If we have given some attention in this Cleveland chapter to the traffic of the Great Lakes, it is, as we have already intimated, because the traffic of the Great Lakes has made her the Sixth City. It has also made the most important of her industries, the very greatest of her fortunes. Your Cleveland man will tell you of one of these before you leave the pier edge. It was the fortune that an old Lake captain left at his death a little time ago the fortune a mere matter of some twenty-eight millions of dollars. The old captain knew the Lakes and he had studied their traffic all his life. But his will directed that his money should not be expended in the building of ships. It provided that at least a quarter of a million of the income should annually go to the purchase of Cleveland real estate. And Cleve-land was quick to explain that it was not that the old man loved shipping less, but that he loved Cleveland real estate more. He had the gift of foresight.

If you would see that foresight in his own eyes drive out Euclid avenue — that broad thoroughfare that leads from the old-fashioned Public Square in the heart of the city straight toward the southeast. Euclid avenue gained its fame in other days. Travelers used to come back from Cleveland and tell of the glories of that highway. Alas, today those glories are largely those of memory. The old houses still sit in their great lawns, but the grime of the city’s industry has made them seem doubly old and decadent, while Commerce has pushed her smart new shops out among them to the very sidewalk line. Many of these shops are given over to the automobile business — a business which does not hesitate in any of our towns to transform resident streets into commercial. But in Cleveland one may partly forgive the audacity of this particular trade in recognition of its perspicacity. For Euclid avenue, rapidly growing now from an entirely residential street into an entirely business highway, is the great automobile thoroughfare of the East Side of the city. And when you consider that one out of every ten Cleveland families has a motor car, you can begin to estimate the traffic through Euclid avenue.

There is a West Side of Cleveland — you might al-most say, of course — but one does not come to know it until he comes to know Cleveland well. The city is builded upon a high plateau that rises in a steep bluff from the very edge of the lake. Through this plateau, at the very bottom of a ravine, wide and deep, the navigable Cuyahoga twists its tortuous way into Lake Erie. It seems as if that ravine must almost have been cut to test the resources of the bridge-builders of America. For it has been their problem to keep the Sixth City from becoming entirely severed by her great water artery. They have solved it by the construction of one huge steel viaduct after another but the West Side remains the West Side and always somewhat jealous of the East. She knows that the great public buildings of Cleveland — that comprehensive civic center plan to which we shall come in a moment — are fixed for all time upon the East. And so when Cleveland decides to build a great new city hall, the West Side demands and receives the finest market house in all the land.

Goldberg and Traenkner met by some fate (or perhaps karma) four years ago on a quiet night at the Lit Café. As the only bar patrons for the evening, they quickly found common ground in a mutual love of poetry. Lit Café owner and bartender, Andy Timothy, [sic] entered the conversation, and by evening’s end, the three had formulated a vision for putting on a show.

The Lit’s site has an archive of all the videos from over the years. Great job, Steve, Nick and Andy. I’m glad to know you guys.

I even learned that:

the city of Cleveland is working on an interactive map of the Midtown area, which might be available on the city’s Web site by late January. It sounds like the map will stretch from Carnegie to Chester and from the edge of University Circle toward Cleveland State, and it’s meant to show what’s in progress and available for people and companies interested in becoming part of a health and technology corridor.

That’s how it is done, PD. Please keep up the good work. Kudos go to John Kroll as well.

Now, if only they added obvious permalinks to the comments, so I didn’t have to look at the source code in order to link to them… Pretty sure that MoveableType (The PD’s Content Management System) does that easily.

Via GLUEspace -  I Will Stay If… Cleveland Edition

When: Wednesday, 18 November 2009 from 5:30 to 8:30pm.

Where: Underneath the Bier Market, 1948 West 25th Street

How Much: $5 (suggested donation)

What:  Talk about what currently keeps you in Cleveland and what it will take to keep you in Cleveland. Special guests. drink discounts, etc.

In short, Gotta Groove was nothing like I expected. I suppose had I taken the time to contemplate what it takes to press a record I would have imagined something a but more industrial, but in my fairytale mind, I imagined a magical place, filled with smooth, agile machines, carefully etching grooves on round mats of plastic. Instead, I was greeted to a room of these hulking, brutish things, reclaimed from an era when vinyl was still king and cutting edge technology actually involved cutting.

Great photos too!

Cuyahoga voter approval of Issue 6 could cost four officeholders nearly $700,000 in pay

Four elected Cuyahoga County officials who have publicly opposed Issue 6 stand to lose a combined $700,000 in pay if the ballot measure passes.

Commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan would each lose nearly $185,000, or two years worth of pay. Treasurer Jim Rokakis would lose 2 1/2 years of pay totaling more than $190,000. Recorder Lillian Greene would take a two-year loss of nearly $149,000.

Via Bill Callahan:

County charter will add $700K to top officials’ payroll cost

If you’re a fast counter, you’ll have noticed that our new, efficient system will swap ten existing political jobs for twelve new political jobs, plus seven new top executives hired by those politicians, for a total of nineteen Charter positions. This 90% increase in top payroll slots is the big reason for the added expense. If you assume that all the salaries for elected offices remain the same for their appointed counterparts, and that the new Fiscal Officer and Law Director each make a modest $90,000 to $100,000, the new system will automatically add at least half a million dollars to the County’s payroll.

I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition. $700k over 2.5 years lost by current office-holders, versus $700k per year in additional payroll costs.

Dear Cleveland Enthusiast:

…

The Rockometer is a uniquely designed and themed retro-tech banquet and multi purpose events facility to further interrelate with Cleveland’s rock music legacy.

Here’s what it will look like.

My mind is blown.

(This is also the guy who sent a cease and desist letter to a local music blogger for using the term Rockometer.)

Here’s a recent Toby Radloff video to help you get by:

At some point in the Cleveland’s history, it must have been home to some of the finest stonemasons and ironworkers in the world.

Now that working stonemasons and ironworkers–craftsmen–are mainly a thing of the past, their legacy endures and continues to add character, beauty and sometimes even humor to the Cleveland streetscape.

You can find the rest of these link round-ups and my own writings on the County Reform proposals here.

• Bill Callahan says Issue 6 will turn Cleveland into Detroit.
• Blue Lake Journal - Yes on 6, No on 5 – Remove the crime syndicate
• Erick Trickey - The Issue 5 dilemma: You don’t know what you’ll get
• Roldo Bartimole - Pee Dee Shameless Promoting Issue 6 as News
• Mayor Eric Brewer Eviscerates Pee Dee, Issue 6 Backers

Update! No sooner do I post this then a bunch of other stuff gets posted (and I find a few links that I hadn’t linked to yet).

Here’s an hour long audio file of the old Meet the Bloggers crew discussing Issues 5 an 6. It might be interesting considering that they apparently haven’t been paying much attention to the campaigns. Embedded below for your convenience.

Ohio Daily Blog Playlist Interviewing Mike Foley, Harriet Applegate & Brian Wright about Issue 5:

Both City Club meetings about the Issues in one convenient playlist:

From the PD:

• Vote ‘yes’ on Issue 6: Cuyahoga County needs a government that works for the people, not just the insiders — editorial
• The Plain Dealer has no endorsements to make among candidates to the Cuyahoga County charter review commission that anti-reform politicians are proposing — editorial
• Issue 6 reform plan tops competing Issue 5 proposal in race for money

And the Cleveland Scene finally weighs in:

• ISSUE 6’S BAIT & SWITCH
• Give Us Your County and No One Gets Hurt

Road to Reform panelists will discuss the genesis of Issues 5 and 6 and describe what happens after November 3rd if either, both or neither pass. They’ll also have a look at the eleven geographical districts passage of Issue 6 would create. And they’ll discuss how similar reforms have worked elsewhere in the United States. It’s our hope the program will provide you with the facts you need to make an informed decision.

