We have had some enlightening discussions here in Mumbai about the process of economic transformation in a democracy. (India is facing different challenges in this regard than China.)

Hunter and I met last night with the business leadership of the effort, Bombay First. We discussed the importance of transparency to transformation.

They will be soon launching a new web site to keep people informed of their many initiatives. Visit the site.

This approach would work well for the Fund for Our Economic Future and the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

Someone would tune in why?

“Townhall.com is the preeminent umbrella site for conservatives because it combines the time-tested power of talk radio with the cutting-edge power of the blogosphere,” said Blackwell…

Gimme a for-instance, Mr. Blackwell. Rush? Stern?

As Ohio Goes, So Goes the Nation -An Ohio Progressive Politics Community Blog

Pastor Alex is bootstrapping his church, enlisting some help to accomplish their mission of serving the city:

Our first mission team (college students from Louisiana) will be here Thursday through Saturday. If you want to meet some of them, let me know and we will arrange a time. I know they will be at my apartment complex quite a bit putting together “gift bags” for area merchants/apartments/condos, as well as labeling our direct mail card. They will also be helping West Side Eccumenical to read to kids and distribute literature so that people in surrounding neighborhoods are familiar with WSEM’s social services. Just wanted to give you a “heads up.” On March 11-15 there will be 130 college students staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown. They are learning about planting a church as well as assisting us in cleaning up the downtown area before St. Patrick’s Day, and other projects.

From the latest entry on the Gateway:Church blog:

We need a lot of things rebuilt and we need self-aware leaders. We need leaders who have the right motivation and are passionate about what they are called to do. We need leaders who know how to get the right things done with the right heart and won’t take advantage of situations just because they are a leader…

I’m loving this:

I’m willing to turn a blind-eye to the “forgotten triangle” project which was so aptly named in that you’ve conveniently forgotten your support (or lack thereof). I’m not holding you accountable for the failure of the city to recognize the tax loophole implications that accompanied Steelyard Commons (hey it occurred on the previous mayor’s watch… even though you were the City Council president AND the Finance Committee chair at the time). That’s old news and water… err politics under the Lorain-Carnegie bridge.

But blah is not good enough. It may qualify as acceptable to those in the community’s intelligensia ranks who prefer to lord over this once proud city’s slow cancer-like death, losing a busload of people everyday to the suburbs and points beyond. And hey, what do they care - they’ll be dead by the time we drop below 200,000 residents (and besides they don’t actually live in the city, they just occasionally work here). They like blah. It’s easy to manage city hall when you know exactly how it will perform.

Not me, I’m tired of blah…

Some other key phrases/ideas:

• “I want Mike White to come back.”
• I want a Daley-like mayor (he of Chicago’s Meigs Field lore) who would take a backhoe and a bulldozer to Burke Lakefront Airport - RIGHT NOW.
• I want a mayor who will go to Columbus (how often have you actually visited the state capitol since you took office?) and demand that the state legislature and the new Democratic Governor take on Cleveland as a project to move Ohio forward.
• FIX THE DAMN SCHOOLS!
• Tell the truth - the population models of 1950 don’t work in a modern society where transportation and technology have made commuting (whether physically or virtually) the way of this region.
• Take on some more sacred cows like the CDC’s.

Click thru an read the whole post. It’s that good.

wenBLOG » My state of the city

A couple of thoughts on Barack Obama. I think the “lack of substance” might not have been so striking if a candidate would do a Meet.The.Bloggers interview. Going back to our early interview with Ted Strickland, the bloggers that participated or listened to the interview experienced more depth then a 30-minute stump speech @ a pep rally.

On the other hand, Ted Strickland as a candidate in Dec 2005, was much less developed then the Ted Strickland who debated Bryan Flannery before the primary in 2006. Maybe one of these days we’ll get a follow up with Governor Strickland.

What do you think it was about Obama? Was it the forum or the candidate?

