An eye-opening exhibition on environmentally friendly design of affordable housing opens with a panel discussion at The Cleveland Institute of Art at 5:15 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2006. The traveling exhibition, HOME House Project: The Future of Affordable Housing, will be on view in the Institute’s Reinberger Galleries from November 3 – December 22, 2006. See images from the exhibition at the Weisman Museum here. Read On:

The exhibition began in 2003 with a competition sponsored by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Designers and architects were challenged to create appealing, affordable single-family house designs using Habitat for Humanity house plans as a starting point. The 440 entries originally submitted by designers from the U.S. and six countries were judged on their design appeal, affordability and use of environmentally sustainable materials, technologies and techniques.

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Want to know what Greater Ohio has been saying to gubernatorial and legislative candidates this election season? It's in the book - the Greater Ohio's briefing book for candidates, officially titled, "If Sprawl Meant Jobs, Ohio Would Have Full Employment: Policies for Redeveloping a Great State" (also available from Greater Ohio's home page).

Ohio State Representative Mike Foley (D) will be holding a press conference tomorrow, Tuesday October 17 at 11:30 am at the gazebo at Lincoln Park (W. 14th and Starkweather), located in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland’s west side..  

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Today, at WVIZ IdeaCenter, Ingenuity Festival founder and director James Levin hosted his peer Steve Dietz, director of a remarkable "sister" arts and technology festival ZeroOne San Jose, along with a group of NEO arts leaders, for intimate planning for the 3rd Ingenuity Festival, which will be held around Playhouse Square and Cleveland State University in 2007. James introduced the discussion by explaining he had been in San Jose last month for ZeroOne and is working with the organizers of that event in his brainstorming for our festival, which is one of the most exceptional of its type in the world. And, based on what was presented and discussed today with Steve Dietz, Ingenuity Festival is about to get much more exceptional... James is looking and partnering very globally and focused on strengthening the integration of "technology" into Ingenuity 2007. This was clearly a strength in the exciting artistic expressions of ZeroOne, as presented in an impressive overview by Dietz.

The Cleveland Institute of Art will showcase designs from a diverse collection of Northeast Ohio companies – from a skateboard manufacturer to an alternative magazine publisher – in an exhibition in the Institute’s FUTURE: Center for Design and Technology Transfer. The exhibit, “Startup Ink: The Subculture Entrepreneur,” opens with a public reception from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, and will be on view until Nov. 24, 2006.

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"Make no small plans" is developer Bob Stark's sentiment toward visioning the future of Northeast Ohio with which I agree completely. Next Tuesday, October 17th, the public is invited to a forum at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, hosted by Dean Rosentraub, featuring Mr. Stark's development vision for Downtown Cleveland, with a panel discussion featuring Steven Fong, Dean, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Kent State University, and Valerie McCall, Chief of Government Affairs, Office of the Mayor, City of Cleveland. It is exciting to see such a collaborative approach to planning forming around such core stakeholders and the public. The opposite of the command and control process that is giving us the ODOT bridge from hell and so many other bad outcomes in NEO, this public multi-university, public-private exploration has the potential to connect important agendas for consensus building around sophisticated visions of the future of our region, starting with the heart of it all, downtown Cleveland.

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Come to a Cleveland Solar & Wind Open House to inaugurate the first Uni-Solar solar shingle installation in Northeast Ohio.

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There were two important shows on WVIZ/PBS public television tonight. First, locally produced Ideas featured a segment on lead poisoning. Second,  "Bill Moyers on America: Is God Green?" explored  how "Millions of evangelical Christians in America have taken on care for the environment as a moral and Biblical obligation. They believe that as Christians it is their duty to take action against global warming, the loss of species and toxic chemicals in our air, food and water." So, we saw the greatest problem in our local society today... toxic contamination of at least 20% of people's land and lives in Cleveland... followed by the solution, being the 65% of Americans who believe in Christ coming together to battle such toxins. To care about any of these matters without caring about all is to live an incomplete and evil life as, apparently taken from the scriptures,  "those who destroy the Earth shall be destroyed by God!"

In 2020 - the year, and with such vision - what postcard do you want to send from your hometown of Cleveland... the "Cleveland of my Dreams" vision above, or the the toxic "Nightmare in Cleveland" reality planned for us by ODOT, below, which is planned to be worse than anyone ever imagined. By 2020, ODOT plans to blight the entire dream zone of the Cleveland Flats and the East and West banks of the Cuyahoga River Valley shown in these renderings, and surrounding neighborhoods, even worse than they and the port have blighted there today. By 2020, ODOT will have finished their slash of concrete and steel rendered in the nightmare reality below, destroying these opportunity zones as freeways have destroyed so much else in NEO. Read on to see how we may be able to make these mightmare visions dreamy, instead.

The Plain Dealer finally has their headline article in the battle to protect citizens against lead poisoning - Sherwin Williams is suing East Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus for them filing suit against Sherwin Williams over lead poisoning... this, rather than the impacts and history of lead poisoning, is what has made the headlines in the paper, featured on top of the business section (rather than the front page, where the news belongs). So, Sherwin Wlliams and their local attorneys Jones Day feel they can intimidate or perhaps bankrupt Ohio cities by attacking them over what has already been determined against Sherwin Wiliams and Jones Day in Rhode Island and is in court in 26 other states, all because  Sherwin Wiliams and Jones Day believe Ohio and our courts are so in the pockets of this rich and powerful local company and law firm they will endorse Blackmail.

