July 31st, 2007 By Justin Williams
Open Thread: What’s Evansville Missing?
We’ve had several open threads about what Evansville has the best of – the best restaurant, best bar, best shopping hot spot, etc. Let’s turn the tables a bit.
What is our fair city missing that would make it so much better? Is it a restaurant the town doesn’t have? An entertainment opportunity? Why do you think Evansville doesn’t have it?
Tell us in the comments.
photo courtesy of jared
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It’s great that we have a dialog going, but so much of what many of you are asking for HAS been done, and Evansville residents don’t support it.
Modern dance? We had it, at Evansville Dance Theatre, for years. The teacher was great and they tried to bring in contemporary dance companies for performances, but nobody supported it. Thought-provoking and “experimental” theatre only works when people actually buy tickets to see it.
Arts and crafts fairs? We used to have a huge art/craft fair (with real art and not just crafty junk) around Mother’s Day on the walkway. But people have to actually BUY arts and crafts at those fairs in order to convince the individual artists to continue to pay the fees to exhibit there. We still have a lot of smaller ones, but if the vendors can’t make any money, they don’t come back the next year.
Culture? Well, at one time we had cultural festivals, but for whatever reason the city government stopped supporting them. (Maybe because the citizens stopped supporting them.) There is little point in spending all the time, money, and energy to set up a festival — to only have 16 people show up.
But it’s not all our fault. Some very popular places have gone under due to either bad management or the city/landowner screwing them over. The Ross, the Alhambra, Repertory People of Evansville (RPE) — all very popular. Evansville residents supported them all, but the landowners thought they could make more money doing something ELSE with the properties. (Which are doing what, now, exactly? Lingering and collecting dust?)
What does Evansville need? A serious discussion about urban sprawl, for one. And maybe some zoning laws that would address keeping he city beautiful, instead of catering to chain businesses. Do we really NEED a CVS AND a Walgreen’s every 300 feet?
I’d definitely say Evansville needs some visual pollution laws that would prevent monstrosities like the flashing color signs in front of Brinkers, and those car dealership spotlights swirling around the sky every night at 3:00am. It would be nice to be able to see the stars at night, or drive down Green River Road without getting a migraine.
More bars and restaurants??? Are you kidding me? We don’t have enough servers in this town to work the restaurants we HAVE. This is no big secret — places like Joe’s Crab Shack HAVE looked at Evansville as a possible market, but many won’t make the commitment because after talking to local restaurant managers, they realize they won’t be able to hire enough servers to run the place at full capacity. We’ve lost more than a few really good restaurants because of this.
Something else Evansville needs is to stop asking the local government to get involved with the downtown area. Let’s face it — the only people who are interested in downtown are those people who OWN PROPERTY there, and are ticked off because it’s not making them any money.
As an east-sider I’m sick of hearing about the downtown. I have no interest in going downtown, and I don’t know anybody who does have an interest in it. In the minds of people like me, there IS crime (whether it exists or not, we THINK it does, and we don’t want to investigate it for ourselves), there is no place to park, and there’s no interesting shopping there.
Want to encourage people like me to make the effort to go downtown? Encourage the land-owners of downtown properties to reduce their rents DRAMATICALLY so that little artsy specialty shops could afford to open up. Give the little specialty shops the tax breaks instead of the landowners. And stop trying to convince us that the downtown is the new “upscale” area, and won’t we be all cool and trendy if we live there? How many of those “upscale” condos are going to have for sale signs hanging in the window after the residents have been there a year?
Evansville needs more grass and trees instead of half-empty strip malls and poorly constructed apartments. And for heaven’s sake PLEASE keep the riverfront clear of any more crap. There isn’t much of it left. Can’t we just enjoy the beauty of it? Do we HAVE to build something on every square foot of it? Newburgh had the right idea: a big park, and a view of the river you can actually SEE from your car as you drive by.
Shopping: Better mall with better stores. Maybe a good outlet mall nearby.
Restaurants: We need more chain restaurants like Cheescake factory, Baja Fresh, Melting Pot, Chipotle…. However, we even need good local restaurants .. For instance I dont know of a single decent Thai or Indian(the one on east side is horrible..thts not indian food) restaurant nearby.
