ED HAUSER - WOULDN'T SIT DOWN
Submitted by Jeff Buster on November 16, 2008 - 4:08pm.
Ed Hauser was one of the very few civic leaders who didn’t put up with North East Ohio’s glib hypocritical agendas. You and I both know that almost every meeting one attends in NEO has a dual purpose – one purpose of public meetings is to appease the public, make the public feel they are being consulted - while the other (real) purpose of the public meeting was often to put the stamp of approval on a private business plan using public money and public space.
Ed knew this and constantly challenged the hypocrisy.
Often the “leaders” running the meetings didn’t want to hear (again) from Ed. Guys like Hagan and Carney would tell Ed “Sit down”. But Ed, without saying it with words, made those type of “leaders” look like mean, wishy washy characters. Because you knew Ed’s goal was a selfless one for the public benefit, and the goal of the rude “leaders” wasn’t.
Ed was flapless. He just kept coming back to the mic. Kept coming back and asking the same straight question. Kept setting up his video camera and tripod. Over and over. He was determined to obtain the straight answer.
Ed wasn’t put off by the public insults he got from the lousy “leaders”. Instead of being put off he would file a public records request. Dig in deeper. Keep hammering away.
There wasn’t a Cuyahoga County Commissioner’s meeting, a City of Cleveland Planning meeting, or a Cuyahoga Port Authority meeting where Ed wasn’t the one with seniority regarding the issue at hand. Ed had been following issues like the ever changing “lake front plan” and the “Bulk Terminal” plan, and the I90 bridge “plan” and the Hueletts “plan” for longer than almost anyone.
And Ed would remind the members of the Boards and Commissions he addressed that he had been attending the meetings before those Boards and Commissions “for 10 years” - and that he was going to see it through to completion.
Ed took great pleasure in the results of the work he did to keep Whiskey Island a public amenity. While Dick Jacobs let the Coast Guard Station go to hell while running up a $million dollar real estate tax liability, the efforts of Ed and Dan Moore allowed the public once more to enjoy the promenade out to the tip of the quay and around the Station. Ed was the perfect host at Whiskey Isand – he knew all the staff at the marina and restaurant and he loved to walk with his friends to show them the latest improvements in the park.
On the warm evening of July 10, 2007, (left to right) Martha, Tucker (the dog) Ed, Tom and MaryBeth and I all enjoyed the fruits of Ed’s labor – a breezy walk to and from the Coast Guard Station through Wendy Park.
Go on! Make Ed’s day…visit and enjoy Whiskey Island, and demand straight answers in your community.
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get up stand up
Ed's anthem, like Marley's... I can hear it and rejoice.
Get up, stand up
That was Ed, a stand up guy.
As you and I saw with our own eyes again and again and reported here on realneo, our "leaders" showed nothing but rude disdain for someone whose public decency and dedication to the public good far outstripped their collective effort.
"Ed Hauser asked if there would be any public process in deciding on the location of the convention center. Mr. Nance answered that Joe Roman and the Greater Cleveland Partnership would be involved.
Ed repeated “ I asked about public process..”"
I imagine that many leaders will miss Ed's thorough analyses of the varied yet interconnected issues his detailed email blasts covered. He did their work for them. Why think this through when Ed will organize my thoughts for me? Well, now they will no longer have his expert analysis. Unlike Ed they are not engineers, they have not worked at the steel mill (under any ownership), they have not spent late nights or long days poring through the documents like Ed did.
"Mr. Hauser pointed out to the Board that still inthe Port plan was the EXPANSION of the Cleveland Bulk Terminal – the CBT is the area just to the east of the Westerly Sewage Treatment plant. Mr. Hauser showed the Board the plans for this expansion in the Port documents.
There is EXPANSION and there is RELOCATION.
But the Board didn’t get it. The Board acknowledged that they had not read the $1.5 million dollar study – but the Board Chairman, Mr. Coyne, deferred to one of the staff members (Linda Henrichsen) who said she had read it.
I’m not convinced she had.
I thought this hearing was a sad example of why Cleveland is going down the drain. The Board, not even understanding or having fully read or understood the resolution offered by Bob Brown, were too chicken to even defer their approval for a week or two. No one on the Board made any effort to negotiate for a better resolution.
They just moved to approve it, there was a second, and all murmured aye."
Thank you Jeff for these wonderful photos of Ed.
Jeff's photo of Ed as he asks again, "where are we with this long discussed lakefront plan?" That day was like so many others. Some mumbling, some shoe inspecting on the part of commission members. No answers.
Ed had the good sense to know that the plan for port relocation to the west side was fraught with offloading and intermodal transport problems that would be its ultimate downfall, but he also knew that this achilles heel would not stop our leaders from turning Whiskey Island into a gravel dock. Even after the port had announced that they planned to move to E55th Street, Ed fished out a drawing from a document that showed an expanded Cleveland Bulk Terminal on Whiskey Island. I remember the day he showed this to Andrew Watterson, pointing out the recent date on the page. Watterson asked if he could borrow the document as he had not yet seen that rendition.
Ed came to the mic so much that commissions, boards and even people who considered themselves his friends and colleagues thought they were about to hear the same old same old from Ed. But Ed had usually invested more time and uncovered more stupidity or sly planning being slipped through under the sleepwalking member's eyes. The elected and appointed here in NEO may be in a consensus trance, but Ed was not. Now, Ed can rest in peace. We, however, cannot. We're gonna have to get up and stand up.
More PAIN
Cleveland Magazine recognizes Ed Hauser. If this article appears in their print edition, it will be indexed, preserved and microfilmed by Cleveland Public Library.
Erick Trickey writes:
In our May issue, columnist Michael D. Roberts wrote admiringly,
"Hauser is a pain — a persistent, nagging, unyielding pain. On the
medical scale of one to 10, he would rate a 10. What makes him so
painful is that he challenges the way the town and its dysfunctional
government work."
BFD also recognizes Ed Hauser and links to his audio interview with Meet the Bloggers. The preservation of this material will need attention. I hope that the entire interview has also been transcribed. Ed will live on.
Did Ed finally get Million Dollar Port "study"
I have been looking through the Realneo archives and came upon this post in which Ed is asking yet again for the million dollar port "study".
You can see Ed in the yellow shirt on the left hand side of the audience with his video cam and tripod. At the top right of the photo collage is Ed at the mic asking Carney for the still secret "study".