IS IT TRUE April 28, 2014

1. Bringing the McCurdy into this med school mess just goes to show they are over hyping this project just to make themselves look good. I can’t wait til we get we can an over inflated construction jobs estimate like we did with the hotel.

   Unless there’s been a change of heart, not one of the tenants in the McCurdy will be within half a century of going to the med school. And if it is switched up to student housing, what kind of student could afford to live there?

   The fact remains is that Kunkel was already making progress on the McCurdy before the decision. People think otherwise but it’s only drug out because they made the last minute decision of switching to a bank from HUD. It will be restored, as it should be, and it will have nothing to do with the med school. Hopefully the same thing happens with the Riverhouse. Would hate to see either of these structures come down.

   As for what else not to expect Ivy Tech version 2.0 to inspire, I wouldn’t want to build a Fazoli’s around it. Ouch.

   • I do so hope you’re right about the McCurdy being restored, Jordan. It is highly doubtful to me that they will be able to make it comply with the Medicaid rules for building safety, so I think they may need to move on to plan “B”,”C”, or “D”.

2. Hee hee.

   “… software launch is still not sufficient to manage with and that the roots of all of these problems are that botched installation?“. That sounds about right, blame it on software. That is the easy way out but I get your point.

   On the other hand perhaps the software worked as designed. MIPS and MIS software has been around for a very long time and it is not like this is the latest and greatest buzzword or bandwagon. Such software is used by all sorts of organizations and business with much success. When it does fall short the cause is often those trying to use it, I think that is the case, and those in this and the past administration that are at fault. After all anyone familiar with such technologies will when given garbage data outputs garbage.

   But here is the really scary part; the administrations damn the torpedoes and batten the hatches attitude to press on with adding more financial burdens to the city while clueless about its actual financial status. That is irresponsible.

   • Very well stated, dveatch!

     • Thanks elkaybee.

       I think the editor should have suggested if there is any problems with software and bug reports filed such reports should be directed to the algorithms used by the wetwear of those in the administration.

       • D,best comment today, however I suspect the user you refer to would never create a large enough impulse to clear the eardrum,none the less pass bone tissue.

         http://hearinghealthmatters.org/waynesworld/files/2012/01/Eardrum-Rupture-300×160.gif

         • That’s the problem with impulses (garbage in) and passing bone tissue (garbage out). The API allows asynchronous operations (one hand not knowing the operation of the other). However it lacks any method to resolve multiple functions (city council spending) in a timely fashion. Such APIs are not recommended and should be discouraged in a real time operating system when its current operating state is unknown.

           The unintended side effect of this asynchronicity is a disjointed codebase (multiple project works demanding funds) from the stack pointer (budget). However the stack pointer is often overwritten by the system kernel (Mayor) and lacks any meaningful memory pool (tax revenue) for sustainability without a significant increase in system memory (increased tax paying population).

3. Re: STATE BOARD AUDIT

   CCO: you are correct. If the audit opinions turn out to be ‘ADVERSE’, that is far worse than a Disclaimer. Your definition of ‘Disclaimer’ is spot on. However, re: the ‘Adverse’ Opinion: you have to realize that Russ Lloyd has repeatedly said publicly ” we are reconciled”, and entered that data into the Gateway system. If the SBOA does come out with an ‘Adverse’ opinion, Russ is then implicated in a cover up !

   Also, what will City Council do if the opinions are, in fact, ‘ADVERSE’ ? That will mean that in numerous City Council Meetings, Russ Lloyd lied to City Council about the bank reconciliations ! How could City Council trust him ever again ?

4. “That the roots of all these problems are the botched installation”.

   No way. You are trying to give the City Controller an out. He had his chance to throw his Indianapolis-based consultant, Dan Hedden (Umbaugh Associates) under the bus and proclaim, ” we have tried hard, we’re still not reconciled, but we vow to work through it”.

