The Cleveland Carbon Fund has announced three grant awards totaling $15,000 for 2012, including an ambitious effort to increase the number of bike commuters in Cleveland, a backyard composting initiative in Tremont, and a project to make homes in the Central neighborhood more energy-efficient.

Bike Cleveland's project, Creating a Mode Shift, will provide riders with the tools, tips and advice on how to commute to work in Cleveland. The effort includes a commuter chall... Read more >

Born David Harrill in Mayfield Heights, "Dee Jay Doc" relocated with his wife to the Glenville neighborhood. By helping area youth write and record music, Doc is able to merge his professional talents with his passion to cultivate a better future for the children. Now, giving back to his community and city is his living.

Santina Protopapa is a self-professed high school "band nerd" who learned about hip hop while organizing a Rock Hall conference, then used it as a launching bad to start her own arts nonprofit.

Ten years later, the Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) serves more than 1,000 students across Northeast Ohio every week through hip hop arts education.

"Our students have really grown to be leaders through hip hop," says Protopapa, a percussionist and DJ ... Read more >

During Langston Hughes' heyday, African American theatre was "booming, expressive, avante garde and politically punching," says Anthony Elfonzia Nickerson-El of Project1Voice, a national group that aims to spark renewed interest in black theatre. "Hughes and his contemporaries were the conscience of the community."

Fast forward 80 years. Historically African American theatres continue to play an important role in exposing young people in urban area... Read more >

The Fund for Our Economic Future approved $5.035 million in grants to go to seven regional economic development organizations to continue their work in developing companies and bringing jobs to the Northeast Ohio.
 
The organizations are: NorTech, JumpStart, BioEnterprise, Team NEO, MAGNET, WorkAdvance and the Agriculture-Bioscience Industry Cluster. The organizations specialize in everything from entrepreneurship and technology to healthcare, manufacturing and biosci... Read more >

When National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman toured Cleveland's arts districts last year, he blogged about how they were actively applying the principles of arts-based development and urban placemaking touted daily by the NEA.

Now ArtPlace, a creative placemaking initiative led by the NEA and others, has awarded Northeast Shores Development Corporation a $500,000 grant to engage local artists in creatively combating urban vacancy and foreclosure in Cl... Read more >

Technology, health care, food and rock and roll -- these are just a few of the industries flourishing in the eclectic Midtown neighborhood, its leaders told a sold out crowd at the Midtown Cleveland Inc. annual meeting at the InterContinental Hotel.

Key accomplishments within the past year include a successful lawsuit that stopped the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) from closing Innerbelt ramps until a study has been completed; breaking ground on several new proj... Read more >

Christopher Busta-Peck first became interested in teaching others about Cleveland's architectural history when he developed summer history programs for kids as part of his job as a children's librarian.

Too fascinated to put the material down, he soon found himself enmeshed in creating a local history and preservation blog, Cleveland Area History, that has been called the voice of history and historic preservation in Northeast Ohio.

Part of what motivates... Read more >

When the Broadway Farmers Market in Slavic Village piloted a new program to offer a dollar-for-dollar match to Ohio Direction Card customers who purchase produce, it experienced a 191-percent increase in Direction Card sales in one year.

By offering incentives, the Produce Perks program helps to ensure that fresh, locally grown produce gets into low-income households where it's needed most. Many city residents do not have a grocery store with fresh produce within walk... Read more >

In April, 51 volunteers picked up more than 500 pounds of trash at Edgewater Park as part of an effort to revitalize our city's beaches and reconnect Clevelanders to our lakefront parks.

Among the items that were collected at Edgewater that day were more than 3,000 cigar tips that had washed up in Edgewater cove.

Cleveland has the dubious distinction of being a leader in cigar tip pollution in the Great Lakes region, says Erin Huber of Drink Local Drink Tap. ... Read more >

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations is awarded each year to outstanding high school students across the country who are helping to increase understanding and mutual respect among all races and cultures.

The Cleveland prize, now in its second year, was recently awarded to Demi Zhang, a freshman at Orange High School who has devoted herself to achieving racial and cultural harmony through teaching others. Zhang has exposed her community to Chinese culture through art and ... Read more >

More than 100 people turned out May 16 at the Ohio City Firehouse to celebrate the newest graduates of Bad Girl Ventures’ business plan competition. Babies Travel Too was the recipient of a $25,000 loan from KeyBank.
 
Babies Travel Too was created by Alison Musser, who based the company on her own experiences as a parent. The company provides nightly and weekly rentals of full-size cribs, car seats, strollers and other essential baby gear to people traveling to... Read more >

Last fall, when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing on the City of Cleveland's proposed waste-to-energy plant, hundreds of protesters turned out to decry the plans.

The gasification plant, which would turn trash into energy to be used by Cleveland Public Power, would result in unacceptable levels of pollution in urban neighborhoods, environmental groups said.

Since then, the city has terminated its agreement with its controversial consulta... Read more >

Goldman Sachs announced last week that it will bring its 10,000 Small Businesses (10KSB) initiative to Cleveland. The initiative commits $500 million to entrepreneurial education, access to capital and technical assistance services. Goldman Sachs and the Goldman Sachs Foundation have pledged $15 million to Cleveland.
 
Cleveland is the seventh city to host a 10KSB. Unlike many organizations in Cleveland that focus on startups, this program is designed for existing sma... Read more >

Two Cleveland boys from modest backgrounds in the Glenville neighborhood dreamed up Superman 80 years ago. The beloved character -- and many more like him -- have been rescuing boys from boredom and engaging them in reading and writing ever since.

This week, in an inspired twist on this fabled story, a group of third grade and seventh grade boys from Citizens Academy and University School are participating in a superheroes story workshop at Ohio City Writers, a new nonpro... Read more >

Every spring, the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve is a bustling, seasonal stopover for birds and butterflies on their annual migration northward. The 88-acre preserve, a former dredging containment facility reclaimed by nature, is now a unique, undeveloped park along Lake Erie.

Yet, while more than 280 species of birds have been spotted at this lush, wild site, many Clevelanders still don't know about the preserve, which was created earlier this year by the Clevel... Read more >

The Cleveland Entrepreneurs’ Organization is one of the oldest and strongest chapters of the worldwide organization. Comprised of 115 members who are founders of business with at least $1 million in annual gross revenues, the members network, socialize and share their success stories.
 
Now the EO wants to share its collective knowledge with other entrepreneurs through its Accelerator program. Started three years ago, the purpose of the program is to educate and... Read more >

Last year, Akron marketing professional Amy Wong signed up to attend Cleveland GiveCamp for a few hours and ended up staying the entire weekend. She was taken with its mission of helping nonprofits with tech projects -- and she was having a good time.

This year, she hopes to deliver an even bigger impact by serving more nonprofits. GiveCamp, which is part of a national network of events that link technology professionals with nonprofits, is accepting applications until Ju... Read more >

Whereas some kids bond with their dads over football or baseball, Jacob Friedman and his dad have always bonded over oldies music stars like Petula Clark and Dean Martin and old movies starring Tim Conway.

Five years ago, Friedman suddenly had blurry vision and he couldn't get out of bed. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The nine-year-old listened to Clark's "Downtown" to comfort him as he traveled from his home in Parma to Rainbow Babies and Childre... Read more >