I sometimes feel that a typical Clevelander would complain to the God that Saint Peter didn’t open the Pearly Gates fast enough. (Choosing to make that a Catholic reference instead of a hick reference is another sign of my growing Clevelandesqueness).

I first noticed this on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival (and in the ensuing post). It was a great time, but I was all, like, focusing on having to drive all over since the bridges were out of service, getting a splinter, no first aid kit, or whatever. Gotta cut that out, because negativity is the only thing I know that can survive by feeding off itself.

Cleveland has changed me in other ways, I’m much more cosmopolitan than I was when I moved here as a fresh, real-world-ignorant, college grad back in November of 2003. By cosmopolitan I mean, eager to seek out and appreciate the other cultures in what has become my town; less ignorant about gay folks, Jew folks, black folks, Hispanic folks, and more aware of how different sorts of politics are immersed in every aspect of daily life, learning to choose my battles, how to battle, how to navigate without taking sides, how to treat women, what confidence means (more on that later), how to take a metaphorical punch and keep on truckin’.

Basically, Cleveland took the raw stock of my upbringing and education, smithed it, tempered it and gave me whatever I have that approximates an edge.

This has been a year of introspection for me, and as I continue to become Cleveland, I’m sure there are aspects of living here that I’ll reject as equally as certain parts of speech and attitudes, but fewer things are more Cleveland than becoming Cleveland on your own terms.

Or whatever.

Cleveland and LeBron should be two, responsible, consenting adults, and if it is time to move on, the last thing Cleveland needs to be is the co-dependent, I’ll-debase-myself-if-only-you’ll-stay, undignified, crazy ex.

I’m not going to debate the merits of whatever decision LeBron makes. That’s up to him. What I’d rather talk about is Cleveland’s behavior regarding his decision. Fremdschämen doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Pinging the Problem

Connie Schultz wrote a column touching a bit on this, and the 20/30 Club members quoted by her get a bit closer to the point, but still miss it. I figure the best way to root at this issue is to take a couple of ideas from the column and point out where they get derailed.

Mike Gruss thinks that “instead of spending all this money and effort to keep LeBron, local leaders/celebs/billboards [should be] focused on stemming brain draining [sic] and keeping other people under 30.”

Good thought, but money isn’t the issue and keeping folks younger than me isn’t the issue.

Then there’s the folks from the 20/30 Club who say attitude matters.

That’s the first step! But then, it suddenly the 20/30 Club point morphs into waiting for political leaders or the City of Cleveland to come to them. Derailed!

A Flanking Maneuver at The Big Fix

All the talk about LeBron being a necessity for this City, and the hyperbolic “he’s the only thing keeping this town from going ghost” is systematically symptomatic in the Cleveland zeitgeist. This town always looks for The Big Fix Silver Bullet Solution™. Roldo has been beating this drum for longer than I’ve been alive. LeBron James, The Medical Mart, Gateway, are the three that come to mind most easily. All are/were supposed to save Cleveland from Certain Doom™, right?

Big fixes aren’t the answer, or just a band-aid, or any other crummy analogy. What happened with Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, Deepwater Horizon? Thousands of people rushed to the sources of pain like white blood cells after an infection. Thousands of individual solutions to the same problem, working simultaneously, but not necessarily in concert.

The Real Problem

Sports fans think the Big Fix is keeping LeBron, the 20/30 Club thinks the Big Fix is getting politicos & power players to pay attention to the 20/30 Club, other folks think throwing money at this or that is the Big Fix.

Cleveland doesn’t need a big fix, because Cleveland ain’t broke. What’s broke are the attitudes of the folks who live here. It is easy to come up with ideas that spend someone else’s money, it is easy to say that no one in power pays attention to you. The Real Problem isn’t with Cleveland, it is with the folks who think that Cleveland is the problem.

