A celebration of sorts

In Cleveland , Ohio major league baseball is a celebration of losing traditions. Like some sorry old dog that reappears after it's drunken owner whoops on it , baseball season rolls around back here every year since the inception of the American League in 1901. Since 1901 the Cleveland American League teams entered have managed to capture the world series flag only twice , 1920 and 1948. Second place finishes are not really worth mention. Losing is losing and Cleveland professional baseball is a career study in loss. Sitting in the grandstand a few rows back from the home team dugout this past Tuesday evening's game with the Baltimore Orioles with my old pal Steinie gave me plenty of time to get a real closeup view of two last place teams " playing out the string". Both of these teams seasons are over , all that remains is the month of September for their 2008 efforts. Watching the village idiot manager Eric Wedge visit the pitching mound gave me the feeling that the creepy cabal of dunces led by Wedge and GM Shapiro have managed to take a first place team in 2007 {whose choke in the ALCS remains my favorite example of Cleveland baseball losing traditions in the 21st century } and due to their off season inactivity resulted in a 2008 cellar dwelling . Baseball demands tradition and it is insulting to watch third base coach Joel Skinner at work this season. Skinner's pivotal error in base running judgement in the 2007 ALCS would have cost him his job in any major league city save Cleveland. Losing is rewarded here. The 2008 Cleveland American League team is more akin to the high minor league teams that were fielded here in the seventies and eighties , insulting any hometown fans sober enough to notice , and led by such rank amateur players as Rick Manning and his like. The reason for attending games then was always to watch the opposing teams real baseball clubs chew up the home team. Baltimore fielded great teams who fielded competitive teams from the mid sixties through the early eighties. I recall a night game in the mid seventies that went extra innings at the old Cleveland Stadium that was approaching the American League one a.m. cutoff , that forced Brooks Robinson to come off the Orioles bench to put away the hapless Cleveland team with a pinch hit home run down the left field line that made a deafening clatter as it bounced from seat to concrete. Lights out tribe fans , home a little after one a.m. Could not have been more than a few hundred fans left in the stadium to witness Brooks walk off dinger. A few years later I attended a game at the old Baltimore Memorial Stadium after dining at Brooks restaurant a few blocks from the Baltimore stadium. The food was all right , she crab soup , crab cakes , white tablecloths good service , though the baseball fans led by upper deck leather lunged " Wild Bill Nagy " a real trip to witness. We sat in the section occupied by this local rabid Baltimore Orioles fan Nagy and were amazed by his active antics versus the lonely drumbeat metered out by the Cleveland equivalent John Addams and his incessant annoying drumming in the Cleveland Stadium bleachers. Then who would have guessed it ? The Orioles fielded competitive teams based on superb pitching and stellar defense , led by real managers , a stellar roster , and embodied by playing baseball " the Oriole Way" , described by Cal Ripkin Senior as " perfect practice makes perfect". The opposite held sway in Cleveland baseball traditions , drunkenness , wife swapping , mental illness , horrible trades , and managerial incompetence the bell weather for losing that continues to this very day in Cleveland American league baseball traditions. The last real competent field manager the Cleveland American League team hired was Al Lopez , and he was gone by the late nineteen fifties....... It is with great sadness that I take my hat off to the sad fate suffered by Detroit baseball fans in the loss of their beloved baseball architectural gem Tiger Stadium. Having watched fifty or so games at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell from it's original green colored confines to it's later blue painted interiors , I feel that this is a loss of no small matter. The upper deck " Tigers Den" seats perhaps the best in baseball. The flagpole in deep center field unique as the lower deck bleachers. The right field overhang which dated back to it's original place as the area behind home plate. The legion of half nuts fans that graced the upper deck bleachers , giving it an insane asylum on holiday air unique in baseball. I could go on. Comerica Park is a large mistake and indicative of the new generation faux intimate baseball stadiums that plague professional baseball today. I would no sooner visit Comerica park than I would revisit Camden Yards. I visited Camden Yards to watch a game in the 1993 season and witnessed the end of traditional baseball from a fans point of view. We sat in the lower grandstand of Camden Yards past the third base line towards left field and spent the game staring into right field due to the position of the seating. To view the balls and strikes or infield play meant to spend the game with the neck tilted right. Good night! Same goes for the majority of the baseball stadiums constructed since. Commerica, Progressive , Camden Yards. All the same to me. Phony and without any real heart and soul. I do not easily suffer the fool these days so attendance out of pocket at any professional baseball game played at home or on the road best come with a positive hook. No Commerica Park in my future though I sure do miss Tiger Stadium already............In this season of loss , I prefer to end on a high note. I was fortunate enough to witness Cleveland catcher Kelly Shoppach's five extra base hit performance earlier this month. Rebuilding a team like the 2008 Cleveland American League baseball team starts with a solid catcher. Shoppach might fit the bill.The 2009 is sooner than you think , and it is time to start cleaning house now from the top , Shapiro , down , Wedge. Those tow jokers , like Rick Manning and his ilk need to be excised once nad for good from this town along with the sorry racist mascot wahoo and that little stinking pinko hallucination slider. Ughh!

---

Gluepots in the irons

Merely the second day's racing cards of the opening weekend at our local disaster on hooves Thoroughbred track , Thistledown , finds me with Slipsy JR , and Inspector Von Diesel looking to turn two dollar tickets into steak dinners. Bovine dinners earned by equine divination. Please do not expect to view much gorgeous horseflesh here at Thistledown raceway on Cleveland's east side . Only claiming races featuring four legged glue pots with jockeys perched upon them , when placed into the irons and let all fly for the cheap handle , five and six furlong races that comprise the live racing card at " the down" early in the season. Parimutuel play at the down is more akin to betting the policy numbers than thoroughbred race horses. Many of the tired faces that gather in these humble surrounding are already quite familiar with the habit of numbers play , whether the State sanctioned variety or the street side stock final variety popular in Ohio for many years. Having both eaten horseflesh and laid wager upon same said equine fleshpots . I state preference for the former not the later........................." Green skies , playing today!" was the verbatim telephone message conveyed by JR Slipsy in regards to today's golf game in the early afternoon. It continued to rain for another twenty four hours and sometimes the best laid plans of man run asunder or at least take another curve and end up in the black............................Standing in the Highland Park Municipal Golf Course , talking to Joc O Sot in the rain out by the ancient burial grounds on the high bluffs south and east of the city to the north. Coolie's farm. Old House of Corrections built and maintained by the City since it's earlier proud early twentieth century days...........Parts of the city Highland Park grounds now sold off to local developers for a song and dance. A cheap dance at that. Not even a good hard humping . Save what the citizen's of the city received from the politicians who sold off this valuable land on the cheap side from under the citizens . Who received not much in the way of new jobs or tax revenues promised in return for divesting themselves of prime Chagrin highlands property owned previously by the city and maintained as a storied and valuable " back forty" . Just the sort of fate reserved for the citizenry of Cleveland , Ohio these days. No representation at the scene of negotiations concerning a citizen owned piece of valuable property. Business as usual occurred here at the Highlands. Property of value sold off cheap to one of the feudal real estate concerns whose name until recently hung on the American League ball yard downtown..............................So much lightning in the sky over our blue municipal golf course. Large cracks of thunder and spiderwebs of electricity tossing airborne cobwebs for a noontime light show , under dark wet sky.Think about Detroit , Michigan and the Highland Park municipal golf course that they also own and operate. The infamous forty five iron act that occurred there in ......Lil Shaver made his way to town from Detroit for a california speedbag reunion. Don't ask. Lil Shaver is a true guitar hero of the old school stripe. Power tools by day , power amps by night. The name of the band kinda sez it all. california speedbag. Yeah. You got it right the first time. Enough already.......Post time. Slipsy JR and Inspector von Diesel had rode in together and had discussed thistledown as alternative to golf rain out. They are not surprised when I mention the track. We go to the races without Lil Shaver who decides that tomorrow is another day , the elements having failed our golf game at the highland grounds.Arriving from the parking lot amid a trail of tears . These tears comprised of multiple spent losing white paper lottery ticket sized betting slips. It is only the second race of a days card and the bust outs are leaving already.........Mudders instead...........To describe the track conditions as sloppy as the tote board proclaimed seemed a major flaw in logic. Underwater was more likely a description.....To describe the patrons of the down is to imagine a class of local people unable to escape Cleveland long enough to attain the relative perceived gambling nirvana of say Detroit , Michigan or Wheeling , West Virginia. Bad tires. No gasoline. A thousand excuses. Every last one a half truth , half lie. Bust outs one and all inhabit "the down". Their distinct pallor of grey speaks for the condition of their hair , skin , and livers alike. Average age? Well past sixty. Craven , sullen , and beaten down faces as a window into the customers soulless beings. A lamentable pile of perps shuffle under the downs grandstand this rainy Friday afternoon. Career bad gamblers , perverts , popcorn pimps and their ladies , postal employees taking a " sick day ". A desperate lot of hard luck stories with feet and other human body parts attached as adjunct.The notion of relaxation is foreign here , though by nature implied. Cheap is the predominate flavor , and whatever pleasures garnered bitter........Having arrived in this place as an alternative to an afternoon of golf. We proceed to decide upon exacta play s remedy for the afternoon's rain... We first decide to wheel Casey Stengel [ 37 ] for two dollars. Smart guy that I am laying down an additional two dollar nose bet on the number seven horse as insurance. We wander out track side in the rain to watch our vaunted three seven combination deliver our steak dinners. Instead. Our ten dollar grouping of white tickets join the many other losing tickets scattered like confetti about the down grounds. Duds one and all. Some unshaven poorly dressed miscreant walks past us and tosses his lit cigarette into a plastic lined waste container as if to change his luck from bad to worse or perhaps to fulfill an unstated wish and make the down go away once and for all. In any event this nutcase with a tobacco habit seemed to fit the profile of half baked bad attitudes content with donating their meager dollars to the downs coffers. Another anonymous asshole loser busted out early and taking an early voyage home after the fourth race of a ten race card........ A bad " Little Miss Marker " act appears complete with a gaggle of conspicuous phony tattoos on her nine years old arms , prancing about. This real live hard luck 2008 Shirley Temple shimmy shammy was dragged about the under belly of the downs grandstand by her slovenly Mother , who had plenty of real ink that mirrored her young daughters false ink. Just what their game was I am unable to relay to you dear reader. Use your imagination if you dare. I do not dare. The mere thought of this Mother and daughter routine tough on my remaining brain matter. Let your imagination serve as road map. On a school day none the less...... We find a discarded program and decide to sit out the simulcast fifth race from Meadow Downs. Inspector von Diesel brings back coffe for me and paper cups of beer for himself and Slipsy JR .We watch the Meadow Downs action instead on one of the downs many television monitors. The horseflesh at Meadow Downs and the other races on the televised simulcast races the only sunshine viewed and attractive flesh for today , equine or otherwise. Inspector von Diesel is babbling away in some foreign tongue , while sipping his beer. Slipsy JR and I stare at the tote board and simulcast screens like a pair of euthanized simians with a few dollars to wager. We decide that even being the opposite of odd is our number six race meat and proceed to attempt to play find the winning trifecta combination. Two four six the ticket. Oops. The number two horse scratched. Leaving us with an unsteady four six. We wait in line to place our bets and gaze up at the track clock which reads two four six. Drat! We decide on the four six wheel and lay down our funds. Having a few minutes before the post we slip down to the track to inspect the flesh. In a heartbeat we notice that number six horse and jockey should be wearing a sign that proclaims: We will finish out of the money. The young girl jockey in the psychedelic polka dot garb on top of the four horse looks ready to go . Why we did not add her to the tail of the winning afternoon shift five to nine exacta for the winning trifecta is a matter of shoulda woulda coulda jive that curses those of us that ever visit and wager such dens of iniquity as the downs. We race back to the betting window and play the winning five nine combination. We did collect our wagers back plus a ten dollar profit per , and promptly made for the exit. Bet odd , even , odd , then win. JR Slipsy and Inspector von Diesel headed back to the wilds of Amrap for a pig roast and beer blast followed by a speedbag practice. I decided to invest my scant winnings in a few books and 45 rpm records that I found in one of the three thrift stores located across from the downs. In the end having some viable tangible printed pages and groovy little discs to show for the afternoons efforts. I almost forgot the vision of Detroit , Michigan and it's city golf course also known as Highland Park and the famous 45 iron incident of a few years back. Seems that a group of golfers were playing a slower game than those in the group that followed them expected. The later gropu hit a ball into the slower playing group and then the fireworks began. Seems that one of the players in the slower group was also carrying a loaded forty five caliber automatic pistol to which he proceeded to shoot dead the member of the group behind him that hit the golf ball at him. Sometimes it makes more sense to go to the track to relax than the golf course. Especially when it is green skies and lightning. Slipsy JR was prophetic in his earlier telephone message. At least the " playing today" part of it.

