text:
Via Alan Vanneman comes a link to this NY Times story about cities bulldozing blight rather than trying to rehab it. A snippet:
Large-scale destruction is well known in Detroit, but it is also underway in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo and others at a total cost of more than $250 million. Officials are tearing down tens of thousands of vacant buildings, many habitable, as they seek to stimulate economic growth, reduce crime and blight, and increase environmental sustainability....
[M]ore than half of the nation's 20 largest cities in 1950 have lost at least one-third of their populations. And since 2000, a number of cities, including Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Buffalo, have lost around 10 percent; Cleveland has lost more than 17 percent; and more than 25 percent of residents have left Detroit, whose bankruptcy declaration this summer has heightened anxiety in other postindustrial cities....
At least one city that has taken a pioneering approach to confronting diminution has found that accepting shrinkage does not mean problems go away. Youngstown, Ohio, once a bustling steel city of 170,000 but now with only 66,000 people, has sought to head off collapse by tearing down thousands of vacant houses — 3,000 so far and 10 more each week.
As someone who has lived in and spent time in shrinking cities such as Buffalo and Cleveland, I understand the appeal - and quite possibly the effectiveness - of clearing out huge swaths of vacated land (that assumes, of course, that eminent domain powers are not abused).
But if working on Reason Saves Cleveland taught me one thing, it's that there's no simple solution to urban decline. Some of it is simply historical - the Northeast is not going to dominate American business and culture that way it did 100 years ago and cities such as Cleveland or Buffalo or Detroit will never regain their earlier populations or the density at which they lived. Read more on that topic here.
But it's also clear that private and public sector boosters are always more interested in laying big bets on giant development deals that won't transform a city or region even if they happen to work out perfectly. What makes and keeps places livable and attractive are the smaller-ticket items, such as quality of basic services such as roads, law enforcement, business climate, schools, taxes, and regulations. These aren't sexy items but they are the things that actually keep cities thriving.
Watch Reason TV's #AnarchyinDetroit playlist to learn how residents are taking their bankrupt city back, block by block:
]]>Detroit may be bankrupt but it is rich in subsidies. Via ESPN:
A state board on Wednesday unanimously gave the go-ahead for a new Red Wings hockey arena in downtown Detroit to be paid for in part with $284 million in tax dollars even as the broke city works through bankruptcy proceedings.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and others defended against criticism that the $650 million project should be financed entirely with private money because the city currently can't provide basic services and retirees are facing cuts in their pensions. The 18,000-seat arena is designed to be a catalyst for more development and to link downtown and midtown, turning a blighted area into a business, residential and entertainment district.
"This is part of investing in Detroit's future," said Snyder, a Republican who blessed a state-appointed emergency manager's request to take the city into bankruptcy last week. "That's the message we need to get across. ... As we stabilize the city government's finances, as we address those issues and improve services, Detroit moves from a place where people might have had a negative impression -- although there are great things already going on -- to being a place that will be recognized across the world as a place of great value and a place to invest."
You know what? It's not investing in Detroit's future, it's simply extending its failed past legacy of pursuing negative-bang-for-the-buck big-ticket projects at the cost of actually keeping the city functioning.
All the Stanley Cups and all the baseball and football stadiums and "people movers" and fancy theaters paid for via tax dollars aren't going to save a city that's shed 1.3 million people since a peak population of almost 2 million in 1950.
If you want to be a mensch, use the $284 million in public dough to buy one-way bus tickets out of town for all who want to leave. And if you want to see Detroit thrive, never speak of publicly funded edifice-complex projects ever again until every kid is attending a school of choice, every pothole is filled, and just about everything else is outsourced.
HT: Prateik Dalmia.
Watch "Detroit's Tragedy and How to Fix It."
]]>Basketball great LeBron James has led the Miami Heat to its second straight NBA title. In 2010, James garnered headlines and outrage when he left his hometown-area of Cleveland for parts down South.
But as this short video from 2010 shows, in leaving Cleveland, James was only doing what fully half of "the Mistake on the Lake"'s population has done over the past 60 years: He was moving to where there was more opportunity and better governance.
Check out the vid above and then watch our series, "Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey," which shows concrete steps that Cleveland - and many other once-great American cities - can take to rebuild their economies and brighten their futures. All without relying on superstar athletes.
]]>Earlier this month, Cleveland's West Side Market celebrated its 100th anniversary with a fundraising party designed to raise dollars to help maintain the facility.
As all of us involved in the production of the documentary series Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey learned, the West Side Market is a really unique and memorable scene brimming with great food, good people, and energy - for the four days a week and short hours that the West Side Market is actually open. Click on the image above to watch the episode that explores how the West Side Market could rev up its operations, benefiting customers and business folks alike.
The market is owned by the city and operated by Cleveland's parks department, which helps explain why it doesn't keep regular business hours and why the building that houses it is in a constant state of disrepair (as you'll see in the video above, vendors lost no time in complaining about the market's physical plant).
And yet, reports Cleveland's Plain Dealer, the powers that be in the "Mistake on the Lake" have no plans to innovate in a way that might not only serve the market's customers and vendors better, but allow the city to focus on core services such as policing.
Across the country, public markets have moved toward the nonprofit-management model. That's the case at city-owned markets in Detroit, Columbus and Cincinnati. And not-for-profit groups run the well-known Pike Place Market in Seattle and Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market.
In Cleveland, the prospect of the city's selling the market or outsourcing its management is, to put it mildly, a non-starter.
"We sometimes hear that private is more efficient and better than public," said Ken Silliman, the chief of staff. "Mayor (Frank) Jackson doesn't buy that. We, as an administration, don't buy that. The West Side Market has received both local appreciation and national acclaim because the city of Cleveland has stayed true to the origin of the market.
"And in a time when other city markets have diversified to the point where the food is a minor feature in the interest of more profits, we have - and will continue to - resist that trend. That's one of the benefits of private ownership. We're about service, rather than profits."
You got that? Screw the experience of other cities that have far more famous markets (such as Pike Place and the Reading Terminal Market). Cleveland will bravely soldier on doing what it was doing 100 years ago. And if paying customers can't get a sandwich or a steak or a cup of coffee after 4pm on Mondays and Wednesday - or any time at all on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, well, that's because the city's operators are "about service, rather than profits." Pike Place Market may be open "19 1/2 hours a day, 362 days a year," but Cleveland don't play that game, you dig?!?!
You don't need to be a "market fundamentalist" or even a loosey-goosey libertarian to blanch at Ken Silliman's statement above. How the hell exactly are you about service if you're not even open three days a week? That's not putting people first - it's maintaining control at the expense of your constituents. To call it misguided would be an understatement.
Cleveland is a remarkable place, with a rich and varied history, and a ton of cool stuff. But it is, sadly, a ruin of a city, one that has lost more than half of its residents since its peak in 1950 and is now reduced to bragging about its symphony orchestra rather than its ability to educate or employ local citizens.
Unlike Pompeii, though, Cleveland wasn't destroyed by a natural disaster. Its long, slow, heartbreaking death is entirely man-made and could be reversed if the people in charge there would try to do things differently. Or let residents do things differently. That's what Reason Saves Cleveland was all about: learning from other places' successess and failures and figuring out how to adapt those lessons to your particular city.
Here's another video to watch, one of Drew Carey and me meeting with the Cleveland City Council after they invited us to discuss the series and its reform ideas. There's a lot of good people fighting the good fight in Cleveland - many of them across the table from us - but the mentality evident in the Plain Dealer article will override the best intentions of well-intentioned change agents every time.
]]>I'm pleased to announce that the Los Angeles Press Club, which rewards journalism committed between San Diego and Santa Barbara, not only named Radley Balko "Journalist of the Year" among publications with circulation under 50,000, it further declared Balko "Best in Show" among the various other Journalists of the Year, a first-ever prize that netted the beloved former Reasonoid a cool $1,000. Here is what the judges said about Radley:
Radley Balko is one of those throw-back journalists that understands the power of groundbreaking reporting and how to make a significant impact through his work. Time and time again, his stories cause readers to stop, think, and most significantly, take action.
Damn skippy. You can read Balko's Reason archive here.
Reason won two other first-place prizes. They were:
* Best Advocacy Journalism, Nick Gillespie, Paul Feine and Drew Carey, for "Reason Saves Cleveland." Citation:
Can a team of journalists and advocates fix a failed city that has lost half its residents? Reason's video series told Cleveland what was wrong with its schools and anti-business policies and how to fix it. The stunned City Council asked them to town to hear more. A strong start to a wildly ambitious activism project.
* Best Entertainment Review/Criticism/Column, Matt Welch, for "Bailing Out Big Brother: Media criticism goes from rebelling against media oligarchs to handing them a lifeline." Citation:
In his piercing critique of two authors who want federal subsidies for news media, Welch calmly dismisses the idea of letting government take on "the care and feeding of its watchdog." Persuasive and intricately researched.
