My mistake on Walsingham although that does explain a lot.

It's not called "My Mom's basement". It is called "The Command Center".

And you people wonder why you are never invited in to the inner sanctum.

I would love to see the paper ask each and every City Council member if they knew at the time they approved this deal that the "public" parking spaces were only going to be open to the public after 5 and on weekends.

Any council members reading this want to join in?

Mr. Doreen has earned himself the Walser cheer.

STEW..art ! STEW..art! STEW..art! STEW..art !

Everybody now ! STEW..

Will we ever see something like this in the print edition?

Probably not, Stevenson. I have been given the opportunity to write these short opinion items on my MyWestTexas.com blog. And in this case that is where it belongs.

Think what you want, but Stewart is right that his comments belong on the MyWestTexasChatter blog sites and not in print.

I try and do as much online research as I can, but I don't think my stuff always rises to the level of being printed in the local newspaper of record, only because I don't have the actual agreements I comment on available to me. I have to rely on published reports about their contents. So there is a dose of speculation and a heap of commentary not befitting print journalism.

Besides, the speculation on the exact contents of the agreements that we can glean from published reports is part of our dig at the MDC. They have been advised by consultants to be transparent and proactive, and all local bodies have been admonished by the Comptroller to make their books and contracts available to the public online, however, the MDC hasn't posted an audit, financial or development agreement one.

the MDC hasn't posted an audit, financial or development agreement one.

As odd as it may seem for a critic to offer a link to a document that (theoretically at least) best defends the activities of the local development corporation I do so whole-heartedly.

Here is the MDC Annual Report.

I encourage you to go and read it for yourselves. You will simply not find a bigger collection of buzz-phrases, consultant-speak, and word salad anywhere. Every sentence is designed to use as many characters as possible and still provide little or no insight as to the ongoing operations of the MDC.

There is much, much talk about "facilitating" and "partnering" and "targeting" and "initiating" and "broadening awareness".

And there are also lots of big, full color photos that all serve to use up the space that organizations offering up a serious Annual Report would use for a set of financial statements.

Reading it you would hardly know that 1) They handle any tax payer money at all, and 2) Pretty much everything they have touched has turned to s***.

To clarify: These deals have not turned to s*** because the MDC has touched them. The point is that the MDC can't know which individual companies will succeed in the mid to long term and which will not. They may as well take the money and by risky stocks. Which is fine when it is your own money. But they are taking other people's money and investing in literal crap shoots.

Walser , If you get tired of living in your mother's basement , I have a mother-in-law house in my back yard you may live in RENT FREE until the MDC buys my two lots for public (wink wink ) parking.

I am but a hop , skip and jump from downtown ( a mere 19 blocks) ! The assessed value of the land my house sits on is $14,000.00 . One parking place is worth $4999.00 (Permian Plaza). I figure I can put at least 20 parking spaces in without having to move my house..Or move my house into the county and DOUBLE the parking area !

This is the ultimate win-win situation ! The MDC buys by property ( thereby getting rid of me!) for a quarter mil. They get parking within sight of downtown . People wishing to do business downtown can park at leisure . People wishing to exercise may take a straight line walk to downtown OR they may take a snappy bus ride on MT Ryder!

OH ! What happened to the Sheridan Hotel ? Didn't they turn that into a parking lot? Yes , yes..I believe they did ! Has ANYONE EVER seen it full ? Half full? More than , say , 25 cars?

Hmmmm , this parking deal seems to be a "right hand " issue and I now wonder what the left hand is doing .

Curiouser and curiouser !