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Friday, July 25, 2003
Moneyball Q & A
Areally good 7 Questions for Michael Lewis (subs. req'd)
Who in baseball has been the most angry about the book?
A handful have said things on the record, with the rest essentially going underground. On the record, [Texas Rangers manager] Buck Showalter said bad things and then said he hadn't read the book. [Hall of Fame player and baseball broadcaster] Joe Morgan has accused Billy of writing the book three times. He doesn't know there is an author, so he doesn't seem to have read it. [Texas Rangers Assistant General Manager] Grady Fuson has said things. He has a beef because he doesn't look so good in the book. [Cleveland Indians General Manager] Mark Shapiro was upset, but he and Billy are friends so that's smoothed over.
Others who've said bad things about the book are a handful of incompetent sportswriters. These are guys who are buddies with scouts and never really had a new thought or ever called anyone to check a fact. They think they're in the club and they're outraged. By threatening the validity of scouts, you're threatening these guys who think they know everything about baseball and don't really want to learn anything.
On the other hand, you have [Anaheim Angels All-Star outfielder] Garret Anderson asking Billy for a signed copy and the A's players reading it. When has a baseball player read a book? That's a pre-literate society. There's hardly universal hostility toward the book in baseball. But it's interesting to see the fault lines.
Actually, scouts and the cozy relationship shared with sportswriters is logical for the hostility -- it threatens their jobs. Show that a scout doesn't know shit, and he's out of a job. Deprive a writer of his inside sources, his inside knowledge goes down, and so does his importance to the sportspage.
I think that's why there is so much hostility towards Questec in the sportspages. I'm not about to get into how well it works or not (and I will concede willingly that it should be in all ballparks), but a lot of the sportswriters hostility is to stay on the good side of their interview subjects -- the players -- and the hostility of all parties in baseball to change.
Ending observation from Michael Lewis is great
here will be other things I do along the way. I just came from spending a few days in beautiful Clinton, Iowa, where a Ralston Purina dog-food plant is upriver and downwind from the ballpark. Anybody who thinks major-league ballplayers are paid too much really should have to spend a few weeks with a minor-league team. What they go through to get to the majors is unbelievable. They play for 20 years for basically nothing before they get there. I figure they deserve a lot of money if they make it.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
What Is the Criteria
It's been a few months since a scare study on drinking has caught my eye. Here's a study on drinking and college. This one reports that "responsible/moderate drinking" ad campaigns don't work. Big shock.
What caught my eye in the article was this nugget.
The study, the first national look at so-called Social Norms Marketing--a program first used on a large-scale basis at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb--did not lead to less alcohol consumption in 37 schools surveyed. In fact it led to "significant increases'' in the number of students who reported downing 20 or more drinks in the past month. There was no similar increase at 61 schools surveyed that didn't use the program.
[Emphasis added.]
20 or more drinks in a month is outside the range of moderate consumption? In college? Assuming the student is only going out on Friday and Saturday night, it only takes 5 drinks over those two days each weekend to hit the magic number of 20. Still sounds like moderate drinking to me. I haven't looked at the actual study or what the categories were, but from the press release, they seem to consider this bad.
The study analyzed students’ exposure to social norms marketing programs and their drinking behavior before and after social norms programs were implemented. It compared drinking behaviors at 37 colleges that employed social norms programs for at least one year to 61 that did not use such programs. The comparison evaluated seven standard measures of drinking: drinking in the past year; drinking in the past month; heavy episodic or binge drinking; drinking 20 or more drinks in the past month; drinking 10 or more times in the past month; drunk at least three times in past month, and; usually consuming five or more drinks at a time.
Actually, the press release has got another fantastic paragraph.
Previous CAS studies have found that four in five college students drink alcohol and two in five engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking is commonly defined in public health research as the consumption of five or more drinks in a row at least once in the past two weeks for men, and four or more drinks in a row for women. Research has shown that this style of binge drinking is associated with lower grades, vandalism, and physical and sexual violence. Students who do not binge drink experience many “secondhand effects” from the binge drinking behavior of other students, including physical assault or unwanted sexual advances, vandalized property and interruptions of sleep or study.
"Secondhand effects?" There is secondhand binging? Just like secondhand smoke? It's always amazing and pathetic to watch the creep of terms from one "health crisis" move to another.
Round and Round
The story going around the blogosphere about how nearly 1/3 of Germans under the age of 30 believe the US Government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Almost one in three Germans below the age of 30 believes the U.S. government may have sponsored the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, according to a poll published on Wednesday.
