The origins of REALNEO.US live at http://clevelandcause.tribe.net/ where I first organized this revolution, while I was based in Northern California and fighting to help the real NEO economy from afar. Read the manifesto that was the CAUSE for REALNEO.US  below... the very first copy sent to my friend and co-conspirator with REALNEO.US, Louis Carl Edwards, via Tribe.net on December 21, 2003 at 4:19 AM, West Coast time:

I've spoken to real estate, planning and economic development professionals in NEO about the false assumptions used for all planning in NEO, which take the position our economy is based on and driven by scarcity. We hear all day, every day, from the Plain Dealer to the Cleveland Planning Commission, that we have scarce resources here and must play every Joker and wild card we may to create value, in quiet crisis. I take the opposite viewpoint, that we have abundant resources here - plenty of excellent land and historical infrastructure, wealth and intellectual property - what I see as scare is effective leadership - and what leadership claims control is feudal and greedy. No doubt, that we are a place of environmental crises hampers growth of our economy, and scarcity of environmental activism slows our movement to a new economy, but in the seven generation context of real social change, we are in a strong position of abundant natural and human resources that may have great value forever, if not destroyed by current ineffective leadership decisions like poisoning our air and water, and neglecting public health and so education. For a conceptual overview of scarcity vs. abundance in economics, read on:

 For those who find interesting the issues of newspapers versus internet based news, even when provided by the same organization - like the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com are both owned by Advance Communications - Jones Day was able to arbitrate that the on-line product workers were not covered by union contracts negotiated for the newspaper product - I believe the Plain Dealer if set up the same way...

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Center for Public Service History

Public Service at Tulane has a long and rich history. Faculty, staff, and student members have been actively engaged in civic and research activities that link Tulane with communities outside of the university. These partnerships have run the gamut of experiences from as near as the university's immediate neighbors in New Orleans to partners in other countries. In the past these initiatives have included faculty-driven programs such as Academic Service Learning and research, student-initiated community service, and staff-supervised community activities.

 Until a few days ago, I smoked steadily for the past 18 years... at a pack a day, that represents about 6570 packs... 131,400 or so nails in my coffin, at a lifetime cost of around $25,000. If I have cancer as a result, the cost to myself, family and society will be much higher. Now that I am working through withdrawal from addiction to smoking, it is a good time to hate all those who are responsible for the fact anyone in my lifetime has smoked at all, and that over the next 100 years a billion people will die as a result. Hate them all... spit on their graves... from Jesse Helms ("Washington's Number One Guardian of the Health of the Cigarette Industry") to the Marlboro Man (several, actually, who died of cancer) and so many potentially good farmers made wretched in government subsidy and greed by evil industry, politics and lawyers. The only real winners from that misfortune are the greatest losers in NEO, Jones Day, who make ungodly money to kill smokers with strategies like: "The key defense strategy in smoking and health litigation is (and must be) to try the plaintiff."

This is excellent news, as the best place to prevent lead poisoning is with the mother, before the child. This will fund an excellent program to grow as part of the comprehensive GCLAC solution set to make Cleveland a "Great City".

CHICAGO (July 12, 2006) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Acting Administrator Bharat Mathur presented a $125,000 Great Cities grant to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson today for a study of children's exposure to lead hazards.  It was EPA's second Great Cities grant to Cleveland for its "Lead-Safe Living" campaign. The grant money will be used to determine if early intervention is effective in reducing lead hazard risk for families, especially those with pregnant women, newborns or young children. "Lead-Safe Living" is a project of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council in partnership with the St. Luke's Foundation of Greater Cleveland, the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and many other community partners. The $125,000 will help fund in-home lead assessments and low-cost preventive maintenance to minimize lead hazards for children living in more than 150 housing units.

"The ultimate goal is to eliminate childhood lead poisoning by 2010," said Mathur.  "One child with high blood-lead levels is one too many." In 1994, 47 percent of children in Cleveland tested positive with high blood-lead levels.  Most recent data reflect 11 percent of children with high blood-lead levels, a significant decrease over the past twelve years.

