WE Blog

9 Comments

1. JWink
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 4:09 am | Permalink

   NOTICING THE LARGE FULL MOON RISING OVER DOWNTOWN WICHITA’S SKYLINE THE LAST TWO EVENINGS REMINDS ME ONCE AGAIN OF WICHITA’S FAVORITE SON, EARL W. BROWDER.

   Wichitan Browder holds the distinction of being nominated twice by his political party for President of the United States, once in 1936 and again in 1940. Of course, Browder lost both times to my favorite president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

   Browder was born in 1891 at 621 S. Fern in west Wichita’s Delano neighborhood. Before you go look, the house was torn down not long ago for widening of Highway 54 a few blocks east of Friends University.

   According to some, Browder married a Wichita girl and even played semi-pro baseball in Wichita before leaving town … but little information seems to remain.

   Earl W. Browder’s political party, of course, was the American Communist Party which Browder served for a number of years as chairman. Browder is given the dubious honor of suggesting
   “peaceful coexistence” between U.S. and Russia presumably after WWII was over … for which Browder was drummed out of the American Communitst Party. Earl himself died in 1973 at age of 82 in New Jersey.

   Some people think a “cell” of Browder sympathizers might still exist in Wichita promoting the ideals of the old Communist party, “FROM THE MANY WICHITANS OFF THEIR HARD-WORKING TOIL AND TAXES … TO THE FEW ACCORDING TO THEIR NEED, REGARDLESS OF THEIR CONTRIBUTION OF ANYTHING OF VALUE.”

   The rumor is these remaining Browderites meet, high over downtown Wichita, on the upper floor of one of Wichita’s vacant high-rise office buildings to hold their monthly bacchanalia. There they celebrate their on-going agenda such as building the downtown white elephant $500,000,000 unwanted, unneeded ice hockey arena.

   SO, DID ANYONE HEAR SOUNDS OF RAUCOUS LAUGHTER, STRANGE FLICKERING LIGHTS, CHEAP HAVANA CIGAR SMOKE COMING FROM UPPER FLOORS OF VACANT DOWNTOWN OFFICE BUILDINGS DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF NIGHTS? IF SO, IT MIGHT HAVE ONLY BEEN THE LOCAL BROWDERITES HOLDING THEIR MONTHLY FULL-MOON MEETING.

2. Apophis
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 5:14 am | Permalink

   JWINK……………I wouldn’t say it is “Unwanted”. More than 50% (+1) of the voters in that election voted YES.

   Enough said.

   Attempting to tie the Arena to the communist party is just plain silly.

   Go throw your paper route now.

3. JWink
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 7:08 am | Permalink

   Apophis: I suggest you go back and read Alexis DeToqueville’s comments on “tyranny of the majority.” DeToqueville’s books, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA I & II, are a highly regarded staple of political science and economics courses across this country. Perhaps your educational level missed these.

   DeToqueville describes the Wichita downtown arena situation to a “T.” That is where a simple majority of ONE voter can vote the public treasury of all the remaining voters (-1 of the majority) — thus destroying the trust in government of communities.

   That’s precisely what has happened here in Sedgwick County. A few out of towner non-profit managers joined with a few holdover county commissioners have managed to ride rough shod over the wishes of the now large majority of Sedgwick County voters who DON’T WANT THE ARENA.

   I am sure astute political observors in Sedgwick County can see what this holds for the future here in Sedgwick County for getting public approval of real needed public improvements.

   The arena should have been halted as soon as it was apparent public opinion had shifted dramatically AGAINST the arena. A real community leader if there is one in Sedgwick County should step forward to bring the people together again before TRUST is irrevocably lost here for the forseeable future.

   Perhaps you, Apophis, is that leader … I doubt it with your self-defeating attitude. I happen to tend to agree with many of your educational views but you are so belligerent its hard to say so.

   Meantime, I might suggest to my paper delivery person to omit your house from his route.

4. Apophis
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 7:16 am | Permalink

   Throughout that long diatribe, you neglected to mention is that this is a democracy. The majority rules. I would suggest that if we as a society could randomly “do-over” votes, we probably should have had the opportunity to re-vote on something of real importance, like maybe removing the bozo in the White House. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

   The arena is a done deal. The tax to fund it ends December 31st of this year. If you truly are a business leader here in Wichita, why do you start being part of the group that MAKES THE ARENA WORK instead of a leader of the nay-sayers?

5. Apophis
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 7:19 am | Permalink

   Oh, the “belligerence” is simply a response to the anti-public education bloggers who constantly rail on my profession. In the real world, I am known as the comsummate diplomat. I can “walk softly, but (I do) carry a big stick”.

   I have noticed that we do have many common beliefs when it comes to education, but you do carry the Arena thing a bit far.

6. JWink
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 7:30 am | Permalink

   Because, Apophis, everyone who lives with a 100 mile radius of Wichita knows that the pro-arena folks won a very slim vote by flat out lying to the voters. Once those lies were exposed, public opinion turned against the arena.