And about 20 percent of Germans in all age groups hold this view, a survey of 1,000 people conducted for the weekly Die Zeit said.
It also said 68 percent of all Germans felt the media had not reported the full truth behind the attacks, in which some 3,000 people were killed when hijacked planes were crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
...
Die Zeit said widespread disbelief about the reasons given by the United States for going to war in Iraq and suspicion about media coverage of the conflict had fostered a climate in which conspiracy theories flourished.
"The news is controlled," 17-year old Kenny Donaubaur was quoted as saying. "You could see that in the Iraq war. It doesn't seem to me that you get the full truth."
[Emphasis added]
This is where I get confused. People are saying that "Bush lied" about the reasons -- based on the Niger uranium line in the SOTU, and that the media is being controlled. Then how did the media come to report so extensively on it? You can't have it both ways. Either the media is being controlled or it isn't. OF course, I suppose for conspiracy freaks, this is just proof about how powerful a conspiracy this is -- suggesting that the Niger uranium is really a red herring, so don't even believe it because, it's just a convenient misdirection. Otherwise the conspiracy breaks down.
Dammit, the truth is out there.
The Toucans are Free
Kellogg Company has failed in its attempt to control all use of the word and representations of "toucan."
Kellogg's had accused a mom-and-pop business with 12 employees in Mansfield[, OH] of fouling its federal trademark for "Toucan Sam," the big-beaked bird that has been on boxes of Froot Loops ever since the cereal went on the market 40 years ago today.
The tiny Ohio company, Toucan Golf Inc., was started in 1994 by Peter Boyko, who grew up in Parma and suspects he tried a few bowls of Froot Loops as a boy.
...
"There's a lot of companies that have birdie or eagle in their name that are golf-related. Everybody had the same idea I did, I guess," Boyko said. "Toucan had a play on words. It's like two people can play golf. So I chose toucan."
In his opinion dismissing Kellogg's lawsuit, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard F. Suhrheinrich noted that selling golf clubs is far removed from selling cereal.
Apples are inexorably linked to computers, camels to cigarettes, and dominos to sugar and "Mc" seems to be barred from everything but surnames, he said, "but here the parties' goods are completely unrelated."
And, Suhrheinrich said, Toucan Sam and Boyko's GolfBird do not look anything alike.
The decision can be found here (use the PDF version to compare images of Toucan Sam to the GolfBird). The article notes that Kellogg's tends to be zealous in protecting its trademarks. That's being tactful.
Well, It's About Effin' Time
Looks like the Big East is finally going to do what it has to do. Split in two.
Big East Conference Commissioner Michael Tranghese said yesterday that the conference presidents will decide within two months whether the conference will remain in its current form or split into a I-A football league and a basketball league.
...
Once the conference decides whether to split, it will plan to add at least two football members to replace the departed teams. A new NCAA rule mandates that any conference seeking Division I-A football status must have at least eight I-A members by 2005.
But Tranghese said the consensus among the presidents seems to be that the Big East football league will have nine members, which would indicate it is seeking three new members.
"A nine-team league works best because of scheduling considerations. With nine teams, you get four road and four home league games every year," he said. "But we have to have all of this done by September 2004 because that is when the BCS committee will begin its renegotiations. We have to know what we are by then so that [the BCS] can evaluate us."
Currently, the Big East has only six football members scheduled to compete in the 2005 season. They are Pitt, West Virginia, Boston College, Syracuse, Rutgers and Connecticut. Temple will compete for the next two seasons but was voted out of the league effective in 2004.
Two additions are almost certain to be Louisville and Cincinnati. Temple could end up being the third, particularly since the Owls probably will move into a new stadium this season.
That's a good start. It is unrealistic for the Big East football -- or whatever the hell they are going to have to call themselves -- to expand to 12 teams. Perhaps eventually if the BCS remains in place..
It has to be. The football/basketball school dichotomy is unworkable given the money involved. It's just something they should have done a while ago.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Giving Pause
Megan McArdle has a fine post on why it's too soon to evaluate the success or failure of the US forces in Iraq.
In early June, Bill Emmott, the editor of The Economist, had a debate with Katrina Vandenheuvel (sp?), the editor of the Nation, on the topic of globalization. One of the most interesting points that he made was that the Marshall Plan wasn't even proposed until 1947.
