Cleveland Real Estate News » politics

What Are Your Goals For Cleveland?

Carole Cohen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:03:07 +0000

Most Clevelanders will be reading the Plain Dealer’s list of 2009 goals for Cleveland. I applaud them for having ideas, especially the one that talks about how we need to move forward not kvetch over what has not happened in the past.

I would love to read your thoughts on their list, and also your ideas as well. As I read through the article, I did have my own comments.

The PD discusses branding Cleveland and revitalizing the Core City. I’m down with the second part. But instead of constant rebranding and marketing expenses that go with it, why not just recognize what are brand really is? Guts, grit, hardworking people who are bright and creative. Pittsburgh does not hold the trademark on people having the will of steel. We are a collection of people who can do anything we set our minds to doing; we are not weaklings who can’t take cold weather; even if we don’t like it, we go about our business and get things done.

We are a town founded on the principle of creativity and hard work. And we have examples of that everywhere, from University Circle cultural institutions to our universities themselves, and a population that prides itself in hard work. Which is why it’s so hard for so many to be out of work. Revitalize the core and bring new jobs into Cleveland and put people to work. Most problems will then be solved.

I have no quarrel with the PD’s list under this topic, but I see one glaring omission. We were originally branded as a steel city, a place with a vital trolley line and rail lines. So if there is any brushing off of our brand that could truly set us apart, it would be a commitment to passenger rail and transit as viable keys to future business and residential development. And tons of jobs.

The PD discusses government reform and they are clearly in the column of supporting regional government. I think we need more cooperation among the different governments, but just regionalizing it isn’t the answer. There has been a lot of discussion on Cleveland blogs lately about the need to completely change the paradigm of how we elect and who we elect, how much it costs and whether or not they support the goals we all have, as opposed to what party they are in. Anyone agree with me?

I get excited at one of the PD’s ideas though: “,,,,demand collaboration at every level of government. “

I think Governor Strickland is on the right track in terms of revamping how our educational system is funded and operated. The devil is in the details and that is fine. But for sure, we all need to step up to the plate to voice our opinions about the future of education in Ohio and Cleveland. Our finances are tied into it for one thing, and more importantly, our future as a City.

And that gets me to another goal. We need to start holding our government accountable for missing deadlines to get us involved in Federal, State and other initiatives that would clearly help us move forward. There is too much history of us not doing that. So let’s just take the bull by the horns and admit that we have a say in this issue. We can make the calls and follow the ideas and make sure the ‘powers that be’ and administrators know we are watching and holding them to being organized enough to not miss these crucial deadlines!

The PD closes with comments that seem to indicate they have decided 1) being in bed with old school people and ideas isn’t gonna fly (that means us too, not just the PD) and 2) that they are willing to change how they have approached the news in recent times.

My last comment is that we need to hold them and our government and ourselves to this goal.

What do you think? How can we continue to organize ourselves to help make all this happen? Peace Out – 3C

Update, because I think a point was missing in my section on re-branding Cleveland. If you read books like Instructions From The Cook and Tribes, you realize an important point. Ideas come together and a focus develops. The branding will happen afterwards, because we do the work that will make a difference, we listen to and ecourage all great ideas and focus on what the majority is motivated to see happen. It means more involvement in ways that may be different from past experiences, but the outcome is worth it. I would highly suggest both of these books to all of you as good starting points to getting involved.

What commuters expressed about Obama: Optimism

Carole Cohen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:18:23 +0000

There is an outside chance that some of us bloggers are going to be on a bus Sunday trekking through Ohio, eventually heading to DC. If this happens I will be really excited to talk to people in a ‘man on the street’ kind of way and get some oral history about the inauguration of Barack Obama.

So how cool to be able to get that kind of information as I commuted on the bus home tonight.

It started with one lady talking to a just arrived seatmate, asking her what she thought about ‘next Tuesday’s inauguration.’ I couldn’t hear the lady’s response but the questioner became very animated about her excitement. ‘I can’t wait to see him sworn in, it just feels like life is better than I ever thought it could be.‘

Then a guy on the other side of the aisle started chiming in about how he thinks businesses will begin hiring again even if the economy doesn’t change all that much nationwide. He said ‘Clevelanders are a hardy and hopeful bunch. It is going to help, Obama is, you just watch.‘

I doubt these comments came from the elite or from any economists or sociologists. You never know, but they seemed like regular folk like the rest of us; on the bus in the cold, getting up every day, doing what we need to do to get by.

