The TRUTH about Curtis Orr

Curtis Orr is a chronic deadbeat. Do you want him deciding where YOUR tax dollars are spent?

THIS ORR THAT?

Did you think we left? That like so many, we abandoned South Euclid and moved to some backwater in Geauga County? Think again. We’re here and intend to stay and will continue to point out wrongdoing when we see it.  

Lately things have been looking up in South Euclid. Oakwood is nearly finished and almost filled to capacity. The last parcel of Cedar Center North has been sold and will be home to a Planet Fitness gym. My wife has already pestered me to join when they open. The shopping plaza at Mayfield and Green which has been an eyesore for decades is being rebuilt. That’s all well and good. But there are also the things that don’t make the news. The houses on our street are better kept up than just a few years ago. Occupancy is up. Vacancy is down. Fewer homes are being torn down.

Not all is perfect. Many of our roads look like they come from the 3^rd world. Too often I see walkers tossing trash on people’s lawns. Or not picking up after their dogs.  Or driving with their radios WAY too loud.

But there is good news for Ward 3.  Ed Icove is stepping down.

Hallelujah! That ambulance chasing clown has caused more misery for more people than you can imagine. Icove lives in one of the fanciest homes on South Belvoir from where he lords it over us little people. Ward 3 voters will finally be able to choose between two new candidates. As residents of Ward 3 we are very happy to hear this news.   

So far two candidates have stepped forward. Curtis Orr and Sara Continenza. 

Curtis Orr is a retired Cleveland Police Officer. Cleveland’s PD has gained a reputation as one of the worst Police Departments in America. But wait, you say, “Isn’t Curtis Orr African-American?” To which we respond, “Do you think the corruption in Cleveland’s Police Department is limited to white cops? Or to white bureaucrats like the morbidly obese and disgusting Steve Loomis? Think again. Because Curtis Orr suffers from the same character flaw that many Cleveland cops do. The same character flaw that Ruth Gray suffers from as we demonstrated here, here and here. By the way did we mention Icove is one of Ruth Gray’s besties? Curtis Orr thinks the law applies to everyone else and not to him. A 5 minute search of Cuyahoga County Court database records uncovered repeated unpaid bills and state taxes. As recently as this year, he still owes the State of Ohio unpaid taxes badly enough that the state has taken him to court over it. And he wants to be a guardian of our tax dollars? Gimme a break!

 

 

 

The last thing South Euclid needs is another ex-cop in office. We’ve got one in the person of Mike LoGrasso and he’s as slimy as Donald Trump. His unpaid debts have been well documented in the Sun Messenger.  Then there’s that loony Charles Turner who also used to be a cop. Maybe Turner and LoGrasso have some kind of cop turf war going on because you should see how they go after each other at council meetings!

In the interest of objectivity I also did a court record search for Sara Continenza and found a seat belt violation from 2012. It’s plain stupid not to wear your seat belt. But big whoop.  

 

Congrats to Chief Nietert

Congratulations to South Euclid Policy Chief Kevin Nietert, who has been sworn in as President of the County Police Chiefs Association last week. This is another merit for South Euclid’s police department, which has been singled out for effective, compassionate service. It’s a far cry from the shenanigans coming from Cleveland’s Police Department. They make a practice of hiring cops who’ve been fired from other departments, like Timothy Loehmann who shot Tamir Rice. Then the CPD and their flatulent obese union president Steve Loomis try to sweep the story under the rug. Contrast that with South Euclid’s Police Department which is a model of openness. Which regularly posts officers’ body camera videos to their facebook page.


