From the current issue of Civic Strategies:

“What’s the first sign of trouble in older suburban cities? Often it’s when aging neighborhoods sprout ‘for rent’ signs. It’s not hard to picture what could go wrong: As houses go from homeowners to renters, they fall into disrepair, tenants come and go (often with dire consequences for the school system), crime escalates, and neighborhoods deteriorate. This can happen almost overnight as elderly homeowners die and their children sell mom and dad’s unfashionable duplex or aging bungalow at estate-sale prices. Absentee landlords sometimes buy up a number of these places and rent them to successively poorer families until the houses are uninhabitable and the landlord walks away. Is there anything a city can do about this? Some older suburbs near Cleveland are trying a number of strategies. The most common: aggressive inspections (Garfield Heights plans to inspect every rental house every three years, looking for unsafe and unsightly conditions), programs to encourage renters to give homeownership a try and efforts to educate the landlords themselves. For instance, South Euclid requires that landlords take a one-day training course on maintenance and crime prevention when their rental permits are renewed. ‘We have a standard here in our community,’ said South Euclid’s mayor, ‘and you have to reach that standard.’ Shaker Heights is trying a little more carrot and a little less stick. It’s looking for a company to run background checks on prospective renters at discount rates. Its hope: By making the background checks cheap, small-time landlords will use them to weed out troublemaker tenants. ‘Anything we can do to help them be a better landlord helps us as a city,’ said one city official. Another carrot: Shaker Heights wants to give the city’s seal of approval to landlords who meet high maintenance standards and help promote these places to prospective renters. The name of this program: ‘Certified Shaker.’”

Jeff Stacklin sent this out last week in CrainsCleveland.com Editor’s Choice email blast:

The Akron Art Museum is pleased to present David Byrne, best known as a musician with the Talking Heads, for an art talk titled, �I ? PowerPoint.� The lecture will take place in the auditorium of the new main branch of the Akron-Summit Country Public Library.

David Byrne has made visual art for more than 25 years. Trained as an artist, his latest medium is a bit unusual�PowerPoint. According to Byrne, �It started off as a joke (this software is a symbol of corporate salesmanship�or lack thereof), but then the work took on a life of its own as I realized I could create pieces that were moving, despite the limitations of the �medium�.� He will discuss his use of this unusual art form during the talk.

He must have known I’d want to attend. Thanks, Jeff!

Anyone out there a member of the Akron Art Museum? I’d like to be able to get tickets the first week they become available. My contact info is there on the left, and I’d be happy to discuss terms.

Wendy Johnson, the former Medical Director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health, posts a heart wrenchning update about her work in Mozambique:

Last week I was flagged down while driving past what looked like a broken down machibombo (small bus). The bus had been emptied and the passengers gathered around it, spilling into the road. The only white man in the crowd approached us and explained that there�d been an accident, the bus had hit a young boy, he was unconscious but still alive. I got out and before I could walk 10 feet, a couple of guys were half carrying-half dragging the limp child to my car. We opened the back, I tried to make a flat surface big enough for him to lie down, and we raced off to the nearest hospital, about an hour�s drive away. Once I had time to assess him, my heart sank. He had a pulse and was breathing, but he was completely unresponsive and his pupils were fixed and constricted. There was no flicker of life left in his motionless eyes, only his hands twitched occasionally with involuntary posturing. Outwardly, he had a small laceration on the right side of his scalp, but otherwise looked completely unscathed. We are fragile creatures…

Check out these two posts by KOYONO’s Jay Yoo:

This is another great example of what cities can do to attract the Creative Class. Let’s face it folks, outsourcing at every level is a reality. As the cost of communicating overseas via the web (i.e. VoIP) goes to practically zero, experts are predicting that outsourcing to Asia at every level (blue AND white collar) will grow leaps and bounds. The only thing to do is to create new markets, business models and industries. More evidence that we will need to exercise more of our Right Brain in creating a new future instead of daydreaming about the good old days.

His comment on being right brained comes from the previous post:

Wow! I got goose bumbs when I read this. Teaching/encouraging Creativity (Right Brain Stuff) as an important and necessary leadership quality has been something I have been pitching to the Cleveland Social Capital machine for quite some time. The cool thing is that we are all born with a Right Brain. The fact that it is not equally developed, encouraged and accepted (vs. logic, left brain stuff) is ironic.

Please visit Jay’s blog and leave him your comments. That’s what I’m going to do right now.

Reading this post by Bill Callahan, I’m not really sure what to excerpt for you here. You’re better served by clicking on the title of this post and reading the whole thing.

I woke up from a nap to read this post on the Open Space listserv from Jack Ricchiuto

: “In napping, we allow dreamtime to unfold - in the aboriginal sense of dreamtime. For me, opening space the bigger the space opened, the bigger dreams become possible. Whether it’s literal or figurative napping, I am committed to opening my heart to a space large enough for all the dreams of the community now working and playing in the space we’ve created. Lately, visualizing and breathing an open heart space has been most effective.”

Tonight was the first night that Metro Joe Ohio City was opening. They’re in the space formerly occupied by Cafe Noir. MJOC is selling Equal Exchange, is smoke-free and has free WiFi. Fridays and Saturdays they’re open until midnight, and the rest of the week ’til 11PM.

