The Fund for Our Economic Future has been working on an "economic development barometer".

In Northeast Ohio, we need to be focused on building our innovation economy. I'm quietly hopeful that the work being done by the Fund will help us keep innovation issues front and center.

Governor Mitch Daniels has some lessons that civic leaders in Northeast Ohio can follow. In his first year as governor, Daniels has shaken things up.

IIn his first year, he has shaken up state agencies and moved the state past stale debates over daylight savings time. In the process he has angered even some of his own Republican supporters.

>Regina Brett brings a good perspective by comparing Cleveland and our new mayor to Jim Collins' framework, outlined in his best selling book, Good to Great. You can read here commentary here.

 From Philanthropy News Digest is an article on NY Mayor Bloomberg convincing the private sector - corporations, foundations and philanthropists - to support public education overhaul in NYNY, raising from this over $300 million "without strings attached", which is "crucial to their ability to experiment and support research and development efforts within the system". A thought to share as we select and brief our new Cleveland Public Schools CEO. Feel free to share your thoughts...

What can our cities in NEO learn from Auckland, NZ? Civic leaders in Auckland just issued a major report on the creative industries. Learn more. Download the report.

Innovation will drive our region forward. Here are a few of important papers on the topic. The first comes from Lewis Branscomb, a professor at Harvard and a recognized expert in the U.S. innovation system. His commentary provides a good perspective on the declining relative performance of U.S. innovation. Read more.

David C. Barnett asks the tough questions of Randell McShepherd, one of the founders of Policy Bridge.

Randy does a good job outlining the mission of Policy Bridge, why it's needed. He also does a good job introducing Policy Bridge's first report on the plight of African American men in the region.

A Real NEO American entrepreneur here – He’s his own boss and gets to make all the decisions.  He’s surface mining the Tremont environs.    How are we collaborating with him?  Does he have a Blog?

The Apollo Alliance represents an emerging opportunity in Northeast Ohio. The Alliance, a collaboration of business, labor and environmental organizations, promotes the move toward energy self-sufficiency and higher income jobs.

This fellow is an entrepreneur.  He's experiencing a bit of the "trickle down" economy near EcoVillage at Lorain and W65th.  We are seeing more of this type of citizen than we have in the past.  Why is he carrying a wheel on his head?  Who is he (not individually - but as a rung in our economic ladder)? 

I thought I'd post a few personal focus areas regarding 2006 and change efforts for the region.  We have so much to do, in so many areas.  In the spirit of the holistic view of sustainabilty and quality of life - I post my wish list for 2006 using our six-sphere framework:  these are broad outcomes, but i believe we can define specific action plans as discussion, dialogue, and inquiry continue.  Change, after all, begins the moment we ask the question!

I hope you are happy, as we begin 2006.

Over the past many years, the region has redefined and reinvented itself - now is a fair time to expect progress, and I believe we shall see that on many fronts, in 2006.

Last night the kids made taco rice for dinner. An easy and delicious meal...though the pic below really doesn't do it justice.

Taco Rice is supposedly a Okinawan invention. I would imagine, though I will say that I don't actually know this to be true, that the Okinawans picked up "tacos" from the U.S. Military there, but seeing that they probably didn't have access to taco shells back when Taco Rice was invented(don't ask because I don't know), so they used Japanese steamed rice. All you need is the ingredients for Tacos(shredded lettuce, cheese, taco-spiced ground beef, tomatoes, and taco sauce) and dump it on a plate of steamed rice.

Found this via Henry Gomez's TechLink post. which references this post on BFD. Apparently, Cleveland now has a dedicated wiki. Discussion of the wiki is held on this forum.

Recently, Policy Bridge released its first report on the lost potential of African American men in our region. Here's an idea to keep this idea moving forward: Conduct a seminar or workshop on the best practices for creating wealth in inner city neighborhoods.

For some years, Michigan has been implementing an initiative to help its smaller tool and die shops. Last week, the State announced that five more firms will be added to the Tool and Die Recovery Zone program. Read more.

Here's a good review of the economic evidence on the role of small business in employment growth. Although it's written for a Minnesota audience, the author's conclusions apply more broadly. You can read the article here.

Here's an interesting story of a minority incubator in Lorain County. As one of the organizers points out, "Lorain has almost 40 percent minorities, and less than 3 percent of its businesses are owned by minorities."

Louisville stands as a poster child for city-county governance. Recently, a group of civic leaders in Ft. Wayne visited Louisville to attend the National Conference on Collaborative Government. Here is a commentary. Read more.

In New Jersey's Einstein Alley, civic leaders recently held a summit to explore some of the best practices in building innovation networks.

The local Congressman who helped organize the summit had an insightful quote: "Local innovation and entrepreneurship, not top-down governance from federal and state leaders, is needed to strengthen Central Jersey's economic future." Read more.

Is it better to design systems of education that disregard parental involvement or is it better to design systems of education that better involve and integrate parents?  I know one motivation to sugggest the former might be frustration with the degree to which many parents have failed in supporting the education of their children.  Eliminating any expectations on the part of educational institutions regarding parenting might hold these institutions to a higher level of accountability for childhood development.  Is this really the way? 

Clean, Renewable Energy is the way, I couldn't agree more with Ed (Morrison) and his blog posting.  I recently posted some information regarding Biofuels - You can find that and some of my relevant comments here.  We have such a great position as a region and a state in several of these technologies- some surveys put us near the top in the nation for both Fuel Cell technology and Wind Power.  The prospects of a wind farm out in the Lake have become much more realistic in recent times - that project would make a signature statement much like a new signature bridge would for our city and region.  And as Ed so eloquently noted, moving to clean energy will translate bottom line to many new and interesting job possibilities and ultimately economic development.

The news on renewables -- particularly biofuels -- is popping all around us.

Here's a good article on renewable fuels in Minnesota. As one participant in the conference noted, "The future is going to be exciting. We're just starting to scratch the surface with renewables." Read more.

At the Dec. 8 "Art of Cool" conference in Lansing, MI, the Michgan Department of History, Arts and Libraries released a strategy for leveraging arts and culture to produce new tax revenue, provide good-paying jobs and create sustainable businesses.

Certain buzzwords in the Sustainability community are used widely but not clearly understood - I thought I'd address two of those here - sustainability and triple-bottom-line focus.  Sustainability is most commonly defined as 'Meeting the Needs of the present generation in such a way as not to compromise future generation's abilities to meet their own needs' (Bruntland Definition). This speaks to methods which not only maintain quality of life but preferably improve it.