Northeast Ohio is about to see an explosive, high profile, living, learning and enlightening force hit the scene and landscape, as area filmmakers, learning institutions and the public come together to create NEO Central - a bleeding-edge collaborative media arts center for NEO now and the future.The center will be based on like-minded initiatives around the world, and will provide shared film/media education, incubation, production, distribution, business and technology resources, and facilities, which are currently located in the historic landmark Gillota Building at 300 Central Viaduct (Carnegie) and will be expanded significantly as part of an area economic development plan. More on all of this is found in the links below, which will grow...

We are enjoying the early signs of spring, and looking forward to this year's Easter Egg hunt in Cleveland Heights... coming up on April 15, I believe. Above is a photo from the hunt last year.

Something for everyone! Research Showcase showcases what people are doing in University Circle; CASE students and faculty, UH, and the museums are all involved. Veale Center, CASE's huge gymnasium will be filled with 100s of people with displays of their research. Please check out the Website for a list of events and presenters.

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I've thought for some time about the issues facing East Cleveland, and thought deeply about the potential we have to uplift an underprivileged community by applying a concerted eco-development strategy.  Here I outline some of my core thoughts as framed by our six-sphere model:

Beautiful view of downtown Cleveland from the Central Viadult

View of downtown Cleveland from the Central Viaduct Media Arts Center site

The realneo logo

The Cleveland Film Festival screening of Laura Paglin's documentary "No Umbrella -- Election Day" quickly  sold out, but those who were n't able to get tickets got another chance in the rotunda of City Hall on Monday night. Free and open to the public, the film played at 6 p.m., before a city council meeting. About 100 people were there. Paglin is a local director who has been getting a lot of attention lately. The subject of her short documentary, which recently played at Sundance, is an election day fiasco in ward 7, that took place last November. The "star" of the film is councilwoman Fannie Lewis, who fought heroically  for her constituents right to vote that day, when the board of elections failed to provide enough workers and ballots at one poling station.

Date: Wednesday, March 29

Time: 5:00 P.M. - 6:45 P.M.

Place: Myers University, Chester Campus

3921 Chester Avenue, Cleveland, OH

Map Link

I'm pleased to say the 03.21.2006 Excellence Roundtable featuring Steven Fong gave PD Architecture Critic Steven Litt a chance to catch up with Dean Fong, and be the first to learn huge news for this region... See http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/entertainment/

KSU dean wants architecture grad program moved to Cleveland
Kent State University will move its entire graduate program in architecture to Cleveland "as soon as possible."

So says Steven Fong, the new dean of KSU's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Fong, who assumed the post at KSU in December, described his plans publicly for the first time Tuesday in an interview following a public forum at the university's Urban Design Collaborative in Cleveland.

March 21, 2006, REALNEO and the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC)  hosted a wonderful open-house and Excellence Roundtable featuring, Steven Fong, the Charter Dean of the KSU School of Architecture and Environmental Design, which is based in Kent, Ohio, of which CUDC is part. In prime roundtable form, the attendees were as diverse and remarkeable as is Steven, driving a fascinating hour and half brainstorm through Steven's world of fantastic projects that he's worked on around the world, down to today's reality of NEO, viewed from 30,000 feet down to the streets.

Join us for New Approaches to Economic Development

Dates: Monday, March 27 & Tuesday, March 28

Time: 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Place: Baldwin Wallace College

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Folks interested in NEO will enjoy reading this write-up on Cleveland from a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - what was right then is what's best now (what remains) and what will be best if we can get it better together in the future... read back to then...

I was thrilled to stumble across these notes on a blog called Cleveland vs. The World, posted live from the Tuesday, February 21, 2006 hearing by ODOT supposedly addressing public concerns about the I-90 "trench" route through Cleveland, and the replacement of the existing I-90 bridge across the Cuyahoga... the ending comments (below) are revealing:

The CENTRAL VIADUCT, built between 1887-88, was a high-level bridge that linked the east and west sides of Cleveland. It stood where the Innerbelt Bridge (I-90) is now located. In Mar. 1879 Councilman Jas. M. Curtiss introduced a resolution asking that the city engineer undertake to determine the best site for a bridge linking downtown with neighborhoods southwest of Cleveland across the CUYAHOGA RIVER.

I was very excited to participate in a "Meet the Bloggers" discussion with East Cleveland mayor Eric J. Brewer, with George Nemeth and others, and it was a fantastic experience... what a great initiative Meet the Bloggers is... and the result is a thorough and revealing look into a man very few people really know, largely because the Plain Dealer has taken great efforts to present him as bad. Well, as far as anyone I know and I can tell, Brewer is good. If you care about truth in NEO, you REALLY MUST listen to Part 1 linked below, as Brewer discusses in detail his involvement in the indictment of former Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor... and in Part 3, don't miss Brewer's explanation for the poor treatment of him by the Plain Dealer - this is a major coup for "Meet the Bloggers".

Now posting to realneo... photos from the 2006 St. Patrick's Day St. Baldrick's shave-in at A.J. Rocco's, which will raise over $150,000 this year for Childhood Cancer research... perhaps much more, with your continuing support.... and yes, there is a TEAM NEO and that has Sudhir and Norm of "REALNEO gone bald".

Join Steven Fong, the charter Dean of the Kent State College of Architecture and Environmental Design, for a March 21, 2006 Excellence Roundtable at their Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC - http://www.cudc.kent.edu/index.html). Steven will share his vision on his college, CUDC, Cleveland, NEO, and urban and regional planning here - we shall discuss the future of planning NEO's future.

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The Cleveland Memory Project: Virtual Networks to Cool Places

Date: Today! Wednesday, March 15 Time: 5:00 P.M. - 6:45 P.M. Place: Myers University, Chester Campus 3921 Chester Avenue, Cleveland, OH Map Link

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The Cleveland Memory Project: Virtual Networks to Cool Places

Date: Today! Wednesday, March 15 Time: 5:00 P.M. - 6:45 P.M. Place: Myers University, Chester Campus 3921 Chester Avenue, Cleveland, OH Map Link

 

Reminder: CAAO's online executive auction opens May 1, 2006. Be sure to mark your calendar and avoid the risk of missing a chance to place your bid on the time of some of Northeast Ohio top executives. In honor of CAAO's 5th year anniversary, they have included special items in this year's auction. REALNEO is proud to support and promote CAAO and this event. Read On...

A good discussion appears this morning in the Akron Beacon Journal on the emergence in Akron/Canton of a new effort to promote networks of entrepreneurs. The mere fact that the meeting took place -- and the published transcripts appear in the paper-- provide some sense that this effort will succeed. Read more. Read the transcript. The newspaper even includes audio clips of the proceedings.

Hannah Fritzman writes  http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/theview/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_theview/archives/2006_03.html that Mayor Eric Brewer of East Cleveland is in conversation with the Civic Innovation Lab. I have also heard that leadership at the Intergenerational School is in conversation about the possibility of expanding into the city of East Cleveland. If the city can reverse perceptions about its safety and the quality of its schools, perhaps it can become home to young professionals who will launch independent small businesses and generate a second heydey for the home of John D. Rockefeller...