Cleveland Magazine - March 2023

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Menopause and Heart Health

Heart disease risk rises for everyone as they age, but for women, the years leading up to and after menopause are a critical time to care for their health.

Menopause is a natural phase of life for most women in their 40s or 50s. It’s often just called menopause, but menopause actually has three stages:

1 2

PERIMENOPAUSE

• Includes the most symptomatic years

• Key time for a woman to reduce CVD risk factors and care for her heart health

MENOPAUSE

• When a woman’s period stops permanently

• 12 months in a row without menstruation

Cardiovascular Risk Factors

3

POSTMENOPAUSE

• Many women will spend up to 40% of their lives postmenopausal or “after menopause”

Menopause does not cause cardiovascular disease; however, during the menopausal transition, women experience many changes in their bodies, including some that can impact their cardiovascular health:

• Decline in estrogen levels

• Hot flashes and night sweats

• Depression

• Sleep problems

• Increased body fat around the organs

• Increased cholesterol levels

• Stiffening or weakening of the blood vessels

Take Menopause to Heart

• Increased risk of metabolic syndrome –3 or more of:

- High blood glucose (sugar)

- Low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol in the blood

- High levels of triglycerides in the blood

- Large waist circumference

- High blood pressure

The early natural menopause (prior to 45 years of age) and the surgical removal of the ovaries can also increase a woman’s risk for cardiovascular disease.

Women are at a greater risk for heart disease and stroke after menopause, making it even more important to focus on your health before menopause, and throughout the menopausal transition.

Get plenty of exercise/ physical activity

Eat healthy

Quit smoking

Manage your stress

Know your numbers

• Blood pressure

• Body Mass Index (BMI)

• Cholesterol

• Blood glucose (blood sugar)

Talk to your health care team about your risk factors and how to prevent cardiovascular disease during middle age. To learn more, visit goredforwomen.org/menopause

Women need CPR, too!

More and more people are surviving cardiac events — BUT NOT WOMEN.

Numbers tell the story

In a 2017 study of more than 19,000 people who had cardiac events:

Why?

Only 39% of women received CPR from bystanders in public compared to 45% of men.

Men’s odds of surviving a cardiac event were 23% higher than women’s.

Women who have cardiac arrests are more likely to:

• Have cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle

• Have non-schockable rhythms that cannot be treated with an AED

• Be older and live at home alone

Plus, a few common fears and myths may prevent them from getting help.

THE PROBLEMS: CPR ? =+

Even in training environments, some people are less likely to use CPR or an AED on female avatars

FearsMyths

“I will be accused of inappropriate touching”

“I will cause physical injury” “I will get sued if I hurt a woman”

Many believe that women:

• Are less likely to have heart problems

• Overdramatize incidents

AHA’S RESPONSE: To help overcome the problems and fears AHA is:

RAISING AWARENESS about cardiac arrest in women.

IMPROVING TRAINING

AHA’s CPR training addresses gender-related barriers to improve bystander CPR rates for women. This includes representation of women in our training materials and informational videos.

ADVOCATING to improve the response to cardiac arrest for everyone. Good Samaritan laws offer some protection to those who perform CPR.

Overcome your fear and learn CPR. Learn more at goredforwomen.org/WomenandCPR

ON THE COVER

40 IS CLEVELAND THE CLIMATE CHANGE SAFE HAVEN WE THINK IT IS? We explore what it will take for Northeast Ohio and the Great Lakes region at large to survive and thrive amid a warming planet. Stories by Becky Boban, Anthony Elder, Vince Guerrieri, Annie Nickoloff, Henry Palattella, Ken Prendergast and Dillon Stewart

Cover by Dan Couto

Edited by Ron Ledgard and Dillon Stewart

12 FROM THE EDITOR

14 CONVERSATION

LAY OF THE LAND

18 GUARDIANS ON THE RINK Cleveland's roller derby team is back in action this year.

20 TRANSFER OF POWER Fred and Laura Bidwell hand the Transformer Station over to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

24 THE STORM OF THE CENTURY Thirty years ago, the Blizzard of 1993 tore through the nation with tremendous wind and snow.

FORAGE & FEAST

27 COLOSSAL CUPCAKES Downtown Cleveland's favorite purveyor of giant cupcakes opens a new brunch cafe.

24 ROUND AND ROUND Watami, Ohio's first conveyor belt sushi concept, is all the rage in Parma Heights.

31 DINING GUIDE Come for the food but stay for the ambiance at these stunningly decorated restaurants around the city.

GRIT & GLAMOUR

35 SPRING IN BLOOM Get tips from local experts on preparing your garden before the freeze thaws and spring rolls in.

37 LIVING HISTORY Paul and Ann Meeker spent five years renovating their 19th-century, Victorian home in Ohio City.

112 LOOK BACK It's 1938, and Blanche Wilcox Noyes is taking to the skies.

Newconstructionorremodel-wehaveyoucovered VisitourshowroominClevelandHeights

Ourdedicatedteamlooksforwardtohelpingyoumakeyourdreamkitchenareality

evoDOMUSBuildingSupplies

2176STaylorRoad,ClevelandHeights,44118 (216)772-2603–www.evo.supplies

Denise Polverine publisher

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senior editor Annie Nickoloff

associate editors Anthony Elder, Gracie Wilson

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editorial interns Abigail Preiszig, Kiara Rodriguez, Karyssa Rose

art director Erin Stinard

associate art director Abigail Archer

contributing artists Ken Blaze, Daniel Couto, Kevin Kopanski, Heather Linn Photography

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illustration intern Emily Zhang editorial@clevelandmagazine.com

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senior account managers

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And though the fear might not always be acute, Ohioans are in an underlying state of anxiety. Sixty-four percent of people in the Cleveland metropolitan area reported feeling worried about climate change, and 71% of people believe it will harm future generations, according to the most recent Yale Climate Opinion Map. Yet, most of us suffer in silence with only 34% reporting that they talked about climate change frequently.

Now, the science is grim. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes hundreds of scientists and tens of

report in 2021 found that humanity is likely to cross the threshold of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit of warming from preindustrial times. This measure, which we could potentially hit in the next few decades without action, would likely have catastrophic effects.

In this month’s issue, we’ve asked a big question: Can Cleveland be a climate safe haven? While our natural resources certainly position us well, the answer remains in the hands of us all.

That’s why you can consider this a kickoff and a pledge for a new coverage area for Cleveland Magazine. Climate change is not only here; it is the defining issue of our time.

“We’re not facing some of the most existential crises the way other parts of the country are,” says Joel Brammeier, CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “As long as we take advantage of that time, we can make sure the Great Lakes region is secure and resilient.”

The time is now to clean our lakes, revitalize our energy systems, rethink the way our city is built and shape policies in ways that push us closer to a green future.

Dillon Stewart, editor stewart@clevelandmagazine.com

This Lenten season, Cleveland restaurants and parishes are serving up a bevy of tasty battered and fried fish to eat by the pound with friends and family. Visit our website to check out more than 100 locations on our interactive map that you can sort by location, church, restaurant, side dishes, price and more. To access the map for your next stop, check out clevelandmagazine.com /fishfry

From Our Readers

In our February issue, we went on a 24hour journey aboard Amtrak’s Lakefront Limited line. Passenger rail has gained a lot of traction with planned funding for Amtrak across the U.S. Our readers and sources engaged with the piece and shared their thoughts on rail expansion:

“This is one of the best first-person stories about the experience of riding Amtrak and illustrating why we can and must

do better. I am passing it around to all board members and allies. – Stu Nicholson, executive director of All Aboard Ohio

“Can't wait until we can start and finish train trips in cleveland not in the middle of the night! – @anechkayd on Instagram

“Connecting the big Ohio cities would be amazing for tourism, sports, concerts, universities, workers, air quality! I live in Cincinnati but am from Cleveland and drive across the state to be with family. I would take Amtrak every time if it were available!”

– @heidimarie928 on Instagram

“I hate to burst your bubble, but Cleveland will not see any major upgrades or services added. It’s all hype! We’re not densely populated enough and generally speaking; all the highways are long and straight. Take the 71 corridor, Cleveland to Cincinnati is 3.5 hours by car it would take tens of billions and ten years to build new high speed tracks that can at best save you an hour and a half.” – @russhnds on Instagram

You’ve seen him on our Instagram, and you’ve let him guide your weekends in Cleveland. Anthony Elder is an associate editor at Cleveland Magazine, and your go-to source for making every weekend in the Land the best one yet.

Q: Why is the Weekender guide important to you?

A: It’s really important for people to be able to go to their local publications and know what

fun things are going on. It’s a vital service we provide, and it helps establish some pride in the city, too.

Q: What value do you find in the weekend?

A: The weekends are this safe haven for free time and exploration. Those are your two days to not only get your laundry done but go out and see a show you haven’t seen or hang out with new friends.

Q: How do you spend your weekends in Cleveland?

A: My favorite things to do are those that bring together Northeast Ohio nerds.

Reach

@clevelandmagazine

CLEVELAND'S WEEKEND PLANNER

THE LAND

LAY OF

GUARDIANS ON THE RINK

20

THE BIDWELLS TRANSFER POWER

24

THE STORM OF THE CENTURY

EVERYONE IS IRISH

MARCHING THROUGH THE STREETS of Cleveland this St. Patrick’s Day, you will find furry alpacas clad in shamrock vests and leprechaun hats. The animals hail from Perrysville, where Kathy and Rob Turk started Gaelic Glen Alpacas in 2010. “Our tagline is ‘Where Ireland meets Peru,’” says Kathy. “They’re dressed up. We have banners made specifically for the theme. We go all out.” Since their Cleveland St. Patrick’s Day Parade debut in 2017, the alpacas have become a fan favorite. People even arrive early to line up for a meet-and-greet with the beasts before the parade starts. “People love them because ours are pretty friendly,” says Kathy. “They’ll eat from your hand and the kids get a kick out of it.” While alpacas are not Irish, they are uniquely Ohioan, as the state has one of the largest alpaca populations in the country. Lookout for the farm’s littlest, Claire, the one-year-old alpaca that Kathy is hoping to get dressed up as a leprechaun to lead the herd down the street.

Return to the Rink

The Cleveland Guardians and Burning River Roller Derby teams come back for their first seasons since the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s a busy spring for the Cleveland Guardians — both Cleveland Guardians. Yes, the Guardians baseball team plays the Seattle Mariners on March 30. But the original Guardians — the scrappy local men’s roller derby team founded 10 years ago — is also back for its first season since the coronavirus pandemic. The team's home opener against the Detroit Riot lands at 3 p.m., May 20 at the team's new venue, the Cleveland Heights Community Center.

It also marks the team’s first real season since its run-in with Major League Baseball, when, in 2021, Cleveland's baseball team claimed the name the derby team had been using for years.

“Wait, there’s a baseball team called the Guardians?” asks Jeremy Copeck, with a laugh.

