Time to wake up.
I have to believe that as homo sapiens we all bear close resemblances, and as communities go, especially in the Midwest, those similarities continue to be present. But what is extremely difficult for me to reconcile with is the existence, even remotely, that there is yet another community that mirrors this one.
While there is a preponderance of good and hard working people who live here, there is also a group, small as it might be, that is running roughshod over this city. Special interest groups are in every city, and there are here as well. These are the people who want to build a twenty million dollar Hockey Rink so their child will have a nicer room to change in, more comfortable seating, better condescension areas but they want you to pay for it because they already know it will never on its own. The Park Inn Hotel will never cash flow on its own either, but that really doesn’t matter much because it has enormous drawing power that over a years time will bring millions of dollars into this city and surrounding area. From a financial standpoint, with 27 rooms it’s going nowhere, it can’t justify the payroll. On the other hand I was told that the hotel is responsible for six tables a day on average at Chop’s resturant.
As of now, at the end of 2011 and the threshold of 2012, the direction of which way this city will move in in the hands of the City Council; with one exception, and that is John Lee, the rest of that table’s occupants are a foregone conclusion. I purposely set John Lee aside for the moment simply because it has not yet been proven if he will come under the spell of Bookmeyer, or if he will be his own man and vote as his constituents want. If you look at Turncoat, Solberg and Hickey, you will see that they have never split their vote, not once, never voted against anything Bookmeyer wanted, never; That is collusion in its highest form and they will soon strengthen that base with Marinos.
In a community like ours there should exist an unspoken desire to succeed collectively. I don’t see that happening here. For example, take the downtown merchants; there is a big push to revitalize the core area of the city, thy hotel immediately became the main anchor in that endeavor but at the same time turned their back on the rest of the merchants on the plaza over parking. They quickly became like the dog in the manger who couldn’t eat the hay but didn’t want the horse to have it also. The hotel has “locked up” most of the parking on the street and ally to the point where tickets are being handed out to people who patronize other establishments and park in the wrong place. These customers will not come back thereby defeating the effort to come down town. Not smart; you can’t be an island, you must work together to succeed.
There is a segment here who are quick to complain if things do not go their way, but these are the same people who don’t vote. Why is it so hard to drive to the polls to vote? You drive to the grocery store, you drive to the dry cleaners, you drive to the doctor’s office…why then is it so difficult to drive to vote? People who vote have a say in how things are run, this is not rocket science, its simple math.
The majority of this people do not read, they get their information in small snippets at work from co-workers or at the bar while having drinks with friends. If I had to profile those who by a large majority do not vote, I’d say their knowledge is quite proficient in statistical information regarding batting averages of every player on every team who ever played….I am impressed. Wake up for Christ’s sake, shut of the ball game, you already lost, if you don’t believe me then just ask yourself this question; who is mayor of this city?
Peter Children
