Mayoral Race Postponed. Still gonna make noise

I've talked to some people, and realized my safety and that of those I love could be in danger if I ran for Mayor on such grandiose reform and change at this age. Therefore, I'm postponing my potential campaign for the near future, and will encourage growth and change in any way I can. I'm planting the seeds now and doing research on how we can turn this beautiful city around, in both perception and reality.

I'll post general updates and opinions later today.

Time for Christmas shopping!

My Platform: Education

This is what I would do if I were mayor right now (12/12/10):

The first problem Northeast Ohio needs to tackle is education. Without a healthy school network, without a high % of students going to college, we will continue to lose population and resources.
These problems begin with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Without a healthy school district and options for residents, our reputation is shot.
We've invested billions of dollars in stadiums and public venues over the last 20 years, but as Brent Larkin questions in his Plain Dealer article today, when will we put the focus on educating our kids?
As mayor, my first 3 priorities would be education, economics, and safety.
I will study various options for the CMSD to look into for reform, create options for students, and create a "Cleveland Promise."

1. CMSD reform.
In the wake of CMSD CEO Eugene Sander's retirement announcement, the district is left leaderless in a critical period. The District's 5-year Transformation Plan is getting launched, and its creator is abandoning ship as it were. My first order of business would be to look into alternatives for this position, given whoever is in the CEO seat when I'm inaugurated, and ensure this leader is the correct one. From my limited intel, I believe Eric Gordon would be a good fit for this position.
I would nurture the Transformation Plan as well as encourage and promote the opening of two College Preparatory Academies on each side of town, replacing a current high school respectively. Each high school would have an application selection like the School of the Arts and the  John Hay Campus Academies. Each of the College Prep schools would offer AP classes and help nurture students, preparing them for college wherever they wish to go. The college preparatory academies would complement the district's specialized academies.
As mayor I would also look into the administrative structure of the district. I would rearrange or cut unnecessary positions, as well as stand up for the students of Cleveland by negotiating with the Teacher's Union to put more money into the classrooms.
2. Options for Cleveland students.
Growing up, I knew dozens of families who moved out of the city and away from their workplace for the sole purpose of education. A decent education is a right for all students, no matter their ethnicity or economic background. Any student with a will to succeed should have the parental and teacher support for their endeavors to come to fruition. If you live in Cleveland and start a family, the CMSD is not an option. So your options become charter schools and private schools. Charter schools receive less dollars per student than in CMSD, and the options of charter schools are limited in the city. Private schools cost money, and the extra money coming out of a family's earnings for an education drives parents out of the city so their children can attend a suburban school district.
Although this would pose a problem to CMSD and the Teacher's Union, as Mayor of Cleveland I would  fight to get state and local money earned through property taxes (the way these things are funded) to FOLLOW THE STUDENT. I would make a concession for CMSD so that 80% of the money appropriated for a student through the state and city would be able to follow a student if they leave a district. Therefore CMSD can get a leg up on funding and be able to cover the jobs necessary to appropriate the money to the correct schools.
What does this mean?
Cleveland students get between $13,000 and $14,000 per student every year. 2/3 of this comes from the state. In wake of education cuts which I predict will happen at the state level, this amount will further decrease.
If your child attends a charter grade school in the county (a charter school is a state-funded autonomy), the state money and 50% of the city's approbated funds would follow the student to this school. The 50% of the city's funds for that student would be a 25% increase per student over what charter schools currently receive. A win for charter schools. Grade school costs (in my experience with private schools) are less than high schools. Therefore a grade school needs less % of the city's funds than a high school. If the city has $14,000 per student and 2/3 of that is state funded, the charter school would now receive $11,600 instead of its current $9,300, and CMSD would recover $1,400 of its approbation.
If your child attends a charter high school in the county, the school would receive the state money per-student and 80% of the city's money. If the city has $14,000 per student and 2/3 of that is state funded, the charter school would now receive $13,000 instead of $9,300 per student, and CMSD would recover $1,000 of the cost to offset it's lost revenue to the charter schools. A win for charter high schools.
If your child attends a private school and you live in the city of Cleveland, these transfers also count.
If you choose to send your child to a suburban school district, (something Cleveland would have to negotiate), instead of the family paying to send the student there, the per-student funds would transfer over just like charter and private schools.
 The $11,600 for a grade school student and $13,000 for a high school student would be profitable for most private, charter, and suburban schools in our county. And if that price does not cover it, the family can pay the remaining amount.

