In a recent series of editorial rants in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the authors proposed Cleveland must attack "street culture" to correct our condition as the most impoverished big city in America. I've posted on their position and my disgust at their suggestions this is an NAACP issue, or an issue at all, and I questioned what on Earth they mean by "street culture". Then, while working on a website cataloging my parents' art collection for the May Show Project Philip Williams and I are organizing I understood what the PD wants to kill... the culture that empowered the art shown above, being a "Jazz Bowl" by one of the world's most prominent designers, Cleveland's beloved Victor Schreckengost, and a print masterpiece by one of the world's most renowned "minimalist" artists, Frank Stella. Without "street culture" neither of these works of art would exist. Good idea, PD.

DESCRIPTION: A Food Co-op is a cooperative of people who come together to buy food, in order to benefit from lower bulk and wholesale prices. They usually specialize in health and organic food and are run democratically with each member having an equal voice to decide overall management of the sotre which is open to the public. Food Co-ops are alternatives to large chain grocery stores both in their management and often in the offerings of food and, thus, represent a local way citizens can control their own food decisions. Sponsored by the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee.

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So much pain in the world.   The swirling hellishness of these past three weeks brings only one realization--Be an agent of creation not destruction.   The human condition is torn between these two forces.  It is easy to destroy, but not to create.  Do not give up. CREATE.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer assigns blame for the plight of Cleveland as the most impoverished city in America, they target the black poor. I find this highly disturbing, especially as they completely white-wash the greatest flaw in our economy, which is a century of cow-towing to industry causing and perpetuating toxic contamination of our people and neighborhoods in our urban core.

As I drove from the site of the murder of Detective Schroeder, on West 98th Street, I passed the park dedicated in the honor of the murder of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi on West 65th, and it occurred to me that there must be a similar park dedicated to Detective Schroeder. This is a fitting way to memorialize the victims of murder, and all violent crime, in our city, as it replaces death with life, and sorrow with joy... it gives people young and old a place to move on in the most healthy possible ways. I do not believe the people of Cleveland want to brush away such tragedy, but rather they want to have a remembrance of those who we lose, and a bright spot to remember that... and they want their neighborhoods to grow stronger so there will be less tragedy there in the future.

I highly recommend joining in with this great group: see last week's write up here!

green. :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck

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I am very excited! I recently volunteered to become an Energy Ambassador at Case Western Reserve Univeristy, part of the Adopt a Building program. I will be adopting Mather House, the building where I work. Mather House is a  century old Gothic Revival former girls dorm  turned office building -- probably not the most energy efficient on campus. I suspect the most  significant improvements at Mather House will be directly related to changing the residents' behavior. I think I could be a good energy ambassador; I am always turning out lights, I go to great pains to recycle, I hate air conditioning and I walk rather than using the campus shuttle bus. But I am looking for suggestions as to how myself and the other residents of Mather House could really make a difference. Please post your ideas. I would also appreciate links to good energy conservation sites. The Adopt a Building program is just getting started. My first "Ambassador's" meeting will be next Wednesday. I will fill you in with more details late next week.

USDA Designates 20 Biobased Items for Federal Procurement

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2006- The U.S. Agriculgure Department has announced two proposed rules under the Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program, designating 20 items that must receive special consideration by all federal agencies when making purchases.

"The designation of these 20 biobased items is a major step in advancing the federal preferred procurement program for biobased products," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "When finalized, 1,500 biobased products will be given procurement preference by federal agencies, generating new economic opportunities for biobased product producers and U.S. farmers and ranchers, while providing new choices for U.S. consumers." Full text at the North Coast Green Spieler weblog

I went to the Beck Center for the first time for the Masumi Hayashi memorial. I was interested to see the place, as it has sufaced in controversy as the Beck Chairman of the Board wants to move it to Crocker Park, and the media and arts powers that be agree. What I found was a very expensive, expansive, high quality arts facility, as ugly as sin, on the skin, and poorly managed in obvious ways, but far from beyond redemption. That the regional arts leadership is ready to demolish this solid facility is beyond belief and shows how disposable our leadership finds our core and inner-ring community.

