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Saturday, March 08, 2003
This would be a colossal upset
Not that I think it will happen tomorrow when Pitt plays Villanova. 'Nova will only be fielding a team with 7 players. They just suspended 12 players including Gary Buchanan and Ricky Wright, their leading scorers. Apparently they've been making long distance phone cards on the account of an athletic department employee. I mean a lot of calls.
The university said the players will be suspended for three to eight games, depending on the dollar value of the phone calls. The suspensions will be staggered so the Wildcats will be able to field a team for upcoming games.
Unauthorized phone calls constitute an extra benefit that is prohibited for student-athletes under NCAA rules. For charges of $100 or less, punishment guidelines call only for the player to make restitution. For larger sums, the guidelines mandate suspensions.
Pitt has no excuse not to roll these guys.
Friday, March 07, 2003
Information Still Not Forthcoming
I shouldn't be surprised. And really, I'm not, but if Chris Ronayne thinks I'm going to let it slide that no information on the proposed convention center sites was posted or e-mailed to me, at the next forum meeting on Tuesday, he's nuts. All Ronayne, the CVB, Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association have shown in the so-called "public input" phase of choosing a site is mere lip service to the notion. A week ago, the GCGA was claiming in a press release that the preliminary analysis had been delivered to Mayor Campbell. To date, that report hasn't been made public, and the Director of the City Planning Commission is now saying his office hasn't received all the information.
Interesting...
The Cleveland City Planning Commission Site is down this morning. Are they putting up the report finally? Do they need to take down their entire site just to do that?
Hmm. Looks like the City of Cleveland site is down too.
UPDATE: I just received a response from Chris Ronayne, the Director of the City Planning Commission, from an e-mail I sent yesterday asking about the information. He says:
What I referred to was the PDF files of the 5 Convention Center site proposals. Not all information has been received and assembled yet. We will post it for you as soon as possible. Additionally, I've asked one of my staff members to contact Cleveland Tomorrow and retrieve for you an electronic version of their powerpoint that we can email to you and post on our website. Thanks for your interest.
Well, I appreciate the response, but am a little disturbed that the City Planning Commission still has not received all the information.
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Ohio Senate Joint Resolutions
The wife got me a copy of SJR 7 (making Ohio Supreme Court Justices selected by the Governor rather than directly elected), that I mentioned earlier, but it is in a raw PDF file, so I have to clean it up a bit before posting. In the meantime, here's SJR 2 to ratify the 14th Amendment. If it's necessary, because there's some confusion.
The Ohio General Assembly ratified the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a joint resolution adopted on January 11, 1867, but by a further joint resolution adopted on January 15, 1868, voted to rescind its ratification of the Amendment before the Amendment became effective in July 1868.
The State of Ohio is considered by many authorities to have ratified the amendment, but other authorities assert that Ohio's rescission may have been valid. However, the validity of the 14th Amendment is indisputable, regardless of the validity of Ohio's rescission, because Congress approved it by a two-thirds majority on June 13, 1866, and every State in the Union at the time has subsequently supported it, thereby exceeding the necessary three-quarters majority.
Proud to be living in Ohio.
I Do Not Have Anything To Add
Just go over to DenBeste's site for this post on what it would take for the Palestinians to get their own state. There's nothing I disagree with in the post.
This Does Not Look Good
Without trying to be too cute, the Air Force Academy sexual assault and rape scandal has been flying under the radar for a while now. This whole Iraq and terror thing, may keep a lot of the attention deflected for a while, but if the allegations are borne out that will and should change. As it stands, there have been at least 54 sexual assaults and rapes of female cadets that were either improperly addressed or covered up in the last 15 years.
The question is, how big will it get? If it is isolated to just the Air Force Academy, then it is at least limited to just one branch screwing up. The big fear is that West Point and Annapolis have the same problems. If so, it is likely to cause some major overhauls to the US Military Academies -- if not reconfiguring them to be unrecognizable from their past and present form.
Still No Report
Tuesday night, at the Convention Center Community Forum, I specifically asked for the preliminary report for the new convention center. Chris Ronayne, the Director of the City Planning Commission assured me that the report would be on the Cleveland City Planning Commission Site soon. As of today, still no report. Really, it isn't that hard is it to load a PDF file onto the server and put a link to allow it to be downloaded.
Nothing on the Greater Cleveland Growth Association Site, either.
I also asked about the so-called study from Cooper Price-Waterhouse referenced by Nolan of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but got no response, so I'm not surprised that there is nothing on that site.
