IS IT TRUE? February 16, 2011

IS IT TRUE that the highly regarded 4th Ward City Councilwoman, Connie Robinson shall announce that she shall run for her 5th term? ….this Thursday (February 17, 2011) she shall make her official announcement at 4:45 p.m. at the Civic Center?…that her campaign committee shall sponsor a reception in her honor following her announcement?….that the reception shall be at Zazzy Groove located at 217 Main Street?

IS IT TRUE that the 4th Ward City Council women, Connie Robinson has just informed City County Observer “MOLE # 2” that she has never received free tickets from SMG or any promoter while she has been a member of City Council?

IS IT TRUE that if David Rector, Director of Vanderburgh County Building Authority would spend more time in overseeing the properties he manages and less time playing power politics, tile floors in select offices and rest rooms in the Civic Center wouldn’t be so dirty and smelly?….that the Civic Center and Roberts Stadium seem to suffer from the same sticky floors, rank toilets, and general dirtiness?…if he did some routine cleaning of heating and air condition ducts in the Civic Center employees and patrons wouldn’t have allergy problems caused by less than clean H/A ducts system?

IS IT TRUE that today marks the second good public policy forum held by the City County Observer and the Community Observer?…that the theme of this meeting is “Symptoms of Good Public Policy”?…that one symptom of good public policy is a growing population?…that in 1890 the City of Evansville peaked among American cities at 56th?…that at that time Evansville was larger than Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Charlotte, Miami, and Houston, while being the equal of Atlanta and Nashville?…that as recently as 1950 Evansville’s peer cities would have included Phoenix, Kansas City, Tampa, Charlotte, and San Jose?…that at some point in Evansville’s history its population has exceeded the population of seven of the 10 largest cities in America?…that today Evansville checks in at #217 and counts places like Columbus, GA, Fort Smith, AR, and Peoria, IL as peer cities?…that we will discussing the 50 year decline in population and the 100 year decline in relevance along with many other factors that are symptoms of good public policy?

IS IT TRUE that Detroit was perhaps the center of the first production based entrepreneurship revolution in America?…that Detroit was essentially the Silicon Valley of the middle of the 20th Century?…that much of the decline of Detroit can be attributed to poor public policy?…that the United Nations evaluates the “goodness” of governance based on EFFICIENCY, TRANSPARENCY, AND PARTICIPATION?…that Detroit, Evansville, and many other American cities in prolonged decline would not score so well on the United Nations choice of metrics?…that the City County Observer would like to see its Public Policy Forums become the crucible from which influential business people and willing elected officials can formulate the knowledge and action plans to reverse the habits that have been enablers in this regions trickle down the relevance curve?

IS IT TRUE that scheduling a trip to Detroit for one overnight in about two weeks has become an eye opener for why the Evansville Regional Airport is having difficulty attracting flyers and flights?…that a round trip ticket to Detroit on the 27th and returning on the 28th is $1069?…that the same trip out of Nashville is $436 or out of Louisville is $347?…that this difference is not only unexplainable and unexpected but is enough to be worth the drive to save the money for a person travelling alone?…that at dinner last night with two travelers from the Detroit area that they confessed that they flew to Nashville to get to Evansville because of the FARE DIFFERENCE?…that these flights are all being paid for by multi-billion dollar entities that are very cost conscious?…that when something is so astonishing that it is disgusting there is often some piece of POOR PUBLIC POLICY somewhere in the chain of foolishness?

IS IT TRUE that back in 2007 that Mayor Weinzapfel raised a ruckus with the ownership of Casino Aztar over not keeping a relatively small number of jobs in staff?…that there is now much speculation among the SMG staff that up to 20 layoffs will be happening as a result of the choice of VenuWorks over SMG to manage the new Downtown Arena?…that we wonder if the Mayor will be asking VenuWorks to give special consideration to the soon to be displaced workers from SMG?…that consistency is a virtue within local government?…we will keep an eye on this opportunity to heal a wound that has been opened?…that if these 20 people lose their jobs and 20 different people are hired by VenuWorks that the actual job creation from this little shuffle is ZERO?…that we bet the official job creation count will not count job losses against the gains?…that this way of counting is misleading?