The program airs Friday, October 23rd at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 25th at 11:30 a.m. It will also air on WKYC at 10:00 a.m. Sunday.

The program will be followed up by a web-only chat with the same panel of experts answering your questions Tuesday, October 27th from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Join the chat through links that will appear on the WVIZ/PBS home page and at WKYC.com.

A controversial new report from Policy Bridge recommends Cleveland focus on strong neighborhoods while rationing investment in weak areas of town. It rightly points out that no politician in Cleveland has had the strength to pull off a plan that reshapes the city where healthy areas are connected by large greenways. Here’s an excerpt:

What we have lacked is the political will to target intervention efforts where they have the best chance of making a real difference in restoring health and vitality. Cleveland and individual neighborhoods, in particular, have been in decline since the 1950s. Yet, political calculations have stood – and continue to stand – in the way of embracing Cleveland’s future as a smaller – but healthier – city. Decisions to redraw wards to better match population density, to limit resources and services to sparsely populated areas, and to offer isolated residents the choice of relocating to healthier neighborhoods, or even suburbs, come with potentially negative political ramifications.

In her critique of this neighborhood ‘triage’ approach, Mandy Metcalf, manager of Environmental Health Watch’s Affordable Green Homes program, offers a vision for ‘preventive care’ for cities. We think it could be a new Cleveland mission statement. She writes:

In some neighborhoods, investment will take the form of deconstructing homes, utilizing vacant lots for farming, natural habitat, and stormwater management, while maintaining transit-accessible pockets of homes and retail that function as small ecovillages. In other neighborhoods where small parcels have been assembled into large-scale redevelopment opportunities, intense investment in new homes and commercial development will occur. Development will be shaped by regional policies that guide investment away from fossil-fuel dependent exurbs and into the heart of the eco-city. A thriving locally-based economy will ensure that Cleveland residents get a fair share of the profit from development. Schools, safety, and jobs will be recognized as important elements of a sustainable community. And resources will be invested in ecologically sustainable design and infrastructure to ensure a clean lake and functioning greenspaces that increase our quality of life for all our residents and attract people from around the country.

I haven’t had a chance to read the entire Policy Bridge report to come up with my own feelings on the matter, but I instinctually and emotionally feel on the side of Mandy Metcalf. Where’s the focus on equity in this planning process?

Have you read the Issue 6 charter? No?

We sympathize. Although the ballot proposal, written by some Democratic politicians and Republican businessmen, would give Cuyahoga County a brand-new government, it’s 28 pages long, and it reads kind of stiff. So we figured it needed an editor and a ghost writer. We’ve cut its 11,700 words to an easily understandable 500, with our improvements in red.

Cleveland is competing against the 50 most populous U.S. cities for the SustainLane Local Action Challenge, an awareness campaign before the December 2009 Climate Conference in Copenhagen. To add points to the city’s score, simply upload a photo and caption of a carbon-lowering step you’re taking here. (You can also get ideas on what to do at the site).

I wish I had a photo of me riding my bike to work to submit.

The Army Veterans Hospital in Broadview Heights - Photo by Erin O'Brien

With no heat or maintenance, and area animals finding shelter inside, the vacant hospital fell into startling decay within a few years. To make matters worse, teenagers, homeless and the curious were constantly getting into the building, which was also rumored to be haunted.

Controversy always swirled around the old hospital, from the way it was abandoned to whether or not it contained asbestos and black mold. The building was razed in 2006. I was a local reporter in this area from 2001 through 2006 and the old VA hospital was often the subject of my beat. I had a chance to “tour” the interior of the hospital before the wrecking ball put it in it’s grave.

[N]ot only are RTA fares the highest they have ever been in real dollars, but in the static period between October 1975 and September 2009, fares more than doubled overall inflation.

I went ahead and built a model to see what relationship exists between RTA ridership and a few logical variables. What influences ridership? I think fare prices are obvious, regional population seems intuitive, and gasoline prices are often cited as a reason why people use transit instead of driving. Lastly, it’s often suggested in the media that transit usage dips during recessions because if people don’t have jobs, they don’t have anywhere to go – so I threw in unemployment for good measure.

The (not so good) results of his number-crunching, and a passle of graphs are at the full post on Brewed Fresh Daily.

The Plain Dealer is joining with WKYC Channel 3 and WVIZ/PBS Ideastream to bring Northeast Ohio voters a special half-hour program to answer questions about county reform Issues 5 and 6. We want to hear your questions.

The program will air at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 23 on WVIZ Channel 25 and at 10 a.m. Oct. 25 on WKYC Channel 3.

Here they are:

1. The Issue 6 charter creates an appointed Economic Development Commission; and, since Economic Development is the main focus of the charter, it appears that these unelected appointees will have a great deal of power determining the direction the County heads in the future. The elected executive will have plenty of work to do directing the administration of the County, and the part-time councilpersons will also be busy. So, where is the oversight for the ED Commission? How is this commission protected from corruption? How would you respond to those who think that too much power is being given to unelected people who will likely gain their position on the ED committee through political connections and who could use their positions to further their own ends instead of the good of the County?

2. In regard to Issue 5, where’s the beef? I understand that the process of charter creation would be determined by those elected to the charter commission, but there is no guarantee that any of the claims you make for Issue 5 will be met by those elected to the commission. How long would the commission have to create the charter? What are the plans to include County citizens in an open transparent process? How would a different charter be better for County citizens? How can you ensure that the differences you mention will actually make it into the new charter? It seems like there are few guarantees that you can make, when there’s no telling what the final composition of the charter commission could look like.

The Evergreen businesses are aptly named: all aim to be environmentally sustainable. The Evergreen Laundry, for instance, will be the greenest commercial-scale laundry in Northeast Ohio. The cooperative plans to construct its building to LEED silver certification standards, and it will use energy-efficient washing machines and dryers along with processes to reuse waste heat and water.

These green features give the cooperatives a competitive advantage. Most of the city’s anchor institutions are committed to decreasing their carbon footprints, and doing business with the Evergreen enterprises will help them deliver on their goals.

These co-ops are a good start, but there are many people in Cleveland who need good, stable employment.

So the issue of “moving to scale” is central to Evergreens’ economic development strategy. Put simply, how do you move from 50 jobs to 500, and then to 5,000?

Here’s the Real Reform Done Right slate of candidates

In a smart tactical maneuver, the Issue 6 fans got their own slate of candidates set up to be on the Issue 5 charter commission as a hedge in case both issues pass. It’s probably safe to assume that if the CRACC-(terrible acronym, by the way)-heads are chosen to be on the charter commission that they’ll just meet for pizza one night, toss some campaign finance reform into the current Issue 6 charter, and adjourn for the year.

Here are the CRACC candidates.

So, there’s nothing concrete about Issue 5 to grapple with. It is obvious, however, that both slates for the charter commission were assembled to fulfill a definite political agenda. I don’t buy for a second that the folks so chosen were plucked from the unwashed masses of Cuyahoga County. A legitimate, transparent, inclusive charter commission selection process would have taken place this past year and we all would have known about it. Instead, a couple months out from the election, I’m given a list of people I know little about. The Issue 5 campaign seems haphazard and on that basis alone it makes me leery of their capabilities and motives.

