Clevelander17

Okay, come on now, in principle, why should exceptions be made for some public employees but not others? I understand why you would say that tactically it was a mistake, though, because anyone can get behind punishing those evil teachers and BMV employees by instituting Draconian reforms.

My worry is not regarding his behavior before next November. My concern is what his behavior will be like after the Gubernatorial election in 2014 and during the Presidential primary season in 2015 and early 2016. At that point in time, Ohio will serve as his canvass to try to appeal to and impress the extremists that typically vote in those primaries. With a likely Republican majority controlling the Ohio legislative branch, I can only imagine what kind of ridiculous policies are going to pass muster. And let's remember, quite a few "fiscally conservative, socially moderate" Republicans have done some outlandish things to try to polish their image for the ultraconservatives that come out for Presidential primaries.

Well, in the meantime, even if FitzGerald gets nothing done, at the very least he'd be able to serve as a check on an otherwise increasingly extremist legislative branch. Kasich grumbles at the legislative branch often (probably for show as much as anything), but he almost always goes along with the crap they throw at him with minimal modifications. With FitzGerald in office, that dynamic changes completely.

Don't take the bait. Medicaid expansion is low-hanging fruit to trick people into thinking he has an independent streak. All of that goes out the window when he has an unaccountable second term and a gerrymandered legislative branch with which to conspire as he angles towards the right to appeal to the wingnuts he's going to need to sway as he makes an unsuccessful bid for the White House.

On The Rise is located in a fairly decent part of Cleveland Heights (just across the border from Shaker Heights). In response to those Cleveland.com commenters, I truly believe that such a robbery could happen in just about any suburban area with retail and somewhat easy car access. The fact that Cleveland Heights includes some pretty rough areas (which irks the heck out of me and probably is something that needs to be addressed by city leadership) seems to be irrelevant in regards to at least one of these robberies. Either way, not sure if it's a terrible coincidence or what, but CH seems to have had a really bad month with these things and the police department needs to step it up.

As it stands currently, that intersection is a disaster during rush hour and many other times of the day. A big part of the problem is the street parking and a lack of a left turning lane. I have no idea how they could possibly widen the sidewalk, add a turning lane, AND keep street parking. Forget causing an even worse choke point; I don't think it would even be physically possible to do so. As for parking, if no one is going to do anything about that old KFC building across the street (in University Heights), it should be torn down and made into a parking lot. It already serves as a de facto overflow lot for Melt patrons.

I think it's going to take a miracle for Ohio State to end up in the national title game. I just don't see any of the three teams ahead of them slipping up.

FYI, both of those big Thursday night games are actually on November 7th.

I don't have high hopes for this team anymore, but yesterday hurt to watch because they had such a great shot at pulling it out. You have to blame just one player when you have more than 30 guys seeing significant playing time, but that muffed punt was pretty much the difference in the game. They went from potentially having the ball near mid-field with plenty of time to drive for at the very least a field goal, to instead flipping the field and making a comeback much more difficult.

Oh you own that building? I really hope you do end up bringing in some decent, long-term tenants to those spaces. I thought that with Melt moving in to that corner and the Martini Skate and Snow store following them shortly after that it was going to be the start of a renaissance for that intersection, but it hasn't happened yet.

New York, Boston, and more recently Detroit and the Southern California teams spend through the nose to ensure a much better shot at the playoffs each year than teams in smaller markets. Obviously money is no guarantee because it must be spent wisely, but it's also a big advantage and allows more room for error on roster composition. These teams typically win bidding wars on foreign players entering the league and a team's ability to spend has even created imbalances in the MLB Draft.* *As an example, Rick Porcello was considered the #1 high school prospect entering the 2007 MLB Draft, but "fell" all the way to the 27th pick held by the Detroit Tigers because his agent was Scott Boras and many other teams could not afford the bonus he was expecting. Oh and more than a dozen other high school players went ahead of Porcello.

I think MLB's parity problem is part of it, but I also think that the changing nature of the human attention span is also at play here. With 162 games (each of which moving excruciatingly slow), sports fans have moved on to other sports where each game has more important and/or to those sports that are more action-packed.

To put it bluntly, people tend to lack a deep understanding of how probability works and it's human nature to place too much emphasis on rare but sensationalized events.

