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San Diego's convention center expansion would build into a glut
P.S. an expansion of the existing convention center will require Bed tax from the new hotel proposed next to it to service the bonds. With Bob Filner as mayor it's likely that he would require a new hotel to be UNION , you can not build and operate a union hotel in San Diego and remain competitive, therefore no developer will build that hotel ergo no convention center expansion. We need only to look at Gaylord Hotels and Chula vista to see what happens there . Gaylord's gigantic enclosed hotel would have provided hundreds and hundreds of jobs for 50 years , sales tax ,bed tax ,property tax all out the window because when faced with having to build and operate a union hotel the Gaylord folks said no thanks and took their development to another city. So in the end who lost? Hundreds and hundreds of service workers lost , The city of Chula Vista lost , not one Gaylord tourist rode the Trolley to the Zoo, not one took his family to Sea world, not one picked up the Reader and visited a single advertiser there. Not a single one.— February 13, 2013 6:27 p.m.
San Diego's convention center expansion would build into a glut
Convention attendance has been down for the last 4 years due to a RECESSION , perhaps you've heard of it . Will it last forever? Who knows , in 2009 when Obama told America "you can't go to Las Vegas on the tax papers dine" ( he meant to no tax deductions for travel entertainment etc) 360 conventions cancelled in Las Vegas within 60 days . Thousands of service workers lost their jobs. Those who make the beds, check guests in, serve them breakfast, drive them to the event , check their tickets, serve them lunch, dinner , beverages ,sell them souvenirs, check their tickets etc .Those are the folks that get hurt when a convention doesn't come to town. The zoo gets hurt ,Balboa park venues, local restaurants , dish washers , bus boys , taxi drivers ,bartenders , the entire San Diego service work force, from janitors who clean the toilets to pedi cab drivers who pedal them around . So when you're cheering a smaller , less competitive convention center those are the folks you're hurting. 10.5% of every hotel room sold goes into the general fund , one single 10,000 attendee convention lasting 4 days delivers about $700,000 into the city general fund just on room tax alone , not to mention sales tax rebates to the city where collected. Tourism is San Diego's cleanest industry, they come, they spend ,they leave. So before you make up your mind ,know the facts and have an informed opinion— February 13, 2013 6:14 p.m.