August 24, 200717 yr wow, get your pens out! (damn he was harsh and way off base for cleveland). Sorry I found this online comment to be particularily hilarious I recently visited all three stadiums on a midwest baseball road trip. Jacobs Field in Cleveland overlooks a parking lot of the Key Arena and Detroit is a beautiful stadium in a horrible town where seagulls land in left field. And in Cincinnati you get a beautiful of Covington, KY across the Ohio river which is doing a wonderful job of redevelopment with a Liebskind apartment building. This is while the stadium sits next to open lots near the football stadium and the Underground Railroad Museum That is to say that the best/worst things you could come up with were: 1) a misnamed arena's parking lot 2) seagulls 3) liebskind?
August 24, 200717 yr Yeah I already sent him an email (I think I'm turning into MTS). Righted the ship, et cetera. And told him to come here and to never listen to Brett & Feagler again :)
August 24, 200717 yr What in blue hell?? Jacobs Field in Cleveland overlooks a parking lot of the Key Arena Rrrrright. (credit KJP inhttp://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=13134.0)
August 24, 200717 yr Figures if the author wanted to find someone to trash Cleveland, all he had to do was go to the Plain Dealer..... I am writing a letter to both papers
August 24, 200717 yr I don't even know what to say to these people. I want to spit on the floor right now.
August 24, 200717 yr Stuff like this doesn't get me mad anymore. Everyweek there's a new article bashing Cleveland, its like what else is new. The only part that made me mad is that people that read this won;t get the whole story and this article will be Cleveland to them.
August 24, 200717 yr ....No sports stadium can solve social ills. But the idea behind public investment in ballparks is that they can serve as anchors for retail, entertainment, office and residential development that will in turn boost the city's tax base, enliven its streets and thereby lift all, or at least many, boats. In Cleveland, it doesn't seem to have worked..... Yeah, no major construction projects going on downtown right now...great investigative reporting.
August 24, 200717 yr Here's what I posted on their little blog thing. I feel a bit better after posting it: Getting a perception of Cleveland from suburban blowhards like Dick Feagler and Connie Schultz from the Plain Dealer is a bad move by whoever this guy is that wrote this article. Feagler is a 70 year old former Cleveland resident who last lived in the city 50 years ago and complains that he can't get free and convenient parking in the middle of the city for his Buick Regal, and Schultz is a soccer mom that tries to describe what ails the inner city black population from the comfort of her plastic clad exurb nightmare. These two have absolutely no credibility with any city dweller in Cleveland and are completely out of touch with the realities and progress our gritty urban landscape has made in recent years. FYI, there's more than $2,000,000,000 under construction or on the immediate drawing board in the city. As for the guy who said there is absolutely nothing around Jacob's Field, dude, walk towards the skyline not the freeway ramps. There's sojmething like 50 bars/clubs/restaurants in 1/2 square mile. Oh yeah, Raw Fisher? Very clever.
August 24, 200717 yr Stuff like this doesn't get me mad anymore. Everyweek there's a new article bashing Cleveland, its like what else is new. The only part that made me mad is that people that read this won;t get the whole story and this article will be Cleveland to them. The article itself doesn't make me mad. To be honest, the spillover effects of Jacobs Field have been slower and less pronounced than was articulated when the Gateway tax was put into place; downtown development is occurring, but I don't know how much ECP or any of the major development projects happening right now have been catalyzed by the presence of Jacobs Field (with perhaps the exception of E. 4th Street). That being said, Jacobs Field certainly has been a good addition to the city and has opened up some development opportunities in the Gateway District, even if they've been less pronounced that was anticipated. What does upset me, however, is that the negative nancying that the PD reporters do in their op/ed pieces are impacting the press we receive outside the region. Enough is enough. I'm past the letter writing stage. I think (and I'm dead serious here) that we should stage a rally in front of the PD and one in front of Ideastream to challenge Dick Feagler to go on a tour of Cleveland with a group of us. It's time that we demand more from our local news media. News is one thing ... they have a responsibility to report on negative trends and incidents in the city. But if reporters are afforded a platform from which to offer editorial opinions about the status of the city, then I think they have a civic obligation to at least be informed of what is occurring in the community, good and bad, not what they catch in the yellow journalism headlines of the organizations they represent. Who's with me? This could also be an opportunity to generate a brochure about all the good things that are happening in Cleveland that we could distribute to passers-by and generate some buzz around those items. Two birds, one stone. I'm just getting fed up with this, and it really might motivate me to leave Cleveland unless I have a positive outlet to address these negative perceptions.
