The Plain Dealer is taking a high road right now in dealing with politicians and the local economy - the same high road of Ronn Richard and the Cleveland Foundation, and most other community leaders in town... we need good education to have an effective economy. The PD quotes Cleveland Foundation President Ronn Richard as saying, at the City Club Friday, "Any plan to reinvigorate Northeast Ohio has to include reinventing, not just improving, public education... In fact, overhauling our educational system must become a national priority". In the Sunday, 09/10/06 Plain Dealer, the PD proudly proclaims: "Newspapers aim to set the agenda for election"... "Some of Ohio's largest newspapers are banding together to urge candidates in the governor's race to focus on three critical issues: kids, college and jobs." Yet neither Ronn Richard or the PD acknowledge the silent crisis of lead poisoning (and, BTW, mercury in our lakes, rivers and Perch-fries) that guarantees each year 10,000s of children in Ohio will not be able to be educated, or become effective members of the economy or society, and will instead be lifelong burdens. As the Washingtonian acknowledges (large PDF) in their more intelligent August 2006 coverage of social issues in Washington, DC, "In DC, hundreds of children are being damaged every year—and the results will be more school dropouts and more crime." For NEO and Ohio leaders to talk about improving education without attacking the lead and toxin crisis is either ignorant of deceitful. I tend to lean toward deceitful, as in the same PD that proposes to care about education, the business section features a puff-piece on the CEO of Ohio coatings manufacturer RPM, which is in the middle of major litigation over asbestos, and the PD uses this opportunity to position that litigation as fraudulent. The interview with RPM CEO Frank Sullivan features he joking about his relations with Sherwin Williams CEO Connor, who is fighting for his life to battle litigation all over America (except in Ohio) against his company over lead poisoning millions of Americans... to these people, harming millions of people is just good business, and the PD celebrates that.

Yesterday, I got an email from Voices and Choices providing feedback from the Choicebook I completed online in July, in preparation for the community meeting they are holding next weekend. Did you complete a choicebook and get your results? Based on the data, showing at best only around 539 other people completed choicebooks, I assume you did not. That means you do not have a voice in how the establishment will steer $100s of millions in "Fund for the economic future" foundation and public money and attempt to steer our economy over the coming decade.

What a week for fine art in Cleveland! In a wise move to spread the cultural-wealth and art enthusiasts time, Spaces made great noise and started the weekend early by throwing their "Street Repairs" opening party on the relatively quiet 09/07/06 Thursday night, drawing in a huge crowd. Read on about Friday's festivities...

CLEVELAND, OH—Ronald “Ronn” Richard, president and CEO of The Cleveland Foundation, will speak on the topic “Revitalizing America’s Post-Industrial Cities: Some Lessons from Cleveland” at noon on Friday, September 8, 2006, at The City Club of Cleveland.

Location

I always thought there was something innately good about Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia but didn't know why or what, and then I learned he's a poet, who has published a book of his work and is now participating in area poetry reading for good causes. That enough tells me he is special, but no way to tell how without reading or hearing the poetry. So I asked him to send over a few works to post with him as this Poet of the Day, for us all to preview... and tomorrow, September 7, we all can experience the complete poet Michael DeAloia as he reads more of his work at a fundraiser for Meet the Bloggers. Thanks for the good words for Cleveland, Michael. Read on, and be there, you all!

The Jazz Influenza

The high sounds of strings

Are teased by petite one-sixteenths

Infecting my soul,

Making me want to dance.

A whole note engulfs my sense of style.

My fingers snap!

Sweat rains on my forehead.

I perish under blue fever.

There rests my anger

On a lofty quarter note.

High….

Buzzing sounds of life

Are being played by a maestro,

By a drug addict,

By a man with a matter-of-fact life.

Ready your souls for cheap brass.

Rich men play money.

Poor men drums.

And I fly away riding on an eighth-note, waving.

An interesting street culture gaining popularity in small-town Brattleboro, Vermont (population 15,000) may have some potential for NEO... teens are taking their clothes off and hanging out naked in public. The town officials call it a form of rebellion. This would offer a nice change from the sagging pants urban street culture and the exposed butt-crack fat plumber suburban  culture popular in NEO today, and public nudity would certainly increase tourism and make more people want to live here. In fact, the Spencer Tunick Naked NEO shoot (below) brought around 10,000 (correction, 3,000) people together in Cleveland (on a freezing morning) to get naked and real about our communiity, so I know this concept has potential. What do you think, PD?

