Building standards aren't the city's concern? I don't understand that at all. I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand. Do Block Clubs get the opportunity to deny permits for inappropriate structures or demolitions? If they do, that's awesome. Is anyone at city hall being paid to handle this? I know we have departments and boards of that nature. Why are they being paid for this if the primary responsibility lies in private citizens who have other jobs? How are Block Clubs able to affect areas of the city that are primarily commercial/institutional and have few residents? What I'm getting at is I don't believe Block Clubs can be as effective for Midtown as they may be for Tremont or other mostly residential areas. I also think this issue is squarely within any city hall's core of responsiblity.

 

I don't have a lot of time right now to go into detail, but I will agree that it is the primary responsibility of City Hall to do code enforcement, etc.  The reality is that code enforcement is done on a complaint-driven basis.  Also, when new projects are proposed, while City Boards review the projects, they also take into consideration what is said by neighbors, esp. block clubs.  The aforementioned Aldi's meets the basic code, but if you want something to exceed code, you need for the neighbors to demand it.

 

Even primarily commercial areas have residents nearby.  Again, the aforementioned Aldi's is within a couple of blocks of several residential blocks.  What the residents there have to say about the project can sway City Boards, but they need to be organized to know what development is about to take place and to do something about it.  In areas with good block clubs, it is an expectation on the part of developers to present their projects to the block club, knowing that they will need their approval in order to get their project passed by the City.  Developers who want to build something in an area that has a block club but who go to the City for approval without presenting to the block club are oftentimes informed by the boards that they need to go to the clubs first.

^Oh, I didn't know that ;) 

 

Hasn't Midtown already taken steps in the right direction with the new zoning overlay for the district. I believe many of the structures/businesses being complained about were built/approved prior to this being put in place.

 

http://www.midtowncleveland.org/data/pdf/MTC%20master%20plan-zoning%20summaries.pdf

 

Unfortunately "Midtown" ends at E79th and most of what we're complaining about starts right there.  Also unfortunately the Midtown org which produced that overlay, which I like a lot, doesn't seem all that committed to the plan.  Something about promoting a mountain bike park which (regardless of one's opinion on the idea itself) clearly violated their own zoning overlay in grand fashion.  There is an existing thread about the Midtown org in which I asked about this.  The answer I got was an intern had come up with the bike park and they said what the hey, sounds nice... as if their zoning rules weren't really that serious.  I think the zoning overlay is a step but we still have a ways to go.  Zoning plans can't just step aside for every little project someone likes.  How would you feel, if you were a developer, and they were trying to enforce that code on you but not on themselves and their insiders? 

 

The reality is that code enforcement is done on a complaint-driven basis.  The aforementioned Aldi's meets the basic code, but if you want something to exceed code, you need for the neighbors to demand it.

 

First off, I'm really glad block clubs have the kind of influence you describe.  I didn't mean that they would have no effect in Midtown, just that for various reasons perhaps not as much effect as they do in Tremont at this time.  I'm very much pro-block-club.

 

The points you make about existing code and the reality of enforcement is really what I'm getting at.  It's also reality that you can find crack easily on 55th street.  Reality comes in good and bad forms.  Changing the bad realities improves our city.  I'm aware of the general process and the deficiencies in our existing code.  My contention is that we need to change that process and we need to change the existing code-- I consider these to be first priority items.  These are improvements we can make to our city that wouldn't cost much at all, unlike most proposed improvements.

 

I'd like to add this about zoning codes being mis-prioritized: 

 

There is a Cleveland suburb, I won't say what one, where my roommate wrote the entire zoning code.  He was an administrative temp with the city and one day they asked him to come up with a zoning code.  He had zero knowledge of urban development or economics or architecture or anything like that.  He didn't do a ton of research.  He says he went through some stuff on google and cobbled something together with thoughts like "Trees and grass in front? That sounds nice. I'll throw that in."  He's not a UO type person, i.e. doesn't give a crap about these issues, and thought it was odd they would ask him to do something like that.  But he did and they adopted it.  It probably stands to this day.  Now this was a suburb, not Cleveland itself, but all I can say is wow.  People who run cities for a living need to start caring about zoning. 

