Brewed Fresh Daily

I need to vent

2005-02-02T06:34:00.000-05:00

Inside Business list Thomas Mulready as one of the Power 100 again this year and refers to Cool Cleveland as "a low-tech weekly email". You have no idea how much this offends me. Cool Cleveland is built every week using open source collaborative web tools and distributed using the best platform we can find. I've customized the open source software we're using for our events, and done some fairly cool mods for the next event we sell tickets for. So while the email you get in your inbox appears to be "low tech", Cool Cleveland is one of the most sophisticated publishers around. Did I mention the collaborative software? Thomas isn't the editor, that's Tisha Nemeth-Loomis' job. Thomas is the creator and curator of Cool Cleveland. There's a whole bunch of people involved in it, thats get listed at the bottom of the newsletter every week. So watch who you're callin' low tech.

The Daniel Thompson Poet Stone Fund

2005-02-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

Got this email and thought I'd pass it along:

Dear Brewed Fresh Daily, Can you help us out with this notice regarding the Daniel Thompson Poet Stone Fund. Maybe you could add it to your daily. If you knew Daniel then I am sure it is a done deal. Maybe we'll see you there.
Join us on Saturday, February 12th, 2005, at 7:30 p.m., at algebra t-house in Cleveland's Little Italy for an evening of poetry, polemics, and performance to benefit "The Daniel Thompson Poet Stone Fund." This absolutely free event is being held to raise donations for a tombstone in Lakeview Cemetery for Cuyahoga County�s late, great poet laureate, Daniel Thompson, who passed away in May, 2004. The evening will feature scheduled readers and performers as well as an open mic session. Alegebra t-house is located at 2136 Murray Hill Road in Little Italy. Checks should be made out to "The Daniel Thompson Poet Stone Fund" and sent to: Mac's Backs Paperbacks 1820 Coventry Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118 To participate or for more information, contact Mark Hopkins at 216-231-7894 or by e-mail at safhop216@aol.com

Indeed. It is a done deal. I didn't "know" Daniel, only through hearing him on WCSB back in the 80's. I'm grateful that BFD readers are entrusting me with spreading the word on their events. I hope more people go out and be apart of the things I post here. Who knows, I might even be there...

Mixin' It Up With JumpStart

2005-02-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

Laura Hummer dropped me an email requesting I post JumpStart's upcoming event for BFD readers:

Venture expert John O. Huston, founding member of The Ohio TechAngel Fund LLC is our key note and will be on hand to share his wealth of knowledge. Individuals from JumpStart's portfolio companies (Ayalogic, Day Day Ltd., Embrace Pet Insurance, PreEmptive Solutions, and Stanton Advanced Ceramics) will also be present to share their entrepreneurial experiences of how they took their idea and turned it into a reality... Come and meet serial and aspiring entrepreneurs, supporters of entrepreneurship, community leaders, business leaders, deal makers, and investors at Northeast Ohio's premier networking event. Make new contacts and connections while enjoying an assortment of drinks and hors d'oeuvres while listening to the cool blues rhythms of Cleveland's own - The Bar Flies.

Hungarian Coffee

2005-02-01T06:23:00.000-05:00

I'm 50% Eastern European and this explains a lot:

"Since the 1500's, coffee drinking in Hungary was a community event. A large number of people could enjoy cups of coffee brewed over an open fire in a large kettle of boiling water. Coffee beans were freshly roasted, ground and mixed with salt and a whole raw egg, including the shell. This mixture was then placed in the boiling water and briskly stirred. The protein in the egg caused the coffee to foam and then cold water was added to reduce the foaming. No filters were needed then or now, as the grounds, egg bits and shell pieces settle to the bottom of the kettle. Coffee was then drawn off the top and collected into smaller kettles for serving..."

I seem to recall one of my friends who came from Hungary describe this, but I appreciate INeedCoffee.com for reminding me of it and my ancestry.

Cheaper creativity

2005-02-01T06:18:00.000-05:00

Jeff Hess clicked through to Jay Yoo's blog, and in turn, read the Wired article His reaction:

"The question I have is, what makes Pink think that foreigners can't do creative cheaper? The notion that they can't is ludicrous. In the 20th century we struggled with the idea of a global village. In the 21st century it's going to be a global hut. The only thing that matters now is simply this: can you deliver the desired product more cheaply than your competitor. The key word there is, of course, desired. Nothing else matters."

