CIty Fresh "Fresh Stop" at Huron Road Hospital, July 22, 2008

The most important message communicated at today's press conference kicking-off Lead Awareness Week was that our government leadership at the state, county and municipal level stand united to eradicate lead poisoning in Northeast Ohio by 2010. Publicly expressing their concern about lead poisoning here, and their commitment to its rapid elimination, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones added important voices to the chorus of public health and social service champions of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... a unique, world-class collaboration of around 85 organizations.

When Children Are Exposed To High Levels Of Lead And Mercury From Coal Emissions, They Get Hurt

by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.16.08

The lastest GCLAC Lead Safe Living meeting this past Monday, July 14, at the Lutheran Ministries building on the west side was an informative and particularly timely session, given the imminent arrival of Ohio Lead Awareness Week, July 21-25.  Events have been planned in conjunction with this statewide effort by various collaborators comprising the GCLAC to offer important educational and testing services.  All children 6 and under will receive free lead screenings throughout the week and a special press conference, featuring Mayor Eric Brewer of East Cleveland, (among others) will kick things off.

The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) will be holding a Press Conference in recognition of Ohio Lead Awareness Week, which will take place the week of July 20th – 26th, 2008.  Scheduled speakers will address the significant progress made in reducing the number of children affected by lead paint hazards, as well as the importance of continued vigilance and prevention in light of new evidence linking childhood lead exposure to crime, low school-performance, as well as numerous lifelong health problems.  Scheduled speakers, representing a City, County, and State unified effort to eliminate the dangers of childhood lead poisoning are:

 

• Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners
• Mayor Frank Jackson, City of Cleveland
• Mayor Eric Brewer, City of East Cleveland
• State Representative Mike Foley, District 14
• Stuart Greenburg, Executive Director, Environmental Health Watch
• Nakiaa Robinson, Program Manager, Office of Early Childhood, Invest in Children

 

I thought perhaps I could stump City Fresh's Maurice Small with the question "what county in the world is the leader in urban farming?", but he didn't hesitate responding Cuba. And the July 8, 2008 I GRO EC roundtable concluded we need to plan a best practices mission to Havana. Next Tuesday, July 15, 6-7 PM, come to the Independent Green Republic Of Star Village, at the Star/Hough Bakeries Complex, to help plan our mission to Cuba and discuss other plans for transforming our region through urban farming.

When our neighbor Dr. Pat Blochowiak told us to stop by her garden and pick some raspberries, blackberries and snow peas, I didn't realize the depths of her bounty... or how great blackberries may be. As my kids picked through nature, they chomped down probably $50 worth of the best food in town, when you may find food so good. As I looked at the bowls of berries collected in short time, I felt blessed by my community and nature. Over a fresh berries and whipped organic cream desert, our family celebrated Summer and life in the best way. All that is the certain promise of East Cleveland, with community farming. Help plan that reality with Maurice Small and others as we meet again, today, for what has become an every-other-Tuesday City Fresh I GRO EC brainstorming session, in East Cleveland. This week, we'll meet at the Hough/Star Bakeries complex, and also visit Brown's Market, which we plan to convert into a pilot City Fresh Market.

When people wonder what is the value of a local daily newspaper, I must point to the story of Shaw High School Band, which was invited to China to perform but could not afford to do that. The Plain Dealer article "Bang a Drum, Proudly", by Connie Schulz, raised enough attention and funding to get them there, from where they just returned in triumph (nicely covered in the PD here, today)... a $500,000 whirlwind phenomenon all occurring in less than 6 months!

Now that my family has land that we may use for a while, we are growing our own food... and enough for many other families, it seems. One $1.07 packet of radish seeds planted in May is already many pounds of crisp, bright, beautiful, healthy fresh veggies... and eating my first fresh radish of my life taught me radishes are actually delicious. Same for Kale, and all the varieties of lettuce covering our farmland... really fresh pesto is to die for... can't wait for the carrots and shallots!

Two weeks ago, City Fresh's Maurice Small met with friends in East Cleveland to discuss City Fresh, urban farming, and how we may convert a typical urban convenient store, Brown's Market, into a pilot City Fresh local foods market. During our discussions, Maurice mentioned that a dedicated urban farmer may earn more than $30,000 per year from sales of food grown on one typical urban lot (say 1/10th an acre). That being the case, and considering our ever-growing need and realigning demand for locally grown food, and the fact food may be grown locally as cost effectively as elsewhere in the world, it occurred to me that the highest and best use for most of the land now cleared, abandoned, blighted and wasted in our urban neighborhoods is for urban farming. So that is a use we are now planning to be core to redevelopment of the Star Neighborhood. Intrigued? Discuss and plan for this reality with Maurice and friends this Tuesday, from 6-7 PM, at that house on Roxbury, in East Cleveland. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.

Maurice Small is the most economically and ecologically sensible planner I know.

Joe Stanley, Sudhir Kade and I have been brainstorming with City Fresh's Maurice Small about "I GRO EC" - Independent Green Republic Of East Cleveland. City Fresh already operates a Fresh Stop at Huron Road Hospital - which Maurice reports is doing great - and is active in community farming in East Cleveland. Recently, we've been discussing City Fresh having an involvement converting Brown's Convenient store into a pilot City Fresh Market, which could offer a paradigm-shifting model for bringing local food, farming and their economies into very needy urban neighborhoods, in very innovative and important ways.

