as applied to that area is a misnomer to say the least, it is “old downtown” that is it´s past, it’s present, and it’s future. Raiding the entire community’s resources has not changed that and never will.
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