The City Advocates program is an effort by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (DCA) to engage young professionals in the revitalization of downtown. For two years, City Advocates attend monthly meetings and take on projects that will help advance downtown. Every two years, a new batch of skilled community leaders emerges from the program.
 
"The program has truly taken off in the past three years," says Gina Morris, DCA's Director of Marketing and Public Relations. "We're entering our fourth year now and have some incredible people with dynamic ideas."
 
In March, the City Advocates Program will select and announce up to 16 new participants. Those selected must make a two-year commitment to DCA’s program. Participants are chosen through a competitive application process that seeks to assemble a group of diverse individuals who share a passion for Downtown Cleveland and who represent a wide array of interests, professional backgrounds, and relationships to Downtown.
 
"Qualifications are simple," adds Morris. "Live or work in Downtown, and have a passion to generate change in the civic-realm.  We recruit emerging leaders with a vision and guts."
 
The deadline to apply for the upcoming session is 5 p.m. February 5. More information and application instructions can be found here.

For more info contact Laura Kushnick.

The Daily Meal, an online publication devoted to food and drink, recently published a feature crowning the "Top 20 Restaurant Views in America." Lakewood's Pier W restaurant garnered the #18 position.
 
"Some restaurants focus on locavorism, others on great service, and still others on creating unforgettable experiences and signature dishes. But there's a special category of restaurants across the country, one that showcases where they’re situated, creating over-the-top sensory experiences -- allowing diners to see for themselves the beauty that can be found only at that locale, and only from that specific table."
 
Of Pier W, the article states:
 
"This chic and stylized Cleveland landmark is placed right on the edge of scenic Lake Erie and across the lake from a stunning city skyline. Enjoy Pier W's romantic view as you sample the New American cuisine focused on seafood, especially the crab cakes and the bouillabaisse with fresh fish, mussels, clams, and shrimp."
 
Read the rest right here.

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium has yet to open, but it is already generating national buzz.

In a recent article in USA Today titled "8 Big Openings of 2012," the aquarium is featured alongside attractions like The Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor, Egypt, SkyPoint Climb on Australia's Gold Coast, and the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement -- aka the Mob Museum -- in downtown Las Vegas.
 
"What's new -- or newly reopening -- in 2012?," asks the article. "So much. Here are eight notable attractions."

Greater Cleveland Aquarium
 
"The Greater Cleveland Aquarium debuts Saturday, Jan. 21, with 40-plus tanks swimming with sand sharks, native brook trout, piranhas, madtom catfish and more. The attraction is in the FirstEnergy Powerhouse on the west bank of the Flats."

See the rest of the list here.

 
Thanks in no small part to some very large elephants, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo closed out 2011 with some very big attendance numbers. By welcoming 1.32 million guests during the year, the zoo earned the title of "#1 year-round attraction in Northeast Ohio."
 
This translates into a 16 percent increase over 2010 -- and given the amount of rain that fell, those are truly impressive figures.
 
That puts the zoo's string of 1 million-plus annual visitors at 19 years.
 
Clearly, the recent addition of the $25 million African Elephant Crossing had a lot to do with those attendance figures, says Steve Taylor, the zoo's director.
 
"The connection that Clevelanders have to our elephants and our zoo cannot be overstated," he notes.
 
Also welcomed in 2011 were four new grizzly cubs.
 
The zoo's best annual attendance figure was set in 1993, when 1.4 million people visited to check out the new Rainforest.
 
Read the rest of the good news here.

Good news for artists who would like to submit their ideas for this year's Lunar Chinese New Year sculpture show, the seventh in a series of popular annual public art campaigns. The deadline has been extended to Friday, January 20.
 
January 2012 marks the start of the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar. Once again, St Clair Superior Development Corporation (SCSDC) will install numerous fiberglass sculptures -- this year, dragons -- featuring unique designs created by Northeast Ohio artists and organizations. The Dragons will be placed outside Cleveland businesses this spring and will be auctioned off next fall.
 
Selected artists will be paid an honorarium of $400 upon completion and will receive two tickets to the Year of the Dragon Gala Auction Event (a value of $250).
 
