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A view on the dynamics of downtown development

Submitted by Ed Morrison on Fri, 07/20/2007 - 10:25.

From a thread over at BFD:

Serious question for you, Ed: Why, in your opinion, does Cleveland not follow a similar process? I mean the MM/CC, but I also mean Gateway, Rock Hall, Euclid Corridor, Browns Stadium, you know the drill. Why are other cities able to follow a rational planning process while Cleveland lurches from one half-baked scheme to the next? xpMark: You ask a very interesting question. Here's some background on my perspective. Successful downtown development requires two types of strategies. One strategy is led by the public sector. These publicly-led initiatives involve heavy investments in infrastructure. They often include investments in anchor projects like convention centers, stadiums, libraries, and museums.

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Ingenious exhibit demonstrates huge gap beween Cuyahoga Commissioners and creativity

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 07/19/2007 - 22:36.

I've always found Ingenuity Festival a worthy and positive undertaking, and was pleased to check out opening festivities tonight. I was a little late for the big opening number, and couldn't quite get the lay of the land, but was well in time to see good friends and an exhibit that alone makes the entire festival worthwhile - "What Would You Do With The Breuer Building?" - which attracted entries from as far as Australia and Columbus, Ohio, and fully answered a question, dumbfounding our community leadership, in ingenious and at times funny ways.

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Anyone have experience with eco-friendly strippers and coatings?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 07/19/2007 - 19:02.

We're about to start prepping and painting lots of plaster walls and protecting lots of wood trim, windows, doors and floors, inside and out. As we are bringing the property to its most natural state possible, removing most paint, varnish, and wallpaper, we are working from very raw materials, and feel that is good. How do we now keep our house as natural as possible, as we finish it up?

A really beautiful building

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 07/18/2007 - 02:41.

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SUCTION DREDGE WORKING ALONG BURKE LAKE FRONT AIRPORT

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Tue, 07/17/2007 - 19:33.

Last week this suction dredge was pumping  into a dike on the north side of the center section of Burke LakeFront Airport.  Why is the dredge deepening the water in this area?

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Love letters for the Breuer Tower

Submitted by Susan Miller on Tue, 07/17/2007 - 04:09.

Here in Cuyahoga County we do have some arts leaders who are not holding their cards. Al Albano like others sent a letter when the news of this Breuer business came out. Didn't see it? It wasn't published -- here it is. Thanks Al! Attached are letters from the Museum of Modern Art and The National Building Museum as well.

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TEAR DOWN THE UGLY ONE - CUYAHOGA COUNTY COMMISSIONER JIMMY DIMORA

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 07/16/2007 - 22:59.

 I met this evening at my home with a dozen NEO ites .   Casual.  No agenda. 

The Breuer came up.  People focused.   Funny how a vacant building can  energize us. 

Cleveland, distinguish yourself.  Recognize your contributors…Marcel Breuer.

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Wind Spires Coming to NE Ohio????

Submitted by Charles Frost on Sun, 07/15/2007 - 20:07.

Wind Spire

Cleveland State U's Rooftop Windmills: U.S. House Panel OKs Seed Money

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Cleveland State University scientist Majid Rashidi is closer to obtaining federal financial aid to help develop energy-producing "windspires," four of which may soon be spinning on the rooftops of Northeastern Ohio. The House Appropriations Committee has agreed to authorize putting about $1.1 million of taxpayers' cash into the project, which also has backing from the state.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, announced the influential House panel's decision to support the windspires, which are souped up breeze-powered machines without the huge spinning blades typical of windmills. Rashidi wants to set build test devices to see how effectively they function.

Tubbs Jones said the project is an investment in retooling the state's economy and portrayed it as critical to efforts to get Ohio growing again.

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Hunt in Cleveland

Submitted by Susan Miller on Sun, 07/15/2007 - 12:29.