Better and more Grocery stores (Whole foods, Traders Joe, ….)
Some more development near the University area (UE and USI). University and downtown area looks dead most of the time.
Evv might be a great place for oldies but as a youngster, its too boring
A new stadium downtown might be nice. If you build it they will come. The more people you can get downtown the more businesses will also come downtown.
The city is already working hard with the downtown loft & condo projects. Given enough time and forward thinking I think Evansville could be great.
I want to see a rebuilt Robert’s Stadium next door to Wesselman’s that would be what the Epcot Center initailly was – a glimpse of the future and of possibilities made real with innovation, science, and technology. Let’s rebuild the stadium totally green. Green roof, geothermal, solar, wind, bamboo, organic cotton, led lights, gray water collection, ect. The concessionaires could use corn based plastics and carry organic and vegetarian offerings. When the stadium is not busy with all the eco-conscience expos and music groups, we could hold educational tours of the green facility- our own science muesum. Imagine that the flood of eco-tourists and school groups would tour the stadium, and then they would continue over with a walk to tour Wesselman’s Nature Center and Recycling Center. This I could get excited about!
Wish we had a Trader Joes
I definitely agree that we need a Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods or SOMETHING!!! I love to cook and it just stinks that I usually have to go a variety of places just to put together a shopping list and a lot of times I still can’t find everything I want.
I also agree that Evansville needs more culture, I wish we had more individually owned unique shops, places you could go to do things such as learn how to throw pottery (and not at the college), more places that offered things like dance lessons, I love the idea for dinner theatres.
I am currently excited to see some renovation downtown with the condos. My hopes are that if more people are living right on Main Street maybe there will be more to do on Main Street eventually. I think it would be great to have a small grocer on Main Street, a nicer night club, a unique used book store, more cafes. I think the antique shops are nice but I would like to see a larger variety of things besides antiques.
And after seeing the Monster Trucks in action at the Roberts Stadium a few weeks ago I never realized how pitiful our stadium is. I think if we had a bigger and better stadium more big named people would want to come to Evansville.
I do think that Evansville is a nice place to raise a family but also as a parent I feel there are NOT enough resources besides sports for our teens. I am a parent that has 3 teens and there is not enough for them to do.
You guys need a Sweetbay.
They seriously have EVERYTHING that you could EVER think of.
I love cooking also, so it’s practically HEAVEN compared to most super markets.
What we need is somewhere the kids can go. Ages 15 to 20.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a rollerblade circuit around an arcade or maybe a skateboard pipe? With little delis or sandwich shops and heck even bleachers to sit in. Talk, hang out and have fun. Or maybe leave the area in the middle open so they could have dances there.
I think that Evansville has prime business prospects on the westside, because of the growing number of people who attend USI. I am a resdident of the westside and I attend college at Ivy Tech, but I hate to say it but there just isn’t anything to do for those people who are not quite 21. I think that what the westside could use would be a Headshop,because from my experience of going into numerous headshops is that it is a good place to hang out and chill. I wouldn’t say that this would be just a headshop, but something that has some billards, darts, tasty snacks, and a lounge area, where those under 21 college kids can go and just hang. I think that they should also have a room in this shop where you can smoke cigarettes inside.
This whole non-smoking crap is ridiculous. I think that everyone has a choice on whether they want to smoke or whether they don’t. I think that this is a basic human right, it is no different than chosing to drink a beer or not to drink a beer. I can’t even smoke outside at Ivy Tech you must be in your vehicle. So, now they are telling us that you can’t even smoke outside and enjoy nice weather. I known that the reason for these laws are that not everyone smokes and secondhand smoke kills, but guess what if you don’t like cigarette smoke then don’t go places where people are smoking. Everyone who smokes cigarettes should at least be able to smoke outside a building, and not every place in Evansville should be smoke free, you should have to be 18 or older to get into places of business that allow smoking. I think that this is something that should be implemented, and the whole non-smoking in the bars well that is BS. The people who complain about smoking in a bar are just bithching to bitch, its a bar for god’s sake, not a church or temple or something. The whole purpose of a bar is to sell alcohol. So, people say you can’t smoke in a bar because its bad for those who don’t smoke, well yeah thats true, but then why are you going into a bar, because guess what alcohol is not good for you either. I just think that its kind of hypocritical to say you can’t do something thats bad for you but you can trade that bad thing for another bad thing. What is the pupose of even going to a bar? Well, I think that people go to the bars to get loose, tipsy, drunk, wasted, or whatever. So, if your drunk in a bar and someones smoking, and you notice it, then I guess you haven’t spent enough money at the bar. I guess they might as well make every resturaunt and bar alcohol free, because if your gonna make places smoke free, then you have to make alcohol free places. I think especially because of drunk driving. So, these non-smoking activists say that oh yeah secondhand smoke is bad, well yeah it is, but so is somebody going to a bar and getting wasted and driving home and killing a family of 4. I just want to ask the people who are all for this smoking ban, why just stop at smoking why not continue to alcohol? And I think the answer is that these people obviously don’t smoke, but they still drink, which can cause just as much or even more damage than someone smoking in a bar.
