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"Widening The Circle For All God's Children!"

 

 

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Recent News:

July 2008

 

Near West Theatre Presents: West Side Story
Based on a Conception of Jerome Robbins
Book by Arthur Laurents
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Entire Original Production Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Originally Produced on Broadway by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince by Arrangement with Roger L. Stevens

July 18, 19, 24, 25, 26
August 1, 2 & 3, 2008

Curtain time: Thursday, Friday and Saturday @ 7:30pm
Sunday @ 3:00pm

“We’ll find a new way of living.
We’ll find a way of forgiving…
Somehow, someday, somewhere.”


Hot moves. Cool tunes. Homeboys and immigrants fighting for life, love and the pursuit of happiness. Fueled by theater geniuses Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins and Laurents, the world’s greatest love story takes to the streets in this landmark 1957 ground-breaking musical theater classic. Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” spills into modern day New York City, as two young idealistic lovers find themselves caught between warring street gangs, the “American” Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Their struggle to survive in a world of hate, violence and prejudice makes this show still one of the most innovative, heart-wrenching and relevant musical dramas of our time.

Songs include “Tonight”, “America”, “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere”.

 

Box Office & Reservation Voicemail
Reservations are accepted up to one hour before curtain time.
216-961-6391

Individual Tickets
Star Seat Single Ticket ($30)
All Other Tickets ($6)

 

For detailed information, go to their website at: http://www.nearwesttheatre.org/index.html


Season Packages

Be spontaneous and save! A NWT Season Package gives you the freedom to choose the productions you'd like to see and the number of tickets you'd like to use for each show. Come for one show or come for all the shows. Treat yourself. Treat your family. Treat your friends. All packages exclude special event performances.

Star Seat Package ($130)
Buy this package and help NWT continue to offer affordable, high-powered theatre on the Near West Side. Get 6 tickets for any combination of performances plus concession coupons and playbill recognition. ($94 tax deductible)

Family Package ($50)
Save $10! Get 10 tickets for any combination of performances.

Individual Package ($30)
Buy 5 tickets, get one free! Get 6 tickets for any combination of performances.

A season package does not guarantee a seat. Please call 48-hours in advance for reservations.

General Information

Group Sales
Got a group? We've got the perfect outing. Individual tickets prices are discounted for groups of 20 or more. Please call at least 10 days prior to the performance you wish to see to book a group. Great for a company or organization event! Call: 216-961-9750

Family-friendly Matinees
NWT encourages families with children younger than 4 to experience live theatre at our matinee performances.

Curtain Times
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday at 3:00 p.m.

General seating for all performances. Special seating arrangements for group sales only.

Near West Theatre is housed in St. Patrick's Club Building on the 3rd floor which is not accessible to persons with disabilities (there is no elevator or chair lift). However, NWT is engaged in a process to build an accessible theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District at West 67th & Detroit. The conceptual design for the new building is completed, and the capital campaign will be announced in the near future.



 


Community Events at Fairview Park

(b/w W. 32nd & W. 39th, just south of Franklin Blvd.)

Ice Cream Social – Thursday, July 3, 7-9 p.m.

Double Dutch – Wednesday, July 9, 7-9 p.m.

Breakdancing Workshop – Thursday, July 10, 6-8 p.m.

Drumming Workshop – Thursday, July 17, 6-8 p.m.

Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Department Recycling Program – Tuesday, July 22, 6-7 p.m.

Double Dutch – Wednesday, July 23, 7-9 p.m.

Ice Cream Social – Thursday, July 24, 7-9 p.m.

Ice Cream Social – Thursday, July 31, 7-9 p.m.


For a full schedule and a map (in Adobe .pdf format) click HERE!

 

New Lutheran Hospital Facility At W. 65th & Franklin Blvd.

 

Thursday, July 03, 2008

By Joe Noga jnoga@sunnews.com

West Side Sun News

http://www.cleveland.com/westsidesun/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1215096005303530.xml&coll=4


For some West Side residents, finding a bilingual doctor that speaks Spanish and English is essential when searching for a primary care physician.

Lutheran Hospital recognized the need for a facility that treats Spanish-speaking patients, particularly in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, so last month the hospital opened a new medical office on Franklin Boulevard at West 65th Street dedicated to serving both English- and Spanish-speaking residents.

The offices house primary care and internal medicine physicians Joy Marshall and Leonor Osorio. Both doctors speak English and Spanish to their patients and have deep ties to the community there.

Lutheran Hospital President David Perse said the hospital has been a part of the community for more than 100 years, and has worked to respond to the needs of its residents.

"We are proud to offer health care in this newly-remodeled, convenient location for near west side residents," he said.

Services offered at the new location include health care for acute illnesses and minor injuries, care for common medical illnesses, physicals, geriatric care, gynecological routine health care and tests, health screenings, patient education and nutrition counseling and preventive medical care for adolescents and adults.

About 100 residents were on hand June 14 to take advantage of free health screenings, refreshments and prizes at an open house to introduce the facility to the neighborhood.

For more information on the practice, call (216) 696-1725.

 

From The Plain Dealer

Saturday, June 21, 2008

The End' for beloved bookstore No happy ending for bookstore Bookstore writes final chapter Beloved bookstore at The End'
West 25th institution closing due to debts
To read this story online, go to: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1214037101320080.xml&coll=2
 

by Michael O'Malley
Plain Dealer Reporter
Unlike the long-haired cat that lives among the aging titles in the Bookstore on West 25th, the dusty, cluttered shop near the West Side Market will have only two lives.

About 18 months ago, the landmark store was in code blue and failing fast, but patrons and friends of owner Mike O'Brien held a rent party, giving the place a new life.

The revival, however, was short-lived. Now the old Mecca for suburban intellectuals and urban poor people -- who for decades browsed among the wooden shelves and the 25-cent rack -- is in its final hour.

O'Brien, swamped in debt again, is closing for good at the end of the month, ending 30 years of selling used books behind the banging screen door on West 25th Street.

"We've been circling the drain for a long time, so I'm not surprised," O'Brien said.

"In the last few months, no matter what I did, the hole was getting deeper."

O'Brien, like most independent book sellers, has been hit hard by big chain stores and Amazon.com.

He tried to compete by selling books on the Internet, but, without a staff, he said, he couldn't do that and keep the store running at the same time.


"For the city of Cleveland, it's a tragedy," said Suzanne DeGaetano, owner of Mac's Backs Paperbacks in Cleveland Heights, another independent bookstore.

"The Bookstore on West 25th was a hallmark of a great city, a great neighborhood and a great culture. Now people are using the Internet. Is Google changing our brain hardware?"

One person not using the Internet is Bart Ansley, 74, a retired German teacher who lives in Seven Hills. He stopped in O'Brien's store Friday morning to browse the German language section.

"A store like this can offer things those big stores don't," he said.

"But they won't let the little guy have anything. That's the way our world works."

O'Brien has about 50,000 books to unload, along with the long-haired Maine coon cat named Luna who has lived in the store five years. He is holding an auction Sunday. What's left will be heavily discounted starting Monday.

O'Brien owes about $50,000 in back rent, utilities, taxes and lines of credit. "The landlord has been remarkably good to us," he said. "The fact we can't make it in this environment is frustrating."

O'Brien, 64, said he'll continue selling books on the Internet out of his home and look for a job. He said he's leaving the store "with a touch of sadness" and he blamed part of his plight on the region's poor economy.

"We have this mythological belief that these types of bookstores are necessary," O'Brien said. "But if people aren't putting down their dollars, we don't exist."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

momalley@plaind.com, 216-999-4893

 

 

June 2008

The North Coast Development Corporation of Cleveland and the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation have partnered to paint the exterior of homes for low-income elderly and disabled residents in Ohio City. The paint is provided by the City of Cleveland’s successful paint program through Sherwin Williams. If you are interested in volunteering to paint a home, please contact our office to complete a registration form. This is a tremendous opportunity to give back to your community!

May 2008

Gatekeepers for a piece of Ohio City history
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Susan Condon Love
Plain Dealer Columnist
 

Dracula would love it for its ambience and proximity to coffins.

Frankenstein could make it his condo in the city, a summer escape from the castle, so to speak.

It would be difficult to think of anyone else eager to take on the intimidating fixer-upper that used to be the dignified and much-used gatehouse at the nearly 200-year-old Monroe Street Cemetery in the heart of Ohio City.

Difficult, that is, until you meet a group of community activists who have fallen in love with both the gatehouse and the 14-acre cemetery with its many distinctive 19th century structures.

