IS IT TRUE October 10, 2014

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IS IT TRUE that there is finally a group of people coming forward to challenge the Winnecke Administration’s assertions that a dog park is a valuable resource that is worthy of public dollars?…it is well established that people do love their pets and verified by numbers that Forty-four percent of Americans own a dog and 29% own a cat?…among pet owners, 73% own a dog and 49% own a cat?…pet ownership among the American public breaks down this way: 27% own a dog but not a cat, 12% own a cat but not a dog, 17% own both, 3% own pets other than cats or dogs, and 40% do not own any pets?…a little known statistic is that there are more people in the United States who have dogs than there are that have underage children?…the preponderance of dogs is not to be confused with people who actually use dog parks in places where they are widely adopted?…some cities like Portland have gone “all-in” on dog parks having a high of nearly 6 dog parks for each 100,000 people?…some have called dog parks the park system for people without children?…we understand the love that people have for dogs but in a town where the public school system is sitting on a dozen failing schools and the usual list of dilapidated infrastructure dominates rainy weather, spending taxpayer money on a dog park is just irresponsible?…if some generous dog owners come forth with the funding to establish and maintain a high quality dog park it would be a good idea to just give them a park and let them do so?

IS IT TRUE that the intention of the City of Evansville to use $1.3 Million of federal funds to demolish some dilapidated houses has some people up in arms as well?…that these federal demolition dollars come with a set of rules that just make one question the thought process of the feds who wrote the grant rules?…the rules are that unless there is an individual, a non-profit, or a company that is willing to take over the stewardship of the lot after demolition then this handout can’t be spent on demolition?…that seems as though the demolition gods in Washington have decided that an empty lot is more of a problem than a ramshackle house where people can make meth, run a prostitution operation, or even set up a drug shop?…the restrictions on these funds are counter-productive?…if there was to be a restriction on the funds it should be that “any city without a blight elimination plan complete with a budget on record, can’t spend a dime?”…of course Evansville has no plan and no budget for such activities and seems to live opportunistically from one federal or state handout to the next?…with rebuilding or refurbishing being a financially unattractive proposition the kind of houses on the chopping block are for the most parts only candidates for adaptive reuse outside of the residential realm?…the Evansville DMD proved that redevelopment of housing is not worth doing with the Front Door Pride program that routinely built houses for $225,000 and sold them (often times to cronies) for $125,000 afterward?…the best case for demolition is to do it in large contiguous blocks for reuse of a different purpose?…whether one agrees with what happened or not, the large scale demolition of the older homes at 41 and Walnut to make way for a retail car lot is the right way to transform an area in a meaningful way?

IS IT TRUE that the highly touted opportunity for private companies to sell stock to the public through crowdfunding has still not launched?…this was part of the Jobs Act of 2012 that was one of the highly visible planks in the Obama re-election campaign?…this was passed 30 months ago and was supposed to go live on January 1, 2013?…it still has not happened as seems to be the case with many federal initiatives that take a little work?…this is not a problem that Congress made as they passed this bill?…this is just another of those real work situations that our federal government can’t seem to actually do anymore?…every day that crowdfunding is not approved by the SEC in another day of failure on the part of government to execute?

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41 COMMENTS

  1. First of all, I am glad the dog park is catching hell from all corners. That is Karma for an idea that should have never even been considered in the first place. It’s bad enough there’s one of these parks in a park that has the most potential of all of them to bring in visitors but to add a second (and ironically on the other lot that had the most potential) and I’m beginning to wonder when Ashton Kutcher is going to announce he has just PUNKED the whole city. Ironically enough, the $773K + used to demolish Roberts would have funded over 3 years worth of ShotSpotter. Remind me again who’s the side concerned about safety and “positive progress” again?

  2. Now let’s move along to the CCO’s blatant hypocrisy today…

    “that seems as though the demolition gods in Washington have decided that an empty lot is more of a problem than a ramshackle house…”

    I’m pretty sure pointless things like “green space” and “pocket parks” (aka nothing with lipstick on) are an option but I don’t swear to it as this blunder of a program has more colors than a chameleon. Nonetheless, yes there should be a requirement for something of value to go on the land or else these people will just take these funds to demolish god only knows what house they don’t like and just leave the lot empty until the day Evansville grows (cue the song in the year 2525). Those who seek to destroy Evansville should be held to the same standard as those wishing to preserve it.

