Lisa Dunn is socially conscious with an artistic flair. As owner of Revive boutique in Cleveland Heights and Lyndhurst’s Legacy Village, Dunn showcases the works of artisans from around the world, all while making sure they earn a fair wage for their work.
 
The two stores carry eco-fashions for children, women and men, as well as products for the home. The handcrafted pieces hail from more than 30 countries and are made of various sustainable materials, such as organic cotton and hemp, vegetable dyes, recycled glass and magazines, shells and seeds.
 
“What’s unique about our boutique is that everything we sell is fair trade,” says Dunn. “And I design about 20 percent for what we sell.” While Dunn communicates regularly with her artisan groups via the internet, she also travels one to three times a year to visit the artists with whom she works. “It helps refresh and ground me in the mission of why we are doing this,” she says. “I really try to focus on the long-term relationships with the artisan groups we work with.”
 
Dunn just returned from Guatemala before the grand re-opening of the Legacy Village store in a new location and a speaking engagement at the Ohio Fair Trade Expo at John Carroll University last weekend.
 
In the five years she has been in business, Dunn has grown her business from one store with one employee (her, pulling 100-hour weeks) to two stores with nine employees.

“Every year we’ve grown,” she says. “And my employees are so committed and dedicated to the mission of fair trade.” Additionally, she hires four to six interns a year and plans to hire another one in November.

 
Source: Lisa Dunn
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland chefs are at the forefront of the farm-to-table movement, a culinary approach that puts ingredient quality above all else. So when Chris Hodgson of Dim and Den Sum wanted some pork, he put in an order for a pig and waited -- and waited -- until it was ready for "harvest." In this captivating photo essay, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski documents that pig's tale, from farm to plate.

The developer of a fast-growing entrepreneurial village on the eastern edge of downtown is planning a $9-12 million investment that would add nearly 160,000 square feet of office space. Michelle Asher of Graystone Properties, which owns the mammoth Tyler Village complex at East 36th and Superior, says that regional growth in the biotechnology, software development, multimedia design and film industries prompted the bullish move to ready new space for additional tenants.

"We have an eclectic mix of tenants, and we draw creative people," says Asher. "We're somewhere between downtown and a suburban office park, and we have amenities such as a fitness center, Wi-Fi, coffee shop and plenty of parking."

To facilitate the build-out, which Asher hopes to complete within the next 18 to 24 months, Graystone is working with the City of Cleveland to apply for a $4 million state Job Ready Sites grant. The city is also considering providing $700,000 in low-interest loans, $180,000 of which can be forgiven if requirements are met.

"The space we have now is not in move-in condition, and the Job Ready Sites grant will help us to develop more tenant-ready space," says Asher.

Graystone plans to demolish the interior of what is known as Building 42 at Tyler Village, replace its existing windows and build out contemporary, loft office space. The company aims for the project to meet the highest green building standards, a mandate of the Job Ready Sites grant program of the State of Ohio.

Tyler Village was originally home to the W. S. Tyler Company, which built elevator cabs in the sprawling, one-million-square-foot complex. Graystone purchased the property in 2005 and has since demolished older buildings that could not be refurbished and renovated other buildings into market-rate office space.


Source: Michelle Asher
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Steve Orlando wants to make cell phones free for all. He plans to do that through advertising. The CEO of Cell-A-Spot started the company in 2009 with the idea of selling ad space for cell phone apps and the concept has been growing ever since.
 
“We essentially are implementing advertisements in mobile phones,” Orlando says. “It started with a couple of ideas, but when we got our first customer we created our first app.”
 
Cell-a-Spot has created patent pending technology that couples a one-to-one interactive targeting for advertisers with the ability to generate revenue streams for mobile providers. Cell-A-Spot’s first app builds ads into a cell phone’s 411 service. Instead of paying for 411, the costs are offset by ads.
 
“Say you call 411 to search for pizza places... Ads for places like Pizza Hut will come up,” Orlando explains. “A lot of plans right now charge a fee to call 411. The way we built this app, it’s free.”
 
Orlando moved his business into Shaker LaunchHouse last April and has found the resources there to be invaluable in growing Cell-A-Spot. They became a LaunchHouse portfolio company about a month ago. “We’re lean, we’re small and we are able to keep our overhead really low,” he says. “Working in LaunchHouse, we get a lot of resources there.”
 
As Cell-A-Spot grows Orlando plans to build a full staff, from a sales team to accountants and administrative assistants. “My goal is to in three to four years have 12 employees,” he says. “But maybe we’ll get to 40 or 50 employees.”


