One of State of the Re:Union’s very own producers, Tina Antolini, gives a peek of behind the scenes action you’ll hear about in our newest installment of the fall season episodes, just click to listen: Cleveland, OH: Entrepreneurs at Work.

I have an exercise for you. If you were trying to describe what Cleveland, Ohio, tastes like, what would you say? Have any idea where to start? Maybe those of you familiar with the Polish or Italian heritage in the city might inch towards pierogi or salami territory. But, after a week of reporting there for SOTRU’s episode, I have a whole other idea of what Cleveland tastes like, and I can say with 100 % certainty, it is nothing like I’d imagined. Try this: buttered. popcorn. pots. de. crème.

The last of Greenhouse Tavern's Buttered Popcorn Pots de Creme.

This was the capstone to the kind of meal everyone should have when they go to a new city, a meal of abundant revelations … One that showcases the bounty of the region, but in a way that’s never show-offy. Such is the meal SOTRU host, Al Letson, and I had at Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland. Greenhouse Tavern is the baby of chef Jonathon Sawyer, a Cleveland native who spent years in the NYC kitchens of famous chefs, only to come back home when his kids were born and open Ohio’s first certified green restaurant. At the Tavern, that doesn’t just mean highly efficient low flow toilets and a compost pile out back (though they have those), it means efficiency in how animals are used, and sustainability in how ingredients are sourced. It was no accident that nearly every dish we tried featured pork in some form or another; when you’ve got a whole local pig to butcher on a regular basis, you better get creative in how to use it (one staff member told me you end up with 20 to 30 pounds of pure fat each time. And that can only mean… lots and lots of sausage.).

The ingenuity with which those pigs are used is what impressed me: pig tongue dolmas, for example. Greenhouse Tavern has a whole roasted pig’s head on the menu, but they have to remove the tongue, because it cooks more quicky than the rest of it. Hence the dolmas, which are not recognizable as anything even slightly resembling a tongue. Instead, they just taste like very moist minced pork, mixed with raisins and spices, and wrapped in romaine leaves that have been lightly pickled. Another example: the appetizer that I might champion as one of the best bar snacks ever: pork cracklins tossed with crisp fried hominy, pickled red onions, lime juice and cilantro. Porky, crunchy, and pickley, all at once.

The Tavern even has a daily changing menu item called “the fifth quarter,” which is a play on the butchering technique that divides an animal into four quarters, and whatever extra falls out—the intestines, the brain, what have you—well, that’s the fifth quarter. The night we were there it was rabbit spanikopita, and, let me tell you, if that’s produced from leftovers, we should all be so lucky to scraps lying around.

But back to the dish that has indelibly stamped itself into my memory of Cleveland. The story behind the buttered popcorn pots de crème is that they emerged out a of a quasi-joke one night. Greenhouse Tavern’s pastry chef, Matt Danko, saw a bag of stale popcorn in the restaurant, and said offhand that they should make a caramel corn flavored custard. The chef told him to go for it, and then he turned out not to be kidding. Matt makes the pots de crème by whipping up a batch of popcorn and then infusing cream with it, turning that into custard, and adding a topping of caramel and sprinkle of sea salt. What you get is what caramel popcorn would be if it had been transported into some sort of ethereal realm. Light, evoking the best buttery popcorn you’ve ever had, but with the dark “roastiness” of caramel and spike of salt. If this is what Cleveland tastes like, it tastes damn good.

The New Old West

People are few and far between in Wyoming.  Those that do live here prize tradition, self-reliance, and their connection to the land.  So when change comes to the high plains—an oil boom, a minister with new ideas—communities here are tested.   And neighbors have to strike a balance between preserving their independent way of life, and learning to rely on one another. We trek to the small towns and remote ranches of Wyoming, meeting people as they adapt to the New Old West.

People in Wyoming have had their fair share of wrestling with the demons of humanity. During this episode, Al explores the stories that have started changing the face of this once-rugged human terrain.

To listen to the full episode of Wyoming: The New Old West, click here. Following  are the latest in the collection of fall episodes: Cleveland, OH and Sacramento, CA, set to be released over the next two days.

