From this week’s PostSecret, Mister Rogers.

What would this region look like, if Cleveland became a hot spot for incubating these type of businesses?

[A] growing number of businesses operate under the twin mandates of making a profit while maintaining a sense of strong social purpose. Co-op America’s Business Network, a membership network for for-profits that fit this dual profile, has gone from around 500 businesses in the mid-1990s to about 3,000 today… [A] 2006 report released by Co-op America’s sister organization, Social Investment Forum, shows community investing assets growing to $20 billion in 2005 from $4 billion in 1995.

Allen Grossman, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, says businesses with a strong social core have been around for a long time, but the niche is expanding. “People are experimenting a great deal in this area because of deficiencies in the capital markets for nonprofits,” he says. “They aren’t necessarily aligned when it comes to [measuring] good performance.”

A New Model for Community Service

Since we’ve inherited a yard and garden with lots of these, we’re rethinking what’s a weed. McK likes anything that flowers:

Simply expressed, a weed is any plant that grows where it isn’t wanted. Weeds are defined by their tendency to flourish at the expense of a gardener’s overall vision, and we tend to battle their presence in our yards. It is interesting to consider, though, that a plant is a weed only within a certain context, which is to say that one person’s weed is another person’s wildflower. Most of us have pulled at least one dandelion up by its roots and disposed of it in the interest of preserving the look of a perfect green lawn, yet the dandelion is good medicine, packed with healing properties and vitamin-rich leaves that are a delicious, spicy surprise in a summer salad…

Speaking of, some recipes Dandelion Greens with Sausage sounds good to me.
DailyOM - Weeds

I think Jack will forgive the long excerpt, but I can’t allow the chance that you’ll miss any of this:

Popular economic development wisdom has it that we’re supposed to compete against other regions. For things like jobs for the locally disengaged. Those of us who travel the country to build capacity see each region as worthy of whatever grace and good fortune should visit.

We need to get over the Neanderthal notion of competition. How about if we help every region support organizations that are smart enough to engage the unengaged? Why do we have to gain at someone else’s expense? What if we took an abundance perspective for once? What if we got together with other regions and co-created the best outcome for everyone…?

That’s one thing I notice as I’m getting acclaimated to my new neighborhood—how many people say “Just be careful” and “The neighborhood has changed over the years”. The other night I was in a neighborhood bar where they wouldn’t play a certain kind of music because they didn’t want a certain type of people that would “ruin their nice bar”. Not going back there, thanks. And you can keep your retreaded music from the 60s and 70s…

When will we stop promoting a culture of fear?

jack/zen » Blog Archive » Getting over competition

Print this out and review it often - Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity | zen habits

This is the roughest part of the .6 mile section of city streets that you have to navigate to get from the end of the Steel yard commons bike path to the beginning of the Towpath. Looking east down Harvard avenue. The entrance to the Towpath is at the foot of the Alcoa factory in the distance. It’s a 670 yard ride down Jennings Rd. from the end of the bike path near Belt Line Ave. behind Steelyard Commons to Harvard Ave. and then another 450 yards down harvard to the Towpath entrance. Once you’re on the Towpath it’s all bike path all the way to Akron.
“Bridge over Cuyahoga river” by spongepad

Amplification on the recent Policy Bridge report.

Until black culture as a whole is effectively disentangled from the python-grip of hip-hop, and by extension the street, we are not going to see any real progress.

Black Culture Beyond Hip-Hop

Turns out the Meet.The.Bloggers* interview with Peter Lawson Jones took place on the same day Thomas Mulready interviewed him for this week’s issue of Cool Cleveland. Here’s part one of that interview:

I’ve done something a bit different with the hour-long MTB recording—short excerpts to highlight the entire conversation (that’s posted here):

• Architect Jennifer Coleman on Cleveland’s Skyline
• Architect David Ellison on the significance of the Breuer Tower
• Cuy Co Republican Committee Chairman Rob Frost on the future of the site.
• Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones optimizing communication between departments.
• Commissioner Jones on the obsession with new construction.

Check out the previous coverage here and by all means, leave a comment below.

Here’s an article in USAToday Link that details what I have been writing about for some time: If government were held to the same accounting standards as corporate America, last year’s deficit would have been $1.3 trillion, not the $248 billion that was reported. This has little to do with who is in the White House, what party is in the majority in Congress, or what year it is. Our politicians have scandalously conspired to deceive us for decades about what they are spending and what we owe. (For those of you who would like to make this a partisan argument the so-called Clinton “surplus,”  correctly accounted for, would have been a deficit.)

 According to USAToday:

Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later. The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don’t show up when the government reports its financial condition.