Reason also won four 2nd-place prizes:
* Peter Suderman's "Paul
Ryan: Radical or Sellout?", for Magazine
* James M. Dorsey's "Rap
and Metal on Planet Islam: The booming voice of pent-up Middle
Eastern anger," for Magazine Entertainment News or
* Greg Beato's "From
Paris Hilton to John Edwards: Celebrity sex tapes are the
signature art form of our age," for Magazine Entertainment
* Greg Beato's "Copy Fight:
A new front opens in the battle over online copyright
infringement," for Online Column/Commentary
Honorable Mentions went to Nick Gillespie, for Best News Organization Website; and Peter Suderman's "The Gatekeeper: How a little bureaucratic office became the biggest impediment to Barack Obama's health care plans," for Magazine Feature/Commentary. Full list of Press Club winners here [PDF]; Reason's full slate of nominees here and here. To the best of my knowledge, the four first-place prizes are a Reason Southern California Journalism Awards record.
Did you know you can subscribe to Reason (or gift it to your frenemies) for less than $13 a year? Click here to get that going.
]]>Out on the West Coast in LA, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit talks with demographer and urban theorist Joel Kotkin about car haters and more.
Kotkin's a great voice on how cities either flourish or die depending on how easy they make it for people to live there. He was a great presence in Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, speaking up in defense of places such as Houston, which despite its enormous success in attracting people, is often pooh-poohed as ugly or awful or sprawling etc. Rather than building "Edifice Complex" structures such as sports stadiums and largely unused light-rail systems, Kotkin says cities do best to keep taxes and regulation low and consistent and provide a reliable backdrop against which individuals can plan and build their lives. Watch the final episode of RSC, "Bring the People Back":
]]>I'm happy to announce that Reason is a finalist for a digital National Magazine Award in the "multimedia package" category for our cross-platform work on "Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey: How to fix the 'Mistake on the Lake' and other once-great American Cities."
The National Magazine Awards have long been recognized as the highest editorial honor in the field; this is the second year for digital awards (and the second year that Reason has been a finalist).
The multimedia package category "recognizes the imaginative use of interactivity and multimedia in the coverage of an event or subject." Other finalists include Fast Company, National Geographic, New York, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
Reason Saves Cleveland is, first and foremost, an original hour-long video documentary that explores what went wrong with a once-prosperous city that was last year named the most miserable city in America by Forbes. The series' six episodes do more than bemoan what Cleveland had become; they show how cities ranging from Chicago to Houston to Oakland have tackled problems such as education, depopulation, and business development in successful ways that harness market forces and innovation. We supplemented the documentary with a raft of policy and research tools and a special issue of Reason magazine, creating a resource that is relevant to all urban areas that are facing difficult times.
The video series was the brainchild of Cleveland native son Drew Carey, who also hosts; produced and written by Paul Feine; shot and edited by Alex Manning and Roger Richards; and narrated by me. Special thanks go to Reason Foundation president David Nott, who made the whole thing happen, to Reason mag editor in chief Matt Welch for pulling together a great special issue on the subject, and to Reason Foundation policy researchers who crafted a series of workable and effective policy recommendations.
The digital National Magazine Award winners will be announced tomorrow, so check back here to see if Reason snags the top honor.
And in the meantime, watch the series and scour the online resources available here.
]]>President Barack Obama is sliding deep into a "Win the Future" (WTF) tour, during which he battles economic stagnation and his own ruinous spend-and-regulate-til-the-cows-come-home policies (and those of his immediate predecessor) by the profligate use of cliches. His latest stop was in Cleveland, Ohio, dubbed "the most miserable city" in the U.S. just last year by Forbes magazine.
In search of support for a budget that even his fans found pathetic and some votes in 2012, Obama spoke as if he had transported back to 1950, when "the Mistake on the Lake" was peaking in population growth. Presidential nippets from an address at Cleveland State University to entrepreneurs, small business leaders, and the like:
"As the economy changed, a lot of people wrote off Cleveland as a shell of its former self. But you . . . knew differently." [ellipsis in original news account; bonus points for filling it in with something printable]...
"We've got to invent new (industries), and that's what you're doing here."...
"When small businesses do well, we do well."...
"It's small businesses like yours that help drive America's economic growth."
"If we can get businesses to partner with local community colleges or local universities and have them help design the training process for the jobs that already exist, it's a win-win."
The forum lasted three hours and I'm betting the cliches-to-hour ratio was pulling somewhere north of 60: 1. Just to make sure Obama isn't the only person talking exclusively in useless aphorisms, The Plain Dealer ends its account with a participant gushing that the 'Bama admin "gets it. They actually get it. The question now is: How do we leverage this to benefit Cleveland?"
Wasn't that supposed to be the freaking point of the forum? If you're walking out of an hours-long meeting and the big insight is that people in Washington understand that Cleveland is a dying city, well, it was nice knowing you.
The bromance of small business is one of the phoniest apparitions to cloud America since its founding, a veritable Funky Phantom of misdirected policymaking. The government counts any enterprise with fewer than 500 employees as "small" and it's a definition that covers about 99.7 percent of all businesses. However, it's that puny 0.3 percent of other super-humongous-gigantic businesses that account for about half of all private-sector employment. As the National Federation of Independent Business and other groups would tell you when they're not trying to shake down the feds for subsidized loans via the generally wasteful and unnecessary Small Business Administration, entrepreneurs don't need special tax treatment and subsidies as much as they need a stable, predictable tax and regulatory environment (just like big business!). It's hard enough to make a go of it in the marketplace, they don't need wild overspending by government at all levels and an endless bevy of new rules that countermand past rules etc.
Cleveland and the larger region of Northeast Ohio is in a decades-long funk for a lot of reasons, some of which they can't control (such as the end of highly protected industries that start to hit the skids in the 1960s if not before) and many that they can absolutely control (high and complicated local and state taxes, shitty and expensive public schools, 19th-century zoning and planning schemes, idiot legislators who would rather spend money they don't have on high-tech garbage cans than loosen up the business environment).
Can this city be saved? You bet it can, but not through the sort of high-profile pow-wows that just took place. The city's and region's leaders need to drink deep not of yesteryear's cliches and failed ideas but of exactly the sort of proven policies that Reason spent a year documenting in "Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey: How to fix the 'Mistake on the Lake' and other once-great American cities." Go here for more info and research up the ying-yang. Or shut your office door and spend the first hour of the work day learning what can make cities thrive once again:
]]>Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith was known as a tightwad when he was running Hoosiertown (or whatever Indy's nickname other than Indy is). That's exactly what you want in a public servant. His cost-cutting ways even got written up in Reason magazine back in the day.
Lately, Goldsmith has been hanging his hat in the Mayor Mike Bloomberg regime in New York City, which is facing a whopping $3.3 billion deficit next fiscal year. Goldsmith is about to lower the boom on "thousands" of city workers, a mass firing that will save The Big Apple (now, that's a nickname) around $1.5 billion simoleons. Fear not, fans of public-sector employees: Fun City (another great nickname!) has over 300,000 such workers, so Goldsmith could cut 10 percent and you wouldn't even notice the service getting shittier at, say, The Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses.
Something to think about when governments start complaining that they've already cut spending to the bone and sold off both kidneys along with one cornea just to get by: Gotham (yet another nickname!) has a projected deficit that comes to just 5 percent of a $65 billion budget. How many of you couldn't cut 5 freaking percent out of your annual budget?
Hat tip: Alan Vanneman, World's Greatest Everything.
Bonus Goldsmith! Hizzformeroner makes an appearance in the "Privatize It!" episode of Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, where he explains how competitive bidding saved money and upped the level of city services - while also giving current city workers a real shot at making better wages. Goldsmith shows up around the 6.30 mark below.
]]>The yeah-yeah world-class Cleveland Orchestra has created a "Center for Future Audiences" because, like all creative types, they are sorely disappointed with the size and quality of their current audience. To its credit, the orchestra has raised $20 mil from a private source:
With a $20 million lead gift from the Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation (a $60 million fund for the project is the goal), the center will remove some of the most common obstacles to attending orchestra concerts -- ticket cost and access.
A sobering fact mentioned in the announcement of the initiative is that the average ticket price to a Cleveland Orchestra concert in the historic Severance Hall has increased more than 300% since the mid-1980s (it's now $50). That's one way to keep young people out.
I'm all for philanthropy, so the more private money that goes to anything the better. However, the Cleveland Orchestra, like most such ventures, is a money-suck for public dollars from groups such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Cuyahoga Arts & Culture group, all of which are funded through generous and involuntary donations from taxpayers like you.
Particularly in a time of extreme budget-crunching, such tax funding should be reexamined (the same goes for the enormous amount of money that publicly funded schools at all levels spend on goddamn shitty sports teams and a million other elective kindnesses that combine to kill the little guy and waste a huge amount of money). In fact, in flush times, such tax funding should be reexamined too.
