Why is the Public Expected to Support the Medical Mall, a Model the Rest of Nation Seems to Be Running Away From?

Submitted by Kevin Cronin on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 20:47.

There are many points regarding the proposed medical mart that still don't make sense for me, so I want to post this quick note...

1) At some level, the proposal is an effort to shift some marketing infrastructure, and perhaps some inventory control, expenses of some private companies to the public sector. So what are the current costs for those activities by the affected private sector and why don't we start with that as an amount that the private sector should be required to start with in estimating ways of allocating burdens? Otherwise, this isn't a partnership, it's a bail-out.

2) Given the power of the Internet, marketing, display and consumer product education are a significant (sometimes even exclusive) online activity.  It's being presented as an indispensable truth that a physical space is needed to make these presentations of, often, large and expensive medical expensive equipment.  If we accept this point for argument's sake, why can't the physical space be met by the "wealth" of abandoned buildings in the target zone, with a substantial retrofit?  The plan could even include a vertical mall like Breuer Tower.  I would like to hear discussion about why well-coordinated/linked, rehabbed spaces couldn't meet the demand proposed for the medical mart.

Also on this point, see the article below about how enclosed shopping malls are financially struggling and no longer on the design plans of developers:

The Death Of The American Mall (But Not Suburban Shopping) Enclosed Malls Are Fast Becoming Relics, But New Generation Centers Just Look Different

The mall is a beloved and reviled American artifact, and if current trends continue that's exactly what it will be: An artifact.  The enclosed mall, as a drive-up full-service shopping super center, is a symbol of suburbia — of teenage time-wasting, over consumption and parking paranoia. It is the symbol of decaying main streets, urban exodus and the paving of the American landscape.   Many of the nation's 2,000 malls are dead or dying. Only three have been built since 2005. And no plans are on the drawing board for more.

For the full article, see:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/16/the-death-of-the-american-mall-but-not-suburban-shopping/3881/

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Fools rush in

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 07/24/2007 - 07:58.

Wondering the same thought myself and if the idea is so hot, then why not have a major benefactor foot the bill?  Sam Miller and Dick Jacobs are not going to live forever.  The idea is another dog.

Ask the editors of the PD why?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 07/24/2007 - 12:16.

The PD editors are in on this plan from the beginning so they must have reasons why. Follow the money, I suppose... in their case, attracting new advertisers and helping existing advertisers and business associates, like with Sherwin Williams, Jones Day, the PD and lead poisoning. There will not be open reporting on the MM/CC issue or debate on the subject in the PD or mainstream media, unless a columnist like Feagler jumps parties and decides to be a "Libertarian"... we'll see.

Disrupt IT

DOES PLAIN DEALER VIOLATE PUBLISHING ETHICS AND INTEGRITY?

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Tue, 07/24/2007 - 15:59.

Kevin,

Now if you have looked through the PD over the last month you will have noticed a excessive number of "news" stories about the Harry Potter book which was just released a day or so ago.  The Harry Potter stories were repeated almost daily in every section of the PD. 

Those "news" stories I am convinced were bought and paid for by the Potter publisher - is the Potter publisher related to the Newhouse business organization which publishes the PD?  I don't have time right now to Google that – but I am convinced that the Potter “news” stories were ads in sheep’s clothing.

If someone at the PD wants to win a hundred dollars, then I will make the bet that the Harry Potter material was not "news" but advertisements concealed as "news"    Someone on the PD want to take this bet and prove me wrong?

MEDICAL MART CONVENTION CENTER TAX PAYER HOAX

 

A week or so ago there was a full 3 page Medical Mart Convention Center “news story” in the PD.   The first page showed a stethoscope flowering with green dollar bills.   The bye line on the “news story” carried the names of two PD staffers. 

 

I am convinced that this 3 page spread was bought and paid for – it was not “news” but an advertisement concealed to appear as “news”.

 

In 1999 the LA Times was caught in a similar journalistic ethical and integrity issue related to the Staples Center .   I am convinced many newspapers, and especially the PD, have lost the will and ability to effectively and thoroughly separate their “news” from their financials.   Daily papers are desperate for ad dollars – and I believe the PD has become a “news” prostitute.

 

I haven’t ever seen a 3 page “news” spread in the PD before, so just the page size (3 full pages) of the piece makes me suspicious.  And since the Editorial section of the PD has come out several weeks ago in blind favor and allegiance to the Medical Mart publicly financed Convention Center scam,  there is even more reason to believe that the PD would take money for the production of a scam 3 page “news” feature about how great the Forest City and Chris Kennedy and Cleveland Clinic development will be for Cleveland.

 

Plain Dealer – please prove me wrong in my belief that you lack journalistic ethics and integrity,,,