Northeast Shores in the News

Northeast Shores has recently experienced a great deal of press coverage for our effort in the North Shore Collinwood community. If you have not seen the news coverage, here are a few links to these stories.

Northeast Shores' efforts regarding the northern terminus of East 185th Street was covered in two Plain Dealer articles:

http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2013/02/cleveland_clinic_and_universit.html
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2013/02/uh_to_build_new_medical_office.html

Efforts to add restaurants to Waterloo Road were covered on the cover of the Plain Dealer as well as Channel 8 news. Please see these links for that story:

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/02/waterloo_road_renaissance_unde.html
http://fox8.com/2013/02/21/project-light-switch-aims-for-transformation/

Collinwood Rising - February

The ongoing series of ArtPlace-related interviews with our Executive Director, Brian A. Friedman, continues with the following summary from February. In this piece, our Executive Director shares his thoughts from the recent placemaking summit hosted by ArtPlace.

WHAT IDEAS DID YOU GAIN OR LESSONS DID YOU LEARN THAT YOU PLAN TO APPLY TO YOUR INITIATIVE?

The recent ArtPlace Summit was a fantastic gathering of change-makers from across the country. It was humbling to be in such a group of intelligent agents.  On that note, we’d like to extend a congratulations to ArtPlace for creating and facilitating an arena in which collaborations could take place between businesses, arts and community organizations from around the nation. The presentations were thoroughly appreciated as well as the collective brainstorming about initiatives and learning about different organizations nationwide.  We’d also like to extend our gratitude to Carol Colletta and Rocco Landesman for their informative and enlightening thoughts and comments.

A great idea that comes to mind from the conference involves a media-sharing strategy that would allow us to use each other’s media contacts to raise awareness of our collective work. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness nationwide and to become more aware of our peers and of their engaging projects (e.g. Glass House Project, Irrigate Arts and Worm Farm).  Last but not least, there was a great conversation on the topic of vibrancy indicators. It was brought to our attention that a vibrancy indexing of our initiative relative to the region will be available in the next couple months. We’re very excited about getting our individualized vibrancy profile information in the near future. We’re all in the same boat and working towards similar goals.  We look forward to reviewing the information and mapping out ways to further improve on strategies to increase and maintain vibrancy within our neighborhood.

WHAT NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR INITIATIVE DID YOU IDENTIFY FROM CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER CREATIVE PLACEMAKERS?

We were not aware of the wide range of types of projects that were occurring and how much of this diverse country that we collectively cover. With that new knowledge, it seems critical to increase the collective national knowledge of our placemaking work.  We’ve had the pleasure of co-presenting with Springboard for the Arts the week following the ArtPlace Summit at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Kansas City. Further, we are planning to visit and see their work in regards to their Irrigate initiative as well as have them come here to Cleveland. We also admire the work of the Glass House Project in Chattanooga and their strategies regarding the revitalization of the historic Glass Street commercial corridor. Of special relevance is their How-To Guide and how it outlines and describes their project goals. It is a great frame of reference for us as we construct our replication kit which will incorporate similar ideas. 

Equally of interest is the Wormfarm institute and its initiative of activating art within a rural area.  We love the creative idea of artist influenced farm stands and the encouragement of property owners to engage in creating their own artistic installments (bringing the artist out of non-artists, so to speak). This also encourages us to broaden the scope of how we will create and implement creative projects in the future.

State Parks to return to local hands

Northeast Shores is very excited that the Governor's proposed budget includes a provision to return our state parks (Euclid Beach, Wildwood, and Villa Angela) to local hands. We are diligently working with the MetroParks to make sure that the future of these parks is strong.

Councilman Polensek shared the following press release regarding this news:

Mayor Jackson Urges State of Ohio to Terminate Lease for Cleveland Lakefront Parks, including three in Ward 11
Councilman Polensek has long championed the termination of the lease to return these properties to the city 

CLEVELAND (February 7, 2013) – Cleveland City Councilman, Michael D. Polensek, Ward 11, personally thanked Mayor Frank G. Jackson for his action in urging and asking the State of Ohio to terminate their 50-year lease with the City of Cleveland pertaining to the Cleveland Lakefront State Park System. Councilman Polensek, who has three Lakefront State Parks in his ward, the historic Euclid Beach, Villa Angela Beach and Wildwood Marina, has long championed and advocated the termination of the lease and the return of these critical and historic properties back to the City of Cleveland. 

Councilman Polensek states, “for far too long the State of Ohio has neglected its responsibility along our precious lakefront. It is time for us to go in a new direction by reclaiming these parks and ultimately working with the Cleveland MetroParks System to create a real “Emerald Necklace” that would incorporate all of our lakefront parks and properties into a regional MetroParks System.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create the kind of recreational facilities and economic development opportunities that we all have longed for in Northeast Ohio. Now is the time is for bold steps to be taken.” 

Councilman Polensek looks forward to working with Mayor Frank G. Jackson, State Representative Bill Patmon, who represents the Northeast Side of the City, the Governor’s Office and ODNR to make this dream a reality so all Greater Clevelanders may benefit. 

For additional information or if there are any questions please feel free to contact  Councilman Polensek. He may be reached at his office at (216) 664-4236.

Taste the Neighborhood (5th Annual)

Taste the Neighborhood is the only fundraiser that Northeast Shores Development Corporation has. We do this event once a year to try to raise funds and recognize people and businesses in the North Shore Collinwood area that go above and beyond to help improve the Quality of Life in the community.

The award recipients this year will be in the following categories:

North Collinwood Hall of Fame - Francis Hunter for her dedication to North Collinwood.

Partner of the Year - Neighborhood Housing Services for partnering with us in the Cover Your Assets Roofing Program.

Business Investment of the Year - Muldoons owner Billy Dagg for providing the “Neighborhood Gathering Place” a wonderful outdoor patio.

Block Club of the Year  - Shore Acres Block Club/Homeowners Association for their dedication to their neighborhood.

Volunteer of the Year  - Leonard “Lenny” Kedys for his many hours of volunteer work repainting the marquee on the LaSalle Theater

This year’s event promises to be the best Taste the Neighborhood in the five years that we have been hosting this event. We will again have over 20 restaurants and eateries donating food. North Collinwood boasts some of the best ethnic food around. We have Greek, Italian, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Croatian, Irish, Mexican, Barbecue, comfort food and desserts from all over North Collinwood. We have many new restaurants that have recently opened and many set to open in the near future. 

Come try the many tasty dishes that these eateries have to offer. February 19, 2013 from 6-9 Tickets are going fast. They are $25. in advance and $30. the day of the event. The event will once again be held at the Lithuanian Hall 877 East 185th St., Cleveland, OH 44119. You can purchase your tickets from Denise Lorek at (216)-481-7660.