Scenarios USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that that uses writing and filmmaking to foster youth leadership, advocacy and self-expression in under-served teens. Scenarios USA asks teens to write about the issues that shape their lives for the annual "What's the REAL DEAL?" writing contest, and thousands have responded with their raw and revealing insights.

Location

I spent the afternoon at the Burning River Fest on Whiskey Island.

When the Cleveland population dipped below 500,000, the population basis for many federal grant formula, the ability of the federal partner to help on our urban problems was constrained, as the City became one of only many cities across the country, rather than one of the larger, most impactful cities on its own. So strategies to increase the city population deserve special consideration, yes? Well, perhaps not.

It is official - "Cuyahoga County commissioners voted 2-1 today to raise the sales tax a quarter of a penny to help bring a Medical Mart to Cleveland." Perhaps you'd like time to think about this more, and the opportunity to vote with other citizens on how you are taxed.  Other citizens feel the same and have formed a committee to "Put It On The Ballot"- a grass-roots campaign to collect enough signatures to force the 1/4% sales tax increase to be placed on a ballot. This Friday, July 27, there will be an Excellence Roundtable at The Inner Circle where some of the people involved with this campaign will join a discussion on this issue, from all directions.

To learn more about the campaign, visit http://putitontheballot.com - you'll certainly read more about this initiative on this site and on REALNEO throughout the coming months. 7GEN (developer of REALNEO) is providing this Drupal site for this initiative, and I look forward to learning more about the campaign and all related issues.

Location

Third Federal will close it's downtown branch due to the decline in traffic.  Has any one on the Third Federal payroll noticed the orange barrels on Euclid?

 

Beauty inside the mind of the beholder? sure, but education from our peers who know the difference helps get us up the ladder of appreciation.  Here's a shot from the plebian street...GOT UGLY?  Marcel Breuer – do you get it?

Seems like a simple idea, but I've never seen it elsewhere.   Will Alsop

 Many of the world's brightest cryptographers are codebreaking as we speak, in dark labs all over.  The DaVinci Code is the perplexing puzzle puzzling people like the Pope.  I have some hardcore thoughts around which we All need to postulate and ponder.  World's intellectuals Unite! 

My idea to Crack that Code is to simply state the following Six Sentences.  Listen up Y'all!

I was struck by Sam Miller's comment in today's Plain Dealer editorial Come Together:

"If you people out in Gates Mills and Pepper Pike and Beachwood and Westlake and Bay Village want to turn your back on this problem, then figure out how you are going to maintain good school systems and get a good price for your house. You are not. You will get caught in the same decline that is overtaking Cleveland now."

- Sam Miller

At about 5:30 p.m. this evening I walked south bound on the Coventry Road sidewalk in front of City Buddha and two young teenage boys walked by me headed north. The shorter of the two stopped and pulled what looked like a pistol handle from his pocket and said, "wana see my 45?" The taller boy laughed.

It has always bothered me to see full page ads in the Cleveland Plain Dealer for the traveling "Collectibles Buyers" who come into town for a few days to prey upon the most desperate citizens of our region, setting up shop in some seedy motel to buy jewelry, coins, watches, etc... the family treasures... from anyone they can scam. Recently, a local TV investigator did a segment on this sad practice, showing that the brokers offer their victims low values only the most pathetic fools would accept.

What's going on - this lawn looks like it has measles – how come there are some areas where the snow has melted, and other areas where the snow hasn’t melted?   I took this shot yesterday AM.   Salt has nothing to do with the melted areas...

Whiskey Island Land Uses - Resolved After Nine Years!

Until I stood by the trackside to take the photo above, it really hadn’t dawned on me what was going on…what was going on in the big picture. 

The Genesis Project   :  Creating a New Garden of Eden Inside the Earth

Sudhir Kade Raghupathy

Creator and Futurist

WIND TURBINE TRAVELS:
Cleveland Foundation and Cuyahoga Port Authority  - take a Road Trip to San Diego