On a convention center [See
Convention center obsession here]
I have been reading some of the opinions of your readers and listening to the media talk about the convention center issue. There seems to be some push for a new Convention Center but every time it gains momentum, someone in the community or the media shuts it down. Why is it every time someone wants to talk about something positive in this town, it is immediately shot down as a bad idea? I am tired of living in a City that does not get the Big Picture. Everyone talks about Cleveland as a city that will not attract convention business, then why does Indianapolis have a Convention Center or Pittsburgh or Columbus or Cincinnati? Even Baltimore! Cold weather cities that have Convention Business. Our Convention center is now losing out on Local revenue to the IX center on shows such as, the auto show, the home and garden and home improvement show, the golf show, the boat show etc. Tell me how Cleveland benefited from all those Dollars?? The point is we need to bring in NEW! money outside of our region and Cleveland does have a lot to offer to the rest of the Country and the World. We need to stop thinking the Glass is half empty in this town and take some risks, they say a closed mouth never gets fed and if you sit around waiting for something to happen most likely it won't. So if Cleveland wants to become a great city it needs to think like one and the media and local government and the citizens of Cleveland need to believe in a better tomorrow. Right now, organizations are not looking at Cleveland for a Convention because the facility's are not competitive with other city's in the country and we will not be competitive, or have the chance to attract business, unless we build a new Convention Center. It is plain and simple we can all just sit around a talk about how bad Cleveland is for the 20 years while every other city is out there reinventing itself and we try to make money taxing our citizens to death and installing Red Light Cameras and writing tickets as our City's way of building a brighter future for Cleveland. Regionalism is another issue and I would like to talk more about that but that is another day and time. I would say that regionalism and a new Convention facility along with job creation should be TOP PRIORITY for the city, it is our best shot for a brighter future.from Cool Cleveland reader Eric Julian erjulian@yahoo.com (:divend:)