Category: Community Activism

I swung on up to Ohio City last night for some sushi from Kimo’s before going to the last night of inter­views for this round of Neigh­bor­hood Con­nec­tions Grant-mak­ing. Kimo’s was closed again. The third time in a row this has hap­pened to me. I know he does the sushi for the Indi­ans, and that its a big account for him, but it is a has­sle to get there and find out he is closed. I guess I’ll have to start call­ing first. Maybe he could use a web­site to keep folks informed? Instead I went to Heck­’s again. I’d last been there over a year ago with Patrick in our quest for the best burg­er in Cleve­land. I was­n’t impressed with their burg­er then, and I was­n’t impressed with the pas­ta dish I got last night. The food was good enough, but I can and have made bet­ter at home.

The six inter­views we had last night switched back and forth between sports/exercise pro­grams and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams. Unfor­tu­nate­ly the same prob­lem we’ve had in the past also came through with sev­er­al of these groups. Most or all of the mon­ey would go to pay them­selves or their busi­ness. I’m sor­ry, but if you request $5000 and all of that mon­ey is going to pay for mem­ber­ships to the busi­ness you own you aren’t going to get the mon­ey. Sim­i­lar­ly, if you request $5000 and all of that mon­ey is being split between the work­ers at the busi­ness while claim­ing their hours as in-kind con­tri­bu­tions, you’re not going to get the mon­ey. I think that is one of the pos­i­tives hav­ing com­mu­ni­ty activists as the grant-mak­ing com­mit­tee. We know all of the tricks peo­ple will use to make a buck. I won­der what it says for the Cleve­land econ­o­my that small busi­ness­es are so des­per­ate for patron­age or cash that they’ll cre­ate one-off pro­grams and hope the fund­ing source does­n’t look too close­ly at their appli­ca­tion.