Why is it considered legit to spend millions of public dollars are stuff that caters to a tiny number of people, whether we're talking Bach or baseball? Or the Browns or the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame? (Rick Derringer didn't need no tax dollars to create "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" did he? He just trucked on out and spread the news.) Kudos to the Maltz Family for ponying up one-third of the desired amount to punish "future audiences" via ultra-sound concerts for fetuses or whatever. I'm sure the Maltzes know a couple of other rich people who can foot the bill to keep alive their preferred art form. But why the hell should anyone who doesn't give a hoot about an orchestra be on the hook for its preservation?
Past wrangles about the Cleveland Orchestra question here.
Earlier this year, Reason.tv released Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, an hour-long documentary series that explored ways to "fix the Mistake on the Lake and other once-great American cities." Watch the whole thing here.
Drew and I were invited to talk with the Cleveland City Council afterwards. Watch a 10-minute highlight reel of our our nearly three-hour-long meeting with them.
]]>It's not every day that entrenched politicians in a decaying city confront libertarian ideas about turning their economy around. But that's exactly what happened on May 28, 2010, when the Cleveland City Council reacted to reason.tv's groundbreaking documentary series Reason Saves Cleveland (reason.tv/cleveland) by inviting its hosts, native son Drew Carey and Ohio resident Nick Gillespie, for a wide-ranging discussion about philosophy, governance, and the borderline between perception and reality.
Part photo op, part brainstorming exercise, and part angry rebuttal, the debate revealed worldviews that were not just ideologically incompatible but factually contradictory. Yet the two sides facing off across a narrow table also had to deal with having their usually unrebutted arguments thrown back at them by extremely knowledgeable and emotionally invested opponents.
The result was nearly three hours of flying sparks, defensive filibusters, and some of the best libertarian comedy this side of Penn & Teller. The following is an edited transcript.
City Council President Martin J. Sweeney: This table's full of people that care about the city of Cleveland. You care about it, and you have your own opinion. We're going to talk about how we can improve the place you were born in, we were born in, and we're responsible for taking care of. What's the most important thing you would recommend we focus on?
Drew Carey: The most important thing to me is cutting red tape and making Cleveland more business friendly. I'm a Price Is Right host, so I'm not an expert on urban policy; that's why I went to the Reason Foundation and asked them to do the documentary. But I think the goal for Cleveland should be to be the No. 1 business-friendly city in the country. Not to be better than we were last year, and not to be better than Brookpark or Solon or [other suburbs of Cleveland]. I think when somebody comes in from anywhere in the country and they think, "Well I want to start a business," they should think to themselves, "I want to go to Cleveland, because that's the best place to go."
We used Houston as an example. I think we should steal their ideas and just put them in place. The more business-friendly Cleveland is, the more jobs come in here, the more tax money we have, the more money we have for police and schools and all that stuff. It all starts with a business climate that's conducive to people wanting to come start a business here.
But it takes a tradeoff, because when you get rid of the red tape and the regulation, you have to put up with people doing what they want. Sometimes, some of the things they do you might not agree with.
Nick Gillespie: In the video there's a moment when we talked to a city councilman. He's not here today, so we won't name him, but he's a good guy; he's working to make the city better. He talked about helping a company that wanted to expand its operations a few years ago. He said they've been trying for about a decade, and that he was very proud that with his help they got it all done in 18 months. That's just not good enough.
It comes down to rethinking things like zoning, which traditionally is seen as a tool for protecting people, but in fact is always a way of paying off certain interests that already exist. Cleveland is a very heavily zoned and regulated area in terms of land use. Many of the designations go back to the industrial era, or even the pre-industrial era. It's probably time to think about that and try to simplify what kind of licenses, what kinds of zoning, what kinds of approvals you need before you can get into the really tough part of running any business, which is actually competing against your competitors.
Councilor Phyllis Cleveland: I think we're all in agreement on the things that are not working, or not working well enough, in our city and other cities like ours. Our infrastructure, our school system. Of course the difference is how do we approach those things?
I agree to some degree with a lot of the things that you're saying, that we need to do better. I agree that we need to be more business friendly. Not necessarily that we need to be the most business friendly, because as you said, we're giving up something on the other side. And I represent communities of people who don't have access to the halls of power, the businesses, the capital, and the things like that, because of the conditions they were born in. There's got to be a balance. Just going to the zoning issue, I was on the Stossel show that you did.
Carey: The line you said that I remember is that you don't want to have a strip club next to a church.
Cleveland: Next to a day care center or a church, exactly.
Gillespie: That would make Sunday a lot easier, though.
Cleveland: I don't know about that. Not in my community.
But just following that train of thought, you mentioned somebody coming in and setting up a business. Again, I'm looking at it from the community I represent. And it happens all the time, we have people who come in, people who have the capital to open stores, and they're doing what they do naturally, looking at what's in their best interests, what makes money quick. And we end up with liquor stores and the low-end types of things. They may create a few low-paying jobs here and there, but they tend to create more problems in the community than they solve. So I think there's got to be a balance there.
I think there's a perception that things don't work in this city, and I think a lot of that is just perception perpetuated by the media and by others.
Gillespie: If you look at the economic literature, the urban development literature, the fears that zoning is designed to address—the strip club or the charnel house next to the residential neighborhood—these things actually don't come up that often. We worry about those, but they don't make economic sense, so it doesn't happen absent regulation.
Go visit the cities that have fewer land-use regulations, and see what kinds of odd things happen there. And you'll find actually that land use patterns in a place like Houston are basically identical to places like Cleveland. What is different is that the cost of doing business is dramatically lower in one place than the other.
And this is not peeing in the punch bowl or anything. Cleveland has many good things going on, but it is in a long-term economic decline that has reached a crisis situation. It had been as high as the seventh largest city in the country; it is now the 41st largest. There are less than half the number of people it had in 1950. It lost 10 percent of its population in the decade of the '00s. It has lost many of its jobs, and they're not coming back. I mean, this is something that needs to be addressed. How do you turn this city around? You can't say, "OK, it's not as bad as it was two years ago." It's got to be, "How do we make it better tomorrow?"
Councilor Kevin J. Kelley: I would ask you to respond to this assertion: From a 30,000-foot view, you take very complex problems and apply very easy-fix solutions. And some of the anecdotal examples aren't on point with the city of Cleveland. I think that we all have agreed to the general premise that the city has challenges.
We've spent a lot of time talking about zoning. But to suggest that the problems are caused by zoning, or that removing zoning is the solution, I would say doesn't quite add up. When you look at the number of zoned communities that are booming—Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon—they are numerous. There are a number of other demographic shifts in place, with people moving to the South and to the West. To attack the zoning, like zoning is the villain, I think oversimplifies the problem and I think isn't in line with other cities like that. If you look at what's going on with Milwaukee, St. Louis, we're all facing the same thing. I suggest it has a lot to do with the aging infrastructure, the fact that the company that came to Houston probably had a grassy field, while we have industrial sites that we are trying to remediate to put them back into productive use.
Carey: A lot of the documentary was done in broad strokes, and a lot of it was purposely not detailed because we want to keep an audience on the Internet for 10 minutes to watch video. And I agree that some places can be zoned and still flourish. But something isn't working here, because population loss happens all the time, the tax base declines all the time. Whatever combination you have here in Cleveland just isn't cutting it.
Sweeney: Just on the planning component of it, the city planning chairperson is next to me. We as the city are looking at a comprehensive overhaul, not elimination, of our planning codes, to help meet our zoning needs from when they were created to where they are now. It's about a year and a half we've been building it through. We haven't recommended changes yet.
Gillespie: I recommend going to a councilman who might be able to speed that up.
Look, simplicity helps. On a certain level you do want to have a 30,000-foot view, in that if you start getting into the details too much—I'm not being glib here—then you're micromanaging. And nobody does well under a micromanaged system, whether it's a businessman, a government, or whatever. It isn't all zoning; it's probably better to think of it in the broader terms of land use regulations and business regulations.
Councilor Mike Polensek: This is the first opportunity I think that we've had to really talk, not about legislation, but to talk about issues, to talk about perceptions. I came on this body 32 years ago. I'm a senior member. When I came in, there were 693,000 people here. So I want to tell you, without any fear of contradiction: It's not about taxes, it's not about the store on the corner, it's not about zoning. It's about disinvestment in our city. I'm not politically correct, so the crap is over as of this line of questioning, OK?
You look at what's happened in this city, the decisions that have been made. A federal judge who lived in one of the most exclusive suburbs implemented a school desegregation case that went after poor kids. Poor black kids suffered as a result of a school desegregation plan. Over 100,000 families bailed out of this city in seven years, OK? And who were the victims? Poor children, poor families.
Let's talk about business disinvestment in this city. Businesses have moved out of the city of Cleveland, and a lot of them offshore, so they could deal with people making five bucks an hour in China. Policies in Washington have crippled the urban areas of this country.
