Gloria Ferris

Sherry wants to thank everybody who came to The Ugly Broad Tavern bearing turkeys, complete Thanksgiving meals, and more. Due to your efforts, Sherry dropped off an envelope with $211 in cash, three turkeys complete with all the trimmings, seventeen boxes, and more than fifteen bags of food to help fill Brookside Center’s shelves during the Thanksgiving holiday.

It was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in awhile and to meet a FaceBook friend face to face for the first time. As always, the tacos were scrumptious, and we enjoyed the conversation and camaraderie at our neighborhood bar, The Ugly. Stay tuned, scuttlebutt has it that there will be a redux of the event before Christmas.

This week heralds the yearly Brookside Center Thanksgiving food drive for my community-Brooklyn Centre as well as Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn. Part of the Westside Ecumenical ministry, Brookside Center helps those most in need in our community by stocking a food pantry, resale shop, and supporting people who need to find resources to help them through rough times. Donations of food or cash  can be dropped off directly to Brookside Center at 3784 Pearl Road.

Or, you can stop by The Ugly Broad Tavern tonight for a taco. And, your question is “what does Taco Night at 3908 Denison Avenue have to do with a local food drive?”  A lot, actually. Bring a food or cash donation  and YOU will receive a FREE taco. If you supplement that taco with a cold beer, some friendly conversation with friends and neighbors, and the good feeling you get  from giving you have the makings of a warm and cozy evening in Cleveland.

ALL ACCESS FAIR:

Walk+Roll Cleveland comes to our neighborhood this weekend with the All Access Fair sponsored by Old Brooklyn CDC and others.  http://walkroll.com/specialevents/details.php?unid=550

The event kicks off at 10 am and winds down at 4 p.m.  For details, i have included two access points.  Bicycle tours, walking tours and much more will be available throughout the day.

BROOKSTOCK:

Shortly after, an evening of musical entertainment will begin at The Brookside Reservation.  This year access off Denison Avenue will be restricted due to bridge construction.  Next year we should have pedestrian access from our side of the bridge.  Entry this year will be off Ridge Road.

http://www.clemetparks.com/events/brookstock.asp

And throughout the weekend, the annual West 44th Street Neighborhood Garage Sale will be taking place.  The small neighborhood nestled on a brick lined street off Denison Avenue will once again, amaze its patrons with the quality of the merchandise and the sellers’ ability to bargain with their buyers.  This sale is a garage sale browser’s dream in reality.  

HOURS OF SALE:

July 18^th and 19th, 2009

10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

I stopped in to see Sherry Perry at The Ugly Broad yesterday, and she gave me a menu for a new restaurant over on Memphis Avenue. She told me that two of her friends had opened the Memphis Eatery in the old Taco Bell at 6212 Memphis Avenue. After Taco Bell moved up the street, a “Dogs & Taters” place went in there, but it didn’t make it. Then “83 Degrees” moved in and although it was different and had a good menu it didn’t make it either. The restaurant business is tough to say the least.

But, Michelle and Tina have decided to take the plunge. Both worked for Nick at the “Expressway Diner” so they certainly have some good experience under their belts. And as any good restaurateur will tell you “competition is a good thing in the restaurant business because no one eats at the same place EVERY day!” So here’s hoping that the third time will be the charm for this location and the gals are successful. Patrons will help that happen so here is my take on it.

I looked at the menu and saw that it was my kind of place. For breakfast, there is a country section that has Biscuits and Gravy, Eggs Benedict and an “everything omelet” plus a whole lot more, but this is MY blog and I am talking about MY favorites here. On the lunch side, the gals have open faced sandwiches including the usual roast beef and turkey but also meatloaf and sirloin steak. All the sandwiches are served WITH french fries. It isn’t totally a la carte which adds to the price so it is affordable. Nothing is over $7.00 and the average price seems to run between $4 and $5.

Sherry tells me that Tina is the chef and Sherry runs the front so it appears they have decided on division of labor which is a good thing. Now, Tim and I need to try it out and see if the food is as good as it looks on paper. Our only argument will be that I won’t want to get there right at 6:30 a.m. when they open. Tim loves 24 hour places and early in the morning venues. Me I am more of a late lunch person. We will work it out though, and try out this new place in the neighborhood.

Here are the vitals if you want to try it out too.

Memphis Eatery
6212 Memphis Avenue
Telephone 216-398-8890
Hours: 6:30 a..m. to 2:30 p.m.

