By Daniel M. Kammen 12/11/07

The January 14, 2008 Cuyahoga County Commissioner's meeting started sounding much like a New England Town Meeting.  

Coming down the hall towards the fourth floor Commissioner’s public meeting room, the Town Crier's sharply ringing hand bell competed with his yells of  Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Naga DDB Malaysia painted the poster for this Regional Environmental Awareness straight on the tiles of pool.
“Don’t let this be our future. Save our rainforest, stop global warming.”

There was only one bid for the Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower opened this morning at 11:00 AM by Cuyahoga County.  That bid was submitted by K & D Development, who are the developers of the Stonebridge Condos on the west side of the Flats next to the Detroit Superior Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The above photo shows the artist's rendering of the K & D development proposal which, in my opinion, will nicely emphasize the Breuer Tower. K& D put the cost of the development at$ 200 million.

A while back, I posted this Pittsburgh-based site www.mymave.com as a place to advertise your skills.  Last night, talking to Ed Hauser--who described marketing his problem-solving talents--I realized that this is still available and free to anyone who has a skill to market. 

Over the years I've valued RealNEO as a place to share diverse writings ranging from simple sustainability strategies we can inculcate into our regular lives to grandiose and futuristic visions of entire new worlds crafted within our own. I take pride in being with this team and community since inception and contributing our website's taxonomy and providing engaging content.  I've even found the opportunity to express myself more artistically through poetry. At much risk, and at times, with controversial unabashed candor I've shared personal hardships and anguish - and I can now say doing so has only enriched my personal development on physical, emotional and spiritual planes. 

It cracks me up to see kids come in to the library to sing!  They plug in the headphones and start grooving to a tune on line and the next thing you know I have to go into shhhh! mode.
Is there a way to tap this energy?  So,  who is mining this? 

On Friday January 11, 2008 Cleveland, Ohio Mayor Frank Jackson announced that the City was filing suit against 21 banks/financial firms.  The suit alleges that the defendants created a public nuisance in Cleveland.  The alleged  nuisance was created through issuances of thousands of “sub-prime” loans which are alleged by the City to have caused the abandonment, vacancy, and subsequent demolition of thousands of Cleveland residential buildings.

Sense 8 is another beautiful film by Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes.

If you are interested in Contact Improvisation, send me an email via realneo, and I will help you contact (excuse the pun) the folks in Northeast Ohio who do this every Sunday in University Circle.

We all need neighbors.  They help us out in times of need.  They also drive us crazy.  What to do?  Tomorrow is another day.  Let's hope it heals the unnecessary rifts that divide.

If one knows where to look, there are amazing people and experiences to be found in Cleveland - like some hard-core union trades-folk cutting loose with great music and times in a gathering-place known as Club 75, not to be found around E75 and St. Clair, late the NEO-warming January night of the 10th, 2008. These back-street socialites, led here by Crazy Marvin on blues harp and Bobby Fox on fiddle, meet regularly for Urban-Iron Chef cookoffs that Lola and Lolitta would love... making NEO real.

I just received fantastic news from Annie Stahlheber with the Cardiovascular Task Force and Cuyahoga County Board of Health.  East Cleveland won one of only three $25,000 grants awarded nationally by Kaboom! as Playful City, USA.  This awards video reviews all the winners, from honorable mentions to grand prize grants.  East Cleveland's award is presented at the conclusion of the video and includes a nice bit featuring Mayor Eric Brewer and a select group of East Cleveland's young players. 

Ted--I just want to let you know that I called and I suspect many others called after Dick Feagler's Sunday column to cancel their subscription to the PD.  Here is Dick Feagler's logic in a nutshell:  if you see a black person, run away.  He calls it realism.  I call it racism.

See this face.  Is it hard to believe that this woman took on the establishment in New York and forced planners to consider the human element in the design of cities? 

Any agency in Cleveland contemplating radical change to the streetscape should ask themselves.  What would Jane think of your idea?