Stories
As Cleveland’s eastern suburbs were just beginning to establish themselves in the 1920s, Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard neighborhood, bordering Shaker Heights, Warrensville Heights and Maple Heights on the the city’s south east side, was thriving in its own right.
The Lee-Harvard neighborhood, once known as Miles Heights Village and the Lee-Seville neighborhoods, was historically an integrated community of notable firsts. Ohio’s first African-American mayor, Arthur Johnston was elected in 1929 when the neighborhood was mostly white. His house on East 147th Street still stands today.
The neighborhood established many of the first citizen's councils and neighborhood associations in the region and had an interracial police force.
On Thursday, October 6, the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS), along with Cleveland Ward 1 councilman Terrell Pruitt, the Harvard Community Services Center and CSU’s Maxine Levin Goodman College of Urban Affairs, will present “Cleveland’s Suburb in the City: The Development and Growth of Lee-Harvard.”
The free discussion will be led by Todd Michney, assistant professor at the University of Toledo and author of Changing Neighborhoods: Black Upward Mobility in Cleveland, 1900-1980.
“We at CRS have been so impressed with the neighborhoods of Ward 1, Lee-Harvard and Lee-Seville,” says Michael Fleenor, CRS director of preservation services, "because they reflect our recent history – Cleveland’s last expansion, progress in Civil Rights, and the growth of neighborhood associations and community development corporations in the late 20th Century."
Click here for photos and to continue reading about the fascinating history of this stalwart Cleveland neighborthood.
The Lee-Harvard neighborhood, once known as Miles Heights Village and the Lee-Seville neighborhoods, was historically an integrated community of notable firsts. Ohio’s first African-American mayor, Arthur Johnston was elected in 1929 when the neighborhood was mostly white. His house on East 147th Street still stands today.
The neighborhood established many of the first citizen's councils and neighborhood associations in the region and had an interracial police force.
On Thursday, October 6, the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS), along with Cleveland Ward 1 councilman Terrell Pruitt, the Harvard Community Services Center and CSU’s Maxine Levin Goodman College of Urban Affairs, will present “Cleveland’s Suburb in the City: The Development and Growth of Lee-Harvard.”
The free discussion will be led by Todd Michney, assistant professor at the University of Toledo and author of Changing Neighborhoods: Black Upward Mobility in Cleveland, 1900-1980.
“We at CRS have been so impressed with the neighborhoods of Ward 1, Lee-Harvard and Lee-Seville,” says Michael Fleenor, CRS director of preservation services, "because they reflect our recent history – Cleveland’s last expansion, progress in Civil Rights, and the growth of neighborhood associations and community development corporations in the late 20th Century."
Click here for photos and to continue reading about the fascinating history of this stalwart Cleveland neighborthood.
This series of stories, "Grassroots Success: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods," explores how meaningful impact on our communities grows from the ground up. Support for "Grassroots Success" is provided by Neighborhood Connections.
Alex Robertson is smart, ambitious, and successful. And after leaving Glenville to attend Ivy League Columbia University in New York City, he returned home to share what he has gleaned and improve his neighborhood by making it more fun.
Robertson threw a birthday party for his entire community when he first formed the pop-up game and event organization Recess Cleveland (recessCLE). Its first event was held on his 31st birthday, August 9, 2015.
“Birthdays are always a good time to get people out to an event,” says Robertson. “I told my friend, for my birthday I want to throw dodge balls at you.”
Approximately 50 people showed up. They divided the group into age 21 and under and age 22 and older.
”The highlight of the day was a 65-year-old grandma pitching to five-year-old kids,” Robertson says. “When she was kicking, she kicked a line-drive to the outfield. So all the kids were like, ‘Granny’s got legs!’ We did get her a designated runner, though.”
Continue reading.
Alex Robertson is smart, ambitious, and successful. And after leaving Glenville to attend Ivy League Columbia University in New York City, he returned home to share what he has gleaned and improve his neighborhood by making it more fun.
Robertson threw a birthday party for his entire community when he first formed the pop-up game and event organization Recess Cleveland (recessCLE). Its first event was held on his 31st birthday, August 9, 2015.
“Birthdays are always a good time to get people out to an event,” says Robertson. “I told my friend, for my birthday I want to throw dodge balls at you.”
Approximately 50 people showed up. They divided the group into age 21 and under and age 22 and older.
”The highlight of the day was a 65-year-old grandma pitching to five-year-old kids,” Robertson says. “When she was kicking, she kicked a line-drive to the outfield. So all the kids were like, ‘Granny’s got legs!’ We did get her a designated runner, though.”
Continue reading.
