If you build it they will come

If you enjoy political drama as much as I do, you really should live in the DFW area. Not to belittle the big league life and death drama that goes on inside the Beltline in DC, but nothing beats Dallas for shear kindergarten-esque drama.



The mayor of Dallas, Tom Leppert, is a former successful business man and a big proponent of building a new hotel adjacent to the Dallas Convention Center. Now in politics I prefer to take a position of abject indifference and I really don't know or particularly care about the merits for or against using public money to help pay for a private project. Call me cynical but I usually don't believe either side of any political debate. I think politics causes people to stake out a position unreasonably opposite of whatever or whomever they disagree with which results in extreme claims and positions that are not realistic. In my experience the truth is usually found somewhere in the middle.



What I do enjoy is pointing out the problems that come out of both sides of any political sparing because of that need to stake out a position so far opposite the opponent that you get outside the realm of truth. Currently the argument in Dallas is the relative merits of the city using bond money to subsidize a new hotel that will be adjacent to the convention center. I do know Dallas has a pretty good reputation as a convention destination and they do draw some major conventions which usually is good for the local economy. I also know that the city of Dallas decided a few years ago they did NOT want to spend something like $350 mil. to subsidize a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys so that they would get back to actually playing in DALLAS. Arlington did want to spend that much and they seem to think they got a good deal. I guess time will tell.



Dallas does want to spend somewhere around $80 mil to subsidize a new hotel. But not everyone thinks that is a good idea so there is a ballot initiative going on now to stop the effort to build a new hotel. That to me is where the fun starts. You see the group opposed to the new hotel (Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel) receives something like 90% of its funding from Harlan Crow. This to me is where things get sticky, because Harlan Crow also happens to own one of the nicest hotels in Dallas which is just north of downtown and the convention center. So now the question becomes are you really opposed to the principal of Dallas subsidizing a new hotel or are you opposed to new competition? So far most of the ads against the hotel have been mostly a personal attack on Mr. Leppert. To be fair the pro-hotel group has yet to release their ads and for all I know they may be a personal attack on Mr. Crow. Either way it should be entertaining to folks like me, who just like to see the dirty laundry getting aired!



If you actually want to consider the relative merits of either position go here

PRO

CON