Building THE LAND

Cleveland is a dynamic whole city composed of unique neighborhoods.

By Jill Sell

DESTINATION CLEVELAND, the area’s nonprofit destination marketing and management organization, IDs our city as The Land. Cleveland’s authenticity comes from the realness you feel and see in every corner of town. Destination Cleveland will also tell you that The Land is made up of 34 individual, fascinating neighborhoods with people who are passionate about them.

“Every neighborhood is different, but they all complement and support each other,” agrees Allison Halco, vice president of neighborhood marketing for Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. “Every neighborhood has a story to tell with people who build vibrant places to visit and live.”

THE PIVOT CENTER FOR ART, DANCE AND EXPRESSION

The Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression, for example, is the transformation of a 74,000-square-feet industrial complex in Clark-Fulton. Once the site of the Astrup company that made ships’ sails and later commercial and residential awnings, the Pivot welcomed its first tenants in 2021.

The Rainey Institute, which provides affordable arts education to young people, is one of the building’s newest tenants. It joins Cleveland Museum of Art Community Art Center, Inlet Dance Theatre, LatinUS Blackbox Theater, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, ICA – Art Conservation, Future Ink Graphics and the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults, as well as others.

“Everything at the Pivot is founded on collaboration and creativity,” says Rick Foran, owner of Foran Group Development. “Our mission here is to change — to pivot — the perception in Clark-Fulton to a more positive, engaging resource that reaches out to residents and visitors with quality programs, especially the arts.

“This is not a hot market. You are not going to find a lot of young people here yet who want upscale housing like in Ohio City. But Clark-Fulton is very authentic. We don’t want to displace any residents. It’s very much a working-class neighborhood. With the Pivot, we are touching all the bases in the cultural world for everyone in this neighborhood,” says Foran, who renovated his massive building by opening two major sections of a formerly solid brick exterior wall, adding windows and letting in light and engaging the neighborhood and passersby.

44TH ANNUAL

2023 Performers

• Herbie Hancock

• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

• Angélique Kidjo

• Richard Bona Presents ASANTE Trio Featuring Osmany Paredes (Piano) and ÍIario Bell (Drums)

• Dominick Farinacci and Triad

• Bra xton Cook

• Samara Joy

• Chr istian McBride

JUNE 22-24

PLAYHOUSE SQUARE

• Dan Wilson: 7 Decades of Wonder: The Genius of Stevie

• Nor man Brown

• Ger ald Albright

• Steve Smith and Vital Information: Steve Smith (Drums), Manuel Valera (Keys), Janek Gwizdala (Bass)

Get tickets and passes at tri-cjazzfest.com

Saucisson

Historically, Cleveland’s Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood has been the home to many residents of Eastern European descent. But, like many of Cleveland’s neighborhoods, it has expanded to embrace other cultures.

“We are probably one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the City of Cleveland, and I love that,” says Melissa Khoury, who opened a farmers market business in 2013 and her brick-and-mortar boutique butcher shop, Saucisson, six years ago.

The butcher shop sells beef, pork, chicken, lamb, steak and hard-to-find charcuterie items like guanciale. The locally sourced products and quality meats have earned the shop praise from Oprah Winfrey and a national reputation as a destination for foodies and hand-cured meat lovers.

Khoury says Slavic Village was, and still is, an affordable spot to open her business. The neighborhood also “is very accessible, just off 77 and nine minutes to City Hall, but not as well known as it should be.”

“For the past two years. I have made it my mission to figure out what it is that we need. We now have some new, affordable housing. We need to figure out what else we need to attract first-time home buyers,” says Khoury. “And it will happen.”

Foran and Khoury represent entrepreneurs and dreamers who refuse to take no for an answer. There are others like them in