Wooster Collective: Seen On The Streets of New York: Prayer Booth.

‘Can you hear me now? Good.’

-Verizon…Everywhere you want to be…

Today’s bad boy of choice is Hugh Laurie.  He is an awesome actor.  I loved him before he became the mean Dr. Gregory House.  He is a great comedian-  he was amazing in the shows he did as Wooster in the Jeeves and Wooster series.   He also played Prinny in the Black adder series  

absolutely hilarious.  He was part of the Cambridge College players with Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson.  He played in Sense and Sensibility (a precursor to Dr House maybe?  Same sarcasm). 

And  he is just a great all around actor.  He was even the dad in Stuart Little.   Very versatile.  And, he’s cute, to boot!  Tall like I like them.   Enjoy.

The best of PG Wodehouse introduces the reader to a range of the author’s best loved characters, including Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and his aunts, Psmith, and the Empress of Blandings.

Wodehouse is one of the funniest writers ever. His stories are mostly about young, rich, slightly stupid Englishmen getting into embarrassing situations, and flailing about desperately while trying to escape. The only major annual prize given for comic writing in English is named after him, because he had such a great influence on later comedic writers. His “Jeeves and Wooster” stories were recorded for television by Stephen Fry (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and Hugh Laurie (House).

If happiness isn’t an entire Troyer’s pumpkin pie in front of me, then I don’t want to know what happiness is.  I spent my first 9 years in Wooster, OH just a few minutes away from what I consider to be the best pumpkin pie ever.  I’ve never tried my hand at making my own pumpkin pie because there didn’t seem to be much of a point when the Amish down the road had already made the best.  Sadly it’s a recipe probably as closely guarded as the Coca-Cola recipe so, there’s that.  I picked up 3 of them for my mom before coming home for the holidays — it took every ounce of my self-control to keep from sneaking a piece for a day and a half.  Since first posting this, as of last night my mother and I put away the 3 pies in 3 days.  Not too shabby.

In the previous 3 pieces, I defined and analyzed the problem in the previous 3 pieces, and suggested improvements – most of which have already succeeded in solving similar problems in other cities. The only thing unique is that Cleveland has allowed itself to fall so low. My commenter lsbnbj blames a lack of leadership for the problems. This is true. By definition, strong, wise, caring leadership would not have allowed this decline to occur.

That said, it doesn’t take brilliant leadership to follow in the path of regeneration that other cities have already established. Mostly it takes persistence, concentration and cooperation. This is something that even bureaucrats could accomplish, if they were empowered to do so. What does take leadership is in persuading people, at the beginning, to support a new system that would be much more effective in achieving its goals. This is how I would do it:

Set Goals
In the 3 previous pieces in this series, I set out what I think are necessary goals to achieve in order to revitalize Cleveland and its surrounding region:
1. Think and cooperate regionally
2. Bring in businesses and jobs
3. Bring new people into the region’s urban cores

Leadership and persuasion: how to get things started.
I know many people who think the leadership in and around Cleveland are ineffective, uncooperative, self-interested idiots – often using that or similar language to describe them. Credibility is the foundation upon which effective persuasion is built. Cleveland and the other regional urban cores need to do competently and successfully those things that are within their power to do to help themselves. I suggested things that are simple, cheap and effective: tax credits for renovation, being easy to do business with, and community-police trust building and cooperation. To the extent that these things build up the tax base, they can provide revenue for more baby-steps. An unmistakable pattern of many small successes sustained over time will build credibility. Credibility is requisite to persuasion, which is the vehicle to achieving cooperation.

If Cleveland and the other cities in the region want help, they have to change minds by showing that they are serious about fixing their problems, and will wisely apply any and all resources to effectively uplift their own city, and the region as a whole. Once Cleveland and the other cities within the region show they are serious about growth and revitalization, then they can begin to make the case that ‘if we all work together, we can grow, better, stronger, faster than we would alone’.

Right now, Akron is most ready to lead. Akron may not be the largest city in the region – but for now, it should be the face of the region. Akron convinced me to move into the city – even though I could have afforded a house almost anywhere in the region – even in the most expensive suburbs. Akron should be the leader and role model for the rest of the region until some other city in the region can do better than Akron.

Like I said in my very first piece, ‘to  be effective, the idea of reform must become a vision compelling to all. Like President Obama says we need change we can believe in. Its not enough to have some vague notion of it – a concrete plan must be made and executed. Those with an interest in reform must help set the agenda, or those who favor the current state of affairs will corrupt the agenda, and make the reforms ineffective’.

