Callahan’s Cleveland Diary AT&T starts “U-Verse” deployment in the city

Bill Callahan points out a sighting earlier this month of a big treelawn box near our Carnegie library, at Pearl and Mapledale. It's frustrating to spend years promoting good, sensible design and city planning, only to have a public utility owned by stockholders trump the rights of property owners in an urban community. This lowers all property values, as does the proliferation of utility poles nearly 100 years after we adopted sensible community guidelines for handling our common feeds. Read Bill's whole post. Here's my comment:

Bandwidth is good. Design from AT&T is obsolete and the cheapest possible installation. Security is lousy. These things should be placed below grade; visually, they're nasty; they're also vulnerable to sabotage, vandalism, bad weather, and plain old acts of God.

I believe Newton D. Baker's administration wrote the definitive code on how to place utilities, yet we continue to ignore what would be in the best interests of the community in the long term.

Above-ground utilities on thoroughfares have no place in a well designed city, and good design starts now, with the current projects under way.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, is reeling under the insult to its streetscape; we need to fix ours now.

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » AT&T starts “U-Verse” deployment in the city

time for that style makeover

While watching my minimalist concession to television viewing, Boston Legal, I got hooked by the news teaser about another police shooting.

Now, I've just got done with watching Ted Henry on Cleveland's Channel 5 deliver an innuendo-laden "news" report about the shooting of a young man over here in the vicinity of West 82nd and Denison. For my money, these TV stations are not our friends, and they're bad for the community at large. Go to Channel 5 on your own if you want to see the video clip, because I'm not going to link there.

The news whizzes at 5 gave scads of coverage to the decedent's girlfriend who says that everybody carries a gun, because it's "the style" these days. Instead of arguing for a style makeover, Ted goes through some stylin' himself in recounting, in detail, every other police shooting over the past 2-3 years, hinting at justice served up poorly. I'm fairly sure Ted doesn't live over here on Denison; he's clueless, yet he has the bully pulpit, if only for a few short moments. He's a menace, and I wonder if he's even aware.

Three officers, the early reports say, at 3 PM today simultaneously fired on 23-year-old Aaron Steele as he went for his stylish gun, 23-year-old Aaron with a history of assaulting police.

I don't think the question should be why did the police all shoot simultaneously, or whether they were justified. I think it should be why Aaron thought it was feasible or desirable or honorable to commit suicide by cop. Could sappy, sensational, unbalanced reportage like old Ted's have something to do with it? If they think this sad display of community bias is the equivalent of championing the underdog, they need to think again.

Turn off your TV; your life will improve immensely in 2-3 days. Send this to 12 of your closest friends and loved ones in the next 5 minutes, and you may see us delivered from the ignorant tyranny of the MSM within your lifetime.

33

Touring Warhol’s Space, and 32 Other Art-History Sites - New York Times -- Of the 33 NYC places where artsy and hip started, bloomed, and flourished, the "33 spots around the city where art history was made", I wonder how many had tax-abatement, got county dollars by harnessing smokers, or were intentionally located in preexisting, institutionally ordained art districts. What do you think? Which is the tail, which is the dog? What's wagging around here? If I recall, back in the day it used to be enough for a place just to be cheap, cool, and relatively hassle-free.