IS IT TRUE? July 26, 2011
IS IT TRUE that if Washington Square Mall can coexist with Eastland by being different and unique that Roberts Stadium should be able to coexist with the new Arena by being different and unique?…that Roberts Stadium like Washington Square will need a private developer with money and vision to make that happen?…that such a person came forward to reinvent Washington Square and the same should happen with Roberts Stadium?…that there is one and only one formerly successful shopping Mecca that did not survive the urban mall movement?…that would be downtown Evansville?…there are good reasons for that?…that abundant and easy to find parking with no parking meters is a big reason for that?…that indoor shopping during the 250+ days per year that we have cold, heat, or precipitation is another reason that malls beat downtown?…that for downtown to compete as a shopping destination again it has to offer an overwhelmingly better shopping experience than the mall does?
IS IT TRUE that there is some local good news with respect to brain drain?…that Fahkara Malone who started dazzling local basketball fans as I recall in about the 6th grade as a member of the Washington Middle School team that never lost a game is coming home to Evansville as a member of the UE women’s basketball staff?…that Fahkara was and is a high talent lady with diplomas from Memorial High School and Purdue University?…that she will be working on a Masters while doing her new job at UE?…that attracting Fahkara back to Evansville is a wonderful small step to countering the brain drain?…that we welcome Fahkara home and congratulate UE on a good hire?…that we hope that she can achieve her long term goals and prosper without having to brain drain a second time?
IS IT TRUE that when President Obama was addressing the nation last night on national television that it was easy to assume that he was speaking directly to the people of Evansville regarding the downtown hotel fiasco?…that the President referred to the “three ring circusâ€?…that after the President’s speech that the Republican response invoked the names of “The Three Stoogesâ€, and “The Marx Brothersâ€?…that it is good to see that our congress and our President agree that the situation in Washington is deserving of making denigrating jokes about?…that they asked for their jobs and that now they need to just do them?
IS IT TRUE that one of the most puzzling silences in the local political arena has been the silence of the two Mayoral candidates on how the Evansville Redevelopment Commission should have handled the whole lack of VETTING with respect to the Downtown Convention Hotel and the McCurdy?…that if ever there has been a chance to step forward with a plan that shows knowledge and fortitude that this hotel fiasco has offered the candidates a perfect opportunity to do so?…that with one candidate holding the office of Vanderburgh County Treasurer and the other occupying a senior vice president office in a large bank that one would presume that both should have experience and knowledge of the VETTING PROCESS?…that the ERC needs their help?…that establishing a process through which investments of public money into private enterprise are professionally analyzed is a difficult but vital cog that is missing in the machine of Evansville’s governance?…that rather than exchanging barbs with each other over the efficacy of spending $150,000 to hire high school kids in the summer to pick up paper and paint over graffiti, why not spend your creative juices putting together a plan to solve the VETTING PROCESS problems that are on display daily from the failures of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission?
Will someone please remind Mr. Davis the Mayoral election is THIS fall?
Is it true that a highly electable Democrat plans on announcing the Friday before Fall Festival definite plans to run in 2012’s Primary for County Treasurer regardless of the results of 2011’s Mayoral race?
After this election he won’t be able to get elected Dog Catcher
Though I hear he is currently running for Pope, President, Governor and Grand Pooh Bah of the Loyal Order of Sons of BKS
and the brotherhood of Paul Bitz & Associates
The problem with the ERC and all the other commissions the current mayor has the ability to people with a majority of his choosing is they way the mayor views the reason for having these commissions in the first place.
If they are viewed and used as just another vehicle for the mayor to ram home, at public expense, his singular personal agenda, then obviously they serve no useful purpose to the citizens.
The fact that they are statutory bodies with the weight of law behind their decisions suggests that they exist to protect and promote the welfare of those who fall under their jurisdiction.
There has been some pollution and perversion on both the side of the appointer and the appointees of these commissions concerning the responsibility of each party to the people they serve.
They do not serve each other. The commissioners should bring to the table some quality or skills that would be generally considered to be beneficial for that particular commission to make the type of sound decisions that would benefit the majority of the citizens affected by their decisions.
In short, currently there is too much politics involved, across the board, on these commissions.
In that vein, what would be most comforting to the citizens/voters would be a pledge from the candidates to eliminate the political intrigue within these commissions, people them with the best individuals you can find, and assure them that they serve at the interest of the citizens of this community, not one individual.
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CCO: there is a 100 % certainty that the ERC will engage an outside firm to recommend the Developer for the Hotel. The reason this is 100 % sure:
1) Numerous calls for ERC’s members resignation;
2) They aren’t spending their own personal money for the outside firm–it’s other people’s money (yours and mine);
3) If the outside firm screws it up–the ERC Members can blame it on the outside expert (“hey, we just did what you asked us to do” );
4) The ERC members really don’t have the talent to do it themselves–or they would have already done it on Round 1 and Round 2; and
5) If the ERC screws it up a third time there will be a shortage at local stores of pitchforks, lanterns, tar and feathers.
“In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” (Theodore Dreiser)
Then Evansville must be due a string of wisdom because we have clearly had 50+ years of ignorance in positions of power.
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