You have probably already — and will undoubtedly in the future — enter into a conversation with someone who compliments the extensive renovations of Quicken Loans Arena. Check out that glass! It reflects the city skyline! Glass! Skyline!
It will, to them and possibly you, represent banner cooperation between that local demigod Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers, the city and the county. It will be a shiny new building — and dear god, do we love shiny new buildings, and not thinking about how they got there. The millions of taxpayer dollars that subsidized the renovation? Worth it, because Dan Gilbert spends money on payroll. Plus, the public owns the building anyway. It should have to pay for its upkeep.
We’ve done our level best over the past two years to bring much needed clarity to the reasons why those arguments are baseless. Often, that reasoning has fallen on deaf ears. But for us and those who have taken the time to actually learn about the deal, the glittering façade and introduction of something called the South Neighborhood, among other uplifts, are a totem not of how Cleveland has succeeded but of how it has once again failed. How deals exactly like this one are hatched in secret with no public input. How the corridors of power aligned to squash a ballot initiative that dared ask whether it was in the region’s best interest to hand over tens of millions of dollars that would better be allocated elsewhere. How thoroughly and blindly the city and the county display absolute fealty to the business community.
Gilbert and others say that there’s no official nickname for the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse as of yet, that something will occur naturally — the Rock, for instance, much like Quicken Loans Arena became simply known as The Q.
Here let us suggest an appropriate moniker: The Rock Bottom Fraudhouse.
— Vince Grzegorek
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2019.
How is it that Cleveland Scene – a magazine in Cleveland – is ALWAYS BASHING the city? You would think there would be positive stories. But no, the fact that we renovated one of the oldest arena’s in the NBA, with decent deal, no matter how you slice it, is a bad thing. OMG GLASS! OMG I HATE EVERYTHING NEW in Cleveland. Its crazy how people IN Cleveland don’t like new things. The argument is always – well they could have spent the money somewhere else. Look – if Cleveland doesn’t have an awesome Downtown area, where people want to live, work, hang out, and visit, then the surrounding areas to Downtown Cleveland are not going to get fed. You need to feed the beast first before you feed the little puppies in the suburbs. Once downtown Cleveland has a lot of people living there, and people are visiting, and people are working, THEN the other places and needs that you and other people like you cry about can start to get looked at. So yes its “just” a shiny building. But we need a lot of those types of things to get people to live, work, play, and visit downtown Cleveland.
1. they criticize the lack of public input, the lack of clear connection between cost and benefit in a region with crushing inequality and segregation, the questioning of motives. none of this is opposed to shiny new thing. that is your projection that they ‘hate everything’
2.if you think this is them crying about “feeding the little puppies in the suburbs” , you need to reassess the evidence that led you to that judgement. it’s really really off the mark and fails to comprehend the moral standing they take.
3. they also have a Best of Cleveland which does the opposite of bashing the city. rebuilding a city that was ravaged by macroeconomic forces, poor leadership and racism means more than cheering blindly.