Notes from 1449

2011-03-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! How many accidents do we still have at camera intersections that we still need to issue cybertickets by computer after all this time? If there are THAT many accidents, it would be obvious and the traffic engineers would change the operation of the intersection. How unsafe are we? How many accidents occurred at those intersections over the past year? How much damage, how serious the injury?

If we issue 1,000 tickets a month to get $100,000, would that cost to drivers be enough to cover all the damage for every accident that would have occurred at that intersection last month had the cameras not been there? Or has the cost of our car insurance dropped due to higher safety records?

I am asking for a simple cost-benefit analysis: not some emotional argument or absolutist declaration. If the benefits outweigh the cost, then by all means install the cameras at the 25 most dangerous intersections. If not, then why are the cameras there?

Finally, we can ask under the Public Information Act for
--historic accident data for each intersection,
--the actual speed at which the camera decides to take a picture,
--the duration of the yellow light,
-- the number of camera shots versus the actual number of citations mailed,
-- the list of license plates that are not issued tickets if they are photographed.

The Dark Side of Traffic Cameras

2009-08-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Dateline, Kansas City, Missouri.
There are sooo many tickets generated by the cameras that the police who need to review the videos clear only about 200 of the 600 tickets generated by the cameras each day.
http://www.kctv5.com/news/20571979/detail.html
All I can do is sit here and shake my head. If you send $50 out of your regional economy to the camera operator, then you are allowed to keep $50 for each ticket. If one person can clear 12 tickets per hour, then Kansas City can justify the expenditure of $625 a day to clear tickets. That's $156,250 per year!

Isn't safety worth AT LEAST that much? I don't know why Kansas City is obsessing about a few dollars in exchange for the safety of their citizens.

Inane comments and recycling

2009-08-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Sustainability. "It's the future of Cleveland," Mayor Frank Jackson declared in an interview Tuesday.
As opposed to our old and busted ways of poisoning the rivers and lakes, and importing the zebra mussel, I guess.
Or like allowing First Energy to dump a larger amount of mercury into Lake Erie through paper manipulation of how to measure the mercury discharge at their generating plant.

How about we start with a simple aluminum, glass and plastic recycling program?
OR
How about the state charge a 5-cent deposit on glass bottles and aluminum cans, and 10 cents on plastic bottles?

Really, why not start with something simple and obvious that can generate a few dollars also?

City Residency Requirements (B)

2009-06-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

I forgot to ask about the city employees who are NOT firefighters or LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) or other emergency personnel employed by the city. Those three groups seem to be the focus and main justification for residency laws.

What is the justification for keeping the 8,000 city employees (about 1 for every 50 citizens) who are NOT emergency workers? Aside from Police, Fire and Emergency Services we have 22 other departments, almost none of which need to be available on 5minutes notice 24/7 beyond the regularly scheduled shift workers:
Aging
Building & Housing
City Planning
Civil Service
Three kinds of development:
Community Development
Workforce Development
Economic Development
Community Relations
Finance
Health
Law
Equal Opportunity
Recreation & Properties
Personnel and Human Resources
Port Control
Public Safety
Public Utilities
Public Service
Employee Services
Prosecutor
Press
TV20

What is the real reason that the administration was so adamant about this subject? Why couldn't these good folks have the same right to choose where to live as the teachers and staff employed by the city within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District? Maybe CMSD's union is powerful enough to dictate the status quo. Maybe in the transfer of CMSD to city control there weren't enough qualified city residents to replace all the teachers who would have been fired for not moving to Cleveland.

Along that train of thought, isn't it now possible to hire highly qualified people to work for us who don't live in Cleveland? Or will the city continue to covertly enforce city residency requirements by not considering qualified people outside of Cleveland? I'm predicting the latter rather than the former. We'll see.

Residency Requirements. FAIL

2009-06-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

1. City officials expect a long-term emigration trend of city employees now that they don't have to live in the City of Cleveland in order to keep their jobs. Why would they want to leave? After all, Mayor Jackson is quoted "the people have always been against the elimination of residency." All the people, that is, except those who were tyrannized by the majority.

