Return of the DOUCHEBAG

LeBron James returned to Cleveland yesterday, and provided more evidence that he's a DOUCHEBAG. He tried to park in the Cavaliers' reserved parking spaces, he showed up for practice wearing a Long Live the King t-shirt, and he showed up on court late because he was in the bathroom (probably puking).

Then he and his precious Heat lost the game!

Parents, don't let your kids grow up to be Yankee lovin DOUCHEBAGS like LeBron James.

Why in God's name do we need ANOTHER park?

Let’s consider a hypothetical:  Many opponents of development at Oakwood have said they want the land to become a park. I believe that the so-called Citizens for Oakwood group are playing a stalling game, hoping that if the zoning change is rejected, Mitchell Schneider will be unwilling to build homes in the current economic climate, eventually become frustrated enough to throw his hands up and donate the land or sell it at a reduced price. This also ASSumes that an entity would be willing to buy the land, but South Euclid and Cleveland Heights don't have the money and no one at Metroparks has come forward and publicly expressed interest. But let’s say, what happened if it became a park? How much use do the parks in our area get?

Quarry Park has a low to moderate rate of use during the warmer months and is mostly devoid of activity during the winter. The only exception to this is the Dog Park at Quarry North which is active year round. Metroparks Euclid Creek reservation has a moderate to high level of activity in the warmer months and moderate to low activity in colder months. Often, the primary use of that park is as a cut through between Anderson/Green and Highland Roads. Cain Park in Cleveland Heights has a higher level of activity, partly driven by concert and other stage events or planned events like the Cain Park Arts Festival in July.  Forest Hills Park on the Cleveland Heights/East Cleveland border is seldom active unless there is a scheduled event such as a softball game. 

This only addresses four of the larger parks in the area, and does not take into account the many smaller neighborhood parks, such as Bexley Park. I bring up the above to point out that we already have a great deal of greenspace in the area, and that the Citizens for Oakwood group is being dishonest in posting pictures of butterflies, foxes and birds on their webpage, trying to tug on our heartstrings and portraying the developer as some kind of monster who wants to rape the environment and exploit gullible taxpayers. By the way, how are they getting these pictures? Are they trespassing on Oakwood to take them? CfO and the Severance Neighborhood Association are being doubly dishonest by acting as if they were blindsided by these events.  People have been talking about selling Oakwood since 1994, yet no one ever came forward with a real offer for the land until Mr. Schneider came along. 

Where were they all this time?

Heightsters’ hidden agenda: RACISM

Cleveland Heights resident Rich Sones has posted a letter he sent to the
South Euclid planning commission on the anti-Oakwood facebook page. Here,
in his own words is the REAL reason many in Cleveland Heights are opposed
to Oakwood Commons:

Click image to enlarge

Note the highlighted sentences. You don’t have to read between the lines
much to see what’s on Mr. Sones’ mind: He doesn’t want THOSE people coming
here from East Cleveland to do their shopping. Rich feels THEY should stay
in their own neighborhoods. If THEY don’t have decent stores to shop in
that’s THEIR problem. God forbid that THEY would spend their GREEN money in
South Euclid.

And they say Cleveland Heights is tolerant and liberal. Sure it is, as
long as THEY are kept in THEIR place.

On behalf of the ordinary citizens of South Euclid, I want to say to
anyone, from anywhere, who wants to spend money in our city or work in our
establishments: WELCOME.

More lies from Fran Mentch

When it comes to stretching the truth, Fran would have been a good match for Joe Goebells.

Her latest round of lies:
http://www.heightssno.org/announcements/settleforlessparkinsoutheuclid

Look at the slideshow.  The pictures show the paving over of a wooded area.  But gound has not even been broken at Oakwood yet.  Where did these pictures come from?  All over the internet.

Fran also trots out her old "they're buiding a WALMART."  "OH, NOOOO!"

There is no evidence a Walmart is planned for Oakwood, although Fran and her minions have been propagandizing about it. 