Admittedly I haven't followed this thread incredibly closely over the months, but has there been any in-depth discussion about nuclear energy? Unfortunately the growth of nuclear has stalled since some of the disasters over the years have really scared the public, but from what I've read I believe that with appropriate safety measures, it could also be a big part of weening us off of fossil fuels. And for the record, to clarify an earlier remark, although I do believe that energy abundance will come about at some point in the next generation (or two), I do not believe that that is an excuse to needlessly waste the finite resources we have now or abuse the environment. Just because cleaner/renewable sources of energy may be found at some point down the line does not mean that reversing serious environmental damage will be possible.

I have read some futurists arguing that by the end of the 2020s, technological advances will allow energy to be practically abundant (from "renewable" sources) and you will no longer see oil companies listed among the largest companies in the world.

This team may run the table getting to 13-0 because the Big Ten is mediocre even by recent standards, but I will have a hard time being convinced that if they don't play for a national title that it'll be a snub.

Fair enough. Though I will say this, if you want free air, hit the GetGo at the corner of Belvoir and Mayfield. It's probably more convenient for a South Euclid residents like yourself anyways.

May's ON the Heights. ;) That building actually existed until the early 2000s, I believe, before UH's epic disaster of a retail development replaced it.

Yeah, sometimes when I'm over there (which is almost daily) I let my imagination run wild and think about how cool it would be if University Heights encouraged someone to tear down that vacant old KFC building and put in something to mirror the vibrancy that Melt has brought across the street. Some sort of developmnt that comes up next to the street and maybe even calms northbound traffic a bit with street parking. It seems to me that it must only be another one of those flukes of early 20th century cartography that that Northeast corner of Cedar-Taylor is part of University Heights and not Cleveland Heights.

Lakewood's city leaders don't have to deal with the legacy of what a place like Severance has become. I'd like to see a comprehensive, well thought-out plan for the future of that land. We all realize that how that land came to be what it is today was probably a big mistake. The mall that was constructed in the early 1960s was an attempt by the city to try to compete with what was going on in second-ring suburbia at the time. Instead of trying to reinvent the place every few decades (the move to Big Box with Walmart anchoring was also a mistake), eventually I think that some leadership needs to come from City Hall and a plan for something better that is sustainable in the long-term needs to be developed.

This is what concerns me: http://www.cleveland.com/cleveland-heights/index.ssf/2013/10/cleveland_heights_to_keep_cons_1.html Why is this dump of a business still open? Why are valuable CHPD man-hours being wasted watching video to ensure that no illicit activity is occurring here? This place has been declared a nuisance on at least two separate occasions and I'm not sure it brings anything of value to the community. Perhaps this falls more on the judicial system, because I would hope that at this point CH City Council would not be giving this place third or fourth chances.

The hope (or my hope) is that if you close down enough of these places, this crowd will end up going to another bar in another city. That's probably a bit parochial on my part, but guess what, CH needs to protect its image in my opinion. And in that sense, I don't think you can be aggressive enough. By the way, you could live just south of NDC (not saying you do, but just as an example) and your address would still have the same 44121 zip code...but I wouldn't call that the same neighborhood.

Not correct. There is a road called South Noble on the south side of Mayfield. And I have no idea why it wouldn't be considered a neighborhood. Even if it were all rentals, which it is not, simply because an area is lacking homeowners does mean it is not a "neighborhood." Is OC not a 'neighborhood'? There is more transience, and I would bet way more crime in OC than there is in the Noble-Monticello area. I'm aware of South Noble...it's barely a road, but either way kind of disconnected from the actual "Noble Road." I think you and I agree more than you'd like to admit. I also know that this area is approximately your old 'hood, so I'll try to tread lightly. That said, one thing that cannot be ignored is the issues that have existed with two bars in that area and the one gas station. I follow these stories closely and I speak up because this is where I wish CH City Council would as strict as possible with problematic establishments, whether those establishments are bars, stores, properties, etc.

Noble doesn't even start until Mayfield. I'd actually call that neighborhood (which is a generous description of the area considering the significant transience) "Noble-Monticello" (very creative, huh?), though some might call it something else. Not sure what I was thinking last night. The point is that a number of establishments that have opened up shop in that area have become magnets for trouble recently. Even the one independent gas station was labeled a nuisance by city council a year or two back.

This Byou Bar & Grille is a questionable establishment that probably shouldn't even have a liquor license. Like another former nearby bar in the North Noble neighborhood, the Shillelagh, it's a magnet for trouble, and the numerous incidents reinforce this notion.