Friends of Northeast Ohio, a day for a new bridge to our future is arriving Thursday, November 17th, when the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will present their plan to supplement the current I-90 Innerbelt bridge over the Cuyahoga River by building a second bridge immediately to the north of the current span. If you care about the form, flow and future of our community, you must care about this near $ billion project. The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, area newspapers and universities, and broad community leaders all agree this project offers a great opportunity to reshape Cleveland forever. There is broad agreement we should replace the current I-90 bridge with a world-class span. In doing so, we may relocate the bridge south to allow further development around our $500 million gateway district, and create an astounding gateway entrance to our city. To help further such enlightened outcomes, realneo.us has provided a social networking site to this community, found at http://neobridge.net - thanks to Cleveland Institute of Art Future Center Director David Moss for site design support. Please join your community at NEO Bridge to interact on this issue. And, most important, please join your community at the Wolstein Center this Thursday, November 17th, at 4:30 pm for a public forum with ODOT...

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The
appointment of Christopher S. Ronayne, as the new President of
University Circle Incorporated (UCI) was announced today, November
14, at UCI’s Annual Meeting by R. Thomas Stanton, Chairman of UCI’s
Board of Trustees. Ronayne will lead the 40-member nonprofit
organization’s efforts to continue the development of University Circle
into one of the country’s premier urban districts. Ronayne is only the
seventh president to serve UCI since its founding in 1957. He succeeds
Terri Hamilton Brown, who is stepping down to join National City Bank.

The Ohio Community Computing Center Network, the umbrella organization for free public computer centers and teaching centers, has provided testimony to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio stating that the SBC/AT&T Merger and the Verizon/MCI Merger are not in the best interests of the public.   The following is a summary, raising the concern that further telecom consolidation will reduce vital high-speed Internet opportunities for low-income urban and rural areas.  Today, high-speed Internet is critical for education, work and other activities of daily life.  While technological advances in more robust networks, immense Internet speed and additional services are exciting, if only a portion of spciety can participate in yet another technological evolution, Ohio will again be left struggling.  The testimony called for efforts to reduce the divide that finds low-income and rural communities with lower levels of broadband access and an end to telecom efforts to limit the rights of cities to invest in broadband services directly, on behalf of their residents.

On Election Day, I stood at a polling location on Cleveland's eastside and talked to voters about Reform Ohio Now (RON) and issues 2-5 on the ballot in November. The voting location was JFK High School, one of the largest polling stations in ward one, the wealthiest and biggest voting ward in the African-American community. I was the one who learned a lot.

Northeast Ohio leaders have realized we have lessons to learn from afar, as we face changing economic challenges at home, like sprawl and neglected urban assets and strategies. As our urban core, that Cleveland remain strong is essential to the millions of people in the region.

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In NEO today, we see a growing consciousness in the alternative energy and sustainability movement, a resounding catalyst in the digital cities OneCleveland phenomenum, and many other indicators that we are finally developing a vibrant new economy mentality.

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Oregon's commitment to Open Source is well demonstrated by the establishment of their Open Technology Business Center in Beaverton - we need this in NEO:

Earlier this month, REALNEO IT Analyst Derek Arnold attended the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and Drupal Conference in Portland, Oregon, and he brought back more than new code, knowledge and relationships - he brought back the State of Oregon's vision of being "an epicenter for Open Technology (Linux and Open Source-enabled hardware, software and services)". The State of NEO needs to embrace such a vision!

In a recent article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, posted to the NEO Excellence community, business editor Paul O'Donnell wrote "I really didn't need Forbes magazine to tell me that Cleveland ranks 113th out of 150 metropolitan areas for best places to jump-start a business or career". Based on Forbes' analysis of our assets, O'Donnell observed one would conclude "the region is predominantly populated by reasonably educated engineers who spend discretionary income on the arts or sports, who work at companies that pay well but aren't hiring, and who live in safe neighborhoods filled almost exclusively with native Northeast Ohioans."

The 06.07.05 NEO Excellence Roundtable had a very focused flow, starting with an update from Ed Hauser on Whiskey Island developments, following to next steps for East Cleveland, and concluding with a very enlightening discussion on making NEO the world's most empowering learning community.

Messing With the State Constitution?

