With nearly a dozen different farmers markets setting up around town, it has never been easier to stock our larders with fresh, local food. In this pictorial feature, Fresh Water managing photographer Bob Perkoski takes us on a colorful tour of Cleveland's increasingly popular farmers markets. Bring cash, a cloth bag, and a healthy appetite.

The Tremont neighborhood recently celebrated the opening of a new parking lot at Jefferson and Professor avenues that will not only help alleviate the neighborhood's parking crunch, but also help solve the region's storm water management problem.

The parking lot incorporates bioswales that will prevent rainwater from entering the sewer system. When rain falls onto the property, it runs off into carefully designed plant systems that gradually release it back into the ground.

The parking lot was developed by the Tremont West Development Corporation (TWDC), a nonprofit community development group that serves the Tremont neighborhood, in partnership with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), URS, and the City of Cleveland Sustainability Office.

NEORSD is currently working on a plan for regional storm water management that it hopes will spur more small-scale efforts like this one in the future. Storm water management solutions can help address the problems of flooding, erosion and combined sewer overflows or pollution, NEORSD says.

To acquire the formerly blighted parcel, TWDC partnered with local property owners and applied for funding from the Model Blocks program of Neighborhood Progress, a nonprofit that provides grants and technical assistance to CDC's in Cleveland.

Under the new fee structure that NEORSD plans to roll out next year, property owners can also earn credits for innovative storm water management solutions that keep rainwater out of sewers. For more information, visit Project Clean Lake.


Source: Tremont West Development Corporation, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Food trucks are all the rage -- both here and across the U.S. Despite one of the worst recessions in recent history, these plucky start-ups are thriving, adding jobs, injecting cash into the local economy, and putting smiles on the faces of hungry diners. But rather than encourage the proliferation of these economic development engines, food truck operators say the City of Cleveland is making it nearly impossible for them to succeed.

Five years ago, Deby Cowdin was cleaning up after a party. As she picked up the empty wine and liquor bottles on her porch, her friend and partner, Mindy Bohannon, dared her to do something that would change her life. "She said, 'you're a glass artist, figure out something to do with them.'" So Cowdin did exactly that. She founded Blue Bag, a company that transforms bottles into serving plates, cheese boards and other works of art.

Cowdin started the business out of her home, selling her creations first at the North Union Farmers Market at Crocker Park, then at other farmers markets and art shows. The idea took off. "We started out of necessity, as a hobby," she says. "We never really thought it would turn into a manufacturing business."

Blue Bag sales have grown 50 percent each year since 2006. This year sales are up 100 percent. Aside from two additional partners, daughter Brandy Cooney and Jeff Nischwitz, the company has eight employees. Cowdin makes a point of hiring hard-to-place people, including a disabled vet and an employee with mild autism. "We build our company around helping people," Cowdin says.

Everything from the recycling to the distribution is done in house -- these days a studio on W. 14th St. and Berea Road -- and their products are available in more than 300 retail stores nationwide. Everything with the exception of one item is purchased locally.

"We work really hard at keeping everything in Cleveland," Cowdin says. "If we don't support the local economy, who will?"


Source: Deby Cowdin
Writer: Karin Connelly

Homeowners were taking out equity loans with alarming abandon just a few years ago, yet now many are reluctant to invest money in their homes. "With housing values falling, demand for home repair loans has also fallen," says Larry Slenczka, Vice President of Community Development for Dollar Bank.

Yet Dollar Bank continues to finance home rehabs through a partnership with Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH), a nonprofit whose mission is to revitalize Cleveland neighborhoods through home repair lending.

"CASH has been successful in identifying projects driven by investors," says Slenczka. "Their transactions tend to be very solid loans that have a very low default rate." CASH offers investors and owner-occupants a reduced interest rate. Currently, that interest rate is 2.6%.

Even as the average homeowner sits on the sidelines, some rehabbers are jumping in and finding deals. And the glut of vacant properties in Cleveland has presented an opportunity for savvy investors; while foreclosure rates nationwide reached their lowest level in four years last month, Cleveland still has a backlog of empty homes.

Yet while it seems anyone with a credit card can snap up a cheap foreclosure -- plumbing optional, of course -- that's just the beginning of the process. Getting a loan is no simple feat. Struggling with unsold inventories, many banks are cautious about lending to investors, while others aren't lending at all.

That's where CASH comes in. The nonprofit's partnerships with Dollar Bank and other lenders help owners get financing. In addition to offering a reduced rate, CASH helps owners to pick a contractor, develop a list of repairs, and inspect the work.

"Everybody wins," says Slenczka. "The neighborhood benefits from reinvestment, the benefits from private investment, and the bank benefits from a healthy market return."


Source: Larry Slenczka
Writer: Lee Chilcote

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld: "Taco Tuesdays -- what's up with that?" Seems that all across this great city, barflies are bellying up to the counter for bottomless plates of dirt-cheap tacos. While the origins of this fad are fuzzy, the rationale behind the trend is simple enough: offer deeply discounted tacos to hungry diners in hopes of upping business on a traditionally slow weeknight. Some fans hit up new spots weekly, while others fashion a taco-themed pub crawl. Soft or crunchy, beef or pork, gourmet or fast-food… Here are some fan faves.

In 2010, MetroHealth began testing a surgical solution for high blood pressure, became the only Ohio hospital chosen to participate in the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium to benefit injured servicemen and women, launched MetroExpressCare to address the needs of urgent care patients, and provided resources for the identification of the first gene associated with age-related cataracts.

