Third and Last of 3 Bauhaus-Breuer events this week: Wednesday, November 28 at 6 pm at Judson Manor —Green building and modernism; are they antithetical?  (I'm  posting this for Susan Miller who's one of the organizers)

CHAPTER ONE Recently, when I spoke with a conductor on the Albany-Boston Amtrak coach, he told me that he had been working on that run for the last four years and the train had NEVER arrived on time.  Consistent with his experience, we arrived an hour late.

 

FOUR YEARS!?  Well, right off the bat you’ve gotta find that that is intentional. 

 

So why? What seems to be going on?

Pacific Northwest is example of energy boom — and worried biologists

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.

By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields — cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

Rockefeller / MLK Drive is as beautiful a place to enjoy nature - these days, fall colors - as any place on Earth that has been touched by man.  As I've been thinking about the Native Americans of this land, and Indians of India and America, and the current hostility in this county of past invaders against all others who want to live here too, I was drawn to the Indian Cultural Garden, today, and it was spectacular (full size image here).

I stood there alone, in one of the world's most beautiful places, as commuting suburbanites whizzzed by, and I thought of the last photos I took near here, of the demolition of historic apartment buildings on East Boulevard, that were part of this park's historic fabric and culture, quietly demolished for parking lots, for the whizzzzzing commuters (Full size images: above and below).

An amazing (and quite funny) man, who invented many amazing things, including wind turbines and the EV1 Electric car. The video runs about 21 minutes, so get your popcorn first.

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.

Picked up from CoolCleveland.com Mittal Steel & Your Health

Join Cleveland area doctors, nurses, and community leaders for a public hearing on the topic Wed 11/14 at 6:30PM at Tri-C’s downtown Metro campus in room CC10. Light refreshments will be served. Come to find out why 375 Cleveland area doctors and nurses have written to Cleveland’s biggest polluter, Mittal Steel, urging pollution prevention. Dr. Kathleen Fagan from University Hospital's Swetland Environmental Health Center will speak at the event paneled by Dr. Anne Wise, Kim Foreman, and Dr. Dan Brustein. For more information or ridesharing contact Liz Ilg with Ohio Citizen Action at 861-5200. http://www.ohiocitizen.org

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There’s a little mystery on the plywood construction wall around the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ontario, Canada has recently exempted all bicycles which sell for less than $1,000 from Provincial sales tax.   Toronto, the largest city in the Province of Ontario, has  sophisticated bike transportation management - an official part of the City government.

 

Neither the Gund Foundation nor the Cleveland Foundation made a peep to preserve the Breuer, and two of our County Commissioners (with the exception of Mr. Lawson-Jones) are (at best) too ignorant to appreciate the international architectural jewel which Jacobs bought and sold to the County  (The Breuer Tower, like the Coast Guard Station, shows Jacobs has erudite architectural taste?).

Build Your Own Green Home Game

Just thought some of you might be interested in this...

http://www.greenisuniversal.com/game.php

Driving back and forth between Ohio City and East Cleveland, I often take Euclid... partly to watch the progress of the "Silver Line" and Clinic Complex development. I increasingly find the "Silver Line" and Mid-Town aspects of all this disappointing, but I am fascinated by what I see coming together with the Cleveland Clinic.

Though you might not get down to see the show in its current installation in the windows of the Cleveland Chapter of the AIA, you will have a chance to see it reprised when you attend Bauhaus in America/ a film by Judith Pearlman at Cleveland Cinematheque on November 17.

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As part of the Greening the modern preservation movement: Bauhaus at the brink series, guest lecturer, Carl Stein, FAIA, Principal of elemental architecture, llc, of New York City has completed numerous historic rehabilitation projects based on his pioneering research in the analysis of energy use and conservation in buildings and design. Stein served his architectural internship with Marcel Breuer from 1968-1971.

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Years have past since our REALNEO team first presented a vision for a holistic and sustainable East Cleveland transformation at a town hall meeting held by former Mayor Saratha Goggins.  Since then, our team has pushed forward with a diverse group of advocates for positive change and today we are poised to introduce many of the concepts we originally envisioned as part of the Star development project.  

While looking on Green City Blue Lake for a posting on the Breuer, I came across an interesting article by Marc Lefkowitz called "Warm up to district geothermal in Cleveland", which writes "Representatives from Case, UCI, Cleveland Clinic, city of Cleveland, Flats East Bank and Neighborhood Progress, Inc.— which is considering geothermal district power at its St. Luke’s development—met yesterday (October 22, 2007) at the Cleveland Foundation" to discuss "The economics of district-wide geothermal". It seems these groups are exploring large scale geothermal projects to help meet large energy needs, like for University Hospitals.

 

This Fall, rather than raking and blowing those autumn leaves off your lawn and garden  why don’t you just mow them into your lawn and leave them in your garden.

 

“Battery Park” is a multi square block development on West 72 south of  the CSX tracks just on the bluff above Edgewater park and the Shoreway.

 

Right next to Battery Park is the old Detroit neighborhood where there are numerous vacant houses.