Gloria Ferris

Last week I posted about our friend and neighbor’s Valentine’s Weekend Benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters at his store mlangclothing&cocktails.

This week I am posting a bit more about the event and some of the artists whose work is for sale at Mike’s store.  Three of the artists like Mike are neighbors as well as friends and the fourth artist is a gal who has worked with us in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood at some of our events.  All four women are incredibly talented and produce quality pieces again and again.

Deby Cowdin. You can see examples of Deby’s work at her website from the blue bag. The Civic Innovation Lab recently awarded Deby and her partners one of their grants to use in promoting the recyclable aspect of the artwork she produces and promotes at her gallery/studio.

Denise Donaldson. Denise is planning a very special necklace set for Valentine’s Day.  It will be displayed on Saturday, and as with all her pieces, she will make only one.  She uses mostly semi-precious stones, the more unusual the better. She does her own designing and welcomes custom orders.

Sharon Martyn. Sharon’s stained glass  designs are original and unique and the glass is hand cut and hand ground.. Her handmade wire work adds flow and beauty to each piece she crafts.  The addition of crystals  to her sun catchers adds a dimension of light and sparkle not often seen.  Sharon has created fan lights, fireplace panels and other custom windows for our neighbors. The pieces shown here are her donations to Mike’s raffle to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters.  The heart on the left is light pink and the one on the right is dark purple.

Marge Pauls.  Marge creates original artwork that appeals to the romantic in each of us.  She paints fairies, angels, society moguls and a myriad of other subjects. She incorporates pen and ink in her work which gives it a sharpness and edge that adds “pop” to her work.  Her artwork is available as prints, matted or unmatted, and as note cards. We eagerly await her yearly Christmas card and the party invitation for New Year Eve’s because it will be a new, never seen mpauls original.  She also crafts unique jewelry which will also be at mlangclothing&cocktails. 

Mike tells me that the raffle this weekend will include theater and sporting event  tickets. There may be restaurant gift cards and Mike has thrown in a few items from the store as well.  Besides, the custom shirt deal for a $49 donation BBBS, there will be a pair of $95 pants raffled.   Did I say  that there is no minimum donation? Come buy raffle tickets, donate and get a shirt, buy a few drinks, and sample a few of the appetizers from area restaurants.

This post began as a comment to one of Roldo’s posts over on RealNEO. Roldo always makes me think  and I thank him for that and for bringing Jump Start to mind. And may I say that I am quite proud of Ronn Richard and The Cleveland Foundation’s Board of Trustees willing to question how thinks are shaping up over there at The Fund For Economic Future.  When will the powers that be see that asking questions is not a threat, it is “the Socratic Method”.

First, It is interesting to note that The Cleveland Foundation is taking heat because they are no longer in lock step with how the Fund for our Economic Future is headed. It appears that FFEF straying from its mission helped Cleveland Foundation revisit its own and find that they themselves were straying.  I found it amusing that The Plain Dealer jumped on The Foundation just as it has bloggers, public officials, businesspeople and others who are not in lock step with the GCP.

Let’s follow the money– the Third Frontier Funds are fronted by Ohio taxpayers.  Fund for Economic Future receives funds and distributes said funds to Jump Start, Nortech, MAGNET, TEAMNEO ETC. Jump Start for example chooses a start up to fund after friends, family, credit cards and savings of entrepreneur are exhausted and the future of the dream and local employees are at risk.  Here is where Norm’s point of equity shares come into play.  Jump Start funds company to get it over the  hump. When start up moves to Early Stage. At this point, Jump Start steps back because company should be sustainable.  If not, company dies or if the company is sustainable but needs an influx of capital to expand and grow venture capitalists agree to fund for equity shares.  Company soon is no longer the entrepreneur’s. Many say that not all entrepreneurs are meant to be CEOs, and this is true butventure capitalists do not always have a community in mind. To them, a company that served a community can move elsewhere because human capital is everywhere.  not so, with an entrepreneur who built a company in a specific geographic area.

I have three questions: Why are taxpayer’s now fronting funds that venture capitalists once provided?  With the FFEF now branching out into Effective Government Now are we tying government and economic development together, and should we? Are Ohio texpayers facing undue  risk by underwriting eonomic ventures?

