MidwestChamp

That is not true. This will happen, only if they WANT TO, PNC will have no "vested" community ties to Cleveland, once the deal is final. None. PNC is a corporate citizen of Pittsburgh not Cleveland. I disagree. PNC will have a vested interest in that they will have tens of thousands of northeast ohio customers who they do not want to turn off. It will be hard enough for them to convince them to stay with a Pittsburgh based bank for them to start slashing community support. They'll love to have their name supporting the plays at playhouse square, or even supporting the Browns (ugh..I hate the thought, but think Giant Eagle). It'll be just like Nat City did about a decade ago when they brought Integra Bank in Pittsburgh and became one of Pittsburgh's best corporate citizens. Large institutions that receive support will be ok. My concern is for the smaller community organizations...hopefully they are not abandoned by PNC.

I'm a litte curious as to what to full impact will be. The footprint is only slightly overlapping, so I think many branch employees will reamin intact. NCC in terms of customer base and deposit balances is larger than PNC, so they will need to retain some corporate head count simply to manage the increased volume. I definitely agree that this move will mostly affect HQ functions, with minimal impact on branches. I'm also hopeful that we will be able to maintain many of our back office functions (I've got friends at W150), since the new PNC will more than double in size in terms of deposits/customers. Hopefully they'll need the additional people to handle this new mega bank. Definitely a psychological blow to the city though (I dread thinking of tomorrow's PD headline), and a blow to the nonprofit community here unless PNC commits to a high level of community giving. Hopefully they will, since Nat City was a big community partner in Pittsburgh when they entered their market 10 or so years ago. I know that really means nothing today, but I'm trying to be optimistic.

I am very excited for both of these proposals by Pres Schwartz. I did my undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh and grad work at CSU. There is a definite difference in the vibe of the campuses (yes Pitt has a much larger residential population, but we all know Schwartz has been working on that too). The name change certainly promotes the changes that have been happening physically and academically at CSU...it is definitely time for the University of Cleveland to emerge, and with a football team as a coming out party! As far as where to play, it works well for the Pitt Panthers to play at Heinz Field, sharing it with the Steelers. And Pitt does this while being 3 miles from the stadium in Oakland. I think the University of Cleveland Vikings could easily play at CBS, blocking off the upper levels and focusing in on the lower bowl. And since Univ. of Cleve is downtown, it won't suffer from the disconnect with the stadium that Pitt students deal with. All in all I think this could be great for the school and Cleveland!

Very nice...

I went...and ALL it was was Chris Kennedy presenting the same ppt presentation that is on the website someone posted a few pages back. After the long ppt, there was a Q/A session, well, Question session, because the commissioners only answered like 3 of the 40+ persons who posed questions / comments. I am in support of this tax and the medical mart proposal, but it was pretty disgusting to see people passionately pour their heart out, either for or against this thing, and no one respond to them. Tim Hagan's lame response was, "if we responded to questions we'd be here all day." The questions were recorded for the record...but what the he!! is a public hearing for if you don't get responses to your questions?! Fake citizen participation...that will drive more people to oppose this project, IMO.

