Even Unbuilt Hotels Cost Money

The Pitch does a good job tracking some of the $500,000 that was spent thinking about building a potential 1,000-room convention hotel.  $40,000 of that amount found its way to consultant Kim Carlos for some seriously elusive public relations work.  The Pitch also found it curious that the committee which hired Carlos was chaired by the same city councilwoman, Cindy Circo, whose 2007 campaign Carlos advised.  All of this, of course, is chump change when weighed against the heavily-subsidized $350 million boondoggle that the hotel promises to be, a boondoggle that has more than a few civic leaders salivating.  This, after all, is a big pie to slice especially if the taxpayer is paying for the ingredients.