As you roll down the portage escarpment on Quincy Avenue, you pass a large brick structure with no windows; it is covered with Virginia Creeper. (ahem - I mean the windows are all busted out; they're long gone.) I love this building. I imagine it retrofitted as a place for indoor hydroponic gardens and a food market. Keep going and you’ll cross a new bridge with its requisite tall arching chainlink fence. I imagine planting vines on this so that as you cross the bridge you pass through a green tunnel in the warmer months.

I was surprised today to see on Channel 5 evening news and Nightline several advertisements for Penningtons' SMART SEED™ with MYCO Advantage™ . I don't recall ever seeing ads for grass seeds during the evening news (or evenings, at all), and, from the Pennington website, the ad promotes that the seed "produces a healthier, thicker lawn that grows a deeper, denser root system, requiring up to 30% LESS WATER and maximizes fertilizer performance. Pennington SMART SEED™ with MYCO Advantage™, is simply more "green"". Obviously, now is a good time for a discussion of smart, green landscaping practices...

We're getting a new park in Cleveland. It is being prepared at East 9th and Lakeside across from City Hall and adjacent to the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building - a General Services Administration Building.

It'll be a Plaza WITH TREES - LOTS OF THEM. The site will be designed by Richard Fleischman Architects with artist Pae White.

"Successful plazas have 4 key qualities: They are accessible, people are engaged in activities there, the space is comfortable and has a good image, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit." AND THEY HAVE TREES - A LOT OF THEM.

And there are a lot of questions to answer: "Can you see the space from a distance?

Is it used by people of different ages? Are people in groups? How many different types of activity are occurring-people walking, eating, playing chess, relaxing, reading? Which parts of the space are used and which are not? Are there choices of things to do? Is there a management presence, or can you identify that anyone is in charge of the space? Is it clean, safe and is there a place to sit? Does it make a good first impression? Who is responsible for maintenance? What do they do and when? Does the area feel safe? Is there a security presence? What do these people do and when are they on duty? Are there photo opportunities?" ARE THERE TREES?

They looked at topography, shadow during all times of day throughout the year, wind speed and its effect on pedestrians, and they came up after several iterations with this leaf concept.

And they hired artist Pae White to design some art for the space.

I just received this message from New American Dream - follow that link for a nice webpage on spring cleaning. One of the great disasters of our consumer economy is the proliferation of dangerous household construction practices, lifestyles and cleaning processes, and harmful products in use in and around our homes on a daily basis. In renovating our historic house in East Cleveland, Evelyn and I have made all living spaces as toxin-free as possible, and we certainly intend to keep it that way in maintaining it. I think the following message offers some good advice - I don't endorse any of the products mentioned, as I don't know anything about them...the make-your-own approach mentioned here is more my style.

There are big bucks in the Charity Industry. It doesn't receive the attention it deserves.

To prove how profitable the Charity Industry can be you need to look at Bill Clinton's income tax return, recently revealed.

...just something I found on the web, from a person who is writing a book.

“I’m writing a book on magic,” I explain, and I am asked, “real magic?”

Today we walked morning and afternoon, my dog and I. Round the corner and into the new world as the sun crested over the buildings to our east. The day was cool and young; it was moist. Slick brown patches of mud greeted us, and we spotted a few buds here and there as we rounded another corner and another. Crocuses were pushed up and blooming in the slanted light.

There’s a warren of artistic eclecticism on the West Side of Cleveland off Detroit in the American Greetings factory.   

A couple of years ago when Forest City was selling its site for a new convention center to Cuyahoga County's Facilities Commission (since disbanded), Al Ratner casually mentioned that I would have lots of fun if I were tracking all the money Forest City got in subsidies around the nation.

At first we thought he was a little wacky. Later we knew he was totally whack. My brother Stephen Kirby Miller passed away alone in his home somtime in late October 2007. Above and below are some of his artworks I just happened to be perusing this evening.

There is someone we have not had the pleasure of seeing here in NEO, but her work has been seen on film here, and with the spring upon us, I happened on these excerpts...

If we hear nothing else all year, let's hear this"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q

Titled "Arachne Weaves Her Web", this imaginative low tech installation by Debbie Apple-Presser is testing viewers.  

I thought I'd share this reflection from someone who worked Carl Stokes' first campaigns for Mayor of Cleveland. He had some of the same feelings I have had about similarities between Stokes and Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

One of my neighbors  builds ROBOTS (I won't out you Michael). 

So, what does the future look like for me?  Homeland Security just stopped by to check me out.  I would rather have the REAL agent, who showed up for our interrogation and relocated here from LA with his family to live next to me (he chose Olmsted Falls).

How the corner of Prospect and East Ninth could look in the near future.

Here's the release:

The K&D Group Announces New Details of Its $200 Million Redevelopment Plan for East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland

WHY WE DO NEED NEWSPAPERS

click the image above to see the "big plans"

Last night, I woke up as I do on many nights to a bad dream.  A dear friend was trapped in a windowless cell, but he would not see the tunnel afforded him under the bunk of his bed.  I tried to show it to him, but I had to confess that looking down the narrow tunnel afforded me no comfort.  I woke up with chest pains.  Fear for myself and fear for my friend.  Do we stay in our cells, because of our fear of the unknown?  We choose the hell we know over the unknown?  Phillip Morris' column today reminds me of my bad dream. 

When can we all wake up?

In today's hard times, we can all feel that hand on the neck - Phillip Morris

I remember the first time I witnessed a killing. I was 6. The poor guy had his neck snapped in two. But he was a stubborn brawler. He refused to go down without a loud and bitter ruckus.

1968 – Start of Cleveland Decline

The year 1968 – 40 years ago – provides rich, if disturbing, historical background to the reason Cleveland is in the shape it is today. For me, 1968 was the year that changed my life and direction. I invite you to read a long piece on that year’s events to see what you think. You may do so by going to www.readroldo.com. I hope readers will take the time to read this piece published today

For a look at Cleveland’s racial division, or as Barack Obama says “racial wounds,” I’ll cite a couple of passages from the 1968 piece, involving among other events, the Glenville shootout:

Engineering continues to out do itself - with computers and finite element analysis  - creating "thrill" roller  coaster rides which test our faith in physics.   I love the physics – and the curvilinear ride tracks – and they say riding the coasters is safer than driving…but geezzz, why do it?  

April 1, 2008