I don't quite get this... Cuyahoga County owns Whiskey Island... the City of Cleveland owns the historic landmark Coast Guard Station, blighted by Dick Jacobs, and now there is a Wendy Park Director of Operations at the Wendy Park Foundation, which is fixing up the Coast Guard Station with community volunteers and donated materials?

I went to a sort-of public meeting years ago at Edgewater Yachtclub where expensive architects and engineers, I believe led by Volpe, said it will cost $millions to save the building, for any use... someone paid for those opinions. Who? What is the status of public or commercial development plans for the property? Is it remaining public or going private?

The current business interest that benefits from the Coast Guard Station painting project is Whiskey Island Marina, which is owned by the same people who seem to run the Whiskey Island Foundation asking for volunteers... their website makes no mention of Ed Hauser so I consider their site inaccurate and so question their interests. And I assume they make good money from the marina that seems associated with this foundation. Future beneficiaries will include boaters, Eaton employees, and Wolstein and Stonebridge tenants living in view of the property... I sure as hell can't see it from anywhere. So we have wealthy business owners and the city of Cleveland and the County all asking for volunteers to help paint city of Cleveland property, blighted by Dick Jacobs.

And what is planned for the Coast Guard Station the public is being asked to help paint... who are we ultimately helping? Who is paying for the supplies? Who are the "Sponsors" and what do they get out of this. And if it is so easy for a bunch of novices to paint, why did we blow tons of money on architects and engineers and why hasn't the city painted it in OUR many years owning it... don't got no painters at city hall?

I don't really have enough answers here or on any of the related parties' websites to understand the social value of volunteers painting the Coast Guard Station... there are so many things we are asked to do, for important causes... what is the important cause here, other than bailing out the city, I suppose. Many ways we are called upon to do that... and that will increase as the economy further forces reductions in government and its services at all levels...

Disrupt IT

  What will happen?  Will the paint volunteers be arrested?  Is this a large scale graffiti project?  I picked up the post from Dru McKeown's site.

In an earlier post, he says meet a:
"A group of Cleveland based designers (mostly architecture types) who realize they don't live in a city with a very strong design culture and want to change that instead of just moving away. People can sit around and complain about it or get off their butts and change it.

We are taking the first steps towards getting off our butts. It is a difficult and tedious process, to shake loose the shackles of complacency that we all wear so comfortably."

This structure is, from my point of view, an historic structure, an artifact. My first question is, is there a preservation consultant assisting with or driving all this, and are the volunteers going to do a proper job, or will they just further trash an historic property?

Second, who's controlling the volunteers for whom skills are a nice-to-have, but not necessary, item?

Will all this activity on the 20th be a net positive for the property?