For more information, visit here.

Forbes, the publication that specializes in the whipped-off listicle, has once again included Cleveland in one of its infamous lists. Only this time, it's a flattering inclusion. Compiled with help from a travel editor from Midwest Living and the publisher of an online guide to the country’s best road trips, "America's Prettiest Neighborhoods" rambles cross-country like an RV on an unending vacation.
 
In the feature, Cleveland's University Circle gets a nod.
 
"With a symphony orchestra, an art museum, a natural history museum and planetarium, and a botanical garden, Cleveland’s University Circle offers a wide and exciting array of ways to pass the time, enjoy some high-end food, or consume world-class culture, all within a walkable area of town that features three notable colleges," writes Forbes.
 
Of University Circle, Kendra Williams, the above-mentioned travel editor, writes, “People from the neighborhood kick off summer with Parade the Circle, a cool mishmash of people wearing artfully made costumes and paper-mache masks,” says Williams. “It is beautiful any time of year, but I was there last October, and the fall color was astounding.”
 
Click through the rest of the list here.

Writing for Switchboard, the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kaid Benfield examines a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland that illustrates the importance of a dense urban core.
 
The study reveals that cities that maintained their core densities between 1980 and 2010 -- like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago -- saw overall growth of their greater metro regions. While cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, which suffered massive urban population losses at the hands of sprawl, experienced a disproportionately greater share of regional population losses.
 
The conclusion is that the hollowing out of urban centers thanks to suburban sprawl does more than just simply shift population around: It harms the overall success of the greater metro region. Failure to address suburban sprawl will only exacerbate the problem.
 
Read the rest of the article here.
 
See the Cleveland Fed's study here.

A writer for the Washington Post files a post about Cleveland Indians Snow Days, which takes place at Progressive Field from Thanksgiving to mid-January. The family-friendly attraction is a festival of winter sports, with ice skating and tubing facilities installed in a place that typically sees a different sort of sliding.

"My husband and I have been making annual summer pilgrimages to Cleveland for several years now to visit his family, and the trip always includes a baseball game," she writes. "Thanks to his grandmother, we’re treated to premium seats just a few rows back from the first-base line.

"I’d always figured that it would be nearly impossible to get any closer to the actual field, but for less than the cost of one of those game-day tickets, an all-access Snow Days pass puts you smack in the middle of the turf, with unlimited tubing, skating and holiday cheer."

Check out the rest of it here.

"Thinking about moving? You should consider Cleveland."

So begins an article in The Atlantic Cities, which discusses recent investments totaling $7 billion in Cleveland's economic diversification, infrastructure and the arts.

Among projects mentioned are the $560 million makeover for University Hospitals Case Medical Center, $465 million convention center and medical mart, $350 million casino, and development in University Circle, including Uptown and the new Museum of Contemporary Art.

Also mentioned is Global Cleveland, which hopes to attract 100,000 new residents within the next ten years.

And the Ohio Department of Development just launched InvestOhio, a $100 million tax credit program to help small businesses attract investment, grow and create jobs.

Read the rest of the article here.

Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer was included in TIME magazine's year-end list of top 10s, which covered topics ranging from music and literature to gadgets and memes. Sawyer earned the #7 spot on the list of Top 10 Food Trends.

Penned by TIME food writer Josh Ozersky, who visited Greenhouse Tavern this summer, the item calls out artisinal vinegars and bitters as a hot new food trend. Sawyer's hand-crafted vinegars make their way into numerous dishes at his E. Fourth Street restaurant.

"The one thing you generally expect of new, laboriously made products at restaurants is that they will be good. But even bad can be good -- if by "bad" you mean sour or bitter," writes Ozersky. "The nation's avant-garde mixologists, mustachioed and otherwise, have taken up the creation of house-made bitters as part of their advanced drink programs, and their kitchen counterparts are following suit, with vinegars so complex and intriguing that they are sometimes served straight up between courses. Jonathon Sawyer serves half a dozen in tasting dishes at his Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland."

