1. Employment/Job Opportunities for those with Disabilities
2. Public Transportation
3. Marketing & Awareness
4. Accessibility to City & County Facilities
Announcements
Emergency Management and Preparedness – Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities Webinar Series (January 8th, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET). To Register: http://www.adaconferences.org/Emergency/ (click on the “Registration” web link to start)
1. DEVELOP A PLAN FOR THE DECADE BY THE END OF 2011 FAIL and seem Oblivious
2. CLEANLINESS AND BEAUTIFICATION, THEN KEEP IT CLEAN B+ Since Mayor Winnecke was Elected
3. SEWERS!!! EPA APPROVED PLAN BY 2012, SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION BY 2020 FAIL, but trying so C+
4. ESTABLISHED ANGEL INVESTMENT FUND BY 2012, ACTIVE VENTURE CAPITAL INDUSTRY BY 2020 FAIL: F-, managed to find private money for a hotel but not a dime for real job creating entrepreneurs
5. INCREASE % COLLEGE GRADUATES IN THE GENERAL POPULATION BY 5% BY 2020 FAIL: F
6. K-12 EDUCATION UP TO STATE ISTEP AVERAGES BY 2015, EXCEED STATE AVERAGE BY 10% BY 2020 FAIL, D, EVSC is improving but not closing the gap
7. GENERAL POPULATION GROWTH OF 1% PER YEAR OVER ENTIRE DECADE FAIL but did stop the losses D
8. RAISE THE AVERAGE EARNINGS OF ALL PROFESSIONS TO NATIONAL AVERAGES BY 2020 FAIL: F
9. ESTABLISH SOME BASIC RESEARCH ENTITY OF DISTINCTION AT EITHER OR BOTH UNIVERSITIES FAIL: F
10. MANAGE PUBLIC FACILITIES LIKE THE ARENA AT POSITIVE CASH FLOW AS ADVERTISED FAIL: F
Published by the CCO at the beginning of this decade 3 years ago
The City County Observer has solicited reader input for the “Top 10 Issues of 2010” and for the “Top 10 things to get right in 2011”. We have received much input and will be putting articles together on each during the next couple of weeks.
The release of the Census data along with the long term nature of some of the reader suggestions inspired us to put together a list of some items of profound importance to solve in the next 10 years. Evansville like many Midwestern cities has been in a holding pattern when it comes to crafting and implementing policies that have the capability of keeping local economies performing at national average levels. Proper planning followed by accurate and honest feedback that is used to continuously improve are what elevates and maintains regions.
Some cities like Louisville had plans for the decade that has just ended. Those cities that had decade plans, annually reviewed them, and took corrective action to stay on course have typically outperformed those that had no plan. For example Louisville had a plan to grow their population by 10% and fell short in growing by only 4% according to 2009 census estimates. Evansville with no plan lost 3.9% of its population after annexation. So our list of Issues and Actions starts with and continues:
1. DEVELOP A PLAN FOR THE DECADE BY THE END OF 2011
2. CLEANLINESS AND BEAUTIFICATION, THEN KEEP IT CLEAN
3. SEWERS!!! EPA APPROVED PLAN BY 2012, SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION BY 2020
4. ESTABLISHED ANGEL INVESTMENT FUND BY 2012, ACTIVE VENTURE CAPITAL INDUSTRY BY 2020
5. INCREASE % COLLEGE GRADUATES IN THE GENERAL POPULATION BY 5% BY 2020
6. K-12 EDUCATION UP TO STATE ISTEP AVERAGES BY 2015, EXCEED STATE AVERAGE BY 10% BY 2020
7. GENERAL POPULATION GROWTH OF 1% PER YEAR OVER ENTIRE DECADE
8. RAISE THE AVERAGE EARNINGS OF ALL PROFESSIONS TO NATIONAL AVERAGES BY 2020
9. ESTABLISH SOME BASIC RESEARCH ENTITY OF DISTINCTION AT EITHER OR BOTH UNIVERSITIES
10. MANAGE PUBLIC FACILITIES LIKE THE ARENA AT POSITIVE CASH FLOW AS ADVERTISED
What is the payoff of making this happen? What will Evansville and Vanderburgh County look like and live like in 2020 if all of these goals are achieved? Here is a snapshot:
Evansville’ population will grow to 128,781 to a level that it has not seen since the mid 1970’s, Vanderburgh County will be a record level of 193,788 and will be among the leaders in the Midwest. The percentage of the population with bachelors degrees will exceed 20% for the first time in history. The air will no longer smell from combined sewer overflows, litter will be a non-issue, our gateways and public places will be filled with flowers, public art, and dare we say, PEOPLE.
