Brewed Fresh Daily

"Here's an easy question: Who owns the sidewalk in front of your house? If you say the city owns it, it's clear you don't live in Cleveland. There, property owners are responsible for the sidewalks, and when the city repairs them it sends the owners a bill. Not surprisingly, many are not pleased to learn that they are the proud owners of a sidewalk. Take Nick Biel, who recently got a bill for $960 for repairs. 'Everybody thought the sidewalks and curbs were the city's (responsibility), because that's what we pay taxes for,' he said. That attitude (it's the city's sidewalk, not mine) is so widespread that the city is, by stages, doing just what Biel wants: Taking responsibility for the sidewalks. Since the 1970s, the city has set aside money to pay for some of the repairs. Today, the government pays roughly half the cost to fix your (repeat: your) sidewalk. This is so important to city council members, who get an earful from constituents when sidewalk bills are sent out, that they threatened recently to vote down Mayor Jane Campbell's proposed $27.4 million bond issue because it didn't have any money for sidewalk repairs. The mayor got the message: There's now $2.1 million for sidewalks in the bond issue. "

"Some technologies are so blatantly obnoxious that the human race would rejoice if they were summarily executed. A humorist and science fiction writer offers some candidates."

"While it's not uncommon for rural communities to tinker with Wi-Fi Internet access, Beaufort has taken Wi-Fi in a whole new direction: Rather than offer the service in a building, the school equipped a van with a satellite dish and 20 Wi-Fi-enabled laptop computers to bring the Internet to students."

"Listen for Eric on WCPN Next Tuesday at Noon. In my never-ending quest to keep putting bloggers and blogging on the local media map in slow, steady and sustainable fashion, I gave some thought recently to a simple question: who's the best, smartest and most probing media interviewer in Cleveland? The answer presented itself almost as soon as the question was formed: why, Ideastream's Dee Perry of course. Long a staple for her unhurried, gracious interviews on WCPN's Around Noon show, you may have grown to like her for the charity of her tone, for the way you can hear that big splitting smile in her voice. More recently, with the entry of the Ideastream merger of WCPN and WVIZ, she also gets in some face time on the equally good Applause TV show. Anyway, I figured that we ought to pitch Dee on interviewing a blogger or bloggers. But in doing a bit of background prep before calling her with that suggestion, I found out that she'd already beaten me to the idea. A week from tomorrow, Tuesday the 30th of September, Dee is scheduled to have our boy Eric Olsen of megasite Blogcritics and the microsite Clev-Blog on After Noon. Do make sure to tune that in. As anyone who was at the May Blogfest knows only too well, his verbal pyrotechnics are well worth the price of admission."

• Post regularly, find topics that interest you and track them steadily, and write carefully (I hate blogs that are full of typos and ungrammatical sentences).
• It pays to be polite. Calling people names can sound fun, but most readers are turned off by it.
• Starting off, pick some topics that you know more about than most other people - your profession, your locality, or whatever - and make those a major part of your blog.
• When you have something especially important, email some other bloggers and let them know. They�re likely to link to you and you�ll pick up readers.
• Get a digital camera if you don�t have one. Photographs liven up a blog and, if they�re good, can really be worth 1000 words.

"Stop waiting around for Commissioners, Mayors, Poobahs, and Bushwackers. Be strong yourselves. Talk to the community, build your own momentum."

On Thursday, Yahoo changed their protocol in an effort to prevent spammers. As a result, Trillian's connectivity is also affected. You may get a crash in Yahoo.dll or an Invalid Login error when connecting to the Yahoo Messenger network. Cerulean Studios is working on a solution for this problem and will post an update here when a fix is available. If Trillian crashes when you load it, preventing you from shutting off your Yahoo autoconnect, follow these steps: * Close Trillian. Locate your Yahoo.ini file. Press Windows-F or click your Start Button then Search -> All files and folders -> Yahoo.ini. If you can't find it this way, look in C:\Program Files\Trillian\Users\Default or the Trillian Settings directory under your current user's C:\Documents and Settings folder. * Edit the file by double-clicking or opening it in Notepad. Replace all occurences of 'auto connect=1' with 'auto connect=0' and save the file. Now reload Trillian and it won't try to autoconnect to Yahoo, which causes the crash.

"[A]study of traffic accidents throughout Canada in 1991 and 1992 by Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia before, during, and immediately after the so-called 'spring forward' when DST begins in April. Alarmingly, he found an eight percent jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after clocks are moved ahead. He attributes the jump to the lost hour of sleep. In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, Coren explained, 'These data show that small changes in the amount of sleep that people get can have major consequences in everyday activities.' He undertook the study as a follow up to research showing that even an hour's change can disrupt sleep patterns and 'persist for up to five days after each time shift.' Other observers attribute the huge spike in accidents on the first Monday of DST to the sudden change in the amount of light during driving times. Regardless of the reason, there is no denying that changing our clocks has a significant cost in human lives."

Announcing the fifth edition of the competition on 'art and artificial life' sponsored by the Telefonica Foundation in Madrid. We are looking for outstanding electronic art projects employing techniques such as digital genetics, autonomous robotics, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, computer viruses, embodied artificial intelligence, avatars, evolving behaviours and virtual ecosystems. An international jury -- Daniel Canogar, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Machiko Kusahara, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jane Prophet and Nell Tenhaaf -- will grant four cash awards totaling 20,000 Euros. The competition's website has the guidelines, application form, and information on the previous award-winners, including texts, videos, images and links. Deadline: Friday, October 31, 2003.

