Posts Tagged ‘Cleveland neighborhoods’

Want to know more about the Galleria?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I have been watching the Galleria with much anticipation.  They decided to remake the Galleria as a sort of urban greenhouse farm.  Let’s face it, the traditional mall concept is not doing well across the country.  Add to that the urban flight to the suburbs that Cleveland has experienced for the last several decades, and you have a bleak outlook for a downtown mall.  Fortunately, you have visionaries like Vicky Poole.  Vicky started  planting vegetables and other plants in hanging baskets around the mall.  The Galleria is basically just one big greenhouse anyhow, with its large atrium with giant open spaces and glass ceiling.  Of course, there ares still shops and shop spaces, but now when you go there you get a more green and lush experience.  Furthermore, I hear they are taking the idea of a “Eco Mart” and green business incubator idea and adding it to the mix.  How it all turns out is both exciting and innovative.  When you marry that to the Euclid corridor make over and the Avenue project, downtown could once again be the hot neighborhood to be!  I can’t wait to see the results.  I am planning on attending a meeting there this weekend and will find out more.  But to launch this new initiative and their Resource center, there will be a “happy hour” there as the Sustainability Summit is going on.  Please join me there to find out more!  www.gardensunderglass.net

Gardens Under Glass is an economic development project located in the Galleria; supporting the growth of urban agriculture, and sustainability education.  Gardens Under Glass ReSource Center will be opening September 22, in hopes to support an opportunity to network after the first day of the Sustainability Conference, the Glocal Engine.  The Center plans to support City sustainable initiatives, groups, and organizations with a green message.  We will also be focusing on healthy lifestyle education.  If you are receiving this e-mail, it is because I have talked with you, and feel you would be a good fit, and would like your product or service to be a part of the Center.  Interested businesses and groups, please contact me at your earliest convenience so that I can coordinate your space requirements. It is my hope to have everyone included.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Feel free to call me on my cell..440 225.0723

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Help Create the West Side Food Co-op…

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

A food co-op is a member owned grocery store. There are a number of different styles of food co-ops, but all of them share common values of group management and decision making, social responsibility, and equality. Most food co-ops strive to follow the Seven Cooperative Principles, which include:

• Voluntary & Open Membership
• Democratic Member Control
• Economic Participation
• Autonomy & Independence
• Education, Training & Information
• Cooperation among Cooperatives
• Concern for the Community

Eastsiders have been blessed with a food co op for many years.  The co op on Euclid just east of University Circle has long been a successful shopping destination for lovers of local and natural foods.  Unfortunately, it is quite a schlep for those of us “westies.”  Part of building a greener more sustainable city is to strengthen our neighborhoods.  Dense urban neighborhoods that provide more amenities within a small area are vital to reducing our city’s carbon footprint and to attracting new residents and new business to the region.  Enter the West Side Food Co op.

This concept was borne of a discussion between residents of Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.  After several informal talks, the idea was tabled for several months.  However, it has come back and with a vengeance.  Now boasting a strong core of potential members and a “steering” committee that is dedicated to making this dream a reality, the West Side Food Co op is getting serious.  Monthly meetings are well attended and things are progressing pretty close to schedule.  By-laws and articles of incorporation are now in the works and things are getting ready to move to a new stage.  So, how can you help?

Before the steps can be taken to obtain funding and to move to the next stage, it is imperative to prove that there is a need and a desire for a food cooperative on Cleveland’s west side.  To achieve that end, they have produced a simple survey.  Not only will you help to show how much excitement there is for this project, but it will also help steer the direction of the plan and help to determine product selection within the store.  It may also steer the physical location of the store location.  The survey itself takes only a few minutes to complete.  I filled it out while sitting at a meeting on my cell phone.  Although the survey is simple, it is vital to the progression of this project.  Additionally, there will be folks out and about in west side neighborhoods, going door to door to get more survey results.  Please take a couple of minutes to answer the questions and help form a brick and mortar location for a food co op.  If you would like to help get some surveys filled out amongst your friends and neighbors, just drop me an email at robert@thegldc.com and I will connect you with the canvas coordinators.