Our schools will be recognized nationally for improvement, more of our students will go to college and return home to pursue lucrative and fulfilling careers. Our housing stock will be much improved either through renewal or demolition and the money to pay for it will come from the increased tax revenue from the new citizens that with increased earnings.
Finally, the Evansville Arena, the Centre, maybe a recast Roberts Stadium, and several to be determined projects will be completed and performing well financially. At long last if these goals are used as the basis for a plan and executed to goals, the Mayor of Evansville, the City Council, County Council, and County Commissioners (if we have not consolidated by 2020), will have the respect and backing of both the people and the business base of the region.
By going forward the City of Evansville can return to the place of national prominence that it last enjoyed in 1970 when it was the 100th largest city in the United States.
The City County Observer welcomes reader input on other worthy goals and even suggestions on how to achieve the ones that we have listed. By the way, Goal #2 is FREE TO IMPLEMENT. Starting today, do not litter anything and pick up three pieces of litter per day. In a very short time Goal #2 will become a maintenance issue as opposed to a goal to achieve.
The real beauty of these goals is that all of them are achievable. Other places have done this. It is time for us to join them.
Zac Brown Band performed tonight in front of an energetic crowd at the Ford Center. The three-time Grammy-award winning band awed fans with their southern-flavored rock and their enticing concert experience. The seven band members entertained and played music from their Grammy winning and platinum selling album ‘Uncaged,’ along with all their fan favorite tunes.
Engaging the crowd and having fun on the stage, made Ford Center’s atmosphere the place to be this Sunday night. “Exciting their fans again at the Ford Center, Zac Brown Band certainly left its mark in Evansville,†stated Scott Schoenike, Ford Center’s Executive Director.
Ford Center continues to fill dates with upcoming events to include University Evansville Men’s and Women’s basketball, Evansville IceMen Hockey, Monster Jam January 10th-11th, Harlem Globetrotters January 17th Winter Jam January 30th, Florida Georgia Line February 14th and Brit Floyd March 10th.
Ford Center is managed by VenuWorks of Evansville, LLC.
ITEMS TO BRING:Â Please be sure items are clean and sorted.
Aluminum cans
Metal food cans
Cardboard
Catalogs/magazines
Newspaper
Mixed paper
Glass containers
#1 thru #7 plastic containers – no Styrofoam or plastic bags
*** Bring your Christmas tree to be mulched and a container if you want to take the mulch home with you. ***
IS IT TRUE that the focus of the local mainstream media and the power broker community seems to have shifted from the real problems of Evansville to the on the court successes of the University of Evansville Purple Aces basketball team?…that while the fortunes of the Aces can be seen as a proxy for the success of the local economy on first look, the reality of the situation is not what the easy analysis may imply?…Evansville as a city started a slow trickling decline in roughly 1960 and has lost population and average wages at a dribbling rate of roughly one half of one percent per year?…some cities have quick cataclysmic events that cause their population to leave and their wages to drift downward but that is not the case for Evansville?…Evansville has been going the way of the primitive medical technique of bleeding with leaches or the proverbial boiling of a frog on degree at a time?…the terrible effect of the drip-drip-drip way of melting away is that no one notices except for people who come back to visit every couple of years?…the pace of change is so slow that those who live it don’t even see it happening until years later when a friend of family member from afar points it out and asks “what the hell happened to ____?â€â€¦this until recently was not the way of the Aces?…in the science of correlation one would conclude that while the plight of the Aces and the City of Evansville are linked, the links are slight and even opposite for much of the time since 1960?