I know that this is a rather simplified version of how I perceive the taxpayers in our state again taking the risk for the private sector. I am a believer in balance, and when I see and read about these issues I see something that is very off kilter. 

One of our neighbors in Brooklyn Centre is hosting a Valentine’s Weekend Benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters at his establishment, mlang clothing & cocktails, located at 1275 Euclid Avenue in the heart of Playhouse Square. Mr. Lang is giving us plenty of opportunity to visit his establishment by holding the event not one day but two days!

I LOVE the flier don’t you?

I received a flier from Mansfield Frazier. I plan to attend “The Long Road Home”  a documentary narrated by Peter Lawson Jones tomorrow January 28th in MetroHealth’s Scott Auditorium. The presentation is from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.

The recession has hit everyone hard, but especially for those trying to reenter after leaving the prison system. Those who know me well are aware that I am a board member for C.A.T.S. –Community assessment and Treatment Services, Inc. We are presently finishing up our capital campaign to “build a Better Place for Women. We serve a population of offenders whose drug and alcohol additions have caused them to make very bad decisions.  I believe in second chances.

And, I am looking forward to seeing the documentary based on Mansfield Frazier’s book “The Long Road Home” and to listen to the panel discussion that will accompany the creening.

Just received this email from our friend Dennis, the inventor.

Come see the speakers at Euclid side of Halle
Building during the ingenuity fest   Please forward this to all your friends.

Sent from my iPhone
Dennis All-Tronics
Builders of one of the finest  speaker systems in the world.
WWW.Atssounds.com
WWW.all-tronics.net

He has invented the most awesome speaker I have ever experienced.   Yes, it is an experience-not hearing, not listening, but experiencing.  Everyone I talk to who has head them say it is hard to  describe  to those who have not yet seen them and sat in the seat to hear them.  Kind of like being right there in the concert hall.  And a piano, the sound of a piano at its best if you can’t be there live.

Stop by when you are strolling down Euclid Avenue enjoying the Engenuity Fest!

Here’s an important announcement, in its totality, from our neighbor Bill Callahan.

Open-Mesh wifi on my block

Today is the big twice-a-year Street Sale on Archwood Avenue, where I live.  (Tomorrow, too.)  I’m currently sitting on my front porch watching the shoppers go by and showing those who ask how our new “Free Archwood WiFi” works.

Yes, we now have a free public wifi mesh serving our block.  It currently covers a 500-foot stretch of the street going east from West 33rd.  As far as I can tell the access is reasonably good indoors as well as outdoors, but our user sample is still pretty small. (I know of six users so far other than me, and they all seem to be inside their homes.)

Free Archwood WiFi currently consists of Open-Mesh minrouters on three front porches as well as in two windows, all getting bandwidth from another minirouter attached to a standard DSL router and serving as the gateway. Each minirouter cost only $29.  (Well, actually, they cost us nothing so far… we borrowed them from One Community, which is “sponsoring” our experiment in viral networking).  Total equipment cost to date: Less than $200.

Most of the nodes have been operating together for the past 48 hours or so, with zero problems or downtime.

Open-Mesh is a nonprofit open-source “fork” from the more corporate Meraki viral mesh system, best known for its Free The Net project in San Francisco.  Both trace their pedigree and personnel to the venerable RoofNet initiative at MIT.

For the geeks, here’s the current Free Archwood network diagram from our online dashboard provided by Open-Mesh. (The outer lines around the nodes are current users).

Pretty cool, huh?

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » Open-Mesh wifi on my block

Last evening I was with a small group of neighbors working on a group project when our conversation turned to heating our homes this winter- the cost of doing that, what each of us are doing to achieve that, and alternative ways to do it without a large dependence on natural gas.

Our hostess had apologized for the coolness of her home, and since we had finished our original task we turned our attention to heating our homes.   She said that she had turned the heat on when she arrived home from work but the furnace was still catching up.  She then said she was  looking for alternative ways to heat her home.  Three stories is a lot of square footage to heat.  Of course, she said her third floor bedroom was quite toasty.  It was the public area on the first floor that was more problematic.

Interestly enough, none of us had turned on their heat yet.  We all said that we had been wearing bulky sweaters and vests, wool socks, and heating our homes with electric heaters.   We have had some pretty chilly nights, but all of us were stretching the time line to its limit.  We were all aware that this weekend might be the turning point. 