Also, if I were Issue 5, I would have produced my own charter, not as a completed document (making that explicitly clear), but as something tangible for voters to compare against the Issue 6 charter. Right now there’s nothing to compare except promises versus an existing charter. Those aren’t very good terms of engagement.

To toast Harvey’s 70th birthday, the Pekar Project posse blew the horn to assemble this surprise gallery of freshly drawn Harvey Heads. Our magic number was, naturally, 70, but so many artists heeded the call that we’re now at 90+ noggins—and the heads keep rolling in. Take a stroll  through this illustrated salute to a beloved American original, and join us in wishing Harvey Pekar a very happy birthday.

Okay, so it was last week. My bad.

Make sure not the miss the Harvey Pekar Guided Tour of Cleveland.

And even after nearly 70 years of ups and down, the artist still loves his birthplace, an unquestionable fact as Pekar takes us on a tour of his Cleveland Heights neighborhood the next day. Every inch of this city is a Pekar story, from Tommy’s Restaurant, the author’s favorite haunt since opening in 1972, to Big Fun, an expansive novelty store whose friendly owner, Steve Presser, is the subject of an upcoming strip.

We are trying to be better about enforcing this site’s longstanding community rules. They cover a lot of areas, but another Advance site, AnnArbor.com, summed them up this way:  “We won’t tolerate jerks.” We are removing some comments that break our rules, sometimes even disabling comments on stories where the worst behavior is displayed, and kicking out some users who consistently misbehave.

But we’re also doing something we should have done earlier: We’re joining the online conversation. For too long, we at The Plain Dealer posted stories on cleveland.com and then turned away to focus on the next day’s news. Now, we’re encouraging our reporters and editors to pay attention to what you’re saying, to answer your questions and respond to your complaints.

It is a noble, worthy, and dirty job. Hopefully it’ll work.

• Ohio Daily Blog - League of Women Voters Chooses Partisanship
• Ohio Daily Blog - Cuyahoga Dems: Yes on Issues 1, 3, 4, 5. No on 2, 6
• Cuyahoga County Rough Writers - Flush 5 and Vote Yes on 6!
• Issue 5 vs. 6: the reform duel gets nasty

The emphasis on economic development (certainly something we need more of) carries over from the preamble into the charter itself. 731 words are devoted to economic development, while only 216 are devoted to HHS issues (all of which is boilerplate, and nearly half of it is devoted to the manner in which the HHS director will be chosen).

So it looks like all the meat is in the economic development section.

§7.01 County Economic Development

The County shall have as a primary responsibility the promotion and enhancement of the economic well-being and prosperity of the County and all of its residents.

Well, that’s pretty unequivocal. Economic development takes precedence over everything else. HHS is secondary.

In furtherance of this purpose, the County shall appropriate money and enter into agreements and otherwise cooperate with officers, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States of America, the State of Ohio, with other political subdivisions, and with public and private persons, firms and corporations, foundations, and individuals and institutions, and may accept and make gifts, grants, and loans and other economic incentives.

If you’re of the persuasion, like Roldo Bartimole, that the County has been appropriating money and entering into agreements with private persons, firms and corporations for the past forever (Gateway, MedMart, whatever), then this seems to be more of the same, except now it is explicitly sanctioned.

Then the charter outlines that there shall be a Department of Development (there already is), and a director of said department (there already is). Essentially those two sections are the same as the entirety of the Health & Human Services section.

§7.04 (page 17) creates an Economic Development Commission of appointed private individuals whose goal appears to be the production of yearly 5-year plans for the economic development of the County. Ostensibly, the Executive and the Council also have input, but since the Council is part-time and the Executive has to administer everything else, I bet that the Commission has a pretty free reign. This means that there will be a 9 member council comprised of the following:

• One member shall be selected by the County Executive;
• the Council;
• the mayor of the city of Cleveland;
• the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority;
• the Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association,
• the Greater Cleveland Partnership, or their respective successors;
• the Executive Secretary of the North Shore Federation of Labor, or similar officer of a successor organization.
• One member shall be selected collectively by the nonprofit and educational organizations that are engaged in the promotion of economic development of the County, as shall be designated by the Council.
• Those members shall select one additional member.

So, nine politically connected private individuals, who serve a term that is not outlined by the charter, whose sole responsibility is to determine how the primary goal of the charter will be enacted (and spent). It sounds like there’s a lot of unelected power in this Commission.

I don’t like the sound of it.

shall be an elector of the County at the time of filing of the declaration of candidacy, shall be nominated and elected in the manner provided for county officers by general law and this Charter and during the entire term of office shall remain an elector of the County.

Okay, fair enough so far. But what does the Charter have to say about the election of the exec? §13.02 INITIAL ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS (page 26) says that:

That primary election shall be conducted in the manner provided by general law for primary elections for the nomination of county elected officials, provided that filing deadlines and other matters of time relating to a primary election, including those relating to declarations of candidacy for nonpartisan candidates, shall be adjusted as necessary relative to the primary date provided for in this section.

Which makes it sound as if all elected offices are at-large (which can’t be right, since why have council districts otherwise). I might have missed something here, but it looks like the Charter has very little to say about elections. The filing deadline might cause some issues the first time around, much like the ward redistricting in Cleveland gave such a small window that only folks with their political acts together could meet the deadlines in time. So there’s still a big question here for me.

The exec will make $175k a year and is prohibited from holding other employment or elected office unless approved by the council. Alrighty.

Hmm, from §2.04.14 (page 7):

To employ and supervise such number of deputies, assistants and employees as shall be reasonably necessary to assist the County Executive in carrying out the duties of the office.

This seems like a place where a corrupt exec could hire all of his or her friends. Now, what’s next…

§2.05  INVESTIGATIONS BY COUNTY EXECUTIVE.

The County Executive may, at any time and without notice, cause the administrative affairs or the official acts and conduct of any official or employee of any County office, department or agency over which the Executive has authority to be examined. The County Executive, or any person appointed by the Executive to conduct such an examination, shall have the same power to take testimony, administer oaths and compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers, books and evidence and refer witnesses to the Prosecuting Attorney to be punished for contempt as is conferred upon Council by this Charter. Subpoenas may not be issued pursuant to this section except by resolution adopted by a two-thirds vote of Council.

Sounds good, but one has to assume that the exec isn’t corrupt. Here’s how I can see this playing out in a cynical scenario: County Exec is corrupt, some other county person in a position of power is also corrupt. Exec threatens to investigate unless other county person jumps on the bandwagon. Basically, I can see this power being used as a weapon to make other officials and employees go along with whatever the exec wants. Even an honest public administrator might rethink going against the exec if he or she knows their administration might otherwise be bogged down by an investigation.

I’m not sure if §3.12 INVESTIGATIONS BY COUNCIL (page 13) covers the ability to investigate the County Executive if need be. There seems to be a little wiggle room in there on the emphasized portion.

Council may investigate the financial transactions of any office, department or agency of County government and the official acts and conduct of any County official relating to any matter upon which Council is authorized to act.

The executive seems to be in a pretty powerful position. The council members are only part-time, and aren’t prohibited from holding other jobs, and I’ve not detected any checks on executive power other than part-time council opposition.

I continue to be skeptical of Issue 6, I think there’s some good in there, but some of the permanent Cleveland distrust of elected officials or anyone else telling us what to do is starting to seep into me whenever stuff like this pops up.

