Busy week here almost done!

No matter where you live in this great neighborhood, Northeast Shores was crazy-busy launching new programs and events this week.

If you live or own a business near East 185th Street, you should be excited about the NEW branding campaign for the business district. On Tuesday night, David Middleton and Jason from Kent State presented the new logo, advertising, banners, bags, etc. for the street. Merchants in attendance were very excited about this new development and now we are moving into implementation. The new logo will be posted on this blog as soon as we receive it electronically.

If you live off of East 156th Street, you should be excited about the new block watch that started last night. Residents of all the streets off of East 156th Street (Corsica, Trafalgar, Parkgrove, Arcade, Huntmere etc.) were invited to the first block watch meeting for this area. Councilman Polensek, Commander Drummond and our Community Organizer Denise Lorek explained how to develop this block watch for the area. See our online calendar for the next meeting if you missed it or contact Denise at dlorek@northeastshores.org to have your name added to the mailing list.

If you love community gardens, you should be excited about the new community garden planned at Corisca and East 156th Street. There are nearly 20 neighborhood residents that have volunteered for year one for this garden. The land will be tilled in May and then planting can commence. If you want to be part of the garden, e-mail Denise at dlorek@northeastshores.org and ask for some land.

If you are concerned about neighborhood foreclosures, you should be excited to know that Northeast Shores co-sponsored a foreclosure prevention event last night. In partnership with the Cuyahoga County Auditor's Office, we mailed letters to all neighborhood homeowners that have "at-risk" mortgages asking that they come last night and meet with one of several credit counselors for a one-on-one session. Nearly 50 families took us up on the offer and, hopefully, that means 50 less foreclosures in the community. If you missed the event and think you need help, just dial 211 on any phone and explain your circumstances.

Whew! That was just the last three days!

Have CRS create your dream house

The Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) Heritage Home Program helps homeowners turn their current homes into beautiful, restored community gems. Not only that, the interest rate offered is incredibly low.

Here are a couple success stories and program details shared with us by the fine staff at CRS:

In late 2007, Daniel Wilson and Lisa Kucharski were having work done on their Nottingham Road home, an old farmhouse built in 1878, when their contractor discovered the house’s original foundation was inadequate. Wilson and Kucharski called on the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) and took advantage of CRS’s Heritage Home Program.

Similarly, Thad Gregory contacted CRS in the fall of 2008 as his project list for a 1920s front porch Colonial Revival on East 150th Street quickly expanded. The Gregory’s needed to address some drainage issues, add additional living space and make necessary upgrades throughout the house.

The Heritage Home Program, which is made available to Ward 11 residents by Councilman Michael D. Polensek and Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis, is a 3.5% APR, 7 or 10 year loan for home repair and restoration projects. To be eligible for the loan, a house must have been built prior to 1960 and retain character-defining elements such as the original exterior cladding and wood or steel windows. Wilson and Kucharski used the Heritage Home Program to jack up their house and pour a new foundation and re-grade their lawn to slope away from the structure. The Gregory’s also capitalized on the loan program to correct the grade of their side yard, as well as finishing their third floor attic for additional living space, updating the kitchen and primary bathroom, installing a rear kitchen door accessing the backyard, adding a second bathroom in the basement and refinishing their hardwood floors. The Heritage Home Program can be applied to a wide range of home improvement projects, addressing all the issues that come along with maintaining and upgrading a historic property.

To find out if your home is eligible for the Heritage Home Program, or to take advantage of the Cleveland Restoration Society’s free technical assistance, call JP Kilroy at 216-426-3116, or visit www.clevelandrestoration.org.

Yo-Yo Club now on Waterloo

As a follow-up to the Wall Street Journal story, we were included in a story on Channel 3 (WKYC) about our Waterloo Village Model Block story. The story ran on the 6:00 and 7:00 news last Friday but the link on the website has died. If you missed it, we can't share it now. Boo hoo! But, it was a great story.

In the meanwhile, Channel 3 also interviewed our beloved Shoparooni co-owner Steve Brown and he did several yo-yo tricks meant to blow your mind. Check out his yo-yo prowess here:
http://www.wkyc.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=goodcompany&maven_referralObject=1094873735

If you listen carefully, Steve Brown mentions that he is teaching youth how to yo-yo for free on Sundays from 1:00 to 3:00. He is doing this next to Shoparooni at 15813 Waterloo Road. If you want to learn more, stop by Shoparooni during business hours and harass Steve.