Maybe one of our economic development expert bloggers (Don Iannone and Ed Morrison) or authors (Jim Gilmore) are working on what comes next after the creative class is old and the experience economy has come and gone. It would be nice to get ahead of the curve instead of playing follow the leader...

Otis White: A better class of landlord

2005-01-31T18:09:00.000-05:00

From the current issue of Civic Strategies:

"What's the first sign of trouble in older suburban cities? Often it's when aging neighborhoods sprout 'for rent' signs. It's not hard to picture what could go wrong: As houses go from homeowners to renters, they fall into disrepair, tenants come and go (often with dire consequences for the school system), crime escalates, and neighborhoods deteriorate. This can happen almost overnight as elderly homeowners die and their children sell mom and dad's unfashionable duplex or aging bungalow at estate-sale prices. Absentee landlords sometimes buy up a number of these places and rent them to successively poorer families until the houses are uninhabitable and the landlord walks away. Is there anything a city can do about this? Some older suburbs near Cleveland are trying a number of strategies. The most common: aggressive inspections (Garfield Heights plans to inspect every rental house every three years, looking for unsafe and unsightly conditions), programs to encourage renters to give homeownership a try and efforts to educate the landlords themselves. For instance, South Euclid requires that landlords take a one-day training course on maintenance and crime prevention when their rental permits are renewed. 'We have a standard here in our community,' said South Euclid's mayor, 'and you have to reach that standard.' Shaker Heights is trying a little more carrot and a little less stick. It's looking for a company to run background checks on prospective renters at discount rates. Its hope: By making the background checks cheap, small-time landlords will use them to weed out troublemaker tenants. 'Anything we can do to help them be a better landlord helps us as a city,' said one city official. Another carrot: Shaker Heights wants to give the city's seal of approval to landlords who meet high maintenance standards and help promote these places to prospective renters. The name of this program: 'Certified Shaker.'"

David Byrne @ The Akron Art Museum

2005-01-31T15:25:00.000-05:00

Jeff Stacklin sent this out last week in CrainsCleveland.com Editor's Choice email blast:

The Akron Art Museum is pleased to present David Byrne, best known as a musician with the Talking Heads, for an art talk titled, �I ? PowerPoint.� The lecture will take place in the auditorium of the new main branch of the Akron-Summit Country Public Library. David Byrne has made visual art for more than 25 years. Trained as an artist, his latest medium is a bit unusual�PowerPoint. According to Byrne, �It started off as a joke (this software is a symbol of corporate salesmanship�or lack thereof), but then the work took on a life of its own as I realized I could create pieces that were moving, despite the limitations of the �medium�.� He will discuss his use of this unusual art form during the talk.

He must have known I'd want to attend. Thanks, Jeff! Anyone out there a member of the Akron Art Museum? I'd like to be able to get tickets the first week they become available. My contact info is there on the left, and I'd be happy to discuss terms.

We are fragile creatures

2005-01-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

Wendy Johnson, the former Medical Director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health, posts a heart wrenchning update about her work in Mozambique:

Last week I was flagged down while driving past what looked like a broken down machibombo (small bus). The bus had been emptied and the passengers gathered around it, spilling into the road. The only white man in the crowd approached us and explained that there�d been an accident, the bus had hit a young boy, he was unconscious but still alive. I got out and before I could walk 10 feet, a couple of guys were half carrying-half dragging the limp child to my car. We opened the back, I tried to make a flat surface big enough for him to lie down, and we raced off to the nearest hospital, about an hour�s drive away. Once I had time to assess him, my heart sank. He had a pulse and was breathing, but he was completely unresponsive and his pupils were fixed and constricted. There was no flicker of life left in his motionless eyes, only his hands twitched occasionally with involuntary posturing. Outwardly, he had a small laceration on the right side of his scalp, but otherwise looked completely unscathed. We are fragile creatures...

Two by Yoo

2005-01-30T17:27:00.000-05:00

Check out these two posts by KOYONO's Jay Yoo:

This is another great example of what cities can do to attract the Creative Class. Let's face it folks, outsourcing at every level is a reality. As the cost of communicating overseas via the web (i.e. VoIP) goes to practically zero, experts are predicting that outsourcing to Asia at every level (blue AND white collar) will grow leaps and bounds. The only thing to do is to create new markets, business models and industries. More evidence that we will need to exercise more of our Right Brain in creating a new future instead of daydreaming about the good old days.