Why are we trying to attract jobs in the lowest paying career categories? What a shortsighted goal our "leadership" and business owners have set.

Two major art exhibits opened Friday night, September 29, showcasing the importance of glocalization of NEO art at its best. Barbara Stanczak is showing a large body of recent sculptures, photo manipulations and constructions at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens Gallery, and Painter Dana Schutz and photographer Catherine Opie are exhibiting large bodies of work at Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Each artist has strong ties to NEO, yet are globally successful and influential in their own unique ways - rooting their accomplishments back to NEO is how glocalization of arts propels our economy to a higher level, as NEO leverages the  global significance of our arts industry.

If you read REALNEO, you know the huge burden of lead poisoning on our region's children and adults, the community's quality of life, and our education system and economy, and you know that, since May, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer has been planning to work with Motley Rice to bring litigation over lead poisoning to Ohio courts. Today, the Plain Dealer published word the litigation is finally here, as East Cleveland is expected to file suit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court over the public nuisance lead causes in their community, as has been done in 27 other states to date. East Cleveland is the leader bringing such litigation to our state, and it appears other cities and the state of Ohio are preparing to follow suit. I take great pride that I helped advance this development, and I look forward to helping East Cleveland, NEO and all Ohioans win, as a result.

In a unique and powerful arts development in town, the Cleveland Foundation has started an initiative to showcase artists studying at the Cleveland Insitute of Art in a series of exhibitions at the Foundation offices, at 1422 Euclid Ave., Suite 1300, starting with "Heterotopia", now showing - the public is welcome to view the exhibition at The Cleveland Foundation offices Monday through Friday during normal business hours (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

I just got the following event details from our Tech Czar Michael DeAloia about an important international conference coming to Cleveland - The International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers - with keynote by Case VP of IT Lev Gonick (congratulations, Lev). I've worked with lots of high level global IT managers and they are an excellent draw to Cleveland... they like to explore and they spend money, so this conference is a gem. And they are offering a special deal for Cleveland IT companies worth checking out. Most interesting to me and you is how they are selling Cleveland to their international membership... check out our forum on 22 reasons to attend this conference in Cleveland, Ohio, and add your ideas to share with these important guests of our community, and all others! See conference details below...

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I'm sure everyone who follows news and current events knows about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' speech at the UN, declaring US President Bush the devil. In today's NY Times there is an insightful expansion on this story, as they report that during Chávez' speech he held up a copy of retired MIT Professor Noam Chomsky’s book “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance,” a critique of American foreign policy, and urged his audience “very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.” The NY Times reports sales in America of the book have since spiked - I certainly now plan to read it. Hegemony is preponderant influence or authority over others. Chomsky writes: "One can discern two trajectories in current history: one aiming toward hegemony, acting rationally within a lunatic doctrinal framework as it threatens survival; the other dedicated to the belief that “another world is possible,” in the words that animate the World Social Forum, challenging the reigning ideological system and seeking to create constructive alternatives of thought, action and institutions. Which trajectory will dominate, no one can foretell." Another quote from the book, and the NY Times article are below...

 “If they can get you asking the wrong question, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”

Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

There is much effort put into rationalizing our current economic conditions in NEO, but I don't see anyone in NEO analyzing our genuine progress... our GPI (see America, above... how's NEO doing?). At the core of this challenge is, what's the economy for in the first place? An article at the New Dream website asks that question, and states "It’s time to demand that champions of the status quo defend their implicit answer to that question.  Do they actually believe that the purpose of the economy is to achieve the grossest domestic product and allow the richest among us to multiply their treasures without limits?" "But what if we answer the question... The greatest good for the greatest number over the long run.” "In that light, economic success cannot be measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or stock prices alone.  It must take into account the other values that constitute the greatest good — health, happiness, knowledge, kindness — for the greatest number — equality, access to opportunity — over the long run — in a healthy democracy and sustainable environment." Based on that, are the NEO and American economies healthy? Read the rest of the article to see what you think...

I just received the following from rail transportation and smart growth luminary Kenneth Prendergast... read on to learn about Smart Growth and plan to attend an important Rail Stakeholders meeting October 20th... read more!

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While hard to compare to shootings and murder, I can't think of a worse development for NEO, local arts and culture and my neighborhood than the news I recieved just now - Gallery 1300 is closing. I don't know enough details to know if it is "our" fault - not enough money flowing from the community to the gallery and artists - or just that the smart, great people who have made 1300 a core part of the NEO scene have other opportunities to pursue, but I know we all owe it to their team to really put out for them in their closing months. More to come on this as I learn details... for now: the Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

Title of the Exhibit: Leave ‘Em Wanting More – The last shows of 1300

Opening Reception: 

5 - October 20, 7-10 – Grant Smrekar, Paul Sydorenko, Bill Rupnik

Around 3:30 AM last night, I went to visit the Edgewater Deli where, a few hours earlier, Salim Alsoliman, 54, was murdered. A home-grown bouquet of flowers memorialized the site - I added some mums from my garden, to express my sadness for the loss of a neighbor and champion of the region. While I was there, some shocked friends of Salim and the other shooting victim of this senseless crime pulled up - recent immigrants to Cleveland, it seemed, as were the victims, I believe... the details are still not available.