I left this toothless grin comment on the Save Our Land Blog.  Mike Gill’s Free Times article gives us a lot of food for thought.  Preservation and rehabilitation should always be considered when redevelopment in a neighborhood is an issue. Thanks to the Cleveland Restoration Society for reminding us that school buildings were community centers and a gathering place for both young and old.  How fitting if a school received a new life as a home for our older citizens so that they could remain a part of the community where they grew old creating so many memories in their lives.  Put yourself in their shoes. At seventy, will you want to be uprooted from your neighborhood looking for a new place to find new friends, create new memories, or would you rather stay in place and blossom?  

Yes, I survived my 17 hour marathon yesterday to blog today.  Let me first say, that these are my own personal observations, thoughts and experiences on election day. I am sure that many other people have different thoughts about their experience of yesterday. I hope that they comment here so that I can take these concerns forward to the Board of Elections because I intend to inform them of what I saw that went right, what could be greatly improved, and those things that definitely need to be fixed.  My hope is that this post serves as an education piece on how we can do elections better and find the positive points in a day of long lines and frustration for many people.

THE GOOD:

My assisting judges, EDTs  (Electronic Device Technicians) and my student poll worker. I was lucky I had a full complement of judges, TWO EDTS and a super student poll worker assigned to my precinct.

The first time voters.  We had a huge number of  young people with those strange driver licenses show up to VOTE! It was great.  The other good thing was the number of parents who accompanied these first time voters and proudly told their friends and neighbors that their son or daughter voted for the first time.

The number of voters.  Personally, I think it must be a near record for a midterm election.  The numbers at our precincts were close to presidential numbers.  If you add in the absentee votes cast, I bet we do rival those numbers. Over 1000 people voted at our polling place!

The voters who brought the brochure they received from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.  It had the Precinct prominently displayed by the ward. And also, the ones who brought well-worn cards that they have had for years.  

The civility of the people who live in Old Brooklyn.  Many people stopped by to thank me for working the polls and commented that  they thought we all were handling the crowds and complaints quite well. The way they used their waits in line to catch up with neighbors and friends making the best of what could have been a bad situation. 

The voters who just like me were okay with lots of people and waiting on line because it meant that a LOT of people were voting.

To all of you who thought about leaving but stayed because I told you the wait really wasn’t that bad, and please don’t leave because you’re here now and the line might not be shorter later. I apoligize.  I know that your wait was probably longer than you intended, but thank you for staying and voting. 

The policeman who helped me by explaining to the voters that double parking could not be allowed in the parking lot.  And who told me that I should call the Second District if I had any more problems.  He would make sure that they were aware that we were having a problem.

And to the man that I could not help for his thank you.  He said that it was enough that I had spent time that I did not have to listen to his complaint He said that the whole time we talked he never felt like I wanted to be anywhere but there.  He said “you listened, and that is enough!”

The luck we enjoyed.  Our machinery worked.  We only had three hours of long lines of voters and even then from some of the things I’ve heard things still went relatively smoothly at our polling location.

The Bad:

People who commit to being a poll worker and then do not show.

I lost my provisional vote judge and my student poll worker to another precinct who had one lone woman to man the polls.  Without their help, there is no way the woman could have handled her precinct.  I was glad that I had a full complement so I could share.

Poll workers that decide that treating a polling location like a waiting room is a good thing.

People who do not know their voting precinct.  This would be my number one reason for the slowdown of voting.  We needed a better way to determine precinct designation.

People who come to vote after work and expect no line.  How could this be? After work, is always the busiest time. Although I realize that some people can only come after work, is it really necessary to blame the long lines on disorganized polls and inadequate poll workers?  More people, longer wait. 

The small room that previously held two precincts with an approximate vote tally of 700 voters from previous vote tallies I have seen now held THREE precincts essentially adding another 350 voters.  It was a tight squeeze, but we survived.

The extremely ugly:

A precinct map that was printed on October 25, 2006 was incorrect.  Our precincts M.N. and G had apparently a superimposed map of we believe Fairview Park because for some reason W.220 and other 200 streets appeared as our numbered streets.  Our actual numbered streets are eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth.  Hence, the difficulity of determining what was the voting precinct.  We used an elector worksheet throughout the day but this became extremely difficult as the crowds grew.  It would have been helpful to have had the map so that people could determine for themselves.

Provisional voting. Only one precinct had the luxury of a fourth judge to serve in this capacity.  But the biggest problem was the contridictory instructions on how these votes should be handled. Enough said for now, but I intend to help in any way I know how to make this part of the voting experience better.  I will first offer to help the Board of Elections.  I will keep you posted.  And for those people who voted provisionally at our polling place, I intend to be your advocate to see that each and every one of your votes are counted.    

 I don’t think that we lost many people because they saw large lines. I hope not.  That would be extremely ugly.