The Great Cities Partnerships program is a way for EPA Region 5 to collaborate with the Midwest's largest urban areas on local environmental issues.

Over the next many years and decades, NEO will need quality "independent" journalism to cover lead poisoning, air and water polluters, and other toxic conditions here, which are caused by globally-dominant corporate interests like Jones Day and Sherwin Williams, which have significant influence on the economy on their "home field" of NEO. While I don't see transformational impact coming from any current independent NEO media forces, I came across a 2000 article in the Columbia Journalism Review that offered a best case perspective on Newhouse, the Plain Dealer owners, which should be revisited as we welcome a new publisher... the premise: "When good editors come together with the Newhouse management philosophy, better newspapers result." What about the impact of new publishers?

The purported independent Newhouse management philosophy and Plain Dealer transition to new, non-NEO publishing-leadership suggest the PD is well positioned and may be ready and able to address the issue of lead poisoning and other environmental crises here, even as the PD and Newhouse depend on polluters for significant advertising revenues, and have big business connections with polluters' attorneys, and have political agendas themselves. In fact, I believe for the future it will prove to be an advantage for NEO that we have one monopoly print newspaper, which is part of an independently-owned publishing conglomerate managed from afar, staffed with editors and a publisher from afar, as it is unlikely any of that may be corrupted by local political or business interests. The White House is an entirely different matter, for different analysis.

But, it occurs to me, the Newhouse family made a bold move in selecting Doug Clifton as editor of the PD, some six years ago, and NEO has been rewarded with better journalism. Now, we have a new publisher and that opens up more opportunities for progress in our community. Say what you may, but print is not dead, and the daily Plain Dealer has a very strong influence on all aspects of daily life in NEO. And, like a law firm, the PD should include with every article whether they have a conflict of interest covering that subject... if they make money from advertising from this drug company, or that big box retail chain, or a journalist lives in a township they cover, or a newspaper publisher is on the board of this hospital or that university... all that should be disclosed, with intelligence. In fact, I'd like to know the religious orientation of journalists - denomination and degree of practice - especially if they are covering politics and influencing votors. All this should be registered in thorough, standardized profiles, available on-line, and mapped and linked to the journalists' published print and electronic material for coninuous disclosure.

If NEO is to become at all desirable and attractive as a new economy community, throughout the years and decades ahead, we need radical change regarding pollution and toxins in our environment, promoting recovery from past industrial policies that have contaminated our community and society. For that to occur, the Plain Dealer must help educate the people on the realities of today's dangerous state here, and point leaders and followers toward a cleaner future, without concern for any other conflicts of interest. The Newhouse family seems to allow such independence of their papers and staff, so it seems entirely up to the Plain Dealer leadership and journalists themselves to control the health of their readers and the public at large. That is an immense responsibility, as our lives are literally in their hands. Read more about who own their hands, below:

The internet, especially social network sites like realneo, may just be the glue that will connect the many seeminlgy self-interesed parties in Clevo. 

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Plain Dealer Reporter

A new nonprofit group wants to put a green imprint on Greater Cleveland's big, new developments.

Don't miss the premiere of the third season of "Project Runway" tonight at 10 pm on Bravo. For those of you who are already fans of the show, now there is more reason to watch than ever; NEO residents can root for fellow Ohioan Angela Keslar. Joanna Connors from the PD wrote about her today : "Ohioan on 'Runway' and Ready for Takeoff" (Arts & Life, Page E6).

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WIND TURBINES SOLD IN BIG BOX STORES

Canadian Tire stores are located in big box mall slots all across Canada.   If you aren’t familiar with Canadian Tire    http://www.canadiantire.ca/index.jsp , they are a hybrid of  tire/battery sales/service, auto parts, hardware and paint, home wares, lawn care, bbq, and sporting goods.   Canadian Tire’s gimmick is their issue of  “Canadian Tire Money” as a premium on every sale to be used against future purchases.  Your kids usually end up with it. 

