|
|
| |
|
 |
| |
Thursday, July 31, 2003
A-hole Parents
Running a couple errands today took me to the mall. Angie is starting to look forward to trips to the mall because they recently installed a kids play area. A good-sized, clean, well padded, carpeted area in the mall, with a four foot barrier all around. It has a few static objects the kids can climb on, or sit in. Plenty of room to run. There is even seating for the adults on the sides. On our way through, I stopped there to let Angie play. She toddled/stumbled/ran to one end as soon as I set her down. There were only a few people and kids in the area. She and a little boy who didn't look that much older than her set off to toddling after each other. One would start walking one direction, the other would follow. Then the whoever was in front would stop, turn and look for the follower. The child following would veer off in different direction, and the other would start to follow. This continued for about 5 minutes until the parents took their son away to finish their errands. About the same time, in came a woman in her early 30's with a girl, about 5 years old. The woman sat down a little away from me and promptly got on her cell phone while her daughter went and sat in the toy car. Angie continued to run around from object to object -- occasionally toddling over to check on me.
I couldn't help but hear part of the lady's phone conversation. "Yeah, she's upset today... well, she doesn't want to go to the doctor ... she's got the sniffles or something... she's afraid she'll be getting a shot"
At this point, I look at the little girl. She's miserable. Eyes bleary, nose red; overall droopy.
"Time to go Angie, maybe we'll stop on the way back." Pick her up, put her little shoes back on, and we go down the mall to finish the errands.
We do stop on the way back. More kids in the area. Most in the 3-7 group. I sit down, and notice that the lady and her sick daughter are still there/returned. The sick girl is with a few other kids around the same age. They are running/waking around the area. Now, though, the girl is coughing every minute or so. One of those wet, flemmy coughs. And of course, she isn't covering her mouth. Parents are starting to look at each other -- is that your kid, coughing near mine? The mother of the sick girl, after about the fifth cough, says, "cover your mouth dear." Of course, she doesn't
Now parents are starting to glower and glare at this woman. After a couple more uncomfortable minutes, the woman nervously gets the sick kid and leaves.
WTF? You have a kid, who at a minimum has a cold, and you're that much of an a-hole that you don't give a shit and just turn her loose in a play area? Maybe I'm too new to this parent thing, but that really pissed me off. The lady knew her kid had at a minimum a cold, and didn't care. This is the same sort of sh-thead parent that takes their infant kids to movies because they don't think anything should interfere with the things they want to do; and eff everyone else in the theaters.
Idiots.
Cleveland Convention Center -- An Estimate Without Any Information
This is absolutely amazing. Mayor Jane Campbell gave Cleveland City Council the estimated total cost of the proposed new Cleveland Convention Center. She put the number at $422 million dollars, and get this -- without cost overruns.
"We'll not have to build this before it's designed," Campbell said. "There's no arbitrary date we have to have it finished by because there's an agreement with a team and it's opening day."
You don't actually have an agreed upon architectural design? So, how do you have this figure?
But she cautioned that the numbers could change. The city is bringing in a team of architects and engineers - paid by the Greater Cleveland Growth Association - for two days to review the estimates.
"We need for them to tell us if these numbers are in the ballpark," Campbell said.
I guess it depends on how big the ballpark is.
But getting back to the costs, how did that number get created?
City officials estimate that a center could be built for $282 million. Related projects, including renovating Public Hall and expanding the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, would cost $140 million. The city also would set aside $63 million to cover cost overruns.
Come again? They are claiming that the CCC itself can be built for under $300 million now? Strange, before the Forest City location shift, the other sites all had price tags north of $300 million -- the generally agreed number was roughly $400 million for the new CCC. Of course, that "related projects" seems to be where the money is where they are shifting costs. The expansion of the hotel was already previously estimated in the cost analysis to be about $47 million to add a new tower with 300+ new rooms (under the site labeled "Warehouse District"). I don't know how much the renovation of Public Hall is to cost, and this rather detail free article (or was it just a detail free presentation of information?) doesn't exactly elaborate as to what constitutes "related projects." Does it include I -X Center related costs the city will be looking at paying? What about the issues of the additional supports expected to be necessary to plant this box on a riverbank?
