Source:
http://news.advocate.com/post/15571734525/gayest-cities-in-america-2012
15. Denver
Denver is simultaneously outdoorsy and a rapidly growing metropolis, and its attitude is exceptionally laid-back and gay-friendly. (Screw the antigay zealots in nearby Colorado Springs.) A day spent skiing, fishing, hunting, or camping with the fit locals can lead to an evening dining, clubbing, or camping of another sort. Much of the sporting and social scene is devoted to the ladies of Denver; witness the Capitol Hill neighborhood, girl-watching at There Urban Whiskey Bar (ThereDenver.com), a nosh at Racine’s (RacinesRestaurant.com), and dancing at Charlie’s (CharliesDenver.com).
14. Long Beach, Calif.
How gay is Long Beach? Its pride celebration is one of the country’s biggest, and the Long Beach Pride float seems to make its way to every other Pride event within 500 miles! There are a ton of gay and lesbian bars, restaurants, a big boat suitably named the Queen Mary (QueenMary.com; it’s also haunted, and a hotel). The sunny, welcoming city provides a more relaxed alternative to nearby Los Angeles.
13. Austin
No amount of backwoodsiness from previous and current statehouse residents George W. Bush or Rick Perry can taint the cosmopolitan, countercultural, and friendly nature of this capital city. Bands, barhopping, and barbecue feature prominently here, for queers and others. The lesbian-owned Hotel San José (SanJoseHotel.com) is a minimalist oasis; no fewer than 16 bars offer libations for LGBTs; and Splash Days (au naturel sunbathing and parties over Labor Day), the Austin City Limits Music Festival (late September), and March’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival keep Austin suitably weird — and gay.
12. Portland, Ore.
Bisexual Sleater-Kinney alum Carrie Brownstein has fun on Portlandia (“Put a bird on it!”) playing with the rep of the city’s hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate, boycott-ready, feminist, fleece-clad denizens. But there’s other fun to be had here too. Visit the arty Pearl and Alberta districts; stay at the Ace Hotel; read at the country’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s; drink at the Silverado (SilveradoPDX.com) and Red Cap Garage/Boxxes (Boxxes.com); tune in to Out Loud (KBOO.fm/OutLoud), and party at Crush (CrushBar.com), popular with men and women. Oh, then there’s all that nature stuff!
11. Little Rock, Ark.
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!
10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
The heart of western Michigan LGBT life is in Grand Rapids, with dancing, drinking, and bingo at the Apartment (ApartmentLounge.net), which has been in operation for over three decades; karaoke at Diversions video bar (DiversionsNightclub.com), and drag shows and go-go boys at Rumors (RumorsNightclub.net). The city boasts one of the Midwest’s best LGBT country line-dancing scenes, with the Grand River Renegades (GrandRiverRenegades.com) offering anyone a dance card on Sundays at Rumors.
9. Atlanta
We won’t fault you for trying to forget Real Housewife Kim Zolciak’s dip into the lesbian pool — but don’t blame Atlanta if everyone there wants to sample the fun LGBTs have all over town. Lesbian businesses thrive in East Atlanta, and gay clubs go off in Mechanicsville. People coming to Atlanta like to party, and the GayTL delivers with Black Gay Pride in September and Atlanta Pride in October, and the black gay clubs’ second-busiest weekend of the year surrounds the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Holla!
8. Knoxville, Tenn.
The state’s legislature has been an unmitigated disaster for our rights, making a law to prevent cities from adopting LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinances (although, happily, the ridiculous “don’t say ‘gay’” bill is dead for now). Nevertheless, Knoxville has defiantly produced a robust gay scene, including the University of Tennessee’s Commission for LGBT People; a welcoming spot for queer, trans, and other marginalized teens at Spectrum Café (SpectrumCafe.org); gay-affirming churches; and thriving nightlife.
7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
It’s technically two cities, but oh, what fun there is to be had here. The region is a draw for upper Midwestern LGBTs, and Minneapolis topped this list in 2011 for so many reasons. These two cities can’t get enough of each other: There’s the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC.org), Twin Cities Pride (the 40th annual is June 23-24), and even Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBT and Allied Business Community. Sheesh, just get domestic-partnered already!
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
You don’t have to be big to have it going on, as this sixth largest city in Michigan does. The area has one of the few clubs in Michigan catering to dykes: Stiletto’s (technically in nearby Inkster) draws in every lesbian in Detroit. But talk about a taste for drama! Just ask U. of M.’s first out student body prez, Chris Armstrong, the target of a smear campaign by nutso assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. We raised a glass at Aut Bar (AutBar.com) when the kook got the boot.
5. Seattle
When Forbes named Seattle the most miserable sports city in the nation, many of us felt a twinge of empathy. No matter; there’s heaps of other stuff to keep us busy, including tons of locavore and cosmopolitan cuisine, funky bars in a robust LGBT scene, Dan Savage, and hookups — or at least the search for them. TheStir.com noted that Seattle ranks among the top cities for residents who list “casual sex” as the type of relationship they’re seeking.
4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Booting spring breakers from its shores may have not boosted Jagermeister sales, but it sure has classed up the joint. Add to that a mass exodus from Miami, where a real estate boom priced out many gay clubs (then the boom busted), and you have the recipe for a rising homo mecca in South Florida. The area is teeming with gay bars and restaurants, and a ton of guesthouses and spas that run the gamut from mild to spicy. Lesbians are finally starting to move to Fort Lauderdale too, though most girl bars, like New Moon (NewMoonBar.com), are in nearby Wilton Manors.
3. Cambridge, Mass.
The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar (ParadiseCambridge.com) is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week — hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too.
2. Orlando, Fla.
Besides hosting Gay Days at Disney World, where 50,000 LGBT folks and their kids dressed in red T-shirts invade the theme park the first Saturday in June (and spend $100 million in town), Orlando has more gay softball teams than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. And residents just got domestic-partnership protections. For non-Mickeyphiles, there’s oodles of homo content each year at the annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival (OrlandoFringe.org).
1. Salt Lake City
While those unfamiliar with the Beehive State are likely to conjure images of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, far-less-oppressive-than-it-used-to-be Salt Lake City has earned its queer cred. There are more than a half-dozen hot spots for men and women, including the eco-friendly nightclub Jam (JamSLC.com), though the sustainable bamboo flooring is perhaps less of a draw than the packed dance floor. The Coffee Garden (878 South 900 East) is a gathering spot for those looking for a caffeine fix, the Sundance Film Festival brings LGBT film buffs to screenings downtown, and lesbian-owned Meditrina (MeditrinaSLC.com) is a true wine bar — yes, you can get a drink in this town.
Showing posts with label Miami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miami. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
DON’T Give the Miami Hurricanes the Death Penalty
Give it to the NCAA
Dave Zirin
http://www.thenation.com/blog/162841/don%E2%80%99t-give-miami-hurricanes-death-penalty-give-it-ncaa
Thursday morning’s cover of USA Today blared the two words on everyone's lips: “the death penalty.” No, this isn’t because Texas Governor Rick Perry – who just loves executin’ innocent and guilty alike - is now running for President. It’s the fate that most people believe awaits the storied football team at the University of Miami. The death penalty means that the NCAA will for an indeterminate time shut down the entire Hurricanes program. It’s a brutal, financially crippling fate that many believe Miami has more than earned, following a Yahoo Sports expose by Charles Robinson which detailed eight years of amateur violations that would make Dennis Rodman blush. A mini-Madoff financial criminal named Nevin Shapiro, currently serving 20 years behind bars, offered prostitutes, payola, jewelry, yacht parties and every possible South Beach excess for the Hurricane players. While corrupting the athletic program, he was simultaneously being feted by school President, former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala and Hurricanes athletic director Paul Dee. They even let him on two occasions lead the team out of the tunnel on game day.
This bombshell has the moral majority of sports journalists in full froth, rushing to the barricades to defend amateur sports. We have people like Sporting News columnist David Whitley, to use merely one example, writing, “The only way to make Miami behave is a long timeout. No more football, smoke and parties for a couple of years. Nothing else has a chance of ending the culture of corruption that is The U.” He even calls Miami "the Ben Tre of college football", writing, “American forces wiped out the village to get rid of the Viet Cong, prompting a timeless explanation from the U.S. commander: ‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.’ The only way to save Miami is to destroy it, stripper pole and all.” But like the war in Vietnam, not to mention the actual death penalty, the call for the NCAA to shut down the program is dead wrong. As with capital punishment, eliminating the Hurricanes is an exercise in hypocrisy that does nothing but ensure these scandals will happen again and again.
What this scandal should produce, instead of the isolation and destruction of one program, is a serious reflection on the gutter economy that is college athletics. Players cannot be paid openly and legally so instead we get the amoral wampum of “amateur sports.” Reading the Yahoo Sports story, it’s difficult to not be chilled by the casual misogyny detailed as strippers, “escorts” and hookers were purchased and handed to players like party favors. You wonder why over 80% of NFL players get divorced after retirement. It’s because as teenagers, they are mentored by parasites like Nevin Shapiro who show them that women are the exchange value for their lucrative labor. This kind of gutter economy also has an ugly echo in old slave plantations, as the prized sports specimens in the antebellum South were handed women by the masters in return for their athletic prowess. Or as David Steele wrote earlier this week, ”Of course, America’s tender little feelings will be bruised if this is equated to slavery, or a plantation economy, or a plantation mentality. Fine. Maybe it can live with a metaphor like sharecropping. You do all the work, we take all the profits, we compensate you with the bare necessities of life, and tough break if you don’t like it."
The metaphor works because once you wave away the smoke and hot air, this is about jock sniffing criminals and corrupted college Presidents taking advantage of primarily poor African Americans from the South, who see everyone getting paid but them. One anonymous University of Miami player told Yahoo Sports about University running back Tyrone Moss, who took $1,000 from Shapiro. “The guy had a kid while he was in college, a little Tyrone Jr.,” the player said. “He comes in poor as [expletive] from Pompano and he’s got a little kid to feed. I could barely feed myself. I can’t imagine having to feed a kid, too. Of course he’s going to take it when someone offers him $1,000. Who wouldn’t in that situation?”
The solution lies in paying the players but it also lies in driving a stake through the heart of the NCAA as an instrument of enforcement. Having the NCAA shut down the program only reinforces the illusion that they are the motor of morality, compliance and justice, when in fact they are the corrupters of these concepts. Already, NCAA President Mark Emmert, he of the seven figure salary, has been across the national media, preaching about protecting, “The integrity of intercollegiate athletics.” Emmert and his 14 assistants, each who make at least $400,000 a year, will stand on their soapbox and quarantine the bad boys of Miami just in time to save the Golden Goose: the billion dollar television contracts, and the $135 million from the Bowl Championship Series used to crown a fake national champion.
They defend amateurism as an end unto itself, but this is also complete nonsense. As Patrick Hruby wrote at espn.com last year, “Philosophically speaking, amateurism is malarkey, about as credible as the Tooth Fairy. The Victorian-era English aristocrats who came up with the concept ascribed it to the ancient Greeks, who supposedly competed for nothing more than glory, honor and olive wreaths. The only problem? History and the legend don't match. Modern archeology suggests that the ancient Olympics were rife with spoils. Think prize money, prime amphitheater seats, generous pensions and civic appointments. According to Olympic historian Tony Perottet, one Games winner even parlayed his victory into a senatorial seat in Athens. Indeed, the ancient Greeks didn't even have a word for amateur, and the closest term --idiotes -- needs no translation."
Let what has happened at Miami be a wakeup call: the NCAA has about as much moral authority to give “the death penalty” as Rick Perry. If this ends with the NCAA giving Miami the death penalty, then the “gutter economy” survives and we are all the worse for it. If you listen closely, you can hear King Leopold’s chains rattling in the NCAA’s halls, haunting and guiding the daily maneuvers of this “non-profit” that enriches itself by paying its laborers nothing. Shut it down and end the culture of corruption once and for all.
Dave Zirin just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Dave Zirin
http://www.thenation.com/blog/162841/don%E2%80%99t-give-miami-hurricanes-death-penalty-give-it-ncaa
Thursday morning’s cover of USA Today blared the two words on everyone's lips: “the death penalty.” No, this isn’t because Texas Governor Rick Perry – who just loves executin’ innocent and guilty alike - is now running for President. It’s the fate that most people believe awaits the storied football team at the University of Miami. The death penalty means that the NCAA will for an indeterminate time shut down the entire Hurricanes program. It’s a brutal, financially crippling fate that many believe Miami has more than earned, following a Yahoo Sports expose by Charles Robinson which detailed eight years of amateur violations that would make Dennis Rodman blush. A mini-Madoff financial criminal named Nevin Shapiro, currently serving 20 years behind bars, offered prostitutes, payola, jewelry, yacht parties and every possible South Beach excess for the Hurricane players. While corrupting the athletic program, he was simultaneously being feted by school President, former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala and Hurricanes athletic director Paul Dee. They even let him on two occasions lead the team out of the tunnel on game day.
This bombshell has the moral majority of sports journalists in full froth, rushing to the barricades to defend amateur sports. We have people like Sporting News columnist David Whitley, to use merely one example, writing, “The only way to make Miami behave is a long timeout. No more football, smoke and parties for a couple of years. Nothing else has a chance of ending the culture of corruption that is The U.” He even calls Miami "the Ben Tre of college football", writing, “American forces wiped out the village to get rid of the Viet Cong, prompting a timeless explanation from the U.S. commander: ‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.’ The only way to save Miami is to destroy it, stripper pole and all.” But like the war in Vietnam, not to mention the actual death penalty, the call for the NCAA to shut down the program is dead wrong. As with capital punishment, eliminating the Hurricanes is an exercise in hypocrisy that does nothing but ensure these scandals will happen again and again.
