For some, the term "Rust Belt" conjures unpleasant images of empty factories, foreclosed homes and unhappy people wandering cracked streets, wondering when times will get better. But what's really happening in some of the Midwest's major cities, and how different is it from the way these cities are often depicted?

Jack Storey thinks he has an answer. The impassioned city advocate has created a documentary chronicling what he believes is a more accurate representation of resilient cities working on reinventing themselves.

"Red, White & Blueprints" is an examination of the strides being taken by Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Youngstown, highlighting the most innovative initiatives, individuals and ideas coming out of these cities.

"It's a positive movie about the Rust Belt, which nobody is really doing," says Storey, 30. "We're showcasing another side of these cities."

Storey, founder of the grassroots community development organization Saving Cities, spent two weeks in the summer of 2011 traveling and taking footage with friend Rick Stockburger. He met steelworkers and autoworkers, entrepreneurs and politicians, all with their own ideas on how to boost their respective homes. Locally, he interviewed figures including Gina Prodan from Unmiserable Cleveland and Katie O'Keefe, better known as "the pink-haired tattoo girl."

Storey, of Collinwood, learned just how tough Midwesterners are. More surprising was how deeply the people he met cared about their city's livelihood. "It was the most educational experience of my life," he says.

"Red, White & Blueprints" debuted this week at Cleveland International Film Festival. (Screens tonight at 6:30 p.m. on stand-by.) Storey hopes the film gives viewers a truer vision of what it means to live in Cleveland and other less heralded parts of the country.
 
 
SOURCE: Jack Storey
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

PlayhouseSquare will soon add another delicious restaurant to the district, adding fuel to its quest to become a 24/7 neighborhood that encourages theater patrons to stick around long after the shows end. Entrepreneurs Jiyoung and John Sung will open Sung's House next month, adding a Korean and Japanese restaurant to the downtown scene.

"It's not traditional Korean food -- it's fusion style," says Jiyoung Sung, who moved from Michigan to be close to family. "We're also building a sushi bar."

John Sung worked as a sushi chef for 13 years before moving to Cleveland. The venue is a big leap for the couple. "We're happy and nervous at the same time. We're excited about having our own place, but it's kind of frightening, too."

The price range for lunch will be $8-10, while dinner items will be around $15, keeping the menu affordable for CSU students and downtown office workers.

"We think those who live, work and visit here will appreciate having yet another great choice of where to eat," says Cindi Szymanski of PlayhouseSquare, which owns the building. "The planned Korean and Japanese menu choices, including sushi, will bring a currently unrepresented style of cuisine to PlayhouseSquare."

Why did the couple choose PlayhouseSquare? "My uncle is a professor at CSU, and he knows the area very well," says Jiyoung Sung. "He recommended it to us."

The restaurant will be located at 1507 Euclid Avenue, in the former China Sea Express space. It is expected to open in May.


Source: Jiyoung Sung
Writer: Lee Chilcote

El Futuro de Cleveland, a collaboration between Global Cleveland, Esperanza, Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE), and Cleveland Leadership Center’s (i)Cleveland hopes to retain local Latino talent in Northeast Ohio by offering paid internships to college students.
 
“The mission is to support the rich diversity of the Greater Cleveland Latino community and ensure it grows and thrives,” says Global Cleveland’s Elizabeth Hijar. There are 62,000 Latinos in Cuyahoga County, and that population grew by 30 percent since 2000. “The Latino community is a bright spot in Cleveland and is growing."
 
Part of the Global Cleveland Latino initiative, El Futuro de Cleveland is working with Cleveland State, CWRU, Baldwin Wallace and Kent State, in addition to reaching out to schools in Boston and Chicago. “The focus is on young people to help ensure there are opportunities to make them stay in Cleveland, attract them and make sure there’s a pipeline,” says Hijar. “We want to focus on these students and really try to help them get a first start in their careers, whether they are from Cleveland or outside of Cleveland, and think about living here on a long-term basis.”
 
Nineteen employers already have signed up to provide paid internships through the program. The employers are required to enroll their interns in the (i)Cleveland summer leadership and mentoring program.

 
Source: Elizabeth Hijar
Writer: Karin Connelly

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.

During a recent address at the City Club of Cleveland, Joel Ratner of Neighborhood Progress Inc. touted recent success stories that the nonprofit has invested in, including a new home for The Intergenerational School underway at the Saint Luke's campus.

