EQUALITY Sifting The Truth Forging The Deed

Reads the banner of the circa world war two American CORE bulletin which falls from the pages of an old book into my lap. Edited by James Farmer and published in this year 1944 in New York City. Meant to be carried in the pages of a book. These tiny "commie rags" , were considered subversive literature , and could cost one dearly his or her personal liberties if found upon a person by a bunko squad member , or hoover g-man.This issue of EQUALITY contains articles on the Fillmore District in San Fransisco County , and the overcrowded living conditions suffered there by Afro American citizens during that big world war. A fascinating read after all these years. Articles addressing jim crow laws and prejudice in Dallas , Texas and Detroit , Michigan. "Equality, sifting the truth , forging the deed " Doctor Martin Luther King died forty years ago this day , and his passing meant for me a strong initial taste of the humorless gravity of politics in America. When Bobby Kennedy fell dead in Los Angeles , shot up like Doctor King and his brother before him , I realized in my young mind that politics in the real big leagues must be a muther! Bless Doctor King on this his day of passing , and may we be wise enough to embrace the dignified path that Barack Obama presents in a field of thorny flowers and bushes , Obama is the rose..... Now the local sports chatter. Cleveland minor league hockey team beats Hamilton , Ontario skaters in a shoot out this evening. Never seen so many people leave town as quick in my life than after this hockey game. These are polite fans who like most decent baseball fans keep their polite manners up while in public , and do not as much as spit on a public sidewalk as if the very concrete they walk upon might as be their own home. Go monsters! mud sharks! sea devils! whatever your nickname is ? Cleveland , Ohio would do well to imitate Detroit , Michigan and attract a NHL franchise. Minor League sports are just that . Minor League. Besides , we have had plenty of minor league teams disguised as major league temas in recent Cleveland sports history to shake a stick at. Seems that save the early sixties and 1964 NFL champeen Cleveland Browns , my entire Cleveland sports youth was comprised of attempting to root for the local professional teams that more resmbled minor than major talents. Except the Cleveland Barons. They were minor league and made no bones about it. The other period teams minor league in nature , posing as major league. I really do love professional hockey , and have many fond Cleveland Barons moments that originated in viewing minor league games in the old Cleveland Arena years ago. Wish Cleveland had a professional hockey team. hell , I wish that Cleveland had a football team entered in the Canadian Football League. Perhaps if we can convince the Canadian Government to accept us citizens who live across from Melonville , Ontario on the southern shore of Lake Erie. I vote we secede immediately. Chances are however they would not take us in unless we gave the very popular and much respected in Canada Dennis Kucinich full control of this Lake Erie region. You see these Canadians believe in a wider field of play , and thus enjoy the fresh political opinions and progressive thought that Dennis Kucinich is capable of. Please check the archives of the Canadian Broadcast ing System's " As It Happens" ,interview with Dennis after his victory in the Congressional primary last month. The Canadians gush forth Love and respect for this evolved human from Ohio our Dennis Kucinich. Canadians are wise enough to put away their superior brand of Football in late November every year as well. Thus allowing for hockey and basketball to take their proper place in the scheme of sporting events that comprise a life. This years CFL championship Grey Cup game will be played in Montreal on November 23, 2008. I like the idea of a Great Lakes Canadian Football League franchise . Lets face the sad facts people North Americans love their football! Perhaps if we ever build the Jim Rhodes proposed bridge to Canada , we could construct a sports arena in the middle of Lake Erie to play our home games on. Seems like a more plausible bet than the likes of the projected success of the currently under construction Euclid Avenue Corridor project running from University Circle to downtown Cleveland. This sad boondoggle corporate usage of Government transportation funds will serve the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals , and the patients they attract will have easy access to downtown hotels via the Euclid Avenue corridor dedicated bus line. What really is lacking is any housing density the length and breadth of this expensive medical toy bus line . No retail entrepreneur in their right mind would consider locating on the automobile parking parched street that Euclid Avenue is becoming. The best addition so far is the new Aldi's store at East 75Th and Euclid. Aldi's is large enough to have their own parking lot. People are leaving Cleveland and Cuyahoga County by the droves these days , and unless a minor miracle occurs and the ten thousand or so people that once lived along this corridor in the nineteen sixties and seventies decide to return and the apartments they lived in reappear as in a mirage come to life. Good luck! I doubt that all the smoke that the happiness boys at wcpn and da p.d. blow up the asses of the Cleveland citizenry in behalf of the politics that brought us this people mover without rails.The efforts of these shills and media