Hts121

Smith - nice! I rode by last week and took a peak in through the windows. In other news around town, the demolitions on Mayfield continue. The lot across from the old used car dealership is now clear. Still not sure what is happening there and the carwash right next door (SE corner of Mayfield/Cumberland) is still for sale. That is a nice chunk of land. There also has been a demolition of the auto repair place (and whatever was immediately to the west) at the SW corner of Mayfield/S Noble. Again, I have no idea what for...

Let me ask you this..... name the last 7 footer from a major college program who was not drafted in the top 10 and turned out to be a productive pro. The only one I can think of is Roy Hibbert (#17) and it took a lot of hard work and dedication before he was contributing in any significant way to the Pacers. Point being, if Melo was anywhere close to being ready to contribute, at his size and being from Syracuse, he would easily be rated higher than he is. Add in some percieved attitude / work ethic problems and I don't see him being anything special. I do believe this a very deep draft. Not so top-heavy, but you can get a guy at #24 who would go in the teens in other drafts. Here is my ideal scenario if we stand pat: 4 - MKG - although I won't cry a river if they take Barnes, I have consistently maintaed MKG is the pick here if available 24 - Royce White - issues (severe anxiety) with flying will drop this lottery talent on draft night.... could be a solid contributor for years to come 33 - Take the top talent that has dropped for whatever reason (maybe Sully)..... Spurs did this with Blair and Celtics did it with Big Baby in years past..... it's a better strategy than swinging on a guy like Eyenga 34 - Pick a Euro player to stash overseas - Evan Fournier if he is still around would be great

You think that is "clearer"? ;)

Without weighing in one way or the other, I would note that the "banking industry" is not a single entity

I can agree on the 'earned it' / 'deserved it' semantics. Whatever. However, other than perhaps an inkling of credibility to the conspiracy theory that he threw the Boston series in 2010, I don't think you can even make the suggestion that he never wanted a title here in Cleveland. Nonsense. He played his arse off for this team for at least 6 3/4 years. Game 5 against Detroit? Anybody? Two straight seasons with the best record in the league. Two straight MVPs. He just wasn't as mature as he made himself out to be and a lot of us thought he was. He didn't make the adjustments to his game that he made this year which allowed him to get over the hump. And, let's not underestimate that things fell pretty nicely for Miami this offseason, with the icing on the cake being the role players chipping in a lion's share of the 14-26 shooting behind the arc last night. Top that off with the news that Perkins (OKC's 'enforcer') was playing with a torn groin. Give us that luck in 07-10 and we have a ring or two as well.

^^ 1. 2. If we have to have the conversation, can we at least limit it to people who actually have some sense of what 'Cleveland sports fan' relishes in and has a sense of pride about. I realize the door is wide open for cheap shots from people who 'relish' and 'take pride' in those sort of antics, but please don't generalize on subject you know nothing about. Let's not turn this into another "AFC North thread" debacle................ whose stupid idea was that anyway

^^I disagree. At this point, it seems like the "rest of the nation" is playing up our emotions on the topic more than us. ESPN, the day after Miama won a title, was taping the Really Big Show to play highlights from callers on Sportscenter! Really? Try to find a national story on Lebron that doesn't mention his exodus from Cleveland and the general sentiment about that. I think outside the media's (local and national) desire to play it up and a very loud minority, most Clevelanders and Cavs fans are well beyond it. Last year was fun. But, honestly, at this point I'm tired of it taking up so much of the sports talk here and nationally. I reached a turning point after the Finals last year. I went Mavaliers crazy, but then actually felt some sympathy towards him afterwards. I'm glad he won. Not a lot of people will say this, but he deserved it. He improved himself as a player and a person. He was a better teammate and a better representative of the game throughout the whole playoffs. He carried Miami to this title and started playing more like the Lebron we saw the first 5-6 years here. Unbelievable talent and unquestionably now the best player in the game.

Your thread is a little dirty, btw...... I'll leave this here

Did this development get historic tax credits? If so, I believe replacing the columns would be required..... unless for some reason the facade within the facade within the facade mentioned above changes that....

Not correct. Four years ago, RTA asked the ATU for wage/benefit concessions to save bus routes and service frequency but the ATU was unwilling to revisit its contract. So the routes were scaled back or cut and jobs were lost. It wasn't just the local ATU, but others ATU locals and other unions that were asked by transit agencies throughout the country at that time. And I was not aware of any unions willing to revisit their contracts. Yes it takes two to tango. RTA wanted to tango. But the ATU didn't even show up at the dance. That might have been the case in that instance. I was speaking more generally in response to your post which was phrased in general terms. And, in all my experience with collective bargaining which probably allows my knowledge of the subject to rival your knowledge of trains I'm sure, unless you were at the bargaining table, don't assume you know the specifics. And that wouldn't just be for current negotiations, but also the few previous rounds. Mid-term bargaining is even more complicated and because the parties are not compelled to sit down if they don't want to, a lot of the 'bargaining' and posturing occurs away from 'the dance'.

A few quick updates. Word is that TRob dominated Drummond at their workout for the Cavs. Really out-'physicaled' him. Gilbert tweeted out something which might have showed the Cavs' hand a bit yesterday. He said something along the lines that the Cavs had a great workout with several "Top 7" prospects. See above post about possibly getting the #7 from GSW....

^^Considering that Canada hasn't won a Stanley Cup in decades, I don't know that the NHL is any better. Don't get so down.... I actually think that James winning one will help ease your pain. At least then we can have some different topics of conversation on our sports talk radio.... that is, whenever we are not talking about the Browns.

I wonder if this disparity is common in other cities/metros? Regardless, I don't think that the Chief of Police and Chief of Fire are good comparables. After all, the Division of Fire and Division of Police are sub-departments of the Division of Public Safety, so if the comparison is to be made, Marty Flask's salary would be the one to look at. BTW, they just advertised the Fire Chief position with a top end starting salary of $165,000 (although whoever takes the job won't get that much I'm sure). What about the Director of the Port.... how much does he make?

I think they are hoping that Ariza can return to pre-Lakers form and that Okafur has enough left in the tank to groom Seraphin and give some help to Nene. Most importantly, Okafur (who iirc was a 4.0 student at UConn) adds a character presence to that locker room which they sorely needed. Since he won't be counted on to hold down the middle all by himself and his minutes will be down, his per/48 numbers might go up. I wouldn't mind having him on the Cavs (especially since I don't write the check to cover his bloated contract ;)) Lastly, both Ariza and Okafur come off the books in 2 years and maybe Washington is trying to position itself to make a splash in FA right before Wall's rookie deal expires.

I don't think we make that trade unless we took Drummond at 4 or until we knew he was going to be there at 7. I would say we could take Drummond at 4 and then see if Barnes slips to 7, but I don't think GSW does the trade if Barnes is there at 7. Regardless, I just have a huge issue with the notion of replacing an overachiever like Andy with an underachiever like Drummond. Things may have been shaken up a bit this afternoon with the NOLA-Wash trade (Okafur and Ariza for Lewis and #46). I have seen several tweets since then which assume that the move means Washington is not as enamored with MKG as originally thought and seems to indicate they would go with Beal. I have always had the feeling that MKG is the guy the Cavs want. High motor, high character guy who was a HS teammate of Kyrie. Plus, he is only 18 years old and already has that "it" factor on the court. I imagine the Cavs will jump at the chance to draft him, so this might be great news for the franchise.

Miami is being more aggressive. The more aggressive team tends to get the calls. So, yes, the calls are slanting their way.... but I would put most of the blame for that on OKC.

JeT - unless you go back in time and put light rail (which you couldn't afford) or a subway (which you REALLY couldn't afford) down Euclid, you are not going to get anywhere with this crowd.

Underreporting crime is certainly not unheard of, but I am not sure you understand the point. You can kill someone with your car and it be ruled a homicide even thought it doesn't rise to the level of murder. I can kill someone in self-defense and it would be a homicide, but not a murder. Unsolved homicides might not be ruled murders. It might boil down to how the coroner characterizes the homicide in his/her report.

Its not glass, its polished metal panels. They appears that way because of the way the sun reflects off it, in conjunction with the geometry of the building. I think its pretty cool in person, as it changes character as you move around the building. As as part of the tour I was on last week, it was mentioned that the waviness of the panels (in the building industry its called "oil canning") was a purposeful design decision by Farshid Moussavi. The panels are the same texture / finish around the whole building. The waviness or oil canning and changing reflections depending on your view and time of day were a purposeful design intention, not an accident. The panels look like and are doing what they were designed to do. Thanks for the clarification. If that is correct, then the sun really creates a stark contrast around the building. It had to have been close to 9:00pm when I rode by and stopped to take a look.... and even at that time as the sun was setting, the contrast between the segment of the facade i was referencing and the segments on either side of it really jumped out at you. Weird

I noticed yesterday that the "wavy" black glass is not uniform for the whole building. It appears that each side of the... ummmm..... cube/gem (?) might have a different texture/appearance. Viewing it from Euclid, the wavy glass is only on the part of the facade facing Ford

I'm not so sure. Andy's trade value ebbs and flows. If we want to get the highest value for him, now is not the time after he just ended the last two seasons on IR. I also hesitate to go into next season with TT and the complete antithesis of Andy (i.e., Drummond) being the nucleus of our front court.

Because labor unions have a great deal of influence over transit agencies boards of trustees who hire/fire management. Transit unions would rather lose transit services and jobs than lose battles over union wages. That's oversimplifying the issue. It takes two to tango. What the casual observer often doesn't understand is that management too would often rather lose services and jobs so they position themselves at the bargaining table in a way so that they can point their finger at the union when those services and jobs are lost. That's just a general comment, not any specific accusation against RTA.

They haven't been consistent, that's for sure. One game, the refs call the ticky-tack stuff.... and then the next, like last night, they let the teams play more physical. Even though Miami seems to be running away with this, the series has been very entertaining and a lot of good basketball is being played. The Thunder are just showing their inexperience and promise at the same time.

A consensus among the various mock drafts seems to be forming around Charlotte going with Thomas Robinson at #2. Makes sense for them considering how young MKG (youngest player in the draft) and Beal are and their desperate need for leadership and help on the inside. That's the perfect scenario for us because out of the consensus top 6 in this draft, Robinson is probably the one who is the "square peg in a round hole" for our team given that we drafted TT at #4 last year. Also, it would ensure that either Beal or MKG are available for us. Right now, if you believe the rumors, Washington is most likely to take MKG and we will end up with Beal. Although, Drummond and Barnes are most likely not crossed off our board for consideration. The interesting tid-bit is that the Cavs are apparently working hard to get back into the lottery a little later on. GSW at 7, NOLA at 10, and Portland at 11 are all possibly being dangled. Supposedly GSW wants Andy and our #24, but the Cavs aren't biting.... yet (personally, I would not do that deal). NOLA would want us to take the bad contracts of Trevor Ariza and Emeke Okafor to give up their #10. I don't think anything would happen on this front until the draft plays out. Say, for instance, Beal and MKG go 2 and 3..... I could then see the Cavs swinging for the fences on Drummond at 4 and taking the best wing available at whatever spot they trade for.