It will also take a strong, caring leader who is willing to be abused in his official capacity by many people both petty and well-intentioned. Do you know such a leader who wants to revitalize Cleveland and its surrounding communities? Ask him if he will stand for election.

Cleveland could attract decent leadership again.    Former Cleveland mayors George Voinovich (Republican) and Michael White (Democrat) both were able to make substantial headway for 2 decades straight  The North-East Ohio region has no shortage of good business leaders either – the supply of leaders is here.  Now, the region has to make sure the demand is there and make sure that demand is clearly understood by those who would want to lead us to better days.

Working at a regional level should increase the amount of demand (more highly-educated voters in the suburbs who will vote in favor of leaders who will bring success). As a community, our region can do a lot to attract good leaders, by making the leadership jobs satisfying and effective. By satisfying I mean having appropriate power without any unnecessary administrative restrictions – that is no restriction except for meaningful oversight, clear objectives and clear responsibilities that do not compete with or overlap other people’s responsibility and vice-versa. In short, we have to convince potential leaders that there is a prospect of success if they come here. Think about it: no one wants to be fired from running Cleveland – you can get any lower than that. It would also help if we set up the leadership jobs to be competitively (but not extravagantly) paid.

Planning and Execution: how to finish it.
A simple referendum should be held once enough people are persuaded that there is a realistic chance of success. The ballot measure should read:

TITLE 1:   CREATE A NEW LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE (NLGS) that merges the counties of North East Ohio and their cities and their suburbs and empowers it with the revenues and powers of the merged jurisdictions for the purpose of accomplishing Titles 2 and 3.

• The counties to be included are Cuyahoga, Summit, Lake, Mahoning, Trumbull, Stark, Wayne, Portage, Geauga, Medina and Lorain.
• The NLGS should include an elected legislative power, and an elected executive power.
• The legislative power should include 1 representative from each county (11 total) and 9 more at-large representatives, all elected by popular vote. The legislature would legislate on those matters that can not be handled administratively. The legislature would have powers of subpoena in matters within their jurisdiction and a staff of whatever experts and clerical workers they may need.
• The NLGS will measure their own progress using these measures of success: Measure #1-a: The net number of full-time jobs created within the area of the NLGS that pay at least $15/hour. Measure #1-b: the net number of full-time jobs created within the area of the NLGS that pay at least $25/hour. Measure #2: the % population growth each year within the area of the NLGS. Measure #3: cost per resident to run the NLGS (the budget should be balanced within any 4 year period, although not necessarily in individual years). Measure #4: the net square footage of newly renovated buildings in current use.  These results will be verified annually by an independent auditor.

TITLE 2:   CREATE A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY with broad administrative powers to bring in businesses and jobs, by being an easy place in which to do business, building on existing strengths and turning weaknesses into strengths, etc. This Authority will be required to improve all gains 2 years out of any 3 year period. This would report to the executive. The legislature will establish a committee to oversee this Authority generally.

TITLE 3:  CREATE A RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY with broad administrative powers to bring people into this region, especially the cities, by making the cities nice places to live in both actuality and perception. This Authority will be required to improve all gains 2 years out of any 3 year period. This would report to the executive. The legislature will establish a committee to oversee this Authority generally.

TITLE 4:   ALL EXISTING LOCAL BODIES THAT PERFORM THESE SAME RESPONSIBILITIES AS THOSE CREATED IN TITLES 1-3 WILL BE ABOLISHED.

TITLE 5:   THE NLGS WILL BE ELECTED EVERY 4 YEARS, to coincide with the US presidential election. No one may serve more than 3 terms in the NLGS regardless of capacity or capability. No one may stand for election who has been convicted of any kind of corruption, or who has been found to be incompetent in his NLGS role, or who has served in a previous NLGS term that did not meet its numerical objectives. Pay for NLGS executive, legislature and Development Authorities members will be competitive with cities of similar size and challenges, but not extravagant. Pay will be 1/3 base pay, 1/3 current-performance bonus and 1/3 deferred-performance bonus over a 5 year period, where the deferred pay depends on the performance in the year preceding the bonus payment.

TITLE 6:  ESCAPE CLAUSE: in 16 years time, the voters should have the opportunity, to dissolve the new governing structure, by a 2/3 majority vote, and revert to the previous system of governance.

So, what say?  Lets start turning this region around.

From a reading of Wodehouse on the topic of romance, one might believe that the ukulele player has an unfair advantage — but that would only be in the year 1919, when A Damsel in Distress first appeared.

