Buzz

msnbc calls melt's monster 'crazy gut-buster'
If you were unaware, October 25th is National Greasy Foods Day, a holiday either filled with fatty foods or, more likely, wholly ignored by the entire population. Regardless, our fun-loving fatty foods provider Melt Bar & Grilled was honored with a mention in MSNBC's listicle of "7 Crazy Gut-Busters for National Greasy Foods Day."
 
Receiving specific mention is the Monster, a grilled cheese "sandwich" that is more test than treat.
 
"Grilled cheese might be a guilty pleasure, but you could hardly call it a grease-bomb. Unless, of course, you are talking about the grilled cheese at Melt Bar and Grilled in Ohio. There, the Melt Challenge features a grilled cheese sandwich made with 13 types of cheese, 3 slices of grilled bread, french fries and coleslaw. The plate of food comes out to 5 pounds of gooey melted cheese, deep fried potatoes and carbs galore. If you eat the whole thing, you get a T-shirt, a $10 gift certificate, and your name in the Hall of Fame, so your gluttony will be preserved for posterity."
 
Read about the other entries here.
gotta groove records gets buzz in new york times
Cleveland's Gotta Groove Records was featured recently in the New York Times as the subject of its recurring "You Are Here" column.
 
Titled "Building a House of Wax in Cleveland," and written by David Giffels, a former Akron Beacon Journal columnist and author of "All the Way Home," the essay showcases one of the few manufacturers of vinyl records.
 
"In the heart of postindustrial Cleveland, in one of those cheery urban-reclamation areas with freshly painted brick buildings and almost unnaturally green lawn spaces, you’ll find Gotta Groove Records, one of around 20 plants in the United States that still press vinyl," Giffels writes.
 
Located in Tyler Village, Gotta Groove was started by former corporate attorney Vince Slusarz. As for why he chose to start a vinyle record company in the digital age, Slusarz said, “All these kids getting into vinyl for the first time -- I think it’s a reaction to the constant interruptions in our life. We’re used to instant everything. But to listen to a record, you have to put it on, you have to turn it over. It engages you more.”
 
Read the rest of Giffels' piece here.
 
Read a Fresh Water feature on Gotta Groove here.
inspiring video promotes downtown cleveland lifestyle in fresh light
The latest salvo in Downtown Cleveland Alliance's campaign to get more folks to live, work and play downtown is this video titled "Downtown Cleveland... Is It For You?" Produced by Fusion Filmworks and TWIST Creative, the video has attracted over 9,300 views in under a week.

robert f. kennedy jr. in cleveland to launch nationwide news service
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., founder and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, will be the keynote speaker at an event celebrating the launch of EcoWatch's new nationwide news service website. The public event will take place at Rivergate Park (1785 Merwin Ave.) on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m.
 
EcoWatch, publisher of EcoWatch Journal with a distribution of more than 80,000 copies across Ohio, will launch the nationwide news service out of Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood and become part of the growing online news media market. The website will expand EcoWatch’s grassroots coverage nationwide and become the first media source to focus exclusively on environmental news culled from more than 700 environmental organizations across the country. 
 
“Northeast Ohio is a national leader in sustainability and EcoWatch is proud to call Cleveland its home,” said Stefanie Penn Spear, founder and executive director of EcoWatch. “This news service website follows the model we developed in Ohio over the last five years and expands on my more than 20 years of publishing environmental news.”
 
The public event will feature brief remarks from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman; the George Gund Foundation’s Senior Program Officer for the Environment, John Mitterholzer; the Cleveland Foundation’s Program Officer, Nelson Beckford; and Kennedy, a member of EcoWatch’s advisory board, who will serve as keynote speaker.
 
Kennedy will also keynote a fundraising event at Windows on the River at 2000 Sycamore St. at 6 p.m. the same evening. The event includes a VIP reception, dinner and keynote speech. 

Tickets and more info can be found here.
shaker is a model worth emulating, says pittsburgh tribune-review
In an article titled "Cleveland's Shaker Heights is a model worth emulating," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer John Conti describes the attractiveness of this well-planned neighborhood, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012.
 
Thanks to the Van Sweringen's keen vision and planning, Shaker "appealed to the upper-middle classes in Cleveland in the 1920s, and the result today is neighborhood after neighborhood of stunningly good-looking houses built in the '20s and '30s. Some of these houses are mansions, some are just big, and some are modest. But all are still exceptionally attractive today."
 