The growing group of people, working with the Ohio City Near West Development Corp., is dedicated to restoring and preserving the mausoleums, archway and gatehouse at the quiet final home of many of Cleveland's West Side founding families -- not to mention purveyors of numerous breweries that kept city denizens happy for decades.

"This is the oldest cemetery on the West Side of Cleveland," said Alan Fodor, an architect with the firm Herman Gibans Fodor Inc. and an Ohio City resident. "We cannot forget that real people are buried here. Letting it go would be devastating."

Fodor, along with fellow preservationist and Ohio City resident Sharon Swagger, were braving an abnormally chilly and damp May morning to give a tour of the cemetery.

The first burial at Monroe, between West 25th Street and Fulton Avenue, was in 1818, before the land was officially a cemetery. In 1836, the land was sold to Brooklyn Township for burials, and in 1854, when Ohio City was annexed to the city of Cleveland, the cemetery was named the West Side Cemetery.

The official name never stuck, and by 1874, when the distinctive arch was built over the entrance, the nickname became permanent. "Monroe St. Cemetery" remains etched in the blackened sandstone.

Even though the whole cemetery needs attention, it is the small and obviously deteriorating 1876 gatehouse a couple of steps away from the arch that seems to be the neediest.

The two-room building was used for grieving families and cemetery records. It needs about $350,000 in work.

Although structurally sound -- "The foundation is in great shape," said Fodor -- all the windows and doors need to be refurbished or replaced. The slate roof is so damaged, it also needs to be replaced, and internal water damage has made the inside downright dangerous. The last time someone entered the building -- a group of contractors working on a repair report -- one of them got injured when the wood floor gave out.

"The only reason he didn't go all the way through to the basement was that he managed to sit down on a part [of the floor] that was still solid," said Fodor.

Fodor and others working on the project have a very specific preservation plan. First, quantify the historical significance of the gatehouse. Second, put together a working plan to repair and restore the structure.

Finally, raise money. Taking a baby step in that direction, the development corporation's Historic Heritage Committee is sponsoring a seminar, "Restoring an Old House on a Budget," at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 12, at Franklin Circle Christian Church, 1688 Fulton Road. The voluntary $5 seminar fee is being donated to the gatehouse restoration.

In addition to speakers from Home Depot and the Cleveland Restoration Society, three Ohio City homeowners will discuss their successful renovations.

An unsuccessful "renovation" of the gatehouse roof is irksome to architect Fodor.

"Some idiot decided years ago to put shingles over the slate tiles," he said, pointing upward.

Yes, slate tiles tend to be indestructible and can last for decades with little care. That is, of course, unless you hammer nails into them. Then they crack, allowing water damage. It will cost about $85,000 to fix the hipped roof.

The fascia running the perimeter of the roof is also damaged, which contributed to and aggravated the water damage, Fodor said.

Records were removed from the gatehouse a number of years ago, and it has been sealed since. No new burials have taken place since the mid-1960s, and the majority of the remains have been removed from mausoleums, probably taken to other cemeteries close to surviving family members.

"Let's face it, this place became a little unsavory," said Fodor, noting that in the past, vandals and squatters frequented the cemetery and got into the structures. But community vigilance and police patrols -- the cemetery is owned by the city of Cleveland today -- have helped improve the safety situation.

Fodor and other community activists are finishing the paperwork for nonprofit fund-raising status and starting to make inquiries for grants and other donations to fix and maintain what they consider to be an important landmark in Cleveland history.

Restoring the Monroe Street Cemetery and its structures "is a grassroots effort by people who care about the history of where they live," said Fodor.

To reach Susan Condon Love:

slove@plaind.com, 216-999-4784

 

Living Cities' Help Is Welcome
Monday, May 26, 2008
A national nonprofit group that has channeled $25 million in loans and grants to help Cleveland's community development corporations build more than 4,700 homes will soon plow more into revitalizing this city.

New York-based Living Cities will work with state and city officials here to encourage everything from building residents' personal wealth to improving Cleveland's infrastructure.

Some of the assistance will be financial. Some will come in the form of technical assistance. Ben Hecht, president and chief executive officer, says Living Cities wants to help Clevelanders in developing "a comprehensive blueprint of what they want to do and bringing the right people to the table."

It's not clear how much money this will involve or which programs will receive the resources. But what is clear - considering the track record Living Cities has got in Cleveland - is that this is good news for this city.

© 2008 The Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

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Reporting streetlights that have burned out
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sarah Hollander
Plain Dealer Columnist
I see so many unlit streetlights at night. Who is responsible for making sure that the lights in Cleveland and surrounding communities are working properly and how should I report problems? I'm tired of driving in the dark!-- Nancy B., Parma Heights

Electric companies are generally in charge of keeping the lights on.

Cleveland Public Power, the city's municipal electric company, has an automated streetlight hot line, 216-621-5483 (216-621-LITE). Just call and leave the location of the problem.

CPP employees repair city-owned lights and forward reports of malfunctioning lights maintained by Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., marketing manager Shelley Shockley said. But in the next couple of months, CPP plans to take over responsibility for all streetlights in Cleveland to consolidate services and eliminate some of the confusion over who's in charge of what, she said.

For communities around Cleveland, including your hometown and Parma, the best bet is to call the city's Service Department. While cities aren't usually responsible for maintaining the lights, they can investigate the problem and relay pole numbers to the electric company.

Streetlight problems can also be reported online at www.firstenergycorp.com .

The Ohio Department of Transportation is responsible for most highway lights. Drivers who spot a burned-out light can call their local district directly. For Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties, for example, call Lou Mincek, roadway services engineer, at 216-584-2221, or the general line at 216-581-2100.

The West 14th Street Bridge over Interstate 490 is down to one lane in each direction. This project has been ongoing for almost a year and has resulted in a traffic headache, especially during morning rush hours. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel -- or should I say bridge? -- Terry Husel, Cleveland

There is a light. It's faint, but it's there. ODOT says the project is scheduled for an on-time completion in mid-October. The $2.6 million job began last July and will end with a new deck and renovated bridge.

Could you inform people who are going to the I-X Center that they do not turn at Cargo Road but at the next exit south of Cargo? Wrong turns can really mess up traffic on Cargo and Postal roads. -- Robert A. Webster, Cleveland

The International Exposition Center says it attracts more than 2 million visitors a year, so I can see how confused drivers would cause a problem. The giant consumer and trade show hall actually has its own street. I-X Center Drive is accessible off Ohio 237, aka Snow Road. So if you're tempted to turn onto Cargo Drive, don't. Anyone who's unfamiliar with the area should go to www.ixcenter.com for specific directions before heading out.

FYI:

Lorain County plans to begin its annual sign sweep starting June 1. So if you want to rescue any weight-loss, yard-sale, election or other assorted signs hanging along public rights-of-way, you had better get moving. County litter crews picking up trash along county roads will also remove all unauthorized signs from utility poles. Lorain County Engineer Ken Carney calls the signs a safety problem. They can limit visibility at intersections and distract drivers.

Transportation-related questions and comments may be e-mailed to thecompass@plaind.com, faxed to 216-999-6374, or mailed to The Compass c/o The Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland 44114. Correspondence chosen for publication may be edited for brevity and clarity.


© 2008 The Plain Dealer
© 2008 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

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Neighborhood Celebrates the Capitol Theater Renovations
Posted by Karen Sandstrom May 15, 2008 07:28AM
http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/05/neighborhood_celebrates_the_ca.html

Chris Stephens/Plain Dealer
The Gordon Square Arts District celebrated renovations to the Capitol theater in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood Wednesday. The theater was open to the neighborhood and the players who made renovations possible.

A little dust, a whiff of popcorn and a lot of optimism floated through the air Wednesday as city planners kicked off construction to bring the defunct Capitol Theatre back to life as an independent movie house.

A groundbreaking ceremony, hosted by the Gordon Square Arts District and the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, drew Mayor Frank Jackson, politicians and business people involved in organizing and financing the $7 million project. About 400 people showed up to celebrate.

Construction begins today to turn the Capitol into a three-screen theater specializing in foreign and independent films. The project is the hub of a $30 million investment package aimed at creating an arts-based economy in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.

"This is your downtown, this is the focus of the near West Side," Jackson said during brief remarks in front of the old proscenium where the movie screen last flickered in the early '80s.

Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka opened the program with a slide show underscoring the historical significance of the Gordon Square Arcade at West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, of which the Capitol is a part.

When the arcade and theater opened in 1921, they became the commercial hub of the West Side. A billiards room, men's hotel, food market and retail shops kept the place bustling until hard times hit Cleveland in the late '60s and '70s.

