Well, I believe the following article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer well introduces the ultimate clusterf**k in NEO - a bunch of CDCs, real estate moguls, industrialists, gamblers, Foundationoids, and councilpeople are booting the Flats CDC and taking over planning their turf... all the usual suspects in one room. Perhaps Mike White will even be there.
Let's play bail-out the developers.
Guy... do you have a way to bring on earthquakes? The Powerhouse would crumble like a sand castle...
Brainstorming session on Flats is intended to solve longstanding conflicts along the Cuyahoga Riverfront
Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 2:45 PM Updated: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 4:49 PM
A community meeting set for tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. at Windows on the River in the Nautica Powerhouse is intended to kick off a city planning revolution in the Flats.
Apparently the effort won't involve Flats Oxbow, the community development corporation that has long represented the area.
The Cleveland and Gund foundations have funded a six-month, $20,000 planning effort spearheaded by Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman and major developers and property owners with interests in or next to the Flats.
The goal is to resolve longstanding conflicts among traditional industries in the Flats and new land uses, including entertainment, housing and recreation.
Backers of tonight's discussion want to leverage the potential impact of $2 billion in new development around the Flats and in downtown, including a casino, the medical mart and convention center, the Flats East Bank project.
Proponents also want to solve big, expensive problems that have bedeviled the Flats for decades, including the decay of bulkheads along the Cuyahoga River, the danger that earth along Irishtown Bend could collapse into the river, and the conflict between industrial trucking and neighborhoods in and around the valley.
"If there's one thing tonight we need to bury and leave in the cemetery, it's the preposition 'versus,' " Cimperman said.
The planning effort will be led by Randall McShepard, the director of community affairs at RPM International Inc., Cimperman said.
The councilman said he expects a new plan for the Flats will be completed in about six months, presented to the City Planning Commission and approved as part of the city's overall plan.
McShepard said Tuesday afternoon, that "my role is to facilitate discussion among some of the various stakeholder groups that probably don't talk every day.
" I don't believe that these groups have had a chance to talk about the Flats all in one room and hear each others perspectives on what the future might be."
The project involves a collaboration among community development corporations that ring the Flats, including Tremont, Ohio City Near West, the Warehouse District and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.
Tom Newman, director of Flats Oxbow, said he's planning on attending the meeting, but that he had not been invited to participate.
"I haven't been informed about what that's about," he said Tuesday.
Lillian Kuri, program director for Architecture, Urban Design and Sustainable Development at The Cleveland Foundation, said that Flats Oxbow traditionally has taken a neutral stance on land use conflicts in the Flats, or has argued against new residential or recreational development.
"They would never weigh in," Kuri said, "or in some cases they oppose things that made a lot of sense."
In response, Newman said, "I am merely the hired gun of the board."
Eric Wobser, director of Ohio City Near West, said the new planning effort is "not a direct affront to Flats Oxbow but a recognition that whatever service was being provided to the Flats and to whomever it was being provided, it wasnt effective. The hillside is still crumbling, the roads are falling apart and the entertainment district failed."
Kuri said proponents of the new planning effort are interested in seeing a new community development structure in the Flats, which includes the collective voices that rim the valley.
Cimperman said that in addition to the surrounding community development corporations, supporters of the new planning direction include Dan T. Moore, a Cleveland Metroparks board member; Scott Wolstein, developer of the Flats East Bank project; Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavs and developer of the casino; and Albert Ratner, co-chairman of Forest City Enterprises, which owns or controls most of Scranton Road Peninsula along the river.
Cimperman said he and two other members of Council, Phyllis Cleveland and Matt Zone, voted to eliminate funding for Flats Oxbow in November, instead of recommending the traditional allocation of federal Community Development Block Grant Funds.
Newman said that nevertheless, the city provided $20,000 in funding, approved in part by Mayor Frank Jackson and Councilman Tony Brancatelli. He said that Flats Oxbow had no plans to dissolve and that it can survive without block grant funding.
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ed hauser way or the earthquake way we warned any minute now
yogi and guy - http://www.disclosureproject.com TRUTH - EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL http://www.nationalwardogsmonument.org
Gestapo tactics designed to drive them out of business
unleashing of Gestapo tactics designed to drive them out of business in order to open the area for a big developer.
link
And it worked... coming... prostitutes, slots and a buffet
And it worked... and shut down lots of businesses in the Flats so real estate developers could profit selling booze in the Warehouse District, Gateway, and that silly little street in between.
