I have an idea
The Trib tells us that government and local tourism officials are trying to figure out how to drum up more business for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. I have a better idea--let's invent a time machine so that we can go back in time and stop our feckless leaders from spending $375 million of our hard-earned tax dollars on this monstrosity. Convention centers are a loser--and it's cold comfort that Pittsburgh isn't the only city to swindle itself into building one.
posted by Jonathan Potts at
5:24 PM
6 Comments:
But it's your favorite first lady wannabe who loves (just loves, dahling) the Convention Center:
One of the biggest cheers of the night erupted when Kerry referred to Pittsburgh as the home of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, of Fox Chapel, heir to the Heinz food fortune.
Heinz Kerry spoke at the rally and later addressed several hundred environmental reporters attending a convention at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association in Oakland.
She welcome them to Pittsburgh, saying part of her work in the past decade has been to push for environmental reforms including riverfront rehabilitation and the construction of a "green" Downtown convention center, designed to be more energy-efficient than typical structures.
"I'm very proud of this city," she said. "There will be more things to come in this city, and I hope in the rest of America," she said.
She did not answer questions, and after a quick hug of TV celebrity Ted Danson, a CMU graduate, she quickly departed the Society of Environmental Journalists convention, flanked by a crowd of Secret Service agents.
www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_264203.html
6:53 PM
That tears it. I've changed my mind and am now voting for George W. Bush. I just can't elect a man whose wife approves of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
8:41 PM
A vote for Kerry is a vote for convention centers everywhere! Say No to Kerry! Make it stop! The Libertarians won't build Convention Centers. The Greens won't build convention centers, even "green" ones like that in Pittsburgh. You know Nader wouldn't build one.
Hell, George W. Bush can't even spell c-o-n-v-e-n-t-i-o-n, and he probably thinks it's a latex novelty you buy at the corner drugstore.
But Kerry, he'll cover the country with convention centers! He won't tamper with Social Security, but you know he'll build damned convention centers. And you're enabling his convention center building mania with your vote!
9:01 PM
Not to mention...a convention center hotel!
9:19 PM
More people read my semi-regular 412-public-remarks email blasts than attended the convention center's opening gala, free to the public, but costs were at >$1-million.
Besides the hotel, we've got to worry about the moving of the light rail stop to the back of the convention center, rather than the already built and operational station a block away at the foot of the Pennsylvanian.
Then they want to further expand the convention center into the strip.
We're still spending and tossing good money after bad. This is like a 'double-up' on the bets. Plus, the annual drag is crushing as well, beyond the debt.
There are some things that we could do at the convention center. I'll post them in due time at my Platform.For-Pgh.org wiki. But please, rant away, in spades.
Ta.
8:50 AM
It's more than just the fact that convention centers are in decline.
The convention center is such a massive waste because the idiots who built the place decided to build a facility where it is EXTREMELY complicated to rig anything from the building limiting the production values that can be used at the center.
When they talked about trying to get one of the national party conventions there every stagehand who has been in the joint laughed their heads off. They couldn't do it if they wanted to because you can't safely place the equipment needed in the air.
It's not just that place though. The Peterson Center is an accident waiting to happen. They spend all of this money on these facilities and they either hire no consultant with clout to take on the architects who have no clue (nor do they care) or they don't hire one at all.
9:52 AM
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