UPDATE - I should note that, thought Issue 6 is being promoted by New Cuyahoga Now as reform for economic development’s sake, they obviously picked this time to run with it because of the County corruption investigation and it is implicit that this Charter will take care of the possibility of corruption. That’s why I’m looking for holes where I can see power being misused.

On Facebook:

• Cuyahoga County
• Solid Waste District
• Child Support Enforcement Agency
• Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services
• Planning Commission (forthcoming)

On Twitter:

• Cuyahoga County
• Cuyahoga County Planning Commission

YouTube:

• Cuyahoga County

We, the people of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, desire a reformed County Government to significantly improve the County’s economic competitiveness. With it, the taxpayers of Cuyahoga County can have: (1) focused, effective and accountable leadership; (2) job creation and economic growth as a fundamental government purpose, thereby helping the County do a better job of creating and retaining jobs and ensuring necessary and essential health and human services; (3) collaborative leadership with Cleveland, suburbs and others within the public and private sectors; (4) an improved focus on equity for all our communities and citizens; (5) long-term regional and global competitiveness; and (6) significant taxpayer savings by streamlining and eliminating unnecessary elected offices.

Desiring to secure for ourselves and for our successors the benefits of self-determination as to local matters that are afforded by the assumption of home rule powers for this County and the establishment of a county government that provides for the separation of administrative and legislative powers and for a more representative and accountable form of governance for this County, We, the people, adopt this Charter of Cuyahoga County.

First off, it’s important to note that economic development is the focus of this charter. Even more important than separation of powers and representative accountability. There’s also a healthy dab of regionalism tossed into the mix. After reading the charter preamble, I immediately had a slue of questions:

1. How, exactly, is a structurally reformed County Government able to improve the County’s economic competitiveness? To beat a dead metaphor, how does rearranging the deck chairs keep the Titanic from sinking?
2. Is it the County’s duty to provide economic development as a fundamental service, or is it their duty to enforce the rule of law, and provide services that its citizens require but cannot get from anyone else (i.e. Health & Human Services)?
3. How, exactly is the current Department of Development doing a poor job fostering economic growth in Cleveland? They win awards for their programs every year.
4. If providing Health & Human services is a secondary goal to economic growth, will that be reflected in funding apportionment?
5. What does equity mean in this context? At the Levin College forum, the Issue 6 folks used the term incorrectly. Equity is not even distribution of services, but giving more to those with less in order to even the playing field.

The preamble is necessarily broad in scope, but I’ve not heard concrete answers on any of my questions. Hopefully the rest of the charter will help expand some light on the subject.

The Board of Elections page for the 3 November Election contains most of the information you’ll need, but here are the deadlines:

09/29/2009 - Absentee voting opens

10/05/2009 9:00 p.m. - Close of registration

10/31/2009 12:00 noon - Applications by mail for absentee ballot deadline

11/02/2009 4:30 p.m. - Absentee ballot voting in person at Board of Elections closes

11/02/2009 -All Vote by Mail ballots mailed anywhere in the U.S. must be postmarked on or before this date and received at the Board of Elections on or before November 13th in order to count.

11/03/2009 -All Vote by Mail ballots returned in person must be received at the Board of Elections by 7:30 p.m. in order to count.

All Vote by Mail ballots mailed from outside the U.S. must be postmarked on or before this date and received on or before November 13th in order to count.

You can start reading up on the ballot now. You just need to know your voting location. You’ve got 4 days to register to vote, if you’re not already registered. You can check your registration.

I have decided to take part in this democratic process by writing what I see, hear, and know. I intend to offer what I know to voters so that they can decide for themselves who and how to vote on election day. I will begin tomorrow since many of you will be voting early. I would suggest keeping the ballot handy, read it over, and then, look for information about ALL the candidates and issues .

and

GLUEster Kevin Leeson hit the streets with an audio recorder to find out why people were there and what the Bridge Project said to them about Cleveland.

Listen here:

• Erick Trickey at Cleveland Magazine’s Politics Blog
• How Cuyahoga County reform effort turned into political turmoil
• Cuyahoga County reform backers recruit 41 co-chairs for Issue 6 campaign
• Cuyahoga Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones urges social services contractors to oppose Issue 6
• More on county “reform” by Anastasia Pantsios
• Cuyahoga County’s ruling class is using intimidation to fight reform
• The county reform vote: How to read the ballot
• Entrenched interests are fighting to deny Cuyahoga County the reform it needs
• A county executive, or not?: the City Club debate
• Issue 6 supporters, foes debate whether it can stop corruption
• League of Women Voters to host events promoting Cuyahoga County reform
• League of Women Voters blog post on Issue 6.

One thing you’ll notice is that there is very little in the way of detailed analysis of the proposals or their impacts, but lots of quotes from the people involved in Issue 5 and 6.

• Cyanc Design was there
• Andy Timithy was there
• Dru McKeown was there
• Julie Washington from the PD was there

Here’s a playlist of all the videos I scrounged up:

so here we are, in the HALLE”s annex of Westgate mall, long gone and the three heads show up and wouldn’t ya know i get a big feature on the darn show ? i went to a school function later that night and everyone had seen it, it was like i was this lame star, no onesaid ” what the heck were you doing dressed up like it’s confirmation eating WELSH RAREBIT for chris’s sake ? ”

And here are all of them:

• Cleveland Vignette - holiday @ Market Tavern in 197?
• Cleveland Vignette - Monday again…
• Cleveland Vignette - THURSDAY/ Early ConCert!
• Cleveland Vignette - WEDNESDAY : 87 Downtown ( yeah, it’s a little too late )
• Cleveland Vignette - Tuesday : 55th Hotel

Or you could just park by St. Malachi’s at West 25th & Detroit. There are a couple of parking lots and entrances right there, and I’m sure there will be signs.

These days it still helps to be at least a little tough; a fiercely blue-collar ethos endures. But instead of abandoning the city, local entrepreneurs and bohemian dreamers alike are sinking roots; opening a wave of funky boutiques, offbeat art galleries and sophisticated restaurants; and injecting fresh life into previously rusted-out spaces.

Don’t miss the slideshow or the Cleveland Travel Guide (with links to other Cleveland stories). A lot of these people and places I’ve been talking up for years, so it is nice to see the NYT finally get on the bandwagon. If you’re not, it’s time for you to do the same.

You can listen live online or at 91.1FM from 9am until 10:30am every Monday. Hey, it’s Monday today! You should give it a listen. You can also follow DEFEND Cleveland on Twitter @defendclevo.

I startle a cleaning crew resting in the warm night. They speak quietly, focusing on their cigarettes until I’ve passed. A distant burst of raucous laughter.

Real Reform Done Right - aka Issue 5 - aka the Commissioners’ Proposal

This proposal forms a charter review commission that will meet for a year and come up with their own charter for county reform. The members of this commission are elected, and the organizers of this initiative have put forth their own recommended panel of members who are on the ballot this November.

Panelists

• Harriet Applegate, executive secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO
• Betty Pinkney, Ph.D., JD

Claims

• Issue 5 will be a more transparent process that is inclusive of citizen input for charter development and reform.
• There will be a new charter by 2010, and no one on the charter commission will run for elected office in 2012.
• Will make sure that what reform does happen will not create duplicated or redundant offices or services.

