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Friday, September 12, 2003
More Fenced Off Content
In a move I can't find completely surprising. SI.com has started restricting some of its online content to only those who are subscribers to Sports Illustrated (Subs. Req'd -- and yes I recognize the irony). So far it is only content that would also be from the magazine. The regular online pieces, like Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback, don't appear to be restricted (though King's pieces in the magazine are).
It's hardly surprising, ESPN.com has its "Insider" section that requires an annual payment (but doesn't include a subscription to ESPN the Magazine). SportingNews.com has its own subscription only material, including the audio interviews from Sporting News Radio.
What I do find annoying is that SI.com doesn't bother to tell you that they have made this change, until you click one of the "exclusive" articles. Then you are redirected to a log-in/subscription page. SportingNews.com just teamed up with FoxSports.com in a horrible combo; but at least it had the decency to provide a link to explain the whole thing. SI.com doesn't have the balls to state that they are now restricting content.
Loopy Lakefront Laugher
In the lighter side of things, the political leaders of the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County continue to play a game of chicken over Whiskey Island. The latest is that the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority Board will vote today to begin eminent domain proceedings against the owners of Whiskey Island. I had no idea the Port Authority had the ability to enact eminent domain actions.
The 9 member board will likely have a 6-3 vote in favor of the proceedings -- the board is composed of 6 members appointed by the City of Cleveland and 3 appointed by the Cuyahoga County Commissioners.
The County Commissioners aren't planning to back down. This is just getting funnier with every new development.
In other lakefront related news, the Crawford Museum of Transportation and Industry won't be opening on the lakefront anytime soon. The museum is the goal of the Western Reserve Historical Society. It wants to build a new and bigger museum to replace the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in University Circle. It strikes me as a dumb move anyways. Better to expand or find a new space around University Circle which puts it right amongst the attractions like the Botanical Gardens, The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. It doesn't seem likely that a museum just off of Burke Lakefront Airport is going to attract a lot of people. Situated within a lot of other attractions, though, it could thrive.
I'm in no hurry to see the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum made history, however, it was where we had a law school party one year, that led me to asking my wife to attend it with me. So, I have some purely selfish reasons for wanting it to remain.
Not A Normal Day
You know it's going to be a very "off" day when you read that both Johnny Cash and John Ritter died today.
Ritter was less than a week shy of his 55th birthday -- about a year younger than my father. That's always unnerving.
Cash was 71, but no matter what his health problems it seems hard to imagine him dead. You just expected him to beat the crap out of death, if it ever showed up to claim him.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
No Big Shock to Me
I would expect no other result from this quiz.
 You should invite Death to dinner. Why? She's cool, mellow, fun to talk to, and she'll teach you a thing or two about life. Remember though, she is Death, so if she shows up uninvited....well, it was nice knowing you.
Which of the Endless Should You Invite to Dinner? brought to you by Quizilla
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Who Has the Guilt?
It's been quite a while since I bothered fisking an article. This particular one, I came across in the alt-weekly Cleveland Scene, written by the editor Peter Kotz, I find particularly irritating. It's about a reverse discrimination suit filed against the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Marty Gitlin is a white guy. This is not a good thing if you're a sports writer in Northeast Ohio, he believes.
But it's a damn good thing to be if you're in court facing criminal charges.
For years he toiled at outer-burb newspapers, most recently at the News-Herald in Willoughby. This is not a good thing either. Despite the righteousness tumbling from their pages, small dailies tend to embrace the slumlord theory of finance: Keep costs down to nothing and you can earn, no matter how decrepit your paper.
"Righteousness tumbling from their pages... Keep costs down to nothing and you can earn, no matter how decrepit your paper" Hmm. Sounds like he could be talking about the alt-weeklies in Cleveland.
So the pay was bad and the hours were long, but that didn't bother Gitlin. He was a son of Northeast Ohio. He had a dream. And he was willing to do his time in the sweatshops to get there.
"When I was young, in my 20s, I wanted to be a sports writer at The Plain Dealer," says Gitlin, now 46. "I didn't want to be at The New York Times or Sports Illustrated. I wanted to be at The Plain Dealer."