---

Some fresh new ideas

Cleveland and its sister city Detroit's downtown skyscraper canyons are mostly on the nod these days by all accounts and observations garnered. While recently immersing myself in a rather sedentary and scholarly life as opposed to the wretched comatose meanderings of yet another loose cannon with a bad case of typewriter keypad itch, I have rediscovered the dirtiest pair of words in my meager vocabulary:

“Idle Thought.”

Considering myself always a proper and forward thinking citizen in search of some fresh new ideas, lately what has crossed my mind concerns the adaptive reuse of our empty downtown cities streets. I have noticed that the lack of human bodies found on downtown Cleveland and Detroit streets affords a vibrant sonority when the human voice is expelled in a yodel or song like fashion towards the heavens.

Loud and clear I say, with tremendous echo effects.

Most major American cities are unable to provide these perfect fertile grounds conducive for the new opportunity of building yodeling competitions to be held in the cities empty canyons due to having in their possession a civilized population that lives within their boundaries.

Not a real problem for our great lakes twin cities. Attracting participants should prove easy.

Being that both cities downtowns resemble massive outdoors beer gardens these days. -- --- Both cities being in possession of loud and rabid sports fans prone to blowing hard and aloud for their "home teams".

Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan are natural cities to use local arts funds collected via yet another tobacco tax to study and advance this primitive notion of found sound that adds a lively voice to these moribund and near empty buildings found in their empty downtowns.

A sister project celebrating the joyous unbound and unfettered voice conducive of attracting tourists building yodeling competitions to be held in the cities empty canyons. Outdoor echo karaoke is another novel idea sure to be a tourist pleaser.

Both cities already resembling large public beer gardens, the urban fabric of our two cities would benefit to hear any voices other than those currently raised in salute to cold suds and tepid sports.

Held in conjunction with the ever popular pizza eating contests and Slovenian style yodel polka events, the inclusion of a sing und yodel with the local yokels event held in the twin cities warm weather months would prove tourist positive if not a bit thrilling in a understated fashion.

Not currently having the means to attract a true local musical hero like Bruce Springsteen to host this event should not prove a problem. Cleveland's current number one Slovenian musical star should suffice.

One Michael Stanley Gee.

Since the death of Frankie Yankovic, Michael Stanley is number one in Cleveland! Michael Stanley has a rather popular local band and is really a natural at serving as judge, ringmaster, and host to all future Building yodeling and echo karaoke events to be held in downtown Cleveland due to his long career in music and his superstar status.

Michael Stanley currently is employed by a radio station on the very short stretch of Huron Road between Euclid Avenue and Prospect Road which is the natural empty building canyon to hold the Cleveland found sound events in.

I walk down this short corridor on a daily basis and it is more often than not than I can hit all the notes from white rabbit or rosewood bitters at the top of my lungs and bounce with an echo every note off the top of the rooftops of the halle Brother's building were Gee Stanley is employed as radio jockey.

Truly art events waiting to happen.

Who knows?

Perhaps a world famous Euclid Avenue Karaoke Corridor Project will emerge, or in the case of Detroit a mobile version of karaoke yodels held on the "people mover."

Or a slicker sophisticated version held during the Detroit grand prix.

Either Jeff Daniels or Tim Allen would make great Detroit echo karaoke or building yodeling event hosts .Believe me , any events save more bad sports and the artsy posturing of visiting suburban types a few evenings a year would serve to improve the dead zones currently encountered in Cleveland and Detroit downtown quarters.

Time has come for the artsy fartsy types to forget about painting their precious little ingenious pictures on the empty storefront windows once a year on their annual loutish stroll through downtown Cleveland streets. Instead consider hiring our resident homeless population to sit around and live in these currently empty and void windows as human mannequins.

Your ingenious and soulless artsy types could dress up storefronts and homeless alike and film the whole enchilada and peddle it as yet another bad reality television event, or pawn it off as some queer form of " performance art" or other such kitty litter encrusted " art happening."

The Euclid Avenue Corridor project promises to deliver a quick bus path from the east end of Euclid Avenue , out near the croakerville homes of the mad scalpels of the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital, into empty streets and spaces known as downtown Cleveland.

Perhaps if on schedule for later this year?

The RTA deadline is November 2008 , and just in time for a winter's tale of snow and weather that makes a Clevelander long for an empty belly, loaded gun , and the streets of Port a prince, Haiti as a winter alternative to the new beauty of Euclid Avenue 2008.

Seems that in the comprehensive planning and attention to every little marble sidewalk and rider courtesy the Euclid Avenue Corridor entails, one large item may have been overlooked in the sea of concrete and rubber trees that is this much vaunted and touted private bus line built at taxpayers expense.

SNOW!

Good luck to you RTA in removing the often heavy load of snow that piles up on Euclid Avenue in a winter's space of time.

Take for example the famous November 1950 Thanksgiving blizzard that dumped 23 inches of wet precipitate in a few short hours. Streetcars were buried on their tracks; nothing seemed to move save the snow squalls.

Wonder how RTA plans to plow the fancy bus and curvy automobile lanes the next time a blizzard sets down here?

Time will tell.

Book selling Time! Relive the fond visual memories of Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan when these once great cities still had streets with people on a daily basis up to more good than evil. We offer today George Condon's YESTERDAY'S CLEVELAND and Frank Angelo's YESTERDAYS DETROIT. Both of these volumes are packed with lots of historic photographs and little textual copy.

Perfect for today's book market. Buy 'em both and save a buck.

No kidding around here, both of these swell pictorial volumes are available now, and worth the odd few dollars you might spend on gas or groceries.