Attitude & Presence

The two panelists for Issue 5 - Real Reform Done Right, came across as mostly combative against Issue 6, which they say lacks checks & balances, and will result in funding inequity and council fiefs. They offered few concrete details of their plan, instead repeatedly claiming that more time is needed to make a proper study of how county reform should be conducted. They had a tough position to defend, and didn’t receive an large allotment of panel time, mostly because New Cuyahoga Now proposal has tangible details that can be debated. In addition, the other two panel groups had charismatic personalities in the form of elected officials and a radio host, and their delivery was much more polished, and elicited more applause from the audience than might otherwise have occurred. In contrast, the Real Reform Done Right folks sometimes appeared distracted or harried.

New Cuyahoga Now - aka Issue 6 - aka the Mason/Zanotti Proposal

This proposal would reorganize the County into a chief executive and elected council, sort of like how Cleveland City Government is organized. The executive would appoint folks to what are currently elected positions, based on the approval of the council.

Panelists

• Martin Zanotti, Mayor of Parma Heights
• Nina Turner, Senator, 25th District, Ohio State Senate

Claims

• Charter based on 6 principles that I couldn’t write down in time. Most of them seemed to do with fostering economic development.
• Issue 6 won’t usurp municipal power and the executive & council approach will enhance regionalism.
• If Issue 6 passes there will be a transition team to restructure the government in advance of the 2010 elections. (Who decides who gets to be on this team?)
• A charter review commission is built into the process, once after the first year, and then every five years.
• The executive will have an advisory committee (like a Cabinet?)

Attitude & Presence

These two got the most applause, and they knew how to work a crowd. At the same time they were a bit condescending to the other panelists and the questions asked, with much rolling of eyes and calling questions silly or stupid. They dropped lots of buzzwords, but often didn’t answer the questions being asked, instead relying on eloquent rhetoric to gain applause. They say that the structure of the new government will support their principles, but left the details of the new administrative structure out. The also tried to equate government reform with economic development, but I can’t really see how that operates. I left knowing more about their plans, but with twice as many questions.

Citizens Reform Association

A third interested party that claims non-partisan interest in electing their candidates to the Issue 5 charter commission instead of the candidates Issue 5 has put forth. They unequivocally support Issue 6. Something seems weird here.

Panelists

• Thomas Kelly, journalist and talk radio host on WHK
• William Russo, certified financial planner, Solon city councilman

Claims

• Their charter commission candidates are more “citizeny” than Issue 5’s candidates.
• No allegiance to party, business, or special interest. Grassroots.
• Bill Russo (conveniently running for a charter commission seat) has charter review commission experience and is a financial planner.
• Vote yes on Issue 6, yes on Issue 5 if you want, and yes for their independent charter review candidates.

Attitude & Presence

At first I was pumped that there was a grassroots neutral third party to represent an alternative to proposals put forth or sponsored by what is seen by most folks as status quo players in local politics. Yet they kept beating the Issue 6 drum and their only other platform item is a desire to elect their own folks to Issue 5’s charter commission, so it started to seem like it was two panel groups to one. If you’re of a conspiratorial bent, it almost seemed like these guys were acting as a stalking horse for Issue 6. They did maintain a somewhat neutral look on things, but I think they were too easy to agree with the other panelists and give short answers, when they could have addressed their answers more to the substance of the other proposals.

The Q&A

My question got asked! Which is why now you and I have web addresses for all three of these groups, and can do our own research.

• Real Reform Done Right
• New Cuyahoga Now (download the charter proposal instead of waiting for it to be mailed to you by the BOE.)
• Citizens Reform Commission

Tom Beres picked several questions which seemed designed to piss off specific panelists, including Betty Pinkney, Harriet Applegate and Mayor Zanotti. Judging by the pile of questions he had to choose from, I expect he could have skipped the rancor for some more substantive ones. He also asked a few questions himself, that he probably would have known the answers to if it was easier to actually find the information that we’ve been hearing about for months now.

There was a question as to whether anyone on any of the panel groups had included someone under the age of 30 in their process. The answer was no on all counts, but no one actually said so. The rolling of eyes and dismissal of the question as frivolous was somewhat tone deaf considering that a large part of the crowd consisted of public administration and urban planning graduate school students. My demographic was referred to as “the young” and Harriet Applegate played a wincing “I know a girl who really likes hip hop and we’ll talk to her” token card. The Citizens Reform Commission did state that anyone 16 or older is welcome to join them, however.

There were a few questions about minority representation on the council seats, at-large seats and redistricting, but even the panelists’ eyes glazed over while listening to them. Their answers faded from memory almost immediately.

Next?

Well, we need more information. Having links to their websites is a good start. We need to figure out what’s information is there, what is missing, what is unsaid, what is implicit. We need to come up with questions about those items and try to get good answers. I’m stuck with a sense that I’m missing a few pieces and I’d like to finish putting the puzzle together before I have to make my decision. I figure other people might want to do the same. Want to talk about it?

Update Here’s the video:

With both his hands he labors at the knots;
His holy fillets the blue venom blots;

Access to the river, access to the lake, both difficult, it can be easier to dismiss what’s across the water.

Hedwig says there ain’t much difference between a bridge and wall… and in Cleveland’s blackest heart we are sometimes a city of both.

1,048,460 pounds of 64 Pollutants were released withing 9 miles of Cleveland. Drilling down you can see a whole list of pollutants from places like ArcelorMittal Steel including the delivery method of the pollution and how many pounds of the pollutant were released.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a great way to discover meaningful data about our town that would otherwise be quite hard to track down.

The Poles, Ukrainians and Italians have continued their diaspora, and the neighborhoods adapt to reflect the new children. The peppered moth evolved rapidly through the industrial era, changing color as survival demanded. Cleveland has always been a minority-driven immigrant city, the faces have just changed. Ignore that and you ignore Cleveland.

But I’ve never made it to the observation deck for its fantastic views. Now that the scaffolding is gone, I feel like an old friend has shown me an long-held secret, something that makes our friendship new again.

Every day this week, I’m going to paint a picture of the Cleveland I know in exactly 100 words.

On Sunday evening I was kneading bread dough when the bells started to chime. It made me wonder what it was like to live during a time when Cleveland was dense with Catholic immigrants…

I think I’ll do it too:

There’s an older lady in Tremont who rides the bus around the neighborhood all day. I would frequently see her at the laundromat where she would tell anybody everybody’s business. She would, and still might, buy scratch-off lottery tickets one at a time from the convenience store next door. I’ve moved, but whenever I ride the 81, I know she’ll get picked up in front of St. John Cantius and dropped off right before Clark Avenue.

I like to think there are people like this in every neighborhood; motivated to no immediately apparent purpose, but busy-bee regular; a necessary Cleveland fauna.

What’s your 100-word Cleveland story for today?

• From Cleveland Urban Design:
  

  Visit www.BridgeProjectVote.com to share your thoughts on initial concepts developed by students involved in the Bridge Project design[build] charrette. Leave your comments on the projects and begin a dialogue with the students. What ideas do you like? What would you like to see more details on? What new uses would you like to see included?

• Post Architecture Journal:
  

  All You Can Eat  is a collective exhibition of architectural ideas for vacant sites in Cleveland, Ohio. If Cleveland has a surplus of anything it’s vacant land, and the organizers have faith that others, like them, have favorite sites around the city upon which they’d love to unleash their new (or old) tricks. This exhibition hopes to provide the impetus and opportunity for many to unleash said tricks in a publicly visible way.

• You can vote on proposed pedestrian bridge designs by the Rock Hall at the Cleveland Planning Commission site.