What this scandal should produce, instead of the isolation and destruction of one program, is a serious reflection on the gutter economy that is college athletics. Players cannot be paid openly and legally so instead we get the amoral wampum of “amateur sports.” Reading the Yahoo Sports story, it’s difficult to not be chilled by the casual misogyny detailed as strippers, “escorts” and hookers were purchased and handed to players like party favors. You wonder why over 80% of NFL players get divorced after retirement. It’s because as teenagers, they are mentored by parasites like Nevin Shapiro who show them that women are the exchange value for their lucrative labor. This kind of gutter economy also has an ugly echo in old slave plantations, as the prized sports specimens in the antebellum South were handed women by the masters in return for their athletic prowess. Or as David Steele wrote earlier this week, ”Of course, America’s tender little feelings will be bruised if this is equated to slavery, or a plantation economy, or a plantation mentality. Fine. Maybe it can live with a metaphor like sharecropping. You do all the work, we take all the profits, we compensate you with the bare necessities of life, and tough break if you don’t like it."
The metaphor works because once you wave away the smoke and hot air, this is about jock sniffing criminals and corrupted college Presidents taking advantage of primarily poor African Americans from the South, who see everyone getting paid but them. One anonymous University of Miami player told Yahoo Sports about University running back Tyrone Moss, who took $1,000 from Shapiro. “The guy had a kid while he was in college, a little Tyrone Jr.,” the player said. “He comes in poor as [expletive] from Pompano and he’s got a little kid to feed. I could barely feed myself. I can’t imagine having to feed a kid, too. Of course he’s going to take it when someone offers him $1,000. Who wouldn’t in that situation?”
The solution lies in paying the players but it also lies in driving a stake through the heart of the NCAA as an instrument of enforcement. Having the NCAA shut down the program only reinforces the illusion that they are the motor of morality, compliance and justice, when in fact they are the corrupters of these concepts. Already, NCAA President Mark Emmert, he of the seven figure salary, has been across the national media, preaching about protecting, “The integrity of intercollegiate athletics.” Emmert and his 14 assistants, each who make at least $400,000 a year, will stand on their soapbox and quarantine the bad boys of Miami just in time to save the Golden Goose: the billion dollar television contracts, and the $135 million from the Bowl Championship Series used to crown a fake national champion.
They defend amateurism as an end unto itself, but this is also complete nonsense. As Patrick Hruby wrote at espn.com last year, “Philosophically speaking, amateurism is malarkey, about as credible as the Tooth Fairy. The Victorian-era English aristocrats who came up with the concept ascribed it to the ancient Greeks, who supposedly competed for nothing more than glory, honor and olive wreaths. The only problem? History and the legend don't match. Modern archeology suggests that the ancient Olympics were rife with spoils. Think prize money, prime amphitheater seats, generous pensions and civic appointments. According to Olympic historian Tony Perottet, one Games winner even parlayed his victory into a senatorial seat in Athens. Indeed, the ancient Greeks didn't even have a word for amateur, and the closest term --idiotes -- needs no translation."
Let what has happened at Miami be a wakeup call: the NCAA has about as much moral authority to give “the death penalty” as Rick Perry. If this ends with the NCAA giving Miami the death penalty, then the “gutter economy” survives and we are all the worse for it. If you listen closely, you can hear King Leopold’s chains rattling in the NCAA’s halls, haunting and guiding the daily maneuvers of this “non-profit” that enriches itself by paying its laborers nothing. Shut it down and end the culture of corruption once and for all.
Dave Zirin just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
N.B.A. Lockout: Can Players Save Owners from Themselves?
Dave Zirin
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2011/07/nba-lockout-can-players-save-owners.html
National Basketball Association players, like their N.F.L. counterparts, have now been “locked out” by team owners, putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. But other than the presence of a lot of very angry athletes, there are few similarities between the two conflicts. In the N.F.L., the owners want a longer season and even higher profit margins. They claim future losses but refuse to open their books and prove it.
The situation in the N.B.A. is a much stinkier kettle of fish. The N.B.A. just completed its most profitable season ever. Driven by fan interest around LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat, among other attractions, the league pulled in a record $4.3 billion in revenue. Last off-season, $2.5 billion was spent on contracts. Attendance was the fifth-highest total in league history. Despite all of this, twenty-two of the thirty teams in the league claim to have lost money this past season. And Commissioner David Stern has opened the books to prove it to the player’s union.
It’s all very bizarre. How can record profits and financial hardship coëxist?
One answer is the economy. Owners are getting less in public subsidies than had been projected before the bottom dropped out in 2008. But the true answer lies in understanding the mindset of the typical N.B.A. owner, many of whom seem to have the impulse control of an Adderall addict armed with a lighter in a fireworks store. The league-wide losses, which Stern pegs at $200 million, can be put at the feet of awful contracts that teams have given older players. It’s guaranteed money that has to be paid long after a player’s value has expired.
To take one example: the highest paid player in the N.B.A. next year won’t be LeBron, Kobe, Dirk, or any of the icons that rule the league. It’ll be Rashard Lewis, a player who was signed to a $118 million contract four years ago with Orlando and never earned that kind of money on the court. (He’s no longer even with the team, having been traded to Washington.) The owners argue that there is no mechanism for them to “get out” from under these kinds of bad contracts. Yet no one put a gun to their heads when they offered this money in the past.
The owners want the union to agree to a hard salary cap enforced across the league, “guaranteed profits for each team,” and the freedom to escape from these lousy contracts. In other words, they want the union to help them exercise the fiscal discipline they are unable to exert themselves.
Atlanta Hawks center Etan Thomas said to me yesterday as the lockout loomed that “most union negotiations start from the existing contract. David Stern has started from the point of a fantasy Christmas list. No guaranteed contracts. A hard salary cap. Drastic concessions. Guaranteed profits … as if we have control over the broader economy. We have been open to renegotiating how we divide revenue. But instead they showed up with this Christmas list of anti-union wishes that would have hurt not just players but the game of basketball.”
Thomas makes the point that if the owners most fevered wishes come true, teams will have a couple of superstar players that make a fortune and then ten guys fighting over the crumbs. “Basketball without a middle class is a game where people are playing selfishly, trying to pad their stats at the expense of the team because there is no security,” he said.
Since the last lockout, in 1999, the conventional wisdom has been that players would always lose labor conflicts because time is not on their side. They need to play when their bodies are in their primes. (Owners have more ability to wait it out.) Or some people have suggested that players lead the kinds of profligate lifestyles that demand consistent game checks. But this time it seems different. This current crop of players, faced with a lockout, have adopted a resolute determination not seen in decades.
Fifty players showed up to negotiations last week wearing the same bright yellow T-shirt that read “STAND.” David Stern was not amused, but the players are solid.
As Derek Fisher, president of the National Basketball Player’s Association, said, “We will not accept a bad deal that is not fair to our players. We’d love to avoid a lockout, but we are unified in the sense of not being afraid if that’s what we’re faced with.”
Etan Thomas also described to me how schooled the younger players are on the game’s past. “There’s a stereotype that athletes don’t know their history,” he said. “But I talk to these guys and they know about Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Spencer Haywood. They know about the players who refused to take the court for the 1964 All-Star Game unless the union would be recognized. They all paved the way and fought for this league to reach the level it is now, and we respect that. We cannot take all of their hard work and throw it down the drain.”
For hoops fans, we should hope that the National Labor Review Board ends the lockout, per the request of the N.B.P.A., that the two sides pound out a long-term deal, and that owners start to practice the very self-discipline that the league preaches to its players. That would truly, to use the playground vernacular, be money.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2011/07/nba-lockout-can-players-save-owners.html
National Basketball Association players, like their N.F.L. counterparts, have now been “locked out” by team owners, putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy. But other than the presence of a lot of very angry athletes, there are few similarities between the two conflicts. In the N.F.L., the owners want a longer season and even higher profit margins. They claim future losses but refuse to open their books and prove it.
The situation in the N.B.A. is a much stinkier kettle of fish. The N.B.A. just completed its most profitable season ever. Driven by fan interest around LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat, among other attractions, the league pulled in a record $4.3 billion in revenue. Last off-season, $2.5 billion was spent on contracts. Attendance was the fifth-highest total in league history. Despite all of this, twenty-two of the thirty teams in the league claim to have lost money this past season. And Commissioner David Stern has opened the books to prove it to the player’s union.
It’s all very bizarre. How can record profits and financial hardship coëxist?
One answer is the economy. Owners are getting less in public subsidies than had been projected before the bottom dropped out in 2008. But the true answer lies in understanding the mindset of the typical N.B.A. owner, many of whom seem to have the impulse control of an Adderall addict armed with a lighter in a fireworks store. The league-wide losses, which Stern pegs at $200 million, can be put at the feet of awful contracts that teams have given older players. It’s guaranteed money that has to be paid long after a player’s value has expired.
To take one example: the highest paid player in the N.B.A. next year won’t be LeBron, Kobe, Dirk, or any of the icons that rule the league. It’ll be Rashard Lewis, a player who was signed to a $118 million contract four years ago with Orlando and never earned that kind of money on the court. (He’s no longer even with the team, having been traded to Washington.) The owners argue that there is no mechanism for them to “get out” from under these kinds of bad contracts. Yet no one put a gun to their heads when they offered this money in the past.
The owners want the union to agree to a hard salary cap enforced across the league, “guaranteed profits for each team,” and the freedom to escape from these lousy contracts. In other words, they want the union to help them exercise the fiscal discipline they are unable to exert themselves.
Atlanta Hawks center Etan Thomas said to me yesterday as the lockout loomed that “most union negotiations start from the existing contract. David Stern has started from the point of a fantasy Christmas list. No guaranteed contracts. A hard salary cap. Drastic concessions. Guaranteed profits … as if we have control over the broader economy. We have been open to renegotiating how we divide revenue. But instead they showed up with this Christmas list of anti-union wishes that would have hurt not just players but the game of basketball.”
Thomas makes the point that if the owners most fevered wishes come true, teams will have a couple of superstar players that make a fortune and then ten guys fighting over the crumbs. “Basketball without a middle class is a game where people are playing selfishly, trying to pad their stats at the expense of the team because there is no security,” he said.
Since the last lockout, in 1999, the conventional wisdom has been that players would always lose labor conflicts because time is not on their side. They need to play when their bodies are in their primes. (Owners have more ability to wait it out.) Or some people have suggested that players lead the kinds of profligate lifestyles that demand consistent game checks. But this time it seems different. This current crop of players, faced with a lockout, have adopted a resolute determination not seen in decades.
Fifty players showed up to negotiations last week wearing the same bright yellow T-shirt that read “STAND.” David Stern was not amused, but the players are solid.
As Derek Fisher, president of the National Basketball Player’s Association, said, “We will not accept a bad deal that is not fair to our players. We’d love to avoid a lockout, but we are unified in the sense of not being afraid if that’s what we’re faced with.”
Etan Thomas also described to me how schooled the younger players are on the game’s past. “There’s a stereotype that athletes don’t know their history,” he said. “But I talk to these guys and they know about Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Spencer Haywood. They know about the players who refused to take the court for the 1964 All-Star Game unless the union would be recognized. They all paved the way and fought for this league to reach the level it is now, and we respect that. We cannot take all of their hard work and throw it down the drain.”
For hoops fans, we should hope that the National Labor Review Board ends the lockout, per the request of the N.B.P.A., that the two sides pound out a long-term deal, and that owners start to practice the very self-discipline that the league preaches to its players. That would truly, to use the playground vernacular, be money.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
LeBron James and the Quote Heard Round the World
Dave Zirin | June 13, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161374/lebron-james-and-quote-heard-round-world
The most polarizing athlete in sports, playing for the most polarizing team, just gave us the most polarizing post-game quote in living memory. Lebron James, after his Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, and after playing profoundly beneath his Herculean stature, said the following:
“All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point."
Damn. Those who aren’t sports fans — or I guess it’s more appropriate to say, “fans of the many soap operas that swirl around sports” might not realize what a break from the book of clichés this statement represents. Most post-game comments are so polished and filed down, they’d make a Mitt Romney speech look edgy. Players routinely behave for the cameras like they just graduated from the Madeira School for Girls. It’s like athletes went to a Meet the Press seminar on “how to say nothing.”
After last night’s crushing loss, Lebron’s All-Star teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were predictable portraits of propriety. Wade said, “First of all we give credit to the Dallas Mavericks…. We ran into a team that was obviously better than us.” Lebron, after a season that saw him ditch his hard-luck teammates in Cleveland, take his talents to South Beach, and transition from hero to heel, chose to go a different route.
As one could imagine, he is getting crushed across the sports columns and the interwebs for letting the mask slip and speaking his mind. It's being read as the ultimate statement of the “spoiled, arrogant” athlete. One headline read, “Lebron: reminding you that he's super rich and you're not.” Jalen Rose on ESPN said, "He needs to learn to speak to the media. He puts his foot in his mouth time and time again.” The NBC sports site Pro Basketball Talk blared the headlined, LeBron has a few arrogant words for those who hate him [1]. Writer Kurt Hellin wrote, “LeBron is never going to win over many of those haters. But calling them jealous loses some on the fence.... Lebron has a long line of public relations blunders in the past year. You can add this one to the list.”