    “of course Evansville has no plan and no budget for such activities”

    The city has had a budget for demolishing dilapidated houses for quite a while now. While Front Door Pride was doing some good in restoring houses, other basic and blighted houses were being torn down. The DMD is trying to tear down enough things, let’s not have a plan until there’s some strict guidelines set first.

    “with rebuilding or refurbishing being a financially unattractive proposition the kind of houses on the chopping block are for the most parts only candidates for adaptive reuse outside of the residential realm?”

    I like how you pulled the “for the most part” line to give yourself an out on some individual cases but the truth is you just painted all 82 houses under attack from this program with the same brush. And I’m going to go out on a very long limb here and project that you have not researched all 82 properties much less inspected their condition. If this program has a “scoring matrix” that was supposedly designed to pick the “worst of the worst” how in the world are we now down to “for the most part”? How do we have houses that are being moved on wheels on the list? How do we have houses from the 1800s that have been flagged as containing historical value on the list? And isn’t it just magically that ALL 25 properties in D-Pats way scored as the worst of the worst under this scoring matrix? Please, spare us all.

    “the Evansville DMD proved that redevelopment of housing is not worth doing with the Front Door Pride program that routinely built houses for $225,000 and sold them (often times to cronies) for $125,000 afterward?”

    And you are routinely proving that you are about one thing and one thing only ($$$$) and you end up not even making the best $$$ decision. Let’s break this down. Let’s go ahead and just say you are correct on the FDP houses each losing $100,000. You are going to spend $15-25,000 a house with this program and then you will still have to construct a house (and don’t say the free market is going to do that, you just advocated for leaving these lots empty which indicates there is no value for constructing a house by a private entity. And even if there is the fact that they have to use the gov’t to demolish the existing house indicates they have limited funds to construct a house the size and value of a FDP house.) and you will be down one taxable house and have at least one less person living in the inner core which will mean either A. This person(s) will build in the burbs and your budget will increase to have to subsidize more sprawl or B. This person(s) will leave the area entirely and you will be down one more in the Census category which we all no the negative consequences of.

    “the best case for demolition is to do it in large contiguous blocks for reuse of a different purpose?”

    No, the best case for demolition is if the house is 1. Beyond repair to the point where there is literally nothing to rebuild with 2. There is nothing even remotely historic or architecturally significant on the house and 3. There is no sign of hope for this property (i.e don’t waste money tearing down houses when D-Pat will literally do just that if you don’t tear them down). When and only when all 3 of those conditions have been met should a property be demolished by the state. Everything else should be left alone.

    “whether one agrees with what happened or not, the large scale demolition of the older homes at 41 and Walnut to make way for a retail car lot is the right way to transform an area in a meaningful way?”

    Now this is un freaking believable. We started out not saying a word about wasting money on D-Pat (which we shouldn’t even be in this position in the first place because the city chose an inferior lot(s)) because we didn’t want to anger a website sponsor even though it really has nothing to do with the part of D-Pat sponsoring the site but now we’re even going to try to declare this as “the right way to transform an area”? I can’t believe that. The truth is, putting a sprawling car lot is no way to stimulate an inner city neighborhood, and even if it was, wasting public funds for a private entity who is moving because of a previous deal with the city just stinks to high heaven. And oh how ironic it is that we’ve got our TI-83 calculators out doing an ROI on historic and/or existing FDP houses yet we’re throwing away money on 25 houses (1 being moved it appears) that would be demolished privately anyways.

    Socialism for those who wish to demolish everything, Capitalism for the rest of us who wish to build, preserve, and maintain a city on the banks of the Ohio. The sad thing is, the CCO is taking this position because of an alliance with a political ally(ies) who only wish to use Evansville as a means to promote their political career. I left the C&P for that very reason. I sure hope I haven’t run right back into it here. Shame on the Hardest Hit Fund, shame on the council members using this for political gain, and shame on the CCO for not standing up against this run away demolition program. Very disappointed all around.