2. City employees don't particularly want to send their kids to City schools (ironically, whose City-employed teachers are exempt from the residency rules) for the obvious reasons: 90% of the schools where our own City employees were forced to live are ranked less than "Effective". In a group of 100 students entering 9th grade, only four will finish their second year of college. Would you send your children to those schools?

3. I don't know the exact rates of the various kinds of crimes in Cleveland or Shaker Heights. If someone can show that lower crime might be a reason for City employees to stay, I'd definitely like to see it.

Conclusion: while the City residents (most of whom aren't and never were City employees) voted 27 years ago to mandate residency, it appears that the City did not hold up its end of the implied contract.

It seems to me that that by requiring residency, the City in turn owed its employees an educational system that was at least as good as the surrounding suburbs, and a level of crime that was no worse than its surrounding communities. FAIL.

Of course, almost everyone who bought a house in the past 10 years are upside down on their mortgage and can't afford to move anyway. What is happening in the City to change that? Is anyone immigrating to Cleveland? Why or why not? FAIL.

Rave: E-Prep School

2009-06-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Attended a presentation at the E-Prep School on E. 36th at Superior today. Learned how the school transforms the students' attitude, academic performance, and self discipline. The outcome is that students are accepted to prestigious high schools and are on the right path to go on to college. Exceedingly impressive and important for the kids and the city.

Out of 143 public schools in Cleveland, only 15 get an "Excellent" rating. Six of those 15 Excellent schools are charter schools, including E-Prep.

The bad news is that Governor Strickland is getting ready to cut charter school funding, effectively shutting them down. The outcome: almost half of the top 15 schools in the City of Cleveland will close. How can politicians twist something so good into something that should be eliminated? Just not rational...

You can help: write to Gov. Strickland and ask him to keep the funding for those 6 Excellent schools including E-Prep.

Rant: Illegally Issued Tickets

2009-04-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

According to the Mission Statement on its site, the government of the City of Cleveland exists to:
A. improve the quality of life by
1. strengthening our neighborhoods,
2. delivering superior services,
3. embracing the diversity of our citizens, and
4. making Cleveland a desirable, safe city in which to
a. live,
b. work,
c. raise a family,
d. shop,
e. study,
f. play
g. grow old.

And yet the City administration made a conscious decision to issue thousands of automated red-light tickets in violation of the law as they themselves wrote it. Which part of the Mission Statement says to steal from its citizens?

It's not honest on the part of the city to knowingly issue illegal tickets. Bob Triozzi, the City's top lawyer knew that the law the City Council approved was flawed from the beginning, making it illegal to issue tickets to drivers of leased or rented cars. But the illegal ticketing was approved with at least the tacit, if not explicit consent of the executive branch. Thousands of times, and for years.

As part of the law, the city devised an appeals process so onerous and labyrinthian that it is economically irrational to argue with the city about the ticket. Only a quixotic attorney had the time, money and legal know-how to challenge the law and win. If we have to obey the law, so does the City.

How does this behavior promote the achievement of the City's Mission Statements? It does illegally collect more money, perhaps for improving our roads, or not. However, when the City’s legislative and administrative branches cooperate to create this adversarial situation, biased 100% in favor of the City, that does not Improve the Quality of Life, Strengthen Our Neighborhoods, Deliver Superior Services, Embrace our Diversity, and certainly does not Make Cleveland a Desirable, Safe City. It DOES create suspicion, distrust and cynicism about the politicians we elect and, by association, the City itself. From where does Cleveland's self-loathing come? The Top.

Having lost the court case, Triozzi then has the unmitigated gall to argue that by capitulating to the staggering weight of the city appeals process, those illegally ticketed drivers FORFEITED THEIR RIGHT TO APPEAL WHEN THEY PAID THEIR $100 FINES.