This means that, to get votes, politicians can make promises today that will be paid for tomorrow, without putting aside the reserves to ensure that the government will be able to honor the commitments they make. Or, as Wimpie used to say in the Popeye cartoon, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

Inevitably, these promises become obligations of future generations of taxpayers. Reports USAToday:

Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined. Unfunded promises made for Medicare, Social Security and federal retirement programs account for 85% of taxpayer liabilities. State and local government retirement plans account for much of the rest.

I urge everyone to put aside partisan belief systems and politics and contact elected officials to urge them to properly account for and report our debts.

David Moss writes that he is cancelling tonight’s Tuesday@Future due to some scheduling conflicts. In the meantime, his e-mail includes a good list of sites on developing a greener region:

Richard Steubi’s blog
Green Energy Ohio
University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio
Green City, Blue Lake
Entrepreneurs for Sustainability
Real NEO: Jeff Buster

This area is rapidly developing. Here’s an article from C|Net.

Tech vets making leap to green tech

If you would like to see how some of these issues are integrated into an economic development plan, spend a few minutes and review The Sustainable Economic Development Strategic Plan for Cumberland, MD

From Peter’s interview in this week’s ish:

“I have to monitor how much I have,” she smiled. In an 18-24 hour day, it’s too easy to prop yourself up, so you have to watch. I remember during the opening week, I had a 36-hour day, and at one point, I had 4 coffees in 2 hours. Try decorating a cake like that!

CoolCleveland.com - Interview With Niki Gillota Of Gypsy Beans

From Dan Moulthrop’s show on WCPN this morning.

The Incredible Shrinking City

Youngstown’s urban redevelopment plan is attracting a lot of attention, particularly among other cities with lagging post industrial economies. Tuesday morning, we’ll speak with some of the civic leaders who, rather than fighting a future as a small city, are embracing it. It’s a vision where a neighborhood with a 60% vacancy rate isn’t a problem - it’s an asset. Join us at nine for the Incredible Shrinking City on The Sound of Ideas.

Download in MP3
View photo gallery
Read more about the Youngstown City Plan
Find out more about one of the Youngstown neighborhood groups crafting their own piece of the city plan
Find our more about the Shrinking Cities exhibit at the Spaces Gallery

Jay Miller of Crain’s does a good job on the recent Brookings report:

“We are optimistic about the future of our older industrial cities,” Mr. Katz said. “The U.S. is going through a period of demographic and economic change of a comparable scale and complexity to the turn of the 20th Century.

“Population growth and demographic change (are expanding) the universe of families who seek urban living or are willing to experiment,” he said.

Brookings expert sees cities primed for revival

You can download the Brookings’ report, Restoring Prosperity from this page.

For those who have an interest in such things, this week’s Cool Cleveland podcast includes a little background on how the Cool Cleveland newsletter was started back in the fall of 2002. If you’re not interested in that, you might enjoy the three suggestions we make for cool things to do this week, like the Resonance music fest at Parish Hall, the Eddie Backus Quintet at the Museum, and Karamu’s riveting play about Malcolm X meeting Elijah Muhammad. To listen, just click here.

If you’ve got a family, you may find this of interest. CC Kids correspondent Max has cued up three super-interesting events this week for the whole family. To listen, just click here.

The folks in Greencastle, IN have produced a clear and understandable analysis of their brand positioning: “The best college town in the Midwest.” What are the lessons for Cleveland+?

At the very least, it seems to me, Greencastle has done a better job promoting the process of brand development and making it clear and accessible.

Download “A Marketing & Development Model for Greencastle, Indiana” and see for yourself.

An opportunity for CC?

Whether they’re in Grade 1 or Grade 12, students throughout Waterloo are being challenged to explore their community and to learn more about why it’s being recognized as one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the world.

Launched at the beginning of April, Explore Your Intelligent Waterloo is a web-based program that is inviting the city’s youth to either share their vision of what Waterloo and its technologies will look like in the year 2057, or to learn more about the companies and initiatives that have helped position Waterloo in its bid to become the Top Intelligent Community 2007.

Educational website highlights city’s accomplishments

P.S. Waterloo was named the Top Intelligent Community in 2007. Waterloo named Intelligent Community of the Year in USA shutout.

(Waterloo is a five hour drive from Northeast Ohio.)

Web 2.0 applications are changing the way we access visualize data. Here are three I have come across in the last couple of days. Opportunities for Cleveland 2.0?

Trulia is a real estate search and information service. Users can search for real estate by zip code, or by filling in various search parameters like size, cost, and building type.

Trulia has teamed up with Stamen Design to create a new way to look at housing trends called HindSight.

Swivel bills itself as the YouTube for data.

From the latest WIRE-Net newsletter:

WIRE-Net often helps our members and potential members strengthen their sales and profits by tapping into new markets. This has blossomed into the Ohio Wind Energy Manufacturing Initiative (WEMI).

WEMI grew out of a WIRE-Net forum at Great Lakes Brewery last summer with Richard Stuebi of the Cleveland Foundation…

WIRE-Net is actively searching for a project manager for this new Initiative.

