GCP Endorses Cleveland Academic Transformation Plan

The Greater Cleveland Partnership, a group of Cleveland business leaders, came out in support for the new plan intended to transform the Cleveland school system.  “For too long, Cleveland’s public schools have been failing—most importantly, failing our city’s children by inadequately preparing them to succeed, which in turn hurts all of us.”

Taxes in Cuyahoga County Going Up…… Again

Chances are your tax liability will rise going forward as most tax levies passed including the Cuyahoga County health and human services levy.  Check out the local primary results here to see if your taxes are going up.  The higher taxes will probably attract new business and people to the area.  They should also help with our tax burden problem in this part of the country.

County Interactive Map

Here’s a cool interactive map depicting all the counties in Ohio.  As you move the cursor over each county, it gives interesting statistics like unemployment rate, population, median household income, and my favorite average private wages vs. average government (federal, state, local) wages.

U Circle Uptown Neighborhood

Looks like University Circle’s “Uptown” residential/commercial development project is about to kickoff.  Look’in good.

Places to Visit in C-Town

Here’s a good website if you’re looking for places to visit/stuff to do in Cleveland and other cities in Ohio.

Competing as a Region

Here’s interesting analysis on the idea of regionalism, and competing economically as a region.

Ohio Budget and More

This is a great interview/debate regarding the Ohio budget and related problems.   You need to page down and press play and skip to the 7 minute mark.  Notice the guy from the Buckeye Institute has solid numbers behind his analysis.  This is a must see video clip.

Update on Ohio Rail System

We can spend $25M of tax payer money on the rail system even if we don’t build it!  Awesome.  Although that alternative might be better than building something that will cost the tax payer annually for years to come.

Drew Carey and Reason Saves Cleveland

Click here and watch the video.  The tale of Cleveland’s decline and a theory on how to turn it around.

Ohio Governor Race

These interviews are from The State of Ohio on WVIZ.  They’re useful (click on the videos on each page):

Here’s the Kasich interview.

Here’s the Strickland interview.

C Town International Film Festival

It’s on.  Check it out.  It’s running from March 18 through the 28th. 

Stossel on Cleveland

He brings up some interesting points about the Westside Market and the city-run golf courses around town.  There’s a good comparison to other cities that have done the opposite of Cleveland and have grown over the last 10 years.

Sales Tax Collection in Cuyahoga

… is at an all time low.  This report says it all - Feb 2010 was the worst month yet… including all months in 2008.  It’s a sign of the times and a sign of the horrible economy that might be getting worse.   Is Cuyahoga leading the rest of the country?  It did recently in the real estate market.  Will the rest of the country start tightening its belt?

Buy NEO

Check out www.ibuyneo.com if you want to support local businesses.  You can also enroll your business and help you get noticed by other Clevelanders.  Here’s a video explaining the organization.  Enjoy.

Med Mart Analysis

Brewed Fresh points out some analysis done by an organization questioning the usefulness and economic benefits that the Med Mart would bring.  If the building can’t support itself financially in the long run, that is, earn income in excess of annual debt service and operating costs, then it’s probably not a good idea.  That said, you also need to consider ancillary benefits additional visitors to downtown may bring to local businesses.  But these are assumptions, and if the building could support itself, then these assumptions don’t need to be as fluffy to justify the project.  I don’t like relying on the assumptions of Dimora and the rest at this point…. do you?

Cavs + Snuggies = World Record

Cavs Snuggies Night.

Brookings Institute Recommends Consolidation in Ohio

The Brookings Institute and Greater Ohio have released this report suggesting that consolidating school districts in Ohio can save a lot of money.   Here’s a good summary of the report from the Columbus Dispatch.

Cleveland = Worst

At least according to Forbes…. Cleveland is the most miserable city this year.

Casino & Crime

I/many warned about these issues when the casino issue was on the ballot…. I still can’t believe these guys were touting this casino plan as a way to improve the downtown area and the economy.  What a joke.

Update on the County Transition Team

The team is holding all meetings in public….. a good start.