Dead Euclid

This blog will serve as a discussion area as well as a picture resource for the empty buildings in the Euclid, Ohio area.

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October 22, 2007

Some Slim Choices

Baseball season in Cleveland is officially over and I was over feeding the trolls on the Cleveland.com Indians forums and for whatever reason it got me thinking...

Yeah, guys!

It's almost that time of the year again. The leaves fall from the sky like red and gold rain. The wind has a fresh chill that stings your skin and the clouds are gray and thin.

That's right, it's almost election time.

Like a good girl I vote. I'm even informed on the issues before I do so!

This year, there are 3 candidates for Euclid Mayor.

Current Euclid mayor, Bill Cervenik

Website: http://www.mayorcervenik.com/

Mayoral Candidate Ed Gudenas

Website: http://www.gudenasformayor.com/

Mayoral Candidate Christopher Litwinowicz

Website: None

You can watch the Mayoral Candidate Forum from September 19, 2007 here. Now, there's something special about this video. It was featured on RoverRadio.com a while back, and not for its contained great ideas. No, it was up there as a humor piece. I cannot get to Rover's site today for whatever reason, so I don't remember exactly what was said about the video, but the fact that it ended up on Cleveland's most popular morning radio show website as a "Man, you've gotta see this guy (Christopher Litwinowicz)" is just yet another unfunny punchline.

So, this city walks into a bar...

So after watching this 2 hour video, and having Cervenik in office since the beginning of time, the choice might seem clear: Vote for Gudenas. But wait!

And the bartender says, "Why all the empty buildings?"...

Gudenas is all for fixing the place up, as long as it isn't his own place. Promises, promises. It isn't just a Naked Eyes song: Critics raise questions about Euclid mayoral candidate's development.

and the city says, "yanno, that's a good question!"

See, I told you it wasn't funny.

link | posted by Jen @ Dead Euclid at 2:38 AM |

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6 Comments:

Anonymous commented at 3:41 PM~: As someone who closely follows and is involved in Euclid politics, I feel the need to point out that the Plain Dealer article regarding Mr. Gudena's Middle Bass Island development was incredibly one-sided. For Mr. Gudenas's full response, please go to www.gudenasformayor.com.

My reaction to the article was this: why does the PD constantly attack Ed Gudenas for things he does in his personal & professional life, but Bill Cervenik has gotten a free pass.

When the state auditor's office was investigating Cervenik for his misuse of the wedding money, Cervenik said that the records were kept on a computer at his CPA firm's office. And wouldn't you know it, but right as this was happening, his office was broken into and the computer was stolen. Coincidence???

The PD wrote an article after the auditor made its report and slanted it in such a way that it was all about Cervenik's enemies attacking him, not about the fact Cervenik was breaking the law.

Vote for Team Euclid on November 6th. Vote Gudenas!
Anonymous commented at 11:04 PM~: As someone else who closely follows and is involved in Euclid politics, let me point out that the Gudenas article was accurate and just because it was damning for Gudenas doesn't mean it was one-sided. Sometimes, there's just one side to the story and that's the side of truth.

On the other hand, there's still no evidence that Cervenik was doing anything wrong. There were only allegations and those *did* come from his opponents. Opponents who have tied Cervenik's hands for the four years (yes, only four, not forever) that he's been Mayor. He's had to fight legal fights that he - upon the advice of the best lawyers in Cleveland - had wisely recognized Euclid shouldn't fight. And then he had to defend himself in a recall election.

If Cervenik was able to do anything as mayor, he would be able to move this City forward. Unfortunately, Gudenas - who has plenty of ideas and very little follow through - continues to thwart any advances the City actually could make by playing politics.