Now the casino and some new whorehouses in the flats can shut down all of them... who needs restaurants when you can have prostitutes, slots and a buffet?
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West 25th St. TESCA, Pat O'Malley, Rokakis, Abe Bruckman et al.
Prostitutes, booze and gambling used to be the mainstay on West 25th St. I guess the Flats makes more sense. Although, we still have TESCA....
Seen and, yet, unseen in NEO...
earthquake ed - hurrican ed on its way - fair warning status qua
yogi and guy - http://www.disclosureproject.com TRUTH - EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL http://www.nationalwardogsmonument.org
TSUNAMI ON THE beaches of Cleveland?
uh oh!!!
What will we do without the Gentrified, Know It All, Better Than Everyone Else, Smug, Rude, Corrupt, Condescending, Superficial, and Politically connected folks who have run this town into the lake?
Dance!
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
That would make a great movie...
That would make a great movie... sort of like "King of Hearts".
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NO funding to Flats Oxbow means NO FIREWORKS????
Does that mean that on July 04th, 2011, Cleveland will not have fireworks provided by Flats Oxbow since they usually use that CDBG Funding for this event??? Just curious?
Who will help us have 4th of July in Cleveland if Flats Oxbow doesn't do it this year???/
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
Good - I prefer gunshots anyways
Good - I prefer gunshots anyways - keep the celebrations in the 'hoods.
Let's me know we are ready for war... and my neighborhood is VERY READY FOR WAR! Heavily armed and not afraid to let off a few 1,000 rounds to show it.
Plenty more where that came from... Father Henry ain't got nothing on EC!
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Coming in over the TREETOPS...
With all due respect...please don't distract the ATF from the wonderful City of Cleveland, Ohio...(I am sure you all don't want them doing searches in East Cleveland....)
Remember...we were talking about fireworks-not WW III! I can believe that you all are prepared for that type of consideration...
LMAO!
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
You have obviously never been on the East Side for the 4th
You have obviously never been on the East Side for the 4th or New Years... the shooting this New Years didn't stop until well past 2 AM... 1000s of rounds... semi automatic, etc... not a police siren the whole night... whole clips unloaded as fast as the shooter can fire (I believe that is part of the showing off there) into the sky or ground... pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow within blocks of my house.
It seems to me most of the shooting is coming from Cleveland - I live a few blocks from the EC/Cleveland border... so send the cops door to door in Cleveland first (I'm sure Homeland Security is planning that eventually anyways, with their 250,000+ strong workforce). EC is better than Cleveland, but they have thinned EC so much and left so much real poverty behind it is hard to say... there are streets with only a few residents left and they are on their own.
We keep our kids away from the windows and on the First floor those nights.
ATF and cops caring... what a joke... not a police siren the whole night... pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow x100
Our cops write tickets for parking on OUR street after 2 AM... for petty revenue generating BULLSHIT - that is the extent of our police protection here. We tried to get them to come to our house to take a report of a robbery and they refused.
There is advanced video and audio technology for locating where gunshots go off, but I'm sure they don't have it in Cleveland (they don't even have video in the squad cars). You want quiet, go to London.
We are one of the 10 most dangerous cities in America... and that is because the cops refuse to take police reports showing WE ARE #1... seems they don't even want to know if a women is raped.
Everyone I know on the East Side has guns... the cops could search every house around here and probably come out empty handed (and lead poisoned)... they are hidden unless needed... and the cops obviously aren't looking.
And yes, what goes up must come down... how far does a bullet shot in the air travel before it falls to the ground? From a UK website I found "Depends on bullet type and load. And, yes…it will eventually fall back to Earth (damn that pesky gravity!), and will go right through your skull into your vitals. Happens every New Year’s."
My bedroom in Shaker growing up had a small leak in the ceiling... a roofer eventually found a 22 slug in the roof (probably from such shooting in the sky)... and a Clevelander was killed vacationing in New Orleans from a bullet falling from the sky one New Years, for this exact reason... not uncommon around the country.... in New Orleans they figured the shot could have come from over a mile away, as I recall (this was when I was in college there).
You've never known about this?