The narrative of WWII in most American minds seems to go something like this: we won, the nations formerly ground under the Nazi heel rose up joyfully to greet us, the Germans realized the error of their ways, we slapped the Marshall plan together a couple of weeks later, and soon Europe and America were joining hands across the Atlantic to form NATO, singing "It's a Small World After All" as everyone gazed soulfully into the bright quasi-socialist future. . .
In short, the years 1945-1955 seem to have been edited out of the popular imagination.
There were, for starters, quite a lot of collaborators in all the countries we liberated, and they didn't immediately realize the Germans had lost. They apparently ran around the hedgerows with guns making trouble for Our Boys for quite some time.
Nor were the Germans very happy to see us. Or, rather, they were, but only in comparison to the Russians. That didn't stop them from shooting at us, though.
Read the whole thing before you shout quagmire.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Bow to the Experience
I really need to remember to read Roldo more often. His column from last week, was some of his better caustic commentary in a while. Taking shots at the Plain Dealer, City Council, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and Cleveland Tomorrow, and the people running the Cleveland City Planning Commission.
Dennis Eckart of the Growth Association and Joe Roman of Cleveland Tomorrow have bungled the convention center issue from the very beginning. However, don't bet against its success as shoddily as it's been handled by the business chiselers and reluctant politicians.
The reason for the confusion as the time for putting some tax on the November ballot nears stems from the refusal of Cleveland Tomorrow and Growth - corporate con artists - to come clean with citizens.
They want to dictate the entire scheme. To do this they have manipulated a sloppy process that pretends to invite public input while clearly operating clandestinely via self-interest.
They have thus concocted an incomplete plan and asked the public to fork over $400 to $600 million - not counting interest - plus at least $50 or $60 more million for what's called nebulously neighborhood revitalization and the arts.
None of the plan has been clearly outlined as to exactly what's to be built, how it is to be paid for, who will make the decisions, who will build it, or how arts and neighborhood money is to be divvied up.
I found laughable the Plain Dealer's editorial last week chastising politicians under the headline: ''Wanted: Leaders.'' It could have asked, ''Where's another Vince Campanella?'' The newspaper has avoided any leadership role by refusing to examine this project with any honesty. That made it easy for corporate forces to frame the issue to its benefit.
I guess I wasn't the only one annoyed/amused by that PD editorial.
Roldo, though, saves his most venomous writing for Forest City Enterprises. He details just some of the feeding they've done at the public trough. He is also dead-on, accurate with his final statement:
Cleveland may be poor but it always can find ways to give Miller and Ratner a boost. One of the cudgels they hold as a threat over politicians - in addition to campaign money that can flow to them or opponents - is the intimidation that they will move their headquarters from Cleveland.
Here's a prediction: No matter whether this convention center is built or not, Forest City will move from Cleveland. The next generation of Ratners will be OUT OF HERE. The firm has outgrown Cleveland, but it wants one more juicy bite of the plum.
It's just a matter of time.
Old Fashion Technology Ignorance
You know those stories of confidential e-mails being sent to everyone because some idiot accidently cc'd the whole staff. Well here's a case with a simple leaving the microphone/intercom on.
SACRAMENTO — In a meeting they thought was private but was actually broadcast around the Capitol on Monday, 11 Assembly Democrats debated prolonging California's budget crisis to further their political goals.
Members of the Democratic Study Group, a caucus that defines itself as progressive, were unaware that a microphone in Committee Room 127 was on as they discussed slowing progress in an attempt to increase pressure on Republicans to accept tax increases as part of a deal to resolve the state's $38-billion budget gap.
The conversation was transmitted to roughly 500 "squawk boxes" around Sacramento that political staff, lobbyists and reporters use to listen in on legislative proceedings.
According to Republican staff members who captured parts of the meeting on tape, Los Angeles Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and others discussed holding up the budget to dramatize the consequences and build support for a ballot initiative that would make it easier to raise taxes.
...
While a delay might serve the tactical advantage of Democrats, its consequences are already being felt by students, vendors and the poor: Since the new fiscal year began July 1 without a budget, the state has already begun to cut off money to some programs.
Republicans noted that many caucus members have charged the GOP with holding the budget process hostage. Yet, those same Democrats are now caught on tape discussing ways to hold things up.
...
After about 90 minutes, a staffer interrupted to alert lawmakers that their meeting was not private at all:
"Excuse me, guys, you can be heard outside," an unidentified staff member said.
"Oh [expletive], [expletive]," Goldberg said.
"The squawk box is on," the staff member said. "You need to turn it off right there."
"How could that happen?" Goldberg said.