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Posted in Cleveland, Green, Grocery Stores | No Comments »

Mall? What Mall?

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Cleveland has a lot of malls.  Stretching all the way back to the historic Arcades and all the way up to the present there have been plenty of shopping malls in the greater Cleveland area.  But when a mall dies, how do you bring it back to life?  The Galleria has been working hard to reinvent itself as an urban greenhouse and green business hot spot.  Other area malls are struggling to even stay standing.  What do you do with a behemoth that is not reaching its potential?  While some can demolish and rebuild like the Westpark mall, some have to find a way to stay relevant as they are, like Tower City.  As we ponder this question, the city of Cleveland is thinking about another kind of mall.

Downtown has a few large green spaces that are called The Cleveland Mall.  One original meaning of the word mall is an esplanade where pedestrians can walk and probably where the name came from.   From Wikipedia:

It was conceived as part of the 1903 Group Plan by Daniel Burnham, John Carrère, and Arnold Brunner[2] as a vast public room flanked by the city’s major civic and governmental buildings, all built in the neoclassical style. Many of those buildings were built over the following three decades, including the Metzenbaum Courthouse (1910), Cuyahoga County Courthouse (1912), Cleveland City Hall (1916), Public Auditorium (1922), the Cleveland Public Library main building (1925), and the Cleveland Public Schools Board of Education building (1931).[3] Other buildings include Key Tower, the Cuyahoga County Administration Building, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.[4]

One of the things that is important to any city is park and greenspace in its downtown.  But what do you do when a downtown needs to be completely revitalized and reborn?  What is more important greenspaces or the ability to attract new commerce?  I feel they go hand in hand and I know that I am not alone.  Will we or won’t we get a new convention center?  What about the Medical Mart?  These issues have been going around and around for years.  And don’t get me started on the waterfront redevelopment that has been discussed for at least a full decade. At least there is a place to find out more and to have your voice heard.  There will be a public forum on the malls and their future in the plans for downtown on May 6th at 5:30pm.  It will held at the Louis Stokes Downtown Public Library.  The library is located at 325 Superior Ave.

This is of great concern to me given Cleveland’s long history of tearing up something great and ending up with parking.  How many surface lots in downtown Cleveland were created by the demolition of historic buildings?  Did you know we had a hippodrome?  While future thinkers managed to save Playhouse Square (now the second largest theater district in the US, or so I have heard), we have lost a host of large and beautiful theaters around town.  Currently the Cleveland Playhouse is in danger as it was purchased by the Cleveland Clinic and their record of keeping historic buildings is spotty at best.  We love to tear things down in the name of progress, but rarely managed to follow through on the whole plan.  Money and best intentions do not always mesh, as can be seen by our slow movement on our own property, but when it comes to demolition, I say err on the side of caution.  If we tear up the mall in our efforts to revitalize downtown, will the plan come together and a final product built that is worth the loss?  I am more worried about the stalled development on the East bank of The Flats.  That was supposed to revitalize downtown and be the crowning gem in Cleveland’s glittering new attractive downtown.  Instead we are looking at a mess of debris and mud.  If Cleveland is so anxious to build a fantastic new convention center and   medical mart, why not buy back this property and build on it?  The land has been cleared and there are plenty of historic properties surrounding it that could use the revitalization that it brings to refurbish themselves.  What is left of nearby warehouses could easily be the building blocks for our new downtown hotels.  Instead, we think about tearing up a valued and treasured landmark in the name of progress.  What will be the fate of the Civic Auditorium?  Have you been inside?  While it may not be conducive to modern conventions, it is a beautiful property that needs loving restoration and not destruction.  And can we follow through?  If we break ground on this project, will it turn into another large surface lot?  When I heard about the beautiful Cleveland Hippodrome, I said “what hippodrome?”  Let’s not leave the next generation wondering, “Mall, what mall?”  Come and hear your voice heard at the meeting on May 6th.