As an analogy, assume the City paid the invoices of a contractor who knowingly submitted false bills to the City. When the City found out, they demanded their money back but the contractor claimed that once the City paid the bill it forfeited that money and had no recourse. Would that stand? Oh HELL no! Not only would the City get its overpayment back, but the contractor would be banned from further work and prosecuted for fraud. Maybe we ought to consider that plan of action for those officials who perpetrated this ticket fraud.

For the city to create this one-sided, confiscatory, back-door tax with such an unfair playing field is utterly unethical and dishonest. How is that behavior acceptable on the part of our elected and appointed officials?

Now, adding insult to injury, the city is using more of our money to challenge the legal motion to make this issue a class action suit. The city's leadership utterly and without shame refuses to stand up and admit its mistake. And yes, the city knew a priori that it was illegal to take your money and that they were not entitled to it. Now they refuse to return their ill-gotten gains to those from whom it was illegally taken.

Cleveland’s leadership refuses to take responsibility for their illegal actions both individually and as a group. They have no shame and their actions contribute to a culture of corruption. Nor does this behavior and the mindset that created it advance or lend support for the City’s stated mission to Improve The Quality Of Life.

System Reset

2009-04-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

I like technical lingo, it's a shorthand way of talking among peers. A system reset happens when you disconnect power to a product, then restart it. Sometimes called a 'power-down reset'. I learned about those as an electronic technician in the Navy. We also used a technique we referred to as 'percussive tuning' wherein we beat on the circuit boards with our fist to get it running. But I digress...

I read this article by William Mathies in a magazine called TWICE (This Week In Consumer Electronics) and saw that the 'system reset' metaphor is particularly applicable to the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, and the State of Ohio.

The history being described shows that healthy industries remake themselves periodically in response to technical advances. Most of the previously dominant players in a market are obliterated as they try to protect their business model. I think this story can be a metaphor to partially describe the decline of our cities.

Many metropolitan areas including Cleveland are being obliterated as they desperately try hold on to old business models, old policies, or old ways of doing business. Other cities or regions invest in infrastructure, encourage new businesses, cater to employers large and small, appease the obstructionists and NIMBYs, and voila! Here come the jobs!

Companies establish their headquarters in a more friendly business environment. Entrepreneurs come because they see a way to participate in a critical mass of ideas, management talent and HR assets. Investors follow the entrepreneurs (or is that vice versa?). Immigrants come with their dreams and ideas to start a company where none existed and hire people to fill positions that were created from an idea. Large companies spin off small companies who become medium size companies. This is the success story of Silicon Valley (Fairchild Semiconductor), San Diego (Qualcomm), Orange County, CA, Boston, Research Triangle Park, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Yes, it's good that the city is removing unsightly buildings and bombed-out vacant homes. I wish they would resurface the eastern end of Superior Ave where the poor people live just like they did the downtown section where the politicians go. I think it's great that the Cleveland Clinic is encouraging the growth of medical device companies. It's great that Case is being recognized as a mecca for materials science. It's great that BioEnterprise is bringing new brainpower to Cleveland. It's wonderful that COSE is supporting the small business enterprise in cooperation with KeyBank and Corporate College.

I am hopeful that the politicians can put aside their perpetual reelection efforts of pandering to the obstructionists and instead focus on what the city really needs: new companies that create jobs, generate paychecks and rebuild the service sector that generates more jobs. I don't think a law against texting while driving was the highest and best use of Council's time. No new jobs were created, no one will be arrested until they actually cause an accident. What a waste of Council's time.

Focus on bringing jobs to Cleveland.

Help another person live.

2009-04-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

Learn more about donating organs after your death at the MOTTEP web site.
Our beloved Stephanie Tubbs Jones donated 23 parts of her body following her death last year. You can start by calling the Red Cross.
Go. Do this. Now. It's important.

Finally, sign up NOW for the University Circle Inc Home Tour to be held May 2 and 3. I look forward to seeing you in my home.

My Home Featured on the University Circle Home Tour

2009-04-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

Attend the First-ever Circle Home Tour presented by University Circle Inc. and Judson
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 10:59am

Featuring a broad range of styles, from the newly built to the newly restored, the Circle Home Tour is a glimpse at how people live in Cleveland's cultural mecca. Simply put, it's life inspired.

