The Houston Astrodome has sat empty for years and has been without a professional sports team in it for a decade. It has been considered “uninhabitable” for three years. Current estimates have it at $64 million to demolish the place and $270 million to renovate it for ... something. Either way, taxpayers still owe $29 million for construction of the near 50 year-old building.
Kind of a no-brainer here, I’d say: blow the sucker up. Or, rather, tear it down (apparently it’s too close to other buildings to implode). But that’s not happening anytime soon:Harris County voters may get a say in what happens to the Astrodome, but they will not get it this year.
The last day Commissioners Court can place a referendum on the November ballot is Aug. 20, according to county attorneys. The court’s Tuesday meeting was its last scheduled before that date, and no mention of the Dome was on the agenda.
“The economic situation is just not favorable at this time to be able to step in and get people to invest big money,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said. “I don’t think there’s a quick fix for our economy, and I don’t think there’s a quick fix for the Dome.”So it sits and rusts. Another monument to the stupidity of the public sector underwriting toys for private businessmen.
