What Do Concert Ticket Sales Say About The Economy?
…an interesting Email [To Mish Shedlock] from a "Ticket Salesman";
Hi Mish
I don't care what the media says, the economy is getting worse and I can see it in ticket sales and even questions about tickets.
Last February, most of my ticket sales were requesting "Best available" and big concerts sold out within days or weeks…Concerts sold out from the front (highest ticket price) to the back.
By mid summer, I began to notice that the buying was changing. Concerts sold from the front and from the back but the middle seats were selling last. I have only voices to gauge age but it seems to me that the 40-55 crowd had begun to disappear.
By early fall, the cheap seats were selling out first. This pattern started first in Chicago, spread throughout the midwest, then over to the Carolinas, south to Florida and across to Arizona.
Since December, the most often question that I get is "If I buy at the venue, do I have to pay the service charge?"
…Throughout all this, the college crowd consistently bought without complaint. That has changed since Christmas. Now, the college kids are trying to beat the $6-8 ticket fees.
…The deterioration has been slow, but constant for a year and I don't see any signs of improvement…
…Would Brown, unfettered by city ties and free to wheel and deal without having to ask first, deliver a better bottom line for the arena…?
…A coliseum authority?
...from what sources?
Possibly a prepared-food tax, he [Matt Brown] said, but such an arrangement did not fly with a proposed Major League ballpark in Kernersville, which would have been financed by a 1 percent tax on food and beverages sold in restaurants and a 50-cent tax on each ticket sold...
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.Get Liberty CLICKHERE
Tournament Tickets ...Do you know how many ticket books are given to the Coliseum and…who gets them?...
Anonymous [Rhino Letter to the Editor submitter]
[Rhino] Editors Note: Elected officials do not get free tickets to the ACC tournament from the Coliseum.
Rhino Times, February 25, 2010
Hartzman Questions:
Why the qualified response?
Does any entity give elected officials free tickets for anything at the Coliseum or anywhere else?
If the Coliseum receives $1.8 million from Greensboro taxpayers per year, how much does the Rhino receive in advertizing dollars indirectly paid for with some of the community’s money?
If the Coliseum receives $1.8 million from Greensboro taxpayers per year, how many complimentary tickets have the Rhino or its employees received from whom?
If some have received free tickets, has any reporting and/or budgetary appropriation been compromised?
Aren’t gifts to elected officials supposed to be reported?
If those who received free tickets did not attend said events, who did, and what was the face value of any admissions relative to any campaign contributions?
If tickets were circulated for the Circus, were some distributed for “Around the World in 80 Days” at Triad Stage?
Please contact TriadWatch with any interesting tidbits.
Please provide an accounting of all complimentary admission for Guilford County Elected officials and Elected or appointed Board Members at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex and any other venues from which Commissioners or Board Members received complimentary access to events which the general public would have to pay for admission since 2005.
Thank You,
George Hartzman Triadwatch.blogspot.com Emailed to Beverly Williams, County Administration, Guilford County February 24, 2010
City of Greensboro Information Request
Please provide an accounting of all complimentary admission for Greensboro City Council Members and Board Members at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex or and any other venues from which Council or Board Members received complimentary access to events which the general public would have to pay for admission since 2005.
Thank You, George Hartzman Triadwatch.blogspot.com Emailed to Pat Boswell, Public Affairs, City of Greensboro February 24, 2010
The video from above is from the Greensboro City Council meeting on 2-16-2010 where Greensboro City Council member Danny Thompson was thanking other council members Perkins,Kee,Wade and Mayor Knight for donating their Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus tickets to his church to take some deserving montagnards family for a night out.
How many other events do Greensboro City Council members get tickets for?
Is this a perk for being a elected official?
Does this perk go against state law of gift giving?
How many GGO tickets do local elected officials get to hand out?
Should this be reported on campaign contribution forms?
These tickets were given to the Greensboro City Council members by Ringling Brothers. We have seen from Governor Bev Perdue that she did a executive order for state level employees back in the fall , below is part of the executive order.
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 24 REGARDING GIFTS TO STATE EMPLOYEES
WHEREAS, those in State government who do the work of the public must continuously ensure that their actions reflect the ethical standards that are essential to maintaining the public’s trust; and
WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. 133-32 makes it unlawful for a State employee to willfully receive or accept any gift or favor from a contractor, subcontractor, or supplier of the State agency if the State employee is involved in (1) preparing plans, specifications, or estimates for public contracts; (2) awarding or administering public contracts; or (3) inspecting or supervising construction; and
WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. 133-32 applies to a limited group of State employees; and
WHEREAS, no State employee should be permitted to accept gifts or favors from contractors working or seeking to work with the employee’s agency; and
Below is from the North Carolina Board of Ethics back in 2001 with a little Google research,CLICKHERE
TICKETS
Should a Public Official accept free tickets from an agency vendor to a sporting event, play, or fundraising event?
