Public Recreation in Cleveland in 2013?

PD reports: "Visitors to Cleveland's public swimming pools -- now free -- would have to pay admission if the city enacts recommendations of a consultant submitted Tuesday."

It is not surprising, the release of "Management & Efficiency Study – Cleveland, Ohio" (download as .PDF here) by Public Finance Management seems to have Northeast Ohio leadership heads spinning. At least, that is the appearance from coverage of related news - and lack thereof - in the PD.

Exactly one week after 77% of Clevelanders made Frank Jackson mayor of Cleveland for another four years, the strongly pro-Jackson Cleveland Plain Dealer's City Hall reporter Henry Gomez posted to his blog that a "Consultant's report suggests that Cleveland must cut jobs to remain financially sound". In his article, Henry referred to a 344 page report by Public Finance Management that, beneath all attempts at silver lining, offers chilling analyses of the organization, financial management and economic prospects of the City of Cleveland.

Some highlights of the innocuously titled "Management & Efficiency Study – Cleveland, Ohio" (download as .PDF here) include: "Cleveland faces a drop of over 50 percent in its capital program funding from FY2010 to FY2011; further reductions are forecasted for FY2012 and FY2013", "the City projects a significant budget deficit in 2010 if current spending is not adjusted to match the new revenue reality", and "the City will have to scale back services to which Clevelanders have become accustomed".

We have had discussions on REALNEO about the antitrust of Microsoft, and the harm that has caused the world, but few people remember back to 1999, when the antitrust case United States vs. Microsoft determined Microsoft's dominance of the Intel-based personal computer operating systems market constituted a monopoly, and that Microsoft had taken actions to crush threats to that monopoly, including Apple, Java, Netscape, Lotus Notes, Real Networks, Linux, and others. The court's conclusion was Microsoft must be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components... a decision weakened on appeal (see below).

A decade later, we have the opportunity to explore related antitrust in the computer industry further, and put Microsoft antitrust in new perspective, as the November 4, 2009, New York Times reports "Cuomo Files Intel Antitrust Suit" - "Following the lead of foreign regulators, New York's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Intel, the world's largest chip maker."

I was just observing a graphic of Issue 6 voting results, on Issue 6 sponsor site Cleveland.com, and noticed how lily-white the voting for this issue clearly was.

In 98.4% white Hunting Valley, 248 people voted for Issue 6, and 18 against... 93% for Issue 6

Where Issue 6 first festered - Mayor Bruce Akers' 89% white Pepper Pike - 83% for Issue 6.

In Issue 6 Grand Mother Rawson's 30% black Shaker Heights... 74% of voters were for Issue 6...

October 7, 2009, we began our sixth year of ongoing, expansive, free, open source content management and global knowledge sharing, community building, social networking and collaboration on REALNEO. See posting Number 1, REALNEO Development Plan, from October 7, 2004, here, for links to many source documents from the planning and development of REALNEO, since 2004.

Congratulations to all REALNEO members, from day one to today! We've come a long way, since 2004, and our outcomes run far deeper than is seen on the surface of REALNEO. Six years is an eternity, in the world of social computing - we're about 8 months younger than Facebook, and a paradigm beyond - we are Real Co-op!

I previously reported, in "unReal NEO Illegal Campaigning Signs Of The Day: Issue 6, in the Heights, and by RTA", dozens of Anti-Issue5/Pro-Issue-6 signs are strategically and illegally displayed at major RTA Green Line Rapid Transit stops in Shaker Heights. Last night, I confirmed there are dozens more Pro-Issue-6 signs displayed at many RTA Rapid stops in Cleveland, as well. Most telling are the signs displayed at the disgusting, near-abandoned, soon to be relocated to gentryland Red Line cum Health Line Station at Euclid and E.120th, above and below. This is the only Issue 6 promotion in this part of town, to be certain... and it is certainly being allowed, if not arranged, exclusively by RTA.

I was reviewing emails from last week and read, from the EPA, "EPA Proposes Tightening Standards for Lead-Safe Renovation Practices and Lead Paint Dust to Protect Children", which reports "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is marking National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by announcing several actions the agency proposes to take to prevent lead poisoning."

Do you remember hearing anything in Northeast Ohio about last week being National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week? 

The Ohio Elections Commission through several Advisory Opinions and Rulings has determined that the term "RE-elect" may be used in connection with the term WARD COUNCIL, (AO 99LC-05 see link below).

A previous complaint filed against the Cummins Campaign for the new Ward 14 for one of our first campaign pieces was dismissed because the piece, although using the term RE-elect did not indicate a Ward number, it only referred to the title I currently have, which is Councilman. This is allowable under the Commission's rules.

I have noticed, in the reader comments at Cleveland.com to their coverage about the great "Crisis at FirstEnergy" Lightbulb rip-off scheme, that many people in Northeast Ohio don't quite grasp this is an example of extreme monopoly corporate corruption of government - big, bad corporation using corrupt lawyers, lobbyists and politicians to steal $ millions from hard working citizens. That is not the work of Tree Huggers. Yet, the tone of Plain Dealer readers is to shoot the environmentalists, and Obama.