While the old Tulane University nick-name, "Green Wave", does not bring to mind a good impression for the hurricane-ravaged region of New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), the term they now brandish moving forward is perfect - "New Wave" - and new wave the institution has become, and all forces their leaders can muster are now directed at rebuilding every aspect of their community, spanning several states of the Gulf South and addressing every imaginable physical and social challenge.

I receive daily updates from Tulane on their progress and am usually so impressed I feel the need to share insight from there, up here in North East Ohio (NEO), as we attempt a less demanding but as important restructuring of NEO from post-industrial toxic failure to a healthy "New Economy". The first positive outcomes of this sharing has been Case University trustees tapping of the leader of Tulane, President Cowen,  and other global university leaders to assist with the rebuilding of Case, which recently lost its leadership in a faculty-led revolution proving no-confidence. There are many other opportunities for success in NEO by implementing processes and models from NOLA, and I'll share one below we may implement immediately for significant change in a very short term.

 I was sad to learn that the Fulton Street Bar and Grill was closing this Spring, as that was an Ohio City institution and great place to stop for a drink or meal in one of my favorite neighborhoods.. within a few blocks offering great locally owned, high quality dining options, from landmarks Johnny Mangos, Hecks, Great Lakes, and Parker's to relative newcomer Le Oui Oui Cafe. But as a destination and neighborhood, Ohio City can benefit from as much great culinary density as possible, and the loss of the Fulton seemed tragic. But what's new in this oldest part of town is definitely NEO and Ohio City's gain, as the fantastic "modern.mex" joint Momocho (slang for small boy, named in love of the chef/owner's son) is unique to the region and will be a major draw that is already attracting crowds in on the buzz. Momocho also comes in through a very friendly transition - the owner bought the restaurant from the owners of the Fulton, and one Fulton owner John McDonnell is well managing Momocho for the new chef/owner Eric Williams, who is busy in the kitchen making the food... well, hot!

No recognition of the arts as important to the world, much less Cleveland, may overlook Derek Hess, who first was widely known for powerful, angst-filled figurative music posters promoting shows he was then booking at the old Euclid Tavern, which became a fine art business for Derek, which allowed him to grow his global impact to a level few artists in Cleveland have ever achieved, all while staying in and investing in Cleveland, organizing the Strhess Tour, and Strhess Clothing, and making Gallery 1300 happen and happening (opening there this Friday, July 14th). Read more about Derek below, visit the links, and if you are smart buy some of his work while you still may.

Do you realize that "The removal of lead from gasoline in 1990, regarded by many as one of the major public health triumphs of the 20th century, had an immediate impact. Between 1976 and 1994, the mean blood lead concentration in children dropped from 13.7 mcg/dL to 3.2 mcg/dL, in direct proportion to the amount of tetraethyl lead produced. One could want no clearer testimony to the efficacy of a well-conceived and consistently applied public health policy." Further, "there is a dose response relationship between lead in bones and self reported delinquent behavior in children - grounds for an arrest" and "study of prisoners in Cincinnati finds strong relationship between bone lead and number of arrests" and "statistical analysis of lead in environment vs. murder rate 21 years later is very powerful". So violent and irational behavior is an outcome of lead poisoning. Beyond the statistical proof of how this impacts society, and each of us, REALNEO's Phillip and I have seen the impact in a clinical setting, by visiting the Lead Clinic at MetroHealth and speaking with patients there, and their families, and our observations were highly disturbing.

I let the TV run on after the BBC news tonight and Nightly Business Report came on... blah, blah, blah... until the "Last Word", on Reynolds, Indiana... a small rural town of about 500 people in 200 housholds... why on Earth was this town in the Nightly News? Because this has been declared by the governor of Indiana as BioTown, USA.

