Councilman Thomas Cincinnati Change Briefing

Councilman Thomas Cincinnati Change Briefing Short

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The Black Tech Front

I think organizations like BITE and the Black Data Processing Associates [BDPA] can give a better state of the Black Tech Front than any one else. How bout it if we [Cincinnati Change] host the venue in DC and the prime bandwidth - will the Afrospear join us on March 9th from Washington DC for a live feed for the National Fairness Campaign.

We will even make it possible to be on the Hill on the 12th hosted by Barney Frank through our Membership in the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. We will be having after conference working dinners and late night global newmedia social network development sessions from March 9th through the 15th in Washington DC.

A change is comin.............

Commissioners back commuter rail in NEO

ELYRIA — A plan for a commuter rail system between Cleveland and Vermilion – and perhaps as far as Sandusky — keeps inching ahead.

A private group called the Northern Ohio Commuter Rail Coalition has raised half of the $70,000 in local matching money needed to access the $343,000 federal earmark designed for a study of the proposed commuter rail project.

Even in a down economy, dozens of small donors are contributing toward the local share, said Pat Petrigan, chair of a steering committee for the public-private partnership called West Shore Commuter Rail.

The county commissioners announced at Thursday’s meeting that they were partnering up with Petrigan’s group, which has support from businessmen Anthony and Bob Campana and from Vermilion Mayor Jean Anderson.

Anderson told commissioners that she can’t walk around Vermilion without people questioning her about when they’ll be able to hop on a commuter train. And Petrigan, citing rail systems in other countries, said he thought the line would spur economic development.

“We are so far behind the rest of the industrial world, it’s incredible,” Petrigan said.

County Commissioner Betty Blair expressed enthusiasm and said the project would be perfect for stimulus money.

“This was in the works before stimulus was even mentioned,” Blair said.

In Lorain County, Blair envisions stops in Vermilion, Lorain, Sheffield Lake or Sheffield, and Avon or Avon Lake. She said commuters could hop a train east to Cleveland for work or to attend a Browns game or a train west to Cedar Point.

If deemed feasible, the federal government would be asked to shell out the money for train cars, staffing and to set up stations. In Lorain, a station already has been built at Black River Landing, Blair said.

A 2000 study said it would cost about $100 million to start commuter rail between Cleveland and Lorain, said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, who was not at Thursday’s meeting but was contacted afterward.

He said the $343,000 earmark through the Federal Transportation Administration and $70,000 in matching money would pay for the studies needed to finalize a route for the railway, which would largely follow the lightly-used Norfolk-Southern railroad.

After arriving at the West Boulevard Rapid Transit Station in Cleveland, it would either follow the railroad tracks to the lakefront or switch over to the Regional Transit Authority’s Red Line to Tower City, he said.

In addition to the route, the study would determine the best options for a train, such as use a diesel rail engine or an electric-powered train, Prendergast said.

Prendergast said 20,000 people daily ride light rail run by the RTA in Cleveland. Ridership increased 10 percent when gasoline surged to $4 a gallon, and RTA held onto the gains even when fuel costs dropped, he said.

Cindy Leise | The Chronicle-Telegram

Cleveland has changed

The goal of the National Capacity Building Symposium II has been met. We have reviewed not only what has gone before but what the current legal and regulatory environment is we find ourselves in. Next - recommendations.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account—to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day—because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government."

– President Barack Obama in his Inaugural Address

It is expected that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be signed by the President on February 16, assuming we can get it passed. That legislation won't list the projects to be funded. Instead, it will appropriate money for federal grant programs, such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) or Surface Transportation Program, which will then use the appropriated stimulus money to make grants to cities.

In the case of CDBG, for example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be the agency that will decide (using a formula) which of the projects requested by the mayors will be funded. That said, the funding Congress approves for these programs, and thus how much money cities will actually receive for their projects, may exceed or fall short of the mayors' suggestions.

This means that not every project requested by the mayors will be funded. And that is why it's important for citizens to register their opinions on which projects they believe are critical and which are not.

The best site so far, non governmental, is StimulusWatch. Clean Site ...use it.

StimulusWatch.org was built to to help the new administration keep its pledge and to hold public officials to account.

Current Future National Fairness Campaign Cities

Cleveland, Ohio 13th Feb. 2009

Washington DC 9-10th March 2009

Columbus, Ohio

Houston, Texas

New York City

Oakland, Ca.