Copeck, who plays under the name Zero, is the Guardians’ team captain, plus its director of roller derby operations, plus its inter-league coordinator. He’s been playing and refereeing roller derby since 2011 for teams in Detroit and Cleveland. Things slowed down and came to a halt during the pandemic. Now, after a few years of limited practices and bouts, the Guardians derby team comes back in a big way.

“We can actually have a season this year, with home games,” Copeck says, “and show them who the Cleveland Guardians are.”

Both the 25-person Guardians team and the robust 60-person women’s team, Burning River, return to the rink this spring. They’ve been practicing together since mid-2022.

On a January weekday at Euclid’s Pla-Mor rink, before the season officially starts, both new and established players run drills and practice skating styles, decked out in helmets, wrist guards, knee guards and mouthguards. Names like “Hell No Kitty,” “Gal Fawkes,” “Sicko Mode,” “Frank N Hurter” and “Wickedpedia” zip around the oval, as they practice hip-whips, apex jumps and jammer drills. Sometimes they’re gracefully swerving around each other. Sometimes they’re smacking into each other in nonviolent

The Guardians roller derby team celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

collisions. Sometimes a skater falls down to the ground, quick to return to their feet.

“The first thing we teach our new skaters is how to fall. We want them to do it safely, and you’re gonna do it the whole time,” says Alexandria Perez, aka Winona Spider, a Burning River skater and leader of the Skater Tots program for new skaters. “How to stop, and how to fall, before they even skate.”

Here at practice, the two teams weave together. The delineation between “men’s team” and “women’s team” labels seem to apply more to playing style than members’ gender identities. Men, women, nonbinary and transgender skaters play for the Guardians, a team registered with the Men’s Roller Derby Association. Meanwhile women, nonbinary and transgender skaters play

for Burning River, a league registered with the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

“We have a pretty fluid gender policy for both leagues,” Perez explains. “However you identify, there’s a spot in roller derby for you, for sure.”

“Derby in general is a very progressive and forward sport,” Copeck adds. “Part of when the Guardians baseball team thing happened, we had a large amount of support from the roller derby community, who really rallied for us because we were the small guy. That’s how people interpreted this; that we were this path of least-resistance that thought could be rolled over. We all rallied together.”

Back to that “baseball team thing” — both Copeck and the Guardians’ newest team member Sam, aka Wickedpedia, didn’t share too much about the legal scuffle between the two Cleveland sports organizations. According to court records, the Guardians roller derby team filed a lawsuit against the MLB team over copyright infringement on Oct. 27, 2021, and it was later dismissed on Nov. 22, 2021.

“I wasn’t behind the scenes. I don’t know the details of it,” Copeck says. “Essentially, it started out as the baseball team wanting to have the name. There had to be negotiations to work together and make sure we could operate in parallel.”

An agreement was reached: the two Guardians teams would use the name independently. Furthermore, the derby team maintained its URL, clevelandguardians.com, and its social media handles: @clevelandguardians. (The baseball team took @cleguardians, and cleguardians.com redirects to its MLB website.)

The whole thing made headlines around the world, bringing this niche, nonprofit sports organization into the spotlight. After the MLB team announced its “Guardians” name change on July 23, 2021, the derby team’s website crashed from an influx of visitors. According to the derby team’s lawsuit, the website went from a few dozen daily visits to 180,000 visits in a nine-hour span.

“A lot of my friends in town, before I started playing derby, that was the first time they heard of derby,” says Melanie Moore, aka Frank N Hurter, a Burning River skater. “That maybe put it on the radar for a lot of people.”

Now, more than a year and a half later, things aren’t too bitter between the teams. If anything, the event gave a little more attention to Cleveland’s roller derby scene.

“It’s an ‘Any news is good news’ situation,” Copeck says. “We want to use it in a positive way — to own it. And to use it to get people to know the sport more.”

Roller derby itself is a sanctioned contact sport, where each team designates one jammer to skate laps around the competing team. That team must block opposing jammers and assist their own jammers.

Perez mentioned the derby-focused movie Whip It as a motivating factor for signing up. Moore met a roller derby team while working at a bar in Michigan and got into the sport while in college. Copeck joined after a college friend recommended the sport, while Sam says he stumbled across derby through a Wikipedia article (hence the name “Wickedpedia”).

Now, both Burning River and the Guardians are facing the same challenge: recruitment. The pandemic brought each team’s numbers down

when some players moved away from Cleveland or moved on from the sport. Both teams will host a new Skater Tots training program on March 19 for interested skaters, who can find contact info at both clevelandguardians.com and burningriverderby.com.

“Once lockdown stopped, when we came back, it was a very different league because of the different faces, and we had a lot of new skaters,” Perez says. “We had to not start from the ground up, but definitely we started rebuilding our league again.”

“We have a bunch of new skaters here for the first time learning the skills, and a bunch of skaters who have been doing it for a while but also hadn’t done it for almost two years,” Moore adds. “So we’re really picking it all back up together. Personally, I think it made us a really close-knit group. It really brought a lot of unity and excitement for everyone.”

The Guardians men's roller derby team and Burning River women's roller derby team have been practicing together since mid-2022.

A Transfer of Power

Ten years and 40 shows later, local art collectors Fred and Laura Bidwell entrust the Transformer Station to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

ON FEB. 5, the Transformer Station closed its doors on Fred and Laura Bidwell’s final show. The Bidwells gifted the Hingetown gallery to the Cleveland Museum of Art after 10 years of use, during which the local collectors and museum alternated exhibitions.

Fred Bidwell cites his involvement with Front International, Cleveland’s triennial contemporary art festival, as a reason to refocus. But the couple isn't going far — they plan to build a house next door. “You’ll be able to practically reach out and touch it,” says Fred, 70. “We’ve had such a successful run, and it’s felt so satisfying. The museum will do an amazing job, and this will give us a little extra time to breathe.”

The Transformer Station itself, renovated at the Bidwells’ expense, is worth an estimated $1.2 million. CMA plans to keep the platform open as a showcase for various art forms, including culinary and performance.

We asked the Bidwells to reflect on their catalytic project, as it propelled Hingetown and introduced Clevelanders to one of the top 100 private collections in the country, with more than 1,300 pieces of work curated since the Bidwells' first acquisitions in 1991.

Town Square Rock: The first concert we did in collaboration with the CMA was a wow-factor moment. I realized, wow, this neighborhood is going to explode. These are amazing bands, sort of like Elton John, Rolling Stones level in their home country. Popular music from Africa, the Caribbeans, South America, Eastern Europe. The first 10 minutes of every concert, people are trying to figure out, What kind of crazy music is this? And then for the rest of the two hours, everyone’s dancing their tails off.  —FB

Living Legacy: Local, national, international, it does not matter, we love and support artists. We get to know them, and we get to know what they’re thinking and their ideas. That is the beauty of dealing with contemporary artists.  —LB

Anchoring Hingetown: We don’t deserve any credit for the name Hingetown, which was developed by Graham Veysey and Marika Shioiri-Clark. The Transformer Station was an unexpected success in bringing contemporary art to the West Side, which had no museum venue at all, and transforming a neighborhood that needed love. [It] just gave others the courage to invest.  —FB

Taking Ownership: When someone loses their keys, they call Fred Bidwell. When the humidity is too high, they call Fred Bidwell. When there’s

a security issue — any issue with the physical building — call Fred Bidwell. We get credit for being glamorous and having things on the wall, but there are things behind the scenes. —LB

Artistic Nature: Photography is a fascinating medium. It’s the only artistic medium that has been in this state of constant change and revolution ever since it was invented in the early 19th century.  —FB

True Heroes: Our handlers and art installers, they are the geniuses of the world. They can solve any problem. They save the world. —LB

Most Interesting Shows: CMA organized Crackle & Drag by the artist TR Ericsson, who is an artist that we have been a longtime supporter of. It’s a favorite for sure. — FB

BY BECKY BOBAN PHOTO BY KEVIN KOPANSKI

No More Stalling

Girls wrestling is now state sanctioned in Ohio, changing the scene for young athletes.

On an early-December evening, it’s business as usual in Columbia High School's wrestling room. Located in a tiny corner of the school’s gym, the door to the room swings open at a near-rhythmic pace.

One wrestler heads to grab some ice for a sore elbow. Another darts into an adjacent room to grab a tissue for a bloody nose — wrestling practice staples that have been a part of the sport’s practices since it started in Ohio in 1938.

But this year, the monotony of practice means a little more for area high school wrestling teams, as this season, every member of the team is working together for a shared goal. Last January, the Ohio High School Athletic Association officially sanctioned girls wrestling as a sport. Ohio becomes the 33rd state to do so. Previously, girls competed against boys if they wanted a shot at OHSAA recognition.

This March, the OHSAA hosts its first-ever state tournament dedicated to female wrestlers. The competition is being held in tandem with the boys tournament at the Schottenstein Center.

The vote was a long time coming for Hannah Ferry, who is in her first year as Columbia’s girls wrestling coach. When Ferry wrestled at Vermilion High School 10 years ago, she was the only girl on the Sailors’ wrestling team. Now she gets the opportunity to lead a team full of wrestlers who look like her.

“I went from being on a team of all guys to seeing a team of girls dedicated to the sport,” Ferry says.

Parts of the Raiders’ journey this season has been documented in Unsanctioned, a documentary series being produced by Northeast Ohio native Ryan Kelly and Transition Studios.

The project gained steam last winter when Kelly was flipping through an alumni pamphlet from Lutheran High School West. A few weeks after reading a story about the Longhorns becoming the first school in Ohio to field a full girls team, Kelly found himself at the team’s practice learning more about the fight to sanction girl’s wrestling.

Hannah Ferry coaches an all-girl wrestling team after Ohio became the 33rd state to sanction the sport.

“I quickly realized the story was a lot bigger than just their school,” Kelly says.

After attending last year’s state girls wrestling tournament, Kelly and Transition expanded the scope of the documentary to include other teams.

“The discipline it takes to not just wrestle but to also fight for the legitimacy of your sport is incredible,” Kelly says. “They’re doing two things at once that are so difficult to do.”

There had always been a grassroots effort pushing to sanction girls wrestling in Ohio, but the movement gained momentum in February 2020 when the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association held the first state tournament.

At the time of the first girls state tournament in 2020, there were 474 girls wrestling in Ohio. Now, the number has eclipsed 800.

“When we talked to people on the national level, they told us that the sport’s numbers would grow if it got sanctioned," Kelly says. "They weren’t lying."

Unsanctioned features Elyria High School's Riley Banyas, a 100-pound wrestler who’s qualified for all three of the Coaches Association girls tournaments. The Pioneers are led by first-year coach Armando Torres, who took over last fall after Elyria Wrestling legend Erik Burnett retired. Along with taking over the boys team, Torres’ first year at the helm for the Pioneers has also included helping coach Elyria’s inaugural girls team, which is composed of Banyas and six girls who had never wrestled before.