"These are the perils and prosperities of a twenty-three year old man's life as he navigates it through Cleveland, Ohio. "

Digital media evangelist Mark Cuban -- the serial entrepreneur behind Broadcast.com (sold to Yahoo!), HDNet, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks -- just bought Landmark Theatres. Cuban and longtime business partner Todd Wagner purchased the chain for an undisclosed sum, and say digital projection systems will eventually be introduced in an effort to influence every aspect of filmmaking, from production to display.

What is it? Waypath is an attempt to network the weblog community, connecting weblogs that share common themes, ideas, and topics. How does it work? Waypath's Related Weblog Navigation engine analyzes weblog entries to determine their core conceptual makeups, compares them with one another to find out how related they are, and presents you with its best guess as to what's related to your original input. This is done all automatically, using available technology.

"When we consider the traditional role of leader, we realize how much of the leaders' power was based on their privileged and often exclusive access to knowledge. Knowledge made the difference between the leadership haves and have-nots. Without exclusive knowledge, the 'leader' has no power to effectively lead. The key word here: effectively. Today, with the unleashing of social and technology networks, we are seeing the democratization of knowledge. Leaders no longer have exclusive domain over knowledge. In fact, an informal, virtual network of people can have more shared knowledge about almost anything than any single leader could ever have. "

Cleveland Social Venture Partners, a philanthropic venture fund supporting nonprofit organizations in Cuyahoga County, announced today that Near West Theatre (NWT) has been selected as the fund's second recipient of an investment."

Richard Florida is not the only expert in the world on creative communities and economies. You may find some of John Howkins' ideas to be of interest. [In] his book, The Creative Economy, Howkins identifies these priorities in building stronger creative economies: 1. Knowing What It Is. Psychologists, researchers and others are exploring links between the brain (as measured by brainwave activity), mind, consciousness and creativity. 2. Using It. Individuals need to know how to recognise, manage and develop their own creative skills. Having good creative skills in the 21st century - and knowing the law and economics - is as important as having good typing or computer skills was in the 20th century. 3. Turning Creativity into Money. The relationship between creativity and creative business products. What is the difference? At what point does a new idea become a product? 4. Economics. Economists are defining a 'new economics' based on information and ideas. They are exploring concepts of 'creative capital'. 5. Business Management. Managers need to know how to manage creativity within an organisation, both commercial and non-profit. How to encourage and reward people's creativity. 6. Law. Intellectual property laws cover patents, copyrights, trademarks and designs. (1) Public Policy. Patenting is in crisis as people claim patents for genetic matter, computer programs and 'business methods'. Copyright can't cope with digital copying. The laws need updating, urgently. (2) Individuals. People need to know how to protect their own ideas. 7. The Internet and Digital Media. Digital media are changing how creativity can be expressed, and how creative products are copied, priced and sold. 8. Public Policy and Governance. Complex issues require creative solutions. Governments and public bodies need to harness creativity to generate new approaches to public policy issues such as the environment, energy, transport healthcare and education. 9. Education and Training. Schools, colleges and educators need to teach creativity both generically and in terms of specific skills (management, law). They must bring creativity into the heart of the learning process, not only into the arts and media.

"In the City of Cleveland, Ohio, USA over 3,000 coaches and athletes and thousands of participants and spectators will gather to engage in vibrant cultural exchange through the athletic, cultural, educational, commerce and trade programs taking place before, during and after the International Children�s Games and Cultural Festival of 2004! Competitions will involve ten sport categories played on selected sites in and surrounding the City. With the Global Village, Embassy Row, Cyber Scene, Club Techno, Gear Zone and the World Trade Conference all taking place in the heart of downtown, Cleveland will become the epicenter of international interest. From July 29th through August 2nd, 2004, one of USA�s most culturally rich communities will open its arms and hearts to welcome athletes, coaches, spectators, dignitaries and business leaders from around the world, promising a unique and unforgettable experience to all."

"When our leadership displays its inability to keep up with the times; when our city�s marketing machine fails to keep us (or others) informed of what�s good about our city; when our media focuses on what�s wrong; it becomes easy to see how many Clevelanders develop an inbred inferiority complex about our city. It�s just as easy to see why those who are not born and raised here � and are not impeded by the effects of this inferiority complex � are able to live, work and thrive here."

I've been avoiding the urge to write about "digital divide" issues here, because I work on those issues for Cleveland Digital Vision... so it's an area of professional responsibility rather than personal opinion. However, I will break my rule long enough to announce that there's now a Digital Vision weblog associated with the newly rewritten DV website.

"The Google Search engine has become the Swiss Army Knife of the Internet � it has more uses than finding relevant web pages. Some of the uses are infringing on the domain of Human Resources. It is easy for a boss to do a background check on a potential new employee. With Google, the potential new hire can turn the tables, and do a pretty decent background check on the new boss! Google�s greatest application as an �HR tool� is not in the corporation � it is out among the free agents, consultants and entrepreneurs who live and work by reputation and experience. It is here where �Google numbers� become very important."

Upcoming.org is a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.

"Mark Neale directs this prolonged conversation with William Gibson (famed science-fiction novelist and creator of the term 'cyberspace') from the back of Gibson's limousine as they take a cross-country odyssey over nameless highways going no place in particular. The cameras roll as Gibson talks about his own personal philosophies, experiences, and opinions about the media-saturated culture in which we live. The conversation provides a compelling glimpse at the radical, genius writer whose 1984 novel NEUROMANCER forever changed the concept of the Internet, propelling the author to the forefront of the media explosion of the late 20th Century."