Chicago, Ill.

Detroit, Mi.

Miami, Fl.

The Cleveland National Capacity Building Symposium

“Enforcement and Regulation”

“We will propose a National Building Program that can be implemented over the next 18 months, if we act wisely, in unity, within a regulatory environment that follows the letter, as well as the spirit, of the law where we [through the digital universe as Americans] will oversee the peoples government [at all levels] investment in its people [over 305 million and counting next year Mr. Gregg, with next year being the US Census year], fairly [any lawyers out there?].”

Hershel Daniels, Junior

Cincinnati Change Vice-Chairman

http://nationalfairnesscampaign.blogspot.com/

This symposium is to be held at the

Louis Stokes Telecommunications Center

at the Cuyahoga Community College main campus on

Friday 13^th 2009, Cleveland, Ohio 9:00 AM - 4:00PM.

The Host Agencies are PolicyBridge, The Black Trades Council of Ohio and NEO Alliance for Change.

Donations can be sent c/o Cincinnati Change, Inc. Fifth Third Bank at Account # 7024418605 Routing # 042000314 and mail to 512 Carmalt Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45219, also you can drop off donations to Cincinnati Change at any Fifth Third Bank. For more information call 614.622.4808 or email at natichange@gmail.com.

There are many speakers on the conference calls leading up to the symposium. Send you email request for access to calls and or blogs, BBS's and webzines to natichange@gmail.com. We welcome your current Vita and or policy paper to added to the national largest repository of community reinvestment agreements in digital form.

Tim Ferris: National Fairness Campaign Blog: good work, looking forward to more

Tim Ferris: National Fairness Campaign Blog: good work, looking forward to more

Am I not a man and Brother?

This from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s web site, "The Civil War is central to who we are as a nation, and what we will become. This section is dedicated to the ongoing political, social and economic implications the war created for the CURRENT body politic. To understand those implications, we must have a clear view of the two issues that have been central to American history:

(1) the relationship between the federal government and the states, and

(2) race.

One way of describing the role race has played in American history is to use the metaphor of an earthquake. The issue of race produced "tremors" from 1619 to 1861, the 1861 to 1865 "Great Earthquake" we refer to as the Civil War and everything from 1865 to the present has been "aftershocks."

Prior to the Civil War, Americans expressed their interests primarily in four political parties.

The Civil War greatly reduced their options to two-the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Democrats and Republicans emerged while debating the question of what to do with the newly-freed slaves.

The radical Republicans argued for greater federal investment in their education, healthcare and housing. This became the precursor of modern economic liberalism.

The conservative Democrats/slaveholders argued that the freed slaves must pick themselves up by their own bootstraps. This was the precursor to modern economic conservatism.

For 140 years all Americans have been traveling essentially this same road, while the two party roles have essentially switched.

Boundaries of the United States
(map created by Ed Stephan)

The preceding graphic and its corresponding dates show how central the issue of race was prior to, during and after the Civil War.

A greater understanding of the American Civil War that continues to be fought on the battlefield of the national conscience is the only way we can truly overcome, and build a nation where no American is left behind-A MORE PERFECT UNION.

I believe with successful closing of the National Fairness Campaign first symposium convened under Dr. Robert Day and leadership provided by General Chairman Joesph Debro that we have set the stage for a investment in millions of American lives through a best practices solution to reform a more perfect union.

The National Fairness Campaign can be implemented by people through their government at all levels and is responsible to the National Fairness Campaign Steering Committee for leadership.

The National Fairness Campaign Steering Committee includes, but is not limited to:

• General Chairman Joesph Debro Co-Founder, National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC)
• Co-Chairwoman Pandora Ramsay, Founding President , Ohio Fairness Campaign
• Co-Chairman Fredrick Hargrove, Sr. PE, MBA. former Chairman of Cincinnati Change and current Cincinnati Change Treasurer and Chief Engineer
  
• Co-Chairman Irvin Henderson, former Chairman, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC)
• Convener Dr. Robert Day PhD, President, Center for Urban & Rural Development
• Executive Coordinator, Michael Cole, President, Thouh Communications
• Steering Committee Adviser and Panel Moderator Lawrence Auls, Chairman of MDi, Executive Director LISW, LTD

Its time to get on the bus to DC to Change America Again.