Pianka, one of the founders of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, was deeply involved in the organization's purchase of the arcade and theater in 1979. The arcade has since been renovated for use as office space and affordable-housing apartments. Renovation of the theater will complete the job.

The improvements have been slow in coming, but they're heartening for residents of the
area.

"You really have to look for the progress; it's subtle," said Frank D'Onofrio, 61, who lived in the neighborhood as a boy, moved out in the early '70s, then moved back in 1986.

As a kid, D'Onofrio was a frequent visitor to the Capitol, as was Theresa Antonucci before him. Now 93, she remembers how the theater would present amateur night, a mishmash display of local talent. Her brother performed there on violin after a mere two lessons, she recalled with a smile.

She also remembered that Capitol management awarded china plates as a promotional incentive. "Every woman in our neighborhood had a set of those dishes," Antonucci said.

Pat DiBello, 83, says her Italian immigrant father bought the house just north of the theater in the 1930s. He took his daughter to the local sweet shop and the movies regularly.

"I think this is marvelous," DiBello said. "I just can't wait until the theater's reopened."

The Detroit Shoreway organization plans for the first films to light up the new Capitol Theatre screens in April 2009.

 

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April 2008

Important Documentary On The Cuyahoga To Air In April
     A powerful documentary on the importance of the Cuyahoga River to Cleveland and all of Northeast Ohio will air in April.  "The Return Of The Cuyahoga" will air on WVIZ/PBS on: Tuesday, April 22 at 9 p.m.; Thursday April 24 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 26 at 9 p.m.; and Sunday, April 27 at 7 p.m.

     Pastor Allen viewed this documentary at the recent Cleveland International Film Festival and recommends it to the congregation.  Since our church is so close to the river, and its health affects the health of those who live in urban Cleveland more than anybody else, it would be important for our church members to see and discuss this film.  For more information, go on the web to: http://www.wviz.org/index.php/WVIZ/programming/the_return_of_the_cuyahoga/


 

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Cleveland neighborhood revival plan focuses on anchor projects

Plans build on anchor projects in 6 parts of city

Sunday, November 25, 2007 ~ Cleveland Plain Dealer

To read this story online, go to our "City Of God" page or click: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/iseco/1195997438111340.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

by Tom Breckenridge,

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NOTE: Pastor Allen attended this forum...

Homeless problem needs regional approach, Cleveland panel says
Friday, November 02, 2007
Stan Donaldson, Plain Dealer Reporter

Cleveland officials and social-service experts called Thursday for a regional approach to dealing with the 20,000 or more homeless people in the region.

Meeting at the City Club of Cleveland, a three-member panel also suggested working more with faith-based organizations, creating more affordable housing and providing more outreach services.

Natoya Walker, a special assistant to Mayor Frank Jackson and one of the panelists, told an audience of 140 people that homelessness is not just a city issue.

"It is a national issue," Walker said in an interview after the event. "But at the local level, we need all of our partners to work and help come up with solutions to provide people with access to services."

The other panelists were City Councilman Joe Cimperman and Michael Sering, who oversees 2100 Lakeside Men's Shelter. The panel was moderated by Plain Dealer Associate Editor Joe Frolik.

The panel took part in the second of three group discussions on poverty in Northeast Ohio, said Gary Musselman, director of operations at the City Club.

During Thursday's discussion, Walker said that Aviation High School, an overflow homeless shelter that serves about 150 men, will remain open until the city and county can open a transitional shelter.

The overflow shelter was slated to close this week, but Sering said it would stay open at least until January.

Some attending the event said the information about poverty in the city is not new, but the discussion is important because it could lead to change.

"I think any time the community leaders get together and talk about the pressing issue of homelessness is a good and encouraging thing," said Gerald Skoch, director of the West Side Catholic Center. "Poverty will be an everlasting issue, but more people need to be aware that homelessness is solvable."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
sdonalds@plaind.com, 216-999-4885
© 2007 The Plain Dealer
© 2007 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

Thursday, November 01, 2007 12:00 PM
Homelessness in Cleveland Panel Discussion at the City Club
Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, Mike Sering of LMM, and Natoya
Walker of the City of Cleveland

Sponsor: Saint Luke’s Foundation

Cleveland, like all major cities, has a significant homeless
population. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
defines homeless individuals as those who lack a fixed, regular, and
adequate nighttime residence, or whose residence is a publicly or
privately operated temporary shelter. The Northeast Ohio Coalition for
the Homeless estimates that there are more than 26,000 homeless
individuals in Cuyahoga County.

A panel will discuss topics ranging from what is being done to provide
housing and services for homeless individuals, day to day life in
homeless shelters, the distinction between homelessness and
panhandling, and the balancing of the civil rights of homeless
individuals with the community’s desire to reduce aggressive
panhandling and to preserve safety in Cleveland’s public spaces. Joe
Frolik of the Plain Dealer will serve as moderator.

This program is second in the three-part series “Engulfed: The Rising
Tide of Economic Disparity” sponsored by the Saint Luke’s Foundation.
Other programs include "The Working Poor: Invisible in America" on
10/5/07 and "Is the Middle Class Shrinking?" on 11/27/07.

http://www.cityclub.org/content/speakers/SpeakerDetail.aspx?spkID=5540
 

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Message From Bob Shores,
OCNW Safety Coordinator

October 26, 2007

Please see the Channel 3 News report on the aggravated robberies in Tremont and Ohio City, which was aired on their 7:00 News last night. Since Ohio City Pizza was mentioned, I think it would be a great idea to express our support of a good neighborhood business and patronize Ohio City Pizza whenever possible. They were the victim of an armed robbery a little over two years ago, and they remain in our neighborhood. Please let them know that you are patronizing them in response to this TV news report. A Plain Dealer report is also attached. I'm sure they will greatly appreciate your business. Plus, they make a great pizza! I love their white sauce pizza with tomatoes and green peppers. They also deliver, and are open late. Their information is listed below:

Ohio City Pizzeria
3223 Lorain Ave.
Phone: 216.281.5252

Let's show Ohio City Pizza that the Ohio City community is there for them in this time of need!

Bob Shores,
OCNW Safety Coordinator

-------------------------------

From the Plain Dealer:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/10/undercover_vice_cops_foil_pizz.html

Undercover vice cops foil pizza robbery in Ohio City
Posted by Gabriel Baird October 25, 2007 20:29PM
Categories: Breaking News, Crime

Sgt. Tommy Shoulders and his crew of three Cleveland undercover detectives were looking to arrest prostitutes along Lorain Avenue at W. 33rd Wednesday night.

Instead, they caught two suspects robbing the Ohio City Pizzeria, which is at the corner. Here is how police say it went down:

Shoulders was sitting in an unmarked police car about 9 p.m., when two men across the street covered their faces. The 26-year-old police veteran knew what was about to happen, even before one of the suspects pulled out a gun. Inside, the gunman pointed his weapon at a worker's head as the other emptied the register. The second man asked another worker where the safe was. When she didn't answer fast enough, he told his partner to shoot her. He didn't. "When he first said, 'this is a robbery' -- I said look, dude, you've got to be out of your mind . . . are you kidding me," the 43-year-old female employee recalled.

As the robbery unfolded, the woman could see the undercover police outside.

"I knew vice was out there somewhere, because they've been cleaning up Lorain Avenue," she said. "They didn't want to come in and create a situation."

Shoulders had his men - Detectives Kevin Fairchild, Michael Rinkus and Neil Hutchinson - wait outside for fear the robbers would take the workers hostage or even kill them. Once the came out, the detectives chased the robbers. They arrested Tyrone Ballou, 20, of Maple Heights. Shoulders drove the unmarked car after the other suspect, who pointed his gun at Shoulders. Shoulders hit him with the car. The suspect, a 17-year-old Clevelander, was treated at MetroHealth Medical Center and released. Police recovered a gun and cash. Cleveland police are investigating the run-in as a use-of-deadly force. The juvenile is being held at the detention center and Ballou at City Jail on suspicion of aggravated robbery.

------------------------------

Channel 3 News Report from http://www.wkyc.com

Police: Four juveniles, 2 adults under arrest in connection with Tremont robbery
CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Police have six robbery suspects in custody and say they know the identity of another adult suspect. Police believe they are part of a robbery ring that has targeted victims across the entire 2nd District. They were arrested after three people were held up after leaving a popular Tremont restaurant. No one was hurt. The victims quickly contacted police and told them a group of robbers made off with money and mobile phones. Detectives called one of the phones. It was traced to the suspects. While they wait for their day in court Tremont restaurant owners hope it calms the nerves of patrons who have stayed away. An e-mail that has circulated on the web warns Tremont was a dangerous place to visit. Chris Garland, the Executive Director of the Tremont West development Corporation says there's no need to be afraid to visit the Tremont neighborhood. "There's no need to stay away from Tremont. It's as safe a neighborhood you'll find anywhere in the 2nd Distri!
ct. Certainly one of the safest neighborhoods you'll find in the City of Cleveland," said Garland.

