Delaware 2012 Political Weekly-Jan. 14-20
1. Wilmington Mayoral Candidates Disagree on Riverfront Hotel Deal.
The issue, of course, is whether the city should pay a $1 million ransom to the developers. As usual, I’m of two minds on this. I don’t believe that the City should have to do this. After all, if the project is this financial windfall that’s being projected, why shouldn’t the developers pay for it themselves? OTOH, government at every level in Delaware has already prostituted itself time and time again to pave the way for ‘economic development’. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. In other words, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, the developers have already determined that we are whores, they’re only dickering over price. Bill Montgomery and Scott Spencer support the $1 mill guarantee. Dennis Williams, Bob Marshall and Rev. Derrick Johnson say they oppose it. Kevin Kelley is still reviewing it. Anyway, that’s not the reason I included this in my wrapup. After reading the Esteban Parra story, I was struck that there was more civility and substance in this discussion than in the entirety of the Kareening Klown Kar that is the Rethuglican presidential nominating process.
2. Dover City Councilman to Retire.
Fiscal conservative Bill McGlumphy decides to quit rather than to keep fighting. From the News-Journal story:
In recent years, McGlumphy has taken a hard line against raises for city employees and rising city taxes and fees. He was not in favor of the construction of a new city library, and just this week voted against the hiring of two new police officers.”Sometimes we want to eat filet mignon and we have a ramen noodle budget,” he said. “You need voices that are willing to stand up and say, ‘No.’
Dover municipal elections will be held on April 17.
3. Loudmouth Tea Partier to Challenge Joan Deaver for Sussex County Council.
Don Ayotte, ‘contributor’ at Delaware Politics, says he’s running b/c Sussex County is turning into a ‘welfare state’. You can hear him say it for himself here. Oh, and you can read some of his comic stylings in this internecine Rethug warfare thread here. (Don’t read if bad spelling and grammar offend you.) Unfortunately, the thread is not complete b/c he censored comments reflecting badly on one Don Ayotte. Fortunately, he didn’t censor the comments written by one Don Ayotte. Which, um, reflect badly on one Don Ayotte.
4. Departments of Elections Still Suck.
Just not quite as much. New Castle County now has an online form to show 2012 filed candidates for office. There are no names on it yet. I know that the D’s have posted their filing fees, so there should be no impediment for filing for them. I don’t know if the R’s have yet. Neither the state site, nor Kent or Sussex Counties, have a site listing candidates yet. I repeat: the State of Delaware should not permit this ongoing incompetence. In this day and age, it really shouldn’t be difficult to have user-friendly websites, even with political hacks running the respective Departments of Elections. But, for some reason, it is.
OK, a slow week, I admit. Did I miss anything?
Tags: Wilmington Mayor's Race; Bill McGlumphy; Don Ayotte; Joan Deaver; El Somnambulo; Steve Tanzer
El Som,
I have to take exception to your condemnation of the New Castle Department of Electons. This has been a redistricting year and they have done a wonderful job of providing timely information and working with the community as we find our way around the new district maps. I can’t speak for the other two counties, but here in New Castle County we have a very efficient and professional team at the Dept. of Elections. They’ve had a massive challenge this year and they have risen to the task.
On Item 4 – don’t know why they’re not listing anybody, but I do know that Terry Wright filed for NCC Council President this past Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, the thread is not complete b/c he censored comments reflecting badly on one Don Ayotte. Fortunately, he didn’t censor the comments written by one Don Ayotte. Which, um, reflect badly on one Don Ayotte.”
That’s good blogging.
It gets better. On the Sussex DoE site, a link to “SC Candidates Info” brings up a PDF labeled “Candidates Phone Numbers” that features contact information … for all the incumbents.
http://electionssc.delaware.gov/information/Candidates%20Phone%20Numbers.pdf
For what it’s worth … Elections Commissioner Elaine Manlove has been renominated for a new term. A Senate hearing has not yet been scheduled. But one might think that such an event might be an opportune time for legislators to ask about how the department is/is not doing a sufficient job of communicating information to the public.
http://www.legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis146.nsf/b2dcec7bd472958a8525729c006ad47f/c9bab3f0e89708b0852579810070fc00?OpenDocument
Auntie Dem: I didn’t condemn NCC’s DOE. I singled out NCC for having the only candidates listing page of any of the DOE’s. Of course, there are no candidates actually listed, which may or may not reflect the current state of things.
At last look, unless they’ve been changed, the registration #’s on the state site reflect the pre-reapportionment districts, a good six months after the bill was signed into law. Unacceptable.
