By Roldo Bartimole
We have a two person mayor’s race. Well, maybe one and a half. Should we call it an election? Not really. It’s a joke.
Mayor Frank Jackson will be re-elected.
It pains me to write that. But what can I do.
Last I remember the mayor resided on the second floor of City Hall.
This mayor, however, appears to rule from five floors above.
Problem is: There is no 7th floor at City Hall.
But that’s okay. Because Mayor Jackson rules above and aloof of the city and its people. And nobody seems to care.
At many council committee meetings Jackson, then a member, would sit aside. As if his colleagues had cooties. He hasn’t changed.
No need for him to be in his office anyway.
The city rolls on by itself. Or should I say shuffles.
Indeed, almost everything around here seems a wobbly.
The City Council will be cut but who could really care. If now 17, why not seven or five.
The city is steered by the same old bungling gang anyway.
Cheered on by Steve “Cheerleader” Litt and the shriveling Pee Dee.
Everything’s coming up roses!
“Clear the decks! Clear the tracks!
You’ve got nothing to do but relax.
Blow a kiss. Take a bow.
Honey, everything’s coming up roses.”
That’s the Establishment thinking. Or at least this year’s All-American City.
But to quote another melody – It ain’t necessarily so.
I hope the people of Cleveland show some backbone. How? By staying home. To show disgust.
I hope fewer than 15 percent of the people vote for either Jackson- or what’s that other guy’s name?
That would prove to me at least that there is some life left in the city. You can’t get thousands in the street to protest. So let some people who can actually think – “What’s In It for Me?” – yawn and sleep late? Nothing for you. So why bother.
But I don’t know.
Maybe the guys over at the Greater Cleveland Partnership have it already figured for a low energy election. Then they can get out – through the few bought and paid for institutions in town (churches, Democratic Party, community development corporations and relatives of council members) – enough of a vote to put the 20-year extension of the 10-year extension of the 15 year original sin tax. And a few other tax levies.
Seem to me a perfect strategy.
You all remember the 1990 Gateway sin tax, don’t you? It was voted for 15 years. Then they got you all excited for another 10-year run to bring back the Browns. How has that been going?
A lot of promises were made for that first 15 years of the sin tax on Cuyahoga County residents. Now they want 20 more years. That’s 45 years. That’s til 2035. If you have a kid now, you’ll be paying for college then. Actually, you’ll be borrowing for college.
Let me remind those who were not here and let me inform those who either weren’t here or not paying much attention how the sales pitch works.
Gateway, according to the full page ad in the Pee Dee just before the 1990 vote, promised and I quote:
“28,000 good-paying jobs for the jobless.” (Their emphasis.)
But, hell, a promise isn’t a guarantee. You may have noticed if you’re over 18. Or if you are still JOBLESS.
Cleveland’s been losing jobs by the thousands.
Next:
“Neighborhood housing development for the homeless.”
I guess even 12 year-olds know that didn’t happen. You do know we’re slowly tearing down the city where people live.
More promise:
“$15 million a year for schools for our children.”
“Our children” were Cleveland youngsters.
Now even stupid people know that didn’t happen. After the vote, Mayor White and County Commissioner Hagan went to Columbus (on a private corporate jet naturally) to successfully exempt Gateway from EVER paying a penny of property taxes on the stadium and arena. Ditto on Browns stadium. Promises are made to be broken, you know.
So instead of $15 million plus, they took away tens of millions from the Cleveland schools.
Next guarantee:
“Revenues for city and county clinics and hospitals for the sick.” Yeah, sure. The Clinic opened its doors to everyone. Oh, no. I remember the Clinic CLOSED the door at Huron Hospital.
There’s more:
“Energy assistance programs for the elderly.” Somehow that skipped by too. What a joke.
What the ad did say was there would be no sales tax, even though the sin tax WAS exactly a sales tax – on cigarettes, beer, liquor and wine. It raised $240 million the first phase. It continues to raise millions of regressive taxes.
