In today's Plain Dealer was what appeared like an exposé on economic development organizations in Northeast Ohio, but really just showed lots of big salaries and highlighted the obvious about our regional economy that was summed up in one line - " Has it worked? Not yet." I've had good experiences with two people in economic development in NEO - Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia and I-Open leader Ed Morrison, quoted in the PD article saying: "There's not strong enough leadership looking out, picking their head up out of the weeds and saying we need to be heading this way,"... "He argues we lack the civic skills to grab opportunities, make decisions and move on." I agree, and have found the ivory tower efforts for the region are not for me or my interests. They are for others, and traction is being made in some areas, like health sciences (hard to avoid, with the $ millions in health related R&D at Case and the Clinic alone... the Clinic just took a medical company public last week). But in the small business and IT spaces there is little support available, and there are real obsticals to progress, to some extent caused by the community belief there is a support structure in place to help entrepreneurship here, which there is not. One hopeful sign for the future is that Case has disposed of the dean of their business school, and so that institution may again add value to the region through a good replacement... we'll see. Otherwise, it is worth considering the insight Don Iannone shared on his blog in response to the PD article, which offer some good lessons learned by a good local economic development professional... a few highlights below... my favorite being "our regional economic development culture (that includes everybody and not just the faces and names in the Plain Dealer series) is combative, secretive, blaming, insular, and small-minded":

What are your principles? How about the following:

1. Attack poverty and world hunger as if our life depends on it. It does.

MORRISON DANCE STREET PERFORMANCE: Taste of Tremont, Sunday, July 23, 1:30 - 3pm STREET PERFORMING In the summer months, MorrisonDance enjoys performing through the city streets in the style of busking. Adorned in beautiful masks created by Scott Radke, the dancers improvise and interact throughout festivals, parties, and other events. Taste of Tremont Street Festival

Fourth Annual Taste of Tremont street festival! Bring the family and lawn chairs to enjoy a day of music, art and sampling the cuisines of all your favorite Tremont restaurants. Admission Free

July 23, 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Professor Street between Fairfield and College, Tremont, Cleveland.

google map | yahoo map

MorrisonDance photos posted on flickr

click here for a wonderful history of BUSKING

Location

NEW PHONE NUMBER FOR NORM ROULET AT REALNEO IS 1-216-212-1540

Please be advised that, because of the ongoing psychotic behavior of my former partner Peter Holmes, enabled by the unprofessional behavior of his law firm Jones Day, it has not been possible to maintain the previous REALinks, LLC, cell phone service for Sudhir Raghupathy and myself, which it appears Peter Holmes has had in his personal name. Only Peter Holmes may transfer Sudhir's and my numbers, after he pays $332.11 owed to Cingular on his account. For the time being, my number at 216-534-1732 and Sudhor's number at 1-216-534-8628 are not in service. Peter Holmes also has not paid the staff what he agreed to provide them as of June 9, 2006, almost two months ago, and Peter Holmes has not proceeded in good faith to make arrangements for the transition of financial and legal documents necessary for continuity of operations without him.

This disruption of phone service for Sudhir Raghupathy is especially unfortunate for NEO, as Sudhir has been supporting the Voices and Choices initiative for the betterment of Northeast Ohio, funded by the Fund For Our Economic Future, and so Peter's latest act of aggession does harm to the entire region and all the foundations of Northeast Ohio.

 I found the following very insightful commuting cost calculator via urban planner Scott Muscatello's cool "Cleveland vs. The World" blog. It takes into account much more than your $3.00 per gallon gas, as you'll see listed below - I don't drive to commute or own a car so I don't have these costs nor do I cost society for any of this... what about you... l commuting cost calculator?

If you live in Westlake and commute daily downtown (around 35 miles roundtrip), and tool around another 10 miles roundtrip per day (annual driving of around 16,500 miles) the cost to you and the world is around $20,000 per year. If you communte 100 miles roundtrip a day, like a friend of mine in Medina, and tool another 20 miles per day, you drive around 33,000 miles per year and the cost to all, including you is average $40,000. I can get RTA all day pases at $3 per day every day for around 36 years, for that. What does your car-based lifestyle cost you and society?

As real NEO is a huge place, with years of content or every sort on a broad range of subjects from 100s of sources, I thought I'd share some of my experiences navigating this community.

First off, remember you can simply "Search" the site for any keyword... go to SEARCH here.

If I'm browsing rather than searching, the first thing I check out is the center column of recent posts to see what's new - always surprising.

Then, I watch the blocks... in the right margin top are comments - those are always fascinating, and I like to interact with the other members here.

Then we have today's popular content, and below that is especially revealing... "Last Viewed".

all meetings are open to the public.

july is new member's month.

http://clevelandcolectivo.org

Location

It is time for major transformation and transition for REALNEO, and I invite you to help make that happen. REALNEO is a free open source software (FOSS) social computing environment developed by a collaboration of members, and they own their information, and maintain a copyright in all their postings on this site. At this time, there are 100s of members and 1,000s of postings, and 1,0000s of comments, representing significant intellectual property of lasting value  on the Internet and to this community, in every context. I launched REALNEO in October, 2004, and many people have been instrumental in developing value here. It has always been the understanding in this community that REALNEO would reside in the public domain and operate as or within a non-profit entity. At this time the ownership of the tradename REALNEO must be transferred to the public, and it is well past time for REALNEO.US to move to a sustainable technical and social platform.  I am open to all partners interested to lead future development of REALNEO, and there are many reasons this will be an exciting process.