Today the bleak Beck Center for the Arts had a heart pounding inside, to the beat of a Masumi Hayashi retrospective... that is the power of art, even when the artist is dead. 100s of friends of slain artists Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson consoled themselves and those who joined them, with staged remembrances to the memorial gathering, which were broadcast throughout the center and had great impact. There were places to read some of the articles that have been written about Masumi over the years... mostly since her death... and a project of having attendees write messages to the artists on tissue paper and tying them to cords strung in front of the center, in what was described as a Japanese tradition.

During a gathering tonight of 100s of Clevelanders, promoting peace and honoring the lives of artists John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, at the West Clifton Park and labyrinth at W. 65th Street and W. Clinton Avenue, now dedicated in the artists' honor, the heavens shed tears in a light, cleansing rain... followed by scores of uplifting tributes to the artists and other lost lives, numerous musical selections, the play of dozens of innocent children, in a coming together of good souls with love in their hearts.

Leave it to a great artist to know great artists, and to a great publication to get the right words out. In this week's Free Times, one of my favorite artists from Northeast Ohio, and our finest arts journalist, Douglas Max Utter paid tribute to John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and finally shared true insight about these great artists and their work, characters and visions with the world.

Edgewater Park no.2, Cleveland, Ohio. Panoramic Photo Collage with Kodak type C prints, 1992. Size: 36” x 77”. Artist: Masumi Hayashi

From a blog posting by Laura McShane:

We have all seen a rise in brutal, subhuman behavior.  Children deprived of artistic, natural, and cultural literacy and rich human interaction are fed by a world of drugs and video game inspired violence. John Jackson and  Masumi Hayashi faced brutal death at the hands of a "29 year-old kid," because we have allowed this disease to destroy our communities.Councilperson Matt Zone will hold a ceremony to dedicate a Peace Garden in their memory this Thursday, August 24th at 7 p.m. at the intersection of West 65th and West Clifton in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood (one block south of Detroit Ave).  I do not have a lot of information at this point, please contact Matt Zone or the Detroit Shoreway Development Corporation for more details.Please tell anyone you know to reflect on the life of these artists.  There should be more media information in the following days.I know that there are preliminary plans to establish scholarship funds at CSU and CIA for both artists.   Please remember these quiet, peaceful souls who both revered art and life

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When I saw The Redhead's posting on REALNEO for "green :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck :: every sunday!" I knew this was a good thing and decided to invite some friends and attend. I'm certainly glad I did. Not only did I have the best meal in recent memory, from good homes and hearts, but it turned out to be a real "NEO Excellence Roundtable" where I met a bunch of awesome people making NEO special... we all even learned lots about vegan baking, from an entrepreneurial pro chef... all on a beautiful Summer's eve, in a setting hard to beat, on the shore of Lake Erie, at Lakewood Park. Learn more about all of this, and plan to join in next week... read on!

Cuyahoga County Courthouse no.2, Cleveland, Ohio

Panoramic photo collage with Kodak type C prints, 1986. Size: 18" x 46. Commission: CSU Law School. Artist: Masumi Hayashi

Granada Relocation Camp, Foundation, 1997,panoramic photo collage, 23"x 31

green. :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck

concept :: to promote healthy and conscious 'meatless' eating (along with educate on living a 'green' lifestyle)...  to think about how we eat and what we eat and the effect it has on the planet.  if you eat meat we still want you to come!  try new things, meet new people and learn a little.  it is about health, support and the celebration of life!  no judgement here!  : )  i personally am a 'new vegetarian' and am still learning myself!  it is just amazing all the incredible foods that do not contain meat! 

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In one respect Northeast Ohio is world-class: addressing the lead poisoning crisis rampant here and in all older communities of America. For this excellence in action, credit the St. Luke's Foundation and all affiliates of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) and Concerned Citizens Organized Against Lead (CCOAL). GCLAC held our quarterly Steering Committee meeting on August 07, 2006, where University Hospital's Dr. Ash Sehgal, Director of the Center for Reducing Healthcare Disparities, presented his research findings on the implications of lowering the threshold level of blood lead poisoning considered a trigger for intervention from 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to 5 micrograms per deciliter. The GCLAC Steering Committee strongly supports this action, which will make NEO the most progressive community in America and the first we know to take such bold and intelligent action, setting a safer standard for our citizens than that mandated by the Federal government.

