Saturday, August 16, 2003
Uncertainty
It was very strange yesterday. We got our power back early, but then had to start worrying about rolling blackouts. It was strange seeing people in public places acting very hesitant and almost confused. It was a Friday. There was a terrible disruption to the day, but everything seemed normal now. Still, no one knew if it would last.
Kind of good to shake things up at times.
Friday, August 15, 2003
Harbinger or Cause
I now understand. It all makes sense. The great Northeast blackout of 2003 was caused by or was ushered in by my mother-in-law. She and her husband have been everywhere the catastrophes take place.
Remember the Norwalk Virus from last year? Cruise ships? She had just finished an Alaskan Cruise when it hit.
SARS? She had just gotten back from a visit to China when the news started coming out.
The Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire tumbling down? Less than a month after a trip to New England and to see the sight.
Now the power outage, while we took a trip out to Put-in-Bay, which is also part of the Lake Erie loop energy grid.
I can't prove (yet) that she was the cause, but it seems a safe bet if she is taking a trip, there will be hell to pay.
Blacked out again
At 11:35 am power went out, again. Of course it was in the middle of a post for another blog. So, that was lost (and yes, I know I need a UPS, so shut up). We got power back, at 1:20 pm. Rather than hang out for another one, we took the kid out to the park and just got out of the house for a while. Now it turns out that outage was on purpose. I guess in the intellectual abstract, I can understand this. But the fact, that they gave no notice of this pisses me off to no end. There was no info from local TV, or even after the power came back was this on the stupid scroll on the stations.
Just bzzt.
So, Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?
4:11 pm. Thursday, August 14, 2003.
Completely unaware of a problem.
Family outing. The wife took the day off; the mother-in-law and her husband came up with free passes for taking the ferry from Sandusky, Ohio to South Bass Island, AKA, Put-In-Bay. So, we got up early, dropped the limp child into her seat, picked up some espresso for me, and got out to Sandusky, by 9 am. The ferry first stopped at Kelleys Island for about 90 minutes. Really not much to see there except the Glacial Grooves (maybe 10 minutes).
Then another hour on the ferry to Put-In-Bay. Angie slept on the ferry ride. Remarkably mellow about the whole thing. There is a rather large tour group on this ferry (mainly people in their 60s). We get to Put-In-Bay around 1 pm and we're supposed to be back on the ferry by 4:30pm. The grandparents look after Angie and the wife and I are given a rare chance to go off without the kid. Very odd. Actually, we enjoyed the break. Had a decent wheat beer and lunch at the Put-In-Bay Brewing Company. Mainly we just walked a lot. It's not like we were going to get loaded up at the bars (I mean if it was me with a bunch of my buddies, sure. But not when we still had to look after the kid and drive back).
We met back at DeRivera Park at 4. Played with the kid for a few minutes, then around 10 after 4, walked over to the docks towards the ferry. We never looked back to see that the power had gone out on the island. At 4:30, we were told that a few of the people were stuck in the elevator at the Perry's Victory & International Peace Memorial because of a power failure. They said it also effected Detroit and part of upstate New York. That was all we knew, other than we had a cranky, tired baby on a rather warm and humid day; and we were stuck on the ferry for an unknown length of time. They actually got the people out and back on the ferry around 5:30 pm. We still had an hour and a half ride back to our car.
As we came up upon Sandusky, we started getting an idea about how big the outage was. Cedar Point was dead. No rides running. No people in the park. Nothing. We could see empty roller coaster cars stopped halfway up tracks. As for Sandusky itself, well you really wouldn't know if the blackout hit or not, because downtown Sandusky is a complete husk. Lots of buildings that are completely empty. Nothing left in Sandusky, but Cedar Point and the marina.
As we start driving, it becomes apparent how bad things are. No working traffic lights, and most of the Cleveland radio stations aren't transmitting. The one station we get states that the entire area is powerless.
So much for eating out tonight.
The drive was uneventful, though I found myself quite annoyed to see two Ohio State Highway Patrol cars actually running speed traps. There's no friggin' power! Shouldn't these guys be helping out at some of the busier traffic areas that use lights? (and I had to slow down drastically when I saw them.)
