The House passed an historic health care bill - how did your Representative vote? Find out and contact them here: http://is.gd/4PTXs

How many local governments in NEO--have applied for federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants?

Architecture 2030 provides a template for local governments to use:

Does it make sense for a school district to abandon buildings, defer maintenance on all,  demolish and rebuild some buildings at enormous cost, when the district is strapped for operational funding? 

Well, that is what CMSD continues to do.  Is that Sustainable Cleveland?

It's not all gloom and doom--here are some uplifting images from a grey day in Cleveland.

Okay, for once, JeffB and NormR--we can agree that aersol art can be a thing of beauty--I am including here an image, I shot while in college at Miami University of Ohio. 

Long live the REVOVOLUTION!

One of my favorite all-time albums is Clues by Robert Palmer and I still can not believe that the man is dead.   Robert Palmer made such an impact in my life.  REAL artists do that. 

Confessions of a bibliophile:  I read the Plain Dealer every Sunday for the book section and I am so grateful that the Plain Dealer understands the extreme regional importance of the BOOK.

Follow Karen Long here and please note that the PD has twitterized their site for the readers, so you will have to register to become a follower :)

Who is going to be the first person to call this out? 

See also, Hunter Morrison editorial in today's Plain Dealer.

Why not take a regional approach to deciding Cleveland port's future
By Plain Dealer
October 11, 2009, 5:00AM

By Hunter Morrison 

It's more than a band--it's the War of the Currents.  My architect friend stopped in the library yesterdayand gave me a crash course in how electricity distribution works.

Friday is a great day of the week.  There is a promise of relaxation and some time to reflect on the past and the future.  After dental work today, I was transferring buses at the Westside Market and found a hopeful sign of life in Cleveland--a tourist!  A young, leatherclad uber-chic, Dutch?/German? lad on bicycle and in search of a Library!  

Living anywhere is dangerous.  The great unknown is emotion and behavior.  Mix that with drugs, assault weapons  and teens and you have terror. 

How are these guns getting on our streets and in the hands of these kids?

Today's Sound of Ideas on WCPN discussed the outcome and costs of the corruption probe.  Roldo called in (and I called in and cried me a river)...More later.

I will be posting photos from the One World Event here in Cleveland.  Notably absent? Mayor Jackson who presumed that the audience would be mostly suburbanites and made the call to write it off.  Bad move. 

If Jackson's stodges on Cleveland City Council go along with Jacob's aquarium scheme, Cleveland will once again allow itself to be used by a developer to further our national image as a second-rate, amateur town--a joke.

Do I need to point out that we have polluted Lake Erie and our Great Lakes to the point that native animal and plant communities no longer exist?  So, what are we going to feature at this Great Lakes Aquarium?  Sheepshead and carp?

I finally convinced my significant other to bicycle down to Rockside and we did it today.  He is not too happy with me now that we are home with our sore backsides, but the experience was worth it.

From Jennifer Brunner--today on September 11, 2009

Congratulations to Brian Cummins and Rick Nagin for prevailing in today's primary. I hope you both find the strength to lead and protect the residents of Ward 14 from the predation of developers out to make a buck off of us.

To Nelson Cintron--I express my utmost admiration for your tireless efforts to improve the lives of your friends, your neighbors, and your family who live in Ward 14, and who actually go to the public schools with union teachers in Ward 14. 

If nothing else, today proved to me the power of magic realism.  Nelson Cintron is a good man, a kind man and a man gifted with the power to transform.  He is not a perfect man, but like all of us, when he tries, he can perform magic. 

In an effort to un-depress myself, I am trying to conjure in my mind the most charming places in NEO to go to when you want to watch people and feel hopeful about life.  Now, I know I can go to the middle of a forest somewhere and meditate, but I need to hear laughter and watch boats bobbing on the water. 

Why is it so hard to make it happen here in NEO?  Do you have a favorite place to share???  Please post your thoughts here.

Recently--it was determined that Zack Reed could not use the terminology "RE-ELECT" in his campaign literature.

Here is the language on a similar advisory issued in 1999 over Avon Lake campaign literature:

http://elc.ohio.gov/AdvisoryOpinion/99ELC-05.pdf

I am very excited that Cleveland Public Library is participating in the National Endowment for the Humanities Picturing America program.  I have always felt more comfortable explaining concepts visually and, lo and behold, today--a wonderful man contacted me today with a visual explanation of Web 3.0.  Enjoy.  Transform.

What happens to Mr. Wiggin's Garden?  Mr. Wiggins died this year.

The demolition of the historic Midland Terrace Rowhouses on Denison is probably occuring either today or tomorrow--See Denison Senior NRP housing posts here and here.