Dan Gilbert of the Cavs and other Ohio casino backers hire troubled California firm Arno Political Consultants

We’ve said “no!” to these clowns on numerous occasions, yet here they come again, using the same dishonest signature-collection firm as before. Anybody who has listened to the signature-gatherers misrepresentations with regard to gambling issues knows that there should be a law requiring them to tell the truth, but in this political climate, there are few standards.

It’s time to view Dan Gilbert in a different light, entirely. This is not a good-neighbor gesture, to attempt to inflict this fraudulent campaign on the community once again. We really don’t need bread and circuses, we really don’t need the underground economies that casinos bring with them, and we really don’t need any more low-paying no-skills-required part-time jobs. We also don’t need any more loans. Think about it.

The Ohio casino plan is being backed by Cleveland Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert and Penn National Gaming, a casino operating company based in Pennsylvania.

The plan would require a rewrite of Ohio's constitution to allow casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo, if approved by voters. But to get on the ballot, the casino committee first must collect 402,275 signatures of valid Ohio voters by the end of June.

Ohio casino backers hire troubled California firm Arno Political Consultants - Metro - cleveland.com

AT&T's Pay-More Policy: The gouge begins

Apple Watch - iPhone - AT&T's Pay-More Policy -- You can always count on AT&T. . . to act in their interests first, invariably, and forget about the impact their actions have on the rest of us, our businesses, and our communities. Remember their SB117 that our naive Ohio legislators passed last year, allowing AT&T to plant their obsolete, huge metal boxes all over our treelawns, regardless of local design restrictions or utility code? Thank goodness they're spewing their metal-box madness over the higher-end demographic areas first--that gives those of us in emerging economies, third-world countries like Cleveland, to react and perhaps protect ourselves against their depradations.

Since the times of Newton D. Baker, our utilities in Cleveland are supposed to be either underground or running off the back alleys. A trip we took to in-town Columbus yesterday showed us they're doing that, and protecting their property values while they organize and secure their utility and service deliveries. We need to catch up to Columbus; the legislation is already on the books, yet conveniently ignored.

Anyway, read about what eWEEK has to say about the latest AT&T gouging of iPhone users. Tere's a lot of detail in the whole article. What follows is just the lead-in:

AT&T's Pay-More Policy
News Analysis. Suddenly that $200 iPhone price cut is less compelling.

AT&T is raising data rates for iPhone 3G compared with existing models, which over the course of the two-year contract exceeds the price cut. The current unlimited data plan costs $20 a month, but AT&T will charge iPhone 3G subscribers $30 a month—or an additional $240 over 24 months. So much for that price cut.

But, wait, there's more. Business users—and it's unclear how AT&T defines them—will pay $45 a month, or an extra $600 over current pricing, for unlimited data. Today, anybody with an iPhone can connect to business Exchange servers using IMAP for $20 a month.

caveat emptor: Narrin's, stall #E-11 at The West Side Market

NarrinSpices.com -- We just got back from paying $5.00 apiece at Narrin's, stall #E-11 at Cleveland's West Side Market, for two things we use from time to time: Pickapeppa Hot Red Pepper Sauce (3 oz.) and Try Me Tiger Sauce (5 oz.). We felt as though somebody was taking advantage of us on the pricing, so I checked it out online.

They charged us 100% more than regular retail on the Tiger Sauce, normally $2.50, and 66% more than regular retail for the Pickapeppa Hot Red Pepper Sauce, normally $3.00.

So. Caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware, at Narrin's, stall #E-11, The West Side Market, 1979 West 25th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113.

We also paid Narrin's Market Marauders $5.00 for two containers of kimchee, each of which is about 8 oz. Taking this pricing of $5.00 per pint forward, I guess that if 8 pints comprise a gallon, then Narrin would charge me around $40.00 for that amount, probably with a slight quantity discount. When I started relative pricing against Narrin's opportunistic pricing, I found this, which is going to be quite useful:

Homemade kimchi can be purchased at Kim’s Oriental Food at 3700 Superior.
Owner, Jong Kim offers the freshly-prepared salad every Wednesday; a factory
prepared version is always in his dairy case. Although kimchi is always a good
seller with his regular customers, recent publicity has increased sales
enormously, he says. “I have new people coming to my store from greater
Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown,” he says in halting English.

“They are first discovering what we have known all along. Kimchi keeps
your blood flowing and makes you healthy. I cannot live without kimchi; it has
so many nutrients and can prevent colds and flu.”

Kim’s kimchi sells for $7.99 for one half gallon and 11.99 for one gallon.

