Tag Archives: downtown Amarillo

local news

Conquering telecommunications hurdles

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I am all to eager to admit many things about myself.

One of them is my technical shortcoming. I am not a geek. I am not fluent in the language used to discuss telecommunication devices — although I consider myself to be mildly conversant.

My sons are geeks. One of them is an uber-geek. My wife? She’s less so than even I am, although she’s becoming quite good at Internet research.

I say all this to tell you of a huge hurdle I cleared today. Well, at least I think it’s huge.

I had the pleasure today of introducing our guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Amarillo weekly luncheon. State Sen. Kel Seliger spoke to us today about education legislation and related issues with which he is familiar, given that he’s the chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and serves on the Education Committee.

I’ve known Seliger for the entire time we’ve lived in Amarillo. That’s 21 years. But I don’t know everything about him.

So, as I was preparing to leave the house this morning to head downtown for our meeting, I called Seliger’s Senate office in Amarillo.

“Hello, Cindy?” I said to the woman who answered the phone; I’ve known her a long time, too. “Do me a favor, please. Could you send me something that you might have in your computer system that serves as an intro for Kel? I’d like to use it to introduce him today.”

Sure thing, Cindy said. “Do you want the long form or the short form?” she asked. The short form is fine, I told her. “I’ll make up the rest of it,” I added.

Just send it to my email address, I said. She did.

My fancy-shmancy smart phone has an email “app” that allows me to receive emails on the thing. I got it within moments. I opened it. I read the text.

“Perfect,” I thought.

So, with my smart phone tucked safely in my belt holster, I drove downtown. I had some lunch with my friend and his district manager and then — shortly after our club president, Jeff Lester, called the meeting to order, I was asked to introduce Seliger to my fellow Rotary Club members.

I pulled out the phone. Opened up the email attachment and then proclaimed to my friends at the top of the Chase Tower — where we were having our lunch — that “I am finally a 21st century man.” I used the text on the phone as a crutch to welcome the senator to our club.

Yes, I know, others give entire speeches using their smart phones. I am not going to do that. I am merely going to proclaim that I have taken another baby step forward into this new age of telecommunications technology.

Hey, you have to declare these victories whenever they present themselves.

 

business news, local news

DAI keeps its public money after all . . . good!

downtownamarilloinc1

The facts . . . just the facts.

The fictional police detective Joe Friday would say that on the TV show “Dragnet” a long time ago when questioning principals involved in a criminal activity.  The admonition applies, it seems, to local media seeking to report on the status of a non-profit organization charged with shepherding downtown Amarillo’s revival.

Downtown Amarillo Inc., it was reported, was losing its revenue source from the city. Not so, DAI officials have said. Ditto, according to Mayor Paul Harpole.

A TV station reported that the city had decided to “defund” DAI. Turns out the story was a bit off the mark.

DAI failed to meet a deadline set by the City Council to come up with strategic action plan on downtown revitalization efforts.

The council, though, did not pull the plug on DAI. It extended its deadline, giving the organization a little more time to finish its work on the strategic plan. Harpole said DAI is going to present its plans at the next City Council meeting.

DAI has been the subject of a fair amount of criticism from those who dislike the effort being put into reviving downtown Amarillo. I happen to think DAI provides a service of great value to the city and want it to continue operating at full speed.

From my vantage point, it appears that the City Council and DAI need to become more familiar with each other’s move. Think of them as a dance team learning how to move in sync.

There might be more hiccups along the way as DAI and the City Council — with its three new members still feeling their way through a sometimes-complicated process — move forward . . . hopefully together.

My admonition to DAI would be to ensure that meets all the deadlines required in the future by the bosses at City Hall.

Meanwhile, it’s incumbent on the media — given the occasionally overheated rhetoric that has punctuated the recent community discussion on downtown’s future — to ensure it gets it right the first time.

 

 

local news, media news, political news

Recognition for ‘Headliner’ well-earned

millennials

People say it all the time.

They don’t do things for the recognition. They have higher, loftier goals than that. It’s all fine to be honored for your work, but that’s not what it’s all about, they say.

Sure thing. Truth be told, though, we all like to be patted on the back for a job well done.

To that end, a young Amarillo woman has received a well-placed honor by the Amarillo Globe-News. Meghan Riddlespurger is a Globe-News Headliner of the Year.

She made headlines by helping spearhead a movement of fellow young Amarillo residents to get involved in a municipal election. The Amarillo Millennial Movement — named to honor those from the so-called “millennial generation” — was created to campaign in favor of a multipurpose event venue that was decided in a citywide election this past November.

Riddlespurger stepped up. It wasn’t always an easy path to notoriety. She became the target of some criticism from those who opposed the MPEV. Some of the criticism was angry to the point of being mean and cruel.

But the young woman stayed the course.

It’s not yet known whether the AMM will have staying power. Nor is it known whether the effort to energize young voters will gather even more steam. Such endeavors often need a specific goal to craft strategies and tactics to meet that goal.

It’s my hope, though, that AMM’s efforts will continue.

Many of us have long lamented a couple of sad realities about municipal elections in this city.

