Cleveland has spent billions on big-ticket urban redevelopment efforts including heavily subsidized sports stadiums and convention centers that have utterly failed to revitalize the city’s economy. Should the city be pouring even more money into and pinning yet higher hopes on long-odds mega-projects? Or should they realize that bottom-up projects driven by the actual residents and private-sector investors are the best was to build a vibrant city for the long haul?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the fifth of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010.
Approximately 10 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
After World War II, Cleveland was booming, thanks to its leadership role in heavy industry and a business-friendly climate. Today, the city’s high taxes and onerous regulatory demands make it nearly impossible for new businesses to set up shop while choking the life out of existing companies. While relatively laissez-faire cities such as Houston are growing even during the current recession, Cleveland remains stuck in a rut. How can city officials make the city a more welcoming place for entrepreneurs to thrive?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the fourth of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010.
Approximately 10 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
Should cities be in the business of running businesses ranging from convention centers to farmers markets? Selling off golf courses, contracting out parking concessions, and all manner of public-private partnerships are generating billions of dollars in revenue and dramatically improving city services in places such as Chicago and Indianapolis. Will Cleveland's elected officials learn the right lessons in time?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the third of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010.
Approximately 10 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
Cleveland’s public schools are failing to prepare students for their futures and as a result, all parents who can afford to have been fleeing to the suburbs for decades. Yet some urban schools, like Think College Now in Oakland, California are finding out that a combination of administrative autonomy and accountability can lead to amazing results. Within Cleveland's own boundaries, charter schools are booming and delivering quality education at a fraction of the cost of traditional public schools. Does Cleveland have what it takes to fundamentally reform its K-12 education system and become a leader in 21st-century education?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the second of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010.
Approximately 10 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
Sixty years ago, Cleveland was a booming city full of promise, opportunity, and people. Today, the city’s population is less half of what it was in its prime and it ranks as one of the poorest big cities in the United States. Hometown hero Drew Carey reflects on how the city became “the mistake on the lake” and wonders about the city’s future. Is a Cleveland renaissance possible or is the city doomed to long, slow death?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday. This is the first of six episodes that will air between March 15-19, 2010.
The next episode, Fix the Schools, will go live at noon ET today.
Approximately 5 minutes long. Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
Click above to watch Drew introduce the series that just might save his hometown. And yours.
Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey is an original Reason.tv documentary series that will air during the week of March 15-19.
Featuring sitcom legend, Price Is Right host, and proud Clevelander Drew Carey, each 10-minute episode investigates and analyzes the problems that turned Cleveland from the nation's sixth-largest city in 1950 into today's "Mistake On The Lake."
Like all too many American cities, Cleveland seems locked into a death spiral, shedding people, jobs, and dreams like nobody's business. When it comes to education, business climate, redevelopment, and more, Clevelanders have come to expect the worse. Is a renaissance possible? Of course it is, but only if the city's leaders and residents are willing to learn from other cities such as Houston, Chicago, Oakland, and Indianapolis. And only if they're willing to try new approaches to old problems.
Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie narrates and talks with educators, elected officials, businesspeople, policy experts, and residents from all walks of life. Stay tuned for a documentary series that maps a route back to prosperity and growth not just for Cleveland but for other once-great American cities.
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday.
Full release schedule:
Episode 1: The Decline of a Once-Great City (March 15)
Sixty years ago, Cleveland was a booming city full of promise, opportunity, and people. Today, the city’s population is less half of what it was in its prime and it ranks as one of the poorest big cities in the United States. Hometown hero Drew Carey reflects on how the city became “the mistake on the lake” and wonders about the city’s future. Is a Cleveland renaissance possible or is the city doomed to long, slow death?
Episode 2: Fix the Schools (March 15)
Cleveland’s public schools are failing to prepare students for their future and as a result, all parents who can afford to have been fleeing to the suburbs for decades. Yet some urban schools, like Think College Now in Oakland, California are finding out that a combination of administrative autonomy and accountability can lead to amazing results. Within Cleveland's own boundaries, charter schools are booming and delivering quality education at a fraction of the cost of traditional public schools. Does Cleveland have what it takes to fundamentally reform its K-12 education system and become a leader in 21st-century education?
Episode 3: Privatize It (March 16)
Should cities be in the business of running businesses ranging from convention centers to farmers markets? Selling off golf courses, contracting out parking concessions, and all manner of public-private partnerships are generating billions of dollars in revenue and dramatically improving city services in places such as Chicago and Indianapolis. Will Cleveland's elected officials learn the right lessons in time?