I'm not sure if I'm a developer, mayor, benevolent dictator or whatever but here goes:

 

 

1. Bring back the Flats

2. Legalize gay marriage provided that the couple agrees to live in the city limits for no fewer than 1 year (credit Green Arrow for that idea)

3. Legalize all narcotics

4. Legalize prostitiution

5. Prohibit adults from having more children than they can afford.  Penalties will range from fines to prison time to sterlization

6. Regionalize the damn area and get read of some useless city governments

7. Develop 1 bedroom apartments all over the fine city

8. Have police/deputized volunteers/deputized militias walk the streets at night

9. Legalize gambling

10. Steal the Bluejackets from Columbus

11. Accelerate all rumored/semi-started development projects with financing

12. Expel all bad kids from public schools

13. Penalize all father who do not raise or at least contribute to their childrens' wellbeing

14. Knock out enough taxes to become desirable to companies

15. Bulldoze all crackhomes/complete disrepaired foreclosed homes

16. Do away with the silly sentence differences of attempted vs completed crimes.  In other words, if you TRY to rape someone, then the court should penalize you as though you succesfuly did so.

17. Begin negotiating with the CC/UH about revoking their nonprofit status.  Perhaps offer something they want i.e. more land.

18. Find that awesome CSU Dean and pay him to return.

 

 

...just some unedited ideas of the top of my head

 

 

I'm not sure if I'm a developer, mayor, benevolent dictator or whatever but here goes:

 

 

1. Bring back the Flats

2. Legalize gay marriage provided that the couple agrees to live in the city limits for no fewer than 1 year (credit Green Arrow for that idea)

3. Legalize all narcotics

4. Legalize prostitiution

5. Prohibit adults from having more children than they can afford.  Penalties will range from fines to prison time to sterlization

6. Regionalize the damn area and get read of some useless city governments

7. Develop 1 bedroom apartments all over the fine city

8. Have police/deputized volunteers/deputized militias walk the streets at night

9. Legalize gambling

10. Steal the Bluejackets from Columbus

11. Accelerate all rumored/semi-started development projects with financing

12. Expel all bad kids from public schools

13. Penalize all father who do not raise or at least contribute to their childrens' wellbeing

14. Knock out enough taxes to become desirable to companies

15. Bulldoze all crackhomes/complete disrepaired foreclosed homes

16. Do away with the silly sentence differences of attempted vs completed crimes.  In other words, if you TRY to rape someone, then the court should penalize you as though you succesfuly did so.

17. Begin negotiating with the CC/UH about revoking their nonprofit status.  Perhaps offer something they want i.e. more land.

18. Find that awesome CSU Dean and pay him to return.

 

 

...just some unedited ideas of the top of my head

 

 

 

[*]Bring back?  Where did they go?

[*]Thanks!

[*]NC

[*]NC

[*]I kind of like that

[*]Yes

[*]Yes

[*]No

[*]NC

[*]No!  We don't want an expansion team, we'll just take back the Dallas Star (formerly, the Cleveland Barons & Minnesota NorthStars)

[*]Yes.

[*]Where would they then go and what would they do?

[*]What about mothers?

[*]tricky

[*]What do you put in place?

[*]YES

[*]how about making them tear down there garages?

[*]NC

Ah, my response to your response:)

 

1. Ah, you know what I mean:)  By bringing back the flats, I mean bring back all the clubs and bars from the glory days.  Bring back Riverfest.  Bring back afterhours bars.  And have a large police/deputized volunteers presence.  Make the bars hire more security for indoors and outdoors.  Build relatively inexpensive apartments in the area so the Flats can be more than just bars and clubs. 

