State of the City transcript 2007

It took me longer then I expected to find this information, I suppose because it hasn't been online long enough for Google to point to it.

Anyway, care of the Plain Dealer "all the news that's fit to use..." Mayor Frank Jackson's 2007 State of the City Address transcription.

I enjoy the comments as much as the speech.

Now, read it, then get off your duff and do something. Quickly. Before you get sucked into some crappy movie on TV. HURRY!

Give a man a fish they eat for a day, teach some kid to love his city...

...and he may get sick of fish and try a burger.

An interesting project is currently looking for some help. "Look Up to Cleveland" (website currently under construction) is looking for designers that would be willing to help out teams of high school kids from around the region develop civic plans for an undetermined community.

Sounds pretty cool to me.

Here is a little teaser from the flyer.

BE A PART OF AN EXCITING TEAM!!!

SEEKING . . . . .

ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS

TO SERVE AS TECHNICAL ADVISORS

NEED: Individuals interested in planning and urban design to volunteer their time as team

advisors working with 16-17 high school juniors to develop goal driven Civic Vision

plans for Cleveland and a designated neighborhood. The high school students are

enrolled in Look Up To Cleveland, a program for outstanding student leaders who

represent public, private and parochial schools throughout Cuyahoga County.

Teams will incorporate the following components in their plan:

Residential Recreation / Open Space

Commercial Special Uses

Industrial

Since I don't have much in the way of a website I will offer the link to the word document flyer as well as the tech adviser form, both of which come to us from AIA Cleveland.

I would expect great things from these kids, unencumbered with all the horrible lessons of urban design so many strap to themselves throughout their time in a typically formulaic program. Great things indeed.

Lakewood: another arts district?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Beck Center Armory
17801 Detroit Ave, Lakewood, OH

LakewoodAlive's next forum will explore the idea of an Arts District in Lakewood. A panel of experts will discuss what makes up an arts district, examples of thriving art districts and the economic benefits associated with them.

“We anticipate a lively discussion about whether an arts district would be appropriate and beneficial for Lakewood,” said Mary Anne Crampton, president of LakewoodAlive. “We would like to explore all of the issues that are critical to the development and sustainability of an arts district.”

Panelists include:
Art Falco , President and CEO, Playhouse Square Foundation
Tom Schorgl, President and CEO, The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture
Daniel Cuffaro, Chairman and Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Design, Cleveland Institute of Art and current proponent of “District of Design” in Downtown Cleveland
Kathleen Cerveny, Program Director for Arts and Culture, The Cleveland Foundation

Thomas Mulready, publisher of CoolCleveland, will moderate.

The forum will be held on Tuesday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Beck Center Armory, 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood. The Armory is located directly behind the Beck Center’s main building and parking is available in the adjacent lot and on nearby sidestreets.

This event is free and advanced registration is not necessary.

LakewoodAlive webernet site

I have to exhibit my trepidation here. I love Lakewood. I grew up in Cleveland Heights (for the most part) and when it came time to move back to Cleveland from lands far off (Kent State) I couldn't in good conscience pick Cleveland Heights or University Heights or any of those places over the amazing little town of Lakewood. With all its walkable parks and fun little shops it won my heart. As far as becoming an arts district, I am not sure how it can compare to Tremont which does the entire arts district thing amazingly well. Perhaps Lakewood could capitalize on what it already does well and become a bar district that happens to have some kick ass art places interspaced (as well as a plethora of funeral homes, perhaps Lakewood could use the whole "we put the FUN in FUNeral home!"?)

I don't know. Go to the forum and express your own opinion. You might as well, it is free and you probably don't have anything else to do.

Mayor Frank Jackson State of the City Address while east bank razes the roofs.

While Mayor Frank Jackson unveiled his 2007 State of the City Address at the City Club which laid out some of the many major developments currently underway or being planned in order to rebuild the city the east bank of the flats gave witness to the beginning of the process.

WKYC brings us video of Joe's Crabshack (a shack in which crab and other seafare was once served) being treated in a rather rude manner by some heavy equipment.

I was given this information in what could be considered unbridled glee as it may mean that new development along our might river may create some new and vibrant possibilities for the city. I shared this glee (although I tried to hide it). My informant and I sat and blinked at each other for a couple of seconds before he said "Well, it doesn't mean anything may ever get built though". True, I replied. "Also," he continued "it isn't as if we are not used to having things torn down and replaced with vacant lots."

I didn't have the heart to really continue that line of thought. Hopefully this will mean some work for some local folk. Besides, empty lots along a river have got to be better then vacant boarded up buildings that once housed misplaced social experiments such as "Dick's Last Resort", a "restaurant" where the kitch was that the staff was rude. (What the heck is the excuse for the staff at the other thousands of restaurants in the city?)

So what is the State of the City? Well, hopefully I can dig a transcript up or get the City Club's feed to work. Until then just make motor noises with your mouth, pretend to knock things over and imagine that life will move back into the flats.

Does having a neighborhood make good neighbors?

