Forum features collaboration The Levin
College Forum and Cool Cleveland presents Partnerships &
Collaborations: Arts, Technology and Ingenuity. The upcoming Ingenuity festival,

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Dear Friend,

Just a quick reminder, there is an excellence roundtable today, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, at the City Club.

Please stop by to brainstorm on the power of NEO's virtual community, which spans the world and is far underleveraged here at home. The outcome of these discussions will be plans for an excellence roundtable we shall hold in New York, NY, August 11, at Jones Day's offices there. The purpose of extending roundtables beyond Cleveland is to better connect our interests here with the more powerful networks found beyond our physical borders.

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A resounding theme among entrepreneurs in NEO has for a long time been "I don't get respect". Now, a new study by Stuart Mendel, Assistant Dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and Co-director of the college's Center for Non-Profit Policy and Practice, validates that "Cleveland could foster small-business growth as a way to erase the "Poorest Big City in America" distinction it earned last year".

At the 07.19.05 NEO Excellence Roundtable, we have some major developments to celebrate.

First, the Battle of Whiskey Island is over – the Island will remain a park… Ed Hauser will join us to discuss plans for the future, and the Burning River Festival he’s leading on August 13.

Second, the GCLAC kicked of Lead Awareness Week on 07.18.05, taking proactive steps to prevent lead poisoning of residents of Greater Cleveland – the most important pro-education, pro-quality of life initiative in the history of NEO.

What else do you and the people of NEO have to celebrate?

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Lead Awareness Week in Northeast Ohio kicked-off at 11 AM on July 18, 2005, with a press conference at the Zelma George Recreation Center, 3165 Martin Luther King Blvd., in the Mt. Pleasant/Kinsman area of Cleveland. City Department of Health Director Matt Carroll coordinated this informative and valuable insight-sharing session, with great support from area health professionals, community activists, Cleveland and Cuyahoga county staff, foundation workers and volunteers, all working together as the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC). The purpose of the conference and week is to raise public awareness for the risks of lead poisoning, and support preventative action.

Ed Hauser once spent his time insuring the Flats was industrially sustainable, being a computer programmer for LTV. Then, a fortunate thing happened for Cleveland - LTV went bankrupt and Ed found a higher purpose for his life. He moved his loyalty and attention a mile or so up-river to where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie at a parcel of land called Whiskey Island. Since discovering that urban oasis, Ed has dedicated his time and talent to insuring Cleveland is ecologically sustainable and a quality place for current and future residents and visitors by fighting to preserve Whiskey Island as a free and open natural park for all citizens to enjoy.

Earlier this week, The 21st Century Growth Policy Team unveiled its recommendations on how Columbus should grow. The City of Columbus assembled the Team, a group of around 80 community representatives.

With the recent contributions by Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff of 10 laptops and by Progressive Insurance of 75 Pentium II CPUs for donation to those in need of help across the digital divide in East Cleveland, we have tangible evidence corporations may make a positive contribution to people's lives in NEO. Along the same lines of thought, at the last NEO Excellence Roundtable, participants interested in making NEO the world's most empowering learning community discussed the value corporations have had in supporting schools and even individual classrooms.

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Thursday, July
7

Open source is a
disruptive technology. Today economic development is in the rip tide of
crumbling hierarchies and open source tsunami's.

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Big news and developments to discuss this week at the NEO Excellence Roundtable.

After working in academe innovating the Case Center for Regional Economic Issues, Ed Morrison returns to the private sector to lead Open Source Economic Development (OSED) for this region and the world, his way. Join Ed at the Excellence Roundtable as we explore next steps with him. As so many of us are building our community development plans around Ed's framework, today's Roundtable is where the planning continues.

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In a recent article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, posted to the NEO Excellence community, business editor Paul O'Donnell wrote "I really didn't need Forbes magazine to tell me that Cleveland ranks 113th out of 150 metropolitan areas for best places to jump-start a business or career". Based on Forbes' analysis of our assets, O'Donnell observed one would conclude "the region is predominantly populated by reasonably educated engineers who spend discretionary income on the arts or sports, who work at companies that pay well but aren't hiring, and who live in safe neighborhoods filled almost exclusively with native Northeast Ohioans."