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." - Anatole France

What teenagers write in online diaries can come back to haunt them, as a half-dozen University School students found out this week. The students came under fire after administrators at the exclusive Hunting Valley preparatory school found they had made nasty comments about a fellow student on a 'blog' - a Web page that functions as a publicly accessible journal. The episode is the latest of a growing number of incidents in which student musings have turned blogs and chat rooms into the high-tech equivalent of a lavatory wall..."

"The Five Paragraph Order is SMEAC, situation, mission, execution, administration and logistics, command and signal. SMEAC deals with every order that is given. It ensures that the orders that are given are able to be accomplished."

"After writing a book to pay off debts, {[Jimmy Carter] established the Carter Center in Atlanta to foster programs he believed in. Due to his human rights emphasis, many developing nations looked to him as a great leader, and Carter responded with a democracy project, monitoring elections all over the world. His support of Habitat for Humanity brought publicity and funding to that fledgling organization. His foundation mobilized dollars and expert knowledge to address diseases that plague poor nations. As a result, both guinea worm and river blindness have been nearly eliminated. He also teaches Sun- day school at Maranatha Baptist Church. Turn over the offering plates, and you'll see the carved initials 'J.C.' The former President made them in his carpentry shop, as he did the TV cabinet that sits in the Sunday school room. He takes his turn cutting the grass outside the church."

Ross Mayfield came up with a new addition to email signatures:

this email is: [ ] blogable [ x ] ask first [ ] private

"The Cleveland Foundation has launched a project meant to help individuals with new ideas to foster economic development in Greater Cleveland. Jennifer Thomas, director of ClevelandClicks, has been named director of the Civic Innovation Lab, which will provide financial assistance and mentorship to so-called �civic entrepreneurs.�...�This was an opportunity that I couldn�t pass up,� Ms. Thomas. Her goal will be to give people with good ideas for economic development related initiatives a place to have their idea heard, funded and implemented. Ideas will be solicited beginning next month. "

"What does Cleveland lack that its big city rivals all have? You guessed it, an international youth hostel. What could be better for bringing globe trekkers to our shores and boosting the tourist economy? Currently, the area�s only hostel is the peaceful, but remote Stafford Hostel in the Cuyahoga Valley. A group of locals working to bring International Youth Hostels to Cleveland received some good news this week�Downtown Cleveland Partnership, the development corporation for our downtown area, received funding to study potential sites for a city-based hostel. The group has already put together its wish list, which includes converting The William G. Mather steamship or the B&O Railroad Terminal (the yellow brick building on Canal Road near the Carter Road lift bridge owned by Sherwin Williams). Other wishful thinking possibilities have been the Jay Hotel or a vacant building on the site of Trinity Cathedral. The search can now begin in earnest, with the winner most likely the one that best addresses ease of access, spin off to commercial demand in the area, and cost of conversion."

As anyone who has driven through Cleveland's inner city - whether downtown Euclid Avenue or West 40th and Lorain - there's a lot of room for improvement. That's also the case in most northern cities across the United States. Yesterday, the city of Milwaukee unveiled an ambitious plan to revitalize its inner city. The Initiative for a Competitive Milwaukee is the brainchild of Michael Porter, the Harvard Business School professor who is pushing similar inner city revivals in other cities through his Initiative for a Competitive City. Don't be surprised if a similar-styled plan is pitched for Cleveland once talks are done to reshape the region's business groups.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read, Or listened to the words that Jesus said, About the road to happiness through love and charity, Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me. I wear it for the sick and lonely old, For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold, I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been, Each week we lose a hundred fine young men. And, I wear it for the thousands who have died, Believen' that the Lord was on their side, I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, Believen' that we all were on their side. © 1971 House of Cash, Inc.

When I was a child, a volcano erupted unexpectedly in Iceland, burying a small town at the foot of its cone. All the children in the town were in school at the time, and they all perished. The parents sent their sons and daughters out the door that morning, same as they always did, and never saw them again. I remember my mother being profoundly moved by that tragedy. She always made sure that the last words we had in the morning were loving ones. That cannot always have been easy, but my memory is that she usually succeeded.

• Attract Major Research Centers
• Establish "Lighted" Schoolhouses as Working Neighborhood Resources
• Raise Community Literacy Rates
• Build Economically Vibrant Neighborhoods with Strong Services
• Change the Pattern of Community Re-Entry

Cleveland voters: What will Jane Campbell have to accomplish in the next two years to get your vote for a second term? Non-Cleveland voters: What will Jane Campbell have to accomplish in the next two years to get a campaign contribution from you toward her re-election? You can list as many required accomplishments as you like, but please be very specific. Responses like 'show more leadership' or 'build more collaborations' will be unceremoniously deleted. Also remember to specify whether you vote in the City of Cleveland.

"Relationships between any two people [aren't] an exercise in frustration, but the opportunity to learn and grow, lending meaning to our struggles and shift[ing] us into a new space."

Community requires the confession of broken-ness. But how remarkable it is that in our culture brokenness must be "confessed." We think of confession as an act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the confessional, with the guarantee of professional priestly or psychiatric confidentiality. Yet the reality is that every human being is broken and vulnerable. How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others. But even more important is the LOVE that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.

If Necessary Use Words An Afternoon of Poetry and Music Saturday October 4th 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Free ! Orlikowski Manor 6502 Chambers at E.65th Featuring Kristin Ohlson, Vince Robinson, Denise Dee, Christina Vernon & Carl Wendorff, Kathy Walker, J. Scott Franklin, Michael Ceraolo, Broadview. St. Stanislaus' Polish festival will be taking place during the weekend of October 3-5th. So you can zip across the street for pierogis and polka music.

