In honor of today's article telling us that the Hilton is hundreds of thousands of dollars short: My predictions about the Pollard Hilton over the years.

When I'm right.... I'm right.

June 15, 2005

Of course, the ownership of the Columbian stands to benefit directly from the downtown renaissance. But the fact is, the Columbian is, once again, on the wrong side of the issue…. Like they are on their rabid light rail support and their efforts to keep the Columbia River Gorge Tom Koenninger’s personal park.

In the end, you can paint lips onto a pig…. And it will still be a pig. With the city’s current, unabashed efforts to raise taxes (HOW much have they spent on this government subsidized pig? HOW much are they costing us with their incestuous relationship with the downtown developers? HOW much do all the tax breaks add up to? HOW much is the free rent for the port-commissioner’s daughter’s restaurant?) and their increasingly expensive regulations, they’re doing everything they can to hurt small business while they expand their empire at the expense of the taxpayers.

June 15, 2005 (II)

There are few people in Southwest Washington so out of touch with reality as Tom Koenninger… and this puff-piece extolling the Taliban City Council of Vancouver and their Mayor, Mullah Pollard’s crushing of democracy in their march towards progress serves to cement that perspective.

July 21, 2005

Secondly, the city was lying about other local hotels and restaurants "benefiting" (particularly since the Hilton is making exactly zero effort in that regard, as explained below), Thirdly, if the Cowlitz complete their scam, the Pollard Hilton will become a ghost town, relatively speaking and, finally, the taxpayers of Clark County are STILL on the hook for 10's of millions for this unnecessary, unneeded boondoggle.

September 22, 2005

And while Koenninger may think that Vancouver has “stepped out of the shadow,” we must never forget the deals that put this together, the misprioritization of revenue, the egos, the efforts to suppress the will of the people, all under the veneer of respectability wrought by the fact that, as Koenninger puts it, “…an elected city council and mayor already have that responsibility,” all took place in the very shadow Koenninger suggests Vancouver has left.

There's a lot more, of course.  Clearly, the clowns we had running the show back then are much like the morons we have now.

The question is this:  If *I* knew this thing was going to fail... why didn't they?