AND MOST IMPORTANT: “NO TAX ABATEMENT.” That’s a promise! An unqualified pledge by the best of our leaders.
It didn’t take long at all to break that one, too.
As said above the tax abatement, usually for a period of time, was turned into a tax exemption, which is perpetual. It never ends.
Team owners will NEVER pay a penny on their facilities even though the full-page ad asked in a big headline: “WHO WINS WITH ISSUE 2”
Beneath was the most cynical lie of all:
A photo of smiling Cleveland school children holding a sign: “WE ALL DO.”
The very kids they were stealing from they used to promote their deception.
Lies, lies, lies. Expect more by the ton. Expect them, of course, from politicians.
Also from businesses, churches, social agencies and even labor unions. And, especially from the Pee Dee and Tee Vee. Servants of the same ole, same ole.
On the same day the Pee Dee days ago announced that the state legislature would allow Cuyahoga County to vote to extend the sin tax 20 years for our sports billionaire families it ran a smaller story below. It announced that Cuyahoga County will forgo a levy on the November ballot for $80 for mental health services.
Why do we need more mental health services, hasn’t Jimmy ‘The Chiseler’ Haslam promised a better Browns team? Isn’t that enough to cheer up the depressed?
We have the worse government we deserve. We vote for it.
Jackson for Mayor! Ed FitzGerald for Governor!
Isn’t that enough for us peasants? I don’t know why not.
They’re counting on you suckers to pay their bills. Won’t you cooperate again?
They don’t care what kind of governments we have. As long as they produce the products they’re pushing. Go Browns!
If you can’t follow the Brazilians or the Egyptians in the streets, at least save your shoe leather.
Stay home. Show them your disgust.
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.]
13 Responses to “ROLDO: City Election – Show Your Disgust – Stay Home”
Dick Peery
You’re late with the message, Roldo. Here’s the way it was put 75 years ago:
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. ”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 29, 1938. Message to congress.
Roldo Bartimole
Larry, you may have read the piece but the message obviously
escaped you.
Roldo Bartimole
Good quote Dick. But better late than never with the message that here what we have is old-fashioned
control by Establishment and their flunkies at City Hall.
William
Roldo, shouldn’t there be mention of the “what’s his name candidate? If people should stay home, give them a reason that this candidate is no better then clueless Mr. Jackson. I realize you will hate that he has a business background, but he has to be more knowledgeable and make more sense than “I’m still learning on the job and still failing as a leader” Frank.
Roldo Bartimole
William: I suggest that Mr. Lanci simply has too much money and time on his hands and
isn’t a viable political candidate. His being a business person has nothing to do with calling
him “what’s his name.” He is not part of the Establishment that has been ruling the city’s
agenda for decades. Jackson, however, does represent these interests.
John J. Polk
Cleveland’s Corporate Establishment (The Men Behind The Curtain) last made the strategic error of backing the wrong candidate in 1989, when their backing of George Forbes backfired and begat Mike White’s first term.
Since then, they’ve made a concerted effort to buy a better result. For White’s second term, Sam Miller and Jones Day hitman Dennis Lafferty raised a couple million dollars to render White unbeatable. What followed was a festival of public larceny, with White’s enablers (many of whom are still ensconced in power positions today) happily nosing up to the trough.
When White left under the cloud of a federal probe, they recruited the ethically flexible (and, unfortunately, politically incompetent) Jane Campbell to keep their gravy train on track. I worked with her general-election opponent, and we watched as corporate money which had been uncommitted filled her coffers; she outraised us about 5 to 1. When Campbell failed to deliver Forest City their convention center, they threw her over for Mayor “It is what it is” Jackson, who has been every bit as malleable as expected.
There’s no doubt (and plenty of election filings to prove) that Jackson is bought and paid for by the corporate oligarchy.