Episode 4: Take Care of Business (March 17)
After World War II, Cleveland was booming, thanks to its leadership role in heavy industry and a business-friendly climate. Today, the city’s high taxes and onerous regulatory demands make it nearly impossible for new businesses to set up shop while choking the life out of existing companies. While relatively laissez-faire cities such as Houston are growing even during the current recession, Cleveland remains stuck in a rut. How can city officials make the city a more welcoming place for entrepreneurs to thrive?
Cleveland has spent billions on big-ticket urban redevelopment efforts including heavily subsidized sports stadiums and convention centers that have utterly failed to revitalize the city’s economy. Should the city be pouring even more money into and pinning yet higher hopes on long-odds mega-projects? Or should they realize that bottom-up projects driven by the actual residents and private-sector investors are the best was to build a vibrant city for the long haul?
Episode 6: Bring Back the People (March 19)
No city can exist without people, and Cleveland has lost more than half its population since the 1950s. Yet the city still boasts amazingly affordable neighborhoods, down-to-earth charm, arich history, a stunning and varied landscape, and diverse ethnic and cultural scenes. How can Cleveland can become a destination where people flock to pursue their personal versions of the American Dream?
Click below to watch Drew Carey talk about his hopes and dreams for Cleveland—and why he wishes he could film The Price Is Right there.
"I don't like regulations," says Amy Alkon, a syndicated advice columnist who blogs daily at AdviceGoddess.com. "I like to shame people into behaving better."
Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Alkon to discuss her new book, I See Rude People: One woman's battle to beat some manners into impolite society. Alkon explains how she and others mix chutzpah with technology to fight back against the insane drivers, coffee-house yackers, and subway perverts who make our lives miserable.
Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Alex Manning. Music: "I Think I Started a Trend," by Brad Sucks (Magnatune Records).
Just under 10 minutes. Scroll down for embed code and downloadable versions.
On Febuary 11, 2010, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch appeared on Fox Buisness's Stossel to discuss what caused the government's budget crisis and whether public employee unions are making it worse.
The Reason Foundation's Director of Economic Research Anthony Randazzo joins a panel to discuss whether banking reform will avert another crisis on Al Jazeera on December 15, 2009.
On March 11, 2010, Reason Foundation 's Director of Government Reform, Leonard Gilroy appeared on CNBC's Power Lunch to discuss the option of privatizing public works for cash-strapped cities.
Hyper-partisans and rhetorical extremists on the left and the right—characters such as Reps. Alan Grayson and Michele Bachmann, commentators such as Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck—are not simply polarizing the debate, argues Avlon, who is a regular presence on CNN and a columnist for The Daily Beast.
Far more importantly (and destructively), they are obscuring the fact that the U.S. electorate is, in the main, proto-libertarian. Independents are the fastest-growing group of voters, says Avlon and, "They tend to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal to libertarian." Avlon is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrism Can Change American Politics.
Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Avlon in Reason's D.C. offices. Filmed by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg; edited by Bragg. Approximately 10 minutes.
Former Reason magazine Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel has seen the strengths and the shortcomings of the American health care system both as a kidney donor and a breast cancer survivor.
She argues that individuals should be free to sell their organs, and that encouraging organ markets may be the best way to save the lives of the more than 100,000 Americans currently awaiting transplants. A 2009 article Postrel wrote for the Atlantic Monthly highlights her experience with the ultra-expensive wonder drug, Herceptin, and the perils of centrally controlling health care costs.
Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Postrel to discuss organ markets, wonder drugs, and how to reform health care without squashing innovation.
Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Hawk Jensen and Paul Detrick. Edited by Paul Detrick. Music: "Something New" by Very Large Array (Magnatune Records).
Approximately nine-and-a-half minutes. Scroll down for embed code and downloadable versions.
To see Reason.tv's health care play-list, go here.
The Editor in Chief of Deepglamour.net and former Editor in Chief of Reason magazine points out that glamour, which originally meant a literal magic spell "that promises to to transcend ordinary life and make the ideal real," is especially powerful when applied to the world of politics.
Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Virginia Postrel to find out how glamour fuels voters' expectations, which modern political figures are glamourous (Barack is, Sarah isn't), and why glamour is both an advantage and a burden.
Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Hawk Jensen and Paul Detrick. Edited by Paul Detrick.
Music: "You Got Something" by Grayson Wray (Magnatune Records). About eight minutes. Scroll down for embed code and downloadable versions.
