Archive for category People
Game Being Played by Larry Dolan and Gateway
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media, People, Politicians on May 20, 2010
May 20, 2010… It was a pleasure to see The Plain Dealer’s front page today. The PD for the first time in my memory asked a question that needed to be asked: “If Progressive Field needs improvements, who will pay the bill?” It was played prominently on Page One.
If there is any other board that needs PD probing besides the Port Authority it is the Gateway Economic Development Corp., the entity Cuyahoga County set up to own and operate the baseball field and the basketball arena (Progressive Field and the Quicken Arena).
It too has operated in vacuum, unwatched and unattended.
The answers to question about the so-called improvement at the baseball field are evasive both from the Cleveland Indians and from Gateway. True to standard.
Here’s what Indians PR spokesperson Bob DiBiasio said about the big but undisclosed plans, “We’re not there yet. It’s not a question that needs to be asked yet.”
Doesn’t need to be answered? That is strict PR bullshit from someone who never gets challenged by the news media. A happy face he has but not a trustful one for me. If you believe him on this one I have some special mortgage bonds to sell you.
“The Indians have not made any requests for alterations or payments,” was the answer from Gateway’s top operating official Todd Greathouse. Equally evasive. But not unexpected.
Don’t you think that the owner – Gateway – might want to inquire and have that information, especially when it has been in Crain’s Cleveland Business, online in my posts and now in the PD? And it could cost you millions of dollars? Oh why get testy.
It’s the disgusting proof – long tradition – that the owner are not in control of their facilities. The tenants are.
The question is WHO WILL PAY – THE TEAM OR THE PUBLIC?
Let me tell you. You will pay.
The PD – and I hope this ends the marriage the paper has had with Gateway – has been wed to Gateway and its desires from the beginning.
But the writing was on the wall.
Here’s what I wrote in the City News in April 2005:
“Gateway Economic Development Corp. Chairman Bill Reidy let it drop quietly, almost nonchalantly, during a non-eventful quarterly meeting a week ago.
“Reidy said that ‘the city and county would have to step in’ and put up money for Gateway’s capital fund when major repairs are necessary at Jacobs Field and Gund Arena (the original names for the two facilities
“What?” I wrote. Did I hear that right?
“Haven’t taxpayers paid enough for Gateway? Now Reidy wants the taxpayers to dig into their pockets for possibly hundreds of thousands of dollar in capital expenses that Gateway should have been putting aside itself,” I continued.
“Gateway, however, can’t put money aside because it has never charged the teams enough to maintain Jacobs Field and Gund Arena,” I went on.
“What’s so upsetting about this is that at that same meeting new representatives from the city – Chris Ronayne, Mayor Jane Campbell’s chief of staff – and Dennis Madden –Cuyahoga County Administrator – said nothing about this raid on their respective treasuries.” Somebody wake up our officials.
Let me tell you what I expect is happening.
Larry Dolan – and I expect Dan Gilbert won’t be far behind – has set in motion “improvements” at Progressive that will cost in the millions of dollars.
It will take some time.
But there will be money around. The sin tax extension of 10 years has a stipulation that the revenue up to $116 million will go to help pay for Browns Stadium for the City of Cleveland. However, once that total is reached the money – some $68 million had been the estimate – will go to the County. The tax has raised $94.3 million. So it’s not far from the $116 and is coming in at some $13 million a year.
The new money is not to go to Gateway. It is supposed to go to the County general fund. Where it is needed, I might add.
Watch County officials for the rest of this year. They must not be allowed to make any revisions that would send this money to Gateway.
At the time of the Reidy statement, I quoted a County official and wrote:
“’This is our money,’ said a County official. He went on to say, the County has paid an extra $100 million on other bonds and has to continue to paying. Now, it should derive the benefit from the 10 extra years of the sin tax, he said.”
So that’s the game – using more public dollars to boost the revenue of the teams.
My other suspicion, Dolan will use the improvement to help the revenue for the team and make it more valuable for sale purposes. Forbes in assessing the value of MLB teams puts the Indians at $391 million team value. Dolan bought the team for $323 from Dick Jacobs.
Do you think we ought to put a Dolan in as the County Chief executive to help rule whether the Cleveland Indians should get a helping of that $68 million coming due.” Matt Dolan has moved into Cuyahoga County to run for chief executive. Who would he represent in such a deal – his family or county taxpayers?
I think I know the answer.
My question is whether the Plain Dealer will deal with this money grab honestly. I hope so. But the PD’s record on this score is about as good as guys named Hagan, Dimora and Russo.
Here is the PD story:
Here was my take on the improvement deal: click here.
Kent State Shootings… Euclid Avenue Blocked – May 4, 1970
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, People, Politicians on May 4, 2010
May 4, 2010… Not everyone knows or remembers that Case-Western Reserve University was a center of anti-war and peace activities during the long Vietnam War. I remember because, although I wasn’t a student, I spent a good deal of time on campus.
