The article in the Plain Dealer this a.m. on plans to "fix" the "messy" intersection at Van Aken and Chagrin roads gives my tummy some growls.

No one doubts that the intersection could have been devised better at some point.

Some praise the public effort to keep Eaton Corp., a Fortune 500 company, in Cleveland’s downtown. They are even willing to pay a price to see it happen.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority will help to keep the company in Cleveland, we are told, by selling land to the Wolstein/Flats project and by helping to “finance $150 million of the Eaton project,” according to a Plain Dealer editorial praising the deal.

Hope you can join us online for this week's workshop on new practices and tools for Open Source Economic Development. The retreat is lead by Ed Morrison, I-Open, Director, and Policy Analyst and Director of the WIRED initiative in North Central Indiana, Purdue Center for Regional Development, Purdue University. 

This will segue nicely to my next post on Romanian cinema, but in the meantime, pay close attention to the future star/campaigner pictured below:
 

Three year old Owen clinches Pittsburgh as the site for the 2009 G-20 summit with a high five. 
 

Corsair, a private pot of money and investors that seems poised to bail out National City, is an interesting development, but if you're concerned about housing and local investment, where is the encouragement for the future in a bank that got into this mess, at least in part, through poor lending practices and weak management oversight on home lending?

I would not be alarmed. We may continue to get a break on the pie in the sky dreams of the "quick and dirty delivery system - Opportunity Corridor"  for University Circle, Inc. (UCI) and Cleveland Clinic as well as the "curbcuts for developer's - West Shoreway" due to this news:

On April 5th, 2008, the Fine Arts Department presented a program of classical guitar by performers Jonathan Godfrey and Benjamin Kunkel, both Master of Music candidates at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The music performed featured solo guitar works by Scarlatti, Sor, Villa-Lobos, Torroba, Mangoré, and Brindle. If you happened to miss this great performance, the Fine Arts Department did record the event. Here are two MP3 files you can listen to and download:

Jonathan Godfrey performing Choros No.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Benjamin Kunkel performing Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios by Agustín Barrios Mangoré

On Monday, April 15, 2008 when I went to open my SBC Global.net webmail account, I got a message that said that “I had stumbled on a temporary yahoo problem”, and that I should be patient and check back later to see if the problem had been cleared. 

AuthentiCITY--Mrs. Seifert at City Hall puts the REAL in RealNEO.   I have to love this woman who answers the phone for the City of Cleveland.  She knows her job and she does it well.  I called to comment about the recycling program was patched through to the Mayor's Action Line and patched through to Nicole in Public Service.  I felt like I was heard today.  Thanks to Nicole, too.  The whole transaction took 5 minutes.  No music, no endless button-pushing.  Results.

Join us for the biggest gathering of cycling interests and activities ever in Northeast Ohio as we celebrate, educate and collaborate for a stronger cycling community. Whether you bicycle for transportation, recreation, health or sport, did in the past, or want to again in the future, we have something for you. Come join us for week-long activities during the month of May, national Bike Safety Month, including:

Possibilities for Medical Mart Mischief

What do you think MMPI will do with nearly $1 billion to spend on the Medical Mart and Convention Center?

If the past has anything to do with the future, you might be very surprised at how enterprising the Chicago developer Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. can be.

The Plain Dealer is reporting tonight on its Cleveland.com site http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/04/enlarge_image_pdfmost_of_a.html tonight  that a deal is in the making to further subsidize the Wolstein project in the Flats, already in line for tons of public money.

I love my dog. In fact, I have loved all the dogs that have ever lived with me, snuggled me, defended me, kept me company, provided those wags and licks that once you've had 'em they're hard to live without. (How do those cat people do it anyway?) I love them even when they are wet (dontcha love the smell of wet dog?), when they are skunked, when they have accidents on the rug. I love them enough to pick up their crap. Somehow it is easier to pick up after the dog than it is a kid or a husband. I can hear myself now, "get down here and pick up your %#@t!!!" That would be me to a teenage son who thought the kitchen floor was the laundry chute. "Are you gonna move your %#@t or are we supposed to eat dinner around it?" to my husband who would reel into a panic attack if I touched his %#@t. But the dog, she just moves on and sniffs the next bit of news. Ah, my happy go lucky ferocious one! Everyday I read the news and think, Ohmigawd! "I can't take this %#@t" or "who writes this %#@t?" But picking up the dog's %#@t is OK with me. I can take it. How and where to take it is more complex.

First let's address why I dutifully pick up after the dog.

Remember those tacky signs that people with pools used to have?

Same concept. I used to think it was a pain in the butt (excuse the pun) to pick up dog poop. I'd grumble and say well, I'm not picking up your cat's poop or the squirrels' or the deer's or the bird's... Growing up in the country where dogs run free, it just hadn't been on my priority list of to-do items.

To me it was real pain; that is until I learned this:

"When animal waste is left on the ground, rainwater or melting snow washes the pet waste into our storm drains or directly into our local creeks. The disease-causing bacteria found in pet waste eventually flows from our local waterways into the Cuyahoga River, and to Lake Erie our drinking water source. In addition to contaminating waterways with disease-carrying bacteria, animal waste acts like a fertilizer in the water, just as it does on land. This promotes excessive aquatic plant growth that can choke waterways and promote algae blooms, robbing the water of vital oxygen.

You can blame past, present (and future) state representatives for the cutbacks in city budgets. They refuse to go where the money is to find needed tax revenue.
If state law were fair at all, it would allow local communities to tax all sources of income fairly, not primarily the worker’s weekly paycheck.
Ohio doesn’t allow local governments to go after tax revenue where it is. That is to tax people who have the money. Neither do I see local politicians getting exercised by the inequality.
Often low income wage earners who don’t have to pay a penny in federal taxes still have to shell out money they need for their families to pay local income, or payroll, taxes.

Such taxes are unfair, since there are no deductions, as there are with federal taxes, and doubly unfair when you work in a different community than you live. You get taxed, usually with some rebate, in both communities.

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,

National Geographic has a special on TV this evening called Human Footprint. But I don't get National Geographic with my rabbit ears/slim cable, so I cruised over to the website and voila - all the stuff is right there, interactive, readable and I can digest it all a bit at a time.

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.