|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ah Yes, A Convention Center... |
|---|
| They're Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacckkkkk |
|
This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, June 16, 1999. The Boulder City Council last night started chatting about getting a new Convention Center in town. In 1985 they tried to get one by calling it an Art Center so that it would have tax advantages and would get the votes of people who considered themselves anti-business. The public saw through that easily enough, and despite the pro center people spending twenty times what the opponents did, the voters turned it down two to one. That was good. It was a bad deal, a bad idea, and badly done. And since it sounds like they’re going to try it again, spending lots of your money for studies, let’s review. It was a bad idea because the demands of an art and performance house are very, very different from that of a convention center, and such buildings are hermaphroditic and generally awful for per-formance because the powers that be will demand full compliance to their convention needs. Start with that. But then, note that downtown Boulder, which is the traditional location for such a building, can no longer handle a huge additional traffic burden. It could not in 1985, either, but it surely cannot now. There are only three streets in Boulder that go through it north to south: Broadway, 28th, and 47th. Kissing goodbye to downtown, the best place for such a facility would be on 47th, like the old Ca-reer Track Convention Center, near hotels, major access, handy and already built. But the disturbing thing about a push for a convention center is that it bears a remarkable resemblance to a push for a municipal horse stable. Convention Centers and conventions as we have known them are passe and getting more so. This is the age of the Internet, and video conferencing and its eventual derivatives are the wave of the future. It is disturbing to see our Chamber of Commerce (and by the by, have they paid off their own building yet??) promoting a Conference Center just be-cause that’s what Chambers do. It isn’t particularly far sighted and it doesn’t seem to be needed and, truth be told, wanted by those who would be inflicted with it. A disturbing number of pro Center peo-ple live in Devil’s Thumb, or in Lake Valley or Niwot, safely ensconced from the traffic burden such a facility would bring. It is an old bitch here in Boulder that the city is anti-business and is driving all the clear sighted, hairy-chested business men out, and no doubt this ridiculous argument will be made for this version of the conference, convention center. This is partially true but mostly false, given our overpopulation of business executives who choose to live here. Boulder has become a very different city than it was in the early 1960’s when liquor was illegal here, Canyon wasn’t paved all the way to 28th street, heroin was only for the poor, and Frank Day was still in Chicago. A large part of Boulder is now a bedroom community for Denver, Colorado, the United States. We have indeed stuck it to the crappy developers who would have done to us what they are doing in Louisville and Superior now. Seen those Dickensian horrors going up? Hell, they’re already up. That’s what might be our view towards the Flatirons now. The green belts and slow growth that Boulder is so proud of were a very controversial subject and theory forty years ago. We have, in large part, Paul Danish to thank for that, and the concept that bears his name. He uneasily bears that crown, but I think he and others now fuzzy in memory should periodically be thanked so we don’t forget what foresight and responsible civic duty is, well executed.Such foresight and civic responsibility are utterly void in a move to get a conference center. In the 1950’s, right after WW II, American business was booming after a world war and a depression and its various components liked to get together and celebrate themselves under the guise of sharing business news and to plot. For the same reasons, business, government, and the halls of learning liked to get together and read papers to each other, endure a weekend of bad food, consummate illicit affairs and head home to spouse and the hideous drudgery that was the 1950’s. These two institutions – con-ventions and conferences – have no arguments for their continued existence except those illicit affairs and the social life granted by huge amounts of alcohol. Major businesses and government agencies and universities can be in daily video contact over secured lines. Secure email can contact everyone. Three-D video can display new products, and FEDEX can get it there overnight anyway. All of this at far cheaper and more accurate presentation levels than a conference or convention would allow. What need does the conference, the convention fill in business anymore? None. It is simply a social tradition. And like the mavens who essentially wanted a brick and mortar edifice to celebrate their artistic stations in life, Boulder’s Chamber can apparently think of nothing better to do to justify its dues than a brick and mortar building – the current ones won’t do – to celebrate their devotion to petty commerce of this and not the next century. |
| Post your views and reviews on The Boulder Lout Forum. |