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How do YOU get to work?

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I was alerted to this graphic by a blogger I read often called Joe.My.God. and it comes via 2nd Ave Sagas.  As a person who has driven in Seattle, LA, NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago, I can tell you that traffic is horrendous!  In NYC and SF, it is not a surprise that so many make use of public transportation, as it can be faster, easier and cheaper to do so than to drive.  In the case of San Fran, it is one of the greenest cities in the nation. The biggest polluters in any city are by far the buildings.  But cars, and their over usage cannot be ignored as a contributing factor to pollution, global warming and air quality.  Furthermore, a great public transportation system allows for dense urban growth and promotes cities with less reliability on commuters.  It can also do wonders to prevent urban sprawl.

What does this have to do with NE Ohio?   Cleveland is built to promote the suburbs.  Downtown may have plenty of living space these days, but what about shopping?  Furthermore,  our construction and promotion of rapid transit and the bus system as a way to move suburbanites to the city center instead of as a way to connect neighborhoods leads to less access of residents to other parts of the city.  At a time when we need to increase ridership and encourage people to drive less, lines are being dropped from the RTA scedule and weekend and evening service limited or eliminated.  Why?  There are less people living in the city who want to go downtown on the weekend, and that is how our system is set up.

Do not agree?  That is fine, but I will cite specific examples of where our service is lacking.  The rapid lines are built to go from the airport and the East side into downtown.  Unless you live right on the rapid line, you cannot reasonably use it get to the airport on a regular basis, and many of my colleagues travel regularly on business.  You are actually encouraged to drive and park there, or worse be driven and picked up, making each trip doubled.  The “Heart Line” a multi-million dollar investment by RTA to connect University Circle and corresponding hospitals to downtown is a colossal failure, in my opinion.  It does little to connect residents from surrounding neighborhoods to anything.  The rapid line that goes near the waterfront (which I have yet to actually see in service in the last 5 years) runs to Browns stadium.  It does not connect any eastside locations to downtown and their seems to be no plans to increase access to any waterfront development by way of rapid transit.  If I want to go from Brooklyn Center to Detroit Shoreway to catch a movie at the new Capitol theater, I can probably walk there faster than using public transport.  We want to have a strong urban core, a vital downtown, dense urban neighborhoods, and a green city.  Using the chart above, the three cities who have the highest use of public transportation for getting to work, all seem to be achieving these goals.  At least anecdotally, there is some sort of connection. It seems to me that until we get RTA on board to rethink “business as usual”, we are missing out on a key element of success.

And I would like to see our city leaders hopping on board the RTA to get to work.  How much more parking would there be downtown if half of our town’s govenment employees carpooled or rode public transportation?

So, how do YOU get to work?

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Posted in Arts & Culture, Cleveland, Green | 4 Comments »

It’s not weird, its Bizarre!

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a holiday season that didn’t involve using a ton of extra energy to light the lights, filling our landfills with cards and wrapping paper, and export more of our dollars to China as we buy cheap crap to shove under the tree? While I know that I won’t get most people to stop the commercial shopping experience that is Christmas (or Hannukah, or solstice, Kwanzaa, whatever). As “Black Friday” approaches, I am hoping that everyone will put out the effort to support local businesses. There are plenty of events around town that will allow you to help the local economy, while still getting your shopping fix.
bazbiz2009image
Bizarre Bazaar
This event was one of my favorite last year. Billed as an “indie craft show” we really didn’t know what to expect. We wondered what we would see at a show that promised “not to be your grandma’s craft show.” We were so pleasantly surprised. The place was packed with people-shoppers and stalls alike. The wares were all across the board. Not only was there jewelry and hand sewn goodies, but T-shirts, soaps, and all kinds of things that I have seen nowhere else. So popular was this show, in fact, that they added a second show on the East Side this year. The East Side show is Black Friday Weekend (this Friday and Saturday) 12635 Larchmere (across from Vine & Bean) during the Larchmere Holiday Stroll. 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. There are 50 vendors for this event. The West Side event is once again at the 78th st studios 1300 W. 78th St to 1305 W. 80th St., north parking lot, north entrance (behind the building) — accessible from W. 78th OR W 80th St. Saturday December 12th from noon to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday December 13th from noon to 6:00 p.m.

