A picture must really be worth a 1,000 words.  Hope they didn't try to hard with this one.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/newssun/2011/09/truck_drives_into_middleburg_h.html

 

Its a ranch house.  Its a win-win from an architectural stand point!  Just be happy no lives were lost.

 

It was funnier before it was updated.  Initially there was no story, just the picture and the caption. 

I imagine their will be much jubilation in the exurbs today:

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/connie_schultz_resigned_today.html

I imagine their will be much jubilation in the exurbs today:

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/connie_schultz_resigned_today.html

 

Wonder why? I mean the unofficial reason....

 

I suspect the right-wing position of the newspaper's editors is a factor.

People were calling for her resignation ever since the Tea Party incident the other week in Avon.  Well many have been calling for it before that, but...... 

I think things were just getting more and more sticky for her, especially as her husband starts the campaign business and the nature of the paper etc... 

Has the PD's Kevin O'Brien resigned or been let go too? He shows no new columns since last Thursday. Kev is a less intelligent, more extremist version of Brent Larkin, but I wouldn't mind seeing both haters be escorted to the PD's exits. It would at least keep the PD from tipping off the right-wing of the Earth.

I hope and think she will be back after the election, but with her Pulitzer, maybe she is on to bigger and better things

Given her stated intention of working on a book, and writing for Parade, etc., it sounds like this has been some time in the coming. Didn't she take a sabbatical during Brown's last campaign? She probably is ready to move on to other things, and the timing was fortuitous.

I imagine their will be much jubilation in the exurbs today:

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/connie_schultz_resigned_today.html

 

Why's that?  Isn't she an Avonite?

I'm not a huge fan of her, but 99.9% of her haters couldn't write half as well. Anyway, probably the right call.

I imagine their will be much jubilation in the exurbs today:

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/connie_schultz_resigned_today.html

 

Why's that?  Isn't she an Avonite?

 

Not sure where she lives.... I was more thinking of the political leanings of places like Strongsville and God's country (Geauga County)

Has the PD's Kevin O'Brien resigned or been let go too? He shows no new columns since last Thursday. Kev is a less intelligent, more extremist version of Brent Larkin, but I wouldn't mind seeing both haters be escorted to the PD's exits. It would at least keep the PD from tipping off the right-wing of the Earth.

 

I'm sure they'll replace Connie with another lefty lib to keep the balance and satisfy the likes of you

"Why's that?  Isn't she an Avonite?"

 

Yep, and garden variety cul-de-sac at that. Remember, she was the one who used her column as a bully pulpit against Downtown Cleveland Alliance's "Give Change Where it Counts" campaign to curtail aggressive panhandling. She had no qualms vilifying DCA and anyone who had an issue with aggressive panhandlers - an easy stance to take when you get to retreat to exurbia every evening.

 

I'm sure they'll replace Connie with another lefty lib to keep the balance and satisfy the likes of you

 

Thanks sweety. I'm glad you finally realized how important I am.

Thanks - I haven't gone on UrbanOhio since I switched to higher education.

 

The above is from an e-mail I received today from a PD reporter. Guess they think as highly of UO as UO readers think of them.

 

The biggest difference is that UrbanOhio's readership is growing.

Is it just me, or does that response not really make much sense?

 

The biggest difference is that UrbanOhio's readership is growing.

 

Gold star, Ken.

Is it just me, or does that response not really make much sense?

 

The biggest difference is that UrbanOhio's readership is growing.

 

Gold star, Ken.

 

Yeah. It reads like a SAT Verbal question for which they picked the 'sounds right, but isn't' answer choice.

 

There are a few good writers at the PD and I wish them well but very rarely do I read something in the Plain Dealer that makes me think, 'Wow, this is a well-informed person with a gift for writing.' I guess with the size of the paper and the change in audience demographic, there's going to be an inevitable loss of quality.

Thanks - I haven't gone on UrbanOhio since I switched to higher education.

 

The above is from an e-mail I received today from a PD reporter. Guess they think as highly of UO as UO readers think of them.

 

The biggest difference is that UrbanOhio's readership is growing.