Police say another robbery across the Lorain-Carnegie bridge, in Ohio City, has also been solved. The suspects who robbed Ohio City Pizza did not know the vice unit was in the area. When the robbery call came over the radio, vice officers quickly responded and arrested several suspects.
   
* Play Video for Bill Safos' story:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=76816&provider=gnews


Le Petit Triangle is taste of Paris in Ohio City
Friday, November 02, 2007

Beth Segal, Special to the Plain Dealer

It could have been Paris on a sultry Saturday night. Outside, beneath a green striped awning, candles flickered on small red enamel bistro tables under the looming gaze of a Gothic cathedral. We dined on perfectly tender and garlicky escargot and seductively rich pate and drank wine that sparkled as if it held the entire shimmering night in its depths.

This is Le Petit Triangle Cafe, a little bit of France on Fulton Road in Cleveland. Charm comes easily here, in the former Le Oui Oui Cafe, and, more likely than not, a delicious meal follows. Modeled on a classic Gallic boite, the little "box" establishments that are the culinary keystone of every great neighborhood in Paris, this tiny restaurant, eponymously enough, has an interior with three sides and just eight tables nestled comfortably around a very open kitchen.

There is much to indulge us in the appealing menu, which features mostly daytime fare: savory and sweet crepes, omelets, salads and sandwiches. And though the sensibility is French, the dollar is still strong in Ohio City. The vast majority of dishes do not exceed the single digits, so have fun.

Try a robust Croque Monsieur ($9), the cafe's take on the classic ham and Gruyere Parisian snack, served on thick slices of grilled challah and blanketed in a light bechamel sauce. The addition of a side of perfectly cooked broccoli and an even better bearnaise sounds like overkill, but they're both so delicious, it would be a shame to neglect one for the other.

The savory crepes we tried truly were savory in their tasty and tender wrappings. The three-cheese option ($7) sounded heavy, but each bite offered a different taste experience and there was no problem polishing it off. The ratatouille tucked into another crepe ($9 crepe, $3 side) was bright with fresh color and flavors, cooked "al dente" with a light glaze of fruity olive oil.

Other highlights include the flaky turkey croissant ($8), baked in-house and deliciously stuffed with mango chutney, chevre, dried cranberries and mesclun, and the "Chocolate Lovers Crepe" ($5) with rich creamy Nutella (the Italian hazelnut and chocolate spread) inside, whipped cream outside with coconut, bananas, strawberries and nuts available for extra fabulousness. An individual chocolate souffle ($6) was beautifully served in a bright blue ramekin with a side of creme Anglaise.

Things that did not work so well included the omelets ($6 to $10), which were overcooked and dry on the several occasions that we tried them, and the Salade Nicoise ($10), which started out well with beautiful vegetables and then hit a snag with a salmon fillet that seemed to be suffering from a case of rigor mortis. Several items, including the couscous lentil salad ($3), could have benefited from a more liberal seasoning. Finally, a cafe, by definition, should be able to produce a good cup of coffee. Our two visits produced two cups of not happening.

But why be negative? The instincts are good, the prices are right, and the food can be delectable. With winter approaching, it's nice to have a cozy little bit of Paris in Cleveland.

Segal is a free-lance photographer and writer in Beachwood.
© 2007 The Plain Dealer
© 2007 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Collapsing Riverbed Street threatens sewer line; repair to be costly

Preventing catastrophe will cost $20 million to $70 million
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Michael Scott
Plain Dealer Reporter -- Find this story at: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/other/1190883091289240.xml&coll=2

Riverbed Street looks as if it had been split by an earthquake.

The disintegrating road, which shadows the Cuyahoga River from Columbus Road to the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge on the west bank of the Flats, has been closed since November 2005, when city workers noticed pavement cracks.

But in recent months, the lower hillside in an area that was once a teeming immigrant shantytown is falling fast. The lane closest to the river has dropped more than four feet and is in danger of collapsing completely -- driven into the water by the sliding slope above it.

"This is a very heavy hillside that wants very badly to do what nature does -- find balance," said Craig Hebebrand, a planner for the Ohio Department of Transportation. "Balance means collapse."

What comes next might be worse -- environmental aftershock and taxpayer sticker shock.

Regional sewer officials say they expect the sliding roadside to eventually crush an aging sewer pipe -- spewing millions of gallons of untreated waste into the river. The pipe carries from 1 million to 20 million gallons of waste per day, depending on weather conditions.

Paying to prevent that -- and then shoring up the riverbank to stop further collapse of the road -- could cost between $20 million and $70 million. The low end of that range involves at least moving the sewer line from danger; the high end would mean rebuilding the entire slope and putting in bulkheads along the river.

Sewer engineers are so certain that the crumbling, 60-year-old brick sewer beneath Riverbed Street will fail that they're already planning an emergency pump station and possibly a permanent pump to try to reroute the sewage before the line blows.

"When it goes, it won't go slowly - it will be pretty dramatic," said Rick Switalski, manager of sewer design for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which owns the sewer pipes beneath the eroding road. "Failure is imminent, and we have to do something right away."

The sewer district reinforced one part of the failing 60-inch-diameter pipe, which takes in sewage from the near West Side and sends it to a treatment plant near Edgewater Park.

Workers first sent a robotic camera and then a professional diver into the sewer pipe 30 feet below the road to inspect for damage before strengthening the northernmost section with a liner inside the pipe.

Above ground, officials from the city, sewer district, ODOT and Army Corps of Engineers are scratching their heads at how quickly the fissure has opened. Four geo-technical studies have suggested that it's likely to only get worse.

City officials said they have been meeting with officials from the Army Corps and the Coast Guard about options for correcting the slope by reconstructing the riverbanks.

Several analyses and computer models of the slope mechanics have suggested that the area is "at risk of repeated failure until the riverbank is modified, changed or stabilized."

The west bank of the Cuyahoga at Riverbed Street is not strengthened by bulkheads, sewer district engineer Bob Ericsson said. Constructing the steel and concrete supports along the riverbank would push the cost of repairs toward the $70 million mark, officials said.

The head of the Flats Oxbow Association said full reconstruction of the road and hill and the addition of bulkheads are crucial to the areas.

"We feel it is absolutely obligatory to get Riverbed reopened," said association Executive Director Tom Newman. "This is adversely affecting a number of businesses and residents as well."

While Riverbed Street is considered a "low-volume roadway" by the city - it averaged about 1,300 vehicles a day in a May 2000 study - its importance may increase in the future.

ODOT is looking at the route as one option for a project that would reroute truck traffic from above, down into the Flats.

"Riverbed could become very important if that route became the preferred way," said ODOT's Hebebrand. "But that road can't take any traffic now, and the project is on hold for now, anyway."

Sewer District Director of Engineering Charles Vasulka said in a written report that the west bank of the Cuyahoga River between Columbus Road and the Detroit-Superior Bridge has had a "history of instability issues that date back to the late 1880s."

More recently, the unstable soil sloping from West 25th Street down to Riverbed Street stopped the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority from going forward in the late 1990s with its proposed large-scale Irishtown Bend housing development and park atop the hill, where it owns most of the land.

The area still bears that informal name from its history as a thriving Irish immigrant settlement in the late 1800s. The National Park Service in 1990 added part of the area to the National Register of Historic Places as the Irishtown Bend Archaeological District.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mscott@plaind.com, 216-999-4148


 
© 2007 The Plain Dealer
© 2007 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

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FRANKLIN-CLINTON BLOCK CLUB
               MONTHLY MEETING

           THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2007
            (NEW STARTING TIME!!!)
              7:00 TO 8:30 p.m.

           At the Fairview Gardens
          Senior Citizens Apartment
           3207 Franklin Boulevard

                   AGENDA:

Welcome and Introductions

Special Guest, Maria Keckan, President of Cinecraft
Products, will present the plans for her recently
aquired building on the NW corner of W.25th and
Franklin, which was the location of the former "Quik
Pik" carry-out.  Maria has prepared a PowerPoint
presentation that should be quite interesting.

Discussion of the Mike deCesare proposal for 3102/04
Franklin Blvd.

