Cleveland's near west side will gain another signature community park when the redeveloped outdoor space at Zone Recreation Center, which is comprised of 22 acres of land south of Lorain Avenue between W. 53rd and W. 65th streets, reopens this Saturday.

A public ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on Saturday at 11 a.m. The celebration will include a farmers market, food trucks, kickball, skateboarding, three-on-three basketball tournament and dog park dedication. Residents and visitors are encouraged to bring their dogs.

The multifaceted park is one of the largest in Cleveland. Features include new tennis courts, resurfaced basketball courts, new water-spray park and playground, new ballfields and a new dog park. The new Zone Rec also includes water-saving features and sustainable landscaping that reaffirm the City's commitment to weaving sustainable design into its community parks.

"The City administration really wants to move forward on low impact development that respects the tag line, 'Green city on a blue lake,'" says Ward 15 Councilman Matt Zone, whose father fought the State of Ohio's proposal to build a highway here 50 years ago, ultimately leading to the development of the recreation center that bears his name. "We want to build it and design it from not only a functionality standpoint, but also lessening our carbon footprint."

Last year, the City of Cleveland opened the new Collinwood Recreation Center in a former Big Lots store along Lakeshore Boulevard. The building is a creative reuse of an existing space that includes many energy-efficient and sustainable features. The new Zone Recreation Center demonstrates similar outside-the-box thinking.

Zone Recreation Center is located in the Cleveland EcoVillage, an area dedicated to sustainable living within the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. The EcoVillage features a green-built rapid station, large community garden, many eco-friendly homes, a new garden store and a slew of gardens and green spaces. Residents here have long struggled with blight along Lorain Avenue, and many hope that the new Zone Rec will help catalyze other, similar improvements to the faded corridor.

The multipurpose pathway that weaves its way through the new Zone Rec green space will eventually connect with the Towpath Trail via Walworth Run, and to Edgewater Park and Lake Erie via bike lanes planned for W. 65th Street.


Source: Matt Zone
Writer: Lee Chilcote

How do you export an entire region? That's the question Northeast Ohio's promoters are pondering as the investment in local tourism is projected to reach into the billions of dollars over the next few years. Harnessing the economic power of the tourism industry means telling the world loud and proud, "Northeast Ohio is the place to be."

Bringing the 18-county Cleveland Plus region to the disposable income-flush masses should not be a hard sell these days, says Lexi Hotchkiss, director of communications with Positively Cleveland, the region's tourism and economic development group.

Cuyahoga County alone is undergoing a $2 billion tourism investment revival over the next five years, a confluence of high-profile projects including a new casino, a medical mart and convention center, and the dramatic renovation of Cleveland's illustrious art museum.

"Two-billion is not chump change," says Hotchkiss. "It's a big deal that can have a domino effect [on the area]."

Tourism is bigger business locally than many people realize, adds Hotchkiss. The industry is Cuyahoga County's fourth-largest employer. In 2011, 30 million people visited the Cleveland Plus region, sustaining 163,000 jobs with $13 billion in economic impact. During that same time frame, 14 million visitors decended upon Cleveland, supporting 61,000 jobs.

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A healthcare industry vet and resident of Cleveland since 1982, Jim Bennett was hired in April by developer MMPI Inc. to oversee the $465 million medical mart and convention center. The complex is expected to draw 200,000 visitors annually, add thousands of new jobs, and generate about $50-$75 million in economic impact per year.

Ohio Technical College, an automotive technology school at East 51st and St. Clair Ave., has grown its student population in recent years. As it has done so, OTC has continued to invest in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood where its main campus is located.

Recently, OTC purchased two corner bars that had been considered a nuisance by neighborhood residents. OTC also leased or purchased several other buildings, including the former City Desk, which is slated to house classrooms, offices and a visitor center. These efforts have removed blighted buildings from the area.

OTC's growth has been fueled in part by the innovative partnerships it has formed with automotive companies. In April, the school celebrated the opening of the new Edelbrock Academy, a partnership with Edelbrock Performance Products, one of the world's leading manufacturers of high performance, aftermarket auto parts.