90 Minutes before a staffer realized? Before anyone decided to let them know? Geez, and I thought the Democrats in Ohio were politically stupid.
Major Player Out of the Cleveland Convention Center Picture
On May 21, I wrote this about Dave Nolan, the president of the Greater Cleveland Visitors & Convention Bureau (GCVCB), and the spending scandal being put out on paid leave:
They aren't calling for CVBGC President Dave Nolan's head, yet. It would be that much harder to sell the new CCC if they fired him now. They will, though, at the first whisper of a chance that it would help sell the new CCC.
...
Mayor Campbell has very good political instincts. My guess is, she sees this getting worse, with the issue becoming Nolan and the CVBGC budget abuses, rather than the new CCC. She is taking a cautious position that Nolan should be minimized early.
Nolan has been on leave since that time. There has been practically no news on the GCVCB budget and spending scandal following a small initial flurry of activity. Now, though, there is this news (subs. req'd).
David Nolan, the embattled president of the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland, has cleaned out his office at the bureau's Terminal Tower offices.
Dennis Roche, bureau interim president, said Mr. Nolan packed up his personal belongings last Thursday, July 17, and they were later delivered to him.
Hmm. I don't think the emptied out office I was sitting in on Friday at the GCVCB was his -- too small and too close to the lobby.
There has been nothing on the Cleveland Plain Dealer Web site in its news or business section from the last couple days.
Interesting, because the week before, Crain's Cleveland had been reporting on some support being marshaled for Nolan primarily from from the local hotel industry (Nolan used to be a direct part of the hotel industry, and had a reputation for being very supportive of their needs) and also
Bruce Harris, president of Conferon Global Services Inc. of Twinsburg, [Ohio]...
Mr. Harris operates Conferon, a company with nine offices and 630 meeting planners that ranks as the nation's largest purchaser of guest rooms. He called on the bureau's board to have "the wisdom and out-and-out courage to put the findings in perspective and measure it against" the benefits of Mr. Nolan's work for the industry and region.
Looks like the letter came a little too late, especially with the very public sniping going on between the Mayor's office, Cleveland City Council and the Cuyahoga County Commissioners regarding a new CCC and the tax booty last week.
The article, though, did darkly suggest that Nolan was doomed -- and not for the scandal:
However, a July 3 e-mail from Mr. Nolan to members of the hotel industry, obtained by Crain's Cleveland Business, sheds light on a point of dispute between Mr. Nolan and other pro-convention forces.
Hoteliers are upset that state legislation adopted last month to benefit the city's convention drive allows the bureau's share of bed tax receipts to be dispersed through the county government rather than continue to be earmarked for the bureau. Convention center planners, including Greater Cleveland Growth Association CEO Dennis Eckart, said last month that Mr. Nolan knew of the discussions but went on leave before the legislative strategy was set.
However, in his e-mail, Mr. Nolan said he is "miffed as to why it would be suggested that I authored or was a part of the bill." Earlier in the e-mail, Mr. Nolan said his requests - prior to his leave - for information on diversion of the bed tax went unanswered.
"It would be obvious that I/we would have a hard time in supporting a bill that would affect the CVB in the ways that this new legislation does," Mr. Nolan said in the e-mail. "Some suggest that's exactly why I will no longer be your president."
Of course, it could simply be some bitter grousing by Nolan.
This was a risky move to fire Nolan. There is no question he was damaged goods, but as I said before, "Nolan had been one of the leading forces to push for a new CCC. He's been a hell of a salesman. He had handled brokering competing interests, helped put a great unified public/private front on the CCC issues. The longer he has been sidelined, the more things have gone wrong -- in public perception; competing interests; personal spats; and a growing disconnect with the general public as the business and political elites bicker."
Now you have the hotel industry pissed off about the way the CCC would be financed, and the disputes are being made public. Who is going to soothe the egos and sell a new tax to the public? I've been to a couple of the public meetings on the new CCC. Nolan was the only speaker with any passion, energy and ability to connect with the audience.
In an article, relating to Nolan's fate, in Meetings & Conventions Magazine, there was a sense that the people quoted missed the reality of this scandal to defend themselves and their industry.
Cleveland is one of several cities on the defensive over CVB spending in recent years; Baltimore, Dallas and Los Angeles are among those that have faced similar scrutiny.
A challenging economic environment coupled with various corporate scandals are partly to blame for all this attention, according to Michael Gehrisch, president [and CEO] of the Washington, D.C.-based International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus. "The atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion spills over into our business," he said.