It appears to me that in this debate we have two competing arguments...what makes the most functional sense versus what makes economic sense. My thoughts... The current CC site clearly makes the most sense functionally. Expansion to the north, completing the mall and linking DT to the lakefront has been studied to death in this town...but nothing built. It would be beautiful and complete the mall concept, and offers the chance to create a multi-modal transit hub (RTA, Amtrak, Shoreway). Why is it we only have pretty pics of this site, and nothing built after years and years? Because presently Cleveland is a mid-level convention town at best. We could build a 5 million square foot mega palace and we would never compete with Las Vegas, NYC, Orlando,etc. for conventions...just isn't going to happen. But we can be a first rate, mid level convention and tourism town...but we are sinking fast due to the outdated design of our convention center, a center that while we love the locale, we have not invested in since the 1980's because the demand is not there. With all that said, the TC site, coupled with a MM "promising" 50 trade shows a year now makes the construction of a new CC economically viable. The catch, unfortunately, is that the powers that be are hell bent on shoe-horning the center behind TC, which will be god-awful given the steep and narrow terrain behind TC. Both the current CC and TC are in locations with walkable access to shopping, public transit, hotels, and the warehouse district. The question is...do we want what will be clearly a superior center on the mall that may or may not consistently draw visitors to the city, once the "new-ness" wears off (a la Pittsburgh...i love their beautiful center, but its not doing well at all)? Or will we put up with a clearly less visually appealing location behind TC on the promise that the MM will bring in a steady stream of conventioners? I've been torn on this debate...but I would hate to see this town end up with a beautiful white elephant. Call me a gold digger, but I'll take the ugly, rich frog.

Now that's real interesting. Just some thoughts / observations on this... The powers that be have long reconized the need for quality education to go hand-in-hand along with revitaizing housing in the city, particularly near UC. I believe this is the primary reason the beautifully restored John Hay HS (class of '97 - yea baby!) is now a very selective school housing three magnet programs. The goal is that this school will become a regional school, attracting children from outside Cleveland who will pay to be in their programs. The Clinic linked/sponsored bio-medical arts program was strong back in my day, before the rennovation, offering lab time and internships to students interested in medicine. I hear it is even more intensive now. Addionally, the future vision is a more integrated campus with the also selective, and highly regarded School of the Arts, which sits across a field/parking lot from Hay. As far as elementary education, Citizens' Academy, located in the Temple at E. 105 / Chester, is a very high performing K-5 elementary charter school (I know several familes there, as well as teachers and staff members), with achievement test scores well above many Cleveland schools, and some suburbs. While it mainly serves neighborhood children, an awful lot of Clinic, UH, Case parents send their kids there as well, noting the test scores and close proximety to their jobs. www.citizensacademy.org

Awesome design! How I wish we could finally close off this gaping hole on the public square skyline.

Great Pics! I've always loved that Public Auditorium says "...builded by her citizens..." - Does anyone know if builded was acceptable at the time this building was constructed, which I think was around 1920?

Managed to get a nice rear-view mirror shot: Man, this picture is cool as hell...great pics!

If only we could get rid of our abundance of surface parking lots downtown. :-( But regardless of this Finals outcome, it was awesome to see the city so electrified on every corner. I'm sure Lebron and company will bring this type of excitement (and championships, finally) to the city for years to come!

You can also view the pics at this website: http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z246/midwestchamp/NBA%20Finals/

Ok...I'm still learning how to post through photobucket...these pics are way large and cut off on the right side...sorry bout that...i'll have this figured out the next time i post

The Finals outcome was not what we hoped, but the energy and momentum in the city should carry us all the way through to a championship next year! Pics from the first Finals in Cleveland...Go CAVS! Rally on the Mall: Mayor Jackson and Danny Ferry Big, BIG Z Witness Boobie and TC make a lovely couple! Rise Up EVERYWHERE Close to Game time

Great pics...i love my hometown Cleveland but I miss Pitt's campus :-( it is the most underrated college town in America! Go Pitt!

Love the pics of the city...especially glenville...where I grew up! Lots of great old homes in the n'hood, and you captured some really good ones. B&M's ribs are essential to any healthy, balanced diet! :-D

Cool...thanks for the advice...how do I do the photobucket thing? It took me an hour to figure out how to post pics, then another hour to compress them to meet the imposed size limits...any technical help is appreciated!

I've been a guest viewing this forum for a while, and all of the awesome pics posted on here inspired me to join the group (stop being a moocher) take my camera and dare to take some of my own photo's for posting. i am no photographer, but i've always liked taking pictures. This is the first time I am doing something like this...so here goes...let me know what you think! (be gentle, remember its my first time!)