OTC has also formed a similar partnership with Jasper Engines and Transmissions in Jasper, Indiana, which is one of the country's leading producers of engines and transmissions. For both Jasper and Edelstein, this kind of partnership is beneficial because the companies need mechanics who are familiar with their products.

Through these partnership, OTC is helping to educate the next generation of mechanics in the heart of Cleveland. Currently, enrollment is 1,200 at the main campus on East 51st and 300 at the Power Sports Institute in North Randall.

Ohio Technical College offers "a wide array of technician training programs in automotive, motorcycle, diesel equipment, collision repair and refinishing, classic car restoration, high performance and racing, alternative fuel vehicles, power generator systems, and BMW," according to the institution's website.


Source: Ohio Technical College
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Ohio City attracts over three million visitors per year and has several thriving anchor institutions. Its population grew from 2000 to 2010 and the neighborhood has added 35-plus new businesses and 300 jobs in recent years.

All of this sounds pretty good, yet popularity inevitably comes with a price. This near west side neighborhood is now suffering the growing pains of any successful urban neighborhood that must balance the needs of residents, workers and visitors. In short, it's got a parking problem.

To address this problem, Ohio City is adopting a Multimodal Transportation Plan that places an emphasis on traffic calming, bike lanes, pedestrian friendly streets and public transportation. In acknowledgement of the fact that most of the area's visitors still arrive by car, the plan also offers remedies for the parking crunch.

The plan includes an emphasis on Complete Streets (bike lanes and traffic calming for pedestrians); transit oriented development (potential mixed-use housing adjacent to the West 25th rapid station); a comprehensive wayfinding system; parking solutions that include valet parking for visitors and employees, plus consolidation and paid parking in the West Side Market lot; a future structured parking garage; residential permit parking; and additional parking meters.

West Side Market tenants have expressed concerns about the notion of charging for parking in the market lot, yet Ohio City Inc. leaders are pushing for it. Free parking would be available in 90 minute increments for market shoppers. Right now, some people park in the market lot even when they aren't shopping there.

"The goal of the Plan is to provide as many transportation options as possible so that the community is not too dependent on surface parking as the only option for visitors," the plan states. "Increasing access to safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure will increase the number of trips to Ohio City by foot or by bike."

Discussions are ongoing, and vendors are pushing for two hours of free parking (the city prefers 90 minutes). The city would like to see the new parking system in place by spring of next year, but the vendors have the power to block the deal.

"We believe the plan provides smart solutions to eliminating parking congestion and will lead to a more easily navigable and safer neighborhood for all of our visitors," says Eric Wobser, Executive Director of Ohio City Inc. He adds that he hopes that an agreement with vendors will be hammered out this month.



Source: Ohio City Inc.
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA) celebrated the completion of the stainless steel cladding being installed on its new home with a signing-off ceremony this week. The date when the glittering, gem-like new building opens its doors to the public is only months away, and that's when the true celebration will begin.

On a recent media tour of the building, the beautifully plotted details of the new museum were evident in raw form. A few of the finer points include the first floor lounge with coffee and free wi-fi that will function as an "urban living room;" the 1,000-square-foot store that will become a destination for visitors and residents alike; and an architectural emphasis on transparency that makes the museum a place where visitors can view the process whereby installations are created. 

Other prominent details include the first floor lecture and performance space, windows offering great views of the Uptown District and a breathtaking fourth floor main gallery space with a vaulted ceiling and uninterrupted floor plan.



Source: MOCA
Writer: Lee Chilcote

In the spirit of summer fun, Pittsburgh-based writer Elaine Labalme compares her beloved Kennywood amusement park to Cedar Point, our own little pleasure factory. Comparing the two parks in regards to thrill rides, wooden coasters, classic rides, water rides, food and atmosphere, the writer comes to an unscientific decision that both parks are worthy of a summer visit.

Downtown's growing base of residents and office employees, as well as the visitors coming into the city for the new Horseshoe Casino and other amenities, have spurred a mini restaurant boom here.

Many new venues are of the casual variety, offering tasty, reasonably-priced fare in a place where one would be as comfortable opening a laptop as wearing a tie.