Home, some limited streetlights restored in Eastlake, but not near our house. No power, but a grill. and lots of candles. Pulled some burger meat and beers from the silent fridge, and hoped we would get power back before everything defrosted. Ate, cleaned up the kid. Then heard via one of the neighbors that the water pumps in the Cleveland area run on electricity, and that there was a good chance we would be without water really soon. Luckily, that didn't happen to us.
With no power, in millions of homes overnight, we can expect a birth spike in May. Not here though -- in-laws staying over night, and a slightly spooked kid sleeping in between us (I mean, this 14 month old does not want siblings. She stretched out perpendicular to us to keep us away. Head at the wife's stomach, and feet kicking me in the ribs.
The Mayor told people not to come downtown until at least noon today. The wife's office just closed for the entire day. Our power came back on a little after 7 this morning. Half the local stations were still not running. One showed shots of downtown Cleveland this morning. Nothing. Nobody. Stark.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Seeking Racism
I probably shouldn't waste anymore pixels on Mansfield Frazier after his last op-ed, but this one is such a distortion of reality it boggles the mind.
How do you turn $12,000 into $12,000,000? By running a front page, headline story in the PD vaguely alleging some sort of amorphous chicanery on the part of Board of Elections officials, of course.
While Mark Naymik's two stories (that ran on Tuesday, August 5) only concerned themselves with the cell phone usage of Board of Elections Director Thomas Jelepis and Deputy Director Lynnie Powell, one would have thought that high crimes and misdemeanors were being investigated.
Here's an analogy that sums up the situation: Say you work for the county and you are assigned a vehicle to take home overnight since you are on call virtually 24-hours-a-day. Now, on your way home you stop at the corner store and pick up a gallon of milk. My friend, you just broke the law. Yep. You just used a county vehicle for a personal reason.
Sounds absurd, doesn't it? However, the foregoing scenario is no more absurd than the charges that are being leveled at Jelepis and Powell in the PD.
Okay, now, let's look at the real story.
The two top dogs at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in a 16 month period (Aug. 2000 - Dec. 2001) racked up a total of $12,000 in cell phone charges that were for personal calls. That is a little more than stopping off to pick up something at the store in a county car on the way home from work.
The reporter was following up the story, to confirm that the money was repaid as claimed. There was a request in June to review the phone bills and the receipts under Ohio's Freedom of Information Act. The Board never got back to the reporter, until he followed up. At that time, they disclosed that the records were gone. Specifically, "Three years of financial records, crucial for audits, have disappeared from a locked steel cage in the basement of Cuyahoga County's elections board."
I don't know, to some, this might seem newsworthy. A scandal and possible cover-up in a county office. To Frazier, it's a clear race issue.
They don't want Jelepis to be indicted, it's Powell they're really after.
Why are they after Powell? a reasoned person might query. Good question.
It goes back a long, long way.
Over 30 years ago, then Congressman Louis Stokes and George Forbes realized that in order for blacks to have a fair shot at elective office they needed to have a ''go to'' person within the Board of Elections. Every other political group had their ''go to'' person to explain the rules and to assure that their candidates got a fair shake.
Through shrewd political maneuvering they got Lynnie Powell a job at the Board and she became the deputy director.
And, man, did she do her job well.
Black politicians finally had their inside person and the result was more and more minorities won elective office. It's not an overstatement to say that she has assisted virtually every black politician that ran for office in Cuyahoga County at one time or another ... and she assisted a lot of white candidates too.
That's why she racked up tremendous hours on her cell phone; she is always on call, 24-seven. Lynnie Powell lives, eats and sleeps the business of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and this is the thanks she is getting - a ''scandal''
manufactured and promoted by the PD.
It's all race-related, in Frazier's world. Especially when you downplay the facts, and seek the conspiracy.
Cleveland Convention Center -- The Bitching
The tired old man of the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at the Cleveland Convention Center kvetching, and concludes that no politician really wants this beast. He actually does a Gateway comparison suggesting why it passed and this won't.
Gateway narrowly passed (thanks to the suburbs) but the Gateway story was far different from the convention center story.
The Gateway story went like this: "If we don't build it, they (the Indians) will leave." The convention center story is: "If we build it, maybe they (the tourists) will come."