Take a bus!
Take a hike!
Get lost!

But if you do take a hike, bus, or get lost do not forget to take a little something with you for protection save your johnson.

Preferably take a fistful of ripe pecorino cheese to toss at any would be artsy writer types that infest cities throughout the world today. Do not worry about repercussions, these insidious wannabe scribes and poetic types are often lazy and hungry simultaneously and certainly not adverse to bending over to swipe someone else's cheesy ideas tossed at them and then reselling it as their own.

Cleveland and Detroit are full of these types these days, as are most American cities form Hoboken to Half Moon Bay. More often than not scratching what itches, looking for some fresh ideas, and attempting to create something of value from their idle thoughts.

---

Catch up time

Apologies and belated thanks to all that inquired here concerning our absence for the majority of February 2008. A problem with the delivery gizmo of the isp or some sort of technical jazz I could not phantom in three lifetimes. Glad to be back , and happy that anyone notes this scribble as a worthy read........ I will have to continue this annoying habit of using these running dots until I can learn how to use the technical gizmo's that allow for composition of sentences and paragraphs on these pages. If a nineteen year old can understand such sundry devices I suppose I should seek the means to this grammatical end. In the mean time I am afraid you will have to suffer along with me.....Can I pick 'em! The 2008 Detroit Tigers are off to a zero and seven record. I bet the puddy tats on the nose to win more games than the hapless tribe hooligans who fool around at winning baseball down the block from here. It is a long time before October first , and who knows? "Iffy The Dopester" perhaps? Who is this "Iffy The Dopester"? A Detroit newspaper editor named Malcolm Bingay who created in 1934 this immortal imaginary character to celebrate the Detroit Tigers baseball team on the sports page of the Detroit Free Press. I bring up " Iffy" , here in hopes that the Tigers can complete the 2008 season ahead of the tribe in the games won column in the American League Central division.......Betting with Slipsy JR is always a pleasure , and his recipe for salad always hits the spot! I offer this springtime salad recipe as a quick alternative to the regular lettuce and tomato variety that later comes from your garden. Take two cukes and peal and pare them , slicing them into rounds. Place them in a ceramic or glass vessel and sprinkle them with coarse salt and let stand for an hour or so. In the meantime , take a couple of medium or small red and white onions and peal and pare them as well. Take care to remove any of the green sprouting growths common in most storage onions found in market today. Slice these onions in half lengthwise and then in thin half moons and place in a glass bowl. Rinse the salt off the cukes in cold water and place with the onions in the glass vessel. Cover the cukes and onions with white vinegar , and season with coarse black pepper , white pepper , and freshly purchased dehydrated garlic powder. If you have access to fresh California garlic by all means please add these peeled cloves to the salad according to your taste. Do not in any case use or purchase Chinese garlic. If you consider the amount of lead and toxins that exist in merchandise imported from China , please do not consider a purchase of any agrarian products that originate from China. Let your cuke / onion vinegar salad sit at room temperature for a minimum of eighth hours , taste and dilute to taste with fresh cold water. Chill and serve later with grilled meats or fish. I prefer to add at least six jalapeno peppers that have been washed quartered and taking care to remove the white veins and stripped of their seeds of this hot pepper.This addition gives some zing to this salad . I omit the jalapenos here for the faint of heart , though those of you with a bit of verve , please feel free to add. And thank you and a tip of the old green hat to JR Slipsy whose conversation produced this culinary idea....... Enough of this chatty bloviation for the day. I remain sick and tired of politics in this and every season. The behavior of all the National media concerning the 2008 election seems to be extraneous and without much merit. Get used to the idea of Barack Obama as president and get out and work for his cause...... My thanks and a tip of my baseball cap to the kindness of Kim and John who keep me in care packages and help me to mind my business affairs in an active fashion. They are true real people in an often thorny phony world. I am in great debt always to their kindness.Kim's colorful packages are a treat to put my eyes upon , and the figures from history that cover the boxes are refreshing and relaxing and easy on the eyes............. Book Selling Time! I promise myself to work harder at selling and describing for sale books in this space. In possession of a great plan to describe and talk about books and events more than the local politics and cheap players that raise my ire. A recent and timely acquisition of note is a autographed copy of Bill Clinton's MY LIFE. Simply signed on the books title page by Bill Clinton , this is a great opportunity to own an authentic autograph of a rather important American President. I say no more here . I am certain that most all of you reading these words have formed an opinion concerning this rather rascally former President. Say what you will about this Arkansas traveller , the world seems to embrace him in a higher fashion than our current seated President. Now if we could only convince Bill Clinton to tell Hillary to sit it out in 2008 , we might just get someplace down the road. I am afraid that yet another Whitehouse dynasty is not to many of our likings. Sit it out Hillary. No more business as usual please.

---

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.

---

Plywood Cities

Walking a gritty few miles around our fast crumbling northeast Cleveland neighborhood this ominous penultimate March morning , the skies laced fast with tenebrific clouds. I am served reminder of two factoids in a very clear fashion. One , Bud Selig must live in the subterranean beer cellar in Suds City , because he sure does not possess a clue about Cleveland weather in late March. Two. There is sure a lot of dog shit on the street. Take the second factoid in whatever manner you wish ? As I amble past the boarded up Pizza Hut , Ponderosa Steakhouse ,Goodyear Tire Company , and a gross of other plywood encrusted storefronts , these grim visages do nothing to promote the idea of exercise that has gripped my aging psyche. Instead this brisk walk rapidly becomes a game of eyes down dodge the doggy doo doo , and hum a happy little tune in attempt to negate the ugly abandoned place this once lively neighborhoods retail district has become. Corporate abandonment! The worst vision on this stroll along the Boulevard however is the boarded up former K-Mart and more recently a former Big Lots store who abandoned retail efforts here due to changing demographics , now sits empty . Dangerous , and mouldering while awaiting an uncertain future as a proposed City recreation Center. Now as the signage for the former Big Lots store has been removed , leaving me with only a chuckle when remembering the letter "L" in the Big Lots sign was burned out for the last few years of the store's existence. A not so funny sight gag , that speaks more than less about contemporary life in Cleveland ,Ohio.Corporate bigots! Now , this massive former blue light special space now turned rancid taunts and mocks all of us who pass it daily.An eyesore! Yeah , yet another corporate invader species , in this case KMart from Detroit , Michigan , deciding that they wanted no part of our neighborhood, so they blew the property off and we are left with an ugly empty building as reminder of there Collinwood kiss off , complete with a pot holed parking lot designed now to bust your axle first and ask questions later left behind for good measure. I suppose some Ohio corporations , say perhaps the former office supply joint out on Warrensville Center Road in Shaker Heights , ditched stores in Detroit. Touche. Far as I am concerned Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are about in the same shape and often it proves difficult to discern any visible or demographic differences between the two cities. We Clevelanders are up here on the south shore of Lake Erie and right across the water lives our friends from Ontario , Canada. Lots of melons amid the hoser strains lay ahead on the other side of these Erie waters. Melons , I said . Sadies rule! Back here in Ward 11 our City Councilman , Mike Polensek proves daily he is a well intentioned sort. Prone now in the late stages of a rather lengthy career as city councilman to fashion himself as a sage and experienced leader , whose twenty nine years spent in Cleveland City council chambers gives him the right to comment upon a large number of Cleveland issues. You bet! Councilman Polensek received some national media attention for his chastising and dressing down of a local Collinwood youth that Polensek witnessed tossing litter among the streets he is entrusted as elected official to represent. The young man was rather blase in his response to our councilamn and there is the story. Councilman Polensek acted in a strong pseudo parental fashion in the hopes of advancing this young man's social graces and imparting to him the negative lesson of public littering . Or loitering? Does not matter. Any society is only as good as the sum of it's parts. Yu go Mike Polensek! I concur and applaud your efforts and agree with this cleanliness cause. As I said earlier Councilman Polensek is a well intentioned sort ...I last observed Mike Polensek at a Euclid , Ohio Democratic Party for Obama rally that featured Carolyn Kennedy as a principal speaker held prior to the Ohio primary at the Euclid Community Center earlier this year. Councilman Polensek took the podium early on in the affair and in addressing the issue of foreclosure in our region said he was " sick and tired of being sick and tired" , concerning the incidents of foreclosure and the dire effects they have on our communities. Well put , councilman. Polensek then sat in stern studied silence facing the crowd with a Ohio For Obama , sign flashed towards the crowd of 150 or so attendees for the remainder of the evening . A good soldier for a good cause... Collinwood has no recreation center , and the abandoned KMart on Lakeshore Boulevard has been the proposed site of one for as long as I can remember. The closest City of Cleveland recreation center is the Glenville Recreation Center on East 113th street , under ten miles in distance , yet worlds away in regards to youthful politics. Glenville is Tarblooder territory , Collinwood is Railroaders turf. An invisible boundary exists between these adjoining neighborhoods , and rivalries in high school sports and other more street like matters involving commercial boundaries and illicit activities , run high. It is an unfortunate fact of life that many of our youth are witness on a daily basis to the street crimes of drug sales and prostitution that occur in Cleveland neighborhoods. Most of the customers for these illicit criminal enterprises are drawn here from the five or so Counties that surround Cuyahoga ,and it is easy to spot these low life visitors as they amble about in their hoopty automobiles doing their dirty deeds here in Cleveland .Plenty of crime exists in the rather cross eyed outbacks and dirt trailer types sequestered deep into a surrounding rural county. Often these bad boys are related to some distant parish or township politicians who creates law not observes law , and to quote a phrase "the beat goes on." These so called victimless crimes do have their victims however. Our youth who are doomed to live amid this traffic. These emerging Cleveland youth would be well served with a recreation center as a means of building enough athletic skills , and social graces to perhaps deter them from choosing the easy entrepreneurial skills that have dire long term consequences.To date Councilman Polensek fights hard to deliver this Recreation Center for Collinwood citizens . Keeping an item like this alive is to keep it in the news and in the public eye. The Collinwood neighborhood is among the better off of others in the scheme of events which Cleveland , Ohio is comprised of today. Hanging on by the slightest of margins to a fading dignity is Collinwood , Ohio 2008. An important Cleveland neighborhood to study intensely and often. How goes the future of Collinwood so goes the city. I do not have to elaborate on the positive benefits of exercise for adults , and children alike. Nor does it take a genius to figure that if a household is troubled and chaos exists within it's fabric that youth spending time away from a dysfunctional home situation is a positive , not a negative. The message at the Obama rally was to imagine and embrace the ability to dream and imagine positive change.If we can deliver candidate Obama to the oval office perhaps more funds will reach the tired streets and neighborhoods of Cleveland ,Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. hopefully resulting in more recreation centers and social services? The chant at the Euclid community center rally for Obama ended with the crowd chanting " Yes we can, Yes we can" over and over again. Time has arrived to make some choices , perhaps Obama can make the difference.Today the shame of the empty Cleveland Browns football stadium , built with public funds for private profit, stands on our lakefront empty 355 days a year while our Cleveland youth suffer from a paucity of recreation facilities and their lives become a gamble against the odds of prison or death on Cleveland's mean streets. Thousands of well fed Mothers and Fathers and their off springs many from far off suburbs will attend the 2008 Cleveland American League baseball opener today , spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on beer and food , trophy t-shirt souvenirs and the like. Most Cleveland residents and youth never even get a sniff of this corporate oxymoron ballyard/billboard newly named " progressive field". Calamity field is more apt a name for the baseball yard that the progressive insurance company paid twenty million to name! How many recreation centers would twenty million build?! Hell, the Cleveland AL baseball team even remodeled the right field kids playground at the jake into the new calamity field " party deck". Hell of thing society and it's priorities. We were all children once , and how we treat all children speaks miles about who we really are.Obama knows that fact well. As does all concernedr parents worthy of their salt. Now the time has come to act as if we are entering the 21st century as opposed to entering the 19th century in our current backward ways. Obama has decent odds to pull us out of the mess we as Americans are dug into. Bet on it! The amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is pledged and in conversation with Councilman Polensek says is ready and available for an engineering study at the proposed KMart Recreation site on Lakeshore Boulevard. Councilman Polensek says senior fitness from local high rises should be first imperative. The Humphrey Athletic baseball fields behind the proposed site should remain ballfields forever. Historical evidence proves play on that site since the site was cleared years . This former farmland once used to grow the exotic hybrid Humphrey's popcorn used in the famous and delicious popcorn balls and bags of popped corn sold at Euclid Beach Park , East 105th and Euclid , and from a stand on Clevelands public square. Back when popcorn counted for something other than the great garnish it serves with soups or stews.Then as a parking lot until the amusement parks closing after the 1969 season. Flying turns fields forever! Yes we can!

