The legacy Art Morris will leave? How about the shutdown of the Southern Market, turning it into meeting rooms, and GIVING a large portion of it to the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their headquarters – the same Lancaster Chamber which created the Lancaster Alliance and the Lancaster Campaign, which answers directly to the biggest corporations in Lancaster County, and which is behind the hotel and convention center project.
Had the Southern Market been properly promoted instead of intentionally forced to wither and die by Art Morris, Lancaster wouldn’t “need” a convention center to bring tourists into Lancaster – they would already be here. I remember when one the biggest issues in downtown Lancaster was ‘too many tourists,’ brought in by too many tour buses, and where to park the buses. Former mayor Tom Monaghan – the architect of the “Urban Renewal”destruction of so much of downtown Lancaster – pushed through a silly $4 tax on each tour bus, which drove the tour operators away from downtown Lancaster.
As mayor, Art Morris could have reversed this mistake through appropriate aggressive action, however he instead gave in to powerful interests (the same interests behind the hotel and convention center project) and turned one of Lancaster’s greatest historical assets into a pseudo-town hall combined with a prestigious home for the lobbying organization which represents so many of the most powerful special interests in Lancaster.
And speaking of “legacy”: don’t forget about “Arthur E. Morris Parkway”, off Pitney Road, which services the water plant.
