Has cedar point become less nice and wholesome

djDaemon:

So in my view anyone pointing out those narratives is trying to make a political point rather than an economic one.

Agree with that 100%......

Discussion of unemployment shouldn't be part of politics. Matter of confusing correlation with causation. But good luck getting enough people to have even a basic understanding of economics for that to happen.

Looking at the state of labor market, U-6 unemployment makes more sense. But focus is on U-3 unemployment. If the labor market is so bad people give up looking, they are not unemployed for U-3 purposes. Odd concept but its a matter of different focus/purpose of various measures.

But back to coasters/amusement parks....

I tend to agree. The levers that politicians can move to change employment rates are minimal. And the idea that anyone can meaningfully influence gas prices is even more insane.

Still, unemployment as a trend has been essentially unchanged for a year and a half, and only fluctuates because of the way they calculate who is actually participating in the job market. More to the point, the economy has positively added jobs every month since March, 2020, and some time around late last year, the total exceeded the pre-pandemic number.

djDaemon:

And, not surprisingly and to tie it back to the discussion here, 74% of voters 65 and older tend to view violent crime as a major issue compared to 44% of voters under 30.

I can't find it now, but I saw another study of those cohorts that indicated the older folks lived in places where violent crime continued to decrease, and it was the younger folks living in places that saw relatively minor increases. The truth is that the older and more well established you are, the further up you get on the scale of things that do not affect you.

I love the flashback to the 90s. I've got to share this. Back when I was FT at the Point in the mid-90s my department had one of the (if not THE) first PCs that accessed the internet (dial-up modem). I lurked on the fan websites and posted here and there, without divulging corporate information. I got such a kick out of people criticizing "us"...or second guessing us...or claiming to be "in the know" when it was obvious they were not.

I would check in once in a while...but it was more a curiosity than anything else. Flash forward to today and I suspect they have people who are monitoring the sites regularly. (Hi guys!) I can't help but wonder what they are thinking when they read the posts talking about a park on the demise.

I remember a specific post, somewhere (it may have been here or on c-buzz) where someone complained about smoking sections in the park. I believe it was Jason McClure who responded in the post and asked the complainant to reach out to him directly to discuss the concerns. I was so impressed that he provided a constructive means for the person to follow up...and that he did it so publicly.

That stuck with me. In my position today I monitor the larger social media pages of my community and I regularly post in them to provide information, correct information, and otherwise bring some humanity and provide a human face to local government. Many of my peers do not do that...and fear any activity in social media. I think it can be done in a thoughtful way...and I thank Jason for that.

So, keep on bitching and moaning. I'm sure someone is paying attention...but that doesn't mean they are going to make you happy.

It was an honor, and a real feeling of legitimacy, when John H. mentioned us in his book. Those were not easy-going times back then, because the parks didn't know what to do with us. All of these marketing people were so used to being able to control the message, and then suddenly they couldn't. I did a talk at IAAPA once about that, and the article in Park World was about something similar.

In a more recent example of a park employee posting here, Tony Clark posted on this site about Dragster 2.0 rumors and told us all to "sit tight fellas" . It was an honor and a real feeling of legitimacy 😉

Maybe political levers generally cannot move unemployment and gas prices much but what about inflation and the stock market? Many peoples’ retirement funds are very disappointing right now (stagnant for the last 3 years). Is Covid and supply chain the answer again? I don’t have the economic background to answer that question.

Politicians can't manipulate the markets. But "stagnant" isn't it either. The trend line over the last dozen years is insane. We took a hit in 2020, and then another dip last fall. It feels volatile, but it depends on what your mix is. My various accounts are up 7 to 10% YTD, and it's mostly large cap ETF's and mutual funds. And I get that much of that is just correcting for last year, but that's not stagnant.

Inflation right now is a perfect storm of high demand for things, weak supply chains (influenced by China's terrible economy), low unemployment and continuing wage growth. According to this, wages have been outpacing inflation much of this year. I do recall a story about how it does depend on what industry you work in.

The Federal Reserve, run by non -politicians, keeps raising interest rates to attempt to cool all of the demand, because borrowing is what lubricates the economy. If it's expensive to borrow, the theory goes, companies and people will be less likely to spend, which reduces demand and hopefully slows inflation. But again, inflation without considering wage growth isn't looking at the whole picture.

Inflation is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations of the disconnect between economics and politics, given that inflation is happening globally, despite wide variation in politics around the world.

Assigning political blame for the current economic "climate" is perhaps one of the clearest demonstrations of ignorant partisanship for the same reason. The economy was heading one direction prior to the last US presidential election and two US midterm elections, and not much has changed for the worse economically over that time, so anyone blaming the state of the US economy on politics is either ignorant or arguing in bad faith. Even more damning for anyone making that argument is that, by many metrics, the economy has improved over the last few years.

Doesn't help that the 2 teams take credit for everything positive under the sun and blame the other team for everything negative. And given the general lack of understanding of basic economics combined with being told their entire lives by the two teams, media, etc. about the two all powerful teams, its not surprising so many people view it politically.

Yeah, it's pretty dumb to claim credit for the good when the bad will eventually return. Incidentally, I just saw a billboard ad in Kissimmee for some politician that said, "Fighting for lower gas prices." 🤦‍♂️

I'll just share that back in the olden days of the early 70's when some thought CP was more nice and wholesome, I would ride my Schwinn up to the Sunoco station at W.220 & Lorain with my steel red gallon gas can. I had .34 cents in my pocket and filled that can with a whole gallon of that fine smelling stuff to go mow several lawns on my street. Several Presidents from both "sides" since have made campaign promises unfulfilled.

Inflation was low last month at just .1%. So inflation has slowed down quite a bit this year. The biggest thing driving inflation right now is the price of gas. Gas in Phoenix was $4.69 a gallon a week ago. Went up north to Prescott for a wedding and found the price was a $1.00 a gallon cheaper. Someone is price gouging in the Phoenix area big time and no one has an answer for why. Our taxes in Maricopa county are not that much more than the other counties. Luckily, both our cars are electric. My wife has to drive 110 miles to work and back. This would be killing us if we had to pay for gas.

I just got back from a week in Pricey Palm Springs and gas there was over 5 bucks, close to 6. A year ago it was over 6. We drove to the Costco in Palm Desert to buy gas at 4.99 and thought that was a bargain.

So, this thread is kind of long, but I think the key takeaways are:

1. CP has problems regarding operations.
2. CP used to be better, and it was at its best from 1974-1977, especially with respect to catering.
3. CP has never been better.
4. Saturday Night Live has staying power that no one can explain.
5. Jeff (who favors Moroccan cuisine) and Paisley (who wouldn’t be caught dead riding Dodgem) didn’t grow up together.
6. Gas prices suck.

Did I miss anything?

7. The President is to blame for everything that is bad.

8. This thread is becoming too political.

My gas is still about 14 cents per kWh.

While maybe not less nice and wholesome.... I witnessed something last night (Friday the 13th) that I've never seen in all of my years of going to the park. A group of teens behind us openly lit up a blunt and proceeded to smoke it starting at the beginning of the long queue line for the Mr. Midnight haunted house. The odor was so strong that multiple guests were complaining and choking from it. They continued to smoke it about halfway through (About 15 minutes) the line. When I turned around and looked at them, in which one these "guests" in the group turned and proceeded to offer me a hit (no joke) which he probably thought was courteous? Nobody is scanning/watching the line queues to enforce any negative behavior. I remember this being done in years past. SMH.