[NEohioPAL]CTC on advocacy

[Anastasjoy at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/28/03 10:47:03 PM, rbingraham at juno.com writes:

<< I simply can not understand why we need to build yet another convention
center, when it wasn't that long ago that they spent a bunch of money on
the downtown convention center as a remodeling project. Why not just
remodel or expend the one we already have?  Maybe someone will actually
make use of Public Hall and/or Public Auditorium then as well.  By
building yet another new convention center, we will then be stuck with
two empty (or almost empty), worthless convention centers.  (The one
downtown, by the mall, and the huge IX Center, by the airport.)  Maybe
it's just because I'm not as informed as I should be, but I've yet to
hear anything mentioned in the big Convention Center plans, about what
becomes of these two old venues, and any useful plans for them. >>

Actually, a few ideas have been tossed around, including turning the old 
Convention Center into a movie sound stage. But as far as I know, these have just 
been ideas casually bandied around and no research or feasibility studies have 
been done. 

My reservation is the speed with which the proposal was thrown together 
quickly with little public input and dozens of unanswered questions need careful 
consideration before asking the public to approve any proposal.  More affordable 
ideas (such as rebuilding or expanding on the site of the old Convention 
Center) were discarded out of hand in favour of the most expensive and potentially 
problem-filled site. Now it's being suggested that any cost overrun could 
wipe out the scraps of funding that are now being offered as carrots to arts and 
neighborhood groups to support the issue. It isn't at all clear how or if that 
funding would be guaranteed.

Personally, I'd like to see something a little more concrete and detailed 
before making any decision about whether to support this.