More on the latest street culture in Vermont below... this from the the Boston Globe:

When I was researching how Masumi Hayashi was known on the Internet, following her death, I was really impressed by a posting on her work at a very avant garde site called Cold Bacon... I'll let you explore it for yourself. I contacted the creator of the site and learned he served some time in Cleveland and he's featured images of here on the cover of his book and has others on his site. As he's no longer here, but haunted, I thought folks from here would be interested in his work, from the extended NEO community, check out this nicely produced photo gallery (flash) and read his vision on the work of Masumi here and below... the most sincere write-up on the artist and her art I've found...

One thing I love about Ohio City is seeing so many people of every sort riding about on bicylces. I see 100s of bicyclists go by my home an hour, during the day and evening, from entire families, to parents with their children in tandem, to clearly down-and-outs with all their Earthly possessions strapped on board. Good for them, and the environment... a core benefit of livable cities.

The 09/04/06 Plain Dealer has a blurb about an important step forward in the fight against blight in NEO, writing that "Starting tomorrow, Cleveland Municipal Housing Judge Ray Pianka will order that every abandoned house in foreclosure on his docket carry a sign identifying the owner and the owner's phone number. The name and number of the mortgage company also will be listed, along with the court case number and a contact number for someone at the court. "These owners and mortgage companies have anonymity now. Well, OK, if the case is before the court, now everyone will know who is responsible.""

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.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer assigns blame for the plight of Cleveland as the most impoverished city in America, they target the black poor. I find this highly disturbing, especially as they completely white-wash the greatest flaw in our economy, which is a century of cow-towing to industry causing and perpetuating toxic contamination of our people and neighborhoods in our urban core.

As I drove from the site of the murder of Detective Schroeder, on West 98th Street, I passed the park dedicated in the honor of the murder of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi on West 65th, and it occurred to me that there must be a similar park dedicated to Detective Schroeder. This is a fitting way to memorialize the victims of murder, and all violent crime, in our city, as it replaces death with life, and sorrow with joy... it gives people young and old a place to move on in the most healthy possible ways. I do not believe the people of Cleveland want to brush away such tragedy, but rather they want to have a remembrance of those who we lose, and a bright spot to remember that... and they want their neighborhoods to grow stronger so there will be less tragedy there in the future.

The vigil for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder was punctuated by flashing police lights blocking West 98th Street, which was lined with Cleveland police cruisers and Cuyahoga County Sheriff SUVs. The cause for mourning brought together the detective's brothers and sisters of law enforcement and caring neighbors, young and old - perhaps 100 were still around the site when I attended, around 7:30 PM.

I am just as saddened and horrified by the murder of Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder as of Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson, and the other victims of senseless crime and violence in Northeast Ohio, and I felt a need to visit the site of the shooting and experience the spontaneous memorial growing there, on West 98th Street, and share some images and preserve them here. While I was there, in the rain, an elderly gentleman rode up on a bicycle, stopped, and briefly prayed, in a moving demonstration of the caring of this community. Caring warm-hearted people like he make this a special community, and show our foundation for improvement.

It astounds me in this day and age there are still products regularly handled by children that contain lead at all. One product that contains lead that blows my mind is soft PVC children's lunch boxes... a fact brought to the public's attention when the Center for Environmental Health tested a TARGUS lunchbox featuring "Angela Anaconda" that tested positive for 56,400ppm, 90 times the legal limit of 600 ppm of lead (why should any lead be found?). As it turns out, other lunchboxes containing dangerous levels of lead are made by at least the following... Generation Sports, Frozen/Ingear, Roundhouse, Crayola, American Studio, Igloo, Sanford, Fast Forward, Arizona Jean Company, JC Penny, Lisa Frank, Animations/accessory Network, Holiday Fair, Mischief Makers, Extreme Gear/Romar, Subzero/Global Advantage, Chill, Big Dogs, Childress baby bottle carriers, Innovo, East End Accessories/Worldwide Dreams.