One is that the overall turnouts for these elections are pitiful in the extreme. The MPEV referendum produced a greater than normal turnout, but let’s face it: 20-plus percent voter participation still isn’t great.

The other is that Amarillo has suffered a “brain drain” among young residents, who graduate from high school, then head off to college somewhere far away, get their degree and then come home back only to see Mom, Dad, their siblings and a few of their best friends. They leave the city behind while they pursue their dreams elsewhere.

Riddlespurger’s effort seeks to reverse that trend. It seeks to keep young people at home to raise their own families and to build a better community.

It’s a noble effort.

I’m glad to see the recognition come her way.

Well done — and well-earned — Meghan.

Keep the faith.

 

 

 

local news, Sports news

Who’s on first in the Texas League?

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Left hand, meet the right hand. Right, say “hey” to left.

Someone — and it’s difficult to discern who — isn’t talking entirely straight regarding a possible baseball franchise move from one city to another in Texas.

A consultant who works with the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League apparently has told downtown Amarillo officials that the Missions might like to consider moving to Amarillo once the city build its downtown ball park.

Oh, but wait! Tom Kayser, president of the Texas League, said the Missions aren’t moving anywhere. Kayser said Rich Neumann, the consultant working with Brailsford & Dunlavey, isn’t speaking for the team or the league or anyone else he can think of.

The third principal here is Melissa Dailey, head of Downtown Amarillo Inc., who told the Amarillo Local Government Corporation of the Missions’ possible move. I don’t recall her saying anything was set in stone, or that any other pledges had been made.

Yes, it’s a bit confusing.

Something is amiss. Someone might have spoken out of turn down yonder in San Antonio without telling the league president of the intention.

It’s been reported that San Antonio wants to upgrade to a AAA farm club; the Missions are a AA team affiliated with the San Diego Padres of the National League. Amarillo’s baseball fortunes currently are tied to an independent organization that in the next season will play half of its own homes in Grand Prairie. So, with that, Amarillo is looking to upgrade as well, to a AA team with a Major League Baseball affiliation.

So, let’s get all this straight. OK?

Many of us in Amarillo want to see some movement in the right direction as it involves the city’s baseball future.

First things first. How about we determine with absolute certainty whether the discussions we’ve been told have occurred with the San Antonio Missions are the real thing — or are they just a diversion?

 

 

local news

Ah, the chaos of construction in downtown Amarillo

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I have just returned from an appointment in downtown Amarillo.

It was in a building at Eighth Avenue and Buchanan Street. I couldn’t spot the building from the street, so I drove an extra  block to City Hall to ask for directions to the place (that’s right, I’m one of those few American males who actually asks for directions when I cannot find my destination).

They told me where it is located. I found the site. Good thing, too, because the construction all around it had me worried I’d miss my meeting time, as I was on a tight schedule.

So, what’s all the commotion about?

That Xcel Energy office complex is rising up out of the dirt across the street from where I was meeting my interview.

And … next to that construction site another one is taking shape. That’s going to be where the Embassy Suites convention hotel is going up.

OK, I get that few of us welcome the chaos associated with all this construction. However, as I’ve noted before, the end product — which I hope includes that ballpark on the east side of Buchanan — will contributed to a downtown district that will make all of us proud of our city.

I have griped as much as the next guy about construction delays. I try, though, to take the long view.

Patience will be required of us to await the finish.

It should be a thing of beauty.

local news, Sports news

MPEV action gets a stunning jump-start

Baseball

Well, now. It appears that Amarillo is in the hunt for a serious tenant for a proposed multipurpose event venue — with a ballpark — to be built in the city’s downtown district.

The city has been home to independent baseball teams for quite some time. As it has been noted, they come and go. Next year, the Amarillo Thunderheads are going to merge with the Grand Prairie AirHogs and will split their “home” games between the two locales.

Now comes word that the Local Government Corporation is going after an affiliated Class AA team, possibly the San Antonio Missions, a farm club linked with the National League San Diego Padres.

This team might want to come to Amarillo and play its home games in the MPEV.

Here’s what City Councilman Randy Burkett, a member of the LGC said to NewsChannel 10: “A AA team takes most of the risk out of it. An independent league and an independent team is very risky. They are here today and gone tomorrow in some cases. Not all cases, but with AA baseball, you’re a league affiliate with Major League Baseball. They’ll come in here and sign a 30-year agreement with us and then we’ll know we will have an affiliated team here for 30 years.”

Interesting, yes?

There will be hurdles to clear. The LGC has to get a design done by April, under the timeline it and the City Council have set. Will the MPEV’s planned 4,500 permanent seats be enough for a AA baseball team? Will the MPEV’s estimated $32 million price tag hold up?

The city has changed its mind on whether to pursue an independent team. It has decided to pursue an affiliated minor-league franchise.

With a new ballpark officially on the table, the inducement has become decidedly more attractive.

 

local news

Will this ‘movement’ keep its momentum?

MPEV

Amarillo gave birth earlier this year to something called a “movement.”

It comprised a group of young residents who became inspired by the city’s effort to revive its downtown district.