 

Maybe the writer ment they had switched to reporting on Higher Education adn didn't see the need to come to urbanohio, since they may see it as a development heavy site. Just a guess.

I hadn't thought of that angle! The reason I didn't is because the writer was covering a development project and I wanted the writer to see some of the discussion here about it. But now that you mention it the development project is related to higher education. Thanks for helping my mind to work. Do I have to give my gold star back?

The PD had a field day today, piling on to the city it loves to hate....

 

Cleveland has chance to finally rewrite tired Comeback City story: Mark Naymik

Published: Thursday, November 03, 2011, 5:50 AM

  By Mark Naymik, The Plain Dealer

Northeast Ohio civic and business leaders on Tuesday began writing a new chapter in Cleveland's neverending Comeback City story.

Unfortunately, I think I know how this one ends.

 

Another article: Brookings report finds poverty-stricken neighborhoods jump dramatically in Cleveland area 5:01 AM

 

Another article: A.M. Business Links: Cleveland's joblessness; poverty across Ohio; companies not paying income taxes

 

 

KJP: OK, two days ago RTA revealed a very positive economic sign for the region, that sales tax revenues were up so much that RTA expects to end the year with a $30 million balance. This was reported only as a transportation issue, not as a leading economic indicator. Instead the PD's suburban and exurban-based reporters and editors focus on only the negative news.

I've pretty much stopped going to cleveland.com and haven't picked up a PD in years.  Just started to look into the Akron Beacon Journal and it seems to be a bit better, at least so far.

The News-Herald is pretty good, too.

The PD had a field day today, piling on to the city it loves to hate....

 

Cleveland has chance to finally rewrite tired Comeback City story: Mark Naymik

Published: Thursday, November 03, 2011, 5:50 AM

  By Mark Naymik, The Plain Dealer

Northeast Ohio civic and business leaders on Tuesday began writing a new chapter in Cleveland's neverending Comeback City story.

Unfortunately, I think I know how this one ends.

 

Another article: Brookings report finds poverty-stricken neighborhoods jump dramatically in Cleveland area 5:01 AM

 

Another article: A.M. Business Links: Cleveland's joblessness; poverty across Ohio; companies not paying income taxes

 

 

KJP: OK, two days ago RTA revealed a very positive economic sign for the region, that sales tax revenues were up so much that RTA expects to end the year with a $30 million balance. This was reported only as a transportation issue, not as a leading economic indicator. Instead the PD's suburban and exurban-based reporters and editors focus on only the negative news.

 

I know I am BITTER about the Columbia building, but it seems the only things that gets positive press in the PD is Dan Gilbert, Mayor Jackson and Joe Cimperman.  The last two being big proponents of whatever Dan Gilbert wants to do.

One more week to get my fill of The Decemberists and obscure Raspberries cuts.  :sad:

 

V 107.3 to return to snooze music format

 

BY Anastasia Pantsios

THU, DEC 8, 2011

 

In late 2009, Elyria-based WNVW 107.3 FM abandoned its rapidly fading “Wave” format — “smooth” jazz & soft R&B — in favor of something a little more contemporary and upbeat. It became V 107.3, which featured a “Triple A” format— a mix of contemporary and classic rock, with artists like Steely Dan and John Fogerty getting airtime alongside newer acts like the Black Keys, Snow Patrol, and Clevelander Kate Voegele.

 

But after two years in which the uneven, mismanaged and under-resourced V107.3 failed to catch fire, the station will return to the world of smooth contemporary sounds. Dave Koz, Yanni, and Lionel Richie fans can rejoice when they wake up from their naps. For most Northeast Ohioans, the station might as well be going off the air, as “smooth” anything has bled followers across the country. Only about two dozen stations nationally still feature this soporific format.

...have a look at:...

 

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/12/08/v-1073-to-return-to-snooze-music-format

 

I gather that it will be "smooth" sounds featuring vocals, not instrumentals.  That Lionel Ritchie song comes to mind.  The new V107.3 won't even be good for listening while trying to concentrate. 

Cleveland does not share my tastes at all. I thought this was the only decent station for actual music.