What do I predict this system would do?

CONS:
-Difficult to maneuver
-Teacher's Union would flip
-CMSD would initially suffer
-CMSD would lose revenue
-Teacher's union would be forced to make massive concessions to keep jobs.
-More school closings, possibly.
-Loss of jobs. Initially.
-Inner-ring suburbs could lose population

Pros:
Since the grand picture is about the students, getting people to move into Cleveland, and improving the quality of overall education:
-Families would have choices of where to send students, as long as they can get them there.
-Charter schools, private schools, and suburban districts would benefit financially if the could attract the most Cleveland-resident students.
-The competition would force each school's hand to be the best it can be.
-The teacher's union would HAVE to make concessions
-CMSD would HAVE to reform
-All Cleveland students with a will to learn will have the option to do it for free.
-The 20-50% saved by the city could help pay for new free textbooks for students in their district.
-CMSD would still have the upper hand in finances per student, transportation, and specialized academies.
-Residents in the city would stay to benefit from the options
-Residents from suburbs would move into Cleveland to benefit from the options (particularly attending private schools for free and saving tens of thousands of dollars)
-Increased revenue from property taxes.
-Increase in population.
-The increased business in the city would spur more local jobs for unskilled laborers and boost the economy.

3. The "Cleveland Promise."
-As detailed in Brent Larkin's "When are we going to build a future for Cleveland?: Brent Larkin"
-Gather a philanthropic fund to assist Cleveland residents attending any school (with additional amounts for years lived in the city) attend college.
-Makes most sense if there's additional money for Cuyahoga County schools, particularly Tri-C and CSU.

As mayor I would tackle these issues immediately and stand strong for the residents of Cleveland. We need a change. Cleveland suffers from a reputation of 3 things we CAN change (not weather): Education, Safety, and Economics.
Fixing our education and drawing people back into the city would help us with the other two.
The first month in office would consist of meeting with officials and leaders to determine the impact of these decisions, as well as holding an extensive series of community meetings where I would gather ideas for changing the district and improving options for citizens.
Education is key for our region to move forward and attract businesses.

Thanks for reading this. I'll edit it and support it with more facts as my campaign unravels these next three years.

Mayor 2013?

I want to run for Mayor Cleveland in 2013.

I think I really do. Over winter break I'll look into the process and political implications, asking opinions of my mentors on this monumental task. 

This idea is something I would've balked at a week ago. I have no experience, I'm in college 6 hours away, and I have no funding network. Who would vote for me?

Since this idea has stuck for three days and I'm still not wavering, I think I'm going to pursue it.

I'm not planning on winning. Winning would be great, but only an option I'd pursue and attempt to raise significant funds for if some poll shows 15% of the city would vote for me or something. Or even 5%. haha

I'm doing this for two purposes:

1) Positive name recognition and publicity (something I need to consult with some politician friends about)

2) Attention to my non-partisan platform of concepts. 

If I'm a 21-year-old college student at Cornell on the ballot for mayor of Cleveland, I'm going to get some free media support; maybe even on the national level.

It could be stupid for anyone to "endorse" a minimal-experienced mayoral candidate, so I'll take and seek endorsements as they come. 

ANYWAY, this all relies on my getting on the ballot; which requires something like 5,000 signatures. 

5,000 is A LOT of signatures; so if you'd like to  help sometime in the next two years, please let me know. I'll hook you up with signature sheets for all of your Cleveland resident friends,  as well as a hefty stack of my business cards (referring you to my awesome website, my email address, and my campaign phone number.)