Okay, so he isn't the most ambitious guy in the world. He's still shooting for the largest daily in Ohio.
He did his time well, winning more than 40 awards from the Associated Press and the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association. When he saw PD writers at high school games, they would encourage him to apply for openings. He did, four or five times, he says.
Well the awards sound good, and number of them, sounds impressive. Though, I've always been under the impression that some of the state and local awards are handed out like hot dogs at a used car sale.
But he never got the call. The paper was looking for something else, he claims, and it didn't have much to do with skill.
Cuing up the ominous music.
"The basic problem here, to my knowledge, is that The PD has not hired a white male sports writer -- full-time, from outside The PD -- since 1989," Gitlin says.
By his calculations, the 10 or so openings have all gone to blacks or women -- save for the hiring of columnist Bud Shaw. He estimates that "80 percent of sports writers nationwide are white males. That indicates policy to me."
If true, that sounds like a certain policy to not only hire only blacks and women, but to only interview them. A shame we don't know if it's true. Kotz never bothered to investigate or even look into who has been hired by the PD since 1989 -- something that should be rather easy to do.
So Gitlin recently filed suit, claiming discrimination and asking for damages. "I feel to a great extent that it cost me my career." He's now pursuing work as a nursing-home administrator.
There are certain connotations that come with the white guy who cries racism. He's usually down on his luck, beaten by the forces of economics and circumstance, and he's looking for someone to blame. To a certain extent, this is true of Gitlin.
He spent 17 years in the field. For all the hardware he brought the News-Herald, he was earning just over $30,000 when he left last year. "By the time I was 60, I could have been making 40," he sighs. It might have been wiser to devote his gifts to the graveyard-shift cleaning crew at Wal-Mart. The only place a sports writer can earn more is at the Akron Beacon Journal, which is bleeding jobs, and The Plain Dealer. Hence, a man with two daughters is bound to be pissed.
"Certain connotations?" Is that the new euphemism for "stereotyping?" Of course, Pete don't want to say that. Using the word "stereotype" would display a certain bias about how the person is viewed. Pete's a journalist. The editor, even. Clearly he is above such crude biases.
To be fair, there is a big point to be made that Gitlin boxed himself into limited choices by deciding to stay in Northeast Ohio. Small pool of well-paying jobs in one area, tougher competition -- especially when others are willing to be more geographically mobile. Gitlin and Kotz don't seem to fully acknowledge this simple economic aspect.
Yet Gitlin doesn't speak the redneck's lexicon. He comes off as bright and eminently reasonable, with none of the fire-breathing usually linked to Oppressed White Man claims. "I'm about as liberal-minded as you get," he says. "I've always been in favor of affirmative action. If you have two people of equal merit, then you can use it as a tie-breaker. You simply don't base hiring on the basis of race, creed, or color."
Good god, man, "the redneck's lexicon?" Are we talking about general stereotypes or just your own personal ones? The clearest display of narrowmindedness and discrimination seems to be coming from the writer of this dreck. He's shocked, shocked to find out that someone who "comes off as" (not actually, but appears to be) "bright and eminently reasonable" could possibly conceive himself to have been wronged. Good golly, next he might learn that some people who "appear bright and reasonable" might actually have a different opinion on issues.
Herein lies the problem with his suit. Like most writers, Gitlin is not particularly modest about his skills. "I hate to say it, but dammit, I'm good enough to be at The Plain Dealer."
Ahem. Saying you're good enough to be at the PD is not exactly putting the bar too high. Especially in the sports section.
Being the King of the Sweatshop, however, doesn't necessarily mean you're worthy of the big leagues. In the realm of small dailies, the best writers leave for bigger papers, and the rest depart for livable wages, pushing competition to a minimum. It's hard not to win awards.
I love how Kotz leaves out where the alt-weeklies fall in this pecking order. As for the snarky comment about the awards, I'm not disagreeing; but Pete ought to be careful how hard he throws that rock from his glass house.
Could it be that The Plain Dealer simply thought he sucked?
"I would find that hard to believe, based on what I've accomplished -- the awards I've won," Gitlin says. But that isn't his point. "Even if I wasn't skilled enough, why would they be interviewing exclusively females or African American males?"