hacks pitching hot air for a private little bus line will be to no avail and to little amusement for those that can see their little ruse . East Ninth and Euclid Avenue's future goal should be to regain the prominent epicenter status of Cleveland downtown commerce . Instead a potential future as a deserted bank district looms. Let us begin at the northeast corner and work clockwise. With the demise of National City Bank eminent and awaiting a takeover. With any good fortune a takeover will spell the end to the ugly skyscraper they currently occupy , which more resembles an upside down refrigerator box and is void of any architectural or aesthetic considerations whatsoever .In a mediocre architectural city the likes of downtown Cleveland , this blanco banko bunko vertical bunker is not very pretty to look at and it's little swinging sculpture out front often resembles a swastika or a pair of dancing metal can openers . Moving on to the north east corner of Euclid and East Ninth Street , one of the loveliest of all Cleveland downtown buildings exists in the form of the Union Trust building , currently named the Huntington Bank Building. You see the desecration by the recent exterior lettering slapped onto this gem in the form of loud block letters reading , THE HUNTINGTON BUILDING. Ugly! In a word , These loud letters screaming at anyone who should pass them. Inside , the most charming pair of linking banking rooms. A classical inspired pillared staff of Cleveland history , this building deserves better than having it's primary tenants make a mad rush to the door in haste to occupy the new proposed Flats office building in the Wolstein group's current plan for the Flat's east bank. Huntington Building occupancy could easily dip precipitously , and coupled with a closed National City Bank structure would add to the already closed Cleveland Trust Tower and rotunda that so much of the success of the entire Euclid Avenue Corridor project hinges upon. The Cleveland Trust Tower and Rotunda renovation is perhaps the true measure of the entire Euclid Avenue Project as far as downtown Cleveland is concerned. If the proposed development by the KD Group does not pan out " bar the door Katy". If this current credit crunch that we are suffering as a Nation continues to unravel and more cheap acts like National City Bank are swept out of town or folded into another bank's holdings ,wath out! Any prudent lending institution would be wise to examine the current demographic state of affairs that is Cleveland , Ohio today and really consider the odds of a profitable venture prior to loaning 35 million or better on the future of East Ninth and Euclid Avenue. All the excited media gibberish and blather that wcpn and da p.d. conspire to churn up via their sordid little public relations dance that denigrates the use of our public radio airwaves , is no more than that hot air I mentioned until actual results occur and money is laid down. Show us the money. Follow the money. Show us the tangible results. The larger picture here is the future of our current economic meltdown and how it will affect lender's positions on such local proposed projects such as the Flats East Bank, Cleveland Trust Tower , and to some degree the Robert Stark warehouse district project which I am afraid is trumped by the Wolstein flats project and Stark's decent dream to build on the ugly warehouse district parking lots is dead in the water. One only has to look a scant three miles south of downtown Cleveland to find that corporate America big box retailers expect parking for their customers. And indeed , The Steelyards Commons project is that mere three miles from downtown and perhaps a good look at the Steelyards commons as downtown Cleveland's new shopping district is in order. A system of connecting transit lines would be wise to converge in these Steelyard commons with all the suburban style big box stores a mere three miles from Public Square. We have no density of downtown population to attract those stores featured at Steelyard Commons to reduplicate themselves street level in downtown Cleveland . So downtown living and those that do rely on rta should be given good access to these Steelyard Commons stores. Let us hope that some form of wisdom prevails in this confused City and that the current Huntington Bank tenants are retained , and that the Cleveland Trust Tower development goes through as planned. Not much we can do about National City Bank's future. They reap what you sow , and having never had a National City account in my lifetime consider myself fortunate. ...... Hello to my old chum and lifelong friend Willy Lambdin. A fine scholar and writer of some repute. He now resides in Finland with his lovely wife. During their last Cleveland visit the most wonderful dish of anchovies , fresh butter , and potatoes baked together i oven were prepared in our humble kitchen by these kind visitors. Filling the house with splendid aromas , and then our bodies and minds with culinary pleasure. Willy and the way back machine in my life. I will twist up his arm and ask him if he will share some of his poetry and writing on this very space. Hell , he is much better than I am at putting together a sentence , and we share a lot of space in our lives spent around Cleveland years ago. Perhaps Willy can show me how to use the simple devices on this computer that would enable the creation of sentences and paragraphs. As for the concept of EQUALITY in our lives , please remember to be kind when you can , man.

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