   City Controller did NOT take that higher ground. Instead, he lied about the status of the financials, and apparently went out of his way to cover it up.

   What was he thinking ? Take one for the team ?

5. Gee, I wonder how much the knife-fight outside the Jungle early Sunday AM raised the desirability profile of “downtown living.” This takes place while the Mayor speaks of cuts to the EPD and EFD, both of which need to be better-staffed and equipped if downtown is to be the “in” place to live.
   Kunkels may be looking to change their announced plan for the McCurdy, as it appears their senior living facility known as “Market Street Living” is not wildly popular. It would be fascinating to know their exact occupancy rate.
   Thanks to CCO for the math on what apartments would need to rent for. Those figures should serve as a reality therapy session for those high on “pixie dust”, but we all know the classic definition of insanity, don’t we?

6. IS IT TRUE at last announcement the plans for the McCurdy were for it to be refurbished into an old folks home?`
   Unless my memory is wrong that is what it was. They ran all the old people that had been living there out to build condos.

   • You are right. The CP even had pictures of the march of the geezers heading up to their new home in the building Kunkel got for $10 that came with the democrat party as a paying tenant. And today the ass clown who engineered the whole crony driven debacle is being named the Chancellor of IVY Tech SW. You folks in Evansville don’t have a chance with your system that rewards failure with $200,000 jobs. Weinzapfel leading a college? Give me a break.

7. An Adverse Opinion is far, far worse than a Disclaimer.

   Editor: you correctly identified the context of when a Disclaimer is in order.

   An Adverse Opinion means that the City Administration took a position that the financial statements were correct, and the SBOA overruled the City and said the statements were materially false.

   If, in fact, there are two Adverse Opinions forthcoming, that is bad news for City Controller’s office (and personnel, to say the least.

   • If two adverse opinions do in fact issue, do they cancel each other out? It would not surprise me to hear that offered with a straight face via spokester from the mayor’s nest soon.

     Med school coming or not, I don’t see lenders lining up to loan money for a building that has been allowed to sit and rot, Evansville-style. I do not believe anything Kunkel has to say about the McCurdy. I hope it survives them, but they are apparently unable to get a dime to even secure the windows, assuming they’ve tried. The serial string- alongs benefit only the animals that have checked in (for those who haven’t peeked, the desk clerk is a peripatetic banded mongoose, far from home). If the plan all along was to uproot the former McCurdy nursing home residents and turn that grand old building into an aviary, it’s working.

     What we think we know about the med school will change dramatically before it is built here, if it ever is. We have another large chunk of money to come up with. A sand dump with a shovel turn doesn’t count. A broke city doesn’t count much.

     • I agree about fearing that the decay of the once-grand McCurdy has likely advanced to the point of no return. I hope Jordan’s prediction is true, but I have my doubts. I know enough about Medicaid requirements for safety in buildings where residents’ expenses are subsidized by that program to be certain that it won’t be brought to those standards.
       That then raises the question about just how fit for habitation it can be made, and how much the rules can be bent to get it to pass inspection, period. Of course, the developers do “know somebody in City Hall.” If this project starts to move ahead, I do hope the CCO Moles will dig, dig, dig, because I have trouble trusting some of those making the decisions.
       We’ve really got trouble here in River City, and it is up to the voters to clean it up.

8. Lots of model data to crunch today with our weather related storm management stuff,however in the mean time,one of our model locations is mentioned this morning nationally, again. The other data return we’ve been running in your metro seems to have the media BS rant into full bore bump drafting this morning,dang those idiots are obvious. They even tried to make that weaver guarantee guy look informed again,or something. And your former mayor,as well as an announcement due his new assignment at Ivy Tech. From previous run times We can expect that”s an abysmally bent direction for that unlucky institution.

   http://realestate.msn.com/the-10-best-cities-to-raise-a-family

   From yesterday; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flotation

   http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guarantee

   The McCurdy is a Zombie,takes to much from the living to
   keep it fed. A applicable certified environmental clean up will cost “someone” a bundle. (flotation) The last use was more or less just a stage stop use of the Soylent Green.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IKVj4l5GU4

   • comment is awaiting moderation.