"Love cannot survive if you just give it scraps of yourself, scraps of your time, scraps of your thoughts." - Mary O'Hara

"Cleveland's transit agency is looking at ways of speeding up bus service by eliminating the fare box. Problem: Buses spend a considerable amount of time idling as riders fish in their pockets for coins to drop in the fare box, then make their way to their seats. Eliminate all this fumbling around at the front of the bus, consultants say, and buses could make better time. But how would people pay, if not with cash? The Cleveland system is looking at several possibilities: One would be to issue riders 'smart cards' that would store fares (you'd replenish the card by feeding money into a machine, like a reverse ATM) or bill you monthly. Another: Require all riders to use paper fare-cards, issued by vending machines. If it's a smart-card system, you'd wave the card at an electronic card reader at the front of the bus, and it would ring up your fare. If it's a fare card, you'd have to swipe it through a card reader. Either way, consultants say, lines would move faster. 'What you have today, in all sincerity, is what is known in the (transit) industry as a dinosaur,' said one. The smart cards have some added benefits: Programmed correctly, they can provide a lot of information about ridership trends, experts say, and can be used for other things. 'People could pay for transit, and they could pay for a cup of coffee,' a consultant said. "

Where do the fattest Americans live? Apparently in the suburbs of Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. A study in the American Journal of Health Promotion singled out suburban Geauga County (Cleveland) and Fulton County (Toledo) as places with the greatest suburban sprawl and, therefore, the greatest waistlines. The point of the study, which was underwritten in part by an anti-sprawl group, was to show that low-density suburbs promote obesity. So? According to this study and others, obesity is quickly supplanting tobacco as the nation's leading health problem, contributing to a range of ailments, from heart disease to diabetes. The problem with the suburbs, say researchers, is their design: To get anywhere you have to drive. So kids don't walk to school and dads don't stroll down to the corner for a loaf of bread. And this, over time, adds to people's waistlines. Result: the average person who's 5 foot 7 in Geauga County weighs nearly six and a half pounds more than a similarly sized person in Manhattan, the most densely populated place in America. Critics say the study exaggerates the problems with sprawl. 'I don't buy it,' said the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA. 'I live in the 'burbs, and I see people all the time jogging and walking their dogs.' Others say obesity is linked more to eating habits (fatty foods and lots of it) than inertia. The study acknowledges that eating better would solve a lot of obesity problems, as would walking for exercise. But routine walking � the kind you do to drop off dry cleaning or mail a letter � may play an even bigger role than planned exercise in keeping people trim, the study says, adding that people in sprawling suburbs 'may be missing out on significant health benefits that are available simply by walking, biking, climbing stairs and getting physical activity as part of everyday life." Footnote: The study ranked 448 counties in the nation's urban areas by average weight and other obesity measures. After the two Ohio counties, the fattest places are Goochland County, near Richmond, Va., Yadkin County, near Greensboro, N.C., and Walton County, near Atlanta. To view the report, click here.

"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notwithstanding, Cleveland doesn't have an abundance of celebrities. But it does have one: a quirky cartoonist named Harvey Pekar. Haven't heard of him? Try going to the movies. A film about Pekar, 'American Splendor,' was released recently to wide critical acclaim. But the thing that makes Pekar so interesting is his cynical view of the world around him, including his hometown. That cynicism was on view in a cartoon he drew for the New York Times in late August, the point of which was that Cleveland was an urban wasteland. Local officials were not amused. 'Having someone of his notoriety, an insider, portray his town like that, it's not a good thing,' said the head of the tourism bureau. The mayor was more peeved. 'If people actually came to Cleveland, they'd find out there's a lot more going on than Harvey Pekar seems to know,' she said. It's not just the cartoon that has people upset. There's the movie, too. The good news: It was filmed in in Cleveland, which is good for the economy. The bad news: Cleveland comes off as, well, an urban wasteland. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer put it, the film 'makes great use of the city's hulking factories, aging houses and garbage-strewn sidewalks.' The paper added primly, 'A recruiting film for Cleveland it is not.' But not everyone is distressed by the movie's portrayal. The head of the chamber of commerce, for one, thinks local officials are being too sensitive. 'There are movies about gangs in Los Angeles, but nobody says, don't go to L.A. because of crime or gangs,' he says. Not surprisingly, the director of the Cleveland Film Commission agrees. 'Every Martin Scorsese movie doesn't make New York look great, but it adds to the mythology (of the city) and it employs."

"The process is screwed up," panelist Lillian Kuri, head of the private nonprofit agency Cleveland Public Art, said at one point. She said the means of discussing and planning public-art projects needs to be more open and efficient. The forum also gave arts advocates a chance to talk about how to get public money directed to the arts. Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, a panelist, said the recent collapse of the proposed convention center and arts tax package had not discouraged efforts for another arts levy.

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please." - Mark Twain In a manner rivaled only by Orwell, Twain always has an uncanny ability to couch enduring truths in a pithy way that speaks across the decades, even centuries. And that great line of his popped into my head this morning as I took in some of the continuing back and forth on George's BFD, about the increasingly pungent issue of public funding for the arts. Tomorrow's public meeting at Trinity Cathedral ought to be interesting. The good news: it will be marked by a very un-Cleveland authentic public participation. I'll be watching closely to see if anyone in that vast gray machinery of the PD even finds out about it, much less covers it (to say nothing of doing so intelligently).