   If the $300,000,000.37 arena funds offered anything I was interested in such as a new convention center, or enlarged downtown library, or a renovated Century II, or a dramatically renewed downtown Wichita or renovated Main Street street scapes in our smaller downtowns.

   Remember, I visited downtown Wichita with my family for Christmas shopping clear back in the early 1950’s. I considered attending engineering school at WSU but chose K-State instead. I interviewed Wichita companies for summer jobs one Christmas vacation.

   I know Wichita and want it to succeed. But its going the wrong way, just like “Wrong way Corrigan.”

   Wichita needs a real leader but I guess none is going to step forward.

   Now I’m off to breakfast.

7. JWink
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 7:34 am | Permalink

   … at the Riverside Cafe. JW

8. MPS
   Posted October 27, 2007 at 10:27 am | Permalink

   Apophis,

   I don’t know if JWink believes that the use of public money to build facilities is undesirable per se, or if he believes that such expenditures are justifiable if they generate something of greater value to the community than their cost.

   Me, I’m in the latter camp. I didn’t get to vote on the school-reconstruction bond issue, but I would have, because the schools were dilapidated.

   With respect to spending $200+ million for a new project, I think you would agree that if there had been two competing proposals:

   A. Build a materials science and nanotechnology center at WSU, pay for endowed chairs from leading universities, who would bring their research grants, recruit other faculty who would bring their grants, train young people in the disciplines, attract venture capital and corporate relocations, and create, within 15 years, a couple thousand six-figure incomes, maybe ten thousand mid-five-figure incomes, create locally-owned companies here that sold products to the outside world, bringing to Wichita billions of dollars.

   The center itself would employ several hundred people, and operate daily, including weekends.

   It would bring in tens of millions of dollars annually from the outside world in grant and contract-reearch support.

   This would generate thousands of short-term construction jobs.

   B. Build a mass-entertainment arena that will provide thousand of short-term construction jobs, but after that will only employ hundreds of people. It won’t bring in many outside-world dollars, it’s capture range being basically a hundred-mile radius for major touring circuses and Hollywood celebrity performances, and 40 miles for minor-league winter sports. Projected net revenues: maybe slightly positive, maybe break-even, maybe negative, requiring ongoing subsidies.

   Given these two options, what would voters have chosen? We don’t know because we weren’t given the choice.

   Consider Austin, Texas. A proposal to build a community arena was presented. Austinites and the University of Texas at Austin determined that UTA’s Frank Erwin Center could accommodate Arena League Football, and provide reasonable accommodation for public-attendance of concerts and other events.

   The Frank Erwin Center has seating for nearly 17,000 people. The Charles Koch Arena can seat over 10,000 people. The Austin MSA has 1.5 M people. The Wichita MSA has .6 M people. These data indicate that the Charles Koch Arena can serve as a general-public entertainment facility.

   Let’s consider Boulder, Colorado. The 11,000 seat Coors Conference Event Center’s arena on the CU campus supports a cornucopia of commercial, public events. There is no other arena there.

   The Denver Post recently reported that Boulder’s nascent nanotech industry is generating a $100,000 average salary at this point.

   Many of the nanotechers aren’t Boulder natives. They’re coming to take advantage of CU’s amazing research infrastructure–a public investment. Which means that housing is booming. Commercial construction is booming. And where do you think these transplants are spending most of their money?

   So, Apophis, I think you would agree that there are smart, economy-building public investments, and not-so-smart, oh we’ve flushed money down the tubes once again, expenditures.

9. Ben
   Posted October 28, 2007 at 1:39 pm | Permalink

   A few comments. JWink is correct that a majority of Sedgwick County residents now oppose the Arena. Perhaps we don’t get a ‘do-over’ on the vote but poll after poll has confirmed that.

   In fact, we DO deserve a ‘do-over’ for the simple reason that the County has done a ‘do-over’ with the budget – including a 78% increase in core costs for the Arena project. That increase has in many ways been hidden by eviscerating other parts of the project including parking, infrastructure, and loss reserve. Face it; the project as it now stands is NOT what was voted on.

   MPS – you make excellent points. Beefing up Koch would provide the sports/entertainment venue we need without duplicating with the Arena. Over a decade ago I favored the idea of an Arena project – INSTEAD of the Koch project. However, Koch has been built; lets use it fully.

   Wichita has many needs right now – parks, C-II, drainage issues, library, etc. However, the public has turned so sour as a result of the Arena that it will be increasingly difficult to get funding for them. I fear that the ‘hang-over’ from this will be with us for some time.

   I hope the Anena people can make their new toy work. I hope they are able to convince corporate sponsors to step forward and want their names associated with their project. I’m still waiting for Mrage to bring forward all those corporate types he claims to know. Perhaps if such corporate leaders would signal their confidence in this venture the public might also gain some confidence in it.