that you are willing to forego an extensive cost/benefit analysis with a blind faith in unsupported speculation about the potential of an expanded Convention Center to generate new businesses.

Thinking about the impact of a terrorist attack or other larger-scale events on a heavy investment in the Convention Center is not idle speculation: 9/11 and the tightening of corporate pursestrings after the dot-com stock market downturn had a pretty devastating impact on convention businesses, and I would question how much of a recovery has already taken place. Given that, now is very likely a bad time to invest further in convention-related development. A slowdown in the economy would have a heavy impact on non-essential spending such as attending conferences. Any good business investment should take into consideration vulnerability to various larger-scale events.

Try listening to the show: this guy did an extensive analysis, and from his comments, I see nothing to dispel my suspicion that we're essentially being sold a bill of goods on the basis of vague promises. Those promises in the past never lived up to expectations promoted by business communities and city governments.

What's clear is that a limited cross-section of stakeholders would directly benefit, some of whom would benefit independently of future developments (those who would benefit from the financial logistics and who would profit from the resulting contruction revenues), and that a limited cross-section of stakeholders currently have an disproportionate influence in the plans that are going down.