Apolitical no longer: Cavaliers' LeBron James donates to Barack Obama campaign

[southbeach]

The Dems have screwed up Cleveland, just like the Republicans have screwed up the country.

Absolute power...corrupts absolutely.

 

[The Voice]

Do you mean Cleveland that is 90% democrats? Do you mean Cleveland where all the politicians are democrats? Do you mean Cleveland whose Mayors and City Council members are all Democrats and very anti-business? Do you mean Cleveland that had the head of the Democratic Party and County Auditors homes and offices raided by the FBI and IRS on Monday?

Manufacturers and 100's of other local businesses have been sprinting from Cleveland under the Democrats watch. They refuse to give tax abatements, they have no plan, they have no vision, they have no idea how to use their resources. Look at the most valuable property in the state, the lakefront airport that gets used 20 times a day.

I'm not saying Republicans are perfect, but the Dems have f'd up Cleveland to the point where it's the second poorest city in the nation. We have a lot of the same resources as Chicago, there is no reason we should be such an embarrassment right now....the Democratic leadership is mostly to blame.

I hope Dimora and Russo rot in prison.(although Russo will no doubt enjoy it)

Pointing the finger is easy, but you have yet to give examples of what policies they put in place for the downfall.

Plus, the people in the city itself are not in charge of how much education funding it gets. This is what I believe to be a huge problem (lack of funding). With children growing up to be idiots, almost all kids in that public education system are doomed to be failures. This gives them no way to get ahead, so what do they turn to? Drug selling, gangs, and other crime. The no child left behind idea is a joke. I bet Bush is sitting in his office laughing about it right now.

How would you like you kids to be using ten year old text books, with broken windows in the school and a heating system that barely works? Not to mention the school is overcrowded. A lot of Ohio schools (inner city and rural) are pretty horrible.

I ask you this, who is in charge of education funding?

 

[xAusT1n]

Not only is Lebron the best basketball player in the world...he is also smart, donating to the best presidential candidate we have.

Lebron MVP 2008/2009 season!

 

[Maximus]

Pointing the finger is easy, but you have yet to give examples of what policies they put in place for the downfall.

DO I NEED REALLY NEED TO? They've had control of it forever and it continues to die. The limited bright spots are being initiated by people in the private sector....like the Wolstein Project. If you want examples of what they've done wrong I'll give you the biggest one - their refusal to give abatements. Others as I said before are the inability to build a convention center and squandering of resources.

Peter Lewis asked the city for an abatement to move all of Progressive downtown. The city balked, he said screw it, and now you can drive around the entire east side and every freaking building says "Progressive" on it.

Jane Campbell's battle cry use to be "I won't get in bed with big business!". Well she could have at least stroked them a little...companies have been fleeing Cleveland to cities that appreciate them. Mfg is the backbone of any economy. While most cities have rebounded following 9/11, Cleveland has lagged worse than any other. They have lost 50% of their mfg base that will never return. We have skilled labor, we have vacant buildings/cheap land, we just need aggressive city leaders to get their ass out there and court big businesses and offer incentives.

I also mentioned the lakefront. It's the most valuable property between Chicago and NY. What do we have on it? A run down airport that gets minimal use.

Inability for decades to get a Convention Center built because it was always "too expensive". Since they've been arguing about it the price has gone up 5-fold.

Bush's education policy has virtually nothing to do with why businesses are leaving Cleveland and why it is dying at a local level....you can't blame Bush for everything. Cleveland Democratic leaders have failed Cleveland in an extraordinary way. Cleveland needs a big-business mayor that carries a big stick. Why these losers keep on getting elected is beyond me. It will always be a Democrat since all the voters are Democrats...but somehow something needs to change with the political makeup or the city will be bankrupt.

 

[Jon]

Somehow Voinovich got elected Mayor.

Once upon a time ...

 

[Maximus]

Lebron needs to donate more....it's tied.

