ROLDO: Crain’s, PD Delighted You Pay to Feed Wealthy

 

By Roldo Bartimole

I’m angry. Really upset. I was going to take a deserved week off from this non-paying job of writing about what the conventional media simply ignore or distort. Now I can’t. They did it again. I have to work.

Today, Monday, as I write I’ve read the morning Plain Dealer and Crain’s Cleveland Business, articles by Joe Crea and Joel Hammond, respectively. I’m disgusted.

They are reporting about the Cleveland Browns teaming up with chefs at the Browns Stadium, owned by the citizens of Cleveland. The citizens of Cleveland have nothing to say about this and their mayor and city council members apparently don’t give a damned. Or are too lazy or stupid to care.

What we get from these two journalists is press release blather disguised as news.

First, they don’t tell us one thing about who pays for the new food outlets their stories boast about. Shouldn’t that be of interest to readers? Especially since the public may be paying the bill.

Neither tell us the cost or who is paying. Thanks!

There’s not a hint about where the money came from to build these new fancy food outlets.

My suspicion since the Browns recently and urgently scored an early $5.8 million from the city for so-called capital improvements that the taxpayer paid for these new Browns money-makers. But we’re not told.

Crea opens with “There will be new places for club and loge-level fans to eat at Cleveland Browns Stadium this fall, bearing the names of three of the area’s favorite chefs.” Well, whop de do.

Hammond opens with “The Cleveland Browns are making changes to their catering offerings in the premium seating areas of Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the new provider will bring with it the cachet of a few local heavy hitters.”

Aren’t you excited? Oh, you’re just a regular fan. Or just a taxpayer. This is for special seated people. Not you. Too bad.

Hammond tells us these facilities will be available for not only suites holders but “at the 200-plus corporate events, weddings and parties to which the stadium plays host each year.”

So in other words, these facilities compete against taxpaying restaurants downtown and other places.

I say that because the Cleveland Stadium is tax exempt – that means never pays property taxes. So these fancy places don’t have the overhead of property taxes. Free rides.

There isn’t a word in Hammond’s or Crea’s stories about the cost of these food advancements in a public facility. Why the hell not?

Because this is the best of press release reporting our Browns can buy -without, of course, paying anything. As usual.

All that I am asking would be public information.

When Gateway gave Dick Jacobs the largest restaurant – Terrace Club – in downtown at the baseball stadium I reported the cost: $7,526,027. I did the same with the fancy Sammy’s club at the arena. Cost $2,379,134.

I even told readers how much the tile in the kitchen cost: $48,000 and the lighting fixtures: $76,600. And a lot more. And there were tens of thousands of more dollars for other food outlets, including for the press. You didn’t see it documented in the Plain Dealer or Crain’s, cheerleaders at best.

This is all public information. Why don’t the media reveal it?

Instead we get this cheerleading for chefs and their bosses. Why not some real reporting?

Here’s one of the quotes of the week highlighted by Crain’s:

“We…give companies the ability to have the best Cleveland dining, and that’s very important for the corporate function side of things.” That’s from a Browns executive.

Well, anything we can do for the corporate money guys. Of course do it but charge someone else. Isn’t that the way our world works these days.

This is all paid for by county residents and the sin tax. Some of that tax, still in existence, continues paying for the Browns Stadium. As of June 1: $92,487,055 was collected by Cuyahoga County to benefit the Browns. Taxes for Randy Lerner’s benefit.

But the regular news media don’t want to bother you with such details. They might begin to raise resentments among those out there who can’t afford their next meal when they’re helping pay for fancy food for fancy people.

I want to know what each of these new facilities cost. How much the stoves, refrigerators, knives and kitchen cost. They are in a public facility.

Where are the editors of the Plain Dealer and Crain’s that allow this sloppy press release reporting to be displayed on their front pages?

Please tell us what it cost to bring Michael Symon’s new B Spot, Jonathon Sawyer’s new Sawyer Street Frites and Rocco Whalen’s new Rosie & Rocco’s two locations each to the city’s stadium? Instead of acting as their promoters.

And tell us how other competing restaurateurs downtown feel about this tax-dodging competition. After all, they have to pay the overhead, which includes taxes.

And please tell us how many dollars from the city’s capital fund advance went to subsidize these new digs.

 

Roldo Bartimole has been reporting since 1959. He came to Cleveland in 1965 to report for the Plain Dealer where he worked twice in the 1960s, left for the Wall Street Journal in 1967. He started publishing his newsletter Point of View in 1968 and ended it in 2000. In 1991 he was awarded the Second Annual Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in Washington, D.C. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, Cleveland chapter, in 2002, and was named to the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, 2004. [Photo by Todd Bartimole.]

 

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