Cleburger

No complaints here. The longer I live in Cleveland, the more disappointed I get by the cronyism that brings down the level of services throughout this city. Our Chief Operating Officer, Darnell Brown, started as a meter reader for the water department. I'm not opposed to anyone working their way up, but Brown really has no leadership experience (as witnessed by the snowplowing debacle of last winter and pothole debacle of this past spring) I'm sure there are many more shortcomings in ALL city departments, which lower the level of service to citizens. When citizens are unhappy, failing schools, crumbling roads and lack of services makes it an easy choice for those people with the means to move elsewhere. And the cycle repeats. We should probably have an entire thread dedicated to city employee inefficiencies, but your points are well-noted on the airport. I second the motion to submit your writings to the Plain Dealer editors.

And I'm tired of hearing that Public Square was walkable before its redo.... I've walked it probably, 2-3000 times in my lifetime? It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't Great Northern Blvd either.... It was an urban center with lots of transportation going on.....wait at the light, and cross....

Speaking of amateur, I flew out this morning and cringed when I saw the HAND-WRITTEN (in marker) signs on drywall directing passengers to airlines, TSA Pre, etc. I was in a hurry so failed to snap a picture--maybe someone else could grab one. Really CLE? You guys didn't see this coming with the construction? Go to Kinkos or something and have a bunch of airlines and arrows printed up.

Lakewood is safe. Yeah, it has its issues, but by and large its a very safe place to raise a family imho. And if you do have an issue in Lakewood, the police response time is literally seconds.

While you're correct about the water plant, there is a large amount of terminal services, which could be moved. As KJP has noted, these facilities could be moved upriver, closer to direct highway and rail access. This alone would solve the massive truck problem we have in Ohio City and Downtown (while certainly adding cost/time to the shippers, as the Cuyahoga is not exactly an easy maneuver for their boats). It would also free up a massive amount of land for direct waterfront development. Like anything else in this city, it would probably take public money to incentivize this move...

Industrial city? Kindly reset your time machine from 1975 to 2015. When you do, please check the present-day employment data for each sector in Cleveland. Then, revisit your comment. Allow me to suggest a place to find such data: http://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/summary/blssummary_cleveland_oh.pdf (tip: at 11.7% of the total, manufacturing is only the fifth-largest employment sector in Cleveland) FYI: that was a "website address" for amazing informational resource called "The Internet" which is used by people to become informed on current matters as well as historical reference and context between the two. Pretty amazing resource, if I don't mind saying. Happy holidays! Industry is still heavily concentrated in the flats and the area north of the shoreway. That's why truck traffic is still an issue. Hence this article. It's not so much that industry that is located there. It's the delivery of bulk goods being transferred inland to industry.

A sensible truck route through the Flats to I490 would take a lot of pressure of the city streets.

ODOT takes heat over potential impact of Shoreway plans on Ohio City CLEVELAND, Ohio – The final stage of a multiyear remake of the West Shoreway, scheduled for completion in 2017, is turning into a gift Ohio City is beginning to regret. Plans by the Ohio Department of Transportation's to revamp Shoreway on- and off-ramps at West 25th, 28th and 45th streets – which nobody likes in their current configurations – are raising worries about whether the project will hurt more than it helps. http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2015/12/odot_taking_heat_over_impact_o.html

One down..... Man gets 25 years in prison for string of robberies, including Tremont attacks http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/man_gets_25_years_in_prison_fo.html#incart_river_index

Comparing MCO to CLE is not even a fair comparison. Orlando is WAY larger than CLE in terms of passenger volume, with a large portion of that number amateur travelers with children, or even amateur travelers attending their once-a-year corporate convention. If you have any status and TSA Pre, avoiding all those folks is easy and Orlando is not all that bad.

I don't think they are overblown. I truly believe, and you could see it in their interactions yesterday, that Pettine genuinely loves and cares about the kid. He doesn't want to have to be a parent and dish out the tough-love, but that's what he was given. He wants Johnny to succeed, because if he does, he keeps his job and lifts himself to another level by showing that he undertstands what it takes to elevate and exploit talent.

Progessive has 10x the number of employees as the Browns organization and they likely spend a much higher percentage of their salary on expenses. And the region (mostly Cleveland) will have spent a half a billion dollars in debt service, maintenance, and renovations on the Browns stadium by the time it's retired. And doesn't Berea own the Browns office space? There is no direct comparison to a regular company. Perhaps apples to oranges, but how does the stadium compare to I271 express lanes and other infrastructure for the corridor Progressive resides in? My point is the Browns constitute big enough number that the city shouldn't just kick them out and tell them to go away. Negotiate a new rent deal? Perhaps. And perhaps we should also be tolling on 271 to help recoup those costs.

I'm not sure about overall employment, but several departments have seen significant cuts. Fire, for instance, is down over 100 members from its peak. Double-dipping is a state issue. Nothing the city can do about that. I'd agree this administration has a tendency towards cronyism, which is why it is important to support the unions' continued efforts to fight the same. All that said, drops in population don't necessarily mean the city needs less services. In many cases, it has the opposite effect. I'm not familiar with the mechanisms that allow double-dipping, but it should definitely be stopped. This fuels the anti-union, anti-government worker sentiments that keeps people like Kashich in power. I don't mind it for cops and firefighters, who have physical jobs and retirement after 20 years is reasonable (as long as they take a DIFFERENT job). But there is no reason council members or rank-and-file city workers should be doing the same. I agree with your assessment of city services. My point was we have city staff for 500,000 people, yet the level of service keeps getting worse (think of last year's snowplowing debacle). We should be competing with the burbs by being efficient. This will attract more upper income residents, increase the tax base and hopefully one day improve the schools and city finances.

