Ed Morrison · Forest City’s PR Department (aka the Plain Dealer)

January 19th, 2009

When will the PD stop shilling for Forest City?

It’s goofy enough that Forest City continues its public cram down of the Tower City site: a “site selection” report that MMPI ignores, a farcical civic process, a public investment decision that the County Commission stands on its head.

It’s weirder still that the PD insists on being the PR flaks for Forest City. How is this story news? A report submitted to the Commission last September? Where is it? (What happened to the PD’s professional editors?)

Convention expert Bruce Harris supports Tower City medical mart site

(Recall the PD blog on Forest City? It’s remarkable how the PD editors are willing to trade their journalistic integrity so quickly.)
More from Roldo here.

Last 5 posts by Ed Morrison

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Category: BFD
10 Comments »

10 Responses to “Forest City’s PR Department (aka the Plain Dealer)”

  1. Chris Thompson Says:
    January 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    Won’t argue your points on the editorial judgment or the quality of the process, but I don’t think it’s fair to associate Bruce with being a shill for FC. In my experience, Bruce is the most informed person in Cleveland regarding the convention business and perhaps if folks had listened to him 15 years ago the city wouldn’t be stuck with an “83-year-old piece of junk.”

  2. Ed Morrison Says:
    January 19th, 2009 at 6:04 pm

    Maybe so.

    One aspect that is not covered by the PD: the logistics issues related to the Tower City site. Conventions are a logistics business, and the serious constraints of the Tower City site are not being publicly addressed. (This whole deal is about not answering questions. See the article in the Scene magazine here about the logistics issue: http://snurl.com/ade9t)

    But people familiar with the convention business say they are baffled by GCP’s preference.

    There’s a whole industry dedicated to the logistics of setting up and producing large-scale conventions. These firms are called upon by convention planners to install everything from carpeting to registration booths to lights and signage. The work requires dozens of trucks docked at one time, with the ability to get in and out quickly.

    “Without us, there’s no convention,” says a 40-year veteran who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He’s based in Cleveland and works for one of the country’s largest convention general contractors. He didn’t want his company to suffer any ramifications for his speaking out against the deliberation process so far.

    If only a limited number of trucks are able to dock, or if they’re slow to enter and leave the convention center, prices go up, the industry veteran says. Given the traffic patterns around Tower City, he says this location doesn’t make much sense.

    “It’s a congested area,” with little room for expansion once the center’s built, he says. He doesn’t see how 20, 30 or 40 trucks can dock or move simultaneously. “We have a limited time to put shows on. I haven’t seen a plan or any architectural drawings yet on how they can get it done, or what a convention center behind Tower City would look like.”

    None of the four major companies in the convention logistics business, the veteran source says, were called on by GCP researchers. “I’m frustrated,” he says, “that the people who are [contracted to produce convention shows] haven’t been asked about site selection.”

    Your friend Bruce may be a fine expert, but he is only looking at whether people need to walk outside to get to their hotel.

    Other urban design issues issues — like Steve Litt’s concerns about the Tower City site are left out. Here’s an excerpt from Litt’s commentary:

    [The Tower City site] will leave the existing convention center, located under the downtown Mall, without a reason for being and funnel energy away from the already bleak zone between Public Square and City Hall. The civic committee’s proposal to lace downtown with overhead and underground walkways would spread the damage by killing street life throughout downtown…

    The executives on the site-selection committee have urged that the “connectivity” of Tower City should be enhanced with an extensive walkway system – a truly creepy idea.

    Visitors would be able to “move to and fro among a series of buildings and amenities in downtown without needing to traverse long distances out of doors,” according to the site committee’s report. That’s a prescription for a socially stratified downtown where visitors are separated from locals and storefronts are starved of traffic.

    http://snurl.com/addg7

    In addition to serious questions about logistics and Litt’s urban design concerns, where is the business plan for the Medical Mart? Jay Miller of Crain’s raised serious doubts about the market viability of a Medical Mart, questions that have yet to be answered.

    Promoters of Cleveland’s medical merchandise mart proposal believe they have a winner on their hands, but the early-1990s failure of a similar venture in Birmingham, Ala., and comments from national medical marketers suggest the local project isn’t a slam dunk.

    …Birmingham’s convention center executives thought conventions and the medical mart would feed off each other, but it didn’t work out that way. Mr. Fields said the concept ran into roadblocks from the medical community.

    Mr. Fields said dealers told him they preferred that customers come to showrooms at their own plants to see equipment demonstrations. He said he was told by several prospective tenants that “the last thing we want to do is be near our competitors so it will be easy for (potential) customers to shop around.”

    (See Miller’s piece here: http://snurl.com/ade1d)

    The timing of this piece, the remarkably weak reporting, and the complete lack of news value raise serious questions about the PD’s role in this slipshod civic process.

    Your friend Bruce may be a fine person, but he comes across to me as yet another pawn in a game that gets more goofy by the day.

