Wednesday, January 7, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Immigration / Kotz Will English-Only Hurt Nashville's Convention Business?
Posted by Pete Kotz on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 5:36 AM
The good news is this: Nashville is expected to welcome 64,000 visitors for 25 conventions this month, a better showing than December or November.
The bad news is this: How long will it last if the English-Only referendum passes?
Recall, if you will, those strange days when Arizona refused to acknowledge the Martin Luther King holiday. The state took a beating in the national press. Convention organizers pulled their meetings from Phoenix and Tucson for fear of pissing off attendees. Super Bowl XXVII, originally awarded to Tempe, was moved to the Rose Bowl instead, less the NFL be viewed as rewarding redneckism.
The King holiday is likely more of a lightning rod than English-Only. But for organizations with diverse membership, it's hard to believe they'll be coming back to Nashville next year if their own members feel unwanted.
Take the National Strength and Conditioning Association, with 1,800 members arriving this weekend. You can pretty sure some of those attendees will be Hispanic guys. You can also be sure they're a little tired of rules specifically designed to bag on their kind.
The American Football Coaches Association arrives with 6,000 members next week. Do you think a group with Hispanic members--and coaches who supervise Hispanic players--would risk the political heat of returning next year?
There's a reason that among the 30 or so cities that have passed English-Only laws, not one is the center of a metropolitan area. That's because such laws are not only worthless in the practical sense, but very bad for business. And we want to do this in the middle of a depression?
We called Nashville convention bureau chief Butch Spyridon to get his take, but he was out of the office. We'll update when we can get him on the horn.
Comments (1)
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The only way to stop Nashville from looking like a bunch of idiots is to get out and vote against English Only.
And, while you are at it, vote against the second referendum measure which would allow Charter amendment elections every time someone showed up with a petition signed by 1% of the registered voters in Nashville. The election could be at any general election, or once a year if the petitioners wanted a special election.
There are approximately 340,000 registered voters in Nashville. That means that anyone who could drum up 3,400 signatures could foist any kind of lunacy they want on Nashville - at our cost; every year.
Of course, if you like spending $300,000 every year for special elections stay home and don't vote.
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