The brave escape of three women held captive in a Cleveland home has garnered a philanthropic response from local political and business entities.

The Cleveland Courage Fund was established by Cleveland City Council members Brian Cummins, Matt Zone and Dona Brady to benefit kidnap victims Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Berry's daughter. The funds were set up at the Cleveland Foundation and Key Bank two days after the rele... Read more >

East, West, North and South -- it's getting easier and easier to score a hot, fresh and delicious meal from a food truck. In just three years' time, the Cleveland food truck scene has zoomed from 0 to 60, with dozens of rigs scattered all over town. Here's a little help finding them.

Kelli Hanley sees the big picture in cooking -- and she wants to teach people the whole concept of it, from sourcing the produce, to understanding what’s in your pantry, to putting a meal on the table. So she started The Agrarian Collective, a mobile cooking school that does just that.

“When I started The Agrarian Collective, I envisioned an Earth-to-table lifestyle school,” she explains. “My approach is around understanding the relationships ... Read more >

According to Walk Score, Downtown, University Circle and Ohio City rank as the three most pedestrian friendly neighborhoods in Cleveland. What makes these neighborhoods so walkable? And more important: What can we do to make other areas more friendly to residents who prefer to walk and ride than drive?

A great sign does more than announce a business name and brand; it welcomes all who see it into the establishment. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski has a soft spot for attractive bar and restaurant signs, and here's a slideshow of some of his favorites.

Cuyahoga County residents needing food assistance now have some healthy alternatives thanks to a new program developed by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition.

Twenty farmers markets and two farm stands throughout the county are partaking in the “Double Value Produce Perks” initiative, which offers incentive dollars to customers utilizing the Ohio Direction Card. Produce Perks are tokens given to customers at participating farmers markets w... Read more >

Thanks to a brighter economy and heightened optimism about our city’s future, the Cleveland housing market is waking from its five-year slumber. Home sales are rising, prices are inching back to pre-recession levels, and stories of buyers getting outbid on homes are not at all uncommon.

In the age of digital everything, self-published periodicals are enjoying a bit of a revival. Geared towards those who prefer the tactile sensation of thumbing through an honest-to-goodness magazine, these indie pubs are filling voids left by declining mainstream print.

At times it seems like everybody living in this town was born in this town. After all, who would choose to settle here unless they had deep family roots? We introduce four transplants who moved to Cleveland and never looked back. Not only have they made the most of it; they've made a life of it.

Providence House wants to take some of the strain off local hospitals dealing with non-medical family issues. The solution, believe crisis nursery officials, is a forthcoming facility that will care for children whose households are dealing with emergencies that doctors cannot touch.

It's true that Elisabeth's House -- The Prentiss Wellness Nursery will take in kids with minor medical needs, notes executive Providence House director Natalie Leek-Nelson. ... Read more >

Even in Ohio City's Market District, where monthly announcements of new businesses opening are not uncommon, this one is noteworthy. Boris Music, the Slovenian-born owner of the Hansa Import Haus at West 28th and Lorain, is set to break ground on a multi-million-dollar expansion that will transform a dated store into a restaurant and microbrewery.

For years, Hansa Import Haus has been a favorite of locals and those in-the-know -- its faded, faux-German exterior concea... Read more >

The Cleveland Hostel welcomes travelers from all over the world, so it makes perfect sense for owner Mark Raymond to expand that welcoming attitude to an important issue impacting both the country and the state of Ohio.

On April 18, Raymond's Ohio City-based hostel hosted an event that raised awareness and signatures for the Freedom to Marry Ohio movement dedicated to ending marriage discrimination.

Over 75 attendees gathered to support the Freedom to Marry a... Read more >

Memories of flashing lights, digitized explosions, rock music and quarters being ritually plunked into plastic coin slots have a happy place in the minds of many folks of a certain generation. Two Clevelanders want to bring those sights and sounds back to the city this summer in the form of a pop-up arcade.

Coin-Op Cleveland is a Kickstarter project helmed by John Stanchina and Mike Scur. While arcade gaming collapsed in the 1990s with the ascension of home consoles, the ... Read more >

Sam McNulty has the best kind of problem an owner can have; he's selling so much beer at Market Garden Brewery and NanoBrew in Ohio City that he can hardly keep up with demand. Selling kegs to patrons or restaurants that want to carry popular varieties like Pearl Street Wheat or CitroMax IPA is out of the question.

McNulty and his partners expect to solve their space crunch by early next year with the redevelopment of the Market Culinary Building, a 43,000-square-foot... Read more >

Some creative, outside-the-box thinking by the city's leading urban design and cycling advocates has led to the creation of four additional "bike boxes," which are to be installed this spring in various Cleveland neighborhoods.

The newest wave of bike boxes are modeled after a successful pilot project at Nano Brew in Ohio City. That installation transformed a steel shipping container into a colorful curbside bike garage for two-wheeled visitors.

By ... Read more >

For those who don't already know, Cleveland is a place where culture, education, creativity and innovation flourishes affordably. At least, that's the message city boosters are trying to sell to mobile young professionals. According to who you ask, that strategy is either working, working slowly, or not working well at all.