 

[Lee]

DO I NEED REALLY NEED TO? They've had control of it forever and it continues to die. The limited bright spots are being initiated by people in the private sector....like the Wolstein Project. If you want examples of what they've done wrong I'll give you the biggest one - their refusal to give abatements. Others as I said before are the inability to build a convention center and squandering of resources.

Peter Lewis asked the city for an abatement to move all of Progressive downtown. The city balked, he said screw it, and now you can drive around the entire east side and every freaking building says "Progressive" on it.

Jane Campbell's battle cry use to be "I won't get in bed with big business!". Well she could have at least stroked them a little...companies have been fleeing Cleveland to cities that appreciate them. Mfg is the backbone of any economy. While most cities have rebounded following 9/11, Cleveland has lagged worse than any other. They have lost 50% of their mfg base that will never return. We have skilled labor, we have vacant buildings/cheap land, we just need aggressive city leaders to get their ass out there and court big businesses and offer incentives.

I also mentioned the lakefront. It's the most valuable property between Chicago and NY. What do we have on it? A run down airport that gets minimal use.

Inability for decades to get a Convention Center built because it was always "too expensive". Since they've been arguing about it the price has gone up 5-fold.

Bush's eduacation policy has virutallly nothing to do with why businesses are leaving Cleveland and why it is dying at a local level....you can't blame Bush for everything. Cleveland Democratic leaders have failed Cleveland in an extraordinary way. Cleveland needs a big-business mayor that carries a big stick. Why these losers keep on getting elected is beyond me. It will always be a Democrat since all the voters are Democrats...but somehow something needs to change with the political makeup or the city will be bankrupt.

Ah the problems of a midwest city with a terrible economy and short sighted politicians. Not only does cleveland need to get in bed with big bussiness they owe it to its residences. Why do companies relocate to certain cities? Amenaties and tax breaks. Well why would you politicians want to give bussiness anything like that, its not like clevelanders need jobs or anything. I am so glad i dont live in the cleveland area anymore. Its a depressing town, with little opportunity and terrible politicians.

I can understand not wanting to build a state of the art convention center. Who wants all those bussiness men and women coming to town spending all their companies money on cleveland owned bussiness and creating more jobs for the cities residences. I am ashamed of my city of phoenix for building a new stadium to atract the superbowl, bulding a new convention center, and keeping phoenix as a destination city. I mean, who wants a good local economy anyway. Way over rated. We dont have the rock and roll hall of fame here, and obviously thats killing the economy.

 

[Splitz]

Meanwhile Congress takes a vacation while Ed Jones from Cleveland works double shifts to provide for his family after losing his career job to outsourcing. Gotta love it.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Lawmakers sped for the exits Friday as Congress was to begin a five-week recess after a summer session noteworthy for bitter partisanship and paralysis on the issue topmost in the minds of many voters: the cost of gasoline.

These clowns can't agree on anything that makes the lives of hardworking Americans any easier. It is reprehensible and Democrat/Republican, the whole lot of them can kiss my ass. The failure of this government to act on behalf of the people is hampered by the fact that all of these useless scumbags have some kind of agenda they are pushing that is not in our best interest.

 

[The Voice]

Meanwhile Congress takes a vacation while Ed Jones from Cleveland works double shifts to provide for his family after losing his career job to outsourcing. Gotta love it.

It's debatable that outsourcing actually creates jobs instead of losing jobs. Furthermore outsourcing leads back to the education system here. Furthermore, why wouldn't you outsource to a worker who you can pay less and is more productive. Same with homesourcing.

DO I NEED REALLY NEED TO? They've had control of it forever and it continues to die. The limited bright spots are being initiated by people in the private sector....like the Wolstein Project. If you want examples of what they've done wrong I'll give you the biggest one - their refusal to give abatements. Others as I said before are the inability to build a convention center and squandering of resources.

Peter Lewis asked the city for an abatement to move all of Progressive downtown. The city balked, he said screw it, and now you can drive around the entire east side and every freaking building says "Progressive" on it.

