The Medical Mart Plan Makes No Sense Too Me

[Will Brown]

I think it misleads to lump tourism and conventions together. Tourists don't want to go to meetings, and conventioneers are too busy in meetings to spend much time on tourist activities. There is some overlap, as both want food and lodging, so having sufficient hotel rooms, for example, would help both activities.

In all my sentient years here, Cleveland has never impressed me as a tourist destination. There are occasional events, such as sporting events (I think specifically of the auto races and occasional sailboat races, that attract people to come here, but such events are seasonal and won't draw people year round, which is what the restaurants and hotels need. I would frankly question the wits of someone from Chicago or Toronto, or further, who would travel here to see the R&R hall of fame, ceremony or not. So unless we can come up with some bonafide tourist attractions, such as a larger theater district or (and I'm not pushing this, gambling and prostitution), we won't become a tourist mecca. A few good museums just won't cut it. Those who advocate opening up the lakefront apparently don't realize that our lake is unswimable, unsurfable, and the beaches are so rocky no one would go there to watch the dead fish rot.

The river district already has all the destination bars and restaurants you would want, with the added excitement that you are likely to get shot, or see a murder, if you spend time there.

That leaves the question of conventions. When I was young there were far more conventions here, but most have left. The politicians say that is because our facility is outdated; but I recall that the common complaint of exhibitors was expenses, due to our high cost of labor, and the monopolies on labor. I recall one exhibiter complaining that he needed to relocate an extension cord, which he could have done himself, but instead he had to wait around until the official electrician showed up, and paid quite a bit for what he thought was work that required no talent. When people ask where our industries have gone, the answer is that they have all moved to places where labor costs less. Our union leaders thought they had the golden goose, but held it so tightly that they killed it. We still have that problem; look at the Cleveland public schools (or whatever they are calling that snake pit these days), which has a surprising amount of money, but manages to spend it all on non-educational work, and cannot even afford classroom materials.

So we can build all the convention centers and medical marts we want, but until we do something to address our high labor costs, the facilities will not attract conventions who can get the same services elsewhere for substantially less.

[Jim O'Bryan]

unsurfable

please!

As for gambling and I know you were not pushing it. That golden goose is gone. At best we could hope to be the gambling destination between Erie and Detroit. 40 years ago, gambling, maybe. Now, no sense at all.

Here are the cards we are dealt.

Low property values, most of the fresh water in the world, 4 beautiful seasons, no traffic to speak of, and 150 miles of pristine park around us.

Really doesn't sound that hard to sell, in Manhattan, London, or the MidEast.

As I got into a discussion weeks ago with some other movers and shakers. Why on earth do we want to bring anyone to Cleveland right now? To reinforce the stereotype of how dirty and dead the city is?

As the great woman of news Dorthy Fuldheim once said, "Tell me again why we need drunk Shriners causing trouble in our otherwise beautiful city?"

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[David Anderson]

I know this is highly anecdotal, but …

I met a married couple and the wife's sister at the Cleveland Arcade in the morning of MLK Day, January 21.

They were all in town from Toronto celebrating the wife's birthday by attending an orchestra concert at Severance Hall. They raved about that experience and added that, while here, they decided to see a play, have lunch downtown and visit the R&R HOF.

Also, whenever I attend a conference out of town, I am always given a pamphlet of local sites, sounds and destinations to occupy my down time.

The consumer habits of visitors and conventioneers overlap.

[Will Brown]

The days when an ABA convention resembled nothing more than a golf tournament are gone. The IRS saw to that.

There are some professions where there not many demands on your time; I would characterize them as bureaucratic.

I'm retired, but when I worked, if we spent money to send someone to a convention we expected more than attendance at a few meetings. If someone went to a show or concert, for example, we would expect that he would go with a client or prospective client, and the purpose would be more business than entertainment. It would have been frowned on to take your spouse to the convention and try to use it as a vacation. Of course, there are always exceptions, but I still think conventions are a business activity, while tourism is a family activity, and the overlap is limited enough that we should consider each on its own grounds, rather than as two sides of a single coin. Note that hotels try to identify themselves as business hotels, or leisure hotels; rarely as both.

As to your example, Toledo is not far, and the Orchestra is certainly world class, but I don't think many people will come here from far away for a single concert, and if they do, they won't stay long. Incidentally, the art museum is also top notch, but they don't seem to draw people from great distances. I would travel from here to Paris to see the Louvre, but I would also see many other acclaimed museums in Paris; I don't think I would travel from Paris to Cleveland to see one concert and one museum. If I did, I would be surprised by how big the lake was, but I wouldn't set foot in it. Its just a fact of life that our lake, regardless of pollution, will always be filled with silty water and is not attractive for summer activities, and it doesn't even freeze well enough to support winter activities, at least around our area.