Thanks to the $40 million Ohio Motion Picture Tax Incentive, productions like White Boy Rick (a feature film starring Matthew McConaughey) and "American Ninja Warrior" are just a few that have turned their lens on The Land this year—and in light of the State of Ohio’s recent renewal for the 2017-18 fiscal year, they’re likely to keep on coming. Funding will be used to attract large-scale media productions into the region, but local entities are also lobbying for an increased tax credit that would make Northeast Ohio an even more powerful magnet for Hollywood's creatives.

Read about it here. 

Macklemore made a number-one song about it. Joanna Gaines is spinning ratings gold for HGTV with “Fixer-Upper.” No doubt the obsession with thrifting, upcycling and antiquing has reached a fever pitch—and City Salvage & Design’s Janice Beckler is living the DIY dream. Beckler has spent more than 50 years training her keen eye for offbeat, eye-catching furniture and items to add unmistakable flair to any decor scheme.
 
To that end, she and her husband, Doug, have traveled "all over Ohio, buying farm picks, industry picks. Wherever we can find it, we will go. We have a good eye for finding good stuff.”
 
Five years ago, Beckler decided to share her finds. Calling on 30 years of teaching experience and a background in customer service and design, she opened City Salvage & Design in Amherst. The shop was so successful that Beckler opened a second location in Ohio City last month. 

Find out more about this dedicated DIY-er here. 

In Scott Hubay's opinion, there are two kinds of attorneys—those that solve ongoing conflicts, and those that take a shovel to molehill-sized problems before they become a mountain. With a new practice offering legal counsel to political campaigns, Hubay is busy tamping down potentially harmful issues for his clients in real-time.
 
Hubay's Ohio City-based shop, Hubay LLC, provides Ohio's elected officials, candidates, issue campaigns and nonprofits with legal counsel, compliance services and campaign infrastructure development. 

Read about this unique law practice here.

As Ozy put it, "bioscience entrepreneurship has reshaped Cleveland's sagging economy." Yet though the Health-Tech Corridor has certainly become a hotbed for biosience, the struggle to attract health information technology (HIT) employees to the region continues to be real. Luckily, LinkedIn, BioEnterprise, Cleveland State, and other Northeast Ohio agencies are committed to closing that gap—joining forces to provide in-depth analysis and form strategies for fostering local HIT talent.
 
Government Technology had this to say about the initiative:

"One of the critical limiting factors to growth in Northeast Ohio's bioscience industry today is the availability of health IT talent," Aram Nerpouni, BioEnterprise president and CEO, said in a statement. "Thriving health IT companies are hindered by the dearth of software developers and data scientists. The LinkedIn project should provide meaningful data and analysis to inform how we address this challenge."

With the support of the Cleveland Foundation, BioEnterprise launched HIT in the CLE in 2015 to address the lack of available talent in computer and data science. The project is an important tactic within the larger HIT in the CLE talent strategy, the partners said.

LinkedIn will provide Cleveland with information of the skills local employers need, the skills its workers have and the disconnect between the two.

"The city can use those insights to create a stronger IT talent pipeline, and grow its IT industry," said LinkedIn U.S. Head of Policy Nicole Isaac in a statement.

Read the full piece here.

A 262,000-square-foot, 11-story luxury apartment building is not only the newest addition to the skyline, but the first of its kind in downtown Cleveland—meeting demand for both high-end off-campus student housing and affordable urban apartments for the young professional crowd.
 
Enter the Edge on Euclid (1750 Euclid Ave.), which sits just adjacent to Cleveland State University and Playhouse Square. Along with close proximity to campus and culture, the building also offers a quick commute to schools like Case Western Reserve in University Circle and a central location for recent graduates just launching their careers in Cleveland.

Planning your next vacation? You may not have to travel beyond the city limits. Reward Expert has ranked Cleveland 7th on its list of “2017’s Best Cities for Staycations.” The reward travel website compared 100 of the largest cities in the U.S. based on 29 key metrics broken down into three categories: Recreation, Food & Entertainment, and Rest & Relaxation. Cleveland’s sports success and must-sees like PlayhouseSquare and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are cited, as well as Cleveland's “many public pools and its beaches alongside Lake Erie.” (And here's a fun fact: Cleveland has the most public pools per capita. Stay cool, Cleveland!)