Ratner believes that even though Cleveland has been hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, the city can stabilize its population and begin to grow again through promoting thoughtful, equitable, synergistic development that helps everyone succeed.

"For a long time, there was a debate over whether it makes sense to invest in people or place," said Ratner. "However, we believe it should be people and place."

Ratner cited Pittsburgh as an example of a city whose population has been right-sized and has even begun to grow again in recent years.

As examples of why community development matters, Ratner presented statistics showing that neighborhoods where NPI invested heavily over the past decade not only fell less steeply in the recession, but are also coming back more quickly than others. He also believes that every Cleveland neighborhood can be successful.

Ratner touted the recently-announced Slavic Village Reclaim Project, which leverages private investment by Safeco Properties and Forest City to help rehab 2,000+ properties on 440 acres, as one example of innovative best practices.

He also cited NPI's partnership with the Key Bank Financial Education Center to help low-income residents build wealth through savings and investment programs. Through a possible merger with Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition and LiveCleveland, Ratner hopes to begin serving additional neighborhoods.


Source: Joel Ratner
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Last summer, the Near West Recreation League's t-ball league was a hit for Cleveland kids. Organizers believe a recently debuted bowling league will play a similarly big "roll" in the health of a community that didn't have much in the way of organized sports.

The bowling program, open to 70-plus youngsters between the ages of 6 and 10, launched February 16 at Corner Alley in downtown Cleveland. The league is part of a two-year partnership between Ohio Savings Bank and Ohio City Inc. to support recreation activities on the Near West Side. Downtown Cleveland Alliance is also a partner in the new program.

The bowling league was created for children from Tremont, Detroit Shoreway and other West Side enclaves, although similar to the t-ball league, kids have been coming from other parts of the city to participate.

"Sports are a great way of bringing people together at a young age," says Eric Wobser, executive director of Ohio City Inc.

They're also a method of keeping people in the neighborhood, maintain the rec league's leaders. Retaining young families in the 25- to 34-age group has been problematic for Ohio City and downtown. Sports can be another amenity that grows a neighborhood population, while also integrating a community of diverse backgrounds.

"It's improving the quality of life," Wobser says.

If the bowling league proves successful, the rec league will add other sports throughout the year. Plans for the remainder of 2013 include youth-oriented baseball, soccer and basketball. The league may "age up" as well, from young kids all the way to junior high students.

"We've struck a chord with the community," says Wobser.
 
 
SOURCE: Eric Wobser
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth

If  Kauser Razvi has a say in it, underutilized spaces in Cleveland will be a place where a child's imagination can run wild, all thanks to power of the written word.

Razvi, founder of the Cleveland-based project management organization Strategic Urban Solutions, is the book-loving brains behind Literary Lots,  a program that aims to "brings books to life" in a vacant lot, playground or other outdoor space.

To pilot this idea, Strategic Urban Solutions plans to launch its first Literary Lot this summer in Ohio City's Novak Park. In conjunction with Cleveland Public Library, LAND Studio, and Ohio City Writers, Razvi's group will recreate places, concepts, and adventures from select children's books. The space will also host educational programming, with the goal of bringing Cleveland's kids together through the cooperation of the city's cultural institutions.

"Libraries are community anchors," says Razvi. "We thought it would be cool to marry the idea of bringing books to life in places near our libraries."

The summer program spot would have books (of course), poetry readings or a movie based on the book the space is built around. Artists would enliven the space, perhaps decorating a small sandpit in which kids can dig for buried gold,  just like the young adventurer from Treasure Island.

"I think of it as a 'comfortable artistic backyard,'" Razvi says.

Building a nice "backyard" isn't free. A Kickstarter fundraising campaign for the project begins at the end of February, with a minimum goal of $5,500. Razvi believes transforming an underused space into a reading zone for kids is well worth the price of admission.
 
SOURCE: Kauser Razvi
WRITER:  Douglas J. Guth

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.

Two Cleveland families with deep Irish roots have teamed up to open an Irish bar and concert venue in Kamm's Corners. They say that Paddyrock Superpub will live up to its name, offering a range of live music, live sporting events on big-screen TVs and a full menu.

"What we're doing is original for a neighborhood bar on the west side, because there are no other concert-type venues like this one," says Sheila Sheehan, who opened Paddyrock with her husband Jimmy and West Park native Danny Riley and his family. "We love Irish music. We're excited to showcase the music."

