We Need A Mayor's Association

If you watch the State of the Union tonight, you will notice one thing different this year. For the first time, the seats will not be aligned with all Democrats on the left and all Republicans on the right. I'm an independent so I applaud the move, but I think the main message from tonight is great: Everyone must work together.

In a town of rivalries, I sure hope this message hits home. Here in Evansville we have Democrat vs Republican, East vs West, Reitz vs Mater Dei, Build Downtown vs Don't Build Downtown, USI vs UE, etc,etc. It reminds me of that Dr. Seuss cartoon of butter side up vs butter side down.

Don't get me wrong, rivalries are good. I enjoy them myself. It's the main reason why I am interested in both sports and politics. However, there also needs to be a time when the city comes together in a bipartisan fashion to complete city projects. There currently is a pall over Evansville and if we don't work together a house divided will never win.

With that being said, there is no better group to lead by example than the current and past Mayors of Evansville. While you may agree or disagree with some of their policies, you must admit that they have had a tremendous impact on the city of Evansville. The fact that most of them have had great political battles over time just proves that this bipartisan association has an amazing opportunity to bring Evansville together.

With a Mayor's Association, all of the past Mayors, along with the current Mayor, get together once a month or more and pick the projects they want to work together on. This association should not take on partisan projects or projects that are biased. Rather, this should be an opportunity to bring Evansville together with projects like working at a food bank, cleaning up the streets, and promoting the city.

The colors of the Mayor's Association shall be purple ( a mixture of Democratic Blue and Republican Red) with red, blue , and gold being secondary. The mission of the association shall be simple: Advance the city of Evansville.

Also, I believe the association, along with the help of the residents of Evansville, shall work together to build a statue of each and every single Mayor of Evansville. Once more, whether you agree with them or disagree, they have impacted the lives of Evansvillians and we need to recognize that. Further more, a statue of each Mayor would inspire residents and tourists to travel to each statue to see the history of each Mayor.



I firmly believe that these statues shall be spread all across Evansville with each statue being next to a project that that Mayor helped build.

Since most of you probably don't know all of the Mayor's of Evansville, let's first take a look at the timeline...

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/vanderburgh/evv_mayors.html

Mayors of Evansville, Indiana

•Mayors were appointed for a 3-year term by the Evansville City Council until 1870.

•The new city charters of March 3, 1893 & March 11, 1895 made the Mayor
responsible for the administration of city affairs and to appoint the heads of
different departments.

•City elections were held in the Spring until the early 1900's

Term

Mayor
Party
Comments

1847 - 1853
James G. Jones
Appointed Mayor by the City Council

1853 - 1856
John S. Hopkins
Appointed Mayor by the City Council

1856 - 1859
John Hewson
Appointed Mayor by the City Council

1859 - 1868
William Baker
Appointed Mayor by the City Council

1868 - 1870
William Hall Walker
Democrat
Appointed Mayor by the City Council. Died in Office, September 9, 1870

1870 - 1870
Eccles G. Van Riper
Democrat
Appointed Mayor by the City Council.

1870 - 1872
William Baker
Republican
Elected Mayor by Special Election. Died in Office, May 23, 1872

1872 - 1874
Charles H. Butterfield
Republican

1874 - 1880
John Jay Kleiner
Democrat
Elected to the 48th and 49th Congresses (March 4, 1883 - March 3,1887)

1880 - 1886
Thomas C. Bridwell
Democrat

1886 - 1889
John H. Dannettell
Republican
First German-Speaking Republican Mayor

1889 - 1892
Nicholas Miner Goodlett
Democrat

1892 - 1897
Anthony C. Hawkins
Republican

1897 - 1901
William M. Akin Jr.