artshowThe 22nd annual Holiday Open Studio and Sale
If you have ever gone to Sparks Gallery Hop, then you know just how great some of the artists are that are housed in this building. If you haven’t, then you should definitely find out. This show has over 20 downtown artists and 30 regional artists working in fine arts and crafts, working in a whole range of media. If you want something outstanding for giving this year, then this is the spot! For fine arts and crafts, this is billed as the largest collection of artists for the holiday season.
Saturday, December 5, 2009, from 11am to 8pm and Sunday, December 6, 2009, from 11am to 5pm.
The Art Craft Building is at 2570 Superior Avenue, Cleveland 44114 Studios on the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th floors.
Free Parking available. Elevator access.

TerraVista Studios 10th Annual Holiday Sale
Friday, December 4: 11am – 4pm. Saturday, December 5: 12-7pm. Sunday, December 6: 12 – 4pm
Just down the street at 1400 East 30th St. #401 216.523.1382

n204488826702_7908 Detroit Shoreway After Thanksgiving Shopping Weekend

A great way to shop and support local retailers is to check out the newly refurbished Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. The retailers here are great! Get something locally made or hand crafted at Room Service, the shop that started the whole Made in 216 event! Get something wacky, funny and unique at Kitsch City, I mean where else can you buy a rubber ducky shaped like Elvis or the Pope? Be sure to stop in at Duo Home, a fantastic home store. I would love to get anything from this store, and they have a yummy selection of some of my favorite gourmet food lines. So much good taste in one shop, you think you are in heaven. Shopping wear you out? Not to worry! Get a quick pick me up at Gypsy Beans with a mocha and a hand made pastry. Round off the day with a nice meal at Luxe, Latitude 41, or the newly reopened Big Egg! Since you finished all your shopping in one day, celebrate with a drink at the Happy Dog, or Stone Mad pub! Come see all this great area has to offer.

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Join me!

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

This Saturday is an upcoming tour of the Eco Village neighborhood. This is where you will find our building and we look forward to taking this tour. Come join us! I got this note from Lilah, who is the community go to person for all things Eco Village:

Hi All,
Happy Summer! Over the months I have had many requests for tours of the Cleveland EcoVillage. Unfortunately I have not been able to accommodate all of the requests. This Saturday, the 29th, we will be offering a tour of the Cleveland EcoVillage for anyone interested in seeing the latest in green building and sustainability centered urban redevelopment. The tour is sponsored by a great new group – YNPN – Young Non-Profit Professional Network. We welcome you to join us as we meet new friends and explore the ever evolving Cleveland EcoVillage. Bring a bag lunch and stay for a meal and discussion in the Ithaca Community Garden. Drinks will be provided. The details are below! We hope to see you there. Also- please forward this email to anyone and everyone that may be interested. Thanks! – Lilah Zautner

Then here are the details from Ian at YNPN:

Tour the Cleveland EcoVillage with YNPN Cleveland!

Join YNPN Cleveland on Saturday, August 29th at 10:00 a.m. as we tour the Cleveland EcoVillage, a neighborhood that champions sustainability. We’ll be joined by the EcoVillage Director, who will lead a one hour walking tour of the neighborhood. We’ll also discuss transit-oriented development, urban gardens, sustainability initiatives, grassroots resident initiatives, “pocket parks” and cool new super-efficient housing. The tour will end at the EcoVillage garden with sandwiches and refreshments and a conversation about how you can make your organization more sustainable.

