The results of a study on violence in the Cleveland public schools, commissioned by the Cleveland Municipal School District, has their leadership and the Cleveland Plain Dealer finally focusing on lead poisoning as a cause of failure of our schools and school children. In an article in today's PD, "Cleveland schools struggle with finding and helping potentially violent students, study reports", a researcher from the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C., which performed the CMSD study on violence in our schools, is quoted saying "Cleveland's plight is unique because of an unusually high rate of lead poisoning - from paint in aging houses - that can affect behavior and academic performance." CMSD Board Member Louise Dempsey is quoted in the article as saying "I'm very pleased to see a lot of this stuff out in the open," she said. "Let's not kid ourselves, we've got to be honest if we're going to solve the problem." I'm pleased to see this getting CMSD Board-level attention.

In greening our little patch of the Independent Green Republic of East Cleveland, we have learned more about "Green" gardening from friends on REALNEO than anywhere else in the world... from insight sharing on how to "Improve Your Soil This Fall", to "Smart Seed"... and we're practicing what has been preached, building up our yard by a good foot with free organic matter like mulch and straw we picked up at the Shaker Heights mulch pile, shown here... leaves to be added this fall. All this in preparation for toxin free farming next year and forever after.

The medical mart/convention center deal is much worse than anyone knows.

Square Sanders & Dempsey’s managing partner Fred Nance gave a smooth, if shifty, accounting of what we can expect.

Maybe RTA should be a private business. It might get treated better by Democrats.

Squire & Sanders’ Fred Nance asked today for another public subsidy of $50 million for the Medical Mart. He wants an added 2 percent bed tax to go for the deal. He said Tim Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones could do that without a vote of taxpayers. Isn’t that convenient.

40 years ago, a great tragedy occurred at Beulah and Lakeview roads - police officers and citizens of Cleveland died here in one of the longest, most deadly urban gunfights and riots in modern American history... the Glenville Shootout.

I live about two miles from Lake Erie, and went in the water today, for this pan and header, but I do not consider it safe to swim in the water, which is pathetic. Healthy beaches and a healthy Lake Erie would improve the value of all of NEO by $ trillions... that would be worth far more than all the polluters combined. Imagine being able to take a dip here, safely, wherever and whever you like...

Back in April I wrote an item here about the necessity for newspapers.

As I wrote then, “Talk all you want about weekly alternatives, bloggers and citizen activists – and we need them badly as prods and sometimes even more – but newspapers have the heft, expertise and man/womanpower to go in depth on issues.”

Northeast Ohio has some of the dirtiest water and beaches in the world, because we have some of the dirtiest leadership in the world, and that is very poor for Cleveland's image and economy. Fortunately, it seems the region is now positioned to clean up at least one of our messes.

Vivian Goodman reported recently on the 40th anniversary of the Glenville Shoot-out on WKSU. She provides links to interviews with some people who gave remembrances of violent clash between Black Nationalists and Cleveland Police. For a look at a piece of Cleveland history, you can find her reports, including interviews, here: http://www.wksu.org/news/features/glenville/index.php

I had so much fun at the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in East Cleveland, leading up to the March primary, meeting people and feeling part of something important, that I was excited by news the Shaker Heights campaign office was opening, July 24, 2008... hope to see one in EC soon. Sudhir and I stopped by to enjoy the good vibe. Cool to see a group line dancing to the energy. As we left, Sudhir said he'd like to go to a McCain event, just to see how it compares... I suggested he go to church or a gun show in Central Ohio...

The Barack Obama for President Shaker Heights campaign office opened July 24, 2008, at Shaker Square, where a great turn-out of old friends, young and old, all races, came together for change we can believe in.

CIty Fresh "Fresh Stop" at Huron Road Hospital, July 22, 2008

The most important message communicated at today's press conference kicking-off Lead Awareness Week was that our government leadership at the state, county and municipal level stand united to eradicate lead poisoning in Northeast Ohio by 2010. Publicly expressing their concern about lead poisoning here, and their commitment to its rapid elimination, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones added important voices to the chorus of public health and social service champions of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... a unique, world-class collaboration of around 85 organizations.

