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cimperman profiled at length in spirit magazine
In a lengthy feature titled, "Power of One," Spirit magazine highlights a half-dozen people who discovered their calling. The in-flight magazine of Southwest Airlines devotes a majority of the ink to Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman.

"In his 16 years as a councilman, [Cimperman] has passed pioneering urban farm zoning legislation at a time when no other city in the U.S. had done so, and spearheaded a local food procurement ordinance that gives companies who do business with the city a bid discount for sourcing food locally. In 2009, he sponsored so-called “chicken and bees” legislation, which allows residents to keep up to six chickens and two beehives in their backyards or on vacant lots. He was ridiculed for it at the time -- colleagues did the chicken dance as they passed him in the hallway -- but today both raising hens and beekeeping are popular pastimes in Cleveland."

"In 2011, Cimperman, chair of the city’s public health committee, helped shape Mayor Frank Jackson’s “Healthy Cleveland” resolution, a series of audacious public health goals that was crafted in conjunction with four local hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic. A handful of these have already been passed by City Council: outlawing smoking in public spaces and banning artery-clogging trans fats at restaurant chains and bakeries. Several other pieces of legislation -- including one that would improve food in public schools -- are in the pipeline. Though the trans fat ban was overturned by Ohio’s state legislature last June, the City of Cleveland is now suing the state for the right to reinstate it. Cimperman is leading the effort."

Read more about his good work here.
2013 cle film fest will be bigger, better, longer, later
It is hard to believe, but this year's Cleveland International Film Festival -- the 36th annual -- once again broke the previous year's attendance figures.
 
The 11-day film festival, which wrapped up on Sunday, April 1, checked in a record total of 85,018 filmgoers. This is a 9-percent jump from the previous year and a whopping 143-percent increase from 2003. What's more, the festival saw it's largest single-day attendance on Saturday, March 31, with 13,176 coming to see a film.
 
Changes to next year's festival can only add to those numbers. Organizers will be adding a full day of films -- making it a 12-day festival -- while pushing back the dates. The 2013 film fest will begin almost two weeks later, running Wednesday, April 3 through Sunday, April 14, at Tower City Cinemas.

Here's looking to another record-setting year!
salon points to gordon square as model of arts-district development
In a feature titled "Urban entertainment districts: Blocks where no one has fun," Salon writer Will Doig describes the modern “urban lifestyle destination” as a "swath of cityscape whose character has been preordained by a city council vote and is now identified by brightly colored banners affixed to lampposts."
 
“The problem with these created-overnight districts is that you’re trying to create a culture as opposed to letting one grow,” Nathaniel Hood, a Minneapolis-based transportation planner, is quoted in the piece. “You’re getting the culture that one developer or city council member thinks the city needs, as opposed to the ground-up culture that comes from multiple players.”
 
Cleveland's Gordon Square Arts District is mentioned as an example of a neighborhood that got it right.
 
"[Milwaukee's] Water Street is an example of how, when the city declines to step in, citizens will. In a less cacophonous way, Cleveland has done this with its Gordon Square Arts District, where a group of nonprofits got together and created their own urban district where theaters already existed.
 
“You had three very humble nonprofit organizations, no powerful boards, that just needed capital improvements,” says Gordon Square's executive director Joy Roller.
 
Read the rest of the good news here.
esquire scribes include velvet tango room in roster of best bars in america
Paulius Nasvytis can add another item to the already crowded wall of big-time media accolades. Esquire magazine, the arbiter of good taste, has just included the Velvet Tango Room in its annual roster of Best Bars in America.

"Perplexed whispers followed the Velvet Tango Room for years after the cocktail bar opened in 1996," begins the Esquire item. "For starters, it was hard to find, tucked in an unassuming building in an inner-ring nib of Cleveland between two trendy neighborhoods, a tiny neon sign the only hint that anything was happening inside. Co-owner Paulius Nasvytis waited tables at the city's finest restaurants before purchasing the building for just $35,000 to execute his vision with uncompromising accuracy: a sanctuary of cocktails priced in the mid-teens. It was an incongruous idea in a city that prizes its shot-and-a-beer corner joints."

Read the rest of the glowing praise here.

great lakes brewing jumps in craft beer rankings
According to beer sales volume calculated by The Brewers Association, a Boulder-based not-for-profit trade group that tabulates production statistics for U.S. breweries, Great Lakes Brewing Company is now the 18th largest craft brewery in the country. That is a jump from the #22 position the previous year.
 