Come to my house next New Years... that is the best show, and you know about when it will begin... my boys are in awe.
BTW - we hear gunshots around here most nights during nice weather... fewer now that it is Winter. Never hear sirens afterwards... I listen... my office is high above most treetops and my window looks toward Glenville.
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Norm, I agree...
I totally agree with your words above. No need to keep reciting more examples that support your statements.
1) You'd think that the East Cleveland cops would consider all that stuff- JOB SECURITY and do their work. But I guess not.
2) Body armor and kevlar helmets for the kids next holiday season... prevention/protection is key.
3) The disturbing business of government and public service and the ticket taxes that sustain revenues has remarkably changed the playing field and perhaps that is why so many human beings in America have become disenfranchised with the system which only EMPOWERED CORRUPTION!
PEOPLE NEED TO GET INVOLVED IN THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES!
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
The Mayor and council of East Cleveland sold out to MCCO
The Mayor and council of East Cleveland sold out to MCCO and wouldn't even return my emails for over a year.. until we shut down MCCO.
Commissioner Jones went AWOL on this matter as well - Cleveland City Planner Brown... Kent Urban Design Collaborative Leadership (except David Reed, who departed Cleveland for cause)... Councilman Conwell... etc. - it is hard to help your community when you are under attack from your own sold-out government leaders.
Now, I don't even want to hear their names, much less their voices in the community.
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When do these City Planners invite the CITY RESIDENT's input?
Apparently, our city earns billions of dollars in philantrhopic funding, gets millions from community development block grants funds and uses the poor folks of the City of Cleveland as quotas to ascertain those funds....but again and again where are the jobs? Apparently, all this development funds jobs for the folks who commute from the burbs!!!!
THIS IS SUCH AN EXAMPLE OF FRAUD UPON OUR PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
WHAT DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN PROPOSED, PLANNED, OR IMPLEMENTED THAT CREATES JOBS FOR THE DEMOGRAPHICS WHO ACTUALLY LIVE HERE AND WISH TO WORK????
WHERE ARE THE JOBS FOR THE DEMOGRAPHICALLY DISADVANTAGED IN THIS EQUATION?
WHERE ARE THE PLANS FOR LOW TO MODERATE INCOME HOUSING THAT IS AFFORDABLE?
(we see all the new ill affordable upscale housing going in with grants for the low income!!!!)
WHEN DOES ALL OF THIS RECKLESS SPENDING CREATE REALISTIC PLANS FOR THE PEOPLE IT WAS MEANT TO HELP FROM THE BEGINNING....THE LOW INCOME?
ONCE AGAIN...I HAVE A REASON TO LAUGH WHEN SOME SNOB FROM THE BURBS (OR ONE OF THE HOODS LISTED BY CIMPERMAN) SNUBS THEIR NOSE AT THE LESS THAN 'GENTRIFIED' PEOPLE WHO MUST EAT THEIR CONDESCENDING, BETTER THAN YOU, AND IGNORANT PERSPECTIVES WHILE PROJECTING THEIR SELF RIGHTEOUS BETTER THAN YOU IDENTITIES ON OTHERS (MEANWHILE BEING CORRUPT, COLLUSIVE, AND CORRODING THE AMERICAN SPIRIT OF OTHERS!)....LMAO!
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
FLATS OXBOW TOM NEWMAN CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLING $583k
JUMPING FOR JOY! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, FBI...
AND SCREW ALL YOU PUNKS WHO SUPPORT THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR....ON HIS DEATH BED OR NOT---MAY HE BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE...AND MAY THE REST OF THE DOMINOES CONTINUE TO FALL BY THE FBI & PROSECUTORS! go get 'em!! woohoo!
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/11/post_69.html
ARTICLE COPIED BELOW FOR IMMEDIATE CONTENT SHARE BY DLH. THANKS TO PD FOR THIS INFO WHICH COUNTLESS CITIZENS VICTIMIZED BY THESE TYPICAL SOCIAL INJUSTICES AFFECTS....GOD BLESS!
Ex-chief of Cleveland Flats Oxbow embezzled $583,000, feds say
on November 08, 2012 at 12:36 PM, updated November 08, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Updated 5:15 p.m.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The former executive director of the Flats Oxbow Association was accused by federal prosecutors Thursday of stealing more than $500,000 from the nonprofit community development corporation.