1. beautiful (de)construction by Blake Cook 2. a planetarium by Doug Meyer 3. a water bed (of grass) by Daiv Whaley 4. images of 48 hours spent in bed by Hadley Conner 5. a moving, morphing, "breathing" balcony/hallway by Kate Murch

September 25, 2003 � Karamu House (2355 E. 89th St) @ 3:30PM

"During the first week of the pilot test, �Cleveland police officers ran the license plate of a vehicle with a loud muffler only to find the driver was a suspect in a recent homicide. The officers pulled the vehicle over and after a short foot chase, apprehended the suspect involved with the homicide. A further check of the vehicle�s trunk revealed a homicide victim in the trunk,� said Titus Britt, deputy commissioner of public safety for the city. "

No bugs today - just memories My wife, daughter and I were among the luck ones. We were in the World Trade Center that day, but we got out safely. More.

The source of the much-repeated $1.3 billion figure is research done for (or by) the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture... the executive summary is on their website here. But note that the actual annual employment by nonprofit arts and culture groups in the seven-county region is given as 3,700, with an annual payroll of $105 million. Total direct spending by the groups is estimated at $242 million a year. The $1.3 billion claim is for their spending's "direct and indirect" economic impact, which suggests a mulitiplier effect of more than 500%! This kind of multiplier "impact" claim is always dubious, but 500% is pure superstition.

A little context: 3700 nonprofit arts jobs is about .5% of the total employment in the Cleveland CMSA, and $105 million is less than .3% of the region's payrolls. Sorry, but this is just not in a league with IT companies in the region, which employed more than 25,000 at last count. Or with polymers: "The Akron area alone employs over 30,000 people in about 500 different companies both large and small".

You can make a case for better community support of the arts in Cleveland -- as amenities, as drawing cards, or just as public goods. But the "high-impact economic sector" line does not withstand scrutiny.

Why are we assuming that public arts funding will ever be achieved, or should be? That strikes me as shortsighted bordering on downright arrogant in a town with a sky-high poverty rate. Don't get me wrong, like everyone, I'd love a handout too: but adults understand that unlike in the game of Monopoly, all money comes with strings, and public money more than any other. Can we for once have an adult conversation about this? Bill, Right you are. I have indeed gone through that giant report, line-for-line, and at places laughed aloud at its chutzpah (where's that yiddish dictionary when you need it?). The very fact that it gets into this absurd pseudo-science of guessing outlandish multiplier effects, which has a pretty disreputable reputation from the disgraceful way in which it's been used to sell (actually ram past the public) stadium projects and the like, is a sign that the arts crowd is desperate to tap the public trough, which I think is pretty tawdry. Why would these folks of all people, who presumably value truth a little more than the establishment elite who will say nearly anything to get the hoi-polloi to vote for their latest brainchild, get into the business of repeating nearly baseless propaganda (a $1.3 billion industry) until all but the most skeptical have accepted it as received wisdom? Tom Shorgl and company, like all political propagandists, are in the business of repeating slogans and doing what it takes to achieve victory at the polling booth. We all understand that. But don't our friends and colleagues in the arts community have a little higher threshold for truthfulness?

"Matt Welch (via the Columbia Journalism Review) casts his keen eye on the recent Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) convention in SF and finds the current batch of Alternative Weeklies somewhat lacking.

All the newspapers looked the same � same format, same fonts, same columns complaining about the local daily, same sex advice, same five-thousand-word hole for the cover story. The people were largely the same, too: all but maybe 2 percent of the city-slicker journalists in attendance were white; the vast majority were either Boomer hippies or Gen X slackers. Several asked me the exact same question with the same suspicious looks on their faces: 'So . . . what's your alternative experience?'

Hello, Cleveland! If that's isn't hitting both targets (Free Times / Scene) with one missive... While all the points contained in the piece won't be news to most bloggers, it is a strong overview of who is out there and what buttons they're pushing with Journalists (with a big J). "

The incomparable Matt Welch, whose work I've linked to before, has written some splendid stuff in a long career (just under a decade) for so young a guy. But his latest piece, in the Columbia Journalism Review, puts it all to shame, and stands as maybe the best article I've ever read about what blogging is all about, and where it really stands in the enlightened journalism pecking order. It's nothing less than a blogging manifesto that will slowly be read, reread and reflected upon by anyone who cares about the format. I especially love how he places blogging in the context as the true spiritual successor to alternative weeklies, which not so long ago were the real center of the journalism world, but which have been ravaged in recent years by increasing corporatization, chaining and the inevitable loss of vigor that has come as a result of its aging core audience (and the professionalization of its own operation). He rightly blasts alt-weeklies for their "politically monochromatic" nature and the "dull pieties of official progressivism" that often rob them of their energy these days. On the other hand, he notes that the best of amateur blogging is "connecting intimately with readers in a way reminiscent of old-style metro columnists or the liveliest of New Journalists." His best line zeroes in on the horrified reaction to blogging from so much of the traditional journalism community: "For lazy columnists and defensive gatekeepers, it can seem as if the hounds from a mediocre hell have been unleashed." But the fact that this vigorous piece appears in the leading journal of the profession... speaks loudest of all.

"It's amazing how the quality of our conversations has a direct impact on the quality of what happens and doesn't happen as a result. And many of our more productive and community-building conversations are the ones without an agenda." - Jack Ricchiuto

Cleveland's late '60s beat poet, d.a. levy, seems immortal. He gets more mentions these days, perhaps, than when he was alive and walking among us. After missing WVIZ's much-talked-about portrait of the poet several times, I finally caught it on a reprised Applause segment a week or two ago, and it was worth waiting for, a moving video poem to a sadly tormented soul. I'll admit that my once-tepid interest in levy, who took his own life, has been sparked a little by our blogging colleague Mark Kuhar, whose Deep Cleveland project places levy at the center of everything. But Mark really ought to add to his site a link to this eye-opening interview he did with the webzine 3am Magazine, which I stumbled upon recently. "...what was most appealing to me was the fact that he was from the streets of Cleveland. And he didn't leave. The city was his inspiration and persecution," Mark notes of levy, going on to argue that in this, he was a fitting successor to Hart Crane and Langston Hughes, a couple of more famous native bards made good...

