Cleveland – Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones will host a
fourth public forum to discuss the proposed Medical Mart/Convention Center
project.

The purpose of the forum is to share as much information as possible about
the Medical Mart and Convention Center projects with the public.

The forum will be:

Apple tree by board-up on Terrace Drive, East Cleveland

If an apple a day keps the doctor away, what is the economic value to Northeast Ohio of bringing fresh, local fruits and vegetables to poor, unhealthy, underserved inner city places like The Star Neig

Location

I've used the Cleveland Heights library on Lee Road since the 1970s, and can say with confidence the recent Studio Techne reinvention of this facility transformed the space, site, and surrounding neighborhood for the better. Featuring a dramatic, high-art bridge over Lee Road, and two reused buildings - one signficantly modernized - with crisp, fitting site improvements, this is one of the best library facilities and urban redevelopments in Northeast Ohio.

 

The Coit Road Farmers Market is one of the most endearing places in real NEO. Hidden away in a near-dead industrial graveyard of East Cleveland, with the curb-appeal of a brownfield, it is not a place one goes without intent. So it amazes me that just about every time I go there I see someone I know. I guess I know some pretty smart people.

Catch the Wave!  Eco-Fashion Show and Party.  Enjoy gourmet local organic eats, cash bar, and an Eco-Friendly fashion show featuring Cleveland’s green fashion entrepreneurs! $15 per person.  (free for Bioneers conference attendees)

Location

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.

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've always loved sunflowers, but the bright, sunny blooms glowing in our front yard this Summer are special. The seeds were from the work of art below, in the "To Masumi" memorial exhibition, held last October, in celebration of the everlasting, peaceful, sunny spirit of Masumi Hayashi, the great photographer killed a year earlier, in Cleveland, with other great Cleveland artist John Jackson. The Masumi Sunflower seeds distributed in Tremont may have been planted anywhere on Earth, and I wonder where else such Masumi Sunflowers are growing today, from this one showing of love for love and art received and lost.

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...

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

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

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

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 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?

Now that my family has land that we may use for a while, we are growing our own food... and enough for many other families, it seems. One $1.07 packet of radish seeds planted in May is already many pounds of crisp, bright, beautiful, healthy fresh veggies... and eating my first fresh radish of my life taught me radishes are actually delicious. Same for Kale, and all the varieties of lettuce covering our farmland... really fresh pesto is to die for... can't wait for the carrots and shallots!

Two weeks ago, City Fresh's Maurice Small met with friends in East Cleveland to discuss City Fresh, urban farming, and how we may convert a typical urban convenient store, Brown's Market, into a pilot City Fresh local foods market. During our discussions, Maurice mentioned that a dedicated urban farmer may earn more than $30,000 per year from sales of food grown on one typical urban lot (say 1/10th an acre). That being the case, and considering our ever-growing need and realigning demand for locally grown food, and the fact food may be grown locally as cost effectively as elsewhere in the world, it occurred to me that the highest and best use for most of the land now cleared, abandoned, blighted and wasted in our urban neighborhoods is for urban farming. So that is a use we are now planning to be core to redevelopment of the Star Neighborhood. Intrigued? Discuss and plan for this reality with Maurice and friends this Tuesday, from 6-7 PM, at that house on Roxbury, in East Cleveland. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

Location

Monday, June 16, 2008 - Fine Particle "Soot" Pollution Urban traffic" />
 
Northeast Ohio - An Air Quality Advisory has been issued for Monday until such time as the front containing rain moves through the region.  This Advisory is for the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Summit.

Maurice Small is the most economically and ecologically sensible planner I know.

Joe Stanley, Sudhir Kade and I have been brainstorming with City Fresh's Maurice Small about "I GRO EC" - Independent Green Republic Of East Cleveland. City Fresh already operates a Fresh Stop at Huron Road Hospital - which Maurice reports is doing great - and is active in community farming in East Cleveland. Recently, we've been discussing City Fresh having an involvement converting Brown's Convenient store into a pilot City Fresh Market, which could offer a paradigm-shifting model for bringing local food, farming and their economies into very needy urban neighborhoods, in very innovative and important ways.

Having recently attended the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) Annual Meeting, which focused on Challenges and Affordable Solutions in Lead Poisoning and Urban Redevelopment, I feel re-invigorated by the energy and culture of collaboration driven to rectify a debilitating lead toxicity problem that is particularly profound in underprivileged communities like East Cleveland.  Held in the welcoming confines of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, a full breakfast was served while the various parties collaborating on this critical social justice, health justice, and environmental justice issue were recognized for their considerable efforts.  Following this introductory, Keynote Speaker David E. Jacobs (pictured) of the National Center for Healthy Housing delivered a stirring oratory which sharply illuminated a drastically underfunded and undersupported health concern and epidemic. 

RTA will soon join cities around the world that have teamed up with Google to provide on-the-spot assistance with public tranportation. 

http://www.google.com/transit