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I can see it now, somewhere in the backroom dealings of Dallas heavies and the "Inner Circle": "One for you and one for me ,two for you and one ,two for me..." and that's exactly what the citizens of Dallas will receive with this deal.Same big business players at the table using taxpayer dollars to ante up for the next big gamble with tax payer dollars.It is disappointing that money in Dallas talks for all of us.Then, thye know what's best for us poor folk. They sure know what's going to put money in their pockets.

So TL and the City Council herded every "uneducated" supporter they could find into City Hall this morning to speak in favor of the hotel but they couldn't muster up the energy to allow Heywood Sanders to give an educated opinion before they commit to spending half a billion of "our" fucking dollars?

Ah, Señor Schutze, the corruption in our little village is becoming so pornographic in its all-enveloping warmth and moistness as to make me a bit chubby.

So! El Gato Grande! Where are our cabras!?!

Emilio

Steve, making sure minorities are part of any City construction contracts pre-dates the so-called 'Inner Circle'.

Lakewooder, those 'uneducated' supporters included the ones mentioned by Mr. Schutze above, representatives from several corporations that currently have conventions that come to Dallas and those that will not consider Dallas because of the lack of a hotel. It also included people from several hotels that might be directly affected by a new hotel. Doesn't seem very 'uuneducated' to me, but...whatever.

Did those who have conventions who won't come without a hotel officially commit to coming if the hotel is built? Are they willing to sign multi-year contracts right now contingent on the hotel being built?

Or is it a situation where they won't consider Dallas now, but will put Dallas on a long list of potential cities if a hotel is built?

I have no doubt that there are some conventions that won't come if there's no hotel. The question is whether those conventions will come in great enough numbers to make a city-owned hotel a good financial investment for the city.

I could also find 32 NFL team owners who would testify that they wouldn't consider playing in a city without a new stadium, but that doesn't mean building a new stadium would result in Dallas having 32 NFL teams.

ellumo8, here's my point. TL and the City Council were very interested in hearing the opinions of people such as an energy exec and a State Representative but they had no interest in hearing the opinion of Heywood Sanders, a person who: A. Has nothing to lose or gain from a hotel. B. Is a subject matter expert on this very matter. Please explain the logic behind this because from my perspective, it looks very shady.

To muddy the water further, this deal was done behind closed doors. I suppose that's ok if you're deciding how to fix pot holes or curb panhandlers (they've done a great job of both), but when it comes to spending half a BILLION dollars of tax payers money to build and operate a major hotel, they have NO business cutting deals behind closed doors. That's just common sense.

One other thing. The leaders of this city can barely manage their way out of a wet paper sack on a good day. Why should we risk a half a billion dollars and allow them to build and run something they know absolutely nothing about?

[i][b]Why should we risk a half a billion dollars and allow them to build and run something they know absolutely nothing about?[/b][/i]

What are you talking about? Look what a good job they've done with the city-owned Amphitheatre/concert venue/shed!

-- klark --

Lakewooder, good points. It certainly would have been good PR to have Mr. Sanders come and speak, but, really, what would that have accomplished?

I am just of the personal opinion that this could be debated to death.

Either let's do this, or not.

Just remember this, the City of Dallas owns the American Airlines Center, Executive Airport, Love Field, and is a majority owner of the DFW Hyatt. Now, aside from the airports, the City is doing ok on the ownership of those projects.

One more point, though I'm not 100% sure that the city should build this hotel, it was pointed out today that a professional hotel company (Hilton, Marriott) would operate it.

At least part of the blame has to go on the Texas Legislature for passing laws that are allowing alternative methods of municipal finance that allow bypassing the need for an election to issue GO bonds. However, since the voters just approved 1.3 billion for the DISD they would probably vote for the hotel also.

I've never trusted anything Erle Nye said. When he was Chairman of TXU he publicly told concerned shareholder's TXU will definitely not cut its dividend. Three days later he drastically slashed the dividend. TXU stock plunged.