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.

The high profile murders of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and now Detective Schroeder, have made me more aware of violent crime in NEO, and in my neighborhood. In reviewing PD coverage of the Jackson/Hayashi kllings, I saw Allen T. Jones was killed a block from my house... from the 08/14/06 PD: "A 23-year-old man was killed Friday on the West Side. Allen T. Jones of Montgomery, Ala., was shot in the abdomen about 3:45 a.m. near the corner of West 48th Street and Detroit Avenue.

Evelyn has been sneezing all evening and just commented that there is a strange smell in the air. I went outside and realized she is correct... it stinks in Ohio City tonight. It is obvious why... the wind is coming from the East, where Mittal is located. I've lived on the near west side of Cleveland for over a year, on and off, and usually the air is very nice, coming from the north-west and so from over the lake... the nearest major pollution source I can think of are power plants down lake. But when the wind shifts, as with tonight, the smell of the air is brutal...

My theory is, we want an easier way of doing things and we want a shortcut to getting what we want and we will stop at nothing to get there. For example... the Bush admin. and some other important people "need" places to build their stupid little developments. But the only way to do that in places like California is to cut down one of the most ancient and sacred trees we have, the Sequoia. It really bothers me that someone would willingly destroy these trees some of which are over 300 years old!

John Jackson, "Green Goddess", 2005: Graphite, charcoal, and paint on paper

When the seemingly quiet and understated, but superbly in control, band leader gave the double whistle, the Shaw High School Marching Band went into gear like a locomotive pulling 100 100ton cars.  Made my eyes get wetter...

Building Bridges Mural Program’s brochure suggests that the program “empowers communities one brushstroke at a time”.  

In a really fascinating development, the Plain Dealer attempts today to structure a deal whereby Cleveland citizens accept the idea that the former press secretary to the very dubious former Mayor Mike White, highest-level PR-statute Nancy Lesic is now under contract with the President of the Cleveland City Council, for $48,000, while also being PR-statute  to the Port Authority, and the Clev

Last week, I was busy, as Valdis Krebs would say, "closing triangles" between leaders in Oklahoma City and Lexington, Kentucky. First, you need some background. Beginning in 1993, I worked with the Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma City to design a new economic development strategy. In the past, Oklahoma City, like many other cities, defined economic development in terms of recruitment. The main focus of their efforts was to identify a large companies and try to recruit them to the area.

I was driving my 6 year old daughter on 490 past ISG and she said it stank and wanted to roll up the windows... and the air the past few days has been oppressive in general. Is ISG just the obvious problem and not a big deal, as we are led to believe... is air pollution a big deal in NEO at all? I don't see big Ozone alerts around town so I assume we're doing great, but on this, I am uninformed. Who really knows the truth, day in and day out, on whether our air is safe or not, and where it is safest? Is it getting better or worse? I'm checking the web to see what I can learn - anyone else know anything about this that they can share?

(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!

10,000s of NEOans turned out on a perfectly crisp, clear Saturday in University Circle for "Parade The Circle", the annual public art participation extravagansa organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This book contains photos and comments from a heavenly day in NEO... see the links in the navigation block on the left and below and enjoy the parade!

At RealNEO the concepts of openness, sharing and community are realized not just in how we as a group of people interact, but also in the tools we use. The best example of one of these tools is the software used on many of the team members notebooks.

While Congress debates energy and gas saving strategies, they should consider one to help North East Ohio residents adopt personal energy and cost saving strategies, by reducing fuel demand,  traffic congestion and promoting improved health.  Congress can help America get out of their car and onto a bike.  Cycling can be an important component in a national energy strategy.   

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...

I have a laptop. (A slow starter/late adopter you're thinking.) It was a holiday gift that was meant to free me from my house. I can get out and write, correspond, research anywhere I can get online. But the cold weather and my deep appreciation for my home environment and my dogs have kept me in the house. Now, however, I sit most days in the sunny breakfast room of my 89 year old Cleveland Heights home and write surrounded by windows.

The annual blossoming of Daffodil Hill, a collection of over 100,000 bulbs, an ongoing project since the 1940's, is one Lake View Cemetery's most popular attractions.

Location

We hear of CAFTA, NAFTA, PAFTA, and how our government wants to help those people in areas with low wages by spreading democracy, “stabilizing” their governments, and letting our companies go and set up shop there. Reducing tariffs - we are told - will bring economic prosperity to economically “underdeveloped” regions.