So when we talk about rebuilding Cleveland and where we're at today and why we're in the condition now we're in, it's not hard to understand it. We have been dealt severe blows by our own federal government. We have been dealt severe blows by policies in Columbus [Ohio's capital] that have worked against the urban areas, have built roads to nowhere at our taxpayers' expense and put infrastructure in and have not put it back in the city of Cleveland or the urban areas. So I can tell you as someone who's raised five kids in this city, who still has a child in the Cleveland school system—so I not only talk the talk, I walk the walk—that when you look at where we're at today, it's because of a series of blows over the years that have been done repeatedly to the city.
Have there been bad decisions made in this city? You're doggone right. I'm looking at one of them right over here, a stadium on the lakefront with no retractable roof on it. The only thing in there is seagulls and snow in the winter time. The Cavaliers' practice field. Look at everything we've done for the Cavaliers. The first chance they get to repay the people of the city of Cleveland, they have to build their practice facility in Independence. So when they had an opportunity to reinvest in this city, [Cavaliers owner] Dan Gilbert didn't want to do that. And if you look at the major companies that started in Cleveland and where they're investing now, why? What's the difference between Cleveland and Chicago? People in Chicago, the corporate community, have not abandoned the city. They have reinvested, and they live in the city.
Gillespie: You've done a very good job of explaining the decline of Cleveland, and how it's not anybody's fault at this table. That's a way of kicking the can down the road, of saying, "OK, what we've got to do then is wait for China to stop doing business. We've got to wait for Washington to change things."
You talk about the schools. Here's the reality of Cleveland's public schools: They've lost 40,000 students over the past decade. You pay about $16,000 per student in straight-up tuition cost, plus a lot more that gets embedded in capital cost. Three-quarters of the schools in the Cleveland public school system are on academic watch or emergency, which are the worst categories that the state has. How do you address that?
This is a way that you can address it without going so far as Columbus. Cities are always going to get screwed at various times and various places. Why not try turning every school that's in Cleveland, or every school that's on academic watch and academic emergency, into a charter school? Why not give poor kids the freedom to make the choice that those of us who are middle class or wealthy take for granted, either by paying tuition at private schools, or by moving to communities that have better schools? You can do that virtually overnight.
Polensek: You'll find many of us around this table who support charters, who support vouchers. We want our children and our families to have an opportunity. But you did the Reason Foundation video and what I'm saying is, you whacked us pretty good. What I'm saying is, when you look at the condition we're in today, it didn't happen overnight. I've never stopped believing in Cleveland. That's why I live here. This is a great city. We have cultural institutions second to none, we have a lakefront, we have the Cleveland Orchestra, best in the world. We have a lot going for us that nobody else has. But you know what we have is a lack of confidence within our corporate community, who want to talk the great fight, but when it comes down to putting their money where their mouth is, it doesn't happen. And that needs to be said here.
Gillespie: Let me just suggest that one of the big problems is that declining cities often think about revitalization through corporate welfare. The most egregious forms are publicly funded stadiums, publicly funded convention centers.
Carey: We're against cities helping billionaire owners buy stadiums.
Gillespie: Every independent analysis of that kind of activity shows that it does not create a local economy, it doesn't help revive a local economy. So get out of that business and maybe more businesses will stay here.
Carey: I'll tell you something else, no BS. The last time you got screwed by a business is not the last time you're going to get screwed by a business here. There's always going to be somebody who's going to screw you. They're going to come here and say, "Hey, Cleveland's great, give us a deal," and you give them the lowest taxes; they're going to build a business here. And then when it's convenient for them, they're going to pull up and leave and disappoint you. It happens to every city, all over the country. It's always going to happen. The trick is to make it so more businesses come in and invest than the ones that screw you and take off.
Polensek: You want to help Cleveland? Bring the Price Is Right show and put it on the road to Cleveland.
Gillespie: Embedded in the request to bring The Price Is Right to Cleveland, and I don't mean to be overly argumentative, but: That is the problem. You know what? The Price is Right is not coming here, The Jersey Shore is not coming here; car manufacturing is not coming back here. What Cleveland has to do is say, "OK, what can we bring to the world," not what can the world bring to us. And I suspect that when that mindset is gone, it will be six months into a great long-lived recovery of Cleveland.
Councilor Jeff Johnson: You pretty much have brought to the table a libertarian philosophy, and I've read your writings on your website, and since you're here and since you brought this out, let me just say that on many things you say I agree. Many things you say I don't agree with. Your philosophy is your philosophy. I've been in government almost 30 years now; I'm not a libertarian.
So our debate deals with this concept of, as you say, better, smallish, smarter. Decentralize, deregulate. The core values of libertarianism. Government, from my philosophy, can be an engine of change. It is not always the quickest way to a solution, but it is the fairest way to a solution. Government seeks to bring fairness and opportunities to all, whether it's class, race, gender, what have you. Because the private sector historically has not done a great job of being fair with minorities, with gender, women. And so government has to step in at times to make sure we balance it. So my philosophy is not your philosophy. And we'll agree to disagree on that.
You have a forum through the Internet to send provocative messages, and you've done one relative to my city. I am not defensive and thin-skinned; people know me. And I've challenged the leaders of this city continuously, as well as myself. But I will say, before we deal with some specifics, that I think that you took cheap shots at our city. T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, equating us to a [perennially losing] basketball team, using an analogy that we're weak and others are strong—cheap shots. What I do is not entertainment. It is real life. Trying to stop a young 15-year-old with a 9mm from killing someone. Trying to deal with the results of the housing crisis. Trying to educate our children. I totally agree with you that competition in education is something that should be tried. I was an anti-voucher guy many years ago; I changed on that issue. I think Cleveland should compete, encourage competition, but the private sector, in and of itself, doesn't mean they're the best product.
And so the simplicity of your solutions does not help me. Raising the issue helps me, because it helps me be challenged by you. I've read through and I've looked at most of the videos and I would say you have achieved a goal, and that is to get our attention. Thank you, Mr. Carey, on that. But I need you to understand that there is hope and a plan in Cleveland. You may not agree with it, we may be moving too slowly for you, but there is. In the complication of government, it is easy to write about and compare on the outside, but on the ground, on the front lines, it is difficult when a federal government makes certain decisions that impact my people, like Councilor Polensek said. It is difficult with a state that fights over funding of schools and has told us it is unconstitutional and still won't fix it.
I would love for you to come back and talk about how my philosophy and libertarianism can work together for solutions. For example, on the golf course issue, which is really a question of provision of services that you think historically government should not be in. You think. Part of the golf course issue is accessibility, where private golf courses, in the past, have denied African Americans access. Now, you might be able to sell more golf tees [by privatizing the courses], but I have to make sure there's accessibility on at least one golf course to, not necessarily race now, but to class. Accessibility. So I have to be able to figure out if somebody from my neighborhood who isn't part of the club can go play golf. Now, we can do a management contract so it can be managed better, but I will not sell it if you ask me that question.
I am upset with how we manage West Side Market, or some parts of it. But I know it's a city asset. And when you're a central city in a region that wants to forget you, when you sell assets, you get forgotten, you get marginalized, you're not in the room, you're not at the table. So I'm not selling the airport. I'm not giving up my power to the port authority. I'm not selling the West Side Market. Why? Because I need to be at the table as a city. Because they will forget the central cities. It has happened and will happen. Those are the dynamics that go beyond your video. It goes into the whole reality of how people treat people. And how folks marginalize people.
Carey: I would say it's OK to agree to disagree. The whole point of the video was about promoting discussion. And I said at the beginning that I don't envy anybody your job, and I know that it's hard lifting that you guys do every day, and I really do appreciate it. Honestly, big love for everybody for doing that.
But there's no reason that we have to own a golf course. You don't have to be responsible for somebody being able to golf. There are cheap golf courses, cheap enough for somebody who wants to golf. Not many people golf anyway, and if somebody wants to golf, they can go pay the fee at a private golf course. Especially when the golf course isn't kept that well. If you're going to keep a golf course, at least keep it up so it can compete against the good golf courses that people really like to go to.
And the same thing with the West Side Market. Everybody talks about the West Side Market as this big tourist attraction in Cleveland. It's not. Nobody says, "Hey, honey, let's drive to Cleveland and see the West Side Market," you know? I love the West Side Market, don't get me wrong, but it's only open four days a week. It's not open that many hours. My idea is to sell it to somebody who knows how to manage a market. You guys are in the city-running business, not in the golf course–running business or the grocery business. You shouldn't have to be a grocery store expert and a golf course expert. Your job is hard enough.
Go to whatever big supermarket chain and say, "You want to buy the West Side Market? You have to keep it, you have to call it the West Side Market, and you have to pay us this much a year for it, that's how much it's going to cost you, and then do what you want." And they'll improve it to make the money to pay us. They'll open it seven days a week, they'll make sure it's open 'til midnight, they'll have sales, they'll do all kinds of things to improve the place that we can't afford to do. And then it'll be a better place to go. Because right now, the West Side Market loses money and it's inconvenient.