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell wants to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit public governing bodies, the state, local and school board spending combined, from spending greater than the Midwest Consumer Price Index, population growth, inflation or 3.5% above spending for the prior year.  Sounds complicated? This a formula for gridlock, a procedural requirement that will tie the legislature and the Governor in knots, an odd goal for someone who wants to govern.

Trio tires of watching observatory fall apart - East Cleveland - It
was built as a premier research and teaching facility, a monument to
early American innovation, dedicated to unveiling mysteries of the
universe and to charting stars in the far reaches of space.

For decades, world-renowned astronomers pondered, probed and calculated inside these brick walls. Read about the current condition of this landmark property, and vision for the future, at the City of East Cleveland portal, now in early development here.

The 03.16.05 Community of Minds get-together featured Jurgen Faust, Chair of TIME (The Integrated Multimedia Environment) at the world-class Cleveland Institute of Art. Community of Minds is the longest-standing and most innovative entrepreneurial networking initiatives in NEO, providing attendees highly valuable, free, bi-monthly insight sharing meet-ups at the Case University Dively Center, held with support from the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) and Thompson Hine law firm. At this March meeting, Jurgen Faust offered important insight on developing NEO as a "Future Center" of design excellence.

Joe Stanley a 5th year interior design major at the Cleveland Institute of Art gave a presentation on his senior project to an enthusiastic crowd at the Peter B. Lewis building at 2 p.m. today as part of REALNEO. Joe's senior project is an ambitious vision for CIA, University and the City of Cleveland. It was exhibited at 1300 Gallery this past fall along with the work of several of his classmates. Joe's project and those of his classmates were destined to be forgotten after the exhibition (which only lasted one night), but Joe's project has been given new life through REALNEO. Joe has his own COIL at REALNEO called neomainstreet. neomainstreet contains images of Joe's models and drawings, a discussion of his design philosophy and its context within contemporary and historical trends in architecture and civic planning. Its a fascinating site of local, national and international interest!

For this REALNEO@REI orientation we will present a transformative demonstration of local urbanist Joe Stanley taking his senior project in Interior Design off the walls of the Cleveland Institute of Art, beyond 2&3D, and into cyberspace - see http://neomainstreet-com.bryght.net. Joe shares his vision for reinventing the CIA and redeveloping their two University Circle sites - exceeding old paradigms of project development, urban planning, and entrepreneurial communications - realized using REALinks social computing capabilities. Please join Joe and see his view of our future, at its best.

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Dan Cuffaro, CIA IDSA Industrial Design Chair - for this last presentation in the "Young Artists Series", Dan speaks on "Innovations in Art and Design". Dan
explains he graduated from CIA in 1991 and, after working here until1994
(including for Greenlee-Hess), he spent 10 years in Boston, where he worked
up the Industrial Design industry to design director - his job then
included hiring young designers. In 2003 he was hired back to Cleveland as CIA
ID Chair, and he is redesigning the program to prepare students to thrive in
the design world he knows from the inside and out, in NEO and beyond.

Cleveland Institute of Art interior design senior Joe Stanley has developed a comprehensive strategy and plan for the current Cleveland Institute of Art properties, where there are now poorly utilized, out-of-date facilities and surface parking lots, to be transformed into a new regional and global epicenter of creativity and economic development. Visit his community of interest dedicated to this project - neomainstreet - to see the model, plans, and a remarkable vision for developing exactly the innovation and quality connected places NEO needs for the future!

The 02.08.04 Tuesday@REI continues an important collaboration exploring unique value in Northeast Ohio child development - today expanding focus to "Intergenerational Learning", which leverages the value of all ages learning together. Here we see notes on presentations and discussions featuring:

This morning’s PD cited a Michigan research paper that concluded that economic cars, hybrids and the like, will generate a stronger economic return for European manufacturers, who have adapted to meet the more aggressive, European environmental standards and are now poised to reap the economic benefit of this growing market in the US. As a result, the study says, the US government should assist, despite the current $400+ billion budget deficit, in the retrofit/reengineering of the US plants to be able to compete. Of course, the industry could have also asked for assistance in meeting the environmental demands decades ago to seize the leadership mantel now held by European manufacturers, but for decades, US auto industry opposed stronger environmental standards, rather than adapt. Another significant, unmentioned lesson also warrants noting: Sound environmental policy, environmental leadership, can generate economic leadership in a very short time.

