CALL IT: "DISADVANTAGED TRIANGLE FREEWAY " - Don't swallow UCI & CC spin

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 03/07/2007 - 17:31.



Today this is on GreenCityBlueLake  (click anywhere on the prior paragraph to link to GCBL) Keep in mind that a lot is in a name – in this case a lot of SPIN.  “OPPORTUNITY CORRIDOR”  “FORGOTTEN TRIANGLE”             who do you think came up with those names? The Cleveland citizens who live there?  The community of people who will be impacted by a new freeway? NO.  For certain it wasn’t them….this is an ad campaign…by the well heeled Corp’s.  If you are looking for honesty, turn the names upside down…DISADVANTAGED TRIANGLE

 

 

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Some areas should return to nature

I saw that on GCBL and looked through some of the source documents.

I'm not sure what I think about the OpCore. Steve's read is probably about right - expect the worst. Since you've driven around that dead zone you already know they've cleared 100s of acres for the project... you saw the crap Ryser is building on Woodland, like anyone should live there. I lean toward writing off Central completely - keep the Cemeteries and any historic building as parks and special purpose facilities and clear everything else (nearly done) - build a freeway - surround it with willow and switchgrass farms for ethenol (along with a big processing plant) and forget about humans living there at all... it's not like we need all of Cleveland for people anymore... some areas should return to nature.

I agree with you about the mapping. We've had many meetings lately about using open source GIS on the East Cleveland project and that will offer the platform that could be used for the other areas of the region. Of course, all the little silos want to use their private GIS so it will not happen in their silos... as usual, we need to do it in the roots.

Disrupt IT

Non-profit non-taxed institutional development non-starter

    I saw on Green City Blue Lake, if a six-lane road was constructed through the "Opportunity Corridor," a projection that hospital (read Cleveland Clinic) functions, such as laundry, records keeping etc. would fill some of that open land in the Forgotten Triangle. If the so called "Opportunity Boulevard" was built, there is a hint that lower skilled job opportunities would open up in the Forgotten Triangle (one can surmise that most of these jobs would move from the current Cleveland Clinic campus).

    With the Clinic paying no property taxes and a lot of any "gain" in employment taxes coming from jobs just sloshing in from the Clinic neighborhood, instead of being real new jobs, it is hard to see how a substantial increase in taxes would be generated from opening up this for development. Perhaps, with the move out of lower paying jobs to The Forgotten Triangle the Clinic would add a lot of new high paying jobs, and associated income tax revenue for the city, at their main campus.

    Even with some increase in income taxes collected, if property values go up with the influx of new Clinic buildings into the Forgotten Triangle, it won't be the big institution paying the increase, (or any property tax at all). Instead of the Clinic paying the property tax, this tax could rise substantially for the nearby small commercial and residential property owners in the area. Would this simply chase many of them out? Because the Cleveland Clinic does not pay property taxes why should state investment go into something to benefit the Clinic? The cost-benefit analysis for building a new road through the Opportunity Corridor is murky indeed.
    Instead, should the state put the money that might have gone toward the Opportunity Corridor into widening roads in North Royalton and new freeway interchanges in Avon and elsewhere opening up more green fields on the metropolitan fringe where development costs and taxes are often lower than in the city? A lot of that development would generate property taxes for their community, unless of course, it is all being developed by hospitals and other non-profits that pay no property taxes.