On May 4, 1970, I remember being in my car when I heard news of the Kent State shootings on the radio. I don’t remember where I was going. I do remember changing my direction.
I drove my car to the CWRU campus.
It’s hard to believe that it was 40 years ago today. It’s difficult to believe that we as a nation are engaged again in far off war – this time two wars.
I remember joining students and others who of their own volition began to sit down in the street to block Euclid Avenue. Reaction to the news had begun to spread. It was their protest of the shooting. Four students had been killed in 13 seconds of rifle fire by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State. The shootings occurred at 12:24 p.m. As I remember it, the protesters sat and stood in the street as a blocking body across Euclid Avenue in front of Thwing Center. Vehicle travel, of course, came to a halt.
The demonstration happened spontaneously. There was no Twitter or Facebook at that time to rally people to action. It wasn’t required. People knew automatically what to do.
The protest reflected the passions of the times. The war was deeply unpopular. More so on American campuses. The war had gone on far too long. The Vietnam War eventually took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. There were more than 300,000 Americans wounded. Some 500,000 to 600,000 North Vietnamese were killed with some 15 million casualties in the North. Tens of thousands more were killed in the South.
Despite the intensity of the times, my memory of the day is sketchy.
I do remember one thing. It was one of the few times when I can pinpoint chest pains. I had been having these pains for some time and certainly the intensity of the day must have caused my pain. Although my symptoms were classic – pain down in the chest and down the arm – I was being treated at the time for an “overly acidic stomach.” I was 38 at the time.
I do remember Police Chief Patrick Gerity appeared soon after the protesters blocked off Euclid Avenue, a main city thoroughfare. Police in cars, on foot and mounted on horses assembled in force to face off against the protesters. It was obvious the police would not allow Euclid to remain blocked from traffic for long.
The bullhorn message from Gerity was that the street had to be cleared. He had the Mounted Police readied to enforce his demand.
I don’t remember how long the standoff lasted. It wasn’t very long. The protests did persist, however, as protesters continued to mingle in groups off the street. We moved from the street but still congregated on the sides of the street and by nearby buildings. It was a message to police that the street might be blocked again.
I do remember the protests continuing later into the afternoon. And I remember that, after the street had been cleared of demonstrators, the police continued to try to break-up any possibility of assembly. Mounted police riding off the street came up beyond the sidewalks into the campus breaking up groups of protesters. It’s surprising how intimidating a charging horse can be. People moved.
The history of the anti-war movement on Case’s campus, though rich in actors and acts, has never been very well documented to my knowledge. It could serve as a contrast to the quiet nature of the campus today as two wars hardly touch the consciences or consciousness of students.
Case-Western campus individuals and organizations, however, played an important role in anti-war activities locally and nationally.
Sid Peck, an associate professor of sociology at CWRU, was a national peace mobilization leader along with anti-war notables Dave Dellinger and Tom Hayden. Dr. Benjamin Spock, a professor of child development, spent 12 years here and gained national press attention for his anti-war activities. I wrote a page-one profile about Dr. Spock for the Wall Street Journal. Here are my remembrances of my 1967 interviews with Spock:
http://www.albionmonitor.com/9806a/copyright/spockprofile.html
Cleveland was also a hot spot in the 1960-70s, because Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) had chosen Cleveland as one of its two target cities (Newark was the other) for organizing in the ’60s. Some Cleveland SDS people played a role in the Kent State protests that led up to the May 4th killings. The ferment of the civil rights movement here, along with the election of Carl Stokes as mayor, made the city prominent in the national news of the times.
You would think that this era of Cleveland was rich enough in people’s history that someone would produce a detailed written record of those times and events. It deserves that attention.
Here is a copy of a letter sent by Peck and others for the mobilization for demonstrations in Washington, D. C. “to bring an end to the most tragic war in our history:”
http://www.blogs.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1969/nov/20/november-mobilization/
You also can find some material on the war and Cleveland’s involvement in this Encyclopedia of Cleveland History article:
http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=VW
It took another five years for the Vietnam War to come to an end. It wasn’t until April 1975, that the final U. S. Marines guarding the U. S. Embassy in South Vietnam left in helicopters to end U. S. military involvement in Vietnam.
It seemed to me that the firing upon Kent students and killing by the Ohio National Guard, along with the killing of two students at the historically black Jackson State University in Mississippi on May 14, had a strong effect on students. It instilled upon anti-war students the fact that their country would kill them for protesting against the war. There were student protests on campuses throughout the nation following the Kent State killings. However, I have the memory that the Kent State deadly force by officials did dampen the anti-war passions of the young.
They learned that their government, not simply the enemy, could kill them.