It called itself the Amarillo Millennial Movement, as its members were mostly of the millennial generation. Young folks. Engaged. Energetic. Articulate. Ready to rumble.

They took up the cudgel for the multipurpose event venue that had been placed on the ballot in a non-binding referendum. The MPEV issue won the voters’ endorsement. The City Council then ratified those results and handed the project off to the Local Government Corporation. Make it happen, council members told the LGC.

Meanwhile, it’s to ask: Will the Amarillo Millennial Movement stay engaged in the process as it moves forward?

I became acquainted during the year with a couple leaders of this movement, the AMM. Their enthusiasm impressed me greatly and I share their happiness with the results of the citywide referendum.

It doesn’t end there. Movements by definition need to grow. They need to build on their success and strive for more successes.

I trust that AMM will keep its eyes on the LGC, the council, Downtown Amarillo Inc., City Hall’s senior administrative staff. Keep poking, prodding, needling if you must.

Do not be afraid to speak your mind. I, for one, am tired of hearing the same, tired old voices. A group of younger voices has spoken out on an important project for their city. Keep it up!

local news

MPEV as parade staging area?

ballpark

I used to say to my mother, “Mom, I was thinking …”

To which Mom would quip, “Oh, beginners luck?” Mom had a million of ’em.

Well, I was thinking the other day as Amarillo’s Electric Light Parade was tooling down some downtown streets: Wouldn’t the multipurpose event venue be a suitable location for the parade either to begin to end?

The MPEV development is moving forward. Critics of the venue keep insisting that there’s insufficient uses for the proposed building, that it wouldn’t be kept busy enough.

Well, the Electric Light Parade is just one event in which the MPEV could play a part. Yes, it’s just one night a year. But it symbolizes a number of one-nighters that could occur at the venue, given the right amount of creative marketing.

Back in the old days, when I was growing up in Portland, Ore., my parents would take my sisters and me to the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade. It’s a big event that clogs downtown Portland every June when the roses are in full bloom and the City of Roses celebrates the flowers for which Portland is famous.

We usually would find a spot to sit along the parade route.

But one year I remember Mom and Dad taking us to Memorial Coliseum, which once was a state-of-the-art athletic arena. It was built in 1960; its cost then was $8 million. It became home eventually to the Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team.

It also used to be the starting point for the Grand Floral Parade.

Mom and Dad took us there one year to watch the parade take off. The marchers and the floats would exit the building, move across the Burnside Bridge that spanned the Willamette River and through downtown.

It served a marvelous purpose back then.

Why not use our very own venue for such a thing here?

 

 

local news, medical news

Tech makes bigger footprint in Amarillo

duncan

Texas Tech University officials appear intent on increasing the school’s presence in Amarillo.

It’s obvious of the school’s plan with the announcement that Texas Tech plans to build and develop a college of veterinary medicine way up yonder … in the Texas Panhandle.

We all ought to welcome the addition.

Texas Tech already runs a pharmacy school here, courtesy of a lengthy and intense local fundraising campaign in the mid-1990s; and that school came after Tech had established a medical school campus here.

When you think about, Amarillo’s higher education footprint is growing on a number of levels.

West Texas A&M University is in the process of turning a one-time downtown Amarillo office building into an urban campus, which no doubt will expand the Canyon-based university’s presence in the Panhandle’s largest city.

Let us not forget that Amarillo College’s presence here for decades has been significant. AC runs three campuses just in Amarillo. It also has branch campuses in Dumas and Hereford, making it a regional junior college.

The buzz today, though, belongs to Texas Tech University.

Tech Chancellor Bob Duncan led a large university delegation of officials today to announce plans for the veterinary school. Duncan said today the school’s aim is to ensure that students learn their profession here — and then stay here to practice it.

So, the footprint is set to expand and the community figures to reap the benefit.

 

local news, Sports news, Uncategorized

Hey, maybe Amarillo really is a baseball town

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Paul Matney seems to be a serious expert on baseball and its potential interest in his hometown.

The retired Amarillo College president hit the stump this fall to campaign for approval of a multipurpose event venue in downtown Amarillo. Part of Matney’s pitch was that Amarillo “is a baseball town.”

The MPEV received voters’ endorsement on Nov. 3 in a non-binding municipal referendum. The Amarillo City Council then ratified the results and voted unanimously to proceed with development of the MPEV.

Then, what do you think was revealed just this week?

Melissa Dailey, head of Downtown Amarillo Inc., told the Local Government Corporation that, by golly, she’s had some informal contact with a Class AA minor-league baseball franchise that might be interested in setting up an operation in Amarillo.

Dailey said she is not at liberty — yet! — to disclose the name of the franchise. She said the city is on a “short list” of communities being considered.

Hey, didn’t Paul Matney predict this might happen if voters approved the MPEV?

Yes, I believe he did.

The LGC is moving forward, per the City Council’s advice. It will report to the council regularly as it continues its work toward developing the $32 million MPEV.

And now the conversation might include a minor-league baseball outfit, with major-league connections, that could move into the MPEV once it’s built.

Who knew?

Oh yeah. Paul Matney seemed to be ahead of the curve.