1901 - 1906
Charles G. Covert
Republican

1906 - 1909
John William Boehne, Sr.
Democrat
Resigned March 1, 1909 - Elected to the 61st and 62nd Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1913)

1909 - 1910
John J. Nolan
Democrat
First Roman Catholic Mayor

1910 - 1914
Charles F. Heilman
Republican

1914 - 1922
Benjamin Bosse
Democrat
Died in Office, April 1922

1922 - 1926
William H. Elmendorf
Democrat

1926 - 1930
Herbert Males
Republican

1930 - 1935
Frank W. Griese
Democrat

1935 - 1943
William H. Dress
Democrat

1943 - 1948
Manson Reichert
Republican

1948 - 1949
William H. Dress
Democrat
Died in Office, November 10, 1949

1949 - 1952
Edwin F. Diekmann
Democrat

1952 - 1956
Henry O. Roberts
Republican

1956 - 1958
Rupert Vance Hartke
Democrat
Resigned 1958. Elected to the U.S. Senate 1959 - 1977

1958 - 1960
J. William Davidson
Democrat

1960 - 1972
Frank F. McDonald
Democrat

1972 - 1980
Russell G. Lloyd, Sr.
Republican
Only Republican Mayor Elected Twice. Died from gunshot wound, March 21, 1980

1980 - 1987
Michael Vandeveer
Democrat
Resigned May 1987

1987 - 2000
Frank F. McDonald, II
Democrat

2000 - 2004
Russell G. Lloyd, Jr.
Republican

2004 - 2008
Jonathan Weinzapfel
Democrat

I'll admit that I'm still unsure where we would put some of these statues, but I'm going to take a stab at some of them here...

James Jones- Old Courthouse
William Conrad Baker- Soldiers & Sailors Coliseum
Eccles G. Van Riper- Pigeon Creek, possibly next to the Canoe Launch
Charles G. Covert- Covert Ave, ideally down by Washington Ave
Benjamin Bosse- Bosse Field
Herbert Males- Stringtown Hill
William H. Dress- Riverfront or Airport
Henry O. Roberts- Roberts Stadium
Rupert Vance Hartke- Hartke Pool
Frank F. McDonald- Current Civic Center
Russell G. Lloyd, Sr.- State Hospital Park facing Lloyd Expressway or in a future downtown park at Main Street and the Lloyd Expressway
Frank F. McDonald, II- Willard Library facing Berry Plastics where he started the first recycling program
Russell G. Lloyd, Jr.- Pigeon Creek Trailhead facing Mulzer Stone where hopefully a new ballpark will one day be built
Jonathan Weinzapfel- New Arena

The 33 men who have served as Mayor of Evansville have served us well. In my opinion, it's about time we recognized their service with statues around our city. It's also about time our current living Mayors came together in a bipartisan way to work together to improve Evansville!

Bring Robert Indiana To Evansville, Indiana

Although I'm not a big follower of artists, one artist that has stuck out to me across the United States and elsewhere has been Robert Indiana.

Per Wikipedia...

Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana. His family relocated to Indianapolis, where he graduated from Arsenal Technical High School. He moved to New York City in 1954 and joined the pop art movement, using distinctive imagery drawing on commercial art approaches blended with existentialism, that gradually moved toward what Indiana calls "sculptural poems".

Indiana's work often consists of bold, simple, iconic images, especially numbers and short words like EAT, HUG, and, his best known example, LOVE.

In 2008, Indiana created an image similar to his iconic LOVE (letters stacked two to a line, the letter "o" tilted on its side), but this time showcasing the word "HOPE," and donated all proceeds from the sale of reproductions of his image to Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Raising in excess of $1,000,000. A stainless steel sculpture of HOPE was unveiled outside Denver's Pepsi Center during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign sold T-shirts, pins, bumper stickers, posters, pins and other items adorned with HOPE. Editions of the sculpture have been released and sold internationally and the artist himself has called HOPE "Love's close relative".

Other well-known works by Indiana including: his painting the unique basketball court formerly used by the Milwaukee Bucks in that city's U.S. Cellular Arena, with a large M shape taking up each half of the court; his sculpture in the lobby of Taipei 101, called 1-0 (2002, aluminum), uses multicoloured numbers to suggest the conduct of world trade and the patterns of human life; and the works he created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and exhibited in New York in 2004 called the Peace Paintings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Indiana

For those who haven't been to Philadelphia, Indiana's LOVE Sculpture is quite impressive as well as a powerful message. It has turned an ordinary park into a park that tourists visit frequently at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Plaza- LOVE Park. I was so impressed with the sculpture that I bought a pencil sharpener in Philadelphia that has the LOVE Sculpture on it.