This website is going to be awesome, complete with videos, platforms, freedom for visitors to post comments and suggestions, pictures, and a complete list of odds/ends ideas. 

I have a lot more ideas for the campaign to minimize cost. But these are for my will-be campaign committee. 

I won't be running against any of the other candidates. I'll try my best to avoid corruption by staying Independent. My ideas are heavy on pro-city work, but also will effect how the whole Midwest could approach government. I'm not in it to tear other candidates down; just to promote ideas that make sense and are necessary for the good of the people. 

I think it'd be awesome to have a 21-year-old mayor. And being a young professional, I would be in tune with what's going on, societal trends, and be able to dedicate the majority of my time to making a difference. 

 I'll always be supportive of candidates with good platforms and enthusiasm, like Chris Ronayne. I'm trying not to play the political game. Building bridges, not burning them, is what we need to do in our region. 

Let me know if you want to help/what you can contribute! If not, I'll come a knocking for signatures and vocal support asap.

-Ken

  

3-C Rail News

Governor Strickland Recently published a letter he sent to Governor-Elect John Kasich emphasizing the importance of continuing the 3-C rail corridor project.

It's a great read and perfectly argues why we NEED this rail option.

http://www.governor.ohio.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wzqMm3Q3CwU%3d&tabid=1820

Progressive Cleveland 2014 Plan

Hello friends, family and followers! I have completed my wrap up for the semester on how Cleveland should approach the next 4 years. Please let me know what you think! I ran the initial copy past Jimmy Malone, Kevin Kelly, and Chris Ronayne this weekend. And then I added much much more. Enjoy! It'll take a while to read, so prepare yourselves. I'll attach the two appendices (economic model & advertisement example) once they're edited.

Cleveland 2010 Concept & Proposal Report

“Progressive Cleveland 2014 Plan”

Ken Kalynchuk

12/1/10

Prelude

Thank you for taking your time to read this. My name is Ken Kalynchuk and I am a freshman in the Urban and Regional Studies program at Cornell University. I attended Saint Ignatius High School and have had an unwavering love for Cleveland my whole life. My family still lives in Old Brooklyn where I was raised. For grade school I attended Old Brooklyn Montessori School, a charter school that provided me with an environment to dream big. My life goal is to help “save Cleveland” and work with other passionate Clevelanders to fix whats broken in our city and region.

I try my best to be a student of Cleveland and its history more so than just an “Urban Planning student.” At Cornell I believe I can get a unique outsider perspective on what is going on at home. I've studied and come up with plans to micromanage and “solve” as it were, many issues in Northeast Ohio, but in order to progress as a city and solve these issues we need to solve overall trends and invest in collective economic growth. To solve issues in our current government paradigms, we need an increase in population. Until the population begins to grow across our area, we'll continue to struggle with the effects of downsizing.

There are many things to be grateful for and look forward to in our area. The 2014 Gay Games provide the perfect opportunity to showcase our area and new projects slated to be completed by summer 2014. Cleveland has a unique opportunity to reinvent itself in the next four years to prepare for our personal “coming out.” My solution for NEO involves a grand marketing scheme. However, we first need things to market. These things need to separate us from every other city in the world. Yes we have the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. People know that. But they question what else we have to offer that is attractive or unique from every city in the country. The truth is, I have a hard time marketing anything but the R&R HOF and Cedar Point. Many cities have great museum collections. Many cities have sports teams and trendy neighborhoods. A handful of cities have great art museums. A few cities have world class orchestras. Our focus on tourism as a solution has failed. We have nothing to convince travelers to go out of their way to visit here for a full weekend, let alone connect them to and transport them to places such as University Circle, Ohio City, Tremont, Cedar Point, and the Football Hall of Fame. The Rock n' Roll HOF is even difficult to access by ANY mode of transportation.

I chose topics in this “progressive plan” because these ideas would separate us from every region in the United States. We have hidden assets that can be leveraged to create extraordinary things. The question I'm trying to answer: When we begin a marketing push and establish an international welcome center, what will make Northeast Ohio the destination for people to live and businesses to relocate to and create roots?