A Possible Solution

If there is one thing I’ve learned in this town, it is that you can’t wait for others to give you permission, to come up with ideas, or to implement them. You take initiative. Cleveland is a place where you have to do things yourself; a true American city. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of talk, but not much follow-through. What Cleveland needs are the hundreds and thousands of young people mentioned in Connie’s column, plus the hundreds and thousands of everyone else to have a good attitude about this town, to realize that Cleveland ain’t broke, and to do their part to make it a bit better anyway.

Attitudes matter, and Clevelanders have to stop feeling entitled to savior athletes, entitled to attention from those in power, and entitled to cash money. People haven’t been flocking to Portland, OR, or Austin, TX for years because of their star athletes or convention center facilities but because the people that live there are passionate about living there.

You get what you work for, not what you beg for. So instead of begging for LeBron to save us, and paying folks to stand on street corners holding placards that cheapen the meaning of the words Home, Commitment and Mission, we should love Cleveland because it is home, and be committed to the mission of our community; thousands of people with their own solutions, working for each other, not themselves.

The begging is just plain embarrassing.

I took Bram to Train Day today. I intended to take him to the Cuyahoga County Fatherhood Initiative’s day at the zoo, but a timely Facebook tip as we were heading out the door changed my plans. Abraham pretty much woke up demanding trains today, so I was happy to oblige.

The Cleveland Metroparks Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation is part of the Towpath Trail and is amazingly picturesque. Pretty much right in the heart of Cuyahoga County too.

The event reminded a bit of the Old Time Music Festival that I took Bram to in Metamora, IN last year. The whole of Metamora is still historic, and they’ve got an old big black steam engine and a canal boat that you can take rides on. It’s even got a functioning water-wheel-turned grist mill. The Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation has the canal, but no boat or train. There was old-timey music though, and I sang along to The Wabash Cannonball twice.

Train Day had no up close and personal actual trains, but lots of model trains, a hobo trail with real live hobos, a completely awesome Lego train exhibit, and the chance to get right up close to a marsh and spy on some blue herons. Abraham had almost as good a time as I did. My good times always exceed his because seeing him have a good time increases my enjoyment exponentially.

We ate an apple with with a hobo named Apple Annie, sat on a bench and ate chocolate fudge ice cream, colored a button and looked at trains six ways from Sunday. It helped that the trestle had CSX trains running across it every half hour as well.

Unfortunately, I have no photos or video because, although I brought my camera, my memory card was elsewhere.

All in all, a good Father’s Day weekend, so far. The dude conked out on the way home from Train Day and is currently snoring on my bed. Being a dad is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.

On 13 May 2010, I went to the Front Room Gallery for John G’s Caveman Diaries 7 ‘zine release; Megachurch’s album release & show with Clan of the Cave Bear and Swindlella. Great crowd, great exhibition by John G, and great music. Unfortunately I forgot my earplugs. Fortunately, I got my mitts on CMD7, the Megachurch album (which I forced Mikey, Dan & Brian to autograph) and music from Cave Bear & Swindlella (whose Christmas CD is bonkers).

This post only took a little over a week to come together. I wish there was a faster way to get HD video up to YouTube, but there isn’t. Rock on, guys. Seven video playlist is below.

I need to hang out in Parma more often. All kinds of great places to go.

Two booths really caught my eye, the t-shirts from Psycho Reindeer, and Erin Carek’s science-fiction collage work. I picked up the set of rocketman coasters from her. Erin is also responsible for organizing the art show. The addition of a few good bands helped make the night a great time.

Here are the bands:

• Bafflegab
• Safari
• How To Breathe Underwater

And here are a few of the folks there who had stuff I liked:

• S Type Creative
• Coterie
• White Dragon Paper

I hate telephones. Most folks who know me know this. I don’t even like calling my good friends and family. So I wasn’t looking forward to making cold calls to strangers. What I was looking forward to was finding out what questions, comments and ideas the volunteers on my list would have about the process, the County or whatever. I love hearing what other people have to say. That’s just part of my personality. After I’ve got that information, my anthropology degree kicks in and I try to figure out what all these thoughts and opinions mean. I’m used to hearing opinions about the County from my fellow County employees, who have all been around a lot longer than I have, or reading about it (especially over the last 2 years) in a negative light (typically magnified in the comments) on Cleveland.com.