It was fascinating to hear the optimism. I’m going to start chatting up people when I’m in the store and on the street — may as well do this even if we aren’t able to go to Washington on Sunday.

I’ll keep you posted either way. What kind of discussions have you heard about the change in leadership? Peace Out – 3C

Say It Ain’t So, Governor Strickland. We Need The Film Industry Now, Not Next Year

Carole Cohen — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:30:50 +0000

Why won’t Governor Strickland support the film industry tax credit? My cousin Jeff and I spoke this evening, so the conversation got to the film industry quickly. I’m interested and supportive, but he is working diligently to help make it happen, even going to Columbus to sit in on committee meetings, etc. The conversation was enlightening. Just as background, the Ohio House and Senate have passed the bill to allow a 25% film industry tax credit, and you can read more about it here.

More background on the issue: the tax credit has been an issue, off and on, for years. Apparently, as early as this past summer, Governor Strickland told our local film society peeps and others, that while he is supportive, he doesn’t want to consider the issue now. He’d rather deal with it in 2009 budget discussions. My cousin also said that during the committee meetings it was clear the Dept. of Taxation was against the idea – but then they don’t usually support abatements anyway.

And now here is the kicker: It was also implied that the Governor, in 2009, would have a new bill introduced by a Democrat and then it could move forward. Now I can be as cynical as the next person, but even if there is a smidgen of truth to this, how sad is that? It blows me away.

Governor Strickland has been holding town meetings/conferences on education all over the State. He also speaks on other topics with empathy and good ideas. This time however, I am at a loss as to his position.

First of all, bringing in a new, stable, job force via the film industry cannot be a bad thing, under any circumstance. And waiting could have us losing out on two movies in the pipeline. Why should we lose a chance to start establishing a new job industry here in NE Ohio before the 2009 state budget meetings get started?

Political posturing is not something new, but hasn’t our President elect asked us to put partisanship aside and start doing what needs to be done to help us all recover economically? Maybe Governor Strickland missed those speeches. Or maybe there are other reasons he is not talking about. Regardless, he SHOULD be talking about them because otherwise I can believe what I want, including that he would rather have the bill sponsored by a Democrat instead of a Republican!!

Not to leave Mayor Jackson out of the posturing, he can posture with the best of them. But he did after all, offer the Convention Center property tax free to the film industry a few months ago…in the hopes of keeping them interested in Cleveland while the tax credit is being discussed. (His posturing, according to the PD, happened when he almost didn’t support this week’s Bill because it wasn’t included in the Bill that he had a seat on the oversight board)

Even if the above is all political scuttlebutt with only a grain of truth thrown in, someone (as Rachel Maddow would say) needs to talk me down on why anyone would oppose this idea? No one wants to give the film industry a tax credit because we will be losing money – but if we don’t, then we don’t have ANY money from the film industry to lose. Not to mention the jobs created. Some of which would be transitional (per movie), but some of which would be a permanent workforce here. According to my cousin, it’s a significant number of permanent jobs too.

Can we not shoot ourselves in the foot? I encourage you all to contact the Governor’s office on Monday. Here is his contact information:

The Honorable Ted Strickland

77 High Street, #30

Columbus Ohio 43215

telephone number: 614-466-3555

or, here is the contact page from the Governor’s website. You can send him an email.

At the very least, the Governor should be communicating his stance on this issue. Not when he vetoes it, but beforehand. Our President-elect is comfortable in his own skin and with his own intelligence, and is able to welcome various viewpoints on issues, in order to reach a good decision about what should happen. At least that is what we keep hearing. Even if THAT isn’t true, it’s how everyone needs to operate in this time of economic crisis. And it’s certainly what I expect from my Governor.

Say it ain’t so, Governor Strickland. Please tell me you would not be holding up a bill that could bring jobs to NE Ohio and elsewhere in the State, just because a Democrat did not introduce the Bill. And please do not veto House Bill 196 or the tax credit!

Peace Out – 3C

May Bipartisanship Really Be The 21st Century Model

Carole Cohen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:12:41 +0000

We had an historic election, and Barack Obama is our President Elect. He has some initial missions to accomplish, according to his staff. Part of that mission is to set up a government that embraces bi-partisanship, is committed to doing hard work to get us back on track economically, help create jobs, and start repairing our alliances and position around the World.

