Clevelander17

Two things: First, these are public events, and I suspect that they (particularly ones like the Coventry festival) are very welcoming to non-residents. That said, these types of events also seem to be attracting the wrong type of crowd--those seeking to use these events as a venue for their misbehavior. There has to be a way to discourage or even outright prevent this wrong type of crowd from congregating at these public events. How to do that fairly? I have no clue, but that it's something that I think needs to be discussed. Second, the reckless running law sounds good in theory, but I have no idea how it would be enforced when the police officers are oftentimes outnumbered by these out-of-control crowds 10-to-1 or greater. Also, let me clarify this, I have no idea how much emphasis the CHPD places on parking/traffic tickets in relation to the other functions of the department. However I do know what it *looks* like to an uninformed outsider, especially when it seems that crime rates are high while an excess resources are being allocated to writing tickets. There are a lot of variables here, a lot of moving parts that I just don't know enough about or can't accurately predict (not to mention a lack of expertise on the issue) to sit here and criticize the department. Again, just saying what type of perception I believe the CHPD department gives off, what type of reputation it seems to have in the region. Perhaps it's something that city council may consider looking into, all things considered.

I was leafing through Cleveland Magazine's "Rating the Suburbs" edition last month and noticed that CH's crime ranking had dropped significantly since the last time I looked at the issue three or four years ago. Now there are a lot of possible reasons for this (I'm thinking that the police department being called out on its under-reporting could be a big one), but the point is that right now crime does seem to be an issue in CH. I don't know if it's department priorities, changing demographics, or something else, but between the actual hard data and what I saw firsthand last summer at the Coventry festival, I'm very concerned about CH (and honestly SH, as well). Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights are, in my opinion, not just gems of Greater Cleveland or even Ohio, but truly unique around the country as far as neighborhoods/suburbs go. It saddens me to think that they're slowly but surely being overrun by people who simply do not care about their surroundings or how their behavior affects others, to the point that all of the large local gatherings are being disrupted to the point of threatening cancellation. And even if most of the people at these events causing the problems are from other areas, it's frustrating that the Heights suburbs are acting as a magnet in giving them an outlet for their criminal misbehavior. In regards to the CHPD and a potentially misguided priorities, one potential solution is that if they insist upon setting up these speed traps all over the city (and locals know where most of them are after years of them being in the same places), maybe they should just make a one-time investment in some speed cameras. Even though I think speed cameras are pretty terrible, at least this would allow for more resources to be freed up in catching real criminals. However I don't have a solution for the CHPD's parking ticket fetish, though as long as these cops are keeping aware of their surroundings and potential while writing pads of tickets, this foot patrol presence in the bigger business districts probably can serve another purpose.

Not good: http://clevelandheights.patch.com/articles/eight-arrested-at-shaker-heights-4th-of-july-fireworks-celebration Why is this happening?

I wish he was owner of the Tribe where his checkbook wouldn't be limited by a salary cap.

I think you're very, very wrong here. Yes, it does seem ubiquitous. As another example, just from last week, and NBA related from the long-running and very popular Bill Simmons NBA Draft diary: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8111210/welcome-draft-diary-xvi Again, I don't think I'm overreacting. This is a running theme that I refuse to apologize for being sick of.

Here's my problem with the "learn to laugh at our city" philosophy: We're already the butt of jokes everywhere for everyone else and as someone who loves this place and is happy with life here, it gets old. Now if this were Denver or Portland or Kansas City or anywhere else that has a fairly neutral reputation, sure I'd have no problem not taking everything so seriously and laughing at truly funny things that happen in town. But in Cleveland, every time one of our own residents makes a spoof local tourism video or does something stupid that goes viral, we always have to hear the same old lines from outsiders that generally go "only in Cleveland" or "that place is a dump" or "mistake by the lake, har-har." Forgive me for being a bit defensive when this kind of nonsense plays itself out once every few months. Forgive me for becoming a bit weary of constantly being told that my choice of where to live and really my identity is inferior. And no, I do not believe that most of those types of comments are in good fun, I think they are meant to be insults and I view them as such.

Two Indians made the AL All-Star team: The aforementioned Chris Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera. Unfortunately Jason Kipnis was snubbed (IMO).

That's cool. I knew they were in town last week, but I assumed that it was part of a rotation.

I wouldn't be too concerned with the fact that Waiters wasn't a starter. Boeheim is reputedly an old-school guy that likes to do thinks his way. However Waiters still was top four or five on Syracuse's roster in minutes played, so once he got into the game (which was usually pretty soon after jump ball), he was out there for the long haul. As for his height, I understand the issue, but let's also remember that there have been a number of all-world SGs who have been in the 6'4-6'5 range, including one that just won a championship. Also he's only 19 years old so in theory he could possibly grow another inch or two. Regardless, I'm not as worried about his height or even his outside shooting as I am about some of the things I've heard about his attitude. That said I think he'll benefit from Byron Scott's tutelage. What it comes down to is that if the Cavaliers wanted a wing player at #4, it was either Waiters or Barnes, or maybe even Ross or Lamb, all of whom have their own question marks. It's not like the Cavs passed on a can't-miss player to take Waiters.