“When I was wrestling, we only had girls on the stat crew," Torres says, "but now the sport’s growing in a way where they can compete in an equal and fair way, which is awesome because now wrestling families can truly be wrestling families."

Ferry and fellow girls' wrestling coaches from around the state are hoping that success will result in a trip to Columbus in March for this year’s state tournament.

There, after years of wrestling against boys and having to hold a separate state tournament, Ohio’s girls wrestlers finally get their moment in the spotlight.

Behind the Stage

Get to know seven women running some of Cleveland's best independent arts and entertainment venues.

AS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH BEGINS, we turn our attention to those who have pushed boundaries, smashed stereotypes and created a path for future generations of artists and creators — and all right here in Cleveland. The conversation wouldn’t be whole

without hearing from those women who fight for the arts both on and off stage. Here, we look behind the curtain at the owners of many of Northeast Ohio’s biggest venues: the women carving out safe spaces for performance and culture in every corner of the city.

CINDY AND HER PARTNER MARK LEDDY bought the old Croatian Liberty Hall more than 20 years ago, back when the Collinwood neighborhood wasn’t a Clevelander’s first choice for a night out. But Barber saw the potential.

“I had moved to this neighborhood in, like, ’85-‘86 and the neighborhood was changing,” she recalls. “I felt like if I could create a destination location, it might start to bring the neighborhood back, because this neighborhood had a history of music.”

Now, Beachland stands proud in a burgeoning arts district on Waterloo Road. And Barber gives back even more with her recent nonprofit, Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present & Future, providing performance and recording opportunities for local artists.

YOU CAN’T TALK Cleveland music without mentioning the Grog Shop. Adorned in a Jake Kelly mural and three decades of a history that includes the likes of Oasis and the Flaming Lips, Blackman and her venue have watched the local scenes shift through the years. She recalls a time when Grog Shop was the newbie among now-defunct staples like Peabody’s Down Under and the original Phantasy Nightclub.

“[Venues] were all doing their niche things, and we sort of picked up everything else," Blackman says. "We were trying to just give everybody a chance ... keep it diverse. And people around town were helpful to me; said, ‘Hey, she’s starting out. Give her a chance.’”

Thirty years later, fellow venue owners like Cindy Barber and Roseanna Safos from Little Rose Tavern call Blackman an inspiration.

UNTIL SELLING her half of the beloved bowling alley venue in 2021, Flamos established Mahall’s as a cozy space to grab a specialty cocktail and have their choice of a punk show downstairs and perhaps a comedy show upstairs. Flamos attributes the variety in programming to entering the industry later than many.

“Because I wasn’t part of the network originally, I was getting very creative about the different things that we were booking in that space,” she says. “It wasn’t just music. We had poetry, comedy, theater, dance, community events.”

After selling Mahall’s, she put that money toward purchasing the Variety Theatre, excited to preserve the space as a piece of history and a future hub for entertainment and commerce, she says.

IN 2013, Lisa Marie Covelli purchased The Foundry Concert Club almost on a whim. The previous owner was talking about selling. “I opened my big mouth and said, ‘I’ll buy it,’” Covelli remembers. Nearly a decade later, she passed the business to longtime general manager Rae Gentry, who had frequented the Foundry as a patron even longer than she’d been working there. With such deep ties to the space, passing the club down to Gentry felt fitting.

“I actually had been working here off and on for about 18 years under the different names,” Gentry reminisces. “It was kind of a free-for-all, there were no rules. You didn’t really know what was going on. From a management perspective, that’s a nightmare. But we still have fun, it’s now a very family-oriented kind of business model here."

KELLY FLAMOS Owner of Variety Theatre; Former co-owner of Mahall’s 20 Lanes

KATHY BLACKMAN Owner of the Grog Shop

CINDY BARBER Co-Owner of Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

RAE GENTRY Owner of The Foundry Concert Club

EMMA JOCHUM Owner of No Class

SIMILAR TO RAE GENTRY, Jochum cut her teeth booking at The Foundry Concert Club and occasionally at Now That’s Class. When the latter’s owner, Paul Shlacter, was looking to sell, Jochum says the venue “just kind of fell in my lap.” After changing the name to No Class, Jochum moved her shop Black Market Records to the basement and has focused on diverse programming and making the community feel at home.

“I want everyone to feel welcome,” Jochum says. “We don't f— around when it comes to respecting each other. Nobody will walk in here and harass anyone based on gender, race, sexuality. We take safety of all staff, patrons and artists seriously — we have security seven nights a week whether or not there is an event.”

MILLER Co-Owner of Music Box Supper Club

WHEN SHE ARRIVED in Northeast Ohio after nearly two decades booking artists in Chicago, Colleen Miller and husband, Mike, didn’t have a game plan. That is, until their realtor tipped them off about a vacant space on the West Bank of the Flats.

“It was in very bad shape. It was crazy,” Miller recalls. “But one thing led to another and we just were like, ‘OK, we’re going to open a venue here in Cleveland.’”

Since opening its doors in 2014, Music Box has provided a haven for Clevelanders looking for a rotation of delectable themed brunches "and [to] listen to music that they’re familiar with,” Miller says. “So we’re just trying to sort of provide that fun night out.”

ROSEANNA SAFOS Owner of Little Rose Tavern

SAFOS GOT HER START booking talent at Happy Dog before opening her quaint dive bar. Partnering with chef John Haggerty, the bar serves up some of the tastiest vegan bites in town with performances that feel like “a house show but at a bar,” Safos says, referencing a compliment from Grog Shop's John Neely.

While she appreciated her time at Happy Dog and maintains close ties, she wanted to create her own space: "a home for anybody that’s passionate about music — especially local,” she says.

“I didn't want to take away anything from the Happy Dog or any other venue, [so] I didn't want to do only music. I have a lot of DJs, I do this thing called Reverse Male Review," Safos says. "Everybody's been supportive. "

COLLEEN

Storm of the Century

Thirty years ago, a week before spring, one of the strongest winter storms on record hit the U.S. Described as having the heart of a blizzard and soul of a hurricane by The Plain Dealer , Northeast Ohio escaped mostly unscathed, while the eastern seaboard and southern states suffered.

Scott Lakus had been warned.

Meteorologists had consistent models five days in advance. Right before the Ides of March in 1993, the Storm of the Century slammed nearly half the country’s population. But like Caesar, Scott could not be deterred.

“I was in my 20s, indestructible and going to see my favorite band,” says Scott, an adamant Deadhead, or follower of the Grateful Dead.

“Most people stayed home,” says Karen Lakus, Scott’s future bride, who also had tickets for the show. “Except for Deadheads because they’re not that smart.”

Scott hit the road with a friend in a 1987 Ford Ranger, braving the trek to the Richfield Coliseum from Mentor. After an hour and a half truckin’ 25 mph, they pulled off to a cheap Northfield motel called the Sunset Inn.

At an apartment complex in Rocky River, Dennis Manoloff shoveled snow for his neighbors. The reporter wasn’t thinking about his The Plain Dealer assignment that night. The Cleveland Crunch was supposed to play against the Buffalo Blizzard at Cleveland State University Convocation Center.

“I didn’t think there was any way the game would be played,” says Manoloff, who now occasionally writes for Cleveland Magazine

Chuck Murr, then-media director of the Cleveland Crunch, knew better. The Crunch’s general manager, Al Miller, was an old-school guy. And when did the weather ever stop a sports game? Murr wouldn’t see his first cancelation until later that decade.

“[We’d be] in a driving rainstorm, lightning and thunder like crazy,” Murr says. “Now, they stop a game if there’s lightning in Nova Scotia.”

“IT WAS ONE OF THE STORMS that lived up to its hype,” says Peter Whiting, a Case Western Reserve University professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences.

Compared to 2022’s Christmas bomb cyclone, which dropped from a 1-foot snow warning to 4 inches in Cleveland, 1993’s storm made its threat explicit. A dome of cold air rushed from Canada to tango with warm air sweeping from the Gulf of Mexico across Texas. Whiting explains the cold air was bulldozed upwards, priming precipitation. The boundary where the differing pressures met complicated into a thunderous low-pressure system with snow as it moved east and then north.

Feeding off the contrast in temperature, columns of air twisted, creating at least 15 tornados in post-Hurricane Andrew Florida, one

SNOWFALL (INCHES)

of which was tracked for 30 miles. In Ohio, the low pressure was listed as a Category 5, akin to that of a hurricane.

Despite these “three cherries on the slot machine,” as Paul G. Knight, a Pennsylvania State University Weather Communications Group meteorologist, offered The Plain Dealer, Whiting admits to furniture shopping during the storm.

AT THE MOTEL, Scott called his mom from a payphone. She told him the devastating news: The Grateful Dead show was canceled.

“Drifts of snow were plowing in under the door of the motel,” Scott says.

Ohio’s southern counties broke their Blizzard of 1978 snowfall record with 22 inches in 24 hours. Yet Ohioans managed to find levity. In Castalia, anglers braved the elements to fish at Cold Creek at Millsite Rod and Gun Club. Laurel Telliard of Lakewood loaded a Volkswagen camper with snacks and hot chocolate. She headed to Rocky River Reservation to teach her daughters, Chelsey and Tracey, how to cross-country ski. Frank Jolly and Gabrielle Dugue got engaged, their limousine lodged in a snowbank on the way to the Top of the Town Restaurant.

The Forest City Yacht Club, teeming with cabbage, beans, corned beef and Manhattans for its annual St. Patrick’s Day party, welcomed the stranded couple. Steve Ginal, who managed the bar that night, remembers them stepping in from the cold dressed to the nines.

“That was the most eventful night,” Ginal says, who’s been a member since ’92.

Jolly and Dugue left with an improvised engagement gift, the Crockpot door prize.

Fans arrived at the Cleveland Crunch

game. Mike Riley, an Akronite whose kids hoped their mini-ball odds were higher in a diluted crowd, claimed he’d driven in worse. When Manoloff asked Miller why the game hadn’t been canceled, his answer was “because it was scheduled.”

But Jerry May of Youngstown, the Crunch’s announcer, refused to drive up.

NORTHEAST OHIO got scratched by the storm. All roads were closed in Lorain County and officers blockaded the Shoreway, while hours east, Pennsylvania experienced 15-foot snow drifts; Pittsburgh, 23 inches of snow. Twenty-five-foot waves ate at the East Coast.

On Long Island, 18 homes fell into the sea. Birmingham, Alabama, set its current record of 13 inches of snow at 2 degrees. North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell experienced 50 inches. The Dry Tortugas islands reported 109 mph winds. Mount Washington, a volatile area already, reported 144 mph winds. Approximately 1,000 vehicles were snarled between Alabama and Georgia. Children in Florida’s panhandle made snowmen with 6 inches of snow, while boats and dump trucks rescued their southern neighbors from flooded homes. The American Red Cross opened 600 shelters in 20 states.

In total, about 300 people died and $5.5$11 billion worth of damage incurred. The storm’s immensity, for which it’s known, covered more than 550,000 square miles and generated almost enough water to turn the state of Missouri into a foot-deep puddle.