If I’m not mistaken, and it’s possible, both the Kent County DOE and the Sussex County DOE are headed by former Dem. Party county chairs. Not sure what being a former Dem Party chair has to do with the ability to run a Department of Elections…
Elaine Manlove WAS scheduled to have her nomination considered by the Senate Executive Committee this week, but her name was dropped from the list on Tuesday. I wouldn’t read anything into that, though.
I know that there are a lot of political junkies out there. Anybody want to try to convince me and our readers that any of the DOE’s are doing a real good job? Or even an adequate one? Have at it.
I would love to see what the occupancy rates and RevPAR was for Wilmington. Between Hotel DuPont, Courtyard, Doubletree, and Sheraton.
Clarion/Brandiwine Suites closed and sold off to DCAD not because there was a crazy amount of demand. Now those hotels are in CBD where there is demand, easy access, restaurant amenities, low winds…
As I have been told by staff at Hotel DuPont, Sheraton and Doubletree they have laid off staff due to lack of demand. ie their occupancy is low and hovering between 40-50%.
Why would you want to add more to a supply when the demand is evidently lacking? Have we learned nothing from Justison Landing? You can’t auction off hotel rooms!
There is no “we will build it they will come” there are no economic drivers at the waterfront that would support a hotel and a hotel with a 190 staff.
You would have to, at an estimated average salary of $30,000 (except for management most make below 20k a year), is generate $5,700,000 to break even in salaries, operations and costs you’re looking at $10,000,000+ in revenue annually, plus needed profit and loan service. At $100 a right rate (Marriott is looking to be the hotel chain, middle of the road pricing) at average revenue at 50% occupancy rate, you’re at $50 rev per room (rough RevPAR) they would need this to be a 548 room hotel! What is the probability of the city getting an influx of 275 guests to this hotel alone every single night?
Excellent points, unless there is a…casino. Say-y-y-y, you don’t suppose…?
Not on Mike Purzycki’s watch.
Two reasons:
One, the RDC’s line all along is that they need a hotel adjoining Center on the Riverfront in order to draw convention/multiday meeting traffic there. Their claim is that convention-goers want to roll out of bed and into their meetings without having to grab a cab a travel a mile or so from a downtown hotel. The fact that the Center hasn’t drawn much of this convention/meeting business suggests that Purzycki’s theory is right. On the other hand, if he’s wrong, we’ve got a half-empty hotel that will be offering group rates to visiting teams in the Carolina League.
Two, Purzycki adamantly opposed to casino on west side of the river. That’s one reason one of the casino groups was touting a site down near the Kalmar Nyckel dock off the foot of Seventh Street. Also, still lousy access from 95 to Riverfront — not good for a casino. But put it off South Market Street — with good access to 495 — and you may have an attractive location.
That said — still don’t have the answer for why someone from Pa. or Md. would want to come to Wilmington to gamble.
This is real interesting stuff. Thanks for the insight. So, mediawatch, are you basically saying that Purzycki wants a hotel to take business from the downtown hotels? If that’s so, then I don’t see how the city could justify any kind of commitment to the developers at the riverfront.
Granted, I hail from south of the canal, but I had no idea there were hotels in Wilmington.
The big question in my mind about this whole hotel deal is: Why would anyone want to stay in a hotel in Wilmington, unless they were visiting relatives? And when I travel and see relatives, I stay in an Econo Lodge or something similarly downmarket (also known as “cheap”). I don’t stay in a freaking waterfront hotel.
If you’re going to Philly, you’ll get a hotel in Philly. If you’re visiting a kid at college in Newark, you’ll stay in Newark. Beyond that, Wilmington doesn’t have anything beyond intermittent festivals & shit that people would want to come visit. Does it?
This entire thing seems like a big exercise in mindless rah-rah boosterism.
Um… you haven’t heard of the Hotel DuPont?
Also, Wilmington hotels are full of business executives.
I get that your main point is that you don’t like Wilmington, but your comment is silly.
That’s one way of looking at it … but the argument here is that a hotel at the riverfront will serve a different market. The downtown hotels currently rely on corporate lawyers to fill their rooms. (The L.A. Dodgers’ bankruptcy was no doubt very good for downtown Wilmington.)
But a hotel on the Riverfront would attract a different base — a convention/meeting market that we don’t have now. You’ve got to make a great leap of faith to think the RDC could draw enough meetings right away to get a hotel running in the black. However easy it is to be a naysayer, the Queen is bringing life back to downtown, so maybe a hotel could be a game-changer on the Riverfront.
I’ve got my doubts but I’m not going to say it can’t happen. LOMA, the Queen — stuff like that has me thinking Wilmington is on the cusp of a revival and, if we care about the city’s future, far better to take a small risk on this one than to put on the brakes.
