TBideon

So I went to the new soda ice cream place at Gordon arts district for today's opening. Pro: Apparently there was a ton of business all day, which is great to hear. Plus substantial free parking around the area was nice. Con: The food wasn't that good for the price, which was astronomically expensive. No way I'm going back just on the price alone. Plus it didn't have the old school feel I had been anticipating. Plus a few of the servers were too catty with each other and immature overall. Plus there's too little seating. Plus there are these weird, empty hallways that lead to the bathroom. Paint the walls or put more photos of old school Cleveland or something - it just looked odd. Plus, did I mention how pricey that place is??? Really con: A hearty f!!k you Cleveland city planners for making it so inpossible to take a right turn off Superior by and east of public square! The only way I can, I think, is to drive on the bus lane, which may or may not be illegal. What a confusing mess!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I guess that's not relevant to the soda place. Overall, I hope it does well but I was not impressed. Cool street though.

I think the FBI should immediately be on notice of this guy's financials. Or perhaps they already are. He is scum with a capital S, a career criminal with histories of extortion, and a complete social pariah. The fact that he's a councilman only serves to demonstrate the complete lack of intelligence of his ward

Sorry Hts, I don't think that's a very good idea. Some might feel patronized and mocked by that question, and rock might get further harassed, if not worse, by the guy. Also Hts, I know exactly what you mean. I used to be an idiot a few years ago and, when hitting up W6 that night, going with a date to Mall area. With virtually no one else around. At 11pm. And nothing ever happened. Plus there was this one time when I left Silk (next to Shooters) completely trashed, in costume from a Halloween party, and tried to walk back all the way to Lorain/26 to my car. I know, stupid right? I got completely lost, had ditched my entire party I was with (no one knew I had left, I imagine), and got lost in the ghetto. And what happened? A car drove by me, then backed up, I got ready to be mugged...and out walked a really nice couple - white guy, indian girl, both doctors it turned out - who asked if i needed help. They were pretty concerned about my being there and drove me to my car in Ohio City. Just one of those things - that night could have ended very differently. I've had a few other close calls - two guys tried to mug me once in Baltimore but I had my phone with me and started dictating exactly what was happening on the phone; another guy once approached my car but I had a knife on me; once my dad and I were almost mugged in Toronto, but we walked by a police car and stayed there until the bad guys went on their way (that was by far the scariest moment of all 3)....but overall I've been damn lucky, and I know too many people who haven't.

Come on rock, you're being a little too judgmental of the homeless and panhandlers. Sure some are scam artists and "bad guys" for all intents and purposes - lord knows I have no patience for the aggressive ones - but what do you with the ones with mental illnesses, the ones who are too far gone in their addictions or other ailments to ever make it back to society, the ones who are too frightened to sleep in homeless shelters, the ones who have physical disabilities and cannot so easily work a conventional job, and so on. I also think you're, you too gotribe, over emphasizing the ability of homeless, really anyone, to get jobs. Even positions like deliveries (which takes quite a bit skill if you think about it) and working at fast food requires a certain level of talent and bare essentials. Where will they get clean clothing for the interview? Who is there to help them obtain an interview in the first place? What about those who are just...too far gone? It's a huge problem and laziness is not always the reason. The bad guys need to go, and they are little more than human feces IMO, but that's not all of them. Especially in 2011 when we really are in the middle of class warfare, and they are often taking the brunt of the affects.

Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files Whoops, I misread the title of this forum

I'm bringing a ton of people there on Saturday before swing dancing. Can't wait!

Being from Cleveland isn't really part of his gimmick, but wrestler Derrick Bateman (real name Mike Hutter), a really nice and HUGE guy, is presently a wrestler in the WWE. If anyone ever ate at the Lyndhurst Cheesecake factor over the last five or six years, you might have seen him as a server. I know a bunch of his friends and have hung out with him/them a few times. He's definitely proud of being a Clevelander and comes home quite a bit - he even threw a rather nice party at Velvet Dog after one of the shows a few months ago.

He will need pressure from the FBI, I'm thinking.

Until sellers get their heads out of their a$$es and accept their homes' true value, we will be stuck in this rut

I've read some articles online where it talked about the East 127th & Rexford Avenue shooting, which isn't Dave's parking lot. All I can tell you is what the gunshot victim said to my friend at Huron, that the assault happened at the lot. I do hope the guy was lying.

It's more an American thing. Look at how people behaved post Katrina compared to Japan now. Their disaster was far more devestating, yet there have been no riots, violence, looting, etc over there. RTA, even with more resources, can't regulate everyones behavior--we're, with some more than others, just a beastly country

They're not going to accept anything else? Actually, Frank, you will.

In other glum news, last night (Thursday) at around 11:30pm at Shaker Square, there was a robber/shooting at the parking lot by Dave's. One dead, one injured:( My source is someone who works at Huron in East Cleveland--I haven't seen any reports of it on the 'net yet.

Were you there in the late afternoon? Trust me, the issue wasn't too much booze

Holy crap was Public Square out of control yesterday. What an embarassment.

Interesting points, OP

Probably no with limited exceptions. I mean, come on...

gotta give Fitz applause here - this guy may actually be a real leader, one of the first in the city in a while, say since White or Voinivich

Do we still have tax abatements for downtown residential properties? Nice story btw

Fortress is a cool place when there's salsa on the first floor. I did go to the second floor one time, it...wasn't my scene, but I never got a bad vibe either. I also have never heard of any similar incidents there, so let's not go to the end is near just yet. About this upcoming summer from hell, who knows. It's really a matter of more security and ignoring the idiot race baiting regulars that'll keep the neighborhood affloat.

Like the first one the best

Well, it's certainly more effective than anything our mayor and other so-called leaders - business, political, religious - have produced in a longgggggg time.

Damn straight THM and HHS, who gives a sh!t about the census when you think about it. Even knowing there was a ton of population decline, Cleveland still has massive investments, in particular the University Circle area, that are just remarkable, especially in this Depression. Anyone really think that Gilbert wasn't aware of population loss when he committed 100s of millions to the city. Politically, we, Cleveland at least, are finally on are way to a far less corrupt body as well - the bad guys are out, at least the worst of them. That can't be overstated enough; there is finally a political body that isn't as damaged as the sociopaths who've been running the joint the last 15 years. And as to the census winners, sure Vegas gained an amazing number of people the last decade. And their economy is a$$. And I guarantee you guys those numbers are currently crap as there is a huge exodus from Sin City, with enough stalled projects to make Dubai go hah hah.. They have zip momentum so who cares about their population a year ago - it indicates sh!t. On a practical level, it is meaningless, especially when you look at the longterm picture. And yeah I'm playing cheerleader here a bit, but I think it's kind of needed to balance all this doom and gloom the past 24 hrs since we learned something that isn't surprising really and doest change on thing definitely

Quick question about the healthline - when the medical mart is built and running, will there be designated healthline buses running exclusively from the mart to the hospitals as shuttles, presumably with no stops. Any discussion about this?

So after the original shock, eh, whatever. So Cleveland has fewer than 400,000 residents? Eh, it really isn't the end of the world, and I seriously doubt it'll make a difference to the business community. So we lose a couple of twits like Kucinich and Fudge, so a few worthless councilmen are out of a job, it doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. What, will Obama now campaign here less; will we yet again not get the DNC or RNC? These numbers are just ego and have no value in the real world outside of bragging rights.