The storm’s erratic enough to mouth climate change? but impossible to attribute to the phenomenon, Whiting says. “Think of climate change as the probability that you get your slot machine to line up right. You’re changing those odds.”

As the poles decrease in temperature, pressure difference between them also decreases, resulting in decreased wind speeds in atmospheric currents. A particular current that drives the weather from the Midwest to Canada, perpetrating many Cleveland storms, is the jet stream. Whiting explains the jet stream’s undulating coils will slow with less wind, causing warmer warms in the south, and colder colds in the north. Ohio’s air is also predicted to hold more moisture, resulting in four more inches of annual rainfall for Ohio by 2050.

Whiting speculates Ohioans will experience more flash flooding as a result. With more nutrients and soil running into Lake Erie, Whiting cautions algal blooms, plus the dead zones they instigate.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, tonight’s attendance, 11,522,” Murr announced, filling in for May. The crowd was aghast. The blizzard had only wrung in 577 attendees.

Murr followed his joke with an earnest gesture; after the game, fans could show their ticket stub at the gate for future game vouchers. The Crunch beat the Blizzard, 19-12.

Stadium staff considered staying the night, but Murr, who loves driving in snow — noting the serenity of new tire tracks — made it back without incident.

Sunday, the Grateful Dead resumed schedule. Scott recalls the performance opened with “Cold, Rain and Snow” and ended with “I Fought The Law,” an allusion to the band’s stance on yesterday’s cancelation.

“Clevelanders are hardy souls,” Murr says over the phone. “The Blizzard of ’78 was much worse, so that kind of prepared some of us. Although, I’m not so hardy anymore. I’m sitting in Florida.”

“Most people stayed home,” says Karen Lakus, who had tickets for a Grateful Dead show that night.

“Except for Deadheads because they’re not that smart.”

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Dr. Charles Modlin, Director, MetroHealth Minority Men’s Health Fair

Minority Men’s Health Fair—April 27, 2023, 5-8:30 p.m.

The MetroHealth Minority Men’s Health Fair is a special event focused on men coming together for a stronger and healthier community. With over 30 health screenings and access to community resources, we invite every man in Cleveland—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation—to come together, encourage one another, start a relationship with a MetroHealth provider, and make a commitment to better health. Visit us at three MetroHealth locations: Main Campus, Cleveland Heights, and Ohio City.

Find strength in numbers at the 2023 Minority Men’s Health Fair.

FEAST

FORAGE &

WE TRIED IT: OHIO'S FIRST CONVEYOR BELT SUSHI IN PARMA

PHOTO BY HEATHER LINN PHOTO BY DILLON STEWART

Colossal Cupcakes

Colossal Moves

A violent moment in 2020 could have scared Colossal Cupcakes owner Kelly Kandah away from Downtown. Instead, it inspired her to expand with a new cafe concept.

When Kelly Kandah opened the third location of Colossal Cupcakes in January, the owner of the pink boutique for all things sweet felt triumphant.

After all, getting there had been a journey. In May 2020, Kandah was readying two new locations, one in North Olmsted and this new city cafe concept, when protests over the police killing of George Floyd turned violent. A group attacked Kandah's Euclid Avenue store as she hid inside with her employees. “I went from thinking I was going to have three stores to having zero stores,” she says.

Luckily, the incident didn’t sour the business owner’s faith in Downtown — even when coupled with two years of COVID construction delays, insurance woes and the work-from-home wave torpedoing daytime foot traffic. The adversity simply motivated Kandah to double down on the city center. "It's just a different vibe when you succeed Downtown," she says. "It's the most rewarding experience.”

In January, Colossal Cupcakes finally opened its new Downtown cafe in the Aecom Building on the corner of East Ninth Street and St. Clair Avenue. In addition to more than 50 signature cupcakes — each big as the name suggests and decorated with sprinkles and cream cheese or buttermilk frosting — specialty coffee and breakfast bites fill a much-needed morning hole in the business district.

“There was nowhere around here to just grab a cup of coffee and something small,” says Kandah. “The tenants [of the Aecom Building] are so thrilled to just have a place to get a bagel and coffee in the morning.”

The 3,000-square-foot counter-service eatery, which seats about 30, is, of course, accented in pink but decidedly more Downtown chic than the flagship store. The space, the business' biggest, also features a fairy tale-themed party space.

The offerings range from daily go-tos like bagels and cream cheese ($5) to the Colossal Breakfast Sandwich ($10), a treat-yourself helping of fried egg, bacon and cheese on a caramelized Belgian waffle. But even traditional breakfast sandwiches and grilled cheeses get a Colossal twist thanks to rainbow-colored bagels and bread.

Cleveland Coffee Co. supplies the beans for drip coffee, espresso drinks and specialty beverages like the Birthday Cake Latte ($6), the Red Velvet Latte ($6) with real red velvet cake crumbs or the German Mocha Latte ($6) topped with toasted coconut.

“Having a business in the suburbs is a walk in the park compared to Downtown,” she says. “But there's just a feeling about being Downtown. You're in the center of it all."

When COVID sent many workers home for good in 2020, Rugby Realty, the New Jerseybased real estate company that owns the Aecom Building, responded by re-imagining what it's office building could be. Yet, the company's goals of its lobby becoming a foodie destination, similar to a food court concept, has had stops and starts. While Cleveland food vets Anna in the Raw and Winking Lizard have joined and will soon join Colossal Cupcakes, newbie Let’s Talk CLE just closed its doors after only opening in February. Kandah, however, is optimistic.

“I have a lot of faith in downtown,” she says. “With our dedication and creativity, I think we have what it takes to make it.”

Colossal Cupcakes brings childlike fun to drab office eating with specialty coffee and rainbow breakfast, lunch and dessert bites.

Round and Round

California rolls, Philadelphia rolls, orange slices and apple juice boxes gently creak around the corner, moving past each customer’s table. I lift a plate with a Pink Lady roll, noticing its striking pastel pink soybean paper, remove its clear plastic cover and set it next to our ever-growing pile of empty plates.

Be careful: It’s easy to want to grab everything right away at Watami. But don’t get anxious. After all, what goes around comes around at this sushi bar.

This is Ohio’s first sushi bar to incorporate a conveyor belt system. But the concept of a revolving sushi bar originated decades ago in Japan, centering on a simple schtick: delivering plates of sushi and other bites to customers on a clever conveyor belt track, winding its way between tables.

How does that concept translate to this Parma spot? We visited Watami to find out.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The conveyor belt carries dishes on top of it, an onslaught of multicolored plastic plates (plate colors denote if dishes are raw or cooked, and designate prices that range from $2.50 to $3.75). Traditional sushi rolls, specialty rolls, side salads, yogurts and pieces of cake can all be grabbed directly from the line. Other orders — like miso soup and some specialty rolls — can be ordered by taking labeled placards off the belt and signaling servers to bring those items from the kitchen.

HOW’S THE FOOD?

Hit-or-miss. Let’s be real — if you wanted top-tier sushi, a conveyor belt system (where dishes move around until they’re taken to eat) isn’t the freshest possible option.

That being said, it’s a whole lot of fun. Highlights included the perfectly sweetened sesame balls ($2.50), the lightly crunchy Godzilla roll ($3.75) and that Pink Lady roll ($3.75), topped

with mango salsa that gives a spicy kick.

Less impressive were the Flying Fish Egg ($3.75), which offered little depth of flavor beyond a grimacing amount of salt, the rubbery seaweed salad ($2.50) and the artificial-tasting, syrupy sweet Thai tea ($3.95).

The beauty of the conveyor belt model is the opportunity to see and try new things. A few duds out of an order of 20+ plates isn’t too bad.

HOW POPULAR IS IT?

Be prepared for a potential wait. A server told us that, on weekends, customers have hour-long waits. And beware crowds: More customers means fewer sushi options on the conveyor belt, particularly if you get seated at the end of the line.

On the Wednesday night we visited, the restaurant was quiet and we had loads of options.

SHOULD YOU GET TAKEOUT?

You could, but why would you? The dine-in experience is Watami’s "wow" factor. The sushi is solid enough, with some highlights available. We recommend at least dining in once, to find your favorite sushi rolls before you resort to takeout.

Another big plus to dining in: If you order at least 15 plates, you get a token for a prize machine. We won a soccer ball fidget spinner: one last taste of fun at this entertaining spot.

Customers can pull sushi and other dishes directly off the conveyor belt line at Watami Revolving Sushi Bar, Ohio's first conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

Watami Revolving Sushi Bar offers Greater Cleveland a taste of the unconventional conveyor-belt craze.

Golden Brown

Lake Erie has plenty to offer come fish fry season. Larder’s Jeremy Umansky shares a few of his favorite local catches.

“With fish fry season upon us, I’d like to cook more Lake Erie catch at home. But buying fish is intimidating. What are your favorite local fish to fry?” –John from Cleveland

FRIED FISH, YOU SAY? Why, you know the way to my gustatory heart!

The frying of fish can be traced back to the roots of our hominid family tree; it’s an ancient method found the world round. Often associated with the Lenten traditions of several denominations of Christianity, fish fries have morphed into a good ol’ American tradition.

Fish fries differ depending on where you are in America. Cornmeal-crusted catfish along the southern Mississippi river, cracker meal-dredged grouper in south Florida, battered cod in New England and pan-fried trout in the Rockies are all wonderful. But Great Lakes fish fries are where it’s really at.

What makes a Great Lakes fish fry? It all starts with the catch. As delicious as cod is, we have some delightful fish in our backyard. Here are a few of my local favorites, all of which can be sourced at Kate’s Fish at the West Side Market. Let trusted fishmongers like owner Tom McIntyre and his team guide your purchase. He can also clean and prep your fish, so you can avoid sending scales flying across your kitchen.

Lake Smelt: These tiny fish, about the size of my ring finger, come cleaned (no heads), gutted and frozen in 1-pound bags. They’re not deboned, but like sardines and other tiny fish, their bones soften so much with cooking that you just eat them. There’s no prep involved aside from defrosting the fish. They are fun to serve with sauces and dips; think French fries.

About the Author

Jeremy Umansky is the James Beard-recognized co-author of Koji Alchemy and chef and co-owner of Larder Delicatessen and Bakery. Don’t miss his seasonal musings on cooking in his new column for Cleveland Magazine

Buffalo Fish or Carp: These are massive vegetarian fish that have delicious and succulent meat. Buffalo looks like carp and inhabits many of the same areas in our lake. I feel it tastes slightly richer than most species of carp in Lake Erie. Both have a firm, meaty texture. Get a fillet and cut it into “strips” or “nuggets” before breading and frying. I might add that the scales of these fish are rather large and fry up wonderfully. Add a dash of seasoning like the locally made Chutni Punch, and they rival a potato chip in terms of craveability.

Perch: These small fish have the sweetest tasting flesh of nearly any fish in Lake Erie. The fillets are small and easy to work with and will please even the pickiest of seafood eaters.

