Your "idea" to sell Cobo Center appears to lack the thoughtful study that usually goes into so much of what makes Crain's Detroit Business a great publication ["Opinion: New mayor should privatize Cobo Center," November 19, 2001.

Discussion of cost without return measures is meaningless — and gratuitously inflammatory: We could all reduce our costs to zero by simply doing nothing. And with that investment, of course, we would achieve nothing.

Further, if Cobo "were privatized or sold," how do you know that the city would reap the same benefits as today? Our convention center as it stands is a powerful marketing medium not just for Detroit, but for the state as a whole. Divested of this, we forfeit control of our message, our ability to position ourselves, and an important mechanism for channeling strategically-targeted decision makers to experience southeast Michigan.

At a time when all travel has been curtailed and communication noise levels are skyrocketing, your ad hoc recommendation could dis-integrate vital promotional continuity advocating Detroit commerce at its center and to the surrounding communities to which it inevitably radiates.

Let's make sure the total economic impact is understood before suggesting radical changes like this.