August 24, 200717 yr The article itself doesn't make me mad. To be honest, the spillover effects of Jacobs Field have been slower and less pronounced than was articulated when the Gateway tax was put into place; downtown development is occurring, but I don't know how much ECP or any of the major development projects happening right now have been catalyzed by the presence of Jacobs Field (with perhaps the exception of E. 4th Street). To be fair, I think the projections were really unrealistic, especially given our economy, which, although recovering from the freefall of the 70s and 80s, is still weak. You're right, though, that Gateway has been a good addition to downtown. That area is so much better today than it was in the 80s.
August 24, 200717 yr There really does. I hope this really happens because it's about time some people took a stand. Fantastic idea .. I only wish I could be there.
August 24, 200717 yr I'll be there and report on it for Sun Newspapers. Any help that you need or want, just PM me. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 24, 200717 yr Okay guys, I hate to start this conversation and then bail, but I'm heading to Seattle, Portland and Vancouver until the 4th. I'm happy to put in some substantial work on organizing this (brochures, signage, etc.), and maybe we could aim to do something mid-September. I'll follow the thread when I get back; feel free to PM me as well.
August 25, 200717 yr Hahaha .. hilarious. "Look at our competitor .. they're AWFUL! Booo!" I don't understand the basis for this posting. Please explain it to me. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 25, 200717 yr Hahaha .. hilarious. "Look at our competitor .. they're AWFUL! Booo!" I don't understand the basis for this posting. Please explain it to me. I meant that you, as a reporter from the Sun News, could post an article lambasting the PD, which I consider the closest competitor that Sun News has. It was funny in my head. Apparently, not so funny out of my head.
August 25, 200717 yr Actually, I would consider Scene and Free Times to be PD competitors. The lines between the PD and Sun are steadily blurring as we have the same owner (Newhouse) and an increasing amount of cooperation via Cleveland.com (sometimes it seems the cooperation is one-way, with Sun employees doing more of the work). And, there is a new package deal where someone can subscribe to their local Sun paper and get the Sunday PD as well. I would prefer that we remain competitors, however. Anyway, back on topic......... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 25, 200717 yr Not sure if it belongs in this thread, but there will be a show about Cleveland on Monday at 10:00 PM on the Travel Channel. It is called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
August 25, 200717 yr Not sure if it belongs in this thread, but there will be a show about Cleveland on Monday at 10:00 PM on the Travel Channel. It is called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Smithkp, thanks for the post, but there is already a thread for this. Check it out. :-) http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=11790.0
August 25, 200717 yr Not sure if it belongs in this thread, but there will be a show about Cleveland on Monday at 10:00 PM on the Travel Channel. It is called Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Smithkp, thanks for the post, but there is already a thread for this. Check it out. :-) http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=11790.0 My bad, I did a search and nothing came up (must not have searched all forums).
August 27, 200717 yr Huge Banners Will Promote 'Cleveland +' POSTED: 6:36 am EDT August 27, 2007 UPDATED: 10:51 am EDT August 27, 2007 CLEVELAND -- Huge banners and bumper stickers about "Cleveland +" will start popping up around Cleveland. It's a new campaign aimed a putting Cleveland and all of northeast Ohio in the national spotlight, NewsChannel5 reported... http://www.newsnet5.com/news/13980811/detail.html
August 27, 200717 yr This sort of thing seems kind of pathetic to me. And wouldn't it make more sense to place these things outside of the city (suburbs, other metro areas)? I mean if you live in the city proper, you probably already support the city and what it stands for.
August 27, 200717 yr This sort of thing seems kind of pathetic to me. And wouldn't it make more sense to place these things outside of the city (suburbs, other metro areas)? I mean if you live in the city proper, you probably already support the city and what it stands for. that is so incorrect. There are thousands of people (current residents, potential residents, business sector and tourist) that will see those signs and perhaps visit the website. As stated here before there is no "in city" Public Relations strategy. Remember this is about promoting Cleveland+ to all of northeast Ohio in addition to target markets in the US. In Cleveland as witnessed by many here, there are plenty of people who claim, "the city is dead" or "nothing is going on", this could be a step to correct that. Sounds like this is a psuedo "street team" marketing ploy.
August 27, 200717 yr cuyahoga county has hung some pretty small and imo not very appealing banners on the rotunda building that say something about "protecting our heritage" or something similar. i guess it's a move in the right direction, but the "fake" signs that they hung during the spiderman filming look better than these small banners.
August 27, 200717 yr I mean putting up billboards in the suburbs, get them where they live. I don't know, have a photo of a tree lined tightly knit Tremont/Ohio City street on a billboard off the horribly car oriented I-271. It just seems to me that having signs in your own city proper saying "Believe in Cleveland" seems real weak. It feels too cheerleader'ish. The city should at least appear confident in itself.
