In August 2008, Forbes came up with a list of "America's Fastest Dying Cities". Ohio was the state worst off on the list, with 4 of the 10 cities. Included on the list were (in alphabetical order): Buffalo, NY; Canton, OH; Charleston, WV; Cleveland,OH; Dayton, OH; Detroit, MI; Flint, MI; Scranton, PA; Springfield, MA; and Youngstown, OH. Supporters from each of these cities will join together in early August to show the world that these cities are living, not dying.

The brainchild of Peter Benkendorf and Mike Elsass, the "Ten Living Cities Symposium and Arts Festival" will be held in Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 7-9. By bring together artists and activists, community leaders and organizers, public officials and civic-minded people from the 10 cities, the organizers hope to share ideas, inspiration and create new possibilities for what the futures of these so-called "dying" cities.

There is no charge for registration to attend the event. Here is the schedule for the weekend:

Friday August 7 – Check-in and check out Dayton’s First Friday of gallery openings and entertainment, featuring art and music from the other Forbes cities. Includes creation of a collaborative installation by artists from all ten cities.

Is RTA taking us on another ride? As a transit system, it seems more like a servant of the same old special interests when it should be taking care of transit-dependent citizens.

Yes, I believe the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) does have a money problem with sales taxes and ridership down. Raising fares hardly seems the solution.

However, I also know that RTA hasn’t paid enough attention in the past to its spending. If it did RTA wouldn’t have to be cutting crucial services now.

We’re being told that there is a $5.5 million problem. The solution for RTA’s management is to cut services and raise the price by 25 cents.

That appears to be not a palatable solution.

If CEO and General Manager Joe Calabrese and his RTA board can’t find $5 million in his more than $240 million (2008) budget, then we need to get someone who can do the job.

RTA has become too accustomed to providing services that aren’t really necessary. Too comfy saying yes to the downtown scrounges.

The Euclid Corridor Improvement Project (Health line) was a perfect example of spending transit money for non-transit purposes. The road was plenty wide for RTA buses. I’d like to know the annual upkeep costs of this Euclid Avenue beautification program.

Ohio's unemployment rate climbed yet again, reaching 11.1% in the month of June, the highest in 26 years. The Department of Job and Family Services revealed today that the state lost more than 33,000 jobs during the month.

In May, Ohio's unemployment rate was at 10.8%. One year ago in June 2008, the unemployment rate was just 6.4%. The 11.1% rate for June 2009 is the highest since August 1983, when the jobless rate was at 11.3%.

Ohio has lost 279,000 jobs since June 2008. The biggest losses last month came from the manufacturing center, which cut 15,400 positions.

Pinnacle Sports and Coaching4Life are teaming up to host the Captains Leadership Training event from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 at the Pinnacle Sports facility at 313 Medina Rd. in Medina. The free motivational and educational program is designed to empower local high school sports captains, coaches of all levels (youth through college) and parents to better lead their teams, student bodies and communities.

The mission of Pinnacle Sports and Coaching4Life is to develop better human beings through athletics. Leadership training for players, coaches and parents is a vital component in youth athletics. These people have a profound effect not only on the athletic development of young people but also on the mental, social and spiritual development of young athletes. This program is designed to fill the bag of tools for those with influence from those who have experience and success as captains, coaches and parents.

Open to captains of all high school varsity boys' and girls' sports, the program features leadership messages from high-profile sports figures and breakout sessions for captains, coaches and parents. The event will showcase the Coaching4Life philosophy of building character in athletes and Pinnacle Sports' mission of intentionally integrating that character into sports and life.

Cleveland area Congressman Dennis Kucinich today released statement regarding the debate over universal healthcare. Kucinich has run for President twice with a platform that favored healthcare for all citizens under a single-payer-not-for-profit system.

The title of the release by Kucinich was titled "Healthcare: Change the Debate Support a Real Public Option" and reads:

Dear Friends,

In mid-May, in an effort to reach consensus, President Obama secured a deal with the health insurance companies to trim 1.5% of their costs each year for ten years saving a total of $2 trillion dollars, which would be reprogrammed into healthcare. Just two days after the announcement at the White House the insurance companies reneged on the deal which was designed to protect and increase their revenue at least 35% The insurance companies reneged on the deal because they refuse any restraint on increasing premiums, copays and deductibles - core to their profits. No wonder a recent USA Today poll found that only four percent of Americans trust insurance companies. This is within the margin of error, which means it is possible that NO ONE TRUSTS insurance companies.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has yet to officially sign the state budget, which includes provisions to allow slot machines to run at Ohio's seve race tracks, but a legal challenge is already being prepared. Amongst the groups planning to file a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court is the Ohio Council of Churches, who plan to challenge the constitutionality of the plan.