I guess we'll know soon. After all, tomorrow is the "deadline" to conclude negotiations with Forest City. I mean, they wouldn't extend the deadline or something would they?
Also, apparently the City and County also reached their compromise on the spending of the other money.
Campbell also announced that public officials have agreed that a new, 11-member board will oversee the construction and operation of a new convention center, as well as the money for development projects.
Four members would be appointed by the city, three by the county commissioners and three by the Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association. Those 10 members would then select an 11th member.
Start your contributions to the members' campaigns, charities, foundations, whatever as soon as they are announced. It's your best shot at getting the cash.
Baby Clothes
The wife wouldn't let me, but I wouldn't mind getting some clothing for Angie from this store to offset some of the overly cute things.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Geek Notice
Oh, Joy.
One of the stars of cult sci-fi series Blake's 7 has signed a deal to bring the show back to screens more than 20 years after it ended.
Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-hero Avon, is in a consortium that has acquired the rights to the show from the widow of its creator, Terry Nation.
...
The new mini-series will pick up the story 25 years on, but Darrow will be the only original cast member to return.
A tentative transmission date has been set for spring 2005, its website says - conditional on "many factors, not least financing".
Now if they would only bring back Dr. Who -- and that abyssmal TV movie a few years ago never happened. Never, do you hear me? Never!
Narrow Band of Interest
In one of the few subjects probably duller than talk of a convention center, would be commercial leases. I just came across a small wire item saying that the Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that commercial landlords bear some responsibility to re-rent space if a tenant vacates before the end of the lease.
The only reason this interests me, is that several years ago, when I was practicing, my firm was associated to represent a small west coast chain in Ohio. They had a lease in a mall in California with the DeBartolo Group (now part of Simon Property Group); the business was getting hammered in the mall so they closed the food court restaurant and vacated. DeBartolo sued under the contract, that set venue in Youngstown,Ohio (where DeBartolo Group has its corporate headquarters, a fairly common item with major commercial lessors to set the venue in their own backyard). I did some research shortly before I left the firm. The lease was a monster, totally favoring the landlord. They were looking at liquidated, the full term of the lease, and other damages. Precedent-wise in Ohio, they were screwed. The Ohio Supreme Court hadn't said anything different, and several Ohio Court of Appeals had sided with the commercial lessor. I have no idea what happened in the case. I really hadn't even given it much thought until I saw the news item.
The case, in question is here. In the footnotes, the case notes which states the courts explicitly ruled the commercial landlord has no duty to mitigate; and which states have ruled that there is a duty to mitigate (footnote 4, pages 4-6).
States where the commercial landlord has no duty to mitigate
Alabama
Minnesota
New York
Pennsylvania
States where the commercial landlord has a duty to mitigate
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Nebraska
New Jersey
Oregon
Texas
Vermont
Wisconsin
Ohio is home to 6 of the top 100 owners of gross leasable area in the US, and Simon Group has a large number of malls operating under the old DeBartolo Group lease agreements naming Ohio as the venue. So it was no surprise that amici curiae urging reversal by Simon Property Group, Inc. (#1), Glimcher Realty Trust (#14), The Richard E. Jacobs Group (#26), and Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (#44). It was surprising that Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (#8), the Cafaro Company (#12) and Don M. Casto Organization (#27) didn't file anything.
This has major implications and aggravation for the malls and commercial properties these companies own throughout the country. Before, if they owned a mall that was going south in terms of traffic, they could let tenants close without trying to find a replacement; and just force them to keep paying or pay a major settlement -- all without any need to work to get a new tenant. Now they have to show that they are trying to get a new store in the location. Their costs will be going up.
Cleveland Convention Center -- The Mad Dash
Suddenly the end is looming. The deal is near -- or at least the deal amongst the warring politicos.
