Old Town Warren

[kawwsu77]

ASM,
I understand where you are coming from.

I am getting sick and tired of "Wichitans" complaining about Cowtown getting tax money and never say a word about the Zoo which gets more.

I am not against the Zoo I just am using it as an example. I have gone to the Zoo several times and I have loved it.

[ShockerFever]

None the less, Wichita would have been better off if Warren had won and Wichita is better off with Warren theaters than without.

Perhaps not a lot believed in your opinion, since, in fact, Warren got crushed.

[martymoose]

If we had a casino, we wouldn't be talking about this right now...

[SpanglerFan316]

None the less, Wichita would have been better off if Warren had won and Wichita is better off with Warren theaters than without.

Perhaps not a lot believed in your opinion, since, in fact, Warren got crushed.

Voters often make poor choices. Look at Bush vs. Gore. My mom (a lifelong Republician) voted for Ike in 1956 and told me that, in retrospect, she should have voted for Adlai Stevenson. If people knew that a big convention would be lost, the city council would melt down, the mayor would suggest diverting mill levy funds from student scholarships to football, etc. before the election, I'll bet they would have voted differently.

[wu_shizzle]

Voters often make poor choices.

You usually get the government you deserve.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

If we had a casino, we wouldn't be talking about this right now...

[wxkid23]

If we had a casino, we wouldn't be talking about this right now...

Nah... we are better than casinos here lmao ;-)

[wxkid23]

I wonder how long before Warren totally takes over the city theatres and Northrock 14 shuts down....

[ShockerFever]

None the less, Wichita would have been better off if Warren had won and Wichita is better off with Warren theaters than without.

Perhaps not a lot believed in your opinion, since, in fact, Warren got crushed.

Voters often make poor choices. Look at Bush vs. Gore. My mom (a lifelong Republician) voted for Ike in 1956 and told me that, in retrospect, she should have voted for Adlai Stevenson. If people knew that a big convention would be lost, the city council would melt down, the mayor would suggest diverting mill levy funds from student scholarships to football, etc. before the election, I'll bet they would have voted differently.

That was a split vote. This was a majority - an overwhelming one at that.

Kinda funny though that the Bush haters were given a second chance to push him out and that didn't work.

I guess you should move out of this city or something, seeing how we're all stupid and keep making stupid decisions, unlike yours.

[Snapshot9]

Miscellaneous comments:

Ike is considered one of the greatest Presidents of the 21st century.

The Zoo is the most popular draw in the whole state of Kansas.

Cowtown is neither big enough nor unique enough to sustain itself. Every town that ever had a cattle drive down main street has the leftover western fare in their town, Abilene, Dodge City, Oklahoma City, not to mention Silver Dollar City in Branson.

Kids study history all throughout school. Looking at a bunch of old stuff doesn't really increase my appreciation for it one way or another. People are more concerned with entertainment today, rather than history.

Wichita is always a follower in their progression as a city. Then they usually downsize the idea to where when it is implemented becomes middle of the road attraction instead of something unique. (Remember the original plans for Waterwalk?).

We subsidize about every museum in town, except the 1 that we should, Museum of World Treasures that is truly unique in a working concept.

IMO, Warren would have been much more innovative and progressive than Mayans was. His theaters have done a lot for Wichita, no matter what you might think of the man personally.

[kawwsu77]

The Zoo is the number one attraction in Kansas because it is funded by tax dollars. They get 4.7 million dollars a year and without that money it would be nothing. But no one complains about the Zoo getting tax money it is only Cowtown.

How does the "Museum" of World Treasures deserve public funding when they got a building after complaining that they will move. They kicked out all the businesses in the Farm and Art Market so they could move in there and now very few of those businesses remain in Old Town.

The "Museum" of World Treasures is just a guys collection it is not a museum. I have been suspicious of it when they showed the "first" peace treaty and let everyone touch it. You don't do that if you are a real museum.

I think that going out to museums helps the learning process. When I was in school I would have loved to gone out to Cowtown or any museum instead of just listening to my teacher every single day.

To get good entertainment you have to have money. Lord knows that Cowtown has been neglected for years and now it has finally caught up to the city. No museum makes money and therefore has to be funded by tax dollars. I bet the Smithsonian does not make money.

Like I said before I love the Zoo I just get sick and tired of everyone complaining about Cowtown getting tax money when the Zoo gets at least 12% more money than Cowtown.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Kids study history all throughout school.

Although most people dont care enough about history to really care but I have a smidgeon of a problem with this. Not that its bad to learn history in school but to many people just take it at face value when in actuality....

But again thats a different discussion for a different time.

[SubGod22]

Seeing history brings a whole new perspective to it and is far better than just hearing history.

[jocoshock]

The Zoo is the number one attraction in Kansas because it is funded by tax dollars. They get 4.7 million dollars a year and without that money it would be nothing. But no one complains about the Zoo getting tax money it is only Cowtown.

How does the "Museum" of World Treasures deserve public funding when they got a building after complaining that they will move. They kicked out all the businesses in the Farm and Art Market so they could move in there and now very few of those businesses remain in Old Town.

The "Museum" of World Treasures is just a guys collection it is not a museum. I have been suspicious of it when they showed the "first" peace treaty and let everyone touch it. You don't do that if you are a real museum.

I think that going out to museums helps the learning process. When I was in school I would have loved to gone out to Cowtown or any museum instead of just listening to my teacher every single day.

To get good entertainment you have to have money. Lord knows that Cowtown has been neglected for years and now it has finally caught up to the city. No museum makes money and therefore has to be funded by tax dollars. I bet the Smithsonian does not make money.

Like I said before I love the Zoo I just get sick and tired of everyone complaining about Cowtown getting tax money when the Zoo gets at least 12% more money than Cowtown.

When I was in business school back in the late 70s, I was involved in working on a Marketing study for Cowtown. At the time, they were trying to become recognized as a living museum, like Williamsburg. They felt that Cowtown was not an approrpriate name, and wanted (or did) change the name to "Historic Wichita" or something like that. Going for a Williamsburg like designation put some pretty severe limitations on what they could and could not do.

In all honesty, if you want to make Cowtown viable, they should either pick up Wild West World and move it to Cowtown, put in some major league rides (real roller coaster, etc) and have some serious activities attached to the facilities, in a similar fashion to Silver Dollar City. It probably couldn't be on quite the same scale, but in reality that's what it takes. The two wouldn't have to be comingled like SDC, but could be collocated. I've been to Cowtown in past years during the River Festival and Christmas when there was a lot of activity and large crowds. There's no reason why that couldn't be expanded. They would really be well served to study Silver Dollar City's business model and could be successful adoptinig parts of it. Of course to be successful, they would have to run it as a business, and that's not easy for governments.

As far as history is concerned, I can't imagine Wichita without Cowtown. History is very important, and unfortunately far too many people ignore it. What they say about ignoring the lessons of history is too too true...

[kawwsu77]

Cowtown needs to look at Living History Farms in Des Moines. Each building had a person dressed in period clothing explaining a task or the job they were portraying and these people most of them were on staff. Also they had events every weekend and it was packed. Before you went in to the museum you could grab a work glove and help the farmers with their chores. The kids loved it. That is what Cowtown needs to do.

But the first thing Cowtown needs is a director with a history background to run the place. Then start getting a model going. Get a strong of enough model and Cowtown will be going strong.