Editorial gets it right on a new Cobo

In the Detroit News, Thomas Bray wonderfully skewers all the arguments for a new convention center paid for on the backs of the taxpayers not just in Detroit but in the surrounding Counties, if its propnenets can get away with it.

In New convention center? Get real, Detroit, Bray points out that:

1. The debt on the old Cobo Hall still won't be paid off for anotherl 10 years.
2. Detroit is not exactly a hot spot for conventions, and a new convention center alongside abandoned buildings and crime-ladden areas doesn't exactly boost appeal.
3. If the Auto Show needs it, the Auto industry should pay a least a good chunk of the cost. I'd say they should pay for it in total and run it for a profit.
4. It won't go anywhere unless Detroit shares power in managing it.

Bray ends his article with the simple truth that until Detroit becomes a livable city with good infrastructure, good services, a lack of corruption, a work-friendly tax base, policing and education, people aren't going to flock to it and a convention center will not be the start of a renaissance fair.

Nice to see the Detroit News get it right.