Lubbock On The Move: Is Downtown The Best Choice For the Expo Center?

Lubbock has a venue problem.

The Problem

Lubbock's venue problem started when it abandoned the Coliseum and Auditorium with no firm plans to build elsewhere. The money "saved" by ditching those properties has probably been lost many times over by events that did not come to Lubbock for a lack of a place to save them. It is still one of the more short-sighted, dunderheaded, and poor decisions ever made in Lubbock City Planning

Half A Plan

Part of the decision to close, which was far from a "firm decision", was the possible development of a private Expo Center. I am 100% behind this idea. Lubbock needs a place for "dirt" events, and the Expo center would handle those and more. The location was selected and it's near my house. It's so near my house that a lot of my neighbors signed petitions for it to not be so close due to noise and traffic concerns. Even though those concerns are very real, I am/was personally ready to bite the bullet in the name of progress in the Hub City.

What's Going On?

It seems like the Expo Center is currently stalled over a lack of private funds. Meanwhile, cost estimates continue to go up. Now, there is some talk about moving the Expo Center and/or the funds raised to the area where the Lubbock Civic Center is. This plan, which is really not out there in full, would be to expand the Civic Center and possibly turn it into more of a multipurpose facility (again, nothing is official on this, so it's hard to pin down).

Just Do Something

At this point, any port in the storm would be good. On the other hand, I suspect that this move is being proposed because Lubbock politicians and those who fund them own a lot of downtown land and they're looking to enrich themselves. Critics of the move are already saying that there is not enough room in the area, and that wonky proposals like this could impact fundraising for ANY possible Expo Center project. What a mess.

Stupid Is, As Stupid Does

All of this is best described with the word "clusterfluffy" (to clean up a colloquial phrase). This downtown proposal may just make a lot of people throw their hands up and give up on the whole thing which would be tragic.  Let's just sum all this up by saying all of this started in a dumb way, of course it looks to be ending in a dumb way.  One more thing, how about you finish that downtown park that's just also mess, then worry about this?