GP1

Agreed, but at the same time Akron played four teams ooc (25%) that made the NCAA Tournament. One was St. Mary's and they beat Gonzaga twice during the regular season. I don't think they should go out and schedule three top 10 programs. I do think they should schedule two more teams from big conferences. I'm thinking of programs like Pitt, WVU, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wake Forest, VATech, GA Tech.... These teams are not guaranteed loses. These programs provide good competition. The word origin of competition means to bring out the best in yourself and the competitor. The purpose of competition is not winning, it's to be the best version of yourself. So, would this change in scheduling change the results of last night? I don't know, but I'm doubtful. Akron didn't just not bring out the best in itself, it failed really badly at it.

I would think that the next step is to win a winnable game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Akron had the talent and coaching to win yesterday. They didn't for a lot of reasons with two key reasons being unusually bad shooting by the Zips and unusually good shooting by Arizona.

You're missing the point.

I didn't see the second half, but the margin of victory is shocking. I really thought Akron had a chance at halftime.

Yikes.

You should have stopped at "Sure". The spending is a lot of things. A drop of water does not cause a flood.

I don't know the article. My numbers are correct. Government revenue increased in the 80s. Military spending left the government with massive debt by the end of the 80s. It's the spending.

The highest tax rate in the 1950s only applied to income over $200,000. Today, $200k = $2.4 million. They didn't invest in workers to keep their taxes down. They created paper losses on real estate and country club memberships. A summer home was a great way to keep your taxes down. There were many more ways to hide income in the 50s that didn't exactly find their way to the middle class. Does anyone really think people in the 1950s making $200,000 per year and only took home $18,000?

From 1980 to 1990 Federal tax revenue increased from $518 billion to $1.0 trillion.

Then we agree. Spending is spending whether on wars or soup kitchens. It's always about the spending. Two very true things happened in the 1980s, and I know this because I was alive and can remember the 1980s. God, it was a great decade. First true thing, the tax cuts caused a massive increase in tax revenues because people had extra money to spend and the economy boomed. Second true thing is the government spent all of the windfall and billions more like drunken sailors on defense spending. See, the problem was the spending. It's always the spending.

Do some more research into the tax code during that period. Nobody paid 90%.

It's the spending. It's always the spending.

I'm glad to hear kids are moving and socializing closer to campus. It was my college experience and I had a great experience. I went to a couple Exchange Street bars after a football game last year or the year before and thought they were good college bars. The City is never going to rebound if it can't handle public safety in the downtown area. It's a basic issue that will hold back the City forever if it cannot deal with it. If Fairlawn and Green are offering better living experiences for 23-32 year olds, it shows how far the City needs to go. I lived in Cuyahoga Falls with some buddies after college for two years. When Mrs GP1, the luckiest woman in the world, and I got married, we moved to west Akron on Kenilworth Drive as soon as we could afford a house. The city life was awesome. One bad part of Akron was the 2% income tax. It's up to 2.5% now. That's pretty steep for anywhere. It's not like the City offers premium public services for a premium tax rate. The problems the City has are not unusual or unsolvable. The failure is chronic and habitual. I don't know how to fix that but other cities have.

In 1998, Dennis Rodman skipped out of practice in the NBA Finals to wrestle Hulk Hogan and spend some time with a model in Las Vegas. They still won the championship. Kent did just fine after a couple of guys missed one practice. After 30+ games, how much practice do these guys really need for a Mickey Mouse post season tournament?

These two apartment buildings stand as monuments to the City of Akron's failure to think of anything to rejuvenate the City other than waiting for the University to do it for them. If I was a new college graduate, the last thing I would want to do is share an apartment building with undergrads that was designed for undergrads. Also, with the cost of buying a house now, young professionals are living in apartments into their 30s. Living spaces have to reflect their needs. Akron needs rental living and activities for young professionals. It's better for the City because these people have a bit more money to spend than undergrads. They bring a good energy to the City. It works everywhere else it's tried. It can work in Akron.