Throughout the next 2-50 years, the United States will have many widespread issues to deal with: clustering of businesses in international mega-cities (NYC, Chicago, & LA at the moment), rising temperatures, rising oil costs, water shortages, intense natural disasters, food shortages, increased cost of living, a national debt crisis, rising sea levels, and terrorism threats. Northeast Ohio has the best chance of any region in the country to deal with all of these issues at once. The rise of mega cities could be a detriment to our growth except for rising living and property costs. Global warming can only positively effect our weather in comparison to the South and West. We have plenty of room in and outside the city for agriculture and green development. Our city is relatively compact and easy to move around, making oil prices less of an issue than cities with high volumes of traffic. We have plentiful water. We do not need to worry about terrorism threats, natural disasters, or rising sea levels. It's incredibly cheap to live here. We have what people all over the world will want in the near future, so we need to prepare quickly for our government and economic systems to handle this growth.

State of Cleveland

The Good

• Convention Center/Medical Mart is a done deal. Being the FIRST Medical Mart is critical to its success. Completion of deal has prompted investment in new downtown hotels. This public investment should pay dividends as we grow as a world medical leader.
• Casino is certainly going to happen. Preliminary designs connect high end retail to street level and Tower City. It provides jobs, an attraction for locals and visitors, and revenue. Current site is the best proposed as it connects to city, yet is isolated from residential areas.
• University Circle: 1,000 homes, redevelopment of Euclid Avenue, MOCA, Art Museum expansion, Cleveland Clinic expansions, University Hospitals Cancer Center, new hotel.
• Downtown Residential growth. Growth of Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway neighborhoods. Tyler Village is a nice surprise.
• The dedication to create a land bank, tear down abandoned homes, deconstruct houses, and invest in urban farming prepares Cleveland for reinvestment on cheap land.
• New county government should reduce corruption and promote regionalism; although we cannot know anything for sure.
• Port Authority recently landed a new International shipping deal.
• Flats East Bank Development

The Bad

• Cleveland faces budget cuts every year in most departments.
• Safety and education in the inner city.
• City & region are losing population
• Cleveland is losing business to suburbs and out of county. (American Greetings from Brooklyn, Eaton Corp. to Beachwood, etc.)
• ODOT failed us with their rescaling of West Shoreway Plan
• We fail to attract creative talent.
• Cleveland Clinic is closing Huron Trauma Center
• Threat of losing our airport hub
• Critical 3-C rail corridor is in danger of closure under Ohio's new governor.

Cleveland's Coming Out Celebration:

The Importance of Capturing the Spirit of Cleveland 2014

→ Cleveland-Akron hosts the 2014 Gay Games. Projections for the economic benefit of this event to our region are expected at around $60 million if 65,000 athletes and spectators participate and visit. These figures, however, rely on the ability to attract people here to SEE, DO THINGS, and EXPERIENCE unique events in Cleveland for a low price.

→ Cleveland Casino, Innerbelt Bridge, West Shoreway tunnels, Medical Mart/Convention Center, University Circle developments, most of Opportunity Corridor, 3-C rail expect completion by Summer 2014.

→ The Gay Games give us THE PERFECT opportunity to establish our region with a new image: connected, inexpensive, progressive thinking, sustainable, accepting, welcoming, fun, beautiful, etc.

→ If we fail to show ourselves to the world as a “New American City,” our reputation could be irreversibly devastated in a year (2014, I predict) of social unrest, rising oil prices, and increased clustering of talent and business in mega, worldly city-regions

→ Therefore, we need a sense of urgency to complete these projects, reverse social and economic trends, and change our approach to issues which plague us. BY 2014.

After studying issues effecting our area, there's only one “solution” to our financial and economic problems: INCREASE POPULATION. This requires both attracting a strong pool of young professionals to lure businesses, as well as attracting business in order to attract the “Creative Class.”

Sound redundant? Like a cycle? YES

→ To break into this cycle, we need a new ACTIVE approach to attracting talent, jobs, and foreign investment.