 

10. I want my hockey!

 

12. I forgot to finish my thought here, my bad. All "bad kids" who get kicked out of school will have several options.  First, they, depending on their ages, can voluteer to work in the army in noncombat areas, yet will be trained and treated like an privates in bootcamp.  Second, they can seek voluntary rehabilitation and reapply for school a year late.  Three, they can stay in prison indefinitely until they get their act together.

 

13. I presume that a lot of the 'bad kids' are more likely to have some contact with their moms than dads.  There might be stats that disprove this presumtion, of course.

 

14. Tricky?  How so?

 

17. The garages don't bother me since at leas the land is being used for something positive and necessary

If not done in some form already, gradually but decisively shift from property tax to more emphasis on a land value tax to generate incentives for landowners to swaths of vacant and underutilized land in the city.  Efforts countrywide to continue to artificially prop up the real estate market are woefully misguided.  Shifting to LVT could encourage a quicker correction of what is already an admittedly depressed market.  However if Cleveland (or the county) can encourage a correction to a realistic market value, and make owners of vacant land choke a little, I believe this town would quickly become the best bargain in the nation.  In a short time, with disincentives to just speculatively sitting on vacant land, you would see much more of the kind of mid-to-higher density construction in the city that the city desperately needs.

Six things that I think some of which could  be done in some form for less than $10,000,000.00 each: 

 

i)  complete the Emerald Necklace through Gates Mills with conservation easements (fantastic bicycle route);

 

ii)  bring the CVSR into Terminal Tower with stops at Steelyard Commons, Brandywine Ski Resort, and at an aerial tram to the Zoo;

 

iii)  bring the towpath trial up to Terminal Tower and on to Wiskey Island park;

 

iv)  put 10 refurbished Vesta windmills on the breakwall and sell the power through Muny light to a mini-mill or to RTA;

 

v)  subsidize an REI/LL Bean destination store on the back side of the Terminal Tower Avenue to sell hiking boots to all the new Towpath Trail users, canoes to paddlers on the rejuvinated Cuyahoga river, etc.; and

 

vi)  run the Trollyville  collection from Terminal Tower, under the Detroit-Superior bridge, up onto W. 25th as a street car past the W. Side Market, left under the Hope Memorial bridge and back into Terminal Tower (I think all of this right of way still exists- KJP will correct me if I am wrong!).

 

Presto, world class city.  Oh, employ as many poor people as possible doing the above.

Six things that I think some of which could  be done in some form for less than $10,000,000.00 each: 

i)  complete the Emerald Necklace through Gates Mills with conservation easements (fantastic bicycle route);

 

ii)  bring the CVSR into Terminal Tower with stops at Steelyard Commons, Brandywine Ski Resort, and at an aerial tram to the Zoo;

 

iii)  bring the towpath trial up to Terminal Tower and on to Wiskey Island park;

 

iv)  put 10 refurbished Vesta windmills on the breakwall and sell the power through Muny light to a mini-mill or to RTA;

 

v)  subsidize an REI/LL Bean destination store on the back side of the Terminal Tower Avenue to sell hiking boots to all the new Towpath Trail users, canoes to paddlers on the rejuvinated Cuyahoga river, etc.; and

 

vi)  run the Trollyville  collection from Terminal Tower, under the Detroit-Superior bridge, up onto W. 25th as a street car past the W. Side Market, left under the Hope Memorial bridge and back into Terminal Tower (I think all of this right of way still exists- KJP will correct me if I am wrong!).

 

Presto, world class city.  Oh, employ as many poor people as possible doing the above.

Please teach me your math.

If not done in some form already, gradually but decisively shift from property tax to more emphasis on a land value tax to generate incentives for landowners to swaths of vacant and underutilized land in the city. Efforts countrywide to continue to artificially prop up the real estate market are woefully misguided. Shifting to LVT could encourage a quicker correction of what is already an admittedly depressed market. However if Cleveland (or the county) can encourage a correction to a realistic market value, and make owners of vacant land choke a little, I believe this town would quickly become the best bargain in the nation. In a short time, with disincentives to just speculatively sitting on vacant land, you would see much more of the kind of mid-to-higher density construction in the city that the city desperately needs.