City, county and suburban officials said last night they are close to reaching an agreement that will allow them to ask voters to approve a sales-tax increase in November to build a new convention center.
"We are making great progress in reaching a framework," Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell said at a news conference. "Everyone has had to give up something near and dear to them."
Officials will give an update of their progress to Cleveland City Council today during a hearing at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall.
...
Several officials said the breakdown officials were using as a starting point was:
30 percent for projects in Cleveland neighborhoods.
30 percent for projects in inner-ring suburbs.
25 percent for a "fund for the future" that could be used to attract businesses, fund high-tech development projects and promote tourism, among other projects.
15 percent for arts and culture programs.
The percentages are a nice touch. It is flexible enough, so that when the cost of a new CCC goes over its estimated costs, no one can claim they were robbed. They still get their %, just not from so big a pie.
Of course this is only half the battle. They still have to complete their deal with Forest City by August 1, to include:
Build houses on the vacant Scranton Peninsula, across the river from Tower City.
Expand The Avenue, Tower City's ailing shopping mall, before the convention center is built.
Address what to do with Public Hall, which will be vacated if a new center is built.
Commit to expanding existing hotels in the area.
To quote Dennis Eckart, head of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, "This has to be an ironclad development agreement, not left to the whims of market forces."
Wanna bet?
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
At Last
Finally, finally, finally. Just saw a report on SportsCenter. The Yankees have finally managed to find a sucker team willing to take Raul Mondesi. (no story on ESPN.com or on the wire yet) The Yankees will probably pay the entire salary -- fine, just get him off the team. It appears that the Yankees traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Dave Dellucci (sp?) and someone else. Dellucci will be a good platoon/bench player. Hey, it's addition by subtraction. Honestly, I think I speak for most Yankee fans when I say if they had gotten a bag of balls back it would be a good move.
Hopefully my only Kobe post
I really didn't want to post anything on Kobe Bryant's sexual assault charge. In fact, I'm not offering any opinion on it. I just have to pass this stomach turning op-ed.
My take on the case has much to do with the ''Jungle Fever'' thing.
...
It's not that I don't feel for a brother — no matter how rich and famous he might happen to be — who is soon going to have to face a rape charge (of a white woman, no less) in someplace as lily-white as Eagle, Colorado. The only minorities for miles around are low wage Mexican-American workers and perhaps a smattering of Native Americans who reside on godforsaken reservations. How, pray tell, is Bryant going to get a ''jury of his peers'' in that environ?
But that's the situation that ''Jungle Fever'' can put a brother in.
The same friend asked me that since the woman alleging the rape name is not known, or her photo has not been shown, how do I know that she isn't black?
''Trust me,'' I said, ''she's white.'' Just like his wife.
Now, as difficult as it is to maintain a successful relationship in this day and age, I suppose I applaud any couple that can stay happily together, no matter their respective races. But it seems as if many — if not most — high profile black athletes wind up with white wives. In addition to what that says about how they feel about sisters, it also says something about what kind of role models they're going to be to the millions of youth that look up to and want to emulate them.
I dare anyone to name me one black athlete that has married outside of his race who gives anything back to his community. The fact is, they're trying to put as much distance between themselves and the communities where they were born, reared (and acquired the skills that made them millionaires) as possible. Except, of course, when they stub their toes in their newly acquired world and then need our love, understanding and support. And we black folks, being forever forgiving as we are, rush to their side no matter how much they turned their backs on their race when they felt they didn't need us.
White folks are not about to stick up for him or any other black man accused of raping a white woman no matter how well they can perform with a ball (the talk shows the next day proved that), so you can trust me on this ... Kobe is about to become real, real ''black'' in a minute. Anyone got any old dashikis around to sell him?
This enlightened piece was written by Mansfield Frazier. He has a book called From Behind the Wall: Commentary on Crime,Punishment, Race. Based on the op-ed, I don't think I'll be running out to get this book.
