WCPN's "90.3 at 9" show tomorrow is going to focus on urban housing issues in Cleveland. They've invited several of the folks who are part of the City Club's series on Redeveloping Cleveland. (See our website, http://www.cclandtrust.org/News.html#6/20/2006 for information on the series.)

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When I saw last week a preview for the Thursday, June 29, 2006, WVIZ "Ideas" program featured PD Arts and Architecture columnist Steven Litt and Cuyahoga County Planning Director Paul Alsenas discussing the state of ODOT's plans for a new bridge to replace the current I-90 span across the Cuyahoga River, I thought I was having déjà vu. Yes, this was an issue a year ago... even six months ago, but since then ODOT had so thoroughly railroaded the bridge and trench planning process through the public mind-space that it seemed all topics of discussion about this near $billion project had moved completely behind closed doors and forgotten. Well, it seems Litt and Alsenas have very different ideas about that, as they shared in an excellent "Ideas" this week, and as Litt writes at length in today's Plain Dealer. Be sure to read that article... and great work on Ideas, Steven and Paul!!! Read on...

I am really appreciative, this morning. After posting what was certainly the saddest news I can imagine, about the hardship my staff has suffered as a result of a lack of appreciation from my former business associate, Peter Holmes, I opened up this week's CoolCleveland and found that their crew had featured TWO postings from REALNEO. I am very touched and thankful to Thomas and his team for noticing REALNEO and taking an interest in the thoughts posted here - thank you. Please show appreciation back to CoolCleveland... if you are not a member, see what you've been missing... subscribe at CoolCleveland - all free - this is a real NEO must,  and send feedback to CoolCleveland letters at the links below, and supporting the upcoming CoolCleveland/Tech/Ingenuity party at Fat Fish Blue, July 13, and the Ingenuity Festival, as described below... but first, here's the nice write-up about REALNEO from CoolCleveland today, July 5, 2006:

I've seen mentioned on REALNEO and many other sites in town that there is a 1 million MgW solar challenge from the Cleveland Foundation to encourage adoption of solar power in NEO. There is mention of a solar challenge workshop on this later this month, but no details at this link. I know people interested in solar for two very distinct properties I can influence, and I have the attention of some developers as well, but none of those parties will go to workshops, and I believe the best thing would be for a professional to survey the sites and spec solutions (as innovative as possible), so I really don't know where to begin.

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...

One of the defenses of the paint and lead industries against litigation over lead poisoning is the paint companies claim there is no way to identify which paint company made which lead paint - they claim is is all one big public nuisance and deny any responsibility.

 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

Knowing I was having a child, I moved from a Cleveland apartment that had significant peeling paint in the window wells and dust in the yard to a "Certified" apartment in Shaker Heights (costing twice as much), where property is inspected regularly and tends to be well maintained. Now that my son is one, and I understand there is not a safe level of lead exposure, and I know blood testing for lead poisoning conducted by my pediatrician is not accurate enough to measure low level lead exposure, I'm looking more closely at my immediate environment and finding many causes for alarm.

The Northeast Ohio Area Coordination Agency's (NOACA) 7th Annual Summit, "Exploring Our Region's Potential," will be held Friday, June 9, 2006. The Summit will focus on transportation, economic development, and air and water quality issues in Northeast Ohio. Lee Fisher (D) and Representative Tom Raga (R), candidates for lieutenant governor, will present their plans for economic development in Ohio and the region. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The Summit begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs to about 2 p.m.

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When you look at the sites of all Wolstein Developers Diversified Realty projects they are low quality big box strip centers, located at major highway interchanges. In the case of the interchange above, the highway ramp off I-271 literally feeds right into the DDR WalMart development.

  From DDR Website at http://www.ddr.com/center_intro.php

Driving into the Future: The Innerbelt Project

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 It is extremely important to control all dust in and around any home where there is a lead risk. Unfortunately, research shows that where there are lead risks dust control alone has little impact in reducing lead poisoning - the reduction in elevated blood lead levels is measurable and worthwhile but not sufficient to have an overall benefit to the child, or surface a solution for society.

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...

While looking for lead testing kits and information in East Cleveland, at Silvermans, I slipped into paparazzi mode as I spotted three future leaders of our NEO new economy, chilling on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. They let me snap their pictures, which will be worth a fortune when these guys are famous. It can happen, when we keep our kids lead free.

 Celebrate the Region's Newest Waterfront Park - Wendy Park at Whiskey Island

This just in, from Greater Ohio... these economic incentives are important to historic preservation - perhaps it's not to late to save the dozens of historic buildings in and around the Flats and downtown Cleveland that are currently doomed to demolition by community planners... at least folks seem to care about preservation in Columbus... anyone care here?

Historic preservation tax credit passes Ohio House

Am Sub HB 149 passed the Ohio House with a unanimous vote Tuesday morning, May 16, marking an important victory for Greater Ohio and other groups supporting redevelopment of older communities. It now goes to the Senate where a companion bill, SB 60, has been considered but not passed. The Senate will take up the House version. (Compare the two bills.)

WHAT’S IN A BRIDGE ABUTMENT?

Keep a bridge abutment without the bridge…why? A pile of rocks or a concentration of feng shui? That’s the question the Cleveland Landmark Commission will consider TOMORROW: should the remaining  Central Viaduct bridge abutment in front of the Broadway Mills Building be committed to the historic register?

For so many reasons, University Circle and its institutions and the surrounding neighborhood are core to what I value in NEO, and I look forward to seeing all that continually expand in significance to me, the region and world. But, University Circle is a small geographic domain, which must be optimized for 21 organizational stakeholders, and their 1,000,000s of stakeholders, including everyone associated with Case, University Hospitals, the VA, CIA, Cleveland Museum(s), Institute of Music, Orchestra, etc., and all others in the community.

In visioning for a better region and future here, consider a broader interpretation of University Circle from the small cultural, healthcare and university center of Cleveland to the center of the entire University Community of NEO.

The NY Times featured an interesting editorial on "Aging in Place", published 04/22/06, raises many issues to address in NEO right now. The editorial is promoting "reverse mortgages" to allow older homeowners to tap into the equity in their homes to pay for their living costs, ideally until the end. It is very sad the end costs to live and die now eclipse the lifetime wealth and accrued assets of most Americans, who will hope at best to die without major financial hardships - increasingly, dying at home. There are many reasons for these irreversible trends, from the disproportionately aging population (also causing SS crisis) and exploding healthcare expectations and costs to overall longer lifespans.