---

They Remained Others Fled

Joc O Sot lies sleeping the final bone yard dirt nap in the shadow of the right field light towers perched way above East Ninth Street across from his tidy little digs in the necropolis his skeletonic remains occupy. High ground. The spirit of Joc O Sot dreaming onward and into the future. "A Distinguished Chief" , reads his headstone. I believe those three simple words as if it is the very rapier of truth. Older law. Old Bones. Laughing back from his grave. "Got you were we want you now Cleveland American League Baseball Team". "We are going to curse you for to settle an old lingering score." Uggh! "Cuyahoooga to you!My old partner Charlie Bread always was quick to tell the world that Cuyahoga translates to roughly " crooked" in the ancient tongue. So Charlie Bread often yelled Cuyooooggaaa , at those in passing that he did not fancy. Charlie spent most of his adult life on East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland Ohio. First in the old Art Deco beautiful sentry at East Ninth and Euclid's northwest corner The Bond's Clothing Company. A few doors south of the old Roxy Burlesque Theatre . Charlie fit out the strippers outfits every Monday evening , and was so close to so much beauty and tragedy wrapped up in a tight little pocket. Accordingly. Some rubbed off on him. Jelly that is. Composition and form. Ignored my own advice. Old bones molder away in this rapidly draining swampuserium. A stroll about the grounds of the cemetery down the block . Produces an early settlers tombstones inside the east ninth street gates that have been " effected" by some form of primitive Earth movement recently. A Terra firma belch or gaia fart perhaps? Rocks! Not the low ball fecal laced crackler gas emitted down the hill near the old pier the clothing pin bin or whatever that odious anti aesthetic graveyard of bad taste is up near the ditch.Yeah , that ditch! The one down by the east ninth street pier and that ugly pointy mausoleum for old rock and roll rags. Our high ground local cemetery tombstones more likely than not victims of a shifting of the local earth 2006 style. Heavy tombstone just inside the East Ninth Street cemetery gate grew legs and moved it's three hundred or so hunk of chiseled rock form a few feet?The Carter family headstone got the tombstone blues . Got up and trucked off it's ill conceived home of the last two years .Knocked off it's weighty perch atop the original faded early nineteenth Century head stones just inside the gate on Erie Street." Effected By The Early Settlers of the Western Reserve ." A crushing modern weight placed top the original early nineteenth century headstones in a less than Historically or aesthetically pleasing manner in the year 2006 , and a source of bewilderment anytime I have viewed this invader headstone. . " When others fled fever and ague The Carters stayed" . "They Remained Others Fled". Looks like some real live humans perhaps conspiring to lift and pry this hunk of stone off to the hypothetical wet headed creature dreaming of a big junkyard payoff from some scrap dealer.Just who could you imagine to rob a graveyard? What sort of desperate human is deranged enough to violate the dead? This is the realm and mater of horror comprised. "Effected". A justified deed. "Effected" like the competition with Detroit , Michigan and the surrounding suburbs for mostly all the wrong reasons in these early years of the twenty first century. Growth often comes attached with some form or other of pain , of varying degree.Picking on an old bone. Like a set of saliva dripping canine jaws wrapped about a distinctively piquant yet recently discarded bovine soup bone. How did this city of Cleveland ever get the notion to become more as Detroit , Michigan than Toronto , Ontario? Ask the recent urban planners of this odd automotive Nation. Government hit men . Using bulldozers and politically motivated Urban renewal plans as weapons against the fabric of the American urban landscape in the second half of the twentieth century. Definitely effected behavior served up with profits diverse and crooked as the easily purchased American City and County governments and transit authorities bought off by the well documented consortium of oil , auto , steel , and rubber industries who replaced the historical veins in the urban American corpus, with interstate highways , high rise ghettos , and all forms of ugly empty parking lots created from the once occupied tenants of diverse interesting North American cities. Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are examples of botched surgical experimentation of the most heinous stripe. Cheap ripped and torn shells of their former urban glory , Cleveland and Detroit are the De facto examples of American cities in decline. Cleveland politics can be proud by in comparison to the sad , immoral examples set recently by some of the Mayors of Detroit ,Michigan.The current Cleveland mayor is not the problem . The prolific graft , pillage and plunder equation that becomes a day to day living scandal which has brought Cleveland , Ohio and Cuyahoga County to the low place that it resides today . Oh yeah , the politicians and corporate types have had there way here for better than two centuries now , and it is difficult not to be sadly swept up in their waning causatum . Sadly enough the very infrastructure of this part of the post industrial metal badlands comprising the botched Great Lakes former industrial works is now kaput. The urban fabric of these rusty deserted places are rotting away. Citizens , housing , and commercial concerns included. The damned Great Lakes region is a rancid and decrepit cesspool of abandoned lives and industrial wastes of all shapes and stripes. Erie , Pa. Buffalo, N.Y. or any other of the void and null grim places in the post industrial vat of human stew meat and fabula anima mundi that makes one cringe aloud today seem to me the same street merely another city. Deranged news items often of such heinous stripe , emerge from these parts as if lifted from the pages of a history or chapter of events more akin to a third world country. Sordid tales of human depravity . Family warfare. Violent deaths carved out of disputes concerning low gambling games , or perceived slights while all parties are high as hoot owls , under the influence of some " bad shit". Yeah , some evil dope dumped in the hood by way of some foreign soil and rife for to cause mayhem and ugly affairs in all quarters it enters. Government sponsored and aimed to keep the oppressed down closer to the ground. { to be continued in a nauseous fashion I am afraid}