Buesy, first, give me your definition of a headshop.
And I couldn’t disagree with your second paragraph more. “So, these non-smoking activists say that oh yeah secondhand smoke is bad, well yeah it is, but so is somebody going to a bar and getting wasted and driving home and killing a family of 4.” Who said that going out to a bar means that you’re going to drive drunk? Ever heard of a cab? Ever heard of a DD?
Smoking in bars/clubs and drinking in them are two totally different things. It’s not just about the second hand smoke killing you, well, in the state’s eyes it might be, but as a patron, I don’t want to go there and come out reeking of the smell of cigs. And don’t get me wrong, I sometimes enjoy a cig on work breaks or while out and about. But I don’t want to be closed in a big box full of cig smoke.
Evansville is finally catching up to what Florida and other states have been doing for years. When I go out to bars/clubs down here you have to go outside to smoke. No one sees it as a hassle or a pain. It’s just what you have to do. It’s so much nicer this way.
I went to school in Bloomington where there was a smoking ban. You could not smoke inside public places, be it restaurant or bar. I don’t care about all that second hand smoke stuff-sure, I don’t want it, but whatever, in this world it’s going to happen. But I like to go to some of those places and not have someone standing next to me holding a burning cigarette inches from my face…..or someone at the bar next to me blow smoke directly in my face….you may not do it, but many people do and it’s infuriating.
The smokers in Bloomington freaked out about the up coming no-smoking deadline for months, and continued to complain when it went into effect…for about 2 weeks. After the initial “getting used to it” even the smokers stopped complaining and actually appreciated it. I heard smokers saying how much they liked the rule, and for the same reasons that I liked it. I just enjoy being able to go out in public and not getting a headache from the smoke and coming home smelling like an ash tray. It’s just disrespectful to me.
Besides, the law is not taking away your right to smoke, it still lets you get lung cancer–but outside where it’s not going to make me smell like stale cigarettes. It’s just being respectful to all people, smokers and nonsmokers alike. I honestly think that people who sit and complain about this law do so only because they are too lazy to walk out the door to get their nicotine fix and too selfish to care about the person next to him–smoker or nonsmoker.
My Definitoin of a head shop would have to be any store/shop that someone who smokes (marijuana) can go to purchase glass pipes, water pipes, detox kits, papers, and a place where people can relate to one another. A head shop does not just have to have smoking devices. This shop can have anything, varying from tapestries to t-shirts to old records and cds.
Wouldn’t a lot of that be considered “drug paraphernalia” and therefore illegal?
yeah…dun like it
I think we need to use our riverfront for concerts. Nashville used to have a barge pull up and have great bands perform every summer right up on the riverfront. We have the seating, parking and as an avid boater I hate seeing our riverfront used two times a year when it has so much potential.
To those of you who expressed an interest in Evansville being non-smoking. Evansville is already non-smoking in Restaurants and places that allow people under 18. If you want Evansville to be non-smoking in bars, I suggest you do 2 things. 1) Contact your local City Council person (assuming you live in the city). The county is going completely non-smoking in 2009, but that will only affect bars that are in the county (i.e. most bars in our area are in the city limits and city will not be observing county ban). There was a big discussion on this at the city and county level about 2 years ago. 2) Let your bar owners know that you are leaving the bar as it gets smokey or at least ask if they have a non-smoking section, even if you know they don’t. At the meetings that were held, I think a number of bar owners wanted to go non-smoking, but were afraid they would lose too much business. The only way to get change is to request it, and often that means repeatedly.
