The city of East Cleveland, "Home of the World's First Billionaire", John D. Rockefeller, is the first and historically the finest residential neighborhood of Cleveland. Still having remarkable historic landmark building stock, the city was a victim of "white flight", in the 1960's-1990's, that is just now seeing an enlightened, progressive correction, driven by good government, largely intact historic assests, like the Star complex, and optimal proximity to the best Northeast Ohio has to offer. It has always been desirable for close, convenient access to the core economy of Cleveland, the cultural and enlightenment "garden" of University Circle, rail and public transit everywhere, and nearness to and fresh breezes from Lake Erie. As the economy shifts to a new economy, focused on livable urban neighborhoods with great public transil and walkable assets, East Cleveland is at the Heart of it all, and the Star Complex is at the heart of that enlightened new urban movement.

Claudia Arrau. Photograph courtesy Diane Smith.

Unleaded Cats
Is your cat UNLEADED? Here's what you need to know about Lead Poisoning.

Ted Kreiter, Executive Editor of The Saturday Evening Post noticed something wrong with his award-winning American Silver Tabby. Catamus lost about half of his body weight over a period of "a month or two, at least." When Catamus would finish eating, he'd throw up. The last thing for which the veterinarian tested turned out to be the cause: lead poisoning.

July 17 – 21 is Ohio Lead Awareness Week. We would like to invite you to participate in the March for Lead Safe Living. This event is planned by the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council to make people aware of the issues of childhood lead poisoning, and to let people know that we can do a better job in eliminating these problems. The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council, co-chaired by the Cleveland Department of Public Health, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, along with over fifty community partners, is committed to eliminating childhood lead poisoning by the year 2010.

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WCPN's "90.3 at 9" show tomorrow is going to focus on urban housing issues in Cleveland. They've invited several of the folks who are part of the City Club's series on Redeveloping Cleveland. (See our website, http://www.cclandtrust.org/News.html#6/20/2006 for information on the series.)

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I am really appreciative, this morning. After posting what was certainly the saddest news I can imagine, about the hardship my staff has suffered as a result of a lack of appreciation from my former business associate, Peter Holmes, I opened up this week's CoolCleveland and found that their crew had featured TWO postings from REALNEO. I am very touched and thankful to Thomas and his team for noticing REALNEO and taking an interest in the thoughts posted here - thank you. Please show appreciation back to CoolCleveland... if you are not a member, see what you've been missing... subscribe at CoolCleveland - all free - this is a real NEO must,  and send feedback to CoolCleveland letters at the links below, and supporting the upcoming CoolCleveland/Tech/Ingenuity party at Fat Fish Blue, July 13, and the Ingenuity Festival, as described below... but first, here's the nice write-up about REALNEO from CoolCleveland today, July 5, 2006:

(This article was written as a progress report for the East Cleveland newsletter to residents of the city,
from my role as a technology advisor to the city, and includes very exciting developments for all of Northeast Ohio) 

The City of East Cleveland is leading Northeast Ohio into the new economy by bridging the digital divide. This means the City of East Cleveland is upgrading our internal computer network and services, increasing city bandwidth to the Internet, enhancing our website services, making sure all of our residents who want and need personal computers may have them at home, providing training in some computer programs, and helping residents get access to the Internet at the lowest possible cost or for free. This all provides a "bridge" for residents to go across the "digital divide" to the "new economy". Welcome!

 The following story with its links ran in CASE Daily (Case's online newpaper) today. Do feel like you have entrepreneurial genes? I think I do! Please post your thoughts
"Do genes influence who will be entrepreneurs?"

ABC News (Reuters), June 5, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2041245

The SBA (Small Business Administration) and East Cleveland announce a plan to help East Cleveland businesses prosper.  This is an exciting time for business owners who really want to see their companies prosper.  Some of the monies being loaned out are at prime or even interest AND payment free. While this is no free lunch, those who are serious about running a business in East Cleveland will find this an opportunity that comes by very rarely!

 It is extremely important to control all dust in and around any home where there is a lead risk. Unfortunately, research shows that where there are lead risks dust control alone has little impact in reducing lead poisoning - the reduction in elevated blood lead levels is measurable and worthwhile but not sufficient to have an overall benefit to the child, or surface a solution for society.

Lots of people know that lead poisoning played a role in the fall of the Roman Empire (lead pipes) but in December 2005 it was learned that Beethoven died of lead poisoning - probably from a combination of pipes, lead seals on wine and documents, crystal, ceramics and paints - they started outlawing lead in Europe at the end of the 19th Century... it took America nearly a century longer...

While looking for lead testing kits and information in East Cleveland, at Silvermans, I slipped into paparazzi mode as I spotted three future leaders of our NEO new economy, chilling on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. They let me snap their pictures, which will be worth a fortune when these guys are famous. It can happen, when we keep our kids lead free.

East Cleveland Theater's current production of "The Wiz" is an abolute delight and great family entertainment, as the story and song will appeal to audiences from nine to ninety.  

Now playing weekends (Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinee) thru May 21, 2006, "The Wiz" is a great Mother's Day gift idea as the cast showcases wonderful talent living in our midst. 

Members of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative presented thier vision for a better East Cleveland.

Saturday and Sunday, April 29 & 30, 2006, the Tri-C JazzFest took the spectacular stage at the East Cleveland Public Library, custom built for jazz by world-class library leader Greg Reese, for two major FREE concerts that drew full house crowds to a community few know and so most don't appreciate. After this weekend, many more people understand East Cleveland is the coolest city in NEO.

For so many reasons, University Circle and its institutions and the surrounding neighborhood are core to what I value in NEO, and I look forward to seeing all that continually expand in significance to me, the region and world. But, University Circle is a small geographic domain, which must be optimized for 21 organizational stakeholders, and their 1,000,000s of stakeholders, including everyone associated with Case, University Hospitals, the VA, CIA, Cleveland Museum(s), Institute of Music, Orchestra, etc., and all others in the community.

In visioning for a better region and future here, consider a broader interpretation of University Circle from the small cultural, healthcare and university center of Cleveland to the center of the entire University Community of NEO.

With a prayor and the promise "this is not some kind of a trick", East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer fulfilled a promise to his citizens, this Saturday, April 8, 2006, and organized a community day to help residents of his city who have criminal records to move forward with success in life. Around 200 citizens turned out to learn how to clean up their records, as much as possible, and find jobs in a world that largely views ex-offenders as unemployable.

Greater Cleveland has a higher percentage of elevated blood level children than the national average, and many neighborhoods have significant lead poison problems. This book shares insight generated in the effort to eradicate lead poisoning in NEO, including initiative of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... GCLAC.

I've thought for some time about the issues facing East Cleveland, and thought deeply about the potential we have to uplift an underprivileged community by applying a concerted eco-development strategy.  Here I outline some of my core thoughts as framed by our six-sphere model:

March 21, 2006, REALNEO and the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC)  hosted a wonderful open-house and Excellence Roundtable featuring, Steven Fong, the Charter Dean of the KSU School of Architecture and Environmental Design, which is based in Kent, Ohio, of which CUDC is part. In prime roundtable form, the attendees were as diverse and remarkeable as is Steven, driving a fascinating hour and half brainstorm through Steven's world of fantastic projects that he's worked on around the world, down to today's reality of NEO, viewed from 30,000 feet down to the streets.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:00 PM Low-Level Lead Toxicity: The Ongoing Search for a Threshold Bruce P. Lanphear, MD, MPH Sloan Prof. of Children's Environmental Health & Dir., Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Ct Reservation

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