Shout out to new Ironman, John Norris!

Ironman - livestrong

Shout out to new Ironman, John Norris!

Results from the REV 3 Cedar Point Full Ironman. <—–

LeBron James Fever gone Wild….

LBJ has a new twitter account…
LBJ has started a new website which will give you live feeds and updates of his annoucements…
I think the people who do care, only care about 1 announcement in particular. Where might King James spend his days and nights for the next 5 or 6 years…. Lets hope for 6 in the Q.

Here is a great ESPN article which helps put this frenzy in perspective and some interesting Fan Behavior as well.

By Tim Keown, ESPN The Magazine senior writer Tim Keown co-wrote Josh Hamilton’s autobiography, “Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back

The idiocy is what we’ll miss. Once LeBron James announces Thursday where he’ll play basketball for the next several years, there will be no more alphabet-based songs from Broadway singers, no more fans spending their own money on billboards, no more guys waxing their chests and devising elaborate handshakes to persuade James to play basketball for their team.

AP Photo/Tony Dejak
Fans wooing LeBron James have used cars, websites, billboards, signs, songs and much more to spread their message.

The vast, endless stupidity is what separates us from other creatures. It is what makes us proud to be American sports fans. And in LeBron James we have found a remarkable confluence of circumstances, people and cities to bring the stupidity to an epic spike, a moment in time that is giving us a glimpse into the brains of a certain segment of the population.

Let’s break it down:

A pointed finger: Classic stall tactic. Caught off guard by the question, he buys himself some time by pointing at the questioner. Defuses the situation immediately by acknowledging both the question and the questioner. The outward point clearly indicates a desire to be elsewhere.

Advantage: Bulls.

Smile: He’s happy. He’s in Akron. Smile presents something of a contradiction when juxtaposed with outward pointing finger. Could be diversionary tactic. Important question not addressed: Was it a close-mouthed smile or were teeth involved? If teeth, done deal.

Advantage: Cavs.

For the full article, click here <—–

State Road Plaza in Cuyahoga Falls gets its Groove Back in new plan.

Upscale future for Falls plaza

The State Road Plaza’s future has solid footing and a real optimism looking to the future!

An upscale shopping center and housing development may soon replace the dilapidated State Road Shopping Center.

The development, called Portage Crossing, was announced at a news conference by Cuyahoga Falls officials at the city’s Natatorium on Thursday.

Last fall, the city bought the plaza at State Road and Portage Trail from State Road Associates for $10.2 million.

Cuyahoga Falls Development Director Susan Truby said the dilapidated shopping center was ”truly the black eye of our city.”

What will replace it will be a neighborhood marketplace that is walkable, unique and community-focused, officials said.

The first phase of the project will include about $30 million to $35 million in investment into a retail area that will be anchored by an upscale grocery store and several smaller retail or restaurant establishments.

It will be much smaller in total retail size at 150,000 square feet than the 300,000 square feet that the plaza once held.

Unlike the current plaza, which faces State Road, the new development will face Portage Trail, which also will get some improvements such as parallel parking, colored concrete and greenery to make it clear that it will be an area to slow down, Truby said. State Road along the new development will be turned into a boulevard with trees lining the middle.

The grocery store, which will be an anchor tenant, will have traditional parking and entrances. The grocery store will be 60,000 square feet and the space is expandable to 90,000 square feet.

The retail establishments along Portage Trail will have their entrances on the main street, which will encourage people to get out of their cars and walk around and even walk across Portage Trail to the other side of the development, which also will have retail.

‘‘It’s been a long time coming for the community,’‘ said Falls Mayor Don Robart. ”I think in the end, they’re going to be very, very pleased and excited about the quality and the product.”

Additional phases of the project, which could total $60 million, could be another retail phase or townhomes flanking both ends of the retail area, but will be dependent upon the economy improving.

Well-known developer

The developer for the project will be Cleveland-based Stark Enterprises and its Chief Executive Officer Robert L. Stark. Stark has developed such projects as Crocker Park in Westlake and several in the Akron-area, including West Market Plaza, the Shops at Fairlawn and the Strip in Jackson Township.

Stark said building designs and green space areas will be like Crocker Park.

