Twenty-five years ago today, former Evansville mayor Hank Roberts died in Regina Continuing Care Center. Personally, I don't think Evansville has suffered a bigger loss than that of Mayor Roberts. Evansville has never been the same and has never come close to recovering.
Born in 1897, Hank Roberts served in the Navy during World War I and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention for Indiana. From 1952 through 1955, Roberts served as mayor of Evansville where he was successful in making a lasting impact on the city in just one term.
You can read more about mayor Roberts here...
http://local.evpl.org/views/viewimage.asp?ID=678349
Of the 33 men who have served Evansville as mayor, mayor Roberts most closely aligns with my beliefs, goals, and opinions (Benjamin Bosse & Russ Lloyd Jr. are a close second). Mayor Roberts built Roberts Stadium as a part of his "Program of Progress." I find this program to be eerily similar to the MAPS program I am wanting Evansville to replicate from OKC...
http://evansvillemovingforward.blogspot.com/2011/05/large-capital-improvement-projects-can.html
http://evansvillemovingforward.blogspot.com/2011/08/if-next-mayor-wants-to-create-jobs-he.html
As you read in the article above the two links, no other mayor has been able to make as much progress as Roberts. In fact, during his tenure as mayor, Roberts also joined a, "Forward Evansville" committee with a local activist...
http://local.evpl.org/views/viewimage.asp?ID=943547
To keep tabs on his progressive programs, committees, and policies, Roberts kept a "scoreboard of progress" to make sure Evansville was on the right track. As usual, there were naysayers, penny pinchers, and those who were hellbent on stopping progress, but in the end it was Roberts who was correct...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evansville,_Indiana
From 1950 to 1960, Evansville's population rose from 128,636 to 141,543, a 10% gain. Most importantly, 1950 to 1960 has been the last time Evansville has gained residents instead of losing them. 8 years after Roberts left office, Evansville was making steady progress, but then the city took a nose dive in population and has never recovered.
So what happened? What did Evansville do that suddenly contributed to this turn of bad luck? The answer to those questions is simple: They gave up on mayor Roberts' vision of making progress.
Since 1955, no new quality of life venues such as a ballpark, stadium, or arena has been constructed (although this will change in 2 months), downtown has been left to die, and Evansville has failed to be on the cutting edge of any technologies. Our town has turned its back on progress and now demonizes any kind of spending on it.
And now they want to make it worse. They want to take away the pride of Evansville that mayor Roberts fought for. They want to erase all the progress that mayor Roberts achieved with Roberts Stadium. They want you to forget what Roberts Stadium is about. They don't want you to look at this arena and see the byproduct of good government.
They know every time someone sees Roberts Stadium they see progress, government unity, and a rich nostalgic history. Those are all things demolition supporters don't want you to believe. They would rather you line their pockets individually instead of building a sports arena as a community.
They would rather see a dying town continue to die so that they can live their urban sprawling life in the county without any worry about joining forces with the city, much less helping to build it back up. If they had their way, mayor Roberts would be the final mayor to achieve progress, and all of his accomplishments would be imploded.
Sorry demolition supporters, DON'T TREAD ON ME....
25 years later, we renew the battle that Hank Roberts took on. If we are ever going to reverse the direction that Evansville is heading in, we too must commit ourselves to getting Evansville moving forward, and that starts with saving Roberts Stadium. Roberts Stadium was built with the vision of mayor Roberts and we must not forget his progressive vision.
Today, we remember mayor Hank Roberts.
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