Four syllables. It's a BIG word!

Chris and Natalie Ronayne have a new child born in the city. Congratulations to the Ronaynes! Believe it or not, h-e-l-i-c-o-p-t-e-r is one of the first words the "disadvantaged" kids in my neighborhood learn from seeing and hearing the big yellow bird in the sky every day and every night.

Driving the "Opportunity Corridor" will not get patients and doctors to the Clinic any faster than the existing infrastructure, but a HELICOPTER will. Talk to Metrohealth. The helicopter has a name--it's called Life Flight.

We're friends.

Did you read Philip Fragassi's editorial on Metrohealth? Phil went to Miami University just like you and just like me. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. We are mortal and we are not far removed from the vulnerable described by Dr. Phil.

Let me reprint Phil Fragassi's somewhat veiled plea to the Clinic and UCI:

Cleveland is truly a Mecca of medical care. People come from all over the world for the medical care we have to offer.

But there are disparities. Some hospitals have billion-dollar surpluses; others that care for the most vulnerable are struggling to stay afloat. Some people with insurance drive many miles to go to a physician when the solution is in their back yard. Some people are still evaluated and told to go to "the county hospital."

Do I have to tell you what he is saying here?

Did you know that after passing Issue 15 the County dried up funding to the independent living program at the Applewood Jones Home? Wow, wouldn't it make sense to offer nearby daycare to the employees at Metrohealth at the Jones Home? Wouldn't it make sense for the Clinic and University Hospitals to do the same? Wouldn't it be great, if those same employees could walk over and visit their kids on lunch break and then walk home afterwards. With Cleveland Public Libraries near both major medical facilities, you could pick up books and movies on your way home. With excellent Cleveland Metropolitan School District high schools--John Hay and the Cleveland School of the Arts, on the east side, and Lincoln West High School, on the west side, also within walking distance, consider the opportunities for co-op job training and STEM school campuses. Wow, and both John Hay and Lincoln West High School have indoor swimming pools that can be used for hospital staff recreation and physical therapy work-outs. Wow, so many opportunities and so little action.

As long as I've been in Cleveland (1965), UCI has been about

keeping an expanding black community from its turf. It has, unfortunately, dominated the elite community's decisions involving the UC area. It has meant destroying some older housing that would have made the area alive, it has caused the bunker buildings that you see from the  rapid station at Cedar and it has caused a sterile atmosphere where it should be one of the most alive neighborhoods in the city, especially with the influx of students, mostly young, every year.

And the new corridor is more of the same.

I was not at all surprised to see an editorial by Chris Ronayne front and center in Suday's PD... I'm sure that may be arranged any day he likes. What surprised me was that the editorial was so pointless.

Chris ends his preaching for the Opportunity Corridor with "Let's start this road to somewhere from University Circle", but never explains how. Okay... so are we having a bake sale? Did you want us to bring some mulch somewhere to help fill in some brownfields. I mean, what is the point... what is your objective, Chris... what do you want "us" to do?

What I think rich UCI institutions and rich UCI "backers" like PD published Egger and the 1,000s of rich doctors working around UCI should form a private cooperative to put up their private money to acquire the land between Carnegie and Woodland. Put in a private drive, at their expense... any major development requires private investment in infrastructure... put it all the way to 490, and charge a toll for everyone using it, and develop all the land around it for profit. Sell UC/Clinic area employees FastPass cards and include the "Opportunity" cost in employee compensation, or let them pay it with heir parking (I'm sure they ain't giving that away).

I don't see why the public should object to some good-old free enterprise in Cleveland, nor a private toll road through a development zone. It is the tax the poor corporate charity bullshit I don't like... and it smells like that is what Chris and his bosses are cooking up, to me... what about you?

Disrupt IT

Did you notice he used the words "hatched" and says  "The Opportunity Corridor is not a pork-barrel "bridge to nowhere." I give Chris more credit than his handlers.  He may be controlled, but he still has an ethical barometer under the suit.

Chris refers to the "corridor" as a boulevard, a road, a bridge. What is it exactly?

I think it is a highway - the continuation of I-490. It may slow gently into the ER at the Clinic, but so does E93 or E105 take you there. Bring the businesses, gardens and refurbished old homes - return the lovely streets and get those folks a map. Or get them a rail pass and a park and ride. It's the Red Line, stupid!

Do you want a highway built in your neighborhood? I prefer agriculture personally...

Think ODOT is gonna get the Cleveland Botanical Garden's biodiversity award for the Opportunity Corridor?

Note how "corridor" is like a chameleon - the name was changed from the "Euclid Corridor" to the "Silver Line" to the "Health Line". Will we call this the "Health Highway"? Is that an oxymoron?

If it isn't a highway, then it is like the West Shoreway - curbcuts for developers...

Of course, now we know why RTA is especially reeling--state funds are prioritized for the big shots in the big cars and ODOT road projects.  Why didn't they say so sooner?

GZ says–”The time has come to ask the politicians in Washington and Columbus why they drastically cut their funding to RTA and to the other transit authorities in Ohio.”

Over 600 people attended the meeting at the Cleveland Public Library downtown today 8/5 to protest proposed cuts in RTA service, especially circulators. So, who’s the bad guy in RTA’s book? The State and state transportation funding. 

RTA is asking riders to petition state reps for funding on par with other states, which receive 23 percent of their funding from state funds, while Ohio provides less than 3 percent to public transportation here.

We need to change the way we're talking about this RTA thing. Many people are defending against the cuts; we need to bypass cuts and talk about increases, extensions, more generous funding than ever, and free fare as a driver of the new Cleveland-based economy.

And, we need to confiscate the sales-tax increase ostensibly earmarked for the MedicalMartConventionCenterWelfareProject.

  My coworker clued me in on the  Emotional Intelligence game.  Really, I don't know the rules any more, not that I ever did.  But, basically, you say what administrators want to hear and you move ahead one place on the game board.  Obviously, this is Chris Ronayne's strategy at UCI. 

And, not a surprise, some major local (publicly funded ) institutions use "the EI game" to justify the awarding of high salaried jobs.

One of our region's best writers  tip-toes around the obvious message of the Opportunity Corridor--that there will be no real effort, now or in the future, to rid ourselves of cars. 

Some of my coworkers don't believe me when I say that I saved close to $10,000 last year by eliminating my commute.  Who's laughing now?