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WATER MAIN BREAKS – A CLEVELAND GROWTH INDUSTRYSubmitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 12:56.
Tremont, other sections of the West Side, Downtown Cleveland, and a large portion of the East side of Cleveland were waterless this morning due to a water main break on Hamilton west of E 40th. But to see the number of media reporters on the scene, you would have thought there was real important news to collect. 8 TV rigs were there, and one of the cameramen was already talking overtime. This water main break foists a huge economic burden all across Cleveland. Not to mention the public safety hazzard that no water in the fire hydrants poses (Cleveland Fire Department brought in 2 4000 gallon tankers of water from Hopkins - about enough to put out 2 trash can fires). I wonder if those two water trucks were brought in to provide fire safety to the high rise buildings around Public Square when the water main broke there last year The main break was probably entirely preventable if a leak detection maintenance program was in place. Recording equipment can be sent downstream through active water mains. Cast iron water main pipes don’t just break in two all of a sudden. Total failure of a main takes place over time. Any leak in the pipe produces an audio profile. Leaks can then be inventoried in terms of size, location, and increase in size/volume/noise. Then a maintence program allows the repair of the most vital lines before they fail. The larger the water main, the more critical leak inspection is. Here is a link to the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company of Mississauga, Ontario, one company of many that has both generic and proprietary pressure pipe inspection capabilities. Here is a link to the specific inspection device which is pulled downstream through a pressurized working pipe with it's own "parachute" - very cool. When was the main which broke at the corner of Hamilton and E40th last inspected? The answer to that question might be news…
What civic benefit is provided to NEO by the local reporting company’s, their methods and their technology? Are any of the news media helping to move Cleveland ahead? Is what is pictured above out-of-date, dinosaur analogue technology? How come conventionally attractive women are usually in the media front line with microphones asking all the questions? Is TV news sexist? Is there really just one formula for TV news?
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More $$$ down the drain
PBS recently aired the documentary Liquid Assets on how progressive cities are recapturing every drop of clean water. It costs $$$ to clean the water dumped on our city streets this morning. We are drowning in mismanagement and incompetence.
Street collapse today
I had training downtown this morning and the street collapse on Superior Ave. in front of the Metzenbaum Court House building near public square momentarily knocked out the lights, phones etc. Too bad--I was not carrying today...a camera that is.
two words to explain all of this...
Julius Ciaccia.
and what's with Shannon O'Brien's "daisy cap"? lol. Uh..yeah...you're a serious news reporter.
CASTLE IN RUINS Frank
CASTLE IN RUINS Frank Giglio's house is gone. The house that stood at the top of West 14th Street - where Giglio tended an organic garden that was sacred to him, where he once hosted late-night bacchanals around a bonfire and over which he fought the city on a long list of code violations - was demolished by a steam shovel last week while he watched. During his 15-year legal battle with the city, Giglio made substantial repairs, including demolishing a hazardous porch, painting the whole house and installing a new roof. Still, the city had claims about the plumbing and wiring, some of which were true. And the neighborhood was never happy that he let his yard grow over with weeds. A hint of the confusing treatment Giglio has endured can be found in his tax bill: The county auditor's valuation of his property has more than doubled since 2005. That's interesting, considering that during that time the real-estate market has been declining, and the city of Cleveland has been working to evict Giglio and demolish the house on grounds of alleged decay. Giglio had been making tax payments and has a balance due in 2008 of just $86.65. The social and legal issues surrounding Giglio and his house could fill a book (for a primer, go to clevescene.com; search for "American Scream"). The only new twist is that a single changed vote on a city-planning commission panel finally allowed the demolition to proceed. But the bottom line is this: The city created a homeless man under the guise of protecting him from his supposedly hazardous living situation. They did that by knocking down his house, which he owned outright, with no mortgage to default on. At a time when the city of Cleveland can't keep up with its backlog of abandoned homes awaiting demolition, it knocked down a house that belonged to someone who made steady tax payments and desperately wanted to live there. One measure of a community is how it treats those who just want to be left alone. And in this case, the city failed. - Gill
individual rights are a frequent casualty in Cleveland
When individual rights are trounced like this, it's time to rise up and take back our city. I'm hoping the plaintiff's bar can pursue this successfully; it seems that, once again, we cannot depend on advocacy from the Cleveland Restoration Society.
ELOQUENT jerleen1
Your statement captures it all...and all that is wrong with the treatment of a citizen who lives among us.. and those of you in Tremont who know first hand of the mis-treatment, will be the guides for the rest of the community towards equity...
no religion here. just the facts.
I would appreciate Mr. Cimperman's input.
Joe?
