Feelin' a bit sluggish? Here's one of my favorite dances that will prepare you to get off your ass and take a brisk walk to Pennsylvania or clean your house top to bottom. Jesus! These guys (no drugs invloved) have more energy in this one perfomance than I have shelled out in weeks!

I attended a workshop on compost tea last weekend, and it has had me thinking about fungal hyphae ever since. I wrote up my observations from the workshop on Localfood Cleveland.

But here it is again - the way decay works to bring forth creativity.

I'm gonna keep me outta this one for now. Ya'll decide for yourselves. Sign on if ya want to or comment. From here on out, it is not me but the committee.

The Cleveland Commitment: A Promise for Our Region’s Sustainable Future

Cleveland Sustainability 2019 Public Compact Committee DRAFT 3.2; 10.22.09 
 
Call to Action
We are at a crossroads of time and place. Northeast Ohio is in crisis‐‐too many of our citizens live in poverty, with children struggling to graduate from high school and living in neighborhoods riddled with vacant homes. Our way of life threatens the foundations of our survival; our land, our waters, our earth, our health and our economy. We can no longer deny these facts and must change our course.
Yet, at this time and in this place we have the opportunity to unite in common purpose for the benefit of our children and grandchildren. We come prepared to face these challenges with optimism, hope and energy rooted in our region's long tradition of innovation and hard work. We can and must join together in building a regional economy catalyzed by a new sustainable way of life.

Believing that everyone's actions count and add up to our common destiny, The Cleveland Commitment
urges all of us who call this region home to make known our aligned efforts to fashion a thriving,
resilient future for Northeast Ohio's people.

Cleveland Cavaliers pull water fountains from The Q; explanation doesn't wash with NBA

Robbing us blind - just google Dan Gilbert or Cavs or Casino. Now you can't even get a drink of water at the Q.

On Monday at the Localfood Cleveland meeting (So you want to be a farmer), Darwin Kelsey, of the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, noted that farming in the future is gonna be largely women's work - women he said are just doing it more than men are.

Howard Zinn (1922 - 2010)

What a contribution he made to the world!

Democracy Now has an extensive archive of Zinn's talks to add to what Patel posted. But seriously, you can find his work everywhere. A beacon for hope, curious and determined to uncover and share truth. He will be missed.

With this news The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site, we may need to begin including a warning - "This click will take you to a NYTimes article. If you are at or near your monthly limit of free access, think twice before clicking".

How much would you pay to access a PD story on cleveland.com?

Ah, the times they are a changin'!

Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.

Executives of The New York Times Company said they wanted to create a system that would have little effect on the millions of occasional visitors to the site, while trying to cash in on the loyalty of more devoted readers. But fundamental features of the plan have not yet been decided, including how much the paper will charge for online subscriptions or how many articles a reader will be allowed to see without paying.

Image courtesy Cleveland Memory - A boy delivers an issue of the Cleveland Press newspaper to a house in 1957.

Phew, the Cleve Orch dodged a bullet… Now we can sleep knowing that Severance Hall will not become an abandoned and empty place for scrappers to loot. But right around the same time, we can read about Richard Florida’s admission that some cities are just too damaged to play anymore. You can bet Cleveland is on his list. His solution? Move away… run, run, run as fast as you can.

Today as I waited for the new tires to be mounted on my car at Firestone at Cedar Fairmount I had an hour to chill. I went across the street and engaged in a favorite pastime - wandering around in a bookstore. In this case, Appletree Books was handy, and it's a great place, warm and bright and full of interesting reads.

Whoa! What's that little book with the peas in a pod on the cover?

Well, it was a long time coming, but finally I recieved a list of the grantees for reimagining Cleveland. The press release dated November 17 was not posted at the time or the city's website is too convoluted to allow finding it, but here it is: City Anounces 58 ReImagining Cleveland Grant Program Recipients.

In the wake of last night's little squabble here on realneo, a friend emailed me with a link to the origin of the phrase "beyond the pale". S/he said that though it was the phrase that came to mind while reading through, she had never looked up the origin. I had looked this up, "beyond the pale", because I was a tireless researcher, learner when I was an artistic director, and one of the works we did - a duet, used this text.

photo courtesy of morguefile by kevinrosseel

Could Clean Water Help NEO's Economy to Rebound?

photo courtesy morguefile by Jusben

I used to think that someone would come up with a solution for living life the way I always have - with abundant energy, water and air. I used to think that there would be a solution that would make it possible for me to not feel guilt when I heat my home, turn on a light, drive my car.

Cleveland- Cuyahoga County Port Authority will rethink move to East 55th Street, plans for container ships

By James F. McCarty,The Plain Dealer

Yeah! Keep right on rethinking. Rethink right on to locate the CDF somewhere else - Dike 14 has suggested some other options.

Mike Roberts peels back the cover on Port Authority mire.

Sunk

November 18-24, 2009 by Michael D. Roberts

Glad to see PD editorial on Issue 2. Ohio Issue 2 would provide mega-cover for mega-farms -- Thomas Suddes

Here's what is not included.

This came via email today. I urge citizens to read through the Dredged Materials Management Plan, or if you are already convinced that a new 200 acre port at E55th is not the solution, send the comments below. Add your voice to a rising chorus that does not see the efficacy of this ill concieved plan. Ed Hauser can no loger add his voice, we must speak.

In the NY Times, Nicholas Ouroussoff writes about the burst of the arts and cultural district bubble.

Since I haven't had time to listen to Diane Rehm lately, I was pleased to have a friend send me a link to this show with Darrin Nordahl author of Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture.

The government agency that oversees the Dike 14 Nature Preserve passed on a chance to pick up a $1 million grant to create trails, remove invasive plants and prepare the 88-acre site for public access.

In a letter explaining the decision, a lawyer for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority called it premature to pursue a Clean Ohio grant separately from the city's sweeping lakefront redevelopment plans and the proposed $500 million port relocation project.

Put on your chin strap to read this (your jaw will drop from incredulity).

Sometimes it is hard for me to catch up. 40+ hours per week digging, pulling, plucking and gathering, cutting and washing vegetables on the farm leave little time for me to catch up on what's new in Cleveland. So today I went digging for the recent stuff (hoopla) about the "new" Gordon Square Arts District. I watched videos and heard the yuppie mantras repeated (like they have a script that includes name dropping - SoHo, Dupont Circle, the numbers of businesses and economic development and jobs projection numbers).

This Saturday I actually left the compound. My roommate and I visited the Shaker Square Farmer's Market. I had to get Honey Crisp apples cause they're in season. And then we went to the Ohio City Bike Co-Op so that she could investigate a bicycle and then onto the Westside Market.

Wow! What a cornucopia NEO farmer's are pulling out of the ground!