The typical Cleveland bus shelter is a drab glass-and-metal box whose primary purpose is keep the wind, snow, rain and salt off riders. They are not exactly known for their aesthetic appeal.

Yet two new shelters installed by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) on Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights take a more creative, sustainable approach. The solar-powered shelters light up in various colors at night, contain larger, more comfortable benches, and feature dividers for individual seats.

The new shelters were installed by GCRTA this month using a $100,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration. They are located at Mayfield and Coventry Roads and Mayfield and Warrensville Center Roads. The project was completed in partnership with the City of Cleveland Heights.

"The solar bus stops are a very exciting project for Cleveland Heights that ties in to our commitment to ‘go green’ and support sustainability projects,” said Cleveland Heights Mayor Edward Kelley in a press release. “This partnership with RTA is a great visual way to promote solar energy.”

RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese stated that the project is evidence of RTA's commitment to sustainability. “Using public transit has always been great for the environment," he said. "Now, we have re-committed all of RTA to be more sustainable."

The shelters are powered by a rooftop solar-powered battery system. The exterior lights turn different colors at night, while the interior lights are motion-sensitive and turn on only when a customer is in the shelter.

The shelters were designed by Solar Impact, a local renewable energy company that is based in Shaker Heights. GCRTA developed the bus shelters as part of its sustainability initiative and Transit Waiting Environment program, an effort to improve its bus shelters so that they are more comfortable for users.


Source: Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The 22-unit Sylvia apartment building has been an eyesore ever since it became vacant two years ago. When its owner died unexpectedly, leaving nobody to care for the property, Detroit Shoreway neighbors watched as the vacant building, which is nestled mid-block on Franklin Boulevard, fell into disrepair.

Beginning this fall, however, nearby homeowners should have something to celebrate: The Sylvia is slated to receive a $3 million makeover that will preserve this historic structure while adding new neighbors to this well-kept block.

The Sylvia, which features a brick facade, hardwood floors, built-in kitchen display cases, and Tudor archways and doorways, will be reduced to an 18-unit, mixed income building following a complete renovation by the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization (DSCDO).

Jenny Spencer, Project Manager with DSCDO, says the Sylvia is part of a neighborhood-wide revitalization trend spurred by the nonprofit's work to preserve its mixed-income character while adding new development. In the past several decades, DSCDO has purchased and renovated 13 historic properties.

"By acquiring, stabilizing and rehabbing multi-family buildings, we've been able to eliminate a lot of our slum and absentee landlord problem," says Spencer. "We've also provided safe, decent, affordable housing and preserved our housing stock."

DSCDO plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, October 6th. The renovation is being funded with Neighborhood Stabilization Fund dollars through the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation and the City of Cleveland, historic tax credits from Huntington National Bank and a bridge loan from the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. Enterprise Community Partners and Village Capital Corporation provided predevelopment financing.


Source: Jenny Spencer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

In Cleveland, some wide-eyed literary activists are launching a new form of creative writing workshops. Not only will these programs measurably improve the writing and verbal skills of the students who enroll, they are inspiring youth to discover worlds beyond their own. In turn, these programs very well might be providing the keys to future success.

The Historic Haunts Walking Tour, an event now in its fifth year, provides family-friendly Halloween treks through the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. Local residents sporting top hats and toting lanterns lead audiences along historic West Clinton and Franklin Boulevards. They stop at porches to watch costumed actors bring to life tales of murder, love and mayhem from the neighborhood's storied past.

Yet last year, the event did more than just entertain. It also led Cleveland couple Tim Brown and Andy O'Conke straight to the doorstep of their dream home.

"I looked up and saw a two-story house with a pillared porch," recalls Brown of the West Clinton colonial that he purchased earlier this year. "I thought: 'Three minutes from work, a small yard for the dog... This is the home for me!'"

Brown and O'Conke moved into their new home in mid-August -- just in time for this year's Historic Haunts. The couple's broad, welcoming porch has now been incorporated into the walking tour, and they're looking forward to the event.

In addition to the home's many green features, which were added during a top-to-bottom renovation by the Cleveland Housing Network (CHN), Brown and O'Conke were drawn to Detroit Shoreway by its welcoming, hyper-social residents.

"This is unbelievable neighborhood," says O'Conke. "As soon as we'd moved in, we met more neighbors than we had ever known at any other place we lived."

