Propoganda, Fake Crusading & The Pee Dee
When the Pee Dee editorial board gets Dan Gilbert, Mayor Frank Jackson, Council President Marty Sweeney, Greater Cleveland Partnership boss Joe Roman and Squire-Sanders managing partner Fred Nance in one room you know the bullshit is knee high or higher.The result of the meeting: a free Page One ad for Gilbert’s desired casino and a lot of pap about he’s not going to build a hotel immediately and the Cleveland police therefore favor the casino issue.
Please!
The cops are in favor because they’ll have lucrative second security jobs, much preferable to the jobs they’re hired to do for the people of Cleveland. But who cares about them. Nice also to put cops and gamblers closer together. A civic favor, huh? Thank you Pee Dee for helping.
Billionaire Gilbert isn’t going to build a hotel so he won’t compete with other hotels, even though he says that other downtown hotels are only half filled. Likely, he’ll wait until the Medical Mart and Convention Center are built then ask for public funds because downtown NEEDS a hotel to satisfy a great need for Cleveland. Not my pocketbook, you understand but for the betterment of Cleveland. Have we heard these lies before? The Pee Dee prints them by the ton.
The Pee Dee headline reads: “Gilbert unveils casino drawing, agrees not to include hotel yet.” A two-bit drawing rates the front page? And the “agrees” sounds as if Gilbert is doing someone a favor. Gilbert does no favors except for those that help him. How else do you become a billionaire?
I didn’t think the Pee Dee could become a more pathetic rag but under Susan Goldberg it even surprises me how low it’s gotten.
Big headlines. Lots of wasted space. Little real content. Big play for developments that never happen. Publicity mush as with the reform front page the other day. Propaganda atop propaganda.
This isn’t a newspaper. It just sorta looks like one.
Even the reports of the County corruption mess have taken on the flavor a Pee Dee crusade, pushing politicians to make statements – Resign Russo.
If the Pee Dee wanted to do something for the community it should be putting the heat on the FBI to indict Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo and stop bleeding this community with these dribbled out indictments of underlings.
The FBI and the Pee Dee are absolutely damaging us more than Dimora and Russo have. They are driving community spirit into the ground by crusade playacting.
They aren’t reporting the story; they are the story.
End the charade and give us some justice, not a phony crusade to make it seem as though the Pee Dee, which has allowed these same politicians – and other pols – to turn the city into … what… a casino where they never have to pay and only win.
More PD Editorial Staff in Job Jeopardy
Plain Dealer management people now face the same fate as union editorial staff and reporters – job loses – despite a long-standing promise called the “Newhouse Pledge” of no layoffs.
According to a piece in Poynter web site by Mark Holan the Pledge will go out of business on Feb. 5, 2010.
Nolan reported, “The so-called ‘Newhouse Pledge,’ named after the family that founded and controls the New York-based media company, guaranteed that in most cases, employees would never be laid off. The pledge, which according to a recently filed lawsuit has been in place for at least 25 years, applied to all full-time, non-union employees. Newhouse has a reputation of being an anti-union company, and some believe the pledge was intended partly to discourage employees from organizing.”
Holan adds, “But like hot type and afternoon editions, the pledge has become a relic.”
The PD has had significant job lost in its editorial staff, some 40 percent of the editorial staff, according to some reports.
Many notice that the Plain Dealer has reduced its size and content in recent times.
A publisher at the Newhouse’s Mobile Press-Register has decided to use the pledge as a means to sue Newhouse for his dismissal.
“(Howard) Bronson wants a jury to award damages for breaking the pledge and forcing him into retirement,” Holan writes.
This puts another level of PD editorial staffing in jeopardy by early next year.
A Newhouse family member quoted saying that “the pledge does not apply ‘to the kind of transitional moment in the newspaper industry that is basically struggling to survive.’”
The Newhouse Pledge, therefore, wasn’t really a pledge.
The full story is available here: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=170645
Jackson A Disappointment, Servant of Big Shots
Every day in every way, Mayor Frank Jackson is a disappointment.