Gudenas is a sleazy, sleazy politician and I, for one, wish he would just move on out to Middle Bass Island permanently. It'd be a much better service to the City than anything he'll do as Mayor.
Anonymous commented at 12:13 AM~: Sadly, the funniest parts of the videos don't come from Litinowitz's embarrassing attempt but from:

(!) Charlene Mancuso's statement that Gudenas planned to retire in 1995 but that the "citizens brought him back." Yeah . . . we just spontaneously went out and demanded he run for City Council President. Pathetic. Another example of how Gudenas lies. Over and over again.

(2) When Gudenas complains about the way people keep their houses. Um... perhaps your house would be one of those problems? You know, the one you rent because you don't actually own property in Euclid.

(3) "All the city officials making endorsements" would consist only of Gudenas' previously-existing allies - the ones who UNSUCCESSFULLY tried to get Bill Cervenik recalled (and who can barely form full sentences themselves - as they clearly demonstrate in his video) and Kent Smith, who is perhaps the 2nd biggest joke the City has to offer (the 1st, of course, being Linitowitz).

(4) Victor Goodman's random references to some family running the City of Euclid over and over again. I don't know who he's talking about since Cervenik's only been Mayor since 2003. It's Gudenas' friends who are on City Council. And if he's referencing the Sustarics (who have actually been involved for years), then he's an idiot. Take any Sustarsic on his or her wost day, divide them by 20 and you would still get more vision, follow through, and concern for the City's welfare, than you would get if you multiplied Gudenas' brain by 100 and then added Kent Smith's (sorry - I know that math was too complicated for either Gudenas or Smith, but I'm sure they can find a 6th grader to explain it to them somewhere...).

Cervenik has turned the city's deficit into a surplus without raising taxes. You can't ask for better leadership for a city that has suffered from money troubles for a good dozen years.

Gudenas would love to see us throw money at a doomed marina (they're losing money all over the state) and a Nascar racetrack that would cost the city a minimum of $10 million, and that's for a trashy track that would never actually recoup the funds it costs to buid the thing. Yeah, THAT'S the Team I want in charge of my tax money!
Anonymous commented at 11:37 AM~: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ELECT ED GUDENAS....THOUGH WE DON'T WISH HIM ON THE CITY OF EUCLID, WE WOULD DEARLY LOVE TO GET HIM OFF MIDDLE BASS ISLAND! UNFORTUNATELY, HE WILL DO TO EUCLID WHAT HE DID AT MIDDLE BASS, AND THE RESULTS AREN'T GOOD. GOD HELP THE CITIZENS OF EUCLID....
Anonymous commented at 8:14 PM~: Ed Gudenas has always been an enigma. For us on Middle Bass, he represents ugliness. His villas are ugly, his signs are ugly, his trashy trailers are ugly, his condo colors are ugly, and his landscaping is either non-existent or worse than ugly. When he's on the ferry, no one talks to him. If there is such a thing as a "persona non grata" on Middle Bass, it's Ed.

Now he's running for mayor of Euclid. But his three vision statements on his web site each have at least one basic grammatical eror. His campaign video is very poorly done. The video alone would disqualify him in most cities. The councilwoman who introduces him has her eyes either closed or looking down half of the time. Ed makes a few mistakes in his part that should have required another take. And all the other recommendations should be in separate videos and not in one long one back-to-back. I can't imagine anyone watching the entire thing, except to find even more embarrassing sections. And the videographer should never be allowed to make another video. It's just awful.

Yet Gudenas is a successful politician. I don't get it. How can this much incompetence be overlooked by the voters.

But I agree with the previous posting. I hope he wins. It may help keep him off Middle Bass Island.
Anonymous commented at 12:18 AM~: So, um, if they don't want Gudenas on Middle Bass and *we* don't want him in Euclid (please, God, let that be the result of tomorrow's election), I say we trade him to Canada* and get someone who actually *is* (or could be) a successful politician OR business person. Because let's be honest, Gudenas is apparently neither really.

*My apologies to any Canadians reading this - it's not that I dislike the Canadians, but just trading him to another part of Ohio apparently doesn't work. Middle Bass Island and Euclid are 100 miles apart and he's able to terrorize us both simultaneously!

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