When I read Lebron's words, frankly, I did a triple take. It’s practically a pro-wrestling quote designed to bring audience "heat" as an end unto itself. I kept thinking of former WWE heel Rick Rude starting matches by saying, “What I'd like to have right now is for all you fat, out of shape, [insert city] sweat-hogs to keep the noise down while I take my robe off and show all the ladies what a real man is supposed to look like." But even in the scripted world of professional wrestling any heel knows that you rile people up before matches, not after.
There's little point in mining Lebron’s psyche for his intentions. Was he being defensive? Insensitive? Even cruel? I have no clue and don't really care. But I do think the quote deserves examination on its own terms. How can we deny the truth that many of us look to sports as a distraction from the trials and tribulations of our own lives? How can we deny that the reason so many of us read the sports page before the front page is that one is both bearable and comprehensible while the other simply isn’t?
We live in a crumbling nation with epic unemployment, two million people behind bars, and vast wealth inequality, while being told that we inhabit the best country on earth and to think otherwise is heresy. In such a world, sports become more than an escape: it’s a refuge. It’s much easier - and emotionally manageable - to hate Lebron James than face our collective future.
Make no mistake, I'm not arguing that Lebron James was trying to point out the way sports deflects attention from other realities. I don’t put his comments in league with another hated athlete, Barry Bonds, who in 2005, asked why Congress had time to investigate steroids while people were dying in New Orleans. But his words should give us pause. There’s nothing wrong, in my view, with sports being a sweet evening escape from the problems that face us the next morning. There is something wrong with seeing athletes as avenues for our aggression when the real culprits exist outside the arena.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161374/lebron-james-and-quote-heard-round-world
The most polarizing athlete in sports, playing for the most polarizing team, just gave us the most polarizing post-game quote in living memory. Lebron James, after his Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, and after playing profoundly beneath his Herculean stature, said the following:
“All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they have to get back to the real world at some point."
Damn. Those who aren’t sports fans — or I guess it’s more appropriate to say, “fans of the many soap operas that swirl around sports” might not realize what a break from the book of clichés this statement represents. Most post-game comments are so polished and filed down, they’d make a Mitt Romney speech look edgy. Players routinely behave for the cameras like they just graduated from the Madeira School for Girls. It’s like athletes went to a Meet the Press seminar on “how to say nothing.”
After last night’s crushing loss, Lebron’s All-Star teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were predictable portraits of propriety. Wade said, “First of all we give credit to the Dallas Mavericks…. We ran into a team that was obviously better than us.” Lebron, after a season that saw him ditch his hard-luck teammates in Cleveland, take his talents to South Beach, and transition from hero to heel, chose to go a different route.
As one could imagine, he is getting crushed across the sports columns and the interwebs for letting the mask slip and speaking his mind. It's being read as the ultimate statement of the “spoiled, arrogant” athlete. One headline read, “Lebron: reminding you that he's super rich and you're not.” Jalen Rose on ESPN said, "He needs to learn to speak to the media. He puts his foot in his mouth time and time again.” The NBC sports site Pro Basketball Talk blared the headlined, LeBron has a few arrogant words for those who hate him [1]. Writer Kurt Hellin wrote, “LeBron is never going to win over many of those haters. But calling them jealous loses some on the fence.... Lebron has a long line of public relations blunders in the past year. You can add this one to the list.”
When I read Lebron's words, frankly, I did a triple take. It’s practically a pro-wrestling quote designed to bring audience "heat" as an end unto itself. I kept thinking of former WWE heel Rick Rude starting matches by saying, “What I'd like to have right now is for all you fat, out of shape, [insert city] sweat-hogs to keep the noise down while I take my robe off and show all the ladies what a real man is supposed to look like." But even in the scripted world of professional wrestling any heel knows that you rile people up before matches, not after.
There's little point in mining Lebron’s psyche for his intentions. Was he being defensive? Insensitive? Even cruel? I have no clue and don't really care. But I do think the quote deserves examination on its own terms. How can we deny the truth that many of us look to sports as a distraction from the trials and tribulations of our own lives? How can we deny that the reason so many of us read the sports page before the front page is that one is both bearable and comprehensible while the other simply isn’t?
We live in a crumbling nation with epic unemployment, two million people behind bars, and vast wealth inequality, while being told that we inhabit the best country on earth and to think otherwise is heresy. In such a world, sports become more than an escape: it’s a refuge. It’s much easier - and emotionally manageable - to hate Lebron James than face our collective future.
Make no mistake, I'm not arguing that Lebron James was trying to point out the way sports deflects attention from other realities. I don’t put his comments in league with another hated athlete, Barry Bonds, who in 2005, asked why Congress had time to investigate steroids while people were dying in New Orleans. But his words should give us pause. There’s nothing wrong, in my view, with sports being a sweet evening escape from the problems that face us the next morning. There is something wrong with seeing athletes as avenues for our aggression when the real culprits exist outside the arena.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Mark Cuban: Coolest Owner in Sports
The victory of the Dallas Mavericks over the Miami Heat in the NBA finals has largely been portrayed as a deserved vindication of Dirk Nowitzki, and rightly so. But the one guy besides Dirk who probably deserves applaud is owner Mark Cuban, who has confirmed he is the coolest owner in sports since Eddie DeBartolo ruled San Francisco.
The Konformist isn't big on gushing over billionaires, and our position still is even the best owner is basically deadweight. But as far as deadweight billionaires go, Cuban is definitely a king of kings.
Haters say Cuban is obnoxious and arrogant. This is true. But he's the one owner who clearly is in sports not for the money but the love of sports. And two post-victory actions tell you what he is made of. One, he decided to cover the costs of the Maverick's victory parade rather than pawn it off to the cash-strapped metropolis. Two, perhaps more telling but less noticed, he left a $20K tip for the staff on a $90K bar tab on victory night. This was at a club in Miami, BTW, and not in Dallas.
Hopefully he will soon join the fraternities of owners in the NFL, MLB and NHL. Sports needs guys like him...
Mark Cuban will pay for your $110,000 bar tab. And your parade
Kelly Dwyer
Tue Jun 14, 2011
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Mark-Cuban-will-pay-for-your-110-000-bar-tab-A?urn=nba-wp4996
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
America's Most Miserable Cities, 2011
Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes.com
Feb 2, 2011
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-most-miserable-cities-2011.html
Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the governor of California at the end of 2003 amid a wave of optimism that his independent thinking and fresh ideas would revive a state stumbling after the recall of Gov. Gray Davis.
The good vibes are a distant memory: The Governator exited office last month with the state facing a crippling checklist of problems including massive budget deficits, high unemployment, plunging home prices, rampant crime and sky-high taxes. Schwarzenegger's approval ratings hit 22% last year, a record low for any sitting California governor.
California's troubles helped it land eight of the 20 spots on our annual list of America's Most Miserable Cities, with Stockton ranking first for the second time in three years.
Located in the state's Central Valley, Stockton has been ravaged by the housing bust. Median home prices in the city tripled between 1998 and 2005, when they peaked at $431,000. Now they are back to where they started, as the median price is forecast to be $142,000 this year, according to research firm Economy.com, a decline of 67% from 2005. Foreclosure filings affected 6.9% of homes last year in the Stockton area, the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac.
Stockton's violent crime and unemployment rates also rank among the 10 worst in the country, although violent crime was down 10% in the latest figures from the FBI. Jobless rates are expected to decline or stay flat in most U.S. metro areas in 2011, but in Stockton, unemployment is projected to rise to 18.1% in 2011 after averaging 17.2% in 2010, according to Economy.com.
"Stockton has issues that it needs to address, but an article like this is the equivalent of bayoneting the wounded," says Bob Deis, Stockton city manager. "I find it unfair, and it does everybody a disservice. The people of Stockton are warm. The sense of community is fantastic. You have to come here and talk to leaders. The data is the data, but there is a richer story here."
There are many ways to gauge misery. The most famous is the Misery Index developed by economist Arthur Okun, which adds unemployment and inflation rates together. Okun's index shows the U.S. is still is in the dumps despite the recent gains in the economy: It averaged 11.3 in 2010 (blame a 9.6% unemployment rate and not inflation), the highest annual rate since 1984.
Our list of America's Most Miserable Cities goes a step further: We consider a total of 10 factors, things that people gripe about around the water cooler every day. Most are serious issues, including unemployment, crime and taxes. A few we factor in are not as critical, but still elevate people's blood pressure, like the weather, commute times and how the local sports team is doing.
One of the biggest issues causing Americans angst the past four years is the value of their homes. To account for that we tweaked the methodology for this year's list and considered foreclosure rates and the change in home prices over the past three years. Click here for a more detailed rundown of our methodology.
Florida and California have ample sunshine in common, but also massive housing problems that have millions of residents stuck with underwater mortgages. The two states are home to 16 of the top 20 metros in terms of home foreclosure rates in 2010. The metro area with the most foreclosure filings (171,704) and fifth-highest rate (7.1%) last year is Miami, which ranks No. 2 on our list of Most Miserable Cities.
The good weather and lack of a state income tax are the only things that kept Miami out of the top spot. In addition to housing problems (prices are down 50% over three years), corruption is off the charts, with 404 government officials convicted of crimes this decade in South Florida. Factor in violent crime rates among the worst in the country and long commutes, and it's easy to understand why Miami has steadily moved up our list, from No. 9 in 2009 to No. 6 last year to the runner-up spot this year.
California cities take the next three spots: Merced (No. 3), Modesto (No. 4) and Sacramento (No. 5). Each has struggled with declining home prices, high unemployment and high crime rates, in addition to the problems all Californians face, like high sales and income taxes and service cuts to help close massive budget shortfalls.
The Golden State has never looked less golden. "If I even mention California, they throw me out of the office," says Ron Pollina, president of site selection firm Pollina Corporate Real Estate. "Every company hates California."
Last year's most miserable city, Cleveland, fell back to No. 10 this year despite the stomach punch delivered by LeBron James when he announced his exit from Cleveland on national television last summer. Cleveland's unemployment rate rose slightly in 2010 to an average of 9.3%, but the city's unemployment rank improved relative to other cities, thanks to soaring job losses across the U.S. Cleveland benefited from a housing market that never overheated and therefore hasn't crashed as much as many other metros. Yet Cleveland was the only city to rank in the bottom half of each of the 10 categories we considered.
Two of the 10 largest metro areas make the list. Chicago ranks seventh on the strength of its long commutes (30.7 minutes on average--eighth-worst in the U.S.) and high sales tax (9.75%---tied for the highest). The Windy City also ranks in the bottom quartile on weather, crime, foreclosures and home price trends.
President Obama's (relatively) new home also makes the cut at No. 16. Washington, D.C., has one of the healthiest economies, but problems abound. Traffic is a nightmare, with commute times averaging 33.4 minutes--only New York is worse. Income tax rates are among the highest in the country and home prices are down 27% over three years.
And it does not get much more miserable than the sports scene in Washington. Beltway fans should be grateful for the NHL's Capitals, their only major pro team to finish out of the basement in the last two seasons. The Nationals (MLB), Redskins (NFL) and Wizards (NBA) have all finished in last place in their respective divisions the past two years.
America's Five Most Miserable Cities
No. 5: Sacramento, Calif.
No state taxes $50,000 of income like California, with a rate of 9.55% for that middle-class tax bracket. Sacramento is a one-team sports town, and that team has been awful in recent years. The NBA's Kings have won just 26% of their games the past two-plus seasons.
No. 4: Modesto, Calif.
The median home was valued at $275,000 in 2006; today it is $95,000. And don't leave your car on the street in Modesto, where 3,712 vehicles were stolen in 2009, making for the second-highest auto theft rate in the country. It ranked first in four of the previous five years.
No. 3: Merced, Calif.
The economic downturn and busted housing market hit Merced harder than any other area in the country. Average unemployment of 16.2% since 2008 is the highest in the U.S., as is the city's 64% drop in median home prices.
No. 2: Miami, Fla.
The sun and lack of a state income tax are the only things keeping Miami out of the top spot. Foreclosures hit one in 14 homes last year. Corruption is also off the charts, with 404 government officials convicted of crimes this decade in South Florida.
No. 1: Stockton, Calif.
Unemployment has averaged 14.3% the past three years, which is third worst in the country among the 200 largest metro areas. The housing market collapsed as well, with home prices down 58% over the same time. All the California cities on the list are struggling with the inherent problems the state is facing, including high sales and income taxes and service cuts to help close massive budget shortfalls.
Feb 2, 2011
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-most-miserable-cities-2011.html
Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the governor of California at the end of 2003 amid a wave of optimism that his independent thinking and fresh ideas would revive a state stumbling after the recall of Gov. Gray Davis.
The good vibes are a distant memory: The Governator exited office last month with the state facing a crippling checklist of problems including massive budget deficits, high unemployment, plunging home prices, rampant crime and sky-high taxes. Schwarzenegger's approval ratings hit 22% last year, a record low for any sitting California governor.
California's troubles helped it land eight of the 20 spots on our annual list of America's Most Miserable Cities, with Stockton ranking first for the second time in three years.
