GCP Support of State Capital Bill Projects
This is the list of projects submitted as "wishlist" for state monies-El Mercado is a not a priority and should never have made the capital budget bill. The secrets deals on West 25th need to be exposed for who the real players are along this "Scenic By-way."
http://wviz.ideastream.org/programs/ideas/what-the-states-proposed-capital-bill-means-for-cuyahoga-county
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/squandered-opportunity-laura-mcshane/
https://www.csuohio.edu/urban/sites/csuohio.edu.urban/files/2_22_06_andrew_mark_abe.pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/road-nowhere-laura-mcshane/
- Phase II of Restoring the Irishtown Bend: $2.5 million ($5 million requested)
- MetroHealth West 25th Street neighborhood innovation: $750,000 ($1.25 million requested)
- El Mercado business incubator: $100,000 ($250,000 requested)
- Karamu House $700,000 ($2 million requested)
- Glenville Arts Campus: $300,000 ($350,000 requested)
- Cleveland Clinic outpatient children's therapy: $750,000
- University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute Advanced Interventional Cardiology Suite: $350,000
- Severance Hall Transformation: $1.25 million
- Reshaping History campaign for Cleveland Museum of Natural History: $2.5 million
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum 2.0 "Remixed and Remastered": $400,000
- Playhouse Square Theater improvements: $850,000
- Cuyahoga County Mental Health Jail Diversion Treatment Facility: $700,000
- Flats East Bank Development (performance stage): $500,000
The capital budget also allocates $13 million for renovations at Cleveland State University and $13.5 million for structural concrete repairs at Cuyahoga Community College.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/state_capital_budget.html
"Among those earmarked in the bill: $350,000 for Applewood Jones Home renovation and $1 million for a Bellfaire JCB expansion."
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I am just going to be honest and say that I am terribly depressed for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County by several published articles from this past week.
First, taxpayers learned that we helped subsidize trips to Columbus by the Cuyahoga County Executive's Chief of Staff - so she could complete her degree and start up a company, the Unify Project - that is intended to use blockchain management of data for "social good."
Highly paid Cuyahoga County IT staff involved with the Chief of Staff are under a corruption investigation.
Here is the "exciting" secret project that was being hatched: https://www.unifyproject.org and the planned featured discussion at http://datadayscle.strikingly.com/
Then, Metrohealth released the latest "plans" for the "campus transformation."
http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2018/03/metrohealth_committed_to_developing_its_neighborhood_as_well_as_its_campus.html
Another exercise in delusion and smoke-and-mirrors, the Metrohealth expansion fails to generate private investment and fails to capitalize on the economic potential for a campus that connects two large facilities Metrohealth Main Campus and the Metrohealth Deaconess and Spinal Center- with greenway connections to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Stillwater Place, Ariel Event Center and a Lower Big Creek connector to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Cleveland has several amazing events planned this summer. The Cuyahoga River is the cleanest it has been for decades. We have an amazing Cleveland Metroparks and cultural attractions that rival offerings in New York, London, Paris and Rome. We have young talent and young energy, but we also have an entrenched "old guard," hobbling Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is defining how a city is responsive to residents and working with their talent to attract international attention and possibly Amazon's second headquarters. Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak describe this energy in the The New Localism.
I am very sad this week. I can't see how our region can shake off the yoke of oppression we have in our dysfunctional city and county government. I welcome anyone to cheer me up.
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/03.28.2018NTI-FirstPhase
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/03/mayor_frank_jackson_unveils_15.html
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/05/cleveland_mayor_frank_jackson_34.html
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Response to Jon Pinney presentation at the Cleveland City Club:
Here is my comment deleted by Michelle Jarboe's editors: Where are you PD Clevelanddotcom writers holed up these days? The PD real estate deal for CLE police headquarters in the Forest City Publishing building sale is an example of the cannibalism that passes for development at the City of Cleveland. Also, given a pass the never ending nightmare known as the Cuyahoga County Land Bank and the legacy of the two crooks, Frangos and Rokakis, who destroyed the tax base in NEO with their collusion w/ "non-profit CDCs and rackets like Cleveland Housing Network. Both will be remembered in time like Albert Porter - machine boss who intentionally segregated the east side from west side w/the demolition of the Clark-Pershing bridge and push for the Shaker Freeway, which has become the incredible black hole that no one discusses any more - "The Opportunity Corridor."
My comment was deleted for two reasons: calling out the parasitism of "non-profits" here and for calling attention to the fact that the "Opportunity Corridor" has done nothing to improve Cleveland's economy. Consider the fact that no one at GCP bothered to include the land available in the their bid for Amazon's second headquarters. GCP's Joe Roman wrote a lame preemptive op-ed in PD before the presentation and Mark Naymik capitalized on the faux outrage over no women on Pinney's list, attempting to undermine Pinney's message. Folks were at the City Club because Pinney is a white male - one who helped deliver a president to the White House. I am a woman writing under my real name saying that we have to change by implementing open government that stops riding the federal and state money train. Cleveland was a powerhouse city - and, we still have all of the elements that make our region important to running a county, state and federal government that can take care of its people.
I had the day off today - met two CWRU graduates now living in Andover MA (near Boston and MIT)- they were staying at the Radisson downtown and were underwhelmed by what has been touted as the Cleveland Renaissance. I assured them that we still have the world class Cleveland Orchestra and world class Cleveland Art Museum among are many cultural assets. I encouraged them, next time, to stay at the Courtyard Marriott in University Circle. Cleveland is STILL affordable for retirees, like these CWRU alum and we have more to offer. Boston..does not have our culture. I lived there. It's nice, though expensive. Also, on my trip today (via GCRTA) ran into an OSU engineering student working as an intern at Voss and staying with relatives in Parma. He expects to graduate and work in Huntsville Alabama or near Cape Canaveral FL, where some of the aeronautical engineering firms are located and relocating. Does Cleveland have a plan to retain Voss?? Who knows? Cleveland council people like Kevin Kelley and Tony Brancatelli are too busy courting a tax evading non-profit alliance between Cleveland Housing Network and Eden to care about a REAL manufacturing business in Northeast OH.