Answer: Generally, no. It is generally not proper for Public Officials to accept gifts or services from someone whom the official regulates, contracts with, or otherwise does business with as part of his service as a Public Official. At a minimum, this can cause the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Does it make any difference if the tickets to a sporting event are season tickets or tickets the vendor received as part of its sponsorship of the event so that there was no purchase made specifically for the Public Official?
Answer: No. It does not matter how the vendor got the tickets.
Can a vendor take a Public Official to entertainment events when the Official has traveled to the vendor’s home city or when both vendor and Official are out of town (like at a non-vendor sponsored seminar)?
Answer: Not if it is otherwise prohibited. Ethics requirements do not end at the border.
Who knew that Greensboro City Council members get tickets to events and is this a perk of the job. But in this day and time in North Carolina where people are wanting to curry favors with plenty of local officials and we might see where local officials might want to do the same thing and maybe curry favor with getting tickets for a group of people to want their vote in the upcoming elections . It might be time to look at this program of giving out free tickets and am probably certain that the GGO golf tickets are floating out there for local elected officials to give out as they please. This post is not about who received these circus tickets but was a post about who got to give out these tickets. If ringling wanted to personally give them to a group home or some deserving group it is totally fine but having it go through a local elected official sure does raise some red flags.
Editorial Cartoons of the Week of 2-18-2010 compliments of William Warren and get liberty.org. Topics of today's editorial cartoons are congressional dump,the demino effect, President Obama the figure skater and capitol south.
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.
Above is the video from the Greensboro City Council meeting on 2-16-2010 where Greensboro City Council member Zack Matheny and Danny Thompson had a little back and forth on just who is the right person in the City of Greensboro. It was a breath of fresh air to hear Zack Matheny talk about the right people being the whole city of Greensboro and hear Danny Thompson talk about the usual suspects in Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Partnership. The video was talking about the new initiative from google and the application process.Enjoy the video.
If democracy is government by the people, plutocracy by the wealthy oligarchy by a few, aristocracy by nobility, theocracy by clergy corptocracy by business and autocracy by one who has what where, who’s on who’s side and why?
Should the majority protect the weak from the powerful?
The conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.
Frederic Bastiat
If a few contributethe majority of large campaign donations that many can’t afford, who works for whom, and what do the few expect in return that most probably won’t receive?
Today every single member of the Greensboro City Council met their requirement and took the state mandated Ethics Training at the Guilford Agricultural Center along with over 80 other elected officials in the area . This from a earlier postCLICKHERE
The training was conducted by James Blackburn who is counsel for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.
The Greensboro News and Record has a post out tonight with a title "Ethics Session Raises Questions About Hotel Vote", CLICKHERE it seems like Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow was wanting to know more about conflicts of interest.
Maybe in the future we will see more ethics laws and ordinances from local elected officials similar to the one's proposed by George HartzmanCLICKHERE and also Joe Guarino has a post as well on the topic of ethics on the local level CLICKHERE
Time for a huge change in our local elected officials mindset on ethics because anyone want to bring up the airplane ride to D.C. and our county chairman and ex mayor.
UPDATE: Joe Killian from the Greensboro News and Record also has another post on the ethics training that took place today 2-16-2010CLICKHERE
Barry benefited from city contract obtained for ex-girlfriend
D.C. Council Member Marion Barry personally benefited from the contract he obtained for his former girlfriend and directed earmarks that "provided substantial financial benefits to some of his close friends and supports," according to a report by attorney Robert S. Bennett.
In the report, Bennett stated Barry violated "D.C. law, council rules and policies and procedures" and recommends his findings be referred to the U.S. Attorney for possible criminal charges.
Barry responded that he did nothing wrong because the council had no written procedures outlining whom a council member could give a contract to.
…"We conclude Mr. Barry breached the highest ethical standards expected of him," Bennett told the council. "We find his conduct not only appeared to be improper, but was improper. We find Mr. Barry breached the public trust and violated the conflict of interest laws of the District of Columbia."
...When council members got to question Bennett, Barry stated, "if there are no written procedures for personal service contracts, no written procedures for scope of work...no written procedures for how you evaluate a product, then one who engages in that cannot, cannot be held accountable for violating something that did not exist in the first place," Barry said…
Greensboro shouldn't accept its defeat in an annexation dispute without taking the case to a higher court.
The city courted trouble by waiting years to annex land in eastern Guilford County. By the time it acted, residents of three subdivisions on Millstream Road contended they should not be bound by an annexation agreement signed by the developer before they bought their property.