IS IT TRUE from the late 1950’s until the time that UE ascended to Division 1 basketball in 1977 the Purple Aces dominated their competition nationally while the City of Evansville and its job base slowly deteriorated?…one could have made a case during that period that UE’s on court successes were diametrically opposite of the City?…one may even make a case that UE basketball was the shining star of the City of Evansville on the national level perhaps helping to mask the early stages of the City’s deterioration?…to conclude that as the Aces go so goes Evansville is to deny the reality that the Aces were improving as the City was starting to slide downward?…even the “Night it Rained Tears†when the Aces team went down in a plane crash and stepping up the competition to Division 1 did not stop the upward rise of the Purple Aces?…just four years after the crash the Purple Aces played their way into the TOP 25 of the national rankings, secured a birth in the NCAA tournament, and hosted the opening rounds of the big dance at Roberts Stadium?…the attendance at Aces games at Roberts stayed above 10,000 and post season play was frequent well into the 1990’s in several upgraded conferences?…with the turn of the century and 911 things began to change?
IS IT TRUE with the departure of Coach Jim Crews and the new millennium time seems to have caught up with the Aces?…attendance started the slow downward spiral from a still healthy number of over 8,000 to today’s numbers of under 5,000 and it has been steady?…the downward spiral mirrored the on the court performance and seems to have stabilized in the 4500 range?…the move to the $127 Million Ford Center did nothing to reverse the spiral?…the off the court shenanigans during the pre-game and the halftime have not reversed the spiral?…one may conclude that the “pall†over Evansville finally caught up with the Aces after they defied it for 40 years?…since the year 2,000 the Aces and the City of Evansville seem to be on the same path?…one could conclude that the City of Evansville persevered for 40 years and finally linked the fate of the Aces to the fate of the City?
IS IT TRUE the antidote for the Aces need to improve seems to now have shifted from excellence on the court to bricks, mortar, and the kind of fun and games projects that has seduced elected officials and the power brokers of Evansville?…when pointing to things that will surely help the program now it is all about the Ford Center, a $4 Million practice facility, and fundraising by the athletic department?…the illusion of progress by building things and buying toys has finally been forced onto the Aces like blankets of smallpox were given to Native Americans to keep them warm?…this delusion is as they say on TV is “Koo-Koo-for Cocoa Puffs?â€
IS IT TRUE we at the CCO agree that a series of 25 win seasons and a trip to the Final 4 like the two trips Butler made without a shiny new stadium may just put some pep in the step of the local economy?…while Butler was finding ways to pay a coach over $1 Million a year and attracting players like Shelvin Mack, UE was seduced by the sirens song of crony projects directed from the Civic Center?…a much lesser amount of money directed properly toward attracting 10 and only 10 national class players and coaches would have, could have, should have, and MAY SOMEDAY lead Evansville out of the land that time forgot?…it will take across the board leadership that is not fixated on forcing the solutions of the 1950’s onto the problems of today to make that happen?
INDIANAPOLIS – Years ago, Andy Jacobs Jr. moderated a debate between me and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.
Peterson had proposed restrictions on violent video games. I was the executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union at the time. We were going to debate the First Amendment implications of the video game restrictions.
Andy and I were friends who hadn’t seen each other for a while, so we decided to have dinner beforehand to catch up and then drive to the debate together. We pulled into the parking lot just as Peterson’s car arrived.
“Hey, no fair,†the mayor said, laughing as he emerged from his car.
Andy and I both were a bit sheepish, but Peterson came up and put his hands on our shoulders.