Ward 10 City Councilman Coats resigns

Last night, Ward 10 Cleveland City Councilman Roosevelt Coats resigned from City Council. Councilman Coats represents the southwest corner of the North Collinwood community. (For those of you directionally deficient, the southwest corner is basically East 140th Street to East 152nd (where Memorial School is).

For more information about this neighborhood leadership change, see the Cleveland Plain Dealer article here:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/04/cleveland_council_members_scot.html

Wall Street Journal covers Waterloo Village

Yeah, that's right! We just went national and we are incredibly excited!

The Wall Street Journal covered our efforts to develop housing for artists in the area surrouning Waterloo Road.

Go pick up a copy, or the follow the link below:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992318352327147.html#mod=article-outset-box

We want to thank the wonderful reporting of Alexandra Alter for this piece. alexandra came out to Cleveland and spent the day learning about our efforts. She was great to work with on putting this together.

Celebrate Record Store Day on Waterloo

Tomorrow is Record Store Day and Waterloo is THE place to be to celebrate. Why Waterloo? Well, we have not one, but TWO, record stores participating in this exciting event. Both Music Saves and the new Blue Arrow Records have a variety of promotions that should make tomorrow incredibly exciting.

So, what exactly is Record Store Day? Well, in their words:

MUSIC SAVES celebrates the 2nd Annual Record Store Day on Saturday, April 18th!

MUSIC SAVES will open for Record store day at noon and remain open until 11pm. During that time, customers can purchase over 60 special releases available for the first time on that day, most of which are exclusive to independent stores and extremely limited. A complete list of what we will have is on our website (www.MUSICSAVES.com).

In addition, anyone coming in wearing an indie record store t-shirt will receive 10% off their purchase, and everyone making a purchase will receive a bag of goodies from indie labels, including a wide array of CD samplers, stickers, buttons, posters, download cards, and other cool stuff. Every bag will have a slightly different mix! For every $25 spent, customers will be entered into a raffle to win a ton of really great prizes also given to us by our favorite labels and distributors. A full list of goodies and prizes is available on our website.

Our coloring contest of last year has been replaced this year by Diorama-RAMA!, a diorama contest to see who can make the most creative, music-themed scene inside the confines of a shoebox. The winner will be chosen by TEAM MUSIC SAVES, and will receive a $100 gift certificate to the store. Entries are due by 10pm on Thursday, April 16.

MUSIC SAVES and Blue Arrow Records are also hosting live music in the evening:
5:30pm Brian Straw (OUT-store at MUSIC SAVES, on the sidewalk)
6pm Prisoners (IN-store at Blue Arrow Records)
6:30pm Trouble Books (OUT-store at MUSIC SAVES, on the sidewalk)
7pm HotChaCha (IN-store at Blue Arrow Records)
7:30pm The Very Knees (OUT-store at MUSIC SAVES, on the sidewalk)

Other Waterloo businesses are getting into Record Store Day, too! If customers spend $10 or more at MUSIC SAVES, This Way Out, or our newest record store, Blue Arrow Records, each of those 3 receipts is good for $1 off a beer in the Beachland Tavern! The Tavern will open at 11am with a special lunch menu and excellent brunch cocktails, and our galleries, shops, and the new Waterloo Cafe will be open, with other events and specials going on throughout the day. It’ll be a great day to hang out on Waterloo!

Excerpt from the Record Store Day website:
The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.

For more information, please contact:
MUSIC SAVES
Melanie and Kevin
15801 Waterloo Road
Cleveland, OH 44110
(216) 481-1875

Sounds great! Check it out and celebrate music!

Friday is Blog Day!

Ok, we are so breaking the blogging "rules" today. There is waaaaaaay too much going on to only have one post, so Friday is Blog Day!

Read all the blogs. Collect them all and trade with your friends!

Cindy Barber in the Plain Dealer

Our Board President, Cindy Barber, was highlighted in this past Sunday's Plain Dealer. How cool is that?

