Hts121

Do you two honestly think that if the voters defeat the extension vote, that they are going to turn around next election and institute a NEW sin tax directed towards other uses you deem more desirable? My guess is that if the sin tax is defeated here, you can forget about the sin tax in the future and any revenue it generates. The costs, which are certainly not going anywhere, will simply shift to other sources. I'm receptive to the argument that those costs should be more equitably shared by the teams themselves, but there is nothing preventing that discussion after the measure is passed. What concerns me is the panic that might ensue if it is defeated, especially with the City of Cleveland's budget discussions and use of its general fund. Defeating the issue now will inevitably cause some unwanted, short-term pain, even if you could argue that the long-term benefits are advantageous.

I'm thinking this is going to pass with relative ease. Just a guess. Are there any polls? There's a lot of noise in opposition, but I don't think that will equate to actual opposition at the polls.

Holder outlined some guidelines for this today. He stated that the prisoners must be low-level offenders sentenced under harsher penalty guidelines than those which exist today. The prisoner must have served 10 years in prison and have no history of violent offenses (I would assume this includes offenses committed while in prison). Further, the prisoner can have no gang ties (again, I assume this would include prison gangs as well as street gangs).

^I'd think that such a move would have just as big an effect, if not bigger, on rural areas. Obama's going to want to be very careful in doing this. All it would take is one nimrod to come out of prison and commit a crime for the entire maneuver to be labeled a failure by the pro-prison crowd, no matter whether there are 1000 success stories on balance. His administration, I'd assume, is going to be very selective in the type of inmates selected for release. There won't be any blanket coverage just because you committed a non-violent drug offense. They will be looking for comepletely non-violent people, not just non-violent offenders, and then selecting out of that group the ones who received unduly harsh sentences. Such sentences for non-violent drug offenses often come out of the rural area courts. I don't have any statistics to back that up, but it is an educated guess.

^That was a statement probably a bit out of context. I would agree that the market is very tight (although not dead) for this type of space (which I would think is Class B at best), simply because there is so much of it available at the moment. Some of the vacancy is caused by companies such as Eaton relocating to the suburbs and other vacancy is caused by the domino effect which the constructio of the new E&Y Tower caused. You could probably build a new office building in downtown and fill it up with tenants quite easily (as they did with the E&Y Tower)..... but it probably wouldn't be good for the downtown office market's overall health given the fact that your tenants are most likely to be ones you poached from other downtown locations.

^Good point about John Hay. And I had completely forgot about Edgewater.

That's because there is a reason most of those buildings are empty. They don't have the layouts and amenities companies are looking for in modern office space...... and this City has an abundance of less-than-Class A space available, particularly with the reshuffling of the major players. It's a bit discouraging, but you could also look at it as the perfect storm given the current demand for residential, the (largely) prohibitive cost of new construction, and the tax credits available to buildings such as this one, 1717 Euclid, Hanna, etc. Without these "empty office buildings", there would not be nearly as much opportunity for increasing the residential population of downtown, which I think we can all agree is just as important (if not moreso) than the commercial landlords being able to fill up buildings which, more than anything, desperately need a gutting.

^My post didn't apply to this project. Since it covered occupancy expentancy for two separate projects, I had put it in the downtown residences thread.

^FSU is on the FBI's gang watchlist. There involvement in this incident probably has something to do with a larger probe and/or the transportation of weapons across state lines.

This morning Rizzo said he had 'good sources' that Kyrie wants to sign a max extension...... for 3 years. Well, that's not a 'max extension'. If he wants only three years, I would consider offering him something less than max money. But my first inclination is that, if true, he is trying to force a trade without appearing to force a trade. He has to know how Gilbert will react to the less-than-max max deal.

I was talking to a guy in the know on the 1717 E9th (East Ohio) building. First phase of occupancy is targeted for July. Also, they will start a phased occupancy of residences in the Schofield before the hotel is done.

My initial reaction as well. However, Downtown has a good thing going with Campus International, which will eventually grow into a high school as the existing students matriculate up to that level. I would've preferred University Circle..... but that is probably just my east-side bias. I just see so much more potential in UC than the Edge in terms of attracting not just middle-class, but upper-middle class to upper class families. The City desperately needs that tax revenue and this is a situation in which I definitely believe in trickle-down economics.

^They prefer the term "crew" ^^^The anti-racist thing is a bit overblown. These guys fight whomever. They are all "like to fight" guys. But at metal concerts, the easiest people to entice into a brawl are the skinheads and neo-nazis. The police did not get there until the fight had already started. According to witnesses who called the police, the two groups were making quite a scene before the fighting started, brandishing their weapons (knives, bats, etc.) and yelling at each other in the parking lot for a few minutes. If you watch the dash-cam, the cops are dispatched when the fighting has already begun and shots had been fired. It doesn't look at all like they were tipped off in advance no matter what 'cultural' assumption you want to make. Who said they are allowing it? Plenty of innocent bystanders coming forward, identifying the guilty, giving statements to police. More than what typically happens when some violent assault/shooting happens in a black community. And you know this, man All of the witnesses were white? I wasn't aware. But this gives me comfort to know that the other 30-50 combatants will be rounded up in short order when the community comes forward and identifies them.... particularly the shooter and the ones who were doing the stabbing.

