This archive article is selected from The Cleveland Pages, the city's only weekly independent journal of politics and opinion on the Internet. Find out all about the Cleveland Pages here, or check out the current issue.
The Free Times, in an article no longer online, called Cleveland Pages "Spicily independent... in the best tradition of citizen-journalist."
The Cleveland Pages is a somewhat-weekly commentary on what's new and why it's all happening in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. If what you read here is upsetting, you might prefer this simple-minded happy-talk instead.
Bookmark the Cleveland Pages at http://re.cleveland.oh.us. Bookmark this issue at http://re.cleveland.oh.us/archives/20000922.html.
A Cleveland Pages archive search will be available soon... Meanwhile, skip to the flat-file archive list! And read an overview of who's putting this thing out and what it's about.
As everyone who's been reading the paper or otherwise paying attention knows, the cities of Cleveland and Brook Park are at trial in Probate Court to determine the ownership of the International Exposition ("I-X") Center property, which is located within Brookpark by Cleveland Hopkins International airport. The trial's expected to take a few weeks, and its result will determine whether Cleveland will have the right to demolish the I-X to make room for additional runways at Hopkins.
It's probably true, as many observers say, that a bigger airport with longer runways will help the Cleveland area's economy. As somebody who flies to work a little more often than the average person, I can sympathize, a little, with business people who are frustrated with a lack of flights to European destinations, or who would like enough room to land a Boeing 777 here. Losing the Continental hub here would be inconvenient to me and thousands of others. And in the worst case, yes, I suppose it's possible that major employers and taxpayers might leave the area due to a lack of transportation options.
These are all good practical arguments for more runways and hence, most directly, an expansion of Hopkins where it is. But they're also good reasons to consider an additional or replacement airport a bit farther into suburbia. The obvious tradeoff, for those of us who are primarily interested in Cleveland's economic prospects, is one of what economists call "externalities." Having a major airport relatively close to downtown offers the positive externality of convenience to downtown business, but brings along the negatives of taking up valuable urban land and a corresponding degree of noise and pollution.
For once, I don't have a strong opinion either way on this. I understand the desire to expand Hopkins where it is, because building "out" is likely to send more commerce and jobs out too. But knocking down the I-X Center due to Cleveland's lack of foresight isn't an ideal solution, and in any case we'll eventually outgrow even that space. It's a toss-up to this observer.
The other half of the pundit consensus is more troublesome--the idea that Hopkins or a new airport should be under the control of some outside, freestanding public authority instead of the City of Cleveland.
Some commentators feel a Cleveland-regional airport authority will be the best way to build past congestion at Hopkins. What makes them think that this will be the one well-run and accountable freestanding board we have?
These things become power-hungry. They grow. They hide themselves from media and the public. And they usually do a lousy job of what they were created to do in the first place. Let's look at a couple.
Gateway: a supposed "public-private partnership," Gateway gets very nearly 100% of its revenue from tax dollars, and always has. It either skirts the requirements of state Open Meeting laws or violates them outright. Gateway is hemmoraghing cash and requires an eight million dollar a year subsidy from county taxpayers, and it's far from fulfilling any of the economic development promises that were made on its behalf.
Port Authority: the obvious choice, if there must be one, to run a regional-based airport, this city/county hybrid agency already has the power to put property taxes on the countywide ballot. That's a very bad thing! The Authority's list of responsibilities specifically includes "enhanc[ing] creation and preservation of employment within county limits." This open-ended wording has already been used to evade democratic procedures by funding questionable projects such as the Rock Hall. It could easily be used to justify practically any expenditure anywhere within the county, without voter review and without an effective means to punish the political appointees who do the dirty work.
Similarly to Gateway, actually, six of the Port Authority's nine members are appointed by the Mayor with Council approval, and the other three are appointed by the County Commissioners. Members, therefore, aren't accountable to the public except in a very circuitous way. It's even possible for a Port Authority board member's three-year term to expire during the term of his or her appointing authority, giving the public no way at all to provide feedback short of a recall election.
Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency: remember Fred and Janet? We sure do. But under the directorship of experienced planning professional Howard Maier (who incidentally used to be my boss when I worked at the Jewish Community Federation a million years ago, and by the way hi Ace!), NOACA has done a reasonably good job coordinating the planning and budgeting process for federally funded transportation projects.
NOACA owes its existence, however, to some misguided federal legislation that requires transportation money to go through regional agencies other than city and county governments. Kindly intended as a way to avoid machine politics, the law has resulted in developing a few more places for corrupt individuals to build more, different, and better personal empires than before.
A long time ago, Dale Miller was thinking out loud about writing a "Home Rule" charter for Cuyahoga County. (To be fair, he hadn't really gone on record supporting such a thing, and may have changed his ideas since then.) At the time, his concept was to adopt a charter for the county that would duplicate the existing state-mandated structure, so we could easily tailor the county system in the future as needed.
Dale Miller's idea sounded pretty pointless at the time, but I've come around since then. There are thirty-three (note that number) boards and commissions that have at least one County-appointed member. Three people make these appointments but nobody seems to be in charge. That's a natural effect of dispersing authority into so many fiefdoms--one providing services for mentally retarded people, one to run the libraries, one to run the buses and rapids, yet another authority for the parks--it's hard for any citizen to have half a clue who is being appointed to these things and what they're doing. It's even harder to hold elected officials accountable for who they appoint.
Let's replace as many of these boards and commissions as possible with a county government that actually takes responsibility for the services we fund with our taxes. Thirty-three is a pretty good number for a legislative authority! Cuyahoga County's new home rule charter should divide the county into thirty-three legislative districts, each containing about 42,000 people. Cleveland Heights would get its own county rep, as would Westlake, and perhaps Berea and Middleburg Heights squeezed together. Cleveland would end up with twelve, about one for every two Council wards.
Today, if your bus service is continually late or if the Metroparks are dirty, you have nowhere to go where they have to listen to you. If your county library branch is overstaffed, you'll waste your time getting anybody fired over it. And if Gateway is wasting money, well, you know what happens.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to drop by your County Representative's office to discuss mental health funding, or to give her a call about what is happening at the Port Authority?
Imagine developers having only one place to go to ask for taxpayer funding, instead of the half-dozen boards that currently have the power to make their own budgets and collect taxes.
Maybe the airport should be expanded where it is. Maybe it should be left alone. Maybe a new one needs to be created elsewhere. But whatever happens, it should be under the control of people who can actually be identified, embarrassed, and fired as needed. Not by other politicians, but by the people who pay for it all--you and me. The airport doesn't need its own agency, it needs the demoncratic control that only a standing elected body can exert.
This document's template was last modified on Wednesday, 09-Nov-2005 18:51:58 EST. There is a new Cleveland Pages more or less every weekend. The entire Cleveland Pages website is © 1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003 by Mark W. Schumann, all rights reserved. Copyrights belonging to others on individual items are noted. Nobody else would take the credit or blame for these opinions anyway.
Go to the front page
Last validated 23 September 2000:
![[ Valid HTML 4.0! ]](/images/vh40.gif){kind=small}
![[ Valid CSS! ]](/images/vcss.gif){kind=small}
![[ Bobby Approved! ]](/images/approved.gif){kind=small}
![[ Made with Cascading Style Sheets]](/images/mwcts.gif)
The W3C validator verifies that documents on this site conform to the Strict HTML 4.01 specification, which is a step towards consistency, accessibility, and interoperability.
Bobby checks for opportunities to improve access for users regardless of disabilities or special needs.