Indiana has spread his design not only to Philadelphia but to other cities and countries as well. Wikipedia describes the design and idea best...

Love is a sculpture by American artist Robert Indiana. It consists of the letters LO (with the O canted sideways) over the letters VE. The image was originally designed as a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964, and first exhibited as a sculpture in New York City in 1970. This original sculpture is made of COR-TEN steel and has been on exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art since 1975. The LOVE design has been reproduced in a variety of formats. Likewise, the sculpture has been recreated in multiple versions and a variety of colors, and is now on display around the world.

While it was first made in English, versions of the sculpture exist in Hebrew, Chinese, Italian and Spanish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(sculpture)

The LOVE Sculpture is in many locations now...

Versions of Love in the United States

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Sixth Avenue in New York City
E.W. Fairchild-Martindale Library, Lehigh University Asa Packer Campus
Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, New York
Scottsdale's Civic Center
John F. Kennedy Plaza "LOVE Park" in Philadelphia
New Orleans Museum of Art's sculpture garden
Old School Square in Delray Beach, Florida
Middlebury College campus, Vermont
University of Pennsylvania campus, Philadelphia
Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, Utah
Ursinus College campus in Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Pool area of the Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino in Las Vegas
Wichita State University campus in Wichita, Kansas
City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana
Winslow-Holbrook Memorial Park Rockland, Maine

Versions of Love outside of the United States

Shinjuku I-LAND Tower in Nishi-Shinjuku office district in Tokyo, Japan
Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan (also displays Indiana's 1-0)
Orchard Road in Singapore
Plaza del Sagrado Corazón in Bilbao, Basque Country Spain
Outside 1445 West Georgia Street in Vancouver, Canada
Praça do Rossio in Lisbon, Portugal
CentralWorld in Bangkok, Thailand
Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, China
World Trade Center, Hong Kong, China
Chatsworth in Derbyshire, UK, as part of the Sotheby's Beyond Limits exhibition, 2008
Love Park in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, since July 2009
Old Port in Montreal, Canada
Camlica in Istanbul, Turkey

With all of these cities and countries adopting Indiana's artwork, shouldn't Evansville have something to recognize the native Hoosier? It would only seem logical. Furthermore, Evansville could use Indiana both for a LOVE Sculpture as well as a "Big E." So, where would I put Indiana's work?

For the LOVE Sculpture, there are two perfect locations for this. The first and preferred location is Haynie's Corner. What better place to put a LOVE Sculpture than the historic arts district? The second location is the Evansville Museum. Like the art distric, the Evansville Museum has several pieces of great artwork. Also, the Evansville Museum is on the riverfront which is a great place to display this sculpture.

If I had to choose, I would place the LOVE sculpture in Haynie's Coroner and then request Indiana design another sculpture for the riverfront museum. Again, if I had to choose I would say that a "Big E," would sum up Evansville best but Indiana likes building sculptures with 3-4 letters in them to get a better design. So what 3-4 letters could we do to sum up Evansville?

- EVV- with a Big E
- EVIN- with a Big E
- EVAN- with a Big E
- EVVE- with a Big E

I think any one of those 4 designs would maintain the "Big E" message as well as create a better design where we could slant the 2nd and 3rd letters to make it look creative. I believe this design would give Evansville another great sculpture/monument for tourists to visit, residents to gather around, and the museum to market.

Lastly, I wouldn't just stop there with Indiana's work. Like the historic U.S Cellular Arena used Indiana's M shape design on its court back when it was known as the MECCA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Cellular_Arena ) and the Milwaukee Bucks played there, I would paint the Evansville Ace's new basketball court at the new Evansville Arena with a "Big E," on each side of the court.


( Old Court at the MECCA; All we have to do is flip the M to an E, change the colors, and add the court markings)

Afterall, the new arena sits on the land formely occupied by the Executive Inn which was known as "The Big E."



Overall, I think working with Robert Indiana is a win-win for both Mr. Indiana as well as Evansville. We would establish our "Big E," image, join the famous list of area's with Indiana's LOVE Sculpture, attract tourists to a downtown sculpture on the riverfront, and design a creative image for the Evansville Ace's basketball court.

