New Silver/Health Line Bus Stop at E. 9th and Euclid - detail - Ameritrust Building in background

Public Art is site specific, so designing public art for a five-mile site - a bus line - must be quite a challenge. Now, as the "Euclid Corridor" "Silver Line" "HealthLine" street improvements, light fixtures, bus stops, signage, green spaces, trees, grass and technologies are becoming apparent, I think much of what has been assembled works for most of the sites I've seen... despite basically wiping out the city, and costing over a $billion, retooling of an existing bus line. Whether the infrastructure and facilities will prove very functional, I have my doubts... we'll know after the first winter of full service. But the form of the bus station, designed by Robert P. Madison International, and light fixture shown in this picture of the East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue "Breuer Stop" works astoundingly well for this important site... one of the most important on the line. In this case, it appears the art was well conceived for the surroundings.

While "they" may be calling the rehab'd bus line down Euclid Avenue the "Health Line", the stations were clearly designed to the Silver Line theme, which I prefer.

Catch the Wave!  Eco-Fashion Show and Party.  Enjoy gourmet local organic eats, cash bar, and an Eco-Friendly fashion show featuring Cleveland’s green fashion entrepreneurs! $15 per person.  (free for Bioneers conference attendees)

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Bioneers Conference 2008 Bioneers, now in its 19th year is an acclaimed leading-edge forum that features a solutions-based approach, connecting environment, social justice, health and spiritual networks.  For the second year, Great Lakes Bioneers—Cleveland will bring to Northeast Ohio the excitement and energy of the inspiring social and scientific innovators speaking at the national conference and a wide-ranging line-up of regional and local speakers, workshops and tours to communicate and celebrate the trailblazing work taking place in our region.  This year’s conference will emphasize water and the important and diverse role that it plays in the social, economic, and natural environment of the Great Lakes Region.   

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The results of a study on violence in the Cleveland public schools, commissioned by the Cleveland Municipal School District, has their leadership and the Cleveland Plain Dealer finally focusing on lead poisoning as a cause of failure of our schools and school children. In an article in today's PD, "Cleveland schools struggle with finding and helping potentially violent students, study reports", a researcher from the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C., which performed the CMSD study on violence in our schools, is quoted saying "Cleveland's plight is unique because of an unusually high rate of lead poisoning - from paint in aging houses - that can affect behavior and academic performance." CMSD Board Member Louise Dempsey is quoted in the article as saying "I'm very pleased to see a lot of this stuff out in the open," she said. "Let's not kid ourselves, we've got to be honest if we're going to solve the problem." I'm pleased to see this getting CMSD Board-level attention.

Fannie Lewis didn’t have a degree from Harvard University but her common sense wisdom could often exceed the judgments of the Ivy League learned.

40 years ago, a great tragedy occurred at Beulah and Lakeview roads - police officers and citizens of Cleveland died here in one of the longest, most deadly urban gunfights and riots in modern American history... the Glenville Shootout.

I was over by Glenville High School today and I asked my friend Snag what was the meaning of the shoes hanging from the powerlines. He said "Fallen Soldiers". I asked if he meant people from around here who were killed... a sort of memorial... and he said basically so. He said they did it in the army, too, and the three pair in the header today are probably for the people killed the other day over by St. Clair...

Shoes hanging from the powerlines behind Glenville High School, by the basketball courts

I've always loved sunflowers, but the bright, sunny blooms glowing in our front yard this Summer are special. The seeds were from the work of art below, in the "To Masumi" memorial exhibition, held last October, in celebration of the everlasting, peaceful, sunny spirit of Masumi Hayashi, the great photographer killed a year earlier, in Cleveland, with other great Cleveland artist John Jackson. The Masumi Sunflower seeds distributed in Tremont may have been planted anywhere on Earth, and I wonder where else such Masumi Sunflowers are growing today, from this one showing of love for love and art received and lost.

I live about two miles from Lake Erie, and went in the water today, for this pan and header, but I do not consider it safe to swim in the water, which is pathetic. Healthy beaches and a healthy Lake Erie would improve the value of all of NEO by $ trillions... that would be worth far more than all the polluters combined. Imagine being able to take a dip here, safely, wherever and whever you like...

Northeast Ohio has some of the dirtiest water and beaches in the world, because we have some of the dirtiest leadership in the world, and that is very poor for Cleveland's image and economy. Fortunately, it seems the region is now positioned to clean up at least one of our messes.

(This photo was taken in Berea)

A fellow librarian sent this article link Source: www.nytimes.com:

I had so much fun at the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in East Cleveland, leading up to the March primary, meeting people and feeling part of something important, that I was excited by news the Shaker Heights campaign office was opening, July 24, 2008... hope to see one in EC soon. Sudhir and I stopped by to enjoy the good vibe. Cool to see a group line dancing to the energy. As we left, Sudhir said he'd like to go to a McCain event, just to see how it compares... I suggested he go to church or a gun show in Central Ohio...

The Barack Obama for President Shaker Heights campaign office opened July 24, 2008, at Shaker Square, where a great turn-out of old friends, young and old, all races, came together for change we can believe in.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Glenville shootout that devastated Cleveland. I see no reference in the Plain Dealer to this historic time in Cleveland.

It’s a time that should be remembered because it remains a significant part of our past, particularly our history of race relations and why Cleveland has had so many problems in the last 40 years.

We forget that we are what we were.

The mistakes of the past give birth to the errors of the future and even today as the city struggles with the horrors of shootings and killings that seem so senseless I see reflections of 1968.  Yet, the outcomes are predictable because we haven’t worked to cure the basic causes of poverty and ignorance.

I would ask you to look – even make a copy – of the review article about 1968 that I wrote a short time ago. Part of it deals with the Glenville shootout and that period of racial conflict.

My feeling is that we are headed into a period that may reflect 1968 but with somewhat different disturbing and violent behavior.

It can be found here.

Another article examining the 1968 Cleveland eruption is available in the Nation magazine at this link with ability to download article:

These photos were taken on my typical walk from my home in East Cleveland to University Circle. Most of the walk is very pleasant, but under this bridge (RTA and railroad) is one of the ugliest sights you will see in Cleveland. It is dark and damp, but worst of all it is littered with so much trash.

The most important message communicated at today's press conference kicking-off Lead Awareness Week was that our government leadership at the state, county and municipal level stand united to eradicate lead poisoning in Northeast Ohio by 2010. Publicly expressing their concern about lead poisoning here, and their commitment to its rapid elimination, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones added important voices to the chorus of public health and social service champions of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... a unique, world-class collaboration of around 85 organizations.

"Read More" public art in the Cleveland Flats... perhaps by The Sign Guy

The nearly completed Richard Fleischman addition to the Putnam Collection, in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio - photos by Evelyn Kiefer - Logo by Norm Roulet - 07/17/08

Who was W.C. Reed? Tremont is fortunate to have a large green space--Lincoln Park--which serves to provide a community center to one Cleveland neighborhood.