There's a New Team in the Convention Center Hotel Game, and They're Wearing a Smile
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| Patrick Michels |
| Ron Steinhart, introducing the latest pro-hotel group, was joined at the podium by Ed Oakley, Ebby Halliday and Edward Okpa. |
Speaking to press this morning before a lunch at the hotel, political enabler Ron Steinhart said he'd initially planned on sitting this one out, but over the last week or so, he'd been "blindsided by the negative nature of the 'yes' campaign." Steinhart found plenty of other folks were fed up too, among them Ebby Halliday, Ed Oakley, Ross Perot Jr., Roger Staubach and John Eagle.
While the membership includes members of pro-hotel groups that are already out there, Steinhart said he wanted to see a more positive campaign on both sides. (Sunnier even than those R.I.P. Dallas headstones?) While he says he'll be voting no on Proposition 1, the point, he says, is to keep it clean. "We can no longer stand by as the 'yes campaign' questions the honesty and integrity of our mayor and city council," Steinhart said, before really hitting his stride: "Enough is enough."
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I appreciate the tact of this group, but it's hard not to question the honesty and integrity of the mayor and council when they have a history of being dishonest and manipulative.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:16PMSay WHAT?
"We can no longer stand by as the 'yes campaign' questions the honesty and integrity of our mayor and city council," Steinhart said, before really hitting his stride: "Enough is enough."
So I guess, if you are Mayor -- according to Steinhart -- you get a pass on having to be honest or have integrity. It just sticks to you by virtue of being elected????
They keep saying they don't want to make it about personalities. So then, let's make it about facts -- and no one -- either side -- gets a pass on honesty and integrity.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:18PMAnd yet some of the most honest and business savy people in this town support the hotel... Heck, even the folks at the Stoneleigh Hotel appear to support this- seeing as they allowed a Pro Hotel rally.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:26PMWith the exception of the Crow family, if all these rich people want a convention center hotel so much why don't they build it themselves?
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:38PMSo, what is the electorate to do when confronted with overwhelming evidence that the Mayor is dishonest and lacks integrity?
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:50PMOld Bastard, that is the burning question. The Enough is Enough group has enough financial power and business smarts to build this thing on their own, but they obviously don't see it as a sound investment.
These people are no dummies. They know a profit when they smell one, but we have not heard a single one of them offer to put some cash into the deal and be our "partners". But they do know they will benefit if they can convince the slobbering masses to take the half-billion dollar risk.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 4:52PMWho cares what that nutty woman in pink has to say
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 5:29PMSo, what is the electorate to do when confronted with overwhelming evidence that the Mayor is dishonest and lacks integrity?"
The classy thing to do, apparently, is to not mention it.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 5:30PMLuke, that's Ebby Halliday, and she's done more good for this city than you will ever do. And before you ask, I'm against a city-owned hotel.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 5:38PMYeah, Ebby deserves nothing but respect.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 5:52PMThe negativity of the yes campaign?!
You've gotta be freakin kiddin me.
These people couldn't stand to see their poor little helpless mayor and council be made fun of, so they just had to step into the fight.
Absolutely ridiculous.
This Stoneleigh Hotel, is it the same one who's condo tower got half-way out of the ground before they ran out of money and left 12~ stories of bare concrete for me to stare at every day outside my home window?
As a Yes on 1 supporter I couldn't have picked a better place for this event.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 6:28PMAre these people totaly blind? The Stoneleigh is a freaking disaster. Maybe its all just a cruel joke.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 6:50PMIf old Ebby and these other clowns think this hotel is such a great idea and are as civic-minded as they proclaim themselves to be, they ought to put their money where their fat pie-holes are and develop it themselves.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 7:42PMWhen I was a professional photograperh, I had the pleasure of meeting Ebby Holliday, Roger Staubach, Ed Oakly, Ross Perot Jr and Sr. and John Eagle, as well many other No folks.
I have also met Mr Trammell Crow (who introduced me to Richard Nixon), Harlan Crow, Anne Raymond, Angela Hunt and many others on the Yes side.
These fine folks - irregardless of where they live - have contributed in ways we can only imagine to the past and future of Dallas. We appreciate their public and private philanthropic (sp?) activities, and their business acumen.
But does all this mean I am starstruck, or that we should collectively just drop our finger on the voting button of their choice?
