TQE | That Queer Expatriate

One of my friends posted a Tweet pointing to a fascinating op-ed piece, Liberalism Threatens Evansville, by Audrey Andress at the Independence Times, a blog that is “your source for news in Evansville and the surrounding area.” For those of you unfamiliar with Evansville, it is in the southwestern corner of Indiana and is the state’s third largest city.

The piece makes the usual interesting claims about liberals and consultants and the people who bring them in: “Liberals believe our city needs to change and look to out-of-state experts from California, Wisconsin, Illinois, Canada and even Europe to study and recommend strategies for us to adopt.”

The funny thing is that I will agree that all too often cities and communities bring in consultants from the outside; consultants often bring cookie cutter solutions that are not really well shaped for the city and community in question.

However instead of trying to identify flaws in the solutions, and suggesting appropriate alternatives, it is the background of the consultants at issue. For example the author is concerned that one of the consultants attended Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences – except she didn’t: Rebecca Ryan attended the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences was its old name.

I could have left a comment on any number of points, but this is what I decided to comment about on the blog—but my comment is awaiting moderation and since it runs counter to everything the blog is about, I’m not sure it will ever get posted. So I’m posting it below.

You’ll notice that I didn’t bother mentioning that the Budapest University of Economic Sciences has undergone yet another name change and is now the Corvinus University of Budapest.

tqe | Adam
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Posted July 17, 2010 at 7:22 AM

I’m curious why you care that the Budapest University of Economic Sciences was once known as the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences. Given that the name was changed by the Soviet/Communist rulers to become the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences, I would think that the school’s renaming to the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1990, after the communists were thrown out, is a pretty clear rejection of the old regime.

I saw a picture of Rebecca Ryan and unless she’s aged remarkably well, I don’t think she attended the Budapest University of Economic Sciences while it was called the Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences.

As it happens I have visited both Portland, Oregon, and Evansville, Indiana, and honestly, I like Evansville for my friends, but if I had to choose between one of the two as a place to live, I would choose Portland: it has a decent public transportation system that means I don’t need to own a car (or if I do, I don’t have to drive everywhere); it has a vibrant night life; and it has multiple movie theaters that play not just main stream films but also art films–just to name three advantages that Portland, Oregon, has over Evansville.

Perhaps instead of dismissing what these speakers have to say out of hand perhaps you should consider their message and pick what you think would help improve Evansville.

For starters, I think that Evansville has torn down way too many buildings to put up parking lots. I walked around downtown Evansville hoping to find shops to explore, cafes to sit in, and see what people were like. What I found instead were blocks and blocks of parking lots — mostly empty parking lots. It gave off the impression that Evansville is a city mired in the economic doldrums. After making a similar walk around Portland I can only tell you that there was parking, but not as much of the surface area consisted solely of parking lots — there were plazas for people to sit in, lots of shops, lots of residential areas, and free public transit to help me get around once my arms were full of things that I had bought.

I didn’t buy anything in downtown Evansville.