Defending the Gulf

 After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area, Mississippi Gulf Coast residents were forced to come together to deal with the aftermath. Then, just as they were starting to get back on their feet, the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster dumped millions of barrels of oil into the water just off their shores.

Cumulatively, these events have made environmentalists out of a whole lot of Gulf Coast residents who may not have considered themselves as such. Al will take you an hour of stories about the fight for the natural world Gulf Coast bringing residents together, both with one another and with unlikely partners—and how, in some instances, that fight is turning out to be exactly what a community needed to survive.

You’ll learn about Turkey Creek, where a historic African-American community fights for its survival with the unlikely allies of rare birds and the Audubon Society. Al will also talk to a resident combing the beach for sea turtle strandings that they fear are related to the oil spill. We’ll also hear about former spill cleanup workers fighting for recognition of what they believe are oil-exposure-related health problems.

To enjoy the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast: Defending the Gulf episode, click here. There are three new episodes queuing up for you to enjoy, and we will keep you posted as they come. Episodes to look for: Wyoming; Cleveland, OH; and Sacramento, CA.

Still Rising from the Ashes

We are proud to announce that today begins the release of the new SOTRU fall season! The first episode gives us an intimate look at the Bronx, NY.

The Bronx has long been seen as a symbol of America’s failings.  For many people here, ‘making it’ means escaping the crime and poverty of their borough.  But some have refused to flee. This episode shines a light on the hold-outs and the dreamers, people who’ve committed their lives to keeping chaos at bay in the Bronx.

To listen to the Bronx, NY: Still Rising from the Ashes episode in its entirety, click here.

The rest of the new SOTRU episodes will be released over the next four days. Take a trip with Al as you listen to him tell the stories of men and women throughout our communities. After becoming engrossed in the Bronx, NY episode,  you can lose yourself some more in: the Mississippi Gulf Coast; Southern Wyoming; Cleveland, OH; and Sacramento, CA.

Emerging through Immersion

State of the Re:Union is continuing the School Spotlight segment with a look at a very special school in Sacramento, California. This region will be featured in one of our new episodes which begin releasing today. SOTRU is highlighting the Susan B. Anthony Elementary School that is beginning a new immersion program to assist the largely Hmong-populated community. (If you are dying to find out more about the Hmong people and culture, we can help you with that. You can check out our Twin Cities episode now, and you can learn more on our new Sacramento episode being released this upcoming week!)

Source: Ramsey County MN

Like many states across the nation, California has a very diverse range of  countries, creeds and backgrounds. For the Hmong people, escaping persecution due to hiding and assisting American soldiers in the Vietnam war was one of the driving reasons they sought asylum in the United States. Deracinating ties with family, friends and country, the Hmong community has been planting roots and making America their home.

A large population of Hmong people now call Sacramento, California their home. In an effort to help children and families acclimate more easily,  Susan B. Anthony Elementary of the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD),  is implementing a new Hmong Immersion Program in an effort to assist the ever-growing Sacramento community.

This program’s goals have been designed to help students become proficient in both English and Hmong languages to increase academic achievement. The school gives a bit more of a breakdown of exactly what dual language immersion is:

•    Uses both English and Hmong instruction
•    Serves English learners and native English speakers
•    Includes high levels of proficiency in new language and home language
•    Increases use of English gradually

According to a press release issued on September 1, 2011, Susan B. Anthony Elementary has implemented this ambitious plan as part of SCUSD’s initiative to “graduate high-achieving, bilingual and bicultural students ready to compete in the future global marketplace.”

As immersion programs go, this is the latest in Sacramento’s ground-breaking list of language immersion programs. Participating kindergarten students in the immersion program are primarily taught in the targeted program language, which in this case is Hmong.

As students progress through school grades, they are taught less in their language and more in English. By the time these students reach fifth grade, they will be learning in all-English. Years of research shows that students in language immersion programs are more successful at school, scoring higher on standardized tests given only in English than their counterparts taught only in English. This will have a profound impact on not just the students, but their families, and in turn, the community, state, and the nation.

