IS IT TRUE December 13, 2013

1. Mayor Winnecke’s little polling stations for his Bitches Before Stitches campaign is about as meaningful as the “task force” he set up to arrive at his predetermined demolition, or the townhall meetings set up to provide an illusion of support for the $37.5 million hotel subsidy.

   Mayor Winnecke: Fighting like the dickens since 2011

   • http://blogs.roanoke.com/dancasey/files/2013/01/POST_OF_THE_DAY_fire_marcusobal.jpg

   • Brad–

     Get over it–there was huge support for the hotel even if it took a $37.5 million subsidy to get it built. The final deal was much better.

     • That’s because the “support behind the hotel “at any cost” were those with something personally to gain, i.e. people like you, HCW, the Mayor, and the unions.

       Stupid political move aligning yourselves with those dudes. They will turn on your asses in a New York minute back to their Dem comfort zone, and when you sell outs turn around looking for your base of support, you’ll find their all gone.

       Mark my words, Wayne; this will all come home to roost.

       • Brad–

         You are absolutely full of crap when you say:
         ” That’s because the “support behind the hotel “at any cost” were those with something personally to gain, i.e. people like you….”

         Wayne Parke had absolutely nothing to personally gain from the 37.5 million hotel deal. As for as I am concern your credibility is zero.

         • “full of crap”?—Says the guy who doesn’t have a clue when his diaper needs to be changed.

         • Are you buying into the ONB led private placement with $500,000 of your hard earned dollars? If not why? Do you know anyone who is? Word on the street is that there are exactly two takers so far.

           • ONB led placement? I thought ONB was putting up the $11.5 Million to save the day. I guess it is not good enough for the shareholders of ONB so they are shaking down their wealth management clients to invest where they won’t. You bet your backside if I were a shareholder, if ONB put any of my money into this pig in a poke I would raise hell with Mr. Bob Jones.

         • What you had personally to gain was in the form of political brownie points. You weren’t supporting the idea; you were supporting your team member. I suspect if the roles were reversed and a Democrat had proposed the $37.5 million subsidy, you would have broken your neck trying to thrust your face into the opposition.

           You saying my “credibility is zero” actually boosts my credibility. The fact you can’t comprehend that underscores, highlights, and emboldens the typeface of the sign around your neck that says “amateur”.

           • Actually Weinzapfel proposed several subsidies and they were all lower than $37.5 Million by a mile. I think Weinzapfel’s last proposed subsidy was about $8 Million to Kunkel. I do not remember Wayne Parke expressing support for that.

2. Last year on the 35th Anniversary of the 77 Aces Plane Crash it was announced there would be cameras showing the demolition of Roberts (thankfully it never happened) and now it’s no surprise that on the 36th Anniversary there would be news coming out that there’s yet another rigged poll/report/whatever to shove a park that isn’t even a park down everyone’s throat again.

   And as for this illustrious Div II Championship, it will draw slightly (and I mean slightly) more than the debacle known as the GLVC Tournament but nothing serious enough it should be at the Ford Center instead of an Icemen game.

   Sioux Falls, South Dakota will put on a better show when the event heads there in 2017 & 2018. The event will be at the Sanford Pentagon whose main court has a capacity of 3,250 (http://www.sanfordpentagon.com/page/show/844470-home).

   Here’s the great thing about Sioux Falls: They built the Sioux Falls Arena in 1961 just south of their airport but not too far from their downtown. A few years ago, there was a movement to build their new arena downtown but voters went to the ballots in 2011 and passed a measure that would build the new arena (now called the Denny Sanford Premier Center) next to the current arena and convention center.

   So now, Sioux Falls has two arenas, one for large events and one for small events, and they have the pentagon that will host events like the Div II Championship so that other events can use the bigger arenas simultaneously. They even have an indoor water park resort next door and a minor league sized ballpark with youth fields complementing it on the other side.

   The best part is is that the pentagon was built PRIVATELY by Sanford Health whose mission is to keep Sioux Falls as one of the healthiest places in the nation. The pentagon & fieldhouse on the sanford health complex are next to trails and parks so that residents can use them on rainy and snowy days (gee there’s an idea).

