I always thought the interactive water fountain was a joke. They don't even keep the "Wall of Water" running at Centenial Plaza and more often than not, the rest of the fountain isn't running either.

Not to mention the fact that public fountains are the first thing to be turned off when water supplies get tight, closely followed by not watering the parks.

Good point about the water fountains they can't even keep in good order - but what about the downtown clock that did not run for years?(they claimed they had no money to fix it)

Or the (quite pretty actually) Chinese pagoda that (some city government idiot) placed in an area of town where it could be easily vandalized? Or the still EMPTY MDC $1-$3 million dollar building at the airport? Or the new stadium that was going to bring in - oh so many concerts, events, etc.? Or the "new" airport that was going to bring in new carriers and flights to other places than DFW or HOU? And remember when the airport was renamed "Midland INTERNATIONAL Airport"? That was going to brimg in international flights! I am sure I could think of a much longer list of things that just didn't seem to go quite right, but my fingers are tired.

I will predict though, that if a new convention center is built, it just won't ever be used much either. I also predict the same for the Horseshoe. I also think that the direction the downtown revitalization folks are taking is wrong and will fail (one cannot turn downtown into something it NEVER was in the first place).

I've been to the Pagoda and think it is quite nice, but it was a horribly ill conceived location (even if they HAD the landscaping and sidewalks done in the first place). The park it is located in has a "Ranch House" theme and already had several buildings. Not exactly a place for an international exhibit. I would have picked the park behind the Museum of the Southwest.

Of the Rah-Rah projects championed by our City Fathers, I don't begrudge the Sports Complex one bit. However, I ranked it more as a quality of life project than a money maker. Being a native Midlander I knew our old facilites were due for replacement. Besides, freeing up Christensen Stadium from professional obligations opened it up to more use and saved the City from building more full size baseball parks.

I also don't begrudge the airport project. Too often people get tied up critising the wild growth visions of the promoters and fail to the appreciate the intrensic value of the project. If anyone was to balme for the way the airport project came about it is the Feds and their screwed up funding schemes. Renovations and deferred maintenance were due, but Federal Grants pay for new, not fix and remodel. Additionally, we needed the jetways that accommodated regional jets/props. The 'Midland Only' dollars (yes we all pay federal taxes) amounted to not much more than we would have paid for a remodel job.

BTW, the 'International' desigination was never intended for "international passenger flights" regardless of what some ill informed rah-rah types might have said. It facilitated the creation of the duty-free trade zone and got us U.S. Customs inspectors for the export, receipt and processing of international cargo by air and other means (rail/truck). This really facilitates the direct shipment of oilfiled equipment globally out of the Permian Basin.

My mind isn't made up on the Horseshoe. Yeah the County Exhibit Building is tired, but the montrosity they are building on I-20 is going to be hard to keep booked. Ector County couldn't have kept their facilities without Hockey and Indoor Football. How we got from a request to build a Class 'A' roping arena partially funded by private donors to the 'Horseshoe' still bothers me.

The new MDC Spec Building and visions of Downtown revitilization are also ill conceived. Downtown will be revitalized when there are business which utilize high-rise office space filling up multiple floors of empty buildings. Nobody is going to live downtown and nobody is going to dine/club downtown outside of what already exists. Sure folks will go to festivals and events downtown, but that is about it. Besides screwing up the AirSho parking, the MDC Spec Building doesn't seem to be generating any interest. Right now it is just a big waste of $$$. I hope that changes soon. If it won't go when times are good, it will be an albatros when times are bad.

I am also a Midland native for almost a half a century. I would agree the stadium and airport both needed to be replaced, my issue though was one of, "replace it with what?" Too often when a government is building something, it goes to the extreme. Witness the "big dig" in Boston and the "bridge to no where in Alaska".

The airport was probably an appropriate cost but I think a poll of people on the stadium(s) would agree they went a hair over the top. But alas, we have them and unfortunatley, I don't think enough of an effort has been made to utilize either stadium. And quite frankly, why should they? They are being paid for with increasing tax revenues, even though they are not being used most of the time.

I would agree that the Horseshoe is over the top as well as the pie-in-the-sky ideas for downtown. A better and more feasable idea for downtown (or close to it at least) would be the creation of a "Mexican Market". The market would be a few enclosed blocks with resturants, bakeries, imports and possibly a Hispanic Heritage center. With local and Interstate traffic, as well as the traffic corridor from Mexico, this would be a sure winner.