Dress of Chiefs of the Village of Atonkwa near Elmina, Ghana - Nana Kodwo Eduakwa V and Nana Kra Kwamina II - at a reception at the Ashe Cultural Center in Cleveland

Chiefs meeting in Cleveland

Kids like to tell stories.  You hear them every day and, sometimes, we call them lies.  Why not tap into that energy and make an artist?  Here is a shout out to Bobby Norfolk. I would call him a genius.

 

Join your neighborhood community ARTS center for costume-making, dance & music that will be presented for thousands at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle Celebration! Special guest artist, Trinidad Carnaval artist, Michael Guy James, leads the group, and is joined by artists from around the world and around the corner--including the Passport Project Global Dance & Music Collective.

 

Ten days ago I noticed a robin's next with three new-born chicks, and protective parents, living early Spring to the fullest. Already, the chicks are fledglings, having jumped yesterday from the safety of the nest to thrive or die on the ground, until their wings are strong enough to fly. I watched this fledgling hop and flap around for a while, as mom and dad protested from above. Certainly a critical time in the life of the robin, and I wonder how our three chicks did - are they still alive the next day - are they now part of the chorus of nature making NEO a great theater. Do we humans fledge our children as well, and make the theater of life better or worse for all living?.

If these are average Clevelanders, living in older urban neighborhoods like around University Circle their entire lives, they have been lead poisoned, perhaps severely. Thursday morning, May 22nd, join 100s of NEOs leaders concerned with our community's health, intelligence, safety and economy meeting at the Cleveland Natural History Museum for a free breakfast, keynote discussion and breakout sessions about lead poisoning and urban redevelopment. I guarantee you will leave this brief event with a completely realigned understanding of the core barriers to the success of our urban neighborhoods, leading to better planning for a healthy, effective region in the future.

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?

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!

Who:

Moebius Nature Center & Buckeye Sustainability Institute

What:

REALNEO member #5438 has arrived. Welcome, Max Xavier Bayard Roulet. You are born in an age of unforgivable human greed, bloodshed, cowardice and insanity everywhere on Earth. The natural environment has been destroyed by humans. Human cults called religions rule  what some call civilizations, which are all in ruins. All life on Earth has been contaminated by man, and is dying. You come to this once beautiful planet early in an age of "Global Warming", meaning you will observe and experience tragedy like never experienced in human lifetimes before you. Past generations failed you so miserably, you are born to stop your own species from killing all known life, including you.

 

The day Ohioans and others around America failed the world and allowed Bush and his clan 4 more years was the saddest of my life, and I was depressed by life after that until I posted the following...

I am at home now, so I am allowed to say this:  If you live in the City of Cleveland,
please don't forget to Pass Issue 2.

Meet the Bloggers produced an insightful interview with Holly Carroll and Pam Eyerdam of Cleveland Public Library.  Please give it a listen.  Please also visit your local library.  If you haven't been able to visit lately, you will be surprised by the breadth and depth of our services. 

Splashing up such colorful and lusty images has to be therapeutic for the artist.  Right on the edge of an urban dumping ground, full of scrap tires and trash, here's this little fellow sitting comfortably with his leg on the ledge (complete with scrap tire and vines) waving at the buxom gal below.

A hundred showed for the MidTownBrews session held yesterday evening at gracious host Insivia  on Superior in Cleveland, Ohio for a public discussion (moderated by Gloria Ferris, George Nemeth, and Betsey Merkel) concerning the pending City of Cleveland, Ohio City Counsel’s upcoming decision to withdraw from the 50 year power supply contract with AMP OHIO which Counsel entered into two months ago.

A page 1 article in the February 2, 2008, Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Dogged security guard caused quite the stir", makes light of international concern over a dog photographed sitting alone in the window of an abandoned, boarded-up house in Cleveland, with the caption "Dog Days: Left behind as foreclosure crisis pounds U.S.", which was published in the Toronto Star, leading to local action in Cleveland to rescue the distressed animal, which turned out to be imprisoned by real estate speculators to protect their shit. They don't even own the dog... the article doesn't care who owns the dog... the article is pointless, yet surfaces pathetic flaws in the character of so many in our region.

 

Kenny Ward told me about  how he maintains Toronto skating rinks.

post in progress,  need to upload images from one computer and do Word on another.  to be finished soon...It'w Wednesday Jan 9, and I still haven't been able to edit my final draft of this pc.     Patience please,  will get final soon...thanks

On Friday, January 4, 2007 Reza and I began our morning at 10:00 am (like Guy Noir) seeking answers to Cleveland’s persistent questions. 

Global warming will bring an end to white Christmas and winter as we've always known in, here in NEO, so during the first real snowstorm of this season, December 16, 2007, I went in search of a visual symbol of NEO, in my neighborhood, strong enough to stand out in white-out conditions, and I came to the Breuer! Not the Breuer Tower, of global controversy, but the Breuer Museum wing of global celebration, design elements of which are featured in the latest additions to the Cleveland Museum of Art, shown on the left here, now evolving form in the hands of Vinoly.