Forty-two million reasons to hate Dallas

Dallas: City of the Inept

On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council authorized -- by a 11-2 vote -- the purchase of about eight acres in downtown Dallas for a lofty $42 million.

The purpose: The city wants to build and run a hotel.

The hotel, mind you, will be adjacent to the Dallas Convention Center.

OK, let's get to the point. The fact that there wasn't already some hotel -- city-owned or otherwise -- right by the convention center in a city that draws its fair share of conventions as arguably the biggest and baddest of economic hubs in the south is insane. The first thing that should've been built by the convention center is a hotel. Then restaurants. Then bars and shit. This is just further proof how backward this city is.

Two, it is a good idea, now, to build a hotel there. When organizations choose places to hold their meetings and conferences, they look at things like the main hotel being adjacent to the meeting place. There are hotels in downtown Dallas, but none within a comfortable 5-minute walk of the convention center.

Is it a good idea for the city to spend this money and resources on a hotel? Frankly, the city's screwed up so much that the answer is probably a negative. However, the only instance in which they could get away with this is if they had made a positive move in area sports.

The city of Dallas, proper, does not play host to a majority of the sports teams in this area. The Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers are in Arlington. FC Dallas is in Frisco. The Frisco RoughRiders, too. The Grand Prairie Air Hogs are not here. Lone Star Park is elsewhere. Texas Motor Speedway is in the middle of nowhere.

The sad part is that without a doubt the city of Dallas could've had all that and the Dallas Mavericks, Stars and Desperadoes.

Think of watching the Texas Rangers with the Dallas skyline in the background. Ever been to Little Rock? The Arkansas Travelers' stadium is right on the river, a 2-minute cab ride from downtown. Imagine the RoughRiders playing in downtown Dallas.

And don't even start on the new Texas Stadium and all the college games going there.

The city of Dallas has shit the bed over and over.

But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. OK, you don't want to burden taxpayers and you don't want to cowtow to wildcat owners like Jerry Jones who just want someone else to foot the bill for a new stadium? Fine. Don't. But the reaction isn't spending $50 million to redo the Cotton Bowl. The reaction isn't spending $42 million on a hotel (a business that is slumping and has massive competition around the area)!

All of that money should've been used to get the Cowboys and at least one baseball team (Rangers, RoughRiders, Air Hogs) to downtown. But it wasn't. The thing is, with the Cowboys set up in Fair Park or south Dallas, the convention center hotel makes even more sense!

So, there you go Dallasites. Spending money on dumbass hotels as Frisco, Arlington and Grand Prairie get all the good stuff.