Anyone who set foot in the Beachland Ballroom last Saturday might have thought the rumors of print media's demise have been greatly exaggerated. At the sold-out Concert for Truth, more than 450 people gathered to show their support for local journalism and those who bring us the news every day. The event featured 11 local musicians who volunteered their time and talents to raise about $5,000 for the 24 Plain Dealer employees who are being laid off after March.

With 20 cities in the running, Cleveland’s chances of becoming the next Say Yes to Education chapter—and only the fourth in the country to receive the distinction—were just a paltry five percent. Yet according to Say Yes founder George Weiss, it was no contest.

After 18 years in the restaurant catering and food contracting industry, Lindsay Smith decided it was time to debunk some of the myths surrounding fine wines. Namely, Smith wants to correct the perceptions that wine is expensive, intimidating, and highbrow—and she's doing so at the new Flight Cleveland wine bar in the Gordon Square Arts District.
 

Like many folks in Northeast Ohio, Sara Scheuer and Amy Forrester do not work a typical nine-to-five workday. Scheuer is a paramedic and firefighter, while Forrester worked as a second shift supervisor in manufacturing for 15 years. The two women found they struggled with what to do with their dogs—Scheuer’s beloved dog Kirby, and Forrester with her dogs Donny Bag O’Donuts and Murray Fletcher­—while working off hours.

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland.

Refresh Collective has long been hanging out at the intersection of cool, creativity, and community, but now it has an actual brick-and-mortar storefront to call all its own.

Plain Dealer arts and entertainment reporter Laura DeMarco was so pleased with the reactions to her book Lost Cleveland­—a chronological look at beloved city landmarks and institutions that no longer exist—that she decided to write a second book on Cleveland’s living landmarks.

Imagine walking into a pedestrian tunnel to discover a string quartet playing Schumann as fellow passersby journey through, each note more eerily beautiful than the last. That fully improvised soundscape is exactly what recently greeted travelers inside the W. 65th St. tunnel, and though it's not how most people experience classical music, that's precisely the point.

Over the last seven years, Urban Squash Cleveland has relied on the resources of its educational partners to share its unique enrichment formula with inner-city students, but last Saturday, October 13, USC proudly opened the doors to its very own 10,000-square-foot Youth Development Center. Not only is the new facility just the sixth of its kind in the country, but it will also allow Urban Squash Cleveland to double the number of students taking part.

Pop-surrealist sculptor Leslie Edwards Humez is on a mission to make contemporary art accessible to the blind with her Perceiving Art Through Sculpture (PATS) initiative. For the past six months, Edwards Humez has been creating sculptural replicas of paintings and illustrations—which are then scanned and 3D printed as a means to getting visual ideas into the hands of the blind community.

With today designated as World Homeless Day, the YWCA is turning its lens on Cleveland—where there are more than 22,000 people homeless annually, and about 4,000 people homeless each night (according to the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless).

With the kickoff of the FRONT Triennial last week, Cleveland has become an insta-darling of the international art world. So what better time to debut The HeART of Cleveland, a coffee table book containing over 100 colorful examples of the diverse array of artists who hail from and/or have resided here?

When Knez Homes broke ground last spring on the first phase of Breakwater Bluffs (high-end townhomes on the shores of Lake Erie at W. 58th Street and Breakwater Boulevard), the Gordon Square Arts District was just coming into the spotlight as one of Cleveland’s hot new redeveloped neighborhoods. A little more than a year after construction began, Breakwater Bluffs completed phase one about two months ago—featuring five traditional homes (known as The Bluffs) and nine townhomes (known as Skyline).

A historic U.S. Coast Guard station is now serving a new purpose following Cleveland Metroparks' first phase of renovations on the 1940 three-building complex. Situated on West Pier at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on Whiskey Island, the station is now home to some of The Foundry’s sailing programs and the Metroparks' learn-to-sail classes, as well as an ideal location to appreciate Lake Erie’s beauty.

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland.

Northeast Ohio’s rich history can often be traced in the homes and buildings erected by those who created a booming manufacturing, textile, and banking industry a century ago. Today, a dedicated group of historians, architects, and construction companies works to preserve those structures and the stories behind them. This week, the Cleveland Restoration Society and the American Institute of Architects Cleveland recognized their efforts with the annual Celebration of Preservation.

Environmental action group Cuyahoga River Area of Concern celebrated a victory last weekend by checking two items off a list of 10 Beneficial Use Impairments that must be addressed before the river is delisted as one of the most polluted waterways by the Ohio EPA.

A portion of a 75-acre capped landfill site in Brooklyn will soon be home to one of Ohio’s largest solar arrays that could save Cuyahoga County as much as $3 million in utility bills over 25 years. Construction begins this week on placing 35,530 solar panels—each one about the size of the American Flag—on 17 acres of the landfill.

Anyone who’s heard of the Cleveland Tree Plan knows the city has big things in store when it comes to greening our urban spaces—namely increasing the tree canopy from 19 percent to 30 percent by 2040. Mayor Jackson announced the goal last year on Arbor Day, and efforts continue as we approach Arbor Day 2018. Looking for ways to help Cleveland get from Point A to Point Tree? Here are four ways to help reforest The Forest City.