According to the same stats, Great Lakes also is now the 27th largest American brewery overall, up from #31 previously.
 
Great Lakes produces over 110,000 barrels of beer annually and serves 13 states and Washington D.C. The company will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2013.

See all the sudsy stats here.
las vegas looks to cleveland casino with appreciation
"Ohio's first casino opened Monday night with long lines of gamblers ready to roll the dice, a glitzy music video instead of a traditional ribbon cutting and a taste of Las Vegas with two bare-midriff showgirls wearing plumed hats and sequined tops," begins this Las Vegas Review-Journal piece on Cleveland's brand new Horseshoe casino.
 
Toledo's casino will open in two weeks, with Cincinnati and Columbus to follow suit by next year.
 
"Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment owns 20 percent of the $350 million project and will receive fees for managing it on behalf of majority owner Rock Gaming LLC."
 
Read all the news right here.
cuyahoga arts & culture accepting grant apps, hosting workshops
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture is accepting applications for its 2013 grant programs. Nonprofit organizations offering arts and culture programming in Cuyahoga County are encouraged to apply.
 
To learn more about its Project Support grant program, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture encourages applicants to attend one of three informational workshops, to be held June 5, 7, or 13.
 
“In 2012, CAC is investing $15 million in 154 organizations throughout Cuyahoga County, and we welcome organizations offering arts and culture programs to apply now for CAC grants in 2013,” explains Executive Director Karen Gahl-Mills. “Our county is fortunate to have this source of public funding for arts and culture, which strengthens our community by making it a better place to live, work, and play.”
 
At each workshop, CAC staff will review its grant programs, eligibility requirements, and CAC’s application process. The same content will be reviewed at each workshop. Workshops are optional, but are a valuable learning opportunity for new applicants to the Project Support program. Attendees are encouraged to register online.
 
Click here for more information.
'downtown cleveland is surging,' says salon
In an article titled, "Rust Belt chic: Declining Midwest cities make a comeback," Salon writer Will Doig reports on the surprising growth and popularity of former Rust Belt cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
 
"More than any other city in America, Cleveland is a joke, a whipping boy of Johnny Carson monologues and Hollywood’s official set for films about comic mediocrity," Doig begins.
 
"But here’s what else is funny: According to a recent analysis, the population of downtown Cleveland is surging, doubling in the past 20 years. What’s more, the majority of the growth occurred in the 22-to-34-year-old demo, those coveted 'knowledge economy' workers for whom every city is competing."
 
This newfound growth and appreciation can go one of two ways, writes Doig. "Demand for decay could spell a new era for post-industrial cities -- or run its course as a faddish blip that attracted more media coverage than actual converts."
 
Cleveland-based writer Richey Piiparinen argues for the former.
 
"The country in the 2000s, it became about growth, glamour, living beyond your means,” Piiparinen says. “It was all aspiration. Now we’re comparing the foreclosed glass condo tower to the old brick building that’s stood for a hundred years.”
 
Read the rest right here.
huffpo publishes mike symon's love letter to cleveland
"Cleveland, You have been my best friend for over 40 years," writes Symon, in a heartfelt love letter to his one and only native town.
 
"I hid from you like every other teenager with a skateboard and BMX, choosing to play in the suburbs, a wide world of vanilla filled with malls, chain stores and entirely too much mediocrity."
 
"It wasn't until I left you that I realized how amazing you are and all the great treasures you possessed. Whether it was the old world headcheese at The Sausage Shoppe, amazing pierogies at Sokolowski's or the perfect steak and steam at the Shvitz, you were -- history and culture aside -- loaded with old-world culinary traditions that most cities could only imagine."
 
Enjoy the rest of his ode here.
cle 'antithesis of a dying city,' says the atlantic
Downtown Cleveland is experiencing a population rebound according to Richard Florida, Senior Editor at The Atlantic.
 
Florida quotes in a Case Western's Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development study: “Over the last two decades, the [downtown] neighborhood's population grew 96%, with residential totals increasing from 4,651 to 9,098. It was the single largest spike of any neighborhood, suburb, or county measured for the two decades under study. Downtown residential occupancy rates now stand over 95% and developers are eagerly looking to meet residential demand.”
 
“Twenty-somethings are creating a new and potentially powerful housing pattern as they snap up downtown apartments as fast as they become available. Neighborhood life is blossoming on blocks once dominated by office workers and commuters, and people are clamoring for dog parks.”
 