July 17 – 21 is Ohio Lead Awareness Week. We would like to invite you to participate in the March for Lead Safe Living. This event is planned by the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council to make people aware of the issues of childhood lead poisoning, and to let people know that we can do a better job in eliminating these problems. The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council, co-chaired by the Cleveland Department of Public Health, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, along with over fifty community partners, is committed to eliminating childhood lead poisoning by the year 2010.

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As an economist, I've always been fascinated by the wealth of value our foundations provide this region, including funding arts and culture, supporting innovation in education, catalyzing the economy and leading government transformation, and most remarkably forming The Fund For Our Economic Future and funding global change leaders America Speaks to lead the Voices and Choices collaboration now poised to revolutionize our regional insight and economic development. As an open source economic developer for the region, I've had significant opportunity to work on many projects funded by local foundations that are truly transformational, including Voices and Choices, so I feel I must speak up in complete support for this initiative of America Speaks.

Voices and Choices is a groundbreaking initiative of the Fund for Our Economic Future to develop a far-reaching, comprehensive regional dialog for setting a course for our region's future that will produce more jobs and create better economic opportunities for our families and businesses. Voices & Choices is also educating hundreds of thousands of people about the realities facing the regional economy.

If you have the opportunity to rebuild your city from scratch, what will be your priorities - what are the priorities of your neighborhood and neighbors? Well, in New Orleans they don't have any choice about rebuilding their city, so a diverse collaboration of planners and community leaders are using sophisticated tools and methods to make certain their neighborhoods of the future are as desirable and successful as possible... read the report summary and link in below. Note, while this is part of multi-Gulf-State regional planning, which must focus on the big picture, the study here looks are resident preferences by neighborhood and even ethnicity, so it is very granular at the microeconomic level in NOLA, and so entirely applicable to NEO. I strongly believe doing the same exercise here would offer immense value, not just in Cleveland but in every neighborhood of the region... just take the exact same method and tools as used in NOLA, work with the same team at Tulane on analyses, and we'll quickly have some real micro-community development benchmarks and targets for rebuilding our region, with concensus, from the ground up

Residents rank low crime, good street lighting as rebuilding priorities.

Low crime, good street lighting, absence of litter, walkable sidewalks/crosswalks, neighborhood grocery stores, playgrounds, affordable housing and good schools are the top priorities of New Orleans residents as they rebuild or decide whether to rebuild in the post-Katrina world, according to a survey released this week by The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University. "Low crime is a priority across the city," says Tom Farley, director of the center and chair of the department of community health sciences at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "Crime can be prevented with smart environmental planning, such as well-lit streets. We hope this data will result in rebuilding plans that address concerns about crime and safety."

Hear the sound of 1,000 Drums. Listen to live jazz, hip-hop, folk, techno, classical, rock, polka, & more. Experience opera, theater, ballet, step dancing, breakdancing, contemporary dance & more. Enjoy exhibits, concerts, poetry slams, stilt walkers, jugglers, parades, food, flowers, & activities for kids, all transformed by technology. That’s Ingenuity 2006 & it’s happening this July in The Festival Village at Prospect Ave. & East 4th St. Seize the dates, at the Ingenuity Festival website and in this book, as the festival comes alive.

I've certainly paid much more attention to my alma mater, Tulane University, and home for many years, New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), since hurricane Katrina hit last year, and what I have seen is inspired regional planning combined with collaborative community building, from which we in NEO stand to learn many great lessons.

Opening Ceremonies

Ingenuity 06 will launch with a spectacular Symphony for 1000 Drums on Public Square at 5:00 pm. This Symphony, composed and conducted by internationally acclaimed Halim El-Dabh will feature drums from a rainbow of cultures and ethnicities, as well as individual drummers known in the rock and jazz communities. The goal? As Halim, puts it: “The world is filled with conflict and stress. We need to create a vibration that will change the balance to health and joy." The Symphony will be followed by the all county marching band's parade to the Mainstage. You can’t miss this! Please click here for more details.

