Park City has had better weekends

It’s been a rough few days in a rough year for Park City, which saw the best chance for a reopening of Wild West World expire Friday and saw Wichita Greyhound Park close for good Saturday. Now, Thomas Etheredge’s failed theme park will be sold off in pieces, leaving creditors and the community to ponder an expert’s assessment that "there were just many, many poor decisions that went into the planning of that park." The 18-year-old dog track’s closing was only a matter of time once Sedgwick County voters failed to allow it to add slot machines. But don’t count out Park City, which has seen other kinds of new economic activity this year along the I-135 corridor.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

12 Comments

  1. Kev
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 5:48 am | Permalink

    Park City is dead dead dead! It will go back to being a bedroom community of Wichita which is really what it was anyway. Its three major tourist draws are gone (the dog track, Wild West and Dennis Rader’s home).

  2. Joe Williams
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    Like what kind of economic activities? You mean some fast food restaurants, a few hotels and a QT?

    You just have to go in a few blocks in Park City to know that nothing is happening there. Empty strip mall and abandon corners.

    So they annexed land up and down the 1-135 corridor. Then they decided to zone north of the Coliseum to residential housing, meaning they have stopped any commercial development north of the Coliseum. That was real stupid of them.

    People were putting Park City on a pestle and saying Wichita was the suburb of Park City and that Park City was progressive and innovative? Yeah right!

    Go to Andover or Derby. See how they are growing. Goddard and Bel-aire. And People think that Park City is progressive? I guess anything to slam Wichita to some people.

  3. J R
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 8:16 am | Permalink

    Wichita sucks Joe. I was born and raised here. I know.

    Park City? Hey at least it’s the little burg that would.

    Wichitans are still bitching about the Tripodal. They’ve only recently stopped decrying the Big ditch. And they were duped into building an arena 20 years after arenas weren’t cool and didn’t even get THAT right.

  4. Lemmy
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 8:41 am | Permalink

    How stupid do you have to be to live someplace you despise?

  5. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 9:54 am | Permalink

    Really Rhonda, as an out of towner, I’d like to know WHAT other economic activity? Not trying to be a smart ass, I just want to know.

    I agree with JR, at least they tried, even if some of the “trying” ended up being of the shoot myself in the foot variety.

    Who said success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan?

    It reminds me of when I quit my big cushy corporate job in Texas to be self employed. All my friends were skeptical.

    If I suceeded, what would it say about THEM and their cushy state jobs? That they love to bitch about it more than they want to change it?

    If Park City succeeds, what does it say for Wichita and the surrounding area? It aint over yet for Park City. The question is how great is their collective will?

    Walt Disney went bankrupt several times before becoming a rich man.

  6. rrichardsen
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 11:28 am | Permalink

    Wichita and Sedgwick County get exactly what they are will to pay for and deserve. NOTHING!

  7. mrbill
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 11:39 am | Permalink

    Hey, maybe as soon as the new coliseum goes belly up and the taxpayers tire of paying for it we can restart the Casino issue and turn it into a fantastic Casino centrally located, already built with parking then - Poof….MONEY rolls in.

    As opposed to being a money pit. You would have to get a truck to haul the money out….

    hopefully.

  8. A. N. Keny
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 1:32 pm | Permalink

    Don’t go blaming the voters for stupid dog tracks failing. Government should stay out of business in the first place. Secondly, I’m against gambling and all the problems associated with it. Your track was doomed before I was asked to “SAVE IT” by allowing sinful gambling a chance to save it. It must not have been a profitable business to begin with.

    Did that ever cross your thick skull?

  9. fartypoopyhead
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 2:01 pm | Permalink

    It should be called Trailer Park City. Damn white trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  10. SemperFi71
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 5:38 pm | Permalink

    Don’t mock dennis raders home. Go and take up a little of the lawn, and you can sell in on e-bay for thousands of dollars.

  11. SemperFi71
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 5:38 pm | Permalink

    Don’t mock dennis raders home. Go and take up a little of the lawn, and you can sell in on e-bay for thousands of dollars.

    I would, but I’m too chicken!

  12. East Coaster
    Posted October 9, 2007 at 7:54 pm | Permalink

    Do you have some really good dope out there in Kansas? Is it really really high in THC? You must. Because if you are even THINKING about attracting tourists from out of state to spend limited vacation days OUT THERE, you are higher than a kite.

    Get real. Face reality. You live in a nice little country setting with nice friendly open neighborhoods. You have low crime and grandma down the street to babysit the kids so you can go to the drive-in. You cry about crime, when you don’t even know what real crime ridden places are.In short, Kansas is probably an extremely “nice” place to live and raise a family.

    But if you think you will capture tourists who will flood your streets like Disneyworld, you are being saddly misled. You shouldn’t even include such lofty visions in your city/county planning. Your expenditures will be based upon falsehoods and be for naught.

    Airplanes fly OVER you, but do not land. There is an economic reason for that. You might have a subsidized AMWAY (I mean AMTRACK) train once a day make a stop. But only for supplies.

    Keep that in mind while your progressives search for ways to improve your lot in life.

    Not being mean. It’s reality. Plan for your own future, not with a “vision” of sugar plumbs dancing in your leaders heads.