And in other news…

• Should RealNEO unionize? (Be careful if you don’t give the correct answer)
• Although John’s use of the editorial plural is a bit confusing since he’s the only one who writes at his blog, we were happy to find out that the the local TransDIGM Group is #51 in Fortune’s 100 fastest growing companies.
• At Ohio Daily Blog, Anastasia Pantsios has some good 30,000 foot analysis of the opposing County reform proposals:
  

  As expected, the plan formulated in private by a handful of the county’s elite — now dubbed “New Cuyahoga Now” — is on the November ballot as Issue 6. The plan supported by county commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Tim Hagan to convene a charter commission to hold public hearings and come up with a plan based on citizen input to be voted on next November — now dubbed “Real Reform Done Right” — is on the ballot as Issue 5.

  Rereading Tim’s thoughts on signature requirements for the New Cuyahoga Now proposal should help shed a little more light on the implications of these ballot issues.

• Since I missed last week’s Blogosphere round-up, I figured I could sneak in this analysis of RTA’s rate hikes from Rob Pitingolo at BrewedFreshDaily.
• Finally, don’t miss Cleveland Bachelor’s interview with David Desimone of Low Life gallery fame.

Thanks for the video, Andy.

Here’s what folks are saying elsewhere (lots from Henry Gomez at the PD):

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson coasts to easy victory in primary

The competition for Jackson’s opponent in November was too close to call. Political newcomer Robert Kilo trailed former City Councilman Bill Patmon by little more than 100 votes.

Jeffrey Johnson, Zack Reed, Brian Cummins gain spots on Cleveland City Council ballot; Joe Santiago falls short

Johnson had his political career re-energized by voters. He earned the most votes in the race for Ward 8. The former councilman and state senator, whose career was derailed 11 years ago by a federal extortion conviction, was trailed closely by Councilwoman Shari Cloud, who was appointed to the Glenville-area seat four months ago.

BREAKING : Staggering 83% of Cleveland Ward 14 Votes Santiago Out of a Job

The very likely scenario would be a distribution of votes from Cintron going to Nagin, and votes from Horvath and D’Amico going to Cummins. That makes the general election contest just about even

Leadership

I hope that Rick Nagin and Brian Cummins make a real effort to get to listen to [Nelson Cintron] and, especially to [his] daughters, who can make them understand the need to protect and serve.

it occurred to me that this city of cle has so many folks without an outlet for what they can offer, without a safe place to explore new interest to push older ones and make waves toward actually reaching their goals. a live’s work.

its time to change this:

so with this - the Praxis Method - i want your thoughts. what would you like to see in the form of forums, book clubs, shows…

I’ve been wanting to revive a version of the salon, bringing Cleveland’s diversity together over some local ethnic food to have conversations on several different topics.

Back when I was writing poetry, I was really interested in finding a group of people who were willing to workshop their (and my) poems. Part of the reason I stopped writing is because I couldn’t find a group interested in doing what Rafeeq is talking about. If you’ve got ideas, leave them here or there.

1. Apart from the neat Cleveland shirts in this post, Room Service Cleveland is building a name for herself and our town from NY to Seattle.
2. Finite Jest links to an online police scanner courtesy of Cleveland.com. I only wish it looked like the one my grandma used to have.
3. Erin O’Brien links to Cleveland Scene’s 2009 Annual Manual (I’m glad somebody did since I couldn’t find it anywhere on the Scene site.) She also has some great photos of the Playhouse Square area.
4. Here’s a post from Cleveland Is My Boyfriend about the futility of dieting in a town with as much good food as Cleveland has.

We’re just practicing what we preached back June: collaboration & cooperation instead of competition, and a focus on cyberspace over meatspace.

The Good

• Roldo Bartimole posts a nice list of Cleveland-centric reading at RealNEO. If that’s not enough for you, Christine Borne has further recommendations.
• Marc Lefkowitz at GCBL has a summary of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 conference that’s been going on this week.
• BHC’s own Tim Russo captured some surreal Tea Party/Lyndon LaRoushite [sic] moments (with bonus Art McKoy!) downtown this week:

Self Destruct Button’s new album, Juice Tiger, is pure Cleveland progressive rock. It is closer to Mastodon than The Mars Volta, but fortunately refrains from the over-indulgent omphaloskepsis that those bands are known for. More melodic and less menacing than 2006’s Natural Selection of Accidents, the songs on Juice Tiger have a vigor and cunning that well merits the album’s title.

Where it might take Mastodon or The Mars Volta 10 to 15 minutes to make their point, Self Destruct Button usually gets it done in around 2 1/2. We’re talking bunker-busters here instead of carpet bombs. This decision allows SDB to impart an agency to their music that extends beyond the band itself. Instead of imagining transcension, the songs on Juice Tiger just go ahead and transcend the motherfucker already.

The album clocks in at just under 25 minutes; the first 15 are a hardscrabble reminiscent of Stan Brakhage’s Dog Star Man Part 1 (and obviously crafted with the same innate eye for detail that Brakhage exhibits). But ‘Justwestern’ reevaluates this effort in a moment of satori that defines the listening experience for the rest of the album. The point is that enlightenment isn’t something you sit around and think about, it’s something you hunt, tooth and nail. Fleeting. (Like the album itself, which, thankfully, you can always listen to again).

Juice Tiger will be released in September and will be available at discriminating music stores all around Cleveland. Keep an eye out.

I’m a mild typography enthusiast, and ever since I read about Clearview in the New York Times two years ago, I’ve been waiting for a chance to see it in the wild. It finally showed up in Cleveland a couple of months ago, and I’m quite impressed with it.

If you’ve noticed that driving on the Interstate highways around Cleveland has been a bit easier of late, this new signage is partially responsible for it. Clearview was specifically designed for use on highways; its increased legibility means you can read the signs faster and earlier than the old signs that use the Highway Gothic font.

In addition to the safety improvements, the font can be used without a corresponding increase in sign size. It indirectly saves lives and money lost to property damage and also directly saves money in production costs.

Here’s a local comparison:

What I’ve noticed most, in addition to the increased height of the lower-case letters, is how the tail on lower-case “l” glyph is almost invisible to a quick glance, yet still manages to distinguish the letter from an upper-case “I”. (Unlike the font in this post). I’ve also noticed how much faster I can read the new signs, so I can keep my eye on the road that much longer.

If you’d like to read up a bit more on the methodology behind this change (and see some better graphics depicting what’s different) I recommend checking out the following:

• Clearview: A New Typeface for US Highways
• ClearviewHWY

Cleveland Classic Media (in response to a commenter who was confused about Cleveland TV stations) plans to:

create a basic primer/historical timeline for each local station, which would answer some of the questions the anonymous poster brought up, as well as answer other questions…

This sounds like a great opportunity for some infographics.

The Good

The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission has a round-up of the EfficientGovNow finalists.

Jill Miller-Zimon at Writes Like She Talks takes some time off from her Pepper Pike council campaign to give her account of County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones’ account of the two upcoming county reform ballot issues.

The Bad

If you’ve got an extra $395 lying around, and nothing to do today, you can pay to listen to a bunch of Cleveland-area “social media gurus” hear themselves talk about Twitter. This is most of the same Cleveland Social Media Club crew mentioned in our famous Ego Trips for Faux Benefits post.

The Ugly

At RealNEO, ANGELinWard14 (whom I have it on good authority from several separate sources is a lady named Diane Hill) has been aggressively campaigning for Nelson Cintron Jr by way of writing long ad hominem rants about other candidates. (Who are Felons, Communists and Frauds). And as you can see, she’s also painting her thoughts on the side of a building. Apparently she feels that having a degree from Harvard is a liability for a City Council candidate.

