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You must be the change you want to see in the worldSubmitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 03/08/2008 - 23:29.
March 08, 2008... the Blizzard of 2008! Nothing is more REALNEO... more Cleveland+... more believe in Cleveland than a blizzard. There's not a cop on the street, yet nobody gets robbed. People are pushing strangers around, but only to get their cars out of the snow. For REALNEO kids, it can't get cold and deep enough. REALNEO adults smile to remember being REALNEO kids. Blizzards set REALNEO apart.
As I looked at the Plain Dealer page one of Blizzard Day 2008, I read headlines about everyone in Ashtabula being out of power, and cities around NEO being out of salt, and that this was the third freak southern weather blast here in 15 days, and I reflected on how unsustainable our sprawl economy is in times of global warming. Here regionalist sprawlboosters speak of Cleveland like it is a burden to society, yet magine living in a MacMansion on 10 acres in Medina and driving 80 miles a day to work and back in the near future. Imagine maintaining the infrastructure for bankrupt sprawldivisions in the era of $5+ gallon gasoline.
No, at the time of the Blizzard of 2008, in times of global warming, we must accept that those who strayed too far from the warmth of community will freeze to death. We have passed a turning point. Past this turning point, all regional planning must include sensitivity analysis for environmental crisis. That ends discussion on "The Opportunity Corridor", forever! "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always." "You must be the change you want to see in the world" Mahatma Gandhi
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Warmth of Community
"We must accept that those who strayed too far from the warmth of community will freeze to death." Acceptable loss? Analysts dismiss the victims of greed in the city proper without so much as a tear. So, it looks like I will just have to harden my heart to the unfortunate McMansion dwellers. Sorry.
when gass is $18/gallon
Imagine the rush to move from the exurbs to the city when gasoline reaches European pricing. I heard a gentleman at a Meet the Bloggers say that public transportation and land use planning in Europe was driven by the price of gasoline and that it was closer to $18/gallon there. I believe this was back in the summer of 2007. No wonder they plan more dense living environments and ride bicycles and take trains and busses as a matter of course.
If we paid for the externalities, we would surely change our ways. As it is, we make only the poor pay these costs. We pay to be sure with our health and our taxes. If a corporation cannot pay for an environmental clean up, they simply file bankruptcy and let the citizenry pay. How does this equal democracy? And if this is democracy, no wonder other countries are suspicious of it.
Fake vs. Real
No amount of branding will convince the world that Cleveland has a real "community."
Watch for some other major organizations to use this label soon. No one is buying it. Cleveland is racist, sexist and hung up on some asinine sense of noblesse oblige. It's time we address our dysfunctional community and really come together to rebuild the center. Otherwise, we are just making fools of ourselves.