“IS IT TRUE” AUGUST 20 2018

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IS IT TRUE that the 138th Annual Indiana Democratic Editorial Convention held last weekend at the French Lick Resort was a rousing success?  …a record number of Democrats around the State attended this event?  …former State Repersentsentive Gail Riecken and past Evansville Mayor Jonathon Wienzapfel were seen talking with many State officeholders and party leaders attending this event?  …political watchers are speculating that the former Democratic Mayor of Evansville could be posturing to run for a State or Federal office in the future?

IS IT TRUE that Courier and Press writer Jon Webb is channeling the City-County Observer these days and we applaud his efforts?…he aptly pointed out that the ribbon cutter team that showed up at the new downtown medical school must have been on a full dose of adrenaline induced delusion?… Mayor Winnecke even stated that Evansville has “PEAKED” and Webb took him to task for such hyperbole?… Webb went so far as to opine that he surely hoped that Evansville is not at its PEAK since poverty is getting worse, shootings are at their 2nd highest ever behind 2017, heroin has replaced meth as the drug of choice, and utility bills are off the charts?…the truth is that the population of Evansville “PEAKED” about 60 years ago along with national economic relevance?… Jon Webb is exactly right that shiny baubles do not replace crumbling infrastructure and cultural degradation?…we at the CCO do think the IU Medical School does have transformative capacity if the powers that be at IVY Tech can find a way to include their nursing students in the downtown campus too?

IS IT TRUE that it is sometimes instructive to do some comparisons and the time has come to compare Evansville to Fargo, North Dakota that has such bad weather that it is virtually frozen 3 months every year?…in 1960 when Evansville really was “PEAKING” the population was 141,543 and Fargo was a sleepy little town of 46,662 making Evansville 3 times the size of Fargo?

IS IT TRUE that time Evansville also had triple the economy of Fargo?…since that time Fargo has expanded the state university, established a research arm in that university, assured that the entire city has bandwidth that exceeds 1Gbps, and grown to a population of 122,359 that exceeds Evansville’s current population of 119,477?…in a short 60 years Fargo that had nothing but wheat and Bison has blown by Evansville by concentrating on substance instead of fun and games?… Fargo is not the first city to leave Evansville in the dust and it will not be the last as long as the movers and shakers of Evansville deeply believe that silliness is transformative?

IS IT TRUE the silliest false claim ever made by local leaders was that moving Roberts Stadium from Boeke Road to the new downtown Ford Center would immediately constitute the creation of many new jobs?….to think that moving a job from point A to point B created a new job takes a special kind of stupid?

IS IT TRUE that a compliance audit was recently conducted by the Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General concerning the Evansville Housing Authority?  …that the Federal auditors stated that the EHA did not comply with federal guidelines during the renovations of hundreds of low-income housing units?  …we find that the comment made by the EHA CEO to the Evansville Courier and Press that the audit issues will be settled with little or no consequence to the agency to be insulting to the people conducting the audit  …that an official from the Office of the Inspector General told the Evansville Courier and Press that EHA “lacked a sufficient understanding of HUD’s requirements for housing quality standards and conflicts of interest. It also lacked an adequate quality control process?”  …we are surprised that the EHA Executive Director Rick Moore had the gall to publically state he disagreed with the conclusions of the Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General? …several years ago Mayor Winnecke cut a quiet deal with an out-of-state for-profit entity to purchase the assets of the City of Evansville not-for-profit EHA with a promise that this transaction will allow EHA to make the major improvement to the housing units lived in by the economically disadvantaged citizens of Vanderburgh County?

IS IT TRUE that Evansville City Councilwoman Missy Mosby voluntarily locked herself in a big dog cage last Wednesday?  …that Missy Mosby is a long time volunteer at ‘It Takes a Village No Kill Animal Rescue,’ locked herself in a dog cage along with her own dog Lil’ Skipper to help raise money for “It Takes A Village” animal rescue shelter?  …Ms. Mosby set a goal of raising $3,000 in donations before she would be let free?  …we are happy to report that Missy was let out of the cage when she raised an astonishing $5,000 to help raise enough money will help the shelter improve the dog playground at “It Takes A Village” animal rescue shelter? …we give five (5) cheers to Missy Mosby for raising money for ‘It Takes a Village No Kill Animal Rescue”?

Todays“Readers Poll” question is: Are you concerned that the EHA did not comply with federal guidelines during the renovations of hundreds of low-income housing units?

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10 COMMENTS

      • Robt’s may have well been in th middle of a corn field- nothing nearby – Boring!!!!!!!! Difficult to get out and in. It sucked. Truth – be honest

      • Some short-timer people only think in terms of days and months, and if lucky maybe as much as a year. This “can’t let go of Roberts Stadium crew,” they are those people.

        But rebuilding the stadium in downtown pays dividends over decades, with an “s.”

        It helps create critical mass in the central business district, that strategically is intended to create additional momentum like new schools, new housing, new business construction, and a long-term trend towards downtown redevelopment overall.

        Short timers won’t get that, no matter how many times you try to explain that. They have never been advance planning, strategic people, and they’re too old to start being those people now. They love coffee though. The more coffee, the more negative they get. Downtown is looking up, and there’s no better evidence than that, than going there and looking how things are developing over the last several years.

        • The only thing that proves, if you throw enough money at something it may work. But in the meantime they have neglected the basic services that the city needs.

  3. Kudos to Ms Mosby for her contributions to the rescue shelter and voting “no” on the LST expenditure. It would be great if just 1 council person would care enough to champion the former community treasure known as Mesker Amphitheater.

    • OMG! another in the past- LET IT GO! Climate change makes too misaerable to be out there. Besides, Fat City would want escalators

  5. Did Fargo also make the political decision to insist its core be low income or affordable housing? Of course paying peoples rent does generate votes. But insisting people stay poor to get that free rent does not encourage a large part of our population to find jobs. A bunch of people laying around not allowed to work is just looking for trouble and is not the kind of place people that want to prosper move to. As for HUD the part I found interesting was the million dollars we taxpayers got stuck for because they did not raise the rent on the people I spoke of above.

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