"The significance of Cleveland’s population shift cannot be exaggerated. As Jim Russell puts it: “the urban core is a net importer of young adults and a net exporter of old adults. That's the antithesis of a dying city."
 
Read the full story here.
cnn names severance hall 'top 10' music venue
"Nothing beats the adrenaline, the exhilaration of watching an amazing performance live in a beautiful space, or the rush of discovery that comes with witnessing the birth of a newcomer who you know will become a massive star," states this feature from CNN.
 
Rounding up its picks for the 10 best U.S. music venues, the article states, "these music venues rock the best sound, location and legends."
 
Along with legendary clubs like the Troubadour in Los Angeles, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, and Red Rocks in Colorado, Cleveland's Severance Hall gets top billing.
 
"Music lovers call the Cleveland Orchestra’s historic Severance Hall the most beautiful concert hall in the United States. Opened in 1931 and impressively restored in 2000, it boasts a lovely setting in the leafy University Circle neighborhood, a Georgian exterior, and a grand entrance foyer of soaring columns. The 94-rank Norton Memorial Organ, created by Boston’s renowned Ernest M. Skinner in 1930, has some serious pipes -- 6,025 of them, ranging from 18 centimeters to 9.8 meters -- and is considered one of the finest concert organs ever built. This is one gorgeous place to experience not just Mozart and the usual sublime suspects but also the many up-and-comers Severance Hall premieres."

Read the entire list here.
moca, 'london architect's first united states project'
Construction is progressing on the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, which Clifford A. Pearson of the Architectural Record bills as architect Farshid Moussavi’s first United States project. The museum, located in University Circle, is scheduled to open this October.
 
Both the inside and outside will feature some very unique characteristics.
 
“Inside, they painted the perimeter walls and ceiling a deep blue, which will create 'the sense of an endless, boundary-less space' quite different from the white rooms found in most museums and galleries today," the article quotes the architect.
 
“The building shifts from a six-sided floor plate at street level to a rectangular plan on the top floor where the main gallery will enjoy daylight entering from above.”
 
On the exterior "the form changes with each side, so to fully comprehend it, you need to move all around it."
 
When completed it will be a far cry from the current incarnation of Cleveland’s MOCA.
 
“MOCA, which was founded in 1968 in a storefront, has rented a second-story space from the Cleveland Play House since 1990. Jill Snyder, MOCA's executive director, says the museum asked Moussavi for an iconic building that embraces cutting-edge technology, is environmentally friendly, and works with its context. The building, which has geo-thermal wells for heating and cooling, is expected to achieve at least a Silver LEED rating.”
 
Read the full story here.
flee to the cleve: symon picks hometown faves
Where does chef Michael Symon send out-of-town visitors when they come to town? The New York Post asked and he answered, ticking off a list of 10 can't-miss stops.
 
#1 West Side Market
 
“One of the most special places where I bring all my chef friends when they visit," Symon says in the article. “Regardless of whether I bring in chefs from New York or San Francisco or another country, it just blows them away.”.
 
#2 Great Lakes Brewing Co.
 
“Microbreweries are very hot right now; this has been there [almost] 30 years and is arguably one of the best."
 
#3 Velvet Tango Room
 
“It was so ahead of its time,” he says. “It’s been open 18 years; they were doing all the cool things long ago."
 
#4 ABC the Tavern
 
Symon recommends this bar for its cheap drinks and great burgers.
 
Also mentioned: Banyan Tree, Beachland Ballroom, Big Al's Diner, Greenhouse Tavern, Happy Dog and Superior Pho.
 
Read the entire list here:
cleveland has 14th best public transit system in nation
According to Walk Score, Cleveland has the 14th best public transit system among large U.S cities. It also is the 17th most walkable large city in the U.S. with a Walk Score of 58.

Singled out as Cleveland's most walkable neighborhoods are Downtown, Campus District and Ohio City.

Walk Score's mission is to promote walkable neighborhoods. Walkable neighborhoods are one of the simplest and best solutions for the environment, our health, and our economy.
cleveland heights featured in american bungalow
In an article titled, "Progressive Architecture, Friendly Relations: Making It Work In Cleveland Heights," American Bungalow magazine offers up a lovely and in-depth profile of the East Side inner-ring suburb. It was penned by Douglas J. Forsyth, Associate Prof. of History at Bowling Green State University.