Located in the state's Central Valley, Stockton has been ravaged by the housing bust. Median home prices in the city tripled between 1998 and 2005, when they peaked at $431,000. Now they are back to where they started, as the median price is forecast to be $142,000 this year, according to research firm Economy.com, a decline of 67% from 2005. Foreclosure filings affected 6.9% of homes last year in the Stockton area, the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac.
Stockton's violent crime and unemployment rates also rank among the 10 worst in the country, although violent crime was down 10% in the latest figures from the FBI. Jobless rates are expected to decline or stay flat in most U.S. metro areas in 2011, but in Stockton, unemployment is projected to rise to 18.1% in 2011 after averaging 17.2% in 2010, according to Economy.com.
"Stockton has issues that it needs to address, but an article like this is the equivalent of bayoneting the wounded," says Bob Deis, Stockton city manager. "I find it unfair, and it does everybody a disservice. The people of Stockton are warm. The sense of community is fantastic. You have to come here and talk to leaders. The data is the data, but there is a richer story here."
There are many ways to gauge misery. The most famous is the Misery Index developed by economist Arthur Okun, which adds unemployment and inflation rates together. Okun's index shows the U.S. is still is in the dumps despite the recent gains in the economy: It averaged 11.3 in 2010 (blame a 9.6% unemployment rate and not inflation), the highest annual rate since 1984.
Our list of America's Most Miserable Cities goes a step further: We consider a total of 10 factors, things that people gripe about around the water cooler every day. Most are serious issues, including unemployment, crime and taxes. A few we factor in are not as critical, but still elevate people's blood pressure, like the weather, commute times and how the local sports team is doing.
One of the biggest issues causing Americans angst the past four years is the value of their homes. To account for that we tweaked the methodology for this year's list and considered foreclosure rates and the change in home prices over the past three years. Click here for a more detailed rundown of our methodology.
Florida and California have ample sunshine in common, but also massive housing problems that have millions of residents stuck with underwater mortgages. The two states are home to 16 of the top 20 metros in terms of home foreclosure rates in 2010. The metro area with the most foreclosure filings (171,704) and fifth-highest rate (7.1%) last year is Miami, which ranks No. 2 on our list of Most Miserable Cities.
The good weather and lack of a state income tax are the only things that kept Miami out of the top spot. In addition to housing problems (prices are down 50% over three years), corruption is off the charts, with 404 government officials convicted of crimes this decade in South Florida. Factor in violent crime rates among the worst in the country and long commutes, and it's easy to understand why Miami has steadily moved up our list, from No. 9 in 2009 to No. 6 last year to the runner-up spot this year.
California cities take the next three spots: Merced (No. 3), Modesto (No. 4) and Sacramento (No. 5). Each has struggled with declining home prices, high unemployment and high crime rates, in addition to the problems all Californians face, like high sales and income taxes and service cuts to help close massive budget shortfalls.
The Golden State has never looked less golden. "If I even mention California, they throw me out of the office," says Ron Pollina, president of site selection firm Pollina Corporate Real Estate. "Every company hates California."
Last year's most miserable city, Cleveland, fell back to No. 10 this year despite the stomach punch delivered by LeBron James when he announced his exit from Cleveland on national television last summer. Cleveland's unemployment rate rose slightly in 2010 to an average of 9.3%, but the city's unemployment rank improved relative to other cities, thanks to soaring job losses across the U.S. Cleveland benefited from a housing market that never overheated and therefore hasn't crashed as much as many other metros. Yet Cleveland was the only city to rank in the bottom half of each of the 10 categories we considered.
Two of the 10 largest metro areas make the list. Chicago ranks seventh on the strength of its long commutes (30.7 minutes on average--eighth-worst in the U.S.) and high sales tax (9.75%---tied for the highest). The Windy City also ranks in the bottom quartile on weather, crime, foreclosures and home price trends.
President Obama's (relatively) new home also makes the cut at No. 16. Washington, D.C., has one of the healthiest economies, but problems abound. Traffic is a nightmare, with commute times averaging 33.4 minutes--only New York is worse. Income tax rates are among the highest in the country and home prices are down 27% over three years.
And it does not get much more miserable than the sports scene in Washington. Beltway fans should be grateful for the NHL's Capitals, their only major pro team to finish out of the basement in the last two seasons. The Nationals (MLB), Redskins (NFL) and Wizards (NBA) have all finished in last place in their respective divisions the past two years.
America's Five Most Miserable Cities
No. 5: Sacramento, Calif.
No state taxes $50,000 of income like California, with a rate of 9.55% for that middle-class tax bracket. Sacramento is a one-team sports town, and that team has been awful in recent years. The NBA's Kings have won just 26% of their games the past two-plus seasons.
No. 4: Modesto, Calif.
The median home was valued at $275,000 in 2006; today it is $95,000. And don't leave your car on the street in Modesto, where 3,712 vehicles were stolen in 2009, making for the second-highest auto theft rate in the country. It ranked first in four of the previous five years.
No. 3: Merced, Calif.
The economic downturn and busted housing market hit Merced harder than any other area in the country. Average unemployment of 16.2% since 2008 is the highest in the U.S., as is the city's 64% drop in median home prices.
No. 2: Miami, Fla.
The sun and lack of a state income tax are the only things keeping Miami out of the top spot. Foreclosures hit one in 14 homes last year. Corruption is also off the charts, with 404 government officials convicted of crimes this decade in South Florida.
No. 1: Stockton, Calif.
Unemployment has averaged 14.3% the past three years, which is third worst in the country among the 200 largest metro areas. The housing market collapsed as well, with home prices down 58% over the same time. All the California cities on the list are struggling with the inherent problems the state is facing, including high sales and income taxes and service cuts to help close massive budget shortfalls.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Wade leads Miami Heat rout in Big 3's first game at home
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/30/1899250/dwyane-wade-scored-26-points-to.html
HEAT 96, MAGIC 70
Wade leads Miami Heat rout in Big 3's first game at home
Dwyane Wade scored 26 points to lead the Heat, which played its most complete game of the young season in thumping the rival Magic.
JOSEPH GOODMAN
jgoodman@MiamiHerald.com
10-30-10
The show officially started Friday night.
After beginning the season with a measured pace, the Heat flashed its considerable potential for the NBA to behold Friday in the team's home opener at AmericanAirlines Arena. In its most complete performance of the early season, the Heat routed in-state rival Orlando Magic 96-70 in a game that showcased the home team's offensive and defensive prowess. It was the first loss this sesason for the Magic (1-1), which went undefeated in the preseason.
Dwyane Wade led the Heat (2-1) in scoring for the second game in a row. In just his third performance since returning to the team from a hamstring injury, Wade scored 26 points, shooting 9 of 20 from the field. He scored a team-high 12 points in the third quarter, which was the best 12 minutes of basketball the Heat has played together since LeBron James and Chris Bosh came to Miami this summer to join Wade.
``We really wanted to dominate the third quarter and we did that,'' Wade said.
A 14-0 run to begin the second half gave the Heat a 15-point lead three minutes into the third quarter. James started the spurt with a three-pointer and Wade followed with two of his own. James capped the run with two field goals.
Although the run was certainly impressive, the highlight of the third quarter was the Heat's defensive play. The Magic had but one field goal through the first seven minutes of the quarter, shooting just 1 of 13 from the field. The Heat extended its third-quarter lead to 71-49 before James was assessed a technical foul with 4:39 left in the period.
The Heat outscored the Magic 28-10 in the third quarter with the Magic shooting just 2 of 20 from the field in that decisive period.
``In the second half, [the defense] generated our opportunities,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ``The guys now can't go back on this. They've shown me what we're capable of defensively, and I'm going to hold them to that.''
James scored 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field in his debut at AmericanAirlines Arena. He added six rebounds and seven assists with just three turnovers. Entering Friday's game, James had 17 turnovers in his first two games of the season combined. Before Friday's game, Spoelstra said cutting down on turnovers would be the next step in the progression of the team's offense. The Heat had 12 turnovers Friday.
James altered his uniform slightly for the home opener. He played without the compression sleeve he has worn since injuring his right arm last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also had a little fun for his first regular-season game in his new building. James wore a mouthpiece that featured vampire fangs.
``Happy Halloween,'' James said after the game.
GAINING STEAM
The Halloween-themed protection was fitting for Friday's game because the Heat was scary good. A portion of the crowd began chanting ``Lakers [stink]! Lakers [stink]!'' with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Moments later, Wade hustled under the basket to put back an air ball by Eddie House that gave the Heat a 20-point lead with 2:10 left in the quarter.
The Heat has outscored its three opponents this season 86-60 in the third quarter. For the second game in a row, reserve James Jones gave the Heat a boost off the bench with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range. Jones scored 20 off the bench (6 of 9 from three-point range) on Wednesday in the Heat's victory against Philadelphia.
Jones drained his third three-pointer to start the fourth quarter, giving the Heat a commanding 82-55 lead. Heat forward Udonis Haslem added 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, matching up against Magic center Dwight Howard throughout most of the game. Bosh finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Howard, the Magic's All-Star center, finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting but was held scoreless in the second half and fouled out with 5:41 left. Magic guard Vince Carter left the game with six minutes left in the second quarter with an apparent back injury. He scored just four points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field. Magic point guard Jameer Nelson scored 10 points and Ryan Anderson had 12 off the bench.
PARTY STARTS
The Heat held the Magic to 45 points in the first half. Fueled by the energy of opening night at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat built an 18-10 lead behind quick work by James and Wade. The decibel level inside the sold-out arena reached an ear-piercing level when James found Wade for an alley-oop. And, with that, the party was on.
``[Friday night] was the culmination so far, but we can't take that for granted,'' Spoelstra said. ``These are the very early stages of this.''
HEAT 96, MAGIC 70
Wade leads Miami Heat rout in Big 3's first game at home
Dwyane Wade scored 26 points to lead the Heat, which played its most complete game of the young season in thumping the rival Magic.
JOSEPH GOODMAN
jgoodman@MiamiHerald.com
10-30-10
The show officially started Friday night.
After beginning the season with a measured pace, the Heat flashed its considerable potential for the NBA to behold Friday in the team's home opener at AmericanAirlines Arena. In its most complete performance of the early season, the Heat routed in-state rival Orlando Magic 96-70 in a game that showcased the home team's offensive and defensive prowess. It was the first loss this sesason for the Magic (1-1), which went undefeated in the preseason.
Dwyane Wade led the Heat (2-1) in scoring for the second game in a row. In just his third performance since returning to the team from a hamstring injury, Wade scored 26 points, shooting 9 of 20 from the field. He scored a team-high 12 points in the third quarter, which was the best 12 minutes of basketball the Heat has played together since LeBron James and Chris Bosh came to Miami this summer to join Wade.
``We really wanted to dominate the third quarter and we did that,'' Wade said.
A 14-0 run to begin the second half gave the Heat a 15-point lead three minutes into the third quarter. James started the spurt with a three-pointer and Wade followed with two of his own. James capped the run with two field goals.
Although the run was certainly impressive, the highlight of the third quarter was the Heat's defensive play. The Magic had but one field goal through the first seven minutes of the quarter, shooting just 1 of 13 from the field. The Heat extended its third-quarter lead to 71-49 before James was assessed a technical foul with 4:39 left in the period.
The Heat outscored the Magic 28-10 in the third quarter with the Magic shooting just 2 of 20 from the field in that decisive period.
``In the second half, [the defense] generated our opportunities,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ``The guys now can't go back on this. They've shown me what we're capable of defensively, and I'm going to hold them to that.''
James scored 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field in his debut at AmericanAirlines Arena. He added six rebounds and seven assists with just three turnovers. Entering Friday's game, James had 17 turnovers in his first two games of the season combined. Before Friday's game, Spoelstra said cutting down on turnovers would be the next step in the progression of the team's offense. The Heat had 12 turnovers Friday.
James altered his uniform slightly for the home opener. He played without the compression sleeve he has worn since injuring his right arm last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also had a little fun for his first regular-season game in his new building. James wore a mouthpiece that featured vampire fangs.
``Happy Halloween,'' James said after the game.
GAINING STEAM
The Halloween-themed protection was fitting for Friday's game because the Heat was scary good. A portion of the crowd began chanting ``Lakers [stink]! Lakers [stink]!'' with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Moments later, Wade hustled under the basket to put back an air ball by Eddie House that gave the Heat a 20-point lead with 2:10 left in the quarter.
The Heat has outscored its three opponents this season 86-60 in the third quarter. For the second game in a row, reserve James Jones gave the Heat a boost off the bench with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range. Jones scored 20 off the bench (6 of 9 from three-point range) on Wednesday in the Heat's victory against Philadelphia.
Jones drained his third three-pointer to start the fourth quarter, giving the Heat a commanding 82-55 lead. Heat forward Udonis Haslem added 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, matching up against Magic center Dwight Howard throughout most of the game. Bosh finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Howard, the Magic's All-Star center, finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting but was held scoreless in the second half and fouled out with 5:41 left. Magic guard Vince Carter left the game with six minutes left in the second quarter with an apparent back injury. He scored just four points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field. Magic point guard Jameer Nelson scored 10 points and Ryan Anderson had 12 off the bench.
PARTY STARTS
The Heat held the Magic to 45 points in the first half. Fueled by the energy of opening night at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat built an 18-10 lead behind quick work by James and Wade. The decibel level inside the sold-out arena reached an ear-piercing level when James found Wade for an alley-oop. And, with that, the party was on.
