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

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...

I had the bad fortune to need to drive around NEO this afternoon, so I was exposed to some of the dumbest people on Earth, all over town, and their socially repugnant Hummers and other gas guzzlers, and the poor behavior of many NEO drivers in general. The First Hummer was some jerk cruising around town at probably 8 MPG, yacking away on his cell phone... probably busy trying to rule the world...

Located next to A. J. Rocco's, the coolest coffeehouse and microbar in downtown Cleveland, in the Caxton Building, at 810 Huron Road, Prospect Music is a compact explosion of instruments and good old fashion small business vibe, still attracting the big international talent when it's in town... where do you find your musical voice, superstar

For the past two years I've loved having an office in the Caxton Building, because there are a few cool local businesses there keeping Cleveland real - A. J. Roccos, Wilberts, Camera City, Gerrard Optical and of course Prospect Music. I was a Prospect Music customer 20+ years ago, searching for a musical voice - I haven't found it yet (I think my calling is drums... still need to try for real) - so I'm glad there is a music store in town that makes a beginner feel like everyone can be a star. Of course, owner Michael Rubin knows about stars, being one himself, all through life and now with top rated jazz band Blue Lunch, and Prospect Music is definitely the only place in town for local and international stars, as you will see if you visit the store and their guest book, featuring legends from John Coltrane to Joe Walsh... so many of the greatest musicians in history have signed in and said thanks...who may you join on your way to the big stage or inner peace of musical glory? Mayor Jackson knows, as he shops here for his family regularly.

So who are you following into Prospect Music and down the road to music stardom or karmic bliss? Escape wonkdom and visit Prospect Music... see a few of your friends who have signed in here...

10,000s of NEOans turned out on a perfectly crisp, clear Saturday in University Circle for "Parade The Circle", the annual public art participation extravagansa organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This book contains photos and comments from a heavenly day in NEO... see the links in the navigation block on the left and below and enjoy the parade!

 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

Lots of people know that lead poisoning played a role in the fall of the Roman Empire (lead pipes) but in December 2005 it was learned that Beethoven died of lead poisoning - probably from a combination of pipes, lead seals on wine and documents, crystal, ceramics and paints - they started outlawing lead in Europe at the end of the 19th Century... it took America nearly a century longer...

Saturday and Sunday, April 29 & 30, 2006, the Tri-C JazzFest took the spectacular stage at the East Cleveland Public Library, custom built for jazz by world-class library leader Greg Reese, for two major FREE concerts that drew full house crowds to a community few know and so most don't appreciate. After this weekend, many more people understand East Cleveland is the coolest city in NEO.

We are enjoying the early signs of spring, and looking forward to this year's Easter Egg hunt in Cleveland Heights... coming up on April 15, I believe. Above is a photo from the hunt last year.

Constant Systems' Aidan Audouy and Diane Brown drew a diverse audience for a roundtable dedicated to closing the economic development loops needed to attract their company to Northeast Ohio. Roundtable attendees had the one challenge: to learn enough about Constant Systems to determine who we know who may help Constant Systems succeed here - an experiment in viral social networking, open source economic development and the power within very few degrees of separation. In other words, among the diverse thirty-or-so folks who came together for the Excellence Roundtable, we expect to be able to connect the representatives of Constant Systems with the people they still need to meet here to succeed... customers... very specialized customers, primarily in medical-related R&D, of which NEO has many, and access all world-wide.

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.

Location

Folks interested in NEO will enjoy reading this write-up on Cleveland from a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - what was right then is what's best now (what remains) and what will be best if we can get it better together in the future... read back to then...

I was very excited to participate in a "Meet the Bloggers" discussion with East Cleveland mayor Eric J. Brewer, with George Nemeth and others, and it was a fantastic experience... what a great initiative Meet the Bloggers is... and the result is a thorough and revealing look into a man very few people really know, largely because the Plain Dealer has taken great efforts to present him as bad. Well, as far as anyone I know and I can tell, Brewer is good. If you care about truth in NEO, you REALLY MUST listen to Part 1 linked below, as Brewer discusses in detail his involvement in the indictment of former Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor... and in Part 3, don't miss Brewer's explanation for the poor treatment of him by the Plain Dealer - this is a major coup for "Meet the Bloggers".

Now posting to realneo... photos from the 2006 St. Patrick's Day St. Baldrick's shave-in at A.J. Rocco's, which will raise over $150,000 this year for Childhood Cancer research... perhaps much more, with your continuing support.... and yes, there is a TEAM NEO and that has Sudhir and Norm of "REALNEO gone bald".

St. Patrick's Day at A.J. Rocco's is a sight - people overflowing out the doors and across the patio - but that is nothing compared to what goes on inside...  barkeeps and barbers raising over $100K for children's cancer research. As hard as it is to imagine, in a few hours scores of men and women will have their heads shaved in a bar, and people will pledge money to the St. Baldrick's foundation... lots of money.

Location

Orchid Mania: Blossoms & Butterflies
Major Exhibit February 25 through March 26, 2006  

Location

Location

"The Best Market in the World" is how a vendor at Basketeria describes the West Side Market, and he's close enough for me. Historic, striking, convenient, accessible, friendly, quality, fresh - a landmark and asset beyond measure - the West Side Market is a regular part of the lives of people in NEO who live right.