We all agreed that our relationship with normal gas suppliers was deteriorating daily. The news that the PUCO had agreed to allow them to increase delivery charges, when conservation is at its highest point ever,  does not bode well for natural gas prices this winter.  Additionally, the international news that Russia, Iran, and  Qatar are exploring the formation of a cartel much like OPEC for natural gas should concern us all.  Given the fact that the United States has a 3.5% reserve of the natural resource compared to the 60% the cartel would own  means that this commodity will only rise on the world markets just as oil did.  We will definitely not be controlling our destiny if we continue our dependency on natural gas.

One of our group mentioned Mr. Slim heat pumps good to 0 degrees Farenheit.  He said that the electricity is negligible to run the unit.  Right now, he personally uses two $120 electric heaters to heat his 900 square foot home.  He is looking for alternative sources for heating and cooling for his rental properties.  He believes that low energy bills will be a marketing point for getting and retaining good tenants.  We all agreed.

One of our friends installed a geothermal unit.  He said that it did his heart good when he finally received that first gas bill where they owed him.  So my questions are how do we leverage this discomfort with the old models of heating, how do we cut our dependence on natural gas, how do we continue to conserve energy, and how do we eventually get off the grid and form a new paradigm?  We need more instruction than layering of clothes.  HELP!!    

Having read the comments on this Plain Dealer article and this one, I couldn’t help but wonder why the commenters attack the very people that need help more than any of us.  How do the borrowers who are victims of predatory lending become the cause of the problem?  I believe that the statistics show that at least 80% of the loans are being paid.  And are we ignoring the fact that at this point in time 10% of conventional loans are 60 days past due?  What are the causes of THAT statistic? How have the women, children, and chronically ill who rely on Medicaid become the reason that an HMO contract is seen by a hospital as too restrictive and not sustainable?

The poor in this country are our children who certainly are not perpatrators but victims and our elderly that live longer lives without resources.  I grant that there is a group of people who have made poor choices that end up the recipient of public assistance, but how large a percentage?  And when we focus on that segment do we diminish our ability to solve the social issues that cause extreme poverty?

For the majority of us, I think that the underlying emotion that fuels this animosity is fear.  After all, many of us in this country are just a heartbeat away from that which we fear.  And if not a heartbeat, just a phrase away.  Downsizing  will certainly start rolling off the lips of employers for many reasons.

Now is not the time to be fearful and attack the victims of what has occurred.  Now is the time to be bold, to invent new ways of dealing with runaway healthcare costs, to innovate new ways to create jobs and to educate our children so that they will be prepared to compete in the world.  A sure way of  losing what we have is to jealously guard it from unseen “foes”.

I believe that the opportunity here in NEO to reverse twenty years of poverty has never been better.  We have the talent, the resources and the capabilities to become very prosperous here if we don’t forget that inclusiveness serves a better purpose than exclusivity.   The possibilities for innovation are almost endless-new ways of educating our youth, creating jobs through new industries, approaching healthcare from the viewpoint of wellness instead of sickness, collaboration among businesses to create an enterprise mind set…. 

I believe that if we heed these words of Hubert Humphrey:

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

when moving forward that we indeed will be prosperous.  We as a society–forget government– cannot forget the children, the elderly, the sick, the needy and the disabled.  We should not be looking elsewhere for the answers on how to transform our region.  It is not up to the government.  It is our task.  We must be fearless.

Shannon Okey has asked for help in getting the word out about this latest attack on individual Intellectual Property.  Her article here says it better than I ever could.  Be sure to use the sidebar to gain knowledge of why artists, bloggers, small business people, and anyone else who believes in freedom of expression should do what Shannon asks of us.

Notify your congressperson that you are against this latest attempt to tie our hands, our tongues, and our minds to a mindless buisness  bureaucracy when innovation and creativity should be keywords in any endeavor in our country today. 

Please note the clandestine way that these examples of special interest legislation become part of our law that governs us.  Does anyone else get a shiver up their spine when the chance to object is limited to fifteen minutes and when no objection is recorded within those fifteen minutes the legislation passes by unanimous consent with no roll call vote?  WOW!