It is interesting to see published in Crain's Cleveland Business today Study advocates creation of NEO Food Authority to aid in localizing region's food supply that reports "A comprehensive study that examines the state and potential of Northeast Ohio's food economy calls for the creation of a NEO Food Authority that would facilitate a 25% shift in localizing the region's culinary and agriculture systems." That's the leading recommendation I made in my Preamble: Real Co-op for Open Food, Information and Community Development 2009, which I developed with one of the authors of the study Crain's references today, Brad Masi, about two years ago.

To optimize value in these critical sectors, I have recommended Cuyahoga County convene and sponsor overarching Greater Cleveland Food and Information Advisory Councils, like and associated with the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council, and county leaders should take active roles leading the councils and in planning these multi-billion-dollar sectors of our economy and society... we must not entrust the leadership, innovation, financial engineering and decision-making control to under-engaged government and over-engaged foundations, academe, industry and non-profits.

Planning these sectors should not happen behind closed doors in any ways at all, as has been the case in the past.

Crain's is reporting on "Economist Michael Shuman, who is part of the local and national consulting team that has conducted the Northeast Ohio Local Food Assessment, presented the study's findings Tuesday, Nov. 16, to a sold-out meeting at the City Club of Cleveland." Apparently, a bunch of Foundation-paid consultants have finished planning local foods behind closed doors.

The report is found at the NEO Food Web portal - you must register for access, which seems open to the public, and Drupal.... see Summary of NEO Local Food Assessment and Plan after you have set up an account... or just click the following link for a 354 KB .PDF of the "summary" report (the only report posted)... Summary of The 25% Shift- Northeast Ohio Local Food Assessment and Plan.

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Dozens gathered at the courthouse steps in downtown Dayton on Saturday, to push for laws to legalize medical marijuana.

There was an important public health and social justice activist gathering in Ohio, this past weekend - groups supportive of legalizing medical marijuana in Ohio gathered at Courthouse Square, located at the corner of Third and Main Streets in the heart of downtown Dayton in support of H.B. 478, Ohio’s Medical Compassion Act that will allow for the medicinal use of cannabis.

OCA Image TV Episode 6 - Cleveland Asian Town Community from Johnny Wu on Vimeo.

How can Superior Demolition and Excavating Inc. be authorized to do business with Cuyahoga County or the City of Cleveland for Demo jobs when they have had their business certification revoked with the Ohio Secretary of State since January 2007???? 

The truck in the photo shows: SUPERIOR DEMOLITION & EXCAVATING INC., with the address of 4480 Bradley Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44109... 

Below is a little research on yet another of William Baumann's companies.... 

AUDITOR WEBSITE SAYS THIS:

The other day, while on West 34th, this home was notably vacant, vandalized and transparent as you could see straight through the entire house and its framework.

It was assumed that this apparently vacant and abandoned property was on the list slated to be condemned and demolished along with the others...but today when I drove down the street, there were several crews steadily unloading new windows and doors and installing them on this job with gas powered generators being used for tools.

Angelina's new cat that I rewarded her with for her beautiful report cards...has mysteriously disappeared. We have searched high and low, asked neighbors, and looked around our neighborhood for days without avail. Anyone who may have seen this kitten can call us at (216) 254-9285. It's name is "Black & Whitey", compliments of Angelina.

Thanks a million! She is so sad that her kitten has disappeared.

Friday night in "urban" Cleveland is not all gloom and doom. 

On this beautiful, crisp fall night--I found couples making out at Roberto Clemente Park, boys playing football behind Blessed Sacrament off Fulton and cookouts happening throughout the part of Cleveland...now designated as Ward 14.

It's not a time to give up--it's a time to fight back and reclaim our community.

 Northeast Ohio is inundated with hundreds of organizations that are planning our lives away with their 2020 Visions of the City of Cleveland... It's amazing to watch them all work in different directions and to recognize that very few have begun to work "TOGETHER" is yet another defunct part of living in Cleveland, Ohio. 

As a young child, my parents owned 4 different homes on West 34th Street between Sackett and Meyer Avenues. I shall forever have fond memories of growing up on West 34th Street, knowing all the families on that street, and having the luxury of sustaining relationships with the families I grew up with from then until now.....

61 minutes until Veterans Day,

To all the NEO Veterans.

I am perpetually humbled that my sacrifice will never be what those, or the families of those, has been, that have served our country so proudly, even when their sacrifice was not appreciated.  God Bless.  You all make NEO and the rest of the United States a great place to live.

