One great thing about a gravel driveway is you can hear them coming.

This afternoon, Claes and I were chilling at home in East Cleveland, minding our own business, when we heard that crunch of rocks under heavy tires. Then the slam of a car door, and heavy feet on the front porch... another drive-by had arrived. It's been happening regularly since we started renovating the house on Roxbury, late last Summer.... especially on a beautiful day like today.

I thought I'd share some reflections after just spending Cinco de Mayo facilitating dialogues around regional economic development in Akron, Ohio.  I, like so many other colleagues who have participated in various phases of the Voices and Choices process had my fair share of reservations and issues with various aspects of the two-year, multi-million dollar investment and experience.  While I found great value in working hard to facilitate regional dialogues with a healthy mix of participants representing diverse demographics, I learned firsthand how difficult it is to drive meaningful outcomes from such activity.  I, like so many others, was very candid about the many difficulties endured and faced during the process - perhaps the most prolific of which was a failure to have the mechanisms in place to capture the heightened energy and activation of the masses in an effective and timely manner to drive meaningful and positive outcomes.  A candid conversation I had today with Advance Northeast Ohio's communications director, Chris Thompson, completely validated my feelings, as he was in complete agreement on this point.  I laud Chris for such candor and really appreciated his astute comments. 

Welcome to The Star Market and Cafe! What would make you walk, ride and drive out of your way and stop here? When? Why? Now is the time for Star Neighborhood Development to reinvent a blighted urban convenient store into a community asset. But how? That depends on you. What will you support here?

He’s our Jackie Robinson. Do we afford to not take the chance?

Barack Obama is tough in just the way Jackie Robinson had to be tough in 1947.

He has to operate in a non-threatening way and that may make him seem weak. He has had to ignore some attacks upon him without responding in kind. Robinson, a strong competitor, had to turn the “other cheek” to insults and attacks.

How would you change the boundaries of this map?

Jeff Buster certainly demonstrates "Why Citizen Journalism" regularly, with his impactful and important reporting and photojournalism on many matters of hyper-local, regional and global importance, on REALNEO, followed by the world. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer followed Jeff's lead investigation of a disgraceful, failed development in University Heights, "UNIVERSITY SQUARE MALL PARKING STRUCTURE - CLOSE IT NOW?" The PD's Patrick O'Donnell writes "University Square battles empty storefronts, parking garage problems", offering a very different set of perspectives on all matters related to this failure, while completely validating all construction-related observations first revealed by Jeff, a lifelong construction professional.

So I am just back from 14 days in Japan.  Interesting to be on the sidelines as 3,000 Japanese police protect the olympic toarch from what I thought would be a calm, reserved crowd.  Dont get me wrong, I was not in Nagano, I was in Shibuya / Tokyo.. but it got a lot of attention.  Pro and anti China student groups and observers literally throwing punches, 70 year old Japanese men going to jail for throwing tomatoes in the face of the police protecting the toarch... etc.  It was akin to what I saw in the USA when the toarch came thru California.

April 10, 2008, Heights Observer Volume 1, Number 1 hit the streets with the lead story "Why Citizen Journalism?". Contributing writer Michael Wellman observes "The interaction of two primary themes has largely been responsible for the growth of citizen based journalism: dissatisfaction with the content of traditional media and advancements in technology", and "“A common goal of citizen journalists is to recapture journalism as a truly democratic practice that is thoroughly rooted in -- and thus directly serves -- the real lives and interests of citizens.” (see mcgillreport.org/largemouth.htm)." Wellman also writes of the emergence of "hyper-local" journalism, enabled by Observer Newspapers and preached by Lakewood Observer founder Jim O'Bryan... for good reason.

Does bread become the new luxury item? April's  Northern Ohio Live talks dough.

Boston Now, a free daily started last spring in Boston, Massachusetts, and reported about then on Realneo,  has closed up and pulled it's servers off line.  You can't even read about their closing on their web site.  Instead you can find the news here in Google's cache

The circumstances certainly were different but in 1967 Carl Stokes also had a black minister problem.

It wasn’t as explosive as presidential candidate Barack Obama’s differences with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. However, it was fraught with the tension of an unwanted attachment during a hotly contested and historic political campaign.

REALNEO is under construction -- by you, its community.

Bill Clinton said he (we) killed “Welfare as we know it,” or at least as some did think they knew it.

Welfare, as we don’t recognize it – meaning not for poor people – continues and thrives. Skimming the news in the Plain Dealer yesterday so reveals. The PD doesn’t call it welfare, however. Rather, the new welfare represents commitments to, I guess, what some would call progress.

All species, all races, everywhere, we all must eat, frequently, so we humans may as well eat well. I prefer to eat at home, food I prepare,  of ingredients I know, in a kitchen I trust... there are few restaurants in the world that make me happier than homemade. But I certainly turn to experts for advice on food selection and preparation, and many of my favorite books - the ones I read over and over, and can't do without  - are cookbooks. I find all types interesting... international, ethnic, historical, regional... and consider many required reading. I'd be interesting for other foodie realneo members who share an interest in cooking to share their favorite cookbooks... some of mine are the header for today...