Though daunting to consider, every action we take affects the water we drink, the water for our crops, and the water we play in. Across the entire Greater Lake Erie region, the phrase “Lake Erie Starts with Me" applies to each of us.
The West Creek Conservancy has worked to protect vital stream and wetland systems, forested areas, as well as open green spaces - all in an effort to protect the waters of Greater Lake Erie. The conservancy's goal is to protect, restore, connect and reclaim important natural areas throughout the Greater Cleveland area.
As the organization continues to raise awareness about protecting the water quality within the Lake Erie watershed, it invites you to become a Stewardship Sponsor. With each individual donation of $20 or more, you’ll receive a “Lake Erie Starts With Me!” shirt.
All proceeds benefit the West Creek Conservancy Stewardship Fund to help the organization continue its great work.
Get more information and order your shirt here.
The West Creek Conservancy has worked to protect vital stream and wetland systems, forested areas, as well as open green spaces - all in an effort to protect the waters of Greater Lake Erie. The conservancy's goal is to protect, restore, connect and reclaim important natural areas throughout the Greater Cleveland area.
As the organization continues to raise awareness about protecting the water quality within the Lake Erie watershed, it invites you to become a Stewardship Sponsor. With each individual donation of $20 or more, you’ll receive a “Lake Erie Starts With Me!” shirt.
All proceeds benefit the West Creek Conservancy Stewardship Fund to help the organization continue its great work.
Get more information and order your shirt here.
A no-frills cheat sheet. Click through for more information on all the events. Let's have a great October, Cleveland!
Oct. 1 and 8: Uptown Saturday Nights, University Circle. FREE.
Oct. 2: International Cleveland Community Day, Cleveland Art Museum. FREE.
Oct. 7: Cleveland Institute of Art's Lunch on Fridays: Michela Picchi. FREE.
Oct. 8: Tour Undiscovered E. 40th Street on Lolly the Trolley. $5.
Oct. 12: Concert at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern featuring Dutch Babies, Skim the Reason and Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. FREE.
Oct. 15: Sweet Moses presents a boogie - woogie retro event featuring "The Everley Sisters." FREE.
Oct. 22 and 23: $1 Family Night, Cedar Lee Theatre. "Wallace and Gromit" The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." $1.
Oct. 23: All City Candy's 3rd Anniversary Extravaganza. FREE.
Oct. 23: MOCA: Preschool Play Date: Artsquad Plays! FREE.
Oct. 28: Carpe Diem String Quartet performs at Praxis Fiber Gallery. FREE, donations appreciated.
Oct. 1 and 8: Uptown Saturday Nights, University Circle. FREE.
Oct. 2: International Cleveland Community Day, Cleveland Art Museum. FREE.
Oct. 7: Cleveland Institute of Art's Lunch on Fridays: Michela Picchi. FREE.
Oct. 8: Tour Undiscovered E. 40th Street on Lolly the Trolley. $5.
Oct. 12: Concert at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern featuring Dutch Babies, Skim the Reason and Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. FREE.
Oct. 15: Sweet Moses presents a boogie - woogie retro event featuring "The Everley Sisters." FREE.
Oct. 22 and 23: $1 Family Night, Cedar Lee Theatre. "Wallace and Gromit" The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." $1.
Oct. 23: All City Candy's 3rd Anniversary Extravaganza. FREE.
Oct. 23: MOCA: Preschool Play Date: Artsquad Plays! FREE.
Oct. 28: Carpe Diem String Quartet performs at Praxis Fiber Gallery. FREE, donations appreciated.
Years in the making, plans for La Villa Hispana – a center celebrating Latino heritage and commerce in the Clark Fulton neighborhood – will be unveiled next month at a City Planning Commission meeting.
This week marks Fresh Water's sixth birthday and to celebrate, managing photographer Bob Perkoski visually catalogs a few things that came along after our humble inception.
How many fresh-cut flowers can fit in a Detroit Shoreway restaurant? Anyone opting to dine at Spice Kitchen and Bar this weekend will have a chance to find out during the popular eatery's "Flower Field Takeover" event on Friday, Sept. 30th, and Saturday, Oct. 1st, from 4 to 10 p.m.
Staff is harvesting the entire half-acre Spice Acres flower field, which is part of a 13-acre sustainable family farm in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. All of the blooms will be transported to the restaurant in order to offer up a beautiful farewell to summer while visitors explore the fresh tastes of Spice's new fall menu.
While bouquets will be available for sale, there is no additional cost to attend the event. Reservations, however, are recommended. Call 216.961.9637 or go online to reserve your table.
