Public Auditorium

The convention just underwent a $51, uh, million renovation, and it's actually outperforming its current goals for events and hotel room bookings.

Some Convention Center board members have questioned whether it would make more sense to improve Public Auditorium rather than build an entirely new expansion.

And Bibb has pointed out that the region already faces a nearly half-billion-dollar funding gap at Gateway, not to mention enormous pressures on other public services.

So when Han- when Hannah Drown spoke to the mayor this week, Bibb called the Convention Center proposal a pie-in-the-sky project and said he is not gonna squander a once-in-a-century o- opportunity to transform the Lakefront.

How can you even begin to think about shoveling county money into something like this?

Right.

Well, I, I, I was appalled by the fact that they just kinda blew off the Public Auditorium, which is connected to the Convention Center by an underground tunnel.

They're like, "Oh, well, you know, people aren't gonna wanna walk through the tunnel.