   That’s how you build a city. In 1960 Sioux Falls had a little over 65,000 residents, Evansville had over 141,000. In the year 2000, Sioux Falls passed Evansville. In 2010, Sioux Falls had over 155,000 residents, Evansville had 117,000.

   They built their city by doing the right things, not by cramming incompatible events into their new arena, and not by building dog parks over small event centers. I wish we had their sports corp instead of ours.

   • Your definition of park is too small. A playground doesn’t make a park. In the most simple definition, a park is just a green space. Roberts Park more than meets that definition. Also your comparison of the growth of Sioux Falls is missing the economic factors in the boom. It also misses the economic factors that have led to our reduction. The demise of manufacturing in America has caused our attrition. Evansville needs to re-invent itself. Similar to Pittsburgh after the decline of the steel industry.

     • Well then let’s all go play red rover at sterling brewery park. It’s an open lot of nothing and nobody wants any part of it (thank you kind and ethical people of Evansville ). I’m still waiting for you to prove the general conclusions page of the task force report that is the supposed proof everybody wanted this pile of wasted glory. You can’t so why keep defending this mess?

       • My opinion is that you should just get over it and move on. You can’t hold so strong of a grudge over Roberts Stadium that you wish failure for every event at the Ford Center or any proposal for the lot where Roberts used to be. It is a good thing that we were able to land the D-II Elite Eight. The added spending from the visitors, no matter how many, is good for our community.

         • Your park idea has already been defeated. When do u plan on getting over it? And don’t give me you’re some big fan of this tournament. You literally just picked an open lot of nothing over these type of events and I don’t even think you realize it. Still waiting for u to prove the conclusions page and not change the subject.

       • Phyllis defends this mess because he is defending his team. It’s all a sport to these people.

         • Have you ever noticed that I can debate with you without ever resorting to name-calling or juvenile insults like changing your name to a feminine version? That’s called maturity. Try it. If I were to look back in your life, I would say that someone influential has led you to believe that being outraged & civil disobedience is desirable. Your goal is to just be pissed and spew vitriol. That’s why I refer to you as an agent of chaos. That’s why you’re inconsistent in your position and lack the ability to scrutinize those that you choose to try to align yourself with. I understand Jordan. He has beliefs. He has ideas that he is passionate about. That’s why his ideas are always consistent. You are just everywhere with your opinions. Depending on the name of the person associated with an event, you may be for or against it. Agent of chaos. That’s why you are marginalized and no one will ever take you seriously beside the crowd on this page that participates in your circle jerk.

         • No, I have not noticed your ability to debate without being a juvenile. You speak to people like dirt and act like an ass. Full stop.

         • What is there to defend? The building is gone. Are we advocating rebuilding Roberts Stadium? What is the current argument? Leave the past in the past. What do you want to happen now? If given the ability to choose the next step, what would you do. Give an idea instead of just tearing down others. Better yet, instead of taking potshots at the people that have chosen to run for office to change their community, why don’t you run against them. To the victors go the spoils, right?

     • Evansville doesn’t need to “reinvent itself” do much as it needs to stop trying to be something it’s not and has never been. Evansville needs to utilize the assets it has rather than thinking it can spend its way into prosperity. We need home-grown investment and entrepreneurial spirit, not more misguided attempt at manhandling people into some unworkable, astigmatic “vision”.

       This is the worst-run city in the Midwest.

       • If someone would have suggested that Pittsburgh should move away from steel and focus on being a first-class medical city in the 70’s they would have been laughed out of town, and that’s what lead to their revitalization. If we only look at what we are or what we have been, we can never reach our full potential. Look forward. We do need home-grown investment and entrepreneurial spirit. Those people are forward thinking as well. Where is the profitability in investing in the status quo? You need new forward thinking ideas to make an impact and see the best ROI for your investment. This is not the worst-run city in the midwest. Not even close. We may near the top on the most dysfunctional because no one is willing to put their ego aside for the betterment of the community.

         “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman

         • Evansville has a very large, unskilled labor force without jobs. I see more of an attempt to gentrify areas in a slapdash and piecemeal manner, a la FDP, than a serious attempt to bring employers to town who could put these people to work, or find ways to home-grow businesses or retrain people to prepare them for new kinds of jobs.

