Scenarios USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that that uses writing and filmmaking to foster youth leadership, advocacy and self-expression in under-served teens. Scenarios USA asks teens to write about the issues that shape their lives for the annual "What's the REAL DEAL?" writing contest, and thousands have responded with their raw and revealing insights.

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Brutalism against Breuer in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Whoever is culling through the news and posting at the

Cool Cleveland this week ran a piece by Chris Whipple  about re-naming Cleveland’s Terminal Tower.  Mr. Whipple suggests that “terminal” (as in "terminally ill", dead, or dead end) is too much a downer name and that instead the building should be called  VanView  after the Van Sweringen brothers who built the tower and Shaker Heights, etc. 

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Photo of contractor Susan Clellen in front of Stewardship Center

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Heard Bobby tonight at 3C - heard him in the 60's too.  We need leadership like his today in Cleveland. 

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Mr. Seale addressed a crowd of several hundred at Cuyahoga Community College Saturday evening.   I remember well the Black Panther Party from the 1960’s.  Mr. Seale remembers it well too.   Mr. Seale's visit was sponsored by the Sara J. Harper Leadership Institute.  Retired Hon. J. Harper was at the podium to introduce the evening’s program. 

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo celebrates its 125th anniversary.  With two Cleveland Metrohealth Campuses, two libraries (free WI-FI), a rec center, Steelyard Commons and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park within walking or biking or train distance, you would think that hotels and great restaurants would follow Go figure?! (Hello Mitch Schneider--A residential inn at Steelyard Commons please! So my mom has a place to stay when she visits :)  

I do have to hand it to the Ohio tourism site--Discover Ohio--nice job! Mutiple language options. SMART!

ZOOBILEE, also, a great chance to see RED, an orchestra!

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On Friday August 31, 2007, while Air Show jets stalled out conversations and blasted ear drums,  Susan Miller and I visited the “open house” at the Post designed Cleveland Trust Rotunda building which sits on the corner of Euclid and 9th next to the Marcel Breuer designed Cleveland Trust Tower in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.   Lee Trotter had announced this open house at the County Commissioners meeting the day before and the Dirty Dealer had carried the news a few days prior.   I wondered, why is the County doing this? 

Unbelievable! Though our government has launched a plan to rip down a cultural icon, local firms now announce plans for a high-rise building boom in "Our Town"!

I consistently attempt to have a “positive” outlook about North East Ohio and Cleveland.  I consider the substance of my posts on Realneo and affirmatively select material which I believe is conducive to improving the region.  However, there can be a problem with this self steered Polly Anna  editorial policy .   Always looking at the bright side might be just perpetuating a lie – maybe always having a positive outlook is actually misleading people and leading others into the false belief that the region is doing ok, that the region is improving.  Maybe it would be more helpful if I used my blog to accelerate failure – get to the bottom of it, get it over with and start new…

What does it look like on the inside? Here's your chance to see...

From my neighbors:  You may remember stories in in the PD about two suburban teens who executed extensive graffiti in Ohio City and near Archwood/Dennison. When arrested, they said their crime didn't matter "since Cleveland is a run-down ghetto city so who cares." 

We do care and those who would like to join our neighbors to show we do care by a show of support at the sentencing of these young men, please plan to attend sentencing on Monday, Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 22C, Justice Center, before Judge Judith Kilbane-Koch, Court of Common Pleas, 1200 Ontario.

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Asleep on the job....                  photo courtesy Tim Littler                            Xian,  China

Let's try to elucidate the elusive and concretize the abstraction represented by my Cross System  - start by drawing a Cross.

Received this in my mail from WVIZ-PBS Ideastream.  Of course, I can't go to either one.

We'd like to hear from you - there is still space available on this year's Listening Project audience panels. The panels will be held Tuesday, Aug. 21 at 5:30 pm and Saturday, Aug. 25 at 10:00 am. You'll engage in an hour of thoughtful conversation with peers from around the region about the assets and challenges of Northeast Ohio. All of this will happen at the downtown home of 90.3 WCPN and WVIZ/PBS ideastream, The Idea Center at Playhouse Square. Parking in the Playhouse Square Garage is complementary and refreshments will be served.

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I just got the email below, from the head of a local arts not-for-profit to remain un-named, to protect the innocent: "Norm -- i just wanted to make sure you knew about the "sales pitch" we are about to get.". I read on to see that tax junkie CPAC - Community Partnership for Arts and Culture - is on the Cuyahoga County junk again, now hustling artists and arts organizations to tax themselves and patrons for the benefit of the dealers. Read on... anyone going to this who can cover for realneo?... Note: " RSVP’s are required!" Now, a little art, in honor of this event and the rush for the MedCon and taxation without sober representation, courtesy of Lou Reed:

I dont know just where Im going

But Im gonna try for the kingdom, if I can

cause it makes me feel like Im a man

When I put a spike into my vein

And Ill tell ya, things arent quite the same

When Im rushing on my run

And I feel just like jesus son

And I guess that I just dont know

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I spent the afternoon at the Burning River Fest on Whiskey Island.

Need something for your home or office?

Three Chinese bamboo and metals chairs, est. $60-80

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An important addition was made to The John and Mildred Putnam Sculpture Collection, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University and the grounds of University Circle, with the installation of a fantastic steel sculpture by masterful sculptor and Cleveland Institute of Art President David Deming, which is titled "Inner Circle". Located by the Case residential village, across from the Starbucks, at the intersection of East 115th, Juniper and Bellflower, this work is a great addition to an important art collection, curated by Evelyn Kiefer, that makes University Circle a much more inspiring and remarkable place, with public art.

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