For more information about WEMI, contact Ty Haines at 216.588.1440, ext 106.

To get information on what’s really happening with manufacturing in Cleveland, e-mail Anne Schaum at WIRE-Net and get on their list.

WIRE-Net is a nationally recognized model. Read more.

Check out this powerpoint.

Great thought to start the day with:

Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.” A Nobel Prize winner, Albert Einstein’s scientific theories transformed the world’s understanding of the universe and its workings, so we can believe that these words come from his personal experience and helped him to explore both science and life itself. He offered us an example of what can be learned by looking deeply into nature to reach a deeper understanding of all life and by following our ideas to their logical conclusions in our minds before acting upon them in the world.

When we apply this quote to our lives, we can see that we cannot create abundance by staying in a consciousness of poverty, nor can we gain a sense of power in our lives while identifying ourselves as a victim. Situations begun from anger or fear can have little chance of reaching a state of peace and trust unless someone involved can conceive of that possibility and act upon it…

If you click thru for the rest of the article, you’ll see that it closes with something you hear at BFD often—”What do you think?”

DailyOM - Stepping Out From Where We Were

It’s always great to have new people experience and MTB session. It’s even better when they share it:

I kept hearing Judge Pianka bring up initiatives that are really helping people to not come to his courtroom. I could tell he really delighted in those things (Gateway Church is partnered with one of the initiatives called Fresh Coat Cleveland). But, I could also hear in his voice a disappointment in the number of defaulted loans and bankrupticies that he had been listening to. Here’s a couple of things he note:

In the 27 years in his courtroom, there have never been as many eviction notices as what there are now. He attributed this to the number of sub-prime loans that people took out.
The city pays out $2.7 million dollars per year to keep up the mowing, cleaning, etc., on those homes that default and have nobody living there.

The only thing I know to do is to now take that dialogue and begin to form in my mind how Gateway Church can be part of some long-term solutions. I’m glad that we are a part of one in Fresh Coat Cleveland, but I can’t tell you how badly I long for Gateway to be creative in finding long-term solutions for the city…

I know how difficult it is for him to get away, so I’m grateful for him coming and asking the questions he did (once he warmed up). Maybe there’s a Gateway series in the future…
An Ongoing Conversation from Gateway Church » Meet the Bloggers…

Invitation from Norm Roulet:

The next chance to check out the Inner Circle restaurant, explore the historic Hough Bakeries complex, participate in planning the surrounding neighborhood, and enjoy some great Hot Sauce Williams BBQ is this Friday, June 1, 2007. - please join us… invite friends… spread the word!

More on the Open House and pictures are found here

More on the Hough Bakeries complex here

Please RSVP to norm@realneo.us if you can join us, and let us know if you will have lunch.

In June, a regional workforce summit will take place in Illinois. Here are some of the questions participants will explore in a World Cafe format:

Let’s assume we wanted to develop a national reputation as a learning region. What would that mean? What are the characteristics of a “learning region”?

What would our region look like if every child could read and comprehend well by the third grade? How would our responsibilities as adults change?

What steps would we need to take to reduce our high school drop outs by half over the next five years? How would we work together differently?

A workforce development board is coordinating the effort.

What would it look like if we followed up the extravagance of the $3 million Voices and Choices with something that was more home grown, low cost, and focused?

Consider:

1. David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve created appreciative inquiry as a powerful set of tools to guide innovation. Why are we not using this approach more broadly across the region? We probably have more people trained in this discipline than any other place on the planet.

2. The Illinois workforce board is using Turning Technologies response systems (located Youngstown Business Incubator) to measure their results.

A statewide survey of Ohio voters shows that the public supports most K-12 school funding proposals made by Governor Ted Strickland, believing that the state system of funding public schools is broken and needs to be fixed.

Public Attitudes on K-12 School Funding in Ohio: The System is Broken and Needs to be Fixed

Amateur PR flacks come up with better material:

But the highlight of the McGee/Kozelek testimony was the part where Kozelek lit up a big flatscreen and showed an “example” of public access programming: about a minute of people engaging in various extremely lewd acts at a bar or party. Yes, folks — it was serious porn, right there in the Statehouse, where god-fearing legislators just got through raising the moral tone of Ohio’s strip clubs.

We were warned to look away if we were easily offended, but as far as I could tell everyone (including 100% of the committee) summoned the strength to watch the whole thing.

Of course Mr. McGee didn’t say, and no one on the committee asked, just exactly which PEG channel on which cable system had carried this minute of debauchery, or how it made its way into OCTA’s porn collection, or what exactly the committee was supposed to learn by seeing it. But it sure got everyone’s undivided attention. And isn’t that what great TV is all about?

On the substantive side, a few legislators got to ask the cable people serious questions…

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » Cable association shows porn at SB 117 hearing

“Kávé / Coffee” by csgzs