WOULD YOU HELP FUND A SNAKE PIT FOR JEFF JACOBS

I’m against any public money going into an aquarium for Jeff Jacobs who now must be a big-time multi-millionaire. Let him buy his own.

 

However, I would consider helping to fund a snake pit for Jacobs.

 

At least that would be so appropriate.

 

Jacobs said he’d put up $9 million and the city, state and county should pick up the other half. The other half, if I know anything about the Jacobs family, will be in the $20 to $30 million range. His $9 million will be a lot less even if he does pay himself a finder’s fee. That’s the way these things work out. Believe me.

 

Of course, the location of this aquarium would be at Jacobs’ Powerhouse in the Flats.

 

What’s so amusing about this story that greeted me on my return to Cleveland is that it is reported straight-facedly by the Plain Dealer, the paper of convenience for developers and their ilk.

 

It’s reported on the front page under a major headline starting with this paragraph:

 

“Downtown Cleveland could hook residents and tourists with a plan announced Wednesday to put a state-of-the-art aquarium in the Powerhouse in the Flats.”

 

Who sez? Jacobs? His PR firm?

 

Please, let’s have just a little bit of truth with our news.

 

The paragraph should have said that Jeff Jacobs “could hook Ohio, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County taxpayers” into subsidizing his desire for an aquarium to help his Powerhouse project, just as his dad, Dick, did for a new stadium.

 

Can’t we have a little reality in these Pee Dee drumbeating articles for greedy developers? Not a lot. Just a little. And maybe only once in a while. Or maybe just ONCE.

 

Get the snakes ready.