What is going on here? Mobile and most of her residents will sit by and watch a multi billion dollar business deal get taken away without putting up a fight. You can google (Seattle news channels) for example, and see how their community has raised so much hell about losing the tanker deal that they have "shocked Mobile" again and changed things for us as we sit and watch. We then have a parade thrown for us "supposedly" by the city of Mobile (?) and it was "supposedly" in celebration of other deals where the city praises the economical benefits and only spends 15 k toward the parade and asked the float riders to pay for the throws themselves. Where were the fireworks? The parade in all actuality was a back drop for the (city) promotional commercials that will be shown during and paid for by the Junior Miss Pageant. Then Carrie Underwood comes to town and highlights the fact that Mobile rarely gets a large venue with big name groups anymore while our Civic Center sits and rots away. It can't all be blamed on Pensacola and Biloxi either. It's true that the city got the breath knocked out of it's motivation this week with the tanker deal but that could change if Mobile would raise the same hell that Seattle did . Let's start supporting the entertainment industry to bring concerts back. Let's have more festivals like other cities do. Why cant we have more Air Shows or have our own Hot Air Balloon Show or Music festival at Brookley Field? ( It's been empty for over 30 years). With the exception of Mardi Gras, I wish that Mobile would break the slow and boring cycle we have been in and start showing ourselves and our neighbors a better way of life.

I agree Bobcat. Mobile needs to offer things for the public to enjoy. I had a thread the other day -What to Do In Mobile?-because we are going to be hosting a French student for 3 weeks this summer. While I did get a few ideas, and some info from the convention center, I am still at a loss as to what to do. I seriously don't think a teen is going to be interested in the multitude of museums (nor am I, especially). But if we had some festivals, or an amusement facility (like SeaWorld, or even Aquarium of the Americas), I think Mobile would be rolling in the dough. As it is, to do any fun-filled family activities, other than the beach-you have to drive to another state entirely-Florida, Louisiana, Georgia.....

You could take them to Dauphin Island and park for 20 bucks!

Yeah, right! lol

A few years ago I took some relatives to Cooper Riverside Park one Saturday to show them the new cruise terminal and our new cruise ship. As usual only ghost and vagrants inhabited downtown Mobile on that weekend and the whole place looked a little spooky. Anyway, I had been to Fairhope’s annual arts and crafts festival a few weeks earlier and I couldn’t help but wonder why Mobile could not be successful doing something similar.

Displays, vendors and entertainment could be located all through that park and Mobile Landing (if they can stop it from falling into the river) with special activities in the Convention Center. The Exploreum could coordinate with the event and have something noteworthy happening on the same weekend. The little MODA buses could line up in front of the convention center and continually take people back and forth to Bienville Square, etc. Arts, crafts, music, flowers, food could be strategically placed along a defined route in downtown that would spotlight various museums, eateries and entertainment spots. Maybe one of the buses could even go back and forth to the Battleship.

Some type of live entertainment could be staged at the amphitheater doo hickey at the park throughout the weekend and maybe a super dooper BBQ or seafood cook-off could happen that might get some national media attention. Even nightly fireworks displays could be staged ovwer the river.

It would need to be done in early spring or late fall, because mid-summer would kill everyone and one visit would be the last visit. I’ll never forget when the Tall Ships docked along Mobile Landing one July and I went over to take a look. D@mn heat and humidity knocked the breath out of me and the poor Yankees that were checking it out looked like they just fell into the pits of hell! lol

Maybe we will have to just wait until we get placed into a retirement home since they usually have activities directors that help to keep the residents entertained. Not that I'm wanting to weave a basket or anything, but why doesn't a city the size of ours employee a person that would do something along the lines of a cruise director on a cruise ship? Some type of event planner or someone to get this city moving? Why are we trying to get all of these new jobs to bring new people to Mobile when they are going to be bored out of their minds when they get here? Our city government acts like they have "Big City" dreams with a trailer park budget.

I think the city has people like that but their focus must be pretty narrow. There is one guy that deals with Bayfest and that is his job, but he is on the payroll year round.

What makes the annual Gulf Shores Shrimp Festival so successful? What makes the annual Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival so successful? Location, location, location......

I believe you are right bamabob. And in my opinion, Mobile has the 3 L's and three P's too. The Possibilities, People and Potential. The only thing we seem to be missing are the three M's. The Marketing, Money and Motivation by our leaders. (Vero possumus).

And it doesn't have to be limited to downtown Mobile. I know we have Dauphin Island (whoop-ti-doo) who has the Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, but they could offer other things as well. Especially since they now want us commoners business. There are also local community things like the Azalea Festival, Watermelon Festival, Blessing of the Fleet, etc....but those are limited to specific times of the year. We really need something that could be a year round attraction-not more boring museums. I still think this would be a great place for one of the Aquarium of America's or if EADS falls through, turn Brookley into a Six Flags type attraction. The land is there, why not use it? Or find another location, say north Mobile County, since they are supposedly building a racetrack there. Add to it, and make it somewhere people of all interests would want to come, not just die-hard race fans.

A few years ago there was a whole lot of talk about a theme park being built on a wooded tract of land along I-10 between Carol Plantation and Theodore-Dawes. The outfit putting the plan together wanted the city to finance the project and that killed the idea pretty quickly.

I believe that with the steel mill competition, Louisiana ended up with a billion dollar surplus (that was partially to be used for incentives) to their annual budget when Mobile won that deal. La. later used that surplus to increase teacher salaries and many other positive state wide improvements. If Mobile ends up with a similar situation with the EADS loss, perhaps we could use those earmarked dollars to rehire our 500 fired teachers and create a more sustainable future for ourselves in ways that will help protect those of us who are already here. Bringing more people into this city that's behind times such as with infrastructure and a failing school system is sort of like the cart before the horse scenario. Perhaps then we could at least partially finance rmseek's theme park, possibly. (Just My opinion).