Consider his [George's] position, you faint-hearted and self-pitying young men who think you have a tough row to hoe just because, when you pay your evening visit with the pound box of candy under your arm, you see the handsome sophomore from Yale sitting beside her on the porch, playing the ukulele. If ever the world has turned black to you in such a situation and the moon gone in behind a cloud, think of George Bevan and what he was up against. You are at least on the spot. You can at least put up a fight. If there are ukuleles in the world, there are also guitars, and tomorrow it may be you and not he who sits on the moonlit porch; it may be he and not you who arrives late. Who knows? Tomorrow he may not show up till you have finished the Bedouin’s Love Song and are annoying the local birds, roosting in the trees, with Poor Butterfly.

But if you read Thank you, Jeeves (1934), written by the same author, a different attitude to the ukulele (or its cousin, the Banjolele) might be detected.

Those who know Bertram Wooster best are aware that he is a man of sudden, strong enthusiasms and that, when in the grip of one of these, he becomes a remorseless machine — tense, absorbed, single-minded. It was so in the matter of this banjolele-playing of mine. Since that night at the Alhambra when the supreme virtuosity of Ben Bloom and his Sixteen Baltimore Buddies had fired me to take up the study of the instrument, not a day had passed without its couple of hours assiduous practice. And I was twanging the strings like one inspired when the door opened and Jeeves shovelled in the foul strait-waistcoat specialist… [Sir Roderick, who said:]

‘You’re a public menace. For weeks, it appears, you have been making life a hell for all your neighbours with some hideous musical instrument. I see you have it now. How dare you play that thing in a respectable block of flats? Infernal din!’

Some people have no heart.

I recommend that you first see Part 1 and Part 2 of this series

In Part 1 I established we need to solve this on a regional basis. In part 2 I established that people will come to this region if and only if there are good jobs to be had here. That said, the above are necessary, but not sufficient conditions for growth. There also has to be reason to live in the cities not just the suburbs. Once again, the urban cores must build on their strengths and turn their weaknesses into strengths.

Build On Those Strengths We Have:
The cost of living is extremely cheap and my salary is very average compared to the rest of the country. Counting the cost of housing, utilities, transport, goods, groceries, services, schooling, taxes, and so on, I can live better out here, on an engineer’s salary, than a plant-manager, on his salary, on one of the coasts. For example, in 2008, my company wanted to transfer me to a small rural town in New England. I thoroughly investigated the local prices for the goods and services I consume. I calculated that my company would have had to triple my salary for me to maintain the same standard of living – mostly due to higher cost of housing and heating – and there were really dumb, dull people out there and nothing to do.

The region has a wealth of many higher education institutions: Cleveland State, Case Western, U of Akron, Hiram, Walsh, Kent State Tri-C, John Carroll and many other niche and low-end schools. Other than the business school at Case and technical programs at Case and U of Akron, none of these are big-name programs. We need to make sure that we are getting as many of our citizens into school as we can. Akron made a first (bad) attempt at this with the attempt to privatize the water/sewer department to fund scholarships with many restrictions. What we need to do is learn the lessons of the first failure and try a more direct plan. If cities want to be nice and give something away then they should just do it, in a plain way without complicated, politically unpopular schemes that trade a good for a harm.

Sports are the second greatest asset this region has. Everyone knows the Cleveland Browns, Indians and Cavaliers. Fewer people know about the Akron Aeros. I think they deliver the best value of any sports arena experience in N.E. Ohio. The region also has many smaller sports: roller derby, hockey, soccer, all the usual high-school sports that any place has. While we’re at it, I think we should get some Lucha Libre events up here too sometime.  Sports are one of the few things to do in the region other than work.

We have more high-brow culture than most of us can afford to see on a regular basis. Notice it is nearly all in Cleveland: Severance Hall, Playhouse Square the Cleveland Museum of Art and all the other museums near University Circle; honorable mentions for the Akron Art Museum and the Canton Symphony.  I just went to hear Malcom Gladwell speak at EJ Thomas Hall 11/12.  Some of the suburbs such as Cleveland Heights, Rocky River, Cuyahoga Falls have a small amount of attractions to contribute to the solution. As far as I am aware, there is nothing at all going on in, Wooster, Medina, Youngstown or Warren or any of their surrounding burgs or burbs.

