For the past four years, Eric Huber and his wife, Julie, have been quietly operating Lake Erie Pet Food Company as a convenient way to get natural, locally-made dog and cat food delivered to Northeast Ohio pet lovers.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 12, the Hubers will officially open the doors to their first brick-and-mortar retail store at 4164 Lorain Ave. in Ohio City.

Right next to the newly christened Euclid Beach Pier, more than 550 community leaders gathered lakeside for the fifth annual Vibrant City Awards—presented by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) and Delta Dental and highlighting the best in local urban revitalization efforts.

Welcome to the latest edition of FreshWater Cleveland's “Who’s Hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for, and how to apply. This installment includes jobs from FreshWater Cleveland, Cleveland Transformation Alliance, Grog Shop, The Begun Center, The Keenan Company, and Saber Healthcare Group. Click here for the freshest job opportunities fit to print.

What does the future for the 1976 Coventry School building look like? A new pilot program holds the key to finding out.

For the Shakarian-Kvidera family, the epic Cavs championship parade in 2016 turned into an epic trek through the city of Cleveland. The family of five walked from their home in Edgewater to downtown and back, earning a few more notches on their proverbial FitBit than they’d expected.

Artist Will Sanchez grew up in the La Villa Hispana neighborhood. But it wasn’t until he was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2003 for trying to rob a convenience store at 5404 Storer Ave. that he discovered his love and talent for art—and re-embraced his childhood community. In 2018, he opened La Cosecha Gallery in the exact same location he tried to rob 15 years earlier.

On the heels of Pride in the CLE, good news out of Gordon Square: after 20 years of operating out of a 5,000-square-foot basement at 6600 Detroit Ave., the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland is ready to move into a prominent, custom-designed and -built, and proud new home across the street at 6705 Detroit.
 

Are you passionate about the future of Cleveland? Are you plugged into the people, places, and projects shaping and transforming our city? Then you might be the perfect managing editor for FreshWater! We are looking for someone to join our team starting in July.

On Friday, June 7, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress will host its fifth annual Vibrant City Awards—where more than 600 people will gather at Euclid Beach Park to recognize 16 community leaders for their devotion and contributions to Cleveland's urban neighborhoods. The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and tickets are still available for the lakefront BBQ luncheon provided by Zack Bruell Events.
 

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland. Check out the June lineup here!

These days, every day is a party for Catherine Blubaugh. After all, the owner of the new Oh Pink! Party Shop lives and breathes party supplies while she puts the final touches on her Ohio City storefront to gear up for its June 15th grand opening. But make no mistake—this is not your average strip-mall party shop.

The Cudell and Edgewater neighborhoods—rich in both working-class, industrial history to the south and waterfront estates of the wealthy to the north—are coming together to celebrate all the modern-day area has to offer with Cudell Improvement, Inc.'s first Edgewater Street Fest on Sunday, June 30.
 

They say one never forgets how to ride a bike—and if the freewheeling folks taking part in Silver Spokes are any indication, it’s 100 percent true. 

If she could afford a car, Antaneshia Fletcher could drive to her job at Bloom Bakery in less than 20 minutes. Instead, she rises at 4:30 am every day so she can spend two hours taking the two bus routes necessary to travel from her home in Euclid to the store near the Cleveland State University campus by 6:30 am.

A decade after Ohio City leaders began trying to capitalize on the success of West 25th St. by luring new businesses to Lorain Avenue, local entrepreneurs are moving to this funky west side main street to take advantage of affordable rents and a newly emerging restaurant, retail, and nightlife scene.

Though the 20th-century heyday of Euclid Beach Park is long gone, vibrant remnants remain—from the carousel at the Cleveland History Center to the rocket cars roaming around Cleveland to the newly opened Humphrey’s Popcorn on E. 185th Street. Today, another ode to Euclid Beach joins their ranks with the official ribbon-cutting of the Euclid Beach Pier.

It’s 20 minutes before showtime, in a small banquet room at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, and Yasin Cuevas is glowingly ecstatic. For one, her first-ever Miss Latina Image fashion show—expanded from “Miss Puerto Rican Image” of years past—has attracted a packed house, more than any other program in the past few years. It’s also a signal of much more: a newer, more diverse Clark-Fulton community, one more gung-ho on the self-education... Read more >

The children who come through Providence House—a crisis nursery providing free, voluntary emergency shelter to children—have enough going on in their worlds without having a quiet, relaxing place to think, reflect, or just be alone. Last week, Valley City-based landscape tool manufacturer Troy-Bilt sent six gardening experts to Providence House on W. 32nd Street to help revive the facility’s sensory garden as a place where even the youngest clients can ... Read more >