HERE WE GO…AGAIN

The more I learn, not that anyone has told us citizens much, about the new group taking over CentrePointe, the more unhappy I get.

The city granted the new group a 30 day extension NOT to fill in our most famous sinkhole downtown. Who knew such extensions were possible? I don’t remember that being in the first, euphoric announcement from city hall.

Or that the holdings group can get 3 more such extensions?

Meanwhile, the city says the new group is “making progress."  They are interviewing “construction managers” (didn’t Mr. Webb do a similar thing and aren’t his results available to us? Are we inventing the wheel again?) and “architects!” Meadow Muffins!  Another architect? Another plan for the hole?  (see comment earlier about what Mr. Webb did) —and the SEVERAL plans for the building.)

And, BTW, the new group hasn’t told the city (or us) about its financing! What banks are involved, if any? Doesn’t this sound all-too-familiar? Wasn’t this the festering stumbling block for Mr. Webb’s plans?

Are we being strung along and sold a bill of goods that just might come crashing down (again) IF the city decides NOT to include a new city hall as part of the CentrePointe plans, which is its right, but which might give these new people an excuse to wash their hands of the project entirely.

And, BTW, the city is spending $200,000 on a feasibility study...do we lease or build a new city hall? That report is not expected until after the first 30 day extension runs out. My first prediction for 2016:  LFUCG will grant a 2^nd 30 day extension because the timetables for these two projects don’t coincide.

We are being kept in the dark entirely too much here...and I’m afraid everything points to a repeat of the problems we had with Mr. Webb.

And we were supposed to have learned from that experience.

I'm just sayin'...

DEBATE, DEMOCRACY, AND DUMB

Saturday night’s debate among the 3 Democratic candidates for president was a far cry from similar GOP events. These 3 said things, substantial things, and while there is plenty of room to disagree, they didn’t demagogue—as several of their Republican counterparts have.

Local media screwed up...I saw several print and broadcast stories that did not mention at what time or channel the debate would air. TV Guide totally messed up...listing this as a Republican debate; sheesh!

And ABC opened with questions about the Sanders breach of voting data, a totally “inside the beltway” topic that doesn’t interest 90% of voters at all, and contributed to the lament that the “media doesn’t understand us” from citizens.  (Soon, however, the debate did get  into “real” issues.)

Congress passed a 2000 page spending and tax cutting program, amid cheers of a new “bi-partisan” atmosphere in Washington.

Meadow Muffins!

Lost in every news story I saw was that the legal deadline to pass these bills, and stop a government shutdown, was last October first—a deadline Congress under either party’s control, has missed for years.  And the “sequester”—that device held up a few months ago as the way to keep the government open—was reversed. Congress still doesn’t have its act together.  And just wait—there will be a slew of stories pointing out the hidden parts of these bills  (no one read them all before passage!) that will give the “special interests” what they wanted, whether the public approved or not.

Don’t get the idea that these people, for all their experience are “the smartest guys in the room.” Defense Secretary Ash Carter had to reveal that he used his private e-mail system for government business—the very thing HRC has been scorched for months for doing...and which may be illegal.

Dumb, Mr. Secretary, D-U-M, dumb!

Meanwhile a poll indicates perhaps we citizens DO get the government we deserve. 30% of Republicans supported bombing the kingdom of Agrabah. 13% said No. 19% of Democrats surveyed wanted to attack Agrabah, 39% opposed.

Agrabah doesn’t exist; it is fictional. As the USA Today report indicated, no one Googled it, which continued a trend of people being polled expressing firm opinions, 20 to 40% of the time, on fictional issues and legislation. The Margin of Error wasn’t given in the story I saw, but was probably very high, maybe 100%.

I'm just sayin'...

EXCERPTS FROM A CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S NEWS CONFERENCE

I know that not all these people are bad…but all the troubles we have had have stemmed from just this group.

They have beheaded our people.

They have killed innocent women and children in their offensive activities.

They have spread their diseases among us, resulting in many untimely deaths.

Some argue we should send all of them back to their homes…others that we should admit no more of them into our land.

I have decided to convene a conference of all our allies until we can figure out what- in -hell to do about these English.

SQUANTO,  Chief, Mass. Bay Tribal Council.

I'm just sayin'...

A SHORTSIGHTED DECISION

The city, thru the Civic Center, is pulling the plug on the small, twin spires RR station RJ Corman built behind the Civic Center. Some legal dispute I don’t have details on is responsible, and has gone on for some time. When the lease ends, the end of this month, Corman will be out of the property and also end the dinner train that originates there.

This is a bad situation all the way around.

I don’t mean to take sides, since I am not privy to the legal arguments, but I can put forth two ideas why the city and the Corman firm should settle their difference. Surely reasonable people can find a way.

One, the dinner train is a tourist attraction...and as much push as Kentucky and Lexington are  putting behind tourism, we can ill afford to give up on such a unique  attraction.

Two, but permit me to suggest another reason. Such a train station could serve as downtown Lexington’s point of departure for a  regularly scheduled train to Frankfort—a service decided in large part to appeal to state workers, delivering them to the old downtown Frankfort station, by the History Center, and getting their cars off the interstate during morning & evening rush hours.

Single diesel passenger cars exist, often double deckers, to handle such traffic...and a schedule of morning departures from Lexington, and evening departures from the capital could be arranged. (It would also serve shoppers in both cities, and tourists because our capital city is such a draw.) Although they fluctuate, I’m betting such a train could operate more cheaply than gasoline prices would allow state employees to drive round trip. City buses meeting the trains could get state employees to their jobs, but a lot of them work within blocks of the Frankfort  station.

BUT, hold on a moment. IF this plan works (with lower rates for those buying five day tickets, etc), then a similar system could be set up between Louisville (which has been pondering light rail for a while) and the Frankfort station to get River City state employees off I-64 (in good weather and in bad!) which would certainly help that beleaguered road—tied up so very frequently with accidents.

So NOW we have a passenger train system  that runs between Lexington and Louisville, via the Frankfort connection. Am I the only one who sees all sorts of possibilities and advantages in this? 

But it needs a station, a departure point in our city. Why tear down the logical place for that point, the Corman station..and build another one later when city and state work out the details?

Our two mayors are supposed to be co-operating on projects for the good of both towns. Here’s one.

I'm just sayin'...