   • Here’s an off-topic question for our resident expert on all things enviornmental. Isn’t the Mayflower, AK that suffered all of the devastation yesterday the same town that had the pipeline leak that pretty much destroyed a subdivision there, a year or so ago?

     • You are correct—-

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Mayflower_oil_spill

9. If we were going to save the McCurdy we should have done it 20 years ago. As the building stands now, the clean up and restoration would cost more than one could ever hope to get as a return from the building.

   • Of Course, The Audit results will make people angry: We are either being governing by Incompetent Thieves, Brazen Looters, or or a cabal so collectively stupid that shouldn’t be trusted with a child’s lunch money.

     • Judging from some of the things some of our leaders say, I’m thinking the correct answer is “all of the above.”

10. An adverse opinion!!!???

    Egon Spengler: That would be bad

    Peter Venkman: Ok we’re a little fuzzy on this whole good bad thing. What do you mean bad?

    Spengler: Try to imagine all of life in Evansville
    stopping as you know it and every molecule in the Civic Center exploding at the speed of light

    Ray Stantz: Total financial and political reversal

    Venkman: Right, that’s bad.

    • But wait! There’s more…….

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hgRpEffPtI

    • Weinz;and Brains: What people in town tell us is they are damned sick of bailing out downtown for those who own downtown, Simple unobstructed view from outside clearly observes that.
      And that’s what should be the focus of those who ultimately pay for the bailout of the historically ignored infrastructure that would have to support all that fluff project development in the first stage in. So what about the rest of town,what do you offer there?
      One cannot even drive through your town without commercial throughput obstruction,lousy road surfaces,and the nasty smell of the combined sewer system waff’ing under ones nose. That’s nasty stuff and its a [health hazard] and that’s why that should be the issue for the people that must try someway to live or thrive there. Weinz, you need to find a different horse to pull your cart. Brains, you should take the reins and ride the horse until it can provide some viable work.

      http://www.funimix.com/c1-animals/111-horse-poops-on-head/

11. Editor:

    Each time I read (not from Editor, mind you) “What the hell are we doing anything downtown for!, it’s a ghost town!, board the place up!, we should be doing all of this on Green River Road!” and other such comments…it’s rolling eyes time.

    Aside from the City of Evansville’s founding and location and view on the Ohio River, and the core of the city’s financial, corporate, governmental and cultural center being located downtown….there is a good reason why there is so much emphasis on investment in downtown Evansville development. Development success in downtown markets is REAL nationwide. And for Evansville, it makes excellent economic development sense over the next 5-10-20 years.

    But if the always cynical, critical eye looking at all of this activity is focused only on the return on investment in the next 1-2 years…..then that person will be disappointed no matter what. That person needs to put in another small strip center on Morgan Road or something…and be satisfied at that.

    Economic development looks down the road 5-20 years…and investments in downtown are common across the United States as a favorable market. Notwithstanding, I acknowledge the CCO desires this development to be transparent and ethical….failure in those two areas are not endemic to downtown development. They happen in all businesses and projects.

    From the weekend WSJ highlighting how downtown development leads to residential and retail market growth:

    “The growth in new rental towers—which are usually woven into downtown office centers—is being driven largely by young professionals starting their careers, along with empty nesters who are in some cases downsizing from bigger homes in the suburbs. Together, they are helping downtowns evolve from places centered mostly on working and entertainment to more complete neighborhoods, with grocery stores, community centers and community services.”

    The vision for the recent downtown Evansville market, including the IU Med project….is only part of a larger momentum downtown. The full WSJ article is below…(I cut and pasted because it’s a fee-pay-site.)