The real problem, however, might be that people don't understand how selling a city works. While CVBs are largely supported by public monies, they are not government agencies and therefore are allowed to keep their dealings private, explained Gehrisch, who noted that bureau executives must develop relationships with clients a costly process that does not appear on annual reports.
People don't trust what they can't see, added Rick Antonson, elected chair of IACVB. "A high percentage of what a bureau does to market a destination happens outside of the destination," he said. "The locals almost never see it."
The solution, said Cleveland's Roche, is to apprise the public and media about spending guidelines and review the T&E [Travel & Entertainment] policy internally to ensure adherence. Otherwise, "you dig into details where you sacrifice the overall interaction," said Roche. "The community is not served when it limits its own promotion."
The problem with these guys, is they are purposefully confusing the issue. Even I accept that there has to be some discretion for the entertainment budget when you are trying to lure conventions and business. That wasn't the problem with the GCVCB spending. Nolan and his members of the GCVCB were spending the money on themselves only. That's why there was a major fuss. Spending $1100 dollars on a local weekend golf outing with one other member and their wives is not drumming up business.
Memories
Another piece of the teen years looks to fade away. Penthouse appears to have reached its end.
For years, Penthouse has been squeezed from both directions by the Scylla and Charybdis of men’s entertainment. On the one side, the monster growth of hard-core pornography on the Internet has meant that consumers no longer need to suffer the embarrassment of receiving their mail in plain brown wrappers. On the other side, the rise of laddie publications like Maxim and FHM has meant there are publications that show a lot of skin without the stigma of being pornographers.
In response to these pressures, Playboy has remained relatively staid-the nudity of its models sometimes seems almost incidental. But Penthouse has gone ultra hard-core. These days, the extreme close-ups of Penthouse’s pictorials seem more appropriate for a medical manual, and the live-action sex scenes are as graphic as anything available. Penthouse’s circulation is hovering around 500,000.
Please bow your head for a moment of silence next time you are in the bathroom.
Monday, July 21, 2003
Just Looking for Hatemail
Aw, come on Copeland. Writing about some of Pittsburgh's finest late night eateries like this is just an invitation to fill your inbox with passionate and unreasoned defenses of them.
I don't even know how many times I have eaten at Ritter's, Primanti, the O, Eat 'n Park, Charlie's (formerly G's), and a host of others. No, really, I don't. So many times I was too wasted to clearly remember what I even ate. That's why hewill get such impassioned defenses. Half of the people who are eating at Ritter's at 3 am are so gone, they don't even know how they got there. They just know that they think they had a good time.
Never mess with the hazy memory of the night of a good drunken binge.
Matchbooks
Here's an amusing item on the hardtimes for matchbooks (subs. req'd) in bars and restaurants in the age of smoking bans.
Demand for restaurant matches isn't what it used to be as more localities ban smoking in dining establishments and bars. Mr. Stuart and many other owners say they plan to use up their supplies and then let the once-ubiquitous restaurant matchbook fade into history.
It's just the latest in a series of strikes that matchmakers have faced over the years. During its peak between 1972 and 1975, the matchmaking industry -- then with more than a dozen companies -- brought in probably $100 million to $200 million in annual sales, says Mark Bean, president of the match division at D.D. Bean & Sons Co. in Jaffrey, N.H. Then the sudden popularity of cigarette lighters led the Zippos and Bics of the world to acquire 90% of what Mr. Bean calls the "ignition market."
Despite a public-relations campaign by the short-lived American Match Council, match sales have continued to flicker, particularly since 44.3 million people have quit smoking, according to the American Legacy Foundation. Now the industry sees only about $50 million in annual sales, Mr. Bean estimates. "We're not the industry we used to be by a long shot," he says. "But we're still viable."
...
Doug Lamb, chief operating officer at Atlas Match, of Euless, Texas, one of two remaining domestic producers of restaurant-style match products, thinks people will want matchbooks even if they don't smoke because "they're still useful outside of the restaurant." (Closely held Atlantis Match Co., Frankfort, Ill., is the other remaining U.S. producer.)
Atlas Match is offering an increasingly popular alternative: scratchbooks, which look like a matchbook but contain tiny slips of memo paper instead of matches. La Goulue, a tony French restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is phasing out matchbooks in favor of scratchbooks. Regis Marinier, the restaurant's co-owner, says they are popular and useful. "When you meet somebody, you might want to exchange phone numbers," he says.
...