I went to see an NBA game for the first time in many years a couple of Fridays ago when the Cavs came to Charlotte. It was mostly good entertainment with nonsense woven through. I talk a lot on this board about how hard it is to be an in person fan now. The NBA makes it very difficult. First, the incessant music played during game action is obnoxious. The NBA isn't a great product, but it's good enough that they don't need that nonsense. Am I the only person who likes the sound of sneakers squeaking on the floor? Second, the replays. Fans have to spend too much time watching refs stare at TV screens. The illusion is that they get the calls right. There are plenty of times I don't agree with the replay decision. An NBA game shouldn't last almost 3 hours. Third, I had no idea there was a defensive three second call. It's no wonder NBA players get more layups than the Globetrotters against the Washington Generals. A dunk used to be a cool thing. Now they happen every few minutes. Makes the rare mid range jump shot exciting in comparison. Maybe I'm too old, but I remember the NBA being a better product.

It needs to shift gears into "Park" and go away. ESPN can fill time with MLB.

When I was growing up, the NIT was a big deal. Really good programs played in it and Madison Square Garden was sold out for the final four. Today? I would say it's a black mark on your season. College athletics are now minor league sports. Imagine the Rubber Ducks not making the AA baseball playoffs and then deciding to play in another playoff. It just doesn't make sense anymore.

I like your boxing analogy. John Madden once said, "The champion is the champion until he's no longer the champion, and that's what makes him the champion". Man, did that apply to yesterday. Want our title? You had better rip it out of our hands.

The NCAA likes to screw over the MAC with trips to the far west. I predict they will do it again this year. Have fun in Seattle.

There are no sit down chain restaurants in the South End like you are thinking. If Akron could pull off something like that, it would be a boom for the city and local business owners. I understand people want to try a different version of the same thing hoping it will somehow work the next time. It won't. These are the same people who believe if the Browns could just draft a QB in the first round their problems would be solved.

Pulling out a win when you have been completely outplayed almost the entire game is awesome. Great job Zips!

It was a former factory turned into a mediocre hotel with some retail. How an I doing so far? It wasn't multi use with retail and permanent living. The problem with cities like Akron that can't get things going is they simply can't look around successful places and try to apply those lessons to their cities. Instead, they live in the past and fail over and over again. The failure is on purpose.

This will play out interestingly. If the leaders don't have the courage to tell people who are endlessly looking in the past "no", they won't have the courage to police a large outside park It will become infested with bums and undesirables. Charlotte bulldozed one low-income housing project after another in the South End and replaced them with apartments for taxpaying adults. The success has been on purpose. If Akron fails, it will be on purpose as well. For the record, young people don't want parks anymore. They want bars and breweries to drink, stare at their phones, maybe play some arcade games and generally be boring. They will not use a large outdoor park. Too much sun.

I don't know how many people you are having at your wedding, but those two hotels a large enough for a decent size wedding. One idea people in Akron need to get in their heads is, Akron isn't a convention city for too many reasons to list. More hotel rooms isn't going to change that. How are the Civic, EJ and Musica suffering from not enough hotel rooms in Akron? Do these event venues have any proof that more hotels would draw more people. My memory tells me almost everyone who attends events there lives within an hour drive. Time after time after time after time Akron makes the mistake of trying to be a place people want to come and visit then go home to the suburbs. Really successful cities in 2025 are executing on plans to bring young people into their cities to live and work. It's what Akron needs to do. When I moved to Charlotte 19 years ago, the part of the city known as the South End was a dump. It's the area between South Blvd and Tryon Street outside of the inner belt down to Woodlawn Road. About 4 miles. A former mayor of Charlotte once called it The Corridor Of Crap. They tore down old buildings and built one apartment building after another the past 15 years and the area is thriving with young people enjoying plenty of new restaurants, bars, live music venues, breweries, etc. Akron can do this on a smaller scale, but they can't let nostalgia for old, bad ideas hold them back. "Well GP1, if they build these apartments, there is nothing to do"... Well, build multi use apartments/entertainment like on the South End. Young people want to live in places where access to fun is easily accessible. Make it so.