"Read More" public art in the Cleveland Flats... perhaps by The Sign Guy

The nearly completed Richard Fleischman addition to the Putnam Collection, in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio - photos by Evelyn Kiefer - Logo by Norm Roulet - 07/17/08

The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) will be holding a Press Conference in recognition of Ohio Lead Awareness Week, which will take place the week of July 20th – 26th, 2008.  Scheduled speakers will address the significant progress made in reducing the number of children affected by lead paint hazards, as well as the importance of continued vigilance and prevention in light of new evidence linking childhood lead exposure to crime, low school-performance, as well as numerous lifelong health problems.  Scheduled speakers, representing a City, County, and State unified effort to eliminate the dangers of childhood lead poisoning are:

• Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners
• Mayor Frank Jackson, City of Cleveland
• Mayor Eric Brewer, City of East Cleveland
• State Representative Mike Foley, District 14
• Stuart Greenburg, Executive Director, Environmental Health Watch
• Nakiaa Robinson, Program Manager, Office of Early Childhood, Invest in Children

Location

REALNEO team meeting and fun and games at  HQ, in Shaker Heights, July 11, 2008...other than insane mosquito infestations this year, it's been a great Summer for backyard planning...

Cleveland, by no means, is the only city that bestows gift after gift upon corporate welfare chiselers.

Crain’s Cleveland Business this week linked to a Columbus Dispatch article that reveals the depravity of these business frauds and their grip on that city’s government.

I thought perhaps I could stump City Fresh's Maurice Small with the question "what county in the world is the leader in urban farming?", but he didn't hesitate responding Cuba. And the July 8, 2008 I GRO EC roundtable concluded we need to plan a best practices mission to Havana. Next Tuesday, July 15, 6-7 PM, come to the Independent Green Republic Of Star Village, at the Star/Hough Bakeries Complex, to help plan our mission to Cuba and discuss other plans for transforming our region through urban farming.

Location

For this week's I GRO EC With City Fresh meeting, evolving plans led us to my favorite Mexican restaurant in NEO, Mi Pueblo, in University Circle... a few blocks down Euclid Avenue from the Star Complex. City Fresh's Maurice Small brought a diverse team of young adults from across the region who are learning from Maurice about urban farming and providing fresh local food to the community. Sudhir Kade, Bill MacDermott, Joe Stanley, Greg Williams and I joined their virtual classroom,

When our neighbor Dr. Pat Blochowiak told us to stop by her garden and pick some raspberries, blackberries and snow peas, I didn't realize the depths of her bounty... or how great blackberries may be. As my kids picked through nature, they chomped down probably $50 worth of the best food in town, when you may find food so good. As I looked at the bowls of berries collected in short time, I felt blessed by my community and nature. Over a fresh berries and whipped organic cream desert, our family celebrated Summer and life in the best way. All that is the certain promise of East Cleveland, with community farming. Help plan that reality with Maurice Small and others as we meet again, today, for what has become an every-other-Tuesday City Fresh I GRO EC brainstorming session, in East Cleveland. This week, we'll meet at the Hough/Star Bakeries complex, and also visit Brown's Market, which we plan to convert into a pilot City Fresh Market.

Location

I received an email that should be open to discussion, as requested. All I know about the Sun Press is that there isn't a newspaper for East Cleveland, so I don't read their product. My parents do, so I'll get their opinion on whether the Sun Press matters to them, or not. What about to you? Here's what one realneo reader thinks....

I lived for a while in Bay Village, along Lake Erie, and the views, microclimate, and bugs were amazing. When I first moved there, I used to take my dog down to the water, at a little "swimming" area by Columbia Road, until we went swimming there after a storm and then both got sick as dogs, and the dog's fur started falling out. I've stayed ashore, since... and keep my kids away from the lake. Perhaps the water is not entirely unsafe, between rains, but all that shit and worse that flows into the lake, when the storm drains and sewers overflow into the lake, stays in the lake. And what industry and shipping dumps into the lake, stays in the lake... or turns into fish many eat. So is this a good use for the lake? Who cares, much less may make a difference? And what does the future really hold for Lake Erie, in times of global warming?

When people wonder what is the value of a local daily newspaper, I must point to the story of Shaw High School Band, which was invited to China to perform but could not afford to do that. The Plain Dealer article "Bang a Drum, Proudly", by Connie Schulz, raised enough attention and funding to get them there, from where they just returned in triumph (nicely covered in the PD here, today)... a $500,000 whirlwind phenomenon all occurring in less than 6 months!