I smoke a cigar periodically, I don’t hate smokers. I just prefer to be smokey when I want to be smokey and not when you want to smoke. When I smoke my cigar, I don’t mind stepping outside to do so.
1) More disc golf courses.
2) 3G
3) Frys, Compusa, or any other decent franchise for fair priced electronics.
4) A contiguous stretch of highway through the city without a stoplight.
5) Access to purchase alcohol seven days a week. Anyone who drinks a lot will go to a bar on sundays with most of them driving home afterwards intoxicated and with an empty pocket.
6) Fishing guides for the ohio river. This is an untapped resource that can be enjoyed by many people at most times of the year.
7) Second and third shift DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION organized road projects.
8) DNR funded gun and archery range in or near evansville. I dont want to pay to practice shooting my gun when gibson county has their own range in Arthur. I pay the same amount of money for my licenses as them.
9) A basketball team that can win, and will fill seats in any stadium, old or new. Roberts stadium was awesome when i was younger when they had the wooden bleachers and a decent evansville basketball team. I remember the loudness the bleachers created from all of the stomping, and also witnessing my first wave in a full stadium.
10) A few extra public golf courses wouldn’t hurt, tee times are impossible to get spring through fall.
11) Smokers only bars and restaurants, if you dont smoke or like it, dont come in.
What Evansville needs is more people to actually stand up and do something instead of sitting back whining. Ya don’t like the way Weizapfel is running the show? Too bad, y’all elected him. Russ Lloyd knew the city wasn’t ready for a stadium because they still hadn’t gotten the downtown area cleaned up.
It needs cleaned up, badly. Want the undesireable element out of the downtown area? Easy, quit renovating thier public housing projects. They’ll eventually leave. Get the city’s code enforcement department off thier butts, quit ticketing people who forget to mow thier lawns and start checking some of Steve Goad’s and Lowe Realty’s slums for building and fire code violations. Get EPD to go in and clean out the crack houses, everyone knows where they are, try asking cab drivers for tips. Clean out the riffraff and the firetraps so people will actualy want to go downtown.
Get the greedy buggers in city and county govt to lay off the proprty taxes. My 70k house shouldn’t cost 1800/yr in taxes. Wonder why rent is so high? Get local government to quit blowing our money on stupid stuff and we’re halfway to being a better town.
Public transportation? Yeah, River City Cab blows, everyone knows that. Protest thier PUC licensing and maybe those jerks will spend some money on cars instead of snorting thier profits. Trust me folks, you ride in one of those things, you are taking your life into your own hands. The METS? Can’t put too much money there, we’re wasting it on renovating public housing and building soccer fields.
A head shop? Are you utterly daft? Nuff said.
More green rules that will cost businesses more money to operate? I thought we wanted businesses to grow here? Get a clue, if they are making a profit, they stay and you have things to do, if no profit, they move.
Giving the college crowd something to do, hmm, aren’t they in college to learn? That’s enough for them to do. Hipsters, y’all don’t have any money anyway, quit whining about not having anywhere to not spend the money you don’t have. This town needs more artsy little craft shops and coffee shops like it needs another casino.
Yeah, the sewer system here stinks, might have something to do with the 20 foot water table we have here. Makes it kind of pain to drain. Crap doesn’t run uphill or upstream. It’s an unfortunate effect of our geographic location and it takes time and money to make it work right.
I honestly think a stadium downtown would be a good idea, if they can attact a major team to come share in the expense of building it and to play in it, otherwise it is a collossal waste of taxpayer’s money.
Our school system is another sore point with me, they need to quit worrying about how to make these kids feel better about themselves and go back to teaching them. It’d be cheaper and if they did, our high school grads might have a clue how life works in the real world.
Resteraunts and bars? What more do you want? We have plenty if not too many as it is. As far as the local mom and pop places, quit taxing and regulating them out of business. Comedy club, think that’s been tried too, see the previous sentence.
