Join us this Friday at The Inner Circle as REALNEO goes to print

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 06/21/2007 - 01:03.
06/22/2007 - 11:00
06/22/2007 - 15:00
Etc/GMT-4

I'm pleased to invite you to another in our series of open houses at The Inner Circle. This Friday, June 22, we will open the restaurant with an expanded food service, being planned by Hot Sauce Williams' Greg Williams and The Inner Circle's Edwin James - I'll post details shortly. But the big news we'll be discussing at The Inner Circle this Friday is literally the "news", as we are about to launch a print newspaper for East Cleveland - 4-color, 24 page - 20,000 free copies (advertiser supported) to be distributed door-to-door and made available all over East Cleveland, University Circle and in the area, and of course on-line. You are invited to help write and produce it!

I'll post more details on this new newspaper as I'm able - the best way to get informed and involved is to come to the Inner Circle Friday. The newspaper will be produced entirely online, just like REALNEO, and will feature events, articles, photos, and other content, from civic journalists, that is of interest to others in the community. For example, I'm asking the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council to provide a series on lead poisoning prevention. I've asked the Coit Farmers Market to provide a food feature each issue. You are welcome to submit your ideas and content. Again - start by coming to the Inner Circle!

A Hot Sauce Williams BBQ lunch (with some veggie dishes as well) will be available from 11:30 AM until 1:00 PM ($7 - some light items for less). At 12:30 PM we will begin an open discussion about the East Cleveland newspaper project.

If you want to learn more about what we are doing in East Cleveland and with this historic property - take a tour - then come as early as 11 AM. If you don't want to join us for lunch but are interested in discussing the newspaper, please come at 12:30 PM. We should be around until at least 3:00 PM if you want to stop by later.

NOTE: Next Thursday, June 28th, we'll continue The Inner Circle tradition of sharing great music experiences while featuring a Caribbean vibe. Jamaican steel drum performer Calvin Wilson will offer a steel drum workshop focused on kids, at 3:30 PM, and will perform for all from 4:00 until around 6:30 PM - Edwin will mix it up as well.

Location

The Inner Circle Restaurant, at Hough Bakeries
1519 Lakeview Road Additional Parking Across Lakeview in Gated Lot Facing Building
East Cleveland, OH
United States
AttachmentSize
Edwin and Calvin.JPG76.34 KB
EdwinShakingCalvin.JPG66.94 KB
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Fantastic Forum Forming

This looks great.   I look forward to writing prolifically for the East Cleveland Observer - ironically enough this is the name of the school newspaper for my undergraduate and postgraduate (MBA) alma mater, just a mile west of the Inner Circle Star Complex - Case Western Reserve University.

I enjoyed discussing ideas and formats for the paper earlier and here are some thoughts for specific sections and areas I would like to contribute as a writer:

 
 Music Editorials - current Press pass access to Live Nation, Playhouse Square, House of Blues, Wilberts and any more allow for fantastic access to one of the best summer show lineups to hit Cleveland in eons.  We should maximize synergy with RealNEO and the online edition of the paper of course.  Interviews with artist would be anticipated as well.   Our very own Star will feature EC and non EC stars like Edwin and many more!

 
Special Events Coverage - what we often do, except carefully photodocument the process, an ongoing series dedicated to the many items that will add beauty, energy efficiency, and revenue generation to the project a separate showcased subproject Star each week.  

 
 East Cleveland Events (Super-Star)  and Venues associated with them showcased and highlighted - many have already been done on our own realneo.org .   Illustrating the connective potentials, facilitating  win -wins.

      Such v enues include EC Public Library, EC Theater, Forrest Hills Park, Coit Rd Market, Nela Park, EC Observatory (which our team once considered for a second incubator mecca or revitalized observatory) and more.

 

These offer a good start - i'd certainly delve into a bit of poetry and such as well if space and time allow.

 
Again, Come one and all to the Star to catch all our REALNEO stars - The Williams Family, Edwin David, Evelyn Kiefer,  Norm Roulet, Jon Cline , Derek Arnold, Joe Stanley to name just a few seriously stalwart soldiers.  I am honored to be part of this team and to have been made a full partner in this effort and its business entity, 7gen LLC.  Final thanks to Thompson Hine for processing much of the legal work for this fantastic and fabulous effort.

??? Talked to Eric Brewer, former publisher of EC newspaper???

RE: East Cleveland Observer

This is good.  This is great.  And it is needed.  Truth be told, I personally would LOVE to see this happen.

BUT !!!

    Have you spoken with Eric Brewer, former NEWSPAPER reporter, trained and practiced journalist, publisher of previous East Cleveland newspaper, and apparently attempting to revive some kind of EC newspaper?  In a community this tiny, as a brand new resident trying to be a positive force in said same community, and in the spirit of cooperation, I would think it would be a positive and courteous first step to, at the very least, have a conversation with Eric Brewer.  He might be GLAD to have someone else do the work that he wishes he could get back up and going again.  He might be able to offer suggestions from his years of experience here in EC, as to what kinds of things are of interest to the community.  Brewer might be elated that someone is willing to do the work of informing the citizens of East Cleveland about matters of concern to them.  And clearly, he could point you in the right direction, suggest to you who are the gatekeepers, and provide the initial introductions to give you access to the MANY people and organizations that are active and engaged here in EC – that go largely, and some would say deliberately, ignored by all the other media outlets here in NorthEast Ohio.

and speaking of  ...

