This is what’s wrong with how Cleveland and the County run their “business”. 

 

Read here about a novel newspaper concept.  Called BOSTON NOW, it will be a free paper which gets its content from local bloggers.  Circulation will start at 150,000.  Bloggers will not be paid to start – but will get their material out to a larger audience than just their blog might hit. Eventually – in six months or so – the publisher intends to begin to pay blog contributors in some manner.   The paper will carry full stories or snips of the blogs, with the idea being that if a particular blog topic grabs you, you can later go on line and read the entire article.

 

Before the spring flowers come out (in fact, even in the coldest weather), the variations in the bark of trees in Ohio offer a spirited visual treat (though I grant you that you have to look a lot harder for color outdoors in the winter).  All the above trees grow in NEO – and it’s a rush observing the differentiations in their skins.   If  you were blind, could you ID these trees?  A lot easier than elevator buttons.  The interior wood of different trees has distinctly different smells – are there different smells to different trees' bark?   Clearly the imaginative wraps fashioned by those in Haut Couture have nothing on Mother Nature’s bark coats.  So go take a Hike – check out the Metroparks and feel these trees!  Their DNA is much like yours…

 The “print screen”image above shows a clip of the tracking details for the “nuts and bolts” wind turbine post which was put up on Realneo several month’s ago.  Notice the Google searches which came in from .cz, .no, and .ca

Here is another in the series of my posts which are critical of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mason’s Wind Energy “Task Force’s” decision to pursue – at tax payer’s expense and risk – “about 10 two megawatt wind turbines to be placed about 3 miles off of Cleveland.”

 

       

ROLDO    has been talking sense to power for years in NEO.  Here he is,  with his indefatigable energy,  keeping at it here, on CoolCleveland with his views  on tax abatements.  Roldo, I hear you!

 I have been reading the Cuyahoga County energy task force wind turbines-on-Lake Erie report over the last week - I am not comfortable with the report.  It looks like I'm not alone.  While I have been doing research for the last few days to get my critical ducks lined up,  Bill Callahan today has beat me to the punch with this entry in his blog.  

 

 

What's going on - this lawn looks like it has measles – how come there are some areas where the snow has melted, and other areas where the snow hasn’t melted?   I took this shot yesterday AM.   Salt has nothing to do with the melted areas...

 

  Click here to then click on NEW ENERGY and read the 83 page "task force" lake wind energy report - I haven't read it yet, and will comment on it I'm sure.    I did notice that the title doesn't read "new energy JOBS".    

I also noticed this statement on Page 11 "More importantly, the Task Force is aware of developer interest in an offshore Lake Erie wind farm". Is the tail wagging the dog? Is the preferred ventor already in the tent? Is so called "public process" just confirming the pre-chosen victor? Before I read the report, however, I will stick my neck out and

 

In response to the  “Blog Talk, Blog Tech" promoted last week on Realneo and held last Saturday at Arabica,  the following blog enthusiasts took the time to attend:

During the Transit Oriented Design presentation at CSU’s Levin College last week, one of the RTA personell – Mr. James DeRosa  jderosa [at] gcrta [dot] org  - presented a few RTA owned properties as development opportunities.  One of the properties is 6611 Euclid, the 7 story mill style building in the photo above. 

Look here to read the Buffalo News and their Feb 21, 2007 article on the 8 Clipper turbines which are going into the defunct Bethlehem Steel slag dump in Lackawanna, just west of downtown Buffalo.  The blades are made in Brazil,

MVRDV several years back produced a book titled Regionmaker.  The book was brought to my attention via Bill Scheele who presented during some of the very first colloquia at REI Tuesdays.  Bill initially saw the book at a book store on the West Coast, and purchased it because of the book’s unique use of dual languages (Dutch on the left page, English on the right hand page) and the use of binding the book together with different colored pages ( to distinguish the different chapters)  When I read through the book I told Ed Morrison that Regionmaker included a  thesis  confirming (with mathematical precision) Mr. Morrison’s “Quality Connected Spaces” economic stimulation philosophy.   Bill’s  newCAT  (interesting that MVRDV was under discussion in 2004 at REI, while it just hit the radar with CIA in 2007) was itself an effort to improve the local technology economy through expertise in digital art.   But back to MVRDV - if MVRDV designs their CIA University Circle job with the same high level of  innovation with which they designed their Regionmaker book - then we will have unique and stimulating architecture here in Cleveland.

        Sarah Taylor (via Fletcher Miller)  just brought this news to my attention.  The Toledo Regional Growth Partnership  has an application submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to design, construct and operate a facility capable of testing wind turbine  blades up to 100 meters in length. 

Northeast Ohio bloggers and would-be bloggers - all are invited to Arabica- University Circle(upstairs) this Saturday, the 24th from 1:30 -3:30.   We will help anyone who's interested  learn  technical skills:how to post images, events, use the embedded email program and more.  This is an opportunity for readers and contributors to get to know one another face to face. Complimentary coffee and pastries. An RSVP and/or a submission of suggestions for technical help needed via "write to author" (at the bottom of this post) would be helpful.