Stone Mad just opened Monday

The Cleveland Free Times :: Dining :: Dining Lead :: Detroit Nosh City -- Midday yesterday I was passing through the Detroit-Shoreway area with our friend Rudy, and we stopped by Stone Mad, which has been open for business since this past Monday, 11-4 for lunch and 11-2:30 AM for drinks. It's an awesome place. Talking to Paul, the bartender, we found that they had just wrapped up a 3-year rehab; the attention to detail is incredible. The one thing I admired especially was the roof, done with those recycled rubber-tire slate look-alikes. The application of the shingle material to the ridge vent is the best I've seen, and the handling of the air intake in the soffit is very well done, too. But then, too, there are the cobblestones in the yard, the stone benches and tables on the patio, the outdoor fireplace, the paneling inside, the tilework on the floors and the walls throughout, the handpainted ceiling in the dining area, and the list goes on. There was a certain reverence shown for the building, for the craftsman's materials, for the old neighborhood itself, and the overall effect is extremely refreshing. It gives you hope for the future of older structures in a city bent on replacing the old with the new and conferring tax credits to the destructive, the wasteful, and the foolish. Here's a snippet from the Freetimes a year ago:

Around the corner, "Irish Pete" Leneghan is putting the finishing touches on what close friends are calling his "legacy bar." Stone Mad is a two-and-a-half-year labor of love that often found Leneghan, owner of Tremont's Treehouse bar, on his hands and knees laying acres of gorgeous stone pavers. Inside, skilled craftsmen have constructed two magnificent barrooms, one featuring black walnut, the other floor-to-ceiling oak. A dining room in the rear will serve upscale pub fare.

To encourage conversation, Stone Mad will have no televisions or jukebox, but it will have a sprawling stone patio with water and fire features. An intricate tile mosaic of Leneghan's ancestral town, Ballycroy in County Mayo, brightens up the pub's lower level.

Meanwhile, back here in Brooklyn Centre, as a counterpoint to the good things going on with Pete Leneghan, the board of Art House has passed its third year of stone-walling the neighborhood on the restoration of Wirth House at 3119 Denison. I hear that they have rejected and dismissed, quite recently and arbitrarily, the councilman's offer of help in the restoration of the property and want to proceed with the irresponsible demolition of an historic structure, overriding the objections of the neighbors who gave them the money to be in the restoration business in the first place.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the board members come from the neighborhood, and they have refused for three years to let the neighbors inspect the Wirth House itself. I happen to be one of the "interested parties" of the section 106 historic-property review process, and I can attest to the fact that we have not been allowed to see if the property is as bad as they make it out to be, nor will they stabilize the property so that it's not further wasted. This board seems to think it can't live up to their original compact with the neighborhood, and they also refuse to give back the property or the money we fronted them for it.

Please revisit Craig Bobby's "Where Art Lives...and History Dies" takeoff on the yellow Art House motto to see the building I'm talking about. This inexperienced board is the last tired remnant of the tattered, spotty, sad legacy of former councilwoman Merle Gordon. Merle, I understand, just finished another short job stint, this one at the Cleveland Clinic. Her style no longer plays well (never did, come to think of it), nor does that of this Art House board, and financial power plays using other peoples' government and nonprofit money need to get the closer scrutiny they deserve. We can't afford to let them use our money against us any longer, and to continue to steal our productive time now, as well. I think we need to revisit looking at the books and questioning their stewardship. Things just haven't worked out as advertised originally, and there ought to be some adjustments made for that, before this costs us all still more.

editing the editors, adjusting the attitude

Burke Lakefront Airport isn't going anywhere, so city must make the best of it - an editorial- cleveland.com -- I thought it was an incredibly good piece of news that Frank Jackson was acknowledging the permanent status of Burke Lakefront Airport, acknowledging that the dialogue swirling around it was something that never should have been started. As a development asset, it was never something that could ever be put on the table. I would really like to know who started beating the drum about it in the first place.

Anyway, we have below a PD editorial, which I have included in its entirety, that points up the attitudinal shortcomings of our newspaper's vision of who we are and what capital we have as a city and as a region. This editorial is about as shabby as the PR flak job they tried to pass of as reporting of the abrogation of our voting rights with last sales-tax-hike, the one that starts October 1st.

A far more positive take would be that the builders of Burke created usable land where there had been none prior. They created an asset of value using garbage. They were early-adapter recyclers. They were The Forest City, and they were green, too.

Another positive point is that dealmakers can fly into Burke discreetly, be whisked up to corporate or professional offices where big deals are made, and be taken out to wine and dine in celebration of the closed deal at classy hotels and restaurants before being whisked back down to the field to depart for home. WORTH Magazine has been attentive all this year to how people are using small planes--leased, shared, bought, and so forth.

Yet another positive point is that very few other cities have an asset like this, collocated with the fanciest hotels and the main business district with all the corporate headquarters and big law firms.