    Those critical of the long-view in downtown? I don’t think they’re capable of anything long-view oriented…BUT they will say it “Looks awesome. I had no idea!!” downtown in 10 years when they visit us from Arizona or Florida.

    ………..
    Here’s the full WSJ article:

    WALL STREET JOURNAL
    April 25, 2014
    High-Rise Apartment Buildings Sprout in Downtowns Nationwide
    ‘Manhattanization’ of America Driven by Young Professionals, Empty Nesters

    MINNEAPOLIS—It would be hard to confuse Minneapolis for Manhattan, but the Nic on Fifth might just make it possible.

    The Nic on Fifth is a new 26-story apartment building that sits smack on a light-rail stop and boasts amenities like a pool deck and a private dog park. From the top floor you can see miles of the Mississippi river and the field where the Minnesota Twins play.

    When the building opens in August, it will be one of two new rental towers that are stretching this city’s skyline and—with monthly rents ranging from $1,450 for a studio to $9,000 for a penthouse—charging prices rarely seen in the Twin Cities.

    Minneapolis isn’t the only place building upward. While the U.S. housing market as a whole may still be creeping back from recession, downtowns around the country are seeing a veritable boom in high-rise apartment buildings.

    This year, some 74 rental towers are on pace to be completed, and there are 81 on the books for 2015—the highest number since at least the 1970s, according to Axiometrics, a Dallas apartment-research firm that defines a tower as 15 stories or more. At the same time, strong apartment rents and sluggish demand for office space have resulted in some high-rise buildings being converted to apartments.

    Overall, the growth has been largest in denser and pricier markets like San Francisco, New York and Chicago. But in percentage terms, the increase has been most dramatic in smaller cities like Minneapolis, which is building apartments, including high-rise apartment buildings, at the fastest pace in decades.

    In Austin, the seven apartment towers that will be completed between 2013 and 2015 compares with four from 2005 to 2012, according to Axiometrics. Houston has eight apartment towers set to be completed in 2014 and 2015, compared with six from 2005 to 2012.

    This past week in Kansas City, Mo., developers broke ground on the One Light building, which will be 25 stories tall and the first new apartment tower in the city’s downtown since 1976.

    “It’s the Manhattanization of America and it’s happening in cities that never had rental high rises,” says Mark Humphreys, chief executive of Dallas-based Humphreys & Partners Architects, which specializes in apartments and condominiums.

    The growth in new rental towers—which are usually woven into downtown office centers—is being driven largely by young professionals starting their careers, along with empty nesters who are in some cases downsizing from bigger homes in the suburbs. Together, they are helping downtowns evolve from places centered mostly on working and entertainment to more complete neighborhoods, with grocery stores, community centers and community services.

    Minneapolis resident Dan Born, who moved to the city from San Francisco to work for a software firm called Code42, pays about $1,800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in a building close to downtown. Mr. Born, 29, said he travels a lot for work and doesn’t know how long he will be in Minneapolis, so he doesn’t want to be tied to a property. He also likes being close to downtown, he said.

    “At some point I’m going to have to bite the bullet [and buy a home],” Mr. Born said. “But I don’t feel like I’m stable enough for that investment,”
    The influx of new residents has brought Dan Collison’s church back from the brink. He is pastor of First Covenant Church, which has been in downtown Minneapolis since the late 1800s.

    Over the past half century, as parishioners fled to the suburbs, Sunday attendance dwindled to as low as 50. Today, helped by more people living downtown, Sunday attendance has jumped to around 300, Mr. Collison said.
    Rising demand for rental apartments across the country reflects a confluence of trends. Mortgage-qualification standards are easing, but home loans remain hard to get for people with low credit scores. With most Americans seeing slow growth in their paychecks, many who want to buy a home either can’t get a loan or are still saving for a down payment.

