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Blog Entry 266 of 417 View from the middle or thereabouts.
A political pundit said most of us live life between the 40 yard lines. I'm one of them. Sometimes I'm right of center, sometimes the other way around.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~BrianBlog

A Tale of Two Cities
Contributed by: Brian Olson   on 9/5/2008

It was a busy couple of weeks for Denver and St. Paul. There's nothing like hosting a national political convention to attract the world's attention.

Or...maybe not.

I watched coverage of the Democratic Convention here in Denver, and in Atlanta. The first couple of days in Denver it was wall to wall, both local and national. Short of the odd Rockies or Broncos story, the DNC was it. I mean, how many times does Ben Affleck come to town?

DNC organizers with enablers like Hizzoner the Lord High Mayor of Denver (Who, bless his heart, really helped make this all work with few hitches) promised us that the world attention would showcase Denver as a world class city.

But watching from Atlanta, I saw a whole different perspective. Certainly reporters said they were in Denver, but the focus was on the convention. Not Denver. No real sweeping vistas of Denver and not one shot of the mountains. Not one. I did see pictures of some of the parks, but only because protesters were there. At least from what I saw.

There were shots of arenas and stadiums and a few glass and steel buildings. But it could just as easily have been Chicago or Kansas City. From a branding point of view, it didn't work. It was generic. The focus for the DNC was on their candidates and agendas, not promoting Denver.

As for the promised $160-200 million financial impact, I hope the local media folks follow-up on this one with people other than local Chamber of Commerce types. So many of the vendors in and around the convention were all from out of town. Early reports show that while business was brisk here and there, it wasn't as much elsewhere in the metro area.

By nature, the delegates are boosters of their own states. Not Colorado.

Denver officials seem to have a tremendous inferiority complex. I keep on hearing the tired old cliche, "Dusty old cowtown." Denver was so gussied up that we hid our hats, boots,spurs and heritage in the process.

Denver has hosted everything from the NBA All Star Game to the Summit of the 8. It IS a world class city. The world knows that. I just wish local politicos did.

St. Paul is a different situation entirely. Despite being part of the "Twin Cities" they do have an identity problem. I've been to St. Paul a lot, and always tell friends I'm in Minneapolis.

St. Paul did get more than their fair share of anarchists. One gets the sense they weren't quite prepared. But watching and listening to coverage I have no urge to go to St. Paul for any reason other than to visit family who live in Minnesota.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice city full of terrific people. You betcha! But on TV it looked just like Denver did from Atlanta.

But now that the GOP and media horde have departed back to Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. St. Paul will go back to being a suburb of Minneapolis.

Ah jeez.

As an aside, due to Hurricane Gustav, the GOP gathering became a 3-day affair and by all accounts, was incredibly successful.

Which begs the question. Do these very expensive displays of political hoo-hah need to be four days? I think you could really do it all in two days.

Meanwhile back in Denver, preparations are already underway for January's Stock Show. Once again we'll pull out the boots, spurs and hats and become a dusty old cowtown.

Deja vu all over again.

Until we get another chance to spend a ton of dough to dispell the image. Uh-oh. Do I smell.....OLYMPICS?

Friday Memo:
Some "experts" think gas could drop as low as 3 bucks a gallon. Way to go all you hypermilers, bike and scooter riders and those who bought those little two seater putt putts.

Prices are down because we're conserving. Basic economics. Government had nothing to do with this. We did.

Stay the course, we're just getting started. The more we save, the more we save.


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Submitted By: Gail S. Kirkegaard
posted on 9/5/2008 @ 7:40:45 PM
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Brian Olson

Highlands Ranch , CO

Brian Olson has posted 417 blog entries and 21 comments since joining on 11/30/2007. Brian Olson 's average blog rating is 4.73.
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