The region has a wonderful Midwest Aesthetic: There is a delicious visual mix of Beaux Arts, Art-Deco, Craftsman, and various revival styles of architecture. It is attractive and well-executed work set in a background of gritty industrial grime (apparently I am not the only person who likes the industrial look). The large and gracious Metroparks are the perfect foil for this. I have had more fun at Hardesty Park in Akron than I have space here to retell. We need to preserve the good things we have and build buildings that look good with the classics.   Think of the Goodyear Polymer Center at U of Akron – it is thoroughly modern, yet it looks good near to the much older buildings in its vicinity.  Contrast that to the recent addition to the Akron Art Museum or the Peter Lewis Center at Case Western, both of which are fine buildings in a vacuum, but don’t look right when inserted into the rest of their city.

There is something honest and real in these cities: sophistication without as much pretension and image-polishing as in the suburbs. I love the diverse neighborhoods: not all 1 race, ethnicity, mix of white and blue collar; with down-to-earth people. In my neighborhood, I have met some bright, fun, interesting people, that I made friends with. Yet it’s also a big enough place that I can be an anonymous citizen and don’t have to worry about all of my neighbors being constantly up in my business. I can go out and choose the friends that suit me, and I can keep everybody else at arms length.

Certain neighborhoods in these cities are very charming and viable:

• the Northwest 1/2 of Akron + Goodyear Heights
• University Circle, Tremont and Ohio City in Cleveland,
• Harter Heights and that ill-defined enclave north of downtown in Canton.

Any renaissance in these cities has to build on or near to these areas of things good and right (think of the revival in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood)… Most of the rest of the region’s urban neighborhoods are in trouble…

Notice how much I am talking about Akron in this post.  Akron is lightyears ahead of the rest of the region’s cities in becoming a desireable place to live.  Akron is well into the process I am describing and can and should be the role model for the rest of the region’s cities.

Turn Our Weaknesses into Strengths – Consider Them Opportunities to Improve:
To bring in people, they have to want to live here. Things that drive people away include blight, bad schools, crime, and lack of urban shopping venues and things to do.

The blight in this area is endemic and possibly terminal. Urban decay took hold in the cities in the 1960s-80s as jobs and people went away, and began metastasizing into the suburbs as fast as it could (half of the region now looks worse than the set of Sanford and Son). In Part 2: How to Bring in Businesses and Jobs , I suggested allowing businesses that move into unoccupied buildings to deduct renovation costs from their city, state and county taxes, provided they don’t impair the historical architecture of the building(s). I think citizens should be offered the same deal for their housing.

No one wants their kids to go to bad schools. They won’t live in a place with bad schools – which is why the urban cores continue to hemorrhage residents. There was a time, up until the 1960s when Cleveland City Schools were among the very best in the country. Since then, the population decline in Cleveland has tracked the decline of its schools.

If the #1 priority is to think regionally, and the #2 priority is to create, or import jobs, then priority #3 has to be fixing the schools. They need money and they need it now.  Charities such as the Cleveland Foundation, and Army of Believers give the schools needed support – but much more is still needed.  Where else can the money come from?

There is a lost generation of people who got a poor education and need remedial education and vocational training so they can get a decent job. No matter how many good jobs are created, we need to get people qualified to do the work. We need an effective approach here: realize that we are talking about many of the same people who don’t claim the Earned Income Tax Credit and other assistance they are eligible for. It will require some new thought and magnanimity in our hearts. Hidden behind our egalitarian values in this country is a reluctance to help people, especially poor people, who tend to be, most often, black people. In some ways, our country still doesn’t serve their kind here. Somebody needs to get poor people going – who can do it? This is just one more argument for cooperating regionally.

The crime in this region is too high and well documented. The Anthony Sowell saga should be a spur to increase  focus on crime-fighting, crime-prevention, and building up neighborhoods so that residents develop an intolerance for crime. Part of that will take care of itself as the region gets more people into reasonable jobs. Recall that (former community organizer, and now President) Barack Obama wrote in ‘The Audacity of Hope’ that drug dealing is mostly ‘a minimum wage affair’… so the jobs don’t have to be great they just have to be a notch above retail and restaurant jobs.  The flip side of that coin is that we need to do policing in a low key, way that isn’t going to alienate people. Traffic cameras and things such as traffic that interfere with gainfully employed people getting to work should be eliminated.  Things like that discourage me from wanting to stay here more than crime.

The urban cores need shopping venues inside the city limits.  It doesn’t matter whether that comes in the form of redeveloping the Rolling Acres Mall in Akron or getting more downtown shops open (a much better location, but then parking becomes an issue).  Each city in the region needs to do this.  As it stands now, I do my grocery, hardware and other routine shopping at chain stores in the burbs – because that is where the stores are. A couple times a year I make my high end purchases in Columbus (where things cost even less than North East Ohio) when I go to see my old college buddies. We need to have urban stores that are cost competitive with, and have as good a selection as other places.  Note to city planners: think of the tax revenues new retailers would generate.

