September 26
2000 - Optimism
Blooms For Everglades Plan - Half a century ago, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed an elaborate system
of roads, canals and levees that rerouted water across South
Florida. It also put the Everglades - the largest remaining
subtropical wilderness in the United States, home of the
American crocodile and source of drinking water for millions
- under threat. Now environmentalists are expressing
cautious optimism about a $7.8 billion plan to undo the
damage and return natural water flows as early as 2030 _ a
plan spearheaded by the Corps itself. ``It will be nice to
have all that money to spend, but we will have to watch how
it's spent,'' said Juanita Green, the environmental chair of
Friends of the Everglades...
Follow
the Money Trail... - "In our never-ending attempts
to keep the voting public aware of what the "power"
crowd knows and mere mortals probably don't, we announce
the beginnings of a program to post all candidates financial
report of Contributors, etc. Note the highlights and explanations.
FOLLOW THE MONEY if you really want to know the person who's
smiling at you and saying what you want to hear!" ...
September
03 2000 - Who
Will Really Stop The Conference Center? -
"The forum for county commissioner
candidates held 23 August was a revelation. We
heard candidates state their positions on
tourism, hospitality growth, the Tourist
Development Commission, and especially the
Conference Center. The questions were loaded
toward the tourist perspective, but they were
the hosts and the questions did a good job
drawing out the candidate’s positions on these
important issues..."
[REVISITED]
The LMI Study Part I
- Leisure Management International ("LMI") is pleased to present the
"Okaloosa County Conference Center Business Plan" to the Okaloosa County Tourist
and Development Council ("Council"). The purpose of this Business Plan is to
assist the Council in developing and evaluating options regarding the development,
construction and operation of the proposed Okaloosa County Conference Center. The flow of
this report follows a logical sequence of fact-finding and assessment of the current
situation, and is based on LMI's research of the Okaloosa County market, typical industry
standards and experience in the management and operation of similar facilities...
Convention
Center Follies - "Yet for all of the public
dollars spent, few cities appear to have been saved by
larger convention centers. For all of the persistent
rhetoric of new jobs, new spending, and "economic
multipliers," much of the evidence suggests that
convention centers deliver far less than promised.
Indeed, in a number of cases, the expenditure of
hundreds of millions of public dollars appears to have
had almost no impact on individual
communities..."
Growth
restrictions substitute government decisions for yours
- Growth and development have made North Carolina's economy
one of the fastest-growing in America, with statewide unemployment
near all-time lows. Yet all three levels of government in
North Carolina – municipal, county and state – are considering
or have already enacted restrictions designed to slow or
halt new development, which critics say is ruining state
residents' quality of life...
SHOULD
GOVERNMENTS OWN CONVENTION CENTERS? - Taxpayer-financed
convention centers have become increasingly popular with
state and local government officials. Centers have been
built or planned in most large cities and in many metropolitan
suburbs and small cities and towns. (1) According to the
International Association of Auditorium Managers, the convention
industry's trade association, "work was completed or
started... on 250 convention centers, sports arenas, community
centers and performing-arts halls at a cost of more than
$10 billion" between 1975 and 1985. (2) Billions more
may be spent during the 1990s. The enthusiasm for convention
centers shows no signs of abating...
