Comments and Reactions

Last week’s posts did elicit several responses and comments. And I guess there are a few people out there who did fall completely asleep by my weekend NFRC rant also. So that’s good. Needless to say this week’s post starts with some of the comments that came in.

On the Vegas Top 5 list…

“You missed it by leaving the Venetian off. The blue glass really works with that place- very classy.”

I can see your point and if there was a #6 it would be that one.

“What you don’t like garish old fashioned reflectives like they have on the RIO?”

No thank you, if there was a bottom five it would be on it- though it would not be worse than the Flamingo Hilton and its Pink/Peach mish mosh of glass that looked so bad they needed to do a skyscraper sized wrap of singer Toni Braxton to cover it.

“Have you seen anything at City Center and if so what do you think?”

CityCenter is going right now and I did spend some time there. It’s an interesting look- it will be the lightest job in Vegas that’s for sure- I would assume because of the high visible light needs that the building needs to get the LEED certification it’s going for. Honestly I need to sit back and see what it looks like before it’s done before I make a call.

On the comical NFRC “Case Study”

“Are you familiar with Dewey, Az and Killeen, Tx mentioned in Potomac's case study attached to your blog? Dewey is a bustling metropolis consisting of one defunct farm, a gas station/restaurant and a used car lot. Killeen is in the middle of nowhere, Tx and its claim to fame is Fort Hood and proximity to Bush's ranch. Strange that two of the three "Building Officials" used in their study would have the in depth knowledge of commercial construction these guys would have.”

Wow, you know I missed that- and the e-mailer is dead on- Dewey has 6 thousand people! Gee I wonder how many commercial buildings that person had been through, and same on Killeen. You know that piece has no business being called a case study. It should be called an “advertorial.” But guess what was mentioned, according to press reports, at this week’s NFRC meeting? Yep our good ole clueless cooked study…. Maybe the next study will have a guy from Logan, Ohio, one from area 51 in Nevada and maybe someone from Brownsville, Texas….

On the words of the “next big deal”

Of course last week’s rumor section ruffled some feathers… The thing is I am hearing it from very non traditional sources and it is all over the street. Plus search engines are showing people are looking constantly for a deal, so something must be brimming. But in any case if this is untrue, it is one heck of a whopper!

OK onto this week…

-- A reply on the NFRC statement that the 10% fee increase had nothing to do the with the commercial based CMA program (which has obviously upset the residential membership). Sorry, it does not fly- in the same comment that Jim Benney was quoted in (on 2 different sources) he also says: “we’ve seen program services and costs increase” Well program services would be the CMA as the major one. See the bottom line is he should’ve been honest and said: “yes the CMA program and the rollout is part of the reason for the increase- the commercial industry is huge and we had no clue what we were getting into because no one on the board truly understands the commercial world. So we eventually had no choice because we did not know what to expect.” That woulda worked… and would’ve been respected… even by the residential guys. But instead perfume applied to pig and all is well.

-- Other movements at the NFRC meeting I will comment on later in the week- on Wednesday there was a marathon session and news has not filtered out yet.

-- Did you see that forecasters have cut the 2007 outlook for hurricanes down? When the original forecast came out calling for several hurricanes there were a lot people leery about the report. And while it may look like that original report is erroneous, hurricanes are more popular in August, September, and October. So while it’s been a blessing and I hope this blessing continues, we are not out of the woods yet.

-- Amazingly, I have no Green note of the week for you. These last few days is the longest stretch I have gone without seeing or reading something about the whole “green” adventure.

-- This week’s video in tribute to the Lindsay Lohan issue… my goodness is she a mess or what? Anyway, she was supposed to be on the Tonight Show, but as probably know by know she did not make it- so Rob Schneider filled in….