Awhile back, Roldo mentioned that the newspaper still has relevance. Today, this article proves it.
Strongsville senior reels in science fair award Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Vote for Alex Pavloff for USG Arts & Science Representative.  He is a human: not a zombie.

This is where a photo sure would come in handy.  The sign is posted on the Designated Smoker Sign near the Veale Convocation Center and penciled in to the sign in parentheses is the comment (and a smoker).  Apropos.

Welcome to The Star Market and Cafe! What would make you walk, ride and drive out of your way and stop here? When? Why? Now is the time for Star Neighborhood Development to reinvent a blighted urban convenient store into a community asset. But how? That depends on you. What will you support here?

The Center for Science and Mathematics Education invites you to join us for Science is Fun! Family Day, from 10:00a.m.-4:00p.m., in Nord Hall 310 at Case Western Reserve University.

Introducing Immersion Presents: Expedition to Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. View broadcasts from the largest California national marine sanctuary. Join us for hands-on science fun, friendly competitions, and cool science demonstrations throughout the day!

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed strange Clevelandesque slogans posted on billboards around town, with the attribution "Mind of Cleveland". I remember wondering if this was another Cleveland+hype campaign... or about AIDS prevention... and planned to google it later...

When Evelyn and I learned we were expecting Claes, three years ago, we started exploring local natural childbirth and child support resources, and have most enjoyed the getting to know the people with the Cleveland BirthNetwork, which is part of a national organization has a mailing list and holds regular local meet-ups and casual events... I strongly recommend expecting families to attend one of their activities, like the following...  An afternoon of discussion and meeting advocates for change, with Judy Norsigian, executive director and co-founder of Our Bodies Ourselves, and Ourselves, co-contributing editor of Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth.

The Intergenerational School is holding a Wine & Cheese Open House (with Student‐Led Tours!), this Thursday, March 13, 2008 - 5:30 pm until 7:00 pm - and I strongly encourage those interested in innovation in education and aging to attend. Read through the whole invitation to learn more about the school - it is astounding, as are the founders... Cathy and Peter Whitehouse. This is the school that I hope to expand in the former Hough Bakeries complex, as the anchor for redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhood, so if you are interested in that project then you are interested in TIS.... I hope to see you there Thursday... be sure to RSVP!

In living and working around University Circle, it occurs to me how stupid it is that there are literally five or six police forces operating within overlapping turfs... Cleveland, University Circle, Case, University Hospitals, and the Clinic each have significant police forces. In addition, Cuyahoga County has patrols in the area... all intersecting within a mile of each other... and you are probably as likely to get shot within a mile of that intersection as anywhere in America.

I spotted a link on BFD to Tech Czar Michael DeAloia's fascinating write up on the Medical Mart, so much in our pocketbooks and news every day, in real neo. Well, it seems we have one community leader interested to set the records straight today and from now on, in his world, on his blog, about his world, which is fascinating. I'm glad to see Michael more active than ever, leading the community, since leaving City Hall, and I appreciate the honest facts about the Medical Mart that are missing everywhere else. Read this tidbit below and you'll link through for the rest...

Cosgrove took over the meeting and detailed the Clinic’s expansion plan (which were amazing – what the public is seeing in terms of development and real estate purchases are nothing relative to the massive plans the Clinic has for its University Circle campus), and then offered the possibility of a Medical Mart.

As part of the Star Neighborhood Development planning for the Star Complex and surrounding one mile radius, I have been planning the redevelopment of the current Cleveland Institute of Art Gund Building and land, on East Boulevard in Cleveland, shown below (full size image here).

The John and Mildred Putnam Sculpture Collection is especially visible in this community, right now, as one day following the reception celebrating the addition of work #45 to University Circle - the stunning "Inner Circle", by David Deming - the collection welcomed to NEO the landmark sculpture "Acrobats", by important regional artist Keith Haring (born in 1958 in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, qualifying him for the collection).

While looking on Green City Blue Lake for a posting on the Breuer, I came across an interesting article by Marc Lefkowitz called "Warm up to district geothermal in Cleveland", which writes "Representatives from Case, UCI, Cleveland Clinic, city of Cleveland, Flats East Bank and Neighborhood Progress, Inc.— which is considering geothermal district power at its St. Luke’s development—met yesterday (October 22, 2007) at the Cleveland Foundation" to discuss "The economics of district-wide geothermal". It seems these groups are exploring large scale geothermal projects to help meet large energy needs, like for University Hospitals.

