Today’s Report – February 15th

More Convention Center Stuff! Tony Coyne had a nice piece in the paper today that again tried to show how completely non-secret and non-speedy the Convention Center site selection process has been. I’d forgotten about some of those earlier discussions. While Tony mentions the Cleveland School District’s infrastructure problems as derailing this initial push for a new (or substantially expanded) Convention Center, a quick look back at the Plain Dealer archives indicates it was was actually the massive failure of a District levy in May of 1994 that really squashed discussions about raising taxes and selling bonds for other less critical items. (The other projects that were to be funded by these bonds? “Great Waters Aquarium; the Great Lakes Museum of Science, Environment and Technology; the renovation of the Stadium; the rehabilitation of Euclid Ave.” As we know now, the most vital of these turned out to be the “renovation” of Browns Stadium to the tune of $300 million.) And did you know we spent $30 million in 1988 to renovate the Convention Center? Doesn’t seem to have bought us much. Next time: Who will own the Convention Center?

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