Booo. That's too bad. Good station. WJCU still provides a nice fallback for hearing Decemberists-esque music :)

That is disappointing. They had an eclectic mix, which is something that I guess isn't commercially palatable. 92.3 is gone, and now 107.3 is going. Where do I go to get something that isn't Skynard, Gaga or Shinedown?

 

This is a sign of how desperate I've become....I'm listening to 91.5, which is essentially the oldies station, before the oldies station started playing Classic Rock. I give up on contemporary music.

Not that it helps for the drivers here, but outside of WJCU, my contemporary music needs are being met by Grooveshark, Pandora, The Wild Honey Pie, Paste and streaming versions of radio stations (check out Indianapolis' WTTS for a station that has succeeded for years with almost the exact same format WNVW failed with).

I may have to just bite the bullet and get XM. It may be worth it just for the Boneyard. Problem is, I like listening to the radio. It makes me feel like I'm better connected to the city. XM, or my iPod, just make me feel insulated.

 

JCU is ok, but their signal is weak, and I lose it a lot. I'm really irritated by this. This region is big enough that we should be able to support one independent non-mainstream radio station.

That is just what I was thinking, 8Shades. Except, I would have said Last.fm over Pandora any day. And don't forget all of college radio.

Regardless, technology is making traditional radio obsolete.

The latest/greatest has got to be Spotify. I am amazed at the amount of music of all genres that can be found here.

(http://open.spotify.com/user/clevoplanner)

Wait...what is happening with 107.3?!  I only discovered it about four months ago, but since then it's been my default station with 92.3 changing formats.  If 107.3 changes I think my head might explode.

 

edit: I guess I should have scrolled up and read all of the posts.

Regardless, technology is making traditional radio obsolete.

 

I agree.  I very rarely listen to the radio anymore.  Most of the time I listen to one of the online services on my phone connected to my car's speakers through the AUX jack.

Wait...what is happening with 107.3?!  I only discovered it about four months ago, but since then it's been my default station with 92.3 changing formats.  If 107.3 changes I think my head might explode.

 

edit: I guess I should have scrolled up and read all of the posts.

 

Bad idea.  Now your head exploded.

...Problem is, I like listening to the radio. It makes me feel like I'm better connected to the city. XM, or my iPod, just make me feel insulated...

I agree.  Put the radio on in the garage, wash and wax the car while listening to local stories and weather during the breaks.  It's uplifting.  Even local commercials are entertaining.

Memo to Brent Larkin:  please identify the last positive column you wrote about Cleveland. If you cannot find one, then please resign your position at the Plain Dealer. It is clear that if you cannot find one kernel of positive news among nearly 400,000 people and 77 square miles, then you have an anti-city bias and therefore cannot engage in the pursuit of truth that is essential to the profession of journalism. Good night and get lost.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/12/the_rot_of_decomposing_housing.html

Larkin isn't exactly wrong on this one.  It is what it is.  The sooner we can remove all these houses and add apartment stock, the better off we'll be.  And I think it's worth considering whether one or two large sections of the east side should be cleared (streets & all) and converted into parks.  For all the individual and institutional causes of the housing crisis nationwide, a lot of Cleveland's problem stems from its overstock of obsolete duplexes.  There's no bringing those back.  Much of the city needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

No, he's not wrong. He's just four years too late. And when someone who never has a nice thing to say about Cleveland rehashes an old story that paints a hopeless image of the city, you have to question that person's motives.

I can't say that I've agreed with much that Larkin has said over the years, but this artice is dead on. Many neighboroods across the city- especially on the east side- have been completely wiped out by the ongoing crisis. Take a drive down some of the side streets along St Clair, Kinsman, Union, Superior, E. 93rd, E. 116th, E. 105th, Central, or Cedar for all the proof you need.

I have. I've driven down those streets 20 years ago, too, and they looked pretty much the same then (well before the foreclosure crisis) -- except in some areas where new housing has sprung up, especially in the Central neighborhood.

 

How do you cause change? Identifying and understanding problems is half the battle, but that's all I see from Larkin and too many of his colleagues. The other half is identifying and sharing solutions and best practices from here and other cities with similar experiences. No wonder too many Clevelanders have a "woe is us" attitude. We think we're alone and have no hope.

