EQUALITY Sifting The Truth Forging The Deed

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

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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!

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