Damion Ezell's new book and website

About Us -- One of our friends by way of The College of the Holy Cross, Damion Ezell, is on his way to New York this afternoon to promote his new book, The Report: File 1--The Context. At the link is an interesting lead-in, and it explains the journey of self-discovery that led him to write the book in the first place. We've been walking alongside Damion, off and on, for a couple of years now and can attest to the genuine feelings and authenticity that run through this entire work. I'm ordering it now in the reader's edition.

local production for local consumption

Mayor Jackson wants local companies to get more city work - cleveland.com -- Our friend Norm Ezzie promotes "local production for local consumption" as something that's integral to a healthy community.

Frank Jackson's new initiative, based on his proclamation yesterday that "We have to invest in our own people," should help turn the tide when it comes to the letting of contracts, but he has a lot of work to do. Doner (rhymes with "boner"?) Advertising of Southfield, Michigan, seems to have a real toehold when it comes to advertising Cleveland+; the airport (CLE) advertises very little, if any, local business through ClearChannel and its Allentown, PA, based office, formerly known as Interspace; and, those irritating, tacky street kiosks come to us compliments of Omni Media/Astral Media, a Montreal firm with a skeleton token staff here.

I'm hoping these initial opportunities for Clevelanders aren't those of street bootblacks and sandwich-board wearers outside the new casinos, whenever the "businessmen" get ready to take another run at it.

good news for the holiday season: Ruthie & Moe's has just reopened, under new management

Well, we've been waiting and waiting, and I just got a call this morning from our friend Judy that what we all knew as Ruthie and Moe's diner at 40th and Prospect is now reopened as Somers, serving breakfast and lunch from 0600-1500, five days a week, Monday through Friday.

Here's a link to an older web presence to refresh your memory about what the diner thing is all about. We used the place a lot as an early morning meeting place, and look forward to doing so again, soon.

Gloria will let you know more, later. The new owners are the same ones who run Somers Place out on West 150th. Judy is the same lady who was the main waitress at Ruthie and Moe's, and she's been working for the Somers people since the diner closed in early 2006. It's been nearly two years, so get on over there!

leveraging a levyfest

Our friend George Nemeth over at Brewed Fresh Daily gave us the heads up on what's going on 10 blocks down the street a week from today. I've lived here since 1983 and promoted the area since 1979, and I never really knew that d.a. was a Denisonian. Here's some of what George sent us:

ukanhavyrfuckincitibak

Bottom Dog Press and Mac's Backs will co-host a reading at Art House to
celebrate the release of two new books related to d.a. levy., the poet who grew
up down the street on Denison in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood. This
event features works from d.a. levy and the mimeograph revolution and the
tribute to levy ukanhavyrfuckincitibak as read by both books' editors
-- including former Clevelander Russell Salamon.

Check it out Tue 8/21 at 7PM.
3119 Denison Ave.,
Old Brooklyn.
http://www.arthouseinc.org/.


d.a. levy grew up in your
neighborhood?!
man. i'd organize an annual levyfest or something...

James O. unloads antiques 'n things

Our friend, photographer Jamie Janos, is having a sale tomorrow and Saturday at his studio, and it looks to be stupendous. We may very well drop by after going to the City Planning Commission session about the Breuer Tower.

government & nonprofit reps now fly to the rescue of more banks

Banks have a confirmed commitment to the city--In yesterday's Letters to the Editor in the PD, two of our representatives, one from the government and the other from the nonprofit sector, flew to the rescue of still more banks, citing specific nice little things these other banks do and why they should have a bigger share of whatever City-of-Cleveland preferences shifted to KeyBank a few days ago. Joe Cimperman and Ann Zoller cite a few instances of bank beneficence, but then Joe goes on to begin to start to get around to getting to a key point:

This picture of those two banks is different from the one painted by an outdated city administration formula that doesn't tell the true story. Cleveland's needs change daily. So must its relationships with financial partners. To continue to grade on a scale that does not reflect the banks' support of community needs sends the wrong message. We must recognize when institutions serve our community in ways that mean real quality-of-life improvements for all Clevelanders.

First of all, is there a formula, is this preferential-treatment-of-banks thing actually quantified, and who has seen it lately? Does this formula have at the top of the list the amount that the institution expects to pay the city on the deposits? The term and liquidity of the deposits? The ratings of the institution to hold the deposits, and the default insurance available per account? The ability to provide multiple accounts and also good accountability? The percentage of employees who actually live in Cleveland proper (no municipal income tax recripocity) and the payroll specifically attributable to those employees? The dollar amount of mortgage loans let out, with an offset for sloppy lending practices evidenced by foreclosures? A benevolent practice of cashing government and payroll checks for ordinary people with small or no accounts, so they aren't forced to go to the high-fee check-cashing gouge joints?

Way after all these things, we can list the actual amounts the banks give to city politicians and to the nonprofits, to make sure nobody is buying the business, and the amount of fees they use as incentives for the nonprofits to promote their banking products. Anything over $50 should be accounted for, just like our former governor's golf perks.

