Susan Miller had mentioned a strong statement on cell phone use at Dewey's Coffee House, on Shaker Square, in Cleveland, and I happened to be here tonight and saw this posted on their front counter... it is thought provoking, and Dewey's is an excellent place... latest Sunday night free wifi coffee house I know in this part of town (10 PM).

CHAPTER ONE Recently, when I spoke with a conductor on the Albany-Boston Amtrak coach, he told me that he had been working on that run for the last four years and the train had NEVER arrived on time.  Consistent with his experience, we arrived an hour late.

 

FOUR YEARS!?  Well, right off the bat you’ve gotta find that that is intentional. 

 

So why? What seems to be going on?

This morning when I was out with Tucker (the dog) this deer got his attention. Tucker stood still and stared at the deer, and the deer stood still, while slow-motion lifting his front left leg up and down to softly stomp his hoof on the leaves.

CLEVELAND, OH—Chris Warren, chief of regional development for the City of Cleveland, will speak about the administration's platform for development and how it will spark a resurgence for the region at noon on Tuesday, December 4, 2007, at The City Club of Cleveland. The program will include a special introduction by Mayor Frank Jackson.

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The mood in the United States is changing towards people who don’t look like they are from here.

For years I have traveled around the US and around the world and, besides being inspected and asked to produce my passport at the physical border crossing between nations, I have only been stopped inside a county once - in the 70’s – by soldados in Patagonia when Argentina was governed by the military right before Peron returned to power.

The Shaw High School marching band has been invited to play at the Olympics next year in China.  They are currently raising funds to get there.  See the link below for information about on how to help.

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Be sure to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art and see the Modern Master’s.  Really, it is way too much to take in during one visit. 

 

Pacific Northwest is example of energy boom — and worried biologists

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.

By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields — cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

Rockefeller / MLK Drive is as beautiful a place to enjoy nature - these days, fall colors - as any place on Earth that has been touched by man.  As I've been thinking about the Native Americans of this land, and Indians of India and America, and the current hostility in this county of past invaders against all others who want to live here too, I was drawn to the Indian Cultural Garden, today, and it was spectacular (full size image here).

I stood there alone, in one of the world's most beautiful places, as commuting suburbanites whizzzed by, and I thought of the last photos I took near here, of the demolition of historic apartment buildings on East Boulevard, that were part of this park's historic fabric and culture, quietly demolished for parking lots, for the whizzzzzing commuters (Full size images: above and below).

The Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center has a photography club and last week Judith K. McMillan presented a (her first) power point presentation outlining her evolution from teacher to photography experimenter par excellence.   Ms. McMillan has a voracious curiosity - producing mosaic photo images of a tire dump in Maine to stark black and white photos of bird nests in the CMNHIstory archives.  

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.

Picked up from CoolCleveland.com Mittal Steel & Your Health

Join Cleveland area doctors, nurses, and community leaders for a public hearing on the topic Wed 11/14 at 6:30PM at Tri-C’s downtown Metro campus in room CC10. Light refreshments will be served. Come to find out why 375 Cleveland area doctors and nurses have written to Cleveland’s biggest polluter, Mittal Steel, urging pollution prevention. Dr. Kathleen Fagan from University Hospital's Swetland Environmental Health Center will speak at the event paneled by Dr. Anne Wise, Kim Foreman, and Dr. Dan Brustein. For more information or ridesharing contact Liz Ilg with Ohio Citizen Action at 861-5200. http://www.ohiocitizen.org

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Cleveland Public Library is opening a new island in Second Life on Friday, November 16th. Cleveland Public Library is the third largest public research library in the United States, and also is the largest repository of chess-related items in the world. The island includes playable, life-size chess sets, and currently features an exhibit of historical chess sets owned by the library in real life. Also be sure to check out the Photo Gallery, where we have an exhibit of sheet music related to Cleveland and Ohio.

The island will open to the public at 6pm EST, with tours as time and guides allow. Grand opening activities will include two live music performances: Picker Apogee (an Ohio native) at 8pm and Nad Gough at 10pm. A costume contest for the best chess-related costume will take place at 9pm, with a Linden dollar grand prize to the winner. The life-size chess sets will also be available for casual or competitive play. The island can be found in the InfoIsland Archipelego, adjacent to both the American Library Association and Stanford University Libraries. If you have an SL avatar, please join us to celebrate this major opening in Second Life!

For more information, contact Lebachai Vesta in Second Life.

Open House at the Roundhouse

Final "Open House at the Roundhouse"

for 2007!

The gates of our home, Cleveland's former "B&O Roundhouse," will open for one last time this year on Sunday, November 25 from noon until 4:00 p.m.

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There’s a little mystery on the plywood construction wall around the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ontario, Canada has recently exempted all bicycles which sell for less than $1,000 from Provincial sales tax.   Toronto, the largest city in the Province of Ontario, has  sophisticated bike transportation management - an official part of the City government.

 

Neither the Gund Foundation nor the Cleveland Foundation made a peep to preserve the Breuer, and two of our County Commissioners (with the exception of Mr. Lawson-Jones) are (at best) too ignorant to appreciate the international architectural jewel which Jacobs bought and sold to the County  (The Breuer Tower, like the Coast Guard Station, shows Jacobs has erudite architectural taste?).

Just in case you are interested in "Keeping Up With The Joneses" (who ever they are..)

http://www.zipskinny.com/state.php?state=OH

Mayor Frank G. Jackson, in conjunction with members of Cleveland City Council and several community partners, is supporting the Cleveland Division of Police in its efforts to buy back working handguns from City of Cleveland residents.

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Driving back and forth between Ohio City and East Cleveland, I often take Euclid... partly to watch the progress of the "Silver Line" and Clinic Complex development. I increasingly find the "Silver Line" and Mid-Town aspects of all this disappointing, but I am fascinated by what I see coming together with the Cleveland Clinic.