    • Longwinded and redundant. Concisely, it’s just another sweetheart deal for D Patrick.

    • I believe Ed is wrong and Rails is right re: ‘large scale demolition of the older homes at 41 and Walnut to make may for a retail car lot is the right way to transform an area in a meaningful way’, for two reasons:

      1) How often will there be a Med School which just so happens to displace a car dealership that needs to then be relocated ? Once every 10-20 years. A city can’t rely on this model to accomplish its urban renewal programs. Have to learn how to do it one property at a time, 52 weeks each year; and

      2) This corporate welfare for D-Patrick sucks. They got greedy re: the Ford Center (I believe D-Pat also went out and bought up a bunch of real estate downtown in advance of Ford Center announcement ?), and I truly wonder whether this is “make up time” with this relocation. Did they fix up their place next to the Arena so they could charge more when “make up time” arrived ???

    • This D-Patrick ruse was used in Los Angeles in the 1960’s to build Dodger Stadium and forcibly displace a lot of spanish-speaking folks who lived in Chavez Ravine. There are still families in L.A. pissed about that form of forced urban renewal, 50 years later !

  4. I’m glad to hear that people are organizing against stupid spending on the part of Mayor Poop and friends. Where can I join?
    As for the demolition of random housing, it doesn’t seem to me to be the most efficient or practical way to go about it. I think priority should be given to the sites that are contiguous with other cleared lots, in order to have areas that lend themselves to redevelopment.

  5. I had always wondered when some tinhorn politician who couldn’t grow a hotel with a sack full of Burpee’s Hotel Seeds would screw up that State Hospital property. Should have seen this coming. Everybody pretty much let it grow organically and it has served the community very well without some goofy accidental mayor interfering. Now comes Winnie the Poop to fight like the dickens to plop his already rejected dog park down on that beautiful space, let part of Rick Davis’ legacy be that he never holds public office again. Find Winnecke a chancellorship quick, maybe at Harrison or Daymar, before he suits up for his famed chicken dance again. He is an embarrassment to Evansville. Haney circles like a raptor.

  6. For the most part, had the city enforced codes currently on the books the “blighted” areas would not exist. Unless you consider any low income area to be blighted. So the city doesn’t do their job, the federal government comes along and, in the words of one official, dumps 1.7 million dollars in our lap to demolish the result of the city not doing their job. Free money, he said.

    • The given visual was sported on all that with the blighted house on wheels along the old crumby logistical valued HWY 41. In global manufacturing they actually do shake and container testing during new product development testing, due logistical shipping reliability. Evansville is excellent test location, one trip around the towns shot in the rear throughput logistics , the demolition should be completed. However do. Follow them with a team of BPW dump trucks , pick up the debris as they go around town. Make sure with each piece of fallen debris, traffic cones, flag persons, along with six new extended cab pick ups from D-Pat, and four guys holding up shovels (under supervision of course) are on the curb, as well. Don’t forget the flashing lights, and do leave the engines running while the one lower tier contractor picks up the debris.
      Hell, and you people want to know how to blow away federal urban redevelopment funding while not actually addressing one overall standing community need for a sustained and balanced growth pathway.
      Fluff, fluff, chitty, chitty city, as usually observed there, and as people write, your cities old downtown zombie utility infrastructure continuously pumps straight sewage contaminations into the whole nations available clean water resources for millions of people outside the realm of your standardized disparity. That’s being offered by “your” political elected and appointed leadership functions. Please! Change it at the polls, the people in downstream America ought to be able to cast a ballot there, as well.