    As a result, rents are setting new records. Despite the new supply, Minneapolis’s downtown rents rose 9% last year, and the vacancy rate was a 4% at the end of 2013, according to Marquette Advisors, a real-estate research firm. That is up from 1.9% in 2012, but the city has added close to 1,000 units over the year. With rents going up and only a limited amount of space, developers are building skyward.

    For developers like Minneapolis-based Opus Group, the apartment boom has helped to offset a weak market for high-rise office construction. Tim Murnane, chief executive, notes that apartment buildings have accounted for about half of the company’s business over the past three years, compared with just a fraction of that in previous years.

    The risk for developers is that they overdo it, building too may apartments and causing rents to fall. But with thousands of new residences now in the area, the evolution of downtown is likely to continue.

    Steve Cramer, president of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, notes that in the late 1990s he was appointed by the city’s then-mayor to head Minneapolis’s community redevelopment agency. One of the group’s goals was to get a single grocery store to open downtown, but it failed.

    “We could not offer enough subsidies,” he said. “Today there are three within a mile of each other, and it’s because all these people are living downtown.”

    • I saw that article in the journal. Evansville can aspire to such things and even emulate to a degree. The reality remains that to rent a $2,000 per month apartment requires roughly an $8,000 per month income. That is not a student market. Now if the target market are doctors and lawyers who want to live downtown I can see the possibility of success. Are there 100 such people in our midst? I would not bet $17 Million on it. The McCurdy is still a “field of dreams” project. If someone of sufficient means builds it, residents may come. I highly doubt that a bank will take such a risk by making a loan that is sufficient to make it happen. What the McCurdy needs is for someone to love it and do the job out of a sense of duty as opposed to seeking a return on investment. The numbers for profit seeking investors are just not there. The same thing that makes people spend $700,000 to restore a historic house to live in that would would only sell for $300,000 is what the McCurdy needs.

      • I wish the Chancellor’s would step in, and recruit some of their prominent friends.

        • How ironic. You want the family Chancellor to clean the new Chancellor Weinzapfel’s mess. I don’t even think the Chancellor’s have enough money to clean that guys messes.

          • I’ve always been a fan of irony.

      • Editor: The reply to EKB is listed twice,take the first one off please it has some typos leave the second one please. You may remove this one, as well,good night!

    • You make some good points and propping up downtown at this time with the city tossing more tax dollars into this pot makes little sense. If the university wants to put its school in downtown more power to them, but do it at their expense.

      There are far to many things needing taxpayer dollar attention right now than downtown and as pointed out by the editor in past threads the promises of revitalization by the school is overblown. If circumstances were different then I would have less concern about tossing taxpayer dollars towards propping up downtown.

      And that’s the problem as I see it; the artificial propping up of downtown and pretending such things will do the one thing Evansville has a real problem with. What is that problem? A dwindling population coupled with a lack of a sound local economy. And no, a casino, a hotel, lackluster convention center and a school that only shuffles existing people around is not a sound basis.

      The best approach would be to let the private sector figure out how to “revitalize” downtown without public money. Governments have a hard time buying hammers for less than 500 bucks, what makes you think they can do better with real estate?

12. The point is that we are already “on the hook” for all of the subsidies we can offer, and it is time for the PRIVATE money to handle the rest of the job. It doesn’t appear to me that the history, river view, etc. means enough to the local investors that they want to dig into their pockets to make it a place people want to live. If it did, the downtown real estate market would have already turned around. It’s surprising to me that someone of your political/economic conservatism doesn’t seem to recognize that.
    I’ll just bet that’s because most wise investors don’t think they will get a return on their investments, and nobody expects a 1 or 2 year turn-around on their money. You know, Weinz, the revitalization of our downtown isn’t a new goal. I was active in that movement some thirty-plus years ago. The way local investors make money downtown is to buy cheap and hang on until they can sell for a publicly-backed project.
    The big thing that we need to bear in mind is that downtown areas are coming back in growing cities, not shrinking, dying ones.
    I am dismayed to see that you have not yet become “Weinzdowntown.” You really should try it. If you do, you may want to stay inside after dark, especially on weekends and/or if you live close to the Jungle or Hammerheads. Our public safety budget is taking a hit, and it is a high crime area, you know.
    In short, why haven’t you put your money where your mouth is?