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The more I read about the environment and Ohio the more alarmed I become. It is not just that we are a toxic place, which we are, but that we have been a world-leader making the world toxic and continue in that leadership position today. Fpr examples, we are now the third most polluting state in America, promote very dirty coal as the future of energy, do not as a state take alternative energy seriously, and have significant issues with lead poisoning, including a long, disturbing history of causing that problem for all the world. You probably already know a major defendant in litigation over lead poisoning in America is Cleveland's own Sherwin Williams, and the top litigators for the lead and paint industry against the world are Cleveland, Ohio's Jones Day, and that we have some of the highest lead poisoning rates in the country, but would you have imagined Dayton was the world center of making lead additives for gasoline, which caused the worst worldwide distribution of toxin ever (which was the fault of General Motors), that  Kettering Laboratory on the University of Cincinnati Medical campus was named for the GM research director personally to blame, Charles F. Kettering, director of research at General Motors, and a young assistant professor of pathology at the University of Cincinnati, Robert Kehoe, corrupted the scientific understanding of lead from 1923 into the 1960s, as director of Kettering and agent of the lead industry.

Fortunately, times have changed in Cincinnati as the world expert on the dangers of lead is now Dr. Bruce Lanphear, The Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health and the Director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati. Consider the highlights below from  his recent presentation at the Cleveland City Club about lead poisoning, and then read the "Special Note on the Evolution...", as we may not move on to better tomorrows, as a society, without first understanding from where we came, and how we became who and what we are, being toxic and fooled today.

the average I.Q.s of American adults (and you reading this) were most certainly diminished from past lead exposure (especially if you lived in the days of leaded gas)... average I.Q in America is going up, as we eradicate lead 1,000s of NEO children are exposed to hazardous levels of lead in their daily lives today Low income people are most adversely impacted but children in all socio-economic classes are poisoned Often affluent homeowners poison their own families by renovating while living at home, or not properly cleaning after renovations Children pay for lead exposure through diminished productivity throughout life - in very high doses, victims lose their lives (there was a case of this in the past few weeks). Over the past century, American society and government have not addressed lead  effectively, so Americans and our society today must accept responsibilty for the diminished capacities of untold 100,000s of victims and we must pay a $multi-biillion cost for remediation, as well as suffer lead-poison related societal problems like high crime and failing education systems, to say the least. Most tragic, the overall problem was largely avoidable (Europe outlawed lead in the early 1900s), and most individual cases of lead poisoning today are avoidable. If you have or care about kids, you need to read more...

Today's Plain Dealer has an editorial about the selection process for the new President of Case University that I find very exciting - partly because it shows great progress with Case, partly because it promotes a concept for the selection process that I initiated on realneo in March, and mostly because I agree completely with the PD position - "Lessons learned? - Case trustees' chairman is making the right moves as the search for a new president gets under way", and I support that "Linsalata also promised to allow the university community - both alumni and those on campus - ample opportunity to provide input on the search this fall."

I was saddened to hear of the untimely death of Kenneth Lay. At the young age of 64, there was so much more he could have done -- like go to prison for 20+ years. The days would have passed quickly with visits from his children and 12 grandchildren. On visits with his wife they could have reminisced (about their last $200,000 cruise). But, life is not fair. I find it difficult to feel any sympathy for Lay -- a New York Times Article and the article in the PD "Lays passing produces some mixed feelings" suggests some did feel sorry for him. Shamefully, Lay maintained his innocence and always blamed others -- rogue executives beneath him -- for the fall of Enron.  Most disturbing to me is the the self-rightiousness, bordering on insanity he reveals in this statement: "We believe that God in fact is in control, and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the Lord," he said outside the courthouse in Houston after the verdict. Did God bless Kenneth Lay's lies? A convenient death or did God strike down Kenneth Lay? Perhaps Lay did not escape his sentence after all, perhaps he was just called before a higher judge.