I have not rad his blog or the book, but this might be worthwhile to check out
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Wednesday, January 13, 2016
THIS MIGHT BE TIMELY AND WORTHWHILE
Brooklyn-based author Neil deMause, whose book "Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit" and is the bible on the that subject, will be the special guest (by phone) on WTIC 1080 radio at 3 p.m. TODAY. He'll be talking about our Yard Goats saga. His blog is www.fieldofschemes.com, and he's been covering Hartford's problems there for more than a year
I have not rad his blog or the book, but this might be worthwhile to check out
I have not rad his blog or the book, but this might be worthwhile to check out
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9 comments:
Linda Bayer should read this ... Before the meds ...
Democratic bully socalism at its finest has pushed GE out of Ct. I guess Malloy and his political carrot did not work this time. Why not throw some more money into the yard rats stadium??
The Legislature has to share the blame also, they passed the budgets that pushed GE over the edge
12:09pm
Trust me, she reads this
That woman doesn't miss a trick that goes on in city hall. Dose she have the longest amount of years as a city employee? I wonder how much her city pension will be.
I have read Field of Schemes from cover to cover--twice, and everything we've done wrong on the stadium project from the beginning has been done over and over again by cities around the country, and perpetrated by empty promises from sports teams around the country. It's all there in deMause's book. Here's the rub: A Hartford resident purchased nearly 2 dozen copies of the book--at his own expense--and gave them to all the previous city council members and other city officials back in 2014, when they were still debating the stadium project. We urged them to read the book, and I assume some of them did. Yet they ignored the evidence and the warnings, and rammed the project through anyway.
3:52PM, Anne,
and we are paying the price now and we will still be paying for at least 25 years
Thank you Pedro for your wonderful stewardship of our city. And Anne, thank you for your efforts and persistence, you must feel vindicated now.
Thank you, Kevin. But vindicated isn't the main feeling. That would be annoyance at those who still insist that we're "naysayers" and "haters". And a little sadness that if more people had made their voices heard--instead of just the same dozen people--the current situation might have been averted. It's fine to air your views on blogs, Facebook, and the Courant's comment pages. But the most powerful tool (after voting) is to show up at council meetings, hearings, public comment sessions, P&Z meetings, Stadium Authority meetings, council committee meetings, and make your presence known. Speak up when possible, but even if you don't or can't, just listen and observe, take notes, ask questions. Let the elected officials see you; let them know the people are watching and listening.
Anne, I agree that we didn't push hard enough to stop this stadium. But you might recall that I stood up early during the meetings on the stadium at the Charter Oak Cultural Center and admonished that if the group didn't organize a write in, email and phone campaign to council members, that the TV exposure would not be enough to stop this monstrosity. It seems at the time that no one listened. One person, now on council, asked me if I wanted to organize that campaign and I declined. But I stated it very strongly that council always counts the votes. I am sure that the contractors petitioned council with massive paid lobbiests. That is what I feared at the time. Because it seemed no one was interested with my advice, I never returned to the meetings.
I am not pounding my chest. But I did predict the outcome if a city-wide lobbying was not activated. Apparently, it wasn't.
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