isn't it strange he pulls this now, two months before the election?

and how the heck does peedee not know where the money is coming from? they're a newspaper, no? and they have reporters? too weird.

oh - by the way - my mortgage is 14 months past due, my kids haven't eaten in 3 months and all my utilities are turned off, but i thought I'd buy a nice gazebo for my backyard.....

careful with your phrasing there dbra or we will be have a fundraiser to help you out.

Jackson is becoming so reminiscent of the Voinovich lies. It is like he studied how he did business, ran the City and got Council to rubberstamp anything that he wanted.  

And Voinovich was also soft spoken and had the appearance of being reasonable.

So, George, I mean, Frank, where is that UDAG, sorry, gift, that can only be spent on downtown, excuse me, on for profit enterprises, coming from?

  2 Questions

What is the source of the funding?

What is the name of the public official that thinks a $2M fish bowl is a good idea, in these economic times?

You have famiies with children going to bed hungry at night in this City and a Food Bank in desperate need. Those kids need to be eating fish; not looking at them.

But, perhaps Mayor Jackson could work out a deal for reduced admission for hungry kids.

Clean up Lake Erie and there will be plenty of fish to eat.

Wouldn't it be nice if people could actually use Lake Erie to catch fish that was not tainted with mercury.  What have we done to our natural resources in this city? 

But, I do have to add that I am not against an aquarium here in Cleveland.  Wouldn't it add a touch of class to the area?  Maybe the mayor would be willing to set aside some of the profits to help fund a food bank that would help feed the hungry children.  Can we have both...a nice aquarium that would draw visitors to Cleveland and money to help feed the hungry of Cleveland?  Why not?  Capitalism with a heart sounds like a plan to me.

 that just eat the kids... problem solved. cleveland mentality.

dbra, that was bad.  Jonathan Swift solution?

 with the brain drain of the day...

someone shoot me.

 the 2 food pantries that I am loosely involved in are so swamped that their pantry is totaled wiped out at the same time that the Food Bank funds are being cut. $2,000,000 would fund a lot of food from the Food Bank at 10 cents a pound. 

PD now reports that these are Core Cities funds--

http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2009/09/bill_patmon_throws_cold_water.html#more

Patmon needs to explain his own history with Jacobs Group, too.

The article links back to ROLDO here--at REALNEO. So what are Core city funds? TIF funds... UDAG monies as Roldo explains? 

Is it the goal of every metropolitan political machine in America to keep the public so confused that it ultimately gives up on tracking how their monies are spent?  With no accountability, we build a two-tier society, enabling the upper class to exploit and "use other people's money" until we are living Jonathon Swift's Modest Proposal...?

Here are some Core City Fund Projects from a list handed out at a City Council Committee hearing years ago:

Cleveland Film Commission; St. Luke's Phase 1, single family; First Church of Christ; League Park; Little Italy Renaissance; St. Luke's Phase 2 & 3;; Cleveland Public Theater; Fifth Church of Christ.

Some of the developers are listed as Playhouse Square CDC; Famincos; Famincos/Catholic Charities; Historic Warehouse CDC; CMHA; Clark Metro.

Are these For Profit organizations. I don't think so.

These are projects that had requested funding from the city.

The Core City funding, I believe, would come from main two sources -Millions of dollars from UDAG repayments and income tax sharing revenues from the Chagrin Highlands deal.

The UDAG repayment are from grants made by the city with federal funds that after years (usually 20) are repayed by developers. Big ones include Key Center, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott Hotel, Halle's building. Chagrin Highlands money comes in a tax sharing deal worked out in the late 1980s for developments taking place on formerly city-owned land in places as Beachwood, Orange, Warrensville Heights.

Besides, "Core City Fund Projects" isn't the funding source. It's the funding recipient.

Please...

Jackson is not articulate, its about RTA funding and the question is can the city apply UDAG funds towards RTA’s operations?

What the UDAG can be used towards is all defined by HUD.

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/rulesandregs/laws/sec5318.cfm

The answer is no….that’s it!

Jackson basically said my opponents lack of a working knowledge is amazing. But Patmon was playing into the overall lack of that knowledge within the populace.

The aquarium will be built relatively quickly and it will generate money for the city. The funding of the circulator is reliant on sales taxes. The county sales tax, mostly goes to the state and then the county and then RTA.

People pay the most sales tax when they buy the most expensive things. If the car dealers close and the sales are low the public transport funding wanes. If you live in the city or in the county and buy the car outside the county, it still comes back to the county. But if you buy a TV or a refrigerator outside the county the sales tax does not.

RTA is hurting because people are not buying cars.

If we get them out of the cars then the effect are negative on the public funding model.

The aquarium will attract people and those people will or may buy things in the city on that visit. That’s sales and that funds RTA.

We have to have smaller cars that use less fuel, that fuel has to be taxed higher and the cars as well. Then that funding goes back to the rail services, the prices will all rise.

I am going to sell small motorcycles, want one, its cheaper than taking the bus! More fun too!

I believe Patmon was making a political statement. He knows the money can't be used for RTA.

He was, however, contrasting use of public funds for public use, not private profit, a perfectly sensible move in an election. Giving money to Jeff Jacobs is financing a private business with public funds. This is the point Patmon was making.

For someone to say that the aquarium will result in money for the city - with nothing to back that up - is truly silly. How does anyone know it will make money for the city? A dollar spent there could make money for  owner Jeff Jacobs but it will likely be a dollar NOT spent elsewhere. The $2 million of public funds will be a SUBTRACTION from public funds.

Indeed, it might not even make money for Jacobs if it isn't popular. This isn't exactly a city with people awash in spendable cash for entertainment.