The home was renovated as part of the Opportunity Homes program, a targeted effort by the nonprofit Neighborhood Progress Inc. (NPI) and CHN to bring renovated, energy-efficient homes to six Cleveland neighborhoods.

(The tours take place October 7 and 8.)


Source: Judith Allen, Andy O'Conke, Tim Brown
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Theravasc, a Cleveland based research and development company that focuses on repurposing existing drugs for other uses, has just completed a phase I clinical trial on reversing the effects of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in diabetic patients.
 
Patients with PAD have in the past had little hope for treatment, let alone a cure – until Theravasc started researching the effect of a drug used to treat cyanide poisoning. The drug, called TV1001, showed promise in the trial, which included 12 diabetic patients.
 
“People with PAD can’t walk and are in pain, and there’s nothing doctors can do,” explains Tony Giordano, Theravasc president and CEO. “This drug causes new blood vessels to grow in that leg, and only that leg. In animal studies it was doing exactly what we wanted it to do.”
 
The next step is a IIA trial followed by a third trial, to test the effects of giving the drug chronically. Giordano says if all goes well, TV1001 would hit the market in 2015. He thinks about his father-in-law and a 84-year old Shreveport, LA woman who was ranked seven on the tennis circuit – both affected by PAD – when he thinks about the positive possibilities of the drug.
 
“I think there’s a high likelihood that we’re going to see success in humans,” Giordano says. “I think this is going to work, and I know this is not going to hurt them. It will give them an opportunity to lead a better life and start walking again. I’m excited about that.”
 
Source: Tony Giordano
Writer: Karin Connelly

Quality Electrodynamics (QED) was one of the local recipients of Ohio Third Frontier funding for the development of an imaging system that will improve the way doctors evaluate whether a kidney is viable for donation.
 
The Cleveland-based company, working with the Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological Institute, CWRU, Toshiba Medical Systems and Canon, received $1 million for the development of specialty MRI coils for imaging donor kidneys before transplant to determine viability.
 
Currently, potentially viable kidneys are sometimes rejected for transplant, or there are complications after transplant. This technology will improve the chances of success as well as reduce the number of kidneys that are thrown away.
 
“The program will result in a turnkey system of equipment, analysis software and clinical protocols which will be marketed to transplant centers on a worldwide basis,” says John L. Patrick, chief technical marketing officer for QED.

“Recipients of kidneys from deceased donors would benefit in several ways: Higher confidence level that the transplanted kidney can be viable and better knowledge of its condition; increase of transplanted kidneys by reducing the number of viable kidneys discarded will increase the number of patients able to benefit from transplantation.”
 
Patrick says the technology should be on the market in less than two years, depending on how clinical trials go. QED expects to begin hiring additional people for development of the technology in the next few months.

“In the proposal we stated that 38 jobs would be created at QED within 3 years,” says Patrick. “In fact, we believe that number to be quite conservative.”
 
 
Source: John L. Patrick
Writer: Karin Connelly

OnShift has found its groove. The Cleveland company continues to build success as a software developer for the senior living market.

“We specialize in healthcare organizations who want to manage their staffing and labor costs,” says CEO Mark Woodka.
 
Tapping into the senior living market happened by accident for the company, which was founded in 2007.

“Our founder (Gene Groys) was building a communications platform and was hosting a dinner party when an administrator of the nursing home expressed an interest in it,” says Woodka.
 
OnShift launched their first product in 2009 and has been building momentum ever since. “Our business is growing,” says Woodka. “The market we sell to is under-served. Historically, our customers haven’t had the technology to manage their staffs. We were in the right place and the right time.”
 
OnShift had 175 customers by the end of 2010, and expects to grow to 600 by the end of this year. They just hired four people to their 32-person staff, still have six open positions in a range of fields, and expect to grow to 55 to 60 total by the end of 2012.
 
“We’re growing like gangbusters here,” says Woodka. “And we’re an incredibly fun place to work.”

 
Source: Mark Woodka
Writer: Karin Connelly

Four Northeast Ohio organizations are one group of just 20 national winners of the Obama administration's $37 million Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multi-agency competition to support the advancement of high-growth industry clusters across the country.
 
NorTech, JumpStart, MAGNET and Lorain County Community College came together to cooperatively apply for the $2 million grant that will help create jobs in the region. The program, the Northeast Ohio Speed-To-Market Accelerator (STMA), is designed to accelerate the speed-to-market for near-production or pilot-production prototypes in the advanced energy and flexible electronics industry clusters in Northeast Ohio.
 