Join us at 10 a.m.at the Michael Zone Recreation Center at the corner of West 65th Street and Lorain Avenue. The parking lot is off of W.65th directly south of Lorain. Registration is not required, but you can RSVP here: http://www.ynpn.org/ecovillage-cle.

Additional details about the EcoVillage:

Located in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood on Cleveland’s near west side, the EcoVillage is based around the West 65th/Lorain Rapid Station. The EcoVillage is:
• An innovative partnership involving nonprofit organizations, the city, the regional transit authority, private developers, and neighborhood residents.
• A national demonstration project that will showcase green building and transit-oriented development.
• An opportunity to realize the promise of urban life in the most ecological way possible.

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Opening Day

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Sorry if you are tired of hearing about farmers markets, but buying locally made food is the easiest way to enrich your life, while reducing your carbon footprint.  Here si the announcement I got in my email for the Tremont market.  I will see you there this week-Tuesday!

TFM June 16, 2009: Opening Day!

The moment has come!  The Tremont Farmers Market will re-emerge in Lincoln Park and my, how we have grown!  In one year, we have tripled, at least, our vendor participation.  Standing in the area we’ve chosen to set up, I was looking around, trying to imagine 30 or so vendors.  Our mini-village will be quite cozy!

Last night, while gorging on fresh strawberries from my garden, I fantasized about all the delicious food that will be at the market.  Imagine being able to do almost all of your shopping in a beautiful park!  Well, you could make that happen this summer in Tremont.

There will be greens, strawberries, fresh cut flowers, yellow squash, spinach, beets, sprouts, eggs, honey, honey-based products, maple syrup, grass-fed organic beef, grass-fed organic cheese, bread, brownies, vegan baked goods, coffee, salsas and sauces, rubs, artwork, jewelry, cut flowers, plants, raw food, knitted pieces, tea, homeopathic remedies.  Are you dizzy, yet?  Because I am!  I run the risk of making these emails dangerously long, as the vendor list grows and their wares increase.

Now for the stars of the show, the vendors: Beecology, Country Charm Flowers, Gerard Family Farm, In the Raw Café, KC Coffee Co, Kyle Schenk, Lake Erie Creamery, Lise Anderson Jewelry, Mom’s Gourmet, Ms. Julie’s Kitchen, Ohio City Pasta, Ohio Farm Direct, Plant Kingdom Bakery, p’Zazz!, Red Basket Farm, Redozo Farm, Rock Valley Run Farm, Rose Ridge Farm, Supplements, Etc, Suzanniehandknits, t. by Sarah, Trish Supples, Ultimate Brownies, Wonder City Farm, and Will McCracken.

Highlights: Crepes and French fries cooked by Gerard Family Farm.

Grass-fed, organic vanilla ice cream will be served by Ohio Farm Direct; in addition to their wonderful cheese, they have whipped up ice cream, their own special chocolate sauce (all ingredients from their farm excepting the sugar and cocoa), and a few other delectable items.  Sprouts from Redozo Farm, maple syrup from Red Basket Farm. Vegan baked goods from Planet Kingdom Bakery. The rest I will leave as a surprise!

For our Cooking Demonstration, Chef Ricardo Sandoval is back!  Or still here; he’s been juggling dishes in Tremont for years now.  I have become one of his biggest fans.  Not only has he supported the market in many, many ways, he just always amazes me with his concoctions.  (And, we are both Pisces!)

The Tremont Gardeners have graciously agreed to hold their Plant Swap this Tuesday. Bring a plant, you get to take one home.  I myself am bringing a few Verbena bonariensis and Salvia sclarea.  Intrigued?  Get out and divide those perennials—it’s a little on the late side, but all you have to do is make sure they are well watered once planted!