Self-guided tour Sunday, May 3, 1-5 pm.

Register online at http://www.universitycircle.org/tourReg.aspx
The First-ever Circle Home Tour
"Life Inspired."
This event is planned to start at 1:00 pm on May 3, 2009.
Begin at the University Circle Visitor Center or Judson Manor.

Weekend activities

2009-04-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Nate and I planted 50 strawberries, 2 grape vines, 2 blueberry bushes and 10 raspberry canes. Lots of digging, lots of rocks. My back-door neighbor Doyle has a Honda rototiller so we can get the garden bed prepared when it stops snowing.

Open letter to anonymous e-mailer called Sojourner Truth

2009-04-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

To my readers: this post is my reply to an anonymous e-mail that I received from a person calling herself Sojourner Truth (I assume a woman as Soujourner was a woman). You can read the text of the anonymous writer in the post below this one.

Hello stranger,

I want to hear the truth and speak the truth. And share it with my friends.

A search on League of Humane Voters found this. The “Humane Voters” sites seem to be devoted to taking care of animals. That's important; a civilization can be measured by how well it treats its animals.
I’m not clear how your list of issues addresses animal cruelty, and I’m glad the bees and chickens law passed in February.

Regarding report cards, I don't know where each council person’s vote on each issue is published. I'm curious about how the city was gerrymandered in order to reduce the number of council seats. And I certainly don't know how the County Commissioners vote or even how they make decisions.

I’m angry about the culture of corruption that pervades every branch of government; legislative, executive and judicial, at every level of government including Federal, State, County, and city. I sometimes despair for the city of Cleveland when I see what it’s become.
Richard Huberty, a Cleveland building inspector is accused of taking bribes. Read that article in that link: it’s unbelievable!
Cleveland City Councilman Robert J. White III resigned over a lousy $500 bribe. That’s just stupid and greedy combined, but it’s small potatoes when compared to others.
The County’s former top cop was corrupt, power hungry and vengeful.
It looks like two of the county commissioners have apparently been receiving personal gain from contractors, builders and almost everyone else who does business here. The FBI is STILL executing search warrants.
The COUNTY TREASURER, for cryin' out loud, has been using his position for personal gain. THE GUY WITH ALL THE MONEY!

I’m active on the Liver Foundation of Ohio, the Kidney Foundation of Ohio, MOTTEP, SIDS, and I teach classes in Entrepreneurism at East High.
Everywhere I go I see worthy groups in need of money and support. So I do what I can: I’ve invested in startups, minority-owned sole proprietorships and individuals.
I hire people who come to my door asking for work (not a handout). In my opinion, the first step to maintaining or regaining a person’s dignity is a job.

And THAT is where our politicians have fallen down: jobs are gone and no one seems to care when companies leave the city. The Mayor even says Cleveland won when Eaton moves to Beachwood.
Sorry, none of the shops downtown will serve one meal or clean one suit, or sell anything else to any of the Eaton employees in Beachwood.

1. Jobs leave: people leave. That’s an easy equation to understand.
2. People leave: the service companies founded to serve residents leave.

So there are no grocery stores in my neighborhood. No gas stations, no department stores, clothing stores, restaurants, bars, sandwich shops, not even a fast food franchise, and only one laundry.
THAT is how decimated my neighborhood is. But we have our own branded gang of thugs and an inexhaustible supply of guns, drugs and hookers (one walked up on my front porch one night to solicit me!)

What is your agenda, Sojourner Truth? What is your vision of what Cleveland will be in 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years?
From where will the jobs come?
Who will start and run the companies that will create new jobs ?
Who will work here?
Who will live here?
Who will be top five private-sector employers?

