Just as a reminder that there is plenty of room for meetings without a new convention center. Why doesn’t Cleveland Positively sell out of these venues? Quoting from a Cleveland Crain’s Business listings here are convention and meeting spaces available in Cleveland and its near suburbs. Lest we forget in order to build another structure for the Forest City Gang: - Cleveland Convention Center – 124,067 square feet of meeting space. - I-X Center – 101,045 square feet. - Playhouse Square Center – 90,000 square feet.

In my travels around Cleveland and elsewhere I realized that one of the landscape features in which I am most interested are the “markings” made on the environment. I don’t have the articulate smell of a dog – nosing around for that intense spot where a prior dog had lifted their leg. Rather it is my eyes that are influenced by the nuanced messages scattered about.

BREAKING NEWS!!! WHO NUKED TREMONTER?

WHICH ONE OF THE USUAL SUSPECTS WILL GET THE BLAME?

HENRY, DEBRA, JERLEEN OR DID CAPTAIN CODE ENFORCER PULL ONE LAST PLUG?

BETTER YET, DID ANYBODY GET A GLIMPSE OF SANTA AND THE BAG OF LOOT OR WAS SAMUEL AND HIS JOHN DEERE  LURKING ABOUT?

Folks, the much enjoyed Tremonter closed it's blog site for good this evening.  Some say the truth hurts and others say the truth sets you free.

Ed Hauser’s death was a tragedy that didn’t have to happen. It was a death that should not have happened. In many other countries, it would not have happened. The circumstances of his death may be the reason many more will die today and tomorrow. Ed died because America doesn’t have the decency to protect its own citizens with the health care that’s basic in all other industrial societies. The American aversion to universal health care is killing people by neglect. It must be corrected. Ed didn’t have health insurance.

Here is the Winter Reality for those of us under the superstructure of the reinforced concrete bridge.

Color      brilliant   detail

On hard concrete surfaces  cold InFRASTRUCTURE

Illegal

which we made REAL

in winter 

in Cleevland 

tell me it's rong 

  Are there any citizens left in Cuyahoga County. I mean real CITIZENS.  If there are, please show some civic responsibility. Please raise your voices.

Cargill salt ponds, Bonaire

Let's not forget that what we see here in NEO isn't what most people see - these flamingos have their heads under water pecking for brine shrimp - to keep their feathers pink.

There is a world much sunnier, much bigger than Cleveland out there!

This positive, upbeat viewpoint is dedicated to Frank Giglio who lost his house today.

This morning two of my friends and I bumped into Frank Giglio in front of his home on West 14^th Street, in Tremont (Cleveland), Ohio. Mr. Giglio pulled up along the sidewalk in his car while we were walking by (with Tucker, the dog). Mr. Giglio had a cup of hot coffee balanced in his lap below the steering wheel, and through the open car window I could see the steam rising up out of the half consumed coffee cup as we spoke. I felt kind of bad realizing that any conversation we had was going to result in that second half of the Sunday morning coffee being cold.

Apparently, Frank Giglio's house in Tremont was demolished today. So much for sharing and caring and community and holiday spirit in NEO.

EDWARD J. "CITIZEN" HAUSER, beloved son of Walter and Theresia; dearest brother of Harold, Sylvia, Thomas, and Caroline Widemann (husband Reiner); dear uncle of Nicole and Erik; dear friend of Cathy Stahurski; dear nephew, cousin and friend to many.

Ed Hauser died suddenly November 14, 2008. Northeast Ohio has lost its most ardent, studied and tenacious citizen activist.

There was a special time in my life when Ed and I worked together, developing REALNEO. We worked in the Caxton and spent lots of time at our favorite Cleveland cafe, AJ Rocco's, on the ground floor. AJs is also where Ed held the screening party for "Citizen Hauser", and it was one of the first places I went to connect with Ed's spirit, after he passed on. This is a memorial pan from the day after Ed died.

I've been messing around with some ideas for a favicon for REALNEO -- the little icon that shows up next to the URL in your browser, or when you bookmark the site, etc. Don't know about anyone else, but I'd really like to see REALNEO with its own icon instead of the standard Drupal raindrop.

I haven't gotten far yet, but I do believe I've hunted down the two fonts used in the logo, (heretofore a mystery, as far as I can tell.)

An old logo I found:

{C}

Happened to look at Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s official site and it made me wonder why Peggy Zone Fisher’s profile and photo are linked there. Did we elect Lee’s wife, too? I don’t think so. That made me think a bit more after I was told some rather high-faulting ticket prices were being asked for the annual fund-raising dinner for Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. So I look at the Diversity Center and learn its director is none other than Peggy Zone Fisher. Guess who’s the Diversity honoree of the year? Now, come on, think. Well, Lt. Gov.

How disgusting and vile are the charges from Sen. George Voinovich that Sen. Barack Obama is a “Socialist.” It tells me that Voinovich would be a staunch McCarthyism advocate if this were the 1950s. What's so ironic and laughable is the Voinovich record of being a Socialist mayor to the Rich of Cleveland. His record is replete with massive give-aways to Cleveland corporate interest. It isn’t for nothing that he once bragged to the New York Times that he loved “Fat Cats,” meaning wealthy corporate types.

An excellent report, "Casino Impact on Midtown" by Ed Morrison on the economic impact of a casino in the Midtown area.

Timely and relevant information to clearly understand the ramifications of Issue 6, which promotes a future downtown casino as a workfarce development and job creation effort by the City of Cleveland. Issue 6 has now been approved to be placed on the Nov ballot.

You would have to describe last night first public hearing on the medical mart & convention center issue in Cleveland Heights as at least amusing. It was hardly productive. The meeting, scheduled at 5 p.m., started nearly a half hour late and then after a nearly 10 minute introduction by sponsor Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones the podium was passed to Squire Sanders & Dempsey boss Fred Nance. He took another 40 minutes of time talking about the report.

History has been made. Surprisingly so. In a surprisingly short time.

It’s hard to imagine 45 years ago tonight I had a train ticket to Washington, D. C., for the historic March on Washington.

At the time I was working as the assistant to the editor of the Bridgeport Sunday Post, now the Connecticut Post. I was told by the editor that I could not take the day off and should not to go to Washington.

The Coit Road Farmers Market is one of the most endearing places in real NEO. Hidden away in a near-dead industrial graveyard of East Cleveland, with the curb-appeal of a brownfield, it is not a place one goes without intent. So it amazes me that just about every time I go there I see someone I know. I guess I know some pretty smart people.

Let’s not get carried away with the FBI & IRS raids on some politicians and a few business people who will likely get off for “cooperating.”

What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?