``[Friday night] was the culmination so far, but we can't take that for granted,'' Spoelstra said. ``These are the very early stages of this.''
Sunday, July 25, 2010
LeBron's Heat, not Lakers, now the Vegas pick to win NBA title
LeBron's Heat, not Lakers, now the Vegas pick to win NBA title
Miami, with James joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, passes the L.A. as the favorite, but Lakers past and present aren't exactly conceding the championship.
Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner
July 8, 2010
The Lakers are still the team to beat, winners of two consecutive NBA championships.
Or is there a new king of the league?
LeBron James' decision to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat grabbed hold of a sporting nation Thursday night, but did it shift the balance of basketball power from Southern California to South Beach?
The Lakers see it one way, the Heat surely see it another, and Las Vegas has its own unique view, no surprise.
Miami passed the Lakers as favorites to win the championship after James' announcement, according to Jay Rood, race and sports book director for MGM Resorts International.
The Lakers were 2-1 favorites before James' decree, but they slipped to 11-5 afterward, based on general wagering. The Heat took a huge leap from second choice at 7-2 to the favorite at 8-5 not long after James proclaimed that Miami provided "the best opportunity to win and win now and into the future."
Past and present members of the Lakers weren't quite ready to give the crown to James.
"They still need help," said former Lakers guard Ron Harper. "They need a center. They need help off the bench. Ain't nobody going to hand the Heat the championship just because they got LeBron James. I still think the Lakers are the team to beat.
"Look, Miami has got 2½ great players. Bosh, he's all right. Don't get me wrong, he's a good player. But he's not as great as Wade and LeBron."
Lakers forward Ron Artest, who has been lighting up his Twitter feed with numerous daily dispatches on a variety of topics, was relatively silent when he heard the news.
"No comment on it," he said in a text to The Times. "Fish is bigger news to me."
That would be free-agent guard Derek Fisher, who is engaged in slow-moving contract talks with the Lakers.
To Lakers assistant coach Jim Cleamons, James' decision shows that the six-time All-Star feels he needs help to win a title, even if it means playing on a team with an inordinate, if not imbalanced, amount of top-rate talent.
"They are young enough and if their hearts are in the right place, they will work it out," Cleamons said. "It doesn't mean they are going to win a championship. But if they get better, they give themselves a chance to win a championship."
One thing's almost a guarantee: Miami and the Lakers playing on Christmas Day. Even so, the Lakers and Heat are better off than at least one team.
"He just set Cleveland back 10 years," said Harper, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio. "That's my state and I feel for all them folks."
mike.bresnahan@latimes.com
broderick.turner@latimes.com
twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan
twitter.com/BA_Turner
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/sports/basketball/09araton.html
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
HARVEY ARATON
July 8, 2010
In the moment LeBron James uttered the words “South Beach” on Thursday night in front of a national television audience, the country witnessed the birth of an Evil Empire — the Yankees of professional basketball — with that slick-haired hombre, Pat Riley, at the helm.
James and Dwyane Wade have been likeable enough fellows in their various selling poses, including James as a mischievous puppet and Wade as Charles Barkley’s co-star in clever cellphone commercials. But together in Miami, with Chris Bosh rebounding for the superstar wingmen, they have created something fascinating, potentially fearsome and possibly quite loathsome.
Who outside of South Florida wants to root for Miami after the way James walked out on Cleveland and his home territory of northern Ohio in a mercenary reach for championship rings? On the other hand, who won’t want to see the fledgling super team take a big fall?
Had James stayed in Cleveland, he would have had the support of a nation wanting to see The Loyal One rewarded. Teaming up with Wade, Bosh and Darth Riley makes him more anti-hero than hero — but an even stronger marketable commodity for the N.B.A. brand. That loud noise emanating from out West is Commissioner David Stern cheering from his vacation spot in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Bad guys sell tickets, too. In the course of one week, James switched personas, like a professional wrestler, and the way he explained it Thursday night, his mother, Gloria, gave him permission.
“I thought I’d hear a different reaction,” he said of the phone call he made to her Thursday morning. “She felt it was going to make me happy.”
Funny, though. Jon Barry on ESPN said he thought James didn’t look happy. Maybe that’s because the view from the mountaintop of leverage that he carefully constructed to be the springboard to the rest of his career turned out to be something short of breathtaking.
In all directions were shining cities ready to welcome him with open arms and ready checkbooks. But there also were flaws in the windows of James’s lofty perch, cracks that might have been invisible to the eye of the average pro basketball star, but not to the man who envisioned crystal-clear free-agent perfection.
As early as November 2008, James was calling July 1, 2010, “a very big day,” beating the drum for when suitors would come calling, or begging, and all he would have to do was say “eeny, meeny” and then board his chosen starship Enterprise.
Along the way, there were disquieting playoff power outages in Cleveland, no ultimate N.B.A. credential to anoint him as a genuine savior and not a single suitor that could guarantee him a bed of roses to go along with his ransom.
By the time James made his grand announcement, it wasn’t as if he was choosing among the lesser of evils. But if heaven is a playground, it hasn’t yet been granted an N.B.A. franchise, and James’s blatant overreach for attention only intensified the pressure not to beam into a situation that could damage his carefully crafted brand.
Miami lured him with his Olympic team running mates, Wade and Bosh, but he joins them on Wade’s turf, where the latter has already achieved sainthood by winning a championship in 2006. He leaves fans cursing him in Cleveland, where the owner, Dan Gilbert, called his ESPN show “narcissistic,” his departure “cowardly” and vowed — foolishly, no doubt — that the Cavs would win a title before James.
James can also count on rabid booing in New York, where the Knicks assiduously courted him, tanked two seasons for him and created their own bloated market for Amar’e Stoudemire for him.
“It takes courage to play where the lights shine the brightest,” James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, said while introducing Stoudemire Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Was he suggesting that his $100 million power forward had something in his belly that James didn’t, or utilizing his last good bargaining chip, challenging James to be a man by taking on Manhattan?
Losing out to Riley, their former coach and sworn enemy, has to be the worst part of this. The Knicks will have to fill the blanks around Stoudemire, settle next season for low-level playoff contention at best. In Newark, the Nets will dream about better days in Brooklyn. Turns out James didn’t want to be the leader of a basketball renaissance in a great basketball city. The King followed Bosh to Dwyane Wade’s team.
A longtime friend and high school teammate, Dru Joyce III, argued that James’s critics are missing the point. “People always think it always has to be about the one superstar,” Joyce said in a telephone interview. “But I think what LeBron is saying is it’s about the team. He’s going against the grain and it’s hard for people to accept that.”
James made a more grandiose show of free agency than anyone ever has, but he didn’t create the culture of entitlement. He’s just the latest to exploit it, and Joyce was right about one thing: all would have been forgiven had he just told his interviewer, Jim Gray, he was staying in Cleveland, basking in his own stardust.
Maybe that was the main selling point in Miami. When the playoff dust finally settles, it won’t all come down on him.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 9, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
Miami in Pinstripes: the New Evil Empire
HARVEY ARATON
July 8, 2010
In the moment LeBron James uttered the words “South Beach” on Thursday night in front of a national television audience, the country witnessed the birth of an Evil Empire — the Yankees of professional basketball — with that slick-haired hombre, Pat Riley, at the helm.
James and Dwyane Wade have been likeable enough fellows in their various selling poses, including James as a mischievous puppet and Wade as Charles Barkley’s co-star in clever cellphone commercials. But together in Miami, with Chris Bosh rebounding for the superstar wingmen, they have created something fascinating, potentially fearsome and possibly quite loathsome.
Who outside of South Florida wants to root for Miami after the way James walked out on Cleveland and his home territory of northern Ohio in a mercenary reach for championship rings? On the other hand, who won’t want to see the fledgling super team take a big fall?
Had James stayed in Cleveland, he would have had the support of a nation wanting to see The Loyal One rewarded. Teaming up with Wade, Bosh and Darth Riley makes him more anti-hero than hero — but an even stronger marketable commodity for the N.B.A. brand. That loud noise emanating from out West is Commissioner David Stern cheering from his vacation spot in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Bad guys sell tickets, too. In the course of one week, James switched personas, like a professional wrestler, and the way he explained it Thursday night, his mother, Gloria, gave him permission.
“I thought I’d hear a different reaction,” he said of the phone call he made to her Thursday morning. “She felt it was going to make me happy.”
Funny, though. Jon Barry on ESPN said he thought James didn’t look happy. Maybe that’s because the view from the mountaintop of leverage that he carefully constructed to be the springboard to the rest of his career turned out to be something short of breathtaking.
In all directions were shining cities ready to welcome him with open arms and ready checkbooks. But there also were flaws in the windows of James’s lofty perch, cracks that might have been invisible to the eye of the average pro basketball star, but not to the man who envisioned crystal-clear free-agent perfection.
As early as November 2008, James was calling July 1, 2010, “a very big day,” beating the drum for when suitors would come calling, or begging, and all he would have to do was say “eeny, meeny” and then board his chosen starship Enterprise.
Along the way, there were disquieting playoff power outages in Cleveland, no ultimate N.B.A. credential to anoint him as a genuine savior and not a single suitor that could guarantee him a bed of roses to go along with his ransom.
By the time James made his grand announcement, it wasn’t as if he was choosing among the lesser of evils. But if heaven is a playground, it hasn’t yet been granted an N.B.A. franchise, and James’s blatant overreach for attention only intensified the pressure not to beam into a situation that could damage his carefully crafted brand.
Miami lured him with his Olympic team running mates, Wade and Bosh, but he joins them on Wade’s turf, where the latter has already achieved sainthood by winning a championship in 2006. He leaves fans cursing him in Cleveland, where the owner, Dan Gilbert, called his ESPN show “narcissistic,” his departure “cowardly” and vowed — foolishly, no doubt — that the Cavs would win a title before James.
James can also count on rabid booing in New York, where the Knicks assiduously courted him, tanked two seasons for him and created their own bloated market for Amar’e Stoudemire for him.
“It takes courage to play where the lights shine the brightest,” James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, said while introducing Stoudemire Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Was he suggesting that his $100 million power forward had something in his belly that James didn’t, or utilizing his last good bargaining chip, challenging James to be a man by taking on Manhattan?
Losing out to Riley, their former coach and sworn enemy, has to be the worst part of this. The Knicks will have to fill the blanks around Stoudemire, settle next season for low-level playoff contention at best. In Newark, the Nets will dream about better days in Brooklyn. Turns out James didn’t want to be the leader of a basketball renaissance in a great basketball city. The King followed Bosh to Dwyane Wade’s team.
A longtime friend and high school teammate, Dru Joyce III, argued that James’s critics are missing the point. “People always think it always has to be about the one superstar,” Joyce said in a telephone interview. “But I think what LeBron is saying is it’s about the team. He’s going against the grain and it’s hard for people to accept that.”
James made a more grandiose show of free agency than anyone ever has, but he didn’t create the culture of entitlement. He’s just the latest to exploit it, and Joyce was right about one thing: all would have been forgiven had he just told his interviewer, Jim Gray, he was staying in Cleveland, basking in his own stardust.
Maybe that was the main selling point in Miami. When the playoff dust finally settles, it won’t all come down on him.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 9, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.
LeBron James dumps Cleveland for Miami
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gHG3AMVw-CGtPxYhkoio-K9KEIowD9GRD2O00
LeBron James dumps Cleveland for Miami
TOM WITHERS
7-9-10
When the months of suspense peaked, LeBron James delivered a few words that rocked the NBA and changed two cities and franchises.
At 9:27 p.m., James, looking nervous and somewhat unsure, finally announced his plans from a small stage in Greenwich, Conn.
"This fall, and it's very tough," James said to a national TV audience. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat."
In Florida, there was rejoicing.
In Ohio, only heartbreak and tears — then anger.
The most wanted man in league history decided Thursday night that it was time to leave the comforts of home to chase a championship.
The two-time MVP, a player with supreme skills but without a title, decided to join forces with fellow superstars, good friends and U.S. Olympic teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — a dominant threesome that could rule the league for years to come.
"I can't say it was always in my plans, because I never thought it was possible," James said of this union with the two perennial All-Stars, players he has known for years. "I've looked forward to it. Those are two great players, two of the greatest players that we have in this game today. You add me, and we have a really good team."
Landing James was a huge victory for the team president Pat Riley, who was able to corral the top three stars in an unprecedented free-agent class and now must resist the temptation to leave the front office to coach them.
James' announcement ended weeks of speculation and capped a multi-ringed media circus in this age of social networking that spun out of control. It also concluded a somewhat embarrassing courtship of a player by cities, celebrities and franchises who fawned over the 25-year-old who doesn't have a finals win on his resume.
New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Los Angeles and every other NBA spot came up short, finishing out of the money.
So did Cleveland. As it always does.
This time, losing was tainted with bitterness.
Once James shared his secret, fans poured out of the same downtown bars and restaurants that have thrived during these tough economic times. A few set fire to his No. 23 jersey while others threw rocks at the 10-story-tall billboard featuring James with his head tossed back and arms pointing skyward.
"We Are All Witnesses," the mural says.
This was something Cleveland never thought it would see.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was as upset as anyone. He posted an open letter to fans on the team's website ripping James and told The Associated Press he believes James did not play up to his abilities in Cleveland's second-round loss to Boston.
"He quit," Gilbert said in a phone interview. "Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar. ... People have covered up for him for way too long."
Not Gilbert, not anymore.
