Foraker

A very significant part of the Medicaid budget is for "low birth weight" babies. So the government could and should fund prenatal health care for Ohio's poor expecting mothers. That will be a difficult concept for the Republicans to accept. Like Steven Colbert said, the government should fund: (1) National defense, and (2) Nothing else To be fair, that's not to say that other things shouldn't be privately funded. More government simply is not the answer to all of our problems. With less government support, you can find who is truly moral and not just a hypocrite. Considering the deficiency in private nonprofit funding for this problem, and other poverty issues, don't we already know the answer to that question?

Interesting analysis of the automotive "costs" of sprawl for the poor. (the intersection of urban design and planning on poverty) http://www.originalgreen.org/OG/Blog/Entries/2011/2/28_Automobile_Poverty_-_Part_1.html

What is the recall procedure in Ohio?

Ohio -- accelerating its economy by sending $400 million to Illinois and California for high-speed rail

What is the "well point system"?

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,25188.msg544628.html#msg544628 If all of these governments really are redundant, why not merge all the cities in the county? Bay, River, Cleveland, Shaker, East Cleveland and Solon -- why should they duplicate services and compete on tax rates?!? One city, one region = more power to lure business to NEO?

The studies that I have seen have been inconclusive on that point, sort of a yes-and-no conclusion. Take the current recession. Without the (Keynesian) stimulus, the job losses and tanking of the economy would have been a LOT worse. But arguably the recovery, when we did finally hit bottom, probably would have been faster. The first two or three years might look similar under either approach, but ten years out the Supply Side approach probably comes out ahead for the economy as a whole. But what do the working poor, suddenly not working, suddenly without income for several years, do in the meantime? It's in the details of what the workers are to do while waiting for the economy to recover where Supply Side theory seems to come apart. Keynesian policies might lengthen the recession, but they keep people from starving in the meantime. WWJD? What really makes Ohio a good place to work and live? Texas ranks high on all the lists -- fewest unions, lowest taxes, fewest regulations, things you argue for, but also ranks high in largest %poverty and has one of the largest budget deficits in the country. Can you be more specific about what Ohio should stop spending money on? Parks? Roads? Police? Teachers? Schools? Libraries? In my opinion, Ohio would be an even nicer place to live if we spent more money on those things. We already aren't spending enough to maintain all the miles of roadway that we have in Ohio. How are we going to pay for continued maintenance while spending less? I'm in favor of paying more for better service. What specifically would you have would really make Ohio a desirable place to work and live? Your list is undoubtedly different from mine, but here are a few of the things that I really like about living in Ohio. Education, parks, great museums and libraries, walkable neighborhoods (at least mine is) with great restaurants and coffee shops and friends working nearby, great forests/rivers/streams/ponds/lakes, changing seasons (nearby skiing in winter, camping in the fall, summers at the lake, gardening in the spring and summer), and local music and beer and sports teams (including my summer softball buddies) and festivals. Taxes and regulations cause me few problems when I think of the things that I really enjoy about Ohio.

Joanne Siegel dies, widow of Superman co-creator, model for Lois Lane ... http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/supewr.html Interesting....

I agree that CH has reserved Severance for the big box stores more typical of suburban development. If McD's wanted a drive-through in the Heights, there would be few if any objections to such development there. There is room for more development at Severance, and CH residents have lots of big box stores a short drive away. As I recall the development proposed for Oakwood is almost entirely in South Euclid rather than CH. CH residents tend to want the mom-and-pop businesses found in the Cedar-Fairmounts/Coventrys/Cedar-Lees, with residential or office space over smaller retail/restaurant/service business. Arguably CH needs more and better developments like that in other (particularly northern) areas of the city. I also think that the noise from CH residents so far might be coming from fear of losing green space -- once it is developed, it's gone forever. And there is a reluctance to give it up too easily. (Just imagine if a green belt existed between the Shaker Lakes and Forest Hill -- you'd have a park network all the way to the lake.) From the people I've talked to in CH, they're not dead set against this development, but they want their concerns heard before the cities sign off on the developer's plans. And many of the people I've talked to have not been very well informed of what exactly the plans are at the moment. So there is some uninformed fear of losing something without quite knowing what they're going to get. I hope that CH and SE work on this project together, and the developer continues to provide information and gather feedback from the residents so that whatever development takes place succeeds in the long run. (As others have noted, the long delay at Cedar Center suggests that this project is not going to go up anytime soon.)

