In 2013, the 83-year-old Cleveland Botanical Garden attracted more people than ever to its University Circle properties. During the past 12 months, 188,669 people visited the Garden, marking a 17 percent increase over the prior year’s record attendance figure of 160,000. It marks the sixth straight year of attendance increases.
 
Garden President Natalie Ronayne attributes the growth to the success of two new seasonal events, Big Spring and the holiday spectacular Glow.
 
“It’s really great to see Northeast Ohioans embracing the Garden as relevant to their lives,” Ronayne says. “One of the most appealing things about the Garden is that it can be many different things to many different people -- a place of celebration, a place of solace, a place for making new family memories. I love that people are taking advantage of that.”
 
Next up on the schedule for the Garden is the 11th annual Orchid Mania, slated to run February 1 through March 9.

In a CNN Money feature titled "The Fortune Crystal Ball," the publication offers up its prognostications for the coming year, among them: Which cities will be the next Brooklyns, and which the next Detroits. Spoiler alert: Cleveland is pegged as a "Brooklyn."
 
"The American geography of prosperity has been driven by two big narratives in the past few years. On the one hand, there's Detroit, with its $18 billion in debt, pension mess, and population loss. On the other, there's Brooklyn, with its rocketing real estate prices, hip-luxe condos, and freshly foraged food stores," notes the money pub.
 
So, just what cities are deemed a "breakout town"?
 
New Brooklyns
 
Cleveland. The city is in the midst of a downtown revival that has seen not one, not two, but three Williamsburg-esque neighborhoods emerge: Tremont, Ohio City, and Gordon Square.
 
Odds of it becoming the "next Brooklyn" are placed at 63%.
 
Read the rest here.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Slate writer Matthew Yglesias offers up a solution to the rising tensions between tech giants like Google and Apple and the rest of the residents in San Francisco: relocate the companies to Cleveland.
 
"The Bay Area is sick and tired of the antics of entitled techies, and the nouveaux riches want a place where they’ll be appreciated. It’s time for federal authorities to step in and move the show someplace else. Cleveland, say," he writes.
 
"Cities such as Buffalo, N.Y., or Pittsburgh come to mind, although unlike Detroit and Cleveland, they lack a major airport. Plans to save Detroit, however, are a bit cliché at this point, and I worry that any tech hub you tried to build there would naturally drift over to Ann Arbor, Mich., anyway. But Cleveland’s got plenty of affordable housing, plenty of available office space, flights to every important North American city, and even its own Federal Reserve bank."
 
Read the rest of the article here.

Larry Olmsted, the weekly "Great American Bites" restaurant columnist for USA Today, eats out a lot, and his yearly Forbes list of standout restaurant meals from the past 12 months is filled with choice bites from around the globe. Two out of the 15 are meals in Cleveland spots.
 
"One reason these lists remain pertinent is because unlike most food publications, I don’t confuse 'new' with good, and just because I ate someplace this year for the first (or fifth) time doesn’t make the restaurant better or worse. What matters is simply how good the restaurant is," he writes.
 
Red, The Steakhouse
 
"Red succeeds at the high-end steakhouse game – where so many others fail -- by getting four key things right. 1. They make a great steak, using exclusively Certified Angus Beef that is mostly dry aged, and cooking it perfectly. 2. The appetizers are amazing, especially the Oysters Rockefeller and Red House Salad. 3. The classic steakhouse sides are perfected, like creamed corn and the only mac & cheese I have ever had that might actually be too rich, as the four cheese blend includes creamy Swiss raclette – and is offered with or without lobster. 4. The desserts are stunners and the Apple Pie Croissant bread pudding was OMG!"
 