The Council is making the arguement that the terminals are programmed as slot machines, and will partially benefit race tracks and horse racing purses, not public education. And Reverend John Edgar explains that it would go against what voters intended when they approved of the state lottery:

“We’re going to stop it by filing suit in court. And we are going to argue successfully that this proposal violates the Ohio Constitution in two key places.

It is impossible to argue in court that giving money from an activity conducted by the lottery to increase the winnings for a horse is part of funding public education… They have manipulated language in a way that violates the Constitution.“

Last week Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Third Annual Justice Address, an annual meeting featuring a prominent national figure who explores important justice issues of our time. In his remarks, Holder outlined the Department of Justice’s agenda for reducing crime rates and the cost of incarceration, issues that he characterized as the Department’s main concerns.

“To begin with, high rates of incarceration have tremendous social cost,” Holder said. “And, of course, there also is the matter of simple dollars and cents, and the principle of diminishing marginal returns. Every state in the union is trying to trim budgets. States and localities are laying off teachers and canceling sanitation department shifts, but in almost all cases, spending on prisons continues to increase. Not only is this unsustainable economically, but it is also not proving to be effective at fighting crime. For while prison building and prison spending continue to increase, public safety is not improving. Since 2003, spending on incarceration has continued to rise, but crime rates have flattened. Indeed, crime rates appear to have reached a plateau, and no longer respond to increases in incarceration.”

The drums are beating loudly and often about East 4th Street. Even the New York Times had an extensive piece about the lively street that’s become an open air bazaar of restaurants.

It’s a small economic oasis in a virtual desert of inactivity. But not much more.

Go directly north across the street. Lively it ain’t. There sits the grandest of Cleveland’s buildings – The Arcade. Built in 1890. “It has no peer in the United States…” says Eric Johannesen’s “Cleveland Architecture 1876-1976”

And it’s dying. Economically, that is.

Just a few steps from East 4th Street.

As full as East 4th street might be on any July noon that’s as empty The Arcade will be at the exact same time.

Into each project has flowed millions of public dollars. Chris Warren, the city’s economic development major domo, says $10 million has gone into East 4th Street. Well, that’s high subsidies for such a short street.

I expect with tax relief and other subsidies it’s more than $10 million.

At The Arcade, more than $10 million of public money has been given.

Ohio's biennium budget was due to be completed by the last day of June 2009, however state lawmakers and Governor Ted Strickland were unable to reach an agreement in time. So, twice the state legislature passed extensions funding the state government temporarily at 70%. On Friday, Strickland issued a statement stating that he has agreed to a balanced budget framework with leaders of the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives.

As a part of the deal, Strickland will issue an executive order authorizing video slot machines at Ohio racetracks. Meanwhile the state General Assembly in the budget bill will provide for a definition of the "video lottery terminals", or VLTs, as well as other implementation details.

Initially, Strickland had called for the legislature to authorize the VLTs. Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate, however, resisted the installation of the slot machines without a vote of Ohioans and instead asked Strickland to issue an executive order if he wanted them. The VLTs are estimated to bring in $933 million over two years, which would help to put a plug in a $3.2 billion budget hole.

No wonder President Barack Obama’s and Gov. Ted Strickland’s popularity in Ohio is sinking like a lead weigh in water. New job figures for the start of July stink. Again.

George Zeller, research analyst, reports today on the economic outlook and he’s quite blunt. Alarmingly bad, he reports again.

The new data, writes Zeller, “...are important since they will be the first indication that is available when the ongoing Ohio recession finally ends. That did not happen in the new data. INSTEAD, THE RATE OF LAYOFFS IN OHIO CONTINUES TO INCREASE VERY SHARPLY AT AN ALARMING RATE THROUGH EARLY JULY 2009.” (My emphasis.)

He goes on: “The new data indicate that Ohio is still rapidly losing jobs, not gaining them, even during the first week of July. This makes it highly unlikely that there will be a rebound in the tax revenue collections of the state of Ohio during the forthcoming 2009 months.

At this time of year, Zeller reports, the number of weekly claims in Cuyahoga County, for example, should be fewer than 1,000. However, he reports them at 2,225, “a level more than double the normal 1,000 rule of thumb that measures a recession” here.

Further, “It also exceeded last year’s very high figure by 79 percent.”