We need lots of analysis and then transparency and accountability, so that we can proceed to talk intelligently about who gets what city-deposit business, and how much.

a new tax, because universal coverage isn't free

Insurers slice rates on health premiums - The Boston Globe--Interesting story in the Boston GLOBE about Deval Patrick tuning up Mitt Romney's mandatory health coverage. There is no magic here; there are no miracles. From the pricing I see in the article, this is pretty much a market rate, and it feels a bit on the high side. I see no subsidy or benefit of volume pricing. I wonder if this is more of a welfare plan designed to support the Massachusetts health industry than it is universal coverage to spread risk fairly and bring about an improvement in public health.

Also, I would like to know from the journalist (Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com) the cost of opting out, in dollars, for the same hypothetical people for whom they quote the premiums. That would be balanced reporting. These paid writers need to start earning their keep and not leaving it up to the public dialogues of the blogosphere to extract the facts and frame the issues as they should be framed.

We need to start talking about truly catastrophic insurance coverage to cover the big bills, cash-only fee-for-service care with uniform price schedules for most other procedures, and public-health-clinics for maintenance and wellness programs. If we want to have a health tax, then instead of putting it off soley on the people, we can also put it off on anybody who sells things that make us fat or sick or crippled--vendors of soft drinks, stores that sell cheap plastic shoes, smoking supplies (again), fast-food emporiums, publicly traded corporations who load foodstuffs up with preservatives to prolong shelf life or stretch things out with high fructose corn syrup to maximize profits, dealers who sell raggedy used cars--in short, anybody who now profits from selling a product whose health benefits to the buyers have been reduced to increase the bottom line.

Gypsy Beans lives the life, walks the walk, talks the talk

Gypsy Beans & Bakery in the Gordon Square Arts District in the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood (Cleveland, Ohio)--I just clicked through the MTB ad network to this new website and was heartened to note, on their home page, that they're advocates of what Uncle Norm has tagged as "local production for local consumption."

Please note they also offer free wifi, but you have to ask them for access first. Only after that can you do what the suburban commuters do in Tremont: Go park in the lot, use the free wifi, and not buy anything from the merchant. We first ran into this freeloader, freerider phenomenon over at Scoops last year.

There's no mention of wifi on the Gypsy Beans site right now, but I'm sure that will be forthcoming.

no geeks need apply

The Turntables That Transform Vinyl - New York Times--Here are two turntables for rescuing vintage vinyl from the '60s and '70s, and you don't have to be terribly technically attuned to begin the process. I wonder if my old classmate Bernie Naworski out at Play It Again, Sam is going to be stocking these. Give him a call, before you go far afield to pick one of these up. Remember: Local production for local consumption.

Chicken Paprikash Cook-Off

Upcoming.org: Chicken Paprikash Cook-Off at Studio of 5 Rings (Saturday, January 20, 2007), AT 7:00 pm TONIGHT. Gloria and I are going and taking our friend Ed, who may make the best chicken paprikash in town. George Nemeth may challenge. Be there.

Where
Studio of 5 Rings
2400 Superior Ave.Clevelad, Ohio 44114

Description
It's the middle of winter - cozy up with paprikash and fine wines. We'll even have warm, spiced German Gluh Wein to help shake the chills off. Make your secret recipe and bring your finished dish. No entry fee, but be sure to RSVP since space is limited. 7:00pm - 10:00pm
http://www.studioof5rings.com

and tomorrow, we all have coffee and congeniality

Here's some more info I got from Betsey Merkel. I think the Midtown Morning/Brews blog/website at the link needs updating, so my data below should be considered more current information.

Midtown Mornings (Info here) Share an awesome view of The Lake at a very cool Midtown loft office space. Sip early morning coffee and bagels, make new connections and work on transformative initiatives.

Date: Friday, January 12
Time: 7:30 A.M. - 8:30 A.M.
Place: Nead Brand Partners
3631 Perkins Rd, Suite 6A Cleveland, OH 44114
P: 216-431-9301 ext.12

Coming up...Friday, January 19, Andreas Boardwalk Cafe

Read the I-Open White Paper here.

Learn about economic development in a networked global world. Read the EDPro Weblog here. Ed Morrison, Editor.

Stormin' Norman at the outset of the year

Our friend Norm Ezzie has kicked off his news commentary for 2007 with a vengeance. Stay tuned, to Norm and to WOIO Channel 19 with Bill Applegate.

This may be the year of revelations. Watch your canaries in the coal mine, or perish.

marring the streetscape, for three administrations

Once again, I'm asking if anybody knows who is responsible for the omnipresent Omni Media advertising kiosks which have been marring the metropolitan Cleveland streetscape since Mike White contracted for their installation as one of his final cruel pranks. The PD article at the link has a date of 01/04/2001, nearly 6 years ago. Now that yet another year is passing, we should have some report of the revenue the City of Cleveland garners from these design monstrosities. I've seen nothing lately.

Can anybody tell us who controls these kiosks, who books the advertising, and how much the city gets for allowing its streets to be used so poorly? Who benefits? Is it some French company, perhaps the same one that currently controls the ads at the airport?

Why is our accountability so poor around here? Don't we deserve to know whether these things are delivering as advertised? There are 195 of them, according to the article, so who is responsible for them? I don't think this is asking too much, to know about assets with easements on our common city property. If they're not productive, then perhaps we should get them off the streets; to me, they are unwelcome visual clutter. If we are going to make a point of being a breeding ground of artists and other genteel, sensitive people who hold dear proportion and integration, we can't go around being so thoughtlessly tacky.