The article goes on to describe with great detail just how the Van Sweringen brothers turned their vision into reality.
 
"[They] began accumulating land here in the early 1900s. In the teens and '20s, they laid out lots to sell and developed a rapid transit line directly into the center of Cleveland. They also set down the rules for what the owner-built houses in Shaker Heights would look like."
 
Those rules dictated that "houses were to be in the romantic Tudor, Colonial or French styles popular in the '20s. They had to be individually designed by architects. Brick and stone walls and slate and tile roofs were encouraged. Tudors had to have dark trim; only Colonials could have white. Buff-colored brick and certain colors of mortar were forbidden. Even the look of leaded-glass windows were regulated. Finally, the Van Sweringens had to approve every design."
 
All that would have been meaningless if the houses were not maintained. So the city inspects the exterior of every home every five years. An architectural review board must approve any changes to the exterior of a house.
 
"These are undoubtedly some of the toughest municipal standards anywhere in the United States," Conti writes. "And they can cost money. Considering its top-tier school system, Shaker Heights residents pay the highest property taxes in Ohio. Yet real estate people here will tell you that -- though the general real estate market in Cleveland has been abysmal in recent years -- Shaker Heights houses have held their value."
 
Read the entire report here.
cuyahoga county land bank is model for other regions, says wash post
In a Washington Post article titled "Banks turn to demolition of foreclosed properties to ease housing-market pressures," Brady Dennis reports that Cuyahoga County's aggressive land bank is serving as a model for other regions nationwide.
 
"The sight of excavators tearing down vacant buildings has become common in this foreclosure-ravaged city, where the housing crisis hit early and hard," he writes. "But the story behind the recent wave of demolitions is novel -- and cities around the country are taking notice."
 
Thanks to an ongoing collaboration with banking representatives, the land bank continues to secure abandoned or blighted properties to demolish for community gardens and other uses. Cuyahoga land bank expects to complete roughly 700 demolitions by the end of the year. In return for tax deductions and other expenses in maintaining the properties, banks are pitching in as much as $7,500 per demolition.
 
Read the rest here.
cleveland claims spot on list of best cities for working moms
For the third straight year, Forbes Woman has published its list of "Best Cities For Working Mothers." New additions to the 2011 list are Cleveland and Columbus.

To determine the rankings, the magazine looked at the 50 largest metropolitan areas and compared factors such as job opportunity, earnings potential, safety, healthcare, education, and cost of living.
 
Coming in at #10, Cleveland earns high marks for featuring "lower than average cost of living, high employment rates, affordable daycare and commutes under 30 minutes."
 
Last on the list is Las Vegas, home to the second highest violent crime rate and the highest unemployment rate.

Read the rest of the findings here.
burning river foundation issues RFP for freshwater grants
Do you or your organization have a bright idea on how to improve Northeast Ohio's regional freshwater resources? If so, Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Burning River Foundation wants to hear from you.
 
The foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving, maintaining and celebrating the vitality of our regional freshwater resources, has issued a Request for Proposals for its Fresh Ideas for Freshwater Grant Program. Recipients might be eligible to receive grants in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.
 
Projects must be located in the Northeast Ohio region, demonstrate ecological conservation and environmental protection, provide educational outreach, support the local community, and be completed by June 30, 2012.
 
Applications must be received no later than November 30, 2011.
 
For more info click here.
cleveland clinic unveils top 10 medical innovations for 2012
Unveiled during the recent 2011 Medical Innovation Summit, the Cleveland Clinic announced the Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012. The list of breakthrough devices and therapies was selected by a panel of Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists.
 
Nominated innovations were required to: Have significant potential for short-term clinical impact; Have a high probability of success; Be on the market or close to being introduced; Have sufficient data available to support its nomination.
 
Among them are:
 
Genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce disease threat.
 
Novel diabetes therapy that represents a paradigm shift in diabetes treatment.
 
Harnessing big data to improve heath care.
 
Active bionic prosthesis with microprocessors and computer chips that can rival the functionality provided by biological limbs.
 
Implantable devices to treat complex brain aneurysms.
 
Next-generation gene sequencing to get to the root cause of serious illness.
 
Medical apps for mobile devices.
 
Concussion management system for athletes that provide patient-specific guidance about when athletes can return to play without risk of further harm.
 
CT Scans for early detection of lung cancer.

Read the full report here.
 
tribe's snow days hailed as 'best solution yet' for empty stadium
"There's only one thing more depressing come October than the end of baseball season: the sight of an empty ballpark," Emily Badger writes for The Atlantic. "It's a bitter scene for baseball lovers. But it’s an economic conundrum for cities, too."

