So what's the difference between a diamond and a cubic zirconium? Don't ask us. Ask Tom Plummer, president of the Golden Civic Foundation.

Back in April, 1996, Tom was industriously plumping for the Golden Hotel. "If we ever brought before council a no-brainer, slam dunk, I think we've got it in this proposal," said the solicitous retailer to an attentive city council. "I just think we've got ourselves a real big winner here, guys." (Golden Transcript 4/30/96) Tom even brought an architect's sketch of the erection's consummation to help City Council get its collective psyche around The Vision.

Never mind citizen concerns about traffic congestion, potential flooding, and soil contamination. Never mind that the lobby would look out on the side door of a mortuary where they load up the snappy black station wagons. Civic boosters just have to stick together. In this case those cleaving unto one another were: the Golden Urban Renewal Authority (GURA), the Greater Golden Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Merchants Association, The Golden Civic Foundation, and the Golden Historic Preservation Board.

Solidarity forever! The naïfs on council voted 6-0 for a real estate swap and a flood plain variance which would enable developer Scott Coburn put up what he said was "still going to be a very high-class establishment." District 2 Councilman, Golden Civic Foundation Director, and then GURA Board Member Chuck Baroch abstained from voting because of what he called a "perceived" conflict of interest.

Well, a lot of water has flowed under the municipally-funded bridge in the past two years, and the Plummer-Coburn edifice is near completion.

Whoops! Looks like something's missing, lads! We at GOLDENCO.ORG would like to suggest that the real difference between a diamond and a cubic zirconium is that with a cubic zirconium you get more sparkle for your buck. And, as Doctor Freud from Vienna might have observed, sometimes a cupola is just a cupola.

A post script: the public servants at the Golden Urban Renewal Authority (GURA) have been going around town with their own artistic renderings of what they at first called "Mitchell Place." Lately, they've adopted the more sprightly "Clear Creek Square." Could it be that GURA no longer wants to remind us of the 1933 Mitchell School building that they demolished with $300,00 of the taxpayers' money? Or was it, perhaps, our own small, shrill voice which prompted the change?

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