THE fIGHT GOES ON - GLORIOUSLY

Submitted by Roldo on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 13:32.

 Boy, how the profiteers will fight over a $1 billion. Forest City will not go into the night quietly.

Not if the full page ad in the Plain Dealer and the griping in its news columns tell us anything.
 
The full-page ad in the PD on Sunday was headlined by Forest City: “$100 million reasons why the Convention Center and Medical Mart belong at Tower City.” (Don’t ask me how “reasons” become dollars but we get it, I think.)
 
I don’t have the money but my ad would say: “$1 Billion reasons why we don’t need a Medical Mart and Convention Center.” Might need two pages.
 
What fascinates me is how these two greedy outfits – Forest City and MMPI (Merchandize Mart Properties Inc.) – are so publicly grabbing and grasping at what County Commissioner Tim Hagan has put out there in front of them. You’d think they worked for AIG.
 
The front-page photos that dominated today’s PD, presumably at the urging of Forest City, are to show a loss of lake vision. That’s what we will lose if Forest City’s river site isn’t chosen. If I’ve been in this vicinity once, I’ve been there 1,000 times. I never found myself seeking to view Lake Erie. It’s too far away with too much intervening.
 
I did enjoy, however, Jim Nichols’ piece that gave some hint of the truth about how much the public can expect from our $1 billion investment (that includes interest on bonds and $108 million to MMPI to operate what we build and outfit for the company).
 
Sources quoted by Nichols punctured some of the usually outrageous financial gains that promoters of such schemes claim and get their false figures into newspaper headlines. It actually quotes critics and some reasonable views. See it here: (http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/03/expectations_too_high_for_medi.html).
 
Forest City conveniently now wants PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT. How quaint. The ad gives us the phone number of Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones. Forest City wants us to make our “voice heard.”
 
How long will it take for Sam Miller to ask for Good Government?
Has the City Club got an opening?
 
‹ THE FAILED BALTIMORE MEDICAL MART SAGAupTHE JACOBS SHOE DROPS ON MED MART ›
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time for Sam to MeetTheBloggers?

Submitted by TimFerris on Sun, 03/29/2009 - 22:03.

Or, should we do one of those community forum things, as we did with PutItOnTheBallot, with Thomas Mulready's help in the downtown library auditorium.

Sam wants transparency, we got his transparency right here.

--TimFerris

Transparency

Submitted by lmcshane on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 03:18.

The recent unimaginative overhaul of the City of Cleveland's web site shows that our leaders don't get it and are complacent enough to retain the behind closed doors/curtain of secrecy at City Hall.  That same complacency and back room mentality extends to the boardrooms that control our community a la the Sam Millers etc.

NEO had better get its shit together.   Secrecy doesn't cut it anymore and the communities that make needed information available and enable their citizens--as Norm and Marc have put forward here with the Citizen Dashboard proposal--are the only communities that will survive the tragedy of the commons we have only begun to realize on a worldwide scale.

Drupal is part of the transparency needed in this region.  We need to be able to tailor our access to information, government and services and we need to be able to see how well our resources are being managed by those "in charge," who manage the distribution of resources. 

"My City, My Library, My...everything" on a dashboard. I can not see any other alternative.  Collectively, we need to be able to steer the ship or we sink.