The interview is in five parts, and certainly worth 45 minutes of your time, especially if you live in Cleveland or in Ward 14.

The Great

• Bridget Ginley found an injured caterpillar and ended up with her own temporary pet butterfly.
• James Renner and a couple of other Clevelanders are putting their adventure to retrace the steps of Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye and meet J.D Salinger online. Called Catching Salinger, this six part series already has the first four episodes posted.

The Good

Cleveland Bachelor maintains his high quality post ratio with his interview of Leia Alligator and a discussion of where you can find the best pancakes in town. Reminds me of my quest to find the best burger in Cleveland four years ago…

The Neutral

The Goats lost their water and found out WTF was happening using Twitter - Cleveland Water Department Fail.

The Bad

Def Aliens is a poison-pen blog that rips on the indie/punk Cleveland music scene. A la Le Corbeau (but without the Nazis, so far). It’s been doing it’s job well, even though its methods are rather primitive. Can’t really say that I agree with anything that has been written on it, but then again, I love everything about Cleveland music.

This afternoon, I’ll be stopping by the Ohio City Bike Coop to interview Jim Sheehan. I took their bike repair course this spring and learned a trike-load of great maintenance skills. I’ll be talking to Jim about cycling in Cleveland, how to Coop is doing during this recession summer, and the usual Blackheart Cleveland stuff.

He’s the kind of guy who reads Ezra Pound the same way a bored housewife reads romance novels, and it’s time to give him a little shine.

I sat down with Rafeeq and had a great half-hour conversation. The tangents and digressions I’ll post another time, for now here’s what he’s got to say about his label Cleveland Tapes, other great talents in Cleveland and his new album PASTICHE (reviewed below).

Mentioned in the interview:

• Latoya Kent - Sweet Oil
• DeLoFi
• BLK TYGR
• New Surah Orchestar
• Cleveland Tapes videos

Album Review - PASTICHE

PASTICHE rattles and decays in ways reminiscent of abandoned warehouses along the lakefront of east Cleveland. The intimacy from the vinyl crackle samples paradoxically resounds in cavernous tones, the sound of a man shrunken inside his head, wrestling existential and holding a hostage dialogue with his musical ancestors (most blatant on the snarky “just you”).

The samples are chosen with an eclectic aesthetic simultaneously profound and tongue-in-cheek, further fulfilling the promise of the album title. leRoi da Moor isn’t making hip-hop so much as post-hop, perhaps a subconscious influence from Washington’s friend Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the various incarnations of A Silver Mt. Zion.

What comes out of the wash is an amalgamation that, while not completely about Cleveland, has all of the flavor of our cultural patchwork city. What exceeds the stereotypical Cleveland apathy is leRoi’s self-awareness, literary chops and determination to wring as much as he can from whatever he’s got.

My favorite tracks are “boutique” and “cuyahoga”, but the entire work is best appreciated as the whole of its parts. Pick it up, and other Cleveland Tapes issue at Moor Musak.

Download LiveLocal0708.zip (86MB)

• (The) Giants of Gender [MySpace]
• Chum
• Emer­alds
• Low Lamps [Brian Straw]
• Muamin Collective
• Post­cards From For­eign Shores
• Pro­le­tar­ian Art Threat
• Scarcity of Tanks
• Soft Spots
• Swayze All Over
• The V E RY K N EE S
• The X Bolex
• Theodore Vril
• Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival

Click to View Full Size

The Great

Jeff Hess:

In all that thinking and writing I arrived at a few conclusions, the most important of which is that I’ve spent way too much time posting what other people are writing and not publishing my own writing, and I’ve resolved to change that.

The Good

• Via Stu Spivack, I found the excellent locally produced podcast Throwing Quarters
• Cleveland Bachelor interviews Nina Hoyle:
  

  Mina: My ideal Cleveland day…I would ride to Lakewood to have a pumpkin ale and Parmageddon at Melt, see an opening at Spaces Gallery, followed by the Cleveland Kings and Girls drag king show at Bounce. In fact, I might do just all that today!

• Music Saves celebrates 5 years in business. My favorite music shop in a city filled with great music shops.
• Space Station takes picture of BLACKHEART Cleveland. Make sure to check out the times posted by Cleveland.com and you’ll get a chance to see the ISS pass across our sky in the next couple of weeks. June 20th is the best day for viewing though.

The Neutral

dbra assumes that in Cleveland:

We’re just too tight, stuck in our little square box.

Its diverse thinking that leads to progression; no evolution without deviation, and this town just aint got it, period. Small tight little minds.

This delightfully positive comment was in reference to the Portland, OR naked bike ride. Thankfully, another user, Oengus, quickly posted a picture of 5000 naked Clevelanders from when Spencer Tunick rolled through town. I was there, and had a great ass-freezing time.

The Bad

Once the premier blog for Cleveland, Brewed Fresh Daily continues its degeneration and is now filled with vague, retweeted Twitter scraps. At least now its obvious George just doesn’t give a shit anymore. Although there’s no need for him to take it quite so personally when he gets called on it.

The Ugly

RealNEO continues to encourage/antagonize the mentally ill:

dbra oengus could murder me & yogi to stop us posting truth to power - thats the only way - just like the murdering part of the system - all oengus can attempt to do is murder words - but the pen-realneo.us is mightier than the sword-oengus-

Seriously, you’re not helping him.

If you’re looking for some gutter bumpin’ party tunes, the first three songs (Claptadis, 4tha, Horizontal) are sure to get feet moving and hands bouncing. If you want to know what honest, self-reflective hip hop sounds like, a trio of tunes from Zion in the latter half of the album will surely catch your attention (By Your Side, This Is Love, Any Other Way). The album is a well-balanced offering of everything you might want from hip hop, complete with plenty of earworms. It’s homegrown, organic and Fare Trade.

The technical work the album hit targets that most other hip-hop offerings don’t bother to care about. Where commercial hip-hop relies on AutoTune, and a variety of smoke and mirrors (not the least of which is the artificial confection that is the commercial rapper) and ends up overproducing just about everything, aLive and e.react’s production methodology is a scaffolding to hang the lyrics off of. The absence of artifice enhances the authenticity of the lyrics.

Y’know what, just listen to how the beat pops in “Ponzi Scheme” like the first syllable of the title. It’s the sound equivalent of the collapse of Wall Street:

And here’s some lyrics that could only come from Cleveland on “Bus Stop”:

I be that mooley
eating tabbouleh & pita
waiting for RiTA
by the side of the Market
I park it, put my feet up
people watching me, people watching
I spark the weed up & open a copy of
Amiri Baraka reader

My favorite song is “Grandiose” and features a vintage (like fine wine) sample of Mavis Staple from The Staple Singers on the Curtis Mayfield produced “A Whole Lotta Love”. I also particularly like the Leon Russell/Mary McCreary sample in “4tha” and the original beat (that I originally thought was Ratatat) created on “Horizontal” by aLive’s Microkorg and MPC.

As good as this album is, Muamin Collective’s live shows are not to be missed. They’ve got a couple shows lined up in August, but you can keep track of ‘em at their MySpace. You can pick up the whole album for a 7 dollar bill at the Muamin Collective website. You can even pay for individual tracks if you want. You can also dig through their back catalog, pick up those tunes and have your own Muamin Collective-driven house party.

They wouldn’t have it any other way.

And if you missed it the first time, watch the BLACKHEART Cleveland interview with Muamin Collective:

Buy the album! Support Cleveland! Get some great music!