The paper won't say why Gitlin was rejected. Nor will it illuminate its hiring practices. "We don't -- and can't -- discuss personnel issues," says editor Doug Clifton. "I have no comment," echoes sports editor Roy Hewitt.
If the claim is true. And since I haven't seen the complaint, and Kotz apparently didn't read much either -- or else he might actually provide some information rather than asking whether Gitlin really wasn't that good of a writer, I can't be sure.
Gitlin never even made it to the point of being interviewed. Either way, it might be very interesting to see what comes out if they can get to discovery. If the hiring practices didn't even consider candidates who were not female and/or African Americans, then there is a rather clear prima facie case that the PD engaged in clear discriminatory behavior.
But there's little doubt that The PD, like all papers, has been amplifying its ranks of women and minorities in an attempt to remedy decades of honkification and testosterone overload. (Confession: Scene suffers the same affliction.) A number of women and blacks have been given major roles within the sports section, which, one might presume, is to be applauded. Except that, when dealing with race and gender, the ground is tender wherever you step.
Gitlin says he's heard PD writers complain about the new hires, namely the women. "Hiring females was a big joke among everybody. They give them more prominent beats right off the bat. I know there are some Plain Dealer high school writers who are very resentful about that."
Which leaves the paper screwed. Do nothing, and you're accused of being sexist, racist, and other unflattering "ists." Do something, and you're accused of tokenism.
It's very funny to read Peter Kotz stuck actually defending the Plain Dealer, essentially because he has to defend what his paper does.
There were perhaps better ways for Gitlin to handle this. His real beef, after all, is with the company that used his labor, but refused to pay him a family man's wage. The News-Herald and its sister paper, the Morning Journal in Lorain, badly need a union. Gitlin would have been the perfect man to lead the fight.
Yes, rather than file a lawsuit that could potentially expose discriminatory hiring practices at a major newspaper -- and cause a lot of other newspapers (and alt-weeklies?) to squirm and adjust their policies -- Gitlin should have just gone looking for that old union label. Now, what union do the employees of Scene and its corporate parent New Times belong to? I just couldn't seem to locate any union information in the employment section.
He could also have walked away. There's an argument to be made that white guys have had it so good, for so long, that it's time we take one for the team. For us to claim oppression is like a rich man whining about his money troubles. Nobody wants to hear it. Better to just take the hit.
Which all sounds good in theory, except when you're the guy who actually has to do it, and you believe your skin is keeping you from your dream. "Justice," explains Gitlin. "I just think it's so unjust."
Now, who really has the white man's guilt going on Kotz? I think you're projecting just a little too much.
The whole article strikes me as more than a little unsure. I get the sense from reading it a few times that Kotz set out to do a hatchet job on Gitlin as just another angry white guy (not to mention his own self interest in whatever hiring practices Scene uses), then actually found himself sympathizing with the situation, but then felt incredible levels of liberal guilt for wanting to side with the white guy.
One Term Mayor
If Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell is destined to be the first one term mayor of Cleveland since Dennis "no, really, I am running for President" Kucinich, then it won't be due to the whole Convention Center fiasco. It will be for this.
Cleveland will have to make dramatic spending cuts, including laying off workers, to avoid a projected $62 million deficit by the end of next year, the city's finance director said yesterday.
"We don't have enough revenues to fund the services people want and demand," Finance Director Robert Baker said.
Cleveland is on pace to run a $12 million deficit this year and a $50 million deficit in 2004.
This is hardly unique to Cleveland. Pittsburgh, for example, is faced with huge budget problems and has major layoffs coming. Not that this makes it any better for Cleveland or Mayor Campbell. Nothing shortens a tenure more reliably than cutting services and people.
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Sporadic
I've been a little inconsistent in posting recently. I'd like to say it's because I'm finally employed and I've been really busy with that, but that isn't the case. Some of it has been Angie having a cold, and then sharing with me (I'm feeling better, thanks for asking). I was away over the weekend for Pitt Football, and will be so again this weekend. Mostly, though, I've not felt anything I've read or thought get my attention enough to generate any real urge for writing.
