IS IT TRUE that a convention attraction death match is being touted as something to watch in about 2015 between the Cities of Evansville and Owensboro?…these two places are absolutely going to be competing for the same exact conventions and neither will be able to effectively compete against the larger cities that are less than a day’s drive from the Tri-State?…Owensboro has a tremendous head start on Evansville in that arena with two hotels under construction, a system a little league parks drawing tournaments, a new convention center, and a brand new riverfront park that is functional?…with the exception of the Casino Aztar complex that was totally developed with private money, Evansville has had government handouts involved in everything that has been built?…that Owensboro is having two hotels built with entirely private funds each of which will have restaurants?…Evansville on the other hand is determined to put up over half the cost ($48.5 Million after tax abatements) as a direct subsidy to the only developer that expressed real interest in the project?…of course Owensboro has guaranteed a certain occupancy rate but if all goes well and the free market send them 65% occupancy the City of Owensboro will be contributing no money to the two hotels?…Evansville should be a better market but it obviously is not?…Evansville should be capable of attracting private investment but it can’t?…in 1960 Evansville’s population was 250% more than Owensboro’s and that today that number has dropped to 100%?…that other city in that other state on the Ohio River has gone from being a quaint little place to go for a BBQ sandwich for the people of Evansville to a full-fledged competitor for entertainment and convention dollars in the last 50 years?…if the same trends continue and that same tired old Evansville leadership keeps it up in 50 more years Evansville will be smaller than Owensboro and will be a quaint little city of under 100,000 to come to for gambling and brain sandwiches?…it has been time to clean house at the Civic Center for years but today it has some urgency attached to it?
IS IT TRUE indications coming from the Kentucky Department of Transportation are that the price tag for an I-69 bridge to connect the long awaited interstate is too high for the State of Kentucky to bear in the foreseeable future?…the price tag is supposedly $1.4 Billion using the present route?…there is a way to cut $90 Million (6.4%) off of the tab by altering the route slightly and the speaker in Henderson stated that may just be enough savings to make the bridge affordable?…while $90 Million is a lot of money it is only twice what the City of Evansville is wanting to spend on a Doubletree hotel incentive?…from a big picture perspective if I-69 really is the economic engine that the Chambers of Commerce asserted then an extra couple of freeway hotels ($90 Million) is just a drop in the bucket?…Kentucky is planning to charge a toll which seems like a good way to finance a bridge if we really need it?…if this bridge comes to fruition it should be done as fast as the existing state parkways in Kentucky can be upgraded to interstate specifications and it needs some of those fast passes so paying a toll does not require coming to a stop?
IS IT TRUE after a short lock down of the City of Boston the two young men who bombed the Boston Marathon have been brought to justice?…one got a short trial as he was killed during the chase and the other is struggling to survive after having a couple of serious wounds and hiding in a boat?…in the event that the surviving bomber comes about enough to talk it will be interesting to learn just what kind of mind rationalizes enough to commit an act of domestic terrorism?…the CCO is glad to see this chapter come to a rapid conclusion and that it really seems as though this was the act of two deranged people as opposed to organized foreign terrorists?…it is appalling just how much the actions of four deranged American citizens (two from Boston, one from CT, and one from CO) have disrupted life in the United States during the last year?…when four people can make 310 million people feel the pangs of paranoia there is something feeding the paranoia frenzy and that thing is the mainstream media?…one would think that there is some ulterior motive to whipping up such fear over the actions of four people?
“Owensboro has a tremendous head start on Evansville in that arena with two hotels under construction, a system a little league parks drawing tournaments” This is why ball fields are a bad idea. As the Babe said “hit them where they aint”. We need a different draw. Not the same one. Ball fields seem to be the only idea the currant and previous leaders can come up with. We need new thinking not old. Who would have believed hockey would play here. But it has.
Imitation is flattery for Owensboro coming from Evansville. Copycats also lack imagination and original thought. What’s next for Evansville, a BBQ festival?
We had a blues and BBQ festival to raise funds for parkinson’s disease on the riverfront the first weekend in April. Look for it to be back the same weekend next year
Grumpy,
Think Wee Willie Keeler re: “hit ’em where they ain’t”–he being a practitioner of “The Baltimore Chop”.
Babe Ruth didn’t say that–he just him them over the fence where they weren’t.
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