We have to bring Robert Indiana to Evansville, Indiana!

Ducks, Ducks, & More Ducks

These past three years, I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel around the U.S & Canada. I would say I have been to almost 90% of the country these past 3 years, highlighted by an unbelievable opportunity to live in Seattle, Wa. Some trips were for business, some for vacation but during all these trips I have been compiling ideas for Evansville which hopefully you have been reading on this blog.

One of the coolest concepts that I have ever seen has been a company called, " Ride the Ducks." I have seen them in Seattle, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston, and several other cities. They are the only tour organization that can take their tourists both on water and on land. They take their riders around famous landmarks around the city and then plunge directly onto the river where riders can view the city from the middle of the water.



http://www.ridetheducks.com/home.aspx
http://www.justduckytours.com/
http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/

When I first saw these vehicles, my first question was, " How do those vehicles do that?" According to wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_the_Ducks

"The actual vehicle is based on the famous World War II DUKW amphibious design. Today, the company builds its vehicles from the ground up to incorporate advances in marine design and safety. Ride the Ducks now owns the rights to, and manufacturers its own amphibious vehicles. In addition to equipping their vehicles with a number of safety features, including an abundance of adult- and child-sized lifejackets, duck captains are Coast Guard certified and hold commercial drivers' licenses. The captains are also fully trained in first aid and CPR."

While Evansville may not be as large as the current cities that have Ride the Ducks and it may not have as many landmarks ( don't worry I'm working on that), I still believe this would be a perfect idea for Evansville. Why? Because, how many tourists that come to Evansville want to go out on the mighty Ohio River but can't because there's no place that will take them out on the water? And how many tourists would like to know more about Evansville but don't know where to go and there is no one there to explain the town to them?

Here in Evansville, we have a great asset in the Ohio River. It's about time we took advantage of it. But where else would Ride the Ducks go here?


In my opinion, the following locations must be included in the tour routes...

- LST
- Bosse Field
- Roseanne House
- Reitz Home
- Greyhound Bus Station
- Roberts Stadium
- Old Courthouse & Jail
- Reitz Bowl
- Wesselman Woods
- Mesker Park Zoo
- Angel Mounds
- Willard Library

Of course, there are many more landmarks not on my list that could be added. The point is, if we are going to do our best to attract tourists to Evansville with the new arena, we need to have a company that shows them around for us and puts our best asset before them, which is the Ohio River. All this company would have to do to get this project going is lease a spot downtown and bring their vehicles here. Then, we're ready to go!

Most importantly, Ride the Ducks would be located downtown, which would encourage tourists to come downtown, which inturn would encourage business developers to come downtown. Now that's something I think we can all support!

Food & Retail Businesses I Would Like to See in Evansville

Lately, it seems like the same ole same ole businesses have occupied the Evansville market. If Evansville is ever going to take itself to the next level, it must diversify its market place. Here is a list of random stores and restaurants that I would like to see come to Evansville...

Skyline Chili- Cincinnati Chili at its best.


Gold Star Chili- See Skyline Chili.


Old Spaghetti Factory- Would look great next to Bosse Field.


Johnny Rockets- Great 1950's style food.


Joe's Crab Shack- Would be nice on the riverfront.


Firehouse Subs- Place one in the old fire station on St. Joe and place them next to other firestations. Take a percentage of the profits and keep the firehouses open!


Ryans Buffet- Similar to Golden Corral; a lot of different food for a good price.


Whole Foods- Healthy food for those who want to stay in shape.


Sports Authority- Everytime I'm in a college town or professional sports town, I stop into the Sports Authority to pick up some sports merchandise.


Neiman Marcus- 7th biggest department store in the country.

Making Evansville a No Kill City

As an avid supporter of animal rights, I find the current state of the city's animal control shelter to be nothing short of despicable. I find it to be quite pathetic the amount of cats and dogs that are put to sleep simply because no one cares.