Postrel, an organ donor and cancer survivor, talks to Reason.tv about health care reform here.
On March 3, 2010, Adrian Moore , vice president of research at Reason Foundation , appeared on Fox Business with Stuart Varney to comment on California's prison guard pensions and the large issue of the Golden State's buget shortfalls.
On February 19, 2010, Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie made a special apperance via webcam on PBS's Two-Way Street to ask the panel of experts on whether America should look to Portugal's drug policies for its future.
First Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) surrenders his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee amid an ethics investigation. Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) proposes an idea that she hopes will help her make good on her promise to help lead "the most ethical Congress in history"—a party-wide ban on earmarks. Will it happen? Don't bet on it. Reason.tv's "Pork Party House" helps explain why neither party can resist the pull of pork.
If you're a politician, lobbyist, or insider and you're in the mood to party, check out a Washington D.C. mansion called the Sewall-Belmont House. Party with senators and celebrities at thousand-dollar-a-plate fundraisers! You might even get to ride a mechanical bull! The Sewall-Belmont House hosts so many A-list events, you might be surprised to find out that your tax dollars help fund this hotspot for Washington insiders. "Over the last 10 years, the Sewall-Belmont House has gotten over $3.4 million in earmarks," says Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste.
Reporters often highlight the most ridiculous examples, but politicians have learned how to make their pork projects sound uncontroversial, even appealing. Just say your project will help children, senior citizens, or—if you really want to slip under the radar—direct taxpayer dough to a museum.
"Museums are one of the biggies because they sound so good," says Paige. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) used that angle to direct a million-dollar earmark to the Sewall-Belmont House (after the Senator received an award from the Sewall-Belmont House). Turns out Landrieu was just getting warmed up, because her recent $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" shot her into the ranks of pork legends.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, laments Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of Congress's few legitimate pork busters. Flake tells Reason.tv that despite pork-laden scandals that stuck some members behind bars—remember Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.)?—and promises from Barack Obama to reform earmarks, spending on pork continues to swell in the giant pork party house called the U.S. Congress.
"Pork Party House" is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Producer: Hawk Jensen; Host: Nick Gillespie; Field Producer: Dan Hayes; Associate Producer: Paul Detrick; Additional Camera: Meredith Bragg; Production Assistant: Josh Swain; Music: "Get What You Want?" by Beight (Magnatune Records).
Approximately six-and-a-half minutes. Scroll down for embed code and downloadable versions.
In 1992, Jim Gray, a conservative judge in conservative Orange County, California, held a press conference during which he recommended that we rethink our drug laws. Back then, it took a great deal of courage to suggest that the war on drugs was a failed policy.
Today, more and more Americans are coming to the realization that prohibition's costs—whether measured in lives and liberties lost or dollars wasted—far exceed any possible or claimed benefits. Reason.tv's Paul Feine interviewed Gray about drug policy and the prospects for reform. The interview was shot by Alex Manning and edited by Hawk Jensen.
On Tuesday, February 9, in the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms in recent Washington, D.C. memory, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Harvard economist (and Reason contributor) Jeff Miron talked about economic revitalitization and Johnson's views on immigration, war, and other issues at the heart of the new organization Our America.
Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie intros the speakers and moderates audience Q&A. Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg; edited by Bragg. Approximately 35 minutes. Scroll down for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions.
President Barack Obama has pledged $8 billion in tax dollars to build a national network of high-speed rail—trains that can carry passengers at speeds in excess of 150 MPH.
But the Supertrain fantasy was a mistake back in the 1970s, when it gave rise to one of the most expensive—and rotten—TV shows in history. And it's just as much of a wreck in the 21st century for at least three reasons:
1. The lowball costs.CNN estimates that delivering on the plan could cost well over $500 billion and take decades to build, all while failing to cover much of the country at all. Internationally, only two high-speed rail lines have recouped their capital costs and all depend on huge subsidies to stay in operation.
2. The supposed benefits. "We're gonna be taking cars off of congested highways and reducing carbon emissions," says Vice President Joe Biden, an ardent rail booster. But most traffic jams are urban, not inter-city, so high-speed rail between metro areas will have no effect on your daily commute. And when construction costs are factored in, high-speed rail "may yield only marginal net greenhouse gas reductions," say UC-Berkeley researchers.
3. The delusional Amtrak example. Obama and Biden look to Amtrak as precedent, but since its founding in 1971, the nation's passenger rail system has sucked up almost $35 billion in subsidies and, says The Washington Post's Robert J. Samuelson, "a typical trip is subsidized by about $50." About 140 million Americans shlep to work every day, while Amtrak carries just 78,000 passengers. There's no reason to think that high-speed rail will pump up those numbers, though there's every reason to believe its costs will grow and grow.