"Cleveland�s brain drain just sprung a major leak. Sadhu Johnston, founder and executive director of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition, is leaving Cleveland for Chicago. Johnston accepted a position as Mayor Richard Daley�s special assistant for sustainability, joining that city�s effort to be the greenest city in America. Beginning in October, Johnston will work with the heads of Chicago's city departments such as the Office of Environment (and its 100 staff persons) to develop and manage all of the city�s green building and sustainability initiatives...Lesson to be learned? We can cuss out Chicago all we want for stealing our best and brightest, but the energy would be better spent creating our own city Office of the Environment and making Cleveland the greenest city in America."

The Cuyahoga County Cultural Leadership Task Force is meeting this Thu 9/11 3:30-5PM at Trinity Cathedral to discuss and determine how arts funding will be dispersed in Cleveland to various art groups and projects, once public funding for arts & culture is instituted in Cleveland. Unlike Cleveland's usual modus operandi, these meetings are completely open to the public. Cool Cleveland event: Individual artists, writers, and arts enthusiasts are encouraged to meet up this Thursday at 2:30PM at Trinity Cathedral's coffee house, Cafe Ah Roma to rally and discuss their needs as artists, then join the Task Force at 3:30PM. Please come early to share helpful ideas and proactive solutions. At Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. at E.22nd St.

The popular networking event that had become a fixture on the IT community�s calendar for about two years is back after an eight month suspension. The first Tech Thursday will be Sept. 25 at a new venue--the Riverwalk Caf� in the Powerhouse in the Flats. The event, which runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., is free to Neosa members and $10 for nonmembers, a new charge Neosa has added to drive membership since its state funding was taken away earlier this year...NEOSA is searching for sponsorships for Tech Thursdays. It is asking for $500 to sponsor this month�s event, and $1,000 for each event after September.

Cookie-cutter programs are producing look-alike MBAs. Contemporary companies want creative, collaborative thinkers and leaders. When John Reed, longtime chairman of Citicorp, accepted the Academy of Management�s Distinguished Executive of the Year award in 1999, he ended his acceptance speech by challenging his audience of elite academics. �The business community knows full well that business schools perform a useful function [in] sorting potential hires,� he said. �The schools sort out from the general population those who are more ambitious, more energetic, more willing to subject themselves to two years without income�. But the real question is: Do you give these students a set of skills that is going to serve them well over their careers?� His answer, in 1999, was: �On average, clearly the answer is yes.� In his view, business schools were doing a reasonable job preparing their students for fulfilling careers. But in 2003 our answer is: �On average� is not good enough anymore. Whether your company is a bank, a consultancy, a manufacturer, or any other sort of business enterprise, the current MBA education offered at most U.S. graduate business schools does not, in our view, adequately prepare people � even those attending the top schools � for the tougher-than-average challenges they will face when they start careers at leading corporations.

"We fear our enemies more than we love our children"

A German mobile phone carrier is ready to announce a deal to provide wireless internet access at several hundred Texaco gasoline stations in Britain.

"I am not afraid of the pen, or the scaffold, or the sword. I will tell the truth wherever I please." - Mother Jones

wednesday (2003-09-03), noontime, our power is disconnected by first energy. by the time we were home from work, customer service had left for the day, and nobody in the emergency outage center could help us because customer service has put a block on our account. thursday (2003-09-04), 7:30, i contact customer service. they are not able to help us because revenue protection services has taken our account. they cannot transfer me there. i ask for a manager, who also cannot transfer me there. their procedure is to send an email, and the customer will be called back. she sends the email, and it takes over 30 minutes for them to call me back... --- them:'this is mr. tanner' me:'good morning, do you have a first name?' them:'yes, wallace, but call me mr. tanner.' --- it turns out we were disconnected on charges of electricity theft and meter tampering. we must pay a fine of $301.09 before they turn us back on. at this point, i ended the call and called the puco (public utilities commision of ohio) and opened a complaint. it took several hours to hear back from them, but in the end, we had to pay first energy. in cash. in person. downtown. my wife left work early to go and pay them. since it was after 3:30 at this point, they couldn't reconnect us until the following day (friday). great, there go the groceries we just bought on tuesday. at this point, let me rewind a few weeks, back to the end of july... we came home on a saturday to find our meter broken. we contacted an electrical contractor that my wife has a professional relationship with. he came out, cleaned up the mess, and prepared our house for a new meter installation. my wife called the first energy emergency outage center, and they refused to come out. the electrician call them and they refused to come out. we called it a day. sunday, another call to first energy, they still will not come out to install the meter, at this point, without electricity for the second day, the electrician buys and installs a meter. it turns out this was a mistake, and he was wrong to do it, but did it justify the awful treatment we are now receiving from first energy? especially after they refused to come and restore our service three times? on top of this, first energy has taken the meter we purchased and refuses to return it. in ohio, i believe that is considered theft. we are model customers, our bill is always paid before the deadline and in full. why must they treat us like this?

