TBideon

The vet hate crime got absolutely no Cleveland.com/PD publicity for over a week other than the commenters protesting the news blackout. And when they did write an article, it was considerably muted.

Well, it's not the route I would have chosen - I think a "Welcome home" campaign would be far more effective - but it's still an impressive video.

"If you don't like what people are saying, change the conversation." Oy. I'm also not crazy about the URL. It seems phoenetically close to "this icycle" Also, what the hell cleveland.com? Ctownballr2 copy-and-pasted my comment about Mark posting the link too soon. Word for word onto cleveland.com. Boo to that.

...I can't argue that one

Because the website isn't ready yet, and first impressions are so vital for this kind of thing. Mark is not reporting news but rather is inciting negative feedback by posting an incomplete document. That's completely unfair to Positively Cleveland, the group they hired, and the region as a whole.

I wouldn't put much stock in an unfinished website. For all we know the "This is Cleveland" is just a placeholder for the actual slogan, and the rubbish about parking and burgers is in draft form. I say wait till March 19th before sounding off. Also, Mark should not have posted the story. It's not as egregious as the "is Sharon Reed Lebron's baby mamma" story, but it is unnecessarily damaging to the region (think "39mph" and the consequences of that preliminary number).

Ubaldo $50 mill for 5 years to Balitmore. That's actually a bit lower than I would've thought.

So does Coffee Fix have any actual franchise-affiliation with Phoenix, or do they just sell the beans? And good for Ohio City. Phoenix Coffee plus Great Lakes Brewery = all you really need in life.

How did Frank come across at the press conference?

Yes and no. Immigrants mainly come because they have no future in their countries, and see more potential opportunity in the US. If I may be so bold, and I shall, I believe many/most/all immigrants' children would fill our currently crappy-with-exceptions inner city schools with a desperate hunger to excel. They would raise the bar for current students, increase neighborhood safety as vacant homes/properties are filled again, develop shops again, etc. The troubled Cleveland kids would be utterly outnumbered and the stable ones/kids skirting the line would have a chance after this massive migration. Now we havehave thousands of immigrant children, so many of whom are thirsty, craving to learn. Taking nothing for granted. That kind of momentum is contagious. And there is your home run. Relax immigration laws, facilitate immediate property ownership, market campaigns in countries throughout the Middle East, China, Africa, East Europe, Ireland, Africa, and wherever else there are huge existing and potential migration patterns. Forget the xenophobes saying "They Took R Jerbs." Forget the race-baiters saying "What, we're not good enough?" That's just empty noise, nonsense drivel. Immigrants are a grand slam

Is there a real debate? Polish and Slavs in Slavic Village and Newburgh Hts, Hungarians in Buckeye, Italians in Big and then Little Italy, Irish in the near west side and Flats, Germans and Ukranians in Tremont, Slovenians in Collinwood, Asians in multiple Chinatowns, plus Vietnamese and Croations and other ethnic groups. Thank god for them. Thank god we wanted the poor and masses; it worked out for us and them. What a glorious past and city it must have been. Another mass migration here is the only realistic home run, since all those other home runs discussed - we need more jobs, better schools - will never happen with the current population here. Bandaids sure but not much more than that. Gotta start over.

Immigrants. Make endless, concentrated efforts to bring in enormous communities of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, African, Arab, Spanish, Eastern European, Slav, Mexican, South/Latin American, Irish....yadda yadda. Fascilitate entire immigration process - make it easy for them to get here and rebuild their lives so our neighborhoods can better mirror or surpass what we had pre-1970s. Cleveland should be the epicenter for all immigrants worldwide: come to us, we want you. Give them homes, access to entire neighborhoods, conditioned on their staying in the city or region. They'll provide functional, two-parent households (as did their predecessors in better years), which leads to functional neighborhoods, which leads to thriving cities. Frankly, and barring World War III, another Industrial Revolution, or a massive water drought, there are no other feasible home runs. Immigrants - that's it.

I think they mean he wants to moderate women's bodies, hence the term

Micro apartments (are we talking smaller than 400ft) are not catching in Chicago. I think there are enough inexpensive studios in desirable neighborhoods, plus lord knows how cheap studios go for in rougher places where one-beds are $400-$500

^^not that cheap at all for Lincoln Park. In fact that's actually somewhat middish-high for the area (there are plenty of studios for $600 and $700)

I have heard rumblings about this in the past but apparently it's more than just rumor now: http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/01/lawsuit_against_woio_channel_1.html Lawsuit against WOIO Channel 19 alleges sexually hostile work environment in advertising department "CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A lawsuit filed last week against WOIO-Channel 19 and its parent company accuses the local station of creating a sexually hostile work environment and retaliating against an advertisement sales employee who complained about it to station managers. The complaint, filed by Kevin Flanigan II, of Avon, also alleges the station encouraged the use of sexual favors and sexually explicit tactics to entice advertising clients and that drug use and alcohol use at advertising-related events was common."

Isn't Charles Street a kind of historic/entertainment district?

Hasn't changed a bit! Well, maybe a little. Beautiful pictures

Both are completely wrong characterizations of who takes these buses.

Day drank all day due to the weather, and the pubs I went to were all packed. It was a lot of fun despite the sub zero cold and insanely low wind chill

Good customer service can't cost that much in the grand scheme of their costs. Megabus fails because of lousy management fundamentally, though not all experiences have been bad by any means.

Nonsense. Greyhound is roughly the same price (at least comparing roundtrip Cleveland to Chicago) and has exponentially better customer service (plus shelter). Perhaps if megabus had standard $5-$10/one-way trip weekend prices, the poor communication would be excusable. However, $25-$40/one-way trip weekend prices (when buying a few weeks in advance) are too close to Greyhound's standard $35-$40/one-way trip general price. It just isn't worth it at their price point.

I disagree, unless things have changed radically in the last few months. For example - and there are many - last January a 1am bus from Cleveland to Chicago was 3.5 hours late. No emails until well after 2am, and the only communication was via Twitter, in which we received pre-recorded apologies. No one to answer the phone. No live operators. No info on the website. No text messages No emails until well after an hour of delays. No one knew what to do, and we got booted out of the Renaissance (it was COLD). The only compensation was a refund and one free trip. The lack of communication has always been a problem with Megabus. The megabusfail twitter feed has plenty of horror stories.

Maybe they can get Elvin from the Cosby Show if McNabb is busy

Now I'm all nostalgiac for the one that used to be in Cedar Center.