August 27, 200717 yr I mean putting up billboards in the suburbs, get them where they live. I don't know, have a photo of a tree lined tightly knit Tremont/Ohio City street on a billboard off the horribly car oriented I-271. It just seems to me that having signs in your own city proper saying "Believe in Cleveland" seems real weak. It feels too cheerleader'ish. The city should at least appear confident in itself. I understand what you're saying about city residents, but I think that the downtown banners will have an effect on the suburbanites who work there and flee home on 90 as soon as the whistle blows at the end of the day. These are the people who routinely spout nonsense about how downtown is dead after 5 and how there's nothing to do in the city. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have banners in the suburbs, but why put one in Seven Hills, one in Parma, one in Rocky River, one in Bath Township, etc. when you can reach people who live all of these places by having a few banners downtown? I'm sure this is only part of a larger marketing effort within the region.
August 27, 200717 yr Stuff like this doesn't get me mad anymore. Everyweek there's a new article bashing Cleveland, its like what else is new. The only part that made me mad is that people that read this won;t get the whole story and this article will be Cleveland to them. The article itself doesn't make me mad. To be honest, the spillover effects of Jacobs Field have been slower and less pronounced than was articulated when the Gateway tax was put into place; downtown development is occurring, but I don't know how much ECP or any of the major development projects happening right now have been catalyzed by the presence of Jacobs Field (with perhaps the exception of E. 4th Street). That being said, Jacobs Field certainly has been a good addition to the city and has opened up some development opportunities in the Gateway District, even if they've been less pronounced that was anticipated. What does upset me, however, is that the negative nancying that the PD reporters do in their op/ed pieces are impacting the press we receive outside the region. Enough is enough. I'm past the letter writing stage. I think (and I'm dead serious here) that we should stage a rally in front of the PD and one in front of Ideastream to challenge Dick Feagler to go on a tour of Cleveland with a group of us. It's time that we demand more from our local news media. News is one thing ... they have a responsibility to report on negative trends and incidents in the city. But if reporters are afforded a platform from which to offer editorial opinions about the status of the city, then I think they have a civic obligation to at least be informed of what is occurring in the community, good and bad, not what they catch in the yellow journalism headlines of the organizations they represent. Who's with me? This could also be an opportunity to generate a brochure about all the good things that are happening in Cleveland that we could distribute to passers-by and generate some buzz around those items. Two birds, one stone. I'm just getting fed up with this, and it really might motivate me to leave Cleveland unless I have a positive outlet to address these negative perceptions. I'm definitely in- time to stand against those who thrive on making individuals feel negatively about their city.
August 28, 200717 yr I mean putting up billboards in the suburbs, get them where they live. I don't know, have a photo of a tree lined tightly knit Tremont/Ohio City street on a billboard off the horribly car oriented I-271. It just seems to me that having signs in your own city proper saying "Believe in Cleveland" seems real weak. It feels too cheerleader'ish. The city should at least appear confident in itself. I like that idea. A guerrilla marketing campaign is needed, using photos and a simple message that addresses some of the basic misconceptions. Here's a couple of examples... MISCONCEPTION: There are no jobs in Cleveland. TRUTH: There are 10,000 unfilled jobs in technology, health care and other sectors. MISCONCEPTION: Downtown Cleveland is dead. TRUTH: Downtown Cleveland population growth rate since 1998 is 228%, making it the fastest growing downtown in the Midwest. It now trails only Chicago and Minneapolis among big cities in the Midwest in total downtown population. The health of its office market has improved greatly since the recession of the early 2000s. Combine these with a simple graphic that conveys multiple "messages" and post them throughout suburbia on telephone poles, bus shelters, blanks walls at stores and more. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 28, 200717 yr Somebody create the graphics and I will post them on my blog, (and maybe BFD) anytime.
August 28, 200717 yr pd: Cleveland Plus ad drive sets out giant banners First giant banners unfurled downtown Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Sarah Hollander Plain Dealer Reporter A sign crew unfurled the first two of 10 large banners promoting the Cleveland Plus regional advertising campaign on the Higbee Building downtown Monday. Six others -- up to 25-by-50 feet -- will be hung around Cleveland this week. The $60,000 effort is part of a multimillion-dollar campaign launched earlier this year to sell Northeast Ohio to out-of-towners as well as locals... The banners include one of the campaign's slogans -- "We've got it all. Together." -- along with the campaign Web site -- www.clevelandplus.com..... image: http://www.cleveland.com/images/hp/332/clevelandplussign.jpg To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: [email protected], 216-999-4816 read more: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/118829003217580.xml&coll=2
September 4, 200717 yr I'm back from the Pacific Northwest, and it only took me about 3 hours to remember my deep disdain for Feagler's editorials :-) What is our said message/goal for the rally/protest? My goals for the rally would be to: - Raise attention about the role that negative editorials play on morale of residents of Cleveland. - Challenge the local media to increase the balance of its editorial content to acknowledge the many positive things going on in our community ... both individual developments that are not always in the public eye (Gordon Square, Tyler Village, Gospel Press, etc.), as well as general positive indicators (rankings by The Economist, more positive CMSD indicators, etc.). - Directly communicate some of these positives to pedestrians in high-visibility locations (PD headquarters and IdeaStream), perhaps through a brochure takeaway. My idea would be to do something highly visible, like challenge Dick Feagler to join us for a tour of "our" Cleveland (the one that doesn't resemble the apocalyptic cesspool on the verge of implosion that he tends to write about). I'd like it to be tongue-in-cheek but certainly not negative or adversarial ... setting a tone of enthusiasm and optimism about the direction Cleveland is going. I would think sometime in September would be the ideal time for something like this. And as I said, I'd be happy to take a crack at designing some posters, brochures, etc. if other people are interested in making this a reality. I don't think we should do it unless we can have a strong street presence for a couple of hours (say 10 people) ... otherwise, it might just look pathetic.