All the while, the hospital system has kept its eye on sustainable business practices that resulted in a budget surplus last year. MetroHealth currently has about 6,000 employees.

Revenue over expenses for MetroHealth in 2010 totaled $27 million, and operating income decreased from $37.7 million in 2009 to $23.8 million last year. These numbers are in keeping with the health system's goal of maintaining sustainable business practices, which, according to MetroHealth CEO and president Mark Moran, means being able to support the hospital's mission of providing high-quality and affordable care.

Throughout 2011, MetroHealth will be addressing challenges that include a continuing decline in inpatient volumes and rising charity care. The total cost of charity care provided by MetroHealth last year was up $9 million over the previous year.


SOURCE: MetroHealth
WRITER: Diane DiPiero

For several years, Kim Crow watched as the contracting newspaper business shed people, including many of her friends and colleagues, and laid ever-increasing burdens on those still employed. So relinquishing her duties at the Plain Dealer -- editing three sections, supervising six reporters and, the work she's best known for, writing a fashion column -- was the easy part.

At least compared to opening a store.

Crow recently unveiled Evie Lou -- "A contemporary boutique that embraces personal style and fantastic fit across the size spectrum" -- in Tremont. The journey from clothing pundit to clothing retailer was longer and more frustrating than she'd anticipated. Loan rejections took months, she says, and some small ones that were approved still haven't come through. High credit-card limits, from years as a sort-of professional shopper, kept her afloat.

But it was worth it; even the surprises have been encouraging. For example, she'd anticipated more evening business, when the nearby restaurants and galleries are hopping. Instead, she's been far busier during the day, "and that's great because it's the neighborhood supporting me."

She's a one-woman operation for now, but hopes to hire an employee soon. Not just anyone, however; this person will have to share Crow's commitment to the "size spectrum" portion of the store's mission statement. She is spending about 15 percent of her buying budget on plus sizes, an amount almost unheard of in boutiques. It's something of an experiment, she admits.

"Every day I hear someone say, 'I'm not buying anything until I lose 20 pounds," Crow says. "In the dressing room there is so much more going on than just 'That's a cute top.' Women bring all their baggage in there with them. There's a lot of psychology to it."

And fodder for her new writing outlet, the Evie Lou blog.


Source: Kim Crow
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

How is it possible that hip Tremont has gone all this time without a vintage shop? Whatever the explanation, the oversight has been remedied with the opening of Deering Vintage at 2678 W. 14th St. (formerly Kelly Randall Gallery).

"It just seems like an exciting place to be right now," says owner Cynthia Deering, who owned Suite Lorain, at West 69th and Lorain, for 20 years before selling in March. Development in Detroit Shoreway to the north had resulted in Lorain becoming a little too rough for Deering's comfort.

Open just a few weeks, Deering says she already has repeat customers, especially among young neighborhood residents who appreciate having a green shopping option nearby.

"Business has never been better in my industry," due largely to the recession, Deering notes. "People really want to save money."

Deering Vintage carries men's and women's clothes and accessories, and some home items and furniture.



Source: Cythia Deering
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

The Civic Commons is a modern-day marriage of online technology, citizen journalism, and civic collaboration. The mission? To inform, engage and lead local residents to action on any number of weighty topics. Our guides: Dan Moulthrop and Noelle Celeste.

City governments often get a bad rap. Cleveland's government is especially vulnerable to dismissal, what with that lingering "mistake on the lake" thing. But some informed government watchers — at Harvard, no less — like what they see, at least in terms of the city's willingness to cooperate with communities in building a better future.

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, recently recognized the Strategic Investment Initiative (SSI) — a partnership between the non-profit Neighborhood Progress Inc. and the City of Cleveland — as a "Bright Idea." The newly created Bright Ideas program "is designed to recognize and share creative government initiatives around the country with interested public sector, nonprofit, and academic communities."

"My understanding is that this [honor] is fairly unusual," says Walter Wright, Neighborhood Progress's senior program officer. SSI involves the city, but grew out of Neighborhood Progress's work with community development corporations. Today it includes the CDCs in Buckeye, Detroit Shoreway, Ohio City, Slavic Village and five other communities. Neighborhood Progress describes SSI as "a market-driven approach that incorporates a deeper investment in neighborhood planning, a concentration of resources on larger-scale project investments and the introduction of more comprehensive strategies to improving quality of life through green spaces, public art, and neighborhood stabilization strategies."

The Bright Idea designation is "basically an honorific," Wright says. But he welcomes the opportunity to discuss the SSI model with like-minded folks from around the country who will learn of it thanks to the nod from Harvard.



Source: Neighborhood Progress Inc.
Writer: Frank W. Lewis

Domokur Architects, based in Akron since 1979, has expanded into Cleveland via a merger with Tremont-based Michael Augoustidis.

"We like the neighborhood," says Linsey Domokur, who handles business development, "and we like having a Cleveland presence." The new office, at Starkweather and Professor, will house three new hires, including a specialist in the healthcare industry.

The firm's healthcare portfolio includes the Geneva Medical Center addition at University Hospitals, Akron City Hospital's Palliative Care Pavillion and Chardon Surgery Center. The firm has also designed several buildings for the J.M. Smucker Company in Orrville , the Cleveland Metroparks' Canal Way Visitors' Center and the Conneaut Public Library.

Domokur also opened a Chicago office in September.




Source: Domokur
Writer: Frank W. Lewis