Check out her Q&A below:

Beachland Ballroom and Tavern co-owner Cindy Barber loves North Collinwood area

Sunday, April 12, 2009 from the Plain Dealer and cleveland.com

Cindy Barber bought into North Collinwood in a big way. In 2000, she and Mark Leddy turned the former 1950-ish Croatian Liberty Home on Waterloo Road into the rockin’ Beachland Ballroom and Tavern.

As the current board president of Northeast Shores Development Corp., she’s very involved in helping to bring back the neighborhood - formerly known as Beachland because of its proximity to the old Euclid Beach amusement park.

“It’s still sort of an uphill battle to convince some people that Waterloo is a valid choice,” said Barber, 58, whose Sunday brunch at the Beachland has really taken off. “But after nine years it was great to hear us mentioned in the mayor’s State of the City Address along with Gordon Square as one of the bright spots.”

Describe the renaissance taking place in North Collinwood.

Thankfully, the Waterloo Arts and Entertainment district surrounding the Beachland has lots of help. There’s Arts Collinwood, a growing nonprofit; Music Saves, our indie record store; Shoparooni, the eccentric novelty store; Waterloo 7, a fab art galley; and Blue Arrow Records, a used-vinyl store just opened. Blitz BBQ, owned by Billy Blitz, brother of the Dead Boys’ drummer Johnny, is set to open across from the Beachland this summer. We’re also working on the East 185th LaSalle Theatre renovation and redefining our lakefront area, because we really are the neighborhood where “the city meets the lake.” We hope to restore some of the Euclid Beach atmosphere with a new fishing pier and more.

Why did you choose to live and work in North Collinwood?

I moved here in 1986 after a friend of mine showed me the house he was rehabbing on a cliff facing Lake Erie. There were already lots of musicians, artists and bohemian-thinking professionals infiltrating the ethnic conclave, so I found a house and settled in. But as more and more of the older ethnics moved on, businesses and buildings became abandoned. The Croatian Liberty Home was for sale, and I felt I needed to figure out something to do with it to create a destination location to start reinventing the neighborhood. Thus the Beachland.

Tell us what happens during your average day.

First, there is no average day. Mostly I solve problems. Things break, the ceiling leaks, staff people have emergencies and you have to find someone to do that job, or lend them money. Buses full of rockers invade the parking lot at noon, and you have to answer their questions or get them a cab to go to the Rock Hall. I’m generally there by 11 a.m. and often I’m watching the bus leave the parking lot at 3 a.m. But more and more, we have good managers, and I’m trying to step back from the day-to-day.

Tell us a fun story.

Well, there are many stories! But maybe my favorite involves Glenn Tilbrook, lead singer for the British band Squeeze, who’s gone on to have his own career. He used to travel the U.S. with his recreational vehicle, so the first time through, we had him park the RV behind our house on the lake and he fell in love with us and the Beachland. But the next time, he had an old bus, and it broke down about 50 miles outside of Cleveland on his way to our show. So we didn’t know if he was going to make the show.

So then what happened?

The doors open. The audience is coming in. Everyone is waiting and it’s past showtime at this point. Then a big tow truck hauling the broken-down bus pulls up across the street and drops the bus pretty far from the load-in door. So Glenn runs in and gets everyone in the audience to come out to the bus and help the band haul the equipment inside. Someone has an amp, another one has a snare drum. They were up and running in 20 minutes and put on a great show. Glenn wrote a song called “Beachland Ballroom” that tells that story and more of his love affair with the Beachland.

What’s your favorite ethnic restaurant?

In my neighborhood, I rotate between Scotti’s Italian Eatery on East 185th (pasta with grilled chicken and broccoli in pesto cream sauce), It’s a Family Affair soul food on East 185th (roast chicken with mac and cheese and greens) and Marta’s Czech restaurant on East 222nd for the sauerbraten with homemade dumplings.

What pleases you about Cleveland?

The talent and spirit that rise from here. There are so many creative people doing wonderful projects. Often we are leading the way in innovation, and young artists and musicians are making some of the finest work in the land.

What would you fix?

Oftentimes, no one knows what great things are going on here, and too often young artists have to leave town to make a name for themselves because there isn’t the infrastructure like entertainment lawyers, agents, media attention to help launch them beyond our region.

