Posts Tagged Cleveland State
Plain Dealer Doesn’t Want to be Pain Dealer
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media on December 1, 2009
December 1, 2009… The Plain Dealer is playing games with us about “Progress.” The paper wants to make us feel good. So Good News makes for good Page One copy. It also makes for misleading information.
It’s important to keep Progress reality-based. If you raise expectations too high and don’t produce, you have a problem. Ask Barack Obama.
It can discourage people in the end. More than they are already.
Once again we have it in a piece this past Sunday emblazoned across Page One: “Revival continues despite recession.” Oh, hope!
It links the new HealthLine – RTA’s new bus line from Public Square to University Circle – as the impetus for active development at both ends and in between the two destinations.
Two Page One articles proclaim Progress to support the newspaper’s revival theme. Two facing-pages inside the paper are dominated by a route map of the $200 million HealthLine.
The map’s graphics define projects along and about the HealthLine.
The strong intimation, if not declaration, credits the HealthLine as the impetus for this economic development.
If you take a look at what the PD is crediting to the development of RTA’s HealthLine you find it very misleading.
It’s a laundry list of projects from Public Square to University Circle. The price tag is $3.3 billion.
However, much of it isn’t private investment. It is either governmental or nonprofit construction and much of it planned, not a done deal.
The largest investment derives from various projects of the Cleveland Clinic at some $793 million. Similarly, University Hospital has a projected development of $410 million. The Stokes VA Medical Center has a $539 million projected cost. The Cleveland Museum of Art expansion involves $350 million.
Those projects do not owe their being to a new transit line. And they total more $2 billion of the projected $3.3 billion.
Cleveland State University’s projects total some $200 million.
You may have noticed also that these projects involve institutions that don’t pay the city any property taxes.
A major, accomplished development is East 4th Street at $115 million. But this also has heavy government financing. And involves property tax abatements.
The mention of E. 4th brings up another major defect in this kind of rah rah reporting: Opposite E. 4th is The Arcade, a heavily-subsidized renovation on Euclid Avenue, which is severely depressed.
If you are going to assess what’s happening economically along the HealthLine route you have to look at what is failing along with what may be succeeding. The Arcade represents a historic and critical retail link between Euclid and Superior Avenues.
One of the articles made a dubious claim of a great hike in ridership on the HealthLine compared to the former ridership.
“The innovations are working for the most part. Ridership on the HealthLine is up 47 percent over the old No. 6 line along Euclid Avenue, formerly the most heavily used line in the RTA system,” wrote Steve Litt, the PD’s architecture critic.
He goes on to say that the HealthLine had 3.8 million riders compared to 2.6 million for the old system’s No. 6 line down Euclid Avenue. (A RTA spokesperson told me that the 3.8 million is a projected ridership figure for 2009.)
However, Litt counted only the No. 6 bus route. Last year, according to RTA, it ran the No. 7 and No. 9 buses along this route. The figures for them tell another story. They were 267,631 riders on No. 7 and 951,369 riders on No 9 for a total of 1,218,940 riders last year.
The No. 6 had 2.6 million riders. However, the No. 7 & 9 buses – both in operation last year – had another 1.2 million riders. If you add them to the No. 6 route you get some 3.8 million, or just about the same ridership this year as last year. No dramatic jump of 47 percent.
There goes another rubber tree plant, as Frank Sinatra used to sing.
Actually, there were two other bus routes, a variation of No. 7 and No. 9 that didn’t run along Euclid last year. In 2000, they accounted for more than 150,000 other rides.
So maybe ridership along Euclid Avenue is really down.
Maybe also The Plain Dealer is getting too Pollyannaish. Too ready to see a silver lining.
This is now policy at the PD. Give us BIG. The newspaper under Editor Susan Goldberg has become a paper of headlines. Give us BIG headlines. Give us LARGE photos. Give us BOLD headlines. Make people believe that we are reporting HARD stuff. It’s magical stuff. Now you see it, now you don’t.
We’ve had similar ballyhooing of projects that don’t seem to blossom. In July of 2008, it was “A resurgence at East Ninth Street” on the PD’s Page One. That one highlighted the Ameritrust Tower to support the headline. Didn’t happen. In fact, it’s a terrible blight on Euclid Avenue. At a crossroad that was the city’s financial center.
We’ve seen lots of renderings of the Flats East Bank. But the Flats remains substantially, well, flat. Nothing.
And University Circle, development stories seem to make it to the PD time and time again. The same ones. Yet, the private developments don’t seem to materialize.
We allow that the economy has something to do with this. However, we suggest that people who want their projects to get attention don’t have to haggle much to get the “news” on the front page of the PD.
The paper is accommodating. Even when it doesn’t know whether the projects are real or not.
Too much wishful thinking is going on. It doesn’t need encouragement from the daily newspaper.
Yet it sells papers. Must be so. Because they keep on using it. But does it do what newspapers are supposed to do? Inform us. Not titillate us. Not uplift our spirits. Not get us feeling good. Tell us the truth.