I was sure the whole thing that has happened in the last couple weeks regarding Whiskey Island and the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Commissioners, and the Port Authority was going to get me going. But, to be honest, the whole thing just made me laugh. It's all a bit of a joke.
Summary
For those who don't know the story. Whiskey Island is one of the few remaining pieces of undeveloped property along the Lake Erie Shoreline in Cleveland. Large chunks of the lakefront in downtown is useless for public use because of Burke Lakefront Airport, the Rock Hall, the science center, MBNA Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Port Authority.
Whiskey Island itself is not an island but a peninsula that served as a landfill, has a marina, an old coast guard house, salt mines, iron ore pellet terminal and a good amount of sandy beaches that is used for beach volleyball.
The Cleveland Free Times (particularly Michael Gill) has been very active in documenting the comings and goings of WI recently.
About 16 months ago, Mayor Campbell announced plans for Whiskey Island to become a part. Things, however, aren't what they seem.
Despite the common ground in their publicly stated claims, however, Moore and the city arenÂ’t on the same page. ItÂ’s not that they disagree over money, though Ronayne and Moore quote substantially different dollar figures with respect to the likely sale price. Ronayne says that, valued as parkland, the price should be about $3 million. Moore says if he were selling to the Port Authority by court order, the land would probably be valued at $20 million. The larger issue, however, is whether people believe the city will use the land as described, and whether moving the port is necessary or good for the city.
in unanimouslylapprovingng a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU) Friday, the Planning Commission began to pave the way for a four-part deal with the Port Authority, which Ronayne says would help the cash-strapped city acquire the land. Moore, who used to sit on the Port Authority board, thinks itÂ’s ludicrous for that organization to be involved. And none of the people who spoke at the meeting trusted that the land would ultimately be used as Ronayne described.
The phrase "four-part deal with the Port Authority" covers most of the reasons.
Ronayne describes the memo of understanding as "a vehicle for the city to achieve greater public access on Cleveland Lakefront."
Its four components say the Port will relinquish seven acres of land abutting North Coast Harbor, give up eight more acres along Route 2 near 54th Street, make the effort to buy the eastern portion of Whiskey Island with the provision that most of it be deeded to the city, and in exchange will get an extension of their lease at docks 24 and 26, with a reduction in lease payments from $500,000 per year to $250,000 per year.
While the city technically would receive about 35 acres of land as a gift, it would pay in the form of lost revenue at a rate of $250,000 per year.
"We would be remiss to not take this opportunity to receive and place in public hands 35 acres of new land," Ronayne says. In addition, the Port's "vacation of docks 20-32 offers the opportunity to create 100 acres of urban harbor front. We've always talked about
the Baltimore Inner Harbor, but we've never done anything about it."
"Qu'est-ce que fucking c'est?" Moore asks in impeccable French. "Why does the Port need to be in the deal? That makes it suspicious to all of us," particularly when the Port Authority proposed to expand on Whiskey Island while Mike White was mayor.
So, there's the massive distrust of the City of Cleveland's true intentions to Whiskey Island.
About a month ago, Michael Gill broke a much more intriguing issue about the City of Cleveland's intentions towards Whiskey Island when it was revealed that the Mayor's office spiked the opportunity to receive about half the money through a federal grant.
For the record, Dan Moore, who owns a controlling interest in Whiskey Island, wants to see the place made permanently into a park with legal controls built in via a transaction involving the Trust for Public Land. The Trust is a well-respected, non-profit organization that protects land from development by adding legal stipulations before turning it over to government partners.
In the Whisky Island case, the Trust applied through Senator DeWine's office for $3 million in federal funds to help buy a 20-acre, lakefront parcel.
But the city trumped the Trust's efforts a few weeks ago when Campbell wrote to DeWine, urging him not to support their application.
When I asked Lakefront Plan Manager Debbie Berry about the letter, I was met with a long moment of silence before she deferred to Planning Director Chris Ronayne. The media certainly wasn't supposed to hear about this one. After being told to file a public information request in order to receive a copy of the letter and complying with the city's demand for a 35 cent check or money order to cover the photocopying, the Free Times obtained a copy of the letter and other relevant documents.