His comment on being right brained comes from the previous post:

Wow! I got goose bumbs when I read this. Teaching/encouraging Creativity (Right Brain Stuff) as an important and necessary leadership quality has been something I have been pitching to the Cleveland Social Capital machine for quite some time. The cool thing is that we are all born with a Right Brain. The fact that it is not equally developed, encouraged and accepted (vs. logic, left brain stuff) is ironic.

Please visit Jay's blog and leave him your comments. That's what I'm going to do right now.

Cleveland's low wage job numbers

2005-01-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

Reading this post by Bill Callahan, I'm not really sure what to excerpt for you here. You're better served by clicking on the title of this post and reading the whole thing.

Napping in Open Space

2005-01-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

I woke up from a nap to read this post on the Open Space listserv from Jack Ricchiuto

: "In napping, we allow dreamtime to unfold - in the aboriginal sense of dreamtime. For me, opening space the bigger the space opened, the bigger dreams become possible. Whether it's literal or figurative napping, I am committed to opening my heart to a space large enough for all the dreams of the community now working and playing in the space we've created. Lately, visualizing and breathing an open heart space has been most effective."

Metro Joe

2005-01-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the first night that Metro Joe Ohio City was opening. They're in the space formerly occupied by Cafe Noir. MJOC is selling Equal Exchange, is smoke-free and has free WiFi. Fridays and Saturdays they're open until midnight, and the rest of the week 'til 11PM. What more could you ask for?

RIP Philip Johnson

2005-01-27T22:15:00.000-05:00

Norm Roulet hopes that Philip Johnson's passing is the end of an era. Let's hope so:

"I am a whore and am paid very well to build high-rise buildings" - Philip Johnson

From ALDaily.com

Mister Mung

2005-01-27T22:09:00.000-05:00

Jack and I had dinner at #1 Pho. This is what his Mung Bean drink came in.

Lakewood is smokin'

2005-01-27T14:20:00.000-05:00

Steve FitzGerald blogs about the cigarette controversy on Lakewood Life:

"Where do private property rights begin and end? (Our West End neighbors and not-re-elected Mayor Madeline Cain are all too familiar with that question.) And who will or should decide if smoking is allowed inside of a private property, such as a restaurant or a tavern?"

Indeed. I prefer cigars myself...

RE: More than a stadium or two

2005-01-27T11:21:00.000-05:00

Steve Rucinski of Small Business CEO emailed me this because my commenting system errored out:

My comment and feeling for sometime is that I think education should be the #1 priority in the city (for all citizens, children and adults). If you play the game for a minute of 'just imagine," just imagine if the tag line for the city was "Cleveland has the best school system(s) in the country," do you think we would have trouble attracting or retaining citizens, attracting or retaining business or tourists or capital? I don't think so.

Good point, Steve.

Cleveland and the Madonna effect

2005-01-27T11:03:00.000-05:00

My apologies to the Planning Livable Communities blog for reposting this in it's entirity, but it's an excellent post and I don't want anyone to miss a bit of it:

There�s an important article in today�s Carlisle (Pa.) Sentinel about how to boost a tired downtown. The key is what consultants George E. Thomas and Susan Nigra Snyder call �the Madonna effect:� reinventing a commercial center every frew years based on current consumer desires and trends. �That means forgetting about images of a 1950s era downtown as the regional shopping and entertainment center where people went for just about everything, they say,� the article explains. �Instead, Carlisle must transform itself into a destination for people seeking leisure activities. . . . One solution for revitalizing downtowns today is transforming the old �Main Street� into �Leisure Main Street.� Such centers offer unique niche stores and boutiques, restaurants and entertainment venues that can thrive in smaller storefront space, the consultants say.� Think how Waltham�s Moody Street rejuvenated � ethnic restaurants, appealing riverfront (including boat rides on the Charles), a movie theater and mixed-use housing, all with an appealing, walkable streetscape. It�s a park-once, walk-to-multiple-destinations downtown. Thanks to Cooltown Studios for the link. �We�re shifting from a goods to services to an experience economy, so it�s wise to let the go of the �goods� and concentrate on the experiences", writes Neil at Cooltown Studios.

I've added emphasis. So what is the City of Cleveland doing right according to this list? Speaking of the Experience Economy, has anyone of our cultural or civiv institutions engaged it's author, Jim Gilmore, who lives here in Northeast Ohio?

