Here’s John Oliver on Last Week Tonight talking about publicly funded stadiums (and arenas).
El Paso is always on the cutting edge of mismanagement.
John Oliver on Stadiums
The dog barks, and the caravan moves on.
The dog barks, and the caravan moves on.
Here’s John Oliver on Last Week Tonight talking about publicly funded stadiums (and arenas).
El Paso is always on the cutting edge of mismanagement.
Isn’t it amazing how everyone knows this, but city after city just goes on blithely pissing away the tax dollars to further enrich these rich assholes?
I remember watching that episode the first time it came out… back in 2015.
No really:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt4837580/
Just a thought but if you are going to attack other people for being dishonest it helps if you do a tiny bit of fact checking. In this case your post would be more biting if you pointed out that it has been satarized by John Oliver 3 years ago so it’s not exactly a new concept.
Based in part on watching that segment back in 2015 I’ve had my doubts about the stadium but you know what? Not enough other people seem to give a shit. We (El Paso) voted for it back on 2012 and if you listen to folks even today not enough of them are really concerned about whether we can afford a stadium.
In that regard Tommy was right when he first came to town and was amazed at how bad El Paso as a whole is at making the call between things we need and things we want. Other cities he had worked at actually made hard decisions when stuff they wanted to do wasn’t something that they could afford to do.
We all, collectively deserve what we get in this case.
We have been ill served by our elected officials and our fourth estate. The Quality of Life juggernaut would not be deterred. Our elected officials abandoned their mandate to serve the people and jumped on the bandwagon to serve their campaign donors.
But circumstances change. Responsible government changes with them. We might have been hornswoggled into endorsing some kind of “performing arts center” then, but we don’t have to pursue it now to our detriment.
Responsible government would adjust course. Unfortunately, responsible government isn’t an option in El Paso.
elrichiboy,
What a condescending asshole you are. You know as well as I do that the people who made the decisions back then were only acting in what they thought was El Paso’s best interest.
You know, they meant well.
Unfortunately, they’ve relied on the opinions of people who have been pretty consistently wrong. God bless them.
But when you’re in a hole, stop digging. You can’t start going down the right path till you stop going down the wrong path. Our efforts don’t match our goals.
Let’s stop being stupid.
I love you, man.
No one voted for an arena. This is what was on the ballot.
PROPOSITION?PARK, RECREATION, OPEN SPACE AND ZOO IMPROVEMENTS
“THE ISSUANCE OF $245,000,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS FOR PARK, RECREATION, OPEN SPACE AND ZOO IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING SOCCER/SPORTS FIELDS, AQUATIC CENTERS, AND NEW AND IMPROVED RECREATION, SENIOR AND COMMUNITY CENTERS.”
PROPOSITION?MUSEUM, CULTURAL, PERFORMING ARTS, AND LIBRARY FACILITIES
“THE ISSUANCE OF $228,250,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS FOR MUSEUM, CULTURAL, MULTI-PURPOSE PERFORMING ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT AND LIBRARY FACILITIES IMPROVEMENTS, INCLUDING NEW CHILDREN’S MUSEUM, CULTURAL HERITAGE CENTER AND INTERACTIVE DIGITAL WALL.”
PROPOSITION?VENUE PROJECT AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY TAX
“AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS, TO DESIGNATE THE MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STADIUM PROJECT AS A SPORTS AND COMMUNITY VENUE PROJECT WITHIN THE CITY?IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAW AND TO IMPOSE A TAX ON THE OCCUPANCY
OF A ROOM IN A HOTEL LOCATED WITHIN THE CITY, AT THE MAXIMUM RATE OF TWO PERCENT (2%) OF THE PRICE PAID FOR SUCH ROOM, FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING SUCH VENUE PROJECT.”