Quiet riot - Plan supporters "demonstrate."

Do it now! Don't delay! This wonderful once-in-a-lifetime offer expires at midnight!

That was the tone of the county commissioners' public hearing on the proposed convention center/medical mart, held at the Cleveland Public Library downtown branch on July 19. It was the first of two hearings, with Commissioners Tim Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones set to vote immediately after the second one, at 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. July 26 at the library, on increasing the county sales tax to raise around $40 million annually to build the complex. Councilman Zach Reed called in Monday to say that a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, Greens and Libertarians would announce their intention just after Thursday's meeting to collect enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot if commissioners choose to act without public approval.

"I'm not playing up Mike White on this, but with the stadiums and the school construction issues, he said, "Let's take these things to the people,' and the voters approved them. My question to Jimmy Dimora and Tim Hagan is, why are you so afraid to take this one to the people. If it's such a good deal, then take it to them."

The first meeting felt more like a rally than a hearing, starting with the sidewalk demonstration staged by the Convention and Visitors Bureau outside the library. Businessmen in suits and members of local unions huddled under red and white umbrellas in the rain, holding signs supporting the project before heading inside to the auditorium, where CVB members and union representatives comprised more than half the crowd.

The session opened with Commissioner Tim Hagan introducing Christopher Kennedy, president of Chicago's Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., so glowingly one couldn't help wondering if Hagan, who plans to retire as commissioner after next year, is angling for a job with MMPI. Kennedy's presentation consumed nearly 40 minutes of the two-hour session and was packed with pie-in-the-sky promises, painting Cleveland as a potential tourist destination bustling with attractions, nightlife and hundreds of thousands of visitors, as impressed conventioneers brought their families back for vacations.

"It just requires opening our eyes," he said, to which a wag in the audience retorted, "And our wallets!"

When Kennedy finished, three dozen speakers trooped to the mic, mostly to sing the praises of the project as a "no-brainer," a "slam dunk" and a "shot in the arm" for Cleveland. Understandably, union representatives such as Harriet Applegate, executive director of the North Shore AFL-CIO, Loree Soggs, executive secretary of Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, and Dennis Meaney, business representative with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, stated their groups' support for a project that would create a windfall of construction jobs. And downtown business owners, such as Lolly the Trolley founder Sherrill Paul Witt and Pickwick and Frolic owner Nick Kostis, could be excused for sounding slightly desperate. "It's never been more difficult to do business than the last five to seven years," said Kostis. "Seventy percent of our weekly income is from Friday and Saturday. Please, let's get on with this."

Many supported the commissioners' rushing the tax through without public approval. Others said they supported the project but wanted to see it on the ballot. And while many project supporters ran over their allotted time, the only speaker cut off by Hagan was Jeff Buster, who said, "I think what we have is desperation and with desperation we become delusional. Everyone is assured of a return except the taxpayers."

The final speaker, City Councilman Mike Polensek, pointed out the end result of the previous project touted as the salvation of Cleveland's economy: "What I'm hearing from my constituents is great skepticism They're still waiting for the 28,000 jobs from Gateway to materialize."

- Anastasia Pantsios

BLOG IT LIKE IT'S HOT

In 2005, some Cleveland bloggers disillusioned with The Plain Dealer's frontrunner-focused reporting on the mayoral race launched Meet the Bloggers, a forum for all the candidates to sit down at a local coffeehouse and talk at length on the issues (meetthebloggers.com). Since then, it's moved on to talking with people who have been active in community development such as Walk+Roll founder Lois Moss and Beachland Ballroom owner Cindy Barber.

Last year, to promote MTB, they launched Bloggapalooza, a day of music, drinking and schmoozing. On July 28, Bloggapalooza returns for its second year, at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd.) from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. while the Waterloo Arts Festival is happening outside on the street. The event features four bands - The Taller We Grow, The Elderly Brothers, Ghetto Wisdom and Word of Mouth - plus a roundup of five comedians collectively called Chucklefuck. A $5 suggested donation benefits Arts Collinwood.

"It's like a blogger block party," says organizer George Nemeth of BrewedFreshDaily.com. "We're all very serious about our blogs but we want to have a good time with this. The Little Rascals used to get together to sing and dance. The bloggers are getting together to put on a show." - Anastasia Pantsios

PEOPLE GET READY

On Friday morning, when most of us were finishing off our work weeks in quiet oblivion, seven peace demonstrators came to bolster Zanne Joi's protest against every single US senator who voted May 24 to fund President Bush's latest surge in Iraq. She hasn't been home in weeks.

The day started early with a vigil and short "peace-in" with staff from Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown's office, where Joi, a representative of national female-flavored protest group CodePink (codepink4peace.org), was told that Brown voted for the surge to keep troops from being left on the front without needed bullets and body bags. Then Joi steered her decorative peace truck over to Sen. George Voinovich's office at the federal building downtown and was given the same Hey, we appreciate you banging your head against the wall! reception.

"I used to be angry at the Bush regime," says Joi, a California organizer for the group, which was formed after 9/11 to protest the march to war and has been active ever since confronting politicians from both parties who say one thing and do another. (The name jabs at the Department of Homeland Security's color-coded scare chart.) "But now I'm pissed at this Democratic Congress. And yet the bottom line is: I'm angry at us, we the people in this country. It's not apathy as much as it's privilege. We don't have to care where our clothes are coming from, where our oil is coming from, as long as we get as much of it as we say we need."

Valerie Silleck, a high school government teacher from Ashtabula, took the day off Friday to lend her voice. She was barking her discontent into a megaphone while her friend held a sign with Bush's picture that read, "Worst President Ever." Horn blasts punctuated her words.