           It’s all well and good to talk about “reinventing” a something, but I don’t think it’s even being understood for what it is first, which surely is a prerequisite to serious change.

           Here a clue, Mr. Conservative…no amount of government spending on fun and games is going to pull us out of the doldrums.

       • The evidence is all around us. Evansville is nothing more than a irrelevant, burg with a pseudo aristocracy consisting of suited up, low-bred thugs, “Pulling the strings”..

   • “And as for this illustrious Div II Championship, it will draw slightly (and I mean slightly) more than the debacle known as the GLVC Tournament but nothing serious enough it should be at the Ford Center instead of an Icemen game”

     Jordan, you should be above the sarcasm you display in this post. The students at USI and the hundreds of other NCAA Division II schools who participate in athletics work very hard in their various sports, training for probably their entire life to get a chance to be in a tournament game at the college level (or beyond). While not all of them ever make it to the tournament level, or even to move beyond college and into the professional leagues of their respective sports, they are still to be commended for their hard work, perseverance and efforts.

     Describing the NCAA Division II Elite Eight as “illustrious” was clearly made by you in a disrespectful fashion, which is a shameful way of describing how the NCAA has given the NCAA Division II Elite Eight to Evansville for two years in a row.

     While I normally applaud the various efforts you have made to bring awareness in Evansville to so many deserving topics that have preservation in mind, I am disappointed that you appear to take a “cheap shot” at NCAA Division II tournaments in Evansville. Evansville has hosted the championship games a long time ago (when UE was a powerhouse in Division II), and who knows, maybe the NCAA Division II championship could come back to Evansville.

     Disrespecting the NCAA Division II athletes and the various championship tournaments by calling them “illustrious” is something I would not think you would stoop to saying. As they say in Britain, “bad form”.

     • First of all there is no guarantee whatsoever that usi or kwc will make the elite 8. The odds are actually stacked the other way. Secondly the fact that this tournament is on the downward spiral has nothing to do with either org and everything to do with the fact that this town is trying to prop up a tournament that has no business being in the FC. This same thing happened with the glvc tournament. Winnecke can go on his radio show and talk about it being some kind of success all he wants but the ghosts in the seats speak for themselves.

       There’s a reason why Sioux falls is putting this tournament in their pentagon and not their new arena. They want to grow Sioux falls sports profile, Evansville just wants to force things to make their individual political personalities look good. You can spin my words all you want but their repeated success and this town’s repeated demise are not that hard to interpret.

       • Jordan

         While I agree that there is no assurances that USI or KWC will be in the tournament. Not my point.

         The trend of the NCAA Division II and their tournaments is subjective. Not my point.

         Sioux Falls just might be doing things the right way in growing their sports profile. Again, not my point.

         Your “opinion” that Evansville is trying to “prop up” the NCAA Division II Elite Eight is just that, YOUR “opinion”. Nothing more, nothing less. Not my point.

         The part about you disrespecting NCAA Division II college athletes, your obvious disdain for local political posturing, has overloaded what should be at least a modest amount respect for the hard work that college athletes and their families put into their time in college playing for their respective schools. Whether the game or the tournament is held in Evansville or BFE should not be a pawn in YOUR diatribes about Evansville and the former Roberts Stadium. The young men and women in NCAA sports (no matter what division) are good kids who travel to tournaments in cities all over the USA, and the location of the tournament is beyond their control, and you demeaning those athletes by calling the Elite 8 tournament “illustrious” just to score some mythical point because it is at the Ford Center is something I thought you would have had more character and respect to do. If you cannot see that your name-calling of the tournament as “illustrious” just because you disagree with the Evansville Mayor and the decisions about the former Roberts Stadium is clearly a sad way to talk about student athletes, then perhaps you do not have the integrity of being an advocate for the common person as you attempt to portray. THAT is my point.

         • You have no point. You’re going off on some tangent about student athletes when it has nothing to do with any of that and everything to do with a tournament that is being used as some ”look at what this new arena is doing” prop. But in reality when you place a tournament in a venue that doesn’t fit the venue it’s in you end up doing more harm than good. See UE. That is basic knowledge for anyone in a DMD.

           Neither usi nor the ford center are the ones to blame for this mess. The city’s VB and sports corp handle it which is why its nothing but a political mess.

