The Cleveland-Pittsburgh TechBelt Initiative

I told you Cleveland sucked. Look at this Ralph Della Ratta character, wishing justifiably he were just about anyplace else on Earth. There are six parts to this, featuring Congressional representatives Tim Ryan (D-OH-17, above) and Jason Altmire (D-PA-4, Pts. 3-6). Fwiw, I think "tech" might be an off-center tail if we're really looking to wag this dog; everybody and their mother wants to be America's Next Top Technology Corridor, nothing unique there. Even still, it looks like TechBelt is converting some federal and state grants into an energy-sciences enterprises incubator in Warren, OH.

So if you ever need to bum lab time with a small-to-medium Hadron Collider, they're your guys.

UPDATE to Tuesday(;) Siiix Gooolden Liiinks

0. Alright, okay? Alright, alright, alright, ALRIGHT.

CLEVEBURGH

What is the big idea?

Pittsburgh and Cleveland, along with Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Weirton and Steubenville, could all fit within the area that currently makes up the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area. (P-G, Chris Briem)

And...

The metropolitan statistical areas of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Steubenville, Weirton and Youngtown, along with adjacent counties, add up to a population of more than 6 million and a labor force of more than 4 million. (ibid)

Okay. That's just great.

In many ways Cleveburgh already exists. (ibid)

Fine then. Will there be anything else?

If Pittsburgh and Cleveland can greatly expand the cooperation that has only just begun, then maybe we can lose the inward-looking... (ibid)

AH AH AH AH AH losing interest. If you had only just wanted us to take advantage of all those dumb idiot Clevelanders sadly being there, and use them economically and socially to our advantage -- and get folks from "Youngstown" and the such to help us do it -- then fine.

It is our mental map of who we are that will have the most to do with who we become. (ibid)

Ah, so it is Sun Tzu!! Namaste. (MORE: Look at it.)

##

1. City Council today declared 2011 to be A. Leo Weil Year in the City of Pittsburgh. On the Internet there seems to exist nothing comprehensive about this figure from turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh, for whom an elementary school in the Hill District is now named. In slices he is described variously as an attorney, a "graft-hunter", a prominent member of the Voters' Civic League, and by then-Mayor William Magee as "a human bloodhound."

2. This is not encouraging:

The natural gas boom gripping parts of the United States has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

But not in Pennsylvania... (P-G, David B. Caruso)

3. Particularly intriguing ruminations over at Pittsblog 2.0:

People who live in the city's handful of hipster neighborhoods and in its better-known gentrified neighborhoods have the political will and economic clout to attract more residents and more local businesses; people who live in the region's more successful suburbs are gradually building better walls and moats to ensure that the rich stay rich. The many, many neighborhoods and towns in the middle, places with retirees, public school systems, fire departments, public libraries, and need for public transit, depend on transfers of wealth to balance their metaphoric books. Pittsburgh's tech sector, higher education sector, and medical services sector are fiddling -- sweet notes, to be sure -- while the rest of the region largely burns. (Pittsblog 2.0)

4. Councilman Ricky Burgess this morning introduced to City Council for its consideration a ballot question that would amend the city's Home Rule Charter to disallow any future increase in property tax rates, unless said increase itself is agreed to by voter referendum. In a news release he reasons that this will give voters the chance "to protect themselves from public policy decisions that will force massive property tax increases."

Coincidentally, the Rev was in the news just last night regarding a different property tax-related issue.

5. This bit of satire has been making the rounds:

You just don’t understand the complexity of political realities. Stakeholders, filibuster, center right nation, starter home to be build on latter, median voters, electability, big tent, blah blah blah. (FDL Action, Jon Walker)

In case you didn't notice, I highlighted the vulnerable part of the satire.