Lakewood may be a huge hub for the “shop small” movement, but the personalities of the city’s emergent local businesses are anything but small. This summer, the city has welcomed two niche stores: Coven and Cleveland Curiosities. Catering to those with interests that may be off the beaten path, Coven focuses on all things witchy, while Cleveland Curiosities is packed with oddities that can’t be found anywhere else.

Work will begin this September to transform the former Worsted Mills site—once one of the country’s largest garment manufacturers—into the Morgana Bluff Nature Preserve Learning Center. The project will encompass four acres of abandoned industrial land adjacent to the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland in Slavic Village, offering hiking/biking trails and boardwalks, outdoor learning areas for groups and school classes, and spots for observation.

Originally slated to close yesterday, the Asian Lantern Festival has been such a popular attraction this summer that Cleveland Metroparks decided to extend the luminous, intricate exhibit that winds through the lower zoo ground for two more weeks through Labor Day weekend. That's a testament to the hard work of Metroparks staff, plus the 35 lantern makers who came to Cleveland from China to lend an authentic touch.

Fresh Water's monthly "Free Stamp" feature rounds up the freshest free events in Cleveland.

113 years after it was first annexed by the city of Cleveland, Old Brooklyn is becoming new again. With a steadily shifting population (including rapidly growing African-American and Latino demographics) and an equally changing economic landscape (with Chain Reaction bringing at least five new businesses into the area), Old Brooklyn is entering a new era. FreshWater Cleveland is excited to cover the neighborhood’s ongoing transformation in its first-ever On the Ground community reporting initiative.

Yulonda Amey and her three children, Nayira, 16, Ni’Shawn, 13, and Richard, nine, will be moving in to one of five Buckeye neighborhood houses recently renovated by North Carolina-based Ply Gem, a leading manufacturer of exterior building products, and the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity as part of Ply Gem’s Home for Good project.

Not just a first for Cleveland, Flaming River Con is actually the inaugural LGBTQIA+ geek convention for the Midwest. (The only similar event takes place in New York City.) Like other comic cons, Flaming River Con includes panels, vendors and events highlighting geek-culture like comics, tabletop gaming, books, and arts and crafts—but with a focus on inclusivity, a trait that’s sometimes lacking at similar events.

Cleveland's small business community is buzzing with the opening of Beauty Shoppe, a 24-hour coworking and office space designed to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses, and the accompanying Foyer coffee shop. Both entities are located in the burgeoning Seymour Building, which was originally constructed in 1876 and now springing back to life via the Snavely Group.

Welcome to the latest edition of FreshWater Cleveland's “Who’s Hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for, and how to apply. This installment includes jobs from Benjamin Media, ioby, Hyland, Tri-C, WEWS, The Centers for Families and Children, and because I said I would. Click here for the freshest job opportunities fit to print.

Now that Old Brooklyn has been chosen as the site for the second iteration of Cleveland Chain Reaction, who are the businesses that will set up shop on its streets? This week’s Business Pitch Showcase took Chain Reaction hopefuls one giant step closer to answering that question. With the field narrowed down from 107 initial applicants, the remaining 18 semi-finalists took center stage at COSE’s downtown headquarters to give their “Shark Tank”-style pitches for why they should be one of five businesses chosen to receive at least $100,000 of investment.

A Lyndhurst native and St. Ignatius alum, Kevin Wojton left the Cleveland area for a technology career in New York and Hong Kong. But his true love is rock climbing, having even becoming a sponsored athlete in the sport—and his mission is to spread that love by bringing the ultimate rock climbing experience to Cleveland.

As Cleveland artist Loren Naji sees it, the art world should be an inclusive place—with his recent CAN'T Triennial event embodying that philosophy. As FreshWater caps off its Arts & Culture-themed month, we asked Naji to share his thoughts on where the art world is headed...and why he thinks stuffy museums and exhibitions will soon be the stuff of the past.

Former FreshWater editor Erin O'Brien may have put it best when she said that Rooms to Let "is not dancing on a grave. It's leaving flowers on it." Held last weekend, this thought-provoking annual event enlists local artists to transform houses slated for demolition into meaningful, active art installations. Each year, Rooms to Let takes place in Slavic Village (which Cleveland.com called "Ground Zero" for the foreclosure crisis). Take a deeper look into this evocative effort with Bob Perkoski's pictures taken on-site.

Chefs from Saucisson, Salt, Green City Growers, and more are headed to NYC for a special "Cleveland Rocks" dinner at the James Beard House on Tuesday.

Welcome to the latest edition of FreshWater Cleveland's “Who’s Hiring” series, where we feature growing companies with open positions, what they’re looking for, and how to apply. This installment includes jobs from City Year, CyberCoders, True2U, Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department, WIRE-Net, and the Cleveland Clinic. Click here for the freshest job opportunities fit to print.

This Saturday, Surrogate Suburbs author Todd Michney will lead a guided bus tour hosted by the Cleveland Restoration Society. Titled "The Roots of Black Sub-Urbanization," the tour will dive deep into the rich histories of the Mount Pleasant, Lee-Harvard, and Lee-Seville (Miles Heights) neighborhoods. “It’s basically about the struggle to achieve the American Dream,” Michney says. “It’s the history of Cleveland’s Black middle class and looking toward the edge of the city for African Americans [who] started moving in the early 1900s."

Stage One of the Towpath Trail Extension Project—an effort to connect 100 miles of biking and hiking paths from New Philadelphia to the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland—is scheduled to get underway next week, and the public is invited to attend a ceremonial groundbreaking on Monday, July 30, at Steelyard Commons.

Just as there are few things more refreshing than a scoop of ice cream from Ohio City-based Mason's Creamery on a hot summer night, owners Helen Qin and Jesse Mason think perhaps the one thing Clevelanders need to get them though the work week is an early morning dance party.

At the intersection of Eastern and Western medicine is where Chelsea Sposit finds herself today—but it’s been a long, difficult road getting there. Last October, Sposit suffered an injury to her right eye that impacted her vision and forced the closing of her business, Lotus Layer Medical Spa. With support from her family, friends, and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Sposit picked herself up with a new business plan and applied to the inaugural Healthcare Innovation Bootcamp (held jointly by MIT and Harvard). Sposit is one of just 70 people selected from thousands of applicants worldwide and will travel to Cambridge, MA, in mid-August to study in a program that is the first of its kind.