As the day becomes night, should we fear the darkness?

Exquisite decay.

On Thanksgiving eve, a little over a year following the death of Ed Hauser - the primary community activist for preservation of the National Historic Landmark Dyer Coast Guard Station, on Whiskey Island - I went Hauser Way to photograph this best location in the nation, to share with you on Thanksgiving day. Enjoy.

Start Thanksgiving with a smile, and a new perspective on urban settlements in America - enjoy "Veronica Moss Visits Times Square". I found this video at Rob Pitingolo's very cool NEO-based blog - Extraordinary Observations (since September, 2004)... originally from StreetFilms.org.

Definitely check out Extraordinary Observations , which we should add to our blogroll, if it isn't there... and welcome to our newest REALNEO/REAL COOP member, Rob Pitingolo... "progressive, urbanist, entrepreneur, blogger, thinker"... REALNEO's kind of guy!

One of my most valued resources for insight on health, the environment and aging is The Myth Of Alzheimer's, and I strongly recommend anyone reading this post subscribe to their e-mail updates and read that site regularly - it updates nearly daily.

The Myth Of Alzheimer's is absolutely about you, your family, your friends, and all our futures, as we all age together on this human-changing world until we die.

Citizen Ed Hauser, Victorious In The Battle Of Whiskey Island - "Ask Not What Your Planet Can Do For You..."

It has been a year since Northeast Ohio lost our selfless civic activist "Citizen" Ed Hauser, silencing the great voice in the community saying that "The Process is Broken".

November 14, 2009 - the one-year anniversary of Ed's death - a group of family and friends came together on the beautiful Whiskey Island Ed saved, before a late Autumn setting sun, to toast a glorious man, and mourn a most cursed and horrible year in Northeast Ohio without Ed.

What does the dawn hold for this long-suffering region, in the second year without Citizen Hauser?

AP – In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, Australian explosive detection dog Sabi is photographed … 

Public Recreation in Cleveland in 2013?

PD reports: "Visitors to Cleveland's public swimming pools -- now free -- would have to pay admission if the city enacts recommendations of a consultant submitted Tuesday."

It is not surprising, the release of "Management & Efficiency Study – Cleveland, Ohio" (download as .PDF here) by Public Finance Management seems to have Northeast Ohio leadership heads spinning. At least, that is the appearance from coverage of related news - and lack thereof - in the PD.

Robert Maschke Architects is pleased to sponsor the arrival of a traveling exhibit featuring winning and top submissions from the d3 Natural Systems international design competition.   The exhibition will be on display at 1point618 located in Gordon Square at

The House passed an historic health care bill - how did your Representative vote? Find out and contact them here: http://is.gd/4PTXs

Julian Stanczak - "Continuous Line + Black" 2005 - Acrylic on board, 28 panels, 16x16 inches each

Happy 81st Birthday, Julian Stanczak... born November 5, 1928. Julian is an originator and continuing master of Op Art - one of the most important and renowned artists ever - and his work is stronger now than ever.

All that is seen without doubt in 116 remarkable paintings exhibited as compositions in Julian's amazing body of expansive, precise, cohesive "Recent Work", now showing at MoCA. Grouped as three colorful masterpieces, and a series of 10 individual black and white expressions, all these paintings stand together as one conclusive, vibrant statement, that life is an amazing experience, as only Julian may know.

Real NEO's favorite librarian, Laura McShane, recently posted on REALNEO "we can agree that aerosol art can be a thing of beauty", which made me think of the graffiti above, which inspired the first novel by Tony Vigorito, Just A Couple Of Days. 

From Wikipedia, "The title Just a Couple of Days comes from a piece of graffiti which appeared on both sides of an overpass just outside of Athens, Ohio on U.S. Route 33 and remained there for over two years. The open-ended tone of the declaration is related to the plot of the book, and the way the words can mean different things to each person who sees them."

I was just observing a graphic of Issue 6 voting results, on Issue 6 sponsor site Cleveland.com, and noticed how lily-white the voting for this issue clearly was.

In 98.4% white Hunting Valley, 248 people voted for Issue 6, and 18 against... 93% for Issue 6

Where Issue 6 first festered - Mayor Bruce Akers' 89% white Pepper Pike - 83% for Issue 6.

In Issue 6 Grand Mother Rawson's 30% black Shaker Heights... 74% of voters were for Issue 6...

Thursday, November 5th--2009

See http://www.arthouseinc.org for more information and http://www.brooklyncentre.org for more reasons to live well in Brooklyn Centre.

Halloween - a night to live out our fears and dreams with sweet rewards every step of the way.

Oh, to never grow up.

Does it make sense for a school district to abandon buildings, defer maintenance on all,  demolish and rebuild some buildings at enormous cost, when the district is strapped for operational funding? 

Well, that is what CMSD continues to do.  Is that Sustainable Cleveland?

It's not all gloom and doom--here are some uplifting images from a grey day in Cleveland.

I have posted here that Lincoln West is one of the schools in the City of Cleveland, which provides critical after hour community recreation and classes.  The program is called School as Neighborhood Resources. 

Okay, for once, JeffB and NormR--we can agree that aersol art can be a thing of beauty--I am including here an image, I shot while in college at Miami University of Ohio. 

Long live the REVOVOLUTION!

Confessions of a bibliophile:  I read the Plain Dealer every Sunday for the book section and I am so grateful that the Plain Dealer understands the extreme regional importance of the BOOK.

Follow Karen Long here and please note that the PD has twitterized their site for the readers, so you will have to register to become a follower :)

The Glass City Jungle blog in Toledo seems to be the only media outlet to have picked up on a TruthPAC poll with results showing, as Dave Betras, Chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, says, “It looks like Issue 3 is going down.” Wonder if and when the Plain Plan Dealer will share this insight with its intentionally misinformed readers... hopefully, they read REALNEO as well...