Staff is harvesting the entire half-acre Spice Acres flower field, which is part of a 13-acre sustainable family farm in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. All of the blooms will be transported to the restaurant in order to offer up a beautiful farewell to summer while visitors explore the fresh tastes of Spice's new fall menu.
While bouquets will be available for sale, there is no additional cost to attend the event. Reservations, however, are recommended. Call 216.961.9637 or go online to reserve your table.
"If you don't try anything, you never know what will happen."
Such is the mindset of Lyz Otero, owner of Half Moon Bakery, a soon-to-be-opened seller of traditional Latin pastries and empanadas. Otero took the leap with a little help from the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI), an organization that in August announced more than $530,000 in loans to 21 Cleveland-area businesses.
Nineteen of those loans were to new minority- or women-owned ventures, with Puerto Rico native Otero receiving $50,000 for equipment and improvements to her 1,200 square-foot space at 3800 Pearl Rd. Otero and husband Gerson Velasquez are using the funding to pay contractors and architects, as well as buy stove hoods and other gear. ECDI also provided the couple with financial management and computer classes.
Otero is aiming for an early November launch for a bakery offering a dozen types of empanadas. The new entrepreneur looks forward to stuffing the half-moon shaped pastry turnovers with endless combinations of meat, vegetables and fruit.
"It will almost be like a pizzeria, but with empanadas," says Otero. "Everything you put on a pizza can go on an empanada."
Vegan and gluten-free empanadas will be on the menu, joining Latin cuisine like rice and tamales. Fresh bread, cupcakes and other delectable confections round out the selection. Otero will create the bakery's pastry products, with her husband serving as chef. During the next month, she expects to hire on two cashiers and an additional cook.
While the smaller space will focus on take-out orders, patrons can eat inside on stools along the window. Outdoor seating, meanwhile, is a possibility for warm-weather months.
Opening the business has been both exciting and nerve-wracking. Though no stranger to the restaurant industry - past employers include Zack Bruell and Michael Symon - there's nothing for Otero like working for herself. Friend Wendy Thompson, owner of A Cookie and a Cupcake, encouraged her to start a bakery with a unique Latin flair.
"We're focusing on gourmet empanadas, which nobody else around here is doing," says Otero. "You never see a place like this where there's so many different kinds of empanadas."
Ultimately, Otero wants to leave a delicious, profitable legacy for her three children, ages 4, 6 and 7.
"I've always dreamed to do this," she says. "I had to step up and follow my dreams, because nobody was going to do it for me."
Such is the mindset of Lyz Otero, owner of Half Moon Bakery, a soon-to-be-opened seller of traditional Latin pastries and empanadas. Otero took the leap with a little help from the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI), an organization that in August announced more than $530,000 in loans to 21 Cleveland-area businesses.
Nineteen of those loans were to new minority- or women-owned ventures, with Puerto Rico native Otero receiving $50,000 for equipment and improvements to her 1,200 square-foot space at 3800 Pearl Rd. Otero and husband Gerson Velasquez are using the funding to pay contractors and architects, as well as buy stove hoods and other gear. ECDI also provided the couple with financial management and computer classes.
Otero is aiming for an early November launch for a bakery offering a dozen types of empanadas. The new entrepreneur looks forward to stuffing the half-moon shaped pastry turnovers with endless combinations of meat, vegetables and fruit.
"It will almost be like a pizzeria, but with empanadas," says Otero. "Everything you put on a pizza can go on an empanada."
Vegan and gluten-free empanadas will be on the menu, joining Latin cuisine like rice and tamales. Fresh bread, cupcakes and other delectable confections round out the selection. Otero will create the bakery's pastry products, with her husband serving as chef. During the next month, she expects to hire on two cashiers and an additional cook.
While the smaller space will focus on take-out orders, patrons can eat inside on stools along the window. Outdoor seating, meanwhile, is a possibility for warm-weather months.
Opening the business has been both exciting and nerve-wracking. Though no stranger to the restaurant industry - past employers include Zack Bruell and Michael Symon - there's nothing for Otero like working for herself. Friend Wendy Thompson, owner of A Cookie and a Cupcake, encouraged her to start a bakery with a unique Latin flair.
"We're focusing on gourmet empanadas, which nobody else around here is doing," says Otero. "You never see a place like this where there's so many different kinds of empanadas."
Ultimately, Otero wants to leave a delicious, profitable legacy for her three children, ages 4, 6 and 7.
"I've always dreamed to do this," she says. "I had to step up and follow my dreams, because nobody was going to do it for me."
The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) reopened its doors last Friday after a short hiatus following the wildly successful Myopia exhibit. While completely different in tone from the Mark Mothersbaugh show, the new installations reflect a unique and unexpected study in contrast that stimulates every sense.