  3. roldo bartimole Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am

    Ed: You’ve added in the above comment valuable input on this issue.

    Isn’t it strange that the Pee Dee can’t play anything of this scope straight. It has to take the cheerleading role, avoiding ANY possible contrary views, on major community issues.

  4. Ed Morrison Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 6:33 pm

    Thanks, Roldo. Either the PD editors know they are being used and don’t care (pretty bad…a legacy of the Alex Machaskee era, I suppose) or they are too naive or dumb to figure out that they are being used (somewhat better).

  5. Ronald Fleishman Says:
    January 29th, 2009 at 2:30 am

    The post by Ed Morrison (1-19) is excellent and very well thought out. However, I totally disagree with “Bruce may be a fine person.”

    Our organization, especially yours truly has dealt on a first hand basis with the Ratners. And, I can unequivocally say they are far and away the most egregious people I’ve ever dealt with in my life…well, taking in account I never met Hitler though.

    But for what it’s worth this small organization from Chicago, called Citizens United Against Corporate Corruption will not rest until Forest City Enterprises is nothing more than a bad memory. We blame the death of one of our members on these animals and they nearly killed our CEO, (yours truly) while rubbing it in my face. We got many of their shareholders to bail on them during their plunge last autumn.

    But they’re still surviving. Well, we just have to patient. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before everyone realizes that doing business with Forest City means coming out on the losing end, unless you can beat them in court.

    Those who give away subsidies to FCE for work which is never started are really the lucky ones. At least compared to many of those who live on their properties.
    Then expect the paid off authorities to look the other way while getting exposed to the likes of mold, mildew, asbestos, loose toilets or sinks coming out of your wall…etc.

    Well, wish me luck in court on Friday over in Chicago.

  6. Ed Morrison Says:
    January 29th, 2009 at 7:55 am

    Ronald:

    Your encounter with FCE sounds awful.

    Thank you for adding your voice those who are saying, “Enough”.

  7. Ronald Fleishman Says:
    January 29th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

    Yes, it was (still is) awful. I’ll try to make a long story short. I’ve been a resident of the Pavilion apartments in Chicago for about 35 years. That’s right…..35 years.

    Last year I got black mold in my apartment due to improper caulking of the tuckpointing on my balcony by their contractors. I have pictures to prove it. Instead of fixing the mold the management threatened to evict me, unless I fixed it myself. I was very sick at the time from the mold and didn’t want to move out after 35 years. Not realizing what crooks the Ratners were, I took the advice of two lawyers and had to spend about 20 grand out of my pocket to fix that and water damage all over my place, assuming I would be reimbursed.

    They waited until the work was about 95 percent complete, than laughed in my face and said they were going to stiff me and evict me. They weren’t joking. It’s still an ongoing court battle.

  8. Susan Miller Says:
    January 30th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    FCE is not well-liked in NYC either. Whole websites are committed to stopping their Atlantic Yards programs. Here’s just one: http://dddb.net/php/aboutratner.php

    Mr. Fleischman – I looked up your organization and found this to share with Cleveland readers:
    “The other company we’ve been taking action against is Forest City Enterprises, due to incredibly despicable behavior against members of our organization. We commenced our blitz against them in September when we called their largest shareholder at the time who was Columbia Wagner Asset Management. At that time Forest City was going at about $40.00 a share. At the close on 11-22-08 they were at exactly $3.42 a share. President-Elect Obama’s office is also assisting us in an investigation of one of their huge Chicago properties. At anybody’s request we can furnish a copy of the letter that was sent to yours truly from his office. We are in the process of negotiating with Forest City currently and have put a hold on our blitz against them for the time being.”

    I hope now President Obama’s FBI will provide Cleveland with a little bit of the Audacity of Hope. Hope is in short supply here on the north coast.

  9. Ronald Fleishman Says:
    January 30th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    Thanks Susan.

    I love the way people in NYC fight back. I wish Chicago was like that. Aside from our organization, if people get their toes stepped on by big corporations they just shrug their shoulders and walk away.

    It’s that Cub fan mentality.

    Anyway, there is no more “hold on our blitz.” Things went badly in court today, so we’re going to pick things up full force again. Yep, I got stiffed and evicted. Have to move out March 15 after a 35 year stay.

    What would really help is to get a major newspaper to start publishing stories against Forest City. They have control over too much of the government including the judicial system.

    I wish the IRS would audit them too. Has to be a goldmine there.

  10. Ronald Fleishman Says:
    January 31st, 2009 at 3:17 am

    Thank you Susan.

    For more love notes on Forest City go to Google and check out “Complaints against Forest City Enterprises,” “Forest City Enterprises Slumlords” and “Brooklyn No Land Grab.”

    Love is in the air.

    Might be time again to get their big shareholders to bail out. Though right now it could be a lot of small to medium investors who are holding their ship up.

    Wouldn’t it be great if the IRS audited them? What are they waiting for?