Mark Ebner

A Clevelander with a love of cities, tourism, economics, being outdoors, and sports.

[Patrick @PatLovesSports]

.@MLB is this not fan interference? #GuardsBall

[zach @zrkc_]

I remember playing Bryce Harper in Atlanta. I was 18 and he was 16. His dad was soft tossing kidney beans and he was hitting them with a skinny bat before the game. He went 0-4 that day, but it obviously worked and no matter if you spend $11 on a lb of kidney beans and a broom stick or $1,100 a month on your son he is still not going to be a Bryce Harper so I’d try to budget closer to the $11.

[The Green Dragon Tavern @greendragonhq]

Here is what will happen with Trump’s meeting in China..

1. Trump announces a deal with China. The details will be murky, and unclear, but he will say we won.

2. MAGA influencers celebrate. They flood our timelines with Trump’s propaganda.

3. The details of the deal come out, they are not what Trump said but the lie has already taken over the truth.

4. MAGA influencers will quietly move the goal post, and not acknowledge that we got lubed up, and bent over by China.

5. They quietly stop talking about the trip.

[𝑱 👑 @king0fCLE]

Just bc you guys only talk browns doesn’t mean Clevelanders don’t love baseball 😭

[Lord Mersey's Wonder Emporium @HiveFleetHodag]

hearing Guardians radio discuss how eminent domain was used to clear out the Mexican-American community of Chavez Ravine in order to eventually build Dodger Stadium is probably the closest I've heard to this tweet in real life

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild.

A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute.

Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home.

So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room.

The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely.

The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running.

Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

[Brian Baute @BrianBaute]

Only 10 of the last 30 World Series winners were outside the 10 biggest markets. Only St. Louis and Kansas City are small markets.

But 25 of the last 30 Super Bowl winners are outside the top 10 markets, including GB, STL, TB, PIT, IND, NO, KC, etc.

That’s the difference.

[Mark @MDSmalls23]

Jimmy Haslam owns 2 teams. In the span of 10 minutes, he overruled his GM and hired a 60 year old coordinator he could have hired 3 weeks ago, and his franchise all NBA player requested a trade

[Mission Valley Mafia @MissionVlyMafia]

Not one big national baseball reporter will cover this story about the Dodgers special exemption for their TV deal.

Why? Has MLB embargoed it?

Most fans don’t know about this and the media absolutely WILL NOT cover the story that the Dodgers have a special exemption on their TV deal that enables them to spend far above what any other team can.

This story is incredibly relevant to current events and not a single big name in the national baseball media will cover it. Maybe it reveals we don’t need a cap, we just need the Dodgers to stop getting special treatment and Manfred doesn’t want anyone talking about it.

Either way it’s weird

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Shared today by Bev Perry in the Expand Dem Values in the House and Senate Facebook group.

I need to say something that's been bothering me for a while, and I'm saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right.
This isn't partisan. This is observation.
We've slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care.
Even as a USMC pilot, I went through six months of infantry training as an officer before flight school. I've worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you.
There's a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. You start seeing the environment differently. In the Marine Corps, that shift was appropriate because it's a combat culture and organization.
But these are American streets. American citizens. And we've got law enforcement dressed like they're kicking down doors in Fallujah to serve warrants in suburbia.
What happend to high standards and real policing tactics? Think Adam-12...Officers Reed and Malloy. Crisp uniforms. A revolver. A baton. High standards and professionalism. They looked like public servants because they were public servants. They de-escalated. They talked to people. They were part of the community.
Now? Tactical gear, beards, ball caps, Oakley sunglasses, sleeve tattoos, and a tactical kit that would make special operators jealous. And we've turned it into a fetish. We celebrate it. We assume that because someone looks hard, they must be a professional.
They're not.
I loved the Marine Corps. But I'll be honest, I was also blinded by it for a while. Mission first. Unit over everything. And that mentality made sense in that context.
But law enforcement doesn't get that critical examination. "Back the Blue" has become a shield against accountability. A blanket assumption that a badge plus gun equals hero. That tactical gear equals competence.
It doesn't.
Most people who join law enforcement aren't special operators. They're average people who desperately want to belong to something bigger than themselves. I understand that impulse deeply, it's why I joined the Marines. But wanting to belong doesn't make you qualified. Looking the part doesn't mean you can perform under pressure. And wrapping yourself in warrior aesthetics doesn't make you a warrior.
Old school law enforcement represented something. Standards. Bearing. Discipline. Professionalism that was demonstrated, not costumed. A revolver and a baton meant you had to rely on your training, your words, your judgment, not overwhelming firepower.
What I see now in law enforcement is the costume without the culture. The gear without the training. The authority without the accountability.
Are there good people in law enforcement? Of course. I know some personally. But this reflexive "law enforcement can do no wrong" mentality is lazy, dangerous, and intellectually dishonest.
A woman is dead. And before we sort ourselves into teams and start assigning blame, maybe we should ask harder questions:
Why do we accept a militarized police force as normal?
Why do we assume tactical gear equals tactical competence?
Why have we let "Back the Blue" become a substitute for actual standards?
I wore the uniform. I went through the training. I know what that gear does to your head.
It shouldn't be normalized on American streets against American citizens.
And we shouldn't pretend everyone wearing it is qualified to carry it. The fact that he called her a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times should be a huge red flag for all of us.

[Roman Helmet Guy @romanhelmetguy]

The first property tax in American history was levied in 1634. By 1800, local govts in every single State collected property taxes. You’re only hearing calls to abolish property taxes now because they are the last obligation Boomers have to society.

[Julie Chang @JulieChangRE]

Yes

It’s not just taxes. It’s all the cost and work of maintenance.

If you look at enough homes with seniors over 75- there is often a lot of years of deferred maintenance. If you think oh why didn’t their kids step in. A lot of em do - they won’t listen.

It’s not a good thing to live a lifestyle you can no longer maintain

[Joe Patrice @JosephPatrice]

Honestly amazing how every illegal immigrant is simultaneously a destitute ward of the state AND fully approved for 30 year mortgages and soaking up all the quarter million dollar housing stock.

[Mark Ebner @mebner7]

@TRubensteinMD @davidhogg111 Try again

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?

[Governor JB Pritzker @GovPritzker]

this you? https://t.co/FGvzxRFB0q

[Mark Ebner @mebner7]

@PTrubey @liftblog Trump was president then. Biden was not in the government at all

[RageOhio ⚾🏆 #GuardsBall @RageOhio_]

@mikbaer @CleGuardians https://t.co/zrF5eNXO1A

[Captain Obvious™️ @TheFungi669]

What kind of shitty country would ban Tylenol and not guns?

US, of course.

[Brad @BraddrofliT]

Autism was first identified in 1911. Tylenol was introduced in 1950. Don't listen to the guy with the brainworm.

Release the Epstein Files.