Jackson today endorsed casinos – Issue 3 – as an economic development gain for downtown Cleveland. It will take money out of Cleveland, that’s what it would do.
Vote NO on 3.
“Mayor Jackson’s vision of revitalizing Cleveland is having 25,000 people living downtown, thousands of people working downtown and 150,000 additional people visiting downtown. ‘Although not a panacea, I believe this casino will go a long way in helping to achieve that vision,’ said Mayor Jackson,” a press release by e-mail said.
Not a panacea is the line the casino people are pushing.
The only thing a gambling casino will do for Cleveland is enrich a guy who lives in Detroit.
What’s ironic is that Gateway was supposed to be the spur that kicked Cleveland to riches.
One of the beneficiaries of Gateway, of course, is Dan Gilbert, who owns the Cavaliers.
Jackson has now become a very conventional Cleveland Mayor – Give the Big Boys What They Want. And do it fast.
What a disappointment.
It's A Deep Depression for Many
For some of us the recession is nasty but for minorities it’s a devastating Depression.
That’s the real conclusion of a study by the Center for American Progress.
The report notes that the “severity of the recession has erased most of the modest gains that families experienced in a few areas during the past business cycle from 2002 to 2007, such as homeownership.”
“The decline in economic security during the recession is much sharper for minorities than whites,” the report said.
The report notes poverty at 9.1 percent for whites, 31.2 percent for African-Americans and 28.4 Hispanics.
Those latter figures for minorities show a Depression, not a recession.
Special efforts need to be made on a national level to address these disparities.
One obvious one: health care for those in poverty via a government sponsored program equal to Medicare.
The report in full can be accessed here:
Atlantic City & Casinos: From 50th to 1st in Crime in 3 Years
If you don’t have enough reasons to vote against gambling casinos, Brian Rothenberg, director of Progress OHIO?, has some gems. As the fact that in the first three years of legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City it went from 50th in crime to NO. 1.
Oh, just what Cleveland needs, right?
He also notes that casino licenses in the U. S. typically go for from $300 million to $500 million. Why not, it’s a license to take someone’s money. In Ohio the price tag for a casino monopoly: $50 million.
Cleveland does everything on the cheap, why not this?
He’s got more info on his site here:
http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/brianrothenberg/Cqy8
Tax Reform Should Go Beyond Corruption Issue
If there’s going to be an investigation of the integrity of commercial property appraisals here, we ought to also probe tax reductions awarded to downtown property owners by official County and State of Ohio agents.
County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, concerned about the validity of commercial property appraisals because of the corruption charges involving County Auditor Frank Russo, has requested a probe by state officials. Rokakis apparently doesn’t trust the values on commercial properties. Who would?
The values given properties, of course, provide the measure of the taxes property owner’s pay. The lower the value the lesser taxes are due to be paid.
Commercial property owners are expected to seek large reductions in property values next year. They have lawyers and ability – far greater than ordinary homeowners – to pursue reductions. This could have a serious impact on Cleveland schools and the city. Cleveland schools get the majority share of property tax revenue.
It will be most important for the news media, particularly the Plain Dealer, to closely follow and report request by the big property owners for reductions. The slow economy suggests that many commercial entities will seek reductions by claiming tough economic circumstances.
A watchful eye provides needed oversight of both public agencies and private interests.
In recent writings, I’ve been pointing out that owners at the Tower City complex and the Ritz-Carlton hotel – both controlled by Forest City Enterprises businesses – have been requesting value reductions this year as they have in past years.
Other downtown property owners have also made appeals. Amtrust (Ohio Savings) has requested a $2.6 million reduction in its property tax valuation for 1801 East 9th Street. National City Bank’s new owners are seeking reductions of $2.97 million on its building at the corner of E. 9th & Euclid. Cleveland Catholic Diocese is even seeking a $557,940 reduction in the property value for a parking lot on Rockwell Avenue.
I requested information from the Board of Revision only for a portion of downtown for these reports.
