Saturday, May 22, 2010

Israel's Markethouse Fix



Dearest Friends:

Apologies to my correspondents that have missed the King's decrees. Urgent matters in my Greek investment portfolio required an unscheduled trip on the G5 to London. It seems the European debt crisis has caused the value of my Thessalonian olive groves to collapse. So we displaced the current diefthyntís and replaced him with a new manager. Blindly loyal to me.

I won't make money, but I'll feel good.

En route I was heartened to read Alderman Israel's feel good legislation on the Markethouse. Once again, he has boldly stepped to the plate. Like greek olive groves, dear Richard understands the best way to manage an asset is to put in your own pocket.

So, while attention was diverted on the pretty pictures and ideas of the markethouse presentations this week, dear Richard put the fixe in. In the legislation that is.

He is sponsoring legislation that allows for a Markethouse Authority to 'govern' it. What this 'governing' entails is unspecified, so it will undoubtedly allow for large power grabs by the Authority once established. Money, vendors, hours, products and design apparently will all be decided by this junta.

And the Authority will be made of of 7 people, insiders all. Some retailers with a financial conflict of interest, some surely petulant Ward Oners, he has again kept the makeup of the board in the hands of the merchants and elite. Interestingly, the #1 group that visits the market house, out of town visitors, are precluded from membership. A true harbinger of success.

Furthermore, his legislation allows for no oversight or control over the junta. Nor is it clear that this group would have any responsibility to the public at all. No public meetings, no public accounting, no public period.

One participant at the presentations has privately told others that he will withdraw their market house offering if this legislation passes. Meddling and obstruction, our way.

At best, we'll get a barely functioning markethouse run by us, the elite of the Historic Core. At worst, we'll have years of financial and managerial scandals to amuse us.

Dear Richard has never let reality intervene in his make believe world.

Bully!

King of George

10 comments:

  1. Ulrich of the UndergroundMay 22, 2010 at 1:00 PM

    Why did we not read about this in a press release wriiten the $88.5K a year public information officer ?

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  2. As long as we have merchants trained in the the proper preparation of crudités, truffles and hors d'œuvres all is well. We have come to expect a higher standard and certainly we deserve it.

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  3. This thing has ben a problem child long enough and why can't we just sell the building and reduce our tax roles and let Public Works carve it up and sell it in pieces to the highest bidders. Annapolis would get the most money this way.

    Let the new tenants/owners sell chips, soda,burgers, pizza, fried chicken or whatever makes the most money in a free market. Maybe we can get some friends of Rand Paul to run the place.

    We'd like that...

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  4. I thought his name was Ron Paul. Anyway, I think we should rent this place out a a shelter for the Tea Party people. A place where they can go and pray, and polish their guns while they commiserate about losing their country to a Non-citizen.

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  5. Leave off the Markethouse and let someone in there with experience that knows how to run this thing. Markets are a complicated set of little businesses to manage and run.

    The Community needs some input somehow but past meddlings and obstructions by both city bureaucrats & over zealous downtowners have sunk this thing before and let's not go down that road again...

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  6. Is the air conditioning fixed yet ?

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  7. Why is Ginger Doyel ( one hot mama by the way) allowed to advertise her book on the side of the market house ? Is she paying for the use of that space, or is she cozy with the Mayor ?

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  8. The Capital was reporting today about the company that has experience with the Easton (not Eastern) Market. Before they move forward, the City ought to interview the tenants of the Easton Market to see how happy they are.

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  9. who cares about the tenAnts of the of the Easton MArket ? We should care about what the residents think of the tenants.

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  10. Dearest Readers:

    Ms. Doyel is a regular in the salons of the Core. She brings quite a flutter to an ancient's heart, reminding one of younger days as Lieutenant in the Boer War.

    She is welcome to advertise on the side of anything in the Core she likes.

    King of George

    ReplyDelete