Walleye: The undisputed king of lake fish when it comes to fish fries, its meat is mild tasting, succulent, unctuous and filling. Fried Lake Erie walleye should hold a special place in the hearts of anyone who makes their home on its shores. It can be enjoyed fresh yearround, supports a robust fishery and is just simply delicious.

Other fish out of our great lake that fry up beautifully include numerous species of catfish, trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, sunfish, sheepshead, muskie and whitefish. Hell, you could even tack on some frog’s legs and snails if that’s your cup of tea (it is mine and this is what I do at my restaurant).

Don’t be afraid to enjoy the plethora of what’s available in our great lake!

Dining Guide

CLEVELAND RESTAURANTS WITH GORGEOUS DECOR

BARROCO

WHY WE LOVE IT: Enjoy arepas ($18) and mojitos ($13) in a vibrant atmosphere decked out with Christmas lights, graffiti, unique murals, Latin flavor and live music. Westlake and Willoughby each have a unique look, but the flagship Lakewood location is the OG. TRY THIS: The pernil arepa ($18) is a house-made tortilla stuffed with roasted pork, chimichurri fresco, pickle slaw and mozzarella. 12906 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-221-8127, barrocoarepabar.com

BARTLEBY CLEVELAND

WHY WE LOVE IT: Escape to the moody space featuring vaulted ceilings, tapered candles, whimsical wallpaper, and even a charming tree inside one of Ohio City’s newest spots located in a (formerly Crop Bistro’s) stunning historic building. TRY THIS: Devour some classic steak frites with rosemary jus ($44), alongside other American fare.

2537 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, 216-417-2224, bartlebycleveland.com

THE BOURBON STREET BARREL ROOM

AGAVE & RYE

WHY WE LOVE IT: If a posh, kitschy land of Mexican street fare (and an impressive tequila lineup) with decor like diamond chandeliers, poodle statues and colorful abstract murals is your thing, head over to West Sixth Street. TRY THIS: Grab a drink in a quintessential skull glass like the OG Margarita ($14) made with silver tequila, triple sec, lime juice and simple syrup. 1352 W. Sixth St., Suite 152, Cleveland, 216-868-2899, agaveandrye.com

AMBA

WHY WE LOVE IT: Multidiscplinary creative Kelley Schaffer turned this historic Hingetown machine shop into a dramatic and sophisticated restaurant and lounge. The latest venture from Chef Douglas Katz and Todd Thompson serves showstopping, Indian-inspired shareables. TRY THIS: The paneer cheese ($18) features locally-made cheese, dal (lentil stew), curry leaves and mustards seeds. 1430 W. 28th St., Cleveland, 216-417-6718, ambacle.com

WHY WE LOVE IT: Laissez les bon temps rouler — let the good times roll — at this stunning, two-story Tremont staple that looks straight out of the Big Easy. TRY THIS: It’s not NOLA without piping hot, fresh beignets ($8.95). (The Category 5 Hurricane ($8.50) ain't bad either.) 2393 Professor Ave., Cleveland, 216-298-4400, bourbonstreetbarrelroom.com

BRIGHT SIDE

WHY WE LOVE IT: An airy, inviting space made complete by a rose gold disco ball. TRY THIS: Grab the pommes frites ($14) with black garlic, curry and gochujang chili aioli and ketchup. 1948 W. 25th St., Cleveland, 216-274-1010, brightsidecle.com

Sora

CENT’S PIZZA + GOODS

WHY WE LOVE IT: Pink neon eminates from Vincent Morelli's Ohio City pizzeria. Shop elevated nicknacks and tees before settling into a modern interior where movies dance overhead to a killer soundtrack. Sip natural wine under the string-light patio. TRY THIS: The star of the show is the fresh-baked puffy Wonder Bread ($6) with sea salt and the most amazing house butter. 5010 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, 216-862-6427, centspizza.com

CLOAK & DAGGER

WHY WE LOVE IT: “We wanted the space to be dark, cozy and mimic the aesthetic of an author’s study, with the edge of an alternative cocktail lounge,” says owner Cory Hajde. TRY THIS: The Rabbit’s Foot ($15), a tequila-based drink with pineapple, ginger, lemon and cayenne is a best seller at this newer Tremont spot. 2399 West 11th St., Cleveland, 216-795-5657, cloakanddaggercle.com

EMPEROR’S PALACE

WHY WE LOVE IT: Stained glass windows, gold foil wallpaper, tile ceilings and red tassels create an elegant Chinese dining experience. TRY THIS: The breaded sesame chicken in a sweet honey sauce ($17.95) keeps us returning. 2136 Rockwell Ave., Cleveland, 216-861-9999, emperorpalacecleveland.com

HARLOW’S PIZZA

WHY WE LOVE IT: This American Southwestthemed bungalow centers around a pizza oven dispensing simple, high-quality pies. Stop by in the summer to visit the lush patio with a floating “ceiling” of white paper lanterns. TRY THIS: Cheese lovers unite for the bianca pizza ($18): cheeses mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, fresh basil and sea salt. 14319 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-712-6502, harlowspizza.com

IL VENETIAN

WHY WE LOVE IT: Marble Room's lesserknown sister restaurant brings elegance and intrigue. TRY THIS: House-made pastas like the gnocchi alla vodka ($23) are a menu must-try. 100 St. Clair NE, Cleveland, 216-241-4800, ilvenetian.com

JOJO’S BAR

WHY WE LOVE IT: Classic, like when the word steakhouse meant something. Marble dresses up classic wood paneling. Meanwhile, its Backyard patio is a green summer oasis. TRY THIS: In the meantime, Wagyu bucatini Bolognese ($25) with house-made meat sauce and burrata comforts and warms. 87 West St., Chagrin Falls, 440-394-8120, jojosbar.com

LBM

WHY WE LOVE IT: Lasers and heavy metal music meet Norse-themed decor in this viking ship from the future. Gastropub bites, like a burger ($16) sourced from nearby TJ Butcher's Block, and colorful craft cocktails look just as good as the decor. TRY THIS: The Upside Down ($13) combines 100 proof whiskey blend, house amaro blend, house dry vermouth, angostura and orange bitters for a well-balanced libation. 12301 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216712-4692, lbmbar.com

LE PETIT TRIANGLE

WHY WE LOVE IT: You could hop on a plane to Paris, or you could head to Ohio City and devour the atmosphere (and the authentic French fare) at Le Petit Triangle. The current set-up features a small bistro with a chandelier, but plans are in the works for the restaurant to expand. TRY THIS: The croque monsieur ($12) with egg dipped on challah, ham, comte, bechamel and roasted potatoes runs cheaper than a ticket to Charles de Gaulle. 1881 Fulton Ave., Cleveland, 216-281-1881, lepetittriangle.com

LINDEY’S

LAKE HOUSE

WHY WE LOVE IT: With a massive deck on the Cuyahoga River, Lindey’s is a lake housethemed restaurant on the East Bank of the Flats. TRY THIS: Fresh seafood and steak fill the menu, but you must star with the famous Heavenly Biscuits ($7.90), baked from scratch, topped with honey butter.

1146 Old River Road, Cleveland, 216-727-0158, lindeyslakehouse.com

LULO KITCHEN & JUICE BAR

WHY WE LOVE IT: Downtown electricity and sunlight stream into this cafe decorated with eclectic art and exposed brick. Sneak downstairs to the basement speakeasy. TRY THIS: Go light with fresh juices and smoothies ($9-$12) or dig in for latin dinners like the Mango Salmon ($22).

1273 West Ninth St., Cleveland, 216-929-1053, lulocleveland.com

MARBLE ROOM STEAKS & RAW BAR

WHY WE LOVE IT: “Marble Room blends the glamorous, historic past with a vibrant, modern vibe,” says owner Malisse Sinito. TRY THIS: ““Our prime beef ($75) is the star of the show at Marble Room.” 623 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 216-523-7000, marbleroomcle.com

JAJA

WHY WE LOVE IT: One of the latest Ohio City concepts features Mediterranean- and Latin-inspired small plates in a lush, whimsical, intimate dining room at this Argentinian steakhouse known for its inventive cocktails and retractable roof. “It’s the attention to detail when you look at things you might not notice off the bat,” says Dan Whalen, president of Harbor Bay Ventures. TRY THIS: “Our halibut ($28) is among the best dishes,” Whalen says. The fish has a potato-crusted top with caramelized leek, seasonal mushrooms and salsa verde. 2050 Gehring Ave., Cleveland, 216-998-5353, jajacleveland.com

MARKET AVENUE WINE BAR

WHY WE LOVE IT: Last year, chef Karen Small revamped her fine-dining staple, the Flying Fig, into a brightly lit wine bar. The cozy lounge — decorated in candles, floor-to-ceiling draps and sparking chandeliers — specializes in natural wine and sits across from the West Side Market. TRY THIS: Share the baked pastrywrapped brie wheel ($15) served with fresh fruit. 2521 Market Ave., Cleveland, 216696-9463, marketavenue.wine

PINS & NEEDLES

WHY WE LOVE IT: The new cocktail lounge in the basement of Mahall's 20 Lanes is a '70s throwback. While extreme winter weather caused water damage and closed the bar, we're drinking at the upstairs bar until it reopens. TRY THIS: The Golden Cadillac ($12) with creme de cocoa, galliano, orange and cream is groovy.

13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, pinsandneedlescle.com

PORCO LOUNGE & TIKI ROOM

WHY WE LOVE IT: Complex and tropical defines more than just the tiki concoctions at this hideaway drenched in rum and Americana kitsch. TRY THIS: The Planet of the Apes ($18) is a delectable banana and pineapple indulgence.

2527 W. 25th St., Cleveland, 216-802-9222, porcolounge.com

PIER W

WHY WE LOVE IT: No matter how many time's you visit Pier W, its skyline view across wows and stuns. The summer is nautical, and the winter is like a snowglobe. The quirky building is designed to resemble the hull of a cruise ship, truly transportational. TRY THIS: Locals rave about the Sunday brunch buffet ($59) featuring fresh seafood, prime rib, desserts and live piano music. 12700 Lake Ave., Winton Pl., Lakewood, 216-228-2250, pierw.com

QUINTANA’S SPEAKEASY

WHY WE LOVE IT: Just a working barber shop and spa? Think again. In a century-old colonial, guests uncover a secret bar that's charming and classy behind a door disguised as a bookshelf. TRY THIS: This is the kinda place you're going to want to go for that old school vibe, which a martini can give you. The Bijou ($16) is comprised of gin, sweet vermouth, chartreuse and orange bitters.

2200 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-4218380, qbds.net

SORA

WHY WE LOVE IT: What started as a sushi ghost kitchen and pop-up transitioned into a posh world of Asian fusion from the group behind next-door neighbors Lago East Bank. The walls feature pop art with samurai imagery, and everything centers around a flowered tree with long branches of pink petals that stretch across the ceiling. TRY THIS: Your own fresh-crafted sushi take-out Sora Box ($50) full of favorites like the spicy tuna crispy rice roll, salmon and avocado roll and salmon, tuna, yellowtail, striped bass nigiri, with edamame and all the accompanying sauces. Yes, please.

