When the Cleveland population dipped below 500,000, the population basis for many federal grant formula, the ability of the federal partner to help on our urban problems was constrained, as the City became one of only many cities across the country, rather than one of the larger, most impactful cities on its own. So strategies to increase the city population deserve special consideration, yes? Well, perhaps not.

 

A brief time-out on “point of view” blogging to simply share some exciting information. The City of Cleveland released information about the the Cleveland Midtown Innovation Center at Euclid Avenue/East 44thStreet.

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 Having recently completed a survey of the latest and greatest developments in sustainability, which included a review of current legislature in Congress to effect policy thereto, I can't help but think how much in life is about the simple things.  The tried and true maxim ' Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' embraces so much of what we need in terms of behavior shifts that would maximize metrics and optimize outcomes.

 

Norm--I LOVE today's GIMP header of a flooded Rockefeller Park.  I think of Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson.   And, it makes me want to reread Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy. 

How can we refer back to these images?  Do you have them stored somewhere accessible?  Are they titled? 

Thank god we have Roldo Bartimole in our region writing about the inequity and the corruption here. If not for Roldo, we might never know such tantalizing tidbits as we learn here in his CoolCleveland article this week: Should Hagan Have Recused Himself from Vote? (I link it here because I know that unlike the PD articles that disappear after a couple of weeks, this CC article will remain online in perpetuity.)

For example, did you know, we pay sales taxes on the sin taxes? "

Many don’t know this but the county sales tax is charged on the “sin” taxes, adding another $16 million to the $238 million." When does that tax end?

I hope someone in Columbus or in the federal government is reading this -- oh, yeah, we have a corrupt judicial system, too.

Oh and there's this, "Among the gift-givers was Robert DiGeronimo of Independence Excavating. Precision Environmental Co., which won a contract last week to demolish the Breuer Building with a bid $915,000 above the low bid, is part of the DiGeronimo/Independence Excavating Co. family."

Does that mean that Madden's "eye on Carbone" saw that he may indeed be convicted in the Lorain trial and decided to let him go from the job? According to the docket in Lorain County Court, Carbone has relinquished his right to a speedy trial since one of his attorneys is in a federal murder trial, so the new court date is set for 8/20/07.

Government in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County is indeed a sucking swirling eddy of despair, corruption and backdoor dealing. Should Hagan have recused himself? Absolutely! Does he have an ethical bone in his body? Apparently not. Will voters stand by and let this continue? Hopefully not. Here's another example of Hagan's doublespeak: "

by Bonnie Alter, London on 08. 7.07
Food & Health (botanical)
As we move into the dog days of summer, and gardens, it's a good time to recall some green gardening tips that will save the garden, and the planet.

I grew up and lived in Cleveland and, other than school, stayed here until I moved away for about ten years. Since coming back home, one distressing thing I've noted is that decision-makers, at all levels, closely guard information, almost as if a Captain who would rather go down with the ship, than loosen up and perhaps not go down at all.  The Medical Mart non-debate has all those strange dynamics.  Is it possible, I wonder, if a true, public-private partnership on a Medical Mart/Convention Center/Urban Design District might actually make sense after all?

This week's Crain's Cleveland Business commends the efforts of Convivium33's Alenka Banco and the design team of Nottingham-Spirk. Preserving the past to give us hope for the future. Bravo.

From Crain's Cleveland --Repeating history Monday August 6, 2007
For the business owners and others who opt to bring new life into old buildings, high costs, years of work and a slew of other challenges await. Is all that time and trouble worth it? Yes, insist some who have renovated rather than built new. 

The Tyler Elevator building project is another encouraging story.

My guess--the most recent member to sign on to RealNEO is Stefanie Spear--I think her maiden name was Penn.   Am I right?   I saw a copy of Earthwatch today as I met up with Lois Moss to promote Walk and Roll Cleveland.  The writing seemed familiar to me.  I lived through Cleveland in the nineties and remembered a highly literate magazine named Affinity.  Is this the same Stefanie?  So, I thought--Cleveland Public Library.  Surely, we must have archived a local environmental publication? Wrong! So, I checked www.worldcat.org.   And here's what I found.  Affinity.\by Stefanie Penn Language: English  Type: Periodical 

Who's my candidate, the pollster asks?

I will pledge to support what ever candidate does more to make the world hate America less. At the outset, I want to say how truly appalled I am at myself for having such an abysmal standard for evaluating candidates. How can I tolerate, much less espouse, such a bleak, cynical prism to separate the candidates? Yet, I am more troubled by America and an America political system that is content to operate in denial.

Will Electric Utilities Be the Fueling Stations of the Future?
Source: NPPA Bulletin
[Jul 29, 2007]

SYNOPSIS: Reprinted from the June 2007 Bulletin of the Northwest Public Power Association.

 

Once again, Cleveland's daily is excited about the latest “drive-by shooting” of the film industry, reporting that 'visitors to the Rock Hall got an extra treat — watching Rainn Wilson, chief geek from “The Office,” shoot scenes for his upcoming movie “The Rocker.” Once again, however, we are missing the big picture ... literally.  While one day's shooting in Cleveland warrants the media attention, the “The Rocker” will be shooting forty-five days in Toronto, Ontario.