But you wouldn’t believe it based on one disgruntled resident: Charles Turner. Turner is a Vietnam veteran and retired University Heights cop. Turner regularly protests outside city hall and speaks at city council meetings. I should say “blathers on” at meetings. Even meeting regulars who are critical of the Welo administration roll their eyes when Turner approaches the mic. He’s been repeating the same story at meetings and in the media for the past 2 years. Turner claims that Chief Nietert ordered a cop to use a South Euclid squad car to harass him by pursuing him at 60mph on Mayfield Road. Turner has been unable to produce any witnesses or a single piece of objective evidence to corroborate his story. This despite the fact that he regularly stands near the corner of Mayfield and Green and also at City Hall holding signs accusing the Chief of police brutality and Mayor Welo as being unfair to veterans. Turner also posts on Cleveland.com as Citycrew and chuckthecop. He even created dialogs between them as if anyone believes that Citycrew and chuckthecop are two different people. Still no one has come forward to support Turner’s claims. That’s because the incident never took place except in his troubled mind. Of course since South Euclid is the location of two Purple Heart Homes with a third on the way Turner’s accusations about Mayor Welo and veterans are easily refuted. Chief Nietert has declined to comment on Turner’s charges. Mutual friends tell me he doesn’t have the heart to bring negative publicity to an obvious victim of mental illness who wants to inflict his delusions on the rest of us.

Douchebag of the year: Edmund Aviv

It almost seems like piling on to comment on this case which has made national headlines. But here goes. Going back to at least 1997, Edmund Aviv of 887 Trebisky Road engaged in a pattern of harassing his next door neighbors. Why? Because the Prughs, a white couple, had adopted disabled children who happen to be black. He spat on the mother (legally that’s assault), called her “monkey momma”, built a contraption to spew kerosene laced air toward their house (because he didn’t like the April-Fresh smell of Downy that came from the Prugh’s house), smeared dog crap on their car and wheelchair ramp, and cut down shrubbery in their yard.

The Prughs took Aviv to court at least four times. Yet this jerk continued his disgusting behavior. South Euclid’s Judge Gayle Williams-Byers was fed up enough to sentence Aviv to 100 hours of community service, anger management classes, counselling at the Diversity Center of Cleveland, 15 days in jail, and 5 hours holding the sign as seen at this link. It remains to be seen whether Aviv will change his behavior in the long term. But at least the judge gave him the good sound spanking he’s so richly deserved.

For those who think this sentence was too harsh, you should go to the South Euclid court’s website and look through Aviv's prior case history.

1997: Aggravated menacing - fined $250 and suspended 60-day sentence.
1999: Disorderly Conduct - fined $200.
2011: Destruction of neighbor's property (trees) - fined $200.

The above doesn’t include a case for curfew violation which may be related to a previous sentence, and running 49 in a 35 zone that appears unrelated to this case.

It's obvious that the piddling sentences that were passed down by the previous judge were ineffective. Edmund Aviv continued his pattern of sick behavior. There comes a time when you have to say "enough." Judge Williams-Byers has said just that. I think her sentence was appropriate. Back in the founders' day, this d-bag would have been put in the stockade with tomatoes thrown at him by an angry crowd. So by those standards the sentence seems pretty lenient. I'm sure that neighborhood will become a lot more pleasant while Aviv serves his time in jail.

When I look at this creep’s mug, I'm reminded of the dearly departed John Demjanjuk. But with hair. Aviv’s as much of an embarrassment to South Euclid as Demjanjuk was to Seven Hills. Maybe more since there are plenty in Seven Hills who still defend Ivan the Terrible. And that’s why we name Edmund Aviv Douchebag for 2014.

Shots fired at Brush

There was a shooting at Brush High School in Lyndhurst Tuesday night. As someone who went to Brush and saw my kids graduate from there, this news is very upsetting. Even when I was a student at Brush, there were rough edges there. Not that it could be compared with Heights High which was so dangerous there was a drawing of someone carrying a knife on their yearbook. In my day, it was mostly the druggies and jocks who caused the problems.

Probably no high school is devoid of problems. Of course, the incident Tuesday night made the papers and the other media. And then everyone had to chime in. Isn’t it interesting how the usual trolls at Cleveland.com used a shooting in Lyndhurst to jump on the “bash South Euclid” bandwagon?