More Tower City Tax Reductions Sought
Here’s another batch to add to the previous listing of requests by Tower City for reductions that I previously posted. They were all made to the Board of Revision in March. None have been acted upon to this date. The property numbers and request for reduction follow:
- 101-23-085C: $9,832.
- 101-23-108F: $71,952.
- 101-23-103F: $63,752.
- 101-23-101F: $105,736.
- 101-23-085D: $20,151.
- 101-23-085B: $365,889.
- 101-23-085A: $1,297,634.
- 101-23-072F: $19,925.
- 101-23-072B: $160,296.
The reductions total to $2,115,117 for Tower City properties. I previously reported $850,529 in tax reduction on other Tower City properties, not including one devaluation request of only $17 on a piece of Tower City property.
You can add reductions in value asked by Forest City interests at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel – recently coming off 20 years of 100 percent tax abatement - of $241,440. Yes, back on the tax rolls finally. But seeking new reductions in taxes already.
The grand total comes to more than $3 million in reductions requested at Tower City.
Yes, the beat goes on.
We really need – as a community and as a state – to look not only to rigged tax valuations because of outright corruption reported in recent days but to the practice of giving wealthy interests lower and lower valuations on the properties. They have access to lawyers who can pursue these deductions.
Cleveland Schools Hurt Most By Downtown Cuts
These efforts result in lower taxes for big property owners and thus less revenue for our schools, counties, cities and libraries. This also means others – homeowners – have to pick up the tax burden by paying higher property taxes. Because of the concentration of properties in downtown Cleveland the reductions hurt Cleveland schools the most. Some 55 percent of property tax revenue goes to the Cleveland schools.
The public also should DEMAND an end to tax abatements and tax shifting of the TIF program. TIF (tax incremental financing) is a form of abatement by which the taxes are paid normally but are diverted to be used for development, usually of the taxpayer’s project. That means tax revenue goes for private uses instead of public.
At minimum there should be a state law that makes it illegal for one community to give a tax abatement to a business to attract that business from another community in Ohio.
I’ve been examining the desire of leading downtown interests for tax breaks, either through tax abatement or lowering the value of their properties for taxation.
The above requests for valuation reductions are nothing new for Forest City at Tower City.
Tower City Won Reductions As Its Owners Claimed Gains
In 1994 in negotiations over the taxes due from Tower City officials agreed to hefty market value reductions for the years 1990, 1991, 1992 and consequently 1993, by the following percentages:
In the year 1990: 21 percent; in 1991: 20 percent; in 1992: 17.3 percent and in 1993: 12.4 percent.
Tower City opened The Avenue shopping complex in 1990 and had two new buildings – the Skylight Tower and the Chase Financial Tower (which includes the Ritz hotel) opened in 1991. These improvements resulted in higher property values.
The same week in 1994 that I reported the 1990-1993 reductions in my newsletter, Point of View, a Pee Dee story was headlined: “Tower City could add 2 anchors to complex.” The Pee Dee reported that Forest City Enterprises chairman Albert Ratner “said he hopes to add two new department stores to the Tower City complex soon.” (Such is the nonsense of our leaders and the vigor with which the Pee Dee takes is responsibility to report honestly. Of course, Dillard’s vanished and the building remains essentially unused.)
Then at the same time, it quoted Sam Miller, advisor to mayors, that the commercial real estate industry here “is well on its way back to once again become the darling of the investment community.” (You may have noticed all the skyscrapers going up in Cleveland since 1994, haven’t you?)
“The better news is that it is going to stay back for a long time,” said Sam. (He can get the Pee Dee to report just about whatever he wants.)
Despite the then rosy economic outlook expressed of the corporate executives, the same executives were seeking reductions in property values at Tower City going back to 1990, claiming economic problems.
For the year 1990, the total market value of Tower City was $152 million (rounded off) and the reduction was $32 million, a reduction of 21 percent.
For 1991, the total market value of Tower City was $241 million and the reduction was $49 million for a reduction of 20 percent.
For the year 1992, the market value of Tower City was $262 million and the reduction was $45 million for a reduction of 17.3 percent.
