The marketing and advertising industry is constantly teasing us with trendy, cool and largely superfluous products. To judge by investment in advertising, it takes more and more to achieve the same effect. With all that stimulation it is an effort asking just what we stand to gain.

 

In what represents significant progress with a very positive trend, the Cleveland Institute of Art has announced their selection of one of the world's most respected hip young architecture firms, MVRDV, to design the new campus for CIA. Based out of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the new CIA design will be MVRDV's first work in North America. Add this to the selection by MOCA of Foreign Office Architects of London, for their new museum and we have two of the hot creative properties in the world focusing their best efforts on two of NEO's most important institutions and design projects, both located within strolling distance in the University Circle redevelopment area called "The Triangle." 

 

For the second consecutive year, East Cleveland Mayor Brewer met with Meet the Bloggers today for a very candid and fascinating discussion recorded on audio for Meet the Bloggers podcast, and on video for other Internet release in the future. I was pleased to participate and found the discussion and Mayor Brewer's insights remarkable. I believe the other participants agreed. I'll post a comment here when the podcast is posted on Meet the Bloggers and you should be certain to listen! For now, some thoughts from this morning...

George Nemeth and Tim and Gloria Ferris of Meet the Bloggers are sitting down with East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer tomorrow to capture what no other media outlet even attempts, being news in the words of newsmakers. Feel free to join them at East Cleveland City Hall at 10 AM February 16, 2007

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As my first post since realneo.us became realneo.org, I'd like to propose a program of Intergenerational guitar classes, I believe Charlie Mossbrook will be happy to instruct. There should be a suggested payment for the class, to compensate Charlie. I'd love to see the classes held in East Cleveland - perhaps the Helen Brown Center or MacGregor, or both. The class would be open to all ages from say 12 up. I believe the only other thing we would need is guitars - so I guess we will need to ask for donations.

 

At times, too little money is better than too much. Anyone who is worked with start-up companies understands this point.

With too little money, entrepreneurs are forced to be resourceful. They focus on challenges really matter. They learn to learn from their mistakes. When times are tight, entrepreneurs take small steps to test ideas then expand the successful ones. They gain powerful insight from their mistakes.

Today, a growing movement for sustainable agriculture and locally grown food has emerged in Northeast Ohio, garnering increasing support and acceptance. Not only does this movement address many environmental and social concerns, it also offers innovative and economically viable opportunities for growers, consumers, policymakers, home gardeners, and many others in the food system. As this quiet revolution takes shape across the United States, activists in Northeast Ohio are on the leading edge and have the ability to transform the region.

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Thanks to Susan Miller for pointing out an important article in the 02/03/07 Plain Dealer regarding the war to eliminate lead poisoning in our region by 2010 - an outlandishly aggressive objective, as Cleveland ranks among the top five cities nationally for lead poisoning. In 2004, St. Luke's Foundation funded what has been the most important collaboration ever for the future of Northeast Ohio: the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC), aligning over 80 agencies and organizations at local, regional, state and federal levels toward the common objective of lead eradication in our region within the next three years. On February 1, 2007, St. Luke's brought together the leadership of many other foundations for the expressed purpose of convincing as many foundations as possible to join them in funding the next three years of GCLAC initiative. The article states the objective of raising $3 million from foundations to leverage for far greater support from government sources.

These  Five (5) requests regarding the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority (Port Authority): from Ed Hauser are really worth reading. As soon as today the Cuyahoga County Commissioners may reappoint Carney or hold off - that will be very signficiant. Ed is keeping track of all this and asked me to make sure this letter posted below is very visible.

 

The following survey results from a BBC poll should not come as a surprise to anyone - the world, including the people of the United States, is unhappy with the US role in the world these days... "among Americans, the number of those who viewed their country's role positively fell to 57% - six percentage points down from last year and 14 percentage points down from two years ago.See a full article on this posted below and linked at BBC News here.

I watch the BBC 11 PM World News, rather than the local Northeast Ohio news, because I want an international perspective on affairs in America and world-wide. To learn what is happening in Northeast Ohio, I use the Plain Dealer as one frame of reference but depend on personal research, involvement in the community and connectedness through networks and alternative media, increasingly found through the Internet, to know what is happening in the region.  The main reason I find it necessary to look outside the US mainstream for news is well documented by a project out of Sonoma State University called Project Censored, "which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."  Below is their list of stories over-looked and/or self-censored by the country's major national news media in 2007 - how does this fit with your observations on the world as reported by mainstream media in NEO and America?