Cleveland Convention Center, the Past Week and On
It's been a week since I wrote anything on the CCC plans, but since a friend requested, it's time to provide some information.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial Board, in it's zeal to find any way possible to push forward the CCC, has previously declared that Cleveland City Council President Frank Jackson is the de facto political leader for getting a new CCC.
Following all the public officials bickering, this theme has been picked up by one of the PD's Metro columnists.
Of all the people in this region yakking about build ing a new convention center, only one has proposed a realistic way to get it done - City Council President Frank Jackson.
From the beginning, he has been honest and direct, saying to all who cared to listen that, in his view, a convention center is nothing more than a tool to strengthen Cleveland's often-overlooked neighborhoods.
"A convention center isn't important to me or my constituents in the city," Jackson told me in an interview shortly after he took office last year. "I'm not opposed to it and I even think it could be good for the city, but it's not my priority."
Clearly he should be the point man on getting a new CCC.
So it comes as an awful disappointment to hear Commissioner Jimmy Dimora describe Jackson as a hurdle between the city and the convention center plans.
"Fixing sidewalks and curbs in the city, that's what the council president wants this money used for," Dimora said. "All he cares about is leveraging the project to create neighborhood development dollars."
Well, yes, that's half true.
The untrue part is that Jackson has never said specifically how and where the city would spend any share of a proposed tax increase.
Actually, that was a lot of what Jackson was talking about, and even Fulwood is somewhat conceding where the money will go. He has talked about the money as basically a way to get money for the general use of the City of Cleveland. Basically another tax stream, to make up the deficits -- rather than actually have to make cuts. Rather than try to use the money in a manner towards economic development, he wants a free hand to use the money as part of the general fund. This means no assurances that it will go to economic development, and no responsibility if they just use it to make up budget shortfalls. (I don't believe that the money would do much good as a way to generate economic development, most likely those more adept at making hollow promises and good campaign donations would see the benefit with little risk to themselves or return to the city.) Then don't pretend this is a tax for development within Cleveland.
Jackson remembers that business leaders promised all sorts of pie-in-the-sky goodies to city residents when Gateway and Cleveland Browns Stadium were built. He also knows that too few jobs went to city residents and most of the construction contracts eluded city businesses. He's determined not to allow that to happen again.
So while some folks dreamed about putting up another big building - or avoided talking about a convention center altogether - Jackson outlined how the deal had to be structured if it were to win his support: He wanted $25 million a year for the city - a number he has since halved - and suggested an equal amount should go to the suburbs.
"There will not be a convention center until those conditions are met," Jackson told The Plain Dealer last spring.
That's not opposition to the convention center. It's leadership.
Maybe, but not on the CCC. If the CCC is secondary to what he wants then he isn't leading on that issue. In fact, rather than lead on the issue, he pissed back at the Cuyahoga County Commissioners by canceling any further City Council meetings on the CCC, causing even the PDEB to whine.
Cleveland City Council today was scheduled to hold its third hearing on the proposed downtown convention center project. This week's topic: "The Deal," an examination of plans to finance and govern the meeting hall and related economic-development initiatives that would be packaged for Cuyahoga County voters this November.
But there will be no hearing at City Hall today for the simple reason that there is no deal to dissect. As of this writing, there have been no discussions between the would-be public partners to this project for more than a week. The only "negotiations" last week took place in dueling interviews on the pages of this newspaper. There has also been some shuttle diplomacy with private-sector leaders ferrying proposals and ideas from City Hall to the County Administration Building and back again.
Here's a simple suggestion to the county commissioners, Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell and City Council President Frank Jackson: Bargain face-to-face.
Why is this important not to snipe in public at each other?
Debate over the development package must be vigorous. But public flailing will only fuel voter distrust. The surest way for elected leaders to make sure nothing happens is to keep talking at, rather than to, one another.
If you argue in public, then the public might think that this might not be a good idea and not support the new CCC. Cannot have that. Must never have that. In fact, after this editorial was published on Monday, July 21, the Plain Dealer has not reported anything happening from the political battlefront. Hmmm.