Feagler then goes off on some random complaint about how downtown Cleveland is incapable of supporting a real department store, and if it can't do that, then it shouldn't have a new CCC. Huh?
This view is shared by the politicians who are lamely backing the tax increase. They know this isn't Gateway, and none of them wants to risk political capital by actively supporting it.
So what we've seen is an old-fashioned Cleveland soft-shoe dance. The city is at war with the county. The business leaders are lobbying for their own self-interests. The issue is speeding toward the ballot amid the kind of chaos and confusion that has historically kept us behind the times.
In the middle of such a muddle, it's ridiculous to even put the tax on the ballot. None of the politicians I've talked to thinks it has a prayer of passing. That's why you won't see anybody forcefully back it, as Tim Hagan and Mike White backed the Gateway issue.
I'd like to share Feagler's optimism, but in the next breath he speaks of a big time marketing campaign for this tax. He actually wants questions answered by the campaign. He's lost it.
What's the matter with Public Hall?
What proof do we have that a new convention center will bring us new conventions?
Where are we going to put it?
If we build it, what are we going to do with Public Hall?
If the tax passes, how will we split the tax money?
Okay, it seems clear Feagler wrote this article a while ago for a filler, for a time when he might miss a deadline. These are softball questions that have been answered. Not well, clearly or even accurately. But they were actually answered.
Of course the PD Editorial Board is once again whining about the "lack of leadership".
The main issue - will a new convention center be of enough benefit to this city and this county to justify the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars - has for weeks taken a back seat to the side issues of which public officials, government entities and other community interests would gain power and money from its construction.
Those are important and inescapable questions. They must be resolved before any plan can proceed. But the commissioners' decision to resolve them by edict is likely to make opponents, or at best neutrals, of influential people the convention center project needs as allies.
OF course the actual questions about whether a CCC is necessary is being avoided. Of course, some, might say a lot of the fault lies with the lack of inquiry and investigation by the only mainstream daily in Cleveland. Some might say that they have avoided asking any hard questions about a new CCC. If the reporters aren't asking any questions, why do answers have to be given?
Then again, the commissioners may have done the voters a service. They may have shown the people of Cuyahoga County that, despite all their arguments in its favor, their elected leaders actually consider a new convention center unnecessary. Or at least those elected leaders attach more importance to the things they would have to give up to get a convention center built.
Funny, the PDEB and the PDEB Chair considers that leadership when it comes from City Council President Frank Jackson.
Council President Frank Jackson is more specific. Jackson believes it is essential to move on the issue this year. What's more, he stands ready to enthusiastically support a ballot issue - provided he gets what he wants.
Jackson is demonstrating real leadership on this issue.
I guess it's leadership when it's your guy making the demands.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
All for the Children, Especially when Adults Screw Up
One of the most pathetically stupid, sad and funny (especially since I don't live there) spectacles has been taking place in Cleveland Heights-University Heights schools. The school superintendent last month suddenly announced his resignation with a year left on his contract. It then came to light that the school board and the super had reached a secret agreement paying him his final year salary as well as a $3,900 bonus and lump sums for his pension and unused vacation -- total $146,000. The agreement prohibits either side from disparaging each other. Since the pact, is for silence, no one really knows anything. So, there was an angry school board meeting last night.
What makes this worse, is there is a new tax levy increase the school board has placed on the November 4 ballot. It is a 8.9 mill increase that had previously failed. This works out to about $27.30 per $10,000 of the appraised property value each year. They are going forward with this despite the apparent mismangement by the school board.
School board member Ronald Register said in an interview before the board meeting that he hopes voters will support the tax increase as a way of helping students. "People can always second-guess our decisions," Register said. "We cannot allow our children to suffer."
I mean, sure the board is incompetent, and not good with money, but trust us this time.
Two predictions: 1) this will not pass; and 2) the Plain Dealer Editorial Board will still support passing the tax levy.
Mondesi Missive Misses
I wasn't kidding when I said, that the Yankees would have been happy to have given Raul Mondesi away to a team for a bag of balls. Now Raul Mondesi is taking shots at the Yankees, claiming he wanted the trade and the organization is biased against Dominicans?