A two-count criminal information charges Thomas Newman with theft and embezzlement in a federally funded program, and money laundering.
"This defendant is accused of taking more than half a million dollars from an organization that was trying to improve our city," said U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach.
For more than 20 years, Flats Oxbow billed itself "the voice of the Flats." One of the city’s first community-development corporations, the association served as a chamber of commerce for businesses and residents along the riverside neighborhood. At one time, it had more than 100 paying members.
But the group’s board of trustees closed in March 2011 and placed Newman on administrative leave after association officials discovered possible financial irregularities. They reported their findings to the FBI, which headed the investigation.
"We will continue to root out public corruption and misuse of tax dollars in all its forms," said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office.
Federal prosecutors charged Newman in a four-page criminal information, rather than a grand jury indictment, which usually means the suspect is cooperating and intends to plead guilty.
Kevin Spellacy, Newman’s attorney, said his client is "very ill." He said Newman accepts responsibility for what he has done and that the charges are "a negotiated resolution."
Prosecutors suspect Newman, 65, of stealing $583,000 from Flats Oxbow bank accounts. The majority of the money — about $400,000 — was obtained via checks written to cash, according to the charging document. Prosecutors also suspect that Newman used a Flats Oxbow credit card to pay for renovations at a six-story brick warehouse, registered in his wife’s name and located at 1250 Riverbed St. in the Flats.
The building houses Club Eros, which a website describes as a members-only adult entertainment swinger’s club open on Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Club owner Joe Esplandiu said he personally paid for all of the first-floor renovations at the building, and pays Newman monthly rent. "We did not get one penny from Tom or Dolores Newman," Esplandiu said.
Newman was named executive director of Flats Oxbow in 2006, a job that paid him $50,000 a year. Prior to that, he served as chairman of the group’s board of trustees. Newman’s last known address was an apartment on Shaker Boulevard in Cleveland.
Between 2006 and 2011, Flats Oxbow received $394,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development via Community Block Grants administered by the City of Cleveland, according to charging document.
In a letter sent by Flats Oxbow’s lawyer to Cleveland officials last year, attorney David Neumann said the organization’s board suspected Newman may have misappropriated federal funds and submitted inaccurate financial statements to the city.
City Council had previously allocated more than $75,000 in public money a year to Flats Oxbow. But as the organization collapsed, City Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes much of the Flats, declined to fund the nonprofit.
Cimperman said in a telephone interview that he is angered by the charges.
"That money is supposed to yield other money," he said. "It’s supposed to help create jobs and spur development. There is a reason why there are problems in the Flats. It’s because the people who were supposed to be watching it were looking the other way."
The councilman said the agency under Newman sputtered, often over petty fights.
"We didn’t have the luxury for civil wars. We have roads that have to be fixed. One of the things you have to do is problem-solve, not problem-create."
Explaining why city money was withheld from the organization, Chris Warren, the city’s regional development director, said Flats Oxbow had failed to produce a budget or an outline of the services it intended to provide.
Flats Oxbow received $155,000 in grants and funding, and $27,000 in membership fees and dues in 2008, according to the group’s most-recent federal tax returns.
In the absence of city money, Flats Oxbow relied on membership fees, fundraising and corporate contributions.
Plain Dealer Reporter John Caniglia contributed to this story.
Always Appreciative, "ANGELnWard14"
These fools are truly suicidal, and dangerous for the rest of us
These fools are truly suicidal, and dangerous for the rest of us - "Messy Vitality" - what brain-donor consultant came up with that term for death camp?
No mention of stopping pollution from industry - total SELL OUTS.
When are the next elections? Everyone has got to GO!
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What your NEO leaders have actually been doing all these years
Do you even know what your NEO leaders have actually been doing all these years... fighting against citizens and the Federal government to protect a few major point source polluters here, like Cleveland Thermal, MCCO and Mittal, who kill citizens... and that the EPA has been working to stop. Here is the current state of this war, and what is required of our leaders here by the federal EPA now.
As out local leaders have acted as the enemies of the people, buy kissing the ass of industry.... now wonder how well they are prepared to implement and enforce new EPA Clean Air Act Standards for Boilers and Incinerators, considering how poorly they have implemented all other environmental protection laws here... in the most lead poisoned large city in America...
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