The Observation Deck

It's not a very funny joke and the joke is on you.

They are seeking input on the "problem" of urban sprawl from the people and political leadership in Warren, Youngstown, Akron and Ashtabula. Why not Columbus and Erie, PA?

http://vibrantneo.org/openhouses/

Bill

As cities become more and more inept at actually running a city, more and more turn to the
idea of regionalism, which is easy to sell to those not actually thinking (a dying art in
America). This simple story is the BS of either, "Together we have the same GDP as a
country like Rowanda..." on the even simpler side, "WE can share services that are
redundant" which is already done on state wide levels.

Pushed as answers by people that are PAID BIG DOLLARS to push regionalism, and sell
their communities out like Indian Scouts did to Custer and Indian fighters. This is the new,
not really, snake oil.

FWIW


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:Pushed as answers by people that are PAID BIG DOLLARS to push regionalism, and sell their communities out like Indian Scouts did to Custer and Indian fighters. This is the new, not really, snake oil.

Our "leadership" here in Northeastern Ohio is pushing regionalism and so called "sustainable communities" because it gives the appearance of taking action.

The BEST case scenario for Northeast Ohio is that in 20 years the population will be the same as it is now. The most likely scenario is that the region will continue to lose population, economic activity and political clout. I'll go out on a limb and say just about everyone in any leadership capacity thinks the region we will continue to decline.

The leadership will try to say the right words, "sustainable, smart, rebuild the urban core, dispersal is bad, it makes no sense to abandoned billions of investment to spend billions more to build what we already have". However, we should judge them not by the buzz words they use but by the actions they take.

NOACCA is funding and supporting new and improved and expanded freeways and exits in Lorain, Lake, Geuaga and Medina Counties.

RTA , funded by Cuyahoga County taxpayers, is expanding its service to Lake, Medina and Lorain Counties.

Tri-c, funded by Cuyahoga County taxpayers, is expanding into Medina and Lorain County.

The Cleveland Clinic is engaged in a policy of denuding Lakewood of doctors and specialists and transferring them to Lorain County.

Cuyahoga County is subsidizing the construction of hotels, restaurants and office buildings in Downtown Cleveland with the intent to take business from the surrounding inner ring suburbs.

Those are just the DIRECT actions of our so called leading institutions.

Then there are the polices of homeless resettlement, the conversion of apartments into halfway houses and public housing policies that degrade the quality of life in cities like Lakewood.

Their answer to the problems aggravated by their very own policies? To create another taxpayer funded advocacy group to lead the propaganda effort designed to give voters the impression that the situation is under control.

How can we take them seriously when they create an entity called the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium that gives Ashtabula and Sandusky a seat at the table?

If I lived in Ashtabula I would want my City to have a seat at the table for one reason: To keep the current policy of subsidized sprawl going as long as possible.

Of course I might be overly cynical.

Maybe the Mayors of Akron and Ashtabula and Youngstown sit down at the meeting and say “We need to halt all this development in our communities because urban sprawl is bad!” Really?

I might start to take the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium seriously if they start to criticize the actions of RTA, Tri-c, The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and NOACCA and Mental Health Services and the various housing agencies and their block busting tactics. Don't hold your breathe.

Another question no one wants to answer:
If our institutions are heading for the exits why should the people stay behind?

Here is a riddle:

117th and Clifton is one of the busiest corners in Cuyahoga County. More people live within a ten minute walk of that area than all of downtown. Why isn't that area eligible for even a fraction of the subsidies given to downtown?

The question provides its own answer. The question also provides a clue as to why the downtown only development model is causing so much damage.

Bill Call wrote:Here is a riddle:

117th and Clifton is one of the busiest corners in Cuyahoga County. More people live within a ten minute walk of that area than all of downtown. Why isn't that area eligible for even a fraction of the subsidies given to downtown?

The question provides its own answer. The question also provides a clue as to why the downtown only development model is causing so much damage.

Bill

It is not a riddle, just a simple question. With many answers but the most important is,
there is no one getting paid for that. People only push what they believe or what they are
paid to do. The money is in Downtown, and regionalism. Then there is the Cleveland
Foundation which gets serious dollars in, and in pay to play Sim City with our community.
However their depth of understanding or even wanting to understand the community is
ZERO. They care more about kissing the rear of their benefactors.

Forbes Magazine this past week had us living in the weakest region in the country for
recovery, jobs, and population over the next ten years. Job growth at 1.2% the next
lowest was 3.5% of actual midwest. Our region was around the largest body of fresh
water on this side of the planet. (how odd)

If you make $150,000 a year to cure Cleveland's ills, why would you cure them? Wouldn't
you just make little bubbles that pop and seem like you are working hard? Now multiply
that by 500, and you start to see the problem Cleveland has. Now through in all of the
snake oil salesman pushing regionalism and CLE+ (Not CLE HEART!) and you can see why
Cleveland continuously falls behind. Now bring in all of the political people on every level
that have bought into the Morrison Brothers concept of managing decline, and get paid for
managing decline, and it becomes a massive factory of people that really could care less
about Cleveland as opposed to losing their cushy jobs that allow them to pretend they are
"movers and shakers."

FWIW

Bill,

I would actually disagree with you in calling this a joke. In fact, this is a threat against the way we live and, dare I say, the American way of life in the name of United Nations global-warming crazies.
"Sustainable development" is code for "we're going to return the world to nature to the detriment of society."

It's Agenda 21 stuff. They are nudging people into public transit and/or biking/walking by expanding bus routes and shifting traffic patterns. It may take years, maybe even decades, but they've got all the time in the world to create this little environmental, socialist society.

Roy Pitchford wrote:Bill,

It's Agenda 21 stuff. They are nudging people into public transit and/or biking/walking by expanding bus routes and shifting traffic patterns. It may take years, maybe even decades, but they've got all the time in the world to create this little environmental, socialist society.

HUD is in the data gathering stage.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0809/ ... ontroversy


Lakewood is already a target of this type of social engineering.

Bill Call wrote:Lakewood is already a target of this type of social engineering.

Just look at the Cleveland Foundation propaganda megaphone, "Freshwater/Great University
Circle Neighborhood Voice" They list their targets in the masthead.

Hough, Glenville, Buckeye, East Cleveland, Fairfax, Lakewood...

It underlines what "the grant sucking social engineering matrons" think of Lakewood.

The day Cleveland Foundation announced their spending money in Lakewood we knew the
slaughter of Lakewood was on the horizon. Destroy value, rebuild in their dreamy image.

I have been to the mountain, "Cleveland Foundation on Euclid" I have spoken with their
"brain trust" I was offered the riches of falling in line. I could not sell out my city or county.
But CLE + does, Team Neo does, many other do. All for their belief in regionalism, errrrrr
weekly paychecks just like the Indian Scouts used to get from General Custer.

There was a time when Lakewood's City Hall was smart enough to say "no thank you."

Today, they dance for pennies and ask how high do we jump for dollars.

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Jim O'Bryan wrote:
Today, they dance for pennies and ask how high do we jump for dollars.

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There was a short lived news article about complaints from the First Suburbs Consortium about Downtown development taking all available County development dollars. I say short lived because the entire story has been "disappeared".

If the Mayors of the first suburbs are afraid to speak up is it time to give up?