Noting that most cities with both pro baseball and football teams now possess separate stadiums for each, the article points out the economic imprudence of multimillion dollar structures that attract tourists just 81 days out of the year.

But what to do with an open-air baseball stadium in the Midwest in mid-winter? the writer asks rhetorically.

"Progressive Field in Cleveland may have come up with the best solution yet to the empty ballpark. Last year for the first time, the team converted the field into a vast winter playground," says the writer, referring to Snow Days.

“When you have lemons, you make lemonade,” says the Cleveland Indians' Kurt Schloss. “In our particular case, we wanted to embrace the cold, embrace Northeast Ohio, because that’s what it is. You can’t put up palm trees and hope for sand.”

New this year is an ice rink that will host youth hockey tournaments and the Jan. 15 marquee matchup between Ohio State and the University of Michigan, which is expected to sell-out of the stadium.

"This is really kind of a brand new concept, it’s taking it into a wholly new dimension,” says Joe Marinucci from Downtown Cleveland Alliance. “I can’t imagine why a franchise would not want to use a facility like this,” he says, “when normally it would be dormant for four or five months.”

Read the rest of the report here.
tribe's soon-to-be-installed wind turbine generating green buzz
"There will soon be a new homerun target for batters at Progressive Field," writes Alice Henly, a research fellow with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "At the top of the south-east corner of the ballpark, down the first base line, the Cleveland Indians will be installing a micro wind turbine in March 2012."
 
The Tribe has partnered with Cleveland State University’s Fenn College of Engineering on the project, which features an innovative helical design. The 18-foot wide cylinder rotates constantly to find the most turbulent wind to keep the four 6-foot turbines spinning. The project hopefully will boost regional renewable job opportunities by providing a real-world test of a locally-manufactured technology.
 
The turbine is anticipated to generate a minimum of 40,000 kWh/year, the amount of energy it takes to power four average American households for a year. The turbine joins the Tribe's other green measures, including a 42-panel solar electric system, a comprehensive composting program, only purchasing paper products made of 100 percent post consumer content, and only using Green Seal certified cleaning products.
 
Read the rest of the program here.
eater.com runs round-up of can't-miss cleveland restos
Eater.com, a national website that covers restaurants, chefs and food personalities, recently ran an article titled "The Eater Cleveland Heat Map." A regular feature of the publication, the Heat Maps tell readers about "newish locales that have been garnering serious buzz."

For the Cleveland article, Eater's second major heat-check of the 216 in a year, the pub asked local food writer (and Fresh Water managing editor) Douglas Trattner to list 10 new places that have locals talking, drooling and, of course, eating. Singled out for inclusion are Crop Bistro, Flour, Ginko, Market Garden Brewery, Noodlecat, Orale, Barroco Grill, Luna Bakery, Dragonfly and Club Isabella.

Accompanying those listings is an interactive map.

In addition to the national version of Eater, the website features city-specific sites devoted to foodie locales such as New York, Chicago, Portland and Seattle. For now, Cleveland will have to fall under the province of Eater National.

Digest the entire meal here.
pnc among best companies for working moms
For the 10th straight year, PNC has earned its way onto Working Mother's list of Best Companies.

"Working Mother readers want flexibility and they want it now," say the editors of the magazine. "In survey after survey, working moms rank flexible work arrangements as the most desired benefit they seek, even higher than compensation or paid days off."

The Working Mother 100 Best Companies are judged on answers to 650 questions, including data on the access and usage of flexible work arrangements, parental leave, childcare, health and wellness support and the advancement of women to all levels of management.

Jennifer Owens, Editorial Director of Working Mother said, "The reason flexibility is so important to working moms is that they want to do their best at home and in the office.  Flexible work arrangements allow moms both. The Working Mother Best Companies want to win the war for talent and productivity -- especially in a down economy -- and they have figured out how to make flex work.”

See the full list here.
cle met zoo's 'dub the cubs' contest a smash
In the popular "Dub the Cubs" campaign, fans of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo were asked to vote on one female name and one male name each from a list of five potential choices. The names were selected by the zoo to represent the history and geography of the cubs’ home state of Wyoming.

Votes were cast from 41 different states, with 1,415 being cast for the female cub and 1,364 being cast for the male cub.