Absolutely not.
In the May elections - for council and the propositions - we will be lucky if 20% of the registered voters bother to show up at the polls. And if we are unlucky, some of those will be so starstruck as to swing the election.
The best we - bloggers and other intelligensia - can do is study the issues and make an informed vote.
In my case, I vote YES on Prop 1 and NO on Prop 2.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 7:42PMMerton's find on that suppressed feasibility study may have been a deal killer. Great job, Mr. Merton.
Natinsky stuffed it in a large doc, then suppressed it with a FOIA request demand requirement, thus hiding it from immediate public access. It kills the deal, unless they pitch it as a Public Works project.
Then he ordered another update knowing it would not be delivered and made public until after May 9. THAT, indicates malice aforethought. He hid it.
But he left fingerprints and he's the point man on this fiasco.
They must answer for that.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 8:07PMPlease don't attack Ebby. She is one of the true legends of Dallas history. For one thing she practically created North Dallas. Which means those types don't live in East Dallas.
I'm ambivalent about a taxpayer owned hotel.
I still think we should **cliché warning** 'think outside the box' and use Fair Park as the site for conventions. No other city in the world has anything like this national historic landmark.
@Wylie H.
You should have a sufficiently long memory next time you enter the voting booth...
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 8:48PMThe Convention Center hotel is great for the City of Dallas. Do your readers know that the hospitality industry saves tax payers on average $995 in property taxes. If the industry fades away then get ready to pay it! This hotel is NOT funded with the general bonds which includes police and streets. It is from the sale of revenue bonds. Actually the people staying in the hotel will pay for the hotel; NOT the citizens of Dallas. Don't knock the 800 potential jobs the hotel alone could bring to our city. This is great for our city! Tried to do a publicly/privately own hotel, but the former mayor stopped that ... remember losing the new Cowboys Stadium. There are over 80 groups that will NEVER consider or look at Dallas until a convention center hotel is built. The city may lose more business with groups coming but the hotel has to be built. It will hurt everyone including the hotels, restaurants, retail, transportation, the entire Dallas hospitality industry. Dallas is the last city in Texas without a convention center hotel. We're losing business to Houston (considering building a 2nd), San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin. Denver and Houston funded their hotels the same way Dallas has proposed.
Did you ask Crow Holdings about the tax abatements received from the city in the amount of $583,360 which is in your own 2007 blog called the Crow's Nest. Site: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2007/06/pardon_but_whats_the_big.php. This is a double standard!
Irregardless indeed is not a correct word. It should be disirregardless.
Where did you people go to school?
Ebby has no idea what she is voting for. I don't care how rich she has gotten from selling houses. She is wrong if she supports that stupid hotel.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 11:35PMTo GSAG...... it isn't a double standard because the impact of that decision o a partial tax abatement was a net gain to the tax base prior to the Crow's investment. Previously, that property contributed NOTHING to the tax base because it was owned by the city and county, just like any city owned asset doesn't pay property taxes. Bottom line, now that the referenced property is restored and privately owned, it is a NET GAIN to the tax base since the property is back on the tax rolls after DECADES of receiving no tax payments, meaning over your lifetime (unless you were born in the 1800s), no on had ever paid taxes on that property. You are better off as a tax payer as a result, so stop complaining about something you are not informed about.
If someone can answer, if the city built and owned a convention center hotel would be we see a... net gain or net loss to the total tax base.... I mean TOTAL TAX BASE, using specific numbers and not general statements, it would really make every voter's decision a lot easier and everyone can easily leave personalities out of this.
Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 21 2009 @ 11:48PMIt is good to see Martha Raye back onstage again.
The theatre community has missed her.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 1:01AMThis is just unbelievable. How many times is this same group of people going to reinvent themselves? This is getting pretty funny.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 1:29AMSorry, I don't think Ebby know squat about how this is structured. I don't think she or her lawyers would ever come up with this arrangement.
Ground leases are common vehicles for this type of development. I've suggested giving the land to some developer willing to build the land.
Wake up those who kneel before the signet rings of the affluent. These people missed the bubble, by relying too heavily on the venal sycophants that surround these folk.
I know cause these self-same people resent questions, challenges and the like. These titans of industry haven't earned their way based on hard work and risk but by greasing the wheels of power and rigging the game.