Jane Campbell's battle cry use to be "I won't get in bed with big business!". Well she could have at least stroked them a little...companies have been fleeing Cleveland to cities that appreciate them. Mfg is the backbone of any economy. While most cities have rebounded following 9/11, Cleveland has lagged worse than any other. They have lost 50% of their mfg base that will never return. We have skilled labor, we have vacant buildings/cheap land, we just need aggressive city leaders to get their ass out there and court big businesses and offer incentives.

I also mentioned the lakefront. It's the most valuable property between Chicago and NY. What do we have on it? A run down airport that gets minimal use.

Inability for decades to get a Convention Center built because it was always "too expensive". Since they've been arguing about it the price has gone up 5-fold.

Bush's education policy has virtually nothing to do with why businesses are leaving Cleveland and why it is dying at a local level....you can't blame Bush for everything. Cleveland Democratic leaders have failed Cleveland in an extraordinary way. Cleveland needs a big-business mayor that carries a big stick. Why these losers keep on getting elected is beyond me. It will always be a Democrat since all the voters are Democrats...but somehow something needs to change with the political makeup or the city will be bankrupt.

I don't want some politician making deals with corporations so he's taking it in the ass from them. Much like Bush/Cheney did with Haleberton. Then you get the half ass job from the company that they "owe". Majority of what's wrong with Cleveland is that the kids who are graduating from college are leaving and the public education system here sucks. If you want to improve your city, the best way is to invest in capital. Education is human capital, get the kids smarter. They will invent things, innovation is the number 1 driver in the economy. Technology creates jobs, plus productivity goes up.

Congrats, but who again decides upon funding to the education system? REPUBLICANS

I am ashamed of my city of phoenix for building a new stadium to atract the superbowl

Warm climate attracts superbowls, not cold cleveland with no dome or roof on their stadium.

 

[Jon]

Congrats, but who again decides upon funding to the education system? REPUBLICANS

Oh? I thought things like property taxes and lottery proceeds provided most of the educational funding in the U.S.

If it's the Republicans, well ... they're doing a bang up job in the Fairfax County.

 

[The Voice]

Oh? I thought things like property taxes and lottery proceeds provided most of the educational funding in the U.S.

If it's the Republicans, well ... they're doing a bang up job in the Fairfax County.

No child left behind was passed by the Republicans and it's a joke. Enough said...

 

[Maximus]

I don't want some politician making deals with corporations so he's taking it in the ass from them.

Serious question, how old are you?

No one said anything about "taking it in the ass" as you so eloquently put it. Again, the job of city leaders is to attract companies, the companies hire people, the people buy things, they pay taxes and stay here. Cleveland's leaders are not getting the job done in any way shape or form and haven't been for a long time. Offer companies things like free land(it's vacant anyways), free buildings(they're abandoned anyways), 15 year abatements...whatever it takes to get them coming here instead of going to other cities. Furthermore, keep the companies you have HERE! Get local industries involved, don't make it an adversarial relationship.

You can try to deflect this discussion onto Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, Republicans, education or whatever you want, but it won't stick. Other cities in the the US are thriving and succeeding under the same policies. No child left behind may be a failure, but it is not why Cleveland is failing. Cleveland is failing because of it's local leaders. That is a fact no matter how you try and spin it.

Somehow Voinovich got elected Mayor.

Once upon a time ...

Hopefully history will repeat itself. Cleveland was so desperate I think they were willing to try anything....even a Repubican.:chuckles: Smartest move they could've made. He got the successful business leaders of Cleveland involved and turned the city around. I'm not a huge Voinovich fan, but he did a great job of saving the city.

