How much percent did the On the Waterfront concert dropped as compared to its sales in 2008?
CORPUS CHRISTI — A Padre Island land auction last month provided a sobering measure of the demand for the sandy real estate long described as the Texas Riviera. Dozens of undeveloped waterfront acres went up for bid and received offers for pennies on the dollar. Some parcels didn’t receive a bid. The auction, called off after an hour, confirmed what many locals have feared: Padre Island is experiencing one of the worst downturns in years. Depressed real estate has been a national event and a pain shared by waterfront communities elsewhere. Some locals who know the island real estate market see another cause. They insist that a failed 2006 pedestrian beach proposal stifled development. The citywide vote that killed the deal occurred when island real estate was at a peak and lenders were financing big developments. Since 2006, sales prices on island waterfront lots have dropped 53.6 percent and waterfront homes have dropped 19.3 percent. Fallen waterfront prices are a trend elsewhere. In
Damn if I’ve ever seen as many people in downtown Portland as there were Sunday afternoon, gathered to see Sen. Barack Obama. Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire and Rescue, gave an official estimate of 60,000 people inside the event gates at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, with another 15,000 outside watching from various perches. Obama spokesperson Nick Shapiro made sure everyone with a notebook knew that this was hands-down the largest event to date on the campaign trail in 15 months. Lines to get in and see Obama snaked for dozens of blocks throughout the city. Some police officers casually guessed that there were as many as 100,000 people all told. Yeah, that’s right, 100,000 people down by the water. That’s the entire population of Gresham. Like the ubiquitous Northwest music festival Sasquatch just a week away, all the elements of an outdoor summer rock gathering were in place: the enormous masses of people, long-ass lines for the Honey Buckets, beach balls passed throughou
Becky Genoways, president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday in releasing the figures that the economy, availability of performers and changes in the festival are reasons for the decline. To save money, the 26th downtown Rockford music festival took place only on the west side of the Rock River this year, except for the carnival. Headliners included the Barenaked Ladies and Smash Mouth. Genoways said $849,905 in taxes were collected for state and local governments as a result of the festival this year. Go to onthewaterfront.com to take part in surveys for planning for the 2010 festival Sept. 2 to 5, including the Thursday night prefestival concert. Sources: http://go.rrstar.
