The Sunday July 15 Plain Dealer has a big
front page news story (PR piece) with the PD calling for regional government. On page 1 it says Sam Miller is the most vociferous buisnessman advocating regional government. That is because with regional government, there will just be a few government officials running the region, which benefits Sam Miller because he will far fewer politicians to buy-off (bribe) with campaign donations and under the table $ -- such as his current hopes of getting a new convention center on his land behind Tower City and boost business at his Tower City.
He also made a fast, easy $2 million by buying the land for $400,000 at East 103 and Quincy (still toxic contaminated) in a deal arranged by Councilwoman Pat Britt (county Democratic Party vice-chair), then Sam Miller sold it to the County government for $2.4 million. All Sam did was sign a paper to make $2 million the easy way. Thanks to these Democrat politicians who repay him for all the money he gives them over the years. Legalized bribery.
Why is RTA constructing the Euclid Corridor bus line project at a cost of $200 million (it jumped from the earlier estimate of $160 million)? At that time, Cleveland Mayor Mike White, to whom Sam Miller was a $ugar daddy, wanted to bring more customers to Tower City to shop and eat lunch on their lunch hours (an RTA manager told me) by having this Euclid Corridor bus be a few minutes faster than the current # 9 express bus that runs from University Circle to public square weekdays, and faster than the #6 bus that runs 24/7, frequently the exact same route on Euclid Avenue as the new Euclid Corridor bus.
RTA simply could have added more buses with less frequent stops between University Circle and Public Square. But the poor, lower class people who ride the #6 bus who are almost all black are not who professionals from University Circle want to sit next to on a bus. So bring in the luxerious, slightly faster, Euclid Corridor super bus for those yiuppie types to ride to Tower City, then boost the fare on it, so poor blacks will stay on the # 6 bus.
Sam Miller's employee, executive Alan Krulak, is on the RTA board to do Sam's bidding. The Plain Dealer reports none of these facts. Hope you do.
Of course, the construction unions who fund the Democrat politicians in town are thrilled to get the jobs of constructing this thing. The poor taxpapyers are the victims of this sham as usual. Just like the planned, unvoted county sales tax increase for a convention center (that we all know will end up on Sam's land behind his Tower City) and medical mart. So this all is a quite a story to expose.
Dan Nugent
