EATON CORP. MOVE PREORDAINED BY FORBES, VOINOVICH in 1980s

Submitted by Roldo on Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:52.

The move of Eaton Corp. out of downtown Cleveland was preordained back in the late 1980s by Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes. They opened the land to development as both of them were preparing to leave their respective offices.

That’s when they began the process of opening up Chagrin Highlands to development. The city owned the property - situated in prime development land - in surrounding suburbs.

Of course, we know that the deal and the land ended up in the hands of Dick Jacobs, Forbes closest business buddy, and with Voinovich’s former law firm in on the sellout of Cleveland.

In a December 17, 1988 issue (Vol. 21, No. 9) of Point of View, a newsletter that I wrote, cited a study that the development at Chagrin Highlands “could encourage business to move from downtown Cleveland,” and that it could, as I wrote, “Could hurt development downtown and jobs.”

It was obvious that opening virgin land in the Chagrin Road area would cause direct competition to downtown Cleveland as a site for office space development.

Voinovich and Forbes didn’t care. They were taking care of the people who took care of them.

Voinovich, as governor, also helped enhance the land for development by state spending of more than $100 million on I-271 improvements and an interchange to make the land more accessible.
I wrote in 1988, "Cleveland wants to lease this metropolitan area’s last, largest, best-sited and enticingly developable acreage to a corporation with close ties to Mayor George Voinovich’s former law firm, Calfee, Walter & Griswold.
"That – and the lack of public examination – raises red flags for the development package of 630-acres of Warrensville Township land to be developed exclusively by Figgie International, a company slated to move here…" (Figgie essentially went out of business and unknown at the time, Forbes had inserted developer Dick Jacobs into the deal.)

Developers, then as now, are the real government in Cleveland.

‹ EATON - REWARD FOR JOB GROWTH - KEEPS CUTTING JOBSupED HAUSER QUESTIONS PORT AUTHORITY IN ABSENTIA ›
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let us not forget

Submitted by Susan Miller on Thu, 09/18/2008 - 10:33.

Our county commissioners almost awarded intended to use our tax dollars to award Mr. Jacobs this...

unlikely bedfellows - Larkin and Hauser

Submitted by Susan Miller on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 13:22.

Well, I declare! I never thought I'd read this:

"The port boss also defended the agency's handling of public records requests. But that defense is just plain wrong. In my experience, the port coughs up documents only when reminded of what the state law requires and threatened with legal action. If the board and port officials don't care about the public's right to know, there's no reason for Cuyahoga County taxpayers to keep supplying them with their hard-earned money." Brent Larkin on Eaton's move to Beachwood.

For years Ed Hauser has been (more than) saying that the port authority was wrong on their closed door policy - that their methods were shady, but to now read Larkin weighing in with the same tune that our reliable Ed Hauser has been singing for a decade! I'm stunned!

Little-known report opens Port Authority to questions about Eaton's loss - Brent Larkin

Latest Release from Investigative Reporter Ed Hauser - Martha Eakin (in fact that entire page, "High Risk" Performance @ Port Authority is worth a reread today.)

 

NEO's Big Swinging Dicks are certainly limp now...

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 22:22.

I suspect some of the smarter people at the PD are really disgusted by the blind allegiance of their "leadership" to the establishment here, as the PD bottom-line revenues and staff job security, and the NEO establishment leadership and their associations, all fail together... and the community suffers as a result.

No, it did not need to be this way! This is the fault of the ESTABLISHMENT!

The PD leadership is culpable... the staff is culpable by inaction (explained by fear of firing).

By attacking the Port Authority, Larkin may be saying, I am not willing to be culpable for the failures of all the now-limp Big Swinging Dicks, who shot their loads of insight and were blanks. Too little, too late.

I suspect many people at the PD from NEO, including Larkin, feel very great responsibility for their failure for our community, as THEY SHOULD. I'm sure they feel sadness and pain for their failure.

Perhaps the PD should not have endorsed George W. Bush, last election.

That was the last straw, for me... and the fact that this cowardly, dishonest endorsement has caused the world such harm is unforgivable. The PD put Bush over the top, and THIS is what we have for our children.

Perhaps the PD should have stayed out of the "Big Swinging Dick" business, in general.

Any Big Swinging Dicks around there, these days?!?!?!

Seriously!

Who is really smart there?

Let's see your wisdom!

Failure at the establishment leadership level has brutal consequences, when it wastes public funds, and public land, and, most important, public trust.... even worse, when it harms the environment.

We got it all.

I believe all of us love many of the writers at the PD, and will follow them as we may... but the PD establishment is revolting, in all the wrong ways. The PD "editors" will never regain the trust of much of this community.

The Big Swinging Dicks who put the PD in this sad predicament have all castrated each other, and themselves, and become surplus and toxic in the new economy... and even viagra won't help. 

The CONs are all over, now. The "heroes" of the establishment are pretty universally seen for who they are... like National City CEO Raskin and his board that tanked NCC.... 

The Dicks are now harming 100,000s of people, because they failed.

The most revealing statement in Larkin's tirade against the establishment is the paragraph at the end...

Friday's sale of National City Bank makes the loss of
Eaton even more of a fiasco. If Eaton had left on Jane
Campbell's watch, the business community would have run
her out of town. (Oops! That already happened.)

Read those words over and over again, and think back a few years to the Campbell/Jackson election, and consider how that went down. Who tanked Campbell - who backed Jackson?

Of course, the PD drove that.

Now, they seem displeased with the outcomes.

That is the beginning of the biggest story in the history of real NEO, being the realization by smart people like Larkin that their entire lives have been made into foolishness - their idols are fools - and the future is so beyond their comprehension they can't even put together logical reasoning, and strike out in anger with honesty and good sense.

Get really pissed, Larkin!

Write a newspaper for the 99% of the people betrayed by the establishment - as the revolution begins...

Or, be LIMP.

Your choice... and we will analyze your decisions!

To quote one of the limpest Big Swinging Dicks ever in NEO history:

"It's a remarkable period and it would be intellectually interesting if we didn't happen to be living in the middle of it"

Peter Raskin, limp, failed CEO of National City Corporation

"Intellectually" fu**ing "Interesting". Isn't that big!

Enjoy global warming.... it is really "intellectually interesting".

Kevin O'Brien... I'm waiting for your annual "What Global Warming?" editorial...