1121 W. 10th St., Cleveland, 216-294-1800, eatatsora.com

STRIP STEAKHOUSE

WHY WE LOVE IT: Under vaulted wood cielings, chef Ron Larson makes a restored two-story historic barn at Olde Avon Village feel welcoming, chic and fun. From the open kitchen, Larson serves up top-quality lobster bisque, cocktails, soft pretzel bread and prime-graded steaks. TRY THIS: Go big or go home (with some leftovers) with the Cowboy ($59), a 22-ounce bone-in ribeye. 36840 Detroit Road, Avon, 440-9349900, stripsteakhouse.com

VAULT

WHY WE LOVE IT: Walkingintothecenturyold historic bank vault under the Cleveland Trust Rotunda transports guests into a lavish cocktail lounge with shareable small bites. The experience is lux, elegant and transformative. TRY THIS: Bring your friends for a bambino board ($18) starring fan favorites like salami, prosciutto di Parma, fresh mozzarella, pecorino and caponata. The 9, Level B1, 2017 E. Ninth St., Cleveland., 216-239-1200, vault9cle.com

ZHUG

WHY WE LOVE IT: The light to Amba's dark, chef Douglas Katz’s Mediterranean mezze concept feels just a bit communal thanks to banquet seating that wraps around the airy dining room. The small-plate experience on Cedar Fairmount centers around a spicy green condiment. TRY THIS: Curried lamb and apricot hummus ($16) is a fresh, unique plate exemplifies the best of what this gem has to offer. T12413 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-862-2508, zhugcle.com

WANT MORE?

Check out more recommendations at clevelandmagazine.com/food-drink

GLAMOUR

GRIT &

IT HAPPENS EVERY YEAR, on that late-winter day when the sun melts the last traces of snow and warms the ground beneath enough that you can actually smell its earthy freshness. The grass gets greener, spring rains move in and even those who have never gardened before experience a sudden desire to dig in the dirt and grow something. From fresh vegetables and herbs to annuals and perennials in a rainbow of blooms, Greater Cleveland's gardening pros are prepped and ready to help those with an eager green thumb find their starting point.

Holden Arboretum horticulturist Sandi Cesorov writes on their website that March is the perfect time to begin indoor seeding for fruit and vegetable gardens, and that the prime time window to get seeds started is March 1-15. While the start of the growing season in Northeast Ohio is still weeks away, there are plenty of things you can do to prepare the soils, flower beds and seedlings for the spring and summer.

HELP THEM GROW

Composting is an all-natural way to give plants the nutrients they need without wasting food resources.

According to Rust Belt Riders, home goods and foods such as paper towels, egg shells, citrus fruits and rice can all go in a compost bin to be used as fertilizer for gardens. Gerlica suggests waiting to apply chemical fertilizers until plants are actually in the ground. “You don’t want it to all wash out with the spring rains,” she says.

PLACE IN A SUNNY SPOT

Place the containers in a warm, sunny spot that remains reasonably warm at night. “Seeds want temperatures that you would be comfortable in” – generally, 70 to 75 degrees, Gerlica says. Keep the soil moist, but not sopping wet. “Every time [the soil] dries out, they’re going to lose more roots,” she says. Once the plants are ready to go out into the sunny weather, Akin advises the ground you plant in should be firm and dry enough to walk on without leaving any footprints.

CLEAN UP THOSE BEDS

Dawn Gerlica, senior horticulturist at Holden Forests & Gardens, recommends waiting to clear any dead plant material until temperatures consistently remain above 50 degrees. “Many species of bees lay their eggs at the end of the growing season in the stems of our flowers, and many butterflies and moths overwinter as eggs, larvae or pupae in the leaf litter around the base of the plants, waiting for the right temperatures to emerge,” she says.

TEST THE SOIL PH

Noelle Clark Akin, manager of training and education for Petitti Garden Center, says do-it-yourself kits are available at garden centers. “You’re looking for any unbalanced, either very acidic or very basic areas,” she says. The ideal range: between 6.0, which is slightly acidic, to 7.0, which is neutral. To achieve it, apply an appropriate commercially prepared product according to manufacturer’s instructions (Akin recommends Lightning Lime).

START SEEDS INDOORS

Akin recommends delaying the start of “hot crops” such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, along with flowers such as marigolds and zinnias, until late March or April. She suggests planting two to three seeds in a sterile container with drainage (a yogurt container with holes punched in the bottom that has been washed in hot, soapy water, then rinsed in a 10-percent bleach solution). Gerlica recommends using the Farmer's Almanac for further planting guidance.

TRANSITION PLANTS OUTSIDE

According to Akin, a plant can transition easier to the outdoors after it has developed two or more leaf sets. Begin the transition by moving the plants to a window in an unheated garage during the day, then returning them to the house at night, for a week or so. Cold crops and hardy early bloomers can begin their transition from late March to early April. Be prepared to cover the plants if winter weather returns.

Even before stepping inside 2908 Franklin Blvd., you're certain the home is steeped in history. The dark Victorian facade is adorned by a mysterious gothic gable. Though it stands out amongst quaint rows of brownstones and craftsman homes, the 1872-built abode is the type that gives Ohio City its unique charm.

The black brick construction is at once modern and historic, the house showing years of legacy and the color becoming ever popular as the paint choice for a home's exterior. The wrought iron gates out front bring memories of the entrance to our grandmothers’ gardens and the grand wooden door is the statement piece bring-

BY GRACIE WILSON

Living History

ing it all together.

Upon knocking on the door, Paul and Ann Meeker come into view; stepping aside to reveal the entryway boasting a hardwood curved staircase straight ahead and an opulent, green and white floral-wallpapered room to the right. The central room on the main floor is perfect for conversation with its denim-blue sofa, elegant high-back chairs and original fireplace.

“It was built by a surgeon who served in the union army. He'd been an assistant surgeon at Gettysburg, from New York State,” Ann says. “The house on the outside is very similar to what this house was when it was built.”

The house became a complete overhaul project. The two Northeast Ohio natives, mar-

Paul and Ann Meeker spent five years renovating their 1872-built home.

ried for nearly a decade, purchased the house in 2018 and just moved in at the beginning of December 2022.

This is not their first foray into remaking homes. The couple also restored a four-unit complex on Clinton Avenue, catching the attention of their neighbor and real estate agent.

“Ray called and said, ‘I have a house you need to look at,’” says Paul. “So, we came and looked at it and we liked the house, and it had some history.”

The house at the time was vacant and

This Ohio City home has been remade with modern elegance, without losing its historical touch.

derelict; its walls, windows, doors and rooms were in desperate need of restoration to their former glory, and it would need someone with enough spirit to take up such major tasks.

Enter, the Meekers.

Their main goal, especially for Ann, being

the history buff of the duo, was to preserve the house and its original features as much as possible. In fact, they feel that is what gives it their own personal touch.

The house boasts original doors — albeit, stripped of more than a dozen layers of paint

— that have been re-edged and re-hinged. The biggest piece of history (and perhaps the biggest undertaking) though, is the plaster moulding on the ceiling.

The original plaster is what can be seen there today, but the journey in finding the right person to keep it alive was one of the biggest hurdles. Paul and Ann finally hired someone out of Columbus, from the only company left in Ohio that performs the task, to keep this piece of originality in the home.

“The footprint of the house is the original footprint,” Ann says. “The kitchen was two separate rooms, and there was no kitchen here, but the two rooms here, we combined. Above the kitchen were two servants’ rooms, we combined them to one so that they function for modern times.”

She also notes that they put in bathrooms, something the 19th-century model did not have. They even put in new subfloors and had to jack up the entire frame of the house since it was sinking into the ground when they purchased it.

Needless to say, it is a whole new house, but its roots in history make it feel as though it has been this way for centuries.

As with most things in the world today, though, the coronavirus pandemic slowed their project down.

“During COVID, we kept it so it was only one crew at a time,” says Paul. “We’d have either the carpenters in or the plumbers in or the electricians, but we tried to keep it so it was only one group at a time.”

Five years, a pandemic, and a broken ankle and wrist for Paul later, the house is done and is being enjoyed by not just the family, but Cleveland at large.

At the end of 2022, 2908 Franklin Blvd. was the subject of the SNOOP! Tour from the Cleveland Restoration Society, which opened up the Meekers’ home for the public to learn of the historical significance and view the beautiful renovations.

“This house has a character that you just don’t find in a new house, and it has a warmth and grace that is just fabulous,” says Paul.

“This is a testimony to history,” says Ann. “This is a statement of the history of its time. The way it was built, what it was built [from], materials-wise, the society at the time. It reeks of stories and times. To destroy this, would be a huge loss.”

Renovations to the once derelict home include building a basement tavern.

Edited by Dillon Stewart and Ron Ledgard

IS CLEVE CLIMATE CHAN WE THINKI

LAND THE GE SAFE HAVEN IT

IS?

Original Illustration by Dan Couto

CLEVELAND, OHIO

encouraged smaller businesses to join the fight, often by having better emissions reporting.

The American West’s “megadrought” is the worst in more than 1,200 years, and temperatures nearing 130 degrees Fahrenheit have become common. Extreme rainfall has pummeled California, which has also been fighting record wildfires, this year causing mudslides and flooding up and down the coast. Tornado Alley has even shifted east of the Mississippi River into more populated areas, such as Kentucky and Tennessee, where a cluster of more than 15 twisters devastated the Nashville area in 2020. In the past two decades, once-in-a-generation hurricanes have hit New York (Hurricane Sandy, 2012); Florida (Hurricane Ian, 2022); Louisiana (Hurricane Katrina, 2005; Hurricane Ida, 2021); Texas (Hurricane Harvey, 2017) and Puerto Rico (Hurricane Maria, 2017). Altogether, these storms killed more than 5,000.

As the globe prepares for an estimated 1.2 billion people displaced from climate change by 2050, according to the International Environmental Partnership, Cleveland’s leaders in the public and private sector — as well as those across a region harboring 20% of the world’s freshwater — are energized by the possibility of welcoming them.

“We have to realize that the southern states are literally not going to be livable in 50 years,” says David Pogue, a Cleveland native and the author of How to Prepare for Climate Change. “Where are they going to go? They’re going to move North. There’s absolutely no question. This is Cleveland’s game to lose. It’s time to start thinking about attracting a new generation of people who can make Cleveland vibrant, beautiful and safe.”

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne was elected on a promise of building a “Green City on a Blue Lake,” a phrase coined by author David Beach, and Mayor Justin Bibb was named vice-chair of a national Climate Mayors organization alongside leaders from Phoenix, Arizona, and Madison, Wisconsin.

“It’s our time to create a waterborne economy,” Ronayne says. “It’s our moment, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it.”