           For you to throw some huge fit about the word illustrious and then type up twenty paragraphs about it just shows ur just trying to go off on some gotcha moment tangent. You should spend ur time drawing up a better med school proposal.

         • Jordan

           It’s really a simple point, but it is clearly obvious that as a young person you are lacking in the aspects of being polite and proper when you insult a group of people who have done you no wrong.

           You are the one who threw the pejorative title of “illustrious” to describe the NCAA Division II tournament, yet lack the grace and wisdom to simply say that you intended no wrong towards anyone other than your chosen political targets that you clearly feel much antagonism towards for the destruction of Roberts Stadium.

           You remind me of others, in that when confronted by something that should be a reasonable conclusion, you chose to throw more gas onto the fire.

           “That is basic knowledge for anyone in a DMD”. And you have the skills and schooling to know this how? I was unaware you had worked in a DMD or had training to know the “basic knowledge” of someone who works in the DMD. Care to enlighten us?

           No “gotcha” moment intended. I just take exception to you making a comment that is degrading and insulting to people just because your panties are still atwist over Roberts Stadium. A bigger man would just apologize and be done.

           Your choice

         • “Classy” is not one to talk about insults. That’s all I’ve seen from this nameless, faceless coward since it started coming here.

         • And you literally used a billion more characters to basically type the same thing. For as much as you type I have never seen any figures to justify this tournament as indeed illustrative and needing a 9480 seat $125 million arena. I’m the one with my panties in the bun yet you just typed a novel about one none offensive word? I now see why ur med school proposal is veering way off course.

         • Jordon

           I have no med school proposal, nor am I involved in any way with one. What is your obsession with me and the med school?

         • Linzy

           When we need an opinion from you we will tell you what to say. Like I’ve said before, hush and let the adults talk

         • Classy.

   • Is it possible that every time we successfully host an event that it puts us on the map for more bigger and better events? Kind of like a crawl before you can walk scenario.

     • Evansville is a mid market town with a medium sized arena. The average family income is in the mid 30,000 range. The concerts that come here reflect exactly what Evansville is. Poor-middle-middle-middle with a like for classic rock and country. Neither our facilities or our wallets will ever support the big acts even if the ceiling of the Ford Center will hold the speakers. Did I mention that there are four major markets within driving distance that have all of the big acts. Evansville can walk fine, it can jog a little, it is not going to run in the entertainment or convention businesses in our lifetimes.

3. First the City should determine if they have the resources and expertise to close the Riverside windows of the McCurdy. These windows have been open for years. It can not be a pretty sight inside the McCurdy. Second our fair City should fully repair Mesker Amphitheater before building a silly dog park.

   • McCurdy Urban wildlife refuge,sorry as of now thats it.

     Have a Arts District Contest,any theme,past or present even future scape, Get some local artists paint impressionist window scapes “outside looking in” on plywood sheets put them up in the windows,keeps nasty pigeons out, probably would draw more crowds than your Main street does now. Graffiti with vision, and useful purpose. (Signs),(curiosity)

   • Is it the city’s responsibility to repair the McCurdy? Of all of the features displayed in the design for Roberts Park, why does everyone cling to the dog park feature? The park should be for all members of the community and there are members that have pets that would like a dog park there. There are also members of the community that like the skate park feature. The park is designed to have the most impact across the entire community. There have even been changes made from suggestions from the community. Do our egos need to be stroked so much that we need to dismiss the idea instead of collaborating to make it even better for the community?

     • It’s a derogatory interjection meant to demean and devalue. Typical internet troll tactic that attempts to ignore the quality of life indicators the park would enhance.

       • The site was already demeaned when Winnecke tore down a viable building rather than selling it as the surplus property it was.

         There is no way to further demean a dog that’s already licking its own ass.

         • Really Brad? That statement sounds like you climbed in a Wayback machine like a Progressive wanting to blame Bush or Reagan. It is of zero contributory value where this conversation is concerned ! LOL !!

         • And yet you obviously got a kick out of it. That’s illegal in some states, you know.

   • Repairing Mesker would make way too much sense! Problem is now, these lunatics want $25 MILLION to do it! Admittedly, I’ve had a couple beers tonight, so I might be out of my mind, but I’m pretty sure if someone gave me $25 MILLION to repair Mesker, I’d end up repairing it for $3 million and spending the rest on a Neverland style menagerie or something.