Somewhere between high-expense high-brow culture and high-expense low-brow sports, the entire region needs to have fun and affordable things to go do year round. Cleveland does not offer value for young middle class people. I realize there are no end of (mostly art) festivals May-September. I love these festivals, and also the occasional neighborhood block party. But for the other 7 months of the year, when the weather is too nasty to have festivals and block parties, people need fun and affordable things to do – something more than just bowling and movies. What could we do here? Tell me.  I’m stumped.

Re-brand the Region and its Cities Around all their Strengths and improvements:
When people think of Cleveland and the rest of North-east Ohio, they think of bad weather, bad schools, bad neighborhoods, and bad jobs. They know many of our good jobs went to humid, insect-infested states far south of us decades ago. That is why they are living there, making jokes at our expense instead of living here. That is why our cost of living is so low – most people don’t want to be here.

So after we cooperate regionally, bring in jobs and business, and make the region’s urban cores nice places to live, we won’t be done yet. We also need to improve our image. Once we have finished the hard work of renewing ourselves, we need to let the rest of the country know. Instead of the ‘Mistake on the Lake’, we could become ‘Cleverland’.

I recommend that you first see Part I of this series in my previous post …

Retain, grow and attract businesses:
To grow again, Cleveland and the other cities in its region need to provide opportunity. This opportunity needs to come in the form of business and jobs. The cites in North-East Ohio need to work together to provide the right conditions to grow, retain and attract businesses.

Give opportunity to make money by being easy to do business with:
To do this, we need to make it easy for businesses to make money, by making it easy for them to locate and operate here. Remember when Progressive was a growing young company and Peter Lewis wanted to build his corporate HQ in downtown Cleveland? City officials dithered away the opportunity – and all those offices and jobs are now scattered around in the already-affluent suburbs, and Cleveland allowed itself to slide that much further down the drain.

Build on existing strengths:
We have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that should determine what businesses choose to be here: low property values and a mix of low-skill/low-wage labor and high-wage-highly-skilled labor. We have a vibrant corps of highly educated white collar professionals in the accounting, finance, legal, R&D, engineering, bio/medical, hi-tech and precision manufacturing  sectors. We have a strong base of highly trained blue collar workers.

The greater Cleveland area should build upon its location at the nexus of rail, road, air and water routes. Did anyone pay attention in American History class? Much of Cleveland/Akron’s rise 100-150 years ago was fueled this way; example: by the Ohio and Erie Canal, the railroads, and shipping iron ore from Minnesota to Pittsburgh for steel making.

Basic Research and Design should be fostered , and innovations rolled out to business. Case Western Reserve, University of Akron are both leaders in developing technology and new businesses around technology.   Business Week makes the case for increasing Federal Research funding to many public and private institutions to do additional basic research that may not pay immediate dividend These schools and their cities should be fighting tooth and nail for a big piece of the pie.

COSE and Team NEO help get startups going and bring in existing businesses from elsewhere.  I see the Plain Dealer reports they are trying to get a Japanese waste-to-energy company to locate its North American headquarters, manufacturing and distribution here. We need to be reading about some new attempt every day, and a success story every month or so.  If the region could grow a couple home-made mid-cap companies and bring a few large-caps’ North American or divisional HQs and some new plants to its urban cores… we would be rolling again.

Turn weaknesses into strengths:
We have a lot of low-skill / low wage people, who need to upgrade their skills and education so they can aspire to something more than ringing a register in their career. As anyone who has ever played Sim City knows, education is the key to attracting the kinds of businesses that create real opportunities for people. We need to put a decade-long plan into effect that will educate and train as many of those low-wage/low-skill people as are willing. There are a lot of people that slipped through the cracks in the public school systems, that need a second chance to get a good education. The city should subsidize RTA/bus fares for low-income residents to get to work and school. If money allows, the city should also partner with businesses to give a small voucher for education of low-income workers who maintain a high grade point average and high job attendance.

All older cities have many additional problems. Many abandoned sites remain unused despite demand for land in nearby suburbs because of fear of environmental problems and litigation. Now is the time to go to the government and request a waiver of environmental liability (for past on-site sins ) from the EPA for any company that moves its operations into a currently unoccupied urban building.

