IS IT TRUE that the burning house on Read Street Monday night that occurred just hours after the Evansville City Council passed a resolution asking the State of Indiana to pass legislation to make pseudo ephedrine based medicine covered by prescription only has now caused some COLLATERAL DAMAGE?…that COLLATERAL DAMAGE is what it is called when a big problem in one place causes a different problem elsewhere?…that in the case of the Read Street house fire that the house right next door happens to be a Crisis Pregnancy Center that serves women who need their services?…that this Crisis Pregnancy Center is now closed indefinitely due to the fire next door?…that the heat has damaged the Center, has distributed debris all over the lot and will now require repairs and cleanup before re-opening?…that we hope that this fire was not meth related because sometimes meth related fires cause environmental toxicity well beyond their confines?…that meth related house fires can have the COLLATERAL DAMAGE effect of causing three or even more houses to become uninhabitable?…that this just underscores that the Evansville City Council is on the right track and that Senator Jim Tomes is the deer in the headlights on this subject?

IS IT TRUE that speaking of houses that the issue of INVENTORY MANAGEMENT needs to be considered by the candidate for Mayor of Evansville as they ponder what to do about the Front Door Pride program and other public housing construction that is under consideration?…that at any given time there are between 2,000 and 2,500 houses on the market in the Evansville area?…that the private sales per year has recently been in the 1,500 to 2,000 range?…that Evansville by some measures has 8,000 homes that are dilapidated to the point that they are economically unfeasible to repair?…that in addition to that there are about 2,000 to 2,500 homes that are unoccupied due to abandonment or lack of demand?…that when all of the empty homes and for sale homes (some of which are empty) are counted up the Evansville area has a 6 to 10 year inventory of homes that are available?

IS IT TRUE that the overwhelming majority of these empty homes are in the City of Evansville?…that the population of the City of Evansville even including annexation has been shrinking by about 500 people (250 households) per year for 50 years?…that the loss in population (25,000) corresponds nearly exactly to the abandoned households (12,500)?…that Evansville’ problem with dilapidated and abandoned houses can be traced directly to the shrinking population which can be traced directly to the loss of jobs?…that the last thing that a competent retailer would do with a 10 year inventory of any product would be to add to the inventory?…that is exactly what the City of Evansville has been doing?…that inventory liquidation or elimination by whatever means is necessary is what a competent business owner who wants to stay in business would do if faced with a 10 year inventory?

IS IT TRUE that many of Evansville’s legacy problems like the abandoned house problem will be solved by private investment if the local economy is fashioned into an atmosphere that inspires private investment that will in turn create desirable career opportunities?…that is another word for JOBS?…that we encourage our candidates for Mayor and City Council to concentrate on what will solve our problems as opposed to what may hide a legacy problem?

IS IT TRUE that the President of the United States has installed the CEO of GE as his head of job creation?…that GE is a big exporter of American jobs to other countries?…that GE has just announced a partnership with China to make commericial jets?…that Boeing just put in a new commercial jet facility in South Carolina that is being harassed by the government of the United States largely because South Carolina is a right to work state?…that for the Presdient to put the CEO of GE in charge of job ceation for America makes about as much sense as if the Mayor of Evansville put the CEO of Whirlpool in charge of creating jobs in Evansville?

IS IT TRUE that the new Executive Director of the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau addressed the Evansville City Council on Monday night regarding the subject of tourism?…that Bob Warren is a man who seems to have fallen in love with the concept that Evansville is a place that has a great amount of potential as a vacation destination?…that he went on and on about how Evansville is a great place to visit yet has never really shared that with potential visitors?…that when he started discussing the MARKETING BUDGET of the ECVB and comparing it to other cities in which he has worked in his career that all too familiar DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS look came upon the faces of our City Council members?…that the entire marketing budget for the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau to tell the world about how great Evansville (population 117,400) is for vacationing is $116,000?…that Mr. Warren’s previous place of work, the town (not city) of Galena, Illinois (population 3,500) had a marketing budget of $330,000?

IS IT TRUE that Galena is about the size of Chandler, IN or Morganfield, KY?…that these towns are no more than 3% of the size of Evansville?…that Galena’s marketing budget is TRIPLE the size of Evansville’s?…that the other places that he has worked are closer to the size of Evansville but spend in the millions of dollars per year to attract tourism?…that once again Evansville is exposed as being hopelessly out of touch with the reality of the cost of doing business in the outside world?…that this was reminiscent of the paltry wage scale that inspired Mayor Weinzapfel to propose a dual pay scheme to attract Tom Barnett to Evansville over a town of 3,000 people in Florida?…that in the recent ‘Competitive Realities” report from the SW Indiana Coalition for Economic Development the MARKETING BUDGET to attract new businesses was fingered for being hopelessly low?

IS IT TRUE that one of the 10 things identified by the CCO that need to be done right in 2011 was to upgrade municipal pay scales in the City of Evansville to national levels?…that having a marketing budget for tourism that is 1/3 of a place the size of Chandler is almost hard to believe?…that if the City of Evansville chooses to not even try to compete either through complete ignorance or disinterest that the population shrinkage will continue, the number of abandoned houses will increase, the local wage base will continue to decline, and we can continue to experience DEER IN THE HEADLIGHT MOMENTS at City Council meetings?…that our City Council should not be blindsided by things like this?…that our City Council is elected to do what is best for the people of Evansville?…that being completely oblivious to the economic reality of the modern world is not in the best interest of the people of Evansville?…that what scares us the most is that the City Council members really seemed to be surprised that a town the size of Chandler has a tourism budget that is TRIPLE Evansville’s?…that we wonder if they are surprised that a Colts ticket costs more than $3, that a beer at the game is more than a dollar, and that a bag of peanuts costs more than 50 cents at Lucas Oil Stadium?

IS IT TRUE that the street sweepers that are deployed for downtown are about an inch or so too tall to fit into the City of Evansville parking garages?…that this is a repeat performance of the performance out on a Diamond Avenue overpass a few years ago?…that the first suggestion at that time and again Monday was to deflate the tires?…that is a lame way to make up for the failure to get out the tape measure in the design stage?…that the DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS look is once again indicative of obliviousness?