ae monthly

Another issue of Bruce McKinney's AE Monthly (Americana Exchange) is out. I highly recommend signing up for the monthly newsletter by email...one email, once a month; no spam.
Go to www.americanaexchange.com

turkey in the straw

There was a short bit of music used on NPR a couple of weeks ago that stuck in my head. I had written down what I thought was the artist's name...didn't come very close but found it this morning. Georgia Wettlin-Larsen is a Native American singer. Turkey in the Straw

moving websites

Ljbooks.com and alanwigton.com are being moved to different servers and may be down for a while, or a day.

oak hill

Oak Hill Cottage is decorated and ready for Christmas tours beginning this weekend. Regular tour hours are Sundays from 2 to 5 pm until December 30. Groups can be scheduled for any other day by calling 419 524-1765. The organ will be played during Sunday tours. After Dec. 30 the house is closed until tours resume about the first Sunday in April.

updates

Updates:
The crows are roosting in Central Park at night, so I guess winter is officially here.
We had such a lush growing season that the countryside still looks good, even with most of the leaves fallen.
The Mansfield school levy passed!
Don Culliver won the mayoral race.
I'm now on the Board at Oak Hill (Richland County Historical Society), and will be getting a website up and running again for them soon.
My year as sec/treas of MBOR is about up and I'll be sec/treas elect for 2008.
Events are over at the Appleseed amphitheater for 2007, and it's being winterized.

the black orchid of ohio...joe dush and the maxwell code

Not long after opening my bookshop in 1995 I met a book collector from Willard named Joe Dush, well known as a consummate collector of Ohio material. His reputation as an attorney and gentleman had in fact found its way into print in Jack Matthews book about the legendary Mansfield bookman, Ernie Wessen, which I had in my collection. The following article in the AE Monthly revolves around the rarest Ohio book, the Maxwell Code, owned by Dush and sold at auction after his death, and coming up for auction again this December. The Black Orchid of Ohio.

my grandma's ghost story

Hear my Mom tell my Grandma's Ghost Story

The Floyds

more about demolitions

The current mayor's race has brought out talk about demolitions by the candidates but few new ideas or thoughts about how to reverse the deterioration of the city's housing stock. This is a frustrating situation for the voter who wants to hear some realistic debate about how to improve the city, rather than more of the same about patchwork damage control which is all demolitions can hope to accomplish.
Maybe it would help if the candidates looked at the data and understood the magnitude of how many demolitions it would take to improve the city. Here are some numbers provided by Richland County Regional Planning about the condition of housing. Census tracts 1 through 8 in Mansfield represent the core of the city and the most deteriorated areas. [here's a link to a map of census tracts http://www.rcrpc.org/documents/mfdtrt.pdf] Within those 8 tracts there are 88 houses rated UNSOUND, 97 houses rated VERY POOR MINUS, and a total of 3251 houses rated POOR or lower [ Poor, Poor Minus, Very Poor, Very Poor Minus, & Unsound]. That's 46% of the housing stock in those 8 tracts.
When you look at these numbers and try to figure which end of this problem to put the most effort and money into, I think it's obvious that a program of stepped up demolitions is not the answer. Yes, code enforcement needs to be emphasized and the demolition process continued, but let's hear about some more positive ideas for improving the salvageable properties and encouraging people to reinvest in the older neighborhoods.

midsummer night's dream

The Shakespeare Players of Mansfield Senior High present Midsummer Night's Dream today and tomorrow at the Johnny Appleseed Outdoor Amphitheater 3pm to 5pm. Tickets $5 at the door.
The facility is two miles south of Mifflin on 603. It looks like it will be a beautiful day for it.

new arrivals in bookshop

Recently acquired:
King's Blood Royal, Sinclair Lewis. Signed limited edition (of 1050). Random House 1947. $175 in publisher's slipcase.
The Hairy Ape, Eugene O'neill. Signed limited edition of 750 copies. Horace Liveright, 1929. Illustrated by Alexander King. $300 in dust jacket and slipcase.
Radford's Details of Building Construction. 1911, Arts and Crafts era. One of a number of architectural plan and detail drawing books published by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago. $175
Edgar Allan Poe Letters in the Valentine Museum. Lippincott, 1925. Limited edition of 1550 copies. 31 letters written by Poe reproduced in facsimile, transcribed, and with commentary by Mary Newton Stanard. The discovery of these letters primarily to his foster father John Allan shed new light on Poe's earliest years as a student and his relationship with Allan. $100.

mango

Learn a foreign language! Mango is a language learning website in beta testing stage...it's free.

mg

The Square is innudated (flooded, littered, awash in) MGs this morning...some kind of club event. Bill at the Coney indicated that it was some sort of drive-by cruise-in planned on short notice. They'll probably be on their merry way, scarfs trailing in the breeze, by the time you read this!

repairs on susan sturges house

Here's a ground level view of some repair work on the eaves of the house at 317 Park Avenue West. This corner had been repaired previously by someone, but probably from a ladder, and wasn't put together very securely. Working from a scaffolding is much easier.
The original fasteners that put this house together are both cut nails and forged nails. I've worked around a number of houses this age and older, and I've never seen one with siding that's so absolutely solid and tight.

kalamazoo

Kalamazoo Michigan, population a little larger than Mansfield (77,000), is worth a close look for programs related to schools and rehabilitation/development. Anka Vaneff told me about their innovative schools initiative funded by anonymous donors that provides college tuition to kids who complete at least four continuous years in their system. Kids completing all 12 years get a 100% scholarship. I looked it up and it's called the Kalamazoo Promise and has been receiving national attention. According to the linked NPR article, it has spurred an increased enrollment of 1000 and 6% increase in home sales in the city.
A quick check of the city's website turns up another interesting article about some new incentives programs to spur rehab and new home construction in Kalamazoo as part of what they call their A+ Neighborhoods initiative. These programs all have a common element that the people of Kalamazoo seem to understand; it's not just about throwing money at things that are broken, but important to get a payback in return.
We need to pass a school levy and get past the current crisis, then start looking at solving the problem of how to turn around shrinking enrollment. The Kalamazoo Promise program would appear to go hand in hand with bringing young families into the city, increasing property values and tax revenue, and encouraging rehab of the low priced housing stock in the city.

changed blog moderation

I just changed to "no moderation" so any comments posted will show up right away. I can still delete them if you get unruly...