Will Cleveland be known for medical devices, insurance, fuel cells, alternative energy products, ultra small cars, wind generating equipment, biomedical advances, world class health care, stem cell research, excellent educational facilities and faculty? All these are available to us now in labs, small companies and big employers.
Or are we destined to become the city whose high school grads aren’t qualified to work at these 21st century employers? Who can’t spell, or do math, or even have the social grace to stand up and say “How do you do? My name is…”

How about we end with your truthful name, Sojourner Truth?

Note from "Sojourner Truth"

2009-04-04T10:57:00.001-07:00

I got this note from an anonymous e-mailer today using the name of Sojourner Truth.
I haven't checked the facts or numbers or claims.
I'll put up an open letter to this writer in my next post.

From: Sojourner Truth [mailto: xxxrailroad@gmail.com ]
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 1:41 AM
Subject: Report card on pubic officials? So join me in truth!

Dear Friends,

Are you interested in becoming a steward of your city—environment? Are you interested in monitoring actions, legislative or otherwise, that impact life in our communities for all? A Public Report Card on public officals and CDC's would send a powerful message that their actions will be examined, not just their (smooth-talking) words.

I apologize to the citizens of New Orleans for borrowing an overused and exploited term but I am disturbed by the economic, social, cultural and political "Katrina" that swept through Cleveland (commencing at the start of the 21st century) while government slept and let it keep coming back—in waves—wiping out homes, lives and once lively neighborhoods in the process.

This unnatural force didn't effect nearby Akron, Pittsburgh or even Youngstown, or any other city in the USA, the way it did Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland lost 100,000 residents, in seven years, an exodus that only rivals New Orleans. Neighborhoods were falling apart like toothpicks and city residents were losing their homes to foreclosure at the same time "developers" uprooted people and trees to make room for new hospital and museum wings, a botanical shopping mall, a fake trolley, and lots of parking lots. Cleveland public officials have a questionable track record as property developers but they can't help but paint broad strokes, using the city as a canvas, even if it's only with red ink and their mistakes last longer than their jobs! Thus the flats were leveled for yet another "revival," Medmart got a booster shot, the ironically named "Heritage Lane" turned duplexes into super complexes. I'm surprised no one bothered to get rid of the lake yet, or at least move it out of the way!

League of Humane Voters of Cleveland,

You can help people, animals and our natural resources!

You can hold politicians accountable!

Help create a Report Card now!

Elections are forthcoming. Who voted for what, where did your taxpayer dollars go, how do elected officials stand on the environment, gay rights, gender issues, animal rights, childcare, development, natural resources, food and shelter, Chief Wahoo, the port and beehives— and what exactly is their approach to governance. Direct democracy or feudalism?

Your ideas, thoughts, opinions are welcome. Volunteers also.

Interested in moving forward? Please contact the following e-mail address: xxxrailroad@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Sojourner Truth

And (FYI) the following article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine/08Foreclosure-t.html

Change!

Plain Dealer Subscription

2009-04-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

I read my own notes and realized that I miss reading (scanning, actually) the paper at lunch. So I subscribed to the daily news too.

My root plants arrived from Burpee today: 50 strawberries, 5 raspberry canes, two blueberry roots, some other stuff. My sprouts in the basement are almost ready for transplanting. Time to get busy...

The importance of newspapers

2009-03-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

In looking at the Plain Dealer coverage of Gerald McFaul, it's hard to imagine another organization that could have dug so far to discover the extent, duration and depth of the corruption in that office. While I am guilty of cancelling delivery of the daily PD, I still subscribe to the Sunday edition. Cleveland.com and Ohio.com (the Beacon Journal's site) are still where I find my local news, but I am VERY concerned about the future of our towns if the newspapers decline to a point where they can't report the hard news anymore.

More Red Light Camera news

2009-03-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, a mayor of a town who admits he's putting the red light cameras and speed cameras in place in order to gain $1Million in additional unapproved tax revenue. Quoting Mayor Thomas Longo of Garfield Heights, Ohio: "You really don't want to say we did it for finances, but really we are." A little honesty is refreshing in today's culture of corruption in public office.
Read the full article and public comments at Cleveland.com.