"If they say they traded me because I left the team, it's not true," Mondesi told the Times Friday in Phoenix. "They traded me because I told my agent for them to trade me. I said, `If you want me to respect you, you have to respect me.' When Joe sent Ruben Sierra to hit for me, he didn't tell me. He sat right next to me and I was next to him and he didn't say anything."
As for his charge that the Yankees discriminate against Dominicans, Mondesi said, referring to himself and Soriano, "Why to us?
"Only Soriano and me. Where we from? The Dominican Republic. Why didn't they do that to Giambi when he was hitting .120? He was there batting third, third, third. He found his way, and now he's fine."
Let me see if I have this straight? Raul Mondesi: the greatest anti-clutch hitter in the game today, mired in a 5 for 27 funk, was pinch hit for with Ruben Sierra, and you were disrespected because you're Dominican; and a young player like Soriano gets dropped in the order while in a major slump is the evidence?
It is creative. I mean, to claim that the Yankees are biased against only one Hispanic group. Does the term "grasping at straws" mean anything to anyone else?
Guess you have to give Mondesi credit for not being stupid enough to claim the Yankees are anti-Hispanic; when their key players include Bernie Williams (Puerto Rico), Mariano Rivera (Panama), and on the DL, Jose Contreras (Cuba).
Cleveland Convention Center -- City vs. County
And the County takes its hands off the wheel in this game of chicken.
This would almost be funny if it wasn't so tediously predictable. The city and county have been playing a game of chicken for the last week over who gets control over the new Convention Center Authority -- the body that will be created to oversee the construction and operation of the CCC. The County Commissioners, relying on state law unilaterally stated that they had the right to have a majority of the appointments. The City said it was a deal breaker. They argued for a few days, and everyone figured it would be resolved a few days before the scheduled vote by the County Commissioners to authorize the tax initiative going onto ballot -- August 19.
The County, on Monday morning, voted to put the tax on the ballot. They appeared to blink on the issue of the Authority's composition, but threw a curve in other ways.
The disputed part of the plan involves how to share millions of tax dollars not used for construction. Commissioners propose to divide the money into four equal shares for the arts, a countywide fund for future development and separate development initiatives for the city and suburbs.
Wisham said the distribution of seats on the authority is in line with negotiations between the city and county. But she said the city wanted a larger share of the money for its development projects.
The city previously asked for 30 percent.
[Public affairs chief for Mayor Campbell, Lorna] Wisham called a 25 percent across-the-board split of additional funds "a surprise."
Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, president of the County Mayors and City Managers Association, said his organization was not consulted about the new plan although it represents two-thirds of the residents who would vote on the tax.
"It's a slap in the face," he said.
The association had wanted an agreement from the commissioners giving it control over how the countywide money would be spent.
The original distribution plan was a little different.
30% -- Cleveland
30% -- Cuyahoga County 'burbs (inner-ring suburbs)
25% -- tech development (nebulously called the "fund for the future" so they can use it for anything else)
15% -- arts and culture
Apparently Mayor Campbell is not happy with this (subs. req'd.)
Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell at a hastily called press conference Monday afternoon said the city will not support the convention center package voted on by the county commissioners.
Mayor Campbell said it would be fiscally irresponsible for the city of Cleveland to support the commissioners’ actions because a new convention center would create a significant financial liability for the city. The series of resolutions passed by the commissioners provided no money to rehabilitate the existing convention center, which the mayor estimates will cost $25 million, and no money to pay off the operator of the I-X Center. If a new convention center is built, it triggers a buyout clause in the Park Corp.’s lease with the city that could make Cleveland liable for a buyout payment of $12 million to $14 million.
“We can’t build a convention center if it’s going to bankrupt the city,” Mayor Campbell said.
Hey, you'd just be joining the gang.
Crain's Cleveland has noted that the I-X Center agreement is a big millstone around Cleveland. One which the County has no interest in sharing -- especially since it was the city that made this agreement.
Amazingly enough, the Plain Dealer doesn't even mention the I-X Center lease in its write-up today. This continues their strange silence on the whole matter of the I-X Center lease as relating to additional costs the city will have to pay if a new CCC is built. I recall the PD Editorial Board supported the deal with I-X for airport expansion. The conspiracy seeking part of me wonders if the PDEB doesn't want to admit it supported another big ticket expenditure without thinking it through to other possible projects.
