How many committee meetings, public comment periods and decisions affecting the people are being made this week, Susan?

I would like the PD to report on these meetings, but they won't.  We are too busy stuffing our faces with hot dogs and blowing things up to care.  On Wednesday, City Council will decide the fate of the NRP/HTF/BS project in my neighborhood.  What can I do about it?  Nothing.

Ongoing Port Headline -"Wasserman told the group he appreciates their concerns but"

Marina users voice opposition to new port

Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Patrick O'Donnell
Plain Dealer Reporter

Users of the marina at East 55th Street are wary of trading the state-run park to make way for a new port for Cleveland.

Though the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority promises to build a new marina before moving the port, more than 50 people jammed into the marina's restaurant Monday to voice their skepticism over the replacement and on the entire port relocation project.

Port officials met the residents in a forum hosted by the Ohio Environmental Council as it tries to build support for its relocation plan.

The city's overall waterfront plan calls for the port to move from its home alongside the Cleveland Browns Stadium and nearby museums to free up about 80 acres for parks or other development.

That plan called for the port to move to a man-made island west of the Cuyahoga River, but port officials have abandoned that site as unworkable, largely because it would require construction of new roads.

Last year it settled on filling about 200 acres of Lake Erie north from the East 55th Street Marina. That plan has passed city planners, has the support of Mayor Frank Jackson and is awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers.

The proposal costing hundreds of millions of dollars would take more than 20 years to complete, starting in 2012.

Port President Adam Wasserman and Vice President Stephen Pfeiffer said a new marina would be built and open before the existing one is shut down. They said because the state now runs it, the state will not let it be closed unless a new one is in place.

"If we're impacting it, we're going to replicate it or make it as good or better," Pfeiffer said.

Longtime marina user Joe Zver Sr. said he doubts a new marina would keep costs low like the current one, calling it a "blue-collar marina." When he said a new one would price many people out, others shouted, "It won't be for us."

And Ed Hauser, who belongs to a few environmental and preservation groups, questioned abandoning the city's waterfront plan and creating new ones "all layered on top of each other" for using the shoreline.

Wasserman told the group he appreciates their concerns but every bit of lakefront is of value to somebody, and the port must pick a spot.

"There's a marina, a park or a vision for something everywhere," he said.

Dear Mr. Wasserman - Try Toledo...

Expensive and complicated navigation to ship bulk goods compared to ocean ports, unless they really see some perverted potential in the melting of the polar ice cap.

A region that has negative growth in manufacturing.

Who wants it and what in it for them?