Now, the direct political intrigue may be getting buried in a lull, but a great piece from Sandra Livingston in the PD on Saturday, more than makes up for this. She uncovers the fact that the big carrot that Forest City dangled to get the site for the new CCC was nothing more than a dusted off plan that has been lying around the corporate headquarters for 14 years.
It was November 1989.
Forest City Enterprises Inc. was just months from opening Tower City Center's retail complex in downtown Cleveland when Albert Ratner, company president and chief executive, made a dramatic proclamation.
Within the next few months, Ratner said, his huge real-estate development company would present city officials with plans to build 3,500 homes on a lick of industrial wasteland just across the Cuyahoga River, according to a report published then.
...
Not much has changed.
Today, it remains little more than a pile of dirt - a patchwork of barbed-wire fences and unruly foliage edged by tired commer cial buildings. But now, nearly 14 years after first unveiling its peninsula vision, Forest City is making a new Scranton pitch to its struggling hometown: If county taxpayers agree this fall to build a $400 million convention center on riverside property the company owns behind its now-ailing Tower City retail complex, Forest City will develop its "city within a city" on the peninsula after all.
I shouldn't be surprised that this whole plan has been dangled before, but I am. (Of course the city is now offering developers of residential housing 100% tax abatements (subs. req'd))
The suddenness of the proposal and pace of negotiations raise other questions, as well. For instance:
How did a few weeks of convention-center talk during a lackluster economy revive Forest City's development plans on the peninsula so quickly, after they had languished throughout the booming 1990s?
Aside from the convention center, what are the public costs for developing the peninsula, and will they be known before the city commits to the project?
And what guarantees can Forest City make that it will now build what it has declined to build for the last decade and a half?
After scheduling a July 15 interview to discuss the company's history on the peninsula and its latest proposals, Forest City abruptly canceled the day before. Both Ratner and Sam Miller, the company's co-chairmen, have since declined to be interviewed for this story.
Quick answers:
There's one born every minute.
Who cares and no.
Absolutely none.
It's clear that Forest City has much to gain - on both sides of the river. In addition to getting public help to develop housing on the peninsula, it would also win hundreds of millions of dollars in public investment on underused land it once intended for four department stores - including a Nieman Marcus - two hotels and four office buildings, none of which has come to pass.
The company says its peninsula proposal would unfold over six to 10 years and cost an estimated $300 million to $500 million. It eventually could put more than 5,000 money-spending taxpayers into 2,400 residences - possibly to include loft apartments; live-work spaces; three- story, for-sale homes; and possibly an apartment building or two at about 11 stories each. The project would also include parks, neighborhood stores and what Forest City calls "civic amenities."
...
But Forest City has given only cursory public explanations for why it hasn't acted on the peninsula's potential before now.
And it has provided few details about what it might cost the public to help develop it today, not to mention where that money might come from.
Voegele insists the convention center is the kind of "catalytic" project that could reel in money from Washington or Columbus to help with related efforts like the peninsula - even in an era when public financing has been steadily declining.
As for details, Voegele said last week that the costs for a project of this type are based on such factors as design and density, and those won't likely be determined by Friday's target date for the development agreement.
Given the hectic negotiations, the city has been nearly as circumspect.
City Planning Director Chris Ronayne said on Wednesday that he didn't have specific cost figures and probably wouldn't by Friday. Yesterday, Ronayne said city planning teams working over the last two weeks had now developed cost estimates for key areas. But he wouldn't say what they are.
Well, I'm inspired. The public debate continues.
The article is very long and has a small companion piece noting that Forest City, these days, does most of its developing outside of Cleveland.
The article notes that so-called August 1 deadline for negotiating the deal before falling back on building on the site of the present CCC (any takers that they will extend the deadline because they are "close"). It also notes other times Forest City has tried to sell the area for other public works projects. One final thing from Ms. Livingston's article that drives home the point on this false carrot.
Historically, bulkheads have been seen as a major obstacle, a company official said recently. Bulkheads are structures that stabilize the river's banks, and owners of riverfront property are responsible for keeping them up.
