If these are average Clevelanders, living in older urban neighborhoods like around University Circle their entire lives, they have been lead poisoned, perhaps severely. Thursday morning, May 22nd, join 100s of NEOs leaders concerned with our community's health, intelligence, safety and economy meeting at the Cleveland Natural History Museum for a free breakfast, keynote discussion and breakout sessions about lead poisoning and urban redevelopment. I guarantee you will leave this brief event with a completely realigned understanding of the core barriers to the success of our urban neighborhoods, leading to better planning for a healthy, effective region in the future.

Hopefully after this week I will be able to put my sweaters and other wool clothes away until next fall. I have a large pile of items ready to go to the dry cleaner but I know the perchloroethelene most dry cleaners use is bad for the environment and bad for my family. What are the alternatives? I have already reduced the number of dry clean only garments in my wardrobe, but many vintage items require dry cleaning.

This certainly has been a perfect spring for flowering trees, still exploding with color all over the near East Side. Here are some views at Lakeview Cemetery, where the plantings are exceptional any time of year, and especially about now. Check it out!

Join the nonprofit organization ClevelandBikes on its annual "Bike to Work" rides, everyday May 12-16, now bigger than ever by partnering with other riding organizations in the first Cleveland Bicycle Week.   Ride and you can be elgible for great prizes!  This year, you can also find partners on your own through a "Bike Buddy" system brought to you by NOACA. And remember, join us for our ride on Wednesday May 14th and wear yellow for Lance Armstrong Foundation's LIVESTRONG Day! 

* ClevelandBikes hosts commuting rides downtown to our host, the Greater Cleveland YMCA (2200 Prospect Avenue), every day during Cleveland Bicycle Week, May 12-16.  Join us for coffee, while the YMCA provides free, secure bike parking, showers and free passes for the day.  Join us and share your goals about riding in Northeast Ohio, while riders are eligible for fun prizes.

* ClevelandBikes is also pleased to assist with the Northeast Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), which is offering to match solo riders through th Ohio Ride Share "Bike Buddy" program, matching riders with common starting points,ride times and common destinations (www.ohiorideshare.com).

* ClevelandBikes also supports a major health initiative, with a "Bike to Work"ride for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (www.livestrong.org) and "LIVESTRONG" day on Wednesday May 14.

* ClevelandBikes will host "Bike to Work" rides on the final Friday of every month and special rides for festivals and other activities.

Pick a starting location from the list below and ride along with a ClevelandBikes ride leader, or just meet us between 8:00 and 9:00 AM at our downtown host, the Greater Cleveland YMCA,  which is offering free showers, secure bike parking and free day passes for YMCA activities.

East Side Starting Points

7:45 AM  Arabica at 11300 Juniper in University Circle
7:15 AM  Dewey's Coffee on Shaker Square
7:30 AM  Starbucks at Cedar and Fairmount
7:00 AM  Bus Shelter at E. 222nd and Lakeshore
7:45 AM  McDonald's on E. 159th and Lakeshore

South Side Starting Point
7:15 AM  Arabica at 5615 Turney Rd.

West Side Starting Points
7:45 AM  Civilization Coffee Shop in Tremont at W. 11th and Kenilworth
7:50 AM  Talkies Film and Coffee Bar in Ohio City at 2521 Market Ave.
7:25 AM  Phoenix in Lakewood at 15108 Detroit near Warren Rd.
7:50 AM  Arabica in Lakewood at 11604 Detroit near W. 116th

National "Bike to Work" Week is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists  (www.bikeleague.org), which offers bicycle advocacy and support programs for more than 125 years.

ClevelandBikes , a 501C3 nonprofit organization, is committed to advancing all forms of bicycling as economical and healthful recreation, sport and transportation.

For More Information, Contact:  Kevin Cronin
216.374.7578; kevin [at] clevelandbikes [dot] org
On the Web: www.clevelandbikes.org
When ClevelandBikes. Cleveland Benefits!

What is a "Green Roof" and what does it look like?

At the house on Roxbury, the green roof is where the raccoons still live.

One great thing about a gravel driveway is you can hear them coming.

This afternoon, Claes and I were chilling at home in East Cleveland, minding our own business, when we heard that crunch of rocks under heavy tires. Then the slam of a car door, and heavy feet on the front porch... another drive-by had arrived. It's been happening regularly since we started renovating the house on Roxbury, late last Summer.... especially on a beautiful day like today.