     • Absolutely right, Some updated sound equipment,clean seating good landscaping,lighting updates for type presentation,and a schedule. Mesker night out,I was in there once with some local friends a few years back too see ole Willie Nelson and family,he had a young “upstart” with him,Blake Shelton,incredible setting and entertainment,great evening,just plain ole good music and fun,huge crowd. Good lighting coordination, the place could be sold for Music Video marketing,awesome why your town lets it rot down is beyond stupid.
       Good grief, symposiums under the stars EVSC earth science,zoological presentations under Zoo staff direction for whole day activities. Cheap fix,big benefits. First time I heard the hit song “Some Beach” well you know in todays reality that”s likely the problem,as well.

       • They already have the seating. It just needs to be installed.

         • Yup,I’m sure Evansville still has some visionary musicians,golly with some applied roadies technicals that old amphitheater could be a major opportunity. Good grief,some base broadcasting skills,sound and good local musical talent provides function for Iconic places like that setting to step up,out and forward. Skills marketing those,and showmanship reaching outside the confines of the local metros “thought to be” invisible barriers.
           Multi-purpose presentations,entertainment,education,local musical talent presentation and…An Innovative Musicians staged business incubator….”launch pad.”

           Arts,entertainment,financed drivers, available for educational significance by learning pathway development and timing outside the box. Community based opportunities operated as an Arts and Entertainment Incubator autonomous to the parks and recreation department.

           Something musicians do ,however its seem they cannot.

           http://www.en.wilkipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Sensory_Meridial_Response. (ASMR)

           Pssst, Evansville ,whispering,role playing, and (ASMR) check out the “other phrases” and brain functions definitions as described.

           Could even be weaved into a “no-brainer” political action.
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

           Something good musicians create. Places like Mesker Amphitheater trending shows, enhance such features….. 🙂

         • Gees, just try Wikipedia ASMR Brad,the other listings a mess and everything but.

       • V-is-to-R, pardon the “mangle”,of a old saying,–But, if your looking for intellect in Evansville Politics,–“your wishing for something that never was, and never will be.”
         Over the years, Evansville’s Politico records stand as testimony, (eg, currently,- two of the dullest knives in the drawer, Winnecke, and Parke.)

         • I Understand that comment Crash,however if one looks around the rest of the nation looks like the political knives are a bit on the “dull short side” as well.
           Gees my Grandpa an old Indiana Farmer said this,about that. Blades, politics and such.

           “You can’t clean a chicken with the axe leaning on the butcher block ,cleaning the bird up takes a steady hand and a sharp knife.” Granny can’t use a beat up chicken,less we’re having soup,so lets do this right, eggs for breakfast, chicken n dumplins tonight, soup with yesterdays bread for lunch tomorrow” got any bread crumbs left,feed the chickens…..Place was a dairy farm you ought to hear that process…No wonder he was a strong fella and the farm worked.
           They always said this about the great depression,”what depression was that?” We had plenty stock,kept’em fed good to,”easy trading stock so to speak”. “Never left’em in the silage field to long though”,”dumb things will founder themselves for sure.”
           He also said, “A dull knife will getcha cut” Yup and one could figure the fellows try to work with the blades find after repeated attempts to Sharpen the thing it winds up “too short” to effectively finish the simple job we needed it for in the first place.
           One needs a blade that’s “sharp” enough upon selection of the thing for its purposed function,and “tempered” enough to finish what it started without making a dull axe mess out of dinner.

           Chances our daily government will work like a good ole family farm.
           “Not so much.”

           Happy Monday Indiana! 12/16/13

4. The dog park that everyone is so up in arms about will not be placed on Roberts ground. It will go elsewhere according to the last information I received from a very reliable source. I am not happy with much of the plan for “Roberts Park” (which is just Wesselman Park gussied up) and cannot support the money for these “improvements”. The present plans need to be scrapped and started anew.

5. What did the GLVC tourney draw last year? Not much USI girls team didn’t make it,and the men? Another story. That coach they have now isn’t getting people enthused about the team like other coaches. Most of those good D2 teams USI use to play all the time are in D1 now.
   Is it true? USI coach still hasn’t moved to Evansville or even into Indiana after over 5 years of being on the Hoosier taxpayer dole? Still lives in Carbondale?