A few months ago, I was inside the facility to see if my cat that had gotten outside had been picked up. I ended up adopting another cat inside the facility because I felt so bad for it due to the conditions it was living in. The process was nothing short of ridiculous. No one knew where the cat came from, no one knew anything about it, and the amount of red tape I had to go through just to figure out anything at all about the cat took me through several different people. Needless to say, things need to change. Anyone who is satisfied with the current conditions of the animal control department is nothing short of a fool. Evansville needs to be a no kill city.

In 1994, the City of San Francisco popularized the trend towards no-kill shelters. The San Francisco SPCA, led by President Richard Avanzino who would later become the President of Maddie's Fund, along with the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control guaranteed a home to every "adoptable" dog and cat who entered the shelter system. Since then the city of San Francisco (the SPCA along with the Department of Animal Care and Control) has been able to keep San Francisco as a no-kill city. In 2007, the live release rate of all dogs and cats in the city of San Francisco was 82%

There is a fantastic group here working towards that goal for Evansville: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=101458016563555

Although it would be great if we could get some government funding or just some basic legislation passed preventing these animal deaths, you and I both know that the current crop of politicians will never do something that productive, thus we need to solve this problem ourselves.

One of the coolest things I have seen in the animal welfare department is a place called Purina Farms in St.Louis, MO. Per their website, "Purina Farms combines an events center, a visitor's center and two canine competition areas. Show and field events as well as hands-on activities and exhibits reinforce the bond between pets and their people. The Purina Farms Visitor’s Center incorporates a Pet Center, a full-size barn containing domestic farm animals, and a theater and informational center. Demonstrations, dog obedience shows and hands-on petting areas are some of the highlights of this popular attraction, which draws nearly 200,000 visitors a year."
http://www.purina.com/purina-farms/purinafarms.aspx

This would be a great asset to our community if we had something like this as well. Imagine having a facility where dogs and cats were free to roam around and it made money because the facility had sponsors, donors, and revenue drawing events.

There are plenty of locations inside the city limits where this could be housed relatively cheaply, although I don't have a particular spot I'd support over another. Any warehouse district would do although it would be nice to have a location next to a hotel to increase tourist revenue.

In my opinion, one facility like this would easily make Evansville a no kill city. It would also improve Evansville's image as creative, progressive, and a place where tourists would like to visit all while saving the lives of the innocent dogs and cats in our facilities.

An Outside the Box Idea for the Old Diamond Ave Buylow

For the past decade, it has been very sad to watch the complex located at the corner of First Avenue and Diamond Avenue slowly decay. First, Buehler's BuyLow decided to close it's doors due to the fact that the store was competing with its other store on First Avenue. Then, ShopKo, which started out as a Hills and then a Venture, closed its doors. Faced with the loss of the two anchor stores, the rest of the complex, which one held a dollar discount store and a chinese restaurant, closed its doors as well. To top it off, Blockbuster, located in the parking lot of ShopKo, declared bankruptcy and closed its doors as well. Today, the entire complex sits dark and abandoned.

It seems very obvious to me that another mixed retail center like the ones in previous years will not work. Although the site is at a busy intersection, it is also in a tough place to navigate your vehicle to and it's on a dying street. Shoney's, Fazoli's, and the Spaghetti House were all on First Ave as well and all too have gone out of business. This clearly indicates that it's time to try something new.

Tearing down the entire complex would be expensive and wasteful. Most importantly, there really isn't any other building complex you could put on the site that would do any better. So what project could be done to revitalize the old buylow and maybe the entire complex?

Do you remember the game "Super Market Sweep?"

Per Wikipedia...

Supermarket Sweep was an American television game show. Part of the format was similar to other team-based quiz shows; the other part was a live-action race through a supermarket, a novel concept at the time. In the timed race, cameras followed the teams with shopping carts through a large vacated supermarket with several aisles; the value of items thrown into the cart determined the winning team. The original show was broadcast on ABC (December 1965-July 1967), with revivals airing on Lifetime (February 1990-May 1995, reran until August 1998) and later PAX (April 2000-May 2003, reran until March 2004).

