Brewed Fresh Daily

When I fired up my email this morning I shouted WOOHOO at the following news I got via an email from Andrew Kavanaugh. Great news to start off the pending New Year!

I know I’ll be getting involved and I hope Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and the general NEO area will rally around this. Done right this could be the tipping point for the region from a tech standpoint. If CSU and Case Western Reserve University are smart they’ll lend full resources to Startup Weekend Cleveland.

Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event that brings together developers, graphic artists, business & marketing, legal and more for a fun filled weekend of pitching ideas and bringing the popular ideas to life.  There have been nearly 30 Startup Weekend Events in the United States, Canada and, most recently, in Greece – including an event in our backyard (Columbus).  After a great run of votes on http://startupweekend.com/cityvote/ – I’m happy to announce that we’re bringing the party to Cleveland.

If you’d like to read Andrew’s full email and find out how you can get involved and help, click here to visit my blog techbytes.biz.

Rob Pitingolo is a local college senior planning to graduate in December 2009. He is the author of the blog, Extraordinary Observations, which explores topics from progressive politics to economics to urbanism

In the next few weeks, thousands of young people will arrive in Cleveland from dozens of states and a handful of countries. No, there isn’t anything out of the ordinary happening this January, merely the students who attend Northeast Ohio’s colleges and universities returning from winter break. Regrettably, few of my peers tend to be outspoken about their attitude toward Cleveland; many out-of-towners feel unrepresented by local civic leaders; and having attended two of Cleveland’s universities in the past half-decade, I hope to shed some light on the mindset of other young people in our region.

I’m often told about how great Cleveland will look when I’m established in my career and ready to settle down and start a family. Between the affordable housing, numerous suburban neighborhoods with respectable schools, and cultural amenities that appeal to that particular crowd, I’ll be hard pressed to find a better mix elsewhere. I can’t deny that Cleveland does have a lot to offer. The time I spent living in Texas recently led me to appreciate Cleveland more than perhaps I’d ever imagined. I love Cleveland as much as the next person, but I hope it is clear that the region’s shaky ability to retain smart, young, talented individuals hurts. It hurts a lot…

Read the rest of this entry »

Christine starts a list. What would you add?

I want Cleveland to learn to laugh at itself.

I want everyone in Cleveland to pick one little corner of it to save.

I want all of the jobless to find jobs. Or at least realize their potential as professional citizens.

I want Cleveland to embrace itself as it is and dream big dreams about its future.

I want more walkable, thriving neighborhoods thru out the city.

I want more locally grown food.

I want this list to have more then 100 wishes for Cleveland in 2009.

If you can give Cleveland a holdiay gift or make a new year’s resolution for this city, what would it be?

Really Bad Cleveland Accent: What I Want for Christmas.

Gary mentioned the PeeD article Desiree is referring to at the 3rd Fri Friends Lunch today:

Who is fostering that sentiment? The people commenting for the article? The firms that are supposed to be fostering business in Cleveland?

You are telling us as entrepreneurs that we must suck? Because you need to go elsewhere to find brain gain?

I’m a little salty and pissed off. No one has helped me with my business. These firms say I don’t fit their target audience??? So my business is self funded and operates on its own. I have no credit. I have no mentor. In fact, I have no support systems. So when rain storms like today flood my shop? Oh yeah. It’s me who has to fix it AND keep the money flowing.

How about catering to the talent that has chosen to stay on in this hardship we know as Cleveland? Where is the support and funding for those pioneers or hangers on? I’ve been told countless times to move my Concierge Service to Portland, L.A., D.C., etc. I’ve been offered funding by investors to relocate to another city… But I choose to stay here…

And how about not insulting us when you haven’t done your homework to know who is out here standing behind Cleveland and might I say… kicking a$$…

Apparently, there’s a press conference about this soon. I need to connect Desiree and Gary…

The search for Entrepreneurs | REALNEO for all

via Christine Borne (written as a comment to ‘Cleveland is a Great City‘)

“I don’t think Frank Jackson is the best mayor in Cleveland history, but what I’ve always liked about him is that he’s not a slick, huckster-politician who’ll just tell you what you want to hear. And even though he’s not a real exciting or charismatic guy, nearly everything I have personally heard him say has seemed pretty reasonable and sensible. He’s a true public servant – the unflappable kind who keeps plugging along for years without succumbing to cynicism. And as a former public servant myself I’ve just got to say, that’s bloody hard and I respect him for it.”