Vince… great post. But a quick question for ya. You first sentence was, “What Evansville needs is more people to actually stand up and do something instead of sitting back whining.” You then gave some good ideas but with no action plan it sounds very much like whining.
So I ask you, with all that you have said, what are you going to do to implement your ideas?
Chimpie,
Well, honestly, I am trying to get more involved in local politics, as abbhorent as becoming a part of the system may be, it is the only way to make a difference. Getting my name on local boards like this is a start. People do remember.
When something annoys me or even if I see something happening I approve of, I contact my representatives and let them know about it. Reminding them who they work for is sometimes in order.
A hint for people who do this, use snail mail, I don’t think most of those folks really read e-mail. I do know that Brad Ellsworth will answer his sometimes, and John Hostettler used to, but the majority it, seems, just autoreply with a form letter. Faxes seems to get thier attention too.
As far as local involvement, I’ll likely start with the PTA, have 2 small children so things that influence them is a priority to me. Make enough noise there and eventually try to get on the school board. Our local govt seems to listen to them. Eventually I may be able to get enough people listening to try a council run.
I also intend to become a more familiar face at my political party’s headquarters. If you hang out with the candidates and representatives, they tend to listen to your ideas. Whether they listen or not is another thing but we have a way to deal with the ones who do not.:)Don’t vote for them again.
A more effective prosecutor. Someone to enforce our laws. Especially when it pertains to children
As a transplant from a major, western city, I can say that I have spent the past three years in a seriously disappointed state. I am an active person with many interests. I feel my happiness is my own responsibility and therefore consider exporling my new “area” part of the excitement of my “big move”.
However, at the risk of offending probably everyone who might read this, Evansville sucks; and the worst part is, it doesn’t have to. It seems to me that the the area has quite a bit going for it. The weather is decent enough, especially for the midwest. It is considered to be “mid-sized”, which is one of the things that drew us here.
We enjoy low crime, good schools, blah blah blah…
So what’s the problem? I sometimes get the feeling that E’ville has been “not-quite-there-yet” for generations. Like its ship never came in. Or maybe it’s that the ship came, and took the few educated people away to places that offer more in life than blue collar and healthcare jobs.
There’s just no pay-off for living here, and the saddest thing is that the people here don’t seem to mind. They seem lazy and depressed. They can eat out and shop just enough to lull themselves into thinking they have lives. I think the locals feel threatened by anything new. They tend to avoid events that are “secular”.
Maybe the size(population)is what misled me into thinking there would be more culture here. I decided last year, that after my son graduates, I will move on. Why shouldn’t I. I’m educated, active, adventurous. And Evansville makes it perfectly clear that I don’t belong here.
So list three (or more) things that Evansville could do to improve to entice you to stay?
Hmm, maybe it is because the some people here have been to and lived in major western cities and seen the downside of them, and do not want that to happen here?
There is no percentage in trying to make the place you go to like the place you come from, you left there for a reason, didn’t you? If it was so great, you’d still be there.
Oh Vince, way to reduce all I’ve said into the narrow, blank or white, all or nothing, good or evil rhetoric that seems to drip from the mouths of the mundane here. If you have decided you have no other choice but to live here and like it, then so be it. One of my favorite recent quotes is, “If you’re doomed to eat sh*&, you might as well bring your own fork.” I think it applies here.
CHIMPIE, I appreciate you comment. As I can only give answers off the top of my head, that might be exactly how they sound; a bit out there and underdeveloped, but here goes….
I think Evansville would respond extremely well to a good health and fitness campaign. Something really agressive. Also,I think there could be some real $$ squirled away within some of these “hometown” companies, and they ought to get with the times and offer their employees REAL wellness programs.
Here’s a totally abstract one….How about promoting group travel and culture programs. It’s fine to looooove where you live, but we do not live in a bubble. There is a big, facinating world out there. I can’t think of a population who could benefit more from understanding it better. Ok…now I’ll wait to see how many readers slam me about funding such projects. Bring it on.
The state offers a health plan.
And we have two travel programs, they fill quickly too.
I don’t have many dull moments in Evansville. You have to be here for a while and meet people to find the circles that you enjoy.