Let’s have a bit of reality. In the end it may save us. If nothing else, the embarrassment of failure.
Mayor Frank Jackson… Heart and Head Together
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, Politicians on October 13, 2009
October 13, 2009… Mayor Frank Jackson answered the Plain Dealer on its criticism of his scholarship program.
Jackson tells Terry Egger, Pee Dee publisher, that he has both his “head and heart” in the right place – together.
Here’s the letter…
October 13, 2009
Mr. Terrance C.Z. Egger
President & Publisher
The Plain Dealer
1801 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Dear Terry:
I hope that you are doing well and want to acknowledge that The Plain Dealer
has covered an issue over the past week that is key to the future of Cleveland: education. Based on your coverage, I felt compelled to write you this letter so that I can address statements made in your paper regarding the Cleveland Scholarships for Education and Training (CSET) program.
First, let me say that these are children, not “drop-outs” as stated in How to reach those who reject our help. It was also stated that our children “squander llife and chance.” That statement is applicable to many, including adults. It is particularly applicable to those who have no excuse because life and society have been good to them.
Finally, today’s editorial states, “Mayor Jackson’s heart was in the right place… but his head was not.” Let me assure you that my heart and head are in the same place and that is to create an environment for success for all our children and to serve all our children, no matter who they belong to.
I have said many times that the key to our success and future is the education of our young people. Traditional educational systems are focused on educating children from Kindergarten to the 12th grade. I am focused on pre-Kindergarten to a bachelor’s degree, or at minimum, to an associate’s degree.
All post-12th grade education, including community college courses, should be treated as college, which means that a young person can be successful, fail or choose to stay or leave. In either case, young people deserve the opportunity.
I have several scholarship programs because I recognize a cookie cutter approach will not work. Through money raised by employee contributions to the United Negro College Fund, the Mayor Frank G. Jackson Scholarship Fund gives out scholarships to CMSD seniors, City of Cleveland employees and City of Cleveland employees’ children who are high school seniors or undergraduates. This scholarship is competitive, including a minimum GPA of 2.5, an essay, and community service.
In addition, CMSD has an arrangement with the University of Toledo that allows CMSD graduates that meet certain criteria, including a minimum GPA of 3.0, to attend that university tuition-free. The school district is currently in conversations with Bowling Green State University, Cleveland State University and The Ohio State University to see if we can replicate the University of Toledo program.
On the other hand, the CSET program is designed specifically for CMSD graduates and Cuyahoga Community College. This program has two requirements: graduate from CMSD and apply for financial aid. Its purpose is to provide a college education opportunity for all CMSD graduates.
Much has been said in your paper about the fact that under the CSET program there is not a minimum GPA requirement and that 54% of the students did not return to Tri-C for the second year of the program. Your paper has said the program is “rife with dropouts”, implying that their lack of enrolling in Tri-C for the second year is only negative. This and similar statements largely ignore the fact that some of the students who did not return to Tri-C likely moved on to other colleges, the military or vocational training programs. While we don’t have the tracking data to prove this, I am relying on common sense to know that not all of those who didn’t return simply dropped out of college.
Your paper has suggested that I set a minimum GPA as a criterion to ensure what your paper defines as success. I will not do so. It reminds me of the times that I’ve been asked “why are we spending this money on these children.” I will not set a minimum GPA for the CSET program because I do not have any throwaway children. I will not say to any child that you are unworthy of an opportunity for higher education.
I do recognize that there are some changes that have to be made. Since beginning the program in 2008, we have identified that there are some needs that CMSD students have to address. We recognize that many CMSD graduates were unaware of the options available to them in terms of financial Cleveland Scholarships for Education & Training aid and in applying for college.
We know that many of our students need help in transitioning from high school to college and how to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. That is why last year, Dr. Sanders, the school board and I began developing a course for all CMSD juniors and seniors to help address these issues.
Starting with this school year, all 11th and 12th graders must take the two-year “Colleges and Careers” course in order to graduate. This course includes a strong financial literacy component and instruction on how to apply for financial aid. It provides knowledge to all CMSD juniors and seniors to help prepare them for college and understand what they have to do to be successful.
What they do when they get there is a choice they must make – that is part of the learning curve of college. The “Colleges and Careers” course is designed to help them make good choices for their own futures. CSET is designed to get them in the door. Only the students can decide what happens next. This is also true for those who are part of other scholarship programs that require a minimum GPA.
Finally, what about the 46% of the 2008 CSET recipients who are enrolled in their second year at Tri-C? The coverage in your paper has mostly dismissed this accomplishment. More than 200 young people – who might not have had the GPA or the money to go to other colleges – are in their second year of college. I am proud of them. Their families are proud of them. And we as a community should be proud of them.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter and your commitment to making Cleveland a better place.
Sincerely,
Frank G. Jackson, Mayor
City of Cleveland