So I got real busy this week, and now I look around and it's Friday! Oh well, both of the people who read this were probably busy, too. Who knows, maybe they were also at...

THE WEEK'S COOLEST EVENT: Yep, there we were in City Hall Rotunda Thursday, two or three hundred of us and the Mayor, with giant mop-props, music, folks beating a rhythm on plastic buckets, cheering, dancing... all celebrating a big step forward for downtown and the people who work there. The people, that is, who work there after everybody else goes home. The cleaning staff. The janitors.

Over seven hundred employees of downtown office cleaning contractors, represented by Service Employees Local 47, have been negotiating a new contract for the past few months. These are mostly African-American, mostly female, mostly Cleveland residents. They work shifts that start at 5 or 6 p.m., hard physical work, for pay that starts around $7 an hour. Many are kept on part-time status, meaning no health insurance. The union, as part of its ongoing national campaign called Justice for Janitors (anybody catch the movie Bread and Roses?), was asking for a modest pay increase, health insurance eligibility for everyone, and more full-time work.

Thursday's event was supposed to be a big support rally. But at the last minute -- Wednesday, I think -- a proposed agreement was reached with the major contractors. The union won $1.30 an hour over three years, health insurance for part-timers and a track for part-time workers into full-time work... a big and significant victory. (Here's the PD story.) So the rally turned into a party at City Hall, where the Mayor and City Council both supported the union's efforts. And lemme tell you... these cleaning folks know how to party!

Absolutely the downtown event of the week.