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, start-up enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.

Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking, unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in Boulder, Toronto, New York, Hamburg, Houston, West Lafayette, Boston, DC and more.

Hellooooo…………Cleveland!

a mere 31 votes will put us in the top 5
doubling our current votes will put us ahead of Zincinnatti

Cast your vote for the CLV!!

Parts of an email from Carl @ Blue Pike Farm:

RALLY for the Chickens and the Bees.

Join your friends and Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Daddies, Goosey Poosey, Gander Pander, the Bee Babe and her friends for as rollicking good time in support of the proposed Cleveland legislation to relax the building code regulations restricting Chickens, Bees and other small critters. (Tom Turkey will not be available due to a death in the family).

Time: 2:00 P.M.
Day: Sunday
Date: December 7th, 2008
Location: Blue Pike Farm, 900 E. 72nd St. Cleveland (Between I-90 and St. Claire)

Bring your petitions, copies of your emails and your positive energy. We’ll collect all the support material and present it to Councilman Joe Cimperman on Monday morning, December 8th before the hearing on the legislation before the Cleveland City Council Committee of the Whole.

Bring the kids to play on Holly Hock Hill. Refreshments for the early birds.

After rewatching The End of Suburbia last night, these arguments (which I’ve emailed to Councilman Polensek) make sense:

Economic security; in these lean times raising your own food, veggies, chickens for eggs or meat, bees for honey etc. help stretch your families food budget. Maybe you could make a $ or $$ by selling some to your neighbors.

Food security; raising your own food helps insulate you and your loved ones from the contaminants in the industrial food chain (see i.e. this one about antibiotics in the U.S. meat supply; A direct relationship exists between food consumption levels and poverty. Families with the financial resources to escape extreme poverty rarely suffer from chronic hunger; while poor families not only suffer the most from chronic hunger, but are also the segment of the population most at risk during food shortages and famines. Or this about food scarcity:

Passage of the ordinance will help support local food initiatives.

Nothing could be safer than growing your own food, or purchasing locally grown foods.

One of the scarier points made in EoS is in our neighborhood, there’s about a 3 day supply of food. What can we do to increase the survivabililty/thrivability of North Collinwood? FYI, if you’d like to get together and watch The End of Suburbia let me know. I’ll put a party together.

Nice review from Matt:

The restaurant is a nice mid-size space with what I can only call an “old school” feel. It reminded me of going to some of the cooler restaurants with my family back in “the day”. This is not a bad thing! It’s just the opposite: it’s a comfortable, warm area where you feel like you are going to eat something special. It’s the opposite of the excruciating “corporate chain” experience…

As for the food? It’s described as “Euro-American Bistro”. The menu had a mix of solid standards and more interesting dishes to please us. We shared a (slightly) spicy shrimp appetizer to start. I had their chicken soup, which could have been considered a stew or a pot pie because it was so thick and savory. The biscuit served on top was amazing. Finally, I had the pot roast and my friend had the smoked-and-grilled salmon. We were both very pleased with everything and left happy.

If you’re looking for someplace to go for a good meal, check it out. It’s very easy to reach, being just north of I-90, where Eddy Road dead-ends into the lake in Bratenahl.

Americano in Bratenahl | Bakaitis.com.

The future of Cleveland began yesterday at E4S’ annual meeting, where they used a blog powered by “harvesters” to captured the flavor and feel pf the folks gathering there. Visit ClevelandsNewStory.com/ to get a glimpse of what Cleveland is becoming.

WVIZ-PBS to re-air Citizen Hauser as a tribute to Ed.

Here are the dates and times:
Tuesday the 25th at 7:30 p.m. (pre- empting Wild Chronicles)
Wednesday the 26th at 11:00 p.m.(pre- empting the BBC News).

spread the word-