Lisa and Heather Malyuk played for us last October, and they’re back as well!  Their hammered dulcimer based music is about perfect for a market.  They’re inspired, and so are we!

Neighborhood Family Practice will be on hand to provide nutritional information.

Many vendors accept WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Coupons, and we are getting set up to accept EBT.

*Remember to bring bags!  Reuse is necessary for sustainability.*

Celebrate our community, celebrate good healthy food!  Break bread with the best!

Jody Lathwell, market manager

www.tremontfarmersmarket.com

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Posted in Cleveland, Green, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Archwood Street Sale.

Friday, June 5th, 2009

This weekend is the Archwood Street Sale. I have always loved this sale. It has a great eclectic mix of items, and it goes on for several blocks. Come out and see what is up for sale. Archwood is just south of Interstate 71 between W 25th and Fulton. I will definitely be stopping by to see the Brooklyn Centre Naturalists. They are a great group, and you could learn a bit from them and find out how to start a Naturalist group in your neighborhood. Here is the email I got in my inbox this afternoon:

It’s the first weekend of June and time for the Annual Archwood Street Sale. This year the event is expanded and better than ever. Go here for details.
Saturday, June 6 9 am to 4:30 p.m.
The Brooklyn Centre Naturalists will be there selling raffle tickets for a Garden Gift basket and , signing people up to become a backyard habitat.
Look at the beautiful Brooklyn Memorial Garden.
Saturday, June 13th. 2:30 p.m. til 4 p.m. Mark your calendars for our regular monthly meeting at CPL-Brooklyn Branch. Bring your project to the meeting, be part of planning our next move, become part of this dynamic group.
email bcnaturalists@gmail with questions.

Besides the gardening aspect, you can find a great deal. Remember that buying used and buying local are both sustainable concepts. C’mon out!

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Cleveland is Freaking Awesome! (and Akron, too!)

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

A blogger from LA is coming to Stow for a wedding next month. She emailed me and asked if there was anything cool to do or any great local food restaurants that I would recommend. I had to think about it, as she is not a meat eater. Somehow, I guess I became a Cleveland Ambassador, because as I started writing I had a ton of things to write about! Cleveland (and all of NE Ohio) is an awesome place to be! We have such a wealth of arts and food, I can’t believe how lucky I am to be here! Since I already wrote it, here is the Cleveland guide for incoming visitors as compiled by me. Of course there are a ton of other things to do and see, and festivals all year long. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments!

Okay, so I won’t inundate you with too much information, as I don’t know how much you can do while you are here. In Akron, there is Vegeterranian (Chrissie Hyndes restaurant), and Bricco. I have only had dessert here and it was tasty, but my Akron friends swear by it. In Twinsburg, near Stow, is Blue Canyon. I know the chef for this place, and I love it. It is kind of a lodgie feel, and Chef Brandt Evans is working on getting more of his produce and meats locally. The atmosphere is nice and they started rolling sushi on the patio-a great space. Be sure to mention me to Chef Brandt or Katie and they will take care of you (they take care of everyone so well here-but I like to think I am important)! As far as entertainment goes, there are plenty of bars around town, but I really don’t go out in Akron very often. They have a good art museum, and the Civic theater is one of the best preserved movie and stage production theaters that I have ever seen. You can check out Mustard Seed Markets, one of the few local natural food stores that remains independent. The Akron store has a great restaurant and the Solon store a nice deli.