Nominated for an oscar

2005-01-27T07:46:00.000-05:00

Super Size Me gets a nomination for Best Documentary.

More than a stadium or two

2005-01-26T17:31:00.000-05:00

Michael Miller responds to the news that Cleveland isn't the fattest city anymore, but it's the stupidest:

I certainly hope someone on the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners reads this and makes them realize what most of us already know - a thriving city needs more than a new stadium or two, and new mega-shopping centers to attract and keep the intelligent people at the heart of any economic engine. Education combined with social activities are what makes a city tick.

He goes on to contrast Cleveland with St. Paul, MN which was one of the smartest cities and a place he spent a significant amount of time.

Crossing the Chasm

2005-01-26T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is a picture Jack drew of himself taking a leap the other night...

Live from Blog U: Blogs versus Discussion Boards

2005-01-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

Got an email from Anita Campbell:

Hi George, today and tomorrow I will be live blogging from the New Communications Forum. I will be showing the Northeast Ohio blogosphere map during my panel session tomorrow,and will be sure to mention Brewed Fresh Daily. Meanwhile the Tinbasher has been somewhat of a sensation, used as an example already this morning twice.

Show your support for revitalizing [historic buildings in Ohio] cities and towns

2005-01-26T11:55:00.000-05:00

Greater Ohio is urging us to contact our state senators:

Senator Kirk Schuring (District 29) is introducing legislation that will create a 25 percent tax credit for the restoration and rehabilitation of Ohio's vacant and underutilized historic buildings. The tax credit will encourage private investment in historic properties, generate additional jobs and stimulate economic development within existing communities. Additionally, this credit should spur greater investments in smaller commercial projects and Main Street commercial properties of older neighborhoods - particularly where there is a critical need for community revitalization. Further, the bill has the potential to help local areas meet their air quality goals by investing in thoughtful land use. The bill was developed in close collaboration with Greater Ohio and Heritage Ohio as well as developers, tax credit users, and the financing community. Action needed: Click here for talking points to make the case for the "state investment tax credit." Contact your State Senator (find your senator here) about co-sponsoring the state investment tax credit bill. Ask your Senator to please contact Senator Schuring's office at 614-466-0626 by Friday, February 11, 2005.

Daring us to think without thinking

2005-01-26T10:31:00.000-05:00

Tisha Nemeth-Loomis reviews Malcolm Galdwell's new book in this week's edition of Cool Cleveland with the opening volley of:

Recently there has been a noticeable palaver filling the air in Cleveland, and you might have heard it: the increased communication among business professionals, educators and politicians, with some resultant strategic alliances, partnerships, and collaborations newly infused into the city. While these conscious decision-making efforts and conversations between divergent groups in Cleveland have increased, can these conscious-driven discussions transcend to a new level? Could we learn from the underpinnings of unconscious intellect, and perhaps mine it for answers within the underrated and often overlooked instinctual unconscious? I'm talking about our capability for spontaneous thinking...

One way to stop the brain drain

2005-01-25T21:46:00.000-05:00

Ed Morrison writes:

Here's another example of the shift of economic incentives from companies to people. In Iowa the state's GOP legislators have proposed a plan to eliminate income taxes for workers under thirty. The plan is not entirely slanted this way, though. It also proposes to give businesses a tax credit for newly created jobs paying at least $10 an hour. Read more.

Union Week @ Callahan's Cleveland Diary

2005-01-25T21:16:00.000-05:00

Calling the City Club's New Leaders event next week "Cleveland's #1 union booster, in the ring with a proud pinstriped union buster", Bill Callahan writes:

People who read this blog know that I think Cleveland needs more unionization... especially in the sectors which employ the most low-income, undereducated Cleveland residents, like big-box retail, hotels, food service, building maintenance and security services. I think we need unions, not just for reasons of economic and legal fairness -- though those are perfectly good reasons -- but to advance the more fashionable goals of wealth creation and resurgent entrepreneurism.

The City Club debate is a good excuse to spend a few entries on why I hold this strange opinion. So, from now till next Wednesday, it's "Union Week" at Cleveland Diary.

Let me start with two simple propositions:

1. In general, a community gains wealth to the extent that a) its members create economic value, and b) the economic value created by its members becomes their income.

2. The cure for poverty is not more work (as any slave can tell you), but more wealth.

This oughta be good. You go, Bill.