I highly recommend joining in with this great group: see last week's write up here!

green. :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck

Location

I'm pleased to promote a friend and great Cleveland community leader Michael DeAloia as poet of the day. From the website where his work of poetry may be purchased is a description of his work... below that is an invitation to a fundraiser featuring Michael reading some of his work...

Michael DeAloia "Roses on the Gates of Hell" is author Michael DeAloia’s first published book of poetry. His collection forms an imagistic journey through the intensely personal and transforms a decade of personal experiences and textured observations into feats of creative imagination with clarity, precision and acuity. Crafted with a thoughtful and cadenced approach, the poems in this collection reach lofty heights while being grounded in the everyday. DeAloia’s meditative, and at times confessional, poems explore the wonder and torment of life, the impropriety of men and the inconstancy of women. DeAloia explores a range of topics: his subject matter varies from spirituality to social commentary to brooding introspection. The results are accessible but not trite, insightful but not pretentious, and well crafted but not overly flamboyant. DeAloia relies heavily on imagery, which becomes the cornerstone of the entire volume, and his verbal facility brings such a polish to these poems that the reader is left feeling that this book once opened must be finished. Michael DeAloia is a poet and essayist originally born in Dayton, Ohio but resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a graduate degree from Case Western Reserve University and an undergraduate degree from Xavier University.

I just got the following invitation from my favorite economic development leader in NEO, Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia, and I am intrigued he is not only a technology visionary but a poet. It will certainly be worth checking out the next event where he is reciting his poetry, as this is also a good cause of a group of other great NEO community leaders who operate "Meet the Bloggers". See more about the event below, and more about the poet Michael DeAloia in our feature of him as poet of the day. From poet Michael DeAloia, you are invited...

Location

Arrangements for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder include: A viewing from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home, 18149 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights. A Mass at 11 a.m.

Location

Arrangements for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder include: A viewing from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home, 18149 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights. A Mass at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. John Cathedral, East Ninth Street and Superior Avenue, Cleveland. Burial will be in Monroeville, Pa. Donations The Cleveland Police Credit Union is collecting donations for the Jonathan Schroeder Memorial Fund. For more information, call 216-861-3535 or go to www.cppa.org.

Location

Services for Slain Officer:

 A viewing from 2pm to 9pm Tuesday 9-05-06 at A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home, 18149 Bagley Road, Middleburgh Heights, OH

A Mass at 11am Wednesday 9-06-06 St. John Cathedral, East Ninth and Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH

Burial will be in Monroeville, PA

Donations:

The Cleveland Police Credit Union is collecting donations for the Johnathan Schroeder Memorial Fund. For more information call 21-6-861-3535 or go to www.cppa.org

The host, he says that all is well
And the fire-wood glow is bright;
The food has a warm and tempting smell,—
But on the window licks the night.

Pile on the logs... Give me your hands,
Friends! No,— it is not fright...
But hold me... somewhere I heard demands...
And on the window licks the night.

There is an amazing sculpture on the edge of the Cuyahoga River by former CSU professor and renowned NEO artist Gene Kangas, created in tribute to near-Cleveland born poet Hart Crane, situated in far less than a park, but a beautiful site, marked by a wordless sign. You'd only know the sculpture if you know the Flats, or Cleveland sculpture, and I only knew of poet Crane for knowing of the sculpture, and I'm glad for both. This 1992 master work by Kangas is the Art of the Day, and Crane is the poet of the day, today. See and learn more below...

The disturbing juxtapositioning of social unconsciousness in NEO, reflected by the billboards above, found on Detroit at W. 28th Street, says it all about what is wrong with America today and our economy. Raw selfishness championed by the baby-boom generation has corrupted core, co-conspiring, selfish Gen-X leadership, placing Cleveland and human existence in jeopardy. In a quote from a 20/20 program today on the end of life on Earth, a scientist said "our children and grandchildren already tell us we ruined everything" and that is so correct. I apologized this weekend to my 12 year old daughter for today's leaders destroying her planet, and challenged her to focus her life on saving Earth, as the future clearly depends upon her and the next generations. After an hour and half of the 20/20 program "Last Days on Earth", exploring what may end human existence, from comets and pandemics to nuclear war, the program's conclusion was that we are already destroying the planet through CO2/pollution, and climate change will end human existence in less than 100 years, without significant change in human behavior and global leadership.