Ideastream - Listening Project

Want to talk about your neighborhood? Then say something!

Back in 2001 WCPN ideastream began The Listening Project, an online survey and archive of Northeast Ohio residents perspective on their city and neighborhood.

Mostly a useful tool for WCPN to hear what the region would like to hear more about however it is also rather useful to see how other people percieve the area's problems and assests.

If you have a couple minutes, I suggest you fill out a survey. If you already have then feel free to read through the archive. I know I bring up WCPN a lot on this blog, and it isn't only because I am a treehugging liberal hippie or whatever most people ascribe to being NPR listeners, I love WCPN because of the local coverage and actual reporting that they manage to accomplish. If you ever wondered how I had my finger on the pulse of the city and seemed so well informed, it is because WCPN brings many of those topics to my attention. There, all my secrets are out.

Organic food news.

New news from the Organic Center, a group with the mission "To gernerate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society." arrived the other day and I thought I would pass it along as I found it very interesting.

Organic Tomatoes Found to be More Nutritious.

Organic Production Increases Yields and Builds Soil Quality in Iowa.

Scientists Estimate that Pesticides are Reducing Crop Yields by 1/3.

So, to recap, organic foods are better for you, replenish and are better for the soil they are grown in (at least in Iowa) and by using some pesticides you are actually decreasing your yield.

Like I said, interesting. I always become curious as to how the current system became the status quo and what market forces (to borrow from a conversation I had the other night) are driving these decisions. Is it ease, reliability, cost? What actually hinders organic gardening the most, and why?

Celebrate Cleveland Month - Birthday Xtravaganza!

I have a feeling that every year I am surprised that Cleveland has a birthday and that we typically celebrate it on July 22, when the survey party of Moses cleavland was said to have arrived. Well this month (July) we are going to celebrate all month long with a series of events and exhibits taking place around the city.

Sorry to be spreading the word a third into the month. I didn't realize that I was missing out on the festivities until this morning.

more events

more fun Cleveland facts to impress your friends and loved ones

Tremont Art Walk/Hop 2007 07.13

Its that time of the month to once again wander the streets of Tremont, Ohio looking for, well, art. Hopefully the weather will be nice and cool (at least cooler then it was the beginning of this week!)

map

I have to admit as well, taking a break and enjoying a beverage on the patio of the the Treehouse and watching people wander by is something I am really looking forward to.

See you there!

We are so far behind, someday we will be ahead...

A while back the ingenuity fest - Cleveland offered up a competition entitled 'What Would YOU do with the Breuer Building?'

I was beyond tempted to enter something, in fact I had at least submissions in mind but mostly due the time consuming action of moving my competition entering ability has decreased. Regardless I am sure that there will be some real fine ideas. In fact, I guarentee it.

A couple of days ago I stumbled across an article referencing the Nido Project in London. A student housing project where the students rent out very compact dorm rooms in downtown areas and share facilities such as recreation, exercise, library, living room, etc. Imagine only renting out the bare necessities of space for your life, where you sleep, restroom and eat. Then you share the rest with your classmates. Study space, a movie theater, education center, etc.

It sounds very similar to a boarding house or dorm building but on a larger more urban scale. The reason I bring this up is mostly to wonder if something like this could work in Cleveland. As Cleveland State University attempts to create residences for it's students close to campus I wonder (and hope) that the public spaces will become more active and that businesses will move in to capitalize, hopefully making downtown, well, vibrant.
The idea of centralized living spaces that hampers the basic human need to accumluate a ton of 'junk' also appeals to me (having recently packed up and moved much more then I thought I ever owned). I think I could apprectiate living in a smaller place if it was well laid out and not as cramped as many of the dorm rooms I had witnessed in my life. I just wonder why this only applies to college kids though. I think that there would be quite a few younger professionals looking to move to downtown if the rent was cheap and they weren't burdened with having to furnish a larger 'typical' apartment that didn't foster the idea of 'being neighbors'.

This is just a rant on an idea that doesn't seem all too out there, just doesn't have the market research supporting it's development. Oh, and this would be one of my suggestions for the Breuer building; dorm living for CSU and Kent State University.