We are a collection of different positions on issues, different political ideologies. I can’t help but think if we put our cynicism aside, and get out of our old way of thinking, these various ideologies and ideas can give us amazingly creative ways to solve some problems and get on the right track.

There are many people who have faith and practice it because of their religious beliefs. How about if we put this faith to work on a secular level? President Elect Obama says he believes in listening to opposing ideas. I’m going to take him at his word. Because unless we approach things from all angles, we might not come up with the best solutions. What do any of us have to lose by changing how we look at what needs to be done? By not being negative but trying to come up with solutions instead.

And you know what? We can hold our political leaders accountable to their mission statements. We really don’t have much to lose, do we? We can do this with our own communities as well. Let’s forget about how things have been done, and think about the possibilities.

One thought I have is how we register to vote for our elections. Here in Ohio, we have to declare ourselves Republicans or Democrats. I think that would be an easy change. We should be able to vote in primaries for all candidates in any party by registering as Independents. Or else, can we just change it so we can vote for everyone even if we ARE registered for one party or another. Just throwing that out because it seems civilized to me. What are the drawbacks, if there are any?

It’s hard not to look at what transpired tonight, historically, and not feel optimistic that anything really IS possible.

Let’s forget that we started off as conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican. I’m hoping I can really listen and that we can all really listen, to each other’s ideas. We are all in this boat together not on one side of the aisle or another. Let’s all have a bit of faith and concentrate on the possibilities.

Peace Out – 3C

Ron Howard’s Call To Action

Carole Cohen — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:53:25 +0000

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

We Are Investing In Bank Stocks, Per The Treasury

Carole Cohen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:19:57 +0000

There are tons of articles today about the Treasury/Administration decision to spend some of the billions allocated to bail out issues on private banks. Via stocks. I picked one to link here that highlights the mixed feelings they had about making this decision. After all, I’ve been identifying the Feds as the new liberals but I digress. This MSNBC article (originally AP) gives a good overview. And here are the first nine banks receiving money (National City is not on this list) -

The nine initial banks participating are Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp, including the soon-to-acquired Merrill Lynch, Citgroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street Corp.

From my own perspective, Citi is very hard to deal with in short sale situations, as a Realtor®. VERY hard. As in, no one calls you back for months; not weeks, months. And then there is the Wells Fargo issues, with them coming into our market a few years ago with sub prime loans and now being one of the largest owners of foreclosed property in Cuyahoga County. Sigh. To say the least, I would be happy to replace either of them with National City. Wonder how National City feels about it? Peace Out – 3C

I was remiss and should have added the link to Teresa Dixon Murray’s PD blog post on this issue. It’s really very thorough with a good explanation as well as quotes from Key and National City people. Here it is.

We Are All Out of Trust So The Bail Out Failed

Carole Cohen — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:18:54 +0000

I tried not to write this post but it’s not possible. Collectively, we’ve all been at the edge of our seats for at least four days, wondering what our political leaders were going to do to try to correct our economic situation. I can’t remember the last time I was this tuned in, second by second, to a House vote.

Good things happened over the last few days. My conservative and liberal (for lack of a better monniker, since we seem to need them) friends and I talked about the Bail Out…constantly. No matter what political party, everyone said 1)there was enough blame, on all sides, to go around. 2)we are all fed up with rhetoric. 3)we expect our leaders to do the right thing, whatever that is.

It became clear to me that no one trusted anybody.

I was streaming the House discussion before the vote (CNN provided a stream on their website). Many people talked, and then John Boehner spoke. I don’t share many of his political views, but I was impressed. Here was a conservative Republican, talking to his colleagues, imploring them to put partisanship aside, suck it in, and do the right thing for the Country by supporting the Bill. Then Nancy Pelosi got up to speak.

I was appalled. I cringed. I started emailing friends, asking how someone like that can be Speaker of the House. They emailed back in agreement. This ‘agreement’ came from friends who are more liberal and friends who are conservative.

Let’s get this straight: The Speaker of The House of Representatives is supposed to be a leader who is adept at forging alliances. Someone who leads, not someone who snipes. Yet there was Nancy Pelosi, not more than five minutes before a vote was expected, chastising the last 8 years of The Bush Admn. and conservative right wing politics run amok. I wanted to be Elivs and shoot the screen!

I admit that the Republican Reps who said they didn’t support the Bill because of her sound lame. They can be pissed if they want, but don’t vote based on that or all you are doing is showing your lack of leadership as well.