They got their first break from questioning and seeing things different. Yet, they forget that and assume their own greatness to credit for their good fortune. But challenges are another form of competition that keeps ideas fresh and vibrant, rather than stale and cliche like a Chili's restaurant.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 8:06AMGSAJ,
Even if we are losing business to Houston (a possible dubious claim), we are still ahead of them in total bookings and that gap isn't going to be closed anytime soon.
And Houston was considering building a second. It was contigent on selling the first one and guess what, no private company was willing to buy the hotel, which would have gone to building a second. In essence, they would have paid the city to build a tax-exempt competitor with reserves of tax payer money.
Plus, don't give me convention stats. I am against a CITY-OWNED hotel. I don't care what other cities have done to their CC's. I don't want to be on the hook for this thing with more dubious claims that we absolutely need it. If we need a hotel, there are other ways to do it besides ownership. The Fort Worth hotel you mentioned was built with TIF's and abatements, not public ownership. If Dallas were going that route, I'd be less opposed.
What extremes are you willing to take to get this thing built? How about we force city employees to work pro-bono. How about we force you to work pro-bono. Let's use the cities emminent domain powers to shut down all the competition to make sure this is successful. It all sounds insane, but there is little difference between those and public ownership of a hotel.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 8:58AMCracker Daddy has seen this crap before. Establishment types go out and decry the "negative tone" of the usurpers. Basically, they can't stand being told the emperor has no clothes.
This is nothing more than the usual lock-step, group think of the monied, business elite in Dallas. Whatever is good for the DCC and it's cronies is good for Dallas. Well, Cracker Daddy says BULLSHIT!
I think the anti-hotel people should keep it up and call a liar a liar and, yes, Mayor Tom I'm looking at you.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 9:49AM"This hotel is NOT funded with the general bonds which includes police and streets. It is from the sale of revenue bonds. Actually the people staying in the hotel will pay for the hotel"
Right.... Unless the revenues generated from the hotel aren't enough to cover the cost of the hotel. Then it comes from the pool of money that funds the police and streets, etc.
And given that the numbers that this hotel has to hit to break-even appear to be awfully high, it seems very likely that at least part of the hotel will have to be paid for with general revenues, which means that some other area of the budget that needs funds, possibly police or streets, will have to be cut.
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 10:36AMHere's the text of a comment I attempted to post on the "Enough is Enough" blog. One day later, and they still haven't approved it (even though they've made several additions to the website):
"I guess I’m a little confused here. You say you are against “negative character attacks,” then, when I click on the “Vote No Dallas” link, I see a negative character attack on Harlan Crow, one of this area’s great leaders.
Are you saying that you will object to the efforts of Vote No Dallas?
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 11:42AMI think their name for their "group" is telling...Enough is Enough...enough of this democracy thing, enough of proles trying to tell us what we can and cannot do with tax funds, enough with questioning anything the Dallas Citizens Council and their ilk in this city say. Well I say enough is enough of their BS and VOTE YES!!
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 2:20PMI find it VERY disturbing that ground has been broken in ADVANCE of the outcome of the election. I don't know if this is a momentum move by the city or if they are going to build it whether it's defeated or not.
Millions of dollars already spent on studies and ground moving without any regard to all of this dissent.
What is going on here? I have been told it will be built regardless of the results of the election. This was by an insider who claimed to know this for a fact.
I think because of the recent illumination of the Trinity River Project's problems, Leppert's endorsement is the kiss of death on this.
Only this bunch of out-of-touch 'have mores' would call for the tone of the 'debate' to be sunnier while their side puts up a goofy 'grim reaper' site called r.i.p. Dallas.
Enough is enough, though - I'm sick of Leppert and his boot lickers going thru our city money like sailors on shore leave while we sink further into debt.
Is their dream to turn Dallas into Detroit?
Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 22 2009 @ 4:26PMThe reason, Mr. Steinhart, that we question the Mayor and the council's honesty is because they have demonstrated that they are DIShonest. If the Trinity River project hasn't convinced you of this...
When we are faced with a major fiscal deficit, is it prudent to underwrite a half-billion dollars worth of bonds on a hotel that should be built with private funds if it's such a good idea?
Oh, Ebby, I love ya girl but please, go home...
Posted On: Thursday, Apr. 23 2009 @ 1:42PM