In the poll for the female cub’s name Cheyenne finished with 43 percent of the votes cast. The race for the male cub’s name was only a little bit closer with Jackson finishing with 42 percent of the vote.

Cheyenne and Jackson joined Montana grizzly cub brothers Cody and Cooper on exhibit last week. All four cubs are about 7 months old and weigh between 70 and 85 pounds.

Read the report here.
cleveland clinic's cole eye institute receives $3m endowed chair
Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute received a $3 million gift from Barbara and A. Malachi Mixon III in recognition of the sight-saving care Mr. Mixon received at the Institute.

The gift establishes the Barbara and A. Malachi Mixon III Institute Chair in Ophthalmology. Daniel F. Martin, MD, Chairman of Cole Eye Institute, is being honored as the first physician to hold the newly established chair. As chair holder, Dr. Martin will continue his research initiatives to better understand eye diseases and to pioneer new treatments.

“We are grateful for the generosity of the Mixon family,” Dr. Martin said. “This gift will provide resources to advance our research efforts, including increasing involvement in clinical trials and serving as a catalyst for cutting-edge research programs.”

Read the rest of the good news here.
cle to host 2011 individual world poetry slam
Held in Cleveland October 12 through 15, the Individual World Poetry Slam (iWPS) is a performance poetry tournament designed for individual competition. Poets from all over the world meet and compete in a multi-day performance poetry contest.
 
For more info, click here.
short film is entered for 'changing your city for the better' contest
For the "Changing Your City for the Better" contest, Siemens asked people to create short videos that explore how improvements in sustainability, energy supply, urban infrastructure and mobility can change a city for the better.
 
Working under very tight deadlines, local filmmakers Joe Baur and Dave Kiss produced this extremely insightful short film.
 
"We found out about the contest pretty late and, long story short, had only 48 hours to put the project together," says Baur. "We're very grateful that Mary McCahon, Ken Prendergast and Will Tarter, Jr. were able to fit us in at the last minute. Not to mention grateful to the Healthline for showing up pretty much every time we needed it to!"
 
Winners will be selected in the next few weeks, with prizes ranging from $550 to $15,000.

local filmmaker johnny wu unveils superman fan film
It took local filmmaker Johnny Wu roughly nine months to produce &quot;S: A Superman Fan Film,&quot; an 18-minute tribute to the Cleveland-born Man of Steel.<br />
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&quot;We did it cause we wanted to pay tribute to our Cleveland born hero Superman,&quot; Wu says.<br />
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The lengthy process required about three to four months in preproduction, four and a half days of shooting, and about five months in post-production, explain Wu, who acted as director, producer, and editor on the movie.<br />
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Wu says that he will be submitting the live-action comic book film to several festivals that accept fan films.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SDADP0MLZHQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
china-based investment of $100m will go to american and cleveland biomeds
A new partnership between a leading China-based biomedical development company and the Cleveland Bio Fund (CbF) will result in a $100 million fund to invest in U.S companies, including those in Cleveland. The Cleveland Bio Fund will help identify and invest in small- to mid-size medical device companies looking to enter the Chinese market.

“[Cleveland Bio Fund] will provide both capital and know-how for device companies looking to expand their products into China. It is a unique boutique style investment strategy needed for that market,” explains Eddy Zai, CEO of CbF

Executives are traveling to Cleveland this week to meet local officials, tour the Health Tech Corridor, and meet with companies that could take advantage of this unique business model.

Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson welcomes the investment in Cleveland from China.

"Investments in the City of Cleveland are good, whether they are made locally or by foreign investors. We welcome the opportunity to partner with the Cleveland Bio Fund as it will better connect Cleveland to the global economy," said Mayor Frank Jackson.

Read the rest here.
rust belt edging out sun belt in recovery, says ny times
"Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the Northeast and the Midwest, which include Rust Belt states that were struggling even before the recession," announces a recent article in the New York Times.
 
While unemployment figures are high nationwide, the finding is surprising given the fact that the South entered the recession with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. It now struggles with some of the highest rates according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
 
Highlighting the fact that regions are recovering at different speeds, the Rust Belt is outpacing the Sun Belt in reducing joblessness.
 
Whether or not the trend is going to continue is unknown, of course.  
 
“Because the recovery is so painfully slow, people may begin to think of the trends established during the recovery as normal,” Howard Wial, a Brookings fellow is quoted in the article. “Will people think of Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona as more or less permanently depressed? Think of the Great Lakes as being a renaissance region? I don’t know. It’s possible.”
 
Read the rest here.