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Houston AstroDome

Proposal submitted to HCSCC at 11:38 AM on June 10, 2013, click here. (pdf format file)

We're reaching out to all those in Houston who may have ideas, plans or the passion for preservation of The Dome for collaboration. If you are such a person (or know of someone) please send an email here or forward this link: http://www.servicesca.org/DomeCooperative.htm for the possibility of a seat on a Steering Committee, chaired by C. Dean Kring.

Reprinted Editorial - Houston Chronicle - Friday, June 21, 2013

Dome drama unfolds - Writing in the stars seems to predict the Astrodome's inevitable destruction

Friends, Houstonians, Harris County voters, lend us your ears. The Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation comes to bury the Astrodome, not to praise it.

It's ultimately trying to sell voters on a $194 million plan to convert the Astrodome into a convention center. The members say this is the best idea to meet the needs of Harris County, but we are not buying it. With a tight timeline and utterly impractical funding requirements for private proposals, the die was already cast. Of course the HCSCC's public option was going to win - it promulgated rules that disqualified anything else. So instead we watched a well-rehearsed script as the corporation went through the motions of soliciting private ideas, considering them under the impossible guidelines set and then inevitably striking them down. The HCSCC instead falls back on a public plan that seems strikingly similar to the one proposed in May 2012 - a proposal notably rejected at the time by County Commissioner Steve Radack. Mischief, thou art afoot.

It is hard to grasp this proposal as anything but another kick of the can, getting us closer to an apparently inevitable destruction of the Dome all while looking like we're doing the right thing.

This isn't a convention center. It looks to us like a lamb that the county seeks to sacrifice without appearing like butchers. We'll see it on the ballot only with the intent of it being voted down. How long until the first voices from within county government condemn this plan as too expensive? Or unnecessary? Or requiring extra study? After all, why would a plan rejected a year ago suddenly become the best idea?

And once voters strike down the rather convenient convention idea, HCSCC has explicitly said that the next step is demolition. This has been the stated scheme since April. If public option fails, there is no room for another vote, no looking for new plans, only demolition. HCSCC says it's going to fix up the Dome into a new experience, but this feels more like the fix is in.

County commissioners need to come out and say now whether they will support this plan or not come election day. The voters of Harris County deserve transparency from them as well as from the Rodeo and the Texans, two other very interested parties that play in a tax-subsidized facility. We're afraid opponents will bide their time until election season and suddenly let loose a parade of horribles about every aspect of this Dome decision process, and it'll be too late to do anything different.

Enough with the shell games, side corporations and every other trick to pass off responsibility on the Dome's future. For once, county government faces an issue where it can't merely fly below the radar. It is time to be honest with voters about the real goal.

Et tu, Harris County?

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Provided as a public service by Services Cooperative Association
Editorial by C. Dean Kring who is solely responsible for content
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THE DOME COOPERATIVE IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE STATE OF TEXAS, HARRIS COUNTY, THE CITY OF HOUSTON, HOUSTON SPORTS AUTHORITY, HARRIS COUNTY SPORTS AND CONVENTION CORPORATION, THE HOUSTON TEXANS, OR THE HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO.  NONE OF THESE ENTITIES HAS AUTHORIZED THE DOME COOPERATIVE TO CONDUCT ANY FEASIBILITY STUDY.   THE DOME COOPERATIVE IS AN INDEPENDENT PRIVATE ENTITY HAVING ITS PRINCIPAL MISSION AS RE-PURPOSING THE DOME AS A BUSINESS CENTER UNLIKE ANY IN THE WORLD.  ALL COMMUNICATIONS OF THE DOME COOPERATIVE ARE TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF RE-PURPOSING THE DOME, INCLUDING SUPPORT FOR POTENTIAL MEMBER COMPANIES.

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