MART SITE DOESN'T ANSWER - SHOULD THERE BE ONE

Steve Litt provides a good look at the mall site as the proper one for a medical mart and convention center in today’s Plain Dealer. http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2009/01/chosen_medical_mart_site_... [1] It’s a good argument for where the project should be. However, it doesn’t address really – as no one has - whether we need this project or whether it is worth the price it will cost. Now County Commissioner Tim Hagan - and there is no doubt in my mind that he is the prime mover for this $1-BILLION project – has told us that the cost at the mall is $108 million cheaper than the Tower City site. That site was chosen by the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), a private government entity controlled total by our corporate community. I find this hard to believe. One reason is that the GCP site at Tower City called for the Medical Mart to be located in the under-used – and already there – Higbee building. When I asked Fred Nance at the press conference he ran for the GCP rollout of the Tower City site, how much space would the Medical Mart take in the Higbee building, his answer was the first and second floors, but not all of it. Now, we have the new Mall site project calling for a NEW four-story Medical Mart to be built on private land, which has to be bought. How that doesn’t raise the cost significantly above moving into two floors of the Higbee building, I can’t figure out. Are we seeing another tiff between our heavyweight developers behind all these machinations? The Tower City site obviously benefits Forest City Enterprises. That’s Sam Miller and Al Ratner and family. The new choice of the Mall benefits Dick Jacobs, rival for power in this town to the Forest City gang. How? The Medical Mart would be located right across the street from Jacobs’s Marriott hotel and the underground garage – both had 20-year tax abatements and millions of dollars in generous 20-year, zero percent interest loans from Cleveland – giving Jacobs a boost. It’s time for the Plain Dealer to put pressure on Hagan to reveal ALL the discussions and any other material that led to this change. Hagan, as I’ve mentioned in the past, has a connection to MMPI (Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.) that should have caused him to recuse himself on the tax hike vote. The reason is his friendship with the Kennedy family since one of the MMPI principals is Christopher Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy. I might add in the late 1960s during the administration of Carl Stokes the Mall was made a lively place to be, especially in good weather. At very little cost, Stokes invited bands to play at noon time. There was some subsidy. It drew many people with lunches. The border around the fountains, since removed, provided seating for those bringing lunches and those buying from vendors there. Now there is an uninviting lawn where the fountains were, with sparse seating. The lack of a crowd of people inhibits use of this open space. It doesn’t take a lot of money or construction to make a living place. In fact, the less money expended the better. It just takes people and what draws people to sit out and enjoy the city. Music, entertainment and other people.