 

This is a great idea, and I'm not aware of it currently being done in any form here.  Those who have held these properties for so long, and allowed them to decay, should gain nothing from appreciation. They also should not face perverse incentives to wait on everyone else to make development happen. 

Hi everyone I'm a student at Case just so you know and here would be a quick list of mine:

 

1:  Make better magnet schools.  I went to Cincinnati public schools while my parents never would have sent me to Cleveland Public Schools.  This alone kept them in the city instead of moving out.  Cinci's Walnut Hills High school and middle school is one of the best in America.  City politics might not let this happen because it will be claimed that average students will be left behind while the smartest students are siphoned off but this needs to happen. 

 

2:  Fix the infrastructure.  Cleveland streets are atrocious.  I lived in the suburbs for a few years and my street was paved every couple of years even when it didn't need it.  I understand money stands in the way of making this happen but newly paved streets would give the city a much nicer appearance.  Suburbanites are scared of giant Cleveland Potholes swallowing their new BMW.

 

3:  Make Euclid into nice shopping.  This strip from Cleveland State to Public square could be Cleveland's version of Chicago's magnificent mile.  Having upscale shopping here could make this area livelier and nicer and promote more people into the city.  People could go shopping during the day and then go to east 4th at night for food and entertainment.

 

4:  Keep University Circle developments going.  The entire Uptown plan needs to happen along with the new RTA stops in Little Italy and Cedar.  Keep building more stuff like 27 Coltman.  Making UC nicer will lead to my next recommendation.

 

5:  Draw students in.  I want to see colossal growth of CSU to bring more young people into the city to spend money on entertainment and shopping and who's active lifestyles make the city more vibrant.  They have a good start by building more dorms and hopefully once students live by CSU for a year they will create a need for more off campus housing downtown.  Case also needs to improve its reputation a little bit.  They had something like a 20% increase in applications this year so that is a start. 

 

6:  Attract more immigrants.  A big push to attract immigrants could save the city.  It would not only give the rest of the world a better perception of Cleveland but it might open up the minds of some of the locals who have no idea what the outside world is like.  Immigrants could fill the foreclosed homes and bring some vibrancy to the city.  Also why not run ads in other cities aimed at immigrants or anybody really saying something like "so you pay $1500 a month for your crappy apartment, you could buy this house in Cleveland for $500 a month"  I don't know why we don't push how affordable this city is.  I am spoiled because I pay $600 for a 2 bedroom in Little Italy 5 minutes from school that anything else in other cities now seems unreasonable.  Even wealthy people could be drawn in by this.  "Instead of your crappy 2 bedroom house in New Jersey you can buy a beautiful mansion in Cleveland Heights"

mikel, I agree with you and the city is already trying to push for more students and immigrants. I especially like your idea of making Euclid into a nice shopping destination. We just need to wait until there are enough residents that would be willing to shop downtown.

We just need to wait until there are enough residents that would be willing to shop downtown.

 

Compare Larry Dolan to Dan Gilbert.  Dolan refuses to provide a watchable product then complains that fans don't show up to watch his non-competitive team.  He blames the fans ("in this smaaaall market") for his team being bad and waits for the market to embrace his bad team before he'll keep or sign any good players.  Meanwhile... Gilbert says if you build it, "it" being a good team... they will come.  And they did.  He knows there's plenty of market here for a good team.  But not for a bad one.  The time for Dolan's approach is over, we need to start approaching this like Dan Gilbert. 

 

I've never seen a study demonstrating that Cleveland's downtown market is any smaller than that of any comparable city which already offers major downtown retail.  In fact I think ours is already quite a bit larger.  Population is not the issue... population is already there.  And if this population didn't have money, it couldn't afford the increased rents in and around downtown, let alone condos.  But it already does.  Population, check.  Income, check.  What's missing is the retail, not the market. 