For the year 1993, the market value was $274 million and the value was adjusted by $34 million for a reduction of 17.3 percent.
It’s time the big boys paid their taxes just like everyone else.
Ratners Deal With Russian Oligarch
Bruce Ratner and Forest City made a deal with Russia’s richest man for the New Jersey Nets and a major Brooklyn project called Atlantic Yards.
The project was facing financial difficulties.
A Brooklyn community organization, headed by Daniel Goldstein, which has been fighting the development, sent out an e-mail message denouncing the deal. The project includes a proposed arena for the Jets team, owned by Bruce Ratner.
Goldstein in a blistering analysis labeled the Atlantic Yards now as “Oligarch Field.”
The organization is named Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and its reaction to the deal follows:
NEW YORK, BROOKLYN, MOSCOW — Enter the oligarch. Start the vetting.
Just when you thought the Atlantic Yards project couldn’t get more corrupt, developer Bruce Ratner has announced a partnership with Russia’s richest oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, in an attempt to rescue the floundering Atlantic Yards project. The precise terms of the deal, in a signed letter of intent, are not clear, but the oligarch's Onexim Group would invest $200 million and make certain contingent funding commitments to acquire 45% of the arena project and 80% of the NBA team, and the right to purchase up to 20% of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which would develop the non-arena real estate (16 proposed skyscrapers).
The project faces a major legal obstacle in an eminent domain challenge to be heard in New York State’s high court—the Court of Appeals—on October 14. If the property owners fighting to keep New York State from seizing their homes for Ratner and Prokhorov’s enrichment, Atlantic Yards, arena and all, will be dead.
Other litigation is pending and more lawsuits against the project are expected from the community's opposition to the project.
For years, and as recently as last week, Ratner said publicly that his money-hemorrhaging team was not for sale. That appears to be yet one more deception from the untrustworthy developer.
“This has got to be a huge wake-up call for Ratner’s political supporters. The only reason Ratner would make this deal is because he is in dire financial trouble. If Ratner has to go overseas to get major funding for the arena, how on earth is he going to finance the rest of the project,” said Develop Don’t’ Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “Eminent domain abuse and massive taxpayer subsidies to enrich a Russian oligarch and modernize the Russian basketball system—is that what Bloomberg, Paterson, Schumer and Markowitz are all about? They’ve got to be kidding. And now that Prokohorov has a big foot in the door, who will really be running the beleaguered Atlantic Yards project show?”
There are many unanswered questions about Mr. Prokhorov's—a former nickel baron, now the chairman of Polyus Gold, Russia’s largest gold producer, and head of the Onexim investment group—wealth, his liquidity claims and where the money is coming from for his proposed investment in the Nets and Ratner’s arena.
Russian oligarchs are under sway of the Kremlin—they are not who they are without the backing of the Kremlin. Any Prokhorov investment in the Nets and the Brooklyn arena will be influenced by the Kremlin. According to Irina Y. Yasina, a researcher at Russia’s Institute for the Economy in Transition, quoted in The New York Times, “In Russia today, no serious deal can be made without approval from the Kremlin.”
“Russians and Kremlin leadership should understand very clearly that with this deal Mr. Prokhorov is entering into one of the biggest real estate boondoggles in New York City’s history, and New York’s most controversial real estate deal this decade “ Goldstein said.
Prokhorov has been accused of asset stripping, abuse of corporate governance and violations of minority shareholder rights. He was arrested in France in 2007 on suspicion of involvement in a prostitution ring.
More ominous for Forest City Ratner is Prokhorov’s recent reneging on his deal to purchase the $643 million Villa Leopold, the most expensive mansion on the French Riviera.. This doesn’t bode well for the strength of the oligarch’s commitment to Ratner’s project and the Nets.
Amongst other disturbing aspects of the multi-billionaire potential Ratner partner and NBA owner—the National Basketball Association would have to vet Prokhorov and 75% of the 30 team owners would have to approve the deal with Ratner, as would the US Treasury Department’s Committee On Foreign Investment In The United States (CFIUS)—is the reported link of the Russian aluminum giant, UC Rusal, with organized crime.