The Friends of Art, CWRU staff and the John and Mildred Putnam Sculpture Collection team of Harvey Buchanan and Evelyn Kiefer picked the perfect time and day to hold a reception celebrating the addition of work #45 to the world-class Putnam Sculpture Collection, at University Circle, as David Deming's "Inner Circle" is a work of art that changes dramatically with light in the environment, and sunset is an especially beautiful time to view this work.

University Circle is a community of overlapping circles of interdependent institutions, boards, patrons and public interests that in some way touch every life in the NEO universe, worldwide (well illustrated by the current Cleveland Orchestra tour of Europe). So thoughts of "Inner Circles" within this star-power constellation bring illusions of grand people and designs. So true, as the latest "Inner Circle" added to University Circle is a very sharp and strong sculpture by Cleveland Institute of Art President David Deming, commissioned by the Putnam Sculpture Collection, of Case Western Reserve University... a great collision of worlds.

An important addition was made to The John and Mildred Putnam Sculpture Collection, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University and the grounds of University Circle, with the installation of a fantastic steel sculpture by masterful sculptor and Cleveland Institute of Art President David Deming, which is titled "Inner Circle". Located by the Case residential village, across from the Starbucks, at the intersection of East 115th, Juniper and Bellflower, this work is a great addition to an important art collection, curated by Evelyn Kiefer, that makes University Circle a much more inspiring and remarkable place, with public art.

Maybe you were there at Gray's Auctioneers Inaugural Auction on Sunday June 17th? Doors opened at 10:30 am for one last opportunity to preview the over 200 lots of fine art, furniture and decorative items, and by noon, auction time, the room was packed with excited bidders.  Some of the people in the audience were old pros and others were new to the auction world.  This first auction had something to suit  everyone's taste and price range. Those who attended were glad they did!

Can't contain the excitement on this emerging evolution.  Why not celebrate a bit as we finally gain real traction after years of socially-conscious and sometimes stigmatizing suffering we starving artist-technologists know well. I feel we are ready for a RealNEO Rennaissance!

One of my favorite works of public art in NEO is "Merging", by Athena Tacha, which is a large scale stone and water installation on the campus of Case University, nicely positioned near the Gehry designed Peter B. Lewis Building. The sculpture is part of the Putnam Sculpture Collection, and additional information and other images of this work are found here. This panorama was taken on a beautiful, brisk, sunny spring day, May 18, 2007, from the top of the sculpture.

Friday night I attended a reception and lecture at SPACES Gallery for select Cleveland organizations with interest in urban planning and sustainability. The current exhibition at Spaces, Shrinking Cities, explores strategies for post-industrial urban areas and should be of great interest to anyone interested in urban planning and sustainability. Terry Schwarz, Senior Planner at the Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio, was to give a tour of the exhibition. My affiliation? I am an energy ambassador at Case. I am also an art historian, and although there are some witty, beautiful and innovative works represented in the exhibition the theme and the messages of the show truly over power the aesthetics. One could easily forget they are in an art exhibition.

Wednesday night's lecture at the Cleveland Clinic with Peter B. Lewis and Frank Gehry was everything I had expected and more. I doubt an audience member left without a new appreciation for the  positive,  transformative power of architecture, friendship and collaboration. It was inspiring just to be in the same room with two people who had made such great contributions to architecture. It was also inspiring to see two people, two friends, who worked so well together as client and architect. A testament to Gehry's fame, the lecture had very few visuals – only a few slides of his most famous buildings such as the Disney Concert Hall in LA, The Experience Museum Project in Seattle, the Guggenheim Bilboa and the unbuilt Peter B. Lewis residence were shown.  Peter Lewis and Frank Gehry each spent 15 minutes discussing some of the highlights of their lives and careers and then they took questions from the audience.

 

The war against the crisis of lead poisoning is being fought in Northeast Ohio by activists and professionals in a wide range of fields and disciplines. That reality was beautifully demonstrated today when noted neurologist and gerontologist Peter Whitehouse, M.D., Ph.D., and his associate Danny George, M.Sc., presented a lecture on "environmental toxins and late-life dementia: a life span perspective", exploring connections between lead poisoning and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and suggesting the need for an integrative ecological model, concluding "better take care of your neurons at age 2". The two presenters have co-authored a book titled "The Myth of Alzheimer's" that will be released later this year.