"Cleveland Heights developed rapidly as a classic streetcar suburb during the heyday of the Arts and Crafts movement, and it has perhaps the finest patrimony of Arts and Crafts and Prairie-style houses in the Cleveland area."

"If the Cleveland metropolitan area is going to turn around, the city of Cleveland Heights can be expected to be front-and-center in the revival process. It offers superb early-modernist residential architecture, a lively and diverse cultural scene, and dense formal and informal social networks. These elements have combined, over the rocky urban history of the 20th century, to create an enduring and resilient community that has held itself together in the equally challenging first decade of the 21st and could serve as one of the crucibles from which the recovery of the metropolitan area, if and when it comes, will flow."

Read the rest here.
the avengers (and cleveland) hit screens nationwide this weekend
The Avengers will be released nationwide on May 4, and local theaters are preparing for an onslaught of seat traffic. Some are hosting midnight screenings of the movie.

Giving the movie an "A" grade, E! writes, "Avengers surpasses huge expectations built up by the recent series of pretty great Marvel superhero movies. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and (best of all) The Hulk are recruited to save our tiny blue planet, and the ensuing action is, in a word, incredible. With snappy writing and a full roster of fleshed-out characters, the whole thing is a smash, from start to finish."

Hollywood Reporter suggests that The Avengers could have the biggest opening weekend of all time based on its mass appeal.

Read the rest of the review here.

rock hall induction ceremony to premiere on HBO
This Saturday, May 5, the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will premiere on HBO at 9 p.m. For a sneak peek, check out this awesome trailer featuring Beastie Boys, Chuck D, Guns N' Roses, Green Day, Donovan, Small Faces/The Faces, Stevie Van Zandt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chris Rock, Bette Midler and many more.



usa today reports on cle restaurant rush
Slowly but surely Cleveland is starting to return to the glory days when downtown was bustling and was the place to be.
 
Barbara De Lollis of USA TODAY reports that when the Aloft hotel opens in 2013 in Cleveland’s waterfront Flats East Bank, five locally and nationally known restaurants will also be a part of the project.
 
“The Aloft at Flats East will get a location of Lago from chef and restaurateur Fabio Salerno, who hopes to get quite a bit of catering business from local offices and the hotel,” the article says. “He operates other restaurants in the area, including Little Italy in the historic Tremont district.”
 
“I Love This Bar & Grill will be a destination for BBQ combined with live country music, customers also will be able to buy memorabilia related to country music singer-songwriter Toby Keith.”
 
“Ken Stewart's will be a steak and seafood restaurant by [the] Akron-area restaurateur.”
 
“Dos Tequilas will be a gourmet taco restaurant, and Flip Side will be a burger joint.”
 
The restaurants will be located along W. 10th Street.
 
Read more here.

 
cle fashion week focus of the fashion world
Who knew that Cleveland was the center of focus in the fashion world?
 
"The Cleveland Fashion Week is one of the largest fashion events in the country attracting designers from the U.S. and Canada who audition to participate in the event," reports Pittsburgh based Moultrie Observer.
 
Becca Nation, a textile artist and designer who grew up in the Pennsylvania town of Moultrie, plans to unveil the line “Knotty Girl” during Fashion Week Cleveland 2012.
 
“The staff of judges loved Becca’s unique designs, color, and avant-garde style requesting that she showcase her line in the events grand finale runway model black tie event on May 12th.
 
Read more about Becca Nation in the full Moultrie Observer article here.
rta the envy of detroit
There may be a bitter rivalry between Ohio and Michigan, but when it comes to Cleveland’s transportation system, Detroit wants to be just like us!
 
For months legislators have been debating what the best possible solution for Detroit’s transportation issues might be, reports Ashley C. Woods of MLive.com
 
Congressman Gary Peters is a big fan of Cleveland’s current system and wants to see an adaptation of it in Detroit.
 
"This is not theoretical. You see it in cities across America," Peters was quoted. "In fact, the most recent one with the bus rapid system, which is where we're looking to go, is the bus rapid transit system in Cleveland..."
 
"The Health Line has generated $4.3 billion in economic development. Cleveland began operation of the Health Line bus rapid transit system in 2008 after finishing the project on time and on budget."
 
"That's pretty incredible when you consider that it costs $200 million dollars to build that system, and it's been a magnet for $4.3 billion dollars in investment," Peters said. "Now, you don't need to be a math major to know that's a great return in investment. We know it works in Cleveland, and folks, if they can do it in Cleveland, we can do it here in the Detroit area."

Yup.
 
Read the full story here.