The Wall Street Journal reported in December 2008:
“Suspected ties to organized crime -- which [UC Rusal head] Mr. [Oleg] Deripaska denies -- led U.S. officials to revoke Mr. Deripaska's entry visa in 2006. Mr. Putin and other top Russian officials have repeatedly raised the issue on his behalf with their U.S. counterparts, so far to no avail, according to people familiar with the situation.”
Mr. Prokhorov owns 18.5% of UC Rusal and there is evidence, according to the Asia Times, that he might replace Deripaska at the helm of UC Rusal. Deripaska is the only oligarch whose business ventures in the US have been vetoed by the US government.
Mr. Prokhorov wrote on his blog on September 22 (see the full translation of his blog post below or here):
“For our group, participation in such a complex project undoubtedly is interesting only in the event that NBA technology can be used for the systematic development of basketball in Russia. …
For our group ‘ONEKSIM’, the realization of this very profitable [Atlantic Yards and Nets] business project, to which we were invited thanks to the world financial crisis (there has never been a foreign owner of an NBA club), will be yet another path for developing our sports interests alongside the biathlon, support for children’s sports and sports of high achievements.”
“Bruce Ratner has really done it this time. He’s desperate to stop the bleeding on his New Jersey Nets so he has turned to a Russian oligarch whose finances and business practices are questionable and require scrutiny and vetting not just by the NBA and David Stern, but by the federal government including the Treasury Department,” Goldstein said. “We never thought the fight against the crooked Atlantic Yards deal could get more crooked or that it would require a degree in Kremlinology, but clearly Mr. Prokhorov is eyeing the Nets and this key piece of Brooklyn to build some Russian-NBA pipeline, and sow his wild playboy oats—so much for Ratner’s mantra that this project is ‘about Brooklyn.’ We don’t need to be Kremlinologists to know that Mr. Prokhorov doesn’t care one nickel about Brooklyn or know squat about Brooklyn."
Casinos Invite 'Corrosive Influences' Says Columbus Dispatch
As the Pee Dee propagandizes for the Casino industry, the Columbus Dispatch editorially says, “No Thanks!”
At the same time, the Pee Dee has a cartoon front-page heralding a poll saying Ohioans want the casinos.
The Dispatch said that casinos COST a community $3 for every $1 of benefit.
In a Sunday editorial the Columbus Dispatch reminded voters that allowing casinos into their communities invites “corrosive influences.”
The Dispatch noted that casinos would pour money into buying the allegiance of state lawmakers with campaign contributions.
The paper also cites the fact that the Ohio Fraternal Order o Police, which is backing Issue 3, has been promised 2 percent of receipts by the casinos for “police training,” suggesting a payoff.
The paper also has reported that the casinos have promised annual contributions to Experience Columbus – the city’s convention bureau.
Experience Columbus has endorsed the casinos.
The suggestion is that the city’s convention center has been bought off by the casino, which will have a monopoly in Columbus as it would in Cleveland if Issue 3 passes.
In Cleveland Positively Cleveland – this city’s convention bureau – has endorsed casinos.
Could Cleveland and Cuyahoga County use more “corrosive influences” in this political life? I don’t think so.
Here’s a link to the Dispatch’s editorial: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/09/27/nothanx.ART_ART_09-27-09_G4_BPF68HU.html?sid=101
Vote NO and protect your pocketbook and that of Cleveland.
Is Larkin Still Setting PD Editorial Stance?
Did anyone else notice the difference in tone, style and content between two Plain Dealer columnists on Sunday speaking about the dilemma of the Ohio state budget?
I did.
Larkin zeroed in on Gov. Ted Strickland for the financial mess - $1 billion shortfall - in Columbus using strikingly different language than long-time State House watcher Tom Suddes.
Larkin rapped Strickland with such wording as “breathtaking ineptitude” and depending on legal advice from the firm of “Barnum & Bailey” and describing Strickland’s attempt to balance the budget with slots as “pathetic performance,” something I might join with him.