Update on the grant request to fund upgrade of Vine
Court ("Alley Allies")

Community announcements and safety updates: The OCNW
Interim Director, Dave Stack, will be in attendance.
An officer from the Police Community Services Unit
will likely be in attendance.

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Volume 15, Issue 16
Published August 22nd, 2007

This article can be found at: http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/16/the-good-fight

 

The Good Fight

Preacher-activist The Rev. George Hrbek Reflects On Sacrifice And Satisfaction

 

It is a resplendent Tuesday in late spring, warm but not humid. On the lawn next to City Hall, two dozen people - graying veterans of '60s rallies, young mothers with children in tow, folks holding signs pronouncing "God Loves Poor People Too!" - have gathered to protest state indifference to the poor and indigent. Passersby on Lakeside Avenue smile and nod, but do not stop.

 

The Rev. George Hrbek stands quietly in the back, unfazed by the lack of attendance. "You got to do it, to be faithful to yourself, to your vision, to continue to be a voice crying out in the wilderness," he says, chuckling.

1971 Reverend Hrbek shortly after moving to Cleveland
PHOTO (left) 1971 Reverend Hrbek shortly after moving to Cleveland

Hrbek is a legend in activist circles, a change agent who organized civil-rights activities in Selma, Alabama and Chicago during the 1960s and knew Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and Fred Hampton, the Black Panther gunned down by police in 1969. He is the preacher known in poorer Cleveland neighborhoods during the 1970s as "that minister, a good cat," the long-time advocate at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry who launched innovative community re-entry programs for ex-offenders and helped to persuade East Ohio Gas to provide financial assistance for people who could not pay their bills. He was the first ombudsman of Cuyahoga County, champion and friend of the homeless at the downtown men's shelter.

 

When the robust, white-goateed Hrbek takes the bullhorn to speak to the protesters standing on the lawn outside City Hall, he has the mantle of authority of a religious orator addressing a crowd of hundreds of congregants. His voice cascading with emotion, he struts back and forth. "Do not balance the state budget at the expense of those whose challenge to hold life and limb together in this state is the most difficult. Let's not, through the budget, give to those who already have and take away from those who have not. Everyone say amen to that?"

Amen, the crowd chants in unison. Amen.

 

"STUDYING FOR THE MINISTRY was my way of rebelling against my family," Hrbek confides in his office at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry in Ohio City. At 76, he has come to an understanding of how he came to develop his religious commitment to social change. He grew up in New Jersey in a family of social activists. His Czech grandfather was a Marxist, a union organizer, and his father not only worshipped Franklin D. Roosevelt, but as an architect, helped design one of FDR's houses in Warm Springs, Georgia. But like many secular progressives of the 1930s, his relatives were not enamored of religion.

 

Home life was warm, but Hrbek found school stultifying, even oppressive. He rebelled, defended himself with his fists, once slugging a teacher who hit him. Searching for a way to reconcile the contradiction between home and school, he attended a variety of church services, coming across a Lutheran mentor who related a message that made a lasting impression: Each person is gifted, and these gifts cannot be taken away.

 

Intrigued, Hrbek enrolled at Concordia College, a Lutheran school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After graduating from seminary in St. Louis in 1958, he received his first assignment - to start a Lutheran church in Selma, Alabama.

 

The site of Martin Luther King's storied march across the bridge in 1965, Selma was an old, affluent cotton town, with beautiful antebellum homes, a genteel veneer and racist mores, says J. David Ellwanger, a lawyer who worked with Hrbek in the 1960s, grew up in Selma and recently retired to Dallas. Unwritten law dictated that whites could fraternize in black establishments, but "Negroes" were strictly forbidden from mixing with whites in their homes or places of worship.

 

Hrbek broke the law.

FUTURE FIREBRAND - Hrbek, age 5, Warms Springs, GA
PHOTO  (right) FUTURE FIREBRAND - Hrbek, age 5, Warms Springs, GA

He invited a number of African-American worshippers to attend the dedication of the new church. The police raided the service. Hrbek was not arrested, but it would not be the end of his troubles with the town establishment.

 

One evening, Hrbek heard a knock on his door. He was surprised to see Ed Fields, the middle-aged, balding editor of the Selma Times Journal. Hrbek invited him in. His wife Gertrude and young children were sitting around the house. Hrbek and Fields sat down at the kitchen table.

"I have your letter," Fields said, and Hrbek knew immediately what he meant. A Baptist minister had recently delivered a keynote speech at a barbecue for white high school students brazenly entitled, "Better Dead than Intermarriage." Hbrek had submitted a letter criticizing the preacher, stating that his comments were not representative of the Christian faith and pointing out that there were a lot of light-skinned people of color in Alabama.

 

"I want you to take your letter back," Fields told Hrbek. "Because if you don't take it back, I'm going to print it. If I print it, I'm concerned about you. I really like you, and if I print this letter, your life is going to be at risk."

 

A big man with a '60s-style crewcut, Hrbek looked more like a football coach than a preacher. Repulsed by what he'd seen in Selma, he refused to retract the letter.

 

Fields printed the letter on the front page. Within a couple of days, another letter appeared on the front page, this from the White Citizens Council, Selma's racist elite, excoriating Hrbek. Shortly afterwards, a cross was burned on his lawn and the White Citizens Council pressured church officials to fire Hrbek. In a testament to Hrbek's growing moral influence, church leaders flatly refused.

 

CHICAGO, 1968. The Leopold Mansion in Hyde Park has been transformed into a place of nonviolence. It is Hrbek's base of operation, used to organize community workshops on institutional racism, the site of '60s-style, guitar-accompanied Sunday morning worship services, part of a larger human relations project funded by a national Lutheran organization.

 

One Sunday morning as the service begins, three young African Americans show up and ask if they can speak. Breathing the fire of the growing black power movement, they announce that if the Lutheran group is serious about fighting racism, they should bequeath the building to them. But the pastor who would not let white racists intimidate him in Selma will not give ground to black power advocates in Chicago. Hrbek listens politely, then says: "My two-word response is fuck you. But after the service we can sit down and we can talk."

The crowd is stunned. The men leave, return and discuss the issue with Hrbek. He gives them space in the building.

 

By the end of the decade, Hrbek's radical politics and unconventional style have attracted attention, pleasing liberals, but upsetting the church hierarchy. The regional division of the national Lutheran organization claims that his radical activities are inconsistent with the precepts of the church, and he is ordered to appear before a church governing council. He avoids conviction when an African-American member of the group defends him and the whites recognize they will appear racist if they vote to convict.

 

Hrbek keeps his vestments and ministerial cloth. But the church fires him, removing him from the human relations project in Hyde Park. He relocates to Cleveland in 1971, hired to work on an avant-garde project coordinated by a newly formed community religious group, the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry. With a staff of just four, including a secretary, the future is uncertain.

CHICAGO, 1969 - Hrbek protesting the Vietnam war.
PHOTO (left) CHICAGO, 1969 - Hrbek protesting the Vietnam war.

 

But the years of work have taken a toll on Hrbek's wife Gertrude and their three daughters and son, and the 20-year marriage disintegrates. Gertrude had courageously stood by Hrbek and had worked in a Chicago school to help defray their children's tuition costs. There were good times and fond family memories. But Hrbek, increasingly preoccupied by his work in the community and venerated by his followers, falters.

 

When the divorce becomes official, some Lutherans complain, saying that it is not right for a man of the cloth to bear the stigma of divorce. Hrbek immerses himself in his work, but their comments, and the pain of divorce, affect him deeply, and he comes to recognize that he must reflect on his experiences and become a better person.

 

"WHAT MOTIVATES THIS GUY?" Charles See mused, hoping to get a fix on Hrbek. It was 1973. See, who had recently joined the staff at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, had known a lot of white people who gave lip service to helping the poor, but Hrbek seemed different: "He seemed to genuinely be concerned about the plight of folks that he was working with. He would sit down and listen to what individuals had to say and then really went back to try to help folks solve problems."

 

The two, along with the late Richard Sering, the organization's inspirational leader, worked on an innovative program called Probation Friends, which provided an alternative to prison for convicted felons. They were placed on probation and worked in tandem with a community volunteer, who would offer social support. Joe Thornton, an early Probation Friends participant, worked with elderly residents, escorting them on walks and protecting them from thugs. He credits the program with helping him gain confidence in himself. Although community re-entry programs do not always work - the sociological literature on the topic is complex and multifaceted - they are generally regarded as constructive alternatives to more punitive approaches.