Look, 3C was a bust in 2010 and won't be back on the table until 2014 at the earliest. What can we do to improve metro transit service so that when 3C comes back (as the Ohio Hub, for example) we will have more metro "infeed" to link up with 3C travel? I think that is where we need to focus our energies for the next four years. In northeast Ohio we should continue looking at linking Cleveland with Pittsburgh (via Youngstown), bringing the Westshore commuter rail online, and improving the existing Rapid Transit infrastructure (and related TOD around stations). Hopefully Columbus can have some success with a light rail line between downtown and the airport, as well as improved connections from downtown to the casino and north past OSU. And maybe Cincinnati will get that streetcar line and who knows, some improvements toward future passenger rail access into the city. There are lots of reasons why the 3C plan didn't fly this time, but there's still lots to do to get ready for the next time. Let's get crackin'!

Back in the good old Cold War days, the same thing was said about the USSR. Unfortunately, the Russian legislature was just a foil for the leaders, who were essentially dictators. Is there a way to check the education/occupations of legislators in other countries? How do Germany, Australia, Canada, France, etc. compare to the US in engineers as legislators/governmental leaders?

County Council member Julian Rogers will resign from RTA board to avoid conflicts of interest. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/01/county_council_member_julian_r.html (which means there's an opening on the RTA board --- KJP! KJP! KJP!) :evil:

With property values dropping and sales slow, how do we know what this property is worth? Wouldn't it be worth more to the city developed? If so, it seems to make more sense for the city/county to foreclose and then build on the property before selling it. Even if the city loses some money in the development, the future increased tax income should make up for it. Doesn't seem right that a wealthy citizen can simply decide not to pay taxes while collecting income from a property. Why should Jacobs have any political clout these days? Clout with the city should come with getting things done. Jacobs isn't doing the city any favors by sitting on that property. And the county did Jacobs a big favor in taking the Breuer complex off his hands at a more-than-fair price.

Can the city/county "foreclose" on a property to recover delinquent taxes?

It's impossible to tell any hypothetical individual as an individual what he should do. He should do what's right for him. What he should not do is continue to expect handouts into infinity. Assume that I'm the carpenter and I'm willing to work. I'll do anything, not just carpentry. I've been looking for two years now and other than some temporary part time work here and there there just aren't ANY jobs. I don't want a handout, but a job! I disagree that we should tell our fellow Americans that we'll just help them for 99 weeks and that's it -- live on the street if you have to. The economy is in a unique situation, one that we haven't seen since the 1930s. There are no jobs. We (government) should continue to help people get by until companies start unloading some of their piles of cash on new hires. You won't live very comfortably on unemployment insurance "handouts" -- it's barely enough to get by on. I understand that regulation and economics are separate. Let me separate the following points. (a) supply side economics doesn't seem to work for anyone but the rich. We have lower taxes on the wealthy now than we have had in decades, and taxes have been reduced on the upper tax brackets since 2000. So there has been enough time for the tax cuts to "trickle down." Why do we not have more jobs? Why are corporations sitting on more cash than ever? Why are more Americans below the poverty line now? If cutting taxes benefits everyone, why have the rich done better and the poor done worse in the past decade? (b) This country did very well under a highly progressive tax rate scheme through the 1960s. There are a lot of ways to simplify the tax system, however, that I think everyone would benefit from. Fewer or no deductions. Perhaps no or fewer state or local taxes -- reduce the number of tax collection agencies. At any rate, Ohio is going to have to make significant cuts in spending, and should also consider raising some taxes. Some of us can afford to pay more and stand to lose more if spending is cut too deeply. © government and regulation both work fairly well, if you have citizen and press involvement in monitoring the regulator and the regulated. I argue that the lack of an effective press and low citizen involvement have led to problematic regulations and poor enforcement of those regulations. More citizen involvement in the political process would improve both. No system is perfect, but I prefer a small drag on the economy due to reasonable regulation than the "drag" on the workers caused by no regulation. Ohio would do well to review and simplify all regulations, but I don't think "no regulation" would be good for Ohio. Even though I think that the Chamber's recommendations are generally too vague and raise a lot more questions, after reading the full report I think it does present a way forward for further discussion. I hope every Ohioan joins the discussion.