In 1998, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that more than 1,300 feet of riverfront property along Forest City's sections of the Scranton Peninsula either had bulkheads in need of repair or no visible bulkheads at all. Based on the corps estimates, costs to repair or build along those sections could be as much as $5 million.
But Forest City hasn't said how much bulkhead work would be required. If the entire peninsula is developed, more bulkheads could demand attention, potentially driving the costs even higher. The costs could be less, too.
Public money for bulkhead repair, meanwhile, is notoriously hard to get. The Greater Cleveland Growth Association looked into the issue two years ago and couldn't find any. Growth Association President Dennis Eckart, a former congressman, said new laws may be needed if bulkhead money is to be found in Washington.
In recent weeks, neither Cleveland nor Forest City officials could say what the actual bulkhead costs might be or who would bear them.
...
Some planners and architects familiar with the peninsula say bridge and road work may be needed to ease access for thousands of new residents. Its main artery, Scranton Road, could also have to be moved toward the center of the peninsula for design purposes, they say, and residential streets added.
That's not to mention sewers, utilities and any environmental cleanup that may still be required from the peninsula's industrial past.
The city has estimates for the cleanup of known environmental problems, Ronayne said, but further testing is needed to see if more work is required. The city has estimates for those tests and for other pre-development work, Ronayne said, including market studies.
He said the city also has developed estimates for utilities, sidewalks, landscaping, lighting and street work, but he would not discuss specific amounts. Ronayne previously said that Forest City had estimated that street work alone on the peninsula could cost the public $15 million. He said yesterday that figure is leaning on the high side.
The city's estimates are based on a four-phase development plan covering only the 50-plus acres controlled by Forest City, Ronayne said, not the entire peninsula, which measures roughly 80 acres. He also said negotiators are still discussing what share of the costs will be borne by the public.
And it remains unclear where the money would come from.
...
Just two weeks ago, Forest City started marathon sessions with the city's negotiating team, in the hopes of forging a deal by Friday.
But Voegele said last week that specific peninsula costs are not likely to be included in that agreement.
Lots and lots of costs not disclosed to the public to make it economically unfeasible and possible for Forest City to slither out of the deal.
As if to pile on, the Plain Dealer's architectural critic takes a blast at the whole mess.
Planning disasters are easy to spot after the fact but hard to stop in the making.
That's what makes it scary to watch the rush to slap together a conceptual plan for Cleveland's new convention center in advance of a possible bond-issue vote in November. It's starting to look like a textbook case on how not to plan a major civic investment.
Starting?
After six months in which Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association tightly controlled the debate about site selection, the city hurriedly endorsed their recommendation that the new convention center be built on the Cuyahoga riverfront behind Tower City Center.
The problem: A tight deadline and lack of sufficient engineering and architectural expertise is putting the city at a disadvantage in private negotiations over a development deal with Forest City Enterprises, the real estate company that owns the 11-acre site.
...
Forest City wants the structure built by the public in a way that would help resuscitate its struggling retail mall in the adjacent Tower City complex. But that could mean exposing the community to higher costs, if not overruns, along with a fundamentally ugly design concept that would be hard to improve later with architectural cosmetics.
Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell said last Tuesday that she would not discuss issues under negotiation with Forest City. But she said the design could be modified after any agreement with Forest City, and Cleveland's thrust in the talks is to put a cap on potential costs.
"We're dealing with what is the maximum public investment," she said. "It's about who's going to take the risk."
If Forest City assumes responsibility for the heavy structural underpinning required by the company's preferred design, along with all the risk of overruns, that would be terrific.
It would also be terrific if the design could be modified later. But there's no guarantee those things will happen.
...
The legal team negotiating on the city's behalf with Forest City consists of lawyers from several Cleveland firms. Campbell believes they have the credentials to get the job done.
But it's cause for concern that the city has only one experienced planner on its staff analyzing the Forest City proposal.
...