Honestly, I thought the Hotel du Pont was just a place for really fancy overpriced dinners. Who actually can afford to stay there?
My main point was that there’s nothing in Wilmington for anyone outside of the city to go to, not that I don’t like it. I’ve been there to visit friends, for the day, and to take my kid to the children’s museum. But none of that is enough to make me need or want to stay overnight.
As mediawatch says, this is being pitched to serve a different market. And I’m really skeptical of the build-it-they-will-come theory of economic development.
And is the Queen really bringing life back to downtown? How many businesses have opened since it started up?
The Queen is doing really well, but here’s the deal. We don’t stay in a hotel when we go to Philadelphia, because it’s so close. We go to dinner in Philadelphia quite often, but there isn’t a reason to stay in a hotel. Deciding to stay at a hotel is usually based on distance.
Wilmington is trying to grow its downtown, and is getting decent results, but it’s a process. I’m not sure how a hotel on the Riverfront would fare, but it would probably help the Chase Center recruit conventions… which, in turn, would help attract new businesses.
Here’s another thing… people who won’t come to downtown Wilmington aren’t going to downtown Philadelphia. It’s a city phobia thing.
Also, I’d think the word hotel in Hotel duPont would be a big clue as to what it was.
And my brother and his wife stayed there over Thanksgiving.
This conversation would be much easier if you would just admit that you don’t like Wilmington.
I have two words for the River front big thinkers: Minor. League. Ice. Hockey.
I’m told by a person involved with redevelopment of downtown Wilmington that the downtown hotels are routinely sold out during the week and mostly empty on weekends. Places like the Hotel Dupont draw business executives with damn fine expense accounts (or major artists playing the Grand), but can do good business on weekends from events held there — like weddings. Most of the hotels do have packages for the Jazz festival and the Blues festival.
As mediawatch notes, the Riverfront hotel is all about trying to make the Chase Center into a viable convention center. And you can’t be competitive without an anchor hotel really close to your venue. I’ve been on organizing committees for industry and professional convention events and it is hard to price in the cost of moving your attendees from hotels to your event without breaking the bank. A hotel also gives you some additional meeting space — perhaps not used by your event, but certain to get used by some of your attendees.
Whether they can do it or not is a very good question. There are certainly plenty of small to mid-size groups who can’t fill places like the Philly or Baltimore Convention Center. And while you can rent portions of it, it can be expensive and you won’t get as good a deal from the anchor hotels. Just don’t know how much of a destination Wilmington can be billed as, really.
You know what else would be great for convention business? Attracting more associations. We are smack between NYC and DC with a train station steps away from the future minor league ice hockey team plays.
Minor League Ice Hockey would be a great draw. I know that there has been discussions to add a movie theater and discussions for Lucky Strike to come to the Riverfront. The theater seems to be having financing issues and no idea what happened to the Lucky Strike people.
pandora – You misconstrue me. I like Wilmington for its people. I have many friends who live there. I’ve been to stuff at the Queen and the Grand and the DCM and the Chase Center and eaten at spotson the Riverfront. But as a city, I think it’s largely a dump.
I freely admit that I am a downstater, and I dislike how Wilmington captures so much of the state’s attention and money when it has such a negligible percentage of the state’s population (just 7 percent). But that has nothing to do with my thoughts on Wilmington’s future as a city.
Changing the subject slightly:
I asked a question based on mediawatch’s comment: “And is the Queen really bringing life back to downtown? How many businesses have opened since it started up?”
You dodged the answer: “The Queen is doing really well.”
That’s really not what I want to know. And here’s why I want to know it. What seems to be happening to Wilmington now is the same thing that has happened to smaller cities and towns all across Kent and Sussex counties over the last few decades. The downtown districts have emptied, and the shopping and eating has gone out to the highways, where travel and parking are far more convenient. There’s plenty to do out on 202, a few minutes from downtown Wilmington … just like there’s plenty to do on U.S. 13 in Dover, while that city’s downtown is dead. You folks could learn from our mistakes.
The News Journal and the Wilmington boosters here parrot the line that the LOMA area is coming back thanks to the Queen. I’m very curious to know if that’s true.
So why don’t you come up here to see? You could also tell if you were watching the NJ entertainment news — in the past couple of years or so there is a new jazz club on 9th and Orange, the guys who own the Chelsea Tavern just opened a new spot on Market St, there is a fantastic Indian restaurant in LOMA, pizza also in LOMA, the Film Brothers, Bloomsbury flowers moved from Trolley Square to there, Orillas moved up Market St to a larger venue and there are bigger plans afoot.
