Levin College Forum: "A Vision for the Warehouse District"

Tuesday, October 17, 2006
4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs
Glickman-Miller Hall, Atrium

Bob Stark will be on hand to talk about his 21-acre proposal to redevelop the Warehouse District into mixed use residential/office space and street level retail. This is a huge investment and one that may well become more complex as imminent domain domain laws are flexed by cities attempting to create capital reinvestment in "blighted" downtown areas. I don't want to comment any more about that.

Mr. Stark though, is an amazingly driven man and someone who has a great vision for the city of Cleveland. Steven Fong, Dean of Kent State University's School of Architecture and Environmental Design will be one of the panelists.

You can find an agenda and more information, including registration, here

National Building Museum: The Green House

The National Building Museum in Washington, DC is adding on to the The Green House exhibit with a series of exhibits and workshops to promote "going green" and raise awareness of the possibility of living an "environmentally-conscious" lifestyle.

Overall the site offers many interesting features including information on green materials, events and basic principles and since I am such a sucker for green building and green this and green that you can bet that I signed up for their monthly email and will be going through all their online information too.

Pass It On 2006 - Recycling

The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District is a great source for Clevelanders who are looking for information on how to alleviate their impact on local landfills and the world's resources by recycling and reusing usable items. The CCSW offers tips on how you can dispose of certain items, where you can find recycling centers in your city and where you can donate usable items to be reused by those in need.

They offer a great variety of online publications including office recycling schemes, latex paint disposal and halting unwanted mail (my personal scourge).

My favorite by far is the Pass It On: A Resource-Full Guide to Donating Usable Stuff. With it you can find a new home for all that stuff that clutters your house that you don't ever use (and probably won't) without the guilt of throwing it out because you think that someday, you may be able to put that 5 1/4" floppy drive and old cross country skies to use. Heck, some of the stuff can even be tax-deductible if you are into that sort of thing.

Of course there are other resources (tons of them really) that you can use. There are online resources such as Freecycle which is an online bulletin board which allows you to seek for items to find and list items you would like to give away or there is the wonderful Craig's List where you can sell your old items (or look for a job or find a new apartment or house or best friend).

So get rid of your old skies and Apple IIe's and enjoy the openness and overall well being that comes with leading a simple clutter free life. Or simply replace the older items with newer energy efficient things. Someone, somewhere is probably looking for a cheap pair of skies right now.

Tremont Art Walk

The Tremont Art Walk is held the 2nd Friday of each month and as lucky October Friday the 13th is the second Friday you can expect the usual large bunch of local artists and art lovers wandering around Tremont, poking their heads into galleries between the hours of 6pm and 10pm and perhaps grabbing a bite or drink in some local establishment during or after.

Here is the current gallery list that relates to the attached map.

It is one of my favorite things to do and just wanted to let others know.

What happened to Westerville, Ohio?

Remember way back when Westerville, Ohio was awarded a $839,016 2003 ThirdFrontier Project Grant for their 250-kilowatt hydrogen power generator that became operational in November of 2004? I sure didn't until I saw a video on it on the "One Degree" website posted about earlier here. Supposedly this 250KW unit splits hydrogen from natural gas and electrochemically converts it into electricity. Enough electricity to power 180 homes, according to Green Energy Ohio's website.

I am just amazed. First that I don't remember hearing about this. Second that if this program has proved successful why is it not more widespread? Why are there not little hydrogen to electricity generators spread out all around town and villages? Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition seems to be running a relatively up to date web site (I admit I haven't had the time to fully check it out yet) so apparently similar programs, including the 3rd Frontier program are still active.

If anyone has any useful information they would like to share, please comment or email. I am looking for similar programs or attempts at medium scale electricity generation via hydrogen or anyone who has tries to work with OFCC or 3rd Frontier.

I do not suffer under the illusion that because my knowledge is limited on a subject that everyone else is also unaware so I apologize if I am repeating common knowledge at times.

Weather Channel - One Degree Climate Change

Weather Channel, which runs a website that I personally check at least once a day has just released "One Degree Climate Change", another web site devoted to global warming and combating human climate change effects. At first I was intrigued by the promise of a couple of broadband webcasts about climate change but upon investigating a little bit closer I found dozens or webcasts about everything from drought in the Midwest to hydrogen powered autos to tips for home remodeling.

Their mission statement is pretty dang provocative too.

"Throughout the world, people are confused about climate change and global warming. Many do not believe there is a crisis. Others simply absorb the media sound bites and cannot tell fact from opinion. While there are excellent resources and educational websites devoted to climate change, some may be concerned that these sites have hidden political or financial agendas.

For this reason we created One Degree.

One Degree will leverage the trusted scientific resources of The Weather Channel. One Degree's mission will be to present an open, balanced dialogue around the scientific facts concerning global climate change. We will provide a place where sound science can be heard and a forum where all people can question and debate. The site will leverage what the Internet does best; an exchange of rational ideas from both experts and non-experts with questions. In addition, One Degree will look at how climate change may already be affecting the lives of individuals, families, communities and businesses.

The site's name, One Degree, is a reference to the one degree of warming the earth has experienced in the past 30 years and how something so seemingly small as a single degree can change the world."

And so another website joins the long list of sources I scour looking for that bright lining. Yay.

Energy Star Podcasts

The fine people at Energy Star are well aware that our current society concerns itself with a plethora of electronic devices and love with technology. They are attempting to utilize this very technology to spread awareness about what they do and why they do it.

Discussions range from attempting to get manufacturers to compete for efficiency to our ignorance of "vampire" power usage and it's national impact. If you find yourself wondering what the advantages to the Energy Star program or just curious why people would take the time to rate and study lighting to blackberries this would be a good primer. At the very least there might be some new tips (unplug your phone charger when not using it!) or ideas (are CFLs already on the way our with the new LEDs coming online?) that you implement next time you are done charging your camera batteries or shopping for a new washer and dryer.

So far there are only two Podcasts up but more are coming soon.