The City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have invested millions of dollars in public money to help make urban development projects happen over the years. But do they provide the maximum benefit to the taxpayers paying for them?

Amanda Woodrum, a researcher at the liberal think tank Policy Matters, says that Northeast Ohio leaders have not always maximized the public benefits of development projects. Yet cities like Cleveland have a tool at their disposal called Community Benefit Agreements to help ensure the public gets the biggest bang for its buck when it comes to public subsidies.

"Community Benefit Agreements involve an economic development approach that balances the three E’s of sustainability: environment, equity and economy," says Woodrum. "One of the biggest things is ensuring that the workforce involved is hired locally. The second thing is that it is diverse and reflective of the population as a whole. There are other questions, too. Are we behaving responsibly towards the environment? Is there access to the development site for public transit?"

Woodrum adds, "The whole process is done in a very open discussion in which key stakeholders come together. There is a movement nationally to do development this way. In many cases, anchor institutions are voluntarilyy creating such agreements because they recognize that they have stake in community."

Woodrum stated that the City of Cleveland does not have a comprehensive policy towards creating Community Benefit Agreements with developers, and that the absence of such a policy can lead to inconsistent results. She cited the Horseshoe Casino as a potential model project due to its local hiring practices; on the other hand, a new housing development at Cleveland State University has drawn ire from the local building trades union for its failure to hire local workers.

To generate a discussion about Community Benefit Agreements in Cleveland, Policy Matters has helped to organize a daylong symposium with local and national experts at Cuyahoga Community College on Friday, August 3rd. The event is cosponsored by the City of Cleveland and Cleveland City Council.

"If the stakeholders coming to the table decide it makes sense, we’d like to move forward with building a policy that ensures whenever city subsidizes development in any meaninging way, we’re maximizing value to community," says Woodrum.


Source: Amanda Woodrum
Writer: Lee Chilcote

When late summer rolls around, my kids and I are desperate for adventure. From our house in the Heights, that usually means we’re heading down the hill to Cleveland, where over the years we’ve discovered countless family-friendly things to see and do. The options are many and growing, but here is our pick for Top 10.

Imagine having just 48 hours to make movie magic. That's what the adrenaline-fueled 48-Hour Film Project is all about. When 42 teams of filmmakers show up at Anatomy this Friday night, they'll pluck their film genre from a hat. Then they will have just two days to write, shoot, edit and score their short drama, comedy, western, detective, horror or romance film.

The phenomenon of 400-plus cyclists riding past East 4th Street, where diners at Lola and other high-end restaurants have valet-parked their cars, is not something you see every day in Cleveland.

But you do see it once a month -- the last Friday of the month, to be exact. That's when Cleveland Critical Mass, a free monthly ride in which cyclists travel en masse through the streets of downtown and other city neighborhoods, kicks off from Public Square at 7 p.m. Riders normally conclude at a low-key tavern, where the revelry continues.

The Friday, July 27th Critical Mass event, which coincides with a new, day-long event dubbed Car-Free Friday, promises to be one of the biggest yet. Organizer Shawn Mariani, who works at Parker Hannifin, hopes to best the 500 mark.

"When I joined Critical Mass in 2008, we had about 5 to 10 people," says Mariani. "Just through word of mouth, social networking and the Internet, we've been able to grow it based on people going out, having a good time and bringing friends."

Mariani says Critical Mass is a non-intimidating ride that encourages people to get on their bikes and patronize local businesses in the city. "It's a safe ride and all riders are welcome," he says. "We get people on tandems and BMX bikes, too. It's a way to meet people and see parts of the city you might not see otherwise."

This Friday's ride will wrap up at the Cleveland Velodrome. Riders are also invited to check out the Street Repair music festival at East 55th and Broadway Ave.


Source: Shawn Mariani
Writer: Lee Chilcote

One year ago, six interns from Dallas, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Boston, Baltimore and Jewett, Ohio came to Cleveland to participate in the inaugural year of Trinity Urban Service Corps, a project of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

The goal of the program is to engage young people in nonprofit service work that improves the City of Cleveland. It also seeks to build community among members, stimulate faith development and help young people discern their career paths.

Adam Spencer, who organized the program for Trinity Cathedral, says it has been successful and is expanding to eight interns in its second year. A new crop of service corps members are scheduled to arrive in town next month.

"This program is all about working to make the city a better place," says Spencer, a Northeast Ohio native who loves playing the role of tour guide in his hometown. "The service corps members help to do the work we desperately need done in Cleveland. The program also gets young people interested in the city and its issues, and it shows them all the wonderful stuff that's going on here."

Trinity's service corps members live communally in a house in Detroit Shoreway. The program pays for their housing, transportation and health care and provides a modest stipend and shared allowance for groceries and utilities. Interns are encouraged to use public transportation as a way to navigate the city.

Some of the work sites included Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, West Creek Preservation Committee and Leadership Cleveland. Service corps members performed tasks ranging from community organizing to working with homeless men to organizing the Cleveland Mow Goats project.