We have lots to offer, you just have to find it, that’s really about the only problem.
yeahhhhhhh I was going to say exactly what gmwong said
we aren’t here to attack you, you seem to think we are (at least I’m not) and the rest of evansville is after you. I just don’t see why you can be so negative. Sure Evansville has its good and bad, every place does–you seem to not like anyone in or anything about Evansville. If that’s the case, why on earth have you stayed? If that’s true, shouldn’t you have left years ago?
Snotty *****, way to lump someone into a spot where you think they fit.
I’m here because I like it here, I own homes in Denver, Newark, and a good chunk of land outside Las Vegas. I lease the houses to people who still want to live there. I don’t, I’ve done my time there.
I’ve seen big city “culture” for what it is. All the good and bad. Thing is, you can still find most anything to do here that you can in a larger city, you just have to look a little harder.
As far as “wellness programs”, we have them, we like to call them fishing, hunting, boating, going outside, hanging out with real friends and other silly small town notions like that.
Health and fitness? 16 gyms and 37 health clubs in the phone book, go find one. Just don’t expect the city to do it for you.
I think the real problem you have here is that people here do tend to be a bit conservative, even our democrats, which doesn’t quite set well with your liberal education. We don’t need our city government or employers to tell us how to have fun and take care of ourselves, we do it just fine, all by ourselves.
gmwong,
It’s good to hear about the travel programs. Can you give more info? I have to tell you that over a year ago, I spent the better part of an afternoon searching for travel clubs here that offered day/weekend trips. I called everywhere from travel agents to bus lines. Nothing turned up.
Jenna, I’m sorry you feel that I’m being too negative. I looked back over my original comments and I think I made plenty of positive ones. That was kind of my point. We thought E’ville had or would naturally have more “going for it” because of its size, decent weather, good schools, low crime…. Also, I mentioned that I am staying here for my son;(will graduate from high school in 2013.)
My snotty comments were intended for vince. I read his comments to me and others, and find them to be dismissve and unnecessarily harsh to the other posters. They’re just here to give opinions. I happen to agree with what the students had to say about their E’ville boredom. Maybe if they felt differently, some might consider staying here to work and pay taxes once they graduate. Thoughts to ponder.
You know, in my “real life”, people ask me where I’m from,(I guess it’s obvious I’m not from here) and I tell them, they then go on to ask why I would move to this area, and I give them the reasons I’ve stated here.
They still end up rolling their eyes, or they tell me how crazy I am for coming to a place “like this”. Their words, not mine !!!
So, this can’t possibly be news to you guys that people have some criticisms of the area. I gave mine because I thought maybe some of you could she a little light.
Anywhere I go (I’ve lived about 5 different places) The people say that. It’s not because the town is inherently bad. It’s because the people are either too lazy to go out and enjoy the city or they are stressed and attack the first thing that comes to mind.
I bet plenty of people in Evansville don’t like their situations. But they wouldn’t like it if they were in Anchorage, or the Taj Mahal, or Mars. They just aren’t happy.
I live in an apartment and I have a dog that loves to run. But I have no backyard. I really think that evansville needs a dog park. I cant believe that we dont allready have at least one.
@samantha: I totally agree on the dog park! Just let them off the leashes and run in a doggy space!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if Eville could make one that has 2 outdoor ones–one for small and one for big/medium dogs–and then even an INDOOR one for rainy/cold/etc days so that we could still go and take our dogs w/o worrying about getting rained on or the wet dog smell, and they still get their exercise? I think that’d be pretty neat
there is a dog park. and it is separated for big dogs, little dogs. it’s behind bob walther’s golf course at first and diamond. there’s a yearly fee involved. go to courier & press and type “dog park” in the search for information.
others take their dogs to places like USI or the Howell Wetlands or the State Hospital grounds or Angel Mounds. yeah, dogs are supposed to be on a leash, but……………
yeah we take our dog to St Hospital park and Wesselman’s, but the dog is nuts and can’t be off a lease when its not an enclosed space, that’s why it’d be nice to be able to take her to a dog park where she can run like the nutso she is and needs to………totally didn’t know we had a dog park, will look into it!
look for schoolyards or baseball diamonds that can be closed in, either completely or all but one gate
Have you guys tried the Evansville Icemen semi-pro hockey? It’s alot of fun and something else to do besides dinner and a movie, plus it’s alot cheaper.