Here's the other thing to consider, guys: Almost all of the mock drafts had Tyler Zeller going 10th or 11th. So the Cavs may have reached three or four spots on Waiters, but they may have also gotten a six or seven pick steal on Zeller. And for all of that talk about trading down to get the 6th pick and the 11th pick, the Cavs basically ended up with a guy that was slated to go 7th (or 8th) and a guy that was slated to go 10th (or 11th), so they may have essentially gotten the same haul of talent as if they made that proposed move with Portland. Or maybe I'm just trying to hard to justify their moves... ;)

Waiters averaged 13 ppg in the NCAA Tournament shooting 43% from the field and 33% from beyond the arc. He played just over 25 mins/game in the tournament. In those big games, sure he wasn't great, but he wasn't terrible, either. I think there is reason to be optimistic about Waiters even though he wasn't touted to go #4 by most of the mock drafts.

Nevermind, I now see that they gave up #24, #33, and #34. I guess I'm okay with that, though I wish they would have retained one of those picks. Oh well, Zeller is going to be a very solid starting center for the Cavaliers for a long time.

What exactly did the Cavaliers give up for the #17?

"Open your heart" to Dion Waters...I think he's going to be "causing a commotion" (in a good way) for the Cavaliers for many years to come. Seriously though, I was kind of upset with the pick at first, but looking at his numbers and thinking about it, I'm really starting to like the pick, especially with Kidd-Gilchrist and Beal already off the board.

There are already schools near CSU and affiliated with the University. There is the Campus International School which opened this past Fall and the successful MC2STEM high school will be moving to a location near campus as well with some classes to be held in CSU space.

Agreed, unless you're doing something like Houston and trying to stockpile assets to try to make a trade for an established star.

Yeah that makes sense. I've been inside the house once or twice, it's a really nice space. A bit off-topic, but it really makes me wish we had more of those old Millionaire's Row mansions around (available for CSU use no less).

I'm not sold on any one of the three wing players being mentioned at this point over any of the others. I like MKG the most, but I wouldn't be upset if they took either of the other two. The only thing that the Cavs could do that would really bother me would be if they actually traded up with one of these guys specifically in mind. If they do that, whomever that player would be (probably Beal from what I've heard) better be a perennial All-Star in the coming years.

Because I love to torture myself, I'm tempted to click on that video just to see just how degrading the comments are regarding my fair city.

What was Mather Mansion used for previously? I seem to remember it being used for meeting spaces and some other random stuff.

I think that this is just delaying inevitable. Their asking price seems way too rich for the MetroParks or any other regional entity that might step in to protect the land from more retail.

I don't even think that trying to compare the teams based on winning percentage is a fair comparison. Only the worst teams in MLB history will win ~40 games in a season. The worst teams in NFL history will win zero or just one game. So just because the Indians appear to have more seasons of near .500 play does not necessarily mean that they've been the better franchise. Statistically, baseball records tend to be packed in closer to .500 by nature of the game. In the NFL, the standard deviation from the mean is much greater. Now that's not to say that the Clowns haven't been terrible for most of the last dozen years. It's just to say that the Indians haven't been significantly better...at least not to the point that people should be arguing that there's any reason for Cleveland to all of a sudden be turning into a baseball town. Especially not after a decent, but not great start to this season. It takes more than half a season of slightly above-average play to get fans in this town excited about the Tribe because the recent track record of the franchise based on larger sample sizes does not give us much reason to get excited. Now if the Tribe were coming off of two or three consecutive playoff appearances and were sitting .5 game out of first place in late June and still receiving paltry support, I would understand Perez's feelings.

Perez is wrong because he fails to recognize the wild popularity of the NFL. It's not even that the Browns are more popular than the Indians, it's that the NFL is bigger than MLB. There are a only a few small/medium markets where MLB is bigger than the NFL (i.e. the baseball team draws as well as the football team). In regards to his comments about LeBron, as an outsider he just does not understand the level of sports misery we've dealt with over the years and how James significantly added to that. The truth is, however, that I think that for the most part this town is moving on...that doesn't mean that we're still not going to root against him similar to the way I'm sure fans of his Miami Hurricanes (all seven of them) probably root against Florida State. And if that comes off as a bad comparison, it's because I can't think of anything better because there truly is no analogous situation for him to understand being a native of South Florida.

I don't understand how you can agree with more than 20% of what he said. The guy is completely clueless.

Why does Perez get "props" for running off at the mouth about things that he clearly does not understand? We had this conversation on another thread, but the Clowns get "support" (if you even want to call it that at this point) partly because of their tradition in this town, but most of all because the NFL is the most popular sports league in this hemisphere and they play eight home games which are all downtown events. If Perez doesn't understand that then he has no hope. The Indians have been very lucky this year to be where they are at this point. As I said earlier, they can't continue to play like this as the sample size of games grows--it will catch up to them unless they turn that run differential around. They're also lucky in the fact that the AL Central is should be renamed "Comedy Central" because of how pathetic the top of the division is. When you're on a three-game losing streak and one of your highest paid players isn't playing at all because of some statistical oddity (the save), it may be time to rethink some things. The closer position is overrated and the save statistic tells very little about how good a player is. That being said, Perez is racking up saves this year and because a lot of GMs still overvalue that stat, Perez's stock is through the roof right now. The Tribe should unload him for a right-handed bat that actually will play more than two or three innings a week. I'm not going to touch the points he made about the Cavs and LeBron because I'm sick of that discussion and again he shows a lack of understanding about not only this town but also sports fandom in general.