This is significant, from the Case University News Center:

Listening to music can reduce chronic pain by up to 21 percent and depression by up to 25 percent, according to research published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing by Sandra L. Siedlecki, a nurse researcher at the Cleveland Clinic. Siedlecki collaborated with and used tapes from previous pain studies by Marion Good, professor of nursing at Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.

Siedlecki and Good found that listening to music can also make people feel more in control of their pain and less disabled by their condition.

The city of East Cleveland, "Home of the World's First Billionaire", John D. Rockefeller, is the first and historically the finest residential neighborhood of Cleveland. Still having remarkable historic landmark building stock, the city was a victim of "white flight", in the 1960's-1990's, that is just now seeing an enlightened, progressive correction, driven by good government, largely intact historic assests, like the Star complex, and optimal proximity to the best Northeast Ohio has to offer. It has always been desirable for close, convenient access to the core economy of Cleveland, the cultural and enlightenment "garden" of University Circle, rail and public transit everywhere, and nearness to and fresh breezes from Lake Erie. As the economy shifts to a new economy, focused on livable urban neighborhoods with great public transil and walkable assets, East Cleveland is at the Heart of it all, and the Star Complex is at the heart of that enlightened new urban movement.

What could possibly make NEO a Green City by a Blue Lake? Rewriting our propagandist "history" to be true through today, and teaching and learning from that, ruthlessly defending our "environment", celebrating progressive "politics",  restructuring "education" to truly focus on social responsibility, inspiring "innovation" through creative people and management practices,  promoting "finance" for progressive businesses and practices, embracing "spirituality" found in liberal religions and non-Western thought, and recruiting and building "critical mass" of like minded people who embrace all of that. What, why, how... several years ago I referenced this article on CAUSE and it still reads true and offers insight for NEO forever... and feel free to post suggestions as comments here.

I came across this cool service to Flex Your Power, in California, designed by an old friend from Tribe - definitely something we need here in NEO - note, this was funded by the power industry in California, because regulation there is very focused on demand side management, rather than consumption... we need to Flex Our Power as we head to the voting booths this November and choose politicians who will enable these type of outcomes...

Now that I must waste much of my time and energy preparing to sue Robert "Okihawk"/:NEOhawk" Hawkins I must conduct discovery determining the many ways to diverted business from his employer, REALinks, LLC, and acted against all stakeholders. One place where his record is told is on REALNEO, and so I am preserving his strings of inputs here.

On February 21, 2006, Peter Holmes fraudulently received a trademark for my intellectual property REALNEO in his name as an individual, at his home address - see entry below and go here to search yourself. The following day, February 22, 2006, Peter Holmes participated with REALinks, LLC, chief technologist Rob Hawkins in formation of a new company called 315 Caxton, LLC, to compete against REALinks, LLC, functionally diverting the intellectual property of REALNEO and the business opportunity of REALinks, LLC, to a new enterprise and new partners, clearly with intent to bankrupt REALinks, LLC, and harm all staff and stakeholders. Rob Hawkins formed 315 Caxton, LLC, with Peter's long-standing friends Rick Decosky, the Chief Finanical Officer, who personally signed the articles of Incorporation for 315 Caxton, LLC, and February 22, 2006, with William Tuttle designated on the 315 Caxton, LLC, website as CEO, Rob Hawkins designated as COO, and with "Blair Whidden... the penultimate networker, able to bring in further outside expertise when it is identified", whatever that means. Peter has admitted he provided funds to William Tuttle, and Peter funded 315 Caxton, LLC, staff to establish this operation in competition with REALinks, LLC. funding from Peter Holmes, to divert all assets and opportunities from REALinks, LLC, to a new company formed on February 22, 2006 and registered with the Secretary of State of Ohio on February 27, 2006, as 315 Caxton, LLC.

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:

Representation: Merger with Ispat International N.V.

Principal Professional(s): Tom D. Smith, Peter J. Love, Gregory P. Olsen, Margaret A. Ward

Lead Practice(s): Antitrust Mergers/Joint Ventures

Industry(s): Metals & Mining

Summary: On behalf of International Steel Group, we provided antitrust advice relating to its $4.5 billion merger with Ispat International NV. Simultaneously, Ispat acquireed LNM Holdings N.V. Following completion of the transaction, the company will be renamed Mittal Steel Company N.V.and will be the largest and most global steel company in the world, with operations in 14 countries on four continents. Jones Day was able to persuade the U.S. Department of Justice to grant early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

	Print Page   Email Page Experience Details
--> Experience Search Related Services Antitrust & Competition Law Professional Representation Tom D. Smith Peter J. Love Gregory P. Olsen Margaret A. Ward Dr. Johannes Zöttl	Client(s): International Steel Group Inc. (n/k/a Mittal Steel)

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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.

Copyright © 2005 by Steve Cagan. All rights reserved. Reservados todos los derechos.

 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:

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.