The Trinity Urban Service Corps is part of a network of similar urban service corps that are organized by Episcopal congregations across the country.


Source: Adam Spencer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

More than 300 volunteers rolled up their shirtsleeves and got their hands dirty during the recent "Summer of Service" event hosted by Business Volunteers Unlimited on Thursday, July 18th. The event engaged young professionals in maintaining urban farms and gardens to support the regional food economy.

Some of the projects included constructing hoop houses and helping to maintain a .4 acre forest garden at Community Greenhouse Partners; working as an "urban farm hand for a day" in Detroit Shoreway by building garden beds and fencing; harvesting blueberries for the Cuyahoga Valley Farmers Market; and building a community garden at the Free Clinic. 

“Forty five of our interns volunteered at Schady Road Farm in Olmsted Township for the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities,” said Lisa Johnson, Corporate Responsibility Manager with Hyland Software, in a news release. “BVU’s ‘Done in a Day’ program is a great example of how our employees get out there and flex their muscles to help our community. They love it.”

“BVU works with employers year-round to engage their employees in meaningful volunteer service,” added Brian Broadbent, BVU’s president and CEO. “Our annual Summer of Service event is specifically targeted as an opportunity for employers to connect their interns and young professionals to community service.”

The tally at the end of a long day of volunteering was quite impressive: A collective 1,200 hours of service valued at more than $26,000, says BVU.


Source: Business Volunteers Unlimited
Writer: Lee Chilcote

“By 2015, more people will access the web from their smartphone than from their desktops and laptops,” says EXP president Barb Cagely. In Cleveland, numerous app developers are ahead of the curve, dreaming up mobile apps that do everything from enrich your tourism experience to making sure workers in the field have all the resources they need.

How do you export an entire region? That's the question Northeast Ohio's promoters are pondering as the investment in local tourism is projected to reach into the billions of dollars over the next few years. Harnessing the economic power of the tourism industry means telling the world loud and proud, "Northeast Ohio is the place to be."

Bringing the 18-county Cleveland Plus region to the disposable income-flush masses should not be a hard sell these days, says Lexi Hotchkiss, director of communications with Positively Cleveland, the region's tourism and economic development group.

Cuyahoga County alone is undergoing a $2 billion tourism investment revival over the next five years, a confluence of high-profile projects including a new casino, a medical mart and convention center, and the dramatic renovation of Cleveland's illustrious art museum.

"Two-billion is not chump change," says Hotchkiss. "It's a big deal that can have a domino effect [on the area]."

Tourism is bigger business locally than many people realize, adds Hotchkiss. The industry is Cuyahoga County's fourth-largest employer. In 2011, 30 million people visited the Cleveland Plus region, sustaining 163,000 jobs with $13 billion in economic impact. During that same time frame, 14 million visitors decended upon Cleveland, supporting 61,000 jobs.

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A healthcare industry vet and resident of Cleveland since 1982, Jim Bennett was hired in April by developer MMPI Inc. to oversee the $465 million medical mart and convention center. The complex is expected to draw 200,000 visitors annually, add thousands of new jobs, and generate about $50-$75 million in economic impact per year.

However momentous they might be, groundbreaking ceremonies typically are not very interactive affairs. Project leaders and public officials give speeches and take advantage of photo opportunities before they pose gripping the symbolic, all-too-clean shovels.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the first publicly funded leg of the Towpath Trail to be built in Cleveland promises to be different. Community members have been clamoring for this project to be completed for years, and trail backers want to give them a chance to participate in the grand occasion. So after the project leaders and public officials take their turn, it's a B.Y.O.S. (Bring Your Own Shovel) event, and everyone is invited to join in.

The event is scheduled for Monday, July 30th at 11 a.m. at 1871 Scranton Road.

"We wanted to figure out a way to involve the many people who have anxiously awaited the project," says Tim Donovan, Executive Director of Ohio Canal Corridor, the nonprofit spearheading the effort with the City of Cleveland, Cleveland Metroparks and Cuyahoga County. "I don't sit on a boatload of shovels, but if you bring your own, then we can capture it. If you can't be there, send us a photo of you with your shovel, and we'll print them up and have them on site."

So far, Donovan has received photos of supporters with shovels from as far away as New Mexico. Those bringing a shovel will be eligible to have their names entered into a raffle to win a $100 gift certificate from Lockkeepers restaurant.

The .6 mile trail will follow Scranton Road from Carter Road south to University Road along the Scranton Peninsula. A portion of the $9.1 million total price tag will be used to restore 11 acres of polluted industrial land. The project will also replace a portion of decrepit river bulkhead with a more natural stone and plant terrace.

The project was funded by the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the State of Ohio, among other funding sources.


Source: Tim Donovan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Are the dark days of mass demolition behind for the city of Cleveland? Thanks to progressive thinkers -- and historic tax credits and support from local and county government -- more and more architectural gems are being sustainably renovated to accommodate modern businesses.