Okay now for some good news. Thousands of people called their Representatives over the last week. Grassroots was at it’s best. Supposedly, the voting was affected by the voter outcry. One more reason to believe that the more we all get involved, the better off we will be.

But how sad is it, that we cannot trust our political leaders? As Joel Auchenbach and Ashley Surdin said in the Post today, “A political establishment held in higher regard might have been able to hold together some kind of coalition of the willing. But distrust of the nation’s leaders, from the leaders of Congress to the president of the United States, foreclosed that possibility.”

The rest of the Washington Post article is here. An even better example of the citizen outcry and involvement over the last week showed up in today’s WS Journal. This article is only one of many about the Bailout and in my opinion, the WSJ covered it best with an article entitled How Voter Fury Stopped the Bailout.

Some sites and blogs weigh in, from the WSJ article:

The proposal’s defeat was also cheered on by a number of blogs that in recent days have posted links to lawmakers’ telephone and fax numbers and urged citizens to oppose the plan. They included stopthehousingbailout.com, a Web site organized by a 37-year-old Los Angeles attorney named Morgan Ward Duran, and globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com, run by Mike Shedlock, an investment adviser at SitkaPacific Capital Management. Mr. Shedlock said in an interview Monday that his site had received 1.7 million page hits this month, which he said was half a million more than normal.

I plan on calling Dennis Kucinich and giving him a piece of my mind about Nancy Pelosi. (I am sure Dennis can’t wait to hear from me) I think the best place to start is by getting a new Speaker. Someone who actually understands what the job of Speaker of the House was designed to do, not what it has evolved into at this point in time. Bah humbug! 3C

BTW: This is the only guy, the only Representative who did not vote today. Jerry Weller from Illinois. You want to read about him? Send him an email and ask why, unless he was on his deathbed, he chose to add to his poor attendance record on the day when one of the most important votes needed to be cast? Here is a link to Jerry Weller.

Crain’s Cleveland weighs in with some info from Sutton, Kucinich and LaTourette on why they did not support the Bill.

10.03.08 update: by now everyone knows, the bail out has passed on it’s second go-round in the House (after tweaking by the Senate earlier this week). Here is a PD run down of the votes. Betty Sutton switched her vote, Kucinich and LaTourette still voted nay.

Thank Goodness for CSPAN or I’d Never Really Get To See What is Happening At The Convention!

Carole Cohen — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:24:55 +0000

I spent about twenty minutes last night, after the DN Convention coverage was over, trying to find emails for a few of the talking heads. I finally decided 1) it wasn’t worth my effort and 2) they wouldn’t really care what I had to say anyway, they only want to hear themselves talk! It’s not that I mind a little bit of discussion (I do miss Tim Russert), but can’t they bring on guests? People from states whose votes in the Fall are going to matter regarding the outcome, delegates at the convention, interview people who are setting up the platforms. I don’t know, call me crazy, but that sounds more interesting to me than hours of ‘what will the tone of the day be.’

Well Newsweek has an article today about too much talk and not enough coverage which made me smile, making some points I wanted to make in the email.

It’s not new, talking heads of all sorts tell us what we think, or at least they think they do! I was watching a lot of the coverage on CSPAN and would periodically switch to one of the cable news networks to see if I was missing anything. Frequently last night the talking heads were lamenting that no one was going after John McCain. I was incredulous since speaker after speaker (governors, like our Governor Strickland, and others, like Dennis Kucinich) DID go after McCain. But how would they know that since they were too busy talking over the speakers????? Sigh. I wanted to shout into the television ‘turn around and look!’ lol

In my business of real estate I get frustrated at the pundits who try to say what the truth is about the housing market. They sit in New York or Atlanta or wherever, and here we all sit in Cleveland. We know we need to do our own investigations into our own housing market, and agents and brokerages all over the country keep telling them real estate is local. It doesn’t stop them from trying to sound like an expert. The same is true with economic issues. Most of the guys (who IS that guy who runs around like a crazy person on CNN talking about economic issues??) are not even economists! But they get paid to try to tell us what to think. lol. You have to love it in a way but it’s also frustrating.

Do you think the various networks and talking heads will take heed or heart from the Newsweek piece, in time for the Republican convention? Nah, I don’t think so either lol. Peace Out – 3C

How Public Should All Mayor and Council Meetings Be?