As I said at the top. This is a game of chicken. The County upped the ante a bit by this approval, but they gave themselves plenty of time to avoid the crash by taking the vote a week earlier than planned. They are merely forcing the City to give a little. This is still going onto the ballot.
The saddest thing was a mention in the PD article that the "arts community and labor" are ready to back this monstrosity. I'm not surprised labor would. This is a big union job. The arts community, if true, are even bigger fools than I thought, though for letting themselves be co-opted like this.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Compare and Contrast -- Cleveland Convention Center
Take a quick look back at this post and the connected article from the Plain Dealer. It's about the outlined agreement for the new CCC. Now go read Roldo's view of the meeting. Amazing difference in how things appeared. If you care at all about the CCC crap, Roldo's whole article is required reading -- bad web text layout and all. The only thing I'll excerpt is this part.
It just didn't seem as though there would be any tough questioning of a proposal that — it came out during the discussion — would cost $2.1 billion. That's at a minimum figure, with no major overrun, only smooth sailing.
...
Finance Director Bob Baker cleverly listed the financial data going out only 10 years, not its true 35 year length. The fact is that the cost will be paid back over 35 years at $60 million a year for 35 years. That's the $2.1 BILLION cost!
Let's not exercise the public with a tab such as that one.
He also notes how despite claims that this won't be another "Gateway" or Browns Stadium mess with overruns and problems, the rush to push the financing through without any real debate, a real plan for the structure and of course a true public debate sure give it the feel. Remember, this rush for the new CCC started at the beginning of the year. There have been 4 public meetings before a site was announced and only one afterwards.
Oh, hell, here is something else that points out what a crock the whole holistic development aspect of this tax is
Jackson's plan from the beginning, would be a fund for projects in Cleveland's neighborhoods. Jackson originally wanted $25 million a year for 10 years, or $250 million in a rather short time.
The plan presented by [Mayor Jane] Campbell and Baker would have $6,750,000 a year going for Jackson's neighborhood plan (which does not necessarily mean it would go to real neighborhoods either). Council members noted this only means some $200,000 a ward. Another $6,750,000 would go to suburban communities with the Mayors and Managers Association representing 57 communities. If divided evenly, about $118,000 a year to each. Another $10 million or so would go to something called a ''Fund for the Future,'' — likely major projects, suggesting to me, downtown or other business task — and something called ''arts and culture.'' No specifics on this money's use.
What wasn't heavily emphasized in the discussion last week was if costs were higher than expected for the riverfront convention center, those amounts to neighborhoods, suburbs and arts/culture would be reduced. Would there be any real dough for extras?
And these little carrots will be the ones pushed at the public as a reason to support this crap.
Joust the Facts
Family outing day! We went to the Great Lakes Medieval Faire in Ashtabula County . Why would I go to a place where theater arts majors have their summer jobs, and goth kids and members of the Society for Creative Anachronism feel at home? Why would I go to a place where my cynicsm and sarcasm meters go off the chart? Why? Because the wife got free tickets; and I had no valid excuse not to spend the day with my wife and daughter.
The big thing seemed to be the sale of prosthetic Vulcan elf ears. $15? The one advantage of going with an infant -- the big stroller with the diaper bag. We just brought our own drinks and some food.
The program stresses the "Medieval Faire" on the front with "marketplace" in small print. Wot a laugh. The mark-up on the crap is outstanding.
Then there is the obligatory gawking at the weapons shops, sorry, shoppes. It bemused me to no end to notice that they had those oversized, inverted ulu knives that Worf from Star Trek: TNG. Of course, when you think about those blades -- what ever they are called on the show -- they are really useless. The blade inverts, and is held with two hands, so they actually reduce your reach. If you had a giant ulu knife, the extension and cutting range would be so much better (,and yes, I know I am betraying my own geekness and hypocrisy with this digression).
I suppose for kids from 3-15 it might be fun. I recall enjoying one I went to when I was 13 -- the Bristol Renaissance Faire. That held me for a while. My friend Josh and our girlfriends went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in 1991. (To point out how little I cared about it, the Pennsylvania one is located about 10 miles from my parents' house; and I didn't go until I was outvoted 3-1 in college). Now I've gone to the Ohio one. Looks like I'm good for another decade.
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