Having recently completed a survey of the latest and greatest developments in sustainability, which included a review of current legislature in Congress to effect policy thereto, I can't help but think how much in life is about the simple things.  The tried and true maxim ' Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' embraces so much of what we need in terms of behavior shifts that would maximize metrics and optimize outcomes.

What ever you do, DO NOT click here if you want to avoid bearing witness to a total, unabridged,and fully explicit pollution in its rawest form.   Sedimentation transported gently on the waves of mother nature and towards our fair lake via stormwater runnoff.   Play our youtube.com footage at the link above for the whirlpool video that is taking the stormwater scene by storm

by Bonnie Alter, London on 08. 7.07
Food & Health (botanical)
As we move into the dog days of summer, and gardens, it's a good time to recall some green gardening tips that will save the garden, and the planet.

I grew up and lived in Cleveland and, other than school, stayed here until I moved away for about ten years. Since coming back home, one distressing thing I've noted is that decision-makers, at all levels, closely guard information, almost as if a Captain who would rather go down with the ship, than loosen up and perhaps not go down at all.  The Medical Mart non-debate has all those strange dynamics.  Is it possible, I wonder, if a true, public-private partnership on a Medical Mart/Convention Center/Urban Design District might actually make sense after all?

My guess--the most recent member to sign on to RealNEO is Stefanie Spear--I think her maiden name was Penn.   Am I right?   I saw a copy of Earthwatch today as I met up with Lois Moss to promote Walk and Roll Cleveland.  The writing seemed familiar to me.  I lived through Cleveland in the nineties and remembered a highly literate magazine named Affinity.  Is this the same Stefanie?  So, I thought--Cleveland Public Library.  Surely, we must have archived a local environmental publication? Wrong! So, I checked www.worldcat.org.   And here's what I found.  Affinity.\by Stefanie Penn Language: English  Type: Periodical 

Who's my candidate, the pollster asks?

I will pledge to support what ever candidate does more to make the world hate America less. At the outset, I want to say how truly appalled I am at myself for having such an abysmal standard for evaluating candidates. How can I tolerate, much less espouse, such a bleak, cynical prism to separate the candidates? Yet, I am more troubled by America and an America political system that is content to operate in denial.

Will Electric Utilities Be the Fueling Stations of the Future?
Source: NPPA Bulletin
[Jul 29, 2007]

SYNOPSIS: Reprinted from the June 2007 Bulletin of the Northwest Public Power Association.

 

Fools rush in -  if you are for a sales tax to build a con center and kennedy mart - you honestly believe that this will trickle down and improve the NEO economy - then you should READ the resolutions (sales tax, use tax) passed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora.  Look at the second line of either resolution.  "money goes into general fund".   There is no language in the resoluions that says that either the sales or use tax is for a  con center and kennedy mart.  This tax will go on for 20 years sucking in about a million a week.  Where will Hagan and Dimora be in 2008 when their terms expire?  Promises, Promises.  Printed in the Plain Dealer.

And Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who voted "against" the tax is in fact complicit.  If he was really against the tax but for a con center (with support from hotel bed taxes as he said) Mr. Jones would have raised in the public hearings the fact that the resolutions were for money going into the general fund, not into a con center account.  Omitting to exercise this ringing argument puts Mr. Jones in a catagory of strong doubt about being "against" the tax.

So, if you REALLY want a concenter and kenmart you would do well to sign a referendum petition right away to help putitontheballot.com this spring.  Then you can vote the present resolutions down, and insist that the Commissioners introduce and pass   new resolutions which spell out specifically in the resolutions what the sales tax will be used for. 

But then again, maybe you were born yesterday. 

'Make it Your Own Awards' by The Case Foundation

The Case Foundation is looking to award grants up to $35,000 to individuals
or teams working to connect people to discuss what matters, find smart
solutions, and take action.   Any individual, 14 years and older, is
eligible to apply (individuals cannot apply on behalf of organizations).
Application deadline is August 8.   For more
information on the 'Make it your Own Awards' please visit the Case
Foundation Website at http://www.casefoundation.org/make-it-your-own/awards.

Who Can Apply

We're looking for passionate individuals, or individuals working with small, local organizations or groups, who reside in one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, to submit an idea for one of these same locations (no international projects). Applicants must be 14 years of age or older.

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The dynamic leader of Habitat for Humanity will discuss the REstore program (http://www.gchfh.org/Restore/index.htm) at their offices as well as how providing affordable, sustainable housing helps end a cycle of poverty. http://www.gchfh.org Many opportunities to contribute in this worthwhile, ongoing project in Greater Cleveland will reveal themselves through this lively discussion. And if we are lucky, we may just get Jeffrey to veer off topic a bit and talk about his other life as a performance poet.