Sure, monopolies might be unstable in the long run. In the long run, our economy will pick up and companies will start hiring again. What should the unemployed carpenter do in the meantime? Particularly now that his 99 weeks of unemployment insurance runs out next week? If the minimum wage is so low that it "barely matters," it isn't significantly impacting the economy and shouldn't even be an issue. Massey Energy is a bad example. They have been cited for safety violations thousands of times, gone to court to contest fines, and continue to run unsafe mines and make significant profits (their stock price has doubled within the past year). Massey has about 35 underground mines. Around the time of the accident that killed the miners at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine, the government proposed $1.77 million in fines for safety violations at that mine, but Massey had only paid about $365,000 and contested most of the difference. Still, the government did not shut down the mine (as they have the authority to do) and miners died. Massey isn't worried about following regulations, because the government isn't enforcing them. Their profits more than cover the fines, and they can keep the fines tied up in court and delay payment for years and years. Massey is a good example of how private industry is not self-regulating, and Government regulation does not always work either. Government regulation, and citizen involvement and monitoring of government behavior is necessary and good for everyone. Trickle down economics does not work for anyone but the people at the top.

I have to agree with 327. All those tax cuts in the early 2000s sure don't seem to have not created jobs. Back in the early 1900s there was no minimum wage, and we had a lot more people living on the street. The Free Market and living by Supply and Demand alone mean Survival of the Fittest -- and those who can't be successful in the market can go to hell. Who cares. If only THOSE POOR PEOPLE had worked harder, not made bad decisions, stayed in school, etc., etc. Compassionate conservatism exemplified.

I like the idea of having all trains stop at Tower City. But how would you get Amtrak's Lakeshore Limited in and out of Tower City?

I'm hearing rumblings that the project was suspended. But that's a subject for the NCTC thread. That wouldn't be unexpected, but let's hope that in renovating the mall they plan for the revival of the NCTC. Hopefully someone involved is reading these threads....

It also should connect Tower City, CSU and Tri-C

The Allen Theatre is being cut up into smaller theatre spaces and a new building is being built next to the Allen on what was a parking lot off Dodge court. See http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,14187.330.html

That is not entirely accurate. The Ohio Constitution prohibits any gasoline tax revenues being spent on anything other than the building and maintaining of highways. So there is no competition for state dollars. That is not entirely accurate either. The gasoline tax revenue has been insufficient to cover the cost to build and maintain Ohio's roadways for some time, so the highway fund has been supplemented with general fund revenue. There is a lot of competition for those dollars (and not all of that competition comes from other forms of transportation).

That would be a good addition to the fares page.

While we have a comparable amount of track, we don't have a comparable amount of passenger trains. We also have a lot more open space per capita between the Mississippi and the Rockies.

I can agree with that. But the rail line appears unlikely to happen on the grounds that it cannot operate at a profit (without a subsidy). I'm not aware of ANY rail lines that operate at a profit (without a government subsidy), so I also agree that that is a very big "IF." So big as to be virtually impossible in the current situation. I guess that's what led me to have trouble understanding what you wrote. Since we subsidize highway travel and air travel, why shouldn't we subsidize train travel? Competition between the different modes of travel would keep overall costs down, right? Why don't we use our transportation budget, whatever it is, and split the subsidies more equitably? I don't understand that. If we remove the subsidies for 3C's competitors (highways and airlines), could the 3C be profitable? The airlines have to pay into a fund to support the air traffic control system, and pay for the terminals and runways. The highways have to be self-supporting via gas taxes and advertising and tolls. Also someone has to pay taxes on the land the roads occupy, just like the railroads do. Removing those subsidies would reduce our taxes (hooray!), but the cost to drive or fly will be much higher. In that situation, I think the 3C would be profitable. Another very big IF that probably will not occur.