Hunt Construction of Indiana builds in Cleveland:
2000 Mayor's Office of Equal Opportunity Contract Compliance Certification of Approval City of Cleveland

They built Jacobs Field (Cleveland Indians) and Cleveland Browns Stadium -- the one with the leak at the Chesney Concert this weekend. They built at Case, too.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - Hunt Construction Group construction management and general contracting firm has named Mike Fratianni as their new Executive Vice President/Division Manager of Midwest operations. Mr. Fratianni will reside in Hunt's Indianapolis office. His primary responsibilities include profit/loss, client satisfaction, ensuring that all projects controlled by the Indianapolis division are properly staffed and managed through the executive management personnel reporting directly to him, as well as business development systems and marketing advancement for the Midwest Region.
He was promoted to Project Manager in 1995 on the Van Andel Arena (Grand Rapids, Michigan), and then Construction Manager in 1997 on the Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Peter B. Lewis Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH (Completed Project)

A new 150,000 SF graduate level facility which features classrooms, computer rooms, and offices.

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WINDPOWER ON THE WATER - EDGEWATER INBOUND

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sat, 07/14/2007 - 18:38.

This is a shot taken over the breakwater last Wednesday, July 11, 2007.  I thought it would be fun to see it up against Norm's Realneo Header.  I'm not sure where Norm's photo was taken - are there any of the same spinnakers in the two photos?

REAL PAINT – REAL COMMITMENT – REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Fri, 07/13/2007 - 14:15.

   Riverview Baptist Church from Franklin, Ohio (south of Dayton, Oh.)  in cooperation with Fresh Coat Cleveland spent a week providing their earnest and good spirited (the job site near E55th and Superior was a upbeat place to be) volunteer labor in Cleveland painting houses. 

questions about the medmart/convention center

Submitted by Susan Miller on Thu, 07/12/2007 - 19:56.

I found this old article Construction Trades Muscle Pols On Convention Center by Roldo Bartimole while searching for the history of the convention center biznas in CC. 

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CLEVELAND - RUSH HOUR OUTBOUND OFF EDGEWATER

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Thu, 07/12/2007 - 09:27.
 

Rush hours are abhorrent everywhere (forget inconvenience to us humans - the exhaust is killing the globe), from Boston's SouthEast"Expressway" to the Cleveland Inner Belt and "dead man's curve" (which ODOT will "fix" - right?) to the interstate 5 in LA

But here is a view of a rush hour in Cleveland that is really exhilarating. 

Research Links Lead Exposure, Criminal Activity

Submitted by Charles Frost on Thu, 07/12/2007 - 08:24.

From the Washington Post article below "Through much of the 20th century, lead in
U.S. paint and gasoline fumes poisoned toddlers as they put contaminated hands in their mouths. The consequences on crime, Nevin found, occurred when poisoning victims became adolescents. Nevin does not say that lead is the only factor behind crime, but he says it is the biggest factor."

ROLDO FIRST TO REPORT ON STRAIGHTENING CROOKED CUYAHOGA RIVER

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 07/11/2007 - 12:49.

Now this down to earth engineering plan to rectify the natural state of the Cuyahoga River is an operation I could get behind long before I could support Bill Mason's wind turbines "about 3 miles out on Lake Erie".

MYERS MOTORS AT REI '04, AT CLEVE SOLAR '07

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 07/09/2007 - 20:27.

Hindsight is 20/200.   Herb Crowther brought Myers Motors to REi at Case right when Myers was getting started three years ago.  REI was fast on its feet - trends surfaced at REI ahead of the curve.  So when I saw the Coke Red NmG at the Cleveland Solar Convention, the only news was that it now used totally DRY batteries.  The battery distributor was there too with cut open battery cases so you could lift out the absorbed glass mat (AGM) lead plates.  No hydrogen offgassing, no sulferic acid slopping around.   The batteries are made in China.  Not Ohio.
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Buffalo, NY gets 6 more Turbines at Steelwinds

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 07/09/2007 - 15:29.