It’s doubly amusing because the shooting at Brush had NO CONNECTION with South Euclid, other than the fact that it was a South Euclid patrol car that was hit by the bullet. The two teen thugs who’ve been charged were from CLEVELAND and MAPLE HEIGHTS. They had a dispute with the third teen, another 17 year old from Cleveland, over a girl. We fought over girls in my day but it never involved weapons and usually took place in the baseball field behind the Methodist Church on Green Road.

Remember this: the worst school shootings over the last 20 years have been in so-called “safe” suburbs like Chardon, Littleton, and Newtown. We can only be grateful that no one at Brush was injured Tuesday night. To all of you who’ve abandoned South Euclid remember this: Don’t think you’re safe because you live in some white bread town like Mentor, Beachwood, or Strongsville. This kind of thing happens when and where you least expect it.

FLASH - Safety Levy PASSES

The Safety Levy aka Issue 65 has passed by an overwhelming margin. 

Local nutcase Joe Liptow was defeated by a 2-1 margin in his quest to unseat Ruth Gray.

Despite the support she received from Ed Icove and the anti-Oakwood clowns, serial tax evader Lintashia Ikea Marshall-Wilson was soundly defeated in her quest to unseat Jane Goodman.

Ed Icove defeated Brian Dodge by an over 2-1 margin. Dodge is young and he has good ideas. I hope he'll be back. And there are other ways to make your views heard than by running for council.

A Patch for South Euclid?

I once called South Euclid the Rodney Dangerfield of suburbs. We don’t get no respect. We’re considered the poor little brother of the East Side, so much so that people in our conjoined twin Lyndhurst continually ask for surgical separation even though South Euclid is the stronger of the twins and Lyndhurst would shrivel up without us. South Euclid may be poor, but we’re scrappy and we don’t pine for others’ approval.

Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to media coverage. Our town is underserved with the Sun Messenger which has one reporter covering several burbs and scant coverage on TV unless something terrible happens – if it bleeds it leads. Oh, and a few independent bloggers like myself. That’s not enough for a city with a population of 22,000.

There is another online news source, known as the Patch. Several local suburbs each have their own piece of the Patch. Cleveland Heights population about 46,000 has a Patch. Westlake, population 32,500 has a Patch. So do Solon, population 23,000 and Twinsburg, population 19,000. Beachwood has its own Patch, even though their population is less than 12,000. Patch combined Mayfield Heights, Mayfield Village and Highland Heights into one Patch and called it the Hillcrest Patch, covering a population of 30,700.

Why don’t South Euclid and Lyndhurst have a Patch? The combined population of SE-L is over 36,000, more than Westlake, more than the Hillcrest triad and three times that of Beachwood.

To know the answer to that question, you need to know the truth about what Patch really is. The Patch Media Corporation is owned by AOL, which a friend of mine likes to call “Asshole online”. Thus Patch isn’t some kind of “voice of the people” as they like to sell themselves by allowing any idiot to set up a blog there. It’s the same corporate owned BS as any other news outfit under a different name.
 

Take a look at the screen grab. Most of the communities here skew white, and either are part of the outer ring of suburbs or have very large populations like Cleveland Heights and Lakewood, places too big to ignore even though we’d like to.

Like any other corporation, they follow the dollar. And the powers that be at Patch have determined that South Euclid and Lyndhurst do not have the right “demographics” to satisfy the requirements for our own piece of the Patch pie. In other words, we’re not rich enough or white enough to merit a Patch of our own.

And that’s why South Euclid and Lyndhurst don’t have a Patch and we don’t need one.

Is Fiorelli feeling the heat?

During the past weeks, councilor at large Dennis Fiorelli has made it his cause to kick Marty Gelfand of the South Euclid city council because of Gelfand's day job. Read the Sun Messenger report here.  Thing is, it's council decides what is a conflict of interest when it comes to regular employment. The council position pays about $10k a year. Not enough to live off of, and I for one don't want council run by the idle rich or by retirees who need something to do. Ruth Gray has a job that caused some controversy, but she was allowed to maintain her council seat. Why should it be any different with Gelfand? No, every one should be treated equally and there should be no double-standards.

