IS IT TRUE we were utterly intrigued on Sunday when the Courier and Press published a report on the crime in the City of Evansville from 1989, a scant 25 years ago?…in the section on things of the past it was stated that in 1989 Evansville was the safest city in Indiana and one of the safest cities with a population over 100,000 in the entire United States of America?…the sources cited for that glowing and comforting report were the crime statistics of the FBI?…then Mayor Frank McDonald II was quoted as saying the safety and favorable crime statistics would be used to promote the City of Evansville to tourists and businesses across America?

IS IT TRUE when compared to what we have now from a crime perspective all we can say is what a difference 25 years makes?…the following narrative about crime in Evansville is readily available online at the website called Neighborhood Scout that cites FBI statistics of right now to say the following: “With a crime rate of 56 per one thousand residents, Evansville has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 18. Within Indiana, more than 96% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Evansville. Importantly, when you compare Evansville to other communities of similar population, then Evansville crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how Evansville does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most. The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined. Now let us turn to take a look at how Evansville does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Evansville. From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Evansville occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Evansville; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 211. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants. In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Evansville is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Evansville, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 19, which is a rate of 51 per one thousand population. Importantly, we found that Evansville has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Evansville is one in 281.”

IS IT TRUE we encourage our readers to go to the website NeighborhoodScout.com and confirm this narrative along with the graphs and charts showing how the City of Evansville compares to other cities in the United States of America?…for a city to take such a dive in crime statistics in such a short time begs for an explanation and we welcome any and all who care to opine about what has happened to this once safe and significant city on the Ohio River? …we don’t understand why the Mayor ask City Council last week to reduced our police Department  budget for 2014?  …we are extremely proud of the effort our men and woman in blue are doing to protect us from bad people of this community?  …the Mayor should be finding creative ways to increase the police department operations budgets for 2014 so our outstanding men and woman in blue can have the additional resources to take it to the bad people of our community?

IS IT TRUE we finally have confirmed that the resolution to rescind the loan approval that the Evansville City Council extended to Earthcare Energy LLC was filed on April 17, 2014 and God willing and the City Council has 6 intelligent human beings on it this nightmare will be put to rest on May 12, 2014 when a vote can be held?…if there is not sufficient votes or will to rescind this ill-advised approval at least we will know who to vote out for financial ineptitude in next years city elections?…the only logical vote is a 9 – 0 vote to rescind given that two years after the fact Earthcare Energy LLC has no patent, has not proven its concept with an installation anywhere, and has not found another City Council in the entire country gullible enough to take their bait hook, line, and sinker like Evansville’s did in 2012?…the CCO says, let’s hope all nine of our elected members of the council have learned their lesson and unanimously rescind this approval?

IS IT TRUE it was recently reported that the median wage of Hoosiers increased last year to a level just under $32,000 per year which equates to $15.38 per hour?…the median is the number that defines the point where half of the people earn more and half earn less and is not to be confused with the often reported average wage?…in a large statistical sample the median should be close to the average but it does not necessarily have to be?…the growth in earnings for Hoosiers last year while going in the right direction did not move that way at the same rate as the national averages putting Indiana a little bit further behind the national average as it has been for a long time now?

IS IT TRUE that the United States census reports that in 2012 the median household income for the City of Evansville was $35,947 while that number for the State of Indiana was $48,374?…for the entire nation the median household income in 2012 was $53,046 or a full 47% higher than the City of Evansville?…Vanderburgh County as a whole fared 21% better than the City of Evansville coming in at $43,645 but the numbers for the county include the City of Evansville?…when one backs out the numbers using the population data the median household earnings for the unincorporated county work out to $58,700 which is 63.5% more than the City of Evansville while exceeding both the Indiana and National medians by 21% and 11% respectively?

IS IT TRUE crunching numbers in this manner reveals that from a broad brush perspective the City of Evansville and unincorporated Vanderburgh County are two very different societies that happen to be sitting next to one another?…the unincorporated county households despite things like a low cost of living, right to work laws, and an economic atmosphere that allows for wage compression is doing better than the state and the nation when it comes to household earnings?…perhaps this is the key to understanding why the annexation effort by the City of Evansville failed?…it may also be a key to understanding the strength of the Ungenthiem campaign against incumbent city supporting Marsha Abell?…the only way that an annexation should ever be considered is when the strong annex the weak to lift them up or even teach them a few things about prosperity?…situations where the weak annex the strong to take their assets are simply preposterous?…this game has played out in Detroit where the State of Michigan came in an took the dying city over?…anyone who thinks that Detroit should take over the State of Michigan to bring its particular brand of excellence to the masses needs their head examined?

IS IT TRUE the CCO has it on fairly good authority that the new Director of the LST is not pleased with the Evansville location and wants very much to find another city to host the LST?…this is very new information and we have very few details but this is not the first time someone who came from somewhere else for their management expertise rather rapidly decided that Evansville is not the place for them?…as the details of this situation emerge we shall keep our readers updated on the discontentment that may drive the LST from our million dollar dock that sits in Kentucky waters?

IS IT TRUE there is no meeting of the Evansville City Council scheduled for tonight?…the next time there will be an opportunity for our elected leaders to rescind the loan approval granted to Earthcare Energy LLC will be April 28, 2014?…whomever wishes to sponsor a vote to rescind needs to get busy though because any resolution that is to be read next Monday needs to be written and submitted by mid week?…this raises the issue of just who on the Evansville City Council has the background and experience to be hired by an investment firm to VET any emerging technology as a viable technology with a reasonable expectation of commercial success?…such a person typically has an advanced degree in engineering, either an MBA or equivalent business experience, and even a history of investing in start-up enterprises?…we would like to know just who among the members of the City Council, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, the ED Loan Committee, or the Mayor’s office could actually be hired by a venture capital firm to render an opinion on an enterprise like Earthcare Energy?