The imbalance at the bargaining table begs another question, which is why the city is negotiating a convention-center deal without Cuyahoga County, which, after all, would provide the lion's share of money through a bond issue.
Then again, it's no surprise the city and county aren't pulling together, given the way elected officials are squabbling over how to spend money from a bond issue.
These are questions coming from the "Entertainment" section of the PD. Funny how silent the PD Editorial Board is on these issues. I keep hearing from people with more experience and history in this town about how much better the PD has been in recent years. Maybe, but the Editorial Board is still crap.
And as if that wasn't enough CCC news, one more piece about a potential problem for getting the CCC on the ballot. The matter of the I-X Center, that stands to lose significant business if a new CCC is built means there is money to be paid (subs. Req'd)
The fragile coalition of local officials seeking to put a convention center issue on the ballot in November is being threatened by a dispute about who will pay to buy out the I-X Center lease if a new downtown convention center is built.
Candace McGraw, chief of staff for the city's Department of Port Control, which oversees Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, said last week that in looking at the airport's long-term financial obligations, the city views buying out the I-X Center lease as "an additional cost of the convention center" that would be paid from the pot of money generated by a countywide bond issue. The county has until Aug. 21 to put a bond issue on the November ballot.
But Cuyahoga County Commissioners don't think county residents should make good on an agreement negotiated and signed by the city of Cleveland, which bought the I-X Center from Park Corp. in 1999. Under a lease agreement between the city and Park, which still operates the I-X Center, the city agreed to reimburse Park what could be millions of dollars should a new, larger convention center be built in the region.
Brilliant. Funny, that this tidbit hasn't made the PD news, but then neither has GCVCB President Dave Nolan being terminated.
Yeah, whatever
An e-mail I received from a friend.
Finally, I never thought I'd ask for this, but I'd like to request another post on the Cleveland Convention Center. It couldn't possibly be less interesting than a post about the highest point in Indiana. I mean, Jesus Christ. I'd be more than happy to submit a post about that toenail fungus ad where the little bug pries up the toenail like a car hood if it'll help.
They can't all be gold. Or even tin.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Travel Log (Pt. 2)
Well, a good chunk of yesterday afternoon was spent in Indiana. A state, for which I have no great affinity. Eaton, is maybe 7-10 miles from the Indiana border, and the closest city was Richmond (and no, it wasn't to visit their convention and visitors bureau). Richmond factoid of the day: The highest point in Indiana is in Richmond
1257 feet. Latitude 40° 00', longitude 84° 51' W
Indiana's highest point is amidst a grove of trees. A stile provides an east access to the highest point. People from as far away as Germany, California, Maine, and Alaska have visited Indiana's Highest Point. Park benches, a registry, tulips in the spring and continuousos breeze is what you'll find at the Point. Take time to rest and enjoy nature's beauty.
Actually, there's a nice park with a lot of swings and jungle gym-esque bars and slides. Glenn Miller Park, and no it isn't named for that Glenn Miller.
Drove back to Eastlake in a continual drizzle and gray skies. Angie had a mad teething fit last night, and so she slept most of the trip back -- finding the silver lining. She was quite worn and cranky by the time we had left. She has brightened noticeablyly now that we're home, until the final meal which led to rather stern calls from the wife to remove the child from the highchair to the bath. Scrubbed the yellow-orange tint of the "sweet potatsoufflele" from her hands, face, hair and feet(?). Now a matter of convincing her that sleep would be a good thing.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Travel Log
Greetings from Eaton, Ohio. The final family road trip for a few weeks. My brother-in-law and his family are living here. He was placed here by his church (United Methodist) almost a year ago. We finally got down to see them, they just had their third child.
Angie hasn't noticed the infant much, but she has been having a ball playing with her other two cousins. Running around with them, giggling and laughing.
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon in St. Paris, Ohio visiting with the parents of Angie's namesake. It was their first time meeting her. I'd say they were very taken with her.
Tomorrow, the drive back. I look forward to a quiet weekend some time in 2020.
|
|
 |
|
 | |