Read the full write-up and see which other cities made the list here.
 

West Coasters who mistakenly think of Ohio as a flyover state clearly haven't been to Cleveland—but the Los Angeles Times has finally gotten the memo. This in-depth piece by Fran Golden provides an overview of all of Cleveland's greatest hits, from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to 78th Street Studios to the West Side Market. Local movers and shakers like Mayor Frank Jackson, Julian Bruell and Greater Cleveland Film Commission head Ivan Schwarz all lend their voices to the story, with notable quotables like the following:
 
Local pride is also a philosophy embraced by young returnee Bruell, who said, "Cleveland shouldn't try to be like New York or Chicago or other cities. It should be unique and different."

Schwarz, of the film commission, compared what's happening in Cleveland to the renaissance of Portland, Ore.

"Old-time Clevelanders may question the cool factor. I see an untapped gold mine," he said. "I think we really should shout from the rooftop the virtues of this city."

Read the full write-up here.

The educational opportunities at NewBridge Cleveland have afforded one promising graphic design student a fast track to a full scholarship at Cleveland Institute of Art.

There's a whole campaign underway to bring the Forest City back to life. Here's the story of the foot soldiers in that effort—trees raised to green up our urban neighborhoods.

Welcome to the latest edition of Fresh Water Cleveland's “who’s hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for and how to apply. See all of the listings here.

Welcome to "Over The River," a monthly calendar of exciting activities taking place throughout the area. ?Our July listing includes lakeside tunes, a wedding design extravaganza and a cancer-fighting festival. 

Read all about it here.
 

Cleveland Chain Reaction has reached the next step in the economic development project that will bring five new businesses to Slavic Village. A group of 10 local businesses have been named finalists, whittled down from the initial 24 companies chosen in June to compete.
 
The 10 finalists represent a variety of industries serving both current and emerging markets with products and services that range from food to hard goods manufacturing and distribution.  Each were selected for their potential growth and impact on jobs and investment in Greater Cleveland.

Find out who the 10 finalists are here.

Cleveland's gleaming development projects garner enough ink to fill one of the new condos going up downtown. However, it's the people living in the neighborhoods surrounding these headline-grabbing ventures who are the subject of a new book released by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

Read about it here. 

The newest half-mile section of the complex path offers up history, industry and unique views of the city that will be new to most locals.

Cleveland is home to confectionary pleasures of all sizes, shapes and flavors, meaning area bakery owners need to get creative in how they brand their businesses.

Check out Cleveland's fresh selection of uniquely themed bakeries here. 

Two new benches adorn Hildana Park on Chagrin Boulevard in Shaker Heights’ Moreland District. But aside from providing a place to sit, these benches offer much more to park visitors.

The colorful, solar-powered Soofa Benches, which launched out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in 2014, offer both a place to sit and a place to recharge phones and other devices and connect to the Internet. 

Learn more about what these smart benches offer here.

While the Port of Cleveland is well known as the fastest route between the Midwest and Northern Europe — bringing 13 million tons of cargo anually through the Cleveland Harbor, which translates into $3.5 billion in annual economic activity and more than 20,000 jobs — last week marked the arrival of a large cruise ship to Cleveland.
 
Victory Cruise Lines’ Victory 1 docked at the Port last Tuesday, June 20 as part of its Great Lakes Grand Discovery tour. The stop was the first of at least eight visits this cruising season, says Jade Davis, vice president of external affairs for the Port of Cleveland.

Find out more about the impact Victory 1 has on the city here.

Summer is the season for vacations, relaxation and general fun in the sun, or so the brochure tells us. The hot months don't have to be spent just lazing about, however, because Cleveland is positively smoking with educational summertime programs, and Fresh Water is burning things up with this enticing workshop roundup, with everything from creating mysterious accordion books and building video games to snapping out flash fiction.

Get the whole list here. 

Via the school's Engaged Practice programming, students interact with the real world through their arts — from protecting the fragile Cuyahoga to advocating for the homeless.