For real. I suppose there will be unruly students returning? I got into a scuffle with one kid once when he sat on the hood of my car crossing Detroit. He was a bit shocked when I got out of the car and shoved him off my car onto his back. His parents probably needed to do that much more often!

I feel like most of the council members would do anything to get their face on TV (like most politicians). This is another quick and easy way to generate some face time. I wish they would spend more time cleaning up the city rank and file of cronyism, waste, double-dipping and other excesses. The population continues to shrink, but the city employment rolls stay the same--with horrible service. If the city really wants to compete with the suburbs, they need to deliver.

What's wrong with North Coast Harbor? It fits nicely with the Mather. Maybe we could get another ship like Buffalo's little naval park.

Thank you, statehouse leadership, for keeping Ohio in another century. This area is ripe to attract new young talent. A shift of priorities to give Ohio's cities some parity would go a long way. Jobs, education and transit are a good start. But they'll probably worry about tax cuts and the right to carry an AR-15 to Wal Mart. :shoot:

They could probably turn it into a fundraiser. $500/ticket to ride the Cod for a tow to North Coast Harbor. First time it's moved in 50 years. I bet they could sell 100 tickets in a heartbeat.

^I just don't buy the Chicago example. Maybe it would be a smaller percentage of the Chicago economy, but those have to be some huge numbers--just in organizational payroll. Let's try to extrapolate in Cleveland. The combined payroll of our pro sports teams. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 million just for players. Throw in all the support staff and let's call it $400 million. All of these people live and work here at least part of the year, buying houses, cars, groceries, etc. Progressive Insurance was the 5th largest employer in Cuyahoga Country last year with 9001 employees. Assuming an average salary of 50,000, that's $450 million. Would you just tell them to up and leave? Please Progressive insurance, we don't want your payroll, and oh--by the way, you're welcome for the I271 express lanes we built for you! Imagine the howls from our politicians (rightfully so). So while there is some validity in these economists findings, I think the answer lies somewhere in between. In the end they are just non-sports fans, and their views are skewed by that.

Agreed 100%. Something needs to be done about the funding for improvements and repairs. And I also agree that Haslem should give the money to the city to hire cops.

I'm guessing of the 70,000 at a Browns game more than 50% are from outside Cuyahoga County. I would also guess that a significant percentage DO NOT come downtown for anything other than Browns games. I know from tailgaiting that there are tons of guys from Medina, Lorain, Lake, Summit counties that aren't spending their entertainment dollars here otherwise. And that's just a small piece of the puzzle. Let's go back to the Cleveland Browns office, coaches, trainers and players (if we are going to call them that these days), who get their payroll via the NFL/Haslem. Easily $120 million+ a year. And hopefully more some day ;)

Not just on UrbanOhio anymore.... What's the economic impact of the Browns? Not as much as you might think December 08, 2015 KEVIN KLEPS SPORTS BUSINESS Economists often disagree, but they are pretty much in unison when it comes to the economic impact of sports teams. The reason, as former Cleveland State dean Ned Hill told us in 2014, is “spending on sports in a community is just a reallocation of the entertainment dollar.” If you’re spending more on Cavs seats, you’re probably doling out fewer dollars on non-basketball date nights, the theory goes. Mark Rosentraub — a former Cleveland State professor and dean, and current chair of the department of sports management at the University of Michigan — said the optimal way for a sports team to have an economic impact is if there’s a “real estate development strategy that makes the venue part of a larger economic play.” MORE: http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20151208/BLOGS06/151209807/whats-the-economic-impact-of-the-browns-not-as-much-as-you-might I think it's a mistake to base a story on the economic impact of the Browns solely on restaurants and bars. Football by nature attracts tailgaters no matter what city the game is held in, which takes a significant portion of fans in parking lots rather than bars. But the surrounding bars also do quite well--there is just no currently develop-able land around the First Energy stadium site. If the port were to free up some land and the economy was ripe, I'm sure some developers would include restaurants and bars that would do amazing business on game days. Beyond food & beverage, there are many more revenue streams that it brings in, in a post I listed above. Admission taxes, cops, employees, ad revenue for local media...the list goes on and on. Imagine the payroll taxes and what they mean for the cities of Cleveland and Berea? I'd really like to see a complete and comprehensive study of ALL economic impact. The article ended with an accurate summary of all this. If the Browns became perennial contenders, these conversations would go away. But it's about as bad as it's ever been. Without football to talk about, everyone focuses on the negatives. And that is truly sad.

North Coast Harbor seems like a great idea. Plus it frees up the side of my Burke Lakefront parking lot to Midrise Condo's idea to give some water access.

If you're a club member, they do have the CRTs from 1983 for convenience. :-P

Central Terminal is in the old East Broadway Polish neighborhood which is similar to Cleveland's Slavic Village in its housing stock and economic condition.