Ozersky gets one detail wrong, however, when he writes, "Happily, they are for dipping fries rather drinking." Greenhouse mixologist Kevin Wildermuth does indeed use house-made vinegars in his cutting-edge cocktail program -- and the results are eye-opening.

Read the entire list here.

On Monday, November 14^th, the Board of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) approved 88 grants totaling $1,029,164 for its 2012 Project Support cycle. The awards include traditional PS I grants and the new Project Support II, a small grant program that provides awards of up to $5,000. Grants range in value from $625 to $49,333.
 
This year garnered the largest number of applications in CAC’s history. A total of 131 organizations submitted Intent to Apply materials, of which 118 of were eligible. This is an increase of 45% from the previous year, which was also a record-setter.
 
The largest recipient is Scenarios USA, a nonprofit that that uses writing and filmmaking to foster youth leadership in under-served teens. The smallest is River Valley Ringers, a community handbell choir in Cleveland Heights. Others include EcoWatch, Building Bridges, LakewoodAlive, and numerous neighborhood development corps.

See all the grants here.

A new Cleveland-centric book joins the slowly growing bookshelf of info-packed guides to our fair city. Written and self-published by Cleveland State University urban planning grad Justin Glanville, New to Cleveland: A Guide to (re)Discovering the City is targeted both to new arrivals as well as those who'd like to rediscover their city.
 
Readers will find general information about various Cleveland neighborhoods, including listings of restaurants, stores and cultural institutions. But also advice on where to send your kids to school, insights on the Cleveland real estate market, and the best neighborhoods for students, artists, professionals, retirees and those who want to live car-free or car-light.
 
The 250-page book includes more than 50 full-color illustrations by local artist Julia Kuo. The book is also printed in Cleveland.
 
The guide book is only the second to be written specifically about present-day Cleveland, the other being Avalon Travel's Moon Cleveland, penned by Fresh Water editor Douglas Trattner.
 
There will be a launch party from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at Happy Dog.
 
Books are available online and at this weekend's Bazaar Bizarre.

"For the inductees [to the Rock Hall], the reward can be enormous," writes Janet Morrissey for the New York Times. "Weekly record sales for a performer or band leap 40 to 60 percent, on average, in the weeks after selection, says David Bakula, a senior vice president at Nielsen SoundScan. While winning a Grammy often helps one album, a nod from Cleveland can lift an entire back catalog."
 
In an article titled, "Battle of the Bands (and Egos) for the Rock Hall of Fame," Morrissey describes the so-called hall-of-fame effect that reignites the careers of long-forgotten starts.
 
"In 2009, good news from Cleveland bolstered the career of Wanda Jackson, 'the queen of rockabilly,' who gained fame in the mid-1950s and 60s. After Ms. Jackson was inducted, she collaborated on an album with Jack White of the White Stripes. Suddenly Ms. Jackson, who is now 74, was everywhere."
 
Morrissey also described the selection process, which is shrouded in secrecy and controversy.
 
Read the rest of the liner notes here.

Great Lakes Brewing Co. continues to rack up the gold.

At this year's World Beer Championships, America’s oldest international beer competition, Great Lakes snagged multiple gold medals. The Ohio City brewery's Dortmunder Gold Lager, Eliot Ness Amber Lager and Oktoberfest all took home ribbons.
 
The World Beer Championships are considered one of the top beer judging events in the craft beer industry.
 
Drink in the rest of the good news here.

If a quilt panel were created to represent your life, what would it look like? Clevelanders have the opportunity to see panels that honor the lives of local people who have died of AIDS -- panels created by their family and friends for the national AIDS Memorial Quilt. The public is invited to view portions of the quilt at MetroHealth Medical Center until Wednesday, Dec. 7. 
 
Among the local stories behind the panels: Ana Rodriguez was a spirited young girl who found out she was born HIV positive just before her parents died of AIDS in the late 1990s. Instead of letting it get her down, Ana became the first child to openly have AIDS in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and toured the country helping others cope with the disease before her death in 2004.
 