I suppose I should be pleased at how many corrupt politicians are getting caught, from Sherriff McFaul to Governor Blagojevich. But I'm not: it's just depressing how people we've trusted for years have used their office for personal gain beyond their legal compensation for the job. We re-elected McFaul for
32 YEARS!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 8 times, shame on all of us who voted for him.

Gardening

2009-03-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Planning a garden and getting all the early seeds germinating has taken more time than I thought (always does). We'll put an herb garden with all the usual stuff in one corner of the front yard, will need to transplant some perennials that are already there.
We'll have 50 strawberries, 2 new grape vines, 2 currant bushes, 2 blueberries, 5 raspberry canes, lots of sunflowers, a bunch of hot peppers (germinating in the basement right now from seeds harvested last year). I might do a cucumber or squash hill, I like brussels sprouts, cauliflower, Maybe a tomato, some lettuce and cabbage. Beans and peas are difficult to pick, but are good to eat.
But I may have already overshot my capabilities...

Red Light Cameras

2009-03-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! How many accidents do we have at an intersection that we need to start issuing automated tickets by computer? If there are THAT many, it would be obvious and the traffic engineers would change the operation of the intersection. How unsafe are we?

How many months or years do the cameras need to stay active to have an impact on drivers' behavior, which is the goal, of course. After all, this is only about safety.

Is there a big sign a block or two in front of the camera or just a small one that would influence the drivers' behavior? If this is about reducing accidents at this particularly dangerous intersection, then drivers should be told in advance to adjust their behavior to AVOID ACCIDENTS, not the 100 dollar ticket that pales in comparison to the cost of an accident. If it's about safety.

If after a year there is a downward trend in violations, will the government agree that the goal of reducing risky behavior has been accomplished and take down the cameras? What IS the specified goal in terms of reduction of accidents or number of red light violations? Certainly we are not taking our citizens' money without having a goal for accident reduction. Safety First!
-or-
If after a year there has been almost NO change in accidents, will the government agree that the cameras are ineffective at improving safety and remove them? If we are no safer, then why should we send half our money to Redflex in Arizona?

As has been said from the beginning "this isn't about the money: it's about safety." So if no or only small safety gains can be shown after all this time, we can conclude that the cameras are not effective at improving safety. So take them down. If the city isn't measuring and acting on the data obtained from the cameras, then how do we know if we are any safer? If it's about safety.

I really don't like it when people lie to me. And when a politician does it, then you can bet it's about money or influence. I subscribed in November 2007 to Yahoo Alerts which sends me every article about red light cameras in every newspaper in the US.

NOT ONCE in over 3,000 articles has a politician or law enforcement officer stood up and said "We don't exactly know if any of these cameras will dramatically reduce accidents. But we do know that if we generate just 20 tickets a day at 100 dollars each, one camera can generate $730,000 a year that we have no other way of raising."
-or-
We can collect $730,000 while eliminating (say) 6 accidents, saving the insurance companies almost (what?) $200,000. That is an even worse return over the past year than my IRA.

I'm trying to follow the money (as Deep Throat taught us during Watergate), and it all leads to city hall. So find out WHO is doing WHAT with YOUR money. If this is just a back-door tax then it should be repealed until approved by the voters.

Youngstown Business Incubator

2009-03-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Visited Jim Cossler and got a good understanding of YBI's unique business model. YBI brings in only technology-based companies commercializing proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). It was also highlighted on an NPR piece February 17. You all know that most or all major cities have business incubators, but YBI focuses solely on B2B software and electronics companies ready for commercialization. It is the best example I know of a "Managed Cluster" of related tech companies.

One of its operational strengths is the way the YBI staff facilitate communication and problem solving between closely related skillsets. Chances are that among the 300 or so software people there, your bug report can be analyzed and resolved in minutes by someone who has already been down that path.

Zethus software, Green Energy TV, and machine vision systems. Turning Technologies makes the "clicker" that was praised and panned by student users on a March 2, 2009 NPR piece.