"As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier," Gilbert wrote. "This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his 'decision' unlike anything ever 'witnessed' in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment. Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
"The self-declared former 'King' will be taking the 'curse' with him down south. And until he does 'right' by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
"Just watch."
Cleveland could offer James $30 million more than any team, but that wasn't what interested James this time. He was willing to make less for something else — a title. Maybe a bunch of them with the 28-year-old Wade and 26-year-old Bosh in their primes.
"It's about a team," James said.
After leaving Connecticut, James touched down at a private terminal at Miami International Airport at 2:30 a.m. He was met by Heat officials, shook Riley's hand, climbed into a car and was driven away while a small group of fans, paparazzi and other news media waited outside.
Meanwhile, outside the W Hotel on Miami Beach, 17 more celebrity photographers and about a few dozen fans lurched toward every SUV that neared the hotel entrance, eager to get a look at the two-time MVP. Also inside that club was Bosh, who walked in virtually unnoticed earlier in the evening.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, fans so accustomed to disappointment, were let down again — this time, by one of their own sons.
Not long after James' decision was announced, one of his jerseys was shown being burned in the city's streets.
"I can't get involved in that," James said. "I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James ... At the end of the day, I feel awful. I feel even worse that I wasn't able to bring an NBA championship to that city. I never wanted to leave Cleveland. My heart will always be around that area. But I also felt like this is the greatest challenge for me, is to move on."
Even one of James' teammates was distraught.
"I feel like my heart has been pulled out," Cavs guard Mo Williams posted on his Twitter account. "But I'm happy for my friend."
James' decision ends nearly two years of posturing and positioning by teams hoping to add the 6-foot-8, 260-pound physical force of nature to their roster. He famously announced at New York's Madison Square Garden in November of 2008 that "July 1, 2010, is going to be a big day."
He wasn't kidding. When the clock struck 12:01 a.m. last Thursday, a free-agent frenzy unlike any before it — in any professional sport — got under way with the enough speculation, rumor and second-by-second intrigue to last a lifetime.
March may be madness, but this was a year's drama crammed into eight days.
LeBron James dumps Cleveland for Miami
TOM WITHERS
7-9-10
When the months of suspense peaked, LeBron James delivered a few words that rocked the NBA and changed two cities and franchises.
At 9:27 p.m., James, looking nervous and somewhat unsure, finally announced his plans from a small stage in Greenwich, Conn.
"This fall, and it's very tough," James said to a national TV audience. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat."
In Florida, there was rejoicing.
In Ohio, only heartbreak and tears — then anger.
The most wanted man in league history decided Thursday night that it was time to leave the comforts of home to chase a championship.
The two-time MVP, a player with supreme skills but without a title, decided to join forces with fellow superstars, good friends and U.S. Olympic teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — a dominant threesome that could rule the league for years to come.
"I can't say it was always in my plans, because I never thought it was possible," James said of this union with the two perennial All-Stars, players he has known for years. "I've looked forward to it. Those are two great players, two of the greatest players that we have in this game today. You add me, and we have a really good team."
Landing James was a huge victory for the team president Pat Riley, who was able to corral the top three stars in an unprecedented free-agent class and now must resist the temptation to leave the front office to coach them.
James' announcement ended weeks of speculation and capped a multi-ringed media circus in this age of social networking that spun out of control. It also concluded a somewhat embarrassing courtship of a player by cities, celebrities and franchises who fawned over the 25-year-old who doesn't have a finals win on his resume.
New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Los Angeles and every other NBA spot came up short, finishing out of the money.
So did Cleveland. As it always does.
This time, losing was tainted with bitterness.
Once James shared his secret, fans poured out of the same downtown bars and restaurants that have thrived during these tough economic times. A few set fire to his No. 23 jersey while others threw rocks at the 10-story-tall billboard featuring James with his head tossed back and arms pointing skyward.
"We Are All Witnesses," the mural says.
This was something Cleveland never thought it would see.
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was as upset as anyone. He posted an open letter to fans on the team's website ripping James and told The Associated Press he believes James did not play up to his abilities in Cleveland's second-round loss to Boston.
"He quit," Gilbert said in a phone interview. "Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar. ... People have covered up for him for way too long."
Not Gilbert, not anymore.
"As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier," Gilbert wrote. "This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his 'decision' unlike anything ever 'witnessed' in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment. Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
"The self-declared former 'King' will be taking the 'curse' with him down south. And until he does 'right' by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
"Just watch."
Cleveland could offer James $30 million more than any team, but that wasn't what interested James this time. He was willing to make less for something else — a title. Maybe a bunch of them with the 28-year-old Wade and 26-year-old Bosh in their primes.
"It's about a team," James said.
After leaving Connecticut, James touched down at a private terminal at Miami International Airport at 2:30 a.m. He was met by Heat officials, shook Riley's hand, climbed into a car and was driven away while a small group of fans, paparazzi and other news media waited outside.
Meanwhile, outside the W Hotel on Miami Beach, 17 more celebrity photographers and about a few dozen fans lurched toward every SUV that neared the hotel entrance, eager to get a look at the two-time MVP. Also inside that club was Bosh, who walked in virtually unnoticed earlier in the evening.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, fans so accustomed to disappointment, were let down again — this time, by one of their own sons.
Not long after James' decision was announced, one of his jerseys was shown being burned in the city's streets.
"I can't get involved in that," James said. "I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James ... At the end of the day, I feel awful. I feel even worse that I wasn't able to bring an NBA championship to that city. I never wanted to leave Cleveland. My heart will always be around that area. But I also felt like this is the greatest challenge for me, is to move on."
Even one of James' teammates was distraught.
"I feel like my heart has been pulled out," Cavs guard Mo Williams posted on his Twitter account. "But I'm happy for my friend."
James' decision ends nearly two years of posturing and positioning by teams hoping to add the 6-foot-8, 260-pound physical force of nature to their roster. He famously announced at New York's Madison Square Garden in November of 2008 that "July 1, 2010, is going to be a big day."
He wasn't kidding. When the clock struck 12:01 a.m. last Thursday, a free-agent frenzy unlike any before it — in any professional sport — got under way with the enough speculation, rumor and second-by-second intrigue to last a lifetime.
March may be madness, but this was a year's drama crammed into eight days.
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Path to Recovery
http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-future-of-the-city/archive/2010/05/the-path-to-recovery/56393/
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Path to Recovery
May 7 2010
Richard Florida
Economic peaks and valleys are part of the life cycle of any society. They can be difficult, sometimes horribly painful, but just as trees shed their leaves in the fall to make room for the new growth of spring, economies reset themselves. Times of crisis reveal what is and isn't working. These are the times when obsolete and dysfunctional systems and practices collapse or fall by the wayside. They are the times when the seeds of innovation and invention, of creativity and entrepreneurship, burst into full flower, enabling recovery by remaking both the economy and society. Major periods of economic transformation, such as the Great Depression or the Long Depression of the 1870s before it, unfold over long stretches of time, like motion pictures rather than snapshots. Likewise, the path to recovery can be long and twisted--the better part of three decades in the case of those two previous crises. Seen in the greater context of history, economic crises inevitably give rise to critical periods in which an economy is remade in ways that allow it to recover and begin growing again. These are periods I call Great Resets.
We're still very early on in the current economic Reset, so it's difficult to fully grasp how it will ultimately play out. But we can all sense that our way of life is changing and our economic landscape is too. This emerging new way of life will be less oriented around cars, houses, and suburbs. We'll be spending relatively less on the things that defined the old way of life. We'll have to, if we expect to have money left over to sustain the new industries that will emerge in the Great Reset and usher in an age of renewed prosperity. Before we can nurture the new industries of the future, develop new forms of health care and biotechnologies, or even explore new forms of education or more experiential forms of entertainment and recreation, we first have to free up capital by producing the goods of the old industrial order more cheaply and efficiently.
We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. Housing sucked up far too much of the nation's and the world's capital, and too many people--already overextended by the purchase of outsized houses--used those homes like virtual ATMs to finance carefree consumption. Every Great Reset has seen our system of housing change, and this one is no different. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.
Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported, "The recession and a growing awareness of the environment are causing many people to reassess their automobile ownership. After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.
One constant in the history of capitalism is the ever-more-intensive use of land, as mercantile towns replaced agricultural villages, major industrial cities replaced those towns, and massive complexes of suburbs, exurbs, and edge cites expanded the boundaries of those cities. The change we are living through is much more than a movement from suburbs to denser urban communities. What we are seeing is the rise of a new, bigger, and denser economic landscape than ever before--the rise of vast megaregions such as the corridors stretching from Boston to New York and Washington, D.C., around greater London, and from Shanghai to Beijing. These concentrations of population, which encompass several cities and their surrounding suburban rings, have grown swiftly in recent years.
The largest megaregion in North America is the great "Bos-Wash" corridor, initially identified by the geographer Jean Gottmann. Strecthing down the East Coast, it includes Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 50 million people while producing more than $2 trillion in economic activity. Its economic output is greater than that of either the United Kingdom or France and more than double that of India or Canada. The second biggest, which Gottman dubbed "Chi-Pitts," covers more than 100,000 square miles and is home to 46 million people, producing $1.6 trillion in economic output. Other megaregions in North America include:
•Char-lanta: Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, 22 million people
•So-Cal: Around Los Angeles, 21 million people
•Tor-Mon-tawa: 22 million people
•Nor-Cal: Around San Francisco, 12.8 million people
•So-Flo: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, 15 million people
•Dal-Austin: Dallas and Austin, 10 million people
•Hou-Orleans: Houston and New Orleans, 9.7 million people
•Cascadia: Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, 9 million people
•Pho-Tus: Phoenix and Tucson, 4.7 million people
•Den-Bo: Denver and Boulder, 3.7 million people
Around the world, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Mumbai are hubs of giant megaregions. Each of these is a financial and commercial center with tens of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in output.
These megaregions, not nations, really power the global economy. Taken together, the world's 40 largest megaregions account for two-thirds of all global economic activity and 85 percent of the world's technological innovation while housing just 18 percent of its population. Megaregions are the strategic power centers of the economy, housing 85 percent of all corporate headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Though many analysts have predicted that the importance of cities--and that of location--would fade with globalization, the reality is that cities and megaregions have become more important economically than ever before. Even as globalization has spread factories, businesses, and laboratories to places such as India, China, Brazil, and beyond, these activities are being concentrated in the megaregions of those countries. Contrary to the notion that the world is flat, the most successful megaregions, in fact, are becoming economically stronger and spikier, not flatter.
Megaregions are to our time what suburbanization was to the postwar era. They provide the seeds of a new spatial fix. They expand and intensify our use of land and space the way that the industrial city did during the First Reset and suburbia did in the Second. As people pour into the world's great megaregions, inner cities and close-in suburbs are being reclaimed and rebuilt. Older suburbs, especially those on transit routes, are being reorganized and rebuilt into denser communities offering more condos and town houses as well as single-family homes. Suburban malls and office complexes are being retrofitted and turned into walkable areas with a mixture of housing, shops, and restaurants and in some cases even new parks. Subways and rail transit are being expanded as highways clog.
The location decisions made by new college grads have interested me for years. Their choices involve evaluating not just the company they'll work for but the labor market it's located in and what the surrounding area has to offer. Because they are both highly skilled and highly mobile--three to five times as likely to move than, say, a 45-year-old--the decisions they make about where to live are likely to leave a lasting imprint on our economic geography.
To get at the factors that attract and keep young Gen Y members, those born between the years 1979 and 1990, in certain places, my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I analyzed the results of a Gallup survey of some 28,000 Americans. Jobs are clearly important. Gen Y members ranked the availability of jobs second when asked what would keep them in their current location and fourth in terms of their overall satisfaction with their community. From this perspective, big cities make sense for them, as they offer more robust labor markets with more and better job opportunities in a wide number of fields. In an age in which corporate commitment has dwindled, job tenure has grown far shorter, and people switch jobs with much greater frequency, career success involves a great deal more than simply finding the right first job. In these highly mobile and economically tumultuous times, career success for young people depends on locating themselves in a thick labor market that offers diverse and abundant job opportunities. Picking an economically vibrant location is an important hedge against economic uncertainty and the risk of layoff.
But remember that jobs were not the highest-ranked factor. Across the board, the survey respondents said that the ability to meet people and make friends was of paramount importance. These young people intuitively understand what economic sociologists have documented: that vibrant social networks are key to landing jobs, moving forward in your career, and securing personal happiness. They not only desire a thick labor market but also seek what I have come to call a thick mating market, where they can meet new people, go out on dates, and eventually find a life partner. And whereas older Americans see high-quality schools and safe streets for their children as key, Gen Y understandably ranks the availability of outstanding colleges and universities higher. Many are likely to go back to graduate school and want to have good programs nearby. For all these reasons, big cities at the heart of megaregions top the list of their choices.
The auto-dependent transportation system has reached its limit in most major cities and megaregions. Commuting by car is among the least efficient of all our activities--not to mention among the least enjoyable, according to detailed research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues. Though one might think that the crisis would have reduced traffic (high unemployment means fewer workers traveling to and from work), the opposite has been true. Average commutes have lengthened, and congestion has gotten worse, if anything. The average commute rose in 2008 to 25.5 minutes, "erasing years of decreases to stand at the level of 2000, as people had to leave home earlier in the morning to pick up friends for their ride to work or to catch a bus or subway train," according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which collects the figures. And those are average figures. Commutes are far longer in the big West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the East Coast cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. In many of these cities, gridlock has become the norm, not just at rush hour but all day, every day.