I'm telling you, if I lived here in Cleveland, the money I have, and if I wanted to be mean about it, I would open a market right beside the West Side Market and put you out of business. I'd make it nicer than the West Side Market, I'd open it seven days a week, I'd make the facilities better, so that vendors at the West Side Market would want to move right across the street. I'd have better parking. And the West Side Market would cease to exist. If I was mean and that's what I wanted to do to punish the city of Cleveland, which I don't.
Gillespie: I appreciate particularly your questions of accessibility and fairness. And I think what you're getting at, which is one sign of success and one sign of failure, is that race may not be the dividing line in Cleveland anymore, but class remains. And this is a huge issue. Also—without going into a tear-inducing story of my own childhood—that is precisely why I'm a libertarian. Businesses historically have been pro-minority, they've been pro–poor people. The whole horrible stain of Jim Crow, of government-enforced discrimination in the United States, arose precisely to kick back at free market companies that were doing things like selling first-class railroad tickets to blacks, allowing blacks to sit in the same restaurants as whites. So it's actually a very complicated and interesting history, which I think speaks well to the libertarian persuasion.
Reason Foundation put out a policy report about California that was authored by David Osborne, who was head of reinventing government back in the '90s. And he suggests that states, municipalities, other kinds of governmental jurisdictions can go through an exercise where you think about what are your core businesses. You come up through a democratic process with what they are, and then you figure out how to afford them, if you can or can't. How do you rank police protection, filling pot holes, running golf courses, running markets, etc.? You'll find a pretty quick consensus, and it will also give you the clarity to say, "OK, what can we do without?"
And in terms of selling, there are two things we've been talking about. One is competitive bidding, which can realize real savings. For instance, Los Angeles recently contracted out its building maintenance, and it saved 51 percent of its cost. That's great, the buildings aren't going anywhere, they're still in Los Angeles. And you have a firm that's either responsive to your demands, or you get a new contract. That's a great way to save money.
There are also asset sales. We talked a little bit about Chicago and its parking meter stuff. But the selling of the Chicago Skyway changed a huge asset in Chicago that, in a good year, made the city a net revenue of about $8 million. But they were also paying 5 percent on a long-term debt project, which pretty much wiped out any possibility of a profit. By doing a long-term lease—they didn't really sell it—they got a $1.8 billion lump sum up front, which is pretty good. So if you start thinking about it in those terms, it's not destroying the West Side Market, or the golf courses, or countless other assets that may be here. It's really unlocking the economic value both to the city and then the taxpayer, but then also the customer base, because all of these contracts will revolve and hinge on whether or not the people who you give the contract to are delivering the goods at the price they specified.
Councilor Tony Brancatelli: I certainly agree with having to fight perception. Fighting perception is what we're dealing with every day. Population loss, I think, is a little bit of a red herring. There were 70,000 people in the Slavic Village neighborhood at one time, and it was packed. My mother was one of 11 in a 1,200-square-foot house, and that just doesn't happen today. We had front-back houses and 25-foot lots. And so we have to put our population loss in perspective. I think certainly the issues around the schools were a big change agent in the population loss, but it wasn't the only one.
In the video, when you talk about less government, we saw where less government had a horrible impact on the neighborhood of Slavic Village. It was ground zero in the foreclosure crisis. It was because an unregulated mortgage industry created opportunities for people to capitalize on the bundled Wall Street securitizations that caused a huge negative effect. Because there was no oversight on providing loans for houses four and five times their value. And so when you start looking at that, that's where you look at where government can play a role.
Carey: I can talk about the schools for a second. School competition is a good thing. The solution we brought up in the video that I like better—I thought that it's the best school idea I've heard—is backpack funding, where every school, public and private, charter school and public school, has to compete for every student. The money stays with the student in their "backpack," as they call it. So if your kid's going to Rhodes and your favorite teacher quits, or Rhodes starts to go downhill, you can say, "I don't want my kid going to Rhodes anymore," and you can just transfer them. The same money goes with the kid. And each school is run autonomously by the principal and the teachers; they decide what the school's going to be. That makes them all compete for the students; that makes them all bring up their game all the time. Nobody can slack off.
The idea is to make the K–12 system in Cleveland like the college system all over the country, where if you're going to Cleveland State and all of a sudden you don't like Cleveland State, transfer to another college, just like that. And all your credits go with you, everything you learned goes with you, and it's not that much of a hassle.
Gillespie: To talk about the mortgage crisis, there are a lot of things going on there. First off, the mortgage industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries, both in terms of day-to-day paperwork that needs to be filed and a larger scale. What was really problematic in the housing bubble that popped a while ago and shows very little sign of recovering is precisely the fact that the government was subsidizing so many loans and bankers and mortgage holders. And that banks no longer had any real incentive to monitor their risks the way that they should have, because they knew that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac—government-sponsored enterprises—were going to pick up all of their loans.
Carey: They were gambling with a friend's money.
Gillespie: Yeah. And in any case, if you look at Cleveland, before and after the housing bubble overall in Ohio, house prices did not go up that much and they did not go down that much. There are a lot of foreclosures here that had to do with, without getting into it too deeply, the down payments people make.
But again, the issue in Cleveland is not a lack of housing, and it's really not a lack of affordable housing. If anything, it's matching better the supply and the demand in the sense that there is a lot of supply. And in cities like this—I also lived in Buffalo, which is another place that has seen a 50 percent or more decline in population—you have the sense of the city as a balloon that was big and then the air was let out. It's really baggy, it's saggy, there's a lot of free space. How do you shrink the scale of the city back down? It's a very, very difficult challenge, but it is not something that you can lay at the feet of the mortgage industry.
Councilor Zack Reed: I do want to go back to a few things you were just alluding to, about the fact that there are some good things that are going on in the city of Cleveland. I mean, you look around, there are not too many cities that have three professional teams, which we do. So I look at it this way, like when we lost in the NBA finals: I say, well we got another bite at the apple, you just keep biting the apple. So look at the three top-notch medical facilities we have here in the city of Cleveland. I mean, second to none. And the diversity in our population.
I guess I will be the closest one to your libertarian politics, because I'm a moderate Democrat who believes that limited government is best government, as Thomas Jefferson has taught us. So I appreciate us having this conversation, but how do we go from the conversation to implementation? Because that's where I think we lack. What is the next step to get there?
I'll give you a great example. It leads right into what you're saying. There's a gentleman in the city of Cleveland who is a very successful businessperson who now works for one of the nonprofits. He owns a business in the city, and he wants to put in a $20,000 sign, because he's trying to bring up his business. He applied for a variance to do it. This is what he says—I'm just going to read it because it's pretty short: "If we have to go to the zoning review board, I understand that it may take 60 days for approval. That is simply too long. I applied for a variance on 4/21. Based on the progress to the day, I will have my sign installed by 9/1.…The summer will be over. The car wash will have lost more money. This is the kind of stuff that hurts Cleveland and puts people out of business. It's just ridiculous. I need the variance to be approved ASAP so that the sign can be manufactured and I can have some hope of getting the sign installed before the summer's over."
Carey: That's a lot of money for a car wash owner in Cleveland who can only be open in the summer.
Sweeney: Let me give some context to this. If you apply for a sign that's within our regulation, it would take somewhere between three and five days. If it's outside the regulations, it needs to be [no bigger than] four foot by eight foot, no more than two or three colors. If you want to go 10 by 10, and put it up a little bit higher, and have 10 colors on it, you have to get approval to go outside the variance.
Carey: Why does it matter how many colors are on it?
Sweeney: It's one of the regulations we have.
Carey: Get rid of it.
Sweeney: Got it. But what I was trying to get at, the three to five days is if you stay within the regulations, if you agree with them. If you want to go outside, it's six weeks to put it on the calendar and have it heard. And then all the other steps.
Carey: You should be able to put up whatever sign you want, man. If it's your business.
Reed: But understand, you can say that simplistically. We can't say that because there has to be some type of structure.
Carey: That kind of stuff can't be happening, man, I'm telling you.
Gillespie: There are ways of switching the default positions so that rather than having to apply for a variance you are automatically granted whatever land use you're doing unless there is a specific objection made, so that instead of the onus being on the business owner, it's actually on somebody who would have an objection. Things like that.
Sweeney: On behalf of myself as council president and all our city council members, thank you for accepting our invitation.
Carey: Yeah, thanks a lot. I really enjoyed it and I hope it was helpful for everybody, honestly.
Sweeney: I think it was healthy, productive, and nudging. You know what I mean? If you did it for the purpose of getting the conversation going, you've accomplished it.