---

wcpn reviews Mayor Jackson's new safety plan,

This morning's nine to ten a.m. slot on WCPN radio was an examination of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's new get tough on crime Public Safety Plan , which entails getting both gangs and the guns that gangs would brandish off Cleveland streets in an effort to reduce homicides and violent crimes. A great idea. The wcpn host was joined by Cleveland council representative Nina Turner who was "encouraged" ,by Mayor Jackson's plan , and stated that " desperate times call for desperate measures". A point well taken. Also on board was Professor Ronnie Dunn from Cleveland State Universities Department of Urban Studies , who felt that a " community awareness component " , was an important consideration in this plan that was not addressed directly , and he expressed concern for the potential abuse of of racial profiling when Cleveland police start enforcing this plan. Guns are color blind , and the felons that use them in committing crimes come in all colors , ages , and demographic profiles. Callers to the show were of mixed opinions , though the distinct majority seemed to agree in principle with the mayor's plan , with the exception of a concerned mother of a five year old , who stated she was " against Mayor Jackson's plan" , citing concerns of the potential abuse of racial profiling as her reason.Professor Dunn departed halfway through the program , and was replaced by Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association representative Steve Loomis , who assured that the rank and file officers will work within the letter of the law in enforcement of this plan , not be overly aggressive or punitive in their approach. Loomis also stated that due to thin ranks officers were more often than not " reactive , not proactive" , when working with crime in Cleveland these days due to the Cleveland Police layoffs of 2004 .He also stated that "politics , simply politics" , play a major role in the diminished number of police on the streets at any given time. Adding that the City needs to add 300 officers to the 1500 that currently serve. With Cleveland's population at the 478,000 figure The ratio of even 1800 police officers to 478,000 citizens appears to be quite a low percentage. In checking the police to citizen ratio in Cuyahoga County's second largest city , Parma ,Ohio , I found that Parma employs 128 police officers to serve 85,655 citizens , an average of 1.03 officer to every thousand citizens. Digging even deeper I discovered the National average of police to citizen ratio per city is 2.8 to one. It does not take an Einstein to see how thin the Police Department in Cleveland , Ohio is in comparison to other cities. This numerical disparity translates to a very thin blue line indeed , and it would perhaps serve wcpn to research and include similar statistics in their future programs concerning Cleveland Police and their relationship to fighting crime. Severely understaffed seems an understatement! Some discussion occurred concerning the origin of the firearms that exist in Cleveland's streets. No one seemed to get the big picture , that firearms are big business , and that money on the streets of Cleveland can purchase just about any old item one desires for the right price. I sited in my January 2 , 2008 post entitled RESOLUTE , that a group of us were pinned down by gunfire on New Years eve , and it is an odd week that passes when some type of gunfire is not heard in our East side neighborhood. The obvious solution is to hire more Police officers to fight crime in all American cities afflicted by heinous and violent crimes. Our Federal Government currently has placed us in great debt by mustering the mostly United States troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan for the purpose of holding fragile peace in those Countries and establishing democracies. Well politicians , democracy begins and ends on our home battlefields , and cities like Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan could sure use the efforts of soldiers , police , or the United States Marines to fight crime and hold the fragile peace that exists in our war torn urban neighborhoods! How can any of these Federal politicians keep up the ruse of fighting a war to hold a peace overseas , when our own citizens face similar warlike conditions on a daily basis in America? Time has come for breaking the cycle of crime and poverty that send adolescents into gangs as a means of survival on Cleveland's tough streets. Prevention is always a better strategy than the proactive interventions that result after the crime is committed , and leads to increased incarcerations. The WCPN host did a credible job with regards to addressing this ongoing urban problem , but would better serve his audience with a bit more preparation prior to taking the airwaves.....On a sad though similar subject. One week ago , on Tuesday January 8 ,2008 , a high school friend , Jim Cappetto was struck from behind and knocked out in the hallways of Cleveland's South High School while attempting to break up a fight between gangs at the high school. Jim was best man at a mutual friends wedding some years ago , and he was the leather lunged voice at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium who vocalized the cheer JULIOOOO! , whenever Julio Franco stepped up to the plate for the Cleveland Indians. Jim Cappetto is quite a nice man , possessing an easy demeanor and smile , and a dedicated teacher for thirty plus years in the Cleveland system , and please keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a complete and quick recovery. An interesting and scary fact is that on the day of January 8 , 2008 when Mister Cappetto was attacked and injured , two Cleveland police officers and six security guards were present on the South High School campus. Not a small number of people to hold the peace. Enough said! Book Selling Time! The spike in Cleveland's murder rate in 2007 is reason for concern , though we must note that a decrease in other crimes was concurrent. We offer today an earlier view of the same sorry fatal subject the 1947 edition of CLEVELAND MURDERS , edited by Howard Beaufait. Merely one volume in a series on the subject by City in America. CLEVELAND MURDERS chronicles the notable examples of this sorry subject , including the Kingsbury Run multiple murders that remain unsolved to this day. Not exactly an uplifting read , but take note that events do not change that much through the years in Cleveland , Ohio. Not for the better at least.

---

Shaker Heights , Ludlow gang beating not much news on wcpn

This mornings nine to ten a.m. slot on wcpn was dedicated to discussion concerning the tragic beating incurred by a Shaker Heights attorney who was out walking in his neighborhood on New Year's eve , and severely beaten by a gang of seven youths , with an iron pipe no less , traumatizing and hospitalizing him with severe injuries , resulting in the surgical placement of pins and plates in his legs. A rather sad and sinister state of affairs for a pretty stable suburban neighborhood . Though this man's recovery in a psychological vein will cause this poor victim shock and pain for sometime to come as well as those in his Shaker Heights Ludlow community that feel his pains and admire his courage. Present for the hour were Shaker Heights mayor Earl Leiken , Shaker Heights Council member Al Foster , and a member from the Ludlow Community Association named Chudzinski. The wcpn moderator initially confused the Shaker Heights councilman foster with being the Cleveland councilman , a rather embarrassing moment to be certain , and indicative of the less than stellar preparation that occurs in regards to this time slot. The Shaker Heights mayor elected to introduce himself , and proceeded to carry on concerning the recent Federal crime figures that show a marked decrease in crime in Shaker Heights. Unfortunately for the victim of the Ludlow beating , the gang that assaulted him were not included in this statistical abstract. Councilman Foster stated the obvious need for parental involvement , and claimed that race was not an issue. The victim is Caucasian , the juveniles Afro American. Both of these elected officials seemed sincere and to genuinely care about the fate of the City they represent, though neither had much to offer in the form of suggestions to prevent such occurrences from happening again. The Ludlow community representative Chudzinski expressed optimism , hoping that this was a wake up call for more vigilant neighborhood involvement. A matter of pulling together , not ripping apart his message. What is truly sad here is that no acknowledgement of the obvious sad social condition that acted as a precursor for this criminal condition , " baby childs" , there I said it , received any mention. Yes , " baby childs " , these youth who ganged up on our unfortunate victim were in the age range of fourteen to seventeen years of age , and it is more likely than not that perhaps some of these young men were conceived by young mother's perhaps not prepared to accept the responsibility to raise them . According to 2005 statistics for the City of Cleveland birth records , twenty percent of Mother's giving birth residing in the City of Cleveland were between eleven and nineteen years of age. Not a race issue , as much as a youth pregnancy issue. The usual two thousand ton elephant in the room , youth pregnancy ,was kept cowering in the corner by the participants and callers alike. What can one say in defense of children conceiving children save that it is time to break the cycle. Now! An Akron caller mentioned being robbed and pistol whipped on December 27 , 2007 near Shaker Square. Though this same Akron caller was cut off quickly by the wcpn host when she critically pointed out that the " big football stadium downtown was all good and well , though not of much use when it came down to urban brass tacks such as public safety". A Shaker Heights resident named Steve called in to report purchasing a taser. I think that Steve is a bit light in his expectations of self defense in this choice of weapons. Some small amount of time was spent in mentioning the education of parents concerning their off springs , though the obvious in this matter of parenting is to begin with breaking the cycle of teen childbirth. No more or less. Juvenile gangs again were not mentioned , though much has been written on this subject , and it is human nature that draws together children in a world , and a rereading of William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES is all it takes to begin to understand the sad and sometimes cruel rites of passage that comprise adolescence. Oddly enough the one time that da p.d. should have been present at a wcpn , in the form of editorial columnist Dick Feagler , whose Sunday January 6 , 2008 dealt with this crime and the cultural reality of such events as urban flight and offered this advice via his conversation with a Shaker Heights police officer on walking in Shaker Heights " Go in two's , or get a big dog and walk it. Or take a cell phone with you pre-dialed to 911". Sounds like stern ,stellar and apt advice. Especially the cell phone particular. Police response in Shaker Heights is quick , and had the victim had a cell phone it may have made a difference.It would have served the listeners well to have been able to comment on Feagler's Sunday article , which walked the line between racism and modern urban real time life. Bordering a City such as Cleveland , presents Shaker Heights residents with some odd quality of life issues that can lead to becoming quandaries such as the unfortunate victim of this heinous and violent Juvenile gang crime. Shaker Heights is also around the corner from North Randall , Ohio , and it is only this past Friday evening January 4 , 2008 , that a multiple shooting occurred in a motel in a Northfield Road Motel located in North Randall , Ohio resulting in five men being shot ranging in age from eighteen to twenty years of age. In 2007 Cleveland , Ohio had a rash of violent crimes committed by a South east side , Slavic Village , gang who called themselves " The Goonies" , and beat and robbed many elderly victims. Our Ohio jails are filled to over capacity with these sad young cases of Juvenile / adult crimes. Our maternity words are swollen with children conceiving children. As for solutions , it seems that few quick fixes exist. Keeping the plight of such crimes front and center in our minds and having open dialogue concerning such modern dilemmas as teen pregnancies , and Juvenile crime is a great start.I only wish that I was kidding concerning being pinned down on New Years eve by random gunfire in our East side neighborhood. Staying well put instead of milling about the rather uncertain mean streets of Cleveland , Ohio that evening seems the norm not the exception these days. Perhaps if our political officials worked harder at the social ills of our Cities , and less at the corporate welfare issues that occupy their time , we would fare better collectively. I received a distress call the other day from a visitor to Detroit , Michigan a few days after the New Years. She was worried about taking public buses in Detroit after a middle aged woman was shot in the face for the crime of not having any money to give the assailant that committed a robbery upon her as she disembarked from a Detroit , Michigan Department of Transportation bus. My Friend purchased a second hand purse , and placed ten dollar bills in it to give up quickly if accosted in a similar fashion. What a way to have to consider to live in modern America ! Join a community group or block watch organization. Volunteer some of your hard earned time to participate in inner city youth programs. Sacrifice your nfl football sunday's and become a big brother or big sister. Hell , I do not even begin to know were to offer advice in this terrible matter of Juvenille crime. Start close to home , keep those that you Love and respect in good form , and look out for one another. We are only as good as our collective efforts. Book Selling Time! You guessed it 1 William Golding LORD OF THE FLIES. Most all of us have read this volume at sometime in our life , and the message of the cruel and sometimes violent and difficult adolescent passage has never been better addressed to my knowledge. Best wishes to all victims of terrible crimes such as the one suffered by the Shaker Heights Ludlow resident.Believe in Love and take a moment to care for those that you do. Pass it on.

