In what was a surprise to just about everybody, Harris County voters rejected a 217 million dollar bond issue yesterday that would have renovated and rejuvenated the Astrodome.
All of the pre-election publicity had been strongly in favor of saving the local landmark dubbed the “Eighth wonder of the World” when it opened back in 1965. In spite of that, 53% of those voting cast their ballots against saving the dome.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said, "We can't allow the once-proud Astrodome to sit like a rusting ship in the middle of a parking lot. This was the best effort (to revamp the stadium), and voters have turned it down." Emmett said a final decision on what happens to the Astrodome will be up to the commissioners court, but he said the stadium's future was pretty much sealed with the referendum's failure. He said a decision would have to be made quickly but didn't say exactly when that would happen.
Studies in recent years have estimated the cost of simply demolishing the Astrodome to be between $29 million and $78 million.
As to why the bond issue lost, I doubt that anybody really knows for sure. The reasons may be as varied as the number of citizens casting ballots. One election analyst on local TV last night pointed to the large turnout of black voters supporting Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s reelection, but he failed to explain how that might have mattered.
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