Another interesting fact is that this little airport takes the shipping burden off Hopkins and can handle a heck of a lot of courier business from the downtown business district.

Another neat thing is that our airport is nestled right between Edgewater Park and Whiskey Island to the west and Gordon Park and Bratenahl to the east. Really, how much "access" does the PD editorializer want? What about that Stadium thing? We had the chance to redesign the lakefront during the final days of the White administration, and where was the PD when that was all kicking off?

Since the PD's content usually disappears after a while, here is the editorial in all its cheesy, yet resplendent, negativity. See how you would make it more positive, try shucking the Ambrose Bierce pose without becoming Holly Golightly or Mary Poppins. The bold parts are things I think could stand an attitude adjustment, or some backup with facts.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Mayor Frank Jackson's announcement that Burke would remain open indefinitely was probably the right decision.

Seventy years ago, when Cleveland's city fathers were looking around for land on which to build a new airport, they made a horrible decision.

Booming business at Cleveland Municipal Airport (now Cleveland Hopkins International Airport) was creating a desperate need for a reliever airport to handle smaller aircraft. So, city officials looked around and settled on the worst possible site - the city's lakefront.

World War II delayed construction, but by 1947, enough waste, garbage and other fill had been piled on the Lake Erie shoreline to open Burke Lakefront Airport, a 480-acre land-grabber that has blocked access to Cleveland's most precious asset ever since.

Almost from the day it opened, Burke has been cited as an example of atrocious land-use policy. But calls for closing Burke have often conveniently ignored the enormous difficulties that would be involved.

Replacing Burke with an airport located more sensibly would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions.

Redirecting light aircraft to Hopkins would risk intolerable delays to the major air carriers so important to the region's economy.

Any move to close Burke would probably meet fierce resistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.

For all of those reasons, Wednesday's announcement by Mayor Frank Jackson that Burke would remain open indefinitely was probably the right decision. Wisely, the mayor also wants to increase development around Burke, an idea that could be facilitated by moving the port and Coast Guard headquarters. Smart development near Burke would not only represent a first, but would be consistent with the long-term lakefront plan advocated by
Jackson's predecessor, Jane Campbell.

But if Burke is to remain, it is essential that it be turned into an honest-to-goodness airport that serves the city's needs - not just a little-used landing strip serving a few dozen corporate jets and student pilots.

Until that changes, Burke will continue to be a complete waste of priceless lakefront land. The burden now falls to Jackson and airport director Ricky Smith to make the best of Burke's bad location by implementing their good ideas.

protecting the innocent, by Miss Nancy

Banner over Cleveland urges against sales-tax petition - cleveland.com -- I'm sure we all feel better now that we have Nancy Lesic and the GCP spending to protect our innocence. The reporter forgot to mention that the resolution the two commissioners are seeking to slide by us says nothing about the medicalmart, but only about the general fund. Makes you wonder. This is some heady stuff:

Don't sign petition, banner says

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Sarah HollanderPlain Dealer Reporter

An advertising method typically used to hawk drink specials or pop the question has been called into duty for Cuyahoga County's sales tax debate.

Volunteers collecting signatures to force a public vote on an upcoming tax hike said they were surprised to look up and see a plane trailing a banner that read "Don't Sign the Petition. We Need the Med Mart."

The Greater Cleveland Partnership paid $2,000 for four hours of aerial advertising in downtown Cleveland to challenge the petition drive.

The plane flew around Jacobs Field an hour before Indians games Friday, Saturday and Sunday and around Cleveland Browns Stadium an hour before Saturday's preseason game. Volunteers from labor unions and the hospitality industry also handed out leaflets.

"We wanted to reach people who might innocently sign a petition without knowing what the consequences would be," said Nancy Lesic, a spokeswoman for the Partnership. "The petitions could kill the project."

Cuyahoga County commissioners voted 2-1 last month to raise the sales tax 25 cents for every $100 purchased to pay for a new Cleveland convention center. The city needs a new center to attract a Medical Mart, which would house permanent showrooms for health care equipment and products and use the convention center space for related trade shows. The county will begin collecting the 20-year tax in October unless the referendum group collects more than 45,000 valid signatures from registered Cuyahoga County voters by Aug. 24.

Lesic said the partnership learned of the referendum group's plans to blitz sporting events through a news conference held by Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed last week. Reed, a leader of the referendum movement, said telling people not to sign a petition might backfire and anger voters.

Petition efforts will continue at city and suburban festivals and door to door in areas such as Parma, Parma Heights and North Royalton over the next couple of weeks, he said.

At last count - Friday morning - the group said it had collected around 10,000 signatures.

To learn more about the referendum effort, go to putitontheballot.com. To learn more about the convention center and Medical Mart proposal, go to ashotinthearm.org.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
shollander@plaind.com,
216-999-4816