A few short months ago, the vacant, boarded-up commercial property at E. 156th Street and Waterloo Road was like a "Berlin Wall," says Brian Friedman, director of Northeast Shores Community Development Corporation. Passers-by on their way to concerts at the popular Beachland Ballroom were treated to the building's dark, unfriendly visage. Rather than a  welcoming gateway to this up-and-coming, arts-friendly community, the structure served as an ugly reminder of ... Read more >

Slavic Village, a neighborhood once considered to be the epicenter of the national foreclosure crisis, took another step this week towards remaking itself as a regional hub for urban recreation. A public meeting was held to kick off the design of a new skateboard park that will be located at Broadway and Union Avenue on the site of a former brownfield.

"It all started when a neighborhood resident approached us about creating a skate park," says Jacob Van Sickle,... Read more >

It's hard not to notice the attractive bike racks that have been popping up around town lately. Much more than simply utilitarian places to hitch your ride, these racks are at once urban sculptures and retail signage for local businesses. Many of them have been designed by Rust Belt Welding, two Cleveland entrepreneurs who are making a living doing what they love.

"We wanted to do creative, bicycle-related projects, and we knew there was a need for more bike rack... Read more >

Cleveland-based clothing designer iLTHY (I Love the Hype) has opened a new store in the Gordon Square Arts District in Detroit Shoreway. The shop, which is located in a former art gallery at West 54th and Detroit, sells the brand's popular hip hop and sports-themed T-shirts. It's a major move for the start-up apparel company, whose products were previously only available online and at select retailers.

Artist and founder Glen Infante's colorful designs have be... Read more >

The City of Cleveland has scheduled two meetings to allow public comment on its new lakefront plan, the most ambitious effort in years to redevelop the city's long-dormant downtown shoreline. Portions of the plan, including an event series to be launched this summer, could begin to show progress this year.

The City plans to hire a Harbor Manager in the next few months, who will be responsible for overseeing waterfront activities, including management of the contract f... Read more >

Rene Polin, president and founder of Balance Product Development in Chagrin Falls, likes to find solutions to problems. The product design house was formed in 2004 and has developed products for a number of other companies. But Polin wanted to create something out of his own ideas.
 
That idea came when Polin watched his seven-year-old daughter playing with his iPad. “Rene would come home and hand over this expensive piece of equipment to his daughter,” re... Read more >

Last year, Kasumi, a local filmmaker, artist and associate professor at Cleveland Institute of Art, won a Vimeo award in the Remix category for her film short, “Breakdown, the Video,” which recasts old footage from the 1940s and 1950s. Since then, her career and reputation have soared. She returns to Vimeo this year as a judge.
 
“It was a total shift in how I thought about my work being online,” says Kasumi of winning the award. “Having ... Read more >

Rosetta, an interactive marketing firm, boasts 1,500 team members spread across nine offices in places like New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, among others. But thanks to 450 staffers locally, Cleveland is now Rosetta's largest. That the firm has chosen 2012 to set-up shop in a downtown Cleveland landmark is pure poetry.

Any two-bit picker can wrangle up some cast-offs, display them in a storefront, and call the place an "antiques shop." Walk into Reincarnation Vintage Design, however, and you'll be reaching for your wallet faster than an auctioneer yells, "Sold!" Owners Ron and Cyndy Nicolson don't just clean and sell other people's unwanted items; they grant them a whole new life. "Reincarnation" isn't just a name, you see -- it's a business plan.

Contractor Matt Berges loves it when he hears that home energy prices are going up. Nope, he doesn't own stock in utilities -- he just knows that ever-rising heating and cooling costs will jolt the market for making homes more energy-efficient.

Berges earns his living by retrofitting older homes and building new homes to ultra-green standards. He's banking on the fact that rising energy costs will make construction of innovative passive homes like the SmartHome at... 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 >

Despite its long-suffering reputation, Cleveland's real estate market seems just fine to Kosta Almiroudis, an entrepreneur who moved last year from New York City to Lakewood to revive dilapidated old apartment buildings for fun and profit. In the past year, he has bought, renovated and fully leased more than 50 once-vacant units.

"I come from a village in Greece that has a 1,300-year-old castle," says Almiroudis, whose wife's family also lives in the Cle... Read more >

Go Media is Here -- and luckily for us, they're here to stay. From its studios in a nondescript three-story brick warehouse on Lorain Avenue, the creative agency is putting Cleveland on the map as a burgeoning hub of art and design. In addition to creating good work, the firm does good work, promoting people and projects that are making Cleveland a better place to live.

It only takes 10 minutes to walk from St. Vincent Hospital at E. 22nd Street and Community College Avenue to Cleveland State University on Euclid Avenue. Yet few people do it, in part because it is not a pedestrian-friendly experience. A new $4.2 million plan to redevelop E. 22nd aims to change that by creating a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly boulevard and green space that could spur over $100 million in new development.

"We really see E. 22nd Street as a spine fo... Read more >

When Ohio Department of Transportation  (ODOT) officials recently asked business leaders from across the state to rank their region's planned infrastructure projects by importance, the Greater Cleveland Partnership ranked the West Shoreway project as the number one priority for Northeast Ohio.

For City of Cleveland Planning Director Bob Brown, that's one more reason why ODOT's numbers don't add up. The state agency gave the city zero out of ten points... Read more >