The storied Rainbow Room, in New York's Rockefeller Center, says matchbooks are still in demand. "People do like something with the name on it," says Herbert Rose, catering manager of Cipriani restaurant group, the Rainbow Room's owner. The restaurant still has "trillions" of matchbooks on hand, he says. But it hands them out only on request. In the meantime, it is transitioning to thick paper coasters with a picture of the Rainbow Room as a take-home memento.
For their part, matchmakers say their industry will never die out completely thanks to the "philoluminous" -- the term for matchbook collectors, which comes from the Greek word for love and the Latin word for light.
They even have a Web site, Matchbookreview.com (www.matchbookreview.com), which lists restaurants across the country where free matches can still be found.
I don't smoke, and I don't necessarily collect matchbooks. Still, I have a compulsion to snag a pack of matches whenever I'm in a bar that I like.
Blog Bash
What a good time.
The Northeast Ohio blog party Friday night was completely different from last year. Last year, it was the first night out for the wife and I away from our daughter since she had been born two months earlier. We were the typically exhausted new parents, and had to leave the party quite early and well before things got really interesting. This year, the wife stayed behind with the child and I went solo. The mix of bloggers made the tenor of the party and the discussions different -- not better, not worse -- just different. Last year there were a lot less local bloggers, instead there were bloggers from California, Iowa, and Canada. This time, the geography was much closer. The furtherst anyone traveled was from Columbus, Ohio.
It was a great night in the low seventies. I spent most of the time out on the deck. Some of the bloggers there included:
Kevin Holtsberry, who was still basking in getting linked by both Kausfiles and Instapundit, along with his wife -- a talented artist who does stained glass -- even if she was drinking 18 year-old Glenfiddich with ice in a plastic cup.
Doug Dever, and his girlfriend, who dishes as well as he takes.
George Nemeth, which isn't exactly a shock, since George was everywhere last week. (George, you really need to put some timestamps on your posts.)
Steve Goldberg, who despite being a Dukie (though, my distaste for Duke is not as high as it once was since they actually voted against ACC expansion), is a real interesting who works in Biotech but has a passion for poetry and music.
Craig Lyndall revealed in a less than deep discussion, that he gets his hair cut every other week.
Bruce Kratofil, the source for problems with anything concerning software and computers. I really need to e-mail him about the problem I have with IE and javascripts.
Jack Ricchiuto, who seems permanently bemused by everything around him.
Barbara Payne, a freelance writer, that really gave me some encouragement about my writing. Always good to get some positive reinforcement.
Of course, the whole thing was hosted once again by the lovely Dawn Olsen and her husband Eric. In addition to hosting the great event, they were kind enough to let me crash on a couch that night. (A major difference -- last year they had people crashing all over their house; this year, it was just me.) I woke-up a little before nine, tried to put the futon-couch back into the couch position (failed), had some orange juice, and slipped away while they were still sleeping upstairs.
Thanks again, Dawn and Eric, for a great party.
Sell, Sell, Sell
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Editorial Board (PDEB) has a problem with public works projects and the general public. It considers all public works projects to be good, and merely in need of a good sales job to the public. If the public disapproves, then it was a bad PR campaign to sell the project.
The city of Lakewood, Ohio wants to abuse its eminent domain powers to declare several blocks of houses and local business "blighted", so it can be turned over to private developers for a high end shopping center and condos. The Lakewood City Council already approved this, but is facing a lawsuit and a strong backlash from the populace who aren't wild about what they are doing. The PDEB's answer, sell the puppy to the people.
City Council is expected to adopt legislation allowing a voter referendum in November on a proposal to use about $35 million in public money on the project. This referendum will give voters a direct say in the future of the proposed development.
This is a positive development on an issue that city leaders until now hadn't handled very wisely.
Council has already unanimously approved the proposal. But by allowing the public to vote on the West End project, even belatedly, council is letting its constituents know that their opinions matter.
The West End project is a worthwhile proposal that could do much to restore a vibrant and upscale image to Lakewood. But without significant resident support, the displacement it creates could lead to lasting resentment and anger. City leaders must do a better job of selling the project and its merits to all of Lakewood's residents.
Gee, the decision to have a voter referendum couldn't have something to do with city council keeping from being voted out, by a public that didn't like the way they voted on the project. You know, a little ass-covering.
The PDEB doesn't see the abuse of eminent domain as the problem, the problem is that the greater good hasn't been sold to the masses. They just need a couple of good ad campaigns to see how this plan will lead to gold-brick roads, and is being sabotaged by outsiders with their own agenda.
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