Rebecca Neal, writing for the Indianapolis Star has an article entitled Richmond bidding to host national debates in 2008. Apparently Richmond’s mayor, Sally Hutton, sees this as an economic development tool. The price tag for a debate is cited at $1.4 million. A host site is also required to have about 3,000 hotel rooms within a 30 minute drive of the debate site. Dayton, Ohio is probably close enough to fit that bill. (In fact, I once knew some girls in high school who drove from Richmond to Dayton, picked up some lunch, and got back during our lunch our. Though, I’m fairly certain they seriously exceeded some posted speed limits.)
I’d be tickled if Richmond landed a debate. I was born there, and I think the city has some great history. (But, I repeat myself!) I doubt having a Presidential debate is much of an economic development tool. The article cites the little town of Danville, Kentucky, a town of about 17,000 that hosted a 2000 vice-presidential debate. I’m a political junkie, and I didn’t recall there having been a debate there. In fact, I’m usually all but oblivious as to where the debates are taking place. That could just be me, of course.
From reading the Star article, you’d almost get the idea that Richmond was some sort of far-flung province, foreign and mysterious to its readers.
“We want people in Indianapolis to know where Richmond is,” [Mayor Hutton] said.
The article goes on to provide a “Richmond at a Glance” sidebar:
RICHMOND AT A GLANCE
(U.S. figures in parenthesis)
• Population: 39,124.
• Median household income: $30,210 ($41,994).
• Median home value: $73,000 ($119,600).
• High school graduate or higher: 74.6% (80.4%).
• Bachelor’s degree or higher: 13.8% (24.4%).
• White: 86.8% (75.1%).
• Black: 8.9% (12.3%).
• American Indian or Alaska native: 0.3% (0.9%).
• Asian: 0.8% (3.6%).
• Native Hawaiian: 0.1% (0.1%).
• Some other race: 1.1% (5.5%).
• Hispanic, of any race: 2% (12.5%).
Ah, but what sort of language to they speak in Rich . . . mond (stumbling over the word)? Do they have any arcane rituals of which I should be aware? Are their people perhaps inverted, having their head at their feet and their feet at their head?
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| Richmondites? |
Man, I love a good anthropophagi joke early in the morning.
And no offense, but how do 3.9 Native Hawaiians wind up in Richmond?
“Anthropophagi” — Wow. That’s a word they didn’t teach us at good old Richmond High School.
As for the Hawaiians, I suspect they just needed an RV for some reason, and things got out of hand.
It still wouldn’t be enough to get me to go back to Richmond. I can’t say that I miss the place that much. Except for the part of the arboretum that got chopped down. *lol*
Many people in Indianapolis don’t know where Richmond is and don’t know anything about it. Sometimes I think there is an invisible force field preventing people from Marion County and its environs from learning anything about that great expanse of Indiana that is not near them.
As for bringing a presidential debate to Richmond, I don’t know that it would be much more than a big, feel-good distraction. Also, unless Indiana suddenly becomes in play in the 2008 presidential race, why would there be a debate here?
Way back in the day, fourth hour at RHS was 90 minutes to allow for three half-hour lunch periods plus class time. Anyone who had a “free” fourth hour (which was not possible by the time I was at RHS, IIRC) or who cut class during 4th hour (which was possible, but not something I ever did) could have possibly made it to the outskirts of Dayton, eaten lunch, and returned to school before 5th hour started. I would have never thought about doing that, however.
There are probably people from Richmond who don’t know where Auburn or Mishawaka or Crown Point or Boonville are. I’m not sure why everyone who lives in the state capital is required to know everything about every corner of the state. I happen to know about Richmond and many other places because I have lived in several different parts of the state and am something of a history/geography junkie. But I doubt ignorance about other parts of Indiana is unique to Indianapolis.
Dumbass Richmond chopping down those arboretum trees… About twenty years ago they knocked down a nationally noted home bordering the national road to put up an autozone. No class at all in those two decisions. Maybe they can level an Indian mound to put up a Burger King next?
Similar scene in “Grosse Pointe Blank”. “You can never go home again, Oatman. But I guess you can shop there.”
Not to keep bitching–but there was also a home outside of town that was about an 1850’s Federal home, corner lot on a hill in the middle of nowhere. Big original barn, all the land, no neighbors for miles. I always thought maybe I’d return to that someday. Then one day the idiot owners had carved out part of the hillside to sell a lot next door to a trailer home, and had knocked a hole in the side of the Federal to build a hexagonal covered porch that only a moron could think was appropriate to the house. No class at all.
