We talked yesterday about Sam Merten’s Dallas Observer article that indicated the convention center would actually be better off financially without an attached hotel — this from a study financed by the city and completed in January. Merten pointed out that despite this study, Mayor Tom Leppert has been telling voters that without a hotel, the convention center will lose $3 million or so a year pretty much indefinitely.
Councilman Angela Hunt went one step further, checking with the city’s chief financial officer Dave Cook about the convention center’s profitability and reporting his comments on her blog. Read Cook’s comments yourself to make your own determination, but my interpretation is that Leppert’s self-proclaimed $3 million annual loss doesn’t add up.
Meanwhile, "Enough is Enough" — yet another pro-hotel group — materialized yesterday, according to the DMN, and this group seems concerned that Leppert is being unfairly portrayed in pro-hotel advertisements. The new group’s inaugural ad seems designed to capitalize on what it hopes is a growing public disgust with the beating Leppert is taking for his hotel position and public comments; you can check it out here.
"Enough" promises to spend money setting the record straight between now and the election. Dave Levinthal with the DMN points out in his story that all three prominent groups supporting the hotel — R.I.P. Dallas, Vote No Dallas and Enough is Enough — seem to share a number of the same backers and general philosophy.
Check out their websites, and you can be the judge. And just for the record, the no-hotel folks’ website is here.