What more could you ask for?

Norm Roulet hopes that Philip Johnson’s passing is the end of an era. Let’s hope so:

“I am a whore and am paid very well to build high-rise buildings” - Philip Johnson

From ALDaily.com

Jack and I had dinner at #1 Pho. This is what his Mung Bean drink came in.

Steve FitzGerald blogs about the cigarette controversy on Lakewood Life:

“Where do private property rights begin and end? (Our West End neighbors and not-re-elected Mayor Madeline Cain are all too familiar with that question.) And who will or should decide if smoking is allowed inside of a private property, such as a restaurant or a tavern?”

Indeed. I prefer cigars myself…

Steve Rucinski of Small Business CEO emailed me this because my commenting system errored out:

My comment and feeling for sometime is that I think education should be the #1 priority in the city (for all citizens, children and adults). If you play the game for a minute of ‘just imagine,” just imagine if the tag line for the city was “Cleveland has the best school system(s) in the country,” do you think we would have trouble attracting or retaining citizens, attracting or retaining business or tourists or capital? I don’t think so.

Good point, Steve.

My apologies to the Planning Livable Communities blog for reposting this in it’s entirity, but it’s an excellent post and I don’t want anyone to miss a bit of it:

There�s an important article in today�s Carlisle (Pa.) Sentinel about how to boost a tired downtown. The key is what consultants George E. Thomas and Susan Nigra Snyder call �the Madonna effect:� reinventing a commercial center every frew years based on current consumer desires and trends.

�That means forgetting about images of a 1950s era downtown as the regional shopping and entertainment center where people went for just about everything, they say,� the article explains. �Instead, Carlisle must transform itself into a destination for people seeking leisure activities. . . . One solution for revitalizing downtowns today is transforming the old �Main Street� into �Leisure Main Street.� Such centers offer unique niche stores and boutiques, restaurants and entertainment venues that can thrive in smaller storefront space, the consultants say.�

Think how Waltham�s Moody Street rejuvenated � ethnic restaurants, appealing riverfront (including boat rides on the Charles), a movie theater and mixed-use housing, all with an appealing, walkable streetscape. It�s a park-once, walk-to-multiple-destinations downtown.

Thanks to Cooltown Studios for the link. �We�re shifting from a goods to services to an experience economy, so it�s wise to let the go of the �goods� and concentrate on the experiences”, writes Neil at Cooltown Studios.

I’ve added emphasis. So what is the City of Cleveland doing right according to this list?

Speaking of the Experience Economy, has anyone of our cultural or civiv institutions engaged it’s author, Jim Gilmore, who lives here in Northeast Ohio?

Super Size Me gets a nomination for Best Documentary.

Michael Miller responds to the news that Cleveland isn’t the fattest city anymore, but it’s the stupidest:

I certainly hope someone on the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners reads this and makes them realize what most of us already know - a thriving city needs more than a new stadium or two, and new mega-shopping centers to attract and keep the intelligent people at the heart of any economic engine. Education combined with social activities are what makes a city tick.

He goes on to contrast Cleveland with St. Paul, MN which was one of the smartest cities and a place he spent a significant amount of time.

This is a picture Jack drew of himself taking a leap the other night…

Got an email from Anita Campbell:

Hi George, today and tomorrow I will be live blogging from the New Communications Forum. I will be showing the Northeast Ohio blogosphere map during my panel session tomorrow,and will be sure to mention Brewed Fresh Daily.

Meanwhile the Tinbasher has been somewhat of a sensation, used as an example already this morning twice.

Greater Ohio is urging us to contact our state senators:

Senator Kirk Schuring (District 29) is introducing legislation that will create a 25 percent tax credit for the restoration and rehabilitation of Ohio’s vacant and underutilized historic buildings.

The tax credit will encourage private investment in historic properties, generate additional jobs and stimulate economic development within existing communities. Additionally, this credit should spur greater investments in smaller commercial projects and Main Street commercial properties of older neighborhoods - particularly where there is a critical need for community revitalization.

Further, the bill has the potential to help local areas meet their air quality goals by investing in thoughtful land use.

The bill was developed in close collaboration with Greater Ohio and Heritage Ohio as well as developers, tax credit users, and the financing community.

Action needed:

Click here for talking points to make the case for the “state investment tax credit.”

Contact your State Senator (find your senator here) about co-sponsoring the state investment tax credit bill.

Ask your Senator to please contact Senator Schuring’s office at 614-466-0626 by Friday, February 11, 2005.

Tisha Nemeth-Loomis reviews Malcolm Galdwell’s new book in this week’s edition of Cool Cleveland with the opening volley of:

Recently there has been a noticeable palaver filling the air in Cleveland, and you might have heard it: the increased communication among business professionals, educators and politicians, with some resultant strategic alliances, partnerships, and collaborations newly infused into the city. While these conscious decision-making efforts and conversations between divergent groups in Cleveland have increased, can these conscious-driven discussions transcend to a new level? Could we learn from the underpinnings of unconscious intellect, and perhaps mine it for answers within the underrated and often overlooked instinctual unconscious? I’m talking about our capability for spontaneous thinking…