I think that a real disservice is done when PLJ is painted with the same broad brush as those other two. Without Peter, there would be no referendum petition.  If the commissioners had voted unanimously to levy the sales tax we would not have had the opportunity we have today.  Therefore, Peter Lawson Jones is a key player in slowing this runaway train down so everyone can take a breather. I can only imagine the pressure exerted on him to change his vote so that we would not be pounding the pavement day after day getting more and more signatures and more and more support.  One of the biggest pluses has been the fact that the resolution states "general fund".  People stop and say, "wait a minute Jimmy Dimora PROMISED it was the Convention Center, but then, suddenly it goes into the general fund coffers.

Fools rush in -  if you are for a sales tax to build a con center and kennedy mart - you honestly believe that this will trickle down and improve the NEO economy - then you should READ the resolutions (sales tax, use tax) passed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora.  Look at the second line of either resolution.  "money goes into general fund".   There is no language in the resoluions that says that either the sales or use tax is for a  con center and kennedy mart.  This tax will go on for 20 years sucking in about a million a week.  Where will Hagan and Dimora be in 2008 when their terms expire?  Promises, Promises.  Printed in the Plain Dealer.

And Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who voted "against" the tax is in fact complicit.  If he was really against the tax but for a con center (with support from hotel bed taxes as he said) Mr. Jones would have raised in the public hearings the fact that the resolutions were for money going into the general fund, not into a con center account.  Omitting to exercise this ringing argument puts Mr. Jones in a catagory of strong doubt about being "against" the tax.

So, if you REALLY want a concenter and kenmart you would do well to sign a referendum petition right away to help putitontheballot.com this spring.  Then you can vote the present resolutions down, and insist that the Commissioners introduce and pass   new resolutions which spell out specifically in the resolutions what the sales tax will be used for. 

But then again, maybe you were born yesterday. 

As far as I can determine, here is the origin of “Think globally, act neighborly.”...

---------------------------------

Conversations: Bill McKibben

"You state in your writings that once we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more likely we are to recapture our own. How is our economy linked to our humanity?"

"Community has become one of these buzz words. “Building more community.” The real pathway to doing that is to resuscitate the economic networks of dependence on each other, which is what community really was in the first place. Fossil fuel is destroying the world. But in addition to that, it has made us less dependent on each other. We don’t need each other.

There is a guy here, Tod Murphy,  in Vermont that only serves local food at his restaurant, [Farmer’s Diner; farmersdiner.com]. He printed up a bunch of bumper stickers that said: “Think globally, act neighborly.” The stuff that I am talking about is not in itself conservative or liberal. We need to figure out how to move past polarization. We need to emphasize our neighbors. People today have half as many close friends as they did 50 years ago."

by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio on 07.31.07
According to a recent report in Forbes, the amount of driving we do back and forth is killing us...literally. From breathing air polluted with diesel particulates and other nasty pollutants to fatalities occurred in private automobiles, Forbes suggests that many of us are placing health far behind priorities such as McMansions, big box shopping, and congested commutes. Forbes compiled statistics from the American Lung Association's air pollution monitoring, average U.S. traffic delays from the Texas Transportation Institute, and U.S. per-capital car fatalities from the U.S Department of Transportation to find out what U.S. cities were most dangerous to drive in. Their results? Surprise, surprise...Southern California ruled the list. Both Riverside, California and Los Angeles were in the top three, separated by only Atlanta, Georgia. So, what is deemed the answer for this rising health problem? Public transportation and carpooling.
Of course, increased use of public transportation and carpooling takes enough cars off the road to reduce bad-news air particulates. However, public transportation in particular can help you avoid much of the pollution we breath in on our commutes to and from work.
According to the Forbes article:
Ultra-fine particulate matter has been linked with premature death, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness, according to the California Air Resources Board. Though it takes Americans an average of 25 minutes to drive to work, according to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau figures, the board estimates that over 50% of a person's daily exposure to ultra-fine particles can occur during a commute.

An invigorating, purposeful, passionate discourse and dialogue focused and facilitated by East Cleveland Councilwoman and Champion Barbara Thomas transpired this past Monday.   The meeting was convened at Apethrope Apartments, just one block from the Superior rapid station and was attended by several local dignitaries, including local pastors, former mayor Saratha Goggins, Cuyahoga County's Board of Health's Annie Stahlheber and several members of police and sheriff's departments (Officers Michael Jackson, Lieutenant McKloskey, and  Officer Stanton respectively). Of course RealNEO represented well, with Norm Roulet presenting our transformative vision for a new East Cleveland via revitalization and transmutation of the Hough Bakery Building – now renamed the Star Complex – near Lakeview and Euclid.  I was able to announce administration of a revamp of a computer donation, collection, and distribution program REALNEO stars envisioned prior to site inception and orchestrated last year.

Some good news for my neighborhood-the Treadway Creek Project is off-the-ground and recycling may be coming back to the City of Cleveland thanks to the efforts of Councilwoman Donna Brady.

Smart/wise

Sunday, July 29th, 2007 8:21pm

Following are images of the concepts which were received by Sally Levine and David Ellison for the reuse of the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland Ohio.  I extend my appreciation to the designers for their generous dedication and creativity.  I will endeavor to number each of the entries  so that comments can be directed to  specific designs.  I will also  try to make legible the text which is important on many.  A submission from Italy was especially poignant in its text.   Designers, please feel free to log in and amplify your presentations.   This is very cool that so much volunteer creativity went into this event.   Here's my hoping that all the designers who contributed will reap a referred commission or two from their contributions....