Ultimately humbled,

DH

As I prepare to head from Cleveland to San Francisco for the largest sustainability event in the world - The Green Festival - I'm packing some of my favorite bright green products from Northeast Ohio, including a Hemp n' Berry Bar from Plant Kingdom, of Akron, for the road. Bought at VERY OHIO PROUD bright green coffee roasters and retailers Phoenix Coffee, this healthy organic treat proudly boasts it is OHIO PROUD - and I'm proud of that.

Dear President Obama, I guarantee one ingredient in this Ohio Proud product is not from Ohio, or even America-proud - the first ingredient listed on the label - "Sheeled Hempseed (certified organic)". Ask your wife about "H" "E" "M" "P"...

It's a toss up to me between my two favorite assets in Cleveland - The Cleveland Orchestra or the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) - so I am always interested in unique perspectives on those worlds. The CMA is especially interesting right now as they near completion of a massive expansion, that is going very well, and they bring a new Director on board - from the Canadian Museum of Art - David Franklin.

In this week's Scene Magazine, Michael Gill offers the most informative and interesting perspectives on recent CMA developments I've seen, with THE MONEY BUSINESS - The art museum's new boss gets a crash-course in American arts funding.

I've had a good feeling about Franklin from all I've read, and this adds to my enthusiasm. He seems like a personable family man who will integrate with and celebrate with the community rather than hover above, as is so often the case with people in such lofty places - we'll be seeing much human interest in this family in the community, and expect people will appreciate the additions to the community - and neighborhoods of Shaker, where the Franklins have settled.

Of interest in Gill's informative reporting are some financials on the museum and it's operations, including - "Its largest and most dependable source of public funding — the cigarette tax — is just a $1.5 million fragment of the museum's $30 million overall budget". As the museum is one of the greatest in the world and one of few that are FREE - YES FREE - I'd say this is one public expenditure worth spending... although I strongly oppose this sin tax. I'd prefer to offer them some SALES TAX, de la MedCon.

Last night's election gives way to a Republican Majority in the House of Representatives while Democrats will retain control of the Senate.

This split control of Congress will be a challenge, but we have no intention of ceding America's future to Big Oil.

Do you?

We've worked too hard to turn back now.

I want to thank and acknowledge the tens of thousands of you who volunteered with the Sierra Club and local campaigns across the country. While there were some painful losses, your presence in campaigns across the country bolstered our champions and helped drive our agenda forward.

The question is, which side will the new House Republican Majority choose? Will they bow to the Big Oil and Coal interests who expect a return on their $247 million investment in the elections? Or will they listen to what Americans want: clean energy jobs that will lift our economy up.

realNEO Word Of The Day: 忍者 - Dedicated to Lily and Dianna

I'm pleased to report I will be covering for realNEO the 17th Annual Hemp Industry Association (HIA) Conference in San Francisco, California - November 8, 2010.

Please see the enclosed press release for details and contact me at norm [at] realneo [dot] us if you have any specific issues or questions you would like me to explore for this community. I look forward to sharing with the world the important work of this association, representing a near-half-billion-dollar industry that is just taking off in America and worldwide.

Hemp Industries Association to Meet in San Francisco November 8th for Annual Convention

17th Annual Convention to follow San Francisco Green Festival – Rare Historical
Documents on Hemp Research by USDA will be on Display

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The 17th annual convention of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) will be held on November 8th at the Holiday Inn Civic Center in San Francisco, CA. The HIA represents a fast growing and environmentally sustainable industry that is creating new jobs, with an estimated $400 million in sales in 2009, despite a federal policy that outlaws hemp farming. Business leaders of the North American hemp industry will meet in San Francisco to map out plans for bringing back hemp farming in the United States, to present updates on industry developments, and to share new data about expanding markets.

Amazing! Ohio has an opportunity to be #1 in the world developing a new industry - a new economy - better and different than anywhere else in the world - ahead of the other 49 states in America and every other country in the world - as citizens of California foolishly failed to pass Proposition 19 today.

Supporters include the California branch of the NAACP, state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Young Democrats, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the California Council of Churches, and several big labor unions.

"The Obama Administration has been clear in its opposition to marijuana legalization because research shows that marijuana use is associated with voluntary treatment admissions for addiction, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness, and emergency room admissions," Kerlikowske said.

What tools of old economy polluting industry our PROGRESSIVE (sic.) Democrats have proved to be!

I can't wait for 2012 and the next Presidential election! The next two years are going to be fun, for a change... I love a GOOD WAR.

David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization - Outstanding presentation on data presentation - how creative economists see and show the world, at our best

Watch and see the first Carbon Neutral Volcano... and, Facebook Knows When You Will Breakup...

I once told an supposedly "green" friend that in the future he will not get to jet off to India or Brazil if he can afford, as that will not be ecologically responsible. He nearly cried.