    Is this paper being produced for the interest and concerns of the citizens of East Cleveland, or is EC just the location of where it will be produced? 

    For example - When you speak of showcase / star projects, who, what, where are these projects?  Are they “any where, anything” projects, or will they be East Cleveland based, and/or East Cleveland related / relevant projects? 
Another example - Music reviews might need to include information about genre's of music and venues that East Cleveland residents are more prone to be interested in.  That does NOT mean it should be limited to the music, arts, and culture that this largely, but not exclusively, African American community is familiar with.  But neither should it be limited to music, art, cultural genres, locals, etc. that are presumed to be hip and of interest – but actually of interest to others outside of the typical East Cleveland demographics.  Sometimes we have to be mindful of our own lenses and our assumptions / presumptions.

But then again, that goes back to my question of: is this newspaper FOR the residents of East Cleveland, or is it just a name / location for yet another other print document?

    And again, to help this be more successful and have a better chance of being accepted and promoted in this community (if it is FOR this community): Have that conversation with Eric Brewer.  He is not only a academically trained, and career practiced, long in the tooth journalist and reporter, but as the Mayor of East Cleveland that vigorously uses electronic media for his bully pulpit, he could be a major asset to the launching and supporting of the EC Observer, encouraging people to allow you access for both information and readership.  Without the act of initial cooperation and dialogue, I SERIOUSLY doubt that you will get the support, the readership, the circulation, the access to information, the cooperation, that you will want or need to allow the East Cleveland Observer be a successful publication.  The CITIZENS of East Cleveland will be offended that you have not made that effort to make that kind of connection. 

With or without Brewer saying a word.  


It has far less to do with getting Brewer's permission and far, far much more to do with demonstrating a sensitivity, a respect, a sincere concern and grounded interest in the PEOPLE of East Cleveland.  Launching the EC Observer without getting to make key connections FIRST, will caste the EC Observer as an invasion instrument, a manifestation of a negative initial forays of yet another BAD gentrification take over.  Gentrification that is only interested in buildings, streets, and future real estate monetary gains, and is deliberately blind to the people who already live and work in those buildings and houses.

 

I hope you have already talked to Brewer, and this posting just hasn’t made that clear.  If you haven’t, …

 

The first person I talked to was Mayor Brewer

I consider Mayor Brewer a friend and I know his background in journalism so before seriously considering this idea I asked his opinion about establishing a newspaper in East Cleveland, for East Cleveland. He said, right off the bat, he thought it was a great idea. As I determined that the prospect of making this happen was serious, I confirmed with Brewer his interest - a community newspaper needs to work well with City Hall - I also discussed the idea with any council people I know, and residents like Pat Blochowiak, Abu Alli and Greg Williams. Everyone loves the idea.

Brewer said he hopes it has lots of pictures of the great things about East Cleveland - the history, nature, people, library, schools, etc... e.g. building a playground, last week. I asked him to write a column for the paper - I think an article on the East Cleveland trip to the national shopping center convention would be informative. I'm also encouraging the council people to write for the paper, and all citizens are invited to write as well... this is called civic journalism.

While I'm pushing this thing out there and getting the ball rolling, I am certainly not planning to write the paper or edit it alone or even much, for long. I'll do anything and everything needed to get it going but it is intended to be for, of and from the community and I only intend to be one of like 26,000 in East Cleveland. How the rest of the content is created, by whom, is up to all of us. I'm not sure of the entire process of evolving the paper other than that one step is you and me posting about it here on REALNEO. Many people who read and write on realneo will certainly contribute to the East Cleveland paper, even if they live elsewhere. An example would be Susan writing on how to set up rain barrels. Or Derek writing on how to install Ubuntu.

On the streets, it would seem cool if each "block" or neighborhood contributed something. We should have regular features on star pupils, artists and other citizens, and historic buildings, and gardening, and fun stuff like a comic - art and photo contests - events - recognition for awards and achievements - profiles on issues like crime and foreclosures.

The paper will also have content provided by organizations serving the citizens of East Cleveland, like the libraries and schools and departments of housing, health, family services, etc. Whereas in the past these departments have had to produce their own newsletters and bulletins to try and reach citizens about public issues, now they can put important information in the newspaper. An example is information about National Lead Awareness Week activities in July, and about lead poisoning prevention.

Other useful information would be from the schools about how parents can get involved in their children's educations, and schedules of parent activities. There should be a section in each issue for senior citizens, with info on activities at Helen S. Brown and elsewhere for seniors, and articles of interest to them. So much of the content should be very expert and of specific value to groups of citizens of East Cleveland.

I would expect arts and culture information will include lots of activities in University Circle as well as East Cleveland - why not some in Cleveland Heights as well - how that comes together will be determined by who becomes most active with the paper - if jazz buffs really plug and write about jazz well, it will be seen in the community, from Barking Spider to East Cleveland Library to Nightown. If no one writes about and plugs jazz, it will not be well represented. I expect the content will have some organic flow depending on how the community interacts with it day to day and over time - I can't predict that now. But it will be produced in East Cleveland, largely by East Clevelanders, for East Clevelanders and those interested in that community, however broadly we East Clevelanders choose to define it.

Disrupt IT

GOOD !!! I'm GLAD I was wrong

EXCELLENT !!!

Now I can breath a sigh of relief.  I had asked the question before, but must have missed your reply. 

Let's continue to work together !!!