So I am just back from 14 days in Japan.  Interesting to be on the sidelines as 3,000 Japanese police protect the olympic toarch from what I thought would be a calm, reserved crowd.  Dont get me wrong, I was not in Nagano, I was in Shibuya / Tokyo.. but it got a lot of attention.  Pro and anti China student groups and observers literally throwing punches, 70 year old Japanese men going to jail for throwing tomatoes in the face of the police protecting the toarch... etc.  It was akin to what I saw in the USA when the toarch came thru California.

As we begin a new Spring - a new beginning - what are you doing to green your republic?

What does tomorrow look like? For Fritz Haeg it is a place where rather than waste precious natural resources on vanity-scapes like the ubiquitous front lawn we learn to work with the earth and find both beauty and functionality in personal and social investments such as his  “Edible Estates”. It is a tomorrow that includes architecture as a way of relocating animals to their natural habitats. Haeg will discuss his work as an architect, designer, educator, curator, artist, in short---visionary, as well as his ideas about an alternate model to the artist as isolated creator.

fritzhaeg.com
NY Times
Metropolis
www.cia.edu/tomorrow

Location

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On March 12, 2008, Cleveland Plain Dealer deputy editorial page director Kevin O'Brien published a snide, pointless editorial taking the position global warming is over-hyped. His conclusion is a Russian scientist predicts the world is entering a new Ice Age, which trumps Global Warming, so do nothing about Global Warming. I googled the Russian scientist O'Brien references - Oleg Sorokhtin - and came across a February 25th National Post column, by conservative Canadian columnist Lorne Gunter, to which O'Brien's March 12th column is so similar as to be plagiarism, in my book.

There is a need for the thoughtful people of Northeast Ohio to speak up loud and clear - sound an alarm - about environmental issues here, and our impact here on environmental issues worldwide.  We should do this in our everyday life, and we should participate in community efforts to speak in harmony about saving planet Earth. One way to shout-out that "This is a state of global emergency" is to become an "Alarmist". As posted on REALNEO here, for this April 11, at 11 AM local time, for one minute, and each 11th of the month thereafter, at 11 AM,  Alarmists declare, "We need to set off the world's alarms. Join in. It could be the alarm on your phone, in your home, in your car. You could gather some friends to make some noise. Organise a flash mob. Schedule a company fire drill. Borrow a vintage air raid siren... Be creative. Raise the alarm." So, people of REALNEO, how should we sound the first Alarmism minute?

Location

On April 3, 2007 there was a discussion about the proposal for a new Cuyahoga County Administration building here on Realneo.   Around that time I had read a letter written by Tim Ferris which suggested that the present County Administration building was originally built to be expanded upward.   Today I add the photo above to confirm that the building was intended to be continued upward – you can see the columns projecting right up through the roof on both the main Administration Building and the Annex building.  I’ll bet if you removed the copper flashing from the top of the columns, there would be a plate with bolt holes already in it, ready to accept the steel columns for floors 5, 6, 7, etc.  

 

The Cleveland City Council Chamber is a grand room, with wood paneling, curved seating and a colorful mural above President Sweeney’s high backed seat. 

Cleveland City Council should rescind its involvement in AMP-Ohio's proposed coal-fired utility in southern Ohio. A fifty year commitment to coal is the wrong direction, for Cleveland Public Power (CPP), its customers and the environment. Instead, CPP should develop a comprehensive plan for energy need and energy sources, that includes efforts to reduce demand through conservation, insulation, wind, solar and other alternative sources.

The 15 story Dulski Federal Building in Buffalo, New York is undergoing a down to the steel skeleton re-hab.   This building was constructed in the early 1970’s, and besides the time of its construction, shares other similarities with the Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower built in 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio. 

I just received fantastic news from Annie Stahlheber with the Cardiovascular Task Force and Cuyahoga County Board of Health.  East Cleveland won one of only three $25,000 grants awarded nationally by Kaboom! as Playful City, USA.  This awards video reviews all the winners, from honorable mentions to grand prize grants.  East Cleveland's award is presented at the conclusion of the video and includes a nice bit featuring Mayor Eric Brewer and a select group of East Cleveland's young players. 

The Buffalo News reports today that the complicated gearboxes on the Clipper wind turbines in Lackawanna, New York have caused the facility to shut down.   The photo above was taken in September of 2007 and shows the eight Clipper turbines on the old Bethlehem slag heaps with Buffalo in the left hand background.

Happy New Year 2008 to all the top-through-under dogs of Northeast Ohio. My resolution is to question everything.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

By Rachael Derrick

Brunswick Sun Times