September 4, 200717 yr Although I am not good (actually, horrible) at creating materials to hand out/hold, I will be there with voice & opinion. 100% of the way.
September 10, 200717 yr Here's a sample idea for an letter-sized poster to put up on telephone poles, etc. as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign..... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 10, 200717 yr If you want a larger version, let me know. But I suspect UOers will have some ideas on how to spiff it up and make it nicer. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 10, 200717 yr Yeah, your right. I should wait for one of those crazy UOers and their spiffyness first.
September 10, 200717 yr That's real good KJP. To supplement that, do you think the site should have a stickied thread that newcomers could go to and get the facts in a centralized place with links to regular threads about specific topics?
September 10, 200717 yr He strikes again :x Cleveland weather requires roofs, domes, inside spaces: Dick Feagler Sunday, September 09, 2007 Dick Feagler Plain Dealer Columnist Acouple of weeks ago, when it was raining here like God's weather forecast to Noah, we took a trip to Milwaukee to visit old friends of ours. It rained there, too, the whole time we were there. But we saw a Brewers game inside their ballpark. The park has a retractable dome. Because in Milwaukee, they understand their weather. For those of us who live around the Great Lakes, weather should have ceased to be a mystery years ago. Baseball fans will remember that we got snowed out on Opening Day and had to go begging to enlightened Milwaukee to play a summer game beneath their enlightened winter roof... To reach Dick Feagler [email protected], 216-999-5757 http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/dick_feagler/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1189241078161160.xml&coll=2 Previous columns online: cleveland.com/columns And my letter (I hope he starts to expect them :-)) Mr. Feagler, I have written to you before (as I’m sure many have – but hopefully you’ll start remembering me) and once again I am frustrated and struck silent by your viewpoint in your most recent column….that complained about the weather of all things. You just dug up the oldest and most pathetic argument about Cleveland (hell – any city) out of the ground. If you don’t like the weather here, please move because many of us love our four seasons. Go to Florida (too sticky for me) or Washington DC (awful hot) or Chicago (oh wait, it’s cold there, and no one complains about being outside) – complaining about the weather just continues to perpetuate the image that you are out of touch and mired in your own unhappiness – you cannot see the sunshine that we have here in Cleveland. Having a cold climate does not determine the future of a city (internationally or domestically). And some of us are proponents of the Euclid Corridor Project – would you propose abandoning our most famous street to leave to ruin while suburbanites drive around in their cars to their malls that could be replicated in any suburb in the world? The ECTP is much more than ‘catching a bus downtown for a nightcap’ – it is one of the most populated transit lines in the region (if not the most populated). It connects the two largest employments centers in the state of Ohio. It provides rides to work and play for many who choose to live, work, and play in the city by getting out of their cars and on their feet. In addition, this project was funded primarily by the federal and state government to give us an advanced and efficient transit system while at the same time replacing century old infrastructure, putting in new fixtures and landscaping, and providing opportunity for actual growth along the corridor. Your same old negative attitude is really starting to wear thin on some of us who want to make a positive difference in this town. I've really reached a tipping point - last call for people to join me in a protest/information handing out session....if no one responds I'll get off my horse and just keep writing letters, but I really would like a public display. If anyone is interested, when would be best? My thoughts would be in the morning during the work week outside the PD & maybe in Public Square? I don't know - never tried organizing something like this before......
September 10, 200717 yr I'm definitely still in ... I'm going to mock up a poster tomorrow if I get a chance and will start a new thread when I do (don't want to fill up the Marketing Cleveland thread with Feagler bile). As far as location goes, Public Square would be a good location ... I had been thinking of the Plain Dealer or Ideastream (or both). As for times, I'd say 7:00 - 8:30, 11:00 - 2:00 and 4:30 - 6:00 would probably be the best hours for getting substantial foot traffic. We should definitely get something going by the end of September!
September 10, 200717 yr Getting right in their face in front of the PD would be a great spot. Someone at the paper may even come out onto the city streets to see what is going on. They can't really ignore us there.
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