Flying Is One of the Worst Things You Can Do for the Environment -- So Why Do So Many Well-Intentioned Folks Do It?

It's not easy being "Green" - that is life... as highlighted here, and provided in full below, from AlterNet:

The trouble with this is that flying is the single most ecologically costly act of individual consumption, one that requires the exploitation of large amounts of environmental and human resources. In a world of deep inequality, it thus also speaks to privilege -- most notably what we might call ecological privilege -- and its ugly flipside, disadvantage.

Moreover, the climate-destabilizing effects of air travel -- per passenger mile -- dwarfs that of other modes because of the enhanced climatic “forcing” it brings about: due to the height at which planes fly combined with the mixture of gases and particles they emit, conventional air travel detrimentally impacts global climate approximately 2.7 times more than that of its carbon emissions alone, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

My thoughts exactly... but then I'm not paid to pimp for Democrats or Republicans... I DID SOMETHING TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN INSTEAD, FOR FREE... FOR FREEDOM - REALNEO.US

What to do if you’re courageous enough to admit the Obama administration and Democrats are full of shit and the Tea Party and Republicans are dangerous and stupid?

  When it comes to the treatment of big business, we can’t tell the difference, either

President Barack Obama soared into the public consciousness with a stirring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He then took Howard Dean’s example and used the power of the Internet to create a fundraising juggernaut for his historic 2008 Presidential run. With a swiftness not seen since JFK’s political ascendancy, Obama became president and claimed broad power to affect “change” across the country. But Kennedy only had to surmount his Irish Catholic background — Barack Obama had to transcend the fact that he is African-American.

But appearances are, in the final analysis, immaterial. Just as a magician uses scenery and sleight-of-hand to divert the audience’s attention, Barack Obama has used his background, intellect, perceived worldliness and powers of speech to distort the reality field, as I call it (to repurpose Steve Jobs’ “reality-distortion field”).  To get Americans thinking about a certain reality, while another is at work behind the scenes.

Maybe you — an Obama voter — have asked yourself, “What happened to the man for whom I voted?” I would argue nothing. Make no mistake about it: Barack Obama is a masterful political manipulator.  And if one is able to let dissolve mental distinctions of party — Democrat, Republican — then Obama can be seen for what he really is: a trojan horse.

To those who don't understand the change that is occurring in the civilized world, outside Ohio, consider this new product line from Colorado and realize if you are in Ohio you can't have any - you can't have the health benefits - you can't be an entrepreneur to compete with this product line - you can't innovate in this space - you can't hang out with these innovators or their class of people - you can't access their markets, customers or investors - because you live across the cannabis divide from civilization, in corrupt, coal-brained Ohio.

But you WILL have lots of pollution from coal-burning in your lungs, in Ohio!

Smart? No! Grohio!

Marijuana Soda Provides a High Without the Smoke

One Colorado soda company has developed a line of sodas that have an unusual ingredient: marijuana. Dixie Elixirs has made their drinks available to anyone with a prescription for medical marijuana.

Ohio and Erie Canalway--its a new kind of national park! Join your neighbor Ohio Canal Corridor Executive Director Tim Donovan for a slide show presentation that explains-what it is, why it is, how to use it for family fun and adventure. Light refreshments. All ages.

Library: Brooklyn Branch  3706 Pearl Road Cleveland OH 44109 For more info: 216-623-6920
 

Did anyone go to hear the Lame Duck Democrats speak in Cleveland - did they apologize for the harm their party causes Cleveland?

I expect an apology - and I expect never to see any of these lame ducks running for office in America again.

That includes President Obama and Vice President Biden.

Does the Democratic Party have plans to get its shit together, be real, and run better candidates for better leadership in 2012... locally and nationwide?

Here is the legacy Obama squandered by selling his people (all Americans) down his polluted, warmongering river, after the disastrous Bush era... "Think of the growth I expect like when an economy is freed from a dictatorship and people are allowed to be free and thrive - markets open up - that is America, now that Bush has been replaced by democracy."

Below is my view on the public/private partnership traditional model of governance in Cleveland as reflected in the efforts at school reform here. The politics surrounding the Education Transformation Plan of Dr. Sanders and Cleveland’s Foundations should give us cause to wonder if in this instance the 100 plus year public/private partnership model in Cleveland needs some reform itself.

In the on-line discussion between the reporter and readers following The Plain Dealer’s Friday, October 29, 2010 article “Cleveland, George Gund foundations seek to shape school policy” the reporter was asked:

“So if the ‘foundations would not argue that a young teacher is necessarily superior to an older one” then are they putting a burden on the Union as a whole and teachers individually that has more to do with the management failures of a school District?

I love you...,my dear friend...JFK!!! Thanks for being there in a time of need.................................... LoveDLH