I-Open Leadership Retreat Shares New Practices and Tools for Community and Regional Economic Transformation

By Susan Schaul

Special Presentation: Open Source Economic Development
    Ed Morrison and the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

Ed Morrison has a different way of looking at economic development, by using open source thinking and networks to encourage innovation. This approach sounds easy, but it is not.

“We need to shift the conversation,” says Ed Morrison, Director of the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open). Morrison, speaking at the I-Open Leadership Retreat, Punderson State Park in Newbury, Ohio, April 23, 24 and 25 paints a picture of economic expansion by first describing the history behind 20th century business development.

“Our grandfather’s economy, the first curve economy, generated enormous wealth using top-down models created in vertical business silos. But the forces of globalization, started back in the 1960s and accelerated by the Internet in the 1990s, have collapsed costs and integrated markets. In Japan,” he explains, “the automakers organized production differently focusing on flatter organization, networks of suppliers, more flexible production, simpler product design, and faster build cycles. This is an example of networked production. And it proved to be an effective model”

The shift in the economy, declared by economists as moving from manufacturing to services, was too simplistic. Traditional business models based on command and control hierarchies are now being replaced by business models based on more open, porous networks and collaborations. The second curve economy, a new form of capitalism, has emerged based on networks. Morrison uses cell phones as an example. “What value is there if only one person has a cell phone?” he asks. “As the number of people with cell phones increases, the nodes of the network also increase raising the value of the communications network exponentially in a knowledge economy.”

Punderson State Park in Newbury, Ohio, was a beautiful venue for 18 workshop participants from Indiana, southern Ohio, the Mt. Pleasant Community, Akron, and the greater Cleveland area, to share ideas, brainstorm, and learn new concepts to grow their own programs. “We need to build new habits of thinking together,” Morrison advises. “This is not about who needs to be at the table, but who is at the table and what can we do?” He is a firm believer in the value of civic forums, creating the civic space where people can convene and talk together, developing trust and forming collaborations. Linking and leveraging together - these are the tools for the open source economic development process. With people linked together in clustered networks, they are in a collaborative position where they can conduct strategic doing, a disciplined approach to taking action toward economic revitalization. Even though the workshop participants came from non-profits, universities, and businesses, they were all eager to learn about these economic development tools realizing this approach made sense and could be applied to any situation.

Many people talk about economic development, but few people have actually worked in the field, plumbed the depths and shaped new strategies. Borrowing from the open source software developers, Morrison has created a new economic development paradigm called Open Source Economic Development harnessing the strength of open participation and network clusters. Morrison has spent close to 20 years in economic development, starting his career in Washington as a legislative assistant, taking on an analyst position with the American car manufacturers, then working in economically depressed areas in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Kentucky. After a three-year stint at the Case Western Reserve University Center for Regional Economic Initiatives (REI), he started his own business, I-Open, along with three former colleagues. Presently, he serves as the economic policy advisor to the Purdue Center for Regional Development at Purdue University and coordinates the federally funded WIRED (Workforce Innovation for Regional Economic Development) grant for North Central Indiana.

This is a 2.0 Mb Powerpoint Slideshow on the current building boom in Dubai that a friend sent to me. I think that it is very educational: Please "Click" Here for the Slideshow (it will take a little time to download & start...)

Thanks Everyone for your comments and support...on last week's I-Open Retreat..

Here is an initial followup. More information will be posted soon by retreat participant and writer, Susan Schaul...

The Leadership Retreat was a productive experience for everyone who participated last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the beautiful surroundings of Punderson State Park in Newburry, Ohio. We enjoyed brilliant weather in addition to meeting and spending time with great people and learning about assets, passions, and next steps toward regional transformation.

Ed Morrison guiding participants on the new practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development.

Gathering for dinner and conversation and learning.

Jeff Miller, Exec. Dir., Innovative Leadership Solutions joined us from Indiana, specializes in curriculum development.

Tom Stone, Exec. Dir., Mt. Pleasant NOW and Debra Lewis-Curlee, Mt. Pleasant Community Zone.

Here's an outline of the material we worked on together guided by workshop leader, Ed Morrison (below) and You can view the Live Show broadcast (just click "On Demand" at the lower bar and the selections will display) on the iopeneducation channel.

Agenda:

Wednesday

As part of its mission of conservation and preservation, Cleveland Metroparks should be a leader in promoting sustainability. Documenting and then decreasing utility and fuel use, cutting back on herbicides and pesticides, recycling beyond paper goods or state mandates - showing the way to greener lifestyles. Except for water conservation at the zoo and the purchase of a few hybrid SUVs (while still maintaining a huge stable of on and off road vehicles) there has been little effort to change.

by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.28.08

Good Video From The Article Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S6oyTdkOWc&eur

Here's a note just received from Marlon Solano..which we offered to post for the REALNEO community to build connectivity and new opportunities for art in NEO. I've suggested they link to NEO online communities and other communities such as SmallerIndiana.com to leverage resources and capabilities focused around mutual interests...

Cigarette smokers should be burned up.

The following figures tell why smokers should be fuming. Cuyahoga County smokers have been taxed for the following reasons and amounts since 1990:

As we begin a new Spring - a new beginning - what are you doing to green your republic?