Just to clarify, I was being facetious. Jeff was being sarcastic. GP was being antagonistic.

Has there been confirmation that the arrested individuals were all from Boston? My understanding is that FSU has gone nationwide, to a certain extent. And I thought I also read that this was all instigated by some pre-event trash-talking with a rival group out of Youngstown.

The roller-coaster of Bridgewater's draft stock reminds me of Aaron Rogers. At the close of the season, Rogers was projected as a Top 3 pick, possibly even the #1 overall. He had that status throughout his final year in college. Then something happened in the pre-draft process which caused him to fall to the mid-20's right into Green Bay's lap. I'm not a huge Teddy fan, but I also believe that your draft board should not change all that much from the end of the season up until the draft based on off-the-field evaluations.

^I see a difference in the orchestration of the chaos. Fights happen at nearly any venue where liquor is served. At certain clubs/bars, those fights are not contained and sometimes escalate into a shot being fired or somebody being stabbed. However, I've never heard of a large group going to those events armed to the tooth with the specific purpose of causing this kind of mayhem. Hts it STARTED in Cleveland. The machete wielding idiots came to Lakewood. Fine. When is the last time anything remotely analogous (pack of thugs with these kinds of weapons attacking another group) happened in either City?

It's not a false equivolency when it only takes one incident for people to demand "action" from their leaders in other instances. And I guarantee that if a hip-hop club or set of clubs, with no previous serious issues, had this type of incident occur with these types of weapons being brandished so brazingly out on the street, there would be such demands. I get the realities, though. I was not actually demanding any sort of action. Personally, I don't care if its locals or not. Nearly every crime you see reported by Farisse on cleveland.bomb about Cleveland Heights is not committed by a CH local. That doesn't stop the comments section from being riddled with "how's that diversity thingy workin' out for ya?" comments.

^That's the same story with 99.9% of bars/clubs where incidents occur. It's not the bar, but the crowd it targets on any given night. If you schedule these types of bands, be prepared...... same as if you were to schedule one of those 18&over promotion events where the majority of our problems occur. It also wasn't some single idiot with a gun outside the bar at closing time firing shots because some girl dissed him. This was orchestrated to be planned chaos..... probably before the night even began. Machetes, shanks, brass knuckles, baseball bats, and knives? When is the last time you heard about that kind of mass riot here in Cleveland?

(Pounds fist on desk) where is Mayor Jackson on this?!?!?! Where are our leaders?!?!?! Why are they tolerating this inexcusable behavoir?!?!

I'm not pigeon-holing him. Players in the league play a wide variety of positions. Lebron plays 1,2,3,4 (in fact, for all intents and purposes, he starts at the 4), but people refer to him as a 3. Regarding developmental potential with Carrick, we are not talking about a kid straight out of HS. He had a full college career under his belt. Ideally, with his height, Gee would be a 2 as well. But he can't do the things that 2's have to do in this league. You see drastic improvements in shooting (who would've ever thought Varejao would become one of the statistically best 10-15 ft jump shooters in the league?) much more than you see drastic improvements in ball-handling and penetrating ability. I can think of more than a few players who have made monumental leaps in shooting, which has a lot to do with muscle memory and discipline, and I can't think of one player who has made similar improvements in ball-handling and penetrating ability, which both have more to do with hand-eye coordination, lateral quickness, and explosive first steps. To analogize it in honor of the upcoming NFL draft, you can easily go from benching 200lbs to 300lbs..... but good luck cutting your 40yd dash from a 5.0 to a 4.5, no matter how many hours you put in. As for Dion, he still has some wild misses on his outside shot. It is usually an issue with his form, which he has worked on. But the reason Dion went in the top 5 of his draft was his ability to break down a defense and create his own shot..... characteristics which make him an ideal combo guard. It is a bad comparison to use Dion in this convsersation. Carrick will get some minutes at the 2, but we are going to be in trouble if he is ever our best bet for regular minutes at the 2 Look at it another way. Ideally, TT would be a 3. He is shorter than or the same height as guys like Durant, Deng, Lebron, Melo. He weighs less than Lebron. He's clearly undersized compared to the prototypical PF. But he isn't going to ever be a 3.