13. I was wondering, too, where you believe the people who can and will pay $1800 + per month rent in Evansville work. Do you really think finance and corporate centers still need to be located downtown? We really don’t have many “corporate centers”, and banking and trading take place online now.
    As for “empty nesters” downsizing, many of our better-heeled empty nesters are either following their children to the cities where they found jobs, or they are going to better climates. The not-as-well-heeled empty nesters account for the popularity of the “fifty-five and over” suburban apartment complexes that seem to be flourishing. It’s better to live near shopping and entertainment than it is to live near Bee Slough, especially if you’re on a budget.
    The world has changed, and Evansville hasn’t kept pace.

    • Indeed. Eighteen hundred dollars or higher for apartments? Suppose I were a business and needed to send four of my employees to Evansville for six months. For that amount of money it would make more sense to

      1. Rent two hotel rooms

      or

      2. Rent/Lease a house.

      As a parent sending my kid to the university there I would be insane to rent such an apartment. It would be better to spend that on a car and apartment somewhere else in the city.

      • D,And following your comment in what condition of the environmental footprint would you prefer the students living infrastructure to offer for resident/campus location to be brought forth? Simply put one only needs to pick up a rock from the street downtown and and smell it,to answer that question. If that doesn’t do it stick your finger in some standing water or the river at the plaza and give that a whiff. Forget about the student projection what about the Regular citizens and People that are forced to work and live in the old combined sewers areas,hows, the endocrine history of those places?

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrinology

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocrine_disruption

        So, whats the fair shake for the rest of your counties health picture,do include thoughts projecting the infrastructure that presently surrounds,most of the EVSC properties at present.
        I’ll tell ya ever think of how nasty a simple parking garage application is if the approach sits squarely in the middle of a CSO zone? What you drive through drips off ya know,where is that stuff now? Yuck.

        Ædificate climate

        Build for climate change.

        • Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t thought of it, but now I am. Gross!

          • EKB: Sorry, to have grossed you out,but think about it,and also due some of our control points another issue is actually”foot traffic”,every place doesn’t have acceptable entry way sanitation,so. Given that CSO is on the shoes,its everywhere the shoes go,as well.
            If you were in a clinical situation wouldn’t you take precautions with footwear? No none thinks of the small issues with walking or driving on location where CSO biological or chemical contamination might have been before they got there,or, when they where right there.
            Think of the school buildings nearby,those Eville’s bright site students who presently attend the signature school,where in the hell do they walk from to get in the building? As well as other school locations where CSO is present in the pathway clinical due a control.

            The people who might drive or park a vehicle in the stuff basically something belched up outta the old nasty combined sanitary sewer lines,makes a funky automobile underneath, or inside, as well.

            People can cuss the EPA all they want but the standards are crweated to make things better for the nation and the planet,any tghought otherwise is just self centered or selfish,and very well could be at the expense of someone else’s health.

            The problem should have been addressed decades before now incrementally over time,to bounce around the issue and blow municipal bond money and time on fluff for certain locations not actually being daily touch points to your standing population appears as neglect and probably”actionable”. (MANDATE FINES)

    • Hey! EKB, Don’t know but I hope this dudes got something …..I’ll buy in fur’re sure.

      http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=1&from=en-us_msnhp#/video/d04c93a7-9dba-4df5-8af1-99c76368c749

      • It’s worth a try!

      • It’s Smucker’s new flavor. You only have to buy one jar, ever.

    • Apparently one of them is going to work at IVY Tech.

14. I believe your comment on the McCurdy is incorrect.

    The apartments being quoted in other news reports is greater than what you quoted.

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