Global warming will bring an end to white Christmas and winter as we've always known in, here in NEO, so during the first real snowstorm of this season, December 16, 2007, I went in search of a visual symbol of NEO, in my neighborhood, strong enough to stand out in white-out conditions, and I came to the Breuer! Not the Breuer Tower, of global controversy, but the Breuer Museum wing of global celebration, design elements of which are featured in the latest additions to the Cleveland Museum of Art, shown on the left here, now evolving form in the hands of Vinoly.

George Nemeth, over on Fresh Brewed Daily, has picked up this bellweather post which has the metrics on blog discussions re topics of local interest around the US.   The blog index is a new and, I believe, very important statistic.

Louie (on the left) is lugging one of the 75 pound precast concrete waffle blocks.   Each block covers about 1.5 square feet.  At $12.00 each, or $8.00 per square foot, this is a little more expensive than having a concrete driveway installed.

 

As part of the Star Neighborhood Development planning for the Star Complex and surrounding one mile radius, I have been planning the redevelopment of the current Cleveland Institute of Art Gund Building and land, on East Boulevard in Cleveland, shown below (full size image here).

November 28, 2007, renowned architect Carl Stein, FAIA, Principal of elemental architecture, llc, of New York City, shared his valuable understanding about the environment in Northeast Ohio and the world, focusing on the energy of buildings and a specific analysis of the Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower, in downtown Cleveland. This is the only high-rise by revolutionary architect Marcel Breuer, and it is globally appreciated as a masterpiece of modern design and construction... yet it is planned for demolition by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Dimora and Hagan.  Stein worked with Breuer for many years, including when Breuer built the Cleveland Trust Tower, and Stein's conclusion is there is no rational excuse for demolishing the Breuer. As Stein states, "just that Breuer and this building are so important is enough reason to preserve the Breuer"... although Stein gives many other reasons!

Third and Last of 3 Bauhaus-Breuer events this week: Wednesday, November 28 at 6 pm at Judson Manor —Green building and modernism; are they antithetical?  (I'm  posting this for Susan Miller who's one of the organizers)

Trees For Every Purpose

 

By Therese Ciesinski

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now. - Chinese proverb

Add beauty and value to your home, provide essential food and shelter for wildlife, and help reduce carbon in the atmosphere in one simple step: planting a tree. And right now, autumn, is the time to plant because warm soil coaxes new growth from roots, while cool nights and rainy skies minimize evaporation and water stress.

Pacific Northwest is example of energy boom — and worried biologists

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.

By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields — cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.

Picked up from CoolCleveland.com Mittal Steel & Your Health

Join Cleveland area doctors, nurses, and community leaders for a public hearing on the topic Wed 11/14 at 6:30PM at Tri-C’s downtown Metro campus in room CC10. Light refreshments will be served. Come to find out why 375 Cleveland area doctors and nurses have written to Cleveland’s biggest polluter, Mittal Steel, urging pollution prevention. Dr. Kathleen Fagan from University Hospital's Swetland Environmental Health Center will speak at the event paneled by Dr. Anne Wise, Kim Foreman, and Dr. Dan Brustein. For more information or ridesharing contact Liz Ilg with Ohio Citizen Action at 861-5200. http://www.ohiocitizen.org

Location

There’s a little mystery on the plywood construction wall around the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

Though you might not get down to see the show in its current installation in the windows of the Cleveland Chapter of the AIA, you will have a chance to see it reprised when you attend Bauhaus in America/ a film by Judith Pearlman at Cleveland Cinematheque on November 17.

Location

Years have past since our REALNEO team first presented a vision for a holistic and sustainable East Cleveland transformation at a town hall meeting held by former Mayor Saratha Goggins.  Since then, our team has pushed forward with a diverse group of advocates for positive change and today we are poised to introduce many of the concepts we originally envisioned as part of the Star development project.  

While looking on Green City Blue Lake for a posting on the Breuer, I came across an interesting article by Marc Lefkowitz called "Warm up to district geothermal in Cleveland", which writes "Representatives from Case, UCI, Cleveland Clinic, city of Cleveland, Flats East Bank and Neighborhood Progress, Inc.— which is considering geothermal district power at its St. Luke’s development—met yesterday (October 22, 2007) at the Cleveland Foundation" to discuss "The economics of district-wide geothermal". It seems these groups are exploring large scale geothermal projects to help meet large energy needs, like for University Hospitals.

UK householders can halt the decline of many birds by making their gardens more wildlife-friendly, a charity says.

 

This Fall, rather than raking and blowing those autumn leaves off your lawn and garden  why don’t you just mow them into your lawn and leave them in your garden.

 

Star Neighborhood Development is rapidly nearing completion of the first phase of historic renovation and greening of "the finest house on Roxbury" - interior above - a wonderfully designed and constructed, classic 3,000+ square-foot 1906 American Tudor home, in a transitional urban historic neighborhood of East Cleveland, a transitional city bordering dynamic University Circle and Cleveland Heights.

There are many big industrial sites around Cleveland I pass regularly - some are active brownfields, like the Flats, and some are abandoned. Some feature Cleveland Landbank signs and are in stages of redevelopment... the one featured here is on the West Side of Cleveland, at Bishop Road and Madison, by W. 117, and the city has clearly spent $millions clearing up this huge property of many acres.

Ann Arbor, Michigan has instituted a smart tiered method of taxing residential and commercial properties for storm water costs – the more impervious surface you have on your property, the more storm water abatement tax you pay. Check it out Here

 

As I've continued to plug away and progress with East Cleveland technology plans with fellow RealNEO partner Norm Roulet we thought it would be fitting to share some exciting  developments. This terrific Tudor transformation at 1894 Roxbury has been a joy to behold and though the historic preservation piece makes for a great story in its own right, I've been more invigorated by the potential to incorporate a series of sustainable strategies to ensure that this becomes a model green and smart home for East Cleveland homeowners to aspire to. This has offered a wonderful practical, experiential consulting opportunity. The technology coming into play to make this all happen has been another great learning point.  I now sit typing from the Roxbury estate with the luxury of a Skype smart phone, top of the line iMAC 24 inch widescreen desktop and the makings of our very own test server at my fingertips. I also had the good fortune to (just yesterday) secure thousands of dollars of computer equipment to enable the creation of an actual computing lab, hacking site and cluster at the Hough /Star Complex in East Cleveland. Now I am in the process of securing the latest Ubuntu downloads for both server and desktop whilst writing this very blog post. Our WiFi is up and running here , humming along at a robust and hardy 11 MBps.