When media-sly Mayor Michael White decides to air his feelings, it's usually on his own terms. Earlier this month, after city council flayed the mayor for his role in the botched 1998 police exam, he fired off an "open letter" to Council President Mike Polensek and Bob Beck, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association. Beck learned, along with thousands of other officers, city workers, and media reps, how thin he and Polensek had frayed White's last nerve. They have "an out-of-control propensity for fear mongering and making outright distortions of the truth," White wrote. Moreover, their messages "divide us as a community," and if they get their way, "we will become a city lost in the grip of fear, lies, half-truths, and the word 'integrity' will have no meaning." Beck, currently trying to discern how much taxpayer money was spent on the mass mailing, says he can back up his claims about the police exam with the city's own documents. He maintains the mayor's comments are "accusations made by a liar." For now, fearful residents of a city nearly devoid of integrity can find White's uplifting words on the City of Cleveland website at
www.cityofcleveland.org.
Cleveland bicycle couriers didn't bring home any trophies from the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Philadelphia, but they enjoyed a weekend of bike messenger brotherly love. Though they didn't qualify for the finals, some came close, and they partied, ate cheesesteak, and saw the sights. Now messenger Andrew McIntyre and friends are planning a Clevo race for early November -- an alley-cat scramble through Saturday night downtown traffic.
Nearly an hour into the Tribe's Sunday rain delay, the Jacobs Field JumboTron tuned in to the Browns-Bengals game, instantly rendering the sullen crowd a waterlogged Dawg Pound. Indians spokesman Bob DiBiasio admits that efforts to keep fans interested were stepped up as weather prospects declined. "We were trying to entertain fans with information from the weather service, but when we saw their radar showed it was gonna rain for a long time, we figured our job is to entertain," says DiBiasio, who disagrees that the Browns kept more fans in the park than a typical rain delay would have. Must be coincidence that the Tribe game was nixed after three hours -- about the same time the clock hit 00:00 in the Browns' win.