Source: Steve Orlando
Writer: Karin Connelly

MedCity Media was created in 2009 to highlight Ohio's burgeoning biomedical industry. Since then it has expanded into two other markets and has become a go-to resource for those tracking developments few others are reporting. More markets are on the way, promises founder Chris Seper.

The I-X Center has launched plans to invest $25 to $30 million in renovations that will enhance its ability to host consumer mega-shows such as the Fabulous Food Show and International Beer Fest. Planned improvements include upgrading food and restroom facilities, adding a third lane to the main access road, and expanding the paved parking areas.

“Our goal is to grow attendance and become even more of a destination venue,” Robert Peterson, President of the I-X Center, said in a release. Peterson noted that the I-X Center has invested more than $75 million over the years.

The I-X Center, which was originally built as a B-29 Bomber plant and later became a tank plant, has become increasingly active in producing its own shows. One example is the Food Show, which draws visitors from as far as New York and Florida to see nationally renowned chefs, including Cleveland's own Michael Symon.

Other successful new shows include the International Beer Fest, Trick or Treat Street, and the Great Big Home and Garden Expo, which returns in February.

The construction of the Medical Mart and Convention Center in downtown Cleveland will only add to the region's ability to draw visitors and generate exciting events, Peterson said. The two facilities serve different market niches.

The I-X Center is one of the largest trade show and exhibition centers in the country, and employs nearly 1,000 people for its shows and events.


Source: Robert Peterson
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Urban Community School recently announced it has received a $5 million pledge from an anonymous donor. That pledge, the largest in the school's history, will allow the well-regarded institution to expand by one-third and serve an additional 150 children.

"This gift will help us to continue to provide quality education to kids that don't otherwise have access to it," says Sister Maureen Doyle, Director of Urban Community School, which is located in Ohio City and serves mostly low-income students who live in the immediate area. "We're focused on the children who need us most."

Urban plans to construct a two-story addition off W. 50th Street, in the rear of the school's campus. Doyle says the new classroom space, which will add a state-of-the-art middle school that will complement the existing building completed in 2005, will "meet the needs of city kids for the 21st century."

"We're redesigning not only the facility but also the program to meet the needs of our students," explains Doyle. "We're looking at things like writing and science labs, meeting space, expandable walls and state-of-the-art technology. We want to make sure what we're providing kids helps them to be successful in high school."

Other options under consideration include extending the school day for middle school students, creating a leadership program to involve them in the community, and promoting shared teaching responsibilities to ensure an integrated curriculum.

Fortunately, Urban need not develop new designs for the facility since it had planned the expansion when it originally broke ground on the existing building.

Although Urban does not have a specific timeline for its expansion plans, Doyle expects the school to complete the project within the next three years.


Source: Sister Maureen Doyle
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Jacobs Entertainment is pumping $70 million into the world-class Greater Cleveland Aquarium, which is set to open early next year and draw upwards of 480,000 annual visitors. The watery attraction will employ 40 people while generating an economic impact of roughly $27 million per year. But since this is Cleveland, where everything unfolds with a twist, the new aquarium will be housed in a very old building.

More than 100 people attended the Flats Forward Waterfront Summit, held this week in downtown Cleveland. Those in attendance learned how cities as far away as Duisburg, Germany, and as close as Pittsburgh, have leveraged their historic waterfronts into magnets for recreation, investment and tourism.

Flats Forward is a one-year-old effort to create a new identity for Cleveland's historic birthplace. Planners are now focused on improving the Flats' infrastructure, transportation linkages and recreational amenities, as well as fostering a better balance between residential, industrial and recreational uses. Additionally, civic leaders hope to leverage $2 billion worth of investment taking place within one mile of the Flats to spur more development.

Following a rousing speech by Councilman Joe Cimperman that likened the Cuyahoga River's rebirth after the infamous fire of 1969 to an ecosystem's resilience following a forest blaze, leaders from Germany, England, Italy and Pennsylvania talked about their successes and the lessons they've learned along the way.

Tony Harvey of British Waterways in Birmingham, England, said that his organization has helped leverage $1 billion of investment in the region's waterway network, which dates back to the Roman era. Those waterways now attract more than 13 million visitors and 35,000 licensed boats per year.

Arne Lorz of Duisburg, Germany, described how her city rebuilt itself during an era of industrial decline by focusing on its crumbling inner harbor and building new homes, a marina, offices, retail and museums.

Roberto Bobbio, Professor of Urban Planning and Landscape Preservation at the University of Genoa, Italy, discussed how his dense Mediterranean city invested in a state-of-the-art aquarium that now is the third most visited spot in Italy.

Finally, Lisa Schroeder of Pittsburgh RiverLife Task Force told the audience that her city successfully has reinvented its industrial, long-empty waterfront into a well-connected civic space. Today, more than 15,000 kayaks are rented each year from under a bridge, and "boat-gating," she added, has replaced "tailgating."

