Every day in every way, Mayor Frank Jackson is a disappointment.

Bruce Ratner and Forest City Ratner made a deal with Russia’s richest man for the New Jersey Nets and a major Brooklyn project called Atlantic Yards.

If there’s going to be an investigation of the integrity of commercial property appraisals here, we ought to also probe tax reductions awarded to downtown property owners by official County and State of Ohio agents.

Severe Particulate Matter 2.5 Hourly Reading in Cleveland at 8:00 AM on 09/23/09 - see current here

There is clear evidence the leadership of Northeast Ohio has failed to create an environment encouraging world-class monitoring, analysis, research, notification and controls of pollution created in our region of Ohio, and the consequences on residents and society. As a result, the people of this region have suffered significant health consequences, including early death, and impaired learning ability, crippling our schools and workforce, and society and the regional economy have suffered greatly. As much of our pollution is exported beyond our region, our failure to be world-class addressing pollution here causes harm world-wide.

When my friend Kieth called and asked me to come over, last Thursday night, I could tell by his voice something was very wrong. When I arrived, he looked in shock - he told me his youngest son's mother had called to say their child had shot a mail carrier in Maple Heights.

Today's Sound of Ideas on WCPN discussed the outcome and costs of the corruption probe.  Roldo called in (and I called in and cried me a river)...More later.

I've spent several years now developing theoretical pieces toward a sustainable future and now seek to apply the theory to effect pragmatic positive change for our region.

From Darren Hamm:

I will be posting photos from the One World Event here in Cleveland.  Notably absent? Mayor Jackson who presumed that the audience would be mostly suburbanites and made the call to write it off.  Bad move. 

The fact that Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association, will own casinos is reason for a NO vote against the casino issue on the November ballot.

Eric Boehlert writes about his fears of the climate being created by the right-wing forces regarding our President. He sees and feels Dallas 1963.

The Cleveland Tenants Organization, Bridging the Gap and The Homeless Service Agency Network will be hosting the third installment of its Housing 101 program, "Housing Formerly Incarcerated Persons" (FIPs).

This class, following two very successful classes held earlier this year, was created in order to address the difficulty legal professionals, frontline social workers and case mangers experience in finding permanent housing for their formerly incarcerated clients.

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 I first wrote a blog post on BSB in March of 2008 titled "Someone is going to get hurt".  It was in response to the veiled race baiting of the heated presidential primary.

It recently came to my attention that one of the most serious sources of pollution in Cuyahoga County is literally in my back yard. Less than two kilometers upwind from my home are the coal and natural gas fired external boilers at the power plant shown above, at University Hospitals, operated by Medical Center Company (MCCo), polluting the surrounding neighborhoods since the 1930s.

How is it six Senators from states that don’t have even 10 million people tell the people of the United States of more than 300 million that they can’t have the kind of health care they need?

In Ward 14, both candidates who emerged from the primaries seem to have strong 2nd party affiliations.  While both are registered Democrats, has their 2nd party affiliations helped them get out of the mire of the current corruption sweeping local democratic politics?  Will their affiliations help or hurt?  Does it make them more "independent?"  Are 3rd parties ever again going to be able to gain more traction in the political system?  Anyone else find this interesting?

The Plain Dealer this morning headlined a major public give-away as a “$54M injection” for the Wolstein Flats project. private development, SUPPOSEDLY.

Why Phillip Morris would bring Carl Stokes’s name into a discussion of a dull mayoral race is beyond me. Stokes wasn’t in any dull mayoral elections. Not in 1969. Not ever.

The Pew Research Report said that “Nearly three-quarters (74%) now say news organizations are influenced by powerful people and organizations…” What a surprise!

Duh!

If there is anything that has become abundantly clear it’s that Southerners, especially Republican Southerners, can’t cope with the fact that we elected a black President. The Civil War, folks, is NOT the past.

For the 30+ years of my life spent in Northeast Ohio, in childhood and as an adult, University Circle has been at the center of my universe. What Place is at the Center of Your Universe?

We have a problem Plain Dealer.

A Public Panel Discussion on Prison Reform will be hosted in the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday, November 7, from 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm.

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