6. Evansville does have a large unskilled or semiskilled workforce. It needs to play to that. Manufacturing is gone, but warehousing and shipping remain potential growth areas. The city’s location near the US population center makes it ideally located for this. The city needs to promote itself as a distribution center. It needs to create a new barge terminal to take advantage of the Ohio, a roll-on roll-off rail and truck terminal to take advantage of I-64 and the coming I-69, an air freight terminal for the underutilized airport, and promote a free trade zone for warehousing and distribution centers.

   • The population center is a geographical nuance that is not as valuable to commerce as it is thought to be. It also moves. 100 years ago it was near Dayton and 100 years from now it will be in Arkansas with current growth rates. What is more important is flight time and infrastructure within a couple of hundred miles of the population center of gravity. Thus Louisville, Memphis, and Indianapolis all are logistical hubs with air,interstate, and rail. Notice the river is no longer the trump card. That is another local myth that is bantered about. The actual center is in a farmer’s field in Pike County and heading to New Harmony. Go ask the farmers how much it has fattened their wallets.

     • Probably Posey County,as the “mean” location if New Harmony Indiana is what your referring to Joe,
       Quaint little burb,history notes it as a first try at a commune in the early territory. Fail,didn’t work,golf cart community now, USI once had some interesting stuff going on there,with stage acting programs, I’m Thinking the school there consolidated with the Other Northern Posey system. Kind of the overhead on that would be the place like Evansville city is still on the shrink for students “or funding thereof.
       Horrible adaptations for sequestration forward (consolidation away),prime example fail would be the Vanderburgh North High school location as last developed. The incremental increased carbon footprint with the student access throughput timing is atrocious. The distance and actual hour meter run time covered daily by the actual bus system from the old archaic bus lot/garage downtown out to the county lines northern gateway is excessive,beyond the imagination in what that was projected for on the edge when completed so to speak. You know for a newer building its got a rather excessive geophysical thermal imprint for it median size,as well.
       If one takes the students carbon foot print timing verses actual time seated in a class room good grief, even in the building,that can only improve,its carbons timing (grade is rock bottom inefficient today. Then once the actual bus drivers time from a coffee pot at home to the school,good grief what a mess.
       That cleaned up for throughput might attract a emerging progressive logistics company. One looks at the base throughput infrastructure around the Evansville metro gees,it can only improve,I suppose.

       Arkansas,yup look at Blytheville northeast corner as a hub,on the Interstate,And has a now closed Air Force base that at one time sported a 14,000 ft runway system supporting global operations. Flat ground lots of room, building space, available community work force,Earthmover ready….cheap.

     • Joe; Sorry, Blytheville ArKansas. The Runway at Arkansas International airport today looks underutilized 18/36 150.0ft width 11,802ft length. Huge ramp area. Old retired SAC base. “bigguns”. ready made hub,Memphis south,St Louis north I-55 front access, with some thought even the Mississippi, one port there already.
       100 years probably a gulf coast sea port facility when the tides in.

       • Yes indeed, and there are two slackwater port facilities for river traffic within a 2 hour drive.

         • Yeah,I know Joe,being in concern for climate change actions,and innovation forward to accompany that the location is begging for someone with vision.
           That place could have been open for business, even during the nation wide air transport gridlock. Applications I’m working on if put in place, all weather 24/7 operations, ground level up. Geez Joe the runways dang near long enough to become a “space port” with some vision applied.
           Right smacked dabbed in the nations “mean center” forward,air,road water,rail infrastructures evolving.morphing into the 21 st century. I wonder why the hell Bill and Hillary Clinton,Walmart Perdue foods,AMAZON,Riceland and so many others and such, haven’t thought about the old Arkansas air base just sitting out there on the Flats next to the major river system and on the nations interstate infrastructure “slowly underutilized,and decomposing to methane’s”.

           Site, Gains altitude, all the while moving forward with some “sight”..as well.

           “ad augusta peras angusta”

           “high places by narrow roads”

           “ad eunoum quo nemo ante iit”

           “to boldly go where no man has gone before”

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