Descriptive language but hardly even-handed. Particularly when you consider Larkin was the PD editorial boss during the truly pathetic Taft years.
Larkin even had the nerve to contrast Strickland with former Gov. Bob Taft, citing a job producing effort. I guess Larkin hasn’t noticed that jobs pour out not into Ohio in gusher style under Taft. Here’s Larkin’s take:
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09/gov_strickland_is_sinking_fast.html
Suddes rapped Strickland, too, after the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that the slots issue had to go to the voters.
However, Suddes noted that the court ruling didn’t “only” put Strickland, as he put it, “behind the eight ball.” Here’s Suddes’s take: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/thomas_suddes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/12539540854330.xml&coll=2
“But people of both parties need to start behaving like adults. Both Strickland and his foes seem to be thinking only of their political prospects. They need to be thinking instead – and jointly – about the prospects of 11 million Ohioans. Because even without the court’s decision, the national economic and the human-service demands it fuels made Ohio’s budget as rickety as a 2-year old taxi,” wrote Suddes.
That’s putting it into the correct perspective.
In other words, a plague on both your houses, says Suddes. Larkin, meanwhile, strikes only at Strickland.
Both Larkin, recently retired, and Suddes, an instructor at Ohio University and a member of the PD editorial board, are no longer at the paper. Suddes was a statehouse reporter for the PD.
Larkin, former boss of the PD editorial page, got much better play than Suddes. Larkin’s unbalanced attack – Headlined: “Flailing Strickland is sinking fast” – took up much of the PD’s Forum front page including a 13 by 8 inch cartoon of the governor.
Even more contrasting to the Larkin column, former governor, now U. S. Senator George Voinovich, yesterday met with the PD editorial staff and urged Republican to help Strickland solve the very serious money problem facing the state AND its people.
Voinovich rightly urged Ohio Senate President Bill Harris, as the PD’s Mark Naymik put it, to “begin working with Strickland on the state’s budget revenue shortfall.” Naymik’s story got poor display in this a.m. Metro pages. It can be found here: http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2009/09/us_sen_george_voinovich_urges.html
Larkin should have read his own newspaper to find out that Harris and the Republicans can certainly share in the fiscal problem Ohio faces.
In a piece last November, Harris, a former banker-small businessman, sent what the PD called “an empathic message” to Strickland: “Don’t even think about messing with previous Republican-passed tax cuts.” Republicans control the State Senate.
Voinovich, to his credit, suggested that Strickland, with Harris and the Republicans, rescind the final year of a five-year 21 percent income tax cut forced by the Republicans in 2005 as one possible solution to the budget shortfall.
Democrats fear doing anything that even has the odor of a tax increase because they expect Republicans will yell and scream about tax increases.
That’s a correct assumption unless it is a bi-partisan tax cut.
The alternative is that Ohioans, particularly those without jobs or with special needs, will suffer – that is, suffer even more.
Larkin’s one-sided viewing of this important issue is detrimental to its solution. It also is putting the Plain Dealer – because of his former position – editorially in a box.
The question is: Who is the editorial boss now? Is it still Larkin or is it his successor, Betsy Sullivan.
It’s time that decision was made.
Casino Opponents State Reasons for 'NO' Vote on Issue 3
CASINO OPPONENTS STATE REASONS FOR “NO’ VOTE ON ISSUE 3
Here are arguments against Issue 3 – the monopoly casino measure on the ballot - as stated by its major opponent group Truth Pac.
It says the obvious; that the measure is tilted toward wealthy casino owners and it doesn’t even require the owners to actually build.
It also warns against “hidden taxes” on the rest of us as cities have to upgrade roads and bridges and provide other infrastructure requirements.
It’s not all take, there’s a lot of give and give.
Also, the casinos can stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, really a way of taking business away from established small businesses, especially restaurants, which may have a hard time competing on hours and the ability of casinos – interested in the gambling dollar – charging less for meals and drinks.
The link is: http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/ballotboard/2009/3-truthpac_draft_argument_against.pdf
Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He has worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s. He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991.
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