"I feel like a fraud sometimes, teaching the kids about checks and balances and separation of powers and all that, and then the president goes and walks all over the Bill of Rights and the Constitution," she says.

Though a little flustered by the skeletal turnout, Caleb Maupin, a 19-year-old student at Baldwin-Wallace College, says at least he's doing his part.

"It's gonna take people standing up," says Maupin, who was part of a recent Pentagon march in which protestors pushed military guards back across the entrance bridge. "Any change that's occurred in this country, it hasn't happened by begging Congress to do something or voting for the right president. It comes from taking action. Look at the civil rights movement. It was the bus boycotts, it was kids sitting down at lunch counters."

Well, here's your chance, Greater Cleveland: Chicago master's student Mario Penalver is heading through on his 830-mile March of the People in the coming days. His schedule of stops is available at ohioworldcantwait.blogspot.com.

Will he still be alone when he leaves?

"I liken this to a hand over a fire," Penalver says via cell phone during his solitary walk on Monday through western Ohio. "In so many ways people have been so damaged that they almost see this damaged world as the world they have to live in. The hand eventually gets numb." - Dan Harkins

CALL SHEETS

€ The Cleveland-based, shock-horror film company Old School Sinema is hosting a costume party at the Pirate's Cove in Peabody's Friday night (July 27). The Cult of the Psychic Fetus and Cap Gun Cowboys will play as moviemakers film the crowd for an upcoming slasher flick. Come dressed for Halloween. Additional screen time will be given to those dressed as flesh-eating zombies. Tickets: $7.

€ At 2 p.m. Saturday, July 28, Rare Blend performs a live soundtrack for a screening of the sci-fi classic Metropolis at the Cleveland Heights library on Lee Road. Pssst! Nerds! This is the movie that inspired George Lucas to create Star Wars. Go see what he got wrong. And at MOCA at 9 p.m. that evening, the Lusty Moors play live music set to avant-garde director Robert Banks' short films, which have been screened at Sundance and film festivals across the globe, but rarely seen in his home town. Free for MOCA members, $7 for everyone else.

€ Currently filming in Lakewood is N Star D Productions' first TV pilot, tentatively tiled: A Guy Walks Into a Bar...The brain child of a few Baldwin-Wallace grads, N Star D snagged B-Movie God Lloyd Kaufman for a cameo and claims to be in talks with James Gunn, director of Slither. If their substance is half as good as their hype, they'll have no trouble selling their pilot soon.

€ Local funnymen Chad Zumock and Jef Etters are trying their hands at an original online sitcom. Tragically Unemployed features Zumock and Etters as two corporate flunkies trying to figure out life while kicking around at odd jobs. New Webisodes arrive every Monday at TragicallyUnemployed.com.

- James Renner

PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR

In the thick of Grandmaster Flash's party on Euclid Avenue during the Ingenuity Festival Saturday night we found Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones and his wife Lisa moving it old-school, along with thousands who had come for the performance by the hip-hop legend. We've reviewed the presidential Malaria Awareness dance video on YouTube, and there's no question that Peter Lawson Jones moves better - more comfortably, with greater conviction - than George W. Bush.

"I'm allowed to have a good time," the commissioner reminded, to which we gave a little "hell yeah!" Which prompted him to wonder out loud where were his colleagues, Jimmy Dimora and Tim Hagan, were.

Which then prompted us to imagine Dimora and Hagan getting down with the rest of us, which then prompted us to shake our heads back and forth so fast that our cheeks flapped.

Even if the other commissioners weren't there to see how much fun Cleveland can have with a party in the streets, Jones assured that the county would continue to do its funding part to keep Ingenuity coming back for more. Which prompts us to say, "Go Peter, Go Peter!" - Michael Gill

RUST BELT REPORT

Medical Mart executive, a Kennedy family member, warns that county should act fast on plan to bring his company to Cleveland or risk losing the opportunity.

Smitten county commissions applaud his "Ich bin ein Clevelander" line.

Local bicyclist group proposes high-tech indoor track that would be only second of its kind in the nation.

Maybe they should tell county commissioners that they have to decide by Friday or risk losing facility to Huffy, Michigan.

Russian steel company considering opening plant in Ohio.

Mittal bosses checking coffee pots for polonium just to be safe.

East Side residents demand that city do something about abandoned houses.

Weary mayor tells aide, "Add it to the list."

Teamsters sue Newburgh Heights trucking firm over a hand-written sign that wished harm on members' kids and told them to "burn in hell."

Someone threatened their kids and they're suing? Wow, organized labor really has lost its edge.

Metroparks Zoo celebrates blooming of rare orchid that smells like rotting flesh.

Are we seriously that hard up for cool stuff that we get excited about a weed that stinks?

Man dismissed as juror on murder case after admitting that he'd witnessed the crime.

That's clever - most people just say they're racist or something.

Korean War vet says he was thrown out of VFW hall for complaining about smoking, but post commander says it was because he yelled at the bartender.

"ABOUT THE FUCKING SMOKE!"

Drew Carey reportedly the leading candidate to replace Bob Barker on The Price is Right.

Plinko will now be played with Krispy Kreme donuts.

Grady Sizemore to play game of Whiffle ball with Westlake family.

Prediction: Family will have several hundred aunts and teenaged daughters.

Elderly Ravenna man arrested for trafficking pain killers.

Finally someone earns his "Coolest Grandpa Ever" T-shirt.

Mike Polensek sends letter to troubled teen which ends: "Go to jail or the cemetery soon."

Polensek clarifies: "What I meant to say is, "Kiss my white ass, then go to jail or the cemetery soon.'"