To some extent I was expecting more of the same when I made these calls.

Much to my surprise and pleasure, everyone I called and actually got to talk to was extremely supportive, interested in the information I had to impart and enthusiastic to get involved.

I’m going to be self-important for a moment to make a point. For years I’ve been working in ways that I hope will empower regular folks to affect change in their communities. It’s been a bumpy ride, and I’ve learned a lot through trial and error. I see this process I’m engaging in now as another chance to make that happen. I consider myself an open government advocate, and I’ve learned a lot about the wide-spread institutional resistance against these efforts by interacting with folks at GovLoop, working on the eGovernment Interest Group at the World Wide Web Consortium, and thinking through things on my own at The Design State. I even based one of my papers for my PAD 600 course on the run-up (and delays surrounding) the Obama administration’s Open Government Directive. (Somewhat ironically, the OGD was released the day after I turned in my paper.)

The point of all that is that I’ve done some homework on including citizens in the processes of government. That’s all great, right?

Not really.

All the work I’ve done on my own, and that the Charter Transition is doing now doesn’t mean squat without productive and constructive citizen involvement. It was heartening to me to do the phone banking, because I heard from just a few of the 1000+ volunteers, and they were all ready to get to work. Including them during this Transition process and doing our best to keep them (and others) around after it ends can only strengthen the work that the County does as an institution.

I have high hopes but realistic expectations. I know very well that every recommendation made by the Charter Transition workgroups might be dismissed and thrown out by the newly elected council and executive. If that happens, bummer. It will be a blow to all of the volunteers who have worked on providing options to improve our county. The outcome I’m hoping for, whether or not the workgroup recommendations are accepted, is that both the County and its citizens realize that working together is better for everyone, and that efforts to provide more information to citizens and include them in the business of the County should become business as usual. This Transition process can, at the very least, be an exercise that lets citizens figure out how to interact with government and government interact with citizens.

When I first started working for the County in December 2006, there were talks about moving to the Ameritrust complex on East 9th Street. I had a vision of rebranding the County as “The New Cleveland Trust Company”. Now’s our chance to make that phrase do more than just sound catchy.

Disclaimer Time

This post is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts, opinions, procedures or plans of Cuyahoga County, the Cuyahoga County Charter Transition Advisory Group, or the Public Engagement Workgroup.

When I met Bắc at the Velvet Tango Room a few months ago, he said that his goal was to create a place where you can get an appetizer, a drink and a dinner for around $20. He did a good job. The menu is structured in such a way that you’ve got an array of options that meets this goal, and an equal array for a diner who wants to shell out a bit more. There’s even a custom cocktail menu (most run around $7), and $2 PBR’s that are $1.50 during happy hour.

I wanted to get everything on the menu, but whittled it down to the Banh Mi sandwich ($8) or the pad thai ($11). The Banh Mi sandwich sounds delicious, so I’ll get that next time I go there. I got the pad thai, “family-hot”, and since Bắc’s family is in the kitchen making the food, this was hot. Also, since Bắc’s family is in the kitchen, the hotness was such that it enhanced rather than overpowered the flavor of the pad thai. The spring roll appetizer ($5) was also amazing. Fried just enough, but not greasy, the internal bits were chopped finely enough that you didn’t pull them all out when you took a bite, and the roll had enough tensile strength that it didn’t disintegrate once one end was bitten off.

Look, I can’t emphasize enough that Bắc’s family is in the kitchen making the food. So we’re talking generations-old family recipes here.

Since today is Chinese New Year, we were even served complimentary coconut jien duy (a sesame seed dumpling) after dinner.

Bắc hits all of the restaurant sweet spots. Go there.

Though he’s not the Dave, I think he probably feels as if the store is his, even more so than other managers because it carries his name. There’s no logic behind that kind of feeling, but I can tell that this Dave is proud to run his store well, and happy to be feeding families in this neck of the woods.

Cleveland is a small-town city.