ABC's Supermarket Sweep was broadcast from Food Fair supermarkets, mostly around New York City. For the Lifetime version, a mock supermarket was created at Hollywood Center Studios.[1] It was modeled after a Hughes Market until September 1993, when it was remodeled again after a Unified Western Market. The PAX version was staged in the same set and studio as the Lifetime version. Beginning in September 2001, the show moved to NBC Studios.

The host for the 1965-1967 ABC version was Bill Malone. The announcers were Wally King from 1965-1966, and Richard Hayes from 1966-1967, with Johnny Olson and Gene Wood as frequent substitutes during those years. The host for the 1990-1995 Lifetime version and the 2000-2003 PAX version was David Ruprecht. The announcers were Johnny Gilbert from 1990-1995 and again from April-September 2000, then Randy West for the rest of the show's run.

I can't help but think that this would be a great project for Channels 7, 14, or 25 to take on. The old Buylow is not a megastore so it would be the right size to host the studio. Back in the early 2000's WFIE weatherman Jeff Lyons hosted a game called Backatcha which for the most part was a success. I believe that this game show would be a success from the very beginning because...

1. It would be something unique for the complex
2. It would entertain those in the audience
3. It would be very low cost. Rent would be affordable and food vendors would sponsor their own products in the show

If the idea really took off, the old ShopKo could host a "Shop Til You Drop" which use to come on after Supermarket Sweep, but that might be a stretch due to the fact that that building is quite significantly larger. However, a Supermarket Sweep in the old Buylow would bring vistors back to the complex which can only help the entire complex. That's why I believe that one of the local television stations should explore this project.

Creating A Museum Row Downtown

If you've ever been to downtown Louisville, KY, chances are that you've been to Museum Row on Main Street. With the Louisville Slugger Museum, The Louisville Science Center, The Muhammad Ali Center, and six other museums, Louisville's Museum Row is a top notch tourist draw. ( http://www.museumrowonmain.com/ )

It seems very obvious to me that Evansville has a lot of history to create several museums but very little foot traffic downtown to make it worthwhile. With CMOE, The Evansville Museum, and The Reitz Home already downtown, a Museum Row would both compliment these venues as well as entice enough tourists to come visit downtown.

In previous posts, I've called for a Women's Baseball League Museum, a Negro League Museum, a Louisville Slugger Bat Factory Museum, and a Evansville Baseball Museum to set up shop in the Bosse Field & Garvin Park district. I've also called for a WWII museum to be built at the Port of Evansville. But what kind of museums would work downtown? I have come up with the following...

A HydroPlane Museum- Would commemorate the 30 + years of racing in Evansville as well as rejuvenate the movement to bring back hydroplane racing to Evansville.

A Roseanne Museum- Would commemorate the television show Roseanne that was produced by Evansville native Matt Williams. Tourists would start at the museum and then take a tour through out Evansville of spots featured in the show.

A Refrigerator Museum- Would commemorate the refrigerator's built here, the Refrigerator Bowl, and people who built the refrigerators.

There are several other museums that would make good candidates to form a Museum Row. So where would I build this Museum Row? Obviously, if the WWII museum is ever built or the Times Square Pavillion I have proposed ever comes to fruition, those would be the logical top candidates. But as of right now, they aren't built, thus making my prime location as 4th street next to the intersection with Walnut. In that area, there is already historic buildings and on one side of the road is an open parking lot where more museum buildings could be added. The street is also within walking distance of Main Street and the new downtown arena, making it the perfect place for a Museum Row!

Next Project For Evansville's Museum: A Solar Dome

Thanks to the dedication of Evansville Museum director John Streetman and the Evansville Museum board, the 104-year old museum will be receiving a facelift in the coming months. With the theme " Reaching For The Stars," the addition is expected to be complete in the fall of 2010. The new addition will have a plaza, a pavilion, and a theatre dedicated to astronomy, history, science, and arts.

It's been quite some time since there has been something new, and it's got me thinking: What else could the museum add in the future that would signifactantly increase it's notoriety. Everytime I think about the museum needs one thing comes to mind, a solar dome.

With all of the recent additions focusing on the planets around us, a solar dome would fit the museums profile perfectly. It would also satisfy the needs of Evansville, which has great solar energy potential as well as a need to find an alternative fuel.