I’m only joking, the mayor said. Everyone knows Andy Jacobs is always going to be fair.
That was the thing about Andy Jacobs.
Everyone did know that he always was going to be fair.
Andy died Saturday. He was 81.
The tributes that flowed following the announcement of his death focused on his many significant achievements. His 30 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. His role in the drafting and passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His courage in casting a deciding vote that enabled Congress to establish some common-sense gun restrictions.
Every word of those tributes that is true, but in these hours after his death it is not his accomplishments on the national stage that dominate my attention..
No, I find myself thinking about Andy’s tremendous capacities for friendship and kindness. He was a gentle man in a hard business, but he proved, again and again and again, that strength and gentleness not only could co-exist, but that they often were the same quality.
Andy made friends everywhere. He, a Democrat, and former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut, a Republican, ran against each other for Congress twice in the bitterly partisan waning days of the Vietnam War. Hudnut won the first race. Andy won the second.
Such an experience would have produced lasting enmity among most politicians.
Not Andy and Bill.
They drove to their campaign debates together. For years afterward, they and their wives socialized together. When Bill traveled to Washington, he stayed in Andy’s apartment. When Andy announced he was retiring from Congress, Bill was there to mark the occasion.
Andy didn’t believe in letting politics get in the way of friendship. He told me often that he didn’t agree with the ideology that Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., espoused – Andy called the little rump caucus of hard-line conservatives to which Burton belonged a “witches’ and warlocks’ coven†– but he adored the man he called “Danny.â€
And he wouldn’t let anyone say a bad word about his friend Danny.
People sensed Andy’s basic decency and responded to it. Few people called him Rep. Jacobs. They called him Andy because they liked him.
That’s why he never had to spend more than a dollar and a half on his re-election campaigns. That’s also why attempts to run negative campaigns against him always failed.
Most people just wouldn’t tolerate having someone say a bad word about their friend Andy.
That night of the debate with Bart Peterson, I drove Andy back to his house. He asked if I wanted to come in for a drink. We ended up talking late into the night.
Andy told a lot of stories that night – and they were good ones because he was a great storyteller.
He talked about the reverence he felt for his late father, who also served in Congress. He talked about finding contentment late in life with his wife Kim and their two sons. He talked about being scared and wounded as a Marine in the Korean War, an experience that produced pain that lingered for the rest of his life. He talked about how important it was to stay rooted in public life and to think of elective office as service rather than power.
As I left that night, warmed by the glow of Andy’s friendship, I knew that he’d given me something special – a glimpse of how a good and kind man works at being good and kind.
Andy’s most important legacy will be the sons he and Kim raised together, but his other legacy is pretty profound, too.
That other Andy Jacobs legacy is that of a good leader, a good citizen, a good friend.
Most of all, it’s the legacy of a good man – a really good man.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 FM Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.
New Netherland: The Netherlands was the most sophisticated society in the Western world when New York was founded, Woodard writes, so it’s no wonder that the region has been a hub of global commerce. It’s also the region most accepting of historically persecuted populations.
The Midlands: Stretching from Quaker territory west through Iowa and into more populated areas of the Midwest, the Midlands are “pluralistic and organized around the middle class.†Government intrusion is unwelcome, and ethnic and ideological purity isn’t a priority.
Tidewater: The coastal regions in the English colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware tend to respect authority and value tradition. Once the most powerful American nation, it began to decline during Westward expansion.
Greater Appalachia: Extending from West Virginia through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Northwest Texas, the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish settlers value individual liberty. Residents are “intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers.â€
Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old South values states’ rights and local control and fights the expansion of federal powers.
El Norte: Southwest Texas and the border region is the oldest, and most linguistically different, nation in the Americas. Hard work and self-sufficiency are prized values.
The Left Coast: A hybrid, Woodard says, of Appalachian independence and Yankee utopianism loosely defined by the Pacific Ocean on one side and coastal mountain ranges like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas on the other. The independence and innovation required of early explorers continues to manifest in places like Silicon Valley and the tech companies around Seattle.