Older buildings also have many other issues:
· higher insurance costs for older buildings with more ornate architecture,
· building code violations (example: obsolete wiring),
· facility layout issues (example: load-bearing columns or walls in the way of planned production lines and material movement paths, obsolete shipping/receiving docks and equipment),
· communication issues (only copper phone line is installed),
To address these issues, the city, county and state should allow all businesses that renovate an existing unoccupied structure to deduct the cost of renovation from their tax, every year going forward, until the entire cost of renovation is recouped by the business. In addition, businesses should be offered a tax exempt first quarter following every year that they remain onsite in their renovated location. It’s not like the government would lose any money – this would apply to new businesses that move into unoccupied buildings. And whether the business pays taxes or not, the workers do. Charities should be enlisted to the maximum extent permitted by law to help match company renovation, retraining and re-education dollars.

Where are all of the bleeding-heart liberals that want to spend money on cities? Where are all of the hardcore pro-business conservatives that want to grow our economy? These are things that many people could agree should be done.

Finally, we have to eliminate corruption. For several years, there have been ongoing investigations and allegations of corruption and scandal in Cuyahoga county. It’s not acceptable to business or citizens. Corruption should be allowed zero tolerance. I hope the recently passed Cuyahoga County Issue 6 (2009) is an effective  beginning to this.

Maintain what we already have:
Cleveland and its surrounding towns and suburbs host the headquarters of many large and leading companies, including 28 Fortune 1000 companies. Also many other large companies have significant local operations and offices. It should be the full-time job of every public official in the region to keep their costs low, and make it easy for them to do business here. We need to keep what we have and help them grow here.

Grow, attract, dominate and diversify:
Cities grow when their businesses grow.  Cleveland was bigger than Los Angeles well into the 1920s, and bigger than Atlanta until the 1990s… What happened? Manufacturing and heavy industry declined in the northern states, taking Cleveland and its surrounding region steadily down with it. Media, electronics, manufacturing and trade boomed, bringing Los Angeles up. Atlanta attracted many companies to relocate there. Notice how diverse both their economies are. Much of the manufacturing that remains in the USA has moved south and west to get away from unions. Guess where Rubbermaid went to? It got bought by a company in Atlanta.

It will be difficult to undo the decline of heavy industry and consumer manufacturing in this country (see my upcoming blog on the economy), contrary to what Jeffrey Immelt said about wanting to see manufacturing be 20% of US jobs. Its never too a bad idea to try to maintain what you have already got. And its never too late to grow into whatever is becoming the Next Big Thing. I see the region has gotten into services, healthcare and precision/aerospace manufacturing in a big way – just like most every other city in the midwest. Its good to be on the bandwagon too. We also need to lead in some things, the way L.A. led in media, entertainment and oil after Standard Oil was broken up.  It has been decades since Cleveland dominated oil and Akron dominated rubber, and the region still hasn’t found other industries to dominate.

We are also starting to get into biotech and green business. Green is a young enough field that we could be among the leaders. When I say green, I don’t mean renovating an existing business to be green for its own sake. I mean we should be working on building and selling green products and services to businesses and consumers that allow them to do more with less- i.e. we should lead in those green products that add quantifiable dollar value to the customer. Such products include fuel cells for generating electricity off of waste heat (and many others such as Rolls Royce) we could be doing fuel efficiency products (such as Timken’s fuel-efficient bearings) or alternative power sources. How about wind power? Wind is nearly cost -competitive with coal and nuclear.  We have many companies that supply components to turbine manufacturers.  But the turbine manufacturers aren’t here. It might make sense to one or more of them to locate a plant near all these suppliers.  Wind power is golden opportunity to get something going.  Lets do it.

Click to see On Fixing Cleveland – Part 3: How to Attract People to the Region’s Urban Cores?

Why fix Cleveland? I live in the region and I have a personal interest in it. I can tell you that it was once a great city; of over 900,000 people. It has beautiful architecture, sports, lots of museums and other cultural institutions.   It has all the makings of a wonderful place to live.   Since 1950, Cleveland has imploded to barely 400,000 people. Now it is known as ‘the mistake on the lake’. If you can fix Cleveland you can fix any city, because Cleveland has nearly all the problems that any city faces. Even if we only partially fix it, it is worth doing for its own sake. Also any lessons learned can then be rolled out to other struggling cities across the country.   What does it take to bring Cleveland back?