Just about the only remedy for traffic congestion anyone ever suggests is building more roads and highways, which of course only makes the problem worse. New roads generate higher levels of "induced traffic," that is, new roads just invite drivers to drive more and lure people who take mass transit back to their cars. Eventually, we end up with more clogged roads rather than a long-term improvement in traffic flow
More and more people are choosing to take the subway, train, or bus or even walk or bike to work and go about their daily business--providing they live in an environment that allows for such choices. In Manhattan, 82 percent of workers get to work by public transit or bicycle or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County, and 16 times the rate for residents of metropolitan Atlanta. The New York City subway is a remarkably effective technology for moving masses of people around quickly and efficiently. Between 8 and 9 in the morning on a typical workday, more than 385,000 people use its subway system to commute into the central business district.
New York is not the only place where this kind of change in commuting and local traffic patterns is occurring. In Washington, D.C., 57 percent of commuters get to work by means other than driving a car--more than a third take public transit, 12 percent walk to work, and 2 percent ride their bikes; just four in ten drive to work alone. In Boston and San Francisco, roughly half of workers get to work without their cars--roughly a third of commuters take transit, and 10 to 15 percent walk to work. In Philadelphia, 41 percent commute without cars and 27 percent take transit.
These numbers may seem like a drop in the bucket. But 60 percent of Americans surveyed in 2005 said they want to live in walkable communities with shops, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and churches nearby. We're already seeing the shift as increasing numbers of people move to walkable communities closer to where they work. That will clearly expand in coming decades.
For the time being, most Americans remain behind the wheel. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans drive to work alone. They have no other choice. There are, however, other things we can do to ease congestion and take more cars off the road. Employers can offer more flexible schedules and the ability to work from home or telecommute. But as we've already seen, in many cities traffic is not just a rush-hour problem. The only alternative left is to price the roads. We pay for everything else: we pay to take the subway, ride the bus, or take the train, we pay to drive through the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels or over the George Washington Bridge. Why should the roads be essentially free? If we want to make traffic better, we have little choice other than to make people pay for the roads they drive on.
Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. Adapted from THE GREAT RESET: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. Copyright 2010 by Richard Florida. Reprinted by arrangement with Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Oil from Gulf spill may even reach Miami-scientist
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0413130920100504
Oil from Gulf spill may even reach Miami-scientist
Tue May 4, 2010
* Scientist sees "imminent" tie up between oil and current
* Florida Everglades may be spared by black tide
Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Crude from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill could eventually slosh ashore on Miami Beach or North Carolina's barrier islands, if it connects with a powerful sea current, an oceanographer said on Tuesday.
Robert Weisberg, a physical oceanographer at the University of South Florida, told a conference call the so-called Loop Current that sweeps around the Gulf was poised to connect with the spreading oil slick.
Once "entrainment" occurs, he said, the oil would be pulled quickly south along Florida's Gulf coast and out into the Florida Straits, between the United States and Cuba.
"Exactly when the oil will enter the Loop Current at the surface is unknown but it appears to be imminent," Weisberg said, referring to the prevailing current in the Gulf.
"It could be days or it could be longer but it looks like it's going to happen, and it looks like it's going to happen now sooner than later," he said.
However, depending on local winds, Florida's southwest beaches and the Florida Keys, along with coral reefs and the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, could be spared from the oil slick, Weisberg said.
That is because ocean circulation models show it heading out to sea, past the Dry Tortugas islands, before it is caught up in the Gulf Stream and makes its way up the U.S. East Coast, he said.
"Once it's at the entrance to the Florida Straits it's only another week or so before it could be in the vicinity of Miami or Palm Beach and one more week or so until it could be as far north as Cape Hatteras," Weisberg said.
Asked about the possibility of the oil entering the Loop Current, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the agency had no immediate forecast of this.
"As far as the Florida Loop Current (goes), our predictions go to 72 hours out and right now the predictions are not (for) an effect on Florida at this moment," she said.
Weisberg said whether or not the oil got into shallow water on its possible ocean journey would be totally dependent on winds.
"Whether or not the oil makes landfall anywhere will depend on what the winds are doing at that particular point in time ... It's likely that there could be oil on the beaches in Miami but we really can't say for sure right now."
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
Oil from Gulf spill may even reach Miami-scientist
Tue May 4, 2010
* Scientist sees "imminent" tie up between oil and current
* Florida Everglades may be spared by black tide
Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Crude from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill could eventually slosh ashore on Miami Beach or North Carolina's barrier islands, if it connects with a powerful sea current, an oceanographer said on Tuesday.
Robert Weisberg, a physical oceanographer at the University of South Florida, told a conference call the so-called Loop Current that sweeps around the Gulf was poised to connect with the spreading oil slick.
Once "entrainment" occurs, he said, the oil would be pulled quickly south along Florida's Gulf coast and out into the Florida Straits, between the United States and Cuba.
"Exactly when the oil will enter the Loop Current at the surface is unknown but it appears to be imminent," Weisberg said, referring to the prevailing current in the Gulf.
"It could be days or it could be longer but it looks like it's going to happen, and it looks like it's going to happen now sooner than later," he said.
However, depending on local winds, Florida's southwest beaches and the Florida Keys, along with coral reefs and the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, could be spared from the oil slick, Weisberg said.
That is because ocean circulation models show it heading out to sea, past the Dry Tortugas islands, before it is caught up in the Gulf Stream and makes its way up the U.S. East Coast, he said.
"Once it's at the entrance to the Florida Straits it's only another week or so before it could be in the vicinity of Miami or Palm Beach and one more week or so until it could be as far north as Cape Hatteras," Weisberg said.
Asked about the possibility of the oil entering the Loop Current, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the agency had no immediate forecast of this.
"As far as the Florida Loop Current (goes), our predictions go to 72 hours out and right now the predictions are not (for) an effect on Florida at this moment," she said.
Weisberg said whether or not the oil got into shallow water on its possible ocean journey would be totally dependent on winds.
"Whether or not the oil makes landfall anywhere will depend on what the winds are doing at that particular point in time ... It's likely that there could be oil on the beaches in Miami but we really can't say for sure right now."
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Burger King plans beer-selling Whopper Bar
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-01-21-burger-king-beer_N.htmBurger King plans beer-selling Whopper Bar in South Beach
1-21-10
Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Gimme a Whopper, fries — and a beer.
Those words are no longer wishful thinking. Friday, Burger King (BKC) will unveil plans to sell beer and burgers at a Whopper Bar — a new BK concept to compete with casual dining restaurants — in Miami Beach's tourist-heavy South Beach. The South Beach Whopper Bar is scheduled to open in mid-February.
Don't look for beer at conventional Burger Kings. That's not in the plans. But more Whopper Bars — which offer an assortment of burgers, toppings and beer — could be on tap in tourist hot spots such as New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, says Chuck Fallon, president of Burger King North America.
A brewski at the new Whopper Bar — served in special aluminum bottles to keep them extra cold — fetches $4.25. Or, order beer as part of a Whopper combo and your bill will be $7.99 — roughly $2 more than the same combo meal with a fountain drink.
The unusual move comes as the restaurant industry is reeling. Restaurant operators reported lower same-store sales in November, compared with a year earlier, for the 18th-consecutive month, the National Restaurant Association reports. Nearly 65% of operators reported a same-store sales decline in November. December results were unavailable.
Burger King's Whopper Bar isn't the first fast-food chain to test alcoholic beverages domestically. Last year in Seattle, Starbucks opened "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, inspired by Starbucks." Beyond coffee and tea, it sells regional beers and wines.
By trying to wedge into the fast-casual dining arena with Whopper Bar, Burger King is chasing the 30-and-under crowd, which is the industry's future growth, says Bradford Hudson, marketing professor at Boston University. But the move is very tricky, he says, because "Burger King means fast food."
But Linda Lipsky, a restaurant consultant, says the move makes sense. "The Burger King customer is aging, so they're just trying to grow up with the customer."
The restaurant will initially sell Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors beers. "You can have America's favorite beers with America's favorite burger," Fallon says. More will eventually be added, he says.
But Lipsky says the chain will be challenged to train staff to legally sell and serve alcohol. "You can be an easy mark if you're not used to selling alcohol," she says.
Burger Kings in Germany and Whopper Bars in Singapore and Venezuela sell beer. But this will be the first BK brand in the USA to sell beer. (A Whopper Bar in Universal City does not sell beer.) "We're in the midst of understanding how much beer will be a part of the (sales pitch)," Fallon says.
The restaurant also will offer delivery of all items — except beer.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Manning Named MVP
http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/nflnewsfeed/2009/01/manning-named-mvp.html
Manning Named MVP
By Mark Maske
January 2, 2009
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was named the NFL's most valuable player today by the Associated Press.
Manning also won the award in 2003 and 2004 and joins New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre as the league's only three-time MVPs. Favre won his awards while with the Green Bay Packers.
Each of the quarterbacks shared the award once, Manning with Steve McNair in 2003 and Favre with Barry Sanders in 1997. Favre's other two awards came in 1995 and '96.
Manning received 32 votes in balloting of media members to far outdistance Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington and Atlanta Falcons tailback Michael Turner, who finished tied for second with four votes each.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and Minnesota Vikings tailback Adrian Peterson got three votes apiece. San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers received two votes, and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and Tennessee Titans rookie tailback Chris Johnson each got one.
Manning and the Colts got off to a sluggish start this season after Manning underwent preseason knee surgery. The Colts lost four of their first seven games. But they won their final nine games of the season to secure a playoff spot, and Manning led the way. He threw 27 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions this season while passing for 4,002 yards, and he was the league's fifth-rated passer.
Manning Named MVP
By Mark Maske
January 2, 2009
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was named the NFL's most valuable player today by the Associated Press.
Manning also won the award in 2003 and 2004 and joins New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre as the league's only three-time MVPs. Favre won his awards while with the Green Bay Packers.
Each of the quarterbacks shared the award once, Manning with Steve McNair in 2003 and Favre with Barry Sanders in 1997. Favre's other two awards came in 1995 and '96.
Manning received 32 votes in balloting of media members to far outdistance Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington and Atlanta Falcons tailback Michael Turner, who finished tied for second with four votes each.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and Minnesota Vikings tailback Adrian Peterson got three votes apiece. San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers received two votes, and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and Tennessee Titans rookie tailback Chris Johnson each got one.
Manning and the Colts got off to a sluggish start this season after Manning underwent preseason knee surgery. The Colts lost four of their first seven games. But they won their final nine games of the season to secure a playoff spot, and Manning led the way. He threw 27 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions this season while passing for 4,002 yards, and he was the league's fifth-rated passer.
Friday, January 2, 2009
AP source: 2010 Pro Bowl will be in Miami
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEsdEncVZxw_oMfgldlFTStJfnvAD95COD8G1
AP source: 2010 Pro Bowl will be in Miami
By TIM REYNOLDS
12-30-8
MIAMI (AP) — The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced the move, but Hawaii's governor and Honolulu's mayor both confirmed the situation later Monday.
"While I am disappointed the Pro Bowl likely will not be played in Hawaii in 2010, I respect the NFL's decision to play the post season all-star game in the same city as the Super Bowl, one week before the Super Bowl, on a one-year test basis," Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement.
It's not a new notion to have the game moved up to take place between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL has discussed it multiple times in recent years, and commissioner Roger Goodell told the AP last month that having the game precede the Super Bowl would avoid a "somewhat anticlimactic" ending to the season.
"Plans for future Pro Bowls are not final, but we have stated publicly several times that we are giving strong consideration to moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "We also have been exploring playing future Pro Bowls at the site of the Super Bowl as well as in Honolulu."
The Pro Bowl has been held in Honolulu since 1980, and it's probable that the game will return to Hawaii after 2010, although not on the permanent basis as has been the case over the past three decades. Lingle said she was hopeful a deal could be struck in time for the 2011 game to return to Honolulu, and the city's mayor, Mufi Hannemann, told The AP that he also is optimistic for eventual Pro Bowls.
"It's not that this comes as a surprise," Hannemann said. "The NFL has made it known for some time now that they were looking for some sort of rotational basis. We just need to get a new agreement with the NFL, whether it's every year or every two years or every three years. The ball's in our court to get that done."
It won't be South Florida's first Pro Bowl: the 1975 game took place in Miami's Orange Bowl, during a period when the site rotated annually.
Barring a schedule change, next season's Pro Bowl will take place Jan. 31, 2010, with the Super Bowl that year on Feb. 7. The league's plan is for players on the AFC and NFC championship squads not to take part in the Pro Bowl.
Miami was awarded the 2010 Super Bowl three years ago, a record 10th time the game will come to the Dolphins' home city. The notion of adding the Pro Bowl to the lineup in South Florida was first discussed several months ago. It's not clear when the final decision was made to move the game.
Hawaii tourism officials have lobbied in recent months to extend the game's current contract, which expires after this season's Pro Bowl, pointing to the fact that it's been sold out every year since moving to Honolulu and generates about $30.5 million in visitor spending and tax revenues.
Lloyd I. Unebasami, the interim CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, told The AP that his organization — which has been involved in negotiations to extend the contract — had not yet received anything official from the NFL about the switch.