Much of the criticism we receive is deserved, and it's a lot easier to fix problems that are openly acknowledged.  I'm all about burying hatchets and moving forward.  I don't believe Larkin thought he had a scoop here.  The piece focuses on two councilmen who are pointing out that this free fall has continued unabated in the years since the crash.  It wasn't an event, it's an ongoing process.  Mr. Brancatelli suggests that city hall isn't as attentive to this as it perhaps could be.  I think he's right.  Much has been spent in the past few years that could have instead been focused on clearance or rehab.  This is the danger of not fully acknowledging the problem. 

Much of the criticism we receive is deserved, and it's a lot easier to fix problems that are openly acknowledged.  I'm all about burying hatchets and moving forward.  I don't believe Larkin thought he had a scoop here.  The piece focuses on two councilmen who are pointing out that this free fall has continued unabated in the years since the crash.  It wasn't an event, it's an ongoing process.  Mr. Brancatelli suggests that city hall isn't as attentive to this as it perhaps could be.  I think he's right.  Much has been spent in the past few years that could have instead been focused on clearance or rehab.  This is the danger of not fully acknowledging the problem.

 

You hit the nail on the head here. 

Hey, every city needs its own Ric Romero

Classic example of the difference between reporting the news and creating the news

I hear Brancatelli's frustration- but I think that Slavic Village received a lot of attention during the beginning of the crisis and is doing BETTER now than neighborhoods like St Clair/Superior and Mt Pleasant.  E. 78th St along St Clair has houses which you can see through because of holes in the walls and the roofs- as if they were hit by a cannonball (and I'm not joking). 

 

A direct result of these vacancies is an increase in break-ins (living next to a vacant house invites trouble right next door), squatters, prostitution, and drug sales.  I give credit to Ed Rybka (Director of Building and Housing), since Cleveland's torn down over 5,000 homes since the start of the crisis (6,000 by the beginning of next year)- that's more than any other city in the US.  And STILL, we're dealing with neighborhoods which are scarred from the greed of Wall Street. 

 

I work in Mt Pleasant directly with residents who want to change their quality of life in the neighborhood.  By working with Building and Housing, we've had over 20 homes in the neighborhood demolished this year.  Though that's to be celebrated, there's so much devastation in the neighborhood that it's not hard to see it will take YEARS to fix. 

^agreed.  Cleveland is handling the foreclosure crisis about as well as they can.  All you can do is try to help people who are behind on their payments to keep working with the banks and the homes that aren't worth saving need torn down.  Eventually the private sector will come back and these areas will be attractive for reinvestment but that may be a ways off. 

 

Detroit is tearing down homes but selling the vacant parcels at auction for quick cash.  Insanity.  They now have about a dozen land owners which own scattered sections of the city & literally hundreds of parcels.  Good luck ever reassembling that mess into something ready for development.

I definitely have no problem with Larkin's piece.  The novelty of the foreclosure crisis has worn off, so I appreciate ongoing reporting about the resulting avalanche of vacancy and abandonment.  Definitely one of the county's most pressing policy issues and one it probably can't afford to address without financial help from the feds.

I don't think anyone is disputing or trying to ignore the gist of Larkin's piece.  Ken's point, if I understood it correctly, was directed more towards Larkin's overall reporting.  Just as an example and perhaps a bad analogy, Larkin would write a story about a house and how it needs a paint job, the front steps are crumbling and the landscaping is all dead.... but leave out any mention of the marble fireplace, the slate roof, and the Calamander wood floors.  There seems to be absolutely no balance in his reporting which leads to a very reasonable inference of bias.  This thread, after all, is about local media... not any issues with local foreclosures.

60 Minutes is doing a foreclosure special on Cleveland right now

60 Minutes is doing a foreclosure special on Cleveland right now

 

Thanks for the heads up.  That was...depressing to say the least. 

I disagree. I thought it was a quality piece. The people in the story that represented Cleveland were classy and well spoken.

I disagree. I thought it was a quality piece. The people in the story that represented Cleveland were classy and well spoken.

 

Oh no, I wasn't at all disappointed with the depiction of the city.  I just think it's disheartening to see the magnitude of the situation broadcast on national television like that.