…Greensboro predicated its annexation on a pact with the subdivision developers a decade ago in which it would provide water and sewer and the developers would consent to annexation.
[Hartzman Question: Should municipalities create conditions in which developers can easily gloss over material information to new homebuyers?]
This agreement was recorded with the Guilford County Register of Deeds, negating protests by subsequent homeowners that they weren't aware of annexation plans.
[Hartzman Question: Aren’t real estate transactions subject to more disclosure than Register of Deeds filings?]
[Hartzman Question: Shouldn’t material information about financial implications of annexation be disclosed to new homebuyers, and if so, what documentation were Millstream Road homeowners and their attorneys provided to make informed decisions?]
…The city was slow to annex but, having gone so far into it now, should pursue it to the end.
Editorial Cartoons of the week 2-11-2010 on TRIADWATCH compliments of William Warren and get libertyCLICKHERE
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.
The City of Greensboro and Guilford County governments should be prohibited from funding or approving projects or programs from which local elected officials derive income or profit that depend upon local governmental financial support.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County School Board members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates for local elected office should be prohibited from entering into or receiving compensation from enterprises dependent upon local governmental support.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County School Board members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates for local elected office should be prohibited from making campaign contributions to entities who publicly endorse political candidates.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County School Board members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates for local elected office should be prohibited from accepting campaign contributions or endorsements from those with conflicts of interests, including but not limited to; leading members of organizations receiving taxpayer money, and/or developers, contractors or their lawyers or agents, for 12 months before and after doing business with Greensboro and Guilford County’s governments.
The City of Greensboro had a public meeting on 2-9-2010 where the citizens of Greensboro could get a overview of the new Land Development Ordinance rewrite and what it will look like with approval from the Greensboro City Council. Let's take a closer look at the video below to see just how the local special interest group known as TREBIC which stands for the triad real estate and building industry coalition stacks the deck in their favor.
If you want to get a history of just how the local developers or you can call them TREBIC stacked the deck as you can see from the above video with a ratio of 8 developers - 3 others Yes Weekly has a article with a title "Developers more assertive on panel to rewrite ordinance", CLICKHERE,
Then over the summer of 2009 Triadwatch went to a community public meeting at Leonard Rec Center on the LDO rewrite and also looked at the document in question . One glaring issue that came out of the meeting was a post on July 27, 2009 with a title "Greensboro neighborhoods will NOT get a fair shake in the zoning process , thanks to TREBIC", CLICKHERE
Then a few days ago we see that the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress has some of the same problems where TREBIC members on this LDO would not want to make it a requirement to meet with the neighborhoods here is that post CLICKHERE
During the meeting we also find out that city staff was the ones who sent out the invites to this citizens advisory team. When will these elected officials or staff quit putting all these TREBIC members on these boards and commissions.
In a future post we will see how the City of Greensboro and the Guilford County Commissioners wanted to form a task force to come up with ways to save money and consolidate departments, High Point doesn't want any part of this consolidating. Wouldn't you know it that the president of TREBIC was the chairman of this committee in Marlene Sanford with plenty of other TREBIC members stacking the deck again in TREBIC's favor.
When will we ever see a time where TREBIC doesn't have it's hands in every board and commission and advisory council . It must be nice to have a luncheon right before this LDO meeting to get unfettered access to our local officials at Grandover, like TREBIC hosted last week.
Start looking out for the citizens not the special interest.
A report focusing on state government's debt level ought to grab leaders' attention like a repo man banging on the door.
The state has "substantially exhausted" its general fund debt capacity until 2011…
That means the same for state government as it does for a consumer who's hit his credit card limit: Don't borrow more until you pay down some of what you owe.
But, as anyone with a credit card knows, that's easier said than done thanks to high payments due, plus interest, for purchases already made with borrowed money.
Three McLeansville subdivisions are no longer a part of the city…
Four McLeansville residents sued Greensboro last year to stop the planned July 1 annexation. Late last week Judge Edwin Wilson sided with residents, who argued the city could not hold them to agreements made with the subdivisions developers.
Wilson’s means that the three subdivision — including 151 acres and about 285 homes — were never part of the city.
…Between 1997 and 2000, developers of the Whitehurst Village, Hartwood Village and Laurel Park subdivisions — just east of the city off Interstate 85 in the area of Mount Hope Church Road — asked the city to annex the land.
In exchange for their petition for annexation, the city built water and sewer lines out into the subdivisions.
When the city got around to annexing the land years later, some people who purchased those homes said they did not know they were going to become part of Greensboro.
Council members approved the annexation in April 2009, even though 39 homeowners signed petitions asking to withdraw the annexation request made by the developers.