"Supertrain 2010" was written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts. Approximately 3 minutes.
Scroll down for iPod, HD, and audio versions. And subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to get automatic notifications when new material goes live.
Freddy's in Brooklyn is a happening place that has been named one of the city's best bars by the Village Voice, Esquire, and The New York Times.
Unfortunately, Freddy's—and the surrounding neighborhood—is smack-dab in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project, a multi-million-dollar, 22-acre development that is intended to create "an urban utopia" in the language of developer Bruce Ratner, and a new, publicly subsidized home to Ratner's Nets, who currently play NBA basketball (if you can call it that) in New Jersey.
But don't mistake Atlantic Yards as one more instance of the market-driven transformations for which New York is rightly famous. It's actually the latest case of eminent domain abuse, where private property is seized by the state on dubious grounds and then immediately handed over to private interests for private gain.
In this case, the Empire State Development Corporation has designated the thriving area as blighted to facilitate the taking of privately owned houses and businesses without having to pay full market value. Ratner, whose partners in the venture include rapper Jay Z and the Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, stands to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars on the deal, all thanks to the brute force of the state.
This week, a Brooklyn Supreme Court ruling tossed out the eminent domain objections of residents and property owners who had held out for six years and Ratner plans to break ground on the site on March 11, if not before.
The workers and patrons of Freddy's, however, are not going gentle into that good night. They've pledged to engage in civil disobedience and chain themselves to the bar when the bulldozers and wrecking balls come for their favorite haunt. A state sentator has even declared that she'll lay down in front of the demolition machinery. The awful 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo, which held that governments can seize property to increase potential tax revenues, may have paved the way for Atlantic Yards, but Freddy's is the next last stand in an ongoing battle against eminent domain abuse.
Produced by Dan Hayes, who conceived, shot, and edited the video; Damon Root, who researched the legal issues and did logistics; and Nick Gillespie, who co-wrote the piece and hosts.
Approximately 5 minutes.
Scroll down for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions.
Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel and receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.
On January 29, 2010, Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie appeared on Fox Business Channel's Stossel to talk about the "food police," childhood obesity, and the ever-growing nanny state. Featuring a legendary battle between Gillespie and junk-food prohibitionist MeMe Roth.
Approximately 8.30 minutes.
Scroll down for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel and receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.
On February 4, 2010, Reason Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward appeared on RT's The Alyona Show as part of a panel to discuss the marketing strategies of the Democratic and Republican parties. Approximately 13 minutes.
Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Eugene Volokh, professor of law at the UCLA School of Law and founder of The Volokh Conspiracy, to discuss gun rights, free expression, and the Nanny State.
Find out what Volokh thinks the biggest threats to free expression are, and whether today's muzzlers come mostly from the left or right. Volokh also explains what the landmark Supreme Court case, DC vs. Heller, has done to gun control and whether he agrees with the "more guns, less crime" thesis.
Other topics include: media bias and gun rights, Alabama's prohibition on selling sex toys, and whether judges can be nannies.
Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning and Hawk Jensen. Edited by Paul Detrick.
On December 9, 2009, Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie appeared with investment analyst, sound-money advocate, and likely Connecticut senatorial candidate Peter Schiff to discuss the Federal Reserve and government spending on Fox News' Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Reason's Damon W. Root appeared on Fox News’ Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano on January 20, 2010 to discuss the Second Amendment, federalism, and the Chicago gun case.
Last month's nannies pulled a modern-day Footloose by banning singing, dancing and rapping at new bars and restaurants—in Snoop Dog's home, no less!
But what about this month?
Check out who's pulling the plug on electric bingo machines (sorry charity fundraisers) and who won't let pet stores sell dogs and cats (seriously?).
But the Nanny of the Month goes to the heartland pol who's waging a very real war on fake pot (A.K.A. spice, K2, genie, black mamba, bliss, dragon, Bombay Blue ...) Ladies and gentlemen, we present Reason.tv's Nanny of the Month for February 2010: Kansas State Rep. Robert Olson!
"Nanny of the Month" is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Associate Producers are Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Animation by Meredith Bragg.
On March 1, 2010 ReasonEditor in Chief, Matt Welch , appeared on CNBC's Power Lunch to discuss the Securities and Exchange Commission and whether financial regulation actually works.