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Other Convention Centers
Cleveland Scene hasn't said much about the proposed Cleveland Convention Center, yet. So far there has merely been a tongue-in-cheek piece (and a weak effort, at that) recommending subsidizing the arts instead. There is also a quick note on the St. Louis Convention Center experience (last item at the bottom). Hopefully they will start doing some serious analysis of this (hey, their getting paid and I'm just goofing). In the meantime, here's a good piece from last year on convention center logic (thanks for the link, Dave).
Pissed Off Alumnus
The St. Bonaventure basketball team is getting raked over the coals by some because the players had voted to not play their remaining two games. This after the school had announced that it would forfeit six of its conference wins for playing with an ineligible player, costing the team a trip to the Atlantic 10 tourney, and probably a bid to the NCAA tourney. The school did this to try and stave off more severe punishment from the NCAA for the violations.
I feel for the players. They are being screwed by the school for violations committed by the head coach and the school's president. Of course, I'm just a guy with a blog, whose alma mater is in the top 10, and is gearing up for the big dance. It's more fun to read what a national writer who is an alum of St. Bonaventure has to say.
From the St. Bonaventure president, Robert Wickenheiser, to the basketball coach, Jan van Breda Kolff, these scoundrels are still trying to cover themselves for committing academic fraud, still selling these kids on the idea that St. Bonaventure was wronged -- beyond the forfeitures of games -- when it lost a bid to the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Always, the kids watch the grown ups. And here, they see everyone running scared, passing blame and refusing to own up to the darkest hour in university history. This is the disgrace. This is the indignity. For goodness sakes, the president of the university usurped his compliance director and admissions department to get a junior college transfer, Jamil Terrell, into school without the mandatory Associates Degree for Division I eligibility, but rather a certificate in welding.
Welding certificate.
Wickenheiser has tried to dismiss its pitiful ploy as an misinterpretation of the rules, "a well-intentioned" mistake, when the truth of the matter was that it's a deliberate and defiant backdoor move to get his basketball coach a shot-blocker and rebounder. This was about winning basketball games. This is academic fraud reaching to the highest office of a university, about the darkest day St. Bonaventure has ever seen made possible with his complicity.
As a matter of disclosure, I am a St. Bonaventure graduate, Class of 1991. It isn't easy watching your alma mater show up on SportsCenter between the interview with Jim Harrick's nose growing and Fresno State's Fun House. Yet, St. Bonaventure deserves to be a national embarrassment today, if for no other reason than this is what it takes to cleanse the campus of these cancers.
It just gets better.
UPDATE: Apparently other alumni would like to see a change in the Bonnies' president, AD and head coach.
Looking Dumber
Really, is there anyone outside of Bill O'Reilly, the Justice Department, and the law enforcement divisions seeking to use RICO to sieze the assets of those busted; who thought "Operation Pipe Dreams" was a good idea or good use of resources?
Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter encompassed raids on drug paraphernalia manufacturers, distributors, and their homes. At least 60 people have been arrested for supplying pipes, bongs, and roach clips. They face up to three years in prison and/or $250,000 fines. "This illegal billion-dollar industry will no longer be ignored by law enforcement," Ashcroft roared on February 24.
And his muscle matched his volume. On the very day that New York state officials announced that they would dispatch 113 vans to detect and combat chemical and biological weapons, Washington arranged a massive attack on this harrowing menace.
"Including federal, state and local officials, our estimate is about 1,200 were involved, just on that day," Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Will Glaspy says by phone. Among them, "easily hundreds" of U.S. agents were deployed "about 103 U.S. Marshals alone," Justice spokesman Drew Wade adds. "It was just exhaustive." The Feds responsible include prosecutors in eleven U.S. attorneys' offices from southern California to western Pennsylvania. Rather than guard America's docks and porous borders from the next Mohamed Atta, Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel joined the anti-pipe posse.
This federal overreach featured an unhealthy dose of rhetorical overkill. "People selling drug paraphernalia," said acting DEA chief John Brown, "are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide." Yes, and wineglass makers cause drunk-driving deaths.
Ghost of Gateway
That is what hangs over the head of a new Cleveland Convention Center. Everyone can still rave about Jacobs Field (one-half of Gateway), but Gund Arena is soulless, and the everyone is still waiting for the economic boom around Gateway. Then there is the quasi-public Gateway Economic Development Corporation, that owns and operates Gateway. GEDC has been a money loser, and gave away the cow with incredibly dumb lease arrangements. Now they are struggling to avoid bankruptcy (again):
The group that owns Gund Arena and Jacobs Field wants to change its leases with Cleveland's sports teams to escape the constant threat of bankruptcy.
...