Even the private sector is cleaning up. In January, Greater Cleveland Partnership hosted a Sustainability Summit. Companies such as Lubrizol and Sherwin-Williams shared ways they’re working to be better stewards of the environment and

Stalwart companies, such as the nearly 130-year-old Lincoln-Electric, and those in sectors seemingly “un-green,” like steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs, find themselves on the cutting edge of the green revolution. Lincoln found that electric vehicle chargers were actually a similar but much simpler technology than the welding machines it produced. Now, it aims to become one of the biggest manufacturers of the machines that power electric cars. Cleveland-Cliffs is not only finding ways to clean up steel production, but it’s also Tesla’s largest supplier.

“The sea change in the last three years is palpable,” says Baiju Shah, CEO of GCP. “There’s a massive new set of business opportunities. We say, ‘You’re going green to get green.’ That’s what’s changed over the last three years.”

Yet, many experts see this idea of Northeast Ohio as a “safe haven” as a simplistic conclusion. Before we can stake that claim, plenty must be done to fortify Cleveland’s infrastructure, from housing stock to tree canopy to public transportation; to turn the tide on antienvironmental policy in the statehouse; and to adapt to the extreme weather events we’re likely to experience.

Because one thing is clear: The Great Lakes region is not immune to the effects of climate change.

Look to Buffalo, where 59 people died in a December blizzard. Officials called it a “once-in-a-generation” “snowstorm of the century.” Winds gusted at 80 mph with a chill of 30 below zero as 51 inches of snow pummeled the area. Heavy snow buried cars; homes near the water became Popsicles, trapping residents inside. Warming centers filled to capacity. For the first time in history, the Buffalo Fire Department couldn’t respond to calls. The awning of a gas station blew off its legs. The NFL even moved the Bills football game to Detroit that weekend. We might think we’re snow tough but so is Buffalo.

Even Cleveland’s Christmas storm of 2022 is an example of the types of weather extremes made more likely by climate change. From Thursday night to Friday morning, temperatures in some parts of Northeast Ohio dropped from 40 degrees F to below zero. Rain turned the highways to ice sheets in what the National Weather Service called a “flash freeze.” While snowfall didn’t hit unusual levels, only about three or four inches in most places, temperatures fell to as low as

THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ARE HERE, YET ONE REGION OF THE COUNTRY SEEMINGLY SAFE FROM ITS WORST EFFECTS — AT LEAST SO FAR — IS THE GREAT LAKES.

minus-35 F. Flights were canceled, and thousands lost power. Homeless shelters hit capacity, and the first blizzard warning in a decade was issued, canceling holiday plans for some and forcing others to ride out the storm with their in-laws. Yikes!

Ultimately, Winter Storm Elliott killed at least four in a pileup on the Ohio Turnpike. Plumbers and carpet cleaning companies spent the next three weeks responding to water damages that cost residents and businesses thousands of dollars. A simple burst pipe can easily lead to a $10,000 claim, and most home insurance doesn’t include flood insurance. Pins & Needles, a cocktail bar in the basement of Mahall's 20 Lanes that had just opened last year in Lakewood, has been closed since those extreme temperatures caused a pipe to burst and spill water for 15 consecutive hours.

“We just put in a brand-new wood floor, it completely destroyed our floor,” says Pins & Needles owner Cory Hajde. “It feels like these old buildings on Madison Avenue are ticking time bombs. Thank God that we have insurance.”

Betsy Kling, chief meteorologist for WKYC, says a changing climate is also changing the way she covers rain events, sweltering heat, extreme cold and other weather events.

“It’s very difficult to cherry pick events caused by climate change,” Kling says. “But I know I have to be prepared for more extremes.”

New patterns have emerged in a region already known for its erratic weather. In 2022, a cleveland.com article asked, “Cleveland, will this be the hottest summer of your life, or the coolest summer of the rest of your life?” Average temperature is typically measured by a bell graph. Since 1970, Cleveland’s average summer temperature has risen by 3.4 degrees, according to the nonprofit Climate Central. And while the high point of that curve is rising, so too are the low points. Nighttime summer temperatures since 1970 have risen by more than 4.5

MARCH 2023

degrees. Hotter summers bring a myriad health consequences, including issues with the heart and with mental health, and nighttime lows affect the freeze-thaw cycle, potentially affecting agriculture.

“Here in Cleveland, and generally everywhere, it’s those overnight low temperatures that are just kind of creeping up a little bit,” says Kling. “And I think the least sexy of all of the weather in Cleveland is a low temperature forecast, unless it’s record setting, but it’s one of those things where I’m going, 'Wow, that’s a really big deal. What could that mean on a larger scale?'”

Lake Erie, another crutch for the climate safe haven argument, isn’t as stable as many think.

“The idea of being a climate safe haven really comes down to making sure that the Great Lakes are a welcoming, resilient place for the people who are here today and the people who might be here tomorrow,” says Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “When we look at the water picture, we see a region that in some ways has not been resilient.”

Brammeier points to issues such as communities with older infrastructure dealing with flooding and sewer overflows. While Cleveland has done well to clean up its rivers, agriculture remains one of Ohio’s strongest industries — one set to potentially grow with increasing drought and famine in other parts of the world and increased rains to make this area even more fertile. Unfortunately, agriculture is also one of the biggest causes of Lake Erie algae blooms, which have caused water stability issues, most notably in Toledo. Additionally, Cleveland’s shorelines are not designed to handle such drastic ebbs and flows of the lake’s water levels, and low tree canopy combined with extreme rain and snow events only amplifies the effects of shoreline erosion and flooding.

Other infrastructure concerns are numerous, from an increased

Low water levels across the western basin of Lake Erie exposed the lake floor during the Christmas blizzard of 2022.

CLEVELAND, OHIO

need for public transportation in order to further mitigate the worst effects of climate change to increasing affordable housing stock if Cleveland actually wants to welcome “cl-immigrants” — an oft-mentioned phenomenon that we heard throughout reporting this story but, of which, we so far have failed to uncover any real-life examples.

Climate Central also ranks Cleveland in the top 15 U.S. cities at risk for “heat islands,” a phenomenon where downtowns and urban neighborhoods are hotter than their surrounding, outer-ring areas. On average, Cleveland is 7 degrees hotter than its surrounding suburbs and rural areas, despite the fact that these areas emit pollution at much higher levels.

This creates inequality in how we respond to the climate crisis — and that’s before you even begin to talk about disparities in the economic ability to afford cooling systems or access to health insurance, as warming temperatures are proven to cause more health problems. Cities with high rates of vacant properties (like Slavic Village, considered the epicenter of the housing crisis) and less greenspace (like Central-Kinsman, one of the most distressed neighborhoods in the county) are much more susceptible to heat islands.

is heat islands, where parts of the city are just hotter than others because we’ve torn down trees and not invested in those neighborhoods for years,” says Miranda Leppla, director of Case Western Reserve University Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic. “We want everybody to have a say in how decisions are being made about the environment and also having access to a healthy and clean environment.”

But according to many in the environmental space, the biggest threat to Cleveland’s status as an environmental safe haven rests in the statehouse.

“Unfortunately, we’re living in one of the most backwards — if not the most backward — state policy-wise in the country,” says Cyrus Taylor, a professor of physics and climate change at Case Western Reserve University. “At a time when the state should be working with cities to aggressively decarbonize the grid and invest in other infrastructural investments, we’ve got a state government that has been going exactly backwards.”

As of this writing, former Speaker of the House Larry Householder is currently on trial for one of Ohio’s biggest-ever bribery scandals. Akron-based FirstEnergy, one of the largest suppliers of electricity in the country, enacted a $60 million bribery scheme to get H.B. 6 passed, which gut renewable energy standards and energy efficiency benchmarks, and to bailout two nuclear plants. Gov. Mike DeWine may even implicated in the scandal, but even if he’s not, environmentalists see him as an enemy. In December, for example, DeWine signed a rushed H.B. 507, which redefines natural gas as “green energy.”

For a region attempting to attract the world’s biggest and most progressive businesses on the merit of climate, policies like that just aren’t

going to get it done, says Taylor.

“That’s why I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with the notion of Cleveland being a climate safe haven,” says Taylor. “It’s not as if we’re going to be safe from change. Many places will be worse. We’ve got many assets that will help us do this. But if we’re proactive about it, yeah, I believe we can thrive.”

Pogue says that while climate efforts have focused on mitigation, the future of climate change response actually rests in adaptation. Researching for his book, he found two major places that cities can start to prepare to adapt: by decreasing carbon emissions and by preparing emergency forces to tackle the biggest issues that climate change might bring.

“For many years, the scientific community wanted to play down this idea of adaptation or coping with the changes, because they felt like it’s teaching the public to settle, to give up, and they want people to do everything in their power to mitigate,” he says.

Luckily, the public and private sector in Cleveland seem up to the challenge — just as it has been in tackling the environmental challenges of the past 100 years. Over the next several pages, we’ll look for answers to some of the major questions we have surrounding Cleveland’s climate response.

“The Great Lakes region knows how to solve problems, and I think that dealing with this reality of how the climate impacts us is the next frontier for our region,” says Brammeier. “It’s not meant to be doom and gloom. It’s to say, 'Hey, like, let’s get real about the challenges the Great Lakes face.' And know that if we turn our attention to them, we can actually deal with these challenges in the same way that we’ve done with other Great Lakes problems, but you’ve gotta make it a priority or else you’re going to squander the opportunity.”

By Dillon Stewart

“One of the most tangible examples of environmental justice

Cleveland voters pass a $100 million bond issue for the Cuyahoga River cleanup. The bond issue, advocated by Carl Stokes, who was elected mayor the year before, demonstrated a commitment to improving river conditions. But Stokes realized that the issue went beyond the city’s borders, and after a fire on the river the following year, lobbied for federal action. “Carl Stokes knew it wasn’t a big conflagration, but he went down to the river to make a point,” says John Grabowski, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University and author of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Stokes’ actions paid off with the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972.

WHAT HAS CLEVELAND ALREADY GOTTEN RIGHT?

By Vince Guerrieri

When Moses Cleaveland mapped out the city that bears his name, the waterways were seen not as natural resources, but as modes of transportation. And as the city’s industries grew after the Civil War, abundant natural resources were marshaled in service to industry. The pollution was seen as a cost of doing business — John D. Rockefeller’s business plan accounted for regular refinery fires; suburban sprawl started when he and other millionaires moved farther away from the pollution generated by the mills and factories they owned. After World War II, attitudes changed, and conservation became a priority. Since then, decisions have been made to preserve and protect Northeast Ohio’s natural resources. Here are a few:

1977 – 1974 – 1985 –

President Gerald Ford signs a law creating the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Another component of the river’s recovery was creating a recreation area around it in southern Cuyahoga and northern Summit counties. The recreation area assumed land from the former Krejci dump in 1985, now fully remediated after being identified as a Superfund site. The property once home to the Richfield Coliseum is also now part of the park. In 2000, it became the first (and to date, only) National Recreation Area to be named a National Park.