 

Just like the Indians, we will eventually need to pay for a decent power hitter... because this is what winning teams do.  That power hitter makes your whole lineup stronger, and you're just not going to score enough without him.  Moreover, we don't get to wait on our ballpark to sell out before acquiring this power hitter, a la Dolan.  That approach hasn't worked for any other team and it won't work here either. 

 

Also consider that Mark Shapiro openly bases his strategy on a book that was all the rage a few years ago, with a smart-sounding new theory about how the Oakland A's were using a clever modern cheap approach of not signing any good players.  Problem is, years have passed now and Oakland has continually stunk under the strategy from that book.  Clever new theories are just that, theories.  If you want to know what actually works... don't look to a book, look to a winning team.     

We just need to wait until there are enough residents that would be willing to shop downtown.

 

Compare Larry Dolan to Dan Gilbert. Dolan refuses to provide a watchable product then complains that fans don't show up to watch his non-competitive team. He blames the fans ("in this smaaaall market") for his team being bad and waits for the market to embrace his bad team before he'll keep or sign any good players. Meanwhile... Gilbert says if you build it, "it" being a good team... they will come. And they did. He knows there's plenty of market here for a good team. But not for a bad one. The time for Dolan's approach is over, we need to start approaching this like Dan Gilbert.

 

I've never seen a study demonstrating that Cleveland's downtown market is any smaller than that of any comparable city which already offers major downtown retail. In fact I think ours is already quite a bit larger. Population is not the issue... population is already there. And if this population didn't have money, it couldn't afford the increased rents in and around downtown, let alone condos. But it already does. Population, check. Income, check. What's missing is the retail, not the market.

 

Just like the Indians, we will eventually need to pay for a decent power hitter... because this is what winning teams do. That power hitter makes your whole lineup stronger, and you're just not going to score enough without him. Moreover, we don't get to wait on our ballpark to sell out before acquiring this power hitter, a la Dolan. That approach hasn't worked for any other team and it won't work here either.

 

Also consider that Mark Shapiro openly bases his strategy on a book that was all the rage a few years ago, with a smart-sounding new theory about how the Oakland A's were using a clever modern cheap approach of not signing any good players. Problem is, years have passed now and Oakland has continually stunk under the strategy from that book. Clever new theories are just that, theories. If you want to know what actually works... don't look to a book, look to a winning team.

 

Nice Comparison

However, I do not blame these kids at all.  They were born into horrific situations, and are surrounded by negative influences that rarely put a precedence on getting a good education.  With that being said, here is my suggestion:

 

Create a sort of super orphanage for these kids from the time they are born.  Allow the parent visitation rights whenver they want, but surround these kids with superman-esque role models.  These supermen will be responsible for teaching the kids the importance of education and being a good citizen, and will be a 24/7 support system.  The kids should stay there until they have finished high school. 

 

A very expensive, and probably illegal program.  But if you're going to really try and break this cycle of poverty, full blown intervention is necessary.  This is another of my problems with section 8.  Yes, these kids are not living in high poverty hoods anymore, but they are still being raised without a father and often incapable mother.  Plus, where clustering occurs, they are befriending kids from the same culture.

 

While probably illegal for the government to run families, support for nonprofits could fill in a similar, though less strong-handed role.

 

Caritas, a Catholic charity, does pretty much this in Mexico.  They run boarding houses with adult supervisors who are this 24/7 support system and basically the kids' parents during the week.  The kids have the option of going home to see the parents on the weekends.  In this system, the parenting, schooling, and mentoring are all separate, which I think provides for a certain amount of openness in the kids' lives.  When I visited Puebla, Mexico a few years back, I lived in such a place for a week and was quite impressed by how they ran things.

 

I recommend looking to see if any nonprofits or churches would be willing to run such establishments to help kids achieve more.  It's impossible to ask schoolteachers to do everything, which is why I think it's so important to have an at-home mentor role if the parents are incapable of doing so.