---

Charlie Louvin , Detroit, fresh oysters , and da p.d's resident weirdo

Charlie Louvin played a fine two hour plus set this past Friday December 14 , 2007, for the one hundred or so fans in attendance at The Beachland Ballroom on Waterloo Road in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood. Now a spry eighty years of age Charlie Louvin is the de facto voice for country music of the classic not contemporary fashion and is very much still a musical force today.Covering many favorites from his solo career and the career that included his late brother Ira . Mister Louvin performed Great Atomic Power , Cash On The Barrel Head , and the often covered Christian Life. As well as great interpretations of classics by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton , Woody Guthrie , and a Blue Yodel by Jimmie Rogers among others. A highlight was a song that Mister Louvin addressed as his signature song , See The Big Man Cry. The band that backed Mister Louvin was able and soulful , and his duets with the female guitarist were breathtaking in a sparse beatific fashion. Though I caught Mister Louvin working a cigarette between his lips after the show , his voice is strong and he worked the corners of his vocal range in an upward fashion , gaining strength as the evening progressed. Charlie Louvin remains the humble king of true country music today , and it is a shame that not more fans were about this past Friday to listen to his great voice. The Beachland Ballroom is a true Cleveland treasure , with two owners who book consistently the most interesting , eclectic , and aesthetically pleasing acts on a weekly basis year round. Please support this important local institution , which truly is a gem. Just like old Charlie Louvin...........On to Detroit , Michigan for a quick tour this past weekend. Not much seems to have changed since my last visit a few years back. Sure , a few casinos have sprouted up amid the deserted and decayed streets of the Corktown neighborhood , though no real change seems to have occured save the pair of cookie cutter stadiums for football and baseball. I was glad to read recently in a article concerning the casino biz in Detroit that the homeless that panhandle the area around the casinos are now customers of the slot machines. I truly wish these destitute folk good luck , and I am happy that their money is green and spends as well as the next parties. As we know empirically , crime spikes upward with the advent of legalized gambling , and Detroit , Michigan would do better to work on attracting some of it's former citizens back into the city itself , instead of clipping the paychecks and funds available from the tormented addicted gamblers that casinos attract. I was glad to see that Tiger Stadium was still standing at the historic intersection of Michigan and Trumbell in the Corktown neighborhood. Many great sports memories exist for me and the entire State of Michigan. I would not be at all motivated ever to attend a Tigers game at the new Commerica Park. Seeing Commerica on television proves that another wave of cookie cutter ersatz intimate ball yards have been constructed since Baltimore's Camden yards provided the template for such phony architecture some years ago. Detroit's Tiger Stadium deserves a place on the National Register of Historic Buildings , and is significant in that it is the last standing example of a baseball stadium that was engineered and built with the fan in mind before the lodge holder. Wrigley Field in Chicago was built for a Federal League team , and is as worthy an architectural significant example. Fenway Park in Boston also unique and a valuable National structure worthy of preservation. Baseball has been played on the corner of Michigan and Trumbell since the Civil War , then a picnic grounds with a baseball diamond , and I for one would return every year without fail for a tourist trip to Detroit if Tiger Stadium was again utilized and preserved. As for Commerica Park , tear that abysmal phony ball yard down and move the Tigers back to Michigan and Trumbell. Detroit , Michigan is a great City in severe decline , and as a citizen of a similar City in decline it proves difficult to watch two cities repeat each other's mistakes. Time has come to work on providing safe inhabitable neighborhoods for those of us who remain in these cities , not more corporate welfare for the downtown players , land grab gangs , and greedy interests who pimp out the political system for their personal profit. If we place our elderly and children safety first , and all other concerns as secondary , we as a culture will be headed in the right direction..... Had a great trip across the mighty Cuyahoga , local Native American Indian for crooked, yesterday with my pal Slipsy Junior. Junior was kind enough to treat me to three fine bivalves from the briny Louisiana gulf stream of the oyster variety in their natural juicy selves replete with half shell's. Shucked up of course.Simple is best!Our pal Jose gave us each a pint container of his homemade sofrito as a Holiday gift. Thanks Jose! I will combine your kindness with baccala and eggplant in the Puerto Rican style and eat off it for a week or so. A visit outside to the fine Family concern of the DiCara's produced a lovely bag of fresh sweet English peas , eaten just like the oysters. Raw and naked.Mister DiCara is a old school Market man , and always has the best and freshest selection of seasonal vegetables at the family stand that he now shares with his daughter Mellisa whose seasonal self adornment by means of very creative costumes always speaks for the season or holiday at hand. Do not miss trading with either of these two West Side Market merchants should happen to cross our crooked river. Have your passport in order how ever.....Thanks to P Danny , who read about the volume of Cleveland Stadium Memories in an earlier article and put his money up and purchased a copy.P Danny and his charming bride Greta are great Clevelander's , Greta being quite a good euchre player as well... Dan Oak also checked in on the Cleveland Stadium piece , and as most of us do shared a favorite moment concerning his memories of pater and the Cleveland Stadium. For me it was watching Ted Williams take batting practice on a sunny summer morning prior to a Saturday day game in the year 1959. Standing behind the home plate screen and watching Williams , then into his last years , crack one ball after another into the lower right field stands , the noise from the horsehide hitting the wood seats or adjoining concrete they perched on as audible today as that moment suspended in time nearly fifty years ago. My Father stood with us behind the screen pointing out Williams whip hand and the varieties and strong features of his impressive swing. n Now the sordid 21st century leaves me with a rather morbid vision of the splendid splinter's severed head packed in some sort of cryogenic soup , awaiting resurrection and transplant if the modern medical mavens can produce the means. I prefer the vision of Williams able swing , while my Father's hand was at my shoulder is now a memory flash stored as a lodestone of sanity compared to the hard scrabble science fiction bent antics of the modern world. Such as a nightmare version of Ed Wood's THEY STOLE HITLER'S BRAIN , was recast as " They Pickled The Splendid Splinter ....I have always imagined da p.d.'s Kevin O' Brien to be a weirdo of sorts , if indeed he existed at all. O'Brien"s low humor on the op ed page rivals the comedic slime that Rush Limbaugh pushes or the twisted antics of one National radio syndicated bland white bread sad humorist known as the drudge report. To take the content of any of the above as anything else as stand up humor would prove quite a stretch. Leave it to da p.d.'s butt buddies wcpn radio ,on the a.m. Thursday December 20 , 2007 nine to ten morning radio show , you know the confusing one that pretends to offer ideas , only to deliver pre digested opinions instead. The humor of refering to themselves as an idea stream is not lost on me , and to really seem to prove what a weird piece of work this O'Brien actually is , I can only assume that the pathos is not lost on wcpn either. Seems that O'Brien penned some poetic trashy ditties , reworded versions of Christmas Carols . Pastiches with a political flavor. O'Brien has a " face made for radio" and a voice to match the metaphor. And the mere inclusion of his croaking and belching some nonsense verse about " using awesome powers to tear down the Breuer Tower" to the tune of " Hark , the Herald Angels Sing" , was rather mundane and glibly morbid in it's delivery and content. Did nothing for me at all . Nor did the hour long show do very much for the radio public either , seeing as only three telephone calls were recieved , and the O' Brien muscial / political clips seemed to be added to fill a conspicuous void. O' Brien's odddly resembled in form only the original creative pastiches of Christmas Carols by the brilliant political humorist and syndicated cartoonist Walt Kelly of Pogo fame , and how O'Brien's verse and voice and content resembled some odd bleating and belching of a snarky little wag that fell into the wassail bowl. Whew! This O'Brien really is weird!.... Seems that the Cuyahoga County Government made enough of a mess on the corner of East Ninth and Euclid by purchasing this landmark building , in the first place.The Tower's proposed destruction was sad enough.Any locally and International recognized iconic architectural structure's proposed slaughter by a local Government is bad . The train of thought that arrived at that place to create rubble of acclaimed architecture only seems to further label Cleveland, Ohio as the rube town that it is already perceived as by the majority of the literate world today. Let us exercise at least the modicum of common sense , pausing long enough to prioritize our future as a County Government with declining tax futures. The cooler heads at Cuyahoga County seem to have taken just that pause and should now be rewarded for their current new found fiscal prudence .Let us look at the County's purchase of the Tower as a community asset and reward and sell the spin as just that. Throw some of the " arts money "gathered recently with the cigs tax at renovating the Tower. Try this spin folks?[ As part of an attempt to attract a more intelligent and art savvy tourist class, we the citizens of Cuyahoga County invite civilzed citizens of the world to visit this architecturally significant tower as you would a sculpture in an art museum , and by the way have fun here with the reopening of Cleveland Museum of Art , and look at the renovated Bruer CMA addition as well while you are here....} Sounds to me like hot air , my own wind at that . Yet when I open an envelope with a plea for arts funds , or just some buncha aired out media copy , it more resembles a travel dialogue than copy..... Our civic good fortune placed Breuer's only major skyscraper safely in Government hands . The demographic is increasing for a modernism positive voting generation born after 1970 that will applaud the efforts of an enlightened County Government that would recognize the Tower's significance in accordance with International architectural and design institutions that gave Breuer and the Tower it's due earlier this year by including it in a catalogue of important Breuer design works. This International recognition is well reported in an article by Christopher Magg printed in the New York Times , earlier in this year when the local County Government still had it in mind to destroy the Tower . Please google New York Times , Christopher Magg / Marcel Breuer, for this well written article concerning this Cleveland political art fiasco. So far , so good with regards to the Cuyahoga County Governments ownership of the Tower. It is not uncommon in Europe and other outposts of civilization to leave historic buildings in a form of pre preservation stasis , and it is with sincere hope that this pattern of thought will prevail with regards to the Tower.... Mothballing and taking the time to make appropriate sound planning ideas regarding the fates of the former Cleveland Trust properties , including their original Euclid Avenue buildings East along Euclid from the rotunda. It was on this site that the second Breuer Tower was to have been built as part of his original plans desingened for The Twin Towers . In a sane world the proposed and unbuilt second Tower would be constructed sometime within the twenty first century and Breuer's vision completed and serving as headquarters for a progressive regional government. The Superb Terra cot ta gems of the Halle Brother Buildings and the CAC , and upper Euclid Avenue must be restored as a district if a preservation minded city is to function correctly and aesthetically in concert with smart Cities. Cleveland deserves intelligent Government. We are the people.{ "Look at the peoples", Charles Brown , yet another late great American voice}..... As for O' Brien and his op ed article's in da p.d. , sorry I can't say as to having the pleasure of reading one. I have attempted a few sentences of his churlish prose and having been reminded of my own read on no farther. Without fail have chuckled and departed the column knowing just were this weirdo's efforts were headed. I do not read the funny pages either.My Mother is eighty one years old , Irish as lace , and a good judge of character even now while currently suffering a tough illness. O' Brien's columns are not an illness she can suffer , nor his rabid and sometimes vapid political views. Perhaps , as many former newspaper employee's count upon to do with the shank end of their careers , just prior to visiting God's waiting room and after mowing an eternity of lawns .That is , using the contacts made while in the employ of the media to stagger about a water cooler while employed in the public relations, advertising , or some other poisonous propaganda trade.With the emerging bond crisis to further complicate the foreclosure fiasco , expect 2008 to tank , and some lean years lie ahead for corporate America in the media , entertainment sectors .Layoffs accross the board will follow. All of us will suffer to some degree. Personally try the European Union , their currency is faring better these days , and we will have accrued so much debt that if our bad bets are called in we run the risk of loosing our collective wealth and value as a Nation.... 1801 Superior is a modern architectural and creative failure , and appears to suffer an impending fiscal crisis and failure as well. Prudent media concerns periodically trim dead timber as it will be soft wood that tumbles if you belong to management. Fat salaries and little produced copy should equal liability in terms of most of our current survival oriented careers in the work force. If O' Brien is one of the architects of the current op-ed page on da p.d. , he would seem expendable as a productive or creative force . With corporate profits in peril in the dead tree industries , fatted cattle will be slaughtered..... In a City such as Cleveland, Ohio in the year 2007 , whose downtown offers little in the terms of architectural significance , one less historic structure means quite a bit to those of us in possession of our faculties and some sort of responsible aesthetic selves. O'Brien's sad arse songs provide evidence of da p.d.'s croaking and signing for their suppah's on the public airwaves of wcpn radio. wcpn takes the public out of public radio 24/7/365! Leave the singing to the likes of Charlie Louvin ! Book Selling Time! Time again for a quick look back a mere thirty one years and the great volume penned by Mary - Peale Schofield LANDMARK ARCHITECTURE OF CLEVELAND. Read and view the Marcel Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower on pages 97 to 99. of this fine volume. The sad fact concerning Cleveland architecture is that many of these documented buildings are victims of poor planning and have been demolished in the past thirty odd years. The destruction of the Breuer structure would only provide yet another cultural black eye for a city mostly considered a mid west rube outpost of less than salient aesthetics and ethics. Stop International art terrorism , save the Breuer Tower!