→ To attract the aforementioned, we need to focus on leveraging our regional assets to create a one-of-a-kind place that's great to live in, interesting to visit, and ahead of the game.

Hence, the Progressive Cleveland 2014 Plan

I've come up with 15 steps. They pass over the issues which require more money to fix, like Lakefront development. They're difficult, I understand. They're politically challenging. They're socially challenging. But I believe they're financially feasible and our best shots at being prepared in 2014 for our International “Coming Out” as a new city ready to face the challenges of the 21^st century. They'll be unique to our region, giving us changes in philosophy to accompany our new “shiny toys” as we look to move forward and attract the “Creative Class” of Richard Florida's The Creative Class. In a world where the workforce is mobile, a city needs to “sell itself” to both people and businesses who wish to cluster and share ideas. In order for Cleveland to market itself, it needs something new to market in both practice and results. It needs clusters in several areas of development. These steps are time sensitive and good enough, in my opinion, to bounce them off trusted Clevelanders before someone somewhere else thinks of them. Ideally, these steps would be completed by the end of 2012 so we can enter 2013 in the attracting mindset. If we can begin to attract people and businesses before 2014, 2014 would be seen as a year where “everything is going right.” We can no longer WAIT for “everything to go right” as with our sports teams. We need an ACTIVE EFFORT to change and improve the conditions which we can. With no further ado:

1. City of Cleveland government-led initiatives for commercial/residential small/large business growth.

→ Speed up appeals and approval processes. Cut some red tape and make it as easy as possible to start a new business as soon as possible. This is my shadiest grey-area of the plan. I do not know much about how these committees work. However, I know the complaints about long waits and strict approval regulations. It should be easier to start a business.

→ Cleveland's leaders need to gather group of political, business, and community leaders at local, state, and federal levels to discuss issues of subsidizing sports teams & the current public funding. Cleveland and the county are losing millions of dollars while the owners are profiting millions on the taxpayers' backs. Make a strong effort to refinance with Randy Lerner, Dan Gilbert, and the Dolans. Show Cuyahoga County residents that you recognize the mistakes of the past and try to change them, no matter how impossible. Publish a document of the teams' profits and how much the taxpayers contribute to that. How much does CMSD lose on unpaid property taxes???

→ Support laws and regulations supporting mixed use development.

2. New CLEVELAND economic model.

→ How do we LOWER TAXES and encourage JOB GROWTH without LOSING TAX REVENUE? In economics I've learned the basic theory that if you lower tax rates your businesses will grow. But NO CITY DOES THIS. Because of our size and our aims, we have an opportunity to do this.

Background

• Cleveland had around 150,000 jobs in 2000. I would guess they have around 130,000 jobs now, for mathematical purposes.
• Cleveland continues to lose jobs as a whole. A net LOSS in jobs (Jobs gained-jobs lost)
• I measure Cleveland's economic input in NET JOB GROWTH. The higher the net job growth, the better off we're doing both economically and through publicity.
• From what I understand, the employer and employee share the burden of the “payroll tax,” which sits squarely at 2%. Our county's median appears to be around 1.25%.

To improve the net job growth in our city, we need to incentivize businesses to begin here, to relocate their operations here, to encourage net job growth, to convince businesses to stay, and to actively work to bring new businesses here, ALL so taxes CONTINUE to go down. When all businesses and employees and the city can unite in order to increase profit across the board, a community should develop where every job counts towards the collective good.

This model is based on a system where the city's “net job growth” is measured around January 2012 for the 2011 year. If net jobs decrease, the 2% payroll tax rate remains intact and the next year is measured from the new total jobs level. If jobs increase and that total reaches a benchmark in jobs gained in that one year, the payroll tax due that spring decreases to the designated amount, saving large firms millions of dollars for their employee base in the city. If this “benchmark” is reached in multiple years, it goes into effect once the benchmark is met. If the payroll tax decreases then the total jobs falls below the previous bench level, the payroll tax goes up for the following year. Payroll tax never goes below 1.25% or above 2%.

See Appendix A1

Relocating Businesses with “Rings of Incentive.”

