Neither here nor there, but the Kennel Club of Philadelphia's shows have never been held in Harrisburg. For the past six years, they had been held at the Fort Washington Expo Center (unless the center closed before the 2006 show, which I don't think it did). I don't doubt that (a) they can use the additional space (b) the Convention Center is expanding for a reason, though I think that the reason has to do more with the tourist/convention industry arms race and the convention corollary to Parkinson's Law ("conventions expand to fill the space available to house them") than any actual need. I was surprised to see that front-page story in Monday's Inky that cited a study that said there was actually a downside risk to expanding the center in the current market, and that if the city didn't market the facility aggressively and savvily, it might prove a sinkhole rather than a generator. (Large convention centers by themselves don't make money for their operators, which are in almost all cases now public agencies. The reasoning is that the hotel and restaurant taxes generated by the conventioneers will provide the funds to make up the operating deficit and add to the municipal kitty to boot. "Gate shows," BTW, tend not to generate as much in the way of those taxes as real conventions do. Given that the Kennel Club of Philadelphia's dog shows include The National Dog Show Presented by Purina, which has quickly become as integral a part of Thanksgiving Day as the Macy's parade before its airing and the turkey dinner that follows it, the KCP show may generate TV revenues that will flow into the city, but many of the large gate shows -- the Flower Show, a true tourist draw, the other major exception -- don't produce as much spinoff revenue.)

And I might point out that none of the cities above, including our own, are growing as fast as Phoenix, Charlotte, or Atlanta, all also located in "right to work" states.

Don't get me wrong, either: I think that unions are necessary to counter the natural power advantage employers enjoy. But when union leaders display evidence of thinking that remains stuck in a long gone past, I will suggest that if they can't reform themselves, they may need to be (as the Declaration of Independence says about governments that have lost the consent of the governed) "altered or abolished" and replaced with something more responsive that will represent workers' interests.

One more thing: If your job is in a construction trade, you are right; it's not going anywhere. But as you know, if no one wants to build where you live, then you have no work either. As of now, that's not a problem locally, but it's not unthinkable that it could be. To be fair, union actions might have less to do with any downturn than other factors (such as those now wrecking housing markets nationwide, which were not the result of union rules or costs), but when there is a problem, all parties involved owe it to themselves to ask whether they themselves are part of it too.

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Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
"Jazz and blogging are both intimate, improvisational, and individual -- but also inherently collective. And the audience talks over both." --Andrew Sullivan, "Why I Blog," The Atlantic, November 2008

Check your facts. The Ft Washington Expo was sold. The dog show was in Harrisburg in 2006. http://www.dogchannel.com/dog-news/2...22news003.aspx


Phoenix is a weak example. In case you didn't know Phoenix EXPANDS is borders. It would be like Philadelphia expanding its borders to Montco or Bucks and claiming growth.

zete
It's not about labor for MY job. It's about the setup/break-down of our exhibition booth. In Vegas and Miami, at least, we could purchase labor to do our setup/breakdown or we could do it by ourselves. We elected to do it by ourselves. When the trade show came to Philly a few years ago we were not afforded the choice to do it by ourselves, we HAD to use the union labor or not attend the show at all. We looked at the registration costs for the show itself PLUS the price of the union labor of setup/breakdown and decided that it was too expensive. The CC missed out on us paying to have a booth there regardless if we had to pay labor for breakdown/setup.

This point is a BIT off-topic as it really doesn't have to do with the union aspect of the NEW construction. I was just trying to point out that the labor unions have such a monopoly on Philadelphia that it is keeping some businesses from participating (generating revenue for the CC).

Unionized large-scale construction (ie building a building) is a different animal, and should be used to make sure all the workers are "getting their dues" so to say.

Here is the problem...

The PLUMBERS union hardly has any black people (my guess is 5%, anybody want to guess higher?) and I'm sure zero women . There are gonna be a lot of girlfriends , ex-girlfriends and vocational students getting job offers if the labor unions agree to meet the hiring goals the City has established.


These are the same goons who were telling us that the waterless urinals in the Comcast Center will KILL PEOPLE and are UNSAFE.

Imagine... an ammonia cloud kills all the Comcast employees and the building has a spectacular progressive collapse, all from urine crystals etching the structural steel of the building which amount to a failure in the core columns nearest the bathrooms in the core of the building.

If pee is unsafe, then SEPTA would be unable to operate the largest passenger transportation network in Pennsylvania!!!!!!


Soooo... I wonder what they're gonna do?

Lots of overweight white guys with crack showin' are going to turn up at the job site dressed in drag?

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WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

The last big Microsoft event that was at the PCC upset the event staff in Bellevue, WA. Two MSFT people I spoke to while I was at a launch event muttered under their breath that they'll encourage people to do New York instead, or they'll do smaller events in Conshohocken to avoid the "disaster" they experienced with setup/tear-down labor @ PCC.

It mostly had to do with the local labor groups having zero experience with high-tech presentations, backlight screens and handling wireless sound systems and there not being enough ushers around helping guests so MSFT employees had to double-up as PCC guides when PCC staff should have been doing that job. All-around, a negative experience for the world's largest technology company in the poorest major city in America.


I hope Nutter demands fixes to the hospitality problems we have at the PCC. The Chamber can only do so much.

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WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

That is really annoying. I was working with a convention and experienced the same thing. We weren't allowed to move the booth ourselves, we had to wait for a union worker to do it for us. And I mean wait until they were ready to work and one was available. Several panels and a banner and we weren't allowed to move it ourselves. They're mafias and they abuse the purpose unions intend to serve. If I ran events for a multi-national corporation I'd avoid Philly too.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

I believe this is why we lost the International Motorcycle Show a few years ago.

__Jason

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HA! Imagine a bunch of biker guys being told some unionized workers were gonna set up their hogs.

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The idealistic are no longer concerned with influencing public opinion and creating a free world of responsible and ethical social choices, but rather imposing opinion through legislation, mandating these ethics, and outlawing choice in what the loudest sample finds offensive.

Ban the Bans. It's a slippery slope between Idealism and Fascism.

Actually wasn't there a whole deal that a number of the convention center union carpenters were Pagans a couple years back?

I remember "Gorilla" Mondevergine who was later shot how many ever times in South Philly in the Pagans v. Hells Angels turf wars was the center of some Convention Center labor dispute circa 2001 or 2002. Does anyone have the details?

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

found it.

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/pr...ly.php?id=5235

__________________
A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s