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This morning was a perfect example of the mess on Euclid between Chester and Mayfield.

Besides the usual ugly, torn up streets that students and pedestrians must traverse.

Since they are down to 4 narrow lanes (2 each way), if something goes wrong, it’s a major problem. This morning a delivery truck was blocking one of the lanes going West - so 1 lane was open westbound.

Then the sirens started and 2 fire trucks and a rescue squad started coming up Chester. The westbound lane had nowhere to go and the 2 eastbound lanes were packed so everyone had to do some fancy and dangerous maneuvering.

The whole time, I spotted 1 worker sitting in a vehicle.

I hope nobody is injured or killed while waiting for an ambulance or other emergency support while the road sits torn up and practically untouched…

Dan Hanson’s Blog

Think Kevin Conwell’s listening?

Kevin, you need to represent the constituency first and foremost. Please don’t forget, you, and Sweeney and Jackson, should be serving us first. We really don’t see what gauging their support has to do with anything–you all work for us, and you shouldn’t be deciding or second-guessiong what it is you think we want. Put it on the ballot, and we’ll vote, and that’s how we’ll let you know what you’re supposed to do. You guys don’t seem to be able to get it right on your own.

Tim Ferris: put it on the ballot

Roger Bundy combs the CuyCo budget, summerizes it:

On August 24, 2007, the day before the deadline for Put It On The Ballot to turn in our petitions to force a vote on the sales tax increase, the Cuyahoga County Commissioners released their 2007 Midyear Financial Report that you can find in its entirety here.

I’ll share some highlights of the report with you and let you judge whether the real reason for the urgency of this sales tax increase was a medical mart or whether the Commissioners desperately needed to prop up their General Fund. Recall the the sales tax increase is not specifically earmarked for the convention center/medical mart, but is just dumped in to the General Fund.

As is clear from the following excerpts of the Midyear Financial Report, the county is already hinting that it will need the revenue from this sales tax increase to support/offset and expected general fund operating deficit…

Cleveland Equanimous Philosopher: It’s The Details That Can’t Be Strung Behind An Airplane That You Should Be Worried About

I didn’t recognize him at first. He was in a t-shirt and jeans, with a toolbelt around his waist, carrying a ladder. When I told him it was late and he could knock off, he replied that he “enjoyed being away from the nuthouse”. Go figure:

Perhaps there are other councilpersons who are unhappy with Martin Sweeney and are using this opportunity to weaken him to take over as council president. Perhaps Emily Lipovan inadvertently got caught up in this mess. She didn’t say that to me, that’s just my own commentary and educated guess…

Glad to have Roger in the MTB network blogging about such matters.

Cleveland Equanimous Philosopher: The Saga of Cleveland City Clerk Emily Lipovan

• Hundreds of kids sent home from Cleveland Public Schools because they aren’t wearing school uniforms.
• A very high percentage (I’ve lost track) of families in Cleveland living below the poverty level.
• CMSD promises vouchers to cover 2 sets of uniforms to families in need who qualify.
• CMSD fails to get vouchers into the hands of a large percentage of families who need them to acquire uniforms before the first day of school.
• It appears to me that the CMSD Administrators should have been the ones sent home yesterday. Making kids suffer the consequences of incompetent leadership is just dead wrong.
  

Tim Ferris on Susan Miller’s post:

Susan Miller ties the planned demolition of the Breuer Tower to the deception of the bait-and-switch sales-tax increase. If what we hear about the county’s being flat broke is true, then we need to stop all spending and stop giving them more money until we have a thorough audit. It seems that things at the county have gotten too fungible…

Er, maybe the commissioners should address this?

Tim Ferris: tying the Breuer demolition to the sales tax deception

The Councilman approves:

Even the $25,000 scholarship contribution, which Ciaccia has admitted soliciting, doesn’t bother Polensek. In his world, such deals are simply government in Cleveland. “I never looked upon that as a shakedown, as a bribe,” he says…

Cleveland - News - Why Are You Still Paying Him?

Bill Callahan blogs what he knows about the Med/Con, college aid, and political machinations:

Rokakis told me he’d been trying to communicate with Commissioner Hagan to find out… and getting no response…

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » Convention centers, college aid, machinations