Is there obvious bias on the part of Mr. Gill? Oh yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Though it would have been nice to know that the seemingly altruistic Dan Moore and his group owes more than $700,000 in back property taxes for the property.
DeWine was not made available for comment on the letter, and a spokesperson from his office said that, while the Trust's application had already been forwarded, Campbell's denial of support makes it a low priority. In all likelihood, the DeWine spokesperson said, it will not be funded and $3 million in federal money for a park on Whiskey Island will not be forthcoming.
Campbell's letter states that the Trust sought the funds on behalf of the City of Cleveland, which the Trust's application bears out. At this point, however, stories diverge.
Ronayne echoes Campbell's letter, stating that the Trust pursued the funds in the city's name, but without the city's authorization. He said the Trust does not have the city's support for the appropriation and that the Trust's assertion that they are working on the city's behalf is a misrepresentation.
Trust for Public Land Ohio Office Director Christopher Knopf is on vacation and was unavailable for comment.
Ronayne acknowledges that the Trust told the city that they would apply to DeWine's office for the funds, but he makes the following analogy: telling someone you're going to the bank is one thing, but then going to the bank and taking out a loan in the other person's name is something else.
It should be noted that the Trust did not apply for a loan, but for a federal grant. How often has Cleveland turned its back on a potential $3 million federal grant?
Dan Moore declined to comment, noting his ongoing negotiations with the city.
Beyond the he-said/she-said claims, the real question is why the city would go to such unusual lengths to keep the Trust for Public Land out of this deal. Ronayne says the city's reason is that a middle man would make the land more expensive and introduce an element of uncertainty.
At the same time Ronayne says he wants the Trust's involvement in the acquisition of land for Canal Basin Park and perhaps other future projects. A middleman and any cost or legal ties that come with it are apparently no problem in that instance.
Perhaps the difference between Canal Basin Park and Whiskey Island is that the latter deal involves the Port. Currently, the city has a memorandum of understanding with the Port Authority for the same land that TPL wants to buy, stating that the Port will pay for the land and then deed it to the city without restriction.
Putting the Whiskey Island deal in the larger context of the city's Lakefront Plan and the Port Authority's master plan, the city's motive for resisting TPL involvement becomes clearer. The Lakefront Plan calls for the Port to move west of the Cuyahoga River onto Whiskey Island. The current plan indicates that the Port would use only the western portion of the so-called island, stopping with the Marina. That's substantially less space than the Port currently occupies, and whether the Port would restrain its operations to those confines over the long term is doubtful. Further, the Port's own master plan calls for using much more space on Whiskey Island -- in fact, all but eight skinny acres along the river.
Perhaps the city's real problem with the Trust is that legal restrictions would prevent that -- or other eventual development -- from happening. The city wants to be free to give or sell the land. Perhaps the Port has made the offer with the expectation of this right.
[Emphasis added.]
It may be speculation, but it actually seems quite reasonable to believe.
Still, this was completely under the radar of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, until...
Cuyahoga County wants to buy Whiskey Island, one of the last undeveloped areas along Lake Erie's shoreline in Cleveland.
Suddenly it seems the County and City are in conflict again. So now the PD wants to wring its hands in the editorial pages; talk about the rift between the politicians and personalities, and belatedly look into the things that were revealed by the Free Times (without giving credit).
The whole thing is just a pissing match between the County Commissioners and the Mayor. I suppose I should be more upset at how dumb, and moronic these people are being; at yet another tale of cluelessness by the Plain Dealer; at how this is not good for the city and region where I live. But when I search for the outrage, all I find is my inner- Nelson pointing at them all and saying
Ha-Ha!
It's just too much
Let's see. Greg Easterbrook writes for The New Republic; his super long Tuesday Morning Quarterback column recapping the NFL; and now a blog?
And just to top it off, he gets to hang with the hottest set of cheerleaders in the NFL for an evening - not to mention the best calendar for the second straight year. And this is one of the less racy samples.
Monday, September 08, 2003
Hard to Watch
Ugh. The Eagles are looking like crap on Monday Night Football.
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