While Roldo’s admonition to “stay home” and reveal the intellectual and ethical bankruptcy of Cleveland’s dysfunctional political process may be either hopelessly cynical or touchingly naive, the cycle of Cleveland taxpayer abuse won’t be broken until the process produces a candidate who can’t be bought because he doesn’t need the money. Ken “The Orange Godfather” Lanci may not be Michael Bloomberg, and I have no idea if he’s The Guy, but if he’s willing to finance his own campaign and run not against Jackson, but against The Men Behind The Curtain, he might have a shot…
William
But isn’t that a reason to look at him more closely… Mainly because because he isn’t part of the old guard or establishment that has been wandering around aimlessly? Maybe he could be a viable candidate? Or at least shake things up in a way that they need to be..? “He is not part of the Establishment that has been ruling the city’s agenda for decades. Jackson, however, does represent these interests”.
Roldo Bartimole
He did run for county executive so he’s had an opportunity to show us what he can offer.
Anyone who would like to look further should. No harm in that. It’s up to him and his campaign
to reveal there is any there there.
John J. Polk
Lanci might very well be a viable candidate, for the reasons I noted above. However, my impression is that thus far he’s been more or less AWOL. Certainly SOMEONE must “out” The Men Behind The Curtain as the conservators of the banana republic mentality which characterizes local government and governance (and I’d be happy to help him do it). But politics isn’t business; in Cleveland moreso than elsewhere, it’s a blood sport. Right now there’s little indication that Lanci is prepared to do what it takes to win, nor has he made clear to a community of decent (but cowed) people, who are crying out to be led, why he wants to be Mayor, what he stands for, and what he’s do differently…Just being “the guy who’s not Frank Jackson” ain’t gonna feed the bulldog…
Eric replies
Roldo your insights are always on the money and then identifying historical documentation should hit people between the eyes but the truth is that no one really cares. The children of the CMSD are faceless & souless victims of failed policy, poor leadership & corrupt activities. It isn’t until a story comes long like “Carry On!” that aired on ESPN yesterday that people connect the extreme struggle of these children and even the solution is extraordinary and maybe not even a incorporate a local product solution.
Police shootings & violence are crazy in this town. Folks are talking about Trayvon Martin & I understand the issues but we have had FOUR unarmed police involved shootings in the past TWO YEARS! I mean damn, the log in our eye is way bigger that the splinters in other communities.
Economically yeah things are improving for those who have but the have nots are suffering at levels we haven’t seen before. There are limited safety nets and the per capita income of Cleveland residents is about half of the amount of Cuyahoga residents.
Bottomline is all that we read in fictional literature (1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse 5, etc…) is coming to pass: elite class growth, disillusioned working class, comfort with others controlling our affairs, the dependence on technology.
You say don’t vote and show your discord, I say they weren’t going to vote anyway and they thank you for justification of their ineptness.
Roldo Bartimole
Thanks Eric. What you say is true. I do remember, however, that Carl Stoke inspired people
to get out, that Dennis Kucinich also did. So we’re looking for another inspiration. It does help
to have inspirational leaders though I have to admit that neither was able to make the changes
that lifted those most in need. But we can’t stop seeking. The don’t vote means don’t vote if
you are going to vote for the same. It doesn’t and shouldn’t be taken literally, as some have done.
It’s a message that says we have to make change. And I hope I gave – in the words of the people who make those promises – the lies we have to begin to recognize and avoid.
I thank you for your comments.
People have asked me in the past, why I keep up and the only real answer I have is that those
of us who do continue to resist in some form hopefully make it impossible for those with power
to even further degrade others for profit.
John J. Polk
“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth”…Mohandas Gandhi
Roldo Bartimole
John: The truth is the truth but the facts are the facts.
And Lancii isn’t anyone who can defeat Jackson.
The greatest shock the men behind the curtain could possible get
is that no one or very few show up for their fake party. And start
working for the next time. I am an old Dodger fan.