Were you into music at Olmsted Falls High School?

Yes, choir and glee club. I grew up listening and appreciating music. My father was a drummer who turned me on to Spike Jones, my mother a professionally trained alto who was broadcast over the radio as a soloist in a church choir every Sunday.

What’s your favorite scenic view?

The view of Lake Erie and the Cleveland skyline from my front yard where I can see a sunset every night if I have time.

Give us a treasured childhood memory.

Watching Ghoulardi on late night TV and having the opportunity to see live music at the age of 16 and 17, such as Love at La Cave, Bob Seger and the Last Herd at the Rolling Stone Teen Club, MC5 at the North Ridgeville Hullabaloo, I got to experience the great live music history of Cleveland as a teenager. I hope someday some kid remembers what they saw at the Beachland.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: scrump@plaind.com

Aloha from the Underworld

Aloha from the Underworld April 3rd – 25th
(Aloha van de Onderwereld)

@LOW LIFE GALLERY
16001 Waterloo Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44110
Opening Reception on April 3rd / 7-11pm

This two women assemblage and collage exhibition combines the talents of Netherlands artist, Michelle Van Dijk with Cleveland’s own Phoebe Marie Nelson.

Phoebe Marie started making postcard-sized collages as a way to basically cheat her way through her final portfolio review at the University of Colorado. She discovered that she actually loved doing collage work and continued working in this format well after school ended. Phoebe Marie’s custom toys are frequently featured on www.ToyCyte.com and her collage cards and jewelry can be found locally at Shoparooni.

Michelle Van Dijk hails from Rotterdam, Netherlands. After completing her studies at the Netherlands College of Art, Michelle started work as a free lance artist. For her assemblage (shrine boxes) she draws inspiration from the fashion, architecture, music and popular culture of the 1920s – 1950s eras. For this exhibit, Michelle translated common American phrases into strong, erotic, provocative images of women appearing as femme fatale, angel, and witch.

This exhibition will be available for viewing from April 3rd, - April 25th. The gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday from 6-10 p.m. For more information call 330-671-6123 or visit www.lowlifecleveland.com

We're huge in Toledo

The Toledo Free Press checked out Waterloo in anticipation for the Rock Hall Inductions and were impressed.

Check out their great story about our efforts to make Waterloo the bee's knees (and Toledo's envy at our general rock factor):

http://www.toledofreepress.com/2009/04/02/cleveland-rocks/

Waterloo makes Cleveland Mag's City List

Check out the cover story in this month's (April) Cleveland Magazine.

The cover story is about parts of Cleveland that you think you know but you don't.

Well, one of the five neighborhoods covered was our own Waterloo Road!

The article shares a great map of Waterloo with a description of 13 places to check out. (Even with 13 listings, Cleveland Magazine still missed several businesses including the Waterloo 7 Gallery and Cakes by Sweetwater.)

Thank you, Cleveland Magazine for helping share our growing arts district!

You can see the story yourself at this (very long) url:
http://www.clevelandmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=E73ABD6180B44874871A91F6BA5C249C&type=gen&mod=Core+Pages&gid=A1853C327BCF4808B11A46274EDFC210

April Showers bring ...

May Rain Barrels?!?

This past Saturday, Euclid Councilperson Mary Jo Minarik and the Cuyahoga Soil and Water District offered rain barrel training at the Euclid Historical Society.

Well, we were in attendance since we had to get our rain barrel fix on. The training explained the importance of rain barrels and why diverting rain water from the combined sewers improves water quality. The captured rain water can then be used to water your lawn and plants as they grow through the warmer months. A shocking fact stated during the training was that 40% to 60% of your summer water bill comes from watering your lawn. By using rain water, you can reduce the amount of treated water you use, thus resulting in a lower water bill.

After these fun facts, Claire Posius showed us how to build our own rain barrel to take home. Claire did a great job of showing us how to turn a boring 55 gallon drum into an Earth-saving machine. (Claire is the Watershed Coordinator for Euclid Creek and is employed by the Cuyahoga Soil and Water District.)

Jealous because I have a rain barrel and you don't? Call Claire at (216)524-6580 ext. 16 or e-mail her at cposius@cuyahogaswcd.org to find out when the next rain barrel sale and training is scheduled.