Max Eternity - While the Bush response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is most often cited as "inept", such a description inevitably sanctions Bush as patently stupid, though nonetheless innocent. 

As Jeff Buster reported on REALNEO, this summer there was some severe weather activity in the Shaker Heights area, where  my parents live, that took down a huge number of huge trees.

When the Cleveland-to-Hudson section of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh (later Pennsylvania) opened on February 22 [1851], John G. Stockley lost his fight to preserve the lakefront for parks and docks. "You're letting the railroad ruin the most beautiful thing we have," he protested. But the tracks remained, henceforth to complicate lakefront problems.
-- William Ganson Rose, Cleveland: The Making of a City, page 240

In both areas of Cleveland's West Side where I've lived, I knew there were chickens and roosters nearby (some I saw, and some I heard), but I haven't come across any fowl life on the East Side of Cleveland, or in East Cleveland. I wonder if there are any other chickens in my part of town? There certainly were chckens on every property back when this was farmland, 100+ years ago.

I am very excited that Cleveland Public Library is participating in the National Endowment for the Humanities Picturing America program.  I have always felt more comfortable explaining concepts visually and, lo and behold, today--a wonderful man contacted me today with a visual explanation of Web 3.0.  Enjoy.  Transform.

And what do you do with your dryer when it don't work no more?

Here's one way to keep your chickens dry. Pete Betchik of Madison on the Lake, Ohio built a chicken shelter using found materials. "The frame is made from wooden pallets, the roof also is pallet wood. The sides are old steel shelves. The inside is lined with old pizza boxes, the nest box was once used to ship fresh fish to market, and the front door was an industrial clothes dryer front."

Enter your photographic vision--See Levin College Forum for details.

What happens to Mr. Wiggin's Garden?  Mr. Wiggins died this year.

CPAC invites you to join us at From Rust Belt to Artist Belt II (RBAB2) on Thursday, Sept. 17th, and Friday, Sept. 18th, 2009, in Cleveland's Gordon Square Arts District.  During this two-day event you will have an opportunity to see artist-based community development firsthand and explore the neighborhood’s institutions, including Cleveland Public Theatre, 78th Street Studios, the historic Arcade and the newly renovated Capitol Theatre.

Anne Trubek for Good Magazine - Civic leaders and artists are coming up with some interesting ideas, and often the line between the two groups is blurred. The perfectly-named Unreal Estate Agency in Detroit is aimed at showcasing “new types of urban practices (architecturally, artistically, institutionally, everyday life, etc) that came into existence, creating a new value system in Detroit,” including helping people purchase and rehab a home for under $5,000.

The demolition of the historic Midland Terrace Rowhouses on Denison is probably occuring either today or tomorrow--See Denison Senior NRP housing posts here and here.

CNBC - Orchards and vineyards may soon spring from the blight of thousands of abandoned buildings in Cleveland, a city struggling to rise from years of decline and home foreclosures. Once a proud manufacturing powerhouse, Cleveland has lost nearly 10 percent of its population since 2000, the fastest drop of any U.S. city except for hurricane-hit New Orleans.

Celebrate local food, community, and culture as we highlight 13 community gardens and urban farms in Greater Cleveland on this year’s Urban Harvest Garden Tour. Bring your family and friends and discover what community gardeners and urban farmers are doing to transform our neighborhoods and our lives. (Now with a bicycling option!)

While I was sitting behind Food On The Move, at St. Clair and East 140th, where a friend works, I noticed a pear tree in the lot next door, full of rippening pears. While the lot is well tended, and does not appear "vacant", the lone pear tree is the only occupant. And nobody seems to notice it is there, despite its bounty of free food. There are 100s of pears on the tree - in a market, they would be worth $100s. This lot could contain dozens of pear trees - perhaps 100s - producing $10,000s in income for the owners and those who tended them.

One of the first planning meetings with Richard Fleischman... December, 2008

How will the 2010 census define our country? Is it time to change the way we census the United States?

 From August 12-14, Mayor Frank G. Jackson will host a three-day summit, bringing together a diverse group of people vested in and dedicated to Cleveland to use their vast knowledge and imagination to create an action plan for building a green economy for Cleveland’s future. This summit will be facilitated by Dr. David Cooperrider of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value (my teacher, advisor, mentor and friend) at Case Western Reserve University, my alma mater (x2).

Think globally. Jam locally.
Every August, people from all over the Great Lakes region raise
a pint at the annual Burning River Fest to salute the ³watershed moment²
that raised a new level of eco-consciousness <the 1969 burning of the