But it won't just be Irish music, says Sheehan, who describes the style of bands as "just fun." They include country, lounge, and, soon, polka. Paddyrock is a large venue with two levels, including a sizeable bar area and a stage for live music.

Other amenities include a 15-foot high-definition superscreen for games, and an upper level with pool tables, dart boards and a balcony overlooking the stage.

Sheehan, who has owned two other West Park bars and lived in the neighborhood for over two decades before recently moving to North Ridgeville, says there's no interesting story behind the location. "They offered it to me and I said yes," she says of the former Stir Niteclub space.

Yet she lights up when talking about the Wolf Tones, an Irish band that is stopping by on Sunday night as part of their American tour. "They're legendary," says Sheehan excitedly. "We've been getting great crowds for the music."

Sheehan is also excited about the direction West Park is taking. "When I first moved here forever ago, the community businesses were good but they were closing up," she says. "Recently, it's become more of an entertainment district."

"This is one of the last communities where families really know each other," she continues. "It's all non-corporate businesses, actual mom-and-pops. There are deep community roots here, and we all stick together and help each other out."

If you stop by, there's a good chance you'll bump into a member of the Riley or Sheehan family -- many of them work here. It's a West Park tradition, after all.

Paddyrock Superpub is located at 16700 Lorain Avenue.


Source: Sheila Sheehan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

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.
 
Read the rest of the story here.

Within the past five years, the Kamm's Corners commercial district at Lorain Avenue and Rocky River Drive has transformed itself. This once-faded stretch of Irish bars and half-empty storefronts has become a diverse foodie destination, where you can as easily order a gourmet burrito as a pint o' Guinness.

The presence of restaurants like the recently opened Thai Elephant have created a buzzed-about cuisine scene that's a far cry from the West Park of recent memory.

"It's really an exciting time to be a part of the Kamm's Corners commercial area," says Cindy Janis, Commercial Development Manager with Kamm's Corners Development Corporation. "I get calls quite frequently from businesses looking for new space in the area."

Thai Elephant, which opened in January, is the latest addition. Sirima Krabnoic, the Thailand native who also owns Thai Chili restaurant in Avon Lake, renovated a long-empty former Chinese restaurant at 16610 Lorain into a comfortable, colorful eatery with beautiful hand-woven Thai tapestries on the walls.

"We wanted to expand our business, and we thought that Kamm's Corners was not a bad area for a second location," says Krabnoic. "It's authentic Thai food."

Thai Elephant is open for lunch and dinner seven days per week. Most dishes range from $6 to $13, and the menu has an extensive list of traditional dishes.

Soon, the restaurant will be installing a striking new sign -- hint: It has an elephant in it -- with the help of the City of Cleveland's Storefront Renovation Program.

"They're a wonderful new addition to the neighborhood," adds Janis.

Among other new or recent openings on Lorain, Janis cites the Jasmine Bakery, Olive and Grape, Kamm's Closet and Cafe Falafel (slated to open in two weeks).


Source: Cindy Janis
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Education is on the forefront of Cleveland's transformation plans. The city is aiming to reform its troubled school system as well as increase the number of youth attending and graduating from college.

Cleveland Public Library (CPL) had Cleveland's goals in mind when planning its African American History Month programming for this year. Throughout February, the library will offer a variety of education- and educator-focused programming, music and events at its main facility and branch locations. 

"We try to focus on topics that resonate with the community," says CPL programming director Aaron Mason. "Education is the topic of the day."

Featured programs and events include:

* A showcase of student-produced music and videos created by Cleveland’s youth through the efforts of Reading R.A.M.M. (Recording Arts Music Media) founder Edward “Phatty” Banks. The February 9 event at the main library is designed to connect area children with reading and education through use of pop-culture-style music and media.

* A performance by Ralph Miles Jones and Baba Issa Abramaleem, otherwise known as "The Seekers of Truth Revolutionary Ensemble." Jones is a multi-instrumentalist and recording artist from Oberlin College. Abramaleem is a composer, visual artist, playwright and percussionist-guitarist. The duo plays CPL's Rice Branch on February 15.

* A free screening of the documentary "PUSH: Madison vs. Madison" on February 22 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. branch. The film covers the trials of a talented but dysfunctional high school basketball team.

This year's round of African American History Month programming is meant to look ahead rather than back at history, notes Mason.

"The library should be a place of learning and engagement," he says. "It's about exposing people to new ideas."
 
 
SOURCE: Aaron Mason
WRITER: Douglas J. Guth