I guess the point being that if a town knocks the crap out of all the charming little things that makes it appealing, then it becomes a less desirable place to be. Then they can budget a couple of million dollars chasing after exposure through holding a debate so outsiders can see the town’s charms. Meanwhile those of us who remember some of the town’s charms that have been lost or degraded will wonder why more effort wasn’t spent on saving those things.
I was driving long distance last summer I needed gas immediately near Richmond.I got off Interstate and saw gas much cheaper at top of a little hill.It was an old station,not remodeled since 50s it looked like, and the gas was 15 cents cheaper than all the other stations so I filled up and had a nice chat with the portly middle-aged attendant-owner. Then I backtacked the short distance to I-70 and saw a sign ‘Welcome to Indiana’,so I had actually gotten gas in Ohio. It’s just one of those places I have to go back to next time to see if that old guy is still there pumping gas and if the station is still unchanged.
John M: I’ve worked with people from Indianapolis who apparently have no idea that most of the rest of the state is not at all like Indianapolis, which I find very frustrating and sometimes amusing. I don’t have to live in Indianapolis or Fort Wayne or any other metro area of the state to know that such areas are vastly different from Richmond, Muncie, New Castle, Cambridge City, etc. It seems to me that many (not all) from Indy are unable to imagine what the rest of Indiana is like.
Also, I find it a little silly to have to explain to Indianapolis people that the way to get to Richmond is to take I-70 EAST and get off on one of the last five exits before entering Ohio. Most of the people I’ve dealt with would probably end up in Terre Haute or Bloomington if left to their own devices. I get the feeling that they rarely leave Indy, let alone think about other places in the state. I could understand if Richmond were a truly tiny town on some backroad somewhere, but it is not. Maybe some of us exaggerate when we talk about people from Indianapolis being Indy-centric, but there is some truth to it.
T: To be fair, Richmond didn’t get rid of the trees at the Hayes Arboretum, the arboretum board and staff wanted to do so and did. Many people here were against the sale of that frontage and the addition of yet another strip mall to the east side of town. While some people did put up a fight, there wasn’t really much that could be done.
It is still a sore subject for people here. I know some of the people from the Friends of the Arboretum group that opposed the sale of the land. Some of them are still angry at the local newspaper because of its “coverage” of the controversy. I get a little peeved when some people say that the land that was sold was full of non-native trees and wasn’t used by the Hayes Arboretum staff. According to literature from Hayes Arboretum itself, those non-native trees were planted along US 40 to give winter cover to birds and other wild life at the arboretum. The land there was not supposed to be used by the staff or the public. Years ago, I used to joke that if it weren’t for the arboretum, there wouldn’t be a tree left standing on the far east side of Richmond. Now it looks as if because of the arboretum, the east side will be without trees pretty soon. There probably won’t be an arboretum here in another generation or so.
Yes, I recall people rallying around the subject. It seems like plans to demolish are always pretty far along before interested parties get wind of it and are able to mount successful opposition. That was certainly the case with the westside Autozone store.
I presume the old horsetrack got levelled in the arboretum deal, too. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the historic register or something. Oh, well. Can’t stop progress. I just wish people put more stock in the fact that you can always find a place for a strip mall, and you can always find money if it’s a priority, but you can’t just get contiguous tracts of forest if you want them, especially in the middle of town. Degrading something unique for the benefit of something prefab and commonplace isn’t the way a town should go.
I do miss Richmond, which was certainly a cool place to grow up. All someone has to say is “Royal Feast”, and I’m distracted the rest of the day.
Richmond had and has plenty of empty retail space, which was one of the reasons people were–and still are–angry about the sale of the Hayes land. Many people also feel that the arboretum board took the easy way out. Rather than building up their endowment through some good old-fashioned fundraising over the years, they sold part of the Hayes property when the going got tough. There are lots of former and current Richmond residents who have fond memories of the arboretum and who probably would have given substantial gifts if they’d been aware of the need.
Yes, the old horsetrack did get destroyed. The Historic Landmarks group tried to get the arboretum board to understand the historic value of that part of the property, but to no avail. The really sad thing is that the arboretum has created a lot of bad will in the community. While they may have received some donations because of the turmoil, I’ve talked to several people who have said that they won’t give money to the arboreutum.
Also: One of my sisters has to have DQ and Pizza King every time she comes back to visit. :)