Sunday, April 01, 2007

We often miss the circus in our house. Good reasons in this blog posting

Our life is a circus. So, we don't get out to them often. My mother has taken the kids to the circus in the past. I don't want to spoil that memory for them by taking them there again.
Renovating Parenthood: The Financial Circus: "We surprised the kids today with a visit downtown to see the Shrine Circus. My wife found a 'great deal' on tickets, so it wasn't too expensive. Sure, great deal. Once we walked in there I was robbed of every dime I had.

It's a good thing the Shriners are a charitable organization. Because there is NO reason a visit for four to the circus should have cost us over $120.

It started with the $9 for parking. Well, The folks that run Mellon Arena obviously need to maintain the parking lots somehow, at least until they are all torn up in six months when the new arena for the Penguins starts construction. Once inside, they really had us cornered."
The rest of the post gets better. Read it over there.

Two other points from my end can be blended upon his story. First, the parking situation is NOT going to get any better. When the construction happens, the entire hill area is going to become a big muddy mess. Parking has got to shrink in significant ways as they are going to build the new arena on part of the existing parking lot.

So, getting to the games in the next couple of years, as well as to the circus, is going to be more difficult.

Furthermore, I've said all along that there is NO NEED to build a new arena for the folks that go to the circus. None. Keep the existing arena with the existing parking lot as is. Then build a new arena in another part of the county. Then we can have a circus the same time there are NHL Playoffs. And, we can have a circus the same time there are high school graduations.

2 comments:

The Dad said...

Hey, thanks for the link, and good to see more than just my wife, sister and fraternity brother are reading my blog. Personally, from a strictly non-financial, totally aesthetic perspective I think Pgh's giant nipple needs to go away. It destroyed the Hill, and we could get back a lot of nice land that, if planned out well, could be used well. Financially, well, that's a whole other matter, which it looks like you're on top of....

Mark Rauterkus said...

Sure, take away one igloo. But, next to it put in a new mega box.

I agree that the civic arena distroyed the hill. But, what is done is done.

And, we can build right up close to it with the promised money from Barden. But, we can't keep NHL Hockey there too.

The civic arena can be made into a smaller venue.

How many of the upper seats in the balcony were filled for the circus?