IS IT TRUE? May 25, 2011
IS IT TRUE that the McCurdy Hotel has now been officially cited by the City of Evansville for weeds?…that a local TV report last night DMD Director Tom Barnett is finally holding the should be Indianapolis developer’s feet to the fire to clean this rat’s nest and to either perform or get off the pot with the construction project to make the McCurdy a home to people instead of pigeons, rats, and bats?…that the City County Observer is pleased to see that some semblance of pressure is finally being put on the Mayor’s chosen developer to perform?…that we are also proud and pleased to have taken the lead role in calling this weed cultivating, non tax-paying, political contribution making, organization out for non-performance?…that it is also gratifying to the CCO to see the City of Evansville step up to the plate for once?…that we will be diligent in keeping the pressure on the City to force action from this developer?
IS IT TRUE that the FBI released the preliminary crime statistics for 2010 yesterday?…that the United States of America has defied past times of economic challenge and has seen the violent crime rates drop by 5.5% and property crimes drop by 2.8%?…that the City of Evansville has once again performed in an opposite manner with respect to the nation in a key “quality of life†metric?…that the crime for the City of Evansville rose during 2010 seeing a whopping 14.1% increase in violent crime and a 3.1% increase in property crime?…that of course the immediate local response was denial and statements that this is not an apples for apples comparison?…that this is the typical response here in River City and that the sooner that this area comes to grips with its problems and acknowledges them that the sooner the problems can begin the repair process?…that the FBI hires the best and brightest that the nation has to offer, maintains a complete forensics lab, and has a division dedicated to statistics?…that the FBI is all about protocol, order, and apples to apples comparisons?
IS IT TRUE that if the FBI releases a study backed up with statistics that shows that Ann Arbor is safer than Evansville, which is safer than Fort Wayne, that is safer than Flint, MI that you can take those numbers to the bank?…that somewhere in Gary, IN that regained its title of the “murder capital of America†last year there is a Mayor, a Chamber of Commerce leader, or a head of a CVB whining about the “unfair†statistics?…that denial has not helped Gary with a chart topping murder rate of 56.8 murders per 100,000 population a full 13 times Evansville’s rate become a better place to be?…that as the real crime centers of the country go that Evansville is still setting at or near the national averages and that most of the city is statistically safe?…that we do have a half dozen or so census tracts that are statistically very much like Detroit, Gary, Flint, or St. Louis in the crime department?…that we equally have one census tract in unincorporated Vanderburgh County that is safer than 96% of the country?
IS IT TRUE that the FBI regional press release commended the South for having the biggest drop in violent crime at 7.5 percent, followed by the Midwest with a 5.9 percent drop, the West at 5.8 percent and the Northeast coming in at only 0.4 percent?…that in the FBI report that murder, rape, robbery, and assault all dropped from 2009 – 2010?…that in the City of Evansville that every one of these categories of crime plus property crimes and larceny increased from between 3% to a high of 67%?
IS IT TRUE that for Gary, Flint, Camden, or a few other lawless cities to put out brochures and parrot nonsensical slogans like “spend your summer vacation in the murder capital of the nation†or the more serious ones like “move to Gary, it’s a great place to raise kids†or even “we have a great quality of life here in Flintâ€, are as much a form of denial as the people in Evansville who do not acknowledge that we have a serious problem with meth and that there is no crime downtown?…that when compared with the three cities above that Evansville is still quite safe?…that Evansville is however going the wrong direction and the slide to Gary style crime statistics is a slippery slope?…that the time to face those demons and drive a stake into the vampires heart is right now and not 5 years from now when we will be joining the Garys and Flints of the world at our present rates of change?
IS IT TRUE that our Part 2 of IS IT TRUE today will deal with the details of the City of Evansville’s crime statistics?
I consider these statistics real and the underlying causes difficult to resolve, but anyway you look at these statistics, they are dishearting.
This issue needs a “Task force” to submit a realistic long range view of “Things that HAVE TO CHANGE!”, and I might add, a much Better Goal to reverse our “outflow”, than the League’s Merger Utopia.
Editor: may we call the nameless Indianapolis developer the ” McCurdy Hurdy Gurdy Man” going forward ?
Morals, personal responsibility, and mutual respect of others and their property would go a long way in changing the statistics across the country, it’s a cultural problem here in the USA but you have to change people before you can change the statistics.
During the last 10 years, Evansville has lost its way. The example from local government is waste and arrogance. Hopefully the slippery slope that you wrote about is corrected and Evansville can start to climb out of the deep hole that it has dug itself into.
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