Right, don't cry over spilled milk, waste no introspection on past mistakes, and wait for this to happen again and again and again. Then bitch about it, blame others, and call people names.
Tiger Stadium is an excellent case study - a project where OTSC and its supporters need to own up to their own [[1) poor planning; [[2) largely ineffective fundraising and organization; and [[3) poor advocacy. Each of these teaches a lesson. And until the self-styled "preservationists" learn the lessons, they are going to be pwned by "The Man."
Let's take those in turn.
1.
Planning problem: then, not now; yesterday, not tomorrow. The stadium went vacant in what, 1999? So the 501[[c) organization is established when? 2007 or 2008? The time for this was when people still had fond memories of the stadium, not when they're acclimatized to life in a new facility. And these deadlines - who set them? I understand it was OTSC, who should have no trouble understanding the consequences of missing them. "Surprise" vote to demolish? Is it a surprise if you stop paying the mortgage and get foreclosed?
Planning lesson: Get yourselves in gear with a proactive plan for your list of endangered sites and start organizing to attract businesses to your projects. Yesterday. Don't set overambitious goals and fail - it destroys your credibility.
2.
Fundrasing problem: lack of equity. Although we have heard about "earmarks" [[under attack in the Senate) and "tax credits," [[which have to be sold to a discount if there is anyone to buy them), isn't the real reason no one took the OTSC project seriously that there was no equity in the project? The cash ended up being, what, less than 1/20 of the project cost? That's not even enough equity to buy a bungalow on a subprime mortgage. And in light of this, "working with" the city, or DEGC, or whomever is really just a way of saying "hey, we have this great idea - but we want you to fund it - and possibly to forego other things to do so" That's no different from every other redevelopment idea. Unfunded ideas are like belly buttons: everybody has one.
Fundraising lesson: don't limit your organization's composition to "smart people." Expand it to "rich people." Smart people are often poor [[ask everyone working at a nonprofit), and rich people are often... well, not smart. Don't emulate the capitalization of others who have tried and failed.
3.
Advocacy problem[[s): "you don't want to buy my vacuum cleaners? Then you're an idiot." Where to even start on advocacy? Let's begin with attacking the city and its various agencies while you are trying to negotiate with one of them [[this goes for people in OTSC and people allied with it). If DEGC is holding the keys to the site [[and really to any gap funding that is available), how intelligent is it to call it incompetent, duplicitous, monstrous, etc.? If you were DEGC, why would you bother with anyone who had little money and but a big mouth? Went to City Council to get your way? How about over to Wayne County Circuit Court. That's not partnership, it's blatant antagonism and the strategy of a child who doesn't get what he wants from dad, so he goes to mom.
Advocacy lesson: understand your target audience, understand what it responds to, and make the sale.
And the advocacy issues don't stop there - it would be one thing if Jackson hated the project [[or his board did) - but OTSC failed as well to make the City Council or Judge Edwards see the light. Judge Edwards determined that it was not overwhelmingly likely that the OTSC project would succeed.
All we hear from the OTSC set is "so and so lacks vision." The real problem is that OTSC lacked a vision it could sell to fans, financiers, or the the powers that be.