Welcome the newest member of the TRIADWATCH team in George Hartzman . George Hartzman was a former candidate for the district #3 Greensboro City Council and also a local blogger with a blog called Questions for Greensboro which is now under his national web site called Questions for America CLICKHERE . Enjoy more post from two different authors on Triadwatch and if anyone wants to offer their own perspective and want to get their message out to all of the triad, please let us know.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates should be prohibited from entering into for-profit enterprises dependent upon public support.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates should be prohibited from making campaign contributions to entities who publicly endorse political candidates.
Current Greensboro City Council members, Guilford County Commissioners and Candidates should be prohibited from accepting campaign contributions from those with conflicts of interests, including leading members of organizations receiving taxpayer money, and/or developers, contractors or their lawyers or agents, for 12 months before and after doing business with Greensboro and Guilford County’s governments.
The Greensboro Neighborhood Congress has sent out issues they have with the new Land Development Ordinance rewrite for the City of Greensboro. Above is the document to share with your council members and below is the same with the email sent out to all in the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The public hearing for the Land Development Ordinance Rewrite will be held on February 9 at 5:30 PM in the City Council Chambers. We encourage all neighborhood leaders and all residents to attend. By now, each of you should have received your rezoning notice that is part of this rewrite. Below are the concerns that the Issues Committee of the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress have identified that we will be addressing at the hearing. These items will affect you and your neighborhood. You may have others that we have not identified. The rewrite is huge - too large for us as volunteers to cut through item by item, so there will undoubtedly be surprises in implementation.
We hope to be able to support the rewrite once we learn more but will have to address this in a full Congress meeting before we take a position. Please attend the hearing, provide your input, learn what you can and we'll discuss this again in our February 11 meeting.
This is very Important, please read the following.
Land Development Ordinance (LDO)-Related Matters of Concern to GNC Issues & Bylaws Committee (based on Input from Committee members’ neighbors and neighborhood organizations)
February 3, 2010
1. While we recognize the importance of infill development, there is good infill and bad infill, and bad infill can destabilize existing neighborhoods and deteriorate property values. To the extent that the LDO would allow for denser infill development in existing neighborhoods, but does not provide safeguards to ensure that the increasingly dense infill is not detrimental, that is a matter of concern. In particular:
A. The proposed LDO allows a greater maximum density for multifamily (RM-40), which could have an impact on existing neighborhoods with fringe areas susceptible to apartment complex development. This is of particular concern to neighborhoods near educational institutions, where the construction of increasingly dense student apartment housing is an issue. In existing neighborhoods, such dense developments are likely to cause potential traffic, noise, parking, sanitation, and architectural compatibility issues. If such a new category of ultra-dense development (50% more dense that the existing limit, RM-26) is to be allowed, stringent development standards need to also be created to regulate it.
B. The proposed LDO allows for corner lots on thoroughfares to be developed to contain two homes (“twin homes”) in single-family zoned areas, but does not require such denser new construction to be compatible with surrounding detached single-family residences. We expect homeowners in established single-family neighborhoods to be dismayed when the corner lot near them suddenly becomes the site of not one, but two new homes, particularly if their appearance and construction is not at all compatible with the adjacent existing homes.
2. The LDO does not require developers to meet with neighborhood groups before proceeding with a rezoning, and GNC’s longstanding position is that such meetings should be mandatory. GNC appreciates that the LDO encourages such meetings and requires reporting concerning them, but this stops short of requiring that the meetings occur. We request that the proposed procedures suggested by the Planning Department concerning the information that a developer must report concerning such meetings (see attached) be incorporated directly into the LDO to ensure that those procedures are implemented.
3. Many neighbors are concerned about the LDO now that they have received letters in the mail from the City advising them about the proposed changes. Public understanding of the implications of the changes is limited, and we have anectdotal reports of inconsistent information being given to neighbors when they inquire to City staff concerning the changes. We believe that further communication should be encouraged before any changes are made to ensure that citizens are as well educated as possible concerning the impact of the changes.
If you ever want to see a lot of the back and forth on Item #2 above you might want to see the biggest commenting post ever at Triadwatch with a title back in July of 2009 titled "Greensboro Neighbors Will Not Get A Fair Shake In The Zoning Process, Thanks to TREBIC", CLICKHERE . The TREBIC Trolls were out big time on that post .TREBIC is the local special interest group for the development industry. Now with all the comments and hearing that the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress is now on board with the same issue Triadwatch brought up last summer, let's see if the City of Greensboro will make it a requirement to meet with the neighbors or will it be business as usual for TREBIC.
Editorial Cartoons of the week of 2-5-2010 compliments of William Warren with the titles Rahm's Discourse,Obama the Real Gambling Man,One Small Cut for Obama, and The Obama Monument.
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.
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