Thanks to a tip from Gentle Reader Ray, we'll shine the spotlight on yesterday evening's Salt Lake Tribune story, reporting, among other things, that Boss Godfrey's Magical Mystery Dome (Fieldhouse Project) Open House, originally set for the Council Chambers, will be held outdoors this evening instead, at the Ogden Amphitheater. Read Cathy McKitrick's full writeup here:
• Ogden mayor seeks feedback on sports facilityIf you're planning to attend tonight's Dog & Pony Show, be sure to bundle up in your woolie-woolies, as it appears that it's gonna be a mite chilly tonight, down in the Ogden City Municipal Gardens:
As per usual, we'll leave the lights on in the lower comments section for any of our readers who'd like to lodge their remarks before, during or after tonight's Dog & Pony Show event.
26 comments:
While holding the Godfrey Wonder Dome Dog and Pony show outdoors at night is, as you note, problematic, I kind of like Christmas Village. Fun to watch the kids, get some hot chocolate, stroll around enjoying the hoopla. Christmas Village is one of the good things Ogden does as a city event. Hijacking the toddlers as a way to swell turnout for the Dog and Pony show isn't a good idea, but the Christmas Village itself is.
Maybe it's just us, but does it seem strange that the Standard-Examiner to date has not published a single line of publicity regarding tonight's Dog & Pony Show event?
Excerpt from November 24 Godfrey email to his staff regarding the open house:
"As soon as we get the details nailed down I would like to have Scott do an article to get it on peoples calendar and start the public buzz before RAMP."
Maybe "Scott" has been on vacation?
Rudi:
The SE has followed, over recent years, a kind of sliding standard regarding reporting such events. Sometimes they do a pre-event piece, but then feel no obligation to report the actual event. Sometimes they print nothing in advance, but do a news story on the event after it occurs. And sometimes they do both. I've never been able to figure out, exactly, why they choose the particular reporting tactic they do in each case.
Such "get the public's feedback" meetings have often in the past seen an "event upcoming" story in the SE, but not this time. I don't see any particular nefarious purpose behind all this, just inconsistent news judgment regarding how to report such events --- pre, post or both.
Rudi:
PS Great picture choice to head the thread!
proposing to spend 14mil plus and not keeping the public more informed about it is nefarious for a local paper...ridiculous that the Trib has the "scoop" on this.
ND:
Well, comments on this here have been along the lines of Hizzonah trying to hype attendance at his Artic Air Outdoor Wonder Dome Dog And Pony Show. The SE not doing an advance piece on the event does not seem to play into the claim that the SE does the Mayor's business. Can't have it both ways, really. If Hizzonah is trying to hype turnout, the SE not doing a pre-story does not serve his interests.
Now, exclusive of alleged Godfrey/SE conspiracy theories, I'd agree that an city-called "get public input" event like this ought, as a general rule, to be reported in the paper the day before, or at the very least, on the day of, the event. The SE should have done a story along the lines of the one the Trib did. Motive speculations aside, Ogden Trib readers know of the Dog and Pony show tonight because their paper told them about it. SE readers who inexplicably do not also read WCF will not know, because their home town paper did not tell them.
ND: I think we can safely assume that the $14 million figure is obsolete--if it was ever accurate to begin with.
Curm: If I were the S-E editor, I would have run a "brief" in today's or yesterday's paper, announcing tonight's event. I wouldn't have run a full article in advance unless I had additional new information to report (perhaps from Tuesday's work session or from the council information packet that detailed the two recent field house junkets). As someone speculated above, the explanation for the lack of such an article may simply be that Mr. Schwebke is on vacation, or that the S-E is short-staffed for some other reason. Even so, I would have run a brief announcement.
Dan:
Notice or story, either way, we agree SE readers should have learned about the event by reading their home town paper. They didn't.
As for this: "As someone speculated above, the explanation for the lack of such an article may simply be that Mr. Schwebke is on vacation, or that the S-E is short-staffed for some other reason. "
Nope. Doesn't cut it. A beat reporter's being on vacation does not suspend a paper's responsibility to cover stories/events [particularly time sensitive ones] the reporter would have covered had he been here, particularly when it's a scheduled public event and a "note" would have done the job, as you suggest. It's the news editor's job to make sure that happens. Our Home Town Paper just dropped the ball on this one, I think. Reporter on leave is no excuse.