Several Cleveland-based funding organizations have gotten together and pooled their money to help small businesses that otherwise would not have access to the capital they need to grow.

Under the Economic Community Development Institute (EDCI), which officially announced the launch of its Cleveland office on July 17, the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Huntington Bank, U.S. Small Business Administration, Commission on Economic Inclusion, The Business of Good Foundation, and the Cleveland Foundation have committed $4.6 million in resources.
 
Micro-loans will account for $4 million of the fund while the remaining $600,000 will provide training and technical assistance for Cleveland small businesses. A 2011 study by Friedman Associates, a national firm specializing in microfinance, estimated a need of $38 million for loans under $50,000 in Cuyahoga County, with the greatest gap among minority-owned businesses.
 
“Neighborhood businesses who would not otherwise have access to capital will benefit from these loans,” says Daniel P. Walsh, Huntington northeast Ohio president. “These loans really stabilize neighborhoods with the capital to achieve the American dream. It will reinvigorate those neighborhoods that need reinvestment.”
 
The average loan is between $15,000 and $20,000. Eight area businesses have already benefited from loans through the program, totaling $163,000. ECDI started a similar program in Columbus in 2004 and has made $11.4 million in loans to 700 small businesses, creating or retaining 1,955 jobs.
 
The majority of businesses who will benefit from the loans are five employees or fewer, explains Bob Eckardt, executive vice president of the Cleveland Foundation. “There’s a pretty significant gap in this community and this will support a wide range of businesses,” he says. “We’re trying to do a big-picture thing. It’s important to support the entrepreneurs by getting them the funding they need to grow big or hire employees.”

 
Source: Daniel P. Walsh, Bob Eckardt
Writer: Karin Connelly

Give Camp launches its third year in Cleveland this weekend, helping 24 nonprofit organizations develop websites, web-based applications, mobile apps, databases and all that is technical in a three-day whirlwind event at Lean Dog Software and Burke Lakefront Airport.
 
During the weekend, technology professionals, developers, designers, database administrators, marketing professionals and others donate their time to help area nonprofit organizations with a wide range of projects.
 
Give Camp began in 2007 as an idea by a Miscosoft executive as a way to give back to local charities in Dallas. Cleveland Give Camp has grown each year.

“The fact that we’re popular is one of the challenges we’ve had this year,” says spokesperson Amy Wong. “It was so great the last two years, people really want to be involved with the event.”

Last year's camp was valued at $500,000 and year one was valued at $250,000 worth of work performed.
 
Wong expects more than 200 people to turn out this weekend. Part of the reason Give Camp has grown in popularity is the fact that it’s a great opportunity to network. “There are so many diverse people, which is why it’s a great networking event,” explains Wong. “Companies come down as a team, independent tech geeks come down because they want to be a part of something cool.”

Organizers look at need, budget, and scope of the project in selecting the organizations they help. This year, Give Camp Cleveland is one of the beneficiaries. “We’re project number 25,” Wong says. “We need a new website. We joke we’re the cobbler who doesn’t have his own shoes.”

 
Source: Amy Wong
Writer: Karin Connelly

Louis Alloro isn't the first non native to touch down in Northeast Ohio and notice that Cleveland could use a collective mood lift, but he is pioneering a new effort to bring the science of happiness to Northeast Ohio.

The New York City native, who holds a Master's degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (he is one of the first 100 people in the world to hold this degree), discovered Cleveland's mild mood disorder when he visited his best friend here a few years ago. As soon as he set foot in the city, he had "a visceral sense that positive psychology would work really well here," he says.

After attending the Sustainable Cleveland conference in 2009, Alloro formed key partnerships with other Cleveland leaders interested in positive psychology. Soon afterwards, he relocated here and launched SOMO Cleveland, a project of SOMO Leadership Labs, which aims to "find and leverage the Social-Emotional (SOMO) Leaders around town, those who share a vision for a more positive future."

Recently, SoMo Cleveland hosted a screening of the documentary film "Happy." This film presents the argument that happiness stems not from one's material possessions, but from cultivating a sense of community, fostering experiences and personal connections, and giving back to other people. The film delves into the increasingly sophisticated science of happiness to show that income and material possessions account for only a modest amount of one's level of happiness.

The film also suggests that many Americans, who tend to privilege wealth above community building, relationship building and altruism as a means of creating happiness, are misguided. The science of happiness is directly applicable to Cleveland, Alloro says, because training people to seek happiness within themselves will lead to a stronger city focused on "positive self-growth."

Each month, SOMO Cleveland is hosting a series of free learning labs, book club discussions and film discussions, among other events, to engage Clevelanders.

"We want to give people experiences that help them build their own psychological muscle, then measure how they become more effective change agents," says Alloro. "We want to create an energy that promotes a viral sweep of well-being."


Source: Louis Alloro
Writer: Lee Chilcote

What if we viewed Cleveland as a startup? "The ingredients for a successful startup and a successful city are remarkably similar," argues tech blogger Jon Bischke. You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract talent. And you need capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability.