I read some good comments by Marc Lefkowitz over on GCBL regarding the movie "The 11th Hour". 

http://www.gcbl.org/blog/marc-lefkowitz/saloning-the-11th-hour-0

As I recently saw the movie too, I was thinking that it was a good movie to inspire us to change our current over-consumption ways. This evening I ran into this article that got me thinking about change, and I thought that it had some interesting points.....

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Hope, Not Fear, Inspires Change

Emily Gertz
August 27, 2007 5:37 PM

Didn't we just try to put something else on the ballot?

Ohio Supreme Court says voters can decide lead-paint issue

8/31/2007, 5:31 p.m. ET By JOHN McCARTHY The Associated Press

On Friday August 31, 2007, while Air Show jets stalled out conversations and blasted ear drums,  Susan Miller and I visited the “open house” at the Post designed Cleveland Trust Rotunda building which sits on the corner of Euclid and 9th next to the Marcel Breuer designed Cleveland Trust Tower in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.   Lee Trotter had announced this open house at the County Commissioners meeting the day before and the Dirty Dealer had carried the news a few days prior.   I wondered, why is the County doing this? 

Today's Plain Dealer again chronicles the "horror" of living in the city and validates the decision of all the suburbanites that have chosen to flee.  Sister Regina touches on the crux of the real problem in her column today.  Standards.  The school district is changing the standard for success by imposing a dress code.  The City of Cleveland needs to set the same standard for our neighborhoods.  The new second district police commander gets it. 

 The Cleveland Port Authority wore no clothes on Thursday.   The King was completely naked – yet about half (including a rep of “first suburbs”) of the 19 adults who spoke to the 100 plus in attendance raved about the “BOLD PLAN”  

Its a taxing situation in Ohio these days. Here's a break for some of our friends and neighbors who qualify...

Expanded Homestead Exemption

Who qualifies for the new Homestead Exemption?
Any Ohio resident homeowner who:

Unbelievable! Though our government has launched a plan to rip down a cultural icon, local firms now announce plans for a high-rise building boom in "Our Town"!

As many of you know there has been a lot of talk about wind energy coming to Cleveland.  The shores of Lake Erie could someday hold a farm of renewable energy windmils.

Over at TreeHugger.com there is interest in the shallow waters of our nearest great lake... but maybe Cleveland is not in the plans?  Head on over to thier site for an interesting article on what Greenpeace is thinking.

So what is the proper decision for police and prosecutors evaluating a collision between the operator of a bicycle and a motor vehicle? What, if any, is the criminal conduct? Well,of course, that depends on the circumstances of the accident, but if the cyclist is lawfully in the road, the answers could be many.

I consistently attempt to have a “positive” outlook about North East Ohio and Cleveland.  I consider the substance of my posts on Realneo and affirmatively select material which I believe is conducive to improving the region.  However, there can be a problem with this self steered Polly Anna  editorial policy .   Always looking at the bright side might be just perpetuating a lie – maybe always having a positive outlook is actually misleading people and leading others into the false belief that the region is doing ok, that the region is improving.  Maybe it would be more helpful if I used my blog to accelerate failure – get to the bottom of it, get it over with and start new…

What does it look like on the inside? Here's your chance to see...

Summer 2007—The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission quietly launched a new section on its web site for Whiskey Island, signaling its readiness to move forward with plans to enhance the existing natural areas at the 23-acre eastern end known as Wendy Park. Connections from the city would also be improved with a proposed bike path along the road from
Edgewater Park, and—further in the future—one over the
Cuyahoga
River for the Towpath Trail.

by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio on 08.27.07

Asleep on the job....                  photo courtesy Tim Littler                            Xian,  China

Thanks to Ed Morrison and George Nemeth for calling local attention to this important academic project.
http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/

Lake Erie is on average relatively shallow and has one of the most productive and popular
Great Lakes sport fisheries. When it comes to walleye (the best eating freshwater fish that ever existed) and yellow perch,
Erie is "hot". So hot, that this Lake Erie based wind farm proposal could make the Cape Wind project proposal look like a playground scuffle, unless the sponsors properly look after any fish and aquatic life issues early on. Because this is the first of many wind farms that will be proposed for
Erie, we can be sure.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

By Jeff Piorkowski

SOUTH EUCLID

It was somewhat reassuring to note today's PD article on City Economic Development Director Chris Warren's strategy for regional economic development.  In broad strokes the plan calls for main facets we have been advocating for years now: more collaborative (synergy building) joint ventures, shared tax systems,  smart, green, energy efficient design standards like LEED, and revitalization of abandoned property.  Validation is sweet.

Today this article was published in the PeeDee.
"Maritime should be central to what we do," Wasserman told the board, which seemed pleased with the draft plan.
(Here's the title of the article if you're reading this in 25 years to see what actually happened and need to use libray archives: Cleveland's port looks to grow, boost projects 25-year goal: 'premier' status Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Tom Breckenridge Plain Dealer Reporter)

Bone on up Great Lakes isues with this glossy overview and here's the latest (unless you can trump this) on Modern Tonnage.

I found this at a Canadian site:

Daniel turned five years old the other day. He was very happy about being five, because he was big now and no one could treat him like a baby. Daniel's daddy came in his room to wish him a happy birthday and said, "How would you like to come with me to look for a new car? Our family needs a new car, and since you are five years old now, I would like your help in deciding what to buy."

Daniel was very excited. He had never gone car shopping and he knew this would be a real adventure!

I copied this from the July/August issue of SOLAR TODAY  the magazine of the American Solar Energy Society - http://www.solartoday.org