So what would a solar dome have in it and where would it be? Well first of all, the museum and the city of Evansville could go in two different directions for the design depending on what the city needs in the future. If there is a potential minor league football team, a possible downtown mega high school, and/or a need for a multi-purpose facility, then the facility should be big enough to house both the museum's exhibits as well as room for a football field. More than likely though, only a dome that would house the museum's exhibits will probably be necessary.

When looking at other science center domes, the one that comes to my mind is the St.Louis Science Center right outside of downtown St. Louis (http://www.slsc.org/default.aspx). That science center is VERY similar to Evansville's. It has a planetarium, a discovery room, a science lab, and an OMNIMAX Theater. It also has many traveling exhibits.

So what could the Evansville Museum do to make its dome better than St.Louis's dome. My suggestion is this: Use it for electricity as well. As I said earlier, Evansville has great potential to generate solar power. When the Unified Electric Smart Grid comes online in a few years, the city could sell this power to anywhere in the U.S. When Vectren needs to raise rates even higher than what they are now, Evansville is going to wish that it had done more for solar power. This would be the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Install solar panels on top of the dome and use the money to fund the museums other projects at the same time.


Where could the dome be placed? In my opinion, the dome should be placed either behind EMTRAC or on the Sunset Park block just east of EMTRAC. Either one of these locations would be perfect for the solar dome. The only downside is that parking spaces would be eliminated (yet another reason for Personal Rapid Transit)which would have to be factored in. If need be, I believe that more parking could be added across Waterworks road.

If you think about it, a solar dome could do a lot of good things for the city. It could lower electricity costs, provide more funds for the museum, and even add another unique landmark to the Evansville skyline. Now is the time to build the Solar Dome!

Replicating Boston's Big Dig With The Lloyd Expressway

Late this year, a Lloyd Expressway overpass going over Fulton Avenue will open up with construction being complete. While this is one of the few projects in Evansville that seems to have the majority of the support from local residents, in my opinion it has two major flaws.

1. It drains from the gas tax. I am under the belief that the gas tax should be used to fund projects that will improve the future of transportation by 1. Eliminating the need for oil 2. Safely increase the speed of transportation & 3. Reduce the costs of transportation. High speed rail, Maglev rail, Personal Rapid Transit, and Light Raill all answer these three questions. Funding an overpass over Fulton Avenue will only eliminate a few car wrecks and save motorists maybe 5 or 10 minutes. In the long run, the overpass is basically useless, thus the gas tax should have never been used to fund it.

2. This overpass is above ground not below ground. This mistake has resulted in the division of downtown from the rest of Evansville and it has occupied much vital land. If the Lloyd Express were buried, there would be several hundred acres of downtown land opened up. This land could be used to 1. Redig the Wabash and Erie Canal 2. Construct a high speed rail line ( I would prefer high speed rail replace the Lloyd underground) 3. Construct a gateway entrance park like the ones in the 2001master plan.

While this may seem like a radical plan, there already is a precedent for this project. Facing a cramped city with no room to go, Boston decided to bury it's interstates that go through its downtown. Known as "The Big Dig," the project freed up much land downtown where parks, shops, and buildings now call home.

Although Evansville isn't as crowded as Boston, it would do wonders for the city to free up valuable land next to downtown. All of this land would put a significant amount of revenue in the downtown TIF districts coffers which would 1. Pay off the arena quicker 2. Fund a ballpark on the Mulzer Stone site & 3. Free up much needed land for a canal.

It may be a difficult project to achieve politically, but sooner or later Evansville needs to realize that burying the Lloyd not elevating it is the solution.

Implementing a Canoe Race & Bike Race

With Thunder on the Ohio every summer on the river, the Indy 500 every spring in Indianapolis, and the Little 500 bike race in Bloomington every year, Evansville is ripe for racing on its greenway.

Luckily, Evansville has an awesome greenway that runs along pigeon creek where both a canoe race and bike race could take place.

First the canoe race:

A few weeks ago, I took a stroll down Pigeon Creek in my newly bought canoe. I went from the canoe launch area off Heidelbach Ave all way down to the Joan Marchand Bridge at the entrance to the Ohio River. With amazing views of Pigeon Creek and the success of Canoe Evansville, I can't help but feel that a canoe race down pigeon creek would be a huge success.

