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8. P BLIC HEARING (Cont'd) Mr. Wiggins that it would have, and as Ed pointed out, it's scope within the (Cont' ): community, and principally, I'think educational institutions of the community who might be looking for'a:place to show their talents or demonstrate what they can do. These groups can and do put on some very good worthwhile watching performances, but they are not the sort of groups seen'in the_Broadway League show- ing at the Morris, nor can you reasonably expect to get into that area, because how in the world are you going to confine it and charge people to see it, and this is for a free kind of thing that brings people into the area. Now, whether or not the mer- chants in the Downtown Area are able to capitalize on the people, on the traffic that is generated as a result of these activities, is largely up to them. This is something that they have to do -- the guy who is sharp on the ball- -sharp on merchandising,, will get the crowds and he will get his share of the people, and the one who sits back and waits for the people to come to him to get his merchandising from him will be sitting there for a long time, because it just doesn't happen that way. We have got to have this on the basis that's reasonable to start with, that it is easily maintained. We must have something that is easily maintained. If you look at this and try to compare it with something like the A.C.C., we just are not dealing with the same kind of terms. They have to have that thing booked a lot of days of the year just to come out even, and the City cannot be put in that kind of a posi- tion, as it just is not feasible. They are talking about the kind of things where you charge admission and you get revenue to offset the costs and we do not have any way of accomplishing that. So, this is what we have to deal with, and if it gets real involved and an expensive kind of operation that requires a lot of expense in the maintenance of keeping it up, it just is not in the cards and it won't happen, so you might as well accept that in the beginning because these are part of the terms. This is part of the reality. Mr. Ch nney: I don't believe the businessmen got that much out of it. You show me. Last year, when you had the big doings in that block you are talking about. All right. You go out and ask all those merchants how much business they got. The only ones that: got any business out of all those doings was this guy out there with the hot dog stand and the ice cream stand that you gave a spot on the Plaza to - -that the city set up in business. 'He is the only one who got the business. That's the only one you helped out. We have to think of the merchants. We have to do something for them to get some business. I might be dumb,.but I,just want to help the businessmen out. I read the papers! And I' know some of these businessmen and you can't tell me they got so much help out there. Now, that is all there is to it. You can go and preach how much they got. You show me they got anything out of it that amounted to anything. I'm an ornery " son -of -a -gun.'