I estimate lifetime cost to public of demolition is $250,000
I noticed the attribution to "Gill" and figured it was Michael Gill, at Scene, who does a nice job nailing some key facts not mentioned here before, like Giglio didn't have a mortgage, and didn't owe taxes.
It cost taxpayers at least $6,000 to demolish this house - probably Federal HUD money, so everyone in America should be pissed off about this. Add the local government cost of police arresting, holding, processing and prosecuting Frank and his animals multiple times, plus the cost of all the schemers and public employees wonked into this by them - let's say the cost to the public is $50,000 so far.
Such money that is supposed to be spent on eliminating real blight, and such wonks are supposed toworkfor the benefit of the public.
Add the cost to society of absorbing the harm caused to Giglio - if he now needs social services, the public must pay for that - if he becomes sick from the cold the public pays for that. Let's assume a lifetime cost of $200,000.
I'd estimate the minimum lifetime cost of this demolition to society, not to mention cost to Frank, is well over $250,000.
Obama must investigate all this BS in Cleveland. The Federal Government should declare Northeast Ohio an economic and environmental disaster area and bring in outside help - while evaluating where every federal dollar has been spent here, by whom, over the last 20 years or so - as part of their FBI/CIA investigations into graft and corruption.
Disrupt IT
can the city account for what it spent on Gigio?
Norm, I wonder whether the City of Cleveland can account for what it has spent pursuing Giglio. Not only does Giglio need to have restitution made, but we the people do as well.
We need to start by stripping the government and nonprofit employees of their protections and pursuing them personally, taking over their salaries and confiscating their retirement plans. We need to take our money back from public servants gone wild, and let them feel the financial repercussions first hand.
Then, we need to get on with doing productive things, with building, with restoring an incomparable NEO natural heritage and built heritage. These government and nonprofit "gangsters" get in the way.
I'll do ya one better...
..how about we lock them up and let them prove their innocence in order to be let out? not a far cry from how they use the system against citizens...
ps - it looks like you're gonna have to move aNOther thread over to Frank's page...my (organization obsessed) virgos are so twitching right now...
Another water main break
Today--great video--sad that our infrastructure is crumbling and we can't seem to get our priorities straight.
http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2009/04/water_main_break_closes_st_cla.html
DDealer in the News Video business?
Not a bad little video, but, curiosly, in which union is the videographer?
What will the TV corporations say to the Newspaper?
times they are a chang'in!
video
Jeff -
PD photographers, like PD reporters, are in The Newspaper Guild. As reporters are resharpening their skills to learn blog software and such, photographers are broadening their skills to include video. It's the future, and I think you have to give some credit for those willing to learn new tricks or step outside their comfort zone to adapt with the times.
see=money-don't see=no
see=money-don't see=no money
see roads need repair=get money
don't see water sewer repair=don't get money
canadian officials are more honest - thats how they explain-
american officials what they see gets money
what they don't see gets little money
untill
we have to make them see us
i'll see you - yogi guy
Canadian reporters
Thanks Guy--I wonder how Canadian newspapers are faring in this new "economy." Thanks Henry --for insight into the changing industry. This video is credited at the end to David I. Anderson Plain Dealer c2009
HULU
Interesting also to consider how television is morphing to a medium you can watch anytime via Hulu, while newspapers have been something you have always been able to pick up anytime via newsprint edition. Finding the REAL content is going to be the challenge for all mediums :)
BTW, Henry--can you get someone to revisit the suspicious run of HUD house transfers that occurred on the near west side. The PD picked up the story and then dropped it. I have a lead for you. One multiple property owner/multiple foreclosures/flip to Aurora Loan Services LLC/flip to FAR-First American Real Estate Tax Service, 1721 Moon Lake Blvd, Suite 400, Hoffman Estates IL--was sold a home (after a history of multiple foreclosures including 3404 Archwood) on 1706 Holmden in August 2008 --property transferred from HUD.
Sahara Leak Detection from PPIC
Just a quick update to the article regarding the Sahara leak detection equipment from PPIC.
Information on this technology can be found at the following address:
http://www.ppic.com/services/sahara.shtml
Spam or not Spam..., Jeff B and others?
Here is a link to a product from a digital marketing manager of the company selling the product, embedded in a comment posted to a REALNEO article, which is like what Jeff B. has objected to before (and on one of Jeff B's postings), but I think this is just well connected community engagement... because the person selling the product is a real person with a real identity and purpose at REALNEO and posting the link... providing more useful information to enhance other REALNEO insight.
What do you think Jeff B... appreciate the outreach or feeling spammy?
Disrupt IT
Pipe inspection link is not spam