If you have a proprietary product with heavy software content that is ready for commercialization, the YBI is where you need to be. I've got my eyes on it.

TiE Meeting

2009-03-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

About a hundred people attended at Hilton Garden Inn Downtown. Oddly enough, I didn't see a garden at the "Garden Inn".

Widely diverse audience, not just a bunch of old white men like me. Richard Herman moderated an excellent panel featuring Margaret Wong, Phil Alexander and Hiroyuki Fujita. Each talked about their business and gave their educated opinion on the barriers to building new businesses in Cleveland, and some ways to overcome those barriers.

One thing we entrepreneurs can do is to teach or at least try to convince the politicians that it is a good thing to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to create and grow their companies here in Cleveland. This being a primarily political decision, it's a huge educational problem. The politicians' CONSTITUENTS need to be convinced that it doesn't matter if your CEO is Chinese or Indian: the company is here in Cleveland and you have a job. Unless the constituents are onboard and tolerant of foreign CTOs and CEOs, then we can never be a world class city again.

The current political climate that is focused on bringing back jobs for the iron-age workers is a barrier preventing us from moving to the next phase of growth in the information / medical care / materials science / polymer / sensor industries.

When Beachwood extends a hand to the Israeli tech community, and Cleveland says it's not a high priority to invite foreigners here, who wins? Beachwood.

Who loses? You.

Cleveland Mayor Jackson

2009-03-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Mayor Jackson has the courage to stand in front of his constituents for over two hours taking unscripted questions, often rambling monologues, personal agendas and criminal accusations without flinching, losing his temper or taking a cheap shot at anyone. I attended his Glenville neighborhood meeting and was highly impressed by his professionalism and patience.

He also makes sure that anyone who is listening understands how he makes decisions, what he takes into consideration. He will explain every issue to constituents, often in greater detail than necessary but in a way that even an 8th grader will understand if he is paying attention.

Thanks Frank. Keep going.

The Euclid Corridor, Ch. 1

2009-03-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Who's the winner with the new design of the Euclid Corridor?

1. Not the bus riders(A) The buses now run down the middle of the road so the pedestrians have to compete with car traffic to cross the car lane to get to the bus stops. No matter which direction the rider wants to go, or which side of the street he's on.

2. Not the bus riders(B) The rider, in order to be legal, has to walk up or down the block to get to the traffic light to cross to the bus island, then walk back to the actual bus stop. I hope my bus doesn't come while waiting at the light.

3. Not the bus riders(C) Now the rider is on the bus hoping to make the trip quickly. The buses, however, need to stop for all the same lights as the cars. With the number and duration of the lights, the buses make average less than 10 MPH.

3. Not the buses: they have to stop at all the same traffic lights the cars do, AND they have to stop at the bus stops in the middle of the block. They don't move any faster than the they did before.

4. Not the local businesses: the ones that went out of business during the protracted construction process are just gone. The remaining business now have access to only half of the car traffic coming down the road. There is a center barrier preventing a car from turning left into the business so the car has to travel to the next available left turn lane, sometimes several blocks. Sometimes the driver will just drive on to the next restaurant. It doesn't really matter, there is almost no parking on The Corridor.

5. Certainly not the cars: if one follows the 25 MPH speed limit (very close to the speed of a school zone) then the car is caught by numerous traffic lights (sorry, no turn on red at any intersection in any direction on The Euclid Corridor). It turns out that the lights are almost perfectly timed for 35 MPH travel (DAMHIK)! By following the actual speed limit, a car can average almost 12 MPH on The Euclid Corridor, being at a complete stop 37% of the time.

So who is the winner after years of construction and huge expenditures? It's not clear to me yet. But I have more questions for the next chapter.

Going to DC

2009-03-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

I will attend the SIDS conference 3/24 and 25 with Esther Verbovsky. We've requested a meeting with Representatives Kucinich and Boccieri.

The Hug Me Joey infant support system can help reduce the probability of a SIDS death by supporting the baby so he or she can breathe easier. www.HugMeJoey.com.