---

What do you get if you?

Combine two sorry fatuous public relations campaign jingo's into one? Let's try this exercise this morning.

Take "I believe in Cleveland "and combine with "Positively Cleveland", and presto just as quick as you can say regional Countywide Government you get I POSITIVELY BE LEAVING CLEVELAND!

Yes boys and girls, college grads and political back thumping sycophants!

All you swell expense account lackeys lying for a living on our supposed “public radio" station. Harrouuumph, honorary degrees extended to one another?

Amid blasts of ballyhoo and vitriol plenty of back thumping over the radio waves plundered by WCPN this Thursday morning?

These radio jokers let loose on WCPN would give you the idea that they actually possess objectivity when it comes to the fates of the citizenry they are speaking in behalf of.

What hot air!

You radio jokers, political and media hacks alike pay attention! Let us now face some hard facts fellow Clevelanders.

The taxpaying segments of Cuyahoga County want no parts of the City of Cleveland, or East Cleveland for that matter.

A simple question should suffice: If you are in deep shit and drowning and only a finite amount of room exists in a metaphorical lifeboat?

Would you?

A. Drag more weight into the lifeboat and drown all aboard?
B. Paddle like the devil dogs of hell are on your tail and escape the fetid mess?

Most of the communities that comprise Cuyahoga County save perhaps East Cleveland would choose B. Hands down!

Most already have. See how these taxpaying citizens have already run with fervor to the adjoining five Counties that comprise our Northeast Ohio region.

True facts speak for themselves, and the actual number of citizens that have already made the exodus from Cuyahoga County is staggering.

Enough said...

Detroit, Michigan during the 1920's practiced what Columbus, Ohio has been up to in the past thirty odd years in expanding City limits and services via incorporating smaller townships, cities, and suburbs into their City Government.

Note that the greatest difference in City populations between Detroit and Cleveland during the 20th century was due to this expansion that the City of Detroit took on early in the Twentieth Century. Imagine all of Cleveland's inner ring suburbs, and early Twentieth Century developed communities, being a part of The City of Cleveland Government. Lakewood, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Garfield Heights, Parma ... you get the picture. All those burbs' part of Cleveland.

This earlier attempt at Regional government in Detroit only led to the premature flight of the upwardly mobile taxpayer to the adjoining Counties surrounding Detroit, leaving Detroit the destitute and decrepit carcass that it is today.

Sure, silver linings exist in both Detroit and Cleveland.

Mostly sad attempts to garner tourism via revamping hotels, restaurants, and the sort of white table cloth mentality that exists in the suburbs and comes a slummin' to these cities for a little wine and sin, leaving for the Blisteria Drives that these suburban tourists call home before midnight.

No real significant gains unless you count the corrupt casino culture of Detroit, or the second rate rock n' roll hall of fame blight at the foot of east ninth street as positive? I for one do not. Sad facts about introducing Casinos into a city is that they spike upward crime , and as for the insipid rock and roll hall of fame we can always wish for a

Tsunami!..

What really does make sense is an attempt to upgrade the infrastructure and services that are paid for by the taxpayers in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. The visible benefit of any form of Regional Government would be in the combining of safety forces.

Increased fire, police, and emergency medical teams would better serve Cleveland citizens.

I am all for regional Government, simply because it will serve Cleveland better than it will the suburbs that it will combine with… As for the proposed Convention Center and Medical Merchandise Mart that Cuyahoga County citizens are already paying for via a convenient tax placed in front of them this past hot vacation time month of August.