Daily viewing of the quilt panels -- 8 panel sections measuring 12 square feet -- will hang from the ceiling of MetroHealth’s Rammelkamp Atrium through Dec. 7. The public is invited to view the display each day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more info click here.

"Put the Needle on the Record" is a new book by Lakewood resident Matthew Chojnacki. It is available locally at Room Service, Music Saves and DuoHome.

Here are the liner notes:

"From a dream of a vinyl collection, Chojnacki presents and compares more than 250 vinyl single covers that represent nearly every prominent '80s musician. However, this is not just a pop-cultural feast for the eyes. From hundreds of hours of interviews, Chojnacki allows the designers and visual talent behind Madonna, Prince, Pink Floyd, Queen, Adam Ant, Iron Maiden, The Clash, Pet Shop Boys, Van Halen, and more to tell the unheard stories behind the decade’s most iconic images."

"Cookie and Kate," a food blog penned by a magazine art director, featured a travelogue of the author's recent visit to Cleveland. She was here as a guest of Positively Cleveland, which frequently hosts out-of-town writers for what's known in the biz as Food Fam Trips.

"Last month, I had the privilege of touring Cleveland and visiting some of the city’s finest dining establishments and sustainable local farms. I had never been to Cleveland before and had very little preconceptions about the city, although I must admit that the Drew Carey Show’s theme song played in my head every time I thought of Cleveland."

"I was thoroughly impressed by the chefs and the farm owners we met with during the trip. Each expressed his or her sincere dedication to improving the city’s economy through the food industry, by using sustainable techniques that would benefit Cleveland’s inhabitants in both the short and the long term. Chefs partner with nearby farms to ensure that they can serve super fresh, high quality ingredients. They support each other, often in friendly competitions, in ways that challenge their culinary artistry and encourage the community to support local agriculture."

Stops in cluded Brandt Evans' Pura Vida, West Side Market, Ohio City Farm, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Chef’s Garden and Culinary Vegetable Institute and Fireland's Winery.

Read more about her experiences here.

A recent article in the New York Times titled "Cleveland Turns Uptown Into New Downtown," written by Keith Schneider, lauds the emerging Uptown arts and entertainment district in University Circle.

With the goal of "rebuilding the city’s core according to the new urban market trends of the 21st century -- health care, higher education, entertainment, good food, new housing and expanded mass transportation" -- the new Uptown project is becoming the new downtown for University Circle.

"When it is finished next year, the new $27 million Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Farshid Moussavi, will perch, like a lustrous black gem, at the entrance to the district, at Euclid and Mayfield Road. A pedestrian plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, a designer of the High Line elevated park in New York City, separates the new museum from two four-story, mixed-use residential buildings under construction on the north and south sides of Euclid."

“There are 5,000 more jobs here than in 2005,” Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc., is quoted in the story. “About 50,000 people work here. The number of residents grew 11 percent since 2000. And there are 10,000 people who live here now.”

Read the rest of the good news here.

"Conventional wisdom holds that the forward-looking coastal enclaves of the United States are where we're supposed to expect cutting edge experiments in building a green economy," writes Andrew Leonard for Grist. "But if Ted Howard has his way, every activist who wants to promote green jobs and economic growth should turn instead to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, for inspiration."

In an article titled, "A co-op movement grows in Cleveland," Leonard writes of the Evergreen Cooperatives, which were launched by the Cleveland Foundation in collaboration with Ted Howard from the University of Maryland.

Evergreen is a collection of worker-owned green businesses that leverage the needs of Cleveland's largest institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, and University Hospitals.

Read the rest of the good news here.

"A study involving Eli Lilly & Co.'s experimental drug evacetrapib showed it was able to boost good cholesterol levels while lowering the bad kind," writes Jennifer Corbett Dooren for the Wall Street Journal.
 
"The study was presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was funded by Eli Lilly and led by doctors at the Cleveland Clinic."
 
Evacetrapib is designed to inhibit cholesteryl ester transfer protein, or CETP, which is involved in transferring cholesterol particles from HDL -- the "good" cholesterol -- to LDL, referred to as "bad" cholesterol.

Read the rest here.