Posts Tagged Kucinich
Cleveland Mayor Jackson Flubs National Interview Opportunity on NPR
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media, Politicians on June 10, 2010
June 10, 2010… Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson did a somewhat strange interview with National Public Radio host Scott Simon, no stranger to Cleveland.
Jackson had an opportunity to sell the city in a piece entitled “How Cleveland Could Rise Again.” However, his sights seemed to be set on the rebuke he received recently by City Council on a non-bid deal that didn’t pass the muster.
Simon, as a reporter out of Chicago during the late 1970s, made a number of trips here to cover the hectic administration of Mayor Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich attracted so many out-of-town reporters that he likely filled more hotel rooms than the city’s sports teams. But that’s another story.
Suffice to say that Simon is a lover of cities and often of Cleveland in particular.
Simon, long the host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR, asked Jackson “…what kind of short urgent speech he gives to convince businesses to come to Cleveland.” Sounded like a good softball opener for the mayor.
Jackson replied, “That’s a salesman and a politician. I don’t do those kinds of things. I need to get into some details. I’ll try to coral them, you know, and monopolize some time. But it’s basically things are in flux. Things are in constant transition, and the old way of doing things will dig us deeper in a hole. We have to do things differently.”
The subject matter pretty much centered on the Mayor’s thrust to attract new businesses here. At the center was his flawed attempt to get Council to agree to a no-bid, long-term contract for new technology lighting fixtures with a Chinese company called Sunpu-Opto. The company was to open shop here as part of the agreement.
The deal, as I’ve said before, stinks. It still stinks.
In the interview, disjointed by Jackson’s responses, the mayor said of the Sunpu-Opto deal that “… we didn’t have a template as to how to proceed. And so it was a little loose and sloppy in some areas.”
But he still doesn’t seem to get it – that this deal isn’t fixable. He still seems to think that Sunpu-Opto should get the contract, maybe in a different make-up.
And he seems to blame those who called him on the deal, which he himself describes as poorly done. Not encouraging.
Mayor Jackson says, “But the greatest advocates of change are the greatest defenders of the status quo. As we say on the street. Everybody talk a good game but nobody going to bust a grape.”
You can’t blame those who find serious fault in something even you cite as defective. And label that an inability to desire change. It doesn’t make sense.
He goes on to say “… the greatest advocates of change… are also the greatest defenders of the status quo.”
He wants it the way he wants it. Not the way it is.
No, Mr. Mayor. Those who are opposing this deal aren’t demanding the status quo. They’re demanding that you prove the city can benefit from what you want to do. You haven’t been able to do that.
But you stubbornly stick to the same sloppy deal maybe with a new twist or two. It won’t work. Or should I say, it shouldn’t work.
The interview is available here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127257166
Broke My Rule and Crain’s Shows Why I Shouldn’t
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Media, People, Politicians on May 27, 2010
I broke my standing rule about saying something nice about anything or anybody. Always disappointed soon after. I praised the Crain’s Cleveland Business daily blog recently. I don’t take that back. And I still congratulate the weekly business magazine on its 30th birthday. BUT…
Crain’s did a series on some Cleveland’s most influential (their selection) people in the last 30 years.
It’s fluff and puff at its worst.
Mostly done, of course, for blatant advertising revenue. The ads accompany the profiles and photos of Important People – a rogue’s gallery in my opinion. They are mostly Important People who helped produce the Cleveland of today.
Is there anyone who likes what they see?
Everyone profiled is a hero. From Art Falco at Playhouse Square to Peter Lewis of Progressive. And of course, the late Richard Shatten and the late Dick Jacobs. Fred Nance of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, of course. And even LeBron James.
And the saintly George Voinovich. Who could forget that? Get ready for the platitudes by the bushel as Voinovich’s Senate term comes to an end. If there is anything that has happened that isn’t GREAT we’ll never know. Because someone will have to explain (but won’t) why the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio are in such bad shape after Voinovich served as Mayor, County Commissioner and Governor. It’s too difficult a task. And too embarrassing.
Voinovich, his profile says, should have copyrighted the term “public-private partnership.”
Yes, he should have. The problem is that the see-saw public/private sharing usually meant that the public paid and the private enjoyed. As in Gateway, the Browns stadium, downtown development, rock hall, Playhouse Square. None of these Voinovich fans ever even tries to tote the public cost, especially to the Cleveland schools.
The article says, “As he would throughout his career, Mr. Voinovich downplayed his own role.”
Of course, he did.
He had The Plain Dealer, Crain’s and every Cleveland television station doing it for him.
Somehow, Crain’s forgot George Forbes. I guess George’s law firm wouldn’t spring for the ad to accompany the flattery.
Nor did they profile former Mayor Michael White. No alpaca ads.
So they failed to highlight two of the most crucial figures – at least in politics – of the past three decades.
And it goes without saying that Dennis Kucinich didn’t make the cut.
Of course, it’s only Cleveland’s history by Crain’s Cleveland Business. So you know it’s limited.
But as the headline on the front of Crain’s 30 years special edition says, – “Make Your Own History.” Certainly, Crain’s did that.