Gateway, created in 1990 to build and operate the sports facilities, receives money from ticket sales and naming rights at the stadiums. Its duties consist mostly of paying for repairs, security and maintenance of the plaza outside the stadiums. The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County appoint members to the board.
Gateway now has less than $900,000 on hand. It spends about $3 million a year on property taxes, maintenance and repairs. Gateway also spends about $2.5 million a year to pay off a construction bond.
The lease with the Cavs forces Gateway to cover all "capital repairs" at Gund, which one board member joked at a meeting this week includes everything except buying pencils.
Gateway attorney Dennis Wilcox, who was involved in the original lease negotiations, wants to get the team to redefine what "capital repairs" mean. Gateway now must cover such items as new washers and dryers, repairs to ice-resurfacing machines and the reupholstering of chairs.
The Cavs pay for the repairs and then subtract them from rent payments. Gateway has always ended up owing the team, and the bill now stands at $8.3 million.
While the Jacobs Field lease isn't so bad, it isn't good. The only thing GEDC can claim as a negotiating tool is that if it goes bankrupt, the ownership of the stadiums transfers to Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. If I recall my bankruptcy law correctly, this would make the leases voidable and up for renegotiation.
So That's Why
The evening drive time radio kept saying that State Route 8 down in Akron was blocked by police, but no one knew why. Turns out a guy was threatening to jump off a bridge, rather than be pulled over for an altered temporary tag.
Not On Board for the Convention Center
Bad news for the people who want a new convention center in Cleveland. Dick Feagler isn't buying.
The mayor is plugging two initiatives. She wants to build a new convention center and she wants more people to move back to the city and swell its population. The convention center idea, paid for by us, will enrich the pockets of the people who build it. But it will not make our chilly city a warm place to convene.
The other idea, bringing the county's diaspora back inside the city limits, is a more laudable notion, though harder to accomplish.
If people came back, stores would come back. Downtown would be a necessity again, not a pale shadow of a strip mall. The city would be alive again. You could find a drugstore in it. Or a place to buy a bra or a pair of BVDs. And if that happened, if the city came back to life, then there might be a reason for lively people from other cities to hold a convention here.
What bait can the mayor use to lure Greater Clevelanders back home? That's what we ought to be discussing. Not convention centers. If our city ain't a great place to live in, it ain't a great place to visit.
Feagler is and always has been the Cleveland version of Mike Royko, except without the wit, style, intelligence, charm, and competence. Still, he is a popular read and if he doesn't buy into a new convention center, the backers have a big problem.
Convention Center, Public Meeting I
So, I actually attended the first meeting. It was billed as a "report on convention center facilities and siting requirements." I'll be honest, I went to the meeting with low expectations, just hoping to get a copy of the Preliminary Analysis. I came away with those low expectations met, and no copy of the report.
There were probably 75 people at the meeting, over half knew each other. You were asked to sign in and in return you receive the information pack. The info was:
1) A basic map of downtown with the 5 proposed sites shown in relation to everything else.
2) A flyer on the forums (meetings) that can be seen here. (By the way, the big numbers outside of the library say 525, not 325.)
3) An 11x17 paper laying out a simple comparison of the 5 sites with 10 topics. Most importantly was the "Cost Estimates." The problem was, each site simply said, "See Attached Schedule & Explanatory Notes." That wasn't being given to anyone.
I had to talk to three people before I was given the schedule (they wanted to wait until the end of the meeting to distribute that part).
The estimates include either building a new hotel or expanding a nearby one. Essentially the two cheapest sites (Erieview/Galleria and Warehouse District - around $387 million) both had notes stating that even the generous analysis found the estimations to be extremely low. The highest cost would be to build a new CCC on the lakefront for around $658 million.
The meeting started around 6:15, with some introductions and opening comments from Chris Ronayne, the Director of the City Planning Commission.
The first to speak was Mayor Jane Campbell. Mayor Campbell, started out congratulating herself on forcing the business groups to do all the work before the City and County had start acting. She does have a point, it was a good political strategy, that allows her to not come out in support or opposition of a new Cleveland Convention Center (CCC). She continues that trend throughout the rather empty speech. She never actually endorsed a new CCC, but merely lays out the outline of what must happen before it even gets to her making a decision.
The next speaker was David Nolan, President of the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland. Guess where he stood on the issue? A lot of cheerleading and energy about how Cleveland has made great strides, but...
The present CCC was killing Cleveland's convention business. His example, the 2003 Iron & Steel Convention will be in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh after its renovations. Nolan made it seem like it was stolen from Cleveland, but the 2002 one was held in Nashville, Tenn. Nolan also asserted that at least 10 major conventions wanted to come to Cleveland, but the present CCC was no good for them.