In exploring models of intergenerational living and learning excellence, I searched the excellent Knowledgeplex: the Affordable Living and Community Development Resource for Professionals, and came up with some valuable models elsewhere we may embrace planning the Star Complex Community. One that is a necessity is Intergenerational care for young children, before reaching school age. Read about what is being done in Fort Wayne, Indiana below.

There is a very interesting article in the NYTimes on line today observing "one of the most striking shifts in human existence — a change from small, relatively weak and sickly people to humans who are so big and robust that their ancestors seem almost unrecognizable." The lengthy article, found here, concludes: "Today, Mr. Keller says, he is big and healthy, almost despite himself"... "Maybe it was his good fortune to have been born to a healthy mother and to be well fed and vaccinated." "I don’t know if we have as much control as we think we do”.

I find the point of the article is that we as society can do much to control the lifelong health condition of our community members, if we focus on controllable factors like prenatal environment and health care - especially addressing pollution exposure for pregnant women. While leaders and citizens of NEO hate to think and talk seriously about such issues as pollution and our environment (hell, the powerful Ohio coal industry lobby still challenges the finding there is human behavior related global warming),  the NYTimes article cites research that indicates Northeast Ohio is a place where lifelong good health and longevity of life are especially controllable, as we have a most unhealthy environment and so more, higher risk factors than most regions of our country. From the City Mayors website: "Parts or all of 11 Midwest cities (in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin) rank among the 25 worst for year-round particle levels, while six also rank in the 25 worst for short-term particle pollution."

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

The following story appears in the Summer 06 issue of Ohio Canal Corridor's newsletter .

Walworth Run – The Next Branch for the Towpath Trail?

It was back in 1996 when Ohio Canal Corridor led a planning charette in the ClarkMetro neighborhood that looked for a new vision for Train Avenue.  The daylong event was one of a half-dozen plans that were hatched throughout the city.  Others included a new park in Tremont where West 7 Street and West 10 Street merge along Railway Avenue and a park honoring surveyors in the Warehouse District between West 6 Street and West 9 Street/ just south of the Shoreway Ramp.  The exercises culminated in a booklet titled:  Green Spaces/People Places and was a component of the Lila Wallace/ Reader’s Digest funded park initiative under the direction of ParkWorks.

Ohio Canal Corridor immediately afterwards included Train Avenue in its annual RiverSweep program with the intent that this idea of a trail connection to the Towpath would not be lost, but rather that the neighborhood, through its represented Community Development Corporation, would awake to its potential. Thankfully, Clark-Metro has done just that. Last year, they teamed with a number of adjoining CDCs to submit a request to NOACA for funding under its Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative (TLCI) . Though they were unsuccessful, they regrouped and resubmitted again this year and were awarded $64,000 towards a $80,000 study that would explore a trail alignment and provide some estimated construction costs, identify benefits and spin-off development opportunities, and list potential funding sources. NPI contributed $12,000 towards the project and Ohio Canal Corridor (OECA) along with a number of stakeholder CDCs (Clark-Metro, Stockyards Development and Tremont West) have each added $1,000. As it stands, the planning will begin in 2007 and conclude in 2008.  Public input will be required and sought.  If you are interested in this project, please contact Abe Bruckman at Clark-Metro: 216-741-9500.

Additional ideas for Train Ave / Walworth Run can be found at
CSU's Levin College of Urban Affairs

Master of Urban Planning, Design, and Development (MUPDD)
PDD 611 Planning Capstone, Spring 2004
Train Avenue/Walworth Run Corridor

The Course Description contains the following information about Train Ave / Walworth Run

The corridor runs approximately two miles from W. 65th St. eastward to the Cuyahoga River. In the western end, the corridor is located directly to the south of the I-90 interstate; in its eastern third, the corridor study site turns northward toward the Cuyahoga River. Train Ave. is so-named for its proximity to several rail lines that run in the corridor. These railways were placed in the area in the late 19th and early 20th century as the west side neighborhoods of Cleveland developed. The trains were located in a natural ravine, which contained Walworth Run, a small tributary stream that emptied into the Cuyahoga River. Walworth Run was a valley riparian corridor containing several ponds, and drew early settlers, livestock businesses and slaughterhouses. The stream was gradually culverted and eventually buried underground, becoming part of the city's growing sewer system during the early 20th century.