 

Of course, getting kids there has to be voluntary (if the parents truly believe that their kids will be better off in such a house) or court-ordered if it is proven that the parents really shouldn't be parents.  Background checks on the mentors would also be compulsory, and the mentors would have to ensure cohesion among the kids and prevent bullying.  I'd also like to make sure that kids are completely supported in such a home.  For instance, if a kid realized that s/he is gay, I wouldn't want the people running the home to have a stance of being gay as being wrong.  That could seriously mess a kid up if they are told something like that.

We just need to wait until there are enough residents that would be willing to shop downtown.

 

Compare Larry Dolan to Dan Gilbert.  Dolan refuses to provide a watchable product then complains that fans don't show up to watch his non-competitive team.  He blames the fans ("in this smaaaall market") for his team being bad and waits for the market to embrace his bad team before he'll keep or sign any good players.  Meanwhile... Gilbert says if you build it, "it" being a good team... they will come.  And they did.  He knows there's plenty of market here for a good team.  But not for a bad one.  The time for Dolan's approach is over, we need to start approaching this like Dan Gilbert. 

 

I've never seen a study demonstrating that Cleveland's downtown market is any smaller than that of any comparable city which already offers major downtown retail.  In fact I think ours is already quite a bit larger.  Population is not the issue... population is already there.  And if this population didn't have money, it couldn't afford the increased rents in and around downtown, let alone condos.  But it already does.  Population, check.  Income, check.  What's missing is the retail, not the market. 

 

Just like the Indians, we will eventually need to pay for a decent power hitter... because this is what winning teams do.  That power hitter makes your whole lineup stronger, and you're just not going to score enough without him.  Moreover, we don't get to wait on our ballpark to sell out before acquiring this power hitter, a la Dolan.  That approach hasn't worked for any other team and it won't work here either. 

 

Also consider that Mark Shapiro openly bases his strategy on a book that was all the rage a few years ago, with a smart-sounding new theory about how the Oakland A's were using a clever modern cheap approach of not signing any good players.  Problem is, years have passed now and Oakland has continually stunk under the strategy from that book.  Clever new theories are just that, theories.  If you want to know what actually works... don't look to a book, look to a winning team.     

 

Nice Comparison

 

Bad comparison. Dolan has a 40,000 seat stadium he has to fill 81 times a year. Gilbert has a 20,000 seat arena he has to fill 41 times a year. That's 3,240,000 seats vs 820,000 seats. Dolan has a MUCH bigger challenge.

 

And so does Cleveland. If it was a stadium, it would be big enough for 1 million seated fans though many seats have rotted away and been thrown out, but most of the supportive infrastructure is still there for 1 million people. Yet there's only 396,815 people filling that stadium. When you have a capacity for another 600,000 fans, the market price for tickets is cheap. That makes it tough to argue for expanding the stadium although some modernizations are often needed. And it makes it almost impossible to attract more vendors, except those who have a better or fresher product. When they come in, usually another goes out. But if we can find a way to give more people a reason to stay here or move in, such as check out a fresher vendor that replaced an old one, or maybe there's a new amenity in the stadium. That doesn't seem to bring in many new fans or keep the ones we have. Instead, we don't see to realize that the fans are the draw. We are also the players. And the more fans we have that are better educated, doing new and interesting activities, and interacting productively with each other, it will start to feed off itself. But it starts slowly and gains momentum over time. Then, who knows, maybe that old stadium will fill up again.

If not done in some form already, gradually but decisively shift from property tax to more emphasis on a land value tax to generate incentives for landowners to swaths of vacant and underutilized land in the city.  Efforts countrywide to continue to artificially prop up the real estate market are woefully misguided.  Shifting to LVT could encourage a quicker correction of what is already an admittedly depressed market.  However if Cleveland (or the county) can encourage a correction to a realistic market value, and make owners of vacant land choke a little, I believe this town would quickly become the best bargain in the nation.  In a short time, with disincentives to just speculatively sitting on vacant land, you would see much more of the kind of mid-to-higher density construction in the city that the city desperately needs.