Bonus Reason.tv Video: Mr. Carey Goes to Cleveland: Drew and Nick talk to the Cleveland City Council:
]]>Earlier this year, just before Reason.tv released our hour-long documentary Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey, Forbes rated Cleveland "the most miserable city" in America. The score was based on all sorts of inputs, ranging from jobs to regulations to political corruption to population growth to lousy schools. You can quibble with the final rankings (is Cleveland really worse than Detroit, say?) but not with the general gist: Cleveland, which has lost more than half its population since 1950 and has been facing super-tough times for decades.
But not tough enough, it seems, to avoid shelling out "$2.5 million on high-tech" garbage containers that will allow city officials to fine residents who don't go along with recycling plans.
It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't.
The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city will roll out next year with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.
The chips will allow city workers to monitor how often residents roll carts to the curb for collection. If a chip show a recyclable cart hasn't been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor will sort through the trash for recyclables.
Not only that, if residents throw out too many grass clippings, they'll get dinged for $250 to $500.
The program began in 2007 and now the City Council is expanding it by 25,000 households a year until all 150,000 residences in Cleveland are under garbage surveillance. The results so far:
The city stepped up enforcement of ordinances governing trash collection last year by issuing 2,900 tickets, nearly five times more tickets than in 2008. Those infractions include citations for people who put out their trash too early or fail to bring in their garbage cans from the curb in a timely manner.
The Division of Waste Collection is on track to meet its goal of issuing 4,000 citations this year, Owens said.
I am willing to go out on a ledge and say this is not the sort of activity that will bring Cleveland's mojo back any more than having Lou "The Toe" Groza suit up again for the Browns. More info here.
On a related note, a number of readers responded to my June 2010 Reason essay, "How to Save Cleveland," in which I articulated what I dubbed "the orchestra axiom":
You want a quick indicator of urban decline in any city you visit? Ask a local what's great about the place. If the top three answers include "a world-class symphony orchestra," you're smack dab in the middle of a current or future ghost town....
[In Cleveland,] it didn't matter if I was talking to a CEO or a homeless man, a bar owner or a barfly. The inevitable reply: "We've got a world-class symphony orchestra," typically embellished with some transparently phony claim about how it compares to those in other cities ("It's in the top 15 or 20 in the world!"), as if orchestras are regularly ranked like NCAA basketball teams.
Which is not to say that Cleveland does not in fact have a well-regarded orchestra (the renown dates back to even before the coming of the legendary George Szell in the late '40s) or that it hasn't done well in the occasional rankings that get circulated. For instance, in 2008, Gramophone magazine gave a list of the world's top symphony orchestras and Cleveland came in at number seven, ahead of American cities such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Boston.
Orchestras are not, in fact, regularly ranked like college basketball teams, but they do get ranked from time to time by various credible sources, and I apologize for dismissing that out of hand.
But the larger point of the orchestra axiom still holds: When a symphony rises to the top of a list about what's great in a city, it means there is not much else to cheer about. I've lived in Los Angeles and New York, two towns with excellent orchestras, and I can guarantee you that even the players themselves wouldn't put that fact in their top three answers.
Watch Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey: How to Fix the Mistake on the Lake and Other Once-Great American Cities. Click below or go here for a full episode guide and related materials.
]]>An ousted critic who charged that he was removed from his beat because of critical coverage has lost a lawsuit against his newspaper and the Cleveland Orchestra.
A jury ruled Friday in favor of the defense on all three counts in the lawsuit filed by 56-year-old Donald Rosenberg. The orchestra reviewer was removed from his beat at the Plain Dealer in 2008.
The jury ruled in favor of The Musical Arts Association, which runs the orchestra, on charges of defamation and interference with employment and in favor of the newspaper on an age discrimination charge.
More here and here. FWIW, it doesn't sound like the reporter's case had much merit, though there's no question that the Mistake on the Lake is very tetchy about the unparalleled spectacularness of its scrappy band of orchestra players.
I'm also gonna go out on a limb here and say this sort of battle is not going to help Cleveland move into the 20th century, much less the 21st. Indeed, Cleveland's whole problem may be that people there won't STFU about orchestras that are incapable of supporting themselves. From Reason's account of How to Save Cleveland:
You want a quick indicator of urban decline in any city you visit? Ask a local what's great about the place. If the top three answers include "a world-class symphony orchestra," you're smack dab in the middle of a current or future ghost town.
This orchestra axiom is something I divined while working on Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey, an hour-long documentary you can see at reason.tv/cleveland. Time and again, I'd ask Clevelanders—a proud breed beaten down by decades of lake-effect snow, economic degradation, population decline, and gridiron disasters worthy of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland ("I had not thought death had undone so many")—to tell me what was still top-notch about their hometown. It didn't matter if I was talking to a CEO or a homeless man, a bar owner or a barfly. The inevitable reply: "We've got a world-class symphony orchestra," typically embellished with some transparently phony claim about how it compares to those in other cities ("It's in the top 15 or 20 in the world!"), as if orchestras are regularly ranked like NCAA basketball teams.
Such are the thin straws at which residents in drowning cities grasp.
Watch Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey, our pathbreaking documentary series.
]]>So NBA mega-galactic star LeBron James has signed up with the Miami Heat, leaving not just the Cleveland Cavaliers but the "Mistake on the Lake" itself in a lurch. That seems to be the consensus among the cognoscenit and the hoi polloi alike. Last night on Rachel Maddow, for instance, The Nation's sports guy, Dave Zirin, attacked James for going for big dollars and selling out his almost-hometown. Zirin claimed that James' departure would drain the city of $20 million in economic activity just around the Quicken Arena (he and guest host Chris Hayes also fretted over the emergence of a two-tier system in the NBA, in which big stars make tons of money and lesser role players simply earn oodles of it). And the tweets I skimmed last night were running roughly 100 to 0 calling James a bum.
James' ESPN appearance last night may have been an awful exercise in press relations, but he's being attacked for doing exactly what more than half the population of Cleveland has done in the last 60 years: getting the hell out of the place. On top of that, his motivation seems genuine: As he told Larry King earlier this year, his bball legacy depends on earning champeenship rings, not putting up MVP numbers. He wants to be Michael Jordan 2.0, not Charles Barkley 2.0.
Did LeBron vamoose for the money? Likely not, though this analysis makes an interesting case that because of Ohio's and Cleveland's high taxes, he can make more take-home pay in Florida than in Ohio. I doubt that that is his motivating factor but Clevelanders who make far less should read and weep. That same idiotic, complicated tax system is putting your local and regional economy, which has enough to worry about, in a vise.
While there's no certainty that teaming up with the Heat will lead James to the winner's circle, it's definitely the case that he doesn't deserve abuse for taking full advantage of the free agent opportunities available to him. As labor in a stridently enforced cartel, he puts the asses in the seats and he should extract whatever he can during a career that can end at any minute. We forget that it wasn't so long ago that stars of James' stature were totally screwed by an oppressive management system (Matt Welch doesn't, in this great essay about how Joe Willie Namath, Richie Dick Allen, and Oscar Big O Robertson ushered in an age of "Locker-Room Liberty").
More important, Cleveland's destiny as a dying industrial city is in no way linked to James' staying or going. As economist Dennis Coates has pointed out, having a major professional franchise in an area actually reduces per capita income by about $40 (believe). Cities don't rise and fall on the backs of their sports teams and sports figures (trust me, I lived in Buffalo three of its four Super Bowl years and nothing would have changed had Scud Norwood split the uprights against the Giants).
If Cleveland and its rooters in the press (who never seem to actually go there) want to take some lessons from James' departure, they should think about what they can do for the 99.9 percent of its residents who don't play in the NBA or own professional sports teams.
Which is another way of saying that LeBron James can't save Cleveland (he never could), but there are definite steps that city can take to improve life for its citizens. They may not be as sexy as building generally empty stadiums (how often do the Browns play again?) or subsidzing failing museums (Rock And Roll!) or betting the farm on new convention centers (three white elephants is better than two!). But they have the advantage of actually working to nudge quality of life upwards.
Check out Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey: How to Fix The Mistake on the Lake and Other Once-Great American Cities. Click here to go to a page with all six episodes and background materials. Click below to watch the 50 minute doc.
]]>From the Wash Post about the Keystone State's capital:
Harrisburg's crisis has been precipitated by a malfunctioning municipal incinerator, whose ill-fated expansion was promoted as a potential moneymaker. But after seven years of cost overruns, construction delays, design problems, financings, refinancings and more refinancings, the city is on the hook. The $68 million bill is part of $288 million in outstanding debt related to the project.
The debacle is pushing the 150-year-old state capital toward default. The fiscal crisis has shaken the city, which over the past decade has spruced up its riverfront downtown and created tourist attractions in large part through low-cost financing afforded by municipal bond sales. In one notorious example, former mayor Stephen R. Reed spent nearly $8 million from the public authority that owns the incinerator to buy wagon wheels, rifles and other memorabilia for a Wild West museum that never opened. And like a homeowner who binged on cheap financing, this city is underwater financially.
