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REPORTAGE NEO NEEDS: ROLDO & RENNERSubmitted by Jeff Buster on Fri, 04/20/2007 - 13:17.
I offer these flowers for Mr. Bartimole and Mr. Renner to put on their desks. Their's is the type of reportage which we need more of in Ohio.
In particular look at the end of Roldo’s article on Cool Cleveland and read the list of gratuities which Mr. Wolstein is intending to take from the taxpayers in broad daylight. I will bet $100 that Mr. Wolstein’s attorneys, and not the city, were the primary drafters of the items on this list. Only they could keep a straight face while planning the hugely expensive transfer of public money to this private developer. Look at the very last paragraph “any and all soft costs” – you know how many millions that will add up to for just this item? Totally open ended. It is disgusting.
In California it works just the reverse – the developers PAY the state and county and city for the additional traffic their project may generate. Private developers PAY to build new freeway interchanges or to widen a bridge or road. What is happening here in NEO is, in my opinion, a corruption of common sense and fairness. Our “leaders” have sold us out. Cleveland is being plundered.
Thank you Roldo for all your time researching and putting this into print.
Mr. James Renner has also put a lot of shoe leather into his Free Times report on Chris Carmody, (who runs the state, county, and philanthropically funded Cleveland Film Commission) which was originally brought to my attention on Realneo by Norm Roulet. Mr. Renner went to hear Mr. Carmody at the City Club and asked a question which made Mr. Carmody uncomfortable. That’s the type of question that needs to be asked more in NEO. Mr. Carmody became irritated enough that he had Film Commission lawyers talk with Free Times lawyers and the editor. That suggsest to me that Mr. Renner is getting close to the quick. Mr. Carmody comes off like Attorney General Gonzales – questionable. Cleary the Sony 5 million dollars-spent-in-Cleveland figure is just pulled out of thin air in an attempt to justify the existence of the Film Commission and Mr. Carmody’s salary.
Anybody out there have another viewpoint on Chris Carmody? I don’t know him myself.
Notice [just above ACT 5 in the article] that Peter Miragliotta, CEO of Tenable Security said (in reference to Mr. Carmody’s Film Commission and free police details for filming operations):
“We have other things we need to do with that money before we give it away to producers. We still have lead in all our old houses and you want to give tax breaks to producers?"
Publius will soon see that Norm isn’t the only person in town “fixated” on lead poisoning. We haven’t been “fixated” enough for the last century or two.
Anyway, hat’s off to Mr. Renner for digging away .
Take those spring flowers and put ‘em in some water, James.
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I was going to post on this too Jeff
Thanks for putting you neck on the line seconding Renner's powerful piece in the Free Times. I'd say my opinion is we shouldn't have politicians running arts and culture organizations - that is the work for a very specific type of professional. Carmody should get out of there and focus on running for some office and the community of people trying to nurture film here, including Bernadette Gillota and Independent Pictures and the several film festival groups and Cinimateque and all other film making folks, and filmmawkers, educators, etc., all working together in a collaborative and sophisiticated way.
And huge props to Miragliotta for his enlightned perspective on the film industry vs. lead poisoning eradication - we need both.
Disrupt IT
BTW - read this on Bone Thugs...
Jeff, since you will miss the Shrinking Cities lecture, exhibitions and events coming down here over the next few months, I'll do an extra good job of covering them for you - be sure to check out all the links and online insight posted at my intro to this series of events, found here.
Disrupt IT
carmody would do the gestapo proud
We've been watching Chris Carmody's antics for a good few years now, and his style has never ceased to be questionable at best, but reprenhsible usually. As I mentioned in the SUBJECT line, his tactics would do the Gestapo proud.
I'm hoping that this era of punks' being able to intimidate and harrass in Cleveland with impunity, if not approbation, is now drawing to a close. It's a holdover from the way the SDS played the game, and it's old and tired and needs to wither in the sunlight of an open and transparent process. Mike White, Jane Campbell, and Chris Carmody have all used the powers of government against the citizens that make the existence of the government possible; they have been ultimate traitors, and two of them are now neutralized. Now, with the third, we are faced with the conundrum of neutralizing the neutered.