Crum....I'm not in the conspiracy camp on this particular one, but if he wanted to create buzz about this then the administration blew it on a local level...and so did the SE. This dog and pony show in the Arctic should be interesting...suppose it will be on the "upper deck area"... so bypassers there for Christmas Village can be counted as attending...including the kiddies, Santa, and his helpers.
Dan....totally agree...probabley at least 5 to 8 mil short.
John C Patterson posted it on Facebook, but it has changed venues and times 2 or 3 times since then.
just sayin
BB
Oh, he posted on Facebook today the change in venue for tonight ...
BB
ND:
My apologies. Didn't mean to suggest you were. I was referring to other comments on this topic on earlier thread. I should have been more clear in what I posted.
SE has an announcement about tonight's Dog and Pony show up on line now. Calls it an "open house." The "open" part is certainly accurate. But "house"?
Wear your long johns.
The SE notice, which contains a little more detail about what Hizzonah has planned for tonight, is here.
Having observed the S-E and the way they throw nickles arounf like manhole covers i have an explanation for failing to have a reporter/stenographer report on the meeting. Tp paraphase Dorthy Parker "someone else was using the pencil".
Noooo problem Crum....
looks like a blazing 26 degrees at the start and 24 when it ends...unless we all die of exposure. I thought this orginally was scheduled for 5 to 7..now shows 6 to 8....
This is totally crazy insane. Why would they do it outdoors in the middle of Christmas Village? Can anybody explain this? I am not going damnit as a protest to such a dumb insane decision. Perhaps they do not want people to come to it but instead are making an attempt to claim they did an open house. There are many indoor venues/rooms available in downtown Ogden. Are they trying to rush this through? And how far is it really? Like the gondola, just a speculation. It has not been presented to City Planning Commission nor do they have funding or approval from the county. And what about acquiring all the buildings they intend to tear down. And the road closure on a main north/south artery? WTF???!!! Stop the insanity someone. And we have acres of undeveloped land near the river. Why not just south of the Bingham Cyclery in that huge vacant lot? Instead plop it down in the middle of downtown as a huge montrosity like the mall was and taking up a road with it. Makes no sense. I say NO!!!
Well that was comical....quite the variety of information depending on who you talked to....
The woman wouldn't say where the site was because it had not been decided...she also said that there were quite a few donors linin up to put funds in for naming rights on rooms and such....she was basically clueless...no idea about costs either...next to her a budget of 28 Million popped out...whoa!
Over at another spot east of the main entry, we were treated to a dog and pony show of up to 35 million from the designer...not including land aquistions, utility relocations and new parking structures to be located over in the Marriot parking lot..oh and adding parking levels to the existing parking structure at the Conference Center....wonder if that sucker was designed for that..doubtful.
Interestngly enough none of the street names were identified on the drawings...as if this was just floating out in space. Not alot of clarity on closing Grant...how about those new manholes just installed?..there are alot of utilities in that street...thats going to be interesting...
Crowdwise?...I dont think that there were that many Joe Ogdenites there....Im sure there were other WCF followers along with a few cheerleaders....
Still thawing out...and laughing about the costs
This news story on KSL caught my eye. Hmmmm, where do we know this name from? Ya suppose it has anything to do with our own Slumbering ex-councilman?
The key paragraph:
"On Dec. 20, Fasi Filiaga Jr., 49, is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty to four counts of securities fraud. In March, Filiaga was charged with misusing over $2 million in funds from investors"
Full story here:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13689463
I've submitted an illustrated writeup of tonight's event to our gentle Blogmeister. Let's hope he can push it through the pipeline by tomorrow morning!
ND:
I don't suppose the lady you talked to identified any of the deep pockets lining up to provide funding for all this, did she? Or was it the usual "not free to name them yet" suspects?
As per usual ....we can't say who they are....
I don't know who she was either.
Just wondering, There is a story on Fasi Filiaga Jr. and his crime in todays(December 17) deseret News. It supplies much more information than will ever appear in the S-E.
Victims say scammer stole money, trust
So is the slumbering slobbering simpleton's son or not? It identifies the crook's father as a church official but says nothing on if he was also one of the gang of six that dug the $40 million dollar hole in the heart of down town.
Maybe this Jr Fila was/is Godfrey's main economic brain trust? There sure does seem to be a lot of similarities in the "con" part of their respective MO's.
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