The idea behind such fresh dining concepts is to cater to a gap in the downtown scene, which has plenty of destination dining spots and quick lunch joints but not many comfortable cafes in which to grab a sandwich or entree on a Wednesday night.

Three of these new restaurants -- Charka Exotic Indian Cuisine, BRGR 9 and El Guerro -- have recently opened on W. 9th Street. Traditionally, this has been a quiet corner of the Warehouse District, thus a perfect spot to add such options.

Charka is owned by purveyors who have a similar restaurant in State College, Pennsylvania. BRGR 9 is owned by the folks behind the ever-popular Heck's Cafe in Ohio City and offers more than two dozen types of jaw-dropping burgers (including veggie options). El Guerro specializes in fresh Mexican food.


Source: BRGR 9, Charka Exotic Indian Cuisine, El Guerro
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The soon-to-open Cleveland Hostel in Ohio City will be the area's only modern hostel catering to travelers who aim to experience American cities rather than simply visit them. The venture unites owner Mark Raymond's passion for wanderlust with his beloved hometown, thus enabling him to showcase Cleveland via a unique, affordable venue.

Megan Meister chuckles as she thinks of the unlikely collision of worlds involved in planting four eat-everything-in-sight goats in the midst of Stockyards -- a neighborhood that long ago shed its past as the home of the city's slaughterhouses.

Yet to Meister, the ebullient director of the Stockyards, Clark Fulton and Brooklyn Centre Community Development Organization, the area's new "Mow Goats" program is about the re-greening of the neighborhood, teaching kids and families about urban agriculture, and possibly even saving the city some money.

"Kids in urban areas don't get the opportunity to be around farm animals very often," says Meister, who worked with residents, The County Line Farm in Geneva, Ohio and the City of Cleveland to pioneer the 25-day program. "This is a creative way to address the problem of vacant lots in our neighborhood."

The "ladies," as they're known at the office, have a regular 9-to-5 job mowing a lot at W. 61st and Frontier Avenue. When they're done with that -- soon, based on their seemingly unstoppable appetite for anything leafy and green -- they'll be rotated to another lot. Meister hired a full-time goat herder for the project.

The Stockyards office receives a slew of calls every season about mowing lots. The City of Cleveland mows lots a few times per year and attempts to collect from property owners, but lacks the resources to mow them more regularly.

Meister hopes the project can be replicated elsewhere. She estimates that it would cost about $9,000 to $10,000 per six-month season to rent four goats, which is actually cheaper than what the city typically charges property owners to mow lots. The excess goat poop is being used to fertilize neighborhood gardens.


Source: Megan Meister
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland's original artisan bakery, Lucy's Sweet Surrender, has finished its move from Buckeye Road to a larger, better situated space in the former Chandler and Rudd building in Shaker Heights.

The new, 3,500-square-foot space features a small retail storefront that opens up to a bakery where visitors can watch the scratch baking process. The traditional Hungarian bakery, a dying breed that once thrived in Cleveland neighborhoods, intends to ramp up its retail business. It will also continue to pop up at area farmers markets, make deliveries in Cleveland and ship orders by mail. 

Owner Michael Feigenbaum says Lucy's is busy at its new, well-trafficked location. "This week, we'll be at four farmers markets and we're already well into wedding cake season," he says. "The growth of new, artisan bakeries in Cleveland has helped us by raising the bar on what our customers are looking for."

Feigenbaum is already dreaming of Phase II of his expansion plans, which may include re-launching a prepared foods business, creating a small cafe, or partnering with other vendors. The Chandler and Rudd building has an additional 3,500 square feet that offer a blank canvas for the owner's next creation.

The long-awaited reconfiguration of the Warrensville/Van Aken/Chagrin intersection will only help him by creating a more vibrant urban district that can compete with Legacy Village and other lifestyle malls, says Feigenbaum.


Source: Michael Feigenbaum
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Kim Jenkins of Rising Star Coffee traded his job overseeing 110 scientists and engineers at Lockheed Martin in Florida to move to Spencer, Ohio, and launch a new coffee roaster in Cleveland.

Given his background in driving technological innovation, it comes as no surprise that his approach to roasting the best possible coffee beans is, well, innovative.

