A few years ago, local arts groups faced declining audiences. Today, many of these organizations have reinvented themselves and begun to thrive -- or at least turned the corner.

Arts education programs that teach mastery have the greatest potential to impact child development, yet many urban youth lack access to them. Learn why these programs work and how we can cultivate them in Cleveland.

Ohio is no longer flyover country when it comes to attracting venture capital for biotech companies. In 2014, Cleveland had $398 million in investments among 40 companies, ranking second in major Midwest cities behind Minneapolis. Yet access to local capital remains a concern.

"As chief executive of the City Club of Cleveland—a 102-year-old institution created to foster dialogue about local, national and international issues—I often find myself in the midst of conversations about the city. So when I—a white guy—am in a meeting about policing or witnessing the inability of some white people here to understand why Tamir’s death catalyzed such vocal and visible protests, I remember what a divided city this really is."

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Marrion Demore has always loved improving on commercial bottled barbeque sauce. “I used to have really big family cookouts and I’d just doctor up some Open Pit to make it taste better,” Demore recalls. “People always said, ‘you should market this.’ I never gave it much thought until the economy went down hill. Then I knew I had to make it from scratch.”
 
Today, Demore calls himself the Rock and Roll Star of Sauce. In 2009 he began experimenting with homemade sauce, trying his various versions out on friends and family. Two years later, he had perfected his flavors and launched Demore’s Fusion Sauce in 2011 “There were a lot of taste tests and a lot of money being blown on bad batches, he says of his two-year journey. “It was important to me that my sauce was all natural, with no preservatives.”
 
Demore makes and bottles four versions of his sauce – mild, medium, flaming and hickory smoke. He uses ghost peppers, ground into a powder, to add the heat to his flaming sauce and buys his bottles from Cleveland Bottle and Supply. In addition to being all-natural, all varieties are also low in sugar and sodium. “It’s more sauce with less calories,” he says.
 
Demore describes his company as a grass-roots effort. He recently launched an online store on through his Facebook site. Last November he began handing out free samples and selling his sauce on Saturdays at Zagara’s Marketplace in Cleveland Heights, where he sells 15 to 20 bottles a week.
 
“A tell-tale sign to me us when you have a taste-testing and people buy it,” Demore says. “I let people try it and tell them about it. It keeps me motivated and keeps me going when people walk away with a bottle. Ninety-five percent of people are going to enjoy one of my sauces when they try it.”

While Demore still makes his sauce in his home kitchen, he has gone to the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK) for advice and guidance. “Cleveland is very supportive once you plug yourself in,” he says. “Even though this is not high-tech, the platform is here. It gives you more confidence with the product to know there are people you can call for mentoring and that kind of thing.”
 
Demore is always thinking of new flavors and ideas. He is currently testing coconut and pineapple sugars in sauces and he is working on dry rubs.

"Not your average flea market, this pop-up event serves as a business incubator for small businesses and has helped spur development in the neighborhoods where it's held."

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Cleveland's knowledge-driven "eds and meds" sector, which stands 11th nationwide in total employment, is a major factor in luring high-skilled immigrants to the North Coast.

The Health-Tech Corridor was once a forgotten stretch of Euclid Avenue. Today the three-mile stretch between downtown and University Circle has become a hub of growing biotech and startup companies, with another round of development on the way.

Cleveland and other cities have struggled for years with vacant schools. As empty buildings hang in limbo, they deteriorate, increasing the likelihood that they'll be torn down. Adaptive reuse, while challenging, can be a tool for preservation.

New research suggests that innovation districts, whose growth is fueled by anchor institutions, companies and startups working in close proximity to one another, may be growing faster than traditional downtowns.

Check out a local holiday market, let Lolly the Trolley be your designated driver or join a book binding workshop. Your weekend, planned.

Dozens of communities across the U.S. have formed effective, ongoing partnerships with the police that have improved safety and trust.