I like traffic jams in downtown Cleveland, it just feels like what a bustling city should feel like. The other day I was sitting near the fountain outside the Marriott, a couple of blocks from the epicenter of Public Square. Early afternoon, not much traffic. But there were three construction cranes, two yellow and one red, reaching into the sky like a kid whacking a piñata.
And whacking they were, next to dump trucks, earth movers and the venerable bulldozers. Forming the basement of the new "Medical Mart." Forget debates on policy, arguments on jobs, who’s zooming who. I like cranes and Tonka-like equipment in motion.
Dirt is moving immediately west of Public Auditorium. Back-up beeps, diesel engine chugs and blasts of black smoke. All in the shadow of the supercharged words across the top of the Auditorium.
Part of these flowery words: "A monument conceived as a tribute to the ideals of Cleveland. Builded by her citizens and dedicated to social progress, industrial achievement and civic interest." Nice words, can they be real again?
Under the bright blue skies it seems so, though till it’s done doubters pontificate. After? Charges of cost overruns and too much moola to vested interests and power brokers.
If the Medical Mart ties up traffic downtown, provides jobs & revenue and looks like "social progress, industrial achievement and civic interest," then I’m ok with it.
Who cares if I won't be able to get a seat by the fountain.
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