At times, Nolan seemed all over the place. He talked of how the window to build the new convention center was now. Then in the next breath conceded that convention centers aren't the end all, be all to economic growth.
After that warning, as if he can't help himself, Nolan then announces that there will, most assuredly be "revenue enhancement" from a new CCC. He claims that a new CCC will be able to have year-round business (how? who comes to anywhere in the midwest for a convention between November and April?). He says that they have a study from Cooper Price-Waterhouse originally from 2001, but recently updated that says a new CCC would provide:
-- 5000 - 6500 new jobs created
-- additional revenue of $279-372 million (unknown whether he meant per year, for 30 years, tax money, who knows?)
-- 400,000 - 500,000 additional visitors per year (all via conventions?)
Do you know what makes all of that really scary? In the Q&A part someone asked whether they were being too enthusiastic in their projections and should there be more "modest expectations." Nolan answered that the estimates were conservative.
Next up, is Joe Roman, spokesman for the Greater Cleveland Growth Association. He has a little trouble opening the right file for a presentation. Hmmm. The projection screen via his laptop shows that the Preliminary Report file is a PDF. Seems like that should be a simple thing to add to a website.
For a spokesman, he is quite dull. He comes across as a big fan of big projects like the CCC. He just sees the upside and benefits of potential spin-offs. At one point he says "downtown needs another boost." That'll be the big seller. Sure, downtown had a bunch of boosts in the '80s and '90s. Galleria, BP building, Tower City refurbished with Public Square, the Rock Hall, Browns Stadium, and who could forget Gateway (Gund Arena and Jacobs Field); but it's been a whole 5 years since the last one. Time to go again.
Roman does talk a little about the funding. Conceding that an increase to the property or income tax is a loser. He mentions briefly a "bed tax and so forth" as possible. Never mind that Cleveland already has one of the highest bed tax in the country ( 14.5%) (the highest is 17% in Houston). Apparently the same is true for the parking and car rental taxes. During the Q&A that follows, someone asks about the high bed and parking taxes that would potentially hurt in attracting conventions. The response is that the high tax is offset by the relative affordability of the rooms in Cleveland. (I heard several involuntary snorts at that one.)
The Q&A was mostly useless. A lot of posturing, including Ward 11 City Council Member Michael D. Polensek, who mentioned the promotional materials for Gateway that promised 28,000 jobs. A definite implied threat to Mayor Campbell that his ward better see some big money for this to happen.
I did ask a question. I asked where was the information? We only got summaries. Where was a copy of the plan? Where was the study Nolan was talking about promising all this glory for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County? I got no response about the study, but Chris Ronayne promised that it would be up at the City Planning Commission site soon.
Next week, the backers of each site, will get a chance to present their case as to why their's would be the best choice.
UPDATE: Here is the PD report on the meeting.
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Public Input on What?
Another hard-hitting Plain Dealer editorial. This one extolling the virtues of the public hearings for the proposed new convention center in Cleveland. Lets see, the preliminary report was released on Friday, February 28, but where has it been made public? The Greater Cleveland Growth Association press release doesn't say how you can get a copy, there isn't one on their website, and the PD hasn't posted it. In the meantime, the public hearings begin tonight -- based solely on hearsay? It isn't even clear if the report will be made available at the hearings. There will be two more hearings within 8 days of the first one. Yeah, public input appears to be valued.
Monday, March 03, 2003
Convention Center Preliminary Site Evaluations
Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association released their preliminary analysis of 4 of the 5 proposals of the sites for the new Cleveland Convention Center. The 5th site, was only submitted in the last week, too late to be included in this analysis. Not that the information is easily available. The GCGA site only has a press release of the analysis, not the actual analysis. Cleveland Tomorrow doesn't even have a website.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer got a copy and gives it a cursory mention while listing the times for the public hearings (I'm assuming they used the real analysis and didn't report based on the press release, but...).
The three hearings will all take place from 6pm to 8pm within 8 days. The first is tomorrow downtown. The next one is downtown (March 11) at Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the final hearing (March 12) is out in Middleburg Heights. I am going to attend the first meeting, and hopefully the report will be available, along with information detailing the market studies used. I'd hate to see that they were using faulty data to advance this project. I also found this little article that asks some good questions about a new convention center.
I'm annoyed, but not surprised the preliminary evaluations aren't available on the Web either through the GCGA or the PD's Convention Center section
Things I Missed
As I said, I was away this past weekend. So I missed the pro-war demonstration and the anti-war demonstration in the Cleveland area this past weekend. Both took place on Sunday, but the number attending was starkly different.
