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I'm pleased to say the 03.21.2006 Excellence Roundtable featuring Steven Fong gave PD Architecture Critic Steven Litt a chance to catch up with Dean Fong, and be the first to learn huge news for this region... See http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/entertainment/

KSU dean wants architecture grad program moved to Cleveland
Kent State University will move its entire graduate program in architecture to Cleveland "as soon as possible."

So says Steven Fong, the new dean of KSU's College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Fong, who assumed the post at KSU in December, described his plans publicly for the first time Tuesday in an interview following a public forum at the university's Urban Design Collaborative in Cleveland.

March 21, 2006, REALNEO and the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC)  hosted a wonderful open-house and Excellence Roundtable featuring, Steven Fong, the Charter Dean of the KSU School of Architecture and Environmental Design, which is based in Kent, Ohio, of which CUDC is part. In prime roundtable form, the attendees were as diverse and remarkeable as is Steven, driving a fascinating hour and half brainstorm through Steven's world of fantastic projects that he's worked on around the world, down to today's reality of NEO, viewed from 30,000 feet down to the streets.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:00 PM Low-Level Lead Toxicity: The Ongoing Search for a Threshold Bruce P. Lanphear, MD, MPH Sloan Prof. of Children's Environmental Health & Dir., Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Ct Reservation

Lead poisoning is still one of the most serious public health concerns facing children in Cuyahoga County. Rates of childhood lead poisoning are well above 20% in many Cleveland neighborhoods and East Cleveland. Cleveland’s rate is in the top five nationally, with the current U.S. overall rate at under 2%.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, The Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health and the Director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, will review new data on the adverse health effects of childhood lead exposure, review the major sources of childhood lead exposure and discuss the regulations and tools necessary to shift our focus toward primary prevention.

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Folks interested in NEO will enjoy reading this write-up on Cleveland from a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - what was right then is what's best now (what remains) and what will be best if we can get it better together in the future... read back to then...

Is there any organization in Cleveland that would be the equivalent of the Cultural Trust in Pittsburgh?  I note that one project of Pittsburgh’s Cultural Trust is to “create a residential riverfront neighborhood that is integrated with the Allegheny riverbank. The main goal is to create a place so animated by restaurants, a park, public art and shopping areas that locals and out-of-town visitors will consider it a must-see destination.” To this end the Trust has selected four architectural planning/development teams from around the US and beyond to submit plans. I happened to recognize the name of the Dutch architectural firm, MVRDV, that is the proposal designer for Team B.

 

I was thrilled to stumble across these notes on a blog called Cleveland vs. The World, posted live from the Tuesday, February 21, 2006 hearing by ODOT supposedly addressing public concerns about the I-90 "trench" route through Cleveland, and the replacement of the existing I-90 bridge across the Cuyahoga... the ending comments (below) are revealing:

I was very excited to participate in a "Meet the Bloggers" discussion with East Cleveland mayor Eric J. Brewer, with George Nemeth and others, and it was a fantastic experience... what a great initiative Meet the Bloggers is... and the result is a thorough and revealing look into a man very few people really know, largely because the Plain Dealer has taken great efforts to present him as bad. Well, as far as anyone I know and I can tell, Brewer is good. If you care about truth in NEO, you REALLY MUST listen to Part 1 linked below, as Brewer discusses in detail his involvement in the indictment of former Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor... and in Part 3, don't miss Brewer's explanation for the poor treatment of him by the Plain Dealer - this is a major coup for "Meet the Bloggers".

 

Now posting to realneo... photos from the 2006 St. Patrick's Day St. Baldrick's shave-in at A.J. Rocco's, which will raise over $150,000 this year for Childhood Cancer research... perhaps much more, with your continuing support.... and yes, there is a TEAM NEO and that has Sudhir and Norm of "REALNEO gone bald".

Located in the National Landmark Caxton Building, at 816 Huron Road, just west of the cnetral downtonw-Cleveland Intersection of Huron, Prospect, and East 9th Street, A.J. Rocco's is the the socially conscious and intelligent choice for coffee, light lunch and envening hangout in the "Gateway"/downtown area. They roast their own "equal exchange" coffees, serve locally prepared organic teas, daily bake cookies, muffins and rolls, make great sandwiches, have a stable selection of booze, beer and wine, and offer the most friendly, interesting staff I know anywhere. here's more about what's been up and up ahead at A.J. Rocco's.

 

St. Patrick's Day at A.J. Rocco's is a sight - people overflowing out the doors and across the patio - but that is nothing compared to what goes on inside...  barkeeps and barbers raising over $100K for children's cancer research. As hard as it is to imagine, in a few hours scores of men and women will have their heads shaved in a bar, and people will pledge money to the St. Baldrick's foundation... lots of money.