 

How do we get this to happen?  Circulate a petition?  Write city council?  Write the mayor?  Run for elected office?  I'd like to get a land-value tax passed ASAP to replace those parking lots with honest-to-goodness buildings that will concentrate activity.

 

I hope that the completion of the Flats East Bank will give incentives to develop those lots when there's going to be lots of people coming in, though I can see the opposite scenario as possible as well.  So many people coming into downtown would also drive up the price of parking, creating another disincentive to develop those lots.

Bad comparison. Dolan has a 40,000 seat stadium he has to fill 81 times a year. Gilbert has a 20,000 seat arena he has to fill 41 times a year. That's 3,240,000 seats vs 820,000 seats. Dolan has a MUCH bigger challenge.

 

Not a bad comparison.  Those 3,240,000 seats per year are a lot cheaper than the Cavs' 820,000.  In 2008, the teams managed gate receipts of a remarkably similar $53 million for the 66-16 Cavs, who basically filled sold every seat every night, vs. the 81-81 Indians' gate of $52 million, which they achieved with about 66% of the park filled over the course of the season.  The question is not how many seats you can fill but how much entertainment dollar can you convince the local population to fork over.  And in that regard, the .500 Indians were just $1 million shy of the NBA championship contending Cleveland Cavaliers.  And interestingly enough, payroll for both teams was between $94 and $95 million.  Dolan chose to shed payroll and consequently he shed attendance figures as well over the next 2 seasons.  Gilbert's team lost its best player and became the worst in the league, yet still manages to pull in 15,000 people who pay $945k per game. At that rate he'll make $38-39 million in gate with a team that was the worst in the league last year.  Dolan's lousy 2010 team played in front of a less than half-filled stadium that probably brought him in $33 million in gate.  Dolan is simply hoping that by sheer chance, one of his cheapo teams will catch fire one season and draw a crowd.  They did early last season and revenue from that increased $12 million because of it.  Gilbert, on the other hand, isn't heard talking about payroll.  He worked like hell in CBA negotiations for a more level paying field for markets like this, but you would never imagine that if it didn't go his way, he'd settle into a pattern of having a payroll in the bottom third of the league and hoping for magic.  Neither the Indians nor the city are likely to go anywhere by tightening up and hoping for a miracle. 

 

We are also the players. And the more fans we have that are better educated, doing new and interesting activities, and interacting productively with each other, it will start to feed off itself. But it starts slowly and gains momentum over time. Then, who knows, maybe that old stadium will fill up again.

 

Cleveland has produced its fair share of Jim Thomes, Albert Belles, and LeBron Jamesesessess.  The teams have rarely been able to convince these "star players" that it's worth it to stay here.  Likewise we need to do everything we can to make sure those educated people who are doing new and interesting things and interacting productively with each other, don't go elsewhere because they can make more money somewhere else (Belle/Thome) or because Cleveland isn't cool enough (James). 

 

We need jobs.  And anyone doing something that will generate good paying, permanent jobs in Cleveland needs to be treated like like the mini savior that he or she is.  And if there aren't enough people wanting to do that, the leaders of the city and county need to ask themselves and the business community, WHY?

Valarie J. McCall, aide to Cleveland mayor, now goes by 'Dr. Valarie J. McCall' after honorary degree

 

Valarie J. McCall, chief of government affairs for the City of Cleveland, has a master's degree in public administration from the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

 

She does not have a PhD., but lately she's been signing her emails "Dr. Valarie J. McCall."

 

The impressive new title comes courtesy of an honorary degree bestowed by Cleveland State University at its spring commencement. Such honorary degrees are regularly conferred upon politicians, civic leaders and the like.

 

It's a nice honor, but not many who receive it change their title as a result of it.

 

And people who actually go through the hard work and expense of earning a PhD often frown upon the honorary who's using the same title they struggled to earn. After all, an honorary degree would correctly be listed under honors and awards on a resume, not under education.

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2012/06/valarie_j_mccall_aide_to_cleve_1.html

 

 

and Hunter S. Thompson called himself a doctor of journalism