We need a jazz club. The music scene is full of cover bands. Too much karaoke. I am a saxophone player and it is impossible to find jazz improv happening. Evansville needs a classy club with a tight house band, and different acts nightly, as well as good food and drinks.
I lived in Evansville for most of my life and when it was vacation time I traveled. Not just to disneyland or nashville, but all over the world. There are wonderfull places to live just about everywhere. Evansville offered a simple lifestyle when I wanted it and since I grew up there, I had many friends and things to do locally. It is not uncommon for people relocating from fast-paced cities with larger populations to experience somewhat of a letdown in Evansville, while some others welcome the slower lifestyle. Since relocating to South America, I still enjoy returning to that peaceful bend in the river that I once called home.
I see some neat ideas, and some from younger people who don’t know enough about the city, how companies work, etc. Anyhow, here’s my take (lots of ideas, by the way – I get bored at work):
The city has lots of idle office, warehousing, and manufacturing space; we need to be aggressive in recruiting companies to fill those spaces. Even if it means tax abatements or other short- to mid-term incentives, bringing a regional or company HQ to our downtown (or anywhere in town) could be a big deal – good jobs, revenue for the city, and so on. Finding a way to make disused or underused downtown space easier to acquire or fix up for big builds could help spruce up our ho-hum skyline, though the skyline isn’t a goal in itself, of course – just a sort of barometer of how the city is doing.
For example, I believe the old ONB tower (420 Main) could be adaptively reused in a number of ways, whether as a mixed-use commercial / residential development (some nice but not too-nice apartments, NOT more condos), an educational institution of some sort, like a charter / magnet school (one for sciences and technology comes to mind) or a bridge program (grades 11-12 and a 2-year college combined, with accelerated curricula) for science and technology-based and other hot trades such as telecom, computer science, business, prep for biosciences bachelor’s degrees, etc.). Other mid-rises downtown could be rearranged and consolidated to free up entire buildings, which could then be repurposed. Smaller plots with boring architecture and little space being used could be razed to make room for new developments too.
The Greenway, when it is finished, should be part of a larger initiative to encourage active lifestyles and promote the city as a place that caters to active people, as well as fostering city beautification, adding much-needed green space, and making users of the greenway more connected with their built environment. We need to promote Evansville beyond the city limits, as we have plenty of cool stuff within an hour or so of town – Holiday World, Garden of the Gods, Kentucky / Barkley lakes, Hoosier Nat’l Forest, Harmonie State Park and Burdette Park, just to name a few.
Another thing I think would be cool (though I’m unsure how doable it is) is a 7-10 day music festival every other year. Here’s my breakdown of that:
The “hometowns” of many genres of music are within a few hours – Chicago, St. Louis, and KC have home-grown jazz, and the E’ville area has Boots Randolph
- Memphis has blues, and Henderson has W.C. Handy
- Nashville has country
- we’re not far from Appalachia and several genres of folk music, from hammered dulcimers and gospel to bluegrass
- don’t forget Evansville’s pre-existing popularity as a stop for Christian groups
- Classic and southern rock do well here too; keep in mind that REO Speedwagon is a well-known group and from the region, and they tour with Styx frequently and like coming here
- the Evansville Philharmonic is well-regarded for a city of our size
We have several venues of decent size. Here are most of them, with my estimates for concert seating capacity:
New Arena (10,000)
Roberts Stadium (10,000)
Mesker Amphitheatre (8,500)
Reitz Bowl (7,000-8,000)
Bosse Field (5,000)
The Centre (3,500)
Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Coliseum (2,400-4,000)
Victory Theater (2,500)
Bethel Temple, CFC, Crossroads, and a few other large churches in and around town have sanctuaries holding a few thousand patrons each
- I also thought just last night of having a barge at the riverfront equipped with a stage for concerts, and was pleasantly surprised to find out in the comments above that such things exist (and that I’m not crazy for thinking of it too). That venue (with possible bleachers set up at street level) could easily accommodate upwards of 10,000 patrons as well, and boats hanging out near the stage would make for a really neat atmosphere for an evening show.