"Specialty grade coffee is the top half to one percent of coffee beans on the market, and that's all we do," says Jenkins, who recently set up shop in the Ohio City Firehouse building on W. 29th Street. "Coffee is the second largest commodity trade after crude oil, and there's plenty of room for growth in Northeast Ohio."

Jenkins' plan is to sell beans wholesale while also marketing to individual consumers and selling coffee by the cup. He's capitalizing on rising consumer interest in the highest-grade coffee, he says. His model appears to be working, as his fledgling company is gaining at least one wholesale customer per week. (The retail operation is still in the works.)

Rising Star's coffee retails for about $14 to $18 per pound, with the higher end reserved for small batch beans produced on micro-lots in Brazil and other places he's visited. He has hired four young workers to assist him with his growing roster of accounts.

"The goal of Rising Star is to create a sustainable business model, make a little money and give opportunities to the young people who work here," he says.

Jenkins says the main difference between his coffee and others is flavor. "You'll be able to taste the coffee like it's supposed to taste, instead of it being weak, burnt or bitter," he says. "People describe it as sweet, nutty, fruity or tasting of cocoa. Most of the world drinks coffee that tastes like that. It doesn't even need sugar."


Source: Kim Jenkins
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Drivers traveling along I-90 near E. 55th could experience mild whiplash as they crane their necks to see the sheep grazing on the roadside this summer. It's not the most common sight along the lakefront, and the story behind it is no less unusual.

Michael Fleming first heard of the idea when he was studying Urban Planning at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. The mayor of Curitiba, Brazil had used sheep to mow the city's vast parkland, he found out.

"They brought in shepherds for parkland because it was cheaper than using machines," says Fleming. "With large amounts of land, it just makes sense."

A few months ago, when Fleming was hired as Executive Director of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation, he finally had a chance to import the idea from South America to Cleveland. A flock of 12 sheep are now grazing along North Marginal Road just west of the Quay 55 apartment building. They are tended by volunteers and students from nearby St. Martin De Porres High School.

"About 95 percent of our neighbors think it's cool, and five percent are afraid they'll get picked off by teenagers or coyotes," says Fleming, who has fielded calls from as far away as Detroit about the program. "We wanted to see how it would work on large vacant parcels, and if we could save the city any money on mowing costs."

So far, the Urban Sheep Grazing program has worked out well, with the sheep, guarded by a feisty llama, seemingly content to graze all day in their shaggy lakefront field. Visitors regularly stop by to take pictures and show their kids.

The sheep are loaned from the Spicy Lamb Farm in the Cuyahoga Valley through a new entity called Urban Shepherds. Fleming thinks expanding the program could bring down costs and make it feasible as a mowing alternative; he hopes to have the numbers to back his hypothesis up by the end of the summer.


Source: Michael Fleming
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Great Lakes Brewing Company is now the 18th largest craft brewery in the U.S. and the 27th largest overall. The company brews more than 110,000 barrels of handcrafted beer every year.

The brewing process takes place in a warehouse at Carroll Avenue and West 28th Street near the West Side Market. Visitors to Great Lakes Brewing Company's flagship bar and restaurant on Market Avenue often can catch a whiff of the beer brewing and fermenting as they walk in to grab a pint.

Recently, Great Lakes purchased and installed two new 300-barrel fermentation tanks to further expand its brewing capacity. The new equipment, which was hoisted in by crane through the roof of its Carroll Avenue tank farm, is on top of $7 million in capital improvements completed in 2010 to expand capacity.

Great Lakes beer is now available in 13 states and Washington D.C., and the company has a philosophy of supporting sustainability and natural, locally grown food. Owners Patrick and Daniel Conway have plans to deepen Great Lakes' presence in existing markets as they celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2013.


Source: Great Lakes Brewing Company
Writer: Lee Chilcote

This weekend, tens of thousands of visitors will descend on the St. Clair Superior neighborhood for the Cleveland Asian Festival. During their visit, they will be delighted by 25 colorful dragon sculptures painted by local artists and installed outside businesses to beautify the area and celebrate the arts and Asian culture.

The public art project commemorates the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which began with the new moon in January and continues for a full 12 months.

