Northeast Shores Development Corporation continues its push to attract out-of-town artists by offering affordable housing. Since 1994, the North Collinwood-based nonprofit has rehabbed approximately 125 area homes. A more focused development plan is concentrating efforts within a tight 14-block footprint.

Digiknow and Downtown Cleveland Alliance have partnered up in a new mobile marketing plan that uses QR codes to provide information to on-the-go residents. The QR codes will connect residents and customers to online profiles of downtown stakeholders such as bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, hotels, and commercial and residential properties.

Fresh Water will be taking a brief winter's nap during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. Therefore, we will NOT be publishing issues on December 23 and 30. We will return on January 6 with a shiny new addition. Please enjoy the holidays, be safe, and know that we are extremely grateful for your support of Fresh Water. Cheers! The Fresh Water Team

According to the latest census figures, roughly 30,000 Asian-Americans call Cuyahoga County home. Many of these folks live, work, shop and eat in Cleveland's AsiaTown neighborhood, which is loosely bordered by E. 30th and 40th streets and St. Clair and Payne avenues. Located in this dense district are numerous Asian-owned restaurants, markets and bakeries. Here are some of the stand-outs.

Rather than wait on Superman, NewBridge is preparing unemployed adults and at-risk youth for a bright future. Modeled after Pittsburgh's Manchester Bidwell Training Center, Cleveland's new alternative center for arts and technology is helping people on the margin.

Creative signs are making a comeback in Cleveland. Dramatic signage not only perks up a neighborhood visually, it makes them more competitive by helping indie retailers stand out from national chains. For proof, look at East Fourth Street.

Through the Poultry Project, Lakewood resident Kelly Flamos has taken on the unimaginable tragedy of the African AIDS epidemic. She is helping one child at a time with the assistance of an unlikely flock of angels -- chickens.

Along with her fiancé, José Andrade, Leticia Ortiz recently launched La Bamba Tortilleria in Ohio City. The minority-owned start-up has filled a gap in the Mexican foods market for fresh, local tortillas while at the same time growing jobs.

Essentially a buy-local campaign on steroids, Evergreen Cooperatives is launching multiple for-profit businesses that leverage the enormous procurement power of Cleveland's largest medical, educational and cultural institutions. And what's now being called "the Cleveland Model" is attracting attention nationwide.

There are far windier places in the US than Ohio, but there may be few better in which to site a commercial-scale wind farm. Thanks to a combination of factors -- not the least of which is recently enacted legislation -- Ohio finally has reached the wind-power tipping point. Even the faintest breeze promises to send Ohio tumbling to the top of the renewable energy heap.

Want a crash course on recent and future Downtown development? Check out this brilliant and compelling video commissioned by Downtown Cleveland Alliance that highlights the hundreds of millions of dollars in recent development, including higher education, performing arts, residential and commercial.

Credit goes to Fusion Filmworks, TWIST Creative and Ante Up, which composed the gripping score.

In a spirit reminiscent of progressive outposts like Seattle, Cleveland is becoming a national leader in deconstruction, a movement that treats vacant homes across the region not as an eyesore but a post-natural resource.

Brandon Chrostowski, GM at L'Albatros restaurant in University Circle, made his way from Detroit to Cleveland -- via Chicago, Paris and New York. Now, you couldn't pry the guy out of here with a crowbar. As usual, you can blame -- or credit -- the move on a girl.

When it comes to real estate, Howard Grandon believes in second chances. That's why he's transforming a former illicit nightclub in Detroit Shoreway into market-rate apartments and storefronts, which he hopes will continue to breathe new life into an old neighborhood.

The marriage of high-tech design and high-end dining is proving a win-win for diners, local restaurateurs and Epstein Design Partners, a Shaker Square-based design firm.

The Cleveland Clinic's Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center continues to attract new companies and jobs to the region. One of those snags is Farm Design, a medical product development firm that wanted so badly to be in Cleveland, they made the trip from Boston.

Despite the unstoppable march of progress from analogue to digital, vinyl records are making an undeniable comeback. And catering to that expanding market is Cleveland's own Gotta Groove Records, one of only a handful of existing vinyl pressing plants in the United States. Make that, the world.

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.

Scott Colosimo had a dream to produce a stripped-down '60s-inspired motorcycle that looks like a million bucks but costs less than $5,000. Guess what? He pulled it off, launching a growing company called Cleveland CycleWerks.