You got that, it's this one incinerator project, see, that's got the city in a jam, right? Otherwise everything would be hunky-dory. Oh yeah, and a mayor who dipped into funds for crap...
None of this could possibly point to a long-term pattern of stupidity, corruption, and malfeasance in Pennsylvania's answer to Bonn and Brasilia. The Post notes later in the article that the incinerator debacle comes "on top" of a $9 million deficit in the current budget. How'd that happen if things were going so great except for that friggin' incinerator? It's all so complicated: Who would have thought that spending more and more money independent of the revenue to pay for it could lead to deficits?
The bold recovery plan 21st century Harrisburg?
Not only is the city contemplating layoffs in its 537-employee workforce, it is asking for contract rebates, considering the sale or long-term lease of revenue-producing assets, including parking garages and water and wastewater systems, and asking creditors to restructure and forgive debt.
"We all need to take some hits. I'm not going to let the city sink. I'm not going to let the city auction off all its assets and have nothing while everyone walks away with a sweeter deal just by renegotiating and restructuring and taking us further and further out, and you still get every dime you had in the beginning of the deal," said Mayor Linda D. Thompson.
Contemplation is for monks, Madam Mayor, not chief executives in a part of the country that is losing people along with money. And if Harrisburg is anything like every other city in the country (I'm totally skylarking here, I know), then those "revenue-producing assets" cost taxpayers far more than they bring in. Yes, parking meters and garages and municipal swimming pools and fairgrounds and all the rest bring in the odd dollar and cent; the political and economic infrastructure that supports them always costs far more. Any city that is still running its water treatment plant is in the patronage business, not actually trying to give its ratepayers the best service at the best price.
For a workable alternative to politics as usual, check out Reason.tv's recent series Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey. Click below to watch the 50-minute, six-part documentary that gives concrete ways to improve public schools, city services, and more. Or go here for an episode guide with mega-links to related materials.


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Bill Cassidy on Abortion | |
Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
[Rep. Fortenberry, R-NE]: Americans deserve to know how the government spends their money, and they are right to refuse the use of their tax dollars for highly controversial activities--in this case, abortion. Abortion harms women. It takes the lives of children, and it allows a man to escape his responsibility. The abortion industry many times profits from all of this pain.
We can and must do better as a society, and at a minimum, taxpayer dollars should not be involved. This issue has manifested itself most intently during the health care debate. Unless a prohibition is enacted, taxpayers will fund abortion under the framework of the new health care law. Abortion is not health care.
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-NY]: H.R. 3 is actually dangerous for women's health. By refusing to provide any exceptions to women who are facing serious health conditions--cancer, heart or whatever that may be--you are forcing women to choose to risk their health or to risk bankruptcy, and I think that is morally unacceptable. Under H.R. 3, a woman facing cancer who needs to terminate a pregnancy in order to live might have to go into debt over the $10,000 that the legal and necessary procedure could cost. Despite having both health insurance and tax-preferred savings accounts, this bill would prevent her from having that.
A BILL: To prohibit funding to the United Nations Population Fund.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of State may not make a contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
[Explanation from Wikipedia.com]: UNFPA has been accused of providing support for government programs which have promoted forced-abortions and coercive sterilizations. Controversies regarding these allegations have resulted in a sometimes shaky relationship between the organization and the US government, with three presidential administrations, that of Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and George W. Bush withholding funding from the UNFPA.
From 2002 through 2008, the Bush Administration denied funding to UNFPA that had already been allocated by the US Congress, partly on the grounds that the UNFPA supported Chinese government programs which include forced abortions and coercive sterilizations, thus violating the Kemp-Kasten Amendment.
UNFPA says it "does not provide support for abortion services". Its charter includes a strong statement condemning coercion. UNFPA's connection to China's administration of forced abortions was disputed by investigations carried out by various US, UK, and UN teams sent to examine UNFPA activities in China. A three-person US State Department fact-finding team was sent on a two week tour throughout China, concluding that it found "no evidence that UNFPA has supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China," as has been charged by critics. However, according to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, the UNFPA contributed vehicles and computers to the Chinese to carry out their population control policies.
The EU and Japan decided to fill the gap left behind by the US. In America, nonprofit organizations worked to compensate for the loss of US federal funding by raising private donations.
Congressional Summary:Protecting Life in Funding Education Act or the PRO-LIFE Act--to prohibit the provision of federal education funding to state or local educational agencies that make health services available to students through school-based health centers, unless those centers certify that they will not provide students with abortions, abortion-related materials or referrals, or directions to abortion services.
Proponent's argument for bill: (Sponsor Rep. Randy Neugebauer's House website)
School districts in California, Oregon, New Jersey, and New York are now partnering with Planned Parenthood, the country's largest abortion provider, to pro
Prohibits providing any federal family planning assistance to an entity unless the entity certifies that, during the period of such assistance, the entity will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion. Excludes an abortion where:
| |||
Other candidates on Abortion: | Bill Cassidy on other issues: | ||
LA Gubernatorial: Bobby Jindal LA Senatorial: David Vitter Mary Landrieu Rob Maness LA politicians LA Archives Retiring in 2014 election: GA:Chambliss(R) IA:Harkin(D) MI:Levin(D) MT:Baucus(D) NE:Johanns(R) SD:Johnson(D) WV:Rockefeller(D) Retired as of Jan. 2013: AZ:Kyl(R) CT:Lieberman(D) HI:Akaka(D) ME:Snowe(R) ND:Conrad(D) NE:Nelson(D) NM:Bingaman(D) TX:Hutchison(R) VA:Webb(D) WI:Kohl(D) |
Senate Vacancies 2013:
HI:Inouye(D,Deceased) HI:Schatz(D,Appointed) MA:Kerry(D,Resigned) MA:Cowan(D,Appointed) MA:Markey(D,elected) MA:Gomez(R,lost special election) NJ:Lautenberg(D,Deceased) NJ:Chiesa(R,Appointed) NJ:Booker(D,running) NJ:Lonegan(R,running) SC:DeMint(R,Resigned) SC:Scott(R,Appointed) Senate races Nov. 2014: AK:Begich(D) vs.Miller(R) vs.Treadwell(R) vs.Sullivan(R) AL:Sessions(R) vs.Bright(D) AR:Pryor(D) vs.Cotton(R) CO:Udall(D) vs.Buck(R) vs.Hill(R) vs.Baumgardner(R) vs.Stephens(R) DE:Coons(D) vs.O`Donnell(R) GA:Gingrey(R) vs.Nunn(D) vs.Perdue(R) vs.Handel(R) vs.Broun(R) vs.Kingston(R) HI:Schatz(D) vs.Hanabusa(D) vs.Cavasso(R) IA:Braley(D) vs.Whitaker(R) vs.Ernst(R) vs.Clovis(R) ID:Risch(R) vs.LaRocco(D) IL:Durbin(D) vs.Truax(R) vs.Oberweis(R) vs.Hansen(L) KS:Roberts(R) vs.Tiahrt(R) KY:McConnell(R) vs.Bevin(R) vs.Grimes(D) |
ME:Collins(R) vs.D`Amboise(R) vs.Bellows(D) MI:Land(R) vs.Peters(D) vs.Wiedenhoeft(R) MN:Franken(D) vs.Abeler(R) MS:Cochran(R) vs.McDaniel(R) vs.Childers(D) MT:Edmunds(R) vs.Daines(R) vs.Bohlinger(D) vs.Walsh(D) NC:Hagan(D) vs.Tillis(R) NE:Sasse(R) vs.Osborn(R) vs. NH:Shaheen(D) vs.Martin(R) vs.Brown(R) vs.Smith(R) vs.Rubens(R) vs.Testerman(R) NM:Udall(D) vs.Sanchez(R) OK:Inhofe(R) vs.Silverstein(D) OR:Merkley(D) vs.Conger(R) RI:Reed(D) vs.Carcieri(R) SC-2:Scott(R) vs.Wade(D) SC-6:Graham(R) vs.Stamper(D) vs.Mace(R) vs.Bright(R) SD:Rounds(R) vs.Weiland(D) vs.Pressler(I) TN:Alexander(R) vs.Carr(R) TX:Cornyn(R) vs.Stockman(R) vs.Roland(L) VA:Warner(D) vs. WV:Capito(R) vs.Raese(R) vs.Tennant(D) vs.McGeehan(R) WY:Enzi(R) vs.Cheney(R) |
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Contact info: Mailing Address: Cannon HOB 506, Washington, DC 20515 Official Website Phone number: (202) 225-3901 |

subset: commoncrawl


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I am wondering if anyone knows how to get the volume of a 3D concave shape? The Matlab build-in function can only calculate the volume of a convex shape. For example,
[K, V] = convhulln(shape.vertices);
V is the volume. Here the shape is defined by a mesh with vertices and faces.