And, in conclusion:

All in all, my first experience as a poll worker was a good one.  The number of gracious people certainly outweighed the handful of disgruntled people. Of course, there is room for improvement in the process but after all, there always is room for improvement.  In fact, I would like to bring back the tradition of posting the number of votes cast in each precinct at each polling place.  I believe that this would be a good place to start building trust and integrity with the voting public.  And frankly, I don’t understand why we are not doing that.  When you are staying until ten o’clock anyway what is ten minutes more?  

And, my wishes were granted.  People voted!  My other wish was that I would have a good group of people to work with and that together we would make election day an experience to remember.  To all of my co-workers at the polls yesterday: You are a great group of people and without you, I would not  feel the sense of accomplishment I feel today.  Thank you!

Michelle Baran, a local artist and resident of Old Brooklyn, is a welcome addition to our Business Page and our blogroll.  Michelle’s subjects include many local sites such as the Fulton Road Bridge and Riverside Cemetery’s Administration Building.  Visit her website to see more examples of her artistic talent.

Michelle also has a blog that promotes local artists and events around town.  She belongs to S.E.A.N  at our local gem, Art House.  As you know Tim and I have one New Year’s resolution this year to promote and support local businesses.  We are glad to add Michelle to our list of local businesspeople to support.

Sometimes I find it truly amazing when events coincide and other times I simply think they should.  Last week I received my monthly flyer from Barb Spaan, our Crime Watch Coordinator here in Ward 15 and 16 telling me the subject of this month’s meeting “Fire Safety for your Home & Business”.  Naturally, I immediately put it on my list of things to attend given the recent events here in our neighborhood.  Yesterday, Channel 5 began a series of reports on fire safety in the city and the suburbs.  Clicking on the list of response times included in the Channel 5 report shows  Cleveland ranked in the top ten in the county.  Roger Bundy blogs about the response time issue as well.  Good to know that not only the media is watching our backs, but so are concerned citizens.

Last night’s meeting was chock full of things that we can do ourselves to prepare  for a fire emergency. There were too many tips to relate all of them here, but if you ever have the chance to attend a meeting with Lieutentant Larry Gray, Public Information Officer, Division of Fire do it.  The man is a tremendous public speaker chock full of useful information.  I took away three things from this meeting that I want to share.

1.  Fire Extinguishers.  If you have one, make sure it is up to date. Doesn’t do you any good to have a fire extinguisher if when you need it you can’t use it because it has expired.    If you don’t have one get one.  It should be an ABC extinguisher with a UL sticker.  If you use the extinguisher, try to put the fire out for twelve seconds no more, and stay between the fire and your exit.

2. Fire Drills.  After last night, I know fire drills are a must.  Lt. Gray told us that within three minutes the fire is too hot to survive.  Each minute a fire burns the temprature doubles.  Do the math–first minute, 200 degrees, second minute, 400 degrees, third minute-800 degrees, and the fourth minute is 1600 degrees.  This is the drill.  Go to your bedroom.  Blindfold yourself.  Turn around three times and then try to get out of the room.  If you have a partner, have them time you for three minutes. If you are alone, use a kitchen timer.  Be sure that you use the three minute time frame.  Isn’t easy, is it?  The more you practice the better you will be able to get out of the house within the shortest time possible.  I cannot stress how important this exercise is to you and your family.

3.  Get Out!  Shout as  you leave the house.  Tell the others in the house where you will meet them outside–across the street, under a big tree, etc.  When you assemble at the designated point, you will be able to tell the firefighters if everyone is out of the house or if someone is inside waiting for rescue.  As Lt. Gray stated,  the mission is to save lives first and then save property.  If you are still inside, no one will be able to help the firefighters locate any of you.

 My Aunt Dadie always said :”Hope for the best, get ready  for the worst, and take what comes”.   So to paraphrase,  I hope that we are preparing for the worst that never comes to any of us.

We hear that Ladder 42.1 will make an appearance at the regular Cleveland City Council meeting this coming Monday, which will be held off-site (outside City Hall) for a change, at Estabrook Recreation Center, 4125 Fulton Road, Cleveland 44144, at 7:00 PM.

Everything is just so incremental lately, as evidenced by the recent need to create a Ladder 42.1.

Stay tuned. Show up with a bucket. Galoshes will be optional.

As we proceed to “build community” here in Cleveland, the business community begins to play a crucial role in the story of “local production for local consumption.” As it becomes more expensive to roam regionally in shopping and procuring services, we will focus more on professionals and businesspeople who are more proximate to where we ourselves work and live. Here is a list of area businesses, initially in the order in which we called on them. We are renewing our commitment to support our locally-owned-business neighbors first, whenever we can.

The new page appears in the column to the right.