Just ask dear old Norman Krumholz to explain the reality of the non impact that either of these two pipe dreams will have on the bottom line of the City and County.

Norman Krumholz is a fine gentleman of the old school, but a severe victim of being a pawn in a larger political game that destroyed much of Cleveland during his tenure in City hall. Norman is up in years, and perhaps more than willing to rectify the horrible effects of serving as City of Cleveland Planning chief during the City's period of most severe decline.

Tell the people the truth about the effects of convention centers in the cities that have built them recently Norman. The simple truth is that like sports stadiums, convention centers do nothing in the realm of creating viable jobs outside of the broom, mop, and bucket variety. The for profit Medical Mart taxes should be quickly transferred to a infrastructure improvement for Cuyahoga County fund while some interested citizens still reside here. Let this be a call for citizens of Cuyahoga County to roll back the taxes gathered for the for profit medical merchandise mart into the means to save our crumbling infrastructure. We will need all the help we can get in this matter in the quick years to come...

Book Selling Time! It is a sad day when the same automobile is parked across the street for twenty four hours broken down and with Missouri plates on its hoopty frame.

Inside is a single woman at the end of the line, which in this case is East Ninth Street just north of Bolivar.

She was in the car all night, sleeping the evening in her ride, and I am now about to leave to pick her up a plate of hot food. I will donate the proceeds of the sale of today's book Walter C. Kidney's HISTORIC BUILDINGS OF OHIO, to her cause.

The Kidney volume features locally a fantastic set of architect’s drawings for the Cleveland Arcade, among many other historic Ohio buildings covered in this as new still shrink wrapped volume.

---

skid row cities

Time was ,not so many years ago that the " skid row" , or a visible and often distressed place of decline and public poverty , was a contained area of older buildings and sad faces and stories found often geographically on the older commercial edge of a City's downtown. Down around the rail yards. Wholesale produce districts. Cheap single room hotels. Funky , smelly old bars. Cheap hash house and chili parlor restaurants. Small retail stores featuring thousands of useful items for the laborer to purchase. Including. Splits of fortified wine with names like wild irish rose, thunderbird , pluck, and the like. Blister wrapped baloney . Smoked meats. Yellow cheese. Tins of mackerel or sardines. Sliced sunbeam white bread. Tobacco of all variety , pipes , papers , work gloves. nudie magazines. cold beer. playing cards. that lady sitting near the store's office door was for sale , or at least for rent.Recreational drugs no problem. Tiny bottles of hair oil , olive oil , tooth powders ,condoms, dice. Amazingly , every last item for sale was behind the store's counters. The store's ancient shylock clerk capable of just about any cash or credit transaction. In some skid row hotel's every floor served a function. Bootlegger in room thirteen. Floor three was for gambling ,y poker and barbut played with a heavy house cut and house armed protection provided . Never no questions asked! Problems with the police department , are you kidding? Fat envelopes of juiced cash with plenty of vig action slipped to the hotel's night clerk. The Old school pawn shops. Labor pools. Salvation Army thrift stores. Junk shops. Used furniture stores. Grocery stores with weathered vegetables and the acrid meat which hit your nostrils as soon as you opened the door. Fabled old neighborhoods , high and low victorian architecture. Federal style architecture. Weathered buildings and poverty apartment houses. //// Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are now skid row Cities. Not a very pretty site for the eyes. Mile after mile of abandoned lives and properties. East side and west side. North and South.Troubled affairs. Desperate people engaged in the pathos of living out lives that present ethical and moral quandaries . Rule not exception. Hunger visible and hang dog gaunt visage. The physical nature of the buildings and social environment are form fit to this raw stew of existence known as life in modern 21st century Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan. Nothing much romantic or poetic found here save the waters of Lake Erie , the Detroit River , and the tragic and ironic souls of the survivors of these abandoned and destitute places. An old school bust out by any stretch.A sad state of affairs found today.Not that very long ago Cleveland , Ohio was a city described as having no major or quality hotels. Now corporate hotels dot the landscape , and we have no city. Poor judgement on the part of the politicians and what passes for leadership in contemporary Cleveland. The city of East Cleveland lies to the east and west of the City of Cleveland borders and should serve as a stern example as to how the mighty can tumble and fall. Described widely as a sister city to Lakewood , Ohio which is an inner ring suburb developed concurrently with East Cleveland at the turn of the twentieth century , Lakewood , Ohio survives as a viable place of residence to this day , and though the buildings and residences were constructed at the same time in history , once proud East Cleveland is now ravaged by years of neglect and crime and serves as great example of a contemporary skid row city. Similar elements and conditions at play in Cleveland, Ohio are working hard to insure at joining East Cleveland in this miserable ghetto existence . The true heroes are the brave and true law abiding citizens that remain committed to Cleveland and East Cleveland. Those said citizens who choose to remain and not flee to the beckoning further afield suburbs. These same citizens who might work a bit harder to help out a neighbor less fortunate. Crime always an issue. Detroit , Michigan has experienced a similar decline as Cleveland's , only on a larger scale , and for a longer period of time . Detroit is always a favorite city of mine. Difficult to perceive much hope for it's future , any more or less than Cleveland's own. Murder is a reality both places , and desperate people take extreme measure to settle disputes. Detroit , Michigan is the current " deadliest city in the United States of America" , according to a report issued by the FBI and Federal Government this past week. Cleveland, Ohio is seventh "deadliest city ". Cleveland , Ohio was once referred to reverently as the " Sixth City" in the 1920's , when at the same time Detroit , Michigan was the automotive and industrial giant of America. Both Cities have prospered previously , and are in great decline today in spite of political efforts to keep them alive and vibrant today in the 21st century. Not much positive hope in sight for either! A pair of post industrial 21st century stumble bum joker run politically incompetent cities . Both bleeding from crime and population loss today. No tourniquet seems to heal the open wounds. Detroit had a great skid row downtown , and as a youth in the sixties we would drive the two hours in search of fun of one form or another. We found what we were looking for in Detroit! Burlesque theatres with filthy comics and tawdry strippers. Bootleg bourbon whiskey . Grande Ballroom on Grand River. Rock and roll music with Stooges , MC5, Rationals , Up , Suzie Quatro and Bob Seger. Pale blue Motown sound abounding. Clang of the street level motor vehicle plants reminded us of Cleveland in a friendly fashion. Baseball games at Tiger Stadium when it was painted green and Kaline roamed the outfield. Years later we followed the Rick Manning era Cleveland Indians to Tiger Stadium to burn his rabbit ears with a sour chant of "Rickieeeeeeeee! " , while perched in the old section of the second tier grandstand in right field. Rick Manning had a great affinity for hitting into rally killing ninth innings 4 - 6 - 3 double plays. I believe the one Cleveland Indians record that Rick Manning owns is for hitting into game ending outs. After viewing his less than illustrious career , Manning is perhaps the most representative Cleveland Indians player of the late 20th century. Terrible baseball! Detroit on the other hand had damn good baseball teams , and it was always about going to an Indians game to watch the quality talented players on the opposing team. Having players like Manning in the starting lineup ensured a loosing season! Skid row baseball in Cleveland, Ohio. Well in all fairness they still made Cadillac's in Detroit back then. Cleveland made Ford's and they broke down a bunch. Professional baseball is healthy in both cities today , though not many citizens of Detroit , Michigan or Cleveland , Ohio can afford the price of admission to the baseball stadiums. Poverty budgets do not allow for paid admission to professional sporting events ., For all the public assistance that has been heaped on these baseball franchises , the least the Indians and Tigers organizations could do is to allow inner city geriatrics and youngsters free admission after the fifth inning. Children and their elders go first in a fit society that is able to imagine a healthy population of more value than mere profit. Not in the skid row cities of Detroit and Cleveland! Detroit and Cleveland politics share a sordid secret. Corruption at critical levels of their elected and appointed political positions . Unfit leadership. International perceptions of Detroit and Cleveland are dire. Note the former " devil's night" in Detroit as a model for the trash tourism that both cities have failed to embrace to date . Sordid sells! Detroit has embraced this trashy tourist notion more than Cleveland due to it's casino culture and international border . [ Always suspected that Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes only good idea that was not self serving was his proposal to build a bridge from Cleveland to Canada ] . A gambling culture promotes crime , as well as more negative than positive social behavior in the urban communities that reside within Detroit and Cleveland borders. Citizens of both cities historically have had access to municipal government sanctioned mob run versions of casinos . Detroit is sin city for the rest of Meeeshegan. Cleveland is the northern most part of the American south. Just above the Mason Dixon line. A blue Northern orphan city in a renegade county . Perched in anoxiated style on the south shores of Lake Erie, a sea of rednecks in the eighty seven counties below that comprise the hicksville that is the remainder of the State Of Ohio. Detroit and it's relationship to the remainder of the State of Michigan in geographically opposite fashion. With the Uppers and jackpine savages that inhabit the Michigan wilds above Detroit the addled equivalents of southern Ohio residents. Bookselling Time! Both Cleveland and Detroit have books that represent better days , and two of these visual documents are YESTERDAY'S DETROIT , and YESTERDAY'S CLEVELAND. George Condon the noted Cleveland journalist and author did a great job composing the Cleveland volume. George is a great writer , fine fellow , and you as readers should be familiar with his great wit and ironic sense of humor.

---