Got an email on this late last night, looked at it before it went live, and am just getting around to it:

I worked with Ray Bethea to set up his blog, Greenback Chronicles, the site and first post are now up. The blog is about personal finance, from the perspective of the middle class American. Ray is an excellent writer and if you’re interested in this field I think his blog will be one you’ll want to read. The first few posts are going to be a little longer, as they serve primarily as introductory material. After the first four are up, I’m going to package them as an e-book that you can download and pass along if you’d like…

I wonder how long it’ll take for the first post to be fisked over at TheWritingOnTheWal.net?

The Daily JDA · Blog Launch

Issue 18:� I don’t mean to tie them together, but� I’m just thinking aloud here…� how do you think the landscape for the Cleveland Arts Prize will change since� the passing of Issue 18?� Do you think some consolidation needs to take place amongst arts orgs to make them more “appealing” to being funded by Issue 18? What role do you think the CAP (if anything) might have in deciding that?� What about other arts-based organizations? How involved are they?

The bigger issue I am leading into here… Am I the only one who is still wondering why it’s been so quiet since Issue 18 passed? Certainly we can do better than “Cuyahoga Arts and Culture is currently working on updating this site. Please check back for updates.” Wait, wait, wait, lemme get this straight… you’ve PULLED DOWN the entire site where “sin taxpayers” are supposed to learn more about where the money for persecuting smokers is going?

This is an abomination… who is managing the money? Who is handling the program management? Why not leave up the old site so you (whoever the heck you might be) can UPDATE Northeast Ohio on what you’re doing? Why not have some good old fashioned transparency??? No one told you this would happen, did they? Oh, right. I forgot… maybe I did.� Maybe not explicitly enough, but I did.

Lentine’s Music Closes: A sad state of affairs, really. Longtime music store purveyors Lentine’s is really going out of business — actually, when I was originally wishing to write this entry, they weren’t “going out of business,” so to speak. They were merely “retreating.” I can only assume they’re all but out of business now.� Reports in the ABJ suggested that the family-owned� local� chain� would severely cut back operations, possibly down to the one, original store… but now, “financial crisis” has all but shuddered the rock juggernaut for good. Look for more of the same with other music stores down the road: with instrument rentals being what they are –� and with extraordinarily low-priced, Chinese-produced� stock with big-box stores� as competition — the� days of American made music shops could well be numbered. Let the record show, this closing has nothing to do with downturn in NEO as much as it has to do with said same in the ol’ USA. We don’t MAKE anything anymore. Can’t be a super power making each other burgs and doing each other’s laundries…

Brew Kettle Kicks, Fryer Stops Bubbling: Speaking of burgers… I could have told you this. In fact, if you remember the Memorial-to-Labor Day feature in Cool Cleveland called “Eats,” I told you as much. The Brew Kettle in Strongsville has been rated off the charts as a divine taproom at ratebeer.com. You can brew your own beer there as well, with the results being more fun to create and better-tasting than your average national brand (e.g. Bud, Miller, Coors). And believe it or not, it costs LESS per ounce this way, to boot. It’s right under your nose, Cleveland. And if you’re into beer, like CHQ is, you have no excuse for not going there and checking it out… Sadly, I must add one more eulogy to this entry, this one gastronomic. The Town Fryer on Superior is no more. I know this three-year-old “slice of Austin, Texas on Superior” (quoting myself here) is old news. But I am going to miss the Shiner Bocks, Cajun catfish, and the deep-fried pickles and Twinkies. I’m heartbroken over here. There’s a tear in my beer. Good night, Fryer.

CHQ

Comments: None (yet).

With all the rhetoric you hear from local union leaders about how China is killing American manufacturing, maybe they should focus on competing with the South first. Seems to me to be another argument for making Ohio a ‘Right to Work” state.

“It continues the company’s strategy of building plants in southern states, where automotive factories are largely nonunion.”

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