The fact that the groups collaborated on the project is no surprise.

“There’s a history of organization in this region -- we work together collaboratively all the time,” says Cathy Belk, chief relationship officer with JumpStart. “The fact that we already knew each other made it easy to identify the needs and work together on the proposal.”
 
Each organization will assist in its area of expertise, from company advising to workforce development. The STMA consists of three components, explains Byron Clayton, vice president of NorTech. “The first step is holding outreach workshops to let companies know the service areas we are targeting. The second step is one-on-one counseling and a path-to-market analysis. The third step is to deliver the services.”
 
Aside from offering expertise and guidance, the four groups plan to speed up the jobs creation process within new companies. “We are asking what can we do to help you to speed this process up,” says Clayton. “We’re working together as a region, as a network of nationally-recognized organizations.”

 
Sources: Cathy Belk, Byron Clayton
Writer: Karin Connelly

This week marks the first anniversary for Fresh Water. It feels like just yesterday that we sat down to map out what the first few weeks and months of our new publication would look like. From the start, Fresh Water wanted to highlight the game changers in our city who are striving to make Cleveland a better place to live, work and play. We feel we are doing that.

Thanks to the volunteers at this year's Cleveland GiveCamp, there is now a downloadable app for local foods information in Northeast Ohio. The free app brings together information on community gardens, orchards, farms, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, U-pick locations, and farmers markets and stands into a single, easy-to-browse format.

Nicole Wright of the Ohio State University Extension Urban Agriculture Program says the Harvest NEO app is available on iTunes and will soon be available to Android users, too.

"It's a simple tool that brings together information on different types of local food locations," she says. "It generates a map based on your current location when it opens, and you can search either using the map or by an alphabetical listing."

The OSU Extension submitted an application for the Harvest NEO app to Cleveland GiveCamp earlier this year. The annual weekend event, whose tag line is "geeks in the home of rock and roll coding for charity," is part of a national effort to connect technology professionals with the needs of local nonprofits.

This year, Cleveland GiveCamp was held on July 29th at the offices of LeanDog and Arras, technology and marketing companies that are investing over $500,000 to renovate the former Hornblower's floating barge into state-of-the-art offices.

Wright says that OSU Extension will soon export a local foods map to its website so that the information is available in one place for web users, too. The nonprofit is also committed to improving the Harvest NEO app's functionality over time. Ideas for improvement include adding the ability to search by category.

"Hopefully, it is a tool that can help people become more involved and engaged with local foods, either by growing it or purchasing it," says Wright.


Source: Nicole Wright
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Aeroscena is tapping into the world of aromatherapy with Ascents -- little sachets of essential oils that creators say not only smell nice, but help with everything from weight loss and insomnia to energy and relaxation. Aeroscena CEO Mark Kohoot says the idea was inspired by the 18^th and 19^th century trend of women wearing their own personal scents around their necks.
 
“Ascents are an innovative way to experience aromatherapy in a portable diffuser,” explains Shannon Gibb, product manager. “They are all natural, made with essential oils."

There are five different scents, each of which comes in a little packet. Unseal the packet and inhale the scent up to 500 times. The five signature blends are: Sleep, Energize, Calm, Focus, and Curb for weight loss.
 
Founded a little over a year ago, Aeroscena employees telecommuted from home until June of this year, when the company opened offices in the Leader Building downtown. Ana Sorel was just hired as marketing manager and Aaron Cornell was brought on as the new CFO. Gibb says the next step is to build a solid sales rep staff.
 
Ascents are available on the company’s website, at Nature’s Bin in Lakewood and at 360-5 Wellness Store at the Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic also gives Ascents to participants in their online sleep program, Go! to Sleep.
 

Source: Shannon Gibb
Writer: Karin Connelly

Fashions by Fowler, a popular women's clothing boutique run by sisters Renay and Tracy Fowler, has relocated to a Shaker Square storefront that has been sitting empty for years. Previously home to Metropolitan Galleries and Ann Taylor Loft, the 5,200-square-foot space is considerably larger than the boutique's old home on Mayfield Road.

"It's been very exciting," says Renay Fowler of the new space. "Shaker Square is so diverse in terms of nationalities and cultures, which I love. We're also positioned right between a bank and a Subway store, so we get a lot more walk-in traffic."

Fowler says that she has had little trouble filling her larger digs with both merchandise and customers. "We have a very diverse inventory, and we specialize in unique, one-of-a-kind items," she says. Some of the items the store carries include costume jewelry, furs and cowhide boots inlaid with rhinestones.