Schroeder also offered a concise analysis of what doubtless was on the minds of many participants: "If you can use private funding to help put redevelopment plans together," she advised, "then it's easier to get politicians to fight for the public infrastructure spending that makes reinvestment possible."


Source: Flats Forward Waterfront Summit
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland’s young professionals are charged with shaping the future of the city. And while there are more than 70 organizations catering to the 15,000 young professionals in the area, there isn't one dedicated to uniting these groups to make a difference and make a change. Engage! Cleveland is striving to do exactly that.
 
“These organizations are extremely important because they integrate young professionals with the community,” says Andrew Bennett, president of the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club. “But think about the full-time resources and coordinating all of the work they are doing. What would it look like if young professionals were fully integrated into the community?”
 
Engage! Cleveland grew out of Cleveland ConneXion, which sought to provide a unified voice for Cleveland’s YP organizations. It has continued to evolve over the past year as a forum to engage the area’s young professionals, make them want to stay in Cleveland and work at creating a thriving, vibrant business community that people actually want to be in.
 
“The private sector employers are interested in attraction and retention issues, the public and the non-profit sectors need a better understanding of what young people want. What do they really think? What do they really want?” says Bennett. “Right now there is no go-to central location to tap into the community.”
 
That’s where Engage! Cleveland comes in.

“I’m constantly asked, ‘How do I get tapped in to the community,’” says Bennett. “We’re trying to make Engage! Cleveland that hub to better enable and capitalize on all the great things happening here.”

 
Source: Andrew Bennett
Writer: Karin Connelly

Michael Christoff and Bradley Fink are all about using imagination to create the unthinkable. That’s the idea behind the Cleveland Design Competition. Now in its fourth year, the competition invites people to address the city’s underused sites and come up with new architectural ideas for their uses.
 
Every year, the competition has brought entries from around the world. This year’s project was the Cleveland K-12 schools of the future. “Our intent is to get people to look at the different problems at hand,” says Christoff. “We involved education experts and asked participants to produce a public school of the future.”
 
This year, 92 submissions from 20 countries came in -- 11 from Ohio. Submissions explored how the design of better learning environments -- and their ability to connect with the city -- might help to slow or reverse the population exodus from the public school system in Cleveland and many other urban areas throughout the world.
 
The winning design this year was submitted by Michael Dickson from Brisbane, Australia. He received $8,000 for his entry. The winners were selected by a jury of representatives from the architectural and educational fields. “The whole idea is to get people to say, ‘wow, I never thought about it that way,’” explains Christoff. “It’s a different way to think about problems.”
 
Christoff and Fink are already thinking about next year’s competition theme: What should be done with the upper and lower levels of the Detroit Superior Bridge.

 
Source: Michael Christoff
Writer: Karin Connelly

Vintage maven Cindy Deering has opened a new store that brings her eclectic array of '60s and '70s clothing and accessories to a long-empty storefront on W. 25th Street in Ohio City.

Deering Vintage, which features hardwood floors, marble countertop from its days as a flower shop, and a mezzanine for the in-house seamstress, plugs one of the few remaining retail gaps on the street. Just one year ago, the Gillespie building at Bridge and W. 25th was half-dark. Today, it is filled with a bike shop, Mexican restaurant, custom baseball bat fabricator and, now, vintage shop.

Deering, who hopes to grow roots in her current location -- describing it as her "latest and last" -- reports strong foot traffic since she opened last week. "Ever since people heard that Mitchell's was opening across the street, there's been a positive buzz around here," she says.

Her success stems in part from the fact that vintage has done well in this sour economy, drawing younger and older patrons who prefer to wear gently-used clothing. "We're kind of like the original 'green' of shopping," Deering says.

Despite the popularity of online shopping, Deering says vintage stores are still a draw. "I tried sitting in my house and selling on eBay, but I like being with people," she says. "All of our stuff is one of a kind and very personal."

Now that she's in her new location, Deering says that her loyal customers are seeking her out. "I have some longtime customers whose kids practically grew up with me, and now those kids are adults that shop at my store," she says.

Some of her recent visitors include other Ohio City business owners, who seem happy for her to join the retail mix.

"Some of my neighbors brought a bottle of wine over," she says. "The street has been very welcoming."


Source: Cindy Deering
Writer: Lee Chilcote

What do hot dogs, running shoes and wooden cutting boards have to do with bringing about community change? Sponsors of the Challenge Cuyahoga promise to answer that question and more during the official Kick-Off Party, which takes place on October 28 at Legation Gallery in the 78th Street Studios.