Anti-war, around 500. Admittedly, this was in East Cleveland, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the county; but the number of protestors were about the same as previous Cleveland anti-war demonstrations held downtown and on the Westside.
Pro-war, roughly 8,000.
There were bloggers at the pro-war rally with pictures (via Instagod).
The anti-war group had some traditional quotes:
The rally, held in Christ the King Catholic Church on Noble Road, at times seemed like a religious event, and at others, a Democratic National Convention. Labor union officials reamed the president for ignoring domestic concerns.
"This war is a fraud," said Chris Farran, president of Local 546M of the Graphic Communications International Union. Farran said Osama bin Laden "must be jumping with joy" at the thought of an invasion and what it would do to further incite terrorists.
To which the easy response comes courtesy of Max Boot (again, via the Instagod)
Remember: Al Qaeda flourished in the '90s - precisely when America was doing its utmost to appease the Arab world by sponsoring the Oslo peace process and limiting its response to terrorism to pinprick strikes. This only convinced the Islamists that America was ripe for attack.
And when the United States finally took firm action, by invading Afghanistan, there was no rejoicing in the Arab street and no sign of increased recruiting for al Qaeda. The prospect of spending the rest of their lives in Guantanamo Bay may even dissuade some of the more faint-hearted Islamists from taking up arms.
Whatever its impact on enemy morale, the conquest of Afghanistan definitely denied the terrorists an important base of operations. The ouster of Saddam Hussein will achieve the same purpose.
Then, there was the glass is half full view of the protests compared to the pro-war support:
Realizing that other Americans were supporting Bush at a rally downtown, Greg Coleridge, spokesman for the Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition of Akron, said his coalition extends beyond the large numbers of blacks and labor participants seen at the anti-war rally in East Cleveland.
"The resistance today is greater than during the Vietnam War," he said.
I'll let that go as being just slightly hyperbolic. Oh, hell. It's just dumb.
WTF
@#$$#%@* Blogger. All day, I have had trouble getting anything posted.
Mental Health Break
It's been a brutal winter. Most of my time has been spent at home, taking care of the baby. I haven't been able to find any freelance research or writing legal work -- anyone who is hiring has no interest in telecommuters. So, I've been feeling a bit ragged and worn. I'm not wild about self-pity and whining about my plight. Only one thing to do.
Road trip!
Packed up the family and drove to Pittsburgh for the weekend to get together with friends.The wife wasn't wild about it. Not the part about seeing friends, but the road trip and dealing with Angie trying to sleep in a different place. She was tired, and would have been happier to rest at home. But she knew I desperately needed it, so she went along with it. It's one of many reasons why I love her, and know how lucky I am.
It's an amazing change, now. We're all in our early 30s. Getting together with friends now includes spouses and children. We have kids ranging from six months to 2+ years. Conversations occur without eye contact, because you find yourself keeping an eye on the kids.
Not that drinking wasn't involved at some point. My friend Howard and his family came up from the DC area, to see his in-laws. Saturday night, he and I headed out to the Squirrel Hill Cafe, aka, The Cage, for some drinking and conversation. The Cage is a great bar. It's very smokey, but the booze is priced well. The crowd ranges from art students and grad students, to guys in their 60s hunched over their drinks at the bar, with their heads turned towards whatever is on the TV. The jukebox is one of the best around. At the Cage, a pitcher of IC Light is $5; Guiness and Penn Pilsner Marzen are $7.50.
There are, of course, those reminders of getting old. Howard was picking tunes at the jukebox and a girl in her mid-twenties was waiting to put in some tunes. She saw him punch up some Ramones, and said, "Oh, I love them. I've got a lot of that old stuff!"
At the bar, we are joined during the course of the evening by other friends, Shawn and Pat joined us. It was just a great night. Conversation was lively. We drank way too much. The Rules of Drinking were engaged. We were still there arguing and talking when they shut down the jukebox and turned the lights on, sometime after 2 am. There is nothing better at times than a good boozy night.
Got back to the hotel, peeled off my clothes, hosed myself down in the shower to kill the smoke. Climbed into bed, got bed spins, and had to sit up for a while. Major hangover the next day. Not the best thing, when you have to check out by noon. I wouldn't change a thing.
We still got home in time to watch Pitt beat UConn for the first time in six years; though, the UConn coach Calhoun had to whine afterwards about the officiating, "Although he stopped well short of a Joe Paterno." Heh.
Today, I'm still feeling a little tired from not enough sleep Saturday night, but I just feel better.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Things the Wife and I Avoided
There are advantages to having a shotgun wedding versus planning one.
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