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Several days ago, the Wichita EAGLE ran a front page photo showing ten Wichita fatcats with shovels turning dirt for the proposed unwanted, unneeded downtown $300,000,000 ice hockey arena. With contruction helmets pulled down low over their faces, it was hard to identify the participants.
Frankly, it looked more like a funeral than a celebration.
Titled “Milestone for Wichita,” the article would have been better headlined, MILLSTONE FOR WICHITA AND SEDGWICK COUNTY.
Millstones are defined as “a heavy burden” and “something that grinds, pulverizes and crushes.” How appropriate. I predict the downtown white elephant arena is going to continue to grind, pulverize and crush those middle-level taxpayers who are paying the bill many years into the future for losses from operational expenses.
Unfortunately politicians usually treat sales taxes as “easy come, easy go” taxes, money to be wasted on unwanted, unneeded pie-in-the-sky projects such as the arena.
The EAGLE is crowing that the sales tax will end soon. They conveniently forget that a long list of real important, delayed, needs for Wichita and Sedgwick County is building up and needs to be financed quick before they become dangerous.
SO, WHO WERE THE TEN WICHITA FATCATS PICUTURED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WICHITA EAGLE HOISTING DIRT FROM THE ARENA SITE? WERE ANY ORDINARY TAXPAYERS OR REPRESENTATIVES OF SEDGWICK COUNTY COMMUNITIES PRESENT? I DOUBT IT.
So, if I had been there, I too would have pulled my contruction hard hat down low over my face to hide the embarrassment.
Area Schools to Perform at Airport
Date: December 12, 2007Contact: Valerie Wise, Air Service & Business Development ManagerE-mail: VWise@wichita.govPhone: (316) 946-4700
Wichita Mid-Continent Airport travelers will again be entertained with the sounds of the season by musical groups from area schools. This marks the third year that Mid-Continent Airport has provided this entertainment for the holidays. Performances are scheduled as follows, weather permitting:
*
December 13Caldwell – Singing Hands Choir (9:30 a.m.)Hadley Treble Honor Choir (12 p.m.)*
December 14Allison Traditional Magnet School (9:30 a.m.)OK Elementary School (1 p.m.)*
December 15Montezuma Mennonite Youth Group (6:30 p.m.)*
December 17Irving Elementary (12:30 p.m.)Goddard High School (1:30)*
December 18Mueller Meisteringers (12:00 p.m.)*
December 19L’Ouverture Computer and Technology Magnet School (1:30 p.m.)*
December 20Horace Mann Dual Language School (11:30 a.m.)
Click on the picture to make it bigger.
Pretty huh?
The pic must have been taken from the Hyatt.
Looks like a lovely summer evening. Probably about 8ish in August.
We can see the river and CenturyII. There just in the foreground is the back end of the Expo.
Where are the people? Oh there might be a few hundred just off screen left at the ballpark.
But how many people or cars do you see in this pic?
How many things do you see that would make people want to be in this pic?
And what are the things that would bring them there?
Heh
Next time I get the urge to walk around in nothing but fuzzy slippers and a space helmet, this is where I’m gonna go.
It looks like even people who want to be alone don’t know about this place.
Last week I was down by the poorhouse.
And all of the paupers were there.
I stepped in because it was snowing.
And snow always screws up my hair.
By a pot bellied stove
Sat a pot bellied man.
And he spoke with some lumps in his throat.
His story was sad.
And his diction was bad.
And this is the song that he wrote.
“I used to be the jolliesht fella.
With roses in alla my cheeks.
I’d load up a sleigh and some reindeer..
and go on a drunk for two weeks.
My friends said they’d see me on rooftops.
And schliding down shimneys at dawn.
With my reindeer in hand
I’d glide cross the land
And wake up on somebody’s lawn.”
JR,
I wish I’d had a camera several years ago as I was crossing downtown on the Kellogg overpass during RiverFest. Thousands of people lined both sides of the river banks, nearly as far as the eye could see. It was a sight I’ve never forgotten and the polar opposite of what you saw in the photo above.
I too would like to see real downtown revitalization. Yesterday, as I manuvered my way through the streets and falling snow, I thought about how downtown was when I was a little girl. I wished that my children and grandchildren could enjoy the same things I did, instead of shopping in a crowded, stifling mall. I wished they could shop and walk the sidewalks downtown, with the holiday all around, cold and all, the true embodiment of the lyrics in “Silver Bells”.
Unfortunately, if the city leaders don’t act quickly, we’ll lose the opportunity to make downtown what it should be: An enjoyable place for shopping and entertainment…the way it used to be.
I was watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on TV last night for the gazillionth time (my all-time favorite holiday movie) and had a thought. Mr. Potter was full-fledged, card-carrying Republican.
Yeah Potter would be a party chair!
Scrooge woulda been a good Republican before the ghosts got to him.
I remember when I was real little and there was still Macy’s and other stuff downtown.
It is SO dead there now. And I too have seen the last day of Riverfest from Kellogg.
It should look at least a LITTLE like that all the time when the weather is nice.
JWink I dont think any one new about it — missed it in the paper?
Been a bad year for em — the arena, bowling alley, casino vote and the wellington choice —– does any one know how to work together or across departmental responsibilities
…. saw in todays paper — some people want money to see if thier is a need and place for a large recreational lake in SC Kansas ….. am I in some kind of time warp ,,,,, cheney is pretty big, eldorado is pretty big — ho give em bus fair to those two lakes — should answer any questions
Remember when Innes used to dress up their windows? It reminded me of the opening scene in “A Christmas Story”..I remember one year they had a display of mechanical reindeer getting ready to pull the sleigh..and one deer was trying to pull up her girdle behind a transparent screen..the displays were always clever.
I would like to apply for the job of Wichita City Manager. Then I could work for a few months, hiring consulting firms to study projects for which we already have hired staff to study, quit after a few months, and get paid for doing more of nothing for the next nine months. I mistakenly thought unscrupulous CEO’s were the only people who were able to make such outlandish deals when they left office! Congratulations to the city commissioners for once again being so careless with our tax dollars.
Wichita Ice Center Food Drive
Date: December 17, 2007Contact: Wichita Ice CenterPhone: (316) 337-9199
The Wichita Ice Center is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Skate for Food Drive, beginning Friday, Dec. 21 and ending Wednesday, Jan. 2.
During the Food Drive, customers will bring in a canned food item to benefit the Kansas Food Bank and received free skate rental, free pop and free popcorn. Last year’s goal was to collect 500 pounds of food. The drive ended up bringing in 1,125 pounds of food for the Kansas Food Bank.
This year’s goal is to exceed 1,500 pounds. Sales and Marketing director Rob Roach said: “It’s never a bad thing to be charitable, but if you can get something back in return, that’s even better.”
The public skating schedules are available online at http://www.wichitaicecenter.com/ or pick one up at the Wichita Ice Center, 505 W. Maple (south of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.) For more information please call 337-9199.