→ If a business relocates their headquarters or main operations to the city of Cleveland, they get a certain percent of payroll tax off the already existing level set by the “net increase” model.

• Elsewhere in County: .1% off
• Elsewhere in State: .2% off
• Elsewhere in Country: .3% off
• Out-of-country: .4% off.

→ Other incentives for relocation (American Greetings) can include free land, higher % off for LEED certification or occupying 30% of a large mostly abandoned office building already in existence.

New Business Incentives.

These models encourage a consolidation into Cleveland land, foreign investment, and set up a network of businesses reliant on other jobs remaining in order to increase profits. For starters, consider Clinic Jobs, Eaton Corp. Jobs lost. If they stay and we can attract American Greetings on free land in Midtown, that could push net job growth to +2500, lowering taxes immediately for everyone involved.

3. Improve Downtown.

→ Fix the Warehouse District problems. Establish a proper police force coverage and procedures.

→ Research downtown playgrounds, plazas, schools, mixed-use development. Bring families downtown to live as well as visit.

→ Downtown Cleveland Alliance is doing great. We still need increased security to improve the perception of downtown (which requires money from new jobs & residents. . .)

→ Promote a feasibility study of relocating Cleveland port permanently to empty space next to Burke Lakefront Airport. That plot of land is already in place, would not interfere with airport operations, and will be quicker to establish than building a new Dike off W. 55^th.

→ Invest in safety and infrastructure on West Bank of the Flats. Two downtown entertainment districts would be fascinating: Warehouse District, West Bank of Flats.

→ Connect the Cuyahoga Valley National Park railroad to downtown near the new casino site.

3. Pull out all the stops to get 3-C rail up and running. Having this connection to other cities provides students, government officials, businessmen, and tourists access to and from our city and the new attractions we'll have in 2014, when the rail should be completed by.
4. Make Downtown more suburban/visitor friendly.
   1. Given future lakefront development along the Shoreway, invest in safe city-run lots on other side of I-90 by the valley and post office. This site is isolated so it will be easier to secure and won't get in the way of future development.

→ Provide a shuttle to run route through Gateway, Public square, flats, lakefront, malls, east 9^th, colleges. In 2 directions. Visitors and residents will have a safe place to park for a cheap price, with access to main areas of the city.

→ Depending on time, small charge per car or per passenger.

2. Advertise where speed cameras are. Suburbanites and visitors HATE those.

7. Establish NEO as gay-friendly

→ Ohio is one of many states where discrimination for sexual orientation is still legal.

→ LGBT community is marginalized. They contribute to civic engagement, property values, and the barometer of a city's tolerance levels.

LGBT Anti-Discriminatory Hiring Compact

→ A plan I will undertake over Winter Break.

→ Local business owners pledge to not discriminate against openly lgbt job applicants or employees.

→ The list is posted online. As list grows, a committee is formed to hear complaints about a company's discriminatory practices.

→ The group works for advocacy.

→ It can be used to attract lgbt visitors, residents, and their friends. It will show which businesses are safe and appealing to deal with, as well as hopefully provide a job listing site.

→ The group kicks discriminatory companies off the list.

→ This compact provides a concrete sign that NEO is tolerant, accepting, and different.

8. Regionalize

→ The infighting has to STOP. It brings all of our communities down. We need to unite as cities, counties, communities, and businesses to battle other regions for resources, jobs, and people. A regional NEO council of leaders and community groups needs to be formed. As little villages, we waste resources and are relatively powerless to the common good. Together in a cartel everyone can benefit.

8. Education

→ The largest obstacle is the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the Teacher's Union. If there are limited decent education options in the core city of our region, people from our region won't move here, and foreigners will hesitate to move here.

→ With the help of Governor-elect Kasich and Cleveland City government, establish a dollars-to-the-child system. Parents have a choice of where to spend their $14,000 per-student. Every student will have a chance to apply to a suburban district, private school, or Cleveland school with their money. This gives parents and students the option to live in the city and still find a great education. It can benefit thriving charter schools with Cleveland money. It can also benefit suburban districts as they can pick an choose which students from Cleveland they'll accept to get more revenue for their schools and improve their student base simultaneously.

