I am really appreciative, this morning. After posting what was certainly the saddest news I can imagine, about the hardship my staff has suffered as a result of a lack of appreciation from my former business associate, Peter Holmes, I opened up this week's CoolCleveland and found that their crew had featured TWO postings from REALNEO. I am very touched and thankful to Thomas and his team for noticing REALNEO and taking an interest in the thoughts posted here - thank you. Please show appreciation back to CoolCleveland... if you are not a member, see what you've been missing... subscribe at CoolCleveland - all free - this is a real NEO must,  and send feedback to CoolCleveland letters at the links below, and supporting the upcoming CoolCleveland/Tech/Ingenuity party at Fat Fish Blue, July 13, and the Ingenuity Festival, as described below... but first, here's the nice write-up about REALNEO from CoolCleveland today, July 5, 2006:

In a really fascinating development, the Plain Dealer attempts today to structure a deal whereby Cleveland citizens accept the idea that the former press secretary to the very dubious former Mayor Mike White, highest-level PR-statute Nancy Lesic is now under contract with the President of the Cleveland City Council, for $48,000, while also being PR-statute  to the Port Authority, and the Clev

It is so appropriate that inept developers and Cleveland leaders want to turn Public Square into a private land monopoly, surrounded by other private land monopolies, funded by taxpayers, sucking funding from our weak economy and struggling public schools, as this Disneyfication and WalMarting of downtown Cleveland is the ultimate betrayal of the one progressive, visionary, socially conscious and truly ingenius leader we ever have known, former mayor Tom Johnson, who sits guard over the square and community still today, with a copy of the still unrivaled economic treatise "Progress and Poverty" cast in his hand. No doubt lesser minds and spirits despise this great man and the fair and intelligent understanding he and his policy mentor Henry George had for the human condition of the industrial ages, now spanning over seven generations of failure by those who have followed and betrayed the people of NEO since... will we let corruption win over Johnson? That is the battle of Public Square, now whimpering. Are you ready to take up the fight?

For me, it is a relief just to know there was once a visionary leader of my home town, as that gives me hope we may be progressive again, some day. And that Johnson left us a roadmap, in his autobiography "My Story", and foundations for progress, in the work of his mentor, George, allows all who care to learn from experience past, before we allow those who don't care for the masses to further destroy this place before the next seven generations.

To begin putting the future in perspective, revisit 1879, consider the great enigma of our times, progress and poverty, and consider where current NEO strategies to give land monopolies and tax exepmtion to the privileged fit in with your vision of a great city for all people. Do you want a community putting privilege before poverty. Consider, from the Chapter on modern life below, "Political Economy, as at present taught, does not explain the persistence of poverty amid advancing wealth in a manner that accords with the deep-seated perceptions of man; that the unquestionable truths that it does teach are unrelated and disjointed; that it has failed to make progress in popular thought - must be due, it seems to me, not to any inability in the science when properly pursued, but to some false step in its premises, or overlooked factor in its estimates. And as such mistakes are generally concealed by the respect paid to authority, I propose in this inquiry to take nothing for granted. I propose to beg no question, to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead. If the conclusions that we reach run counter to our prejudices, let us not flinch; if they challenge institutions that have long been deemed wise and natural, let us not turn back."

One need only read the introduction to greatest Cleveland Mayor ever Tom Johnson's autobiography to realize this was a special person. Beyond his bringing progressive thought and practice to Cleveland and America's other great cities, back when Cleveland was "great" in proportion, he knew that streetcars could become supertrains, running 100s of miles per hour on magnets, without wheels, as is the case today in more sophisticated places than here - he built a working prototype, in 1906, in his basement, and had General Electric interested to put the technology to use but they failed to make good. So, just as Charles Brush first demonstrated the wind turbine in Cleveland, Tom Johnson first demonstrated the supertrain in Cleveland, and in neither case have progress-seceding leaders succeeded to do good with such competitive advantages. We've also failed to since address the prime enigma which Johnson confronted in his political leadership, the association of progress and poverty. Read about a great leader below, and read his autobiography on-line at Cleveland Memory, and think how your leaders of today compare.

While at a meeting in the City Hall Red Room last year, among portraits of many past Cleveland mayors, I asked then Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell's Chief of Staff Chris Ronayne who was Cleveland's best mayor ever, and he said without hesitation Tom Loftin Johnson (b. July 18, 1854 - d. April 10, 1911), who was mayor from 1901 to 1909. I didn't know much about Johnson nor think much more about him until I grew completely disgusted with the inane puffery in the Cleveland Plain Dealer demanding we the public bend over and take ODOT's obliteration of downtown Cleveland, Wolstein's destruction of the Flats, Stark's WalMarting of the Warehouse District, Carney's corruption of the Port Authority, and now Volpe's Disneyfication of Public Square, driving me to stand up and seek reality at the roots of this one-paper-chase misplanting of bad planning seeds into our social subconsciousness, so greedy developers may destroy our civic  mind, heart, and soul. So, I ask you the public to consider, will any of these corrupt land-grab developments serve the masses. or have we strayed so far from the world Tom Johnson left us that we are again just a low-class, groping, leaderless, blind, selfish, forsaken party to few, as Tom Johnson found and fought at the beginning of the last century? For the answers, join me at Public Square below...

One of the defenses of the paint and lead industries against litigation over lead poisoning is the paint companies claim there is no way to identify which paint company made which lead paint - they claim is is all one big public nuisance and deny any responsibility.

 The following story with its links ran in CASE Daily (Case's online newpaper) today. Do feel like you have entrepreneurial genes? I think I do! Please post your thoughts
"Do genes influence who will be entrepreneurs?"