It’s obvious why Fiorelli is bending over backwards to get Gelfand booted from Council. Fiorelli is threatened by the presence of another at-Large councilor who is more experienced and more qualified than he. Fiorelli ran a dirty campaign for council Ward 4 in 2009 and lost to Jane Goodman. He was appointed to replace Sunny Simon based on knowing the right people and going to the right church. That's how things work in this town although to be fair that's how things work in all small towns. Fiorelli sees Gelfand as some kind of competition and a threat to his job. And well he should. Gelfand has worked as an attorney for Dennis Kucinich. He’s not a money man. He’s a law man.  Fiorelli is a money man. You know, a tool of big banking. The douchebags who sold this nation down the river and control both parties thanks to Citizens United. Fiorelli will do and say anything to get elected. That includes trying to use the legal process to throw Gelfand off council. You notice, Fiorelli never stated Gelfand should stop working for Kucinich. No, he just wants Gelfand off council.

A Conthpirathy, I tell ya...

A French TV crew recently visited South Euclid to study the city’s program to deal with housing problems. This is the second time journalists from outside America have come to South Euclid to study our housing. The city has rehabilitated five houses in the southwest area, making them energy efficient with eco-friendly landscaping. The 2-story homes are now designed in such a manner that all appliances are on the first floor. This is ideal for a senior who has difficulty climbing stairs. Also, foreclosed abandoned houses that are in distressed condition have been torn down. Some of the empty lots have been turned into community gardens. Others remain unfilled. Certain busy-bodies have made a big deal of criticizing this program. The positive national and international coverage South Euclid has received vigorously rebuts their complaints. But the complainers have responded with their usual conspiracy theories. Jeez. These guys. Next thing you know, they’ll say the corpse of President Garfield is being revivified at Area 51.

Either there is some vast conspiracy of politicians, developers, and local & international media. Or South Euclid’s leadership really is doing the right things to confront the city’s problems: getting rid of distressed housing, courting developers, encouraging entrepreneurs.

South Euclid signs anti-poaching agreement, Heightsters cry foul.

The South Euclid city council voted unanimously to support Cuyahoga County’s new anti-poaching agreement. The agreement states that no community will try to “steal” a business from another community. Lots of accusations have been flying, charging South Euclid’s elected leaders of “hypocrisy” over the possibility of a Wal-Mart coming to Oakwood Commons. The whiners are the usual Heightsters who are bleating out of their anal orifices.

Is a Super Wal-Mart coming to Oakwood Commons? I have no idea. But let’s assume for a moment that the rumors about Wal-Mart relocating to Oakwood Commons are true. Is this a case of poaching?

No, and here’s why:

Severance has failed to maintain its shopping center. The already closed stores there reduce traffic which impacts Wal-Mart’s bottom line. The lack of security has led to several dangerous situations there, including flash mobs that required police intervention. Because of the security situation, Severance has earned a bad reputation which further reduces traffic. Don’t forget, there was a shooting in the food court of the old Severance Center back in the 90s, and people haven’t forgotten. Would YOU shop at Severance? Would YOU feel safe there? Have you been there lately? Whenever I’ve reluctantly gone there, the parking lot has been mostly empty.

With all the empty storefronts, Severance still can’t provide the space Wal-Mart needs for the alleged Super Wal-Mart.

Moving a store like Wal-Mart with its huge inventory is a costly complex matter. You can bet that Mitchell Schneider is going to command top-dollar for space at Oakwood Commons. A good businessman would expect no less. So Schneider’s not poaching either.

Therefore, even if Wal-Mart moves to Oakwood, it’s not poaching.

It’s important for the various cities in Cuyahoga to work together. Last year’s move of American Greetings from Brooklyn to Westlake is what happens when a rich community uses tax incentives to lure a business away from a poor community. The American Greetings fiasco WAS poaching. South Euclid’s hardly rich, and has not offered any incentives such as a tax break to bring Wal-Mart to South Euclid.