An agreement has yet to be penned with Stark, and a lot of the details will be hammered out in the next three to four months before it must go in front of City Council for approval. But Robart said Stark has been a strong supporter of the city and is committed to the project. Stark also has been working with the city as a consultant to come up with a master plan to address the revitalization of the downtown area, which the mayor said will look more like Crocker Park than the State Road project.

Robart said he doesn’t see Portage Crossing as a regional draw, but serving the residents of the general area.

For the full article, click here <—–

By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal business writer

Akron-area home values keep sliding

Report finds 24.8 percent of Summit, Portage owners have negative equity

Published on Thursday, May 07, 2009

This article from http://Ohio.com is a bit of a micro-view segue from the previous blog article. Zillow has plenty of research and commentary to show how Akron Residential is slowly rotting from the inside, despite all the wonderful efforts of local business people. The local government needs to hopefully read this blog and many of the available resources out there screaming about the area needing help… anyhow… I digress… enjoy the articles’ worth content.

Beacon Journal staff report

Nearly a quarter of all homeowners in Summit and Portage counties owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth as values fell from a year ago, according to the latest research by the online real estate firm Zillow.

Home values in the Akron metropolitan statistical area — defined as Summit and Portage counties — fell 7 percent in the first three months this year compared to a year ago, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. The Zillow Real Estate Market Reports look at 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value changes in all homes, not just homes that have recently sold.

The average home price in the greater Akron area for the first quarter this year was $115,682, down 14.9 percent since the Akron market peaked in 2006, Zillow announced in a release Wednesday.

The results for Summit and Portage counties showed:

• 24.8 percent of all Akron-area homeowners now have negative equity, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. The local area still fared better than the nation overall, according to Zillow.

• Homes in the Akron area lost $815.3 million in value during the first quarter of 2009, and have lost $3.2 billion in the past 12 months.

• 28.8 percent of transactions in the past 12 months were foreclosures.

• 8 percent of homes sold were ”short sales,” meaning the proceeds fell short of the balance owed on the mortgage.

Nationally, home values fell in the first quarter, declining 14.2 percent from the first three months of 2008 to an average of $182,378.

Declining home values left 28.9 percent of all American homeowners with negative equity by the end of the first quarter, Zillow said.

”Slowing declines in select markets are a bright spot or, at least, what passes for one given current market conditions,” Stan Humphries, Zillow vice president of data and analytics, said in a prepared statement. ”Unfortunately, given the magnitude of the current rates of decline, we’re still many months away from a bottom even as depreciation slows.”

All Boarded Up ~ Groundroots Fortitude!

TONY BRANCATELLI, A CLEVELAND CITY COUNCILMAN, yearns for signs that something like normal life still exists in his ward. Early one morning last fall, he called me from his cellphone. He sounded unusually excited. He had just visited two forlorn-looking vacant houses that had been foreclosed more than a year ago. They sat on the same lot, one in front of the other. Both had been frequented by squatters, and Brancatelli had passed by to see if they had been finally boarded up.

They hadn’t.

But while there he noticed with alarm what looked like a prone body in the yard next door. As he moved closer, he realized he was looking at an elderly woman who had just one leg, lying on the ground. She was leaning on one arm and, with the other, was whacking at weeds with a hatchet and stuffing the clippings into a cardboard box for garbage pickup. “Talk about fortitude,” he told me.

In a place like Cleveland, hope comes in small morsels.

The next day, I went with Brancatelli to visit Ada Flores, the woman who was whacking at the weeds. She is 81, and mostly gets around in a wheelchair.
Flores is a native Spanish speaker, and her English was difficult to understand, especially above the incessant barking of her caged dog, Tuffy. But the story she told Brancatelli was familiar to him.
Teenagers had been in and out of the two vacant houses next door, she said, and her son, who visits her regularly, at one point boarded up the windows himself. “Are they going to tear them down?” she asked. Brancatelli crossed himself. “I hope so,” he mumbled.

Prayer and sheer persistence are pretty much all Brancatelli has to go on these days.

Cleveland is reeling from the foreclosure crisis. There have been roughly 10,000 foreclosures in two years. For all of 2007, before it was overtaken by sky-high foreclosure rates in parts of California, Nevada and Florida, Cleveland’s rate was among the highest in the country. (It’s now 24th among metropolitan areas.) Vacant houses are not a new phenomenon to the city.

Ravaged by the closing of American steel mills, Cleveland has long been in decline.