Carole Cohen — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:36:42 +0000

If you haven’t already done so, check out the wonderful Charter Review Commission blog set up by Bill Callahan. It is an exhaustive list of everything being discussed, researched and debated, as well as an accounting of minutes from the public meetings that were held. Bill posted the final recommendations (pdf) and the idea of executive sessions is discussed briefly by Robert Triozzi, Cleveland’s Law Director on page 16. Council will decide within a week whether this issue should go on the ballot.

One of the items being discussed was reported on in today’s PD by Henry Gomez. Adding Executive (or closed to the public) sessions for certain types of discussions. I can think of reasons why an executive session should be allowed but considering the back room quality of our County practices I wasn’t as thrilled with Triozzi’s rationale here: “We just felt our council should have the same ability as the county commissioners,” said Triozzi, who sat on the panel and voted to recommend the charter change….”

It’s hard to compare Rockville Maryland (with a much smaller population) but I bring it up since I have experience as a neighborhood organizer with that political system. The Mayor and Council held executive sessions, including but not limited to discussions on specific employee issues. Since there was always a report about what transpired in executive session at the next public/regular M and Council meeting, it wasn’t a problem. Especially since we had a mandated time at each meeting for public comments.

To me the key is that minutes from all* executive sessions be made available on the website. My asterisk is because I can see why true homeland security issues might not need detailed minutes but just discussing the fact that a meeting about it occurred and what kind of issues were discussed surrounding that topic could still be made public. When I lived in Rockville and was active, you could get paper copies of any meeting from City Hall. Now of course we have the Internet so it becomes even easier for us to do it here. Making minutes available could cut down on the abuse issue.

How do you feel about this other issue raised, that reporters should be allowed into an executive session? Here is an editorial from Tacoma Washington’s Tribune about the pros and cons. This is a detailed discussion, from The Olympian in the state of Washington on taping executive sessions.

Here is a link to a Hagerstown Maryland executive session minutes/report so you can see some of the issues they discuss in ES. Here is an excerpt I’m including because litigation issues (to me) qualify as ES material:

“….City Clerk Donna K. Spickler called the meeting to order. On a motion duly made by

Councilmember K. B. Aleshire and seconded by Councilmember K. S. Cromer, the City Council

unanimously agreed by voice vote to meet in closed session at 3:32 p.m. in accordance with the

provisions of the annotated Code of Maryland, State Government Article, Section 10-508(a) #8

to consult with staff, consultants, or other individuals about pending or potential litigation and #1

to consider the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion,

compensation, removal, resignation or performance evaluation of appointees, employees, or

officials over whom it has jurisdiction….”

I admit to being unclear as to why CPP and or FirstEnergy meetings need to be in an Executive Session. Frankly the fact that CPP is owned by us (not really the City but us!) these meetings should be public. Them saying that FirstEnergy enjoys private meetings means they are already having executive sessions when it’s not mandated? Yes I am a tad confused.

As always, would love your thoughts on this issue. Peace Out – 3C

Saturday Update: I asked Bill Callahan, and he kindly provided, the specific links and issues we can examine regarding executive session (thank you Bill!):

Carole, the discussion of the executive session proposal took place on April 24.

http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/Home/CharterReviewCommission/CharterReview42408/tabid/480/Default.aspx

The staff’s notes aren’t especially informative or complete but in this case I don’t think they missed any big debate. The key issues raised were:

a) Is this an open-ended permission to close sessions? (A: No, the topics and circumstances for legislative executive sessions would become those set specifically by state law, i.e. the “Sunshine Law”. See http://www.ag.state.oh.us/legal/sunshine.asp.)

b) Can any actual decisions be made in executive session? (A: No.)

c) Does discussion in executive session allow any change in the public status of documents? (A: No, the City already operates under the state’s public records law and this proposal has no effect on that.)

Bill

Our Legislators Are Supporting Passenger Rail

Carole Cohen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:17:01 +0000

I got this message from All Aboard Ohio about a week ago, I’m trying to recreate some posts that were lost, so bear with me. This one was important enough to recreate, at least I think so

”Another victory for passenger rail development for Ohio! Recently, the Ohio Delegation to Congress has sent a letter to President Alex Kummant of Amtrak in support of the possibility of start-up service in Ohio. While 4 out of the 20 Representatives and Senators did not sign the letter, this represents a significant step in the correct direction for rail development in Ohio. The stage will be set to seek dollars behind these words of support from out elected officials and we are working with our state leaders to move the Ohio Hub System and incremental rail service improvements forward.

Thank you,

Andrew Bremer, Executive Director

3 days ago