Eulogy
Mark Steyn delivers the last words on Strom Thurmond. Those words?
"
vaginal muscular dexterity."
Improving an Area
I'm not a big fan of
Cleveland Heights, as a place to live. I lived there while going to law school. They are fanatical about speed traps and parking tickets, have the highest permitted income tax in the area (six years and three different addresses later, I still get an income tax form from them), high property taxes (potentially going higher with with new school levies on the ballot), and it has stupid signs declaring that it is a "nuclear weapons free zone" posted at the city limits (giving you an idea of the political ideology of the people running the suburb).
Having said that, there are some great areas in Cleveland Heights -- the
Cedar-Lee area has some
nice bars and restaurants, and a
great art house theater; a
Cain Park with a small outside amphitheater; and
Coventry Village.
Coventry was only 2 or 3 blocks from my apartment. As a funky little shopping area of about 3 blocks, it's decent if a bit overrated. Still, they had a couple really good used CD stores, an excellent used bookstore, a toy store and a couple good restaurants. Well, Cleveland Heights needed to do some work to the roads and sidewalk, and
the businesses there actually added their own money to make additional improvements.
"About two years ago, we looked at Coventry Road and said it's getting pretty ratty," says Cleveland Heights capital projects director Carl Czaga. "The county engineer's office said they'd participate financially, picking up 30 percent of eligible costs -- curbs, sidewalk, roadway work within right of way. So then we went to the Ohio Public Works Commission, for Issue Two money. We were successful in getting them involved. They provided 20 percent of the costs as a grant and 20 percent as a zero-interest loan. Then the CVSID said this is our big chance to really do something dramatic here, re-image the street."
The merchants and owners on Coventry had formed the CVSID — the Coventry Village Special Improvement District — to provide a vehicle to assess owners for street-related security, maintenance and marketing, in 1996.
"We had heard the city was going to do the main road, curbs and the city part of the sidewalks," says Tom Fello, owner of Tommy's restaurant, one of the street's longest-term business owners and current president of CVSID. "We said let's just do the whole ball of wax. Let's take the opportunity to get all of the sidewalks fixed, do some new lighting, new trees, new landscaping, public art. We started last fall. We picked an architect and told him some of our wants and needs. Obviously some of them were pipe dreams but some of the things they were able to do."
Chipping in about $300,000, the CVSID paid for the portion of sidewalk not covered by the city, decorative light fixtures and an irrigation system and electrical service to the planters.
"They decided to take a little more of a hit on the construction side for a more complete project," says Czaga.
He says the total price tag for the project has come to $1,375,394.55.
[Disclosure: I worked for Tom Fello as a prep cook at
Tommy's through law school. I haven't spoken with him in a number of years, but I like the guy.]
The local businesses and property owners actually put in nearly a quarter of their own money to improve the area. No threats of moving. No blackmailing the city. A realistic and reasonable decision to put in additional funds to get more accomplished for their benefit. How refreshing.
This Time For Sure
Okay, so I still haven't posted anything new. I've been busy taking my mom and daughter out on activities. It has been a hot and humid week, and Angie has been learning about swimming pools. Half a mile from our house is Jakse Park, a free public pool. Most importantly, it has a six inch wading pool for small children and infants. Angie literally starts bouncing in the seat of her stroller as we get close. She hears the happy screeches of children and starts getting excited.
My mom returned home yesterday, via the train. We actually had to take her to Pittsburgh to go to Lancaster. Amtrak in Cleveland only offers a bus ride to Pittsburgh to catch the train. Sorry. No. Not going to happen. Instead I got up a little earlier, woke a sleeping baby to change her diaper and plop her into a car seat (where she promptly returned to sleep), and (after picking up a quad-shot of espresso) drove my mom to the train station in Pittsburgh.
Then Angie and I drove into Oakland to wander around
Pitt ("And at these bushes next to
Heinz Chapel, Angie, your daddy once threw up after a long night in C.J.'s."). Had a large Iced Americano. Met a friend for lunch, and headed back to Cleveland. Once again, Angie fell asleep almost as soon as she was secured in the seat.
We almost made it home, but it was too long a line at the toll booth exiting the Ohio Turnpike for I-480. She started crying and screaming, so I stopped in Twinsburg. Luckily there was a strip mall that had an Arabica coffeehouse (a large, local franchise). Gave her some food, changed the diaper, let her toddle around the empty place and I had a couple more shots of espresso. Note about the Twinsburg location -- there is a full bar with Guinness and Great Lakes on draft.
After all of that espresso, driving and looking after the daughter -- well, I was in one of those weird waking coma states. The mind wasn't really functioning, physically tired, but awake. There was, however, an
antidote available after Angie's bath in the evening.
Now I'm rested, and I think I'll be able to get some things posted.
Just Where Have You Been?
Well, I never actually left. It's been a bit hectic in the last week. We had been preparing the house for the influx of friends and family for this past weekend. That meant a lot of cleaning and reorganizing. All of it leading up to a glorious Saturday afternoon when we celebrated the 1st birthday of our daughter.
We held the party out at
Chagrin River Park, with only a minor error on my part in the directions. The weather actually cooperated and we had nice low humidity, low 70s. Angie smeared cake icing all over herself, I think I wiped some out of her ear last night. She managed to handle the throng of people, the attention, and the many cameras. My father in-law gave her a little singing Barney doll -- in clear violation of our Barney-free household. I'll get him for this.
Afterwards, it was back to the house for a cookout and adult beverages. Some friends were kind enough to import a case of
Yuengling Lager from Pennsylvania (it's
not available in Ohio). A fine time with, as is always expected, with shall I say, lively and loud discussions (never a surprise with my family).
My mom is staying with us for the rest of the week. She has been looking forward to this for months. I've been looking forward to having a little extra help with Angie and a chance to finally sit down and do some other things around the house (and of course just to have my mom around for a bit).
I now have plenty to catch up on the blog. The Big East-ACC smackdown is getting nastier. The fix has been made for the Cleveland Convention Center. And other stuff.