Greenhouse Tavern
 
"Chef-owner Jonathon Sawyer is a hometown hero in Cleveland for his eateries, and if you visit his flagship Greenhouse Tavern it is easy to see why. He does many of the trends that are being embraced from Portland to Brooklyn, but he does them better: he makes an extensive array of his own vinegars, breaks down his own pigs and cows for snout to tail eating and completely embraces local farmers and ingredients. But while many pay lip service to these ideals he lives them, and the food shows. It is fun and wacky fine dining that puts twists on classics from around the world: his lunch menu includes a take on iconic Quebecois poutine called “gravy frites,” which covers a platter of fries with mozzarella curds, veal gravy and sometimes fried eggs. He has gotten a lot of press for his “Properly butchered rib steak,” cut in house of course, but the must-have signatures are the crispy chicken wings confit and roasted pig’s head served with little brioche buns to make your own pig’s head sliders.
 
Check out the entire list here.

In a hotel review in the travel section of the New York Times, writer Erik Piepenburg checks into the new Aloft hotel on the East Bank of the Flats and files a glowing review.
 
"The Aloft Downtown gives Cleveland a major boost of bright, colorful and contemporary hotel design in an area -- and a city -- not known for style-centric accommodations," he writes.
 
The article covers the rooms, amenities and available dining options. "A Saturday night meal at Willeyville included delicious vegetarian options for me (grilled sweet corn, baked gnocchi), plenty of meat for a friend and a mind-blowing fried peach pie," he notes.
 
The bottom line, concludes the author, the new Aloft is a "terrific place for design geeks, foodies and fans of rust-belt chic who like their boutique hotel on the industrial side."
 
Read the rest right here.

In an Art Daily feature titled "MOCA Cleveland releases metrics of strong inaugural year in new building, Uptown," the art publication shares impressive numbers from the museum's first year in its new building.

"In the first year in their new building, MOCA delivered significantly expanded audiences and benefits," says the article.
 
Among them:
 
55,997 visitors took advantage of MOCA’s offerings, up 284 percent from recent years
 
650+ new members, tripling membership in MOCA’s new home
 
The numbers also show how MOCA’s impressive new building at the corner of Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue acts as a beacon to draw people to University Circle and Uptown.
 
82 percent of MOCA’s visitors are coming to University Circle specifically to visit the Museum
 
70 percent of MOCA’s visitors are eating at a surrounding restaurant
 
24 percent are shopping while in the area
 
Read about the rest here.

In a Forbes feature titled “Beer Entrepreneurs Fuel Comeback of Struggling Cleveland Neighborhood,” staff writer Dan Alexander explores the history of Great Lakes Brewing Company and the birth of other small breweries in the area.
 
From humble beginnings to what the Ohio City neighborhood is today, Great Lakes Brewing Company has a lot to do with the area’s revival, the story confirms.
 
"Since 1986 the Conways have bought four buildings in the neighborhood, called Ohio City. They are the beer men who became unlikely leaders of the neighborhood’s revival. In the last decade, other entrepreneurs have joined the Conways in Ohio City. Since 2005, the crime rate in the neighborhood has plummeted 24%, and real estate values have more than doubled."
 
“It was a struggling neighborhood,” adds Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. “Twenty years later, you go over there, nighttime Friday or Saturday night, it’s going to be packed. Cars can’t move, people just everywhere.”
 
Alexander goes on to detail his meet-up with Sam McNulty, owner of six local establishments in the area. McNulty remains optimistic of the area, with everyone agreeing there is no reason he shouldn’t be.
 
Check out the full piece here.

In a feature titled "Three Lessons on Regionalism," Bill Bradley, writing for Next City, outlines the findings of a report recently released by Fund for Our Economic Future.
 
"Regionalism, from Paris to Portland, offers cities with closely woven outlying suburbs opportunities to broaden their tax bases, increase minimum wages and develop unified approaches to transit -- which could, in turn, give low-wage workers better access to jobs. Advocates have touted these benefits for years. Now, a new report explores how regional collaboration can help spur economic growth."
 
The Northeast Ohio-based Fund for Our Economic Future, which along with the Knight Foundation, released the report.
 
In sum: "Data is hugely important, investing in groups that find funding can enlarge your pools of grant money, and big thinkers must be instrumental in turning those grand ideas into reality."
 
Read the rest here.