And really, it’s OK if you stay in your chain restaurants downstate, you know? That way you’ll stay out of the way of the folks who are trying to make the city a better place to be.
How many of those places have opened up since the Queen was reborn? That’s my question. You hold yourself out as a Wilmington expert, denigrating anyone who dares insult your fair city. I’m just asking for details about a major storyline.
Thin skin much?
So you’re just asking for details about a major storyline.
Um… then what would you call this:
“Why would anyone want to stay in a hotel in Wilmington, unless they were visiting relatives?”
or this…
“Beyond that, Wilmington doesn’t have anything beyond intermittent festivals & shit that people would want to come visit. Does it?”
or this…
“But as a city, I think it’s largely a dump.”
You aren’t really looking for details.
What’s “LOMA?”
Anon,
I’ve got a list updated in November by Downtown Visions that shows 35 new businesses that opened in 2010 and 2011 in the downtown area — essentially King and Market streets and a block or two in either direction.
How many of those places have opened up since the Queen was reborn?
The NJ archives are your friend here.
And I gave you a time period for my answer, unless the “last couple of years” means something different to you.
LOMA=Lower Market, the emerging arts/creative district on Market and King between MLK and Fourth Street. It’s a good mix of offices, retail and dining/entertainment, and the second- and third-floor apartments above the shops are near 100 percent occupancy.
Mediawatch: Thanks for answering the question. Much appreciated.
Pandora: I’m looking for facts, because I have none. What I have are impressions – that there’s nothing to do in Wilmington except sue somebody, visit a bank, stop by the YMCA, hear music at the Queen or get shot.
I’m looking to possibly dispell those impressions. You’re not helping much with your parochial attitude. The fact that you couldn’t answer a simple question – one that is key to Wilmington’s vaunted LOMA renaissance, as touted by the city’s leaders and media elites – is fairly telling.
I’ve said what I think about Wilmington. Why don’t you say what you obviously think about Kent and Sussex?
I’ve reread this thread and can’t seem to find any comment I’ve made on Kent or Sussex. Perhaps you can point it out to me.
No, you didn’t. I inferred your broader views about downstate in the same way you inferred my intent in my comments here – by pulling something out of my ass.
If you’re going to survive in politics, you’re going to need a much thicker skin. At least we rednecks, hicks and hillbillies can joke about ourselves. Wilmingtonians seem incapable of doing that.
Actually, I simply pulled your comments off this thread (see my 6:31 comment). I can also add your 8:35 comment where you say: “that there’s nothing to do in Wilmington except sue somebody, visit a bank, stop by the YMCA, hear music at the Queen or get shot.” (Emphasis mine)
You passed inferring a while ago.
And I’m surviving just fine. In fact, if you read my comments and your comments, only one of us comes across as defensive and temperamental.
I’ve got the same questions about the Queen as anon does. I was down there last week for a great show, at the upstairs venue. I don’t yet see any synergies when it comes to businesses that are popping up largely thanks to the Queen. Maybe Ernest & Scott’s, but that’s the only one I can think of. And that would take dinner $$’s away from the Queen. (BTW, the food at the Queen is adequate, nothing special, so there’s a place for new eateries.)
And I’m not sure how great the Queen is doing. They cut staff just a couple of months after opening, and I didn’t read that those positions had been added back. I think the Queen is viable, certainly not in danger of closing, but I’m losing faith that it will be the catalyst that Wilmington needs.
Oh, yes, fear of getting shot and killed in Wilmington is utterly irrational. My bad.
Q. Which Delaware city has a murder rate utterly disproportionate to its share of the state’s population?
Q. Which is the only Delaware city to have state police patrolling its streets because the city cops can’t handle the random gunplay?
Your mayor can’t get rid of those pesky facts just by calling every one of his critics an idiot.
I inferred your broader views about downstate in the same way you inferred my intent in my comments here – by pulling something out of my ass.
Guess you’ve abandoned this argument.
OMFG. Get a grip on yourself.
Just because someone is legitimately afraid of the random violence in Wilmington*, or thinks there’s nothing fun to do with a family in Wilmington, or questions city leaders’ vaunted prognostications and plans, or dares to suggest that perhaps the Queen’s crown is tarnished, or casts aspersions on the Hotel du Pont … well, that doesn’t mean someone hates Wilmington.
Pandora, you’re sounding like one of those unhinged uber-patriotic “America, love it or leave it” squares from the ’60s.
* Your chance of becoming a victim of violent crime in Wilmington is 1 in 50. In Delaware? One in 139.