The city/County will end up spending another 100 – 300 million in re-doing the rest of the roads around downtown to eliminate one way streets, street parking and screwing up the rest of the roads in downtown…

Oh, than don’t forget a few hundred million that they will spend over the next few years building parking garages around the arena in trying to make it successful, than the hundreds of millions spend to keep the doors open…

All well and good. But it’s about priorities, people. Given Wichita’s needs, was this the wisest use of a quarter billion dollars of taxpayer money? Really?

P-lease.

What else could we have done with a quarter billion dollars? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Of course, it’ll make a great gun show venue; perhaps we can give Tulsa’s show a run for its money (that ought to light up a few posters!).

I don’t know if I’ll go, or not. Like anything else, that’s a decision I’ll make evaluating the costs vs. the benefits. It would have been nice, however, for gov’t to do the same.

Maybe Sedgwick County should decriminalize marijuana to an extent, or just tolerate it better and charge people 20 dollars a month in fines for possession given out as a citation, that dosen’t affect your permanent record.

That way, the county can save money, by not booking people to jail on something that shouldn’t be illegal in the first place. Plus they could also make money off of it, by creating a loophole in the law, where if someone wants to legally possess it, wink wink, you are required to go to the court house every month and pay a fine in the form of a citation, and issue a receipt card that’s dated and signed by an official, and a person must be the minimum age of 25.

If somebody is caught in possession of Marijuana, and they don’t have a receipt card or proof that they’ve paid a citation for that month, then they should stiffen the penalty, and require them to pay 500 dollars, instead of the monthly 20 dollars.

Maybe also make some specific provisions that prohibit any person from possessing more than an ounce at a time, or they hand out a real citation, and book you downtown into a holding cell for a few days, set a court date, make you enter Na or drug rehab meetings, enter you on a short probation period, require extensive community service, along with periodic UA’s. Would be a lot cheaper, than lets say, throwing somebody in jail for an extended period of time.

This could only benefit the City. Would it make the City drug dealers. No. Because the City wouldn’t be dealing any drugs. It would just be a very mild form of punishment, while not ruining people’s lives over a fairly benign substance. It would be like a tolerance program, that the City could could exercise and make money off of. Legally. Instead of losing money, like they are now.

The state feds, or national feds, wouldn’t care. Their only interest is in, busting drug dealers, or grow operations. They have no interest in busting individuals for possession. By the book, it would still technically be illegal, it would just be tolerated instead, and the county or city could make money off of it. So it would a local law, that the state couldn’t touch.

I bet the City or County could make a few million dollars off a program like that a year. Hell, they may even set an example for the rest of the nation to follow.

Maybe I should write a letter to the City council and the County Commission. Just give Credit to Barnie from Weblog on the news. Your welcome. And kick me a nice little .5 % bonus every year from the millions of dollars of profits the City will probably be making off my idea. I could use that money to invest in a greenhouse skyscraper. That will allow me and an investment group to lease floor space to farmers, So they can grow food locally, and sell it to the community at discount prices, since the food wouldn’t have to be shipped all over the country. Someone throw me a bone here. Imagine tropical fruits being sold in the dead of winter. Fresh blueberries year round.

I’ve got some designs drawn up for the structure, based on some of natures very own designs. Wichita could be revolutionary, in building the first fully self sustainable greenhouse skyscraper in the world that could produce food, and create excess energy to sell.

Serious inquires only, I’ve got quite a few more ideas, and can come up with endless more I’m sure. Just copy this, and save it. It’s my consent for the Wichita Eagle to give out my email address or any personal information I have registered on this sites account.

This is time stamped. These are my original ideas, though they aren’t patented, I can and will use this article as proof of intellectual property, if a person or persons in Sedgwick County profit in the future from my ideas without giving due credit.

Seriously Regular, was this a thread we really needed a bashing on? Or did you just feel froggy?
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Ribbet

Oh, I agree 100%. If it was such a good idea then pivate investors would have funded it.

However, it was the tax payers who voted for it. I didn’t.

51% of the people who voted for it are not “rich” either. Most of them are all probably sports enthusiasts who thought building it would be their dream come true of seeing bigger local sporting events.

This was not and is not some rich vs poor issue. It was the mindless mass supporting an arena.

Nevermind that rich people do pay their fair share because everything they spend their money on they paid. Since they are rich, they are spending more money and thus paying more.

Privatize profit, socialize costs.

Because, Nathan, people who can’t afford to buy tickets were taxed 2 percent on all sales in Sedgwick County for several years so that the Koch family can have box seats.

I was taxed 200 dollars when I bought my truck from Davis Moore for instance, even though I’ll never go to a thing at the arena, just on principle.

The wealthy who will make greatest use of the arena are not paying what they should for it . . . the taxpayers are paying for it.

Get it now?

Speaking of which, I MAY not be an out of towner for very much longer. Stay tuned.

It’s hard to measure the power of being a “big league” team, but it’s worked for backwater towns such as Charlotte, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento. (It’s like the NBA goes to towns Greyhound doesn’t.)

But among the facts of the matter, it was far too expensive for visiting teams to fly into Wichita to play the Wings. Too complicated, too. With connecting flights on puddle-jumpers.

The Kansas Colosseum sells out at what? 10,000? Just how many acts will put an additional 5,000 butts in the new arena’s seats?

Maybe people who study that sort of stuff really believe the Field of Dreams mantra: “If you build it they will come.”

I have my doubts. Serious doubts.

The only thing that makes me reticent about calling the arena a “white elephant” is the general political leanings of CONs who oppose it, five years after the issue was decided.

In honor of Stonewall Day, I’m inclined to borrow a bit from the message of gay rights and gender equality activists:

It’s here… get used to it.

“Wichita State and the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission are among the groups partnering on a bid for first- and second-round games in 2011, 2012 or 2013 at Intrust Bank Arena.

Minimum seating requirements for the first weekend of games is 12,500. Intrust Bank Arena, scheduled to open in January, will seat around 15,000 for basketball, Hanson said.”

http://www.kansas.com/240/story/841197.html

Does anyone know the seating capacity of other venues that are bidding? I don’t know if its valid, can’t even remember where I heard that the seating capacity of IBA was less than most places where first and second round games are played. It exceeds the minimum required according to above. Anyone know?

Basically all the guys who liked sports were in favor of it and everyone else wasn’t.

That was the biggest dividing factor.

So, I am curious why people like BlueJay and CapnAmerica think this is some rich vs poor issue?

Care to explain?

I don’t understand how this is a rich vs poor or a Republican vs Democrat or a Liberal vs Conservative issue at all?

I was a big opponent to the downtown arena as were the College Republicans at that time.

From my experience opposing the arena it was more of a sports fans vs people who thought it was a waste of money type thing.

Even the vote was basically 51 to 49 in favor.

This is one of many Conservatives who opposed this arena.

Thanks for that distinction without a difference, Raptor.
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Yeah, you know Capn, like Wichita and Derby are cities – both separate entities. Then there is that county thing which holds the rest of the stuff.

This has nothing to do with other cities or distance of walking. It has to do with a reprehensible LIE to the voters.

All the haters of the IBA can keep posting and I will keep laughing at your comments. You all are fools. You are lazy, cause you don’t want to walk 6 blocks. You all can stay away, that way I have better seats for the shows I want to see.

You all forget you want people walking in DT Wichita to the IBA, so they will stop at the bars and restaurants that will surround the area around the IBA. But most of you probably have never been to OKC, KC, Denver, Omaha or Des Moines for a show and seen how they have done their downtowns. Damn CAVE people…..

But taxes to help the rich?

Business as usual.