1. Think in terms of the larger metropolitan region, not just what is inside the city limits. The whole region needs to recognize what can be gained by fixing its urban centers and what will be lost if it doesn’t.
2. Bring in more jobs, by making it a more attractive place for businesses to do business.  This is the old ‘if you build it they will come approach.’  It works; look at Plano, Texas.
3. Bring in more people by reducing crime, improving schools, and cleaning up areas of urban blight.  If people are already moving here for a job, they just might choose to live in the city instead of the suburbs if the city is nice enough.
4. Rebuild its image.  Most people think of crime, poverty, de-industrialization and decay when they think of Cleveland.  Cleveland needs to rebrand around the service, hi-tech, bio/medical and other indutries that have come in to replace steel, oil and other heavy industries in the previous half a century.  Cleveland needs to talk about its low cost cost of living relative to its middle-income level.  Cleveland needs to get the word out that its orchestra, its art museum, its playhouse, aren’t just as good as every other city – it needs to make it known that they are world class, and outclass those of many other American cities like Boston or Pittsburgh.

The larger metropolitan region is a great place to live. I consider the area to include all the towns and suburbs along the I-77: Cleveland, Akron, Canton and their suburbs and also, further out, Medina, Wooster, Youngstown and Warren and their suburbs. Individually, all of these cities, including Cleveland itself, are a bunch of nothing-little-places. Together, they are a multi-county region of about 4 million people within a maximum of 40 miles of either Cleveland or Akron. There is a lot of gain to fixing the greater Cleveland area.

1. It would help many people who live in poverty and lack access to good jobs, education and so on
2. It could make a lot of money for the businesses involved
3. It would provide good jobs for the people working at those businesses (hopefully some of those people could be the people in bullet 1)
4. It would help the surrounding suburbs and towns.
5. Many people would want to live there – not just young handy people like me.

Some of the neighbors are in terrible shape, for example East Cleveland. It should be declared a federal disaster area and annexed. Assuming Cleveland gets fixed at some point in future, I would not be surprised if some of the other places around it would still see economic value in still being independent. A friend of mine suggests that, ultimately, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County should merge. How? Scenario 1: In 1970, Indianapolis, its county and most of the other suburbs and towns in the county merged into a ‘Unigov’  structure. Scenario 2: Columbus Oh was able to annex its neighbors by requiring annexation in exchange for city water and sewer services. Cleveland could insist on this in upcoming contracts. Notice that Columbus and Indianapolis are both thriving. We can all win together. In the next decades, as continuing sprawl connects the urban cores into a continuous blurb, it would be a good move to join them all together into 1 entity Why would anyone who went to all the trouble of moving to the suburbs want to be annexed?

1. If the problems in the cities were fixed, the question becomes ‘why not?’
2. If merger is a key way to bring resources to bear on fixing the problems, again, the question becomes ‘why not?’
3. Pride – it’s nice to live in the same city as all the businesses, museums, culture, restaurants, sports, and so on that you patronize.
4. OPPORTUNITY.   Regional integration has to provide a greater opportunity for everybody than what we currently have living factionally.

Coming up next I’ll be blog about creating OPPORTUNITY here for business and people: · Part 2: How to Bring Businesses and Jobs In? · Part 3: How to Bring People In?

Closed:  Martithe et Francoise Girbaud

Christian Science Church, The Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist

ion salon:  a luxury, green salon/ Sam Brocato Salon

The Wooster Group:  Performing Garage (website not updated, or nothing going on)

King’s Road Home: custom, recycled furniture

Eloquent Delinquents gallery and bookstore (check out)

Spencer Brownstone Gallery (check)

Drawing Center, gallery

Format Florense, interior design boutique

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen

TYPE: Humour

RATING: 9/10

REVIEW:

As with all of the other Wodehouse books, this one didn’t fail to keep me laughing and at the edge of all the suspense. Bertram Wooster will remain his ever favorite character with Jeeves following in a close second.

The adventures of Bertie take him to Maiden Eggesford this time, ‘for a breath of fresh air’ as the doctor put it. This time, he has Aunt Dahlia for company, who recommended Maiden Eggesford in the first place. However, things take a turn when he finds that he also has company from Major Plank, a person he had tried to sell one of his Uncle Tom’s collectibles and had narrowly escaped by the ever-genius presence of Jeeves.

On the other hand, there seems to be another bit of trouble brewing up with respect to a special cat which a “rival” horse has seemed to start liking. Unfortunately, it is up to Bertie to separate the horse from the cat, at least till racing day. Since Bertie already seems to have made a nuisance of himself at the Cook house, this job gets difficult too and the plot thickens to something of a hilarious comedy.

A well written book as always; it takes your mind off the nasty stuff in life.

