On the question of whether or not the state of Missouri should help to fund a bike race across the state, I can’t say that I’m the best informed on the issue. But I have friends who enjoy the race immensely and travel to small towns in Missouri that they would never visit otherwise just to watch different legs of the race, and it does draw tourists from around the world to cities large and small here in Missouri. Given that taxpayers subsidize college and pro sports stadiums to a much higher degree than the Tour of Missouri, I don’t understand the hostility. All in all, I support keeping the tour, even in these tough economic times.
I also don’t understand why Fired Up has sneered at it for years as something foreign or French, and I don’t understand why Governor Nixon just called it Belgian. Why go nativist on a bike race? The greatest living cyclist is an American, for crying out loud.
One last thing I really don’t get. While Peter Kinder has no problem advocating for taxpayer funding of sports facilities and things like the Tour of Missouri, he has no qualms in cutting 100,000 Missourians off the Medicaid rolls, and in opposing a more progressive tax system for the state. So while he might get a tiny check mark for helping something like the Tour of Missouri, it doesn’t even come close to balancing the crap he and Blunt have laid on Missourians for years.
Fired Up is so anti-tour. I keep reading and reading their posts wondering when the light bulb is going to go on and I’ll say “aha! the Tour is EVIL!” But it never does. I mostly think they have become obsessed with it and slightly unhinged. Maybe they’ll see this and post an explanation. Because I just don’t get it.
And I truly don’t get the French/Belgium sneer. There is a well known bike event in Iowa. If Iowa can have a big bike event, why can’t Missouri?
Now, whether the state should fund it I don’t know. But the state funds much dumber things in the name of tourism.
As someone who now watches the Tour de France every morning now, I don’t get it either.
We have the longest rail-to-trail in the country with the Katy Trail. As someone who bicycles almost all year round, I love to see the professionals and it shows how pretty outstate Missouri is.
Oh well.
more than hating bike-riding
…..that ultimately the Tour of Missouri is a money-maker and promotes the state and an active lifestyle. The state spends a paltry amount of it’s yearly budget on this event which does so much good. It would be a crime if it became a victim of misplaced aggression.
I agree that Republican hypocrisy is sickening but if we let that become a reason for bad policy then this will only be the tip of the iceberg. Missouri will be the big loser – not Peter Kinder or the Republicans.
We have much bigger issues to take the fight to them on where we also will be standing up for what is right for Missouri. Let’s fight them on things like health care, public education, equality and fairness.
Let the Tour of Missouri go on!
…from Fired Up:
Will there be any answers from the proprietors?
Sorry to be late to joint the conversation here —
My personal concerns aren’t so much with whether or not there should be a race, but with the way things are managed and financed. Tour organizers want this to be a state project when it comes to taking in money, but want the benefits of being a private corporation when it comes to basic transparency and accountability.
I wrote about a number of the questions I have at http://www.firedupmissouri.com… and will be posting more in the coming days.
I also share Clark’s frustration with the disconnect between (a) very strong support for Kinder’s personal project (remember that he calls it “My Bicycle Race”) and (b) little to no support for improvements in health care, unemployment, etc.