The Far West: The Great Plains and the Mountain West were built by industry, made necessary by harsh, sometimes inhospitable climates. Far Westerners are intensely libertarian and deeply distrustful of big institutions, whether they are railroads and monopolies or the federal government.
New France: Former French colonies in and around New Orleans and Quebec tend toward consensus and egalitarian, “among the most liberal on the continent, with unusually tolerant attitudes toward gays and people of all races and a ready acceptance of government involvement in the economy,†Woodard writes.
First Nation: The few First Nation peoples left — Native Americans who never gave up their land to white settlers — are mainly in the harshly Arctic north of Canada and Alaska. They have sovereignty over their lands, but their population is only around 300,000.
INDIANAPOLIS – Bless “Duck Dynasty†and Justine Sacco.
Together, they’ve created an opportunity for an important civic education lesson.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
For those of you who don’t know what the twin furors over “Duck Dynasty†and Sacco are – presumably because you have been wasting your time focusing on things that matter – allow me to explain.
“Duck Dynasty†is a reality show airing on A&E about a Louisiana family named Robertson that has made a fortune, which likely has been enhanced by the show, by making duck calls and other products for duck hunters. The show celebrates the Robertson family’s success and decidedly evangelical Christian faith.
To help promote the show, Phil Robertson sat for an interview with GQ magazine. In the interview, Robertson made comments that struck many readers as homophobic. Those offenders took to Twitter, Facebook and other social media to express their outrage.
The story crossed over to mainstream media and, pretty quickly, A&E decided to suspend Robertson from the show.
Robertson, his family and his fans tried to cast him as a martyr for the First Amendment.
He isn’t, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
While the “Duck Dynasty†controversy was raging, Sacco, director of corporate communications for media giant IAC, issued a tweet before boarding a plane.
“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white,†Sacco tweeted.
Once again, Twitter exploded. Tweets flew back and forth exploring, in 140 or fewer characters, whether Sacco was more insensitive to issues of race or the global AIDS crisis. On whichever side Twitter users landed, they were outraged.
When Sacco landed in South Africa, she in short order lost her job. Even an abject apology from her didn’t stop Sacco from being established as a new poster child for cultural cluelessness.
And, again, her relatively defenders tried to depict her fall as an assault on her First Amendment rights.
Again, they were wrong.
The First Amendment protects us from government suppression of our right to express ourselves, whether in speech, writing or art. It doesn’t protect us from having someone get angry or offended by something we have said or written.
No government entity – and, for that matter, no one I know of – has tried to prevent Robertson or Sacco from saying what either believes. No one has said that they can’t stand on a street corner to speak their minds, preach in the church or post something on the blog of their choice.
If someone did try to prevent either Sacco or Robertson from doing any of those things, I – as a former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and true believer when it comes to the First Amendment – would line up with Sacco and Robertson to prevent their rights from being violated.
But those rights weren’t violated here.
What happened was that two private companies decided that Robertson’s and Sacco’s comments were likely to drive away customers, so the companies opted to put some distance between them and those offensive comments.
It wasn’t a constitutional question in either case. In each situation, it was a business decision.
(And it is worth noting that the folks who complain that Robertson’s and Sacco’s views are being demeaned seem not have realized that Robertson and Sacco themselves were doing some demeaning.)
The First Amendment offers us many protections. Perhaps the most basic of those protections is the one that allows – no, demands – that we be the keepers of our own consciences.
The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee that we never will upset anyone else by standing up for what we believe. It also doesn’t guarantee that we never will suffer professional consequences for saying something that angers people – just ask the Dixie Chicks about that – or that we won’t suffer social ostracism for offending others.
What the First Amendment does guarantee is that the decision about what to believe or where to make a stand in defense of those beliefs is ours – and ours alone.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 FM Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
January 3, 2014