→ This will be extremely hard to maneuver. The Teacher's Union will fight hard. But education is about the student's good and options, not the teachers'. The Union will and district will be forced to shrink with lower revenue, and can hopefully start from scratch with a mix of their best and worst schools as a base, plus no more guarantees of revenue. The good teachers who deserve their jobs (not based on seniority) will get new ones as suburban districts expand.

8. Go Green

→ Every city in the US is in a race to be sustainable, green, and attract and younger crowd.

→ What sets us apart is our ample space to improve our urban farming, new urban parks, and new urban ecosystems. The best way to implement this is to engage the inner city black community on the east side to design, create, and maintain these parks with the help of the city and philanthropic donations. Too long have the poor communities in cities been denied access to parks and had utility and manufacturing plants placed near their communities. We have ample space in our Land Bank and plenty of people looking for a better quality of life, especially on the inner east side. The education, parks, and new economic model should help these communities in particular.

→ With our urban farming initiatives, Cleveland has an opportunity to become the first large city in the country with a compost program. I'm not talking about a weekly pick-up of food waste. Basically, bins can be set up near urban farms where Cleveland residents can dump their ort and moldy food, as well as leaves and straw. This abundance in food waste not able to be used to feed the homeless can be taken by any willing person, whether urban farmer or farmer outside the county, to be used for nurturing their vegetation. It's a unique concept that requires minimal investment and maintenance, yet encourages urban food growth as we approach an era of food shortages the world over.

8. Public access to events.

→ Clevelanders are passionate about their sports. Unfortunately our underprivileged population cannot afford to attend Browns games, Cavs games, and Indians games. Many families do not have cable or satellite TV access. This may be the easiest of the 14 steps: Have a local company (PNC?) sponsor a TV, Satellite Subscription, and safety precautions for each recreation center in Cleveland. This would turn these centers into “community centers,” providing access to every game to every resident in Cleveland who wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to watch the games. This would improve a sense of community with watch parties amongst the population as a whole, as well as decrease the gap between the haves and have-nots in our community.

→ Host a free concert every summer. $5 donations maybe for a local nonprofit, with a local company picking up the tab for the artist. Like, bring in a big draw to the Mall or public square once a year like Kid Cudi, a Clevelander with widespread appeal.

→ Sponsor more civic events/seasons. Christmas, with the decorations on Public Square, in Tower City, Snow Days at Progressive field, and The Christmas Story House in Tremont, Cleveland can be magical with an atmosphere that lasts the holiday season. “Christmas in Cleveland,” with decorations along Euclid in downtown and a shopping scene reinvigorated by department stores and the Casino's high-end retail could become a Christmas destination rivaling New York City's appeal.

→ Other events could be “Cleveland Day,” where every museum and destination opens up to the public for free, or “Cleveland Heritage Day,” where each ethnicity represented in the city participates with booths downtown or in their neighborhoods.

12. Diversify our Economy
    1. We are growing in our medical field.
    2. Find a way to increase banking presence again downtown.
    3. Invest as a community in windmill manufacturing, supplying parts to the soon-to-be-needed energy-efficient cars. Bring in European engineers with experience in windmill and solar design/manufacturing and create a global mass-production center for our energy sources of the near future.
    4. An idea
13. NEO International Welcome Center

→ With all of these exciting changes and projects happening in our region, we finally have something to market! But before we market, we need entities in place to handle the duties of such important tasks.

→ Cleveland can connect its rich heritage of immigrants with its new regional approach.

→ I propose an initial location at Tower City downtown, as a hub for transportation by rail, bus, and to the airport. Additional mini-locations would be represented at Hopkins International Airport and the Akron-Canton Airport. Future sites could include downtown Akron and Youngstown. If we're really looking forward, open shop in NYC and other immigrant cities, where people are looking for a cheaper, less crowded place to live.