Each one of these fantastic creatures will be completely unique. For example, Cleveland tattoo artist Sean Kelly painted a dragon featuring butterflies flying out of its chest, the kind of glittering eyes used in stuffed animals, and real antlers.

The dragons will be displayed through the end of August. They will be auctioned off at a special benefit on Saturday, September 29th, the proceeds of which will support arts and culture programming in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood.

On Thursday, May 31st, the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation and artist Anna Arnold will also unveil a huge, 40- foot mural on the side of the Consolidated Graphics building at E. 39th and Payne Avenue. The project was created with the help of neighborhood schoolchildren and Asian seniors.


Source: Becca Britton
Writer: Lee Chilcote

This Friday night, Tremont is hosting the grand opening for a new business, Tremont Tails, as well as a Preview Night that will welcome eight new businesses that opened in the past year.

This diverse roster of new businesses is adding to the vibrancy of the neighborhood's growing retail mix, says Cory Riordon, Executive Director of Tremont West Development Corporation.

"We're creating new retail options so that residents don't have to travel outside of the neighborhood to buy things, and that also will appeal to people visiting the neighborhood," he says. "It shows that the neighborhood is desirable."

The new businesses that will be featured during the Preview Night event are Churned Ice Cream Shop, Miranda's Vintage Bridal, Chard Gallery, Ginko Restaurant, Kevin Busta Industrial Furnishings, The Nest and Bozalodz.

The Tremont Art Walk will also take place on Friday, May 12th from 6-10 pm.


Source: Cory Riordan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Is 2012 the year of the collective? Based on the DIY art spaces that are springing up across the city, it would certainly seem like a trend-in-the-making.

BuckBuck, a new collaborative art space that is located in a former auction house, is the latest creative hotspot to join the list. Founders Joe Lanzilotta and Derek Maxfield are recent college graduates who started the gallery and co-op style workspace after obtaining fine arts and graphic design degrees from Ohio University and being faced with a tight job market.

Yet the founders' desire to start their own creative space went beyond their dim job prospects, Lanzilotta says. They began hunting for cool, affordable space because they wanted to do their own thing and shape their own destiny.

"We wanted a spot we could build our own reputation from," says Lanzilotta, who seized the 5,700-square-foot space at 3910 Lorain Avenue after the sympathetic landlord enticed them with a couple months free rent and an affordable lease rate. "After I completed an internship in Chicago, I had the feeling that I really wanted to come back to Cleveland and create something on my own."

BuckBuck recently hosted its first art show in the newly-created gallery -- its founders literally erected walls and hung artwork with only a few weeks notice -- during this year's Palookafest event. The annual chili cook-off and competition was created by Ian P.E., the owner of Palookaville Chili, which opened in an adjacent storefront in early 2011.

Thanks to a proliferation of cheap, available storefronts on Lorain, Lanzilotta says that a small creative community is springing up. Recently, a furniture maker moved in next door, and there is also a new tattoo shop across the street.


Source: Joe Lanzilotta
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The Cleveland Council on World Affairs held an international career conference at John Carroll last week for students and young professionals considering a job in the international field. About 60 students from area high schools and colleges attended the event on Friday, April 20. The conference provided an opportunity to hear international professionals talk about their experiences and give career advice in getting into the field.
 
“The purpose of the international career conference was to expose attendees to jobs in international non-profit, business and government,” says Jana Krasney, director of speaker programs for CCWA. “They were creating personal connections with people who are in the international arena sharing their stories.”
 
Sherry Mueller, president emeritus of the National Council on International Visitors and co-author of Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange and Development, was the keynote speaker.
 
Attendees learned that an international career does not mean leaving town. “One of the main emphases of the conference was to show that to have an international job, you don’t have to live out of the country, says Krasney. “You can have an international career in Cleveland.”
 
Global Cleveland president Larry Miller also spoke about the number of international companies in Cleveland and the importance of international awareness of other cultures. “Throughout the conference he spoke in a lot of different languages,” says Krasney.
 
Breakout sessions were held for those who wanted to learn more about international careers in government, nonprofit organizations and business.

 
Source: Jana Krasney
Writer: Karin Connelly