We attended a Memorial Day ceremony at the forgotten founders Denison cemetery along Garden Court.   Rick Nicholson read Logan's order and Rev Wilde and Rev Andrews officiated over benedictions.  Addy Cummins played Amazing Grace on the recorder. A beautiful day to remember.  I ran across this obituary and it made me smile.  Click on Mickey for the full story and read the tributes from the ladies in this great toymaker's life.

Located in the heart of the historic Hough Bakeries Complex is the Inner Circle, a weekend club and reception facility operated for the past 7 years by the Hot Sauce Williams family. Starting shortly, operation of the Inner Circle will expand to extended hours every day, featuring a cybercafe, meeting space, computer terminals, free wifi, independent film, the Linux Cafe, art, culture, and great food, coffee, and even wine tastings, via a broader partnership of friends. This pan is from the deck and patio area, and features Guyanese chef and reggae performer and DJ Edwin, who will help operate the Inner Circle, shown with Hot Sauce Williams founder LeMaud Williams, as well.

I had the annoyance of going to Beechwod Place Mall today for a meeting. What an astounding celebration of sweatshop labor and wasted resources. This pan is the first floor corner by some silly place called Nordstom, where not only does the coffee shop not provide wifi but the barista doesn't know what wifi means.

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Bill Callahan and I are pleased to offer a last moment opportunity to join an important conversation just beginning on making NEO a global leader in the use of Free Open Source Software, with the man who wrote the Open Source Definition, Bruce Perens. Bruce is Vice President of Developer Relations and Policy for FOSS-related SourceLabs, of Seattle. NEO is fortunate to have a local connection with Bruce, as the Director of Marketing for SourceLabs, Athena Diamantis, lives in this region. Digital Vision Director Bill Callahan and East Cleveland CIO Abu Alli met with Bruce and Athena last week to discuss how to make NEO a world FOSS leader, and we decided that is a topic deserving much broader and more open attention. So tomorrow we continue growing the dialog.

Join us, if you may... 8 AM breakfast tomorrow at the Juniper Grill.

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Whiskey Island – RiverDay Event – Saturday, May 19 from 2 - 4pm:

Sponsored by the Friends of Whiskey Island and the Northeast Ohio Sierra Club

2:00 - 3:00 PM: Take a self-guided walking tour of Wendy Park to the River Boardwalk. Come and celebrate the beginning of Cleveland's waterfront renaissance! This year the county commissioners and the mayor confirmed that Whiskey Island will remain open to the public for recreational, cultural and boating purposes. There is no longer a threat of port authority development on the county's public property. Explore and experience where our American Heritage River greets our Great Lake. Bring picnics, kayaks, volleyballs, cameras, binoculars and feel free to stay for the sunset.

3:00 – 4:00 PM:Gather at the River Boardwalk to hear Paul Alsenas, Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, and other speakers. Discussion topics include the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, the restoration of the Whiskey Island parkland and beach, the future of the historic Coast Guard Station and Hulett Ore Unloaders, and extending the 110-mile Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail to Whiskey Island…

Meet at Wendy Park- West Shoreway (Rt. 2) to the Edgewater Park/Whiskey Island exit, take a right turn at the first road and follow signs.

Contact Ed Hauser at ejhauser [at] ameritech [dot] net or (216) 651-3476. Visitwww.citizensvision.organd www.ohio.sierraclub.org/northeast

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It is always exciting to see powerful uses of the technology we use for realneo - Drupal. Derek recently pointed out that the New York Observer uses Drupal for their web presence and I just found a posting on the website of the originator and keeper of the Drupal flame, Dries Buytaert, that Ozzy uses Drupal - his label Sony uses Drupal. I'd heard that about Sony, but hadn't connected it with any of their sites before... this...

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It is good to see just released the latest research report from Policy Bridge, which explores: "How Anti-Education Messages in Media, at Home, & on the Street Hold Back African-American Youth". They contend "that institutional policy changes cannot succeed without addressing lifestyle factors that derail far too many black youth – boys in particular – from the surest path toward economic well-being: education." Policy Bridge is a think tank directed by Timothy Goler, who I got to know when he was acting economic development director in East Cleveland. This report is found at their website, here. It seems to do a good job of surfacing many issues and proposing solutions not now part of our dialog. There are other similar issues that make education more complex than it seems.

    Rhythm Culture Shakes Up Fair Trade at the World Fair
    Trade Day Festival on Saturday, May 12, 11am-3pm, at
    Tri-C Metro (Campus Center).  Move to the music of

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One of the writers at CoolCleveland contacted me about using some of my photos of the Breuer for an article they just posted here - another interesting proposal for the property, broadening awareness of the issues with the current plan and alternatives... read more

US National Archives & Records Administration Facility,
Waltham, MA. Photo courtesy of Sika Sarnafil Roofing Systems, Inc.

