Daily Links
September 21st, 2009-
The centerpiece of the MAPS 3 proposal is a $280 million convention center that will include exhibit halls, meeting rooms, ballrooms and parking. The new center, which would be built alongside a proposed 70-acre, $130 million downtown park, would replace the Cox Business Services Convention Center that was renovated as part of the original MAPS.
Cornett said the current convention center is "inadequate" to compete with those in neighboring cities and states for the lucrative convention business.
But including such an expensive project that most voters likely would rarely use could spell doom for the MAPS 3 initiative, said Stuart Jolly, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter for Americans for Prosperity, a group that advocates limited government and lower taxes.
"Do we really want and need a new convention center?" Jolly said. "The one we have now has never been filled to capacity, it's not continuously booked and it's subsidized by the city to the tune of $2 million a year.
September 21st, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Context… Stuart Jolly doesn’t explore the “why” of never being filled to capacity. Also, where does he get his information? And, further, how many other convention centers actually are ever filled in every single space at one time?
On the flip side, I don’t like that the Mayor continually equates age with necessitating demolition. Age is not specifically equated with quality of construction and usability of space…
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
Paul,
I agree. Stuart never sources his information and I have never heard the same statistics. If he plans to use this line again, I hope he at least shows where he is getting it from.