New Downtown Baseball Stadium, AAA Club, and Associated RE Development

[abdullah_sharif]

wichita lost its mojo back in the 80s.. call it globalization or whatever you want, but we have fallen from an important american city (gdp and average wage per capita) in the realm as charlotte, austin, and albuquerque... to now? we're behind des moines, okla city, and omaha..

our lost mojo has most to do with lack of employment diversity and educational attainment. if a city/region could has a very educated workforce, i suspect that recruiting companies (with or without subsidies) shouldn't be an issue.

[WstateU]

Hey man, Wichita rocks!

https://media.giphy.com/media/xClR7LXq7JF5u/giphy.gif

[ShockTalk]

Don't (Won't) do Instagram. I'm ?lucky? to use Facebook once in a while.

[WstateU]

Oops, don't have Facebook, but the Instagram link takes me to the wrong place. Hmmm, that account was locked?

[ShockerFever]

It looks kinda bad but it's not as bad as the amount of people in this city that are against any sort of progression of it whatsoever. They literally want this place to be Dodge City.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Wichita's decline really started in the 1970s. It was the '80s when it really hit its stride.

Something happened in the '70s to cause the ultra-conservative CAVE people to come out of the woodwork. Afraid to progress, afraid to take risks, afraid to invest in themselves, afraid to think big (or think at all), they wouldn't settle for anything more than the status quo. And Wichita's been stuck in the mud since.

Just seeing it from a distance now, I can see some things are changing, but the CAVErs held Wichita back for so long that the recovery will take decades.

It's interesting to see who Wichita's peer cities were in the 60s and 70s and think about what might have been...

[Veritas]

I’m not sure I understand the conflict with the new ball park

If an investor originally came forward with a deal to bring in AAA baseball, national developers to develop the area around the new stadium, help the city establish a CID to pay for the new stadium and asked for a few acres of subsidized land, nearly all would jump onboard.

Culturally, this developed area would be a big plus for Wichita nearly 365 days per year.

What is the issue? That the whole sausage making process wasn’t held at antiquated Century II for a city debate?

Wichita is on the move. When do the CAVE dwellers die off or move to Topeka?


https://www.kansas.com/news/politics...226994834.html

[vbird53]

First of note, I am still strongly optimistic on this deal. However, there are a couple points of contention on all of this. Each of the mock-ups of design differ quite a bit, from placement of the stadium to some of the amenities that are included. The other major issue is that directly across the river sits a majorly failed development zone. It's a constant reminder for people to be skeptical until the deal is done. I'm glad people are engaged, asking questions, and putting fire to the officials making this deal that they better deliver.

[shocktown]

Live entertainment right now watching city council taking public comments.

[SHOCKvalue]

I was uncomfortable with how some of the disclosures on this deal went down, but you can only sit back in awe at those actively attempting to sabotage this generational development - to include the biggest offender - the Wichita Eagle.

This town “eats its own” like no other. It’s no wonder Wichita is in the state that it is today, when the one of its biggest media voices is basically the modern iteration of the CAVE-r squad.

Wichita gon’ Wichita, at the end of the day. It’s is an across the board disease, and it afflicts all - rich and poor, left and right. We’re the dog that chews its own leg off.

[ShockerFever]

If they **** this up...

[shocktown]

7-0 approved! The caver folks can go crawl back in their holes until next time.

The KC Eagle won’t have a story in print if they still do that for another day since they roll things up in Doodah at 5 and basically have no operation locally.
(Taylor Eldridge is the one redeeming light)

[Veritas]

Eagle is now probably run out of KC so their constant negativity and reporting on limiting growth and opportunity does not surprise me. Wish the Eagle was still locally owned. Instead it seems we have a satellite office for the KC Star ( or whatever it’s called)

question: why approve 4 acres and not 4.5 acres which would have then included the Ferris wheel? What’s that 1/2 acre going to do now? What was the hang up on the 1/2 acre?


Next big cave controversy will be a stand alone Performing Arts building downtown.

[ShockBand]

The wailing over parking drives me nuts! While I do wish the DESIGN of IBA was different and better (should have modeled off of the FedEx Forum and just scaled back a bit IMHO), parking is NOT an issue at IBA, even with 15,000 in attendance. There will be plenty of spots to park within a 5-10 minute walk of the new baseball stadium, or you could ride the Q line a lot of the time, or take an Uber. My holding of my breath is more of the "please don't F this up" the development that has been proposed could really add spark to an already reviving Delano area.

[ShockerFever]

The ferris wheel would have been a cool attraction to downtown and would've brought people in to a place that doesn't have a lot of attractions.

I agree. What's so big about that half-acre?

[WstateU]

Watch the video (some good comments early)...

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics...228143984.html

[shocktown]

I watched most of it live. The 16 hour guy's screed was boarding on nuts, he needed kicked squarely in the grapes.

There was a little old lady with red hair who shot the Delano parking worry out of the park so to speak. She reference the St Patrick's Parade this weekend that was estimated to bring in over 10,000 people, those people managed to park and walk in from somewhere and it wasn't the LD stadium lot because that it parade staging.

[ShockTalk]

There is little doubt that the project has been hurt by hiding things from the public that probably wouldn't have made any difference in the first place. Except now the public does not trust our local government and the project's developers wondering what the next thing is they haven't announced. This will also, unfortunately, cast a shadow on any other future developments.

We have talk here of CAVE-rs while our city officials and the baseball team's developers give them ammunition to pull people to their side.

One person talked about this project not being a "silver bullet". Well, it's not and anyone touting it as so is flat wrong. It is a beginning. A starting point. Think of it as putting that silver bullet in the gun. Our city has other pending and future projects to deal with that will help our community to be more viable. In the future, city officials need to be very diligent about being upfront in regards to all aspects of other developments with the public they serve.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Spot on

[SHOCKvalue]

It is so strange to see the CAVE-r demo shift from old/conservative to young/progressive. I wonder if other cities are also struggling with progressives trying to block progress? Talk about an odd sentence to read or hear.

[WstateU]

Like the 31 year old women that doesn't have a family yet (sporting a nice hog-ring/nose-ring)… I better let that dog lie.

[ShockTalk]

You and I may just be too old WstateU.

[SHOCKvalue]

Yeah, I almost went there too.

Her saying she wouldn’t be interested in going to a baseball game was a bit of a “does a bear s*** in the woods” moment. Just like how people such as you and me won’t be going to her next deodorant-free drum circle get-together.

That’s fine if her and her social circle don’t enjoy baseball - it’s a free country, still for a while yet - but don’t project your personal inclinations on all 650K people in the Wichita metro. The idea that this won’t be a community centerpiece is inane.