        • Heck, that isn’t nothing, one should do analysis of the carbon balance it takes you people to bus a few school children with some affect. You all are beating that up well into the rest of this century to. Given the overall reasoning and conditionals for those values, your school system ultimately fails on every aspect range there, as well.
          Our global social economic environmental consortium has run those numbers throughout several standard observation spans. Its a “Largesse. ”

          “C’est une grande valeur étant vaporisé, inutilement”

          Definitions of largesse
          noun
          generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others.
          “dispensing his money with such largesse”
          synonyms: generosity, liberality, munificence, bounty, bountifulness, beneficence, altruism, charity, philanthropy, magnanimity, benevolence, charitableness, openhandedness, kindness, big-heartedness, benefaction

          • I get the impression that some here do not buy the sincerity of the D-Patrick deal as necessary and appropriate to support the development of the Medical School and ‘unquestionable’ economic boom that is said will result. Let’s remember V’s writing from yesterday on the approach that is necessary for job creation and economic development:

            “focused tipping points our global analytics consortium”

            “applied infrastructure set for climate migrations. with evolving resilience”

            “equal opportunity can then flow forward through the training pathways, and additional technical careers that balance and sustain the motion.”

            “how anyone lives effectively today on as little that must be a full time job balancing ones life, in itself.”

            Once the Tiered global infrastructural laxative is applied, systematic throughput will tip the logistical balance and thrust out a large, dark mass of jobs accompanied by a grunt of relief in a manner consistent with V’s writing above.

            Afterwards, the logistical delivery orifice must be wiped thoroughly.

          • Maybe, Metamucilic if its that hard for you. You really shouldn’t have to wipe much, although, the balance of it, including the tissue wasted will still be sent straight into the Ohio.

  7. You think the Feds really follow up to make sure a demolished a property is being maintained? I seriously doubt it.

  8. What? Nothing about Furgeson or EBOLA or the war against ISIS or ISIL? Are there better things to talk about in here that DMD and the plot to give the Medical School a place in the downtown area by kicking little people out of their homes only to help a car company move to a new location? We all know that this is about as political as it gets in this town. What we need to really discuss is how to put a stop to this BS once an for all. What about talking to the State Legislatures and getting them to help us come up with some State Laws with TEETH to put a stop to the good old boy give away by the local city politicians. I’ve seen first hand how the city leaders give preference to their friends and family. I’ve seen how City Department Directors take so called Business Trips for their own vacations and spend our tax money doing it. I’ve seen Mayors get their cohorts to extort money out of the city workers to help fund their political interests. Anyone who’s work for a Mayor knows that if you don’t give money to the party when they ask for it you will not have a job anymore. It’s that simple. But even if the Mayor gets investigated and suddenly quits right after winning the election for his SECOND term the party replaces him immediately with someone of like stature and character. So the game continues until they feel the heat and they fear going to jail or prison more then they do feeling good about snealeagelling our money.

    • Our state legislature and governor’s office has been controlled lock stock and barrel by republicans for some time now…. just sayin’.

      • You need to watch what happens to local politicians when they leave office. This will indicate to you who controls what. Ellsworth to Vectren, Williams to ONB, Bagbey to the Sheriff’s Dept, Weinzaphel to IVY Tech, do you get it now? These are make believe jobs that are rewards for appropriate behavior while in office. The governor and other state offices have very little to do with what happens in Evansville. The next Sheriff may be Wedding, the guy that campaigned for our current mayor.

    • You make some good points, but I don’t think you have a viable solution.

      “What about talking to the State Legislatures and getting them to help us come up with some State Laws with TEETH to put a stop to the good old boy give away by the local city politicians.”

      That’s like asking foxes to handle hen house security.
      That being said, you do know your Evansville history!

    • “snealeagelling our money.” @moveon, You should explain that phrase to the global readership by definition. That, so people in other global regions and positions of social economical political rationality in the application of governance, might, fully understand your comment.
      Couple of things, however, the “game” goes on, and at todays connectivity rates, and dimensional balance.
      Short, for that is “sneagal positioning” one would suppose, or presume.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP6pV0auwgQ

  9. Joke of the day: “V” telling anyone to explain what they meant in their post! Where does “V” think the word “sneagle” came from?

    “…“snealeagelling our money.” @moveon, You should explain that phrase to the global readership by definition. That, so people in other global regions and positions of social economical political rationality in the application of governance, might, fully understand your comment.” “

    • NoMoDoh; Could it be? That your screen name is a leading indicator of the demise brought on by “sneagle”
      So, stand in front of a mirror, ask yourself why? Answer.

