The 2002 Canadian scientific report "Air pollution induces heritable DNA mutations" finds "Integrated steel production generates chemical pollution containing compounds that can induce genetic damage." And, the 2009 German report "Long-term exposure to traffic-related particulate matter impairs cognitive function in the elderly" finds "chronic exposure to traffic-related PM (particulate matter) may be involved in the pathogenesis of AD (Alzheimer's Disease)". 

So, who thought it was a good idea to spend $43 million of scarce government and quasi-public funding to build Tremont Pointe government-subsidized housing, located within scent and fallout of the Mittal Cleveland Works Steel mill, and other highly polluting industry of the Cleveland Flats, and directly adjacent to the I-490 freeway, planned to have increased polluting traffic through expansion as the "Opportunity Corridor"?

This was REALNEO, from December 16, 2008 - December 15, 2009.

Activity was significant, expanding, engaged, diverse, and global. REALNEO is a very healthy virtual community. But, who were those 277,070 absolute unique visitors attracted to our over 10,141 pages of original content on REALNEO?

Average Unique Monthly Visitors for REALNEO Benchmarking Sample
November 2008 - November 2009

REALNEO/COOP members, we own this... we accomplished this... in just our fifth year of operations. Congratulations!

New York Times

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

In reviewing REALNEO for material on the historic Cleveland U.S. Coast Guard Station, to accompany these November 25, 2009, photographs and Thanksgiving Day Pans of the Coast Guard site, I came across the May, 2006, REALNEO discussion "COAST GUARD IDEAS" about what should be done with the site... with a lengthy vision from "Citizen" Ed Hauser.

Exquisite decay.

On Thanksgiving eve, a little over a year following the death of Ed Hauser - the primary community activist for preservation of the National Historic Landmark Dyer Coast Guard Station, on Whiskey Island - I went Hauser Way to photograph this best location in the nation, to share with you on Thanksgiving day. Enjoy.

Start Thanksgiving with a smile, and a new perspective on urban settlements in America - enjoy "Veronica Moss Visits Times Square". I found this video at Rob Pitingolo's very cool NEO-based blog - Extraordinary Observations (since September, 2004)... originally from StreetFilms.org.

Definitely check out Extraordinary Observations , which we should add to our blogroll, if it isn't there... and welcome to our newest REALNEO/REAL COOP member, Rob Pitingolo... "progressive, urbanist, entrepreneur, blogger, thinker"... REALNEO's kind of guy!

One of my most valued resources for insight on health, the environment and aging is The Myth Of Alzheimer's, and I strongly recommend anyone reading this post subscribe to their e-mail updates and read that site regularly - it updates nearly daily.

The Myth Of Alzheimer's is absolutely about you, your family, your friends, and all our futures, as we all age together on this human-changing world until we die.

Reporting on the cost and environmental impact of household and government greenspace maintenance.

Fall, 2009, Attleboro and Shaker

REALNEO Naturally Header 11/21/09

Julian Stanczak - "Continuous Line + Black" 2005 - Acrylic on board, 28 panels, 16x16 inches each

Happy 81st Birthday, Julian Stanczak... born November 5, 1928. Julian is an originator and continuing master of Op Art - one of the most important and renowned artists ever - and his work is stronger now than ever.

All that is seen without doubt in 116 remarkable paintings exhibited as compositions in Julian's amazing body of expansive, precise, cohesive "Recent Work", now showing at MoCA. Grouped as three colorful masterpieces, and a series of 10 individual black and white expressions, all these paintings stand together as one conclusive, vibrant statement, that life is an amazing experience, as only Julian may know.

– All infant formulas, whether ready-to-feed,
concentrated or organic, contain fluoride at levels which can discolor
developing teeth, reports the October 2009 Journal of the American
Dental Association (JADA) (1).

October 7, 2009, we began our sixth year of ongoing, expansive, free, open source content management and global knowledge sharing, community building, social networking and collaboration on REALNEO. See posting Number 1, REALNEO Development Plan, from October 7, 2004, here, for links to many source documents from the planning and development of REALNEO, since 2004.

Congratulations to all REALNEO members, from day one to today! We've come a long way, since 2004, and our outcomes run far deeper than is seen on the surface of REALNEO. Six years is an eternity, in the world of social computing - we're about 8 months younger than Facebook, and a paradigm beyond - we are Real Co-op!

I previously reported, in "unReal NEO Illegal Campaigning Signs Of The Day: Issue 6, in the Heights, and by RTA", dozens of Anti-Issue5/Pro-Issue-6 signs are strategically and illegally displayed at major RTA Green Line Rapid Transit stops in Shaker Heights. Last night, I confirmed there are dozens more Pro-Issue-6 signs displayed at many RTA Rapid stops in Cleveland, as well. Most telling are the signs displayed at the disgusting, near-abandoned, soon to be relocated to gentryland Red Line cum Health Line Station at Euclid and E.120th, above and below. This is the only Issue 6 promotion in this part of town, to be certain... and it is certainly being allowed, if not arranged, exclusively by RTA.