The war in Iraq is big news world-wide. Whether reports on casualties or offensives, the news papers, airwaves and internet are on constant high-alert for stories on developments, which they publicize daily. It is thus surprising a major Iraq-related story that has been big news world-wide was not featured in the mainstream US news until this past weekend. The story is of eight secret "Downing Street Memos" - DSMs - which raise considerable cause for global public debate on a lack of US and UK government honesty and openness leading up to America declaring war on Iraq. Why are the DSMs, which the press in Europe starting reporting on May 1st, just now becoming "front page" news in America... seven weeks after the story broke in the UK?

Plain Dealer "reader advocate" Ted Diadiun felt it necessary to dedicate his 06.19.06 Page 2 Sunday column to this question, and his explanation offers critical insight on the state of US mainstream news reporting and American and Northeast Ohio society today.

Please join the NEO Excellence Roundtable for inclusive dialogue and pursuits to optimize the brainpower, quality places and innovation networks of Northeast Ohio. The Roundtable meets 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM each Tuesday for discussions and lunch at the City Club of Cleveland - related content posts here and at a virtual community for the collaboration at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us.

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The 06.10.05 City Club forum featured Eduardo R. Menascé, president of the Enterprise Solutions Group for Verizon Communications, the national communications company formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. His responsibilities include oversight of all sales, marketing and service delivery for Verizon's largest business and government customers.

Please join us for the grand opening of Assemble, the newest addition to the 1300 and the Greater Cleveland Art Scene. Assemble is one part original artwork, two parts creative lifestyle products/services, and a splash of limited edition hand made items, all served chilled and at an affordable price. Assemble (Gallery & Store) co-exist within the 1300 complex and provide a new venue for the ne(u)w-art-era.

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The 06.07.05 NEO Excellence Roundtable had a very focused flow, starting with an update from Ed Hauser on Whiskey Island developments, following to next steps for East Cleveland, and concluding with a very enlightening discussion on making NEO the world's most empowering learning community.

At the last East Cleveland Excellence meeting at the Helen S. Brown Center we spoke about needs for affordable housing for seniors in East Cleveland, especially as they need to downsize, and affordable housing is a huge issue in general. When then looking at photos of some of East Cleveland's landbanked properties it became clear there is a great opportunity to serve these needs.

 

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The June 2nd WVIZ Ideas TV program explored what makes a city “cool�, by considering the former “Rubber City� of Akron's efforts to understand Generation X (folks born 1961-1981), which is the “Gold Standard� in the knowledge based economy. Akron is the first city in this region to analyze this critical economic development sector, with their Chamber of Commerce hiring the world-experts on the subject, Next Generation Consulting, of Madison, WI. Led by their Gen X CEO, Rebecca Ryan, Akron is comparing its Generation X appeal versus that of many of America’s most vibrant cities, like San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and Minneapolis.

Throughout the history of Northeast Ohio, "Heavy Industry" has been a two-edged sword. Largely due to our water access and availability of natural resources within easy shipping range, steel became big business here and led to great wealth and many jobs. In the process, heavy industry destroyed our natural habitats and created harmful air and water pollution - today, Northeast Ohio is the 8th most polluted region in America. Over the past few decades, old rust-best industry has declined in all of America and historically industrial regions like NEO have needed to envision "New Economy" futures.

Thus, it is especially fascinating that when former Cleveland steel giant LTV cast off its employees and went bankrupt, their computer programmer Ed Hauser chose to evolve his social role from a cog in the steel machinery into an activist pursuing a natural habitat for this region. He has followed his heart and volunteered his time and energy to save for this region a lingering natural Cleveland lakefront asset few knew existed, yet which is one of our region's most unique natural resources... undeveloped land in the "Flats" called Whiskey Island.

Robert W. Briggs - Chairman of Fund for Our Economic Future and Chairman Emeritus, Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs

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Cleveland 104 - The Curator's Keys: Unlocking the Doors to Cleveland's Museum of Art

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A New Convention Center: Civic Hope or Civic Hype?
Anthony
Coyne, Chair of Cleveland Planning Commission, and Heywood Sanders,
Public Administration Professor, University of Texas

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Dialogues on Leadership New Leaders Only - Dr. Edward Hundert
President, Case Western Reserve University

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