WHAT’S IN A BRIDGE ABUTMENT?

Keep a bridge abutment without the bridge…why? A pile of rocks or a concentration of feng shui? That’s the question the Cleveland Landmark Commission will consider TOMORROW: should the remaining  Central Viaduct bridge abutment in front of the Broadway Mills Building be committed to the historic register?

Here goes: 

About five years ago I watched a bucket truck pull up under this light pole and the guy went up and attached this radio device onto the arm of the light pole.  The unit is powered right off the constant feed to the light’s photo voltaic switch.  It took the guy less than 5 minutes to install.  Note how the power plug is piggybacked by the old photo cell. When he came back down to ground level I asked the fellow what the purpose of the radio unit was, and he showed me a plan of the Town on which numerous hexagonal cells were show.   In the center of each of those cells (1/4 mile radius) was to be one of these radio transceivers.  The cells communicated downstream to the numerous homes in each cell, and they communicated upstream to two or three cell tower locations from which they connected to land telephone lines.  The unit was able to handle dozens of simultaneous discrete individual connections with data rates up and down in the 300kbs range.

Their intended purpose?  Wireless multi-channel digital connection for internet and TV!

The West Side Market in Cleveland is an example of venerable architecture (see Norm Roulet's gallery of photos on Real Neo a few weeks back here http://realneo.us/page/realneo-knows-and-loves-west-side-market-best-in-world) which continues to vigorously continue its intended use because of its original designer’s  keen attention to form following function.   Even though the delivery of the produce is now done with  pallets handled by fork lift trucks (fork lift trucks didn’t exist when the Market was constructed), the excellent pedestrian access, floor wash-down gutters, durable glazed brick and tile surfaces, and airy “kiosks within a building” interior space, and the exterior long vegetable aisles with their garage door access behind the vendors – really work well.

We hear of CAFTA, NAFTA, PAFTA, and how our government wants to help those people in areas with low wages by spreading democracy, “stabilizing” their governments, and letting our companies go and set up shop there. Reducing tariffs - we are told - will bring economic prosperity to economically “underdeveloped” regions.

OPEN THWARTS RIP-OFF

So you have a “good idea” do you, and you’re worried someone will rip it off. 

Betsey,

It didn't dawn on me until after I had finished commenting regarding the network map that I had blown the main point.

The reason names are critical in a network map is because trust cannot be anonymous. 

"building trust" - we hear it at all the meetings, we hear it from Jack, from Valdis, from Norm, from Ed, from Tom, from George, from Berlin, from William - but you can't build trust with anonymity.  We need names and faces - lots of them - like in high school - to connect to and listen too.   Then trust will come.

 When is the last time you saw a job application like this?

CAREER POSITION  

 CONSTRUCTION LABORER

We are an

Unequal Opportunity Employer

           

      I sat for lunch at the table with Mayor Brewer of East Cleveland last Tuesday at NeoExcellence Roundtable.  I had read the PD’s review of the events surrounding Mayor Brewer’s anxiousness to get physically into the City Hall. The PD article left a very negative image.  Listening in person to Mayor Brewer left a positive image. Here’s one reason Mayor Brewer recalled for us at lunch:

A Real NEO American entrepreneur here – He’s his own boss and gets to make all the decisions.  He’s surface mining the Tremont environs.    How are we collaborating with him?  Does he have a Blog?

This fellow is an entrepreneur.  He's experiencing a bit of the "trickle down" economy near EcoVillage at Lorain and W65th.  We are seeing more of this type of citizen than we have in the past.  Why is he carrying a wheel on his head?  Who is he (not individually - but as a rung in our economic ladder)? 

On 3/29 there was a town hall style meeting held in the Levin College at CSU. 3 or 4 TV stations covered the event. The topic was American Jobs; the sponsors of this open meeting of local and Ohio leaders and the public were the Council for Excellence in Government and Goldman Sachs along with GS’s Global Marketing Institute. Similar meetings are being held in other cities across the US. The panel included, Ohio’s lieutenant governor, John Ryan of the AFL-CIO, Stephanie Mc Henry, president of Shore Bank, A J Hyland, president of Hyland Software, Myron Robinson president of the Urban League, and Mayor Jane Campbell. The meeting space was full to overflowing (say 400) ; the moderator was lively and the audience kept the questions/comments coming.

With financial help from the German government, the wind turbine manufacturer REPOWER designed, manufactured, installed, and commissioned this fall the largest capacity wind turbine ever. During the first month of operation the 5 megawatt turbine sent to the grid over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity (average output of 1.3 mw/hr). Compare that to the production of the turbines in Bowling Green, Ohio where, in approximately 13 months, a 1.8 MW Vestas machine produced apx 1,300,000 kilowatt hours (avg. output of .137 mw/h) See details of the Repower machine at: http://www.repower.de/ and click on the 5MW website in the lower RH corner of the home webpage. The output differences between the two machines are primarily related to the larger size of the Repower machine and the difference in wind energy between the two locations – not differences in blade or generator technology.

who works at night excavating? quietly, year after year? Does it really amount to anything, or just early bird food...

Under the direction of Peggy Eliot, the ALL CITY BAND had Tower City Mall energized this noon.  Comprised of upwards of 150(+?)  young dancers, flag performers, drummers, and brass band players, ALL CITY performed  traditional Holiday tunes mingled with powerful drum music.   

(Note: This post had as its inspiration a round of emails which were emphasizing the ability of the net to spread news - in particular the news of new web sites (one site went from inception to 1 million hits in 3 days). My impression of the discussion in the email exchanges was that other enterprises, besides political web sites, could utilize the phenomenal facility of the web to spread other development ideas. Let's see if the following wind turbine tower suggestion gets a million hits!)

Highway exits demand urban sprawl with all the trappings for the 1-$top
American lifestyle of fast food, heart burn and gas at the expense of
our environmental health (trees, oxygen, wetlands), peace of mind and