I realize there are many people of NEO who will blame even the worse corporate corruption, like this, on the most innocent people, like environmentalists, and have wondered why.

The pro-gambling-interested Cleveland Plain Dealer announced today that "Cleveland's City Council passed a resolution this week endorsing state Issue 3", which changes the Ohio constitution to give a monopoly on casino gambling to Cleveland Cavaliers owner and overnight "Don" Dan Gilbert. Councilmembers Brian Cummins and Zack Reed did not sign the resolution supporting Issue 3. The support of the other council members follows the endorsement of Issue 3 by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. As these endorsements show support by these specific people for gambling in our community, and all the ills that go with that, it is time to set in place the names of these people as those accountable for addressing all the harm that is caused by expanding gambling here from now until they are dead... these are our advocates for gambling addiction in Cleveland.

I received an email from the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party with their endorsements for the upcoming election. I thought I would post them here for REAL NEO discussion - I am especially interested in learning what people know about the candidates for the Cuyahoga County Charter Commission, should issue 5 pass - will someone please post the names of the other candidates to complete the list. Any thoughts on this:

In an article in today's Cleveland Plan (Plain) Dealer titled "Issue 3 will hurt businesses near casinos, group of restaurants, bars says", it is written "The Ohio Licensed Beverage Association commissioned the study by four professors from Hiram College to blow holes in Issue 3, the constitutional amendment on the Nov.

Since June, 2003, bio-defense industry world-leader Ronald B. (Ronn) Richard has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Foundation, the nation's oldest community foundation. Since January, 2005, Richard has also served as a Director of Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company whose marketed product is BioThrax(R) (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed), the only FDA-licensed vaccine available for pre-exposure protection against anthrax infection - www.emergentbiosolutions.com.

Severe Particulate Matter 2.5 Hourly Reading in Cleveland at 8:00 AM on 09/23/09 - see current here

There is clear evidence the leadership of Northeast Ohio has failed to create an environment encouraging world-class monitoring, analysis, research, notification and controls of pollution created in our region of Ohio, and the consequences on residents and society. As a result, the people of this region have suffered significant health consequences, including early death, and impaired learning ability, crippling our schools and workforce, and society and the regional economy have suffered greatly. As much of our pollution is exported beyond our region, our failure to be world-class addressing pollution here causes harm world-wide.

 The Whitehouse.gov website has provided an advance copy of the prepared remarks of President Obama's Back to School speech, which has some parents in an uproar. I embedded the player for the speech below, and will put it in our calendar...

Location

After reading the story in today's Cleveland.com, "Owner of razed Cleveland warehouse still fighting city, Precision Environmental over lost vehicles", about a second Frank Giglio in Cleveland - this one on the East Side - named Michael Ayers, who had his property condemned, stolen and destroyed under the direction of the Cleveland Building and Housing Department...

They are low on capital because the housing values fell, they have to tighten their belts. The housing feeds the system, so getting the housing values back up is necessary. Considering that the abatements came with false values and an inflated markets its pretty catastrophic what happened.

So now what?

They need to get off abatements, they could be using bonds to build affordable housing.

Guy, this quote of Sir Winston Churchill - July 1952 - is for you... and is featured on a new service of the UK National Archives website, releasing UK UFO files. From the UK National Archives website:

The files contain a wide range of UFO-related documents covering the years 1981-1996.
Find out more about close encounters, stray satellites, bright lights and Britain’s very own Roswell – Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk.

The US Marine Corps decision to ban social media, citing concerns for operation and mission security, is an issue every employer wrestles with, but banning social media is on excessive response, one that forfeits important value for social media, including military recruiting.  Employers, military or otherwise, should develop fine-tuned policies on social media, not comprehensive bans or unqualified endorsements. 

Every heard the expression; rolling up your sleeves ? That to me is about getting into it, going beyond talking and theorizing.

The effort to establish a technology district within midtown, literally demonstrates that those behind the effort really cannot make things happen. Perhaps these are ‘nice’ people and for sure they mean well but the fact of the matter is nothing ever came of it.

Over the past 20 years, I've spent most of my "professional" time as an entrepreneur, with world-class expertise conducting multi-dimensional, multi-client relational comparative data and best practice analyses of any aspects of the world's largest and best global enterprises, environments and systems, and developing and consulting on innovations and total quality improvement. This work has generated a wealth of knowledge on large general systems, with a unique expertise in information systems and telecommunications. REALNEO is a product of this highest level expertise, drawn from the best practices of the best organizations on Earth. What REALNEO has developed for Cuyahoga County - what has been generated out of the REALNEO-generated Real Cooperative - takes general systems innovation to a whole new level of making us the brightest greenest place on Earth. So, we really do have a purpose to Cuyahoga County owning the Breuer, and the vision is beautifully expressed in this great rendering above, to be REAL COOP citizen headquarters of the open source capital of this brightest greenest state of Earth.