Like a Starbucks across the street from another Starbucks

Comedian Lewis Black had a routine about the end of the universe that went:

…and if you walk to the end of the block, there sits a Starbucks. And directly across the street — in the exact same building as that Starbucks — there is… another Starbucks. There is a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks! And ladies and gentlemen, THAT is the end of the universe.

That bit was on my mind this week when I read that the Albuquerque city council is proposing to “partner” with Albuquerque Public Schools on the purchase of an old church that has been on the market for the last five years in downtown Albuquerque for…. an “Event Center”. So says estimable city councilor Ken Sanchez:

This property, the location is ideal-- I believe-- for an event center… I truly believe in the best interest of the city, that we as a city should be partners in the acquisition of this property…Because I believe that the school alone will not meet the needs of this community.

I’m certain that Ken Sanchez (and Debbie O’Malley and the other genius’s on the city council who support this plan) know exactly how to meet the needs of “this” community. And certainly building an event center less than half a mile, easy walking distance and just about across the freaking street, from the Albuquerque Convention Center is a brilliant way to meet the needs of the community.

This idea of an “Event Center” in downtown Albuquerque next to the existing Convention Center and in a city that already has a large arena (the Pit) and multiple concert venues (Hard Rock Pavilion, Sandia Amphitheater, Sunshine Theater etc) needs an exorcist or something. It just won’t die. No matter how little sense it makes and no matter how many much higher priority items are underfunded, this irresponsible brainless waste of public funds remains in the consciousness of many including a worrying number of City Council members.

There is no reason for an “Event Center”. There never has been and there never will be. Unless what happened to downtown in the movie Gamer happens in real life and we need to rebuild. This idea needs to be thrown into the fires of Mount Doom where it can never again be resuscitated. The citizens of Albuquerque deserve more from their city council than a body politic that serves only to dream of new ways to waste public funds.