  10. If the $25,000 per lot for clearing, that is $8,000 for clearing and $17,000 for purchase price per house was part of the negotiated deal for them to leave downtown then that should be stated. If it is an extra give me because the city would rather give the funds to the upper class rather than the intent of the funding – that should be exposed. Not all houses in the Dpat area would qualify if the Site Evaluations were filled out by the average person. Because the mayor filled out the very questionable evaluation of each property, somehow even a nice home that was purchased for $80,000 becomes blighted abandoned and vacant. Remember people renting were evicted and owners sold at the fair price of the homes – $60,000 and up.

    The feds have a good purpose for this funding. It was supposed to help promote the home owners equity and safety of neighborhoods. Yes help neighborhoods. Because of the economic downturn and resulting housing crisis home prices plunged and sub-prime mortgages left abandoned homes. With no financing available for these homes many remained vacant thus reducing property values of neighboring homes.

    By clearing the worst houses from a neighborhood property values should increase. Possible increase sufficiently for other owners to obtain home improvement loans for a roof or other major repair.

    This is not happening because the city could not find a way for them to benefit. Everyone should look at the grant application, the Building inspectors report, and most importantly the mayors “Site Evaluation Matrix”, that Qualified each property. You might find it appears fraudulent. Very interesting to see the private interest if you map quest the addresses, visit them, and consider the program partner getting the property..

    • Why isn’t the CCO doing more investigative reporting on the D Patrick houses? Is it true that D Patrick advertises on the CCO?

  11. Off subject, however when one questions the accuracy of the trending observations our analytics consortium concludes from scheduled daily data acquisitions. One must consider the consensus has a real good visual verses cognitive balance.
    The analytics base doesn’t miss trending, that said, another prediction of talent blending and social economic attraction was again realized. Bill board debut #1 “Cheek to cheek” with our early August prediction, as well. 😉

    With the mix of talents, focused forward, anything goes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg1meK-IgOM

  12. Hey V? Your C02 strawman has taken a backseat to the NASA confirmed Methane Bloom at the 4 corners area out west. Methane has 23X the warming effect of CO2. What altar of deception will you kneel at now?

    • Hey Luther ,methane elemental balances have been on the increase as well as Co2. Methane is sometimes up to 60 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide in heat transfer (base gas for thermodynamic heat transfers ) refrigerants, to fiends and inept social morons and politicos such as yourself demonstrate with these comments at times. Methane balance, is a natural elemental balance of decomposition from the planets biodiversity of the past, to most scientifically observed analysis . Naturally stored and balanced energy source.

      The largest MAN AFFECTED states now are gas and oil well plumes such as the BP deep water horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. Many complex Methane gases from past events ( hum ….fossil fuels..) are now being released atmospherically in the arctic and glacial regions that are now in the state of thermodynamic transfer. That’s a straight pathway to global mean temperature migration. Science conducting research and analysis is on this so dolts and fiends such as yourself can, as usual sit on you butts and go along for the ride. Rest assured we are aware. Historically the Permian extinction was the largest wipeout for life on planet earth EVER, and also scientifically observed as the time based projection of when the planets methane levels were in fact the highest. The Permian ended evolution and life for just about every organism on the face of the planet once, might be you fiends should keep an “EYE” on that, as well. Stay better informed so your stupidity normally demonstrated in the CCO comment section has some affect.
      Rising methane elemental counts are another “annoying” climate change migration being driven by mankind’s activities in hydrocarbon and fossil fuel conversions for energy balances, Luther.
      Might want to watch that deep water methane ice conditional state that is boiling off due to climate migration, and warming and rising global oceanic mean temperatures also……Fiend
      That’s all in the relative conductivity of the subject, however, as man is an affect in that’s staging good science does keep an “eye” on that for you.

      http://online.wsj.com/articles/permian-basin-in-texas-to-drive-down-oil-prices-1409613682

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

      Watch what you eat to, exhaust gases are a bitch when released in the public realm, as well.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vju2pyqXBLg

  14. With such a huge unquantifiable variables in the mix, how can you even remotely point a finger at man made contributions that are statistically insignificant?

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