As you might have read in this blog post last week, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” has been engaged in a little battle with CNBC.
Since it started, Stewart has been in a war of words with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who you can see on “Mad Money.”
Well, tonight is the night. Cramer and Stewart face off on Stewart’s show, which airs at 10 p.m. in Wichita. It will be interesting to see what happens. I know I’ll be watching.
The America’s Cup boat at the Boathouse may not always get the respect that was hoped for, but it may be getting rarer as the recession clamps down on its bretheren . I guess I had forgotten that 1992’s win by Bill Koch was the last by an American in what should no longer be called America’s Cup. Pretty soon, it may be no longer be called an ongoing sporting event.
Alex Garvin, the Yale University urban planning professor, put a few tips for kickstarting Wichita’s downtown on the table Wednesday night at the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation’s annual lecture.
Tucked neatly among those tips was a message for the the huddled masses yearning to park in a lovely $20,000-per-space concrete parking garage next door to the Intrust Bank Arena: Forget it.
Garvin’s only been in Wichita for a couple of days, so he can be excused for missing the city’s pathological aversion to – gasp – walking.
But he’s been involved in reviving downtowns for decades, and his advice to strategically spread out downtown’s attractions to induce patrons to walk among them for pre- and post-event food, drinks and fun should be taken very seriously.
He talked frequently Wednesday night about the economic dangers of allowing patrons to “get in their cars and go home.” Which is precisely what you do in Wichita by allowing the exercise-averse to park within a few feet of Intrust’s front door. Do that, and you all but assure that downtown won’t develop around the arena.
Call Garvin’s advice what you will. I call it an unqualified endorsement for the initial plans put in place by the Sedgwick County Commission and the Wichita City Council.