DESCRIPTION:

The Curious Case of the Maiden Eggesford Horror

When the doctor advises Bertie to live the quiet life, he and Jeeves head for the pure air and peace of Maiden Eggesford. However, they had not reckoned on Bertie’s irrepressible but decidely scheming Aunt Dahlia, around whom an imbroglio of impressive proportions develops involving The Cat Which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected. As Bertie observes, whatever aunts are, they are not gentlemen.

Sublime comic genius. — Ben Elton

I don’t remember the last time I saw so many Banksy updates. The piece with the kids playing was spotted recently and there was a post on Wooster stating the posted pics were pieces “you may not have seen before” so they may be old (or new?).

'The Man Who Walks Through Walls' U.S. Edition of 20 A/P's Size: 9 x 12 Inches $150 Each

FROM WOOSTER: “When Blek Le Rat was in town earlier in the year to work on the Wooster Limited Edition Box Set, he signed a small number (20) of A/P’s. Until now this print was available only as part of the larger box set. We only have 20 of the a/p’s. These prints are 3 colour 10.5 x 13.5 inch screen prints on archival Lennox 100lb paper stock, they come signed and numbered by Blek for $150 each. If you’re interested in purchasing one of them, drop them an EMAIL HERE. As the saying goes, it’s ‘first come first served’

http://www.woostercollective.com/

Till vänster hattlamporna Jeeves och Wooster skapade 2009 av den engelske designern Jake Phipps. De är i ull utanpå och aluminium på insidan. De är ju lite roliga men kanske inte precis något jag skulle köpa. De kostar någonstans mellan 2 och 3 000 kr lite beroende på var man köper dem.

Hallands Auktionsverk har också en hattlampa till salu den 27 augusti. Bild till höger. Hattlampor är således inte särskilt nytt!!! Den är designad av Hans Agne Jacobsen som jag kan väldigt lite om men jag tror han hade sin storhetstid på 60-talet då han designade lampor för bl a Markaryd.

To me, Fried Chicken is one of those quintessential summer foods–which is really odd because hot, sticky, fried chicken on a sweltering, humid day doesn’t sound so great.  But it is. Anyway, with this on-a-whim-recipe I cheated a little bit and made hybrid fried chicken. Frybrid.  I browned the drumsticks in some oil/butter in a cast iron skillet then finished them in an oven.  So technically it isn’t fried chicken.  And technically, I don’t give a damn.

Also, I love using cereal as breading when I fry chicken; alas the only variety in our household that day was Honey Nut Cheerios, so that wasn’t gonna work.  Instead, I found a can of potato sticks (which always stab me in the roof of my mouth when I eat them) and some baked Triscuits (which are quite good) and ground them up with fresh sage and rosemary from the balcony.

After soaking the chicken in some buttermilk left over from a cupcake recipe, I dredged them in flour, dunked them in egg wash and spackled them with my breading mixture.  Smashed yellow potatoes accompanied the frybrid  chicken and I seasoned the dish with some Hawai’ian lava salt.

Summer Classic

Wanna know what the best part of Sunday is?  Brunch.   A few weeks back I hosted a Saturday brunch that stretched into a nine-hour eating a drinking extravaganza.  When I woke up Sunday morning, it was brunch time again!  This time it was just brunch for two,  rather than 11.

Since we had so much left over from the day before, it only made sense to incorporate leftovers into the meal.  First off, I sauteed fresh asparagus, shallots and chicken in a pan before adding scrambled eggs and cheese and baking it into a frittata.  Then I took a cookie cutter and cut out squares from left over biscuits and toasted them before topping with asparagus.  I also chopped up some watermelon.  It was a lovely meal to eat alongside the Sunday paper.

More chicken.  The other night I made brick chicken in an old cast iron skillet that used to belong to my grandma.  I also used a brick which used to belong to the College of Wooster.  And a chicken that used to belong to a poultry farm.   If you work quickly and efficiently, this meal takes less than 45 minutes.  I rubbed the chicken with a chipotle-lime rub and paired the ultra-moist bird with local green beans.  It was awesome.

Side note:  the silicon handle grip if from Hill’s Kitchen in DC.  Great store…check it out sometime.

Last but not least:  A few weeks ago, I spent a long weekend at my parents house in Kentucky.  The primary reason for me visiting was because I could grill out as much as I wanted to see my parents.  One night I grilled a de-boned leg of lamb.  One of the pieces was a big thick hunk of meat that I let cook in a cooler corner of the grill for the better part of an hour.  It was cooked absolutely perfectly, but I didn’t know this until two days after our return when we decided to slice it up and have it for dinner. That’s good stuff.