Now on to Cleveland:

Cleveland is about 40 minutes from Stow, but well worth the drive to check us out! For food, I still haven’t been to Crop Bistro, but it is getting good reviews and feedback. There are plenty of bars nearby. I like Chef Jonathon Sawyer. He has two locations: Bar Cento and Greenhouse Tavern (Ohio’s first certified green restaurant.) I wrote about them both. Bar Cento sits next to the Bier Markt- a great beer house that serves a HUGE selection of imported beers. Across the street is the Garage-a live music bar. The Greenhouse Tavern is a great spot. The décor is made of as much recycled and upcycled products as possible. Both spots are dedicated to local foods and farms-the Greenhouse is slated to have a greenhouse and urban garden on the roof. They use fresh local ingredients and are one of the few restaurants that recycle. (I know it’s crazy, but don’t get me started.) If you go there, be sure to ask about what is in the food, as the fries at Bar Cento are made with some duck fat-makes them tasty, but if you don’t like that…and I think they make them the same at Greenhouse. Of course, the Iron Chef, Michael Symon, has 2 restaurants here. One is Lola which moved down the street from Greenhouse Tavern and the other is Lolita in Tremont. He has a local food approach as well. Greenhouse and Lola are part of a cityscape project called E 4th St. This is an old dying street that was converted to a dining and entertainment hub. Bigger spots like Pickwick and Frolic (which has a comedy club, cabaret room, restaurant and martini bar) and House of Blues meet up with great local names. The Tremont area has a great selection of bars and top notch restaurants, nearly all of which favor local foods. The area also has a ton of art galleries and some fun funky shops.

If you like museums, you should really check out the Cleveland Museum of Art. They have a fantastic collection and they are undergoing a major renovation so more things can be out at a time. It ranks as one of the top 5 in the country! There is the Museum of Natural History, the Western Reserve Historical Society (home of the Auto Museum and the History Museum) and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens are all within a few blocks. There is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center both downtown and near the lake. All alone is the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). I have seen some of the most intriguing art of my life here. There are some other great Art venues too: Spaces, 78th Street Studios and art walks around town that vary.
More museums here.

As for shopping, there are some smaller “green” shops, but nothing close together. Planet Green sits in a retail area, and the Detroit Shoreway area has a great coffee house and a selection of cool shops.

Wow, so much for not inundating you with info! I just started writing and look at all that came out! If you were coming up to Cleveland for just a day, I would recommend going to a museum (the Art Museum is #1) and driving down MLK Blvd to get a glimpse of the cultural gardens. In the evening go to E 4th (or W 6th ) for food and entertainment. If you go to Greenhouse ask if Chef Sawyer or the Chef’s Widow are in and mention that I sent you. They would probably love to tell you their story if they can! Feel free to call or email me if you need anything and I hope you enjoy your trip! Cleveland really does rock!

Of course this is a short list! There is the West Side Market, Cedar Point, Football Hall of Fame, Bang & Clatter Theater, Playhouse Square, Art Walks, Arts Festivals (Clifton, Cain Park, Waterloo) and so much more! Aren’t you glad that you live here?

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Links for the recycle obsessed…

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

I subscribe to a blog by Green L.A. girl, and I find it a great read.  I skip some things, like where to buy eco chic clothes in Los Angeles, or where the bicycle club is doing their next ride.  Luckily, there is plenty of other content to catch my interest and keep me reading.  As you know, I am into recycling.  Today, I read her post on some some interesting recycling bits.  She has links to her original article (with great recycling how to’s) as well as some links to other informative posts. There is the article on the Mother Nature Network (another good site) about how to recycle weird stuff. There is also a link to a site where you can ask, “How do I recycle this?” Lastly you can visit this site that asks if these products are too out there to be for real.

Mark your calendar!
On a completely different track, there is a community meeting about revitalizing neighborhoods with rail traffic. The flyer I got says:

Help shape neighborhood planning efforts to better capitalize on
existing or new rail transit services by creating more transit-supportive
land uses around current or future stations. Input from these Cleveland
meetings will be incorporated into upcoming planning for the West
Shore Corridor (Cleveland – Vermilion) commuter rail project.

The meeting is to be held on June 24, 2009 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Presentation starts at 6:30 p.m.
St. Colman Church Basement meeting room
2027 W. 65th St., Cleveland
Ask about our June meetings in Cudell and Ohio City, too!

For more information call (216) 288-4883 or
e-mail kenprendergast@allaboardohio.org

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