 

Yet three decades ago, the idea of community activists working with prisoners was novel and irked some. Around 1976, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry staff co-sponsored a bail-bond ball at Franklin Castle in Ohio City to raise bail money for prisoners in the county jail. It was a merry event, with music, dancing, and much beer and wine, until the police came, 30 of them, with guns drawn. A couple of police officers grabbed Hrbek, twisted his arm behind his back, kicked him and hauled him into a police car. He was arrested and thrown into a cell, charged, along with several others, with disturbing the peace and serving liquor without a license. (The event's sponsors had procured a permit to serve beer and wine.) Hrbek and others in the cells belted out gospel hymns.

 

He was subsequently released and the charges were thrown out. Pressed to bring charges against the policemen, Hrbek demurred. He told friends, "I want to take those policemen out to lunch." And that is just what he did.

 

Hrbek found himself increasingly enamored of Ohio City. He liked its rough authenticity, its earnest attempt to transform itself into a unique multi-layered, multi-ethnic part of the city. "There was something about this area that was different," he reflects. "In a city that was divided by the river politically, racially and academically, it wasn't here. You had the world here, a diversity and hospitality." And so he made it his home.

 

In 1978 Hrbek married Stephanie Morrison. Hrbek had mentored Morrison's older sister Melanie, then a college student, in Chicago. Hrbek became friendly with Melanie's family, who were pastors in a Michigan church. He met her younger sister Stephanie, and in the late 1970s encountered Stephanie again while on vacation in Virginia. He and Stephanie hit it off, and in 1978, the recently divorced Hrbek married her. Hrbek pledged to himself that he would not make the mistakes he had made the first time around. He and Stephanie had two sons, and Hrbek worked hard to involve them in his religious and social protest activities, striving to keep himself in tune with the daily rhythm of family life.

 

There was a stability to his routine during this period. He could walk from his Ohio City home to the Lutheran Metro Ministry office. He enjoyed the quiet hospitality of the neighborhood. The intensity and chaos of Leopold House had given way to the urbane calm of a modest but artfully decorated house on West 31st Place.

 

By 1981, the advocate who bristled at the suggestion he was involved in anything less than systemic change had an office and a title and, to outsiders at least, had become that least radical member of contemporary society: a bureaucrat. Recognized for his skill in bringing different sides together, Hrbek was appointed Cuyahoga County Ombudsman. It happened serendipitously. The county commissioners, impressed by a Lutheran Metro Ministry nursing home ombudsman program, asked the ministry to explore models for creating a county ombudsman office. Hrbek played a key role in the two-year research project that culminated in the creation of a citizens ombudsman office for Cuyahoga County. He was subsequently selected to be the first one.

 

Hrbek found himself at the vortex of conflicts between East Ohio Gas management and community organizers who were concerned with the company's indifference to the plight of low-income customers who could not pay rising heating bills. He knew the issues well; a couple years before he had organized the protests.

Ohio City, 1983 - Wife Stephanie, son Seth and Hrbek at home.
PHOTO (right) Ohio City, 1983 - Wife Stephanie, son Seth and Hrbek at home.

 

Bob Varley, manager of consumer affairs at East Ohio in 1982, credits Hrbek with creating an environment in which both sides could understand each other's position. A series of reforms emerged from the discussions Hrbek coordinated, including the formation of a community advisory board and a series of assistance programs to help low-income customers pay their bills.

 

Another change also materialized, emblematic of an evolution in Hrbek's approach to social activism. He took up golf with a passion, as David Abbott, executive director of the George Gund Foundation, who worked with him in the 1980s, relates. The adolescent pugilist - Hrbek had boxed in high school - became a middle-aged linksman. He replaced the reflexive weapon of self-defense with the strategic precision of the chip shot.

 

In the early 1990s, the Virgil E. Brown Center was often seen as an austere glass-encased, unyielding artifice, Kafka's bureaucracy-ridden castle transplanted to 17th and Payne. The Cuyahoga County Department of Human Services would be an odd place for Hrbek to work, and he thought long and hard about whether he should accept the offer to become interim director of human services. The county commissioners had become familiar with Hrbek's high-profile role as ombudsman, and one of the commissioners surprised Hrbek by calling him at home and offering him the job. He would be working in "the belly of the beast," as he put it. Charles See, who had risen to become Metro Ministry's director of community re-entry, told him, "It's a travesty if you don't go. We have been struggling to get people in these positions who see the world the way we see it." Hrbek took the job.

 

He was put off at the outset by the punitive nature of the organizational culture. The department's emphasis on punishing the bad apples rather than rewarding the good ones, as he articulated it, was diametrically opposed to his own approach of focusing on people's assets. For starters, clients had no privacy. Case workers took personal information from clients on topics ranging from drug dependence to spousal abuse in a room where new applicants sat right next to them, filling out papers.

 

Soon after Hrbek became interim director, several case workers asked if they could meet with him clandestinely to explain this problem. They asked if they could restructure the space to give clients more privacy. Hrbek liked their plan. He said, "That's great, do it."

"We can't," one of the case workers replied. "We suggested this to our supervisor and our supervisor won't let us."

Hoping to instigate change, Hrbek walked over to the supervisor's office. "'You know," he said, "the workers have come to me and they make sense. Why don't we just go ahead and do this?"

 

The supervisor replied, "We can't. The coordinator won't let us. And once the coordinator makes up his mind, that's it."

Recognizing the intransigence of the culture, Hrbek took a page out of his mediation handbook. He arranged a meeting with the coordinator and told him, "I really am going to give you an opportunity to be a hero." Two days later the room was arranged exactly as the workers wanted it.

 

It was vintage Hrbek, notes David Reines, who got to know Hrbek when they worked together in the department of human services.

"He did things in a very non-threatening way, but you could tell that there was steel to him," Reines notes.

Hrbek today - Still instigating change.
PHOTO (left) Hrbek today - Still instigating change.

In some instances, Hrbek's approach caused him problems. When he worked in the human relations department, he became concerned that the county would lose over $1 million in federal grants because it was not managing workforce development programs properly. "I had to do something quickly," he recalls. "So I did something illegal."

 

Hrbek knew of a Cleveland-based company that specialized in program management. "Without putting out bids and without doing a request for a proposal, I just recruited this company and said, "Do it,' and they did it," he says, almost gleeful as he recalls the defiance. "The state wanted to nail me," Hrbek admitted, but by the time state officials discovered the problem, he said, the company had successfully managed the county's projects and everyone was happy.

Hrbek acknowledged that his action was not kosher and could have placed the county commissioners in a difficult position. More fundamentally, it exemplified the type of patronage he had opposed as interim human services director and might have criticized as a young activist.

 

"There's a streak of independence," Hrbek said. "It bodes well for me sometimes, but perhaps not so well other times."

After working in human services, Hrbek moved back to Lutheran Metro Ministry, where he helped to develop detailed procedures by which the ministry could coordinate the men's homeless shelter. His wife, Stephanie Morrison Hrbek, marvels over how much Hrbek loves the men there; it amazes her how he is able to transform a situation that others might find "crushing and devastating" into one that showcases triumph and hope.

 

Hrbek says he is drawn to the men at the shelter and is impressed by the resilience they display. He makes it a point to have lunch with the men at least once a week.

 

His two sons from the second marriage are grown now and live in Cleveland; the youngest just graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art. The four children from his marriage with Gertrude are settled in their professions, each reflecting varying degrees of their parents' social activism philosophy. The celebrated Cleveland advocate has slowed down in recent years, but not much, dividing his time among the shelter, community re-entry work at Metro Ministry, and neighborhood development activities in Ohio City.

 

"What impels me," he says, "is this sense of participating in a little leaven, keeping alive this vision of right relationships and being part of a movement that in whatever small way, in the midst of so much brokenness and tragedy and injustice, values people."

 

Asked how he keeps from feeling discouraged, he turns the question around: "Who says I'm not discouraged? I get discouraged by disappointments like everyone else," he says. But Hrbek says his inspiration comes from two sources: people's refusal to surrender their spirit in the face of injustice, and a radical vision of Christianity.

 

"Jesus was a radical in the midst of his society. He rubbed shoulders with the outcasts. He talked of a community in which people are in respectful relationships, he gave expression to a counterculture. There have been people like that throughout the ages who have kept the dream alive, kept it bubbling. That's what the social justice movement is about, and I've been privileged to make a contribution in whatever small way I could."

 

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OHIO CITY CHIEF HIRED BY STARK

Thursday, June 28, 2007  from the West Side Sun News

By Ken Prendergast
West Side Sun News

The director of Ohio City Near West Development Corp. will leave at the end of the month to join Robert L. Stark Enterprises' ambitious downtown development efforts.