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The Cleveland Memory Project: Virtual Networks to Cool Places

Date: Today! Wednesday, March 15 Time: 5:00 P.M. - 6:45 P.M. Place: Myers University, Chester Campus 3921 Chester Avenue, Cleveland, OH Map Link

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    At the last Cleveland Next meeting, Guhan Venkatu, an economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, made a presentation .  He has kindly let us post his power point with the usual sort of proviso...the views espressed are his and "not necessarily those of the FRBC, the board of governors of the FR or its staff".

Since we have spent a lot of time, on this site and at roundtable discussions sponsored by Realneo, discussing the region's strengths and weaknesses, I thought readers might be interested in Mr. Venkatu's experiments comparing Cleveland's economy with that of the nation and also with the rest of Ohio. Perhaps we can suggest some other parameters to be considered.

 

Who is the film industry in NEO? We started exploring this question at a film excellence roundtable, where over 40 partners in art came together to discuss growing their industry. Today, at a benefit for Independent Pictures - http://ohiofilms.com - called "Cleveland Oscar Night America", around another 150 came out to show their support for film in NEO. The more I'm around this sector of the local economic development picture the more I realize I don't know this industry - who they are, what they do, and how they operate in the regional economy.  This is worth figuring out, so next year some of the folks watching the Oscars tonight from afar can be thanking NEO from Hollywood.

With the demand by Case Professor Krauss for a no-confidence vote against the Case president and provost, the levee broke flooding Case with the community sewage brimming its highest offices since hurricane Lewis smacked NEO several years ago, demanding the complete reorganization of Case. The rains since from Lewis' further public contempt for Case overflowed all the protection the president and board could retain, and now the Case community is in ruins.

I have a proposal for several actions Case may take to become the "World's Most Powerful Learning Environment", as Hundert proposes.

The first action is for the Case board and senior administration to form a panel of Blue Ribbon Advisors who are qualified and able to develop for the University a renewal plan. The panel must be expert in the subject, globally-respected and ready to begin immediately. Therefore, for the panel I recommend:

William G. Bowen, president, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, president emeritus, Princeton University

William R. Brody, president, The Johns Hopkins University

James J. Duderstadt, president emeritus, University of Michigan

Harvey Fineberg, president, The Institute of Medicine, The National Academies

Malcolm Gillis, president emeritus, Rice University

Eamon Kelly, president emeritus, Tulane University

Scott Cowen, president, Tulane University

Farris W. Womack, chief financial officer emeritus, University of Michigan

Press Release 3/1/2006
Croskey & Associates LLC –A Real Estate Development Company is pleased to announce their “2006 Single Parent Home Initiative.”  This initiative will assist Single Parents with purchasing a custom remodeled home in metorpolitan Cleveland
 while reducing some of the barriers that prevent homeownership.   The initiative will provide the following:

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Orchid Mania: Blossoms & Butterflies
Major Exhibit February 25 through March 26, 2006  

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Huge news in Rhode Island today - "Jury holds 3 ex-makers of lead paint liable" - will have major impacts in Cleveland. Cleveland is one year into a major regional initiative to eradicate lead poisoning in Greater Cleveland, where elevated blood level rates are some of the highest in the country, and it is very important that the paint companies are part of the solutions being developed. Rhode Island is where the battle against lead poisoning has proceeded the furthest in court, and now a jury has ruled against three paint companies, including our home-town Sherwin-Williams. Imagine some possible next steps... lead goes the way of asbestos and the old paint companies go bankrupt, and so goes away Sherwin-Williams and all its jobs in the region, with the assets going to our next Mittal... yet the bankruptcy settlement and asset sales help pay to eradicate lead poisoning here so our next generations are not mentally impaired and are able to contribute to the economy. What do the people of NEO rally around - saving jobs or saving minds... I can see the fanatical lines being drawn now. Is that the best we can do? Or can lead be viewed as a new frontier for open, responsible collaboration across our community (as is already happening in Greater Cleveland) AND with one of the biggest players on the industry - our own Sherwin-Williams - allowing us to respond here to our dirty laundry being aired in the RI courts, and in the process making Sherwin-Williams a stronger corporate citizen, in a safer, healthier, smarter community more worth living in. Read the complete story, from the Providence Journal.

A community of interest focused on developing an African American Cultural Center and driving innovation in the sharing of understanding and strengthening of African American and all culture in Northeast Ohio.

Participate in a public meeting where the community and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will debate the merits of ODOT's plans to alter exisiting freeway access within the Innerbelt Trench, including the planned elimination of Carnegie and Prospect Avenues.  

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"The Best Market in the World" is how a vendor at Basketeria describes the West Side Market, and he's close enough for me. Historic, striking, convenient, accessible, friendly, quality, fresh - a landmark and asset beyond measure - the West Side Market is a regular part of the lives of people in NEO who live right.