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See how many of the wood products you purchase for your remodel can be FSC or Forestry Stewardship Council certified.   It accounts for about 60% of the wood purchased by Home Depot nationwide.   The logo is often MUCH smaller than the ones on these doors.

posting to realneo assures me that someone else will get a chuckle + anger out of the photo I shot this week!    If you got it flaunt it.   I love the irony.  A cat I work with has this 50+ MPG sticker on his jetta tdi.   If I could only get him parked next to this shot... I could print it up,sell posters, and retire.  Or at least fund a new camera!   I followed the driver by the way (no really she was going the same way I was).  She pulled into the gated Barrington Estates.   Surprise Surprise Surprise.

Following are images of the concepts which were received by Sally Levine and David Ellison for the reuse of the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland Ohio.  I extend my appreciation to the designers for their generous dedication and creativity.  I will endeavor to number each of the entries  so that comments can be directed to  specific designs.  I will also  try to make legible the text which is important on many.  A submission from Italy was especially poignant in its text.   Designers, please feel free to log in and amplify your presentations.   This is very cool that so much volunteer creativity went into this event.   Here's my hoping that all the designers who contributed will reap a referred commission or two from their contributions....

My friend Katrina will be guest bartending with Thomas Barbric' the regular bartender at Light Bistro (formerly Parker's) on Thursday, June 26th from 4:30 - 8:00 (Happy Hour) all tips will go to the Cleveland Animal Protective League.  There will be complimentary Tapas as well as a few other appetizers for $5. 

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Norm and Evelyn are forging ahead in East Cleveland.  Little House on the Prairie has nothing on these guys. 

My neighbor has a spectacular garden with over 600 varieties of Day Lillies.  Yes, the blooms only last for one day, withering and falling off by tomorrow.  

If the world hasn't caught on yet, some of the ideas I presented this weekend as exhibitor during the Ingenuity Festival held here in Downtown Cleveland have caught the distinct attention of our Pope and President, among others.. and though Mr. Bush is now under the duress-caress of a legitimate censure threat he, like so many others has to know a great thing when he sees it.  Who doesn't ?  The key now is to work collaboratively and cross-sectionally to manifest those ideations and innovations particularly and proactively preventative of Biblically-briefed, Catastrophe-causing and Armageddon-averting measures so we can assure a sustainable future for us all.  It is my belief we have five years until a pivotal time in history, and this is indeed a Messianic age - one which is facilitated by what spiritualist Eckhart Tolle and so many others refer to as the frequency holders (Findhorn Retreat)..   So perhaps polytheism returns, and we will all be gods ?   .   And as I jest, in part,  I am simultaneously serious - this isn't enigmatically expansive, or bucolic bipolar banter but rather real and rugged rapture we're talking about!

The IngenuityFest public outreach efforts of Sally Levine  and David Ellison are intended to prevent Cuyahoga County from demolishing Cleveland’s Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower.    Ms. Levine and Mr. Ellison present a “Right vs Might” poster boy case of passionate public citizens who are “right” going up against “City Hall” “might”.   Except in this case it isn’t “City Hall”,   but “County Hall”.  

Wednesday evening Cleveland State University’s Dance Program brought “Words Alive” to the Drinko Recital Hall at CSU.  Performers combined movement with music, or with dialogue.

We're about to start prepping and painting lots of plaster walls and protecting lots of wood trim, windows, doors and floors, inside and out. As we are bringing the property to its most natural state possible, removing most paint, varnish, and wallpaper, we are working from very raw materials, and feel that is good. How do we now keep our house as natural as possible, as we finish it up?

The Brooklyn Centre Community Association (BCCA) presents "THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream " which talks about dwindling fossil fuel supplies and the effect on our modern lifestyle.  The film will be shown at approximately 7:30 pm proceeding the BCCA’s business portion of their regularly scheduled monthly meeting that begins at 7:00 pm.  There will be a discussion following the film as time permits.  Call Darren Hamm for details 216-741-7990

 

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Cleveland State U's Rooftop Windmills: U.S. House Panel OKs Seed Money

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, announced the influential House panel's decision to support the windspires, which are souped up breeze-powered machines without the huge spinning blades typical of windmills. Rashidi wants to set build test devices to see how effectively they function.

Tubbs Jones said the project is an investment in retooling the state's economy and portrayed it as critical to efforts to get Ohio growing again.