IS IT TRUE that today we shall examine the claim of “explosive growth” made by Mayor Winnecke in the State of the City address with references from the United States census?…we will start by visiting just what “explosive growth” is?
IS IT TRUE that Mayor Winnecke brought out a term that hasn’t been associated with Evansville for at least half a century?…the term chosen by our Mayor in the State of the City address to describe what is happening in Evansville was “explosive growth”?…we wonder just what the heck Mayor Winnecke thinks that “explosive growth” means because to any layman in the streets growth of any kind is just not that apparent?…the best definition we could find was to describe explosive growth as “an abrupt positive change of significant magnitude”?…in order to examine the growth that may have occurred we consulted the federal governments repository for such information?…that is the website for the United States Census that has official 2010 counts and approximations from 2015?…the following data is for a FIVE YEAR PERIOD?
IS IT TRUE that the population of the City of Evansville actually shrunk from 2010 to 2015 by 0.1% from 120,081 to 119,943?…when it comes to population the growth is negative which is more associated with the term implosive than it is with explosive?…in spite of the pollyanaish claim of explosive growth the reality is that Evansville has less people than it did 70 years ago by roughly 25,000 people and if it were not for annexation the number of the loss would approach 40,000?…that over and over the numbers associated with the economics in Evansville display nothing that could be considered to be anything other than tepid growth or negative growth?…income is stagnant, housing values have not increased significantly for 20 years, the labor participation rate languishes in the low 62% range! and while the “misery index” has improved, we are still in the bottom quartile?
IS IT TRUE that it is a well known fact that the highly touted crown jewel of downtown Evansville, Ford Center is losing money to the tune of $9 Million per year below what former Evansville Mayor Weinzapfel’s masters of the universe said it would?…furthermore the plethora of big musical acts that never played Roberts Stadium but would beg to play downtown haven’t?…the number of businesses downtown is still about the same as it was before the Ford Center opened?…that has now been nearly 6 years so the bugs should be worked out of the magic medicine that the traveling medicine show said they planted?…to believe that Evansville is experiencing explosive growth is about as silly as thinking a chicken fat video would shape us all up?…it is delusional to think such things and disingenuous to say such things?
IS IT TRUE that the Hillco Real Estate group is offering all 88 of the HH Gregg Stores inventory and leasehold properties in a public auction?…the entire chain if HH Gregg stores have filed for bankruptcy and are being liquidated rapidly?…the management and owners did try to find a buyer but not one interested party came forth?…HH Gregg came to Evansville into the space formerly occupied by Circuit City which filed for bankruptcy as well?…this is just another of the death march of big box retailers from the marketplace?…the prognosticators on CNBC are projecting that over 8,600 retail stores will close this year in the United States which is more than double the largest number that we have ever seen close in a single year?…we can thank the conveniences brought to us by big online retailers like Amazon?…this will truly be seen as the year that big box retail became obsolete and the malls started to search for other ways to maintain relevance?
FOOTNOTE: Â Todays “READERS POLL” question is: Do you feel that the taxpayers of Evansville should spend another dollar to subside Ice Hockey at the Ford Center?
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