Thanks very much.
Best, A


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Nice one, gimme a shout if you wanna do a few loops, Im right on the doorstep
Welcome back Dude, been while...pleased you sorted if I remember you near to Rutland water?
Got the kit thanks Schmunkee
Errr because they are over a year old, but thanks for your very useful advice !
Thanks guys, posted these on Facebook and they went pretty much straight away


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Leisure Activities
Canoe and Kayak the St. Joseph River
Get your family and friends together and canoe the beautiful St. Joseph River! Also a great idea for clubs, businesses and groups of all ages! Packages include shuttle service, canoes, paddles and required life jackets. Parental signature required for renters under the age of 18. Not recommended for children 3 years of age or younger. Limited kayak rentals available. Need five or more canoes? No problem, call ahead to reserve a caravan of canoes at least ten days prior to your trip. Have your own vessel? We provide shuttle service for $7 during shuttle operations. Beginners and families may also use our pond for practice and fun for $7/hour. |
Bring your friends! Bring your family! See what disc golf is all about. Check out the Pro Shop for all your disc golfing needs. We carry INNOVA disc golf bags and a great selection of INNOVA discs, including tie-dyed discs! |
Monday, March 3 we will begin taking reservations for group canoe rentals (10 or more canoes) on the St. Joseph River. To print off reservation information click here. For more information or to make a reservation call 574/654-3155. |


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V710 Mute
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What is Angina Pectoris and How Do We Prevent it? By John D Day MD March 03, 2014 Angina pectoris is the discomfort or pain that occurs when the blood supply to the heart muscle is decreased due to the narrowing of a coronary artery. Here's how you can prevent it. Read More
What is the New Smoking: Sitting or Sugar? By Intermountain Healthcare February 27, 2014 The debate is on - what is more harmful to your health than smoking: sitting or sugar consumption? Dr. Liz Joy from the Intermountain Salt Lake Clinic and Dr. Tamara Sheffield from Intermountain Healthcare share their reasoning for the health impact sitting and sugar consumption have on your body. Watch the debate, then you decide. Read More
Recipe: Cilantro Marinated Sockeye Salmon By Kary Woodruff April 19, 2013 There seem to be a bazillion different ways to cook or season fish. But this simple recipe is both delicious AND healthy, so it's worth considering for your next family meal. Read More
Getting Vitamin D during the dead of winter By John D Day MD January 16, 2013 The noon-day sun is the number one source of our vitamin D. But in the dead of winter it's too cold to go outside, the sun is too low in the sky, and these inversions block out the sun's rays. As a heart rhythm specialist at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, here's why vitamin D matters, and how you can get it during the winter season. Read More
Ask the Expert - Common Myths of Heart Disease Webcast By Author August 02, 2013 John Day, MD, cardiologist with the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center, has compiled a list of common myths he has encountered during his years in practice. Join him on Friday, August 9 at 12 p.m. (MST) for a live Ask the Expert webcast to address these common myths. Read More


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Please enter your travel dates.
Buckhead, Atlanta hotel near shopping mall and downtown
Located in Atlanta (Buckhead), Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Atlanta At Buckhead, GA is convenient to Lenox Square and Legoland Discovery Center.
This hotel is within close proximity of Atlanta History Center and Phipps Plaza.
Make yourself at home in one of the 123 air-conditioned rooms featuring refrigerators and flat-screen televisions. Cable television is provided for your entertainment. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations, complimentary toiletries, and hair dryers. Conveniences include laptop-compatible safes and desks, and you can also request cribs/infant beds.
Don't miss out on the many recreational opportunities, including an outdoor pool, a sauna, and a fitness center. Additional amenities include complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services, and a fireplace in the lobby.
Grab a bite from a grocery/convenience store serving guests of Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Atlanta At Buckhead, GA.
Featured amenities include complimentary high-speed (wired) Internet access, a 24-hour business center, and audiovisual equipment. Planning an event in Atlanta? This hotel has facilities measuring 1000 square feet (93 square meters), including a meeting/conference room. A train station pick-up service is provided at no charge, and free self parking is available onsite.
Hotel Amenities
- General
A complimentary hot and cold breakfast buffet includes waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, pastries, cereals, burritos, biscuits, juice, coffee, and tea. Complimentary cookies and coffee are available in the lobby 24 hours a day. Numerous restaurants are within a half-mile.
This smoke-free Atlanta hotel also features an outdoor pool, sundeck, and well-equipped fitness center. Guest parking (covered and uncovered) is complimentary. Country Inn & Suites Atlanta Buckhead also provides complimentary wired (high-speed) Internet access, 24-hour business center, one 1,000-square feet meeting/conference room, and complimentary shuttle service to and from a nearby MARTA rapid-transit station.
- Swimming pool - outdoor
- Free breakfast
- Complimentary newspapers in lobby
- Fitness facilities
- Audiovisual equipment
- Total number of rooms - 123
- Express check-in
- 24-hour front desk
- Express check-out
- Security guard
- ATM/banking
- Laundry facilities
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Coffee/tea in lobby
- Microwave in lobby
- Air-conditioned public areas
- Elevator/lift
- Number of floors - 6
- Barbecue grill(s)
- Concierge services
- Fireplace in lobby
- Grocery/convenience store
- Free Wi-Fi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Library
- One meeting/conference room
- Multilingual staff
- Free self parking
- Patio
- Luggage storage
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Free garage parking
- Free outdoor parking
- Train station pickup (complimentary)
- 24-hour business center
- Meeting facilities size (feet) - 1000
- Meeting facilities size (meters) - 93
- Sauna
- Smoke-free property
- Smoke-free property (fines apply)
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Television in lobby
- Internet
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi, Free wired high-speed Internet
- Parking
Free outdoor parking, Free self parking, Free garage parking
- Room Amenities
- Premium TV channels
- Pay movies
- Air conditioning
- Free local calls
- Voice mail
- Refrigerator
- Coffee/tea maker
- Microwave
- Wake-up calls
- Complimentary toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Shower/tub combination
- Cable TV service
- Iron/ironing board
- Clock radio
- Desk
- Cribs/infant beds available
- In-room safe (laptop compatible)
- Flat-panel TV
- Dining
A complimentary continental breakfast with waffles is provided each morning.
Country Inn and Suites Buckhead does not have its own restaurant, but there are several dining options within the surrounding area.
Nearby restaurants and lounges:
Atlanta Fish Company
Buckhead Diner
Cheesecake Factory
American Pie
Johnny's Hideaway
Rock Bottom Brewery
3-Dollar Cafe
- Accessibility
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible bathroom
- Accessible parking
- In-room accessibility
Policies & Fees
- Check-in
Minimum check-in age is 21
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
- Check-out
Check-out time is 11 AM
- Payment types
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
- Pets
Pets not allowed
- General
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No rollaway/extra beds available


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Flectabed Heated Pet Bed
Flectabed Q is a central heated bed with no need for electricity. Flectabed Q was developed from NASA research into aluminised surfaces, which can reflect up to 95% of radiated heat. It uses a revolutionary lightweight insulating material specifically designed for its thermal properties. The flectabed inner quilt combines two key elements of thermal insulation to keep cats and dogs exceptionally warm all year round. Multi layered fibers trap pockets of warm air to reduce heat loss, and reflective surfaces reflecting any lost body heat back to the pet. The outer fleece cover is strong and moisture passes through it easily, so wet or damp pets are still effrectively insulated from chills. Extra warmth without the need for electricity.
Helps with arthritis and helps ill pets recover faster. Unique insulating qualities that reflect lost body heat back onto your pet. Innovative technology in thermal bedding for your cat or dog.
Select a size and color from the drop-down box.$50.81 - $98.605.0/5 (1)more colors -
Pamper your pooch with items that range from ultra-soft bedding to pet care and treats. We feature a wide selection to match every breed and budget.
Orbit Deluxe Rectangular Beds
These beds are thick and luxurious. Dogs love the comfortable and secure feel. They have removable bottoms that can be used as a crate mat. Durable and machine washable for easy care. Filled with soft poly-fill for comfort and support. Stuffed and Finished in the USA. Dimensions: 39"L x 10"H x 30"W.$109.99


text:
Definition of planche in English:
Line breaks: planchePronunciation: /plɑːntʃ
, plɑːnʃ/
- (In gymnastics) a position in which the body is held parallel with the ground by the arms, performed on the parallel bars, rings, or floor.More example sentences
- One of Conn-quest's logos will feature an image of her performing one of her signature skills, a reverse planche on balance beam.
- She and her husband opened Conn-quest Gymnastics Club in late 2001, and one of their club logos featuring an image of her performing her well-known reverse planche.
early 20th century: French, literally 'plank'.
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Word of the day
Pronunciation: ˈkaZHo͞oist
a person who uses clever but unsound reasoning


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