All local food initiatives need to have sound economic fundamentals. The interesting thing about wine is that lots of people pay lots of money to drink lots of it, while few really know much about what they are drinking.

To raise money, the Cleveland Orchestra used to and perhaps still does sell a private label wine, and my parents bought 20-30 cases a year. If the objective is to have a "Chateau Hough" wine, for branding or fundraising, that could be released in a few weeks... just find local wineries willing to label some of their wine for Chateau Hough and sell away.

If the objective is a "Chateau Hough Winery" that is bricks and mortar and produces quality wine from quality grapes, they will be buying the grapes from other sources for a long time, if not always, but they could have the wine processing, storage, bottling, labeling, etc., in Hough.

I think any of those ideas could work, if there is someone who really wants to make it happen. But those plans would probably be small scale - like Great Lakes Brewing Company, at best. And it would probably include a restaurant. There are enough doctors and other relatively wealthy people within a few miles of there - from the Clinic to downtown - and enough boutique restaurants and markets in the region, that any sincere effort to promote a Chateau Hough wine of any quality could sell.

To include in the plan developing vineyards is a whole other business that may or may not make sense in Hough. 

With proven methods we may produce around $200,000 worth of other various simple, raw, grown food per urban acre, for which there is a certain market. 

If some people want to grow grapes and produce wine, what is cool. But let's not start thinking a good bottle of wine is more important than a good jar of strawberry jam... and around where I went to college they make wine from strawberries, so there is no reason to focus on grapes, to produce wine.

As a last thought, I believe there are already billions of dandelions growing in Hough just waiting for harvesting each Summer, and they may be used for wine as well... and are free.

Free wine... in the urban core, where it is most needed and will be greatly appreciated... that makes real sense to me.

Disrupt IT

In this article by Mansfield Frazier, he addresses the early misconceptions for those who were not in attendance at the winery in Hough meeting held last month:

In Vino Veritas

"They also heard from attorney Richard Herman, who explained the EB5 visa, a federal program that would allow millionaire investors from all over the world, and especially from China, to invest in the winery idea, as well as other business startups in minority communities. The new stores and shops along stretches of Payne Avenue (Cleveland’s newly emerging Chinatown) is something we in Hough should be seeking to emulate in our own community, and outside investors have assisted in the development of many other areas of the country. Columbus redeveloped an entire section of the city with the efforts of African immigrants — many of whom we slammed the door on here in Cleveland.

The visa program is relatively simple and straight forward: If a foreign national invests $1 million in a business that creates 10 jobs, the investor and his immediate family are granted green cards — the first step to American citizenship. Other investors — some that don’t care to leave their home countries — are looking to invest a great deal more. They’re holding literally trillions of US dollars abroad and know that the American economy, while at low-ebb now, is one of the most stable in the world.

Take the Medical Mart for instance. According to Herman, Chinese investors stand ready to put up all of the money to make the project a reality (instead of us taxing ourselves to raise the funds). The City of Philadelphia recently went that route on their proposed convention center. When our elected officials give a dozen reasons why something can’t be done here that is being done successfully elsewhere, the smell of bullshit begins to permeate the air."

I find it helpful to get a bit more information (than that contained in the invitation to a preliminary ideas meeting) about something before ruling it out or labeling it ass backwards. Frazier apparently smells bullshit, too and it's not because his neighbor has a bull in the backyard.

As far as the location, Jeff, it could be that anything TJ Dow does in the shadow of the Cleveland Clinic is simply because, uh... his ward is in the shadow of the Clinic; it's southern border is Chester Avenue from E30th to E105th. 

How about your opinion on the immigration issue? I think I have heard you say that immigrants are part of the problem, not potentially a part of a solution. What say you? Protectionism and a wall between Southern California and Mexico, or a more complex investment strategy like the one outlined above?

Please click though and read Frazier's piece before firing off a response.