I don't think he has the ballhandling ability or outside shooting to be a 2. He has no ability to create his own shot off the dribble. That is not something which will magically come to him at this stage. He's taller than Gee (who is 6'4 and some change in actual height). I'm not thinking of him as a future starter at the 3...... but that is where he will get his minutes. He's athletic enought to guard most 3's. We don't have room in the rotation at 2, especially when you consider that is likely to be Sergei's position with the way he plays the game.

^I think Carrick's future is at the 3. I think the backcourt will remain relatively the same. We have four guys who can play both backcourt positions to some degree and the Kyrie/Dion/Jack/Delly rotation was working well once installed.

Kiper had the Browns taking Johnny MF'in Football in the mock draft he released today

^Good luck with that ;). On the radio yesterday or the day before, they asked the listeners to name one player they would guarantee would be back next season. I honestly could not think of a single player who is 'guaranteed' to be back. Everyone and anybody is on some type of 'block' (trading, chopping, etc). Best I could come up with was Delly, and I think that is only 'guaranteed' if Brown is back. Kyrie - I think the Cavs will begrudgingly end up offering him the max and I would be surprised if he didn't take it. If he balks in any way (wants a shorter deal, or time to think about it), I ship him before that news makes it out into the public. Dion - Brown seems to really like him and he really improved. The issues with Kyrie, I've heard, are purely basketball related, not personal (that is a big misconception). Bottom line... both guys want the ball in their hands. I think we keep him too. I can't see us getting optimal value for him based on his late season play. He also is one of the few 'tough guys' on our team 'Cap'n Jack' - he started awful and then really settled in. He is probably the ideal veteran guard with guys like Kyrie and Dion. He should be back unless some other team really wants him. Delly - what's not to like? He's a menace on the court to whomever he is guarding. His shot improved dramatically. His teammates seem to love him. He's a keeper, albeit will probably never be much more than a 3rd guard / scrapper / energy guy. CJ - I say find the team most desperate for outside shooting and get what you can for him in a S/T or just let him walk. Good guy. Talented. Total tease with his short spurts of borderline all-star level play before shrinking back down to role player with a good outside shot. Gee - I think he is gone. Delly has assumed his role as the team's designated scrapper. His handles and passing ability have never been at an NBA level for a SF. Would probably do better in another system. But he is signed to a team friendly deal for next season, so they may hold onto him for the purposes of dealing him at the deadline. Too inconsistent to be relied upon for regular minutes. Deng - definitely gone. I can't see us offering him anywhere close to the deal he had already turned down from Chicago. And his scouting report just doesn't translate. He's a nice guy who might get too much of the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't help his value that Chicago was hovering around .500 when it traded him and have been 20 games over .500 since they sent him packing for nothing. Sergei - Donuts, weight room, repeat. His summer schedule shouldn't consist of much more. Felix - never really got a chance. Probably will be given a chance to become that lockdown wing-defender we may need at times if Gee and Deng are gone. Tristan - He needs to solidify his 10-15 ft jumpt shot and he MUST get stronger in the upper body. He needs to be able to power up through the defenders with his shot. He is still getting stuffed too much at the rim because he is not strong enough to do that. The work ethic is there. The desire and hustle is there. It is experience and physical maturity he is still lacking. His ceiling is Horace Grant. AB - needs confidence, which his infamous bad start took from him. He has to start playing with his chest out, not sucked in. I could see him pushing TT by the end of next season for the starting job if he can get his 'swag' back. He has to come into the season next year in great shape. No more playing his way into shape. Hopefully, this season will be a wake up call that he can't simply show up and be successful at the top level in the world Andy - still the backbone of the team. He is what he is and we know what he is. Another team will have to blow us away with an offer to pry him out of here for the last season of his contract. Given the intangibles he brings, that is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. He will also be a valuable chip at the trade deadline. Hawes - I think he fits and I hope the team brings him back.... at a reasonable price. I wouldn't sign him to be the franchise center for the next 10 years, but I would give him Andy-type money to be a solid big man for us (starting or off the bench) for the foreseeable future. Zeller - still needs to get stronger and, somehow, someway he needs to play tougher. He very well might be our most athletic big man, but he doesn't play like it..... at least not consistently. I would use him as a chip if some team came calling. Did I miss anyone? (besides that guy who they signed for strategic off-season cap purposes) So, in the end, I think the biggest question is what will happen with Kyrie. The second biggest issue will be who are we going to get to play SF. I doubt LBJ opts out of his deal short of an early exit from the playoffs and I think Melo stays in NY. Evan Turner, Rudy Gay, Xavier Henry, Jonas Jerebko, Trevor Ariza, and Chris Singleton could all potentially be free agents and might be worth a look. None of them light my world on fire. Short of an absolute lottery miracle, we will be picking somewhere around 9 in the NBA draft. I think this year's draft is a bit overrated..... but it is nowhere near as bad as last year's.