Bob Yancy said:
Howdy,
The bathrooms are in rough shape. There's no seating nor any shade. Food truck generators are noisy. The moat floods and leaves silt deposits that must be dug out by staff every time it rains an appreciable amount. Access to the backstage for equipment rigging is very limited for loading and unloading. It's a mix of repairs and upgrades that it would benefit from.
For all that, it's a public good that has provided some great events and memories over the years that I believe could be made much much better with some modest investments by the private sector, which has approached us and asked if they can submit a proposal. To which we said "yes."
That proposal will come before in the next few meetings. What they propose, how much they'll invest, how much they are willing to pay the taxpayer to use the facility and book talent.
That's it, man. Nothing more. Nothing less. I hope that makes sense.
Respectfully
Bob Yancy '95
Screwing around where water can go is how floods are created, I don't know if the silt issue and less volume means Raintree can get flooded. (I'm not a flood control expert)...and access to the back is irrelevant since the loading docks didn't see any change on the plan to the loading docks.
Again, what I'd
like to see is a permanent solution to the silt issue and the creek return to its pre-1999 configuration, but the City is more interested in vanity projects than actually fixing anything.
farmerJohnny said:
Mr. Yancy,
First thank you for following up on this area of our town that looks to me as a failed project (see how bad the stores fronts are doing in that WolfPen apartments complex). I voted for you because I saw you as one of the reasonable members that stays active with the citizens.
With that said, I think the biggest problem we have in the BCS area is that we have too many "small little down-town like places" but not one single place. We are spread all over the place, but not one single "the place to go" where families can go out in the evening with the kids.
I know NorthGate is supposed to be one of those places, but to be honest, options are limited even there.
We have a bunch of small public/private initiatives, Bryan down-town, Travis Bryan Midtown Park, Lake Walk, College Station Mid Town, Wolf Pen, etc, but are too spread out for any of those to thrive.
Every small to mid city that thrives with tourism usually has 1 main principal area that attracts everyone. I personally would choose one place and focus all of the attention on that one place. Make that the #1 destination in BCS, and look for visitor density that would support shops/restaurants over the entire year period.
To me, this is the biggest problem, we are too spread out, and there is not one single destination (unless you count NorthGate as that) that the entire area is building towards.
I think part of the problem there is no truly one "central park". I mentioned Tom Bass in Pearland which is like if you essentially glued Stephen C. Beachy Central Park and Wolf Pen Creek Park together, and short of demolishing two apartment complexes, a church, an office building, and building a way over/under Southwest Parkway that's not really possible.
As for "central place", the upshot of B-CS is that's small enough that most of your day isn't spent traveling (ahem, Houston), but it makes me wonder about the places we
do have. I've repeatedly said that I want to see Post Oak Mall come back to life with retail, dining, and entertainment options. But the City's handling of the old Foley's/Macy's building makes it doubtful I would want them involved in
anything with it.
EliteElectric said:
Bob Yancy said:
The same people that tear down turn around and complain there's nothing to do here. Not always, but a lot.
That's not entirely true and quite frankly a little intellectually dishonest. Most of the people I know, who are weary of the city's involvement in matters such as this, are businesspeople, who have "skin in the game" when it comes to the health and betterment of our cities and county. In fact, you would probably be shocked to learn the names and credentials of a few that have posted on these threads. We thrive when the community thrives it's that simple. We want the city to grow and diversify it's entertainment options, we do not want the city to mess it up. They have a long and storied history of interference and ineptness resulting in tens of millions of dollars in WASTED tax money. People work hard for that money, they want it stewarded properly. They deserve it to be stewarded properly.
If Brian Lippman and Vince Kapchinski haven't been consulted with on this "idea" and, instead, a couple guys who like REK and Reckless Kelly on staff or a few people wearing "GOOD" hats are driving the decision making here it will go wrong. I will stand by that. The city and staff do not know what they are doing and that will come back to bite them. Again. And again and again and again. Charlie Brown will never kick that football, Lucy always pulls it away in the end.
"Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me!"
Yancy I have spoken to you here and privately, if you really want to make a difference and keep us out of the typical CoCS boondoggles the first step is moving away from wild ideas hatched by staff. WPC had been there for decades, if there were a way for a private group to make money there it would have happened long ago.
I have a great idea that should curb a lot of this- require staff to pledge a % of their salaries to whatever projects they propose, a sort of public/private enterprise. I imagine the moment that starts these great ideas will become far less frequent.
Your post made me think about the state of the city in both private and public enterprise.
1. Have residents ever shot down anything that would make the city have "more things to do"? Most of these City projects either don't bring anything new to the table or are contingent on others to do the heavy lifting. Reopening Thomas Park pool would be nice but the City was the one to let it get to the state it did, and I've seen them continually screw around with Adamson Lagoon--chances are it would be basically be the same low-depth apartment complex-style pool that they don't want to be a liability (so no slides or diving boards)...and stuff like the conference center hotel wouldn't bring immediate benefit to the citizens.
2. The second issue is what has failed in College Station that is from private enterprise? Houston has had all sorts of various business ventures that only operated for less than a decade before folding, and the City has been blamed for making new development needlessly expensive and difficult. The only major thing of the sort (so not counting stores and restaurants, especially tied to a larger chain with its own problems) is Greensworld, and that closed some 25 years ago. The ice rink came within closure at least a few times and even asked for annual subsidies (
which the City turned down).
