A Public Meeting for Real--and really costly, too

Gloria Ferris » Blog Archive » A Public Meeting for Real--Gloria's been working for the past week on compelling transparency and accountability from our public employees on the issue of the Fulton Road Bridge restoration, which has now turned into the Fulton Road Bridge demolition, after our public employees systematically wasted the public asset.

On this Fulton Road Bridge thing, Gloria and I combined have over 100 hours invested, documented. If we billed out at only $10 an hour, which we don't, this would be a considerable chunk of change. If we worked only 40 hours a week, which we don't, this would be 2.5 work-weeks. That's what a lot of people get for a vacation allowance, in a regular job. We're self-employed. We haven't had 2 weeks of vacation since the 1980s.

These 100 hours do not include time we've spent questioning the quite-questionable demolition plans for Wirth House/Art House, trying to discern the actual facts and divine the processes on the Gillotta Building and that bridge near it, working to hold the city accountable in the Ladder 42 public-safety charade, calling the police on the drug boys, and otherwise trying to protect our lifestyle, our property, and our neighbors.

It's really expensive to live in Cleveland--there's lost time, lost income, and the cost of lost opportunity--suburbanites staying away in droves because they're afraid to set foot within the city limits or to get off the freeways. We who would continue to live here, pretending to be cosmopolitan in the middle of an emerging third-world country, keeping a stiff upper lip until help shows up, need to start talking among ourselves about the true cost of ownership here, and who's been eating our lunch.