"To hear from Dennis Roche, the supposed 'leader' of the prime marketing organization for the city, say crap like 'this is not helpful' pisses me off! He said of Harvey, 'Having someone of his notoriety, an insider, portray his town like that, it's not a good thing.' In the movie, Harvey was adamant about NOT LEAVING CLEVELAND when he was finally found Joyce, the love of his life. I think that that says volumes especially in contrast to the negative images." "What I want to know Mr. Head-of-Greater-Cleveland-Convention-and-Visitors-Bureau, is why I listened to so many compliments about my adopted city in and around the state of Michigan, yet did NOT SEE ONE TV ad, billboard, or heard a radio ad that promoted, invited, or extolled the virtues of coming to Cleveland. Huh? Why? And why no sooner did I cross the Lorain County line, did I see a billboard for Detroit as I listened to a Cleveland radio station with ads inviting me to Toronto? Oh BTW the first commericial on TV when I got home was for an easy drive down to West Virginia."

"White collar people are afraid of everything except following instructions," says Seth Godin, the Fast Company columnist and marketing guru. But Seth points out if you merely do what you're told to do it's the quickest route to the unemployment line. "The minute your job can be put in a manual, it will be exported to Bangalore. The safest thing to do is what no one expects you to do--not to just follow instructions." In short, you can't just respond to your boss or do what the job specs say you're supposed to do. You need to be far more creative than not--to make the job worthwhile for yourself but also to insure that your job can't be exported out of the country.

-Number one in the nation for emissions of soot and acid-rain causing sulfur dioxide. - Number one in the nation for emissions of smog and acid-rain causing nitrogen oxide. - Number three in the nation for emissions of the global warming gas carbon dioxide. - Number three in the nation for emissions of toxic mercury. Even better one of our senators, George Voinovich, just went on record saying that he supports weakening the Clean Air Act! He doesn't believe that aging factories and power plants should have to install expensive polution control devices.

"That is why any SMART Ohio resident would start to think about voting for Eric Fingerhut."

In college once I spent the night on Public Square with other students wanting some solidarity with Cleveland�s homeless persons. I remember it as a cold night with a few conversations with drunks. Perhaps a more meaningful experience was an overnight in the Amtrak station, where I was kickedout at 2 a.m. so the station attendant could go to �lunch.� I and one other guy, a mentally ill homeless man not much older than me, went our different ways into the frigid December morning. I wandered the empty streets cold, tired and annoyed at the inhospitality of the city.

If Cleveland is so eager to embrace the arts and get a hipper image, why is it that the city�s powers that be are slapping down a local guy with a hit movie and a national cult following in the world of underground comics? The Plain Dealer has a story today that reads like another bad Cleveland joke. It turns out that not everyone is thrilled with the recent success of Harvey Pekar, a Cleveland Heights file clerk whose acclaimed American Splendor comic book has been turned into a fantastically funny and moving film about the drama of ordinary life. The film, which is generating Oscar buzz for its stars and its highly inventive screenplay, was shot almost entirely in Cleveland. It paints the city in less-than-glorious colors, though for my money, Cleveland comes off as a pretty interesting place in American Splendor. It�s not gorgeous, but at least it has a soul. Mr. Pekar last Saturday published a cartoon on the New York Times' opinion page that showed him walking Cleveland's streets and commenting on the evidence of decline. That was too much for our hyper-sensitive Mayor Campbell, who sniffed to the PD, "If people actually came to Cleveland, they'd find out there's a lot more going on than Harvey Pekar seems to know." Dennis Roche, interim president of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, which knows a thing or two about bad publicity, added, "Having someone of his notoriety, an insider, portray his town like that, it's not a good thing. This is not helpful at all." Not sure what�s more troubling here: That our leaders aren�t sharp enough to see that the success of American Splendor might benefit the city in the long run by further establishing Cleveland as a viable place to shoot films, or that when these leaders brag about Cleveland�s artistic community, they mean it only as long as the artists are on board with a city-approved vision. At least Dennis Eckart, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, and Chris Carmody, head of the Cleveland Film Commission, understand the value of shooting successful movies here. "Every Martin Scorsese movie doesn't make New York look great, but it adds to the mythology and it employs people," Mr. Carmody told the PD. "I think we have to be big enough to have our stories told."

Why don't northeast Ohioans have our own state? I mean... what does being part of Ohio get us? The 2000 Census shows twelve states with fewer residents than Cuyahoga County's 1.4 million. If you define "northeast Ohio" as Cuyahoga, plus all the counties touching Cuyahoga, plus all the counties touching them -- fifteen counties in all -- you've got a region of 4.1 million residents, which is more than 27 of the 50 states have. These NEO counties include the nation's fifteenth biggest consumer market and pay about a third of all of the state's taxes. So why are we continuing to drive 140 miles down I-71, the world's most boring highway, to beg the likes of House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Perry County) and Senate President Doug White (R-Adams County) for the things this region needs? (In case you think this is just a Democrat thing, I'd say the same thing if it was still Vern Riffe (D-Scioto County)... but boy, that seems like a long time ago!) Why don't we keep our own tax money and decide how to spend it ourselves? Who really wants a Bicentennial Barn, anyway? You want a "regional perspective" and a "regional strategy" for the future? Here's a nice, clear, Big Idea for the New Century... the northeast Ohio statehood movement.