I was very interested to learn today that three Ohio Universities were rated among the top 25 colleges for entrepreneurship by Entrepreneur.com and the Princeton Review, and I was surprised by which, and why. Most insightful, from the Entrepreneur.com website: "10 Essential Elements of an Entrepreneurship Program...Whether you're looking at one of the schools on our list or have found another program that intrigues you, here's what to look for to make sure you'll be successful in your studies:..."... read on.

This weekend the Toronto arts and culture scene was world-class beyond belief, featuring the final weekend of the Toronto Film Festival, the opening of the new Four Seasons Opera House (premiering Wagner's Ring Cycle), many smaller community arts festivals, and two major arts festivals – the Queen West Arts Crawl, featuring over 500 artists and galleries along mind-blowing Queen Street) and the august 11th Annual Canadian Art Gallery Hop. The Queen West Arts Crawl was way cool, but I stayed in Toronto an extra day for Software Freedom Day and the Canadian Art Gallery Hop, as that featured a free “Glocal Live Roundtable” of many of Canada's arts leaders. “The term GLOCAL fuses global with local and points to the meshing of macro and micro realms of experience in the contemporary world of Internet technologies and instant information. The speed and collapsing distances of this new reality hold challenging implications for traditional identities and communities, along with promising opportunities.” The roundtable was astounding... see below for detailed notes of interest to all concerned about arts, culture and the economy, local to anywhere in the world and global.

By lucky coincidence, I was in Toronto on international Software Freedom Day and so had easy access to Ubuntu today, right when I needed it, and lots of Ubuntu and FOSS experts, and got to meet the cool people in Toronto who run the Toronto Ubuntu and Linux User Groups, and the Linux Caffe, and the awesome Center for Social Innovation... this city rocks in every way.

Imagine a day when the NY Times writes about NEO not just because of great real estate visionary David Perkowski but for political visionaries like in California. NEO leaders talk of how large our regional economy is, and the world knows how large a producer of greenhouse gases we are, so we should be ranked with New York and California in addressing greenhouse gas emissions. In the NY Times today there is an excellent article digging deeper into programs in California, developed by their democratic legislature and republican governor, addressing California's role in the global pollution crisis, and their respnse. We have an election coming up in Ohio in November to choose a new governor and a bunch of other politicians and the number one question of candidates should be how are you going to put Ohio on the same high level of global consciousness about global warming as has California leadership. We must raise the consciousness on this if we are to develop a new economy here, ever... here's how the Times writes of California... "This is the state that in the early 1970’s jump-started the worldwide adoption of catalytic converters... this is the state whose per capita energy consumption has been almost flat for 30 years, even as per capita consumption has risen 50 percent nationally... California, in fact, is making a huge bet: that it can reduce emissions without wrecking its economy, and therefore inspire other states — and countries — to follow its example on slowing climate change." Read more about CA's brave public leadership and the highly-paid, cowardly energy industry lobbyist-attornies below...

The Plain Dealer is taking a high road right now in dealing with politicians and the local economy - the same high road of Ronn Richard and the Cleveland Foundation, and most other community leaders in town... we need good education to have an effective economy. The PD quotes Cleveland Foundation President Ronn Richard as saying, at the City Club Friday, "Any plan to reinvigorate Northeast Ohio has to include reinventing, not just improving, public education... In fact, overhauling our educational system must become a national priority". In the Sunday, 09/10/06 Plain Dealer, the PD proudly proclaims: "Newspapers aim to set the agenda for election"... "Some of Ohio's largest newspapers are banding together to urge candidates in the governor's race to focus on three critical issues: kids, college and jobs." Yet neither Ronn Richard or the PD acknowledge the silent crisis of lead poisoning (and, BTW, mercury in our lakes, rivers and Perch-fries) that guarantees each year 10,000s of children in Ohio will not be able to be educated, or become effective members of the economy or society, and will instead be lifelong burdens. As the Washingtonian acknowledges (large PDF) in their more intelligent August 2006 coverage of social issues in Washington, DC, "In DC, hundreds of children are being damaged every year—and the results will be more school dropouts and more crime." For NEO and Ohio leaders to talk about improving education without attacking the lead and toxin crisis is either ignorant of deceitful. I tend to lean toward deceitful, as in the same PD that proposes to care about education, the business section features a puff-piece on the CEO of Ohio coatings manufacturer RPM, which is in the middle of major litigation over asbestos, and the PD uses this opportunity to position that litigation as fraudulent. The interview with RPM CEO Frank Sullivan features he joking about his relations with Sherwin Williams CEO Connor, who is fighting for his life to battle litigation all over America (except in Ohio) against his company over lead poisoning millions of Americans... to these people, harming millions of people is just good business, and the PD celebrates that.