Visitors are well advised to start at the top, as it were, in MOCA's fourth floor galleries, wherein Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists unfurls. The contents are aptly described by the title – these are carpets, which sounds mundane at first blush. The content is anything but, with lush and gorgeous images that are beautifully served by the textile medium.
A sampling of the 30 works: Faig Ahmed's Oiling (2012) literally melts the concept of a traditional middleeastern rug design while Deep Purple, Red Shoes (Polly Apfelbaum, 2015), invites visitors to walk upon it, provided they remove their shoes. Nautilus shells notwithstanding, Infinite Carpet (Pierre Bismuth, 2008) recalls the golden rectangle. And speaking of arithmetic, Joseph Kosuth's L.W. (Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics), 2015, will have viewers indeed believing that "2 + 2 + 2 are 4."
Traveling to the next component of the 2016 show sounds benign enough, but – as regular visitors have come to expect – MOCA's Stair A refracts the experience. While attendees navigate the twisting stairs, Anthony Discenza's audio installation A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats advises them thusly:
"Think Suicide Girls meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy."
"Think Baywatch meets the Cuban Missile Crisis."
"Think Jersey Shore meets Stephen King."
The deep resonant voice, which is fitting of any voice-over John Q. Public is fed by media sources at every turn, is so convincing, attendees may indeed be inclined to plop down and listen to every suggestion within the 23-minute installation.
"Think art deco meets Jurassic Park."
Continue reading ...
Visitors are well advised to start at the top, as it were, in MOCA's fourth floor galleries, wherein Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists unfurls. The contents are aptly described by the title – these are carpets, which sounds mundane at first blush. The content is anything but, with lush and gorgeous images that are beautifully served by the textile medium.
A sampling of the 30 works: Faig Ahmed's Oiling (2012) literally melts the concept of a traditional middleeastern rug design while Deep Purple, Red Shoes (Polly Apfelbaum, 2015), invites visitors to walk upon it, provided they remove their shoes. Nautilus shells notwithstanding, Infinite Carpet (Pierre Bismuth, 2008) recalls the golden rectangle. And speaking of arithmetic, Joseph Kosuth's L.W. (Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics), 2015, will have viewers indeed believing that "2 + 2 + 2 are 4."
Traveling to the next component of the 2016 show sounds benign enough, but – as regular visitors have come to expect – MOCA's Stair A refracts the experience. While attendees navigate the twisting stairs, Anthony Discenza's audio installation A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats advises them thusly:
"Think Suicide Girls meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy."
"Think Baywatch meets the Cuban Missile Crisis."
"Think Jersey Shore meets Stephen King."
The deep resonant voice, which is fitting of any voice-over John Q. Public is fed by media sources at every turn, is so convincing, attendees may indeed be inclined to plop down and listen to every suggestion within the 23-minute installation.
"Think art deco meets Jurassic Park."
Continue reading ...
This weekend, Northeast Ohioans will flock to IngenuityFest for their annual dose of funky fun. The effort is just one popular area project supported in part by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC). In 2016 alone, the tax-payer funded organization bolstered 152 organizations with $1,651,624 in project support. That's in addition to an array of grant programs and ongoing general operating support for the area's cultural institutions and groups.
To help inform future decisions, CAC is reaching out to regular janes and joes to get their input via a brief online survey. The Help Shape Our Future survey takes just a few minutes and asks about what sorts of things you enjoy and find enriching. The move will help decide how funding will be allocated over the next ten years. The survey closes on Oct. 1.
Other efforts supported in part by CAC include the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation's 2016 Take a Hike Tours, May Dugan Center's Music Therapy for Senior Citizens and the Slavic Village Development's 2016 Rooms To Let exhibition.
Take the online survey before Oct.1.
To help inform future decisions, CAC is reaching out to regular janes and joes to get their input via a brief online survey. The Help Shape Our Future survey takes just a few minutes and asks about what sorts of things you enjoy and find enriching. The move will help decide how funding will be allocated over the next ten years. The survey closes on Oct. 1.
Other efforts supported in part by CAC include the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation's 2016 Take a Hike Tours, May Dugan Center's Music Therapy for Senior Citizens and the Slavic Village Development's 2016 Rooms To Let exhibition.
Take the online survey before Oct.1.
Local artists Gary and Laura Dumm mix the likes of Frankenstein and vampires with pesticides and global warming - along with a side of humor - in an evocative new show.
Cleveland actor Lara Mielcarek's fledgling coalition is bringing Shakespeare – and a new dimension of life – to area inmates.
This effort from the Sisters of Charity Health System invites Clevelanders to join the conversation and #SpeakUpCLE.