The question "Am I possible?" is the beating heart of Get Rid of Yourself, and it echoes throughout Bernadette Corporation's existence on the borders of fashion and art.  The group is influenced by Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren, and Jean-Luc Godard. They are also interested in new immigrant cultures surrounding their loft "headquarters" on the Bowery in New York City. Bernadette Corporation's interventionist projects function as a critique of our global culture, which constructs identity through consumption and branding.

 

Work is far advanced planning an Intergenerational Living and Learning Neighborhood, radiating from an area of East Cleveland and Cleveland centered in the historic former Hough Bakery Complex (formerly The Star Bakery), at 1519 Lakeview Avenue, a few blocks east of University Circle. The plan is to base at this large complex of facilities and land a synergistic combination of an expansion of The Intergenerational School, a senor services and community center, a computer center with cybercafe, a food services incubator, and an Intergenerational Daycare and Preschool facility, with benefits to all the people in the surrounding community, radiating from The Star.

 

YES - this is a huge story... the State of Ohio is suing Sherwin Williams and other paint manufacturers over the public nuisance caused by lead paint they sold here over decades... the state is joining five Ohio cities in this battle for our citizens - this case could very well take over the battle for the cities - very exciting times for our down-trodden state.  It is exciting to see the new Ohio leadership in action, after so many years of poor performance by past administrations.

I received an informative email this afternoon from Richard McDougald Enty, Planning Team Leader, Programming & Planning Department, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, about some of their Transit Oriented Development initiatives and vision. It is very exciting to see this as an active subject for discussion and planning here. I am a strong supporter of Transit Oriented Development and consider it the core foundation on which we should rebuild the City of Cleveland and surrounding suburbs.  Here is the vision from RTA:

 

This year's Case Western Reserve University Distinguished Lecture at Severance Hall, March 20.2007, on the topic of Warped Passages, by Lisa Randall, was certainly a mind expander. Considering the title of the talk - "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe - Hidden Dimensions" - and with the experience of sitting in the last row and looking down upon our little slice of life, in the expansive Severance Hall, in this "shrinking" physical region of mere humans, I left blown away... we are but specks of particles, strings and who knows what else in a universe of unknow dimensions where we understand so little, at the core, just as we understand so little in simple life on Earth and in NEO.

What is your visual and emotional impression of Cleveland and our Lake Erie shore?

As a core group of innovative urban planners and developers move forward creating a new way in East Cleveland, it is exciting to look back along the main street that brought us to today, and that will take so many deserving citizens past those with little insight who have driven so much of this region into poverty. Looking back, and forward, here is a powerful set of perspectives from CIA graduate and Kent Urban Design graduate student Joe Stanley, of NEO Main Street, from two years ago, under a former administration. Now, under Mayor Brewer and his staff, redevelopment of this community is underway  - thanks for your vision and keeping the faith, Joe!

"ITS A NEW DAY IN EAST CLEVELAND"

 

I just found on Case Management Professor Sandy Piderit's blog, concerning the branding of Case, AKA Case Western Reserve University, that acting President Eastwood has declared that "that Case Western Reserve University by any other name does not smell as sweet to many people". Several years ago the university hired an out of state identity firm to remake the brand, which included shortening the name to Case and adopting a new logo that is described as a fat man carrying a surfboard. They spent $ millions, including for new signage, letterhead and brochures, cards, and all the other identity stuff out there in the local and global community - a bigger thing than it seems at first. The response was from indifferent to hostile - especially about shortening the name, as many alumni went to Western Reserve and loved that brand. See below the relevant excerpt from President Eastwood's letter to alumni announcing that "The University's official self-identification program should acknowledge Western Reserve as an equal partner with Case and formally represent itself in the market as Case Western Reserve University." Also in the letter, "In the coming days, the university will form an implementation group which will be charged with developing and implementing a process for recreating and adapting the university's graphic identity guidelines at minimal cost."

Spectrum – the Undergraduate Gay-Straight Alliance of Case Western Reserve University – and Case’s University Programming Board are pleased to bring the “Sex Workers’ Art Show” to Case on February 26, 2007.