With fewer manufacturing jobs to attract workers, it has lost half its population since 1960. Its poverty rate is one of the highest in the nation. But in all those years, nothing has approached the current scale of ruin.

For the entire article, which is a great piece of journalism, click here.

Alex Kotlowitz teaches writing at Northwestern University and is a regular contributor to the magazine. His last cover article was about urban violence.

Create your own job? Pappas Realty Co. has Businesses 4 Sale.. Create your own future or continue someone elses success!

Currently, we have an upscale restaurant, a laundromat, a full service restaurant and banquet facility.

Are you one of America’s recently downsized? Are you looking at your “options”? Should you be going down the traditional career path? You know, the one that includes a resume re-do, online job searching, and mega-trips to your local dry cleaner to get your business attire cleaned and pressed?

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Cavs eye Jamison as deadline nears

Antawn Jamison is averaging 21.4 points and 9.1 rebounds this season.
AP

With Amar’e Stoudemire unlikely to be dealt before Thursday’s trading deadline, the next-biggest thing is being attempted by the Cleveland Cavaliers — a surprise move at acquiring two-time All-Star forward Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards.

A deal for Jamison is far from being completed, according to league sources who described the Wizards as reluctant to move a team leader. The sources considered the proposal a sign that the Cavaliers have become more aggressive in trying to improve at the deadline for a title push this spring.

The Cavaliers have talked to the Wizards about offering Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring $13.8 million salary as payroll relief for the 32-year-old Jamison, who is on the books for $50 million through 2011-12. Jamison is averaging 21.4 points and 9.1 rebounds this season, and he would be a lethal scoring threat off the bench for Cleveland in an anticipated conference final against the defending champion Boston Celtics.

For full story, click here…

Can you imagine, Lebron, Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison, Z and the 5th player TBD… wow…

The Foreclosure Identity…starring Banks and How they are making things Worse!

The bad mortgages that got the current financial crisis started have produced a terrifying wave of home foreclosures. Unless the foreclosure surge eases, even the most extravagant federal stimulus spending won’t spur an economic recovery.

The Obama Administration is expected within the next few weeks to announce an initiative of $50 billion or more to help strapped homeowners. But with 1 million residences having fallen into foreclosure since 2006, and an additional 5.9 million expected over the next four years, the Obama plan — whatever its details — can’t possibly do the job by itself. Lenders and investors will have to acknowledge huge losses and figure out how to keep recession-wracked borrowers making at least some monthly payments.

So far the industry hasn’t shown that kind of foresight. One reason foreclosures are so rampant is that banks and their advocates in Washington have delayed, diluted, and obstructed attempts to address the problem. Industry lobbyists are still at it today, working overtime to whittle down legislation backed by President Obama that would give bankruptcy courts the authority to shrink mortgage debt. Lobbyists say they will fight to restrict the types of loans the bankruptcy proposal covers and new powers granted to judges.

The industry strategy all along has been to buy time and thwart regulation, financial-services lobbyists tell BusinessWeek . “We were like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dike,” says one business advocate who, like several colleagues, insists on anonymity, fearing career damage. Some admit that, in retrospect, their clients, which include Bank of America (NYSE:BAC – News), Citigroup (NYSE:C – News), and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM – News), would have been better off had they agreed two years ago to address foreclosures systematically rather than pin their hopes on an unlikely housing rebound.

For full article, visit this link… http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090213/bs_bw/0908b4120034085635;_ylt=AtWsJftLkHmVUS64jGxOxMayBhIF

Photog Friday or Star Trek Warp Entrance!

This is a picture of the walkway crossing over Bowery St in downtown akron. You can see the original and the edited version.

I used picasa 3 for this and have been enthused with the results now and in the past with Picasas capabilities.

I used to utilize Dell, but after a while all the normal services were unavailable and locked down, so HELLO Picasa!

4-Unit Apartment Building For Sale in Fairlawn, Ohio ** Separate Utilities ** $279,000 ** Central A/C ** Newer roof, mechanicals, hardwood floors, etc

227 Buffington Rd – Fairlawn – Ohio — 4-Unit Apartment Building

Watch the picture presentation!

4-Unit Apartment Building For Sale in Fairlawn, Ohio ** Separate Utilities ** $279,000 ** Central A/C ** Newer roof, mechanicals, hardwood floors, etc