By the way, Cleveland Heights has yet to sign the anti-poaching agreement.

Sore losers on the attack

Robert Schoenewald got a grand total of 25% in the election. But that hasn’t stopped him and his latest crusade. Banging the drums for a petition outlawing the city from creating a garbage collection fee. No fee has been proposed, but Schoenewald his buddies Bob Frey and Mike Fortner are launching a preemptive strike against one.

Really, what this is about is this group doesn’t have any real issues to pursue against the city. The city is ending this year with $2.5 million in reserves, about a million more than they expected. Our credit rating is also above average. So, the sore losers have to invent an issue.

Speaking of sore losers, Joe Liptow has been keeping quiet since the election. Maybe his way of protesting a garbage fee is to put his blue recycling bag on his front walk four days before trash day. But at least Liptow recycles!

If YOU want to keep the city’s costs for trash collection down, don’t fall for phony petition drives. Recycle your aluminum, glass, and paper. The city makes $50/ton for recyclables, against paying $42/ton for landfill use. Recycling is good citizenship and it’s good for your wallet.

Election Wrap-up

Well the election is over. In all my years in South Euclid I’ve never seen anything like it. And I’ve been here a loooooooong time.

Mayor Welo was reelected and it wasn’t even close. What’s amazing is she hardly even ran a campaign! She didn’t go to the candidate forum at Brush, just sent out a few mailers and knocked on some doors.

Miller and Fiorelli are back on council and Marty Gelfand is replacing Tony Caroscio. Hothead Joe Liptow and child abuser George Martin were at the end of the pack. I call Martin child abuser not “alleged” or “wrongly convicted” because court documents confirmed he at least beat his adopted son and an adopted daughter. South Euclid voters were wise to reject these two. Anyone who had these two losers’ signs on their lawn must be embarrassed as hell.

Oakwood Commons is coming and the speeding camera is going. Heightsters heads are exploding and leadfoots are rejoicing. I will continue to report on the speed camera location until it is officially retired.

I won’t even go into the statewide elections except to say that with the defeat of Issue 2 the Tea Party in Ohio has been shown the door.

Is Schoenewald channeling Nixon?

      Have we got a deal for YOU!

OK. I may be revealing my age here. But do any of you out there know how Tricky Dick Nixon got elected in 68? It wasn’t because of the economy because we were going great gun back then. It was because of Vietnam and because enough Americans were fed up with protesting drug taking hippys who later grew up to be anti-Oakwood activists. But enough on that part of it for now.

Nixon said he had a “secret plan” to get us out of Vietnam. Enough Americans bought Nixon’s line to elect him, and his secret plan basically meant bombing the crap out of Laos and Cambodia.

Bob Schoenewald has offered NO SPECIFICS about how he’s going to deal with South Euclid’s alleged budgetary problems. He must have a “secret plan” too, or maybe he just doesn’t have a clue. Being able to count to 10 without your fingers doesn’t mean you have the vision to run a city of 20,000 people. And unlike what Nixon did in Vietnam, Schoenewald will have to work with city council.

Cracks in the anti-Welo coalition

South Euclid oversight the blog run by two people with a bunch of bones to pick about our city's elected leadership, has been in league with several opposition candidates in the past few elections. This year they've hosted videos by mayoral challenger Robert Schoenewald and council candidates Michael Fortner and Joe Liptow.

The comments on that site are almost always anonymous and usually from some lunatic who always types in CAPITAL LETTERS. So imagine my surprise when I saw this comment:

Our city has been better days. How much of that is due to Welo's performance and how much is due to the national economy and poor leadership at the state level I'll leave you to decide. But if all the opposition can offer up is a goofy bean counter, an senile old man with no ideas, a ranting lunatic with a suspended driver's license, and a Republican only watching out for his own interests, then we're in worse shape than I thought.

