Cleveland State doomed by lack of shooting, drops fourth straight
February 4, 2016Todd McShay has Browns taking Jared Goff in Mock Draft 2.0
February 5, 2016Happy Friday everyone! I feel lucky to have Fridays even when I don’t have much motivation to write anything. As someone whose primary beat is the Cleveland Browns, it’s hard to have a lot of motivation this time of year. I’m not particularly plugged into draft prospects and I prefer not to discuss those kinds of things, so what to talk about?
Farewell to Yahoo! Games…
I don’t get sentimental about once important things shutting down after losing relevance, because in the age of the Internet it seems exceedingly silly to do so. Even though I lack sorrow or the ability to bemoan the loss, it doesn’t mean I don’t find some of these closures interesting and notable. That was the case this week when I read about Yahoo! closing its games portal.
I went through a few different phases playing games on there. I remember spending a lot of time playing other strangers in billiards. It was so cool because it was the first time I ever played pool from a top-down video game style. It was fun and competitive, but beyond that it was surprising how something so simple could be so revolutionary for how it changed the way I saw the game of billiards. I think I actually got better at real pool by studying that top-down view and playing with my mouse and keyboard.
I also went through a very competitive checkers phase. I know that sounds really funny, but for about three months while I was in college I would end my night of studying and homework playing a couple games of checkers in a competitive fashion, as opposed to the casual way I played as a kid growing up. It’s not the same strategic behemoth that chess is, but if you play a lot of checkers you can actually get better and see the game differently.
All that said, it’s perfectly normal that it’s going away. With phones and tablets becoming the greatest casual gaming devices in the history of the universe, including allowing you to bridge the time and distance gap between friends, there’s just no need for a website portal to connect people. But in that time and place in the late ’90s and into the 2000s, it was absolutely revolutionary.
The St. Louis Rams, stadium debt and Cleveland…
Is it fair that we stop calling the public financing of sports stadiums a debate? If it’s not an undeniably bad deal for municipalities, it’s at least an extravagant cost that must not be brushed aside with vague economic activity projections. That’s never been more true than it is today in St. Louis where the city and region are left with $144 million in remaining debt associated with the stadium the Rams leave behind.
Obviously this issue is close to home in Cleveland as well, where the sin tax was recently renewed in 2014 on the backs of more than $1 million in pro-sin-tax PAC commercials funded largely by the Browns, Cavs, and Indians. And the people voted for that sin tax to be collected and earmarked for stadium improvements and maintenance in a plan. That’s all fine and good as long as everyone understands that spending on these extravagances are just that and not some investment in turning Cleveland’s rivers into literal flows of cash.
I bring all that up because Frank Jackson made news this week in Cleveland seeking to raise the municipal income tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. So what kind of revenue is Frank Jackson seeking to generate with that tax increase?
Jackson, who seeks to put the issue on the ballot either in November or next March, said that bumping the tax rate to 2.5 percent would generate an extra $83.5 million for the city.
There are a lot of things at play here from state and federal politics to any number of other issues that can’t be encapsulated in a story like this at a website like this in the small space I’ve allotted. It’s also not to proclaim that the $260 million raised by the sin tax over the course of 20 years can and should be used on the city of Cleveland directly. The estimated $13 million annually, while a ton of money to everyday people, is not the be-all end-all on a city-wide budget that’s over $1.4 billion annually. It’s just to say that it’s important that we know what we’re actually doing and that we’re actually alright with it.
Meanwhile, Brett Larkin of Cleveland.com reported Thursday that the Browns’ potential move to Columbus could be greased with a $5 million publicly funded practice facility.
The request from Columbus business leaders says the $5 million is to help pay for an “athletic practice training facility.”
It then describes the project this way: “The Athletic Practice and Training Facility will serve as a backdrop for collegiate athletic teams and community youth programs to utilize throughout the year. It will also attract professional athletic teams and franchises to our region.”
Translated: We’re going to disguise this as a tax request to help kids, but it’s really about the Browns.
And again, if that’s how we want to spend our money and help the Browns increase their marketability throughout the state of Ohio with our own money instead of theirs (which also used to be ours before we gave it to them), then that’s fine. But let’s make sure we actually say what it is we’re doing and agree that we’re alright with it. Or not.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen..
The headline will say Messi scored a goal, but the real headline should be the guys who were in the path of the pass and let it go through. Just an awesome view of the ball’s path to Messi who put it away.
I’m in a Deftones kind of mood…
I’ve listened to Deftones almost exclusively all week long. That means I’ve also listened to “Back to School” about 25 times this week alone, I think. It made me remember this appearance they had on Conan performing the song. I love watching someone do metal screams on national television. It seemed like such a big deal and a victory for me and my favorite music back in the day.
6 Comments
The Cult – Hidden City drops today.
Go getcha some rock n roll!
http://assets.blabbermouth.net.s3.amazonaws.com/media/theculthiddencitycd.jpg
I wish I was more strongly against public money going to the Browns a year (or two?) ago. The richest people on earth don’t need it. If it means the Browns leave Cleveland (again), that is fine. I’ll cheer for a team in a different state.
While we are here, can someone explain RITA to me? Why do I have to pay taxes in 2 cities, yet I am only able to vote in one of them?
I have to be in the correct mood to enjoy the Deftones, but I enjoy them fully when in such a mood.
RITA is simply an organization (not sure if public or private) contracted by a number of local communities to collect and disburse taxes on their behalf. I’m sure the Ohio Revised Code has provisions allowing this, as well as allowing communities to levy taxes on income earned in that city whether or not the employee lives there.
right, but one of the founding tenets of this country was no taxation without representation. If I have to pay taxes in a city that I cannot have a vote in, that seems to be the antithesis of those founding beliefs.
I mean I know the corporations own America and we are all drones here to serve them, but fundamentally, I have a real issue with this. Especially because I work from home, but have to pay taxes in the city my company is in anyway, even though technically, I dont work there.