There is a direct conflict of interest in Mayor Frank Jackson's dual roles as Mayor of Cleveland, and controlling the Cleveland Public Schools.
This conflict is illustrated in the potential property tax values that will be distoryed if the Mayor's proposal, (at the behest of the Ohio Department of Mental Health), to build the so-named, "Mayor Jackson Mental Hospital," on Euclid Avenue at E. 56th St.
Property Taxes go largely to public schools.
If the hospital is actually built as proposed and arranged by Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland's potential to build property values and property taxes will be castrated. At least for the city's most-promising Midtown district.
About $200 million in public funding was invest in the rebuilding of Euclid Avenue into "The Health Line," an innovative Bus Rapid Transit between Downtown and University Circle, the most highly utilized bus route in the City.
After decades of purchasing then clearing distressed land by public entities, with public tax dollars, this prominent location on the Health Line, (also close to two freeways via E. 55th Street), would be proffered to biotechology firms attracted to Cleveland by the Cleveland Clinic juggernaut a short ride up Euclid on the Health Line.
Instead, Mayor Jackson has chosen to strike tax dollars against tax dollars, to diminish value in the heart of Midtown.
Something like $87 million in State of Ohio dollars is expected to be spent on the Mayor Jackson Mental Hospital. A PD reporter told me that she heard the state was going to unveil the proposed design for the hospital early 2010. It should be soon.
This $87 million in tax dollars will be arrayed against the $200 million in tax dollars to plummet the potential for tax valuation in Midtown to rise in the future.
This should be a concern for the teachers union. The proposal has enough elements of absurdity to make great political hay.