South Euclid oversight has also been vocal in their opposition to Issue 96. These guys are so un-fair and un-balanced they're worse than Fox News. But Oakwood commons is the only thing standing between South Euclid and fiscal armageddon. If Issue 96 fails - last one out, turn off the lights.

Moody's: South Euclid's credit rating "Above Average"

http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/09/south_euclid_gets_above_averag.html

No doubt the usual suspects will say this is a conspiracy between the Sun, Moody's, and the South Euclid city government!

Keith Benjamin’s preemptive strike

After years of delays, construction is finally set to begin at Cedar Center North. Keith Benjamin made a preemptive defense of the city’s purchase of the old strip after years of enduring the rants of guttersnipes like Joe Liptow and his buddies at South Euclid Oversight.
Benjamin admitted that South Euclid will probably never recoup its costs for purchasing the old strip, but defended the decision anyway:

“The city has a chance to do nothing, or do something for the good of the community. Inner ring suburbs have a choice, and you can drive around and see the cities that have done nothing.”

Benjamin is right, but he doesn’t go far enough. Can you think of any suburbs which have not improved their public spaces? East Cleveland comes to mind, and even they have partnered with University Circle to improve part of their city. Do the naysayers want South Euclid to become the next East Cleveland? Some probably do, especially those who don’t actually live here.

Full article here:
http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/09/building_on_first_phase_of_ced.html

FLASH: Candidate Liptow Busted

Perennial city council candidate and angry-man Jerome "Joe" Liptow, known for his rants at city council meetings, South Euclid Oversight, and the Sun Messenger, was caught driving under suspension while returning from Monday's City Council meeting. Read the Sun's full report here:

http://blog.cleveland.com/sunmessenger/2011/08/possible_candidate_for_south_e.html

Not noted in the news report is that Liptow's home on Anderson Road is at most a ten minute walk from City Hall. Why did Liptow, who touts himself as an environmentalist and defender of nature against Mitch Schneider, have to drive to and from the meeting? Knowing him, he probably drove that big gas-guzzling ugly red Ford Expedition too.

According to the report Liptow is under a 12 point suspension. No wonder he's so vocal in his opposition to traffic cameras.

Traffic Camera Alert, May 23-29!

While some websites are complaining about traffic cameras in South Euclid, we will be keeping the good people of South Euclid up to date on where they are located. 

Here is where the cameras will be placed from May 23-May 29:

Ardmore Road
Liberty Road
Princeton Boulevard

If you have a chronically lead foot, you are advised to avoid these roads, which are residential in nature. Otherwise, drive within the posted speed limits, which is what you should be doing anyway.

Source: Sun Messenger

FLASH: Planning Commission votes to approve rezoning!

On April 14, our city’s planning commission did a great thing. They voted in recommendation for the old Oakwood Club to be rezoned commercial. This will not only bring jobs to our area, it will increase tax revenue to South Euclid and hopefully stave off an income or property tax increase which will hopefully bring more residents. Even better, First Interstate will take over development of Cedar Center North. Considering the poor job Coral Company did with University Square and their constant asking for handouts like tax deferments, this is a good thing for South Euclid. It’s also a good thing for the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district, since speedy development of that property will increase funds there. Of course, Heightsters will never admit to that, they will just whine about the temporary reduction in funds to their lousy schools which the unfortunate kids in that section of South Euclid are forced to go to.