But unfortunately we seem to have people in charge with little vision and who don't want to rock the boat or take personal responsibility. The results are over-inflated building designs and costs, an over-reliance on outside consultants and silly, immature thoughts on what "could be".

I like the Plaza de Midland idea, the only drawback to locating it in the heart of Downtown is that it will not draw interstate traffic to it. If it is not on Big Spring Street and South of the "Y" about a mile south of Downtown, your typical traveler will not exit the Interstate for it. Midlander's will drive down (note the new Wal-Mart) but visitors will not drive up. The Entrada traffic is suppose to peel off at the Airport and take the 1788-349 By-Pass, so a lot good that does for downtown traffic up Big Spring Street. So while the market it is a great idea, and a great improvement to the development disaster that is parts of South Big Spring Street, it would still leave the Downtonw boosters hunting for a way to spend tax money to do anything besides hunt and develop "office space" intensive enterprises.

The stadiums may be over the top in certain archtectural regards (to my taste), but at least somebody woke up before they built the exhibit hall which was on one of the development plans. To utilize the football stadium more, El Paso is going to have to get play-off caliber teams, or the Midland/Odessa Coaches are going to have to get brave enough to flip the Home-Home coin instead of picking the neutral site. I'm still wating for those promised "International" soccer tournaments to come. I think Thunder in the Desert is the only feather that can be put in the non-sports cap for the stadiums, save a concert here or there.

agree that airport and stadiums were good upgrades but were way to fancy.

I disagree with your downtown assesment
Look around at other texas cities-San Angelo has done a lot with little, and Bryan TX has seen a lot of developemtn in what was until a few years back an almost completely dead downtown.

Bob, with all due respect, both of the cities you mentioned had a downtown to begin with. By this I mean the typical Texas downtown with the courthouse in the middle surrounded by small retail stores. Midland, since the 1940's I believe, has had a courthouse surrounded by office buildings. Quite unique for a city Midland size.

The Midland downtown redevelopment efforts are based on a "retail re-development" model - which I think is wrong for Midland. Since Midland has had a very unique downtown for over half a century, the approach needs to be unique as well.

And quite frankly, when I was growing up in the 1960's and '70's, and my parents worked downtown, after they came home, they never went back! The downtown area basically closed down after 5 except for a few spotty restaurants. So I ask a rather profound question:

Why is money, effort and time being spent to "revive" downtown anyway? Has Midland lost anything by continuing to have a predominately office building type downtown? Are people and companies NOT re-locating here because we don't have an active downtown? Are people moving out of Midland because of downtown?

I am of the thinking that very good reasons must be made for projects before money and time spent on them. It is my thinking that this downtown effort is based more on the desires of certain downtown building owners and their cocktail friends as opposed to real thinking and reasoning.

I have to agree with a&mgrad on Downtown. My Dad has worked downtown for decades (still does), and it has always been an 8 to 5 kinda place. People talk about "shops on main street" back in the day, but they were nothing more than small mercantiles or jewelery shops. Don't get me started on the old Movie Theatre/Club.

The retail/dining places of Midland have always been on the outskirts of Downtown. Village Shopping Center (Wall/Garfield), Westgate (A/Scharbauer)and Old Town Midland (Garfield/Illinois) were(are) retail/eating centers. Yeah you could say the converted shops on East Terrell or the Sundown Market are "downtown", but they are not around the Courthouse Square like most of the towns pointed to as Downtown Success Stories.

Additinally, we haven't had the traffic busy County Offices pumping up Downtown traffic for as long as I can remember. The Tax and Voting office haven't been in the Courthouse for a long, long time, and now they are in Westgate. They have gone from Skirting DT to totally out.

NOT TO MENTION... the Social Security Office is pulling out of Downtown and is going to build a NEW building on the Loop near Kohls. (It's on the EZ Rider Routes). Is downtown Midland Fighting to keep this downtown traffic generating tenant?

As I mentioned, (I know this for a fcat, though need to be descreet), the main reason for downtown "development" has much, much more to do with downtown property values as opposed to what is good for the city.

Certain individuals/companies have made investments in several DT office buildings and have a direct stake in getting those values up. They are the ones pushing for (any type) of downtown development for (in my opinion) personal financial reasons as opposed to what might be good for the public at large.