If this is the tone with which you approach activism, don't be surprised when you don't draw many adherents.

I don't pay because I don't live, work or pay taxes here. What do you think I do on this site? Every day, people like Carl and myself get up and keep this infrastructure running. If there weren't, you'd have to go somewhere else to express your opinions.

I think your implication that I haven't paid dues so my opinion somehow matters less than yours is, quite frankly, bullshit.I grew up during arguably Cleveland's worst historical period. I am the product of black and white suburban flight. I am the product of Cleveland Public schools (post-Remedial order and pre-city takeover). I am the product of dedicated honors program teachers with short resources and good parents who didn't have either the resources or desire to move. I am the product of forced busing and tax abatements for Gateway, the BP Building, The Galleria, Tower City and other projects that took (and still takes) money from the schools. I am part of the first class of students subjected to the Ohio Proficiency Test which has become a tool to narrow the education of young Ohioans everywhere. I have taken all that Cleveland has thrown at me and I still exist. Cleveland owes a lot of people. Cleveland owes the next few generations more than it gave mine. People of my generation are used to thinking of Cleveland as less than a prosperous place because it's hasn't been such during out lifetimes...and people wonder why I hate Reagan and Voinovich so much. Though there's much contempt and frustration, Cleveland was home when it wasn't en vogue to be home...so I can say whatever I want about it.

Your implication that I don't understand historical preservation is also false. I went to John Hay High School, for God's sake. I think that I am among the alums of that great school that is happy to see that it was kept intact and remodeled. Sure, it took longer than many wished but it was well worth it. John Hay High School was built to be a school. It was engineered as a monument to education. For some reason, not too many years later, many buildings stopped meaning something and just became gravy trains for well-connected construction companies. Useful architecture never goes out of style. The Euclid Ave. mansions should have never met their demise even though they weren't the "latest and greatest". My uncle had his wedding reception, the first wedding I was ever in, when I was 8 years old in Mather Mansion. I still have reverence for that building.

Also, if you think I am picking on the Cleveland Trust Tower, you are mistaken. There's another tower downtown that has outlived its usefulness and it has the letters C, S and U on it. It should REALLY be replaced. Cleveland needs to think smaller, like Youngstown has. We aren't the 1.1 million person city that we were in the 50's. Our processes need transparency but every building is NOT worth saving.
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Derek Arnold

Jacobs group abatements come off in 2010; yes it has almost been 20 years.

The school board is down sizing they are closing schools. 

I am going to make a suggestion for them and here it is. 

The west side of Cleveland needs a High School, Lincoln West and Max Hayes could be combined into one school.  The area of service would be west of 117th to the river and from the lake to I-71. 

At West 46th and Clark is Thomas Jefferson Junior High it is closed, the city and the Board should consider the area for a centralized campus.  It could build a large campus and it could stretch from I-90 in the North and to Hyde ave in the south.  From W44 to W46, the area could include a recreation center and also the 2nd district police station. 

Consolidation of facilities and facility staffs, it should be a campus and have green space. 

ODOT could create a large deck/ bridge across I-90 creating a central corridor to connect Lorain and Clark; an RTA station could be constructed at Turn Ave, that section of Lorain has nothing on it the entire block is empty.    The north south street would connect to the marginal and 44th and 41st could be converted to two-way traffic.    Most would choose the new corridor for access to the interstate.   

Much of the area is densely packed Victorian bungalows; some of the homes could be moved to fill in vacant lots that are throughout the surrounding areas.

 
From W25th to W65th on Clark needs consideration it should be primarily commercial and it is.

The same length of Lorain should be more residential, town homes and storefronts with rentals.

Consolidating into the center would create good dynamics, the entire region needs an inventory of manufacturing and some should be relocated into open spaces in industrial parks. We have some and they do have open spaces.  If the trade school was relocated that being Max Hayes, then also the small amount of light industry could also be relocated that is a large section of lake view property on Detroit.  Lincoln West at 3Oth is in proximity to a large shopping district. I could be developed in alignment with that. Basically between 25th and 46th could be high density shopping and retail as well as low cost rentals units.  For Lorain it should have higher rents and prices it should be less commercial and more eclectic. 

Low cost homes should be built around the school and also the county hospital and also have shopping and very good police monitoring.  

The city need to reduce redundancy, a campus consolidates functional jobs and reduces costs.  The Zone recreation center relocated to the campus, the Clark recreation center as well.  Police and Fire stations.  

The state would pay for most of this and RTA, the funds are there.   The revenue from all those abatements will be coming off Jacobs will be handing the school board at least 1.2M every year, the city has the responsibility to make the system better and also more efficient.