The easy thing for the Planning Commission would have been to vote against rezoning. It would have taken zero political courage, because those opposed to Oakwood have dominated the debate with hysterical claims & a mailer loaded with speculation and innuendo. Jennifer West at the planning commission said that “probably about 98%” of opposition comes from outside of South Euclid. That’s probably an exaggeration, since there are a number of South Euclid households surrounding the old Club which are mostly opposed. But the primary driver of opposition has been a coalition of Heights businesses, greenies, advocates of “regionalism”, would-be politicians who will oppose anything our elected leadership favors, and Heightsters who think allowing South Euclid to make its own decisions will hurt the Heights.  They all have different background agendas. The greenies are secretly pleased that the population of Cleveland and the first ring suburbs keeps dwindling – they’d love nothing more than for our area to become an urban farm. The Heights businsses fear development will draw people away from their overpriced boutique shops, especially since Cleveland Heights meters much of their parking. (This fear is patently absurd. Who would stop going to Passport to Peru because a Lowe’s opened at Oakwood?) They also want South Euclid’s income and property taxes to increase, which will make South Euclid less desirable and by extension the Heights moreso. Most of these people probably wouldn’t even give each other the time of day in other circumstances. But nothing can unite divergent people like a common enemy. One wacko even suggested that South Euclid should be annexed by the surrounding suburbs, as if we were Lindale! These people are bullies, picking on a small suburb in order for them to enhance their own position. The Planning Commission stared them down. Let’s hope the council at large shows the same fortitude.  

A recent post on the Citizens for Oakwood facebook page even lamented the construction of Gordon’s Food Service at Cedar Center North. Why would anyone oppose a specialty store which is not direct competition for any store in the area? The nearest Gordon’s in in Mentor, for chrissakes. It’s laughable, because these are the same people who say “develop Cedar Center North first”, but only if they approve of the stores that are built.   

There has been another factor to opposition at Oakwood, and it has never been mentioned.  But anyone who reads the comments section at Cleveland.com can see it: anti-Semitism is once again rearing its ugly head.  I would not be surprised to see this in a place like North Olmsted which is crawling with Muslims. But it’s sad that this would happen in an eastern area like ours, since South Euclid, Beachwood, and the various Heights have substantial Jewish populations.  The chief offender is a poster named “cautiousman”, who never comes forth and actually says it, but the tone of many of his posts dealing with the sale of Oakwood and Mitchell Schneider’s involvement have that slant. I have a pretty good idea who this “cautiousman” creep actually is. Can you guess who I’m thinking of?  

Put your money where your mouth is...

Cleveland Scene has recently posted an article, more of a blurb, really, about the ongoing controversy revolving around the former Oakwood Golf Club.

To quote: “Meanwhile, South Euclid officials are not hiding their glee at the prospect of finally taking a chunk out of their East Side neighbors’ coffers.” So, according to Scene, South Euclid is being greedy for wanting
its share of the retail pie? Give me a break! For at least the past two generations, residents of South Euclid have been going outside the city and feeding the coffers of the various Heights – Cleveland, University,
Richmond, and Mayfield. In terms of generated tax revenue, they have been living off of us, particularly Cleveland Heights which is overrun with parking meters. So now, South Euclid is being vilified because it wants its fair share.

Jane Goodman is also being vilified – all one needs to do is read the nasty comments at Facebook’s Citizens for Oakwood page to see the evidence. It doesn’t help that Scene has misrepresented Jane Goodman’s stance in this matter, summarizing it as “Suck it, Beachwood”. Goodman is an honorable public servant, one of the few who has been critical of the way the South Euclid spends taxpayers’ money – and she’s hardly been one to sign on to every development deal that comes along. Scene has done a disservice to the complex issues surrounding the Oakwood development, Jane Goodman, and the citizens of South Euclid. The author of the story, one Vince Grzegorek, should apologize – but I’m not holding my breath.

For people in the Heights to get their panties in a bunch and foam at the mouth about South Euclid’s support of Oakwood Commons is hypocritical in the extreme. There is also a small but vocal cadre in South Euclid
screaming about it. Both groups have motivations that go beyond retail surplus and environmental issues. More about these groups in upcoming posts.

This comes down to a term that has gotten a lot of play in Cuyahoga over the last few years: regionalism. It seems everyone wants it, except those who profit from not having it. People in Cleveland Heights want a say
about what happens with the South Euclid portion of Oakwood. Some have even put forth the ideal of a petition against the proposed Oakwood Commons development. I’d like to ask Heightsters against this development: Okay, you want to have a say in this decision, which will affect South Euclid’s bottom line. Are you also willing to sign a petition stating that tax generated by retailers on the borders of South Euclid should be shared with South Euclid?