As the 2014 Gay Games play out with eclectic events all over town, it becomes clear how they will leave a lasting positive effect on the host city of Cleveland. Uniting beneath a banner of inclusion, collaboration and unity, participants and sponsors establish a spirit that will endure long after the lights have dimmed and the last athlete has left the track.

Last weekend, downtown Cleveland literally was glowing. Thanks to the coinciding of a handful of marquee events like the Gay Games Opening Ceremonies and AHA! festival of lights and art, downtown was percolating with energy. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski was there to record all the colorful action.

Cities are reinventing themselves in creative new ways. Can small-scale projects have big impact? Join the Urban Innovation Exchange September 24-26 in Detroit to explore creative projects driving neighborhood transformation and trade ideas for the future.

As the number of travelers with their sights set on Cleveland rises, so too does the number of entrepreneurs willing to rent those visitors a place to crash via Airbnb. From a spare room in one’s home to the entire home itself, the number of available short-term rentals in the area is spiking. 

Northeast Ohio has a number of resources available for an expanding Latino populace searching for work and business opportunities. These services, say their providers, can keep immigrant brainpower in the area while acting as a talent magnet for the Latino and Spanish-speaking diaspora. 

As urban neighborhoods become more vibrant, planners are turning their attention to creating world-class public spaces to complement the latest flurry of development. Three new or improved parks have just been unveiled this year: Scranton Flats, the marina at North Coast Harbor and Rivergate.

In collaboration with the Burning River Foundation, Fresh Water sponsored a photo contest in honor of the 45th Anniversary of the last burning of the Cuyahoga River. In anticipation of this weekend's Burning River Fest, we asked to see your best water-themed photos. Here are the top entries.

Welcome to the latest round of Lab Chat, in which our resident Post-Doctoral Research Associate attempts to demystify the complex world of biomedical research. Today, our writer takes on the roadblocks to diagnosing and treating cancer -- and how improvements in medical technology are offering avenues to better results.

Getting out of Dodge? Need a good page-turner for the flight or beach? Don’t grab the latest bestseller from the rack of overpriced paperbacks at the airport. Instead, check out Fresh Water’s local-author reading list. Here are 5 sizzling summer reads that we invite you to check out.    

From Charles F. Brush to John D. Rockefeller, Cleveland has been home to entrepreneurs with innovations that helped shape the world. We take a look at some of Cleveland’s ground breaking companies -- some old, some new -- to see what makes the company unique, how it achieved its success, and where they stand today. 

Burning River Foundation and Fresh Water are sponsoring a photo contest in honor of the 45th Anniversary of the last burning of the Cuyahoga River. In anticipation of the upcoming Burning River Fest, we want to see your best water-themed photos -- from the winding Cuyahoga River to majestic Lake Erie -- that show how far we’ve come since that fateful summer of 1969.

Any teenager with a smartphone and some ingenuity can record a song and download it to SoundCloud or YouTube. But Cuyahoga Community College’s recording arts and technology program prepares students for all types of positions within the audio industry.

After decades of population loss, cities like Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Pittsburgh are now growing faster than the rest of their metro areas. Urban developers are trying to attract the right amenities to support the new wave of urbanites. So what’s needed to sustain a dense and vibrant city? The answers might surprise you.

Terri Pontremoli has a vision for the Tri-C JazzFest's first foray into summer. The event director imagines thousands of Clevelanders gathered in the newly chandeliered U.S. Bank Plaza, enjoying the early evening sunshine and a host of free outdoor music events. Close by, Playhouse Square's multiple indoor venues are packed with genre enthusiasts whose finger-snapping exuberance has helped make JazzFest the must-attend extravaganza that it has been for the last 34 years.
 
Whether this vision comes to life or not will be determined when the festival's 35th installment hits its first note later this week, marking an official shift from an annual 10-day event in April to a single summer weekend, June 26-28.
 
The new schedule is an experiment for the annual affair by Cuyahoga Community College, one made necessary by practical reasons and a desire to help transform downtown into a warm weather music destination.
 
"We think Cleveland is ready for it," says Pontremoli.
 
Read the rest of the JazzFest feature here.

Graphic design is a form of visual storytelling, where a few well-crafted images can speak to the viewer in a language more powerful than words. Cuyahoga Community College's graphic design program helps students to harness that power for themselves, with the story they're telling going straight into their portfolios. 

Prior to accepting the publisher position at Fresh Water, DiDonato spent several years helping to develop new orginaztions like the Cleveland Water Alliance. DiDonato will be looking at new ways that this publication can interact with the community, boost its marketing presence and do an even better job of drawing out story ideas from our readers and stakeholders.

Issue Media Group publications such as 83 Degrees in Tampa, Confluence in Denver and Model D in Detroit cover "what's next" for urban centers. In this recurring feature, we highlight the top stories in urban innovation from across our national network of publications.

There has been a flood of new businesses that tout the city through an assortment of Cleveland-themed apparel and products or by integrating the city name right into the company’s branding. Many point to the recent recession as the dawn of this entrepreneurial movement, which coincided with a newfound pride of place.

Artists are often the first to move into urban neighborhoods, and also the first to move out when rents escalate. Yet in the post-recession landscape, many communities are working with artists to transform blight, engage residents and reimagine their neighborhoods.

As the West Side Market’s new manager, Amanda Dempsey is stepping in at a time when the treasured public market is receiving unprecedented attention -- both good and unwanted. But throughout it all, she says, the focus must remain on the bond between the century-old icon and the city that embraces it.