The date of the race would have to fall sometime in the summer perhaps the week leading up to Thunder. It would involve 2 classifications of canoes with any boat over 14'' being in the big boat category and the rest being in the small category. There would also be a category for kayaks. There would also be different age groups with the number of heats determined by the number of participants. Admission into the races would be between $10 and $20 with half the money going to the winner and the other half going to clean, fix, and maintain Pigeon Creek.

For the bike race:

Like the Little 500 held every year in Bloomington, the Evansville bike race would be open to amateurs only. Unlike the Little 500, the race would be on a greenway not on a circular race track meaning the finish line wouldn't be in the same complex as the starting line. Ideally it would be nice to start at Garvin Park and end at the Ohio River on the greenway but that is currently not possible since the trail has not been completed. Either 1. a temporary track could be layed down 2. a detour could be set up or 3. a the race would be shortened to the completed trail only.

Whatever the course, the set up would be similiar to the canoe race in the sense that admission would be between $10 and $20 with the proceeds being split and the races would be divided by age. To me, it would be a good idea to have the bike race the same week as the canoe race.

With a magnificient greenway and a call for more people to come experience the Evansville outdoors, a canoe race and a bike race on the Pigeon Creek Greenway would be a perfect addition to the Evansville calendar.

Building on the Success of Mesker Park Zoo & Improving Mesker Drive

Over the past 5 years, the growth of Mesker Park Zoo has been phenomenal. A $15 million tropical rainforest called Amazonia has been constructed as well as a new entrance to the park. The Zoo seems pretty good right now so what should the zoo focus on moving forward?

Luckily, the zoo has an advantage over many other zoos in the fact that it has room to grow. There are very few houses between the zoo and Diamond Ave so the zoo basically has unlimited potential for growth. Why should the zoo take over that much land?

It seems like a pretty logical move, in my opinion, to expand all the way to Diamond Ave. With the zoo currenty being roughly 50 acres or so, it would be able to compete with the zoos in Cincinnati and San Diego who have land as large as 107 acres. Evansville would arguable be home to not only one of the greatest zoos in the Midwest but the whole U.S as well.

The expansion to Diamond Ave would also allow for the zoo to do each of the following...

- Bring in polar bears
- Build an even bigger rain forest
- Build a gondola sky tram ( The same as the one I proposed for downtown in an earlier post) that would go over an African Safari
- Set up a nature preserve for the trees and birds currently on the lot

I can't get over how fast Mesker Park Zoo has progressed over the last few years and I hope they will consider expanding again while they have all of this positive momentum. I do understand that money is tight since they just had to spend $15 + million on this latest expansion, but if they take things one at a time and plan effectively they will get there.

Another Mesker Park Zoo expansion is not the only vision I have for Mesker Dr. Years ago, there use to be a carnival at what is now a shelter house across the street from the entrance to the zoo. Believe it or not, it had just about anything you could imagine and it attracted children from all over. Unfortunately, it shut down and most of the rides are in Florida now.

At first, I considered proposing to put another Coney Island style permanent carnival there but have reconsidered that due to the fact that I believe a Coney Island style carnival would be served being located next to garvin park, Pigeon Creek, and hopefully some more youth baseball fields. So what would I do with the shelter house and additional land?

It is my belief that whatever is placed on that land should A. Keep the historical shelter house intact & B. Focus on children. With that in mind, I propose building a massive maze similar to the one that use to be up by French Lick and the one made out of trees in New Harmony. The shelter house would serve as the entrance with the maze taking up the rest of the land behind it. It would be relatively cheap to build and it would replace the maze in French Lick that has unfortunately been removed.


I also believe that if a downtown amphitheatre is ever built like the one I proposed earlier, the current Mesker Amphitheatre should be converted to a SeaWorld like dolphin show for the zoo.

It would be nice to drive up Mesker Park Drive and see the greatest zoo in America on my right and the biggest children's maze to my left with the old shelter house still intact. Now that would be awesome!