Keep in mind I’m not just talking about having a bunch of concerts in one week. This would be a huge deal, aggressively recruiting the best acts of all these genres that we can bring in, as well as using the best we have to offer. It should include something audacious, like performing Beethoven’s entire symphony cycle spread out over nine days (perhaps each performed by a different orchestra at the Centre, with the 9th being performed at the new arena by as many musicians as can be fit on the floor from all the other orchestras and the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus). There could be food booths and a parade; the Symphonic Band and military bands from the region could be incorporated, and local marching bands could be involved too, depending on the time of year. It would, of course, have to be coordinated to avoid other major events in nearby cities such as Nashville or Indy, and I think it would work best in late spring / early summer or late summer / early fall.
We need to find a self-sustaining way to preserve the neat old houses, particularly along the Washington Avenue corridor between US 41 and downtown. Perhaps an arrangement to provide discounted rent and / or training in certain trades to tenants in exchange for services maintaining them in “original-looking” condition on the outside with updates and modern living conditions inside could work. I’m talking about hiding any traces of modernity (including telephone poles, electrical wiring, and modern cars – possibly even gas streetlights or replicas of them), repainting the houses in their original colors, manicured lawns, and lush flower gardens (look to cities like Savannah, GA that do this really well), and possibly even remake the street and sidewalks in brick running into downtown for a real “time machine” treat for anyone passing through – and a beautiful neighborhood for the whole city to enjoy.
Another thing Evansville can do to promote its brand is to make every effort to stand out. This can include lots of things, from having streetlights, bus stops, street signs, overpasses, etc., designed and built by local firms to express the city’s character and improve civic pride, to embracing the city’s growing diversity by putting on a culture festival to celebrate our major ethnic groups – German, Hispanic, Japanese, African-American, and so on.
Promote sister city relations! We can adapt good ideas from similar cities across the globe to improve our own, as well as improving cultural ties to the world.
Embrace our history, but don’t be afraid to embrace the future too! I believe too many Evansvillians are content to be “the biggest small town around”, rather than taking the next big step and graduating to the metro level and getting our piece of the pie from the other population centers in the region (Louisville, St. Louis, Indy, Nashville, Cincinnati, Memphis, etc.).
Our metro footprint is big enough that a relatively large area outside Evansville associates itself with us rather than the other metros in the area, and that influence is something we can play on. So let’s cherry-pick the best of what we have. Use the small-town mentality, but use it to play up the Hoosier Hospitality card and folksy goodness people already associate with the Midwest. Promote the German work ethic we’ve had here for so long, but turn down the whining of “we’re just Evansville”.
It’d be nice to have NCAA football too, but I’m not holding my breath for that any time soon.
e'ville needs a good headshop….i am from the east coast and this city seems like a wasteland for headshops….duh it's 2010 and jersey is getting ready to legalize medical , maryland already has, vermont, maine….etc……delaware has a great headshop called Flavor right by U of Del
Nice nic! I have wondered why there isn't at least one head shop here. However, I have found that the people here have no idea what I'm talking about. Apparently, the natives have never heard it called that. I haven't smoked in years, but I wouldn't think that that particular terminology would change. There's a little place in Newburgh with pipes and other "smoking supplies" in a back, curtained-off area, but I wouldn't really call it a head shop. Good luck!
thanks tolerance….as I said this is like the land that time forgot after living on the east coast and coming here…I was shocked….where is Newburgh and where is that shop? Hope Evansville changes because I am….. seriously considering relocating to Amsterdam permanently…..all I have seen in Evansville is bars…..bars bars and lots of alcohol drinkers which is not my thing….I think alcohol is a much more harmful substance than a natural herb…….thanks
Lacy
Trocadero across from Ellis Park has a few things, and Burn 'Em and Smoke 'Em on Bellemeade has limited options.
thanks much!
I say a comedy club is well needed most definitely.
When I was a kid at Central High School, we never lacked for something to do because we had the Community Center in the old Union Station. There was food, music, dance, bands, basketball out back and kids from every high school in the city. It was a place where all high school students co-mingled and got to know their counterparts from across the city. Is the Community Center no longer viable? If not, that is what the city of Evansville sorely needs. Get on it Hoosiers!
From Niceville, Florida