Archive for April, 2009
April 30th, 2009
Lots of myths on the radio these last few mornings about the MetroCentre, from the usual stable of talk show callers. Unfortunately, the morning drive talk show hosts seldom if ever refute anything their callers say.
Perhaps they just don’t know their Metro Centre history. I do. I worked at City Hall when they built the thing.
First myth: “We voted against the MetroCentre being downtown, they put it there anyway.”
Variation on first myth: “We voted against it and they built it anyway.”
Facts: Rockfordians voted in 1967 against raising their property taxes to build a $10 million (that’s $65.3 million in 2009 dollars) civic centre on the east bank of the Rock River, where the Riverview Ice House is today.
The MetroCentre was built in 1979 and 1980 with about $16 million (or $49 million in 2009 dollars) of HORSE RACING TAX money collected on winnings at Arlington and other racing venues in Illinois. No property taxes were used. The west side downtown site was used because the buildings there had been cleared with federal, urban renewal funds. So, the land became the local matching share of the state-funded project. Plus, the project was designed to revitalize downtown, which lost most of its retail stores when the brilliant administration of Ben Schleicher and all but 3 of the 20 aldermen voted to take out the city’s busy State and Main intersection and replace it with an open-air mall.
Late in the Metro planning process, Mayor Bob McGaw tried a switcheroo, saying the building should be built out by I-90 and East State Street. But construction began downtown as planned. McGaw left office in April 1981.
Metro opened at the end of January 1980.
Myth 2: “Doug Logan knew how to run the MetroCentre. It made money when he was there.”
Fact: NO IT DID NOT! Logan and everyone else knew when they built it that the MetroCentre would not make money. Civic arenas never do. They’re a quality of life addition to a city, like parks, bike paths, symphony orchestras and community festivals such as OTW.
Logan, a New Yorker with an awesome sense of humor, turned criticism of the MetroCentre on its head. Ccritics said the MetroCentre would always be in the red, so Logan had the building sheathed in red metal siding.
Critics also said the building was a white elephant. So, the MetroCentre’s first mascot was — a white elephant.
Until 2008, The MetroCentre had a subsidy of about $900,000 a year, paid from the city’s redevelopment fund. Redirecting the subsidy to pay for the $23 million renovation and buying the Ice Hogs did not bring in sufficient new business to cancel out the need for that $900,000. I originally said in this post that “ending the subsidy was a mistake. But Ted Biondo then pointed out:
“The $900,000 subsidy did not end! It was used to pay the $23M debt for the Metro Center and the hockey team, in addition to $460,000 from the county. The subsidy currently stands at $1.4M and an additional subsidy of $900,000 would raise the total to almost $2.3M plus additional debts currently owed by the Metro Center. $2.5 to $3.0M is the correct number for the subsidy. It was not ended folks!”
The reason the MetroCentre offered a wide variety of entertainment in Logan’s years — The Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison are just two, interesting examples — was because Doug was trying to determine what Rockford wanted, and what Rockford would support.
April 28th, 2009
U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, was on WGN-720 AM telling morning drive host John Williams that he’s skeptical that water-boarding of a key terrorist suspect worked. Read it and listen to the interview here
April 28th, 2009
Add me to the list of those sorry to see Vic Bell retiring from the City Council. An alderman for 38 years, Vic started when Ben Schleicher was mayor! Vic was a fierce advocate for southwest Rockford, but he wasn’t parochial, he looked out for the best interests of the entire city.
Vic was a pioneer — the first black alderman in Rockford. He championed civil rights throughout the city, and across governmental lines.When I interviewed him during the presidential campaign of 2008, Bell was ecstatic. He never thought he’d live to see the day when a black man could become president. But he did!
At 74, Vic still works at the secretary of state’s drivers license bureau on Central Avenue, where he he always has a friendly smile and cheery attitude with customers who aren’t looking forward to standing in line at an office the TV shows call the “DMV” because they’re in California.
Vic leaves the 5th ward in able hands. Longtime education activist Venita Hervey is taking his place. I’ve known her for years, and she’s got keen insights on Rockford’s problems. More than that, she’s forward looking — she’s got solutions, too.
Vic, who looks to be about 20 years younger than he is, now gets to spend more time with his wife Carol Bell. I hope he’ll also stay active in community affairs.
April 27th, 2009
The compromise resolution that passed Rockford’s City Council Monday reflected a harsh reality: aldermen were not of a mind to give the MetroCentre the $600,000 it wanted, no questions asked. The Metro folks wanted the money to keep the payroll checks rolling and the lights on. This was the second request for a bailout, and aldermen balked.
Instead, Metro gets just $250,000 and a blue-ribbon committee to have a look-see into their operations, and make suggestions for future governance.
Civic centers in small and medium-sized towns generally require subsidies to exist. Metro had an ongoing subsidy of $912,000 until 2007, when the decision was made to use most of that money for the annual fee for the new and improved Ice Hogs, now affiliated with the Chicago Blackhawks.
I hope the committee is no-hold barred when it comes to examining what will work to make the arena a success, without future surprise requests for five-year, no interest loans.
I advocate redirecting the $400,000 annual subsidy to On the Waterfront to the MetroCentre. I also would like to see a thorough study of the possibility of contracting out Metro’s management to a national company, similar to what Peoria does. Why do we really need a separate unit of government, the MetroCentre Authority, when the aldermen and mayor are ultimately responsibile for the building?