"We're working toward assuring ourselves that we'll be one of the Pro Bowl stops of the NFL," said Unebasami, adding that his organization is also working on luring international soccer matches to Hawaii in 2010 — just in case the Pro Bowl isn't there and creates a void in the state's sport-tourism landscape.
Earlier this year, Hawaii's state government released $11 million for lighting and roofing improvements at Aloha Stadium, part of ongoing upgrades designed to refurbish and modernize the aging stadium. State officials have also considered demolishing the facility and building a new stadium.
Losing the Pro Bowl, combined with slowdowns in tourism because of the sluggish economy, is a double-dose of bad news for Honolulu, which estimates that 25,000 people came from out-of-state for Pro Bowls.
"It's not a shock because in talking with the NFL last year and this year, you realize the potential was there that it wouldn't stay in Honolulu forever and ever," said the mayor, Hannemann.
AP source: 2010 Pro Bowl will be in Miami
By TIM REYNOLDS
12-30-8
MIAMI (AP) — The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the NFL has not announced the move, but Hawaii's governor and Honolulu's mayor both confirmed the situation later Monday.
"While I am disappointed the Pro Bowl likely will not be played in Hawaii in 2010, I respect the NFL's decision to play the post season all-star game in the same city as the Super Bowl, one week before the Super Bowl, on a one-year test basis," Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said in a statement.
It's not a new notion to have the game moved up to take place between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. The NFL has discussed it multiple times in recent years, and commissioner Roger Goodell told the AP last month that having the game precede the Super Bowl would avoid a "somewhat anticlimactic" ending to the season.
"Plans for future Pro Bowls are not final, but we have stated publicly several times that we are giving strong consideration to moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "We also have been exploring playing future Pro Bowls at the site of the Super Bowl as well as in Honolulu."
The Pro Bowl has been held in Honolulu since 1980, and it's probable that the game will return to Hawaii after 2010, although not on the permanent basis as has been the case over the past three decades. Lingle said she was hopeful a deal could be struck in time for the 2011 game to return to Honolulu, and the city's mayor, Mufi Hannemann, told The AP that he also is optimistic for eventual Pro Bowls.
"It's not that this comes as a surprise," Hannemann said. "The NFL has made it known for some time now that they were looking for some sort of rotational basis. We just need to get a new agreement with the NFL, whether it's every year or every two years or every three years. The ball's in our court to get that done."
It won't be South Florida's first Pro Bowl: the 1975 game took place in Miami's Orange Bowl, during a period when the site rotated annually.
Barring a schedule change, next season's Pro Bowl will take place Jan. 31, 2010, with the Super Bowl that year on Feb. 7. The league's plan is for players on the AFC and NFC championship squads not to take part in the Pro Bowl.
Miami was awarded the 2010 Super Bowl three years ago, a record 10th time the game will come to the Dolphins' home city. The notion of adding the Pro Bowl to the lineup in South Florida was first discussed several months ago. It's not clear when the final decision was made to move the game.
Hawaii tourism officials have lobbied in recent months to extend the game's current contract, which expires after this season's Pro Bowl, pointing to the fact that it's been sold out every year since moving to Honolulu and generates about $30.5 million in visitor spending and tax revenues.
Lloyd I. Unebasami, the interim CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, told The AP that his organization — which has been involved in negotiations to extend the contract — had not yet received anything official from the NFL about the switch.
"We're working toward assuring ourselves that we'll be one of the Pro Bowl stops of the NFL," said Unebasami, adding that his organization is also working on luring international soccer matches to Hawaii in 2010 — just in case the Pro Bowl isn't there and creates a void in the state's sport-tourism landscape.
Earlier this year, Hawaii's state government released $11 million for lighting and roofing improvements at Aloha Stadium, part of ongoing upgrades designed to refurbish and modernize the aging stadium. State officials have also considered demolishing the facility and building a new stadium.
Losing the Pro Bowl, combined with slowdowns in tourism because of the sluggish economy, is a double-dose of bad news for Honolulu, which estimates that 25,000 people came from out-of-state for Pro Bowls.
"It's not a shock because in talking with the NFL last year and this year, you realize the potential was there that it wouldn't stay in Honolulu forever and ever," said the mayor, Hannemann.
Home prices post record 18% drop
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/30/real_estate/October_Case_Shiller/?postversion=2008123010 Home prices post record 18% drop
The 20-city S&P Case-Shiller index has posted losses for a staggering 27 months in a row.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
December 30, 2008
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices posted another record decline in October, falling 18% compared with a year earlier, according to a closely watched report released Tuesday.
The 20-city S&P Case-Shiller index has posted losses for a staggering 27 months in a row. In October, 14 of the 20 cities set fresh price decline records.
"The bear market continues; home prices are back to their March 2004 levels," says David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's.
Sunbelt cities suffered the most, but most of the country is watching home values fall. Home prices in Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco all fell more than 30% on a year-over-year basis. Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego recorded year-over-year declines of 29%, 28% and 27%, respectively.
"As of October 2008, the 20-City Composite is down 23.4%," said Blitzer. "In October, we also saw three new markets enter the 'double-digit' club."
Atlanta, Seattle and Portland each reported annual rates of decline of about 10%.
"While not yet experiencing as severe a contraction as in the Sunbelt, it seems the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic South is not immune to the overall demise in the housing market," Blitzer added.
Deteriorating environment
Many of the factors affecting home prices turned strongly negative this fall, according to Blitzer.
"October was really the first month to feel the full brunt of the credit crunch," he said. "Up until the Lehman Brothers [bankruptcy filing on September 15], everyone felt relatively optimistic."
Plus, in many of the free-falling cities the majority of real estate sales consist of distressed properties such as foreclosed homes and short sales. These houses tend to sell at a steep discount to the rest of the market, and when they account for a large proportion of all sales, they can exaggerate the depth of price declines.
Of course, foreclosures continue to be a big problem as well. In October alone, nearly 85,000 people lost their homes to foreclosure, adding vacant inventory to an already overburdened market.
Home sellers should not expect prices to improve any time soon, according to Pat Newport, a real estate analyst for IHS Global Insight.
"I expect it's going to get quite a bit worse over the next couple of months," he said. "Existing home sales reports have really been bad."
Home sales fell 8.6% in November, much more than expected, to an annualized rate of 4.49 million units according to the National Association of Realtors.
And although interest rates are currently extremely low - the 30-year fixed-rate averaged 5.14% during the week of December 24, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) - that's doing more to help people refinancing existing mortgages than it is to help new home buyers.
"Buyers still have to have a 20% down payment," said Newport, "and, in this environment, it can be hard to meet that criteria."
The latest Case-Shiller numbers provide more ammunition to Washington policy makers who want to do more to fix the housing mess, according to Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with the Stanford Group, the policy research firm.
"These data just add to the tremendous pressure on the president-elect and the Democrats to stimulate housing," he said. "That means more lucrative tax incentives and broad foreclosure prevention. All of this will likely be in the stimulus plan that Congress adopts in January."
Nicholas Retsinas, Director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, agrees. "Housing problems are at the core of our economic problems," he said, "yet, of the government interventions made during 2008, few were focused on housing."
With a new administration and Congress in place next month, he expects to see a renewed interest in stabilizing the housing market.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Favre gives Jets a chance in AFC
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/don_banks/09/07/banks.insider.jets.dolphins/Sunday September 7, 2008
Don Banks
INSIDE THE NFL
Favre gives Jets a chance in AFC
Story Highlights
Despite the win, Favre is clearly still adjusting to the Jets
He made the same kind of plays we've seen him make for years
Favre sounds like he knows that he is still far from his best
Brett Favre made some of his signature throws -- and celebrations -- in his debut.
Bob Rosato/SI
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- After 16 seasons in Green Bay, Brett Favre admits there are still times he walks into the New York Jets huddle and has his mind go blank as he's grasping for the necessary terminology required to make the next call.
Rather than seem indecisive or, worse yet, lost, Favre has already developed a go-to fallback for just such an occurrence.
"A couple of times I just winged it and told the guys, 'Same play,' and then I said, 'OK, ready, break,' '' said Favre after making his Jets regular-season debut at Dolphin Stadium a winning one, 20-14 over Miami. "And they were like, 'Same play what?' ''
Best I can tell from watching on Sunday, it's the same play all right. In every way. The uniform might be a slightly different shade of green, but it's the same old Brett Favre, making the same old Brett Favre-type plays. Some great, some ugly, and some entirely unconventional and ill-advised. Like that 22-yard, fourth-and-13 touchdown pass that Favre lobbed up there to Jets receiver Chansi Stuckey in the second quarter, putting enough air under the ball to invite a fair catch call and just maybe draw a delay of game penalty.
"I didn't think he had a chance in hell of catching it,'' Favre said of Stuckey, who went up for it like it was a jump ball in basketball, pulling it down uncontested a half yard into the end zone. "The throw, I don't know what it looked like. It was like a shot put. I can't believe it went as far as it did. I tried to throw it to where somebody was and just give someone a chance.''
But what we really all walked away with Sunday after watching Favre is the realization that he indeed does give his Jets a chance. A chance to win in the AFC East, especially now that the mighty Patriots might be without reigning NFL MVP Tom Brady. A chance to resurrect head coach Eric Mangini's third-year program, which nosedived to 4-12 last year after such a promising beginning in 2006.
As long as Favre is here, and he's making the same kind of plays we've been watching him make since the first Clinton administration, the Jets are going to believe they have a chance. Let's face it: Ugly as it was at times, this was the biggest victory for a Jets quarterback in Miami since Joe Namath backed up his mouth in Super Bowl III. The Jets-Dolphins haven't meant too much lately, but Favre's presence made this one memorable.
"He has the ability to make some things happen down the field that are impressive,'' said Mangini after getting his initial four-quarter firsthand look at the high-wire act that Favre's game can be at times. "Sometimes the pocket is really firm and he's able to sit back and let it go. And there are times when he creates, and other people have to respond to that creation.''
Favre's first real creation as a Jet came not even seven minutes into the season, when his exquisite play-action fake hoodwinked the Miami defense and gave receiver Jerricho Cotchery time to get behind everyone in the Dolphins secondary while waiting to pull down his 56-yard touchdown reception. That play gave New York the early 7-0 lead and was the biggest play of Favre's 15-of-22, 194-yard passing day.
"I thought I overthrew him, but obviously I didn't,'' Favre said of Cotchery, who had to slow up to catch the ball in stride inside the Miami 10. "He's a deceptive player. He's always around the ball and the guy can make plays. He's got deceptive speed and I hope he keeps deceiving people.''
Listening to Favre in the postgame, I got the sense that he feels like he's deceiving people a bit of late. He knows he's far from at his best, and his struggle to master the offense is wearisome at times. But he's 1-0, and that makes his tortuous unretirement process worth it all. At least for now.
"It was ugly at times, but a win is a win,'' said Favre, who did not throw an interception, lost one of his two fumbles and wound up with those two touchdown passes and a 125.9 passer rating on the day. "I'd be lying if I stood here and told you that I feel confident in the passing offense right now. It's from my end and what I need to study. We made some mistakes that I think were a result of newness. But it's a big win.''
The newness factor, of course, will eventually wear off for Favre. And when it does, his Jets just might find themselves in the thick of things in their division. What a difference 48 hours has made in the AFC East, with Brady going down with a potential season-ending knee injury and the Bills getting Pro Bowl left offensive Jason Peters to finally report back to work.
Everything that we thought we knew when Brady was the one constant in the division now must be recalibrated. And who is better to take advantage of this unexpected opening than Favre and his Jets?
"I just found out about [Brady],'' Favre said. "That's terrible. I guess it's an ACL or something. They've always overcome injuries and things like that, but that's pretty difficult.''
Suddenly we're looking at Favre and the Jets as potentially more than just a nuisance to the feared Patriots. Oh, and did we mention who New York plays in its Week 2 home-opener at Giants Stadium? That would be New England, which overcame its shock on Sunday to squeeze past the Chiefs 17-10 in Foxboro.
Let the Jets handle the Matt Cassel-led Patriots next week, snapping their NFL-record 20-game regular-season winning streak, and Favre-mania will really take off in New York. A Week 3 trip to San Diego looms, but with a home game against Arizona awaiting them in Week 4, the Jets very possibly could hit their Week 5 bye at 3-1 with a head of steam.
That's getting ahead of ourselves, of course. But Favre brings an undeniable swagger to a Jets team hungry to build an identity for itself. This was only the first step in that process, but it was an important one, even if the host Dolphins were 1-15 last year. Now that we've seen Favre play a real game as a Jet, the whole nasty business of how he left Green Bay is a little further away in our memories.
The last time we saw Favre play a meaningful game before Sunday, he was throwing an game-turning overtime interception to doom the Packers' Super Bowl chances, against the storybook New York Giants. Not quite nine months later, Favre was helping New York win it this time too, but as a member of the Jets. Which is why he came back to the NFL in the first place, he said, to help a team win again.
"Tomorrow morning I'll probably be going that I don't want to play, but I know that I've said that this is what it's all about,'' Favre said. "I've said from day one that I know I've made the right decision. I enjoy these guys. There's no guarantee what's going to happen for the rest of the year. But I hope can bring something to this team that I've brought to every team that I've played with. Whatever that may be, as long as it helps us win.''
On Sunday in sunny South Florida, Favre helped the Jets win the first game of their new and hopeful Favre era. With the same play we've always seen from No. 4. Some good, some bad, and some things we've never seen before.
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