Submitted by Roldo on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 18:46.
The Plain Dealer is reporting tonight on its Cleveland.com site http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/04/enlarge_image_pdfmost_of_a.html tonight that a deal is in the making to further subsidize the Wolstein project in the Flats, already in line for tons of public money.
The Port Authority is trying to work a deal so that Wolstein will avoid sales tax (can you do that?) by running the financing through a public body (the unelected Port Authority), which will give the developer "below-market interest rates and an exemption from sales taxes on construction materials," according to the PD report. It doesn't say how much revenue from this tax will be diverted from the public treasure.
To assess what various levels of government are giving to Wolstein's development see:
http://www.lakewoodbuzz.com/RoldoBartimole/RB%2005-03-06_Flats_Deal_Disgrace_Lakewood%20Ohio%20Roldo%20Bartimole.html
The list of subsidies is at the end of the article.
As long as we're giving it away, they'll be a'taken it.
Happy tax day, folks. You too, Mayor Jackson.
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whoa!
"Advantages to port financing include below-market interest rates and an exemption from sales tax on construction materials, port officials said."
No shit Sherlock! I bet a lot of those people who have lost their homes in the area would have preferred port financing, too. How about the Port step in and bail out NEO homeowners to the tune of $150 million? How far would the $900 million we're spending on a showroom and party center go to help stem the tide of forclosures?
"As long as we're giving it away, they'll be a'taken it."
Yep and as long as they keep waving these big bright shiny things in front of desperate people, they'll be taken in, too.
Dr. Dover... paging Dr. Ben Dover...
CLE - LEAVELAND FAILING FAST
The more publicly subsidized the Wolstein project is, the clearer it is that Cleveland has almost hit bottom.
Personally, I want to see that Wolstein puts in nothing of his own, and the County and the City of Leaveland pay for everything.
That scenario will mean we are getting near the end of the Dante tunnel.
That would be healthy news for NEO.
If Wolstein pays for anything in the flats, Cleveland isn’t ready to be healthy.
Suck the taxpayer dry! The sooner the better!
Leaveland Rules!
(details on US census site)
A Modest Proposal
Looks like we are living in dire times. Jonathon Swift would understand.
We all die sooner or later
And Wolstein and McGill Properties will find out just like the rest of us. Too bad some of us have to die by poison.
I called WKYC after they ran the EPA report on Cityview. WKYC never refered to the owners by name. Hmmm, wonder why? Reporting at its best in NEO.
why don't they see the real goldmine
It occurs to me that we keep reading about shopping centeres on landfills with methane gas. Don't these guys know that there is value in that methane gas?
Remember this "thars oil in them thar hills!!!" They should be in the energy business - producing power for the region and competing with First Energy to do short distribution of energy.
Am I crazy?
"Come and listen to my story bout a man named Jeb, a poor mountaneer, barely kep his family fed, but then one day he was shootin at some food and up through the ground come a bubblin' crude" methane that is - gaseous, colorless gold.
These shopmart prospecters are looking at the land top down, not bottom up. They might benefit from standing on their heads in a yoga class. It's the "natural resources", stupid! Waste equals revenue... Come on, come on kicking and screaming into the 21st century... come on...
ER04-03, Cuyahoga Valley Initiative: A Model of Regeneration (PDF-1.6MB)
Franklin County's got some bad gas
We all enjoy enjoy the occasional joke about the explosive digestive gas that can fill the small room at a BOCC meeting here in Cuyahoga County, but in Columbus they are taking their gas seriously.
Auto fleets envisioned filling up at the landfill
SWACO opens Green Energy Center
I think we all know that with the state government located in Columbus there is adequate hot air coming out of the state house to fuel the entire ODOT fleet, but this project to fuel fleets with landfill gas is gaining traction downstate. Just google "swaco methane" and see.
What is our Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District doing to exploit the methane gas here in our county? Uh... they're teaching about it by Talking Trash or Tracking Trash (2003 publication).
"Your garbage can create heat and energy. How? As trash slowly rots in a landfill, it creates methane gas. The methane gas is removed from the landfill, so it won’t explode. The gas is then used to make electricity to supply energy or heat to buildings. A landfill containing 3 million tons of garbage can produce enough gas to heat and cool 18,000 homes for 15 years. A local example exists in Solon. The closed Cuyahoga Regional Landfill provides the Nestle Company with gas, which heats the ovens that make Stouffers’ frozen foods. Nestle saves money on their fuel bill by buying landfill gas, since it is cheaper than natural gas."
I have spent enough time today searching for the words "methane" and "gas" in the Cuyahga Solid Waste District plan update with no luck. Can anyone find a reference there about doing this in our city, county, region? It's been a good idea since Rocky Mountain Institute pointed it out years ago. Where's our traction? If the Solon land fill can create "enough gas to heat and cool 18,000 homes for 15 years", why oh why can't we mine our landfill fuels at say... City View? Have I not continued to ask this methane/gas/landfill question?
gas explosion
Gloria tells me that we had a gas explosion Friday in the street outside our Worthington office, behind Worthington Mall.
I love the smell of PCBs in the morning...
Your gas exploson may have released dioxin.
Talk to Bill MacDermott about this... he just filled me in on this one...
Gas explosions may be far worse than you may imagine...
Disrupt IT
WKYC and Wolstein
Does WKYC get paid to shill for Wolstein? Just wondering...