Monday, February 25, 2008

Cabela's in Walker: Bad Idea

Returning to my Cabela's rant, I noticed that Frank Walsh and Cathy VanderMeulen (Walker's City Planner and Manager) are appearing at a forum hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers West Michigan Alliance. The title of the Forum:

Cabela's: The Anatomy of a Deal

I don't know about you, but when I see government employees bragging about how clever they were to reclassify an apple orchard as an urban redevelopment site by annexing it to the City of Wyoming so Wyoming could issue $60 million of public bonds to lure a sporting goods store cum amusement park, I start to feel queasy.

My gut feel is that the Cabela's phenomenon has peaked and could head south as fast as Crispy Kreme. At that point, private money heads for the sidelines and only desperate government officials (playing with someone else's money) are dumb enough to keep the game going.

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