Susan B. Anthony Elementary is leading the way for other schools in the Sacramento area. More schools are joining this effort helping children and families in their community through similar acclimation and immersion programs. Of course, being in America pretty much obligates us to having conflicting viewpoints on this program. People throughout the nation differ in opinion about the immersion program and just how necessary and/or helpful it is. On one side of the coin, I’ve heard some say that, well, “we’re in America, so English needs to be spoken in our schools.” However, as we at SOTRU have seen, it is not always that simple. To quote from the American Graduate initiative, “There is no ‘One Size Fits All’ solution” when contemplating a solution in the never-ending educational battles.

What other places around the country are using similar programs? Do your neighborhood schools offer similar programs? Has there been a noticeable change benefiting the community? Of course, we would love to hear what they are and in what ways they’ve helped or hindered your community.

Civic Engagement and Fiscal Innovation in California

Cities everywhere are facing the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, but California municipalities have been at it a lot longer. California was the testing ground for a grassroots tax rebellion that swept the country in the late 1970s and early 80s. A combination of economic volatility—booms and busts—and the lack of a statewide political consensus on fiscal policy has made local governance unusually dicey and difficult.

State government has been having a running budget crisis since around the time that Governor Gray Davis was recalled in 2003, and one of the strategies of subsequent governors, both Republican and Democratic, has been to exact “take-backs” from localities, withholding tax revenues to lessen the budget imbalance in Sacramento.

Much of the country, I know, views California as a negative role model because of its dysfunctional politics and fiscal paralysis, but it should have another reputation, as a state where there has been a great deal of grassroots civic innovation in spite of or, perhaps because of the dysfunction.

I noticed this several years ago when I was working on a research project for Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), a report on local government’s role in promoting civic engagement. One of the problems I faced was finding sufficient numbers of examples in other parts of the country to counter-balance the usual amount of civic innovation I was finding in West Coast, especially the Golden State.

I remember doing a briefing for the PACE board of directors in San Francisco. From where I stool in North Beach, I could drive twenty miles in any direction but west and find a striking example of local government innovation. But it wasn’t just Northern California. It was Chula Vista, Los Angeles, Ventura and Pasadena.

The journalist Carey McWilliams once called California the “Great Exception,” but he could just as easily have called it the “Great Experiment.”

In recent years, Brea, California, a city of 40,000 in northern Orange County, has become a case study in innovative fiscal management. Facing declining revenues and a big deficit, the city’s public managers rejected the top-down approach, opting instead to start a process allowing city employees to come up with ideas for restructuring the budget.

In the spring of 2008, an e-mail went out to all the city’s employees explaining the dire economic conditions facing the city. About 75 employees show up to a participatory budget meeting to develop solutions for the city’s fiscal crisis. The organizers had developed a collaborative process for the meetings. The participants were given a set of open ended questions and asked to meet in small groups to come up with answers.

Each of the groups recording their findings on flip charts and presented them to the larger group. Finally, a consensus would be developed in the larger group and the participants would move on to the next question. Brea city staffers call this the “problem solving model.” No ideas are rejected out of hand.

The next step was to hold two community-wide meetings. About 100 people participated in these meetings, not a bad turnout for a city the size of Brea to discuss priorities and community values to be considered when budget cutting.
The volunteer employee group developed tiered lists of reductions for each city department and used those lists to develop a balanced budget that was then submitted to the council. In all about 50 meetings were held during a ten month period with the average employee attendance of about 30-40.

The end result was a balanced budget elimination of 35 positions (though only about 11 of those resulted in actual layoffs or early retirements). The process was controversial at the time. Some council members reported were distrustful of it, concerned that the city manager had abdicated his responsibilities by giving power to the employees. Some citizens complained about city employees spending their time in endless meetings. The first year, the staff missed its budget deadline by three weeks, resulting in more complaints.

But in retrospect, most people see it as a success. The city has made some tough decisions and put itself in a better position to face the ongoing fiscal crisis with balanced budgets and less disruption than other California communities.
You can read about Brea’s experiment in collaborative budget making by linking here.

Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.