When Voinovich became mayor Cleveland was in default. To reduce administrative costs, he organized an Operations Improvement Task Force made up of local private industry executives, the start of Cleveland's Public-Private Partnerships. The city reorganized 10 city departments and set up a new accounting system with internal auditing capability. Highlights of the Voinovich administration included neighborhood revitalization which started with the Lexington Village housing project; $149 million in Urban Development Action Grants leveraged $770 million in private investment; and $3 billion of construction underway or completed. Also during Voinovich's tenure, the National Civil League gave Cleveland its All-American City Award in 1982, 1984, and 1986. Voinovich also supported the development of NORTH COAST HARBOR, the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM, and the Great Lakes Science Museum.

An efficient administration in place, Voinovich negotiated a satisfactory debt repayment schedule in Oct. 1980, allowing Cleveland to escape from default (city finances were still supervised by the state of Ohio). Voinovich arranged for capital improvements to strengthen the operation of Cleveland's municipal light plant (renamed Cleveland Public Power). However, the city's economy continued to decline along with the national recession and federal funding was cut. The mayor sought an increase in the city income tax from 1.5% to 2% which voters approved in Feb. 1981. After completing his term as mayor, Voinovich was elected governor of Ohio in Nov. 1990 and 1994.

When he postponed his statewide political aspirations to return to his hometown as mayor in 1979, Cleveland was in dire financial straits; but embracing his motto “Together we can do it,” he established a system of public-private partnerships that drew upon the city’s best minds. Together, they rebuilt city government and restored Clevelanders’ trust and pride. Under his leadership, Cleveland was the only city in America to be named an “All-American City” three times in a five-year period.

"Together we can do it"....wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air in Cleveland. Unfortunately since he left the leaders of Cleveland have driven a wedge between the city and private industry.

 

[PIP]

Well this has nothing to do with the Cavs anymore, so I'm going to relocate it...

Way to go, Schmucks...

 

[The Voice]

Serious question, how old are you?

No one said anything about "taking it in the ass" as you so eloquently put it. Again, the job of city leaders is to attract companies, the companies hire people, the people buy things, they pay taxes and stay here. Cleveland's leaders are not getting the job done in any way shape or form and haven't been for a long time. Offer companies things like free land(it's vacant anyways), free buildings(they're abandoned anyways), 15 year abatements...whatever it takes to get them coming here instead of going to other cities. Furthermore, keep the companies you have HERE! Get local industries involved, don't make it an adversarial relationship.

"Taking it in the ass" was meant as an expression. If you would like me to go into further detail on what it means, I will.

You can try to deflect this discussion onto Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, Republicans, education or whatever you want, but it won't stick. Other cities in the the US are thriving and succeeding under the same policies. No child left behind may be a failure, but it is not why Cleveland is failing. Cleveland is failing because of it's local leaders. That is a fact no matter how you try and spin it.

The fact remains this country is losing ground on every other country out there due to outsourcing and technology. Sure, technology drives employment (when your country is making the stuff). Cleveland may have problems in the local sector, but there's several things causing it to crumbel. Plus, how can you complain about the local leaders, when YOU are the one that voted for them. It's not like governor where the majority of the city may have not voted for them.

Oh? I thought things like property taxes and lottery proceeds provided most of the educational funding in the U.S.

If it's the Republicans, well ... they're doing a bang up job in the Fairfax County.

You've never heard of federal funding?

 

[kardiak]

Maximus is dead on. Cities and States need the income taxes from employees. Give businesses everything they need to relocate in your area. You want the employees along with their taxes and their spending on everything from a treat from the local hot dog stand to housing for their families. Doesn't hurt that new businesses sprout up to provide these new employees with goods and services. Examples of this exist worldwide. Why is this so hard for people to understand. Overtax business and they move away or just increase the price of their goods and services. Why do people hate business??? We should love for businesses to make money and hire more people. Now this is a great idea, lets tax the oil companies on their profits. They ARE going to maintain their profit margin by increasing the price of gas. Their stockholders will put them to task if they allow profits to fall.
This is my one and only response to this, going back to anything but this because it is a hopeless cause. Sort of along the lines of some people being brainwashed to the point of thinking tax rebates (getting back our own money) is bad. They just need to cut spending along with it.