The following log entry was placed by Brian Wroblewski on his Buffalo, N.Y. Great Lakes and Seaway shipping blog

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TEAR DOWN THE UGLY ONE - CUYAHOGA COUNTY COMMISSIONER TIM HAGAN

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 07/09/2007 - 08:44.

 

Here's the photo of the Breuer Building which respectfully reflects the Breuer neighboring buildings.    Where has the Cleveland Foundation been during the discussion of the removal of the Marcel Breuer Building out of downtown Cleveland, Ohio? 

The CF hasn't been shy about lobbying for wind energy, for which the Foundation is to be applauded.   And the wind energy issue certainly has a political side – the other side from the republican oil and gas industry.  Why doesn't the CF jump in on this historic preservation issue?

TEAR DOWN THE UGLY ONE - MARCEL BREUER

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sun, 07/08/2007 - 22:38.
 

 

Beauty inside the mind of the beholder? sure, but education from our peers who know the difference helps get us up the ladder of appreciation.  Here's a shot from the plebian street...GOT UGLY?  Marcel Breuer – do you get it?

Solar Conference in Cleveland

Submitted by Susan Miller on Sun, 07/08/2007 - 19:09.

photo by U NO HU

Today Jeff Buster and I attended the free public day of the American Solar Energy Society Conference at the Cleveland Convention Center. It was a fascinating array of gadgets and applications of solar and wind, batteries, generators, inverters, batteries, reflectors and pumps -- even the County energy efficiency guy was there and a representative of the electrician's union who said Cleveland area electricians are keen on seeing incentives drive solar and wind installations in the region. The best news though was heard as we left at the end of the day; Green Energy Ohio's indefatigable Fletcher Miller (on right hand in photo above) was speaking with a (the big) guy from Palo Alto California who had asked why the conference was in Cleveland. Fletcher replied that it was the excitement on the ground and noted that Ohio has more members of ASES than any other state and that the on-the-ground excitement caused the choice of our fair city. It paid off. Fletcher said that the conference had already doubled the number of attendees over last year's conference in Denver--Denver 1,600/Cleveland 3,200. Fletcher also applauded John Funk's coverage in the PD such as Ohio needs an advanced energy policy, Forecast: sun, wind at downtown events and Energy answers in the wind, sun "These two trends, climate destabilization and oil depletion, are matters of science, not conjecture."Bradley Collins,the executive director of the American Solar Energy Society. So here's a shout out to Cleveland and Cuyahoga County and the rest of the state -- let's get busy and get wind and solar going -- the problem was pointed up by a lawyer from the London office of Squire Sanders who specializes in wind turbine installation -- the hold up in Ohio -- no Renewable Portfolio Standard.

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EYE OF THE BREUER STORM

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sun, 07/08/2007 - 09:54.

 

If  local eyes are shut to the value of the Breuer,  perhaps this iconic eye of the Building will be recognized  by a sophisticated developer as one reason to remove and reassemble the stone and precast concrete elements hung on the steel core of this 1970 structure.

Doan Brook Summer Wall Graffiti

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Sat, 07/07/2007 - 13:59.

I took this photo in June of 2003 along the Doan Brook above MLK in Cleveland, Ohio.  Very inspired palette

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TEAR DOWN THE UGLY ONE – SEISMIC IGNORANCE IN CLEVELAND

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Fri, 07/06/2007 - 13:33.


 
Water current  - in rivers and streams, and wave action - on the sea shore,  classify grains of earth by their surface area and their mass.  Similar sized grains of sand of similar mass are found next to one another.  Dissolved clay is suspended in the Cuyahoga current and washed out into Lake Erie where it settles to the bottom as the current subsides. Geologic strata develop.  Cargill mines below Lake Erie the salt strata laid down eons ago.   The big massive rocks of the Cleveland  breakwater stay in place for years – only budging to pack ice and hurtling storm waves.   You “pan” for heavy gold flakes with a swirling action washing the lighter sands over the rim while the heavier metals of the periodic table remain on the bottom. 

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