Metheny Weir, a home remodeling business which was originally launched out of a Shaker Heights basement, recently expanded to a spacious storefront on Larchmere. The growth spurt is the result of the company inking last year a deal to become Cleveland's only licensed retailer of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, a hot new product that's generating a buzz in the interior design world.

Metheny Weir co-owner Sue Weir says that the innovative product allows home remodelers to ... Read more >

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has seen increases in bus and transit ridership for nine months straight, and the number of riders on the Red Line in January was the highest since 1988.

Yet this month, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a surface transportation bill known as H.R. 7 that would eliminate dedicated federal funds for public transit across the country.

RTA is advocating against the cuts by working with Representati... Read more >

Nearly 60 percent of newly-created jobs require a postsecondary degree, yet only six percent of Cleveland residents hold an associate's degree and just eight percent hold a bachelor's degree.

This stark statistic is one of the driving forces behind the fledgling Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland, an unprecedented collaboration among 15 colleges and universities, 25 nonprofit organizations, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cuyahoga County.... Read more >

A final, critical piece of funding has now fallen into place for the City of Shaker Heights' long-awaited Van Aken District plan. The city recently announced that it had been awarded $4.4 million from the Ohio Department of Public Works (ODPW). That, on top of $14 million the city already has assembled, will allow Shaker to proceed with Phase I late next year.

Phase I of the project will reconfigure the confusing, much-maligned junction of Van Aken, Warrensville and C... Read more >

As the number of local bike commuters continues to increase, so too does the number of savvy entrepreneurs who serve and service them. In recent years, a mini boom of bike-based businesses has developed across Northeast Ohio, including frame builders, messenger bag makers, rickshaw drivers and an indoor bike park that attracts visitors from throughout the Midwest.

The newly minted nonprofit Bike Cleveland will bring together Northeast Ohio cyclists through cycling events, educational programming and advocacy work, says Jacob Van Sickle, the group's new Executive Director. The group also will provide area cyclists with a unified voice in transportation planning across the region.

Over the course of the next year, Bike Cleveland plans to focus on prioritizing bike investments in the West Shoreway project, collaborating with the C... Read more >

The success of the Cleveland Colectivo over the past seven years has exceeded the wildest dreams of its members, an ambitious group that aims to improve the city's neighborhoods by funding grassroots projects and social entrepreneurs. Formed in 2004 by a group of friends who decided to pool their money and give it away, the Colectivo has now granted over $80,000 to community projects in Greater Cleveland.

This month, the group will host a night of grassroots networkin... Read more >

LifeServe Innovations, which is developing a percutaneous tracheostomy introducer dilator, recently
received $75,000 from the Lorain Innovation Fund. The device allows medical personnel to place a tracheotomy tube with greater ease and with fewer procedural complications than existing systems.
 
Co-founders Zach Bloom and Rick Arlow first came up with the idea as a class assignment while attending Lehigh University. “We were looking for problems to solve in ... Read more >

Inefficient, drafty homes in Cleveland not only are an impediment to attracting savvy urban homebuyers, they're also a harsh economic reality for those who must swallow high utility bills. Despite the daunting prospect of renovating an old home, there are simple, cost-effective ways to save energy -- and money -- that don't involve notching the thermostat down another degree or donning Eskimo-like clothing.

That's the impetus behind Cleveland Energy $aver, a n... Read more >

Shaker LaunchHouse, the pre-seed investment fund and business accelerator, is hosting a gala on Saturday, February 18 at the Cleveland Skating Club to raise awareness of the more than 200 entrepreneurial activities hosted by LaunchHouse each year.
 
“All of the stuff that we do, a lot of the costs are incurred by LaunchHouse,” explains founder and managing partner Todd Goldstein. “So we decided to put on the gala to raise awareness.” Events inc... Read more >

Bad Girl Ventures, a micro-finance organization focused on educating and financing women-owned startup companies, graduated its first Cleveland class on January 3 and announced the winner of a $25,000 low interest loan. Out of 70 applicants, 10 start-up companies  participated in an eight-week program to learn the ins and outs of successfully running a business.
 
Kimberly McCune Gibson and Ann Marie Larrance of Grass Roots LLC, the parent company for ReHive Ale,... Read more >

While we pride ourselves here at Fresh Water in having crisp, professional prose, the truth is, without art, a feature is just font on a page. Pictures tell a thousand words, we're told, but the best ones simply leave us speechless. Every masthead and feature image since we launched this pub over a year ago has been shot by Fresh Water shooter Bob Perkoski. Here is a collection of some of his finest work.

When Fresh Water launched in September 2010, we promised to highlight Cleveland's most progressive and creative people, businesses and organizations. But more importantly, we endeavored to place those subjects against the most compelling backdrop of all: Cleveland and its wonderful neighborhoods. Each Thursday, our readers are invited to dig a little deeper into this city we call home. What follows is a list of the 10 most-read features of the previous 12 months. Looking ... Read more >

"Wellness" might sound like the latest corporate buzzword. But a growing number of local entrepreneurs have begun incorporating the concept into a new breed of anti-corporate gyms that cater to health-savvy urban professionals. In recent years, indie gyms and studios have sprung up in Ohio City, Tremont, St. Clair Superior and other neighborhoods not served by large fitness chains.

Black Friday is, blessedly, behind us. So, too, is Cyber Monday. All that stands between today and the holidays are a few weeks of retail panic. Relax, brave shoppers. It has never been easier for a Clevelander to wrap up his or her holiday shopping thanks to a bevy of brief boutiques. These fleeting ventures spring up like magic mushrooms after an imaginary storm to make shopping fun, easy and 100-percent local.

Jared Rube has a love for both photography and technology. As a third year photography student at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rube got his feet wet in the entrepreneurial world as an intern at Shaker LaunchHouse before creating True Frame Media, which provides video content creators with the ability to standardize work-flow and produce films through online pre and post production processes.
 
Out of True Frame Media came CinaMaker, a cloud-based collaborative e... Read more >

The odyssey that led Deba Gray and Serena Harragin, the couple behind Gray's Auctioneers, to Cleveland is as fascinating as the work they do. The journey, which ends in Lakewood, meandered through Key West and Chicago. It includes a career change in New York, a heart-wrenching epiphany, and the convincing of a reluctant partner.