Friday will be Joe Mazzola's last day as the group's executive director. He headed up the community development corporation's staff for three years, and was director of two other CDCs.

Mazzola spent six years at the Flats Oxbow Association and three at the Friends of Shaker Square. He also worked for five years at EG&G Landscape Architects.

"It's been a great opportunity," he said. "I've been building on the legacy of many others who worked here."

In recent years, Ohio City has seen a flurry of construction and building renovation projects. West 25th Street, especially near the West Side Market, was rejuvenated with shops, taverns and housing, be it market-rate and low-income, or new construction and renovation. That mix of housing has flourished throughout the rest of Ohio City.

"There's some things that people won't see for a while," Mazzola said, referring to the Shoreway reconstruction as a boulevard, the Detroit-Superior Lofts and the One Charter Place condo developments. "We have quite a few developments going on."

Mazzola was hired by Stark as director of development. He be responsible for the coordination and oversight of various development projects, most prominent of which is Stark's $1 billion plans for mixed-use development in downtown's Warehouse District.

"His experience in and around downtown Cleveland will make him a great addition to our development team, particularly for our Warehouse District project," said Steve Rubin, Stark's chief operating officer.

"We're going to miss him from Ohio City Near West, but we're going to keep him downtown," Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman said. He noted that a search is already underway for his permanent replacement.

"He's a pragmatist," Cimperman said of Mazzola. "He's built relationships over the long haul, worked on streetscapes and understands the big dreams of developers. The project of Bob Stark is so huge and awesome. I don't think I've had such a good vibe about the city since the (city's 1996) bicentennial."

Stark's first phase alone, to be built on 8 acres of surface parking in the Warehouse District, could include 1 million square feet of retail, 750,000 square feet of office space and 600 residential units.

Darryl Whitehead, Stark's director of marketing, said "it's going to be a while" before a formal announcement of the project can be made.

"The next step will be solidifying letters of intent" from retailers and office tenants, he said.

On June 18, Stark's offices and its 50 employees were moved downtown from its former headquarters in east-suburban Woodmere. The move followed a brisk, 14-day renovation of a 107-year-old, five-story office building at West 3rd Street and St. Clair Avenue. Stark acquired the building May 1 for $1.3 million.

Despite the delay in Stark making his big announcement, Cimperman said Stark has been actively pursuing the downtown project.

"I don't think Bob could be doing one more thing," Cimperman said. "We've got to support this guy. He's taking the hits and taking the risk."

© 2007 Sun Newspapers

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Fourth Annual Garden Tour

The Ohio City Gardeners' Fourth Annual Garden Tour will take place on Sunday, July 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. This years tour will include eight urban gardens featuring diverse and rich environments such as a Caribbean Paradise, a Zen Spa, and even a Mediterranean Oasis! Tickets including the map of the self-guided walking tour will be available on tour day at the starting point of the tour, 5005 Franklin Boulevard, from 9:30 until 3:00 for $10 each. Convenient street parking is available for those who wish to drive to gardens or reach points of information by both foot and car. Homeowners welcome questions and comments about their gardens. Please see the attached postcard.

Ohio City Gardeners, a non-profit organization, promotes educational programs for its members, who also participate in philanthropic gardening endeavors to beautify Ohio City. For additional tour or membership information, please contact Anne Frank at 216.961.4333 or HFrank3883@aol.com. 

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ARTS & CULTURE
Energizing Detroit-Shoreway
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Steven Litt
Plain Dealer Architecture Critic
Matthew Wiederhold, economic development director of the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, had a nagging question about historic preservation on his mind.

To find the answer, he climbed a 20-foot ladder inside the long-vacant Capitol Theatre on Cleveland's West Side, aimed a flashlight at a 6-foot-high decorative plaster panel of a gazelle leaping through a forest, and started tapping on it gently with his fingertips.

His goal: to figure out how to get the fragile panel and several others like it off the walls so they could be restored as part of a $7 million makeover of the theater, scheduled to start in October.

"You know what? It just sounds really brittle; it seems really fragile," he said, speaking to a co-worker. "It's going to be critical to keep it upright, because if you tilt it, it will snap."

Wiederhold is part of a team engaged in the latest effort to revitalize the neighborhood. Like laboratory scientists conducting a large-scale urban experiment, they're getting ready to strengthen a vital catalyst in the mix: the arts.

The arts have been an important part of Detroit-Shoreway ever since Cleveland lawyer and arts leader James Levin founded Cleveland Public Theatre in 1983 at 6415 Detroit Ave., and established another performance venue and an art gallery nearby when he bought the former St. Mary's Church and its associated parish hall.

But now, after decades of urban husbandry in housing and retail, the district is about to gain critical mass.

The rejuvenation of the Capitol Theatre is part of a $24 million project to create a cluster of theaters, galleries, bars and coffee shops around Gordon Square Arcade, the block-long building at Detroit Avenue and West 65th Street, which anchors the neighborhood.

Originally built inside the Gordon Square building as a silent-movie theater in 1921, the Capitol will become a three-screen multiplex devoted to independent films operated by Jonathan Forman, who also operates the Cedar Lee Theatre and Shaker Square Cinemas.

When it's done in 2008, the Capitol will become the second major cultural venue in the neighborhood after Cleveland Public Theatre, located a few doors east on Detroit Avenue.

Then, in 2011, construction should be completed on a new $5 million building designed by Cleveland architect Richard Fleischman for the Near West Theatre on West 67th Street, just south of Detroit. That theater, now 30 years old, will move 30 blocks west from its present home in Saint Patrick's Club Room.

In the meantime, Detroit Shoreway will help raise $7 million to renovate Cleveland Public Theatre and to add air conditioning.

Together, the three theaters will anchor an already burgeoning collection of galleries, plus the growing cluster of restaurants lining Detroit Avenue east and west of Gordon Square. Additionally, starting this fall, Detroit Shoreway will kick off a $3.3 million streetscape project along Detroit Avenue.

Designed by City Architecture of Cleveland, the project calls for widening sidewalks, narrowing traffic lanes and planting new trees. The intersection of Detroit Avenue and West 65th Street will be resurfaced with decorative paving in red and yellow tiles designed by Cleveland artist Suzie Frazier Mueller to resemble a vortex generated from the letters "G" and "S."

Advocates hope that within a few years, the Gordon Square district will lure diners and movie- and theatergoers from across the region.

"This is absolutely a regional thing," said Jeffrey Ramsey, executive director of the nonprofit Detroit Shoreway organization. Speaking of the Capitol, he said, "This theater is going to be the sexy economic-development engine for the entire district."

Ramsey described the current plan as a fulfillment of Levin's vision at Cleveland Public Theatre.

"He founded the theater in this neighborhood at a time when not too many people were thinking about Gordon Square as a destination for arts and culture," Ramsey said.

The emphasis on the arts in Detroit-Shoreway could be dismissed as a fad. Collinwood, another Cleveland neighborhood, is creating an arts district. Tremont and Little Italy already host gallery walks. Every year, artists with studios in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood offer tours. If art districts pop up everywhere, it raises a question whether there's enough good art and theater to go around, much less to lift every city neighborhood out of decline.

But Gordon Square has a scale and financial heft that goes beyond neighborhood developments elsewhere. It also has the potential to bolster $300 million in surrounding real estate development, including Battery Park, a $100 million, 13-acre residential project aimed at building more than 320 apartments on the site of a former Eveready plant overlooking Lake Erie.

Shoreway improvements

will benefit neighborhood

On top of all that, the Ohio Department of Transportation's plans for a $50 million transformation of the West Shoreway promises to reconnect Detroit-Shoreway to Edgewater Park and the Lake Erie shoreline.

Built in the 1950s as a high-speed thoroughfare, the Shoreway sliced across the West Side and severed neighborhoods from the water. ODOT is redesigning the three-mile road as a 35 mph boulevard with traffic lights and intersections connected to new north-south roads at West 73rd, 54th and 45th streets.

Tom Bier, executive-in-residence at Cleveland State University's Center for Housing Research & Policy, thinks Detroit-Shoreway has all the ingredients for success.

"It's easy to get to, it's clear where it is, and I think its proximity to the Shoreway and the lake gives it a special attractiveness."

Furthermore, he said the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization and its offshoot - the Gordon Square Arts District - are building on a solid record of success.

"They've demonstrated that they produce, but it didn't happen overnight. They've grown their reputation, and I think now the delight of it is that these other sparks are really starting to flame up with the arts district."