→ Each site would run and maintain a tourism bureau (Cleveland Plus) complete with business, retail, residential, and tourism profiles (like a super-facebook), a real estate team to match people with communities that'd match what they're looking for, and a business team prepared to help newcomers and current residents navigate the city's red tape.

→ These bureaus would be funded in collaboration of each community in NEO looking for advertisement, new residents, etc. With a collective effort, the costs per city towards maintaining these groups would go down. Business advertisement and sponsorship is encouraged, as these businesses will benefit from more jobs and people in the city.

→ Each team maintains phone lines, email sites, and personal meetings with guests and inquirers.

1. Tourism bureau
   1. Connects visitors claiming to be “tourists” with the hotels, clubs, restaurants, museums, neighborhoods, and transit options best suiting their needs. Fill them in on the city's secrets. Market Cedar Point.
2. Residential team
   1. Maintains profiles for each community in NEO, showcasing their strengths for livability and matching a person/family to a neighborhood based on what they're looking for. Emphasize the quality of life for less than half the cost of any community on the coasts.
3. Commercial leaders team.
   1. On top of maintaining a resources post at each NEO IWC, this team would be governed by a collection of political leaders and business leaders from the community. This team would be responsible for actively recruiting businesses in cities around the country and the world. Researches businesses looking to relocate or who should consider relocating, and act as mediator between the city of Cleveland and the business on the new relocation payroll tax rates, lower land purchase costs, incentives, and why employees would benefit from moving to Cleveland.
   2. This team, after targeting businesses of all sizes, actively recruit businesses out of Sacramento, New York, Florida, the south, etc. With Cleveland's success in landing the Gay Games and Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, we can definitely work our low cost living and new resources to bring more jobs and people here.

14. Operating Resources
    1. Set up the websites, committees, personal phone assistants, community profiles, etc. Expect an immediate flood of interest after marketing campaign is released nation-wide.
    2. Obtain resources (financial, from local businesses and communities) to fund annual costs as well as the first big push. The more you pay this Center, the more advertisement you get.
15. Marketing campaign.

→ With numerous changes in NEO's approach as well as the culmination of all these events, we now have something to market. We're a viable option to visit, move to, start a business in, and move your current business to. We're a region looking forward to the challenges of a globalized, environmentally-impacted world. We're cheap yet have the amenities of a large city. Low commute times, lowering taxes, water, a new change in attitude, improving quality of education, green future, and gay and immigrant friendly. We're prepared for a future that demands these things of a city. And we're attractive to all groups of people, especially those marginalized groups looking for purpose and place in the USA.

→ We need to market these assets and all of our new changes in a one-weekend push that stirs national attention.

→ I propose running a 2-page spread in America's 50 most-read newspapers and 25 most-read magazines. One page would market our region, another would be a testimony of our current business base encouraging other businesses large & small to look into our new tax paradigm.

→ this initial push could cost up to $500,000. Far from a paltry amount for sure, but feasible with participation from every community in our region.

From this initial regional NEO push, with changes in place to promote growth, I'm positive we'll get interest and praise that will catalyze growth for years to come. It's all about being Progressive. With a new progressive mindset and progressive ideas, we'll be one-of-a-kind. The goal is to beat every city in the world to these unique ideas and the marketing campaign. If we fail to do something soon, the world will continue to grow and pass Cleveland by, even when a location such as ours become naturally appealing in 20 years. Without action in the next two years to set up a marketing push for moving residents and businesses in throughout 2014, the Gay Games may showcase that our city can't handle the needs of any event or person in the 21^st century. It is critical we act NOW to change our collective fortunes and improve our region. NEO communities are interrelated. Without a collective change in approach, we're doomed to continual failure.

I love Cleveland. With all my soul. But if we don't turn things around soon, I fear a mass exodus of businesses from Cleveland, a continuous exodus of creative young people, a loss of our sports teams, and a fall from grace of our renowned cultural institutions. Everyone is hurting right now. But if we do things right and attract people here, we can prevent these things from happening and once again make Cleveland the greatest location in the nation.