ABC News (Reuters), June 5, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2041245

While Congress debates energy and gas saving strategies, they should consider one to help North East Ohio residents adopt personal energy and cost saving strategies, by reducing fuel demand,  traffic congestion and promoting improved health.  Congress can help America get out of their car and onto a bike.  Cycling can be an important component in a national energy strategy.   

When you look at the sites of all Wolstein Developers Diversified Realty projects they are low quality big box strip centers, located at major highway interchanges. In the case of the interchange above, the highway ramp off I-271 literally feeds right into the DDR WalMart development.

For so many reasons, University Circle and its institutions and the surrounding neighborhood are core to what I value in NEO, and I look forward to seeing all that continually expand in significance to me, the region and world. But, University Circle is a small geographic domain, which must be optimized for 21 organizational stakeholders, and their 1,000,000s of stakeholders, including everyone associated with Case, University Hospitals, the VA, CIA, Cleveland Museum(s), Institute of Music, Orchestra, etc., and all others in the community.

In visioning for a better region and future here, consider a broader interpretation of University Circle from the small cultural, healthcare and university center of Cleveland to the center of the entire University Community of NEO.

The NY Times featured an interesting editorial on "Aging in Place", published 04/22/06, raises many issues to address in NEO right now. The editorial is promoting "reverse mortgages" to allow older homeowners to tap into the equity in their homes to pay for their living costs, ideally until the end. It is very sad the end costs to live and die now eclipse the lifetime wealth and accrued assets of most Americans, who will hope at best to die without major financial hardships - increasingly, dying at home. There are many reasons for these irreversible trends, from the disproportionately aging population (also causing SS crisis) and exploding healthcare expectations and costs to overall longer lifespans.

Here goes: 

Northeast Ohio is about to see an explosive, high profile, living, learning and enlightening force hit the scene and landscape, as area filmmakers, learning institutions and the public come together to create NEO Central - a bleeding-edge collaborative media arts center for NEO now and the future.The center will be based on like-minded initiatives around the world, and will provide shared film/media education, incubation, production, distribution, business and technology resources, and facilities, which are currently located in the historic landmark Gillota Building at 300 Central Viaduct (Carnegie) and will be expanded significantly as part of an area economic development plan. More on all of this is found in the links below, which will grow...

I'm pleased to say the 03.21.2006 Excellence Roundtable featuring Steven Fong gave PD Architecture Critic Steven Litt a chance to catch up with Dean Fong, and be the first to learn huge news for this region... See http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/entertainment/

KSU dean wants architecture grad program moved to Cleveland
Kent State University will move its entire graduate program in architecture to Cleveland "as soon as possible."

So says Steven Fong, the new dean of KSU's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Fong, who assumed the post at KSU in December, described his plans publicly for the first time Tuesday in an interview following a public forum at the university's Urban Design Collaborative in Cleveland.

March 21, 2006, REALNEO and the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC)  hosted a wonderful open-house and Excellence Roundtable featuring, Steven Fong, the Charter Dean of the KSU School of Architecture and Environmental Design, which is based in Kent, Ohio, of which CUDC is part. In prime roundtable form, the attendees were as diverse and remarkeable as is Steven, driving a fascinating hour and half brainstorm through Steven's world of fantastic projects that he's worked on around the world, down to today's reality of NEO, viewed from 30,000 feet down to the streets.

With the demand by Case Professor Krauss for a no-confidence vote against the Case president and provost, the levee broke flooding Case with the community sewage brimming its highest offices since hurricane Lewis smacked NEO several years ago, demanding the complete reorganization of Case. The rains since from Lewis' further public contempt for Case overflowed all the protection the president and board could retain, and now the Case community is in ruins.

I have a proposal for several actions Case may take to become the "World's Most Powerful Learning Environment", as Hundert proposes.

The first action is for the Case board and senior administration to form a panel of Blue Ribbon Advisors who are qualified and able to develop for the University a renewal plan. The panel must be expert in the subject, globally-respected and ready to begin immediately. Therefore, for the panel I recommend:

William G. Bowen, president, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, president emeritus, Princeton University

William R. Brody, president, The Johns Hopkins University

James J. Duderstadt, president emeritus, University of Michigan

Harvey Fineberg, president, The Institute of Medicine, The National Academies

Malcolm Gillis, president emeritus, Rice University

Eamon Kelly, president emeritus, Tulane University

Scott Cowen, president, Tulane University

Farris W. Womack, chief financial officer emeritus, University of Michigan

At the 01.24.06 Excellence Roundtable at the City Club, a standing room only group of diverse area citizens came together to discuss the future of East Cleveland with newly elected Mayor Eric Brewer. If Mayor Brewer can deliver on his promise, potential and the opportunities offered in redevelopment of this unique community, he will be a hero in this region and in many respects in the country. I believe everyone left this roundtable expecting this will occur.

People on REALNEO’s website are used to thinking about new ideas and the way we can help create the city and region we want to live in. Rather than passive acceptance, readers at REALNEO are active shapers of the community.  Our area is increasingly considering the importance of health activities, lifestyle and the comfort and attractiveness of the region.  As a region, we are focusing on regional assets, including our parks and lake.  With that in mind, I want to discuss ClevelandBikes, a two year-old nonprofit, and our project to develop an asset to meet these goals…a bike station, a new piece of the transportation infrastructure.

When it comes to demonstrating the transformational potential of social computing, realneo.us will lead by example. We have an excellent team now challenged to make realneo.us an incredible user experience of great value to the community.

REALNEO is hosting our November 22nd NEO Excellence Roundtable at the City Club with the Innerbelt Bridge Plan featured as the discussion topic. We will be joined by Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Director Paul Alsenas, and we have invited representative of the Ohio Department of Transportation. One outcome we hope to see from this process is increased support for developing a new "Signature Bridge" for Northeast Ohio. We invite you to attend and participate in these discussions.

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