I suppose there are many questions that are bound to be raised when a study such as the Maxine Goodman Levine College of Urban Affairs recently released report on Cleveland's current abatement program (pdf format) is released. Especially when the report states that granting people abatements on property taxes does not adversely affect programs that are primarily funded by property taxes (see Ohio Schools) and that tax abatement programs actually create more money then they lose.

There are some quite interesting arguments in the report such as 60% of people that move to new homes in Cleveland would not do so without the tax abatement program, that the school system is near to last when it comes to factors people take into account when moving to Cleveland (especially if they don't want to fund it) and that "very few abated homes have been built for upper-level incomes" (new homes costing over $200,000).

There was also a discussion on WCPN (audio link) this morning where the following were guests:

Guests: Mark Rosentraub, Dean, CSU/Levin College of Urban Affairs; Joe Cimperman, City Council member; Nate Coffman, Executive director Cleveland Homebuilders Association; Tasha Flournoy, WCPN; Jim Rokakis, Cuyahoga County Treasurer

Lately I had been looking into Cleveland's Landbank Program to scout decent building sites to build a fairly cheap, sustainable domicile of my own from which I would eventually enjoy raising a brood. However the online database for Cleveland is not online anymore and when I called for information it seemed I was really annoying the person who was to take my request and allow me to come down to City Hall during their amazingly flexible and long hours of operation and put down some cold hard cash money for a "print out" of available parcels.

I may not be a web genius but I am pretty sure that if you can create a print out you can post it online in a database format similar to what some other Ohio Cities are doing.

What does this have to do with the abatement program? Well, not a lot directly. I am just trying to point out that Cleveland has some rather amazing programs for people to utilize if they would like to move into one of the many neighborhoods that exist and while some programs may seem like another attempt to nickel and dime constituents or like shortsighted solutions that actually devalue the city they are meant to support one can easily argue that the problems created by these programs are actually opportunities to discover ways to refinance local schools and build stronger communities of people that want to live here.

I don't really mean to seem this optimistic, it just happens naturally sometimes.

When Trailor Parks attack.

Sometimes I actually feel a little sick when I read things that mostly pertain to people not thinking things all the way out. I don't really believe that anything done in this case was malicious, just perhaps not properly planned nor executed.

According to the South Mississippi Sun Herald FEMA trailors that are currently being used to house Hurricane Katrina victims are making inhabitants sick due to exposure to formaldehyde that was used in the construction materials of the trailers. Granted, the trailers were not built nor designed to be inhabited as long as they were but it strikes me as odd that a government agency would make such an oversight and it strikes me as odd that we are still building small enclosed spaces out of materials that contain known toxins.

This whole disaster continues to break my heart. First the impact and devastation followed by a ham handed response, then the barrage of corruption and people acting at their worst and finally stories of how the affected areas are still ravaged, that basic life needs are not being met, that we still can't provide safe shelters for people. I know there have been gems in the muck, people acting for the better good and helping their neighbor and I in no way mean to tarnish those actions. I am just commenting on how hurt we still are.

|re|Design Cleveland Charrette launch

There seems to be a push for Cleveland to remake it's image through collaborative design competitions and I am all for.

|re|Design Cleveland seems to be a website/blog for design charrette's (word on the street is possibly monthly) that are open to anyone who would like to sketch or create an idea to make Cleveland more livable. Their first charrette is a simple re-skinning of a parking deck near public square and is due in the beginning of March.

Currently there are no registration fees nor prizes as it is operating on a charrette basis (open discussion, sharing/creation of multiple ideas) and it seems as sort of a refreshing design exercise for those of us who want to sketch something out quick and see what others thinking regarding similar problems.

As per usual, I am not the only nutjob out there.

While sharing my learning of the use of PVC in children's lunchboxes with my lovely girlfriend, she got one of those weird looks on her face and then proceeded to walk out of the room while I was in mid sentence. Typically this just means that what I am going on about doesn't interest her in the least. However, she had gone to fetch the latest issue of EarthWatch Ohio, a collaborative 501(c)(3) circular that is put out by "people with environmental concerns". Yes, these are probably the same people that you think have nothing better to do but sit around campfires smoking dope doing all they can to bring down "the establishment" and American business ideals and so you disdain anything they say from the comfort of your endangered elephant easy chair in your oversized McMansion home in the nice gated suburb hours away from where you have to work 0rdering underpaid, malnourished immigrants about your factory floor. [Hyperbole inserted here to denote my frustration with the use of stereotyping/laziness (instead of attempting to listen and learn something) that I get exposed to on a daily basis].

Right.

Anyway, EarthWatch Ohio (whom I believe are all hard working family members who just happen to have a passion for their communities) had a rather interesting article on page 3 of their February/March 2007 issue (which you can download from their website if you would like) which included a nice mention of Sam Suds, the PVC Free website's anti PVC hero whom I think is a bar of soap.

They also had a nice legend of recycling symbols definitions that I would like to repeat here but can't find a nice image of. I can offer this attractive link instead.