"If you're looking for something fun, glitzy and one-of-a-kind, that's what we do," says Fowler. "People assume our inventory is more expensive than it actually is -- you can get an entire outfit in our store for under one hundred dollars."

Fashions by Fowler features work by local clothing designers as well as smaller companies that are based in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Atlanta. In addition to its unique clothing inventory, the store employs an in-house milliner and a staff person that repairs costume jewelry.

"That's very hard to find these days," says Fowler. "People can bring a drawing in and get a hat or costume jewelry made for them."


Source: Renay Fowler
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Ben Faller and Jesse Honsky's aim was to restore their home on E. 128th Street between Larchmere and Shaker boulevards to its original character based upon photographs they'd uncovered. Vinyl siding, noxious and non-recyclable, was an unfortunate side effect. Painstakingly removing the siding from their home, they knew, regrettably, that the chemical-laden strips likely would end up in a landfill.

Was there another option?

That's when one of their neighbors came up with the idea of turning it into a work of art. Katharyne Starinsky, founder and co-chair of the Neighborhoods of Shaker Square Home Tour, contacted a local artist and got the ball rolling.

"We wanted to find a way to celebrate what they were doing while also promoting green living," says Starinsky.

She contacted Tremont artist Ian Petroni, who was immediately intrigued by the proposal. "I told her that I loved the opportunity but that I hated vinyl siding, and she said, 'That's exactly the point,'" recalls Petroni.

The artist's provocative sculpture, entitled 'Invasive Species,' refashions the strips of yellow siding into a bountiful and oddly beautiful vinyl jungle that shoots up from Faller's and Honsky's front lawn like a rapacious, fast-growing plant.

"I decided to call it 'invasive species' because it doesn't fit into the historic environment and because it chokes out other species," explains Petroni. "I wanted to get people to start thinking about the drawbacks of vinyl siding."

Petroni was not only concerned with the impact of vinyl siding on the character of historic neighborhoods, but also with its toxic effect on the environment. "The production of vinyl is dangerous to people and ecosystems," he says.

Since its installation, the sculpture has been a conversation starter as well as a popular draw during the home tour. "It's like a Christmas lighting display, the way the cars slow down as they drive along 128th," says Starinsky with a laugh.

Neighbors on the street have begun to approach the homeowners about buying portions of the sculpture to install in their yards. Starinsky says she hopes to eventually sell the sculpture as a fundraiser for the home tour.

Within the next 7 to 10 days, Petroni plans to move the sculpture to the side yard of Felice, a popular restaurant in the neighborhood. There, spectators will be able to gawk at it throughout fall. (Hopefully it won't cause accidents.)


Source: Ian Petroni, Katharyne Starinsky
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The growing number of urban gardens in the city of East Cleveland prompted the second annual Urban Gardens and Farmers Market Open House. Held last Saturday, the event highlighted the blossoming of urban farms and gardens in a community that lacks even a single major grocery store, says Nicole Wright, Program Coordinator with the Ohio State University Cuyahoga County Extension office, who helped to organize the event in collaboration with local residents.

Wright says the proliferation of local gardens is helping local residents to grow and eat healthier food, save money on food expenses, reuse and beautify vacant land, improve community health outcomes and potentially earn money by selling locally grown produce at the Coit Road Farmers Market.

"We're definitely making an impact," says Wright, citing the presence of nine community gardens in the city. "East Cleveland has an unusually high concentration of gardens for a small city. When you look at Cuyahoga County as a whole, it actually has the second highest number of gardens."

Three years ago, OSU Extension, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission applied for and were awarded a grant from the Center for Disease Control. The resulting program, Creating Healthy Communities, helps to address public health issues in East Cleveland and Euclid by providing better food choices and encouraging healthier lifestyles.

"We chose East Cleveland because it has low access to fresh foods and high rates of chronic, preventable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and obesity," says Wright. "We want to help people to become more self-reliant."

East Cleveland was also selected because of its Coit Road Farmers Market, a local institution that is not frequented often enough by local residents, says Wright. One of the goals of Creating Healthy Communities is to turn that trend around.

In recent years, the farmers market has been encouraging local residents to grow and sell their produce at the market. This fruitful partnership is helping to reengage local residents with this fresh food venue. "This is about promoting the market that's right there in the community," says Wright.


Source: Nicole Wright
Writer: Lee Chilcote