Posts Tagged Mayor Jackson
Knee Deep in Civic Corruption… Anyone Noticed?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media, Politicians on June 13, 2010
June 13, 2010… So why have we wasted all the time and energy with a supposed “reformed” Cuyahoga County Government when Joe Roman and the Greater Cleveland Partnership can decide for us.
Why bother with any democracy? Who needs it.
The Plain Dealer – it its usual uncritical manner – reported last week that Joe Roman, according to the paper, “said community leaders discussed extending the sales tax increase more than a year ago as a possible way to fill gaps in medical mart funding.”
They want more bucks for downtown, of course. Another couple of hundred million dollars.
Why do we need a County chief executive? Why do we need a County Commission of 11 elected officials?
We have Joe Roman – the $451,241 a year GCP boss – to tell us what we need. How we should tax and what for.
“Roman,” said the Plain Dealer, “said the business community supports a transformation of the malls, Public Square and other areas in the central business district. He also recommends addressing the improvements before construction of the medical mart begins in October.”
Let the rest of the city rot.
Well by all means everybody, let’s get busy.
The arrogance of the Cleveland corporate community is amazing. There is no countervailing power to even hint at some balance.
I thought there might be a little more punch to the Plain Dealer editorial posture once Brent Larkin left and Betsy Sullivan took over. I was wrong. Dead wrong.
I guess the PD only deals with certain kinds of corruption. Certainly it doesn’t bother ever with civic corruption. Not even a whisper. It’s rampant in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County but it never riles the PD top honchos. Never seems to cross their minds.
Go get those pikers – Jimmy, Frankie and Gerry.
Mayor Frank Jackson – now Mayor Go Along – has appointed a committee (what a novel idea) to, I guess, try to improve on the 100 year old historic Daniel Burnham Cleveland Group Plan as part of the Joe Roman & the Corporates’ latest desires. Is there no one to scream, “NO. PLEASE, NO.”
Cleveland Planning Chairman Tony Coyne has been named to head up this committee.
Is this a joke? It must be. Tony Coyne hasn’t done one spirited or even near courageous thing in the 20 years he’s been on the City Plan Commission. He’s a dud. I guess then he’s perfect for the job then. Poor Mr. Burnham. Hacks to hack away at his work 100 years later.
They all also keep talking about the $425 million Medical Mart & Convention Center.
However, we know that the 20 year tax will bring in at least $40 million a year and that doesn’t equal $425 million. It equals at least $800 million – without possible overrun costs.
Let’s be honest a little honest about the cost. Interest is a cost as much as principal when you construct. And somehow it has to be paid. All with taxes.
Now, if you’re going to put, as they seem to suggest, big fancy stuff atop the underground convention center on the historic Malls it will mean you’ll need extra strength for the convention center ceilings. I just speculate that.
I suggest this will be the way MMPI will get out of the supposed deal it has with the county to absorb overruns. How can you hold them to the deal if you change the deal? Drastically.
To add insult to injury, Joe Roman and the Corporates – also eager for the $350 million Opportunity Corridor to University Circle – will be pushing Terry Hamilton Brown for the County chief executive spot. She’s their front for the short, expensive road to the Clinic. Opportunity Corridor has been pushed by the usual funding sources – the Gund and Cleveland Foundations. They gave $100,000 each.
But once again we see the powers that be – foundations and their corporate interests – wanting all public resources going to their agenda. Downtown and University Circle. The rest of the city, ah well, it can struggle on.
And our major source of information. Well, the Pd publisher Terry Egger sits on the Clinic Board and co-chair of the Opportunity Corridor. All aboard? Of course.
It’s business as usual. The road leads only one way. Down, folks.
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