We had to write this letter after awaking very early this morning and reflecting on the conversations we had regarding an August 17th article in the Plain Dealer Metro Section. The article referred to the teenagers who attacked homeless people on Public Square on August 9th. We are disturbed not only by the cruel acts of the teenagers, but also by a radio station that would profit from the delivery of additional pain. Toward the end of the article, it was explained that days after the teenager's acts, a radio station orchestrated a remote show on Public Square. They paid homeless people $10 in cash and gave them a $20 food coupon if they would agree to be shocked by a stun gun. Evidently the majority of the callers to the show thought the segment was "funny". The radio station condemns the teenager's acts, but considers their own acts acceptable since they had "willing participants". We ask if they've heard of extortion? Offering hungry people food, but only if they let you hurt them seems to us to be more like extortion than free will. Was the radio station conducting a science or sociological experiment? ... Or were they after ratings? Outrageous. We wonder if they imagined someone they loved... their spouse, child or elderly parent - dazed and unable to walk for several minutes because they were shocked by a stun gun. All for money. We're not sure which is worse, inflicting pain for "fun," or inflicting pain for money - but we do know that neither is acceptable. Neither is humane. Looking Forward, Paying It Forward: It's an odd coincidence that on or about that same date of August 9th, a dear friend of ours and Craig were chatting comfortably within the cozy library of the beautiful Club at Key Center... Literally, within arms' reach was anything anyone could want; tea, coffee, cookies - whatever. They talked, reflecting upon the imbalance in the world... and considered the fact that within a short walk there is a very different picture. Craig & Tony agreed that they wanted to do something positive about the picture - no matter how minor the effort or effect. What came from the discussion was the idea "Pay it Forward on Public Square Day". A day when people do some positive act, perhaps as simple as giving bottled water to people passing by... business people, homeless people... anyone. No judgment. Another friend, Bill, joined the discussion, and the date, time and theme were set: Lunch time on September 17, 2003. The details had yet to be determined. But we established a date. Therefore, on September 17th, you will find folks by the names of Tony, Lisa, Bill, Craig & Sue standing there. Rain or shine . . . handing out water, coffee, cookies - whatever. Then again, it may not be just us. The plan is to approach individuals and businesses located on Public Square and beyond to help in the effort. It might be you too. If you're interested in contributing, contact us at pi4ward@hotmail.com Craig James Sue James

George, I read an article in Wired News which was identified in Kurweil's newsletter about fuel cells and really had to write about it. I'd appreciate your insights or the insights of your readers as to what the heck is going on with innovation in the US and NE Ohio manufacturing. I'm starting to feel as if the US is going down down down and entrepreneurial innovation will no longer be as unique an American ideal as it once was... perhaps "apathy" can be woven into our nation's motto somehow... Cheers, Tim

George, don't get "bummed" about manufacturing. Trust me that Ohio is known by Ohioans and people from elsewhere for more than its manufacturing base. The state economy is actually quite diversified--far more so than it was a quarter century ago. The problem is that people are comfortable in their world of generalizations and they don't take the time to look beneath the surface at what we really have here. This is a case where a little appreciative inquiry would come in handy. I don't think we should be ashamed of our manufacturing heritage. It's a rich and innovative heritage that stretches back to the mid-19th century and even before. 62% of all private R&D in America occurs in manufacturing. In the 13-county NEO region alone, manufacturing puts bread on the table of 345,000 households. That's a lot of bread. Right now we have no other industry sector that could support this segment of the population if these jobs were lost. Texas, George W's home state, is known to many as an oil and cattle state, but everyone knows that there is far more to the state, including Austin's tech hotbed, Dallas and Houston's advanced service industries, and many other things. We can have manufacturing and other industries (including new tech industries) in Ohio and NEO at the same time. It's not an either/or situation, rather there is a need for both. My Manufacturing in the Knowledge Economy (M@KE) framework allows us to see the economy in a more integrated way -- that's what we need. There are those that use manufacturing as a disparaging term. There will always be a need for things in society, and somebody somewhere will make them. I do think we need to change the "product mix" that is produced here. That would help. The truth is that manufacturing has steadily become a smaller share of total employment in both Ohio and NE Ohio since 1970. It's share of gross state product (GSP) and metropolitan economic output (MEO) are dropping as well. There are plenty of other states and communities that are dead-set on recruiting away our manufacturing base. For one, I look how many long established Ohio manufacturers have relocated across the Ohio River to Kentucky in the past decade. Other states would be quite happy to have what we have in place. Now, let's talk about the politics here. The truth is that this opast economic downturn has escalated the decline of manufacturing jobs and businesses across the nation, and the White House has done nothing to help. That arrow was properly aimed. Now, to buy votes, George W. is barking about manufacturing job losses in Ohio. Lousy trick, but as they say that is politics. What good politician, or even bad one, wouldn't do the same? If we are smart, we will turn this one back on the President and ask him for $100 million to invest in economic diversification and stabilization in Ohio.

I agree with Don I.'s comment entirely. Let me add one thought: Greater Cleveland is the 15th or 16th biggest metropolitan consumer market in the U.S. We spend something like $50 billion a year to buy things, but make almost none of them ourselves. With all our talk of entrepreneurism -- and all the new tools and processes offered by IT -- why do we have no startup firms looking for ways to make bluejeans and home electronics competitively, to sell in our own malls? Jane Jacobs describes the growth of city economies as a process of import substitution eventually creating new exports, with new product ideas sprouting from the competencies of existing firms and industries. (That's a bad summary of stuff in her book The Economy of Cities.) Cleveland still has a large, diverse manufacturing sector. Why aren't local firms rushing in to recapture a piece of the area's huge market for consumer products? Is it really impossible to organize a business that can pay decent wages and still put good-quality blue jeans on local shelves for $20 to $40 a pair?

Those are two pretty high-powered and insightful comments. One fascinating little sidelight that I always noticed over several years of writing about Cleveland manufacturers--typically mid-to-large and either privately held or part of a venture-backed "rollup" combo--is how very many of them founded and still headquartered here turn out to have most or perhaps even all of their actual manufacturing operations elsewhere, in less-unionized southern states, typically, while continuing to do the top management and much of the back office here. It's a development/trend/dynamic that I've never seen treated either in the media or the academy, but which I know makes this whole idea of manufacturing job retention/job loss