April 22nd, 2009
I’ve got to say I was surprised as heck to read that the Rockford School Board hired LaVonne Sheffield as District 205’s new superintendent, gave her a four-year contract starting at $210,000 a year, and, oh, by the way, did you know she’s not certified to be superintendent — anywhere?
Tiny little detail, the board must have thought. The people had no right to know this BEFORE the board hired Sheffield, right?
Sheffield has until July 31 to get her Illinois certification. She doesn’t think it will be a problem, but Regional Schools Superintendent Richard Fairgrieves says it’s a tall order to learn all that’s required in such a short time.
So, which is it? I wish I knew.
I hasten to add that a superintendent’s shingle is not something that overly impresses me. We’ve had some good supers, and some horrible ones. All had the proper credentials.
I wish Ms. Sheffield well, and I was impressed with her when she took part in the Editorial Board’s video interview.
I just would have liked to know that tiny little detail, the one about her lacking a superintendent’s certificate.
April 16th, 2009
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said at one of those tea-bagging sessions that Texas entered the union in 1845 only because it secured the right to secede if it got tired of the Americans.
Perry, a right-winger in a Republican battle for the Senate nomination with the more moderate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, suggested Texans who are frustrated with federal mandates and taxes may well want to exercise this “right” to secede.
In the cheering crowd in Austin was a giant Texas flag with “Republic of Texas,” printed on it.
Well, Texas has been a lot of things. It was part of the Spanish empire, then part of Mexico, then an independent republic. It joined the Union in 1845 as a slave state, and seceded from the Union in 1861, not to be a republic again but to join up with fellow traitors who formed an illegitimate regime, never recognized by the U.S., called the Confederate States of America.
That plan didn’t go too well for Texas, which rejoined the Union after the “War of the Northern Aggression.”
Maybe Rick Perry doesn’t remember his history and doesn’t know that Texas already seceded from the Union.
But if Texas wants to secede for a second time and be independent for a few years until demographics put it back in Mexico, I think that would be fine.
Don’t mess with Texas? I won’t. We’ll put the border fence up in Oklahoma.
April 14th, 2009
Not being an ideologue of either left or right, I have the freedom to look for good ideas wherever they might be. Because the income tax code has become so complicated and is used by congressmen, senators and presidents to reward and punish people depending on the kind of economic activity they engage in, I’ve been looking into a proposal known as the Fair Tax.
You can read all you want about the fair tax at fairtax.org
Here it is in a nutshell: The fair tax is a national sales tax of 23 percent payable at the cash register. No, it’s not regressive, because low income people would get monthly “prebate” checks from Uncle Sam, up to about $28,000 a year.
The fair tax would eliminate all other federal taxes, including payroll, corporate and capital gains taxes. It would result in much more corporate investment in the U.S. economy, particularly from foreign companies. The U.S. currently has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which encourages American businesses to go offshore and discourages foreign companies from coming here.
It would also get rid of the legions of tax accountants, tax lawyers and garden variety tax preparers who would be free to engage in productive activity. It would end the IRS.
This idea comes from the right, and Mike Huckabee is one of its biggest promoters, but the way I see it, the fair tax is ideologically neutral. It’s a more efficient way of collecting tax money, and there’d be no tax code for the politicians to manipulate according to which special interest gives them the most money.
This idea could spread to state and local governments, so that eventually, all taxes are collected at the point of sales of goods and services. Poor people get prebates, and there’s more money freed up for businesses to create jobs, leading to a more productive economy.
Go to the website, read it, and send me your thoughts.
April 14th, 2009
I read neo-con Charles Krauthammer’s column in today’s Register Star and was determined to write a rebuttal. These northern Virginia warriors, none of whom ever lifted a rifle in combat, from Gingrich, Hannity and Limbaugh to Rove, Cheney and Bolton, think Obama is a wimp because he went to Europe, talked frankly about America’s arrogance in the Bush years, and advocated a world without weapons of mass destruction.
Turns out I don’t have to write a rebuttal. My favorite president, IKE, already did, in a speech to newspaper editors in March 1953, after he determined to end the Korean war with a truce, not an all-out invasion of the north.
Here’s Ike’s speech, courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission:
April 14th, 2009
This Bob Herbert column in The New York Times points out a sobering statistic: Since Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, D.C., 120,000 Americans have killed one another using guns.
I’ve never been an advocate of stricter gun control, although I do predict that eventually a majority of Americans will demand draconian gun control laws to curb the growing gun violence. Please don’t send me posts about the Second Amendment. I know what it says and I believe, as does the Supreme Court, that it provides for the individual’s right to keep and bear arms.
However, I also don’t think the Framers had any idea that “average joes” would be blowing off their family members’ heads and killing cops by the threes and fours.
I’ll leave you with this quote. I don’t know its origin, but I often heard Paul Harvey use it after reporting on some deranged lunatic shooting up a school, office or household:Â “Self government requires self control.”
April 13th, 2009
Add me to the list of skeptics who don’t believe the Main Street mall will ever be torn up. The Morrissey administration delayed the project from City Council consideration Monday night because bids came in too high.
Nothing will happen downtown until there’s visible proof that the city government cares to put its money where its mouth is. The mall was a mistake in 1973 when it was built. The State Street half was taken out in the 1980s, but the Main street portion lingers on, falling into greater disrepair.
The mayor needs to do a Mayor Daley on that mall: Send the bulldozers in at midnight. Then, with it torn to shreds, the city will have no choice but to put the street back.
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