Posts Tagged Art Modell
Is Cleveland History Important to You?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, People, Politicians on August 11, 2009
August 11, 2009… This is not a summer reading list but a list of reading for anyone who wants to know more about Cleveland, its people – the good and bad – and its history.
Some may want to add to this list. Please feel free with your comments… here.
BOOKS DEALING IN SOME WAY WITH CLEVELAND IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
My Story, autobiography of Tom Johnson, 1901 progressive mayor of Cleveland.
Confessions of a Reformer by Frederick C. Howe, part of the Johnson era.
The Silent Syndicate by Hank Messick – on Cleveland organized crime.
Promises of Power by Carl Stokes about his political life.
Shoot-out in Cleveland by Louis Masotti (on 1968 Glenville riot/rebellion).
Mobbed Up by James Neff (on Jackie Presser and Teamsters).
City Beat also by James Neff (Columns on Cleveland from his Plain Dealer days).
They Call it a Game by Bernie Parrish (former Browns football player but Cleveland Browns & Art Modell stuff in it).
Black Victory by Kenneth Weinberg (On Stokes first election victory).
Blacktown, U. S. A. by Frank Keegan (CSU) (Chapters on African-Americans, including a number of Clevelanders).
Rebuilding Cleveland by Diana Tittle (on Cleveland Foundation & “evolving urban strategy.”)
Cleveland – The Best Kept Secret by George Condon.
The Making of a Man – an autobiography of Lewis Robinson (history of black civil rights/nationalism in 1960s)
Cleveland – Confused City on a Seesaw – a look at the city over a period with emphasis on 1960-70s by Phillip Porter (former exec editor of PD).
Illuminating Company by various people and likely only available in library – put out by conglomeration of people in 1968 or so and critical of various establishment institutions.
Checkmate in Cleveland by Estelle Zannes (CSU) – Covers Stokes era more or less from anti-Stokes perspective.
The Courage to Survive, an autobiography of the early life of Dennis Kucinich.
Newhouse by Thomas Maier – a book about the family that owns the Plain Dealer
City of Cleveland Pays Way More Stadium Taxes Than Browns Pay in Rent
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on June 28, 2009
June 28, 2009… The City of Cleveland annually now pays $202,700 more in property taxes on Browns Stadium than the Browns pay the city to rent the stadium all year.
Isn’t that some kind of generosity or maybe gross corruption?
Although Browns Stadium is owned by the City of Cleveland it must still pay property taxes because it is used for private business. The Browns are owned by the Lerner family.
The city pays a total of $452,724 in taxes on the Stadium land. The land is valued at $5,588,170 for tax purposes. The market value of the land alone is $15,966,200, according to the County Auditor’s Real Property Information.
And we keep giving away lakefront land for pennies.
The city pays the property tax only on the land, not the stadium built during the administration of Mayor Michael White. The stadium has – as Progressive Field and Quicken Arena have – been tax exempted by state law. The law was lobbied in Columbus primarily by White and County Commissioner Tim Hagan in the early 1990s.
The Lerner family paid nothing for the land and nothing for the stadium. Nice work if you can get it. And they could.
We can thank Mayor White for this gift-giving generosity.
The Cleveland Browns pay the city a measly $250,000 a year to rent the stadium. That rent remains the same for 30 years. Never to increase, as negotiated by the city’s lawyers.
In addition, the city pays the insurance on the stadium, another gift made by White to the Lerners, with the help, of course, of attorney Fred Nance, of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Nance negotiated the deal. Nance, not unexpectedly, is now the Browns’ attorney.
The big irony: The hated Art Modell paid more to the city to rent the old stadium than the Lerners pay for the new stadium at the same location.
These are the kind of deals that neither the FBI nor any other governmental body nor the Plain Dealer investigate or indict.
This is the honest corruption of our civic society. And so it does go.