In many ways, Detroit-Shoreway is a quintessential Cleveland neighborhood. Originally built to house workers in local factories and warehouses, the area's streets are lined with modest wood-frame houses on lots with 35- and 40-foot frontages.

The area's population plunged after factories started closing in the 1970s, but has rebounded within recent years as new immigrants and young professionals arrived, drawn by affordable housing and proximity to downtown and the lake. Housing values are rising substantially. In the past three years, Ramsey said, Detroit-Shoreway has had 300 housing starts, more than any other city neighborhood.

Gordon Square, built in 1920, was conceived as a neighborhood commercial hub, with storefronts on the ground level framing a farmers market and a silent-movie theater, and with apartments on the second and third floors.

The interior of the Capitol Theatre, like other silent-movie palaces, was designed like a wedding cake turned inside out. Its delicate plasterwork evokes an 18th-century fantasy on ancient Roman architecture with fluted pilasters, garlands of flowers and Wedgwood-style cameos originally painted in pale blue, cream and lavender.

Today, however, the cake icing is literally melting off the ceiling after decades of untended leaks, which have revealed gaping black holes of rotting plaster and rusting metal reinforcing bars.

But Wiederhold said that the restoration, to be led by the Cleveland architecture firm of Westlake Reed Leskosky, will bring all the ornamentation back to life, while dividing the theater into three separate screening areas ranging from 100 to 400 seats.

When it opens, the theater will certainly look the part of an artistic magnet. The question is whether it will attract enough energy to thrust Detroit-Shoreway into a new era of prosperity.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

slitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4136

© 2007 The Plain Dealer
© 2007 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.
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[Sun logo -- The Sun comes out on Thursday]

Condos to change Detroit
Lofts being planned for corner of West 28th Street

By Ken Prendergast

Staff Writer, West SideSun News

June 21, 2007

It's hard to keep an attractive development site down.

Developer Tom Gillespie of TEG Properties Inc. announced he is seeking to build a seven-story, 50-unit condominium building called Detroit-Superior Lofts on the southwest corner of West 28th Street and Detroit Avenue.

The site is next to another development by Gillespie - the former Painters Union building that is getting converted into market-rate apartments. There are also several other apartment conversions nearby, plus new nightclubs and restaurants. The site is just across the Detroit-Superior Veterans Memorial Bridge from downtown.

"This project takes advantage of the momentum created by other condo development in both downtown and Ohio City," Gillespie said in a written statement. He said the mid-rise condo building would have good views of downtown and the lake.

Sales are being handled by Progressive Urban Real Estate. Construction on the project will begin when pre-sales reach a certain point, typically 40 percent to 60 percent of a project's proposed housing units. However, Gillespie's goal is to open the Detroit-Superior Lofts in late 2008 or early 2009.

Proposed earlier for the same site was a smaller, five-story building that was marketed as gay-friendly housing. A Place for Us Development Inc. reportedly could not make the project work financially and will seek another location.

Lee Chilcote, PURE's new-construction project manager, said condos at the Detroit-Superior Lofts will be available in one- and two-bedroom loft configurations, as well as two-story townhouse units with first-floor parking. Sale prices range from about $150,000 for the one-bedroom units to above $400,000 for the townhouses, he said.

© 2007 Sun Newspapers
Go to The Sun News www.sunnews.com  home page

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Cottage Living Magazine: Cottage Community

 Find the story at: http://www.cottageliving.com/cottage/travel/article/0,21135,1632876,00.html

Our Top 10 Cottage Communities for 2007

Each year we look for neighborhoods we’d like to call home. Our 2007 favorites have charming cottages, a sense of community, and an eye on the future.


Ohio City Cleveland, Ohio

This comeback story started locally, fueled by creative and committed newcomers.

Community Profile
Location: less than a mile from downtown Cleveland
Number of homes: 4,000 total households
What $300,000 will buy you: a fully renovated cottage (1,700 square feet or so) with $100K left over
For more info: www.ocnw.org

Just over the Cuyahoga river from downtown Cleveland, this historic urban neighborhood fell into nearly irreversible chaos beginning in the 1960s. In the late ’70s, recognizing the gracious street layout and fine 19th-century homes—from brick worker cottages to porch-fronted Victorians—urban pioneers traveled against the suburban-bound current to land here and work shoulder-to-shoulder with existing residents to turn things around.

Bernie Thiel arrived with the second wave of pioneers in the late 1980s, fixing up a house with a childhood friend. Now Bernie lives with wife Angela Hummel in a different home, an 1860s clapboard vernacular the couple restored. You can hear the pride and pleasure in his voice.

"Ohio City is very friendly. It's a real talking-over-the-fence community," he says. And one that’s more active than ever. "I think at any given time you can find either a party or a meeting of some sort in the neighborhood."

Lessons from Ohio City
If crime is a problem, organize a block watch program. The residents of Ohio City maintain a Yahoo! site where they post information about vandalism, robberies, and other problems almost as soon as they occur. Police and city officials are more likely to respond to block watch groups than individuals.

Copyright © 2007 Cottage Living

Executive Fellowship shifts home to Leadership Center
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Cleveland Executive Fellowship program, aimed at developing civic leaders, is on the move - locally and abroad.
On Friday, the program officially shifts from its home in the Cleveland Foundation offices to the Cleveland Leadership Center. The foundation, which created the fellowship in 2004 with the intention of spinning it off, will continue to provide financial support.
Yemi Akande, who will remain as fellowship program manager after the shift, said the move makes sense because the organizations' missions are so closely aligned.

The Leadership Center is the umbrella group for Leadership Cleveland and Cleveland Bridge Builders, both of which focus on leadership development; (i)Cleveland, which promotes internships to keep college graduates in Northeast Ohio; and Look Up to Cleveland, which promotes leadership among high schoolers.

Not too long after the executive fellowship program settles into the new digs, the fellows will be on the road again - this time to China.
The eight fellows developed the trip to gain a global perspective on leadership and economic development, a better understanding of how cultural differences can affect doing business, and the chance to make contacts that could allow Northeast Ohio to tap into China's economic growth, Akande said.

Forest City and General Electric Co. have made donations to help pay for the two-week trip, she said, but the fellows also are raising money and seeking in-kind donations or contacts. More information is available by calling Hannah Fritzman, the fellowship program's coordina tor, at 216-685-2010.

Leadership, innovation awards:
The Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University is honoring Steven Raichilson, executive director of the Menorah Park Center for Senior Living, and Entrepreneurs for Sustainability.  The center's leadership award, which Raichilson will receive, is for sustained excellence in nonprofit management. He has been Menorah Park's executive director for more than 20 years.

Entrepreneurs for Sustainability will receive the innovation award, recognizing organizations that address complex social problems through collaboration. The network is committed to creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly economy in Northeast Ohio.

Name change honors donor:
In recognition of a $13.5 million pledge from the Mandel Foundation earlier this year, the Jewish Community Center of Cleveland now carries that family's name.

The money is earmarked for renovations and expansion at what this month formally became the Mandel Jewish Community Center. Construction at the Beachwood facility is likely to start next year.  Brothers Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel established their foundation in 1953.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: bgalbincea@plaind.com , 216-999-4185
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Restoring Prosperity
The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities

by Jennifer S. Vey
May 2007
[This is from the Brookings Institute.  For access to the full report, please go to: http://www.brook.edu/metro/pubs/20070520_oic.htm ]

With over 16 million people and nearly 8.6 million jobs, America's older industrial cities remain a vital-if undervalued-part of the economy, particularly in states where they are heavily concentrated, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. They also have a range of other physical, economic, and cultural assets that, if fully leveraged, can serve as a platform for their renewal.

Across the country, cities today are becoming more attractive to certain segments of society. Meanwhile, economic trends-globalization, the demand for educated workers, the increasing role of universities-are providing cities with an unprecedented chance to capitalize upon their economic advantages and regain their competitive edge.

Many cities have exploited these assets to their advantage; the moment is ripe for older industrial cities to follow suit. But to do so, these cities need thoughtful and broad-based approaches to foster prosperity.

"Restoring Prosperity" aims to mobilize governors and legislative leaders, as well as local constituencies, behind an asset-oriented agenda for reinvigorating the market in the nation's older industrial cities. The report begins with identifications and descriptions of these cities-and the economic, demographic, and policy "drivers" behind their current condition-then makes a case for why the moment is ripe for advancing urban reform, and offers a five-part agenda and organizing plan to achieve it.

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Church's general store: market with a mission
Malachi Mart offers bargains while raising money
Monday, April 16, 2007
Michael O'Malley
Plain Dealer Reporter

This article can be found online at: