3 Dog Pat

^what does Dan Gilbert think? Anywho, so the best chef in Chicago is actually in Cleveland. Or another way to look at it, no Chicago chef is as good as Michael Symon!!!

:drunk: Let's debate later. Party time :mrgreen:

Make no small plans....

So, we will have a renovated Mall, most likely a high speed train station, and the port will develop the land from the tracks to the lake, from the river to the airport. WOW!

I just feel bad for those poor people Forest City hired to post comments on cleveland.bomb, they are going to have to go back to thier shamwow telemarketing jobs.

now that I can catch my breath, I am glad the county and the Mayor were able to get this deal done, it is a win-win!

^I don't think the commissioners had any more money to pay the city due to the agreement with MMPI, the Perk Park agreement is a quite intelligent compromise. Whew, maybe I can get some work done now

City, county officials :fight: to announce convention center deal today Posted by kturner May 04, 2009 11:51AM •Fine, beaten my GP, but I am still going to keep my emoticons

The problem is, IIRC, MMPI did not budget the cost of the CC into their cost estimates. That made sense at the time, since it is a money losing operation, it was thought the city would like to get rid of it's expenses while still reaping its benefits. So, if Jackson is asking too much, it may make the whole mall site too expensive, then we move to UC. Then the PD has scandelous headlines saying "Hagan to move CC out of downtown!"

:Conspiracy theory alert: Is Jackson trying to start a bidding war; taking the county's best offer to FCE? Have them match it, have MMPI drop out, then,of course, the foundation of the mall site will develop a crack, and the CC goes to Tower City.

^knock on wood, dude!

From ideastream http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/news/26027/ Last Friday, word was out to area media that a deal may have reached on the site chosen for a new convention center and medical mart, and that an announcement could be forthcoming. It didn't happen, but at least one Cuyahoga County Commissioner thinks the deal is, for the most part, settled. ideastream®'s Bill Rice reports. Heading into the weekend, the Plain Dealer reported that Commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan had issued seemingly conflicting statements on a deal for the downtown mall site - Jones saying that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson had agreed to a 20 million dollar price tag for the mall site; Hagan saying that no such figure had been settled on. Then Saturday’s paper quoted Mayor Frank Jackson as saying he thought the commissioners were on track for a final agreement Monday. And on Sunday, Commissioner Jones was equally confident that the terms had been all but spelled out in writing. The mayor was aware of the terms… For weeks the mayor has insisted he would drive a hard bargain for the property, and last week rejected an offer by the county of 17.5 million dollars. Jones said he expects a formal announcement of an agreement sometime this week.

Plain Dealer reader rep (this time with a link) http://www.cleveland.com/news-videos/index.ssf/2009/05/reader_rep_ted_diadiun_takes_y_3.html will answer questions at 11

any news, rumors....anything? This is from the PD As med mart takes shape, Positively Cleveland has to stay flexible by The editors Monday May 04, 2009, 4:33 AM Whatever happens with plans to construct a medical mart and convention center in downtown Cleveland, it's clear that someone will still have to market the city and the region as a destination for meetings and tourists. Right now, that task falls to Positively Cleveland, the city's convention and visitors bureau with a jazzed-up name. Businesses engaged in hospitality contribute some of the agency's money, but most of its budget comes from a hotel tax levied by Cuyahoga County. The bureau now spends about $5.6 million a year -- $2 million less than Columbus, and barely half what Pittsburgh and Indianapolis spend to pitch potential visitors. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

First news out of the new barley house, I hope it is a one time thing CLEVELAND — A fight in a downtown bar early Thursday morning ended in tragedy when a 22-year-old Mentor man died at MetroHealth Medical Center. Hospital officials said Michael Corrado was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. The fight broke out about 2 a.m. at the Barley House bar West 6th Street. The bar's security team broke up the fight and ordered all the people outside, where several of them started to argue again. A 27-year-old Cleveland woman who had been in the bar feared the fighting would start again outside and got between two groups of men, according to the police report. The woman and several witnesses said Corrado hit her and that her brother came to her defense, according to the report. More at http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/michael_corrado_of_mentor_dies.html

maybe they are not automated, simply just cut and paste. I recieved this e-mail from Susan Goldberg, a response to my response. Thank God for this tread, I am going to do some data mining this weekend. I don't recall them ever saying it was the only site, but at a time it defintely was the lead site. That was about the time FCE would only sell the air rights. SUSAN GOLDBERG to me show details 3:48 PM (1 hour ago) Reply Essentially all of our coverage has been framed around the assumptions of the commissioners — that the Mall was the site. Our job is to ask questions about that, especially in light of their refusal to weigh more than one location. I went back to look at our stories about this from 2007. Did you know that the commissioners and MMPI all said the only place to build it was behind Tower City? Pretty odd, then, that there would be a total turnaround without explanation. Also, it would be hard to ignore someone of the stature of Dan Gilbert/Paul Dolan, making a detailed presentation about why they think the Mall is a poorer location. Yes, there is some self interest there — as the story pointed out. If there is a prominent business person who wants to tell us in detail why the Mall is much better, we'd be happy to write about it. But at this point, the location is all but a done deal, it would seem to me. s. - Show quoted text - Sign up for FREE breaking news updates at cleveland.com/updates

how far south are they looking? Do they include the tracks?

Does anyone know if City Council has any say in this negotiation?

I just called Mayor Jackson's office, it took about 30 seconds. I said I was calling to urge the mayor to accept the medical mart deal for the convention center. His secretarty took my name and number. Give it a try 216.664.3990

^I think Hillary called it the "kitchen sink" strategy when she was running against Obama. Throw everything at your opponant. Here is my letter to the editor. I will also reach out to all of the columnists, as well as our two Senators, the Governor and yes, the President. The Medical Mart is a transformative opportunity for Cleveland, and the Plain Dealer is trying to kill the project. I grew up in Euclid, and earned my engineering degree at Ohio State. My career has taken me away from Ohio, but I have always wanted to return, there simply has not been the opportunity. The medical device manufacturers that would likely set up shop near the MM would be the opportunity for me to grow in my career and return to the community I love. Everything was going along great, until MMPI and the County Commissioners selected the Mall site. Whether it was an editor insulting Tim Hagan on a radio show, articles slamming a secret process, or silly arguments such the Medical Mart could hurt the Cleveland film industry, all of the Plain Dealer’s energy lately has been used against the project. The most egregious example was the front page articles presenting Dan Gilbert as a simple concerned business man advocating for the Tower City site. The Mall site, he said, was too far removed from Cleveland attractions. That article contained two maps, one of downtown Cleveland and Detroi, trying to show what Mr. Gilbert was advocating. The problem was that Mr. Gilbert stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars if the convention center is used as a lobby for his proposed casino at Tower City. The maps offered in the article were nearly three times out of scale. The truth is, if you honestly presented a map of downtown, the Mall is in the center of the attractions of North Coast harbor, Gateway and Public Square. This is not journalism, it is advocacy. The Plain Dealer is a member of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. GCP met in private with Mayor Jackson and decided that Tower City was the ideal choice for the Convention Center. MMPI came in, looked at the options and decided differently. Now the Greater Cleveland Partnership wants to drive MMPI out of town, presumably so they can continue to make the decisions for Cleveland without question, to the benefit of its member companies. My question for the Plain Dealer is, what is more important, your seat at the table of the GCP, or a commitment to fair and responsible reporting? Patrick Staunton [email protected] New Orleans, LA

you know, I put up a negative comment on cleveland.com. Maybe this is the genesis of the cleveland condition, hearing a great plan and dreading the day when Forest City and their lackeys at the PD kill it once Forest City decides it did not get enough money out of it...

^again, tell me why they were signed to a lease after the annoucement that the mall was selected?

^^dont spit, write

^the medical mart will be replaced by a casino at Tower City

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead)