Staying put in the 216 for the holidays has never been so easy -- nor so much fun. Thanks to a bevy of new attractions and eateries, combined with wonderful old traditions, locals and visitors alike will have no shortage of festive holiday fun. In this colorful slideshow, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski highlights some of the season's best eats, treats, and places to be.

To be truly successful at neighborhood redevelopment, CDCs must change how they do business, says Joel Ratner, president of Neighborhood Progress Inc. They must adopt a holistic strategy that combines bricks-and-mortar development with high-performing schools, social services, and other amenities that residents need and want. 

"Wayfinding,” the use of signs, maps and other graphic sources of information to navigate one's surroundings, has become a vital issue in the redevelopment of our city thanks to splashy new developments and the increasing popularity of old ones.

Cleveland’s contemporary art scene is thriving and growing, serving as a magnet for tourism while proving an economic engine for revitalizing the region. Newly reenergized by momentous advancements at CMA and MOCA -- and nurtured along by CIA -- the progressive arts scene is enjoying a renaissance.

Last weekend, the city of Cleveland celebrated the 100th birthday of the West Side Market in style. Thousands of locals and visitors made their way to Ohio City to take part in one or more events held in the Market's honor. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski covered the events for the magazine.

Local firms like TWIST Creative, Go Media and Studio Graphique are just a few of the design-minded companies that are fueling Cleveland's creative renaissance. With the region's future success dependent on the procurement of young talent, the design community's exciting body of work is earning the city regional and national buzz.

A school garden is a real, living world, a type of lab that offers teachers a way to embed creativity, collaboration and love for nature into their curriculum, believes Carlton Jackson, a farmer, self-described "food evangelist" and proprietor of Tunnel Vision Hoops, a provider of hoop houses that allow for year-round food production.
 
The Cleveland-based company is offering Cuyahoga County public school students grades K-8 a chance to win a hoop house for ... Read more >

The Cleveland-based developer The Foran Group has announced plans to convert a pair of historic buildings on W. 25th Street in Ohio City into 70 market-rate apartments. The game-changing project, in the works for several years, is the first big new housing project to get off the ground here since the Great Recession.

Positioned between the success of Ohio City's Market District and the popular Stonebridge apartment, office and condo complex, the new West 25th Street L... Read more >

Euclid Square Mall is hardly abandoned or dead, you just need to take a closer look to witness signs of life, maintains Cleveland artist Jef Scharf. Walk into the mall on a Sunday morning, in fact, and you may hear songs of worship reverberating through its halls.
 
The former large-scale retail center now has nearly 30 churches renting space for services, Bible studies and choir practice. Scharf, an artist-in-residence at SPACES Gallery, spent a year interviewing chu... Read more >

It's no exaggeration to say that Cleveland wouldn't be half the city it was and is without the steady influx of foreign-born peoples. But nowhere, perhaps, is our city's melting-pot pedigree more evident than on the plates served at ethnic eateries throughout town. Every time we tuck into a delicious plate of ethnic food, we have these brave immigrants to thank for it.

Steadfast. Tenacious and uncompromising. Someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of the issues at hand.

Those are just a few of the plaudits Earth Day Coalition (EDC) executive director Scott Sanders has for his retiring compatriot, EDC co-executive director Chris Trepal, who will be honored on Friday, Nov. 9 during the organization's Instrumental Evening for the Earth.

Trepal co-founded the nonprofit environmental education/advocacy group with Sanders in 1990... Read more >

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is asking voters to vote "Yes" on Issue 108, a levy that would cost property owners roughly $20 a year per $100,000. Fresh Water discusses the importance of the levy and more with Port President and CEO William Friedman.

On a recent September morning, the American Courage freighter began a trip upriver at the Port Authority’s Cleveland Bulk Terminal, where it picked up roughly 15,000 tons of iron ore. This was the 635-foot freighter’s second trip that day up the 5.5-mile ship channel to ArcelorMittal, where workers would later turn the iron ore into steel used to produce cars, construct buildings, and make household appliances.