Boy, how the profiteers will fight over a $1 billion. Forest City will not go into the night quietly.
Not if the full page ad in the Plain Dealer and the griping in its news columns tell us anything.
The full-page ad in the PD on Sunday was headlined by Forest City: “$100 million reasons why the Convention Center and Medical Mart belong at Tower City.” (Don’t ask me how “reasons” become dollars but we get it, I think.)
I don’t have the money but my ad would say: “$1 Billion reasons why we don’t need a Medical Mart and Convention Center.” Might need two pages.
What fascinates me is how these two greedy outfits – Forest City and MMPI (Merchandize Mart Properties Inc.) – are so publicly grabbing and grasping at what County Commissioner Tim Hagan has put out there in front of them. You’d think they worked for AIG.
The front-page photos that dominated today’s PD, presumably at the urging of Forest City, are to show a loss of lake vision. That’s what we will lose if Forest City’s river site isn’t chosen. If I’ve been in this vicinity once, I’ve been there 1,000 times. I never found myself seeking to view Lake Erie. It’s too far away with too much intervening.
I did enjoy, however, Jim Nichols’ piece that gave some hint of the truth about how much the public can expect from our $1 billion investment (that includes interest on bonds and $108 million to MMPI to operate what we build and outfit for the company).
Forest City conveniently now wants PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT. How quaint. The ad gives us the phone number of Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones. Forest City wants us to make our “voice heard.”
How long will it take for Sam Miller to ask for Good Government?
Has the City Club got an opening?