Click to View Full Size

You can write about whatever topic strikes your fancy, as long as it is Cleveland-related, not self-promotional and informative. If you’re interested, use the contact form to send BHC a message and we’ll talk.

Click to View Full Size

The Great

• Cleveland Bachelor starts out his Proper Noun of the Week column with a post on and interview with Frank Revy of the Waterloo Cafe.

• Room Service Cleveland has a great a recap of Made in 216.

• In the tradition of Bridget Ginley’s Free Art Fridays Great Lakes Green Pages is giving away art from time to time. I still have a wonderful Cleveland print that I got from Bridget years ago.

I sat down with the Muamin Collective the other night to talk about their inspirations, their upcoming album World B. Free (named after the great Cavs player), and what the hip hop scene is like in Cleveland. World B. Free has an internet release date of July 14th at MuaminCollective.com, and a physical release (complete with release party) sometime in August.

You can listen to and purchase their back catalog at their website, or visit their MySpace for further information. BLACKHEART Cleveland even has an exclusive sample track from World B. Free called Ponzi Scheme. We’ll also have a full review of the album once we get a grip on it.

Listen to Ponzi Scheme:

Click to View Full Size

we ask for more media outlets, more alternatives to the shit we get, but when they crop up, we dont support them. sure we pick em up and put it in our bags, carry issues around but we do not support them as we should. and we dont have the money to support them without the help of advertising, and local businesses are hurting too much to use their limited resources and advertise with start-ups.

we all know the issues. we all know solutions. i just wonder what we are waiting for.

Rafeeq is right on the money.  When I first moved to Cleveland almost 6 years ago, there was a great glossy mag run by Daniel Gray-Kontar called Urban Dialect. It ended up folding rather soon after I wrote two music reviews for it. Probably my fault. That was my first brush with the ephemeral world of Cleveland indie media. The publication cycle is one of perennial sprout and wither for these grassroots, passion-filled people.

The issues are easy to enumerate. Here’re a few:

1. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland Scene and oft-forgotten stepchild Sun Newspapers aren’t doing a good enough job covering local news.
2. Other publications, like the Plain Press, don’t cover the same topical material.
3. Obtaining funding or advertising to produce the physical publication can be so time consuming that the writing suffers.
4. Finding and keeping a good depth of passionate writers is difficult, especially if you can’t pay.
5. The process takes a lot of work.

I don’t know what all the solutions are that Rafeeq alludes to, but I’ve got at least two ideas that I feel have wings.

• Collaboration & Cooperation, not Competition: The people involved in these local publications need to share content, writers and funding in order to stay afloat. These local magazines might see each other as competitors when they should be thinking of them as teammates. Anyway, sharing funding is probably the craziest idea that just might work, especially if they’re poaching each other’s advertising dollars. That’s the way publishing houses or film studios work. The big sellers make it possible for the independent, smaller run books and films to be made. The analogy doesn’t exactly cross-over into the independent media, but there’s something to be said for having independent media (if they insist on remaining a print publication) Co-Operate with each other, even if it does smack of *gasp* socialism. I derived this part from the assumption that the people writing these publications aren’t just doing it for the money.
• Cyberspace over Meatspace: You can setup a fully functional web-site for under $300 these days if you’re tech savvy. If you’re not, you’ll have to pay someone who is to get it setup for you, but the cost is negligible compared to producing an actual print publication. The only downside is that you don’t have the distribution or an actual physical object to hold and read while you’re at your 2 o’clock appointment. The website doesn’t preclude actually producing a print publication, and if you can’t afford to go print for a month, you’ve got the website to fall back on.

Here are some current independent publications that I know of:

• Messy Magazine - “an online, theme inspired publication focusing on the creative community in and around Cleveland, distributed from Cleveland. We showcase literary work, art, music, film, photography, DIY, you name it.”
• Pinkeye Arts Magazine - “covering local artists and gallery openings going on around town.”
• Faction Press/The Independent/Rust Belt Report - Ambitious, hoping to be an eventual Scene competitor/killer. First issue arrives August 5th.
  

There’s also the hyperlocal weblogs/print publications run as non-profits. It seems like someone decided to monetize the hyperlocal community weblog. None of these existed when I started Tremonter 4 years ago, but I’m glad to see that they’re around:

• Ohio City Argus - They don’t seem to be updating their site at all, but I picked up the actual physical paper the other day at Dave’s supermarket.
• Collinwood Observer - Same website design as the Argus, spun off from the Lakewood Observer.
• Heights Observer - Same deal as the previous two, only covering Cleveland/University Heights.
  

I’ve emailed whomever I can find as a contact at these publications, inviting them to come over to BHC and start a conversation.

We’ve got your back Christine:

A while back, I encouraged my friends and neighbors to take the cleveland.com challenge. Since then, I’ve been told by many people that I’m fighting a losing battle. Here’s what I’ve got to say about that.

When we flee to our own corners of the Internet, where we only talk to those people who think like us, we are doing something terrible that (particularly in Cleveland) we should do better to avoid — i.e., we are committing a sin analagous to suburban flight. We are taking our intellectual tax base out to the edges, and leaving our core community to crumble.

The Good

• Russ Miller at Finite Jest unearths a hilarious mis-translated review of Cleveland from the original Québécois. (The actual article dates from 2007 and can be found here.)
• Jenita McGowan at Lustfelt 4 My Rustbelt spent her staycation well.
• The Beachland Ballroom has the lowdown on the Waterloo Arts Festival and its ancillary activities this weekend in Collinwood.

The Bad

• Chronic pessimist Jeff Buster wants somebody (else, apparently) to start a recall of the County Commissioners, and says Mike Polk’s tourism video is “harmonious with my outlook on Leveland” {sic} while considering this video to be spammy. Here’s some free advice, Jeff: stop complaining, start the recall yourself, and look up the definition of parody. You’re not helping.
• Todd Meany of Fox 8 gives another piece of evidence to those who claim TV News is a joke by doing a ridiculous story about a black bear. Read the rave reviews:
  • “A work of retarded brilliance” - JuicyPips
  • “I know what you’re thinking: “That can’t be real.” Oh, but it is.” - Fresno Beehive
  • “This video is like something that The Onion would do.” - Exploding Wumpus
  • “The recreation of the bear movement is fantastic - journalism at its best.” - Flood at MetaFilter
  • “A ridiculous story.” - Kyle Brady
  • “They call this reporting?” - Van Santos

  BHC will have a better version of this story for you sometime next week.

The Ugly

Guy Templeton Black at RealNEO pretends he’s a ‘pediphile priest’ and tries to grab his dog’s penis. We don’t really understand what this has to do with Catholic foot fetishism, but here’s the video:

• If you’re on Facebook, BHC is on Facebook (and we’re in an open relationship).
• If you’re a twit, follow our tweets. (If you run across something that means BLACKHEART Cleveland to you, let us know at the hash #BHC)
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel (but please only comment if you’re capable of typing a coherent thought.)

By the way, the Tips section isn’t for donations. If you’ve got a news tip, a request for coverage, a rant or rave about a Cleveland noun, a comment or suggestion for what you’d like to see us cover around here, let us know.

Some upcoming and ongoing categories include:

• News Done Right - Taking a poorly crafted piece of reporting by our local media and treating the story with the respect it (and you) deserve.
• Sports - Cleveland is a sports town, even if Toledo chose the better name for their hockey team.
• Music - Coverage and video of local bands.
• Politics - Where to begin…
• Business - Recognizing local businesses and finding out why they chose to invest in Cleveland.