Neighbors meet neighbors

Submitted by lmcshane on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 08:48.
03/28/2009 - 09:30
03/28/2009 - 16:00
Etc/GMT-4

(Artwork by Amy Kreiger)

From my neighbor Maria--and where I plan to be on March 28th.

Hi everyone: Thank you for graciously agreeing to help me on March 28. I updated my blog to tell you what we'll be doing, so I hope we can get some sun and fun in for a few hours on that day: http://blog.case.edu/cleveland/ If it snows, we still have stuff we can do indoors :) I'm doing my best to get organized, so here's what I know so far: Some of us will be meeting at the Gavin Lee Party Center, 3315 Broadview Road, around 9:30 a.m. That's just so people can sift through the art and determine what goes where.

I told people the event is happening from 10-4 only so people could show up when they want to. Let me know a ballpark time when you think you might be arriving. The owner, Jack Amburghy, is graciously donating the space for us to hang out, use the bathroom, clean up, and have lunch. His wife will be having surgery a few days before that, so if something changes, I'll let you know. If we have enough people, here's what I would like to accomplish (ambitious I know): -

Hang artwork inside the windows of Jack's properties (the party center, his wholesale furniture center next door, and Name Brand Paints just around the corner on Pearl Road). -

Hang artwork in Tom Pavlica's properties. Tom owns a couple of the storefronts next to Ameriflag and around the corner where Andre Holt's airbrush shop is located. -

Hang artwork in the Krather Building storefront - Hang artwork in the storefront next to Name Brand Paints if the owner does not sign a lease agreement in the next few days. I will be contacting her this weekend. She owns the vacant storefront that has been covered in newspaper for several months. -

Hang artwork in the storefront owned by Jim O'Donnell. His space is located at the corner of Oak Park and Broadview, so I'm hoping a few people can just drive to that location after we meet up at the party center. -

Paint the outside of a small business at 4327 State Road. The owner, Helene Sroka, is an elderly woman who has been struggling with punks and graffiti. I think it could be done fairly quickly, since it's the side part of her building and it's small. I have warned her that I may not get there if I don't get a great turnout on that day. -

Clean the graffiti off the side of Broadview Tailors and Cleaners, 2023 Broadview Road. I dropped off a 5-gallon bucket of graffiti cleaner at her shop, so it's sitting there ready for us if we can get to it. Here are some things I need, if any of you could bring them or allow one of us to pick them up and borrow them for the day. Please confirm whether you can deliver these, or else I will have to figure out a Plan B for getting them to the main location: - ladders - brooms (in case we get young kids who want to help) - trash bags - buckets/rags - drills - pliers - hammers - coolers - I could use 2 or 3 more - fishing line or clothes line (to hang stuff) I have money in my budget to buy stuff - just trying to consolidate/save where I can. I'll order some food and have drinks on hand, once I see who turned out for the day.

Jacob, I mentioned to you that someone planned on inviting a cub scout troop to help, but that has not been confirmed. I don't want them to hurt themselves, so I will let you know if a cleanup at Harmody Park would be a good alternative for them. I know this is a lot to absorb, but since I am flying solo on all this, I really need your help! Please let me know if you still plan to make it ... I always have this fear that I will be standing alone with all this beautiful art and no one around to help! P.S. - I am still uncertain how many Case students are going to make it. With the rapid and bus schedule clearly an obstacle, it will be hard to get an estimate until the day before/day of the event. I will be mailing them separately next week and trying to pick up some more stragglers. Thanks a bunch!

AttachmentSize
IMG_0442.JPG41.52 KB
( categories: )

A hearty congratulations to Maria and crew!

A hearty congratulations to Maria and all of those involved in helping her and our local businesses!  I know it has been a frustration as well as a labor of love for her in trying to make a difference in our community.  Best of luck and I hope I am able to participate on that Saturday.

CWRU CARES

I am seriously remiss in not writing down the name of the artist's work featured here.  Maria, help me out !

Unfortunately, tainted by poor leadership, Case seems careless

My wife is at Case - I know lots of people at Case - I feel very sorry for all of them - the leadership of Case has been so poor that being affiliated with Case has far less value than should be - and for the next decade Case will be wrapped up in all sorts of new sprawl-promoting community wasting battles to build a grand driveway for the Clinic - the Opportunity Corridor - making all about Case disappointing.

This is a shame, as I believe most real Case and University Cricle folks are East Siders... this Opportunity Corridor bullshit is certainly not for any of us.

Sorry to be so hard on Case, but I lived on Hessler and I see them in action now and nothing has changed for any better - Can't say I believe Case cares.

Most students and faculty probably do care, but who may see that for all the bullshit coming out of UCI.

Disrupt IT

Guilt by association

  There is much guilt by association in this town, but my dad studied architecture at CWRU, my mom got her doctorate from CWRU, I worked at CWRU and Maria Dimengo works for CWRU.  The many good people at CWRU, the Clinic, Metrohealth, Ignatius...can outweigh short-sighted administrators everywhere...I want to believe that a paradigm shift can happen in NEO, which is why I am here at REALNEO.   I am not quite burned out, yet.

All Real Case and UCI Stakeholders need to step up

My mom got her Masters and Ph.D. from Case and taught there and then for the rest of her career at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and she is faculty emeritus and still active with scores of related causes... my dad did his Residency and Internship at University Hospitals, taught there and is still professionally affiliated... both donate money and art to the UCI community. I studied for years at Cleveland Institute of Art and consider it my first college. For generations, my family has been core to that community... as has the family of my wife, who has a CWRU Masters and is in the Ph.D. program, and works at Case...

I've stepped up... my family has stepped up... Laura McShane has stepped up... other stakeholders step up... more must step up...

In my opinion, the problems with all things University Circle and within miles of that toxic zone are largely now the result of poor strategy, planning and leadership at the Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation, and University Circle, all acting for a few large industrialists who control those institutions. Fire all them, and problems may be solved. As long as you all coddle Richards, Ronayne, and Abbott, their bosses will keep exploiting us and all our public funds for their personal community redevelopment...

Watch for more bullshit like OneCleveland CWRU Network subsidy, the Green COOP Launderette, the Kious Deconstruction Company, Reichtell Farms, and federally subsidized solar on Case rooftops in the coming months, from these uninventive hacks.

What all this really means is my family won't be giving much more art, property or money to these Cleveland institutions, nor encouraging their old, rich friends to do so either...may even move their estates away before they die, like most of their rich friends did long ago... and that will really do this place in!

Disrupt IT