Martin Varsavsky, founder of FON, and author of his "Blog of an Entrepreneur", posted there an interesting letter he sent to all his employees: "FON is Dropping Microsoft, Adopting Ubuntu". I had seen, on some of his earlier blog entries, that Martin had a major Windows crash and lost his whole hard drive (been there) and so after 20 years with Microsoft he switched to Ubuntu (done that) and also Apple - after a month he settled on Ubuntu. It has been fascinating reading Martin's celebration of discovering FOSS - I remember having the same awakening. It is very exciting to now see Martin move his company FOSS, and to highlight how he is doing this and why - read his personal account here... and think about how this could be happening all over NEO...

RiverSweep is Ohio Canal Corridor's 18th Annual, environmental awareness and clean-up initiative developed by Ohio Canal Corridor. The event partners multiple non-profit organizations with private companies to clean areas along the Cuyahoga River Valley and its tributaries. RiverSweep is a "done in a day" event where volunteers gather at one of seven designated areas.

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I recently posted on realneo about a report I saw on CNN profiling Lucien Gambarota, an inventor in Hong Kong who has developed and begun manufacturing micro wind turbines - see http://realneo.org/Micro-Wind-Turbines. He is also working on technologies to capture energy from waves, and hybrids of wind and wave.

 It is very nice to see my favorite real urban planner Joe Stanley featured on Lee Batdorff's very informative University Circle Blog - and thanks to Joe for mentioning us here at realneo! We set up and host his http://neomainstreet.com site, which is one of the best uses of Drupal in this region, and presents excellent work by a talented planner and designer. Joe is working on all the community development projects I'm involved with, including overall East Cleveland planning and the Star Intergenerational Neighborhood planning and The Intergenerational School, along with other work Joe does independently.

Interesting perspectives on economic and community development from Coral's Peter Rubin, from the Villager Newspaper Online. I think Rubin makes some good points, and the reality is that we are overbuilding the Cleveland housing market, and other amenities, and that will make Cleveland a more powerful residential draw. As more of Cleveland becomes more "livable", more people will chose to live here. Add good schools and free city wide wifi and watch out. Clevelaqnd first will draw people from other parts of the region - empty nesters from the xburbs, students and young professionals from the inner heights - it will be cool and good to live in Cleveland again. That will attract people from other regions and parts of the world, and they will grow the economy - you need a critical mass of urban housing and culture to be a player and we aren't even near that yet - time to keep building and innovating in Cleveland housing! Now for the chair half there, with Rubin:

What is ArtWorks?

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While not currently a powerhouse in Free Open Source Software (FOSS), Northeast Ohio is positioned to begin excelling with FOSS in some very strategic ways that may add great value to the regional economy. 

Because of FOSS, we may now bridge the digital divide more quickly and completely here than has any other large urban center in America, we may soon have the highest percentage of workforce properly educated for the new economy, and we may lead the world in some fields of application development and technology innovation with global, open standards, all if the region now embraces FOSS..

The Foundation Center-Cleveland is hosting a free brown bag lunch with
OhioVotes on how nonprofit organizations can participate in the voter
registration process. I think this is an important program for anyone

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"I think Cleveland is a good place. Inner city is rough, but the outskirts is real beautiful, and great schools there. Plus my family, my mom and my sisters, they're all in Cleveland, so it's easier for me to be there than anywhere else." This quote, from an excellent Free Times interview with Charles "Wish Bone" Scruggs, of Cleveland-roots, Grammy award winning, multi-platinum rap trailblazers Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, sings the woes of a place branded as a "Shrinking City", where even the urban hard-core Thugs chose the 'burbs over the 'hood. The result of such out-migration, and downright defection, as is the case with all the other members of Bone, is the subject of a series of art exhibitions and related events taking place over the next month, all over town... which event sponsor Kent Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) introduces by pointing out: "In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Cleveland had lost nearly 20,000 residents in just five years. The city’s population of 458,684 was the lowest in nearly one hundred years." Starting Friday, April 20, 2007, at 4:30 PM, with a lecture at CUDC, explore what it means when a city loses its Bones...

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While I don't really care for the Cleveland Institute of Art slogan "Making Art Work" (to me, work is a 4-letter-word, and art is not), the CIA turns out some of the hardest working and most work-force attractive designers in the world, and each year showcases their talent at an annual Design Show. To get a sense of what to expect, here is my preview of the show from 2005 (missed the 2006 show - will be there this year!).

Here's more info from the official invitation...

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Few occassions in NEO or anywhere offer a more diverse and exciting perspective on life and art than the annual CIA BFA Thesis Exhibitions... from the CIA Website: See exceptional work by the next generation of artists and designers as graduating students present their Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis exhibitions. The Joseph McCullough Center will be bursting with energy and excitement as the Institute’s graduating seniors challenge the public with fresh ideas and commentaries on our world. Work will be presented in all media including performance and installation art. The senior thesis project is the culmination of a student’s career at the Institute. Please join us to celebrate their achievements!

Exhibition Hours

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