I love her line about how the 21 acre park is to be built at "taxpayer expense."  Well, DUH.  Who would pay for that Metroparks you keep saying is in the cards?  Does Metroparks money grow on the trees you want to chain yourself to?

Throw up impediments

Their strategy, in a nutshell.  Don't talk.  Don't try to make it better. Just delay, delay, delay.

Enraged Heightsters on the Warpath

On March 3, First Interstate announced that it has exercised its option to purchase the Cleveland Heights portion of the Oakwood Club property. This news is surprising only to those who’ve had their head stuck in the sand or somewhere else for the last several months.

Fran Mentch, the ringleader of Citizens for Oakwood, immediately issued a fatwa on their Facebook page:

Unless she’s stupid, Mentch knows these demands aren’t going to fly. Note the highlighted items:

+ Money donated to the Forest Hill Park Foundation: There are two lies here: 1) The Oakwood Club is not greenspace, it was a golf course. Just because something has grass does not make it a greenspace - especially if that grass is fertilized, if there are man made sand traps, and gas wells on the property! 2) The space was not “lost” to the community because it never belonged to the people of Cleveland Heights or South Euclid - it was a private club.

+ Right of first hire to South Euclid and Cleveland Heights residents: No chance of this happening. A landlord, who is trying to fill spaces, is never going to impose such restrictions. Further, companies are usually bound by internal policies and external legislation to hire solely based on qualifications.

+ Money should be placed in escrow to pay for the demolition of the Walmart in Cleveland Heights if a Walmart Supercenter is built in Oakwood: Mentch really shows her hand here. Note she calls it the Walmart in Cleveland Heights, NOT the Walmart at Severance Town Center. Her request is specious and irrelevant in any case, because if Walmart abandoned its highly active Severance location, the site would not be demolished, Severance would try to fill it. The space is Severance’s property to do with as they please.

By the way, there has been no confirmation that a Walmart Supercenter will even be built at the Oakwood site. There have been rumors, which I have no doubt were started by Fran Mentch herself and fanned by her cronies, including Susan Miller and Sandy Stone.

+ Oakwood is not a done deal. Based on what has happened in other communities, this could go on for years. And there you have it: The fact is, Mentch and her cronies are not interested in a real dialog with the developer. The purpose of these demands, along with everything else they’ve done over the last several months, is to Stonewall and delay.


Who are the people beating the drums against Oakwood Commons? Who are the Citizens for Oakwood? They are a loose coalition of NIMBYs, Heights business interests, and misinformed greenies, who have no concept of reality or who pretend to have none. The NIMBYs are leading the way. They’ve had a quiet golf club in their backyards for decades and have grown accustomed to it. There has been talk of selling Oakwood since at least 1994. During all these years, they failed to take action to buy the land for green space, and they’re pissed that someone else has now bought the land. But they really have no one to blame but themselves.

Fran Mentch has never offered specifics about Citzens for Oakwood’s plan for the land, aside from vague promises about the Metroparks and requests for donations. Mentch has never specified how much money has been raised, where it has been spent, and how much remains in their account. Where’s the money, Fran?

Once again, this comes down to Cleveland Heights trying to bully South Euclid. Mentch’s demands mostly favor Cleveland Heights and do not even address the plans to build homes on the Cleveland Heights portion in the land, even though that’s what her statement was in response to. And Mitchell Schneider seems to be stuck in the middle. Fortunately for him, he seems to have thick skin.

Heights Schools gaming the system

The short version: The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Board is colluding with the teachers and their union to game the system. A selected group of teachers will take early retirement, then get rehired next school year as part timers. This is wrong on so many levels. It's  gaming the system, ripping off the taxpayers, and depriving enthusiastic young teachers job opportunities all in favor of the burned out pothead teachers that populate the CH-UH district. It's no surprise that those unfortunate enough to have kids in CH, UH, or the southwest quadrant of South Euclid are scrambling to pull their kids out of the low-ranked CH-UH schools.

I've been a Democrat all my life, but this is exactly the kind of shenanigans that causes people to vote Republican.

Read the full story here:

http://clevelandheights.patch.com/articles/more-teachers-opt-for-retirement-incentive