 

Thanks to an anonymous donor, East Cleveland has received some excellent equipment to start setting up a pilot proof of concept wireless broadband mesh network in some part of the city - location to be determined. The donated equipment is from a similar proof of concept deployment in Washington, D.C., and includes several commercial wifi antennas and routers and cabling to set up a small multipoint demonstration network, running the open source CUWiNWare mesh application and wifiDOG contained portal application, all routing to the city of East Cleveland's open source Drupal community portal, at http://eastcleveland.org. All this, combined with other digital divide bridge programs there, makes East Cleveland approaches to information technology some of the most interesting in America.

 About three weeks ago, I received the first "Letter to the Editor" in the history of REALNEO. Lots of people send me press releases and event info and tips on cool content, but never has someone sent an opinion editorial to be posted for them (probably because REALNEO is open for anyone to create an account and post content and comments themselves). The letter to the editor was titled "Lead Paint - You Are Idiots" and was received from someone named Kim Falk (he authorized publication of his name) and the email address was from Sherwin Williams. A little googling and I learned he is an employee there - a very enthusiastic and loyal one, to be sure... he was responsible for Sherwin-Williams donating paint to help in the repair of the Pentagon after 9/11. So I was not surprised to read he is protective of his company in defense of them being sued over lead. Still, I was intrigued by the language he uses in his editorial, published below.

Just in case you missed the international headlines on the subject..  lets break it down for you.  But first some local background... Out in Aurora, accross from Geauga Lake, Walmart built its store on class 1,2,and 3 wetlands in some of the most protected wetlands in our state.  All it takes is money, right?  The developer "Heritage Development" had environmental reserves of 7M$ and only paid a fine of 1.2M$  What a bargin.  Nature Bats Last.   But go look at nature fighting back.  See the cracking pavement sidewalks from the hydric soils... HA HAA.  Take note of the isolated pocket of forest in the middle of the parking llot, it was a concession!    Then last week I read about the walmart atop cityview landfill.  Sky high levels of vinyl chloride, illness clusters covered in a recent free times or scene.     With that frame in mind....now onto the latest scoop that is NOT from YOUR back yard:

Your opinions and feedback are important! Attend this Public Open House to Learn About the Next Steps for the Cleveland Innerbelt Plan. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) invites you to attend a Public Open House to review the Recommended Preferred Alternative. ODOT officials and their consultants will be available to answer questions.

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Re: Formal request to get your answer to the questions of : WILL CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL DEMAND THAT ODOT CONDUCT A VALID ENGINEERING STUDY AND ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY TO COMPARE THE COSTS, FEASIBILITY, AND TRAFFIC INTERRUPTIONS FOR THE NORTHERN AND ORIGINAL SOUTHERN BRIDGE ALIGNMENT ALTERNATIVES?

 

Here’s a quick roundup of yesterday's presentation billed as “A New Energy Future: Energy, Oil, and National Security”:

I can remember when Doug Clifton started as Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in 1999. At the time, I had some email correspondence with then Washington Bureau Chief Tom Brazaitis and I had a question about the PD... actually, why Cleveland.com was so weak - and Tom suggested I contact the new editor. It had never occurred to me that the editor of the Plain Dealer would bother reading mail - at that time, they didn't even have email addresses published in the paper... Doug brought than innovation. And he did respond to my email, and others, whenever I had some concern. At the same time, he improved the Plain Dealer in many ways, without trying to be news, or Cleveland or the Plain Dealer himself. And, under his leadership, The Plain Dealer's explored some innovative paths and developed interesting voices - and defended public access to information.

January 26-28 featuring “Major to Minor” and “The Music Room” by Artistic Director David Shimotakahara and “New Work Premiere” by Amy Miller.                                        

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Attend this lecture, the Distinguished Law and Technology Lecture, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, in person or through WEBCAST LIVE. Robert P. George, Princeton University, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University is a memeber of the President's Council on Bioethics. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as a Judicial Fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. Professor George is author of Making Men Moral: civil Liberties and Public Morality (1993) and In Defense of Natural Law (1999). His most recent books are The Meaning of Marriage, edited with Jean Berthke Elshtain and The Clash of Orthodoxies. Professor George's articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, and the American Journal of Juriprudence. He has received numerous awards, including the 2005 Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on several boards of directors.In addition, he is of council to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee.

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Thanks to Ed Morrison for sending over a link to an interesting analysis of the value of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) for European businesses and society. From the article: "European companies are saving a lot of money on software investment and development, due to the existence and emergence of open-source software, a Commission-funded study finds." An especially interesting observation is that "The bigger a company is, the more likely it is to use FLOSS." I wonder how NEO stacks up in the FLOSS world - use of FLOSS in business and government... training of FLOSS programmers and administrators... marketing and purchasing of FLOSS solutions in the region... number of FLOSS professionals and firms deploying FLOSS solutions? Read more about this movement in Europe below...