"Monuments differ in different periods. Each age has its own."

"Maybe, just maybe, we shall at last come to care for the most important, most challenging, surely the most satisfying of all architectural creations: building cities for people to live in."

Philip Cortelyou Johnson: July 8, 1906 - January 25, 2004

The 01/21/05 Financial Times has picked a decidedly hopeful NEO spin on the recent resignation of Peter Lewis from the board of the Guggenheim Museum, asking if this development marks opportunity for Cleveland - like $77 Million worth. It seems possible only if Cleveland starts acting in concert to demonstrate the innovative, sophisicated thinking Peter clearly expects around him. So far, we haven't impressed him, and it is clearly time to change our approaches and collaborate to show Peter NEO is worthy of his further support - plenty of other regions will try to do so and Peter is far from locked behind any of our gates - so let's think open, openly.

Here's an organic interpretation on the interconnections of TOPSOIL - Technology Optimization Platform for Social Organization, Innovation and Learning - REALNEO - Regional Economic Action Links (North East Ohio) - OSED - Open Source Economic Development - and IP - Intellectual Property - being the ecosystem enabling and nurturing Entrepreneurship and unique value creation and growth.

OSED consists of (B)rainpower, (I)nnovation and (Q)uality atoms, held interconnected with the magnetism of REALink Dialogue and Inclusion. These atoms combine in infinite combinations of Intellectual property molecules, which combine in organic structures forming more complex elements like schools, universities, companies and governments within a community ecosystem, in North East Ohio called NEO. The more supportive the ecosystem, the stronger the elements, and more elements to thrive. At the foundation of the ecosystem is TOPSOIL - the healthier and more nutritious the better. Branding and Marketing promote elements and ecosystems versus others, completing the OSED framework.

Bodwin Theater Company Director Kevin Cronin contributes to
the Cleveland Plain Dealer "Voices in the Arts" series of guest
columns on arts and culture in NEO with a compelling business case for
encouraging more filmmaking and related industry in Ohio. In his analysis, he
explains how this industry "cluster" can generate greater unique
value and economic benefits for this region than may casinos and convention
centers, which tend to monopolize the local development mindspace. To
illustrate the potentials, Kevin highlights data on benefits of the film
industry in Canada and the states of Louisiana, Illinois, Alabama, Oregon, New
Mexico and New Jersey, totaling $ billions... concluding "If Ohio wants
film, commercial, TV and digital-media jobs and income, it needs to take the
legislative steps to compete effectively. They are sensible, cost-effective, necessary
tools to compete with other states and countries to generate employment and
business growth." With elections coming up for Cleveland Mayor (for which
current Film Commissioner Carmody is apparently running) and for Ohio Governor, both of which will
focus on workforce and economic growth, it is timely now to push for the benefits Kevin proposes this creative cluster offers in
the future - make the candidates address these opportunities before they get our votes.

Cleveland Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt writes of a "Golden Opportunity" for University Circle's future in proposing Case University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and other local arts and learning institutions make optimal use of their master planning to leverage innovative networking and world-class brainpower to build a higher quality, well-connected powerhouse for this region - a "collegetown" gateway integrating University Circle institutions and stakeholders with surrounding community and regional interests. Steven prods UC-related leadership to follow models of excellence found at well planned universities in Cincinnati, Tempe, and Chicago and recounts "Philanthropist Peter Lewis, chairman of Mayfield-based Progressive Corp., has encouraged such collaborative thinking by hinting that he might open his purse for the right mix of projects. But in a speech at the UCI annual meeting in November, he said he was unimpressed with a confidential plan forwarded to him by Case. Nevertheless, Lewis said he's keeping an open mind." UC leaders must become more open and open-minded in their master planning, as that was clearly a critical success factor common for the three "best-collegetowns" highlighted above, and for securing the support of global leaders like Lewis. Read on for Litt's open vision for UC "to create a sense of urbanism and to heal the rift between town and gown":

In a recent REALNEO posting I reflected on the relationship
of optimal ICE - Information Communications Effectiveness - to political
sustainability, thus challenging the survivability of IT-ineffective public office
holders. It then occurred to me I've never seen used the term "political
sustainability" and so googled that and found a fascinating analysis of the
relationship of effective Environmental Management and political sustainability,
thus challenging the survivability of eco-insensitive public and private office holders.