Meet Andi Kornak, the new General Curator at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. After two decades working at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek Michigan, Kornak moved here to accept a new position. "I feel very settled here," says the recent transplant.

Think you know Cleveland? Well, thanks to $4 billion in new downtown development, you just might not recognize it anymore. Soon-to-be-completed projects like the Global Health Innovation Center, Convention Center, Ernst and Young Tower, Aloft Hotel and those in PlayhouseSquare have pushed the city to a tipping point in its evolution.

If phrases like "circuit board" and "stereo inspection microscope" sound daunting, you're not alone. The tools of the high-tech maker trade can be über intimidating -- unless you live in Cleveland, where user-friendly places like TechCentral and Think[box] help normal folks to create.

A waterfall swing developed by Cleveland creatives has amassed over 2.7 million hits on YouTube, garnering the makers international recognition and business opportunities. Created by local engineers and artists, the waterfall swing has been featured at tech festivals from New York to California, hi-profile TV ads, and the Today Show.

Since its modest beginnings 36 years ago at the Cedar Lee Theatre, the Cleveland International Film Festival has blossomed into a premiere local, regional and national event. Over the years the festival’s attendance has grown by over 600 percent to last year's record of 85,018. Here are four films with a Cleveland connection.

For those who don't already know, Cleveland is a place where culture, education, creativity and innovation flourishes affordably. At least, that's the message city boosters are trying to sell to mobile young professionals. According to who you ask, that strategy is either working, working slowly, or not working well at all.

As brewmaster for Market Garden Brewery and Nano Brew, Andy Tveekrem has the enviable job of devising, testing and brewing the luscious suds that bubble up from those popular Ohio City watering holes. We decided to see what a day in the life a big-time brewer is all about. 

In its heyday, downtown's Short Vincent was an entertainment mecca, with big-name spots like the Roxy, known as one of the most successful vaudeville and burlesque theaters in the Midwest. On February 23, Roxy Remembered took over the Beachland, staging a burlesque show in honor of the old club. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski had a front row seat to the action.

As TEDxCLE blazes into its fourth year beneath the banner "Bonfire//Ignite," Clevelanders once again have responded with unfettered enthusiasm. This year's event, which will be held Thursday, March 21 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, sold all 700 tickets in 24 minutes. Here's a preview of the action.

Imagine having an online resource with the information needed to custom design your own career path. That’s what the UNCOMN.TV does. This project identifies what employers need in employees, what educators need to be teaching students, and what students need to be doing to snag jobs -- thus helping to turn brain drain into brain gain.

“Cities are back, downtowns are back, and the places that we call anchor districts are leveraging growth in cities,” says Chris Ronayne of UCI. In Cleveland and beyond, stakeholders like universities, hospitals and museums ('eds and meds') are leading the way in reshaping cities into vibrant, livable places.

As new VP of operations for the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp (LEEDCo), Dave Karpinski will guide the organization through the next phase in the process of building the nation’s first freshwater offshore wind project. With its first round of financing in tow, LEEDCo must now compete for a critical second infusion of funds against six other projects across the country.

As part of the city's 10-year initiative Sustainable Cleveland 2019, 2013 is being called the Year of Advanced and Renewable Energy. Evidenced by measures big and small -- both civic and private -- Cleveland continues to inch toward becoming a "Green City on a Blue Lake."

Cleveland is quietly transforming from a meat-and-potatoes to a beets-and-tomatoes kind of town -- at least at the edges. Not only are there more meat-free diners in Cleveland. But vegans are finding more meat-free dinners thanks to progressive new eateries and chefs, who are more than eager to please this growing faction of foodies.

Thanks to a new breed of bandleader, polka music is enjoying (yet another) Cleveland revival. While some of the acts might appear more shtick than substance, the motivation behind them comes from love and respect – and in the process are giving rise to a new generation of polka fan.

Animatopoeia – currently on view at the Galleries at CSU – might be one of the most oddly compelling art exhibits to land here in some time. Subtitled "A Most Peculiar (Post Modern) Bestiary," the mixed-media works by international artists explore animal imagery as it relates to an obscure list of categories. Here's a sneak peek.

Will Tarter, Jr. stands out as a leader among Cleveland’s young professional community. As the charismatic head of the Cleveland Young Professional Senate, he champions causes and issues that impact this highly in-demand demographic, not to mention the long-term well-being of Cleveland.

For a number of years at the tail end of the 20th century, Greater Cleveland's public and private leaders attempted to pull the city up through ambitious marketing campaigns. For awhile it seemed to work. The national media began referring to Cleveland as the "Comeback City" in conjunction with the grand openings of ambitious projects like Tower City Center, Jacobs Field and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
 
But toward the end of the '90s a strange thing happened: The city, for all intents and purposes, stopped marketing itself.
 
Why?
 
"We began to believe our own press," says Rick Batyko, president of the Regional Marketing Alliance of Northeast Ohio, which conducts the Cleveland Plus campaign. And civic officials "moved on to other tasks and defunded marketing."
 
In essence, Northeast Ohio stopped telling its tale with the tale barely begun -- a rather large mistake in retrospect. "The underlying economy wasn't doing that well," Batyko says. "That's something you couldn't see in the skyline shots."
 
During the mid-2000s, the region's narrative thread was picked up by Cleveland Plus campaign. Established in 2005 -- with founding members that included Greater Cleveland Partnership, Positively Cleveland and Team NEO -- the organization champions Northeast Ohio as a culturally rich, yet affordable place to live.
 
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