Rapid Recovery is formed, after a fateful train ride from the airport downtown. On the way, Duane Salls saw the Red Line tracks being used as a dump. He swore action and formed a group to clean up the area. It became an ongoing project for Rotary International, with as many as 33 organizations providing volunteers. “The nice thing about outdoor volunteer work is that you can see what you’ve done,” says Len Stover, the former project coordinator. Today, it’s the Red Line Greenway, and the idea of rails-to-trails continues to be touted, with new Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne reviving the proposal to turn part of the Veterans Memorial Bridge into a greenway and bike path.

Canalway Partners is formed. In the early days of Ohio statehood, the state was rife with canals. The Ohio & Erie Canal went from Portsmouth up through Columbus and Akron, terminating where the Cuyahoga met Lake Erie. Railroads made the canal obsolete as a freight line, but it continued to generate hydroelectric power until it was abandoned following extensive damage from Ohio’s 1913 flood. Canalway Partners formed to get the former canal towpath declared a national heritage area. At the time it was, in 1996, one of just nine in the country. Now, the Towpath Trail extends 90 miles, from downtown Cleveland to Tuscarawas County – and will total 101 miles upon completion.

Cleveland battles with a checkered environmental past, still healing from industrial scars left decades ago.

CLEVELAND, OHIO

IF THERE’S A HEART to the local grocery industry in Cleveland, it’s at the corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue. Inside the West Side Market, on a busy shopping day, the room is alive, as dozens of vendors sell rainbows of vegetables in tightly packed rows; baguettes are handed over in paper bags; dozens of handmade pierogies, tied up in baggies; cuts of meat, selected, sliced, wrapped and taped in wax paper. The building is cacophonous. Crowds move slowly, inching along the grid of stalls and showcases.

For more than a century, this busy space has fed generations of Clevelanders, a longtime hot spot of local industry and business in Northeast Ohio. Now, the Ohio City landmark is set to host another burgeoning industry, one that’s taking off in Cleveland — and one that could redefine the conversation around waste management in the region.

The once-scrappy Rust Belt Riders is now one of Northeast Ohio's most established composting services. The City of Cleveland contracted the group to craft a food composting program with the market. RBR then subcontracted the Hunger Network on a food rescue program.

Now, some of the market’s waste — those bits of bone, egg shells, bruised apples, coffee grounds and fish guts — will make their way from RBR’s bins inside the market and, eventually, turn into soil. At one of its primary composting areas in North Canton, leased from Kurtz Brothers, the scraps mix with wood chips, turned every so often, breaking down over the course of six to eight weeks into compost that then sits for a few months, building up beneficial properties.

That nutrient-rich compost is then trucked back to RBR’s facilities, mixed and transformed into the company’s popular Tilth soil brand and sold back to consumers for garden beds and house plants alike.

The move marks a kind of symbiosis between many different organizations: It’s RBR’s first direct link with the city of Cleveland, and it’s Cleveland's government’s first major foray into composting at a city-owned property.

On a functional scale, the new relationship means edible foods that aren’t sold at the market will head to vendors’ food rescue programs like West Side Catholic Center or Herman’s House of Hospitality, or the Hunger Network to feed Clevelanders in need. If it’s inedible, it’ll be dropped in bins and circulated into RBR’s composting process.

“It was not long ago that we were just on bikes doing this work. To have it rise to the level of the City of Cleveland seeking out funding and investing in a pilot program, I think is really a show of great leadership — but also the determination that our team has been putting in, day-in and day-out, to make sure that these kinds of services can take place,” says RBR co-founder Daniel Brown. “There’s no more iconic food establishment in the city of Cleveland than the West Side Market.”

In collaboration with the city's Office of Sustainability and Climate Justice, the pilot program kicked off earlier this year thanks to funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (awarded to Neighborhood Connections), with support from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

In January and early February, Brown, RBR coworker Robert Kurtz and other team members fashioned a composting program for the vendors who opted in. A waste bucket, at each participating indoor vendor’s stall, fills over the course of the day with compostable materials that eventually work their way to the hands of RBR.

RBR is used to dealing with a lot of organic material; in 2022, the

By Annie Nickoloff

COULD CLE FOOD WASTEI NEXT GREATI

VELANDS'S BECOME ITS RESOURCE?

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING WITH OUR TRASH?

organization composted 6.8 million pounds of food waste, and it’s on track to compost 10.4 million pounds in 2023, says Brown.

Those millions of pounds of food waste are a diversion from the county’s landfill contributions. In 2021, the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District reported 502,026 tons of waste sent to landfills from 58 county municipalities. For perspective, that’s more than 3,300 blue whales or more than 1,100 Boeing-747 airplanes. (As of press time, the county’s 2022 report was not yet available.)

“We need to think about our waste after it goes ‘away,’” says Elizabeth Biggins-Ramer, the executive director of the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. “There is no ‘away.’”

Composting in the West Side Market: That kind of headline is all well and good. But if you take several steps away from this historic Ohio City building, it’s bigger than just food and soil. This moment shows a significant shift toward sustainability for a city that has, in recent years, struggled to manage its waste.

More than that, it shows a step away from a linear economy and toward a circular economy, reframing how we think of waste and crafting a system that relies less on consumerism and endless disposal.

Simply put, it’ll turn Cleveland’s trash into treasure.

In recent years, Cleveland’s waste systems haven’t looked so good. Of 58 reporting Cuyahoga County municipalities, Cleveland’s 2021 contribution to landfills was the highest, at 157,094.17 tons. In that same year, its recycling rates were among the lowest, at just 2.16% of its waste heading to recycling or composting facilities. (Comparatively, the county achieved an average recycling rate of 26.96%.)

It’s not difficult to understand that contrast, given some context. Back in 2020, the city of Cleveland’s recycling program came to a screeching halt, shut down after its existing contract ran out. Contamination rates — recycling incorrect objects or not cleaning and drying recyclables properly — hovered around 65%, says Ren Brumfield, Recycling Coordinator for the city of Cleveland. Typical contamination rates are closer to 17-25%.

The city’s former recycling program, which had been developed decades ago, had removed some of its emphasis on education over the years, says Biggins-Ramer.

“With any program, you can’t just set it and let it,” Biggins-Ramer says. “Education is paramount to any environmental program, whether that’s recycling or composting. Over the years, unfortunately, Cleveland did run into some issues.”

Brumfield says that, anecdotally, many Clevelanders often used their recycling bins as a secondary trash bin instead of sorting and separating recyclables. When it came time to renew its contract, the city

Rust Belt Riders transforms food waste into compost, which is then used to create various blends of Tilth soil.

couldn’t find a willing and cost-effective replacement. As time and garbage collection days passed, the city disposed of the contents in both garbage and blue recycling bins into the same landfills.

It was a major stumble for the city and its residents; more than two years passed where the city didn’t have a recycling program at all, much of it during the coronavirus pandemic.

But for the past nine months or so, Cleveland has been working to get back on track. In June, the city reinstated a new recycling program — this time, going for an opt-in approach.

That program has picked up steam, focusing its efforts on educating residents on proper recycling practices, Brumfield says; the opt-in format made Clevelanders more likely to clean recyclables properly, and to not place non-recyclable items into bins. It also combats "wishcycling," or aspirational recycling, when people recycle items they hope can be recycled instead of following city guidelines.

Since June, about 60,000 out of 150,000 Cleveland households have signed up and placed opt-in stickers on their blue bins, signifying their participation in the program, Brumfield says. In that same timespan, the city recycled 1,066 tons of material, with only 15% of that material being contaminated. So far, things have been headed in the right direction, though Brumfield hopes to get even more households signed up soon.

Another hope: for more residents to feel empowered by the recycling program, pushing those existing recycling rates even higher.

“Reducing where they can, reusing as much as possible, and then recycle what you can recycle, of what’s left; that’s what I like to say. It really comes down to educating people and having them change their mindset,” Brumfield says. “If you can just recycle the cardboard, if you can get rid of those plastic bottles, that’s a first step.”

Rebuilding recycling was one step for the city of Cleveland. The West Side Market composting program is another. Both moves show the city’s quickening gait toward an emphasis on sustainable waste

management. That shift is exemplified through Sustainable Cleveland, which became a part of the mayor's office in 2009. The group has spearheaded the city’s collaboration with RBR, among other environmental initiatives.

Sustainability senior manager for the circular economy Cathi Lehn, director of sustainability and climate justice Sarah O’Keeffe and their offices lead the city’s Climate Action Plan. This blueprint for climate progress complements other local climate plans. Coupled with that project are community-based collaborations with local nonprofit Neighborhood Connections and the Circular Cleveland Roadmap, a pathway to make Cleveland’s economy more self-contained — to make products and services less disposable, and more regenerative and durable — and to reduce pollution and waste in the process. The roadmap is in its implementation phase.

“It’s providing guidance for the city and for the region, as we move toward transitioning from our current linear economy, which is very disposable, to a much more circular economy focused on reducing waste,” Lehn says.

Waste reduction aside, a circular economy also keeps more dollars in the region, Brown says.

“If we can be making and remaking products here, locally, there’s less cost baked into those products. Those dollars are recirculating locally,” Brown says.

He continues: “I think we idealized the idea that we’re a manufacturing city, and I think that what an actually circular economy represents is a really cool opportunity to do that again, but in a way that is inspiring and will attract new ideas and new business models.”

Recycling and composting fit into the circular economy discussion — a trending topic for both environmentalists and economists.

So do Circular Cleveland and its partners' twice-monthly Fix-It Cle workshops, where Clevelanders can get help repairing goods instead of replacing them.

Rust Belt Riders composted 6.8 million pounds of food waste in 2022 and expects to reach 10.4 million pounds in 2023.

CLEVELAND,

WHAT COULD A CIRCULAR ECONOMY MEAN FOR CLEVELAND FOOD?

Keeping items in use longer keeps them out of Ohio’s 18 operational landfills. In Ohio, while there’s still plenty of room remaining in landfills, there’s also a focus on keeping contributions to a minimum, says Biggins-Ramer. Despite strict Environmental Protective Agency restrictions, landfills still have negative environmental effects, including toxic leachate and emissions of methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.

“Good or bad, we do have land as an amazing resource in Ohio,” Biggins-Ramer says. “The land part’s the good part; the land part is also the bad part, because that also allows us to construct more landfills.”

What goes into landfills? It turns out, a whole lot of food. Food waste is the most common type of material landfilled in the United States; it made up more than 24% of the country’s contributions to landfills in 2021, according to an EPA report.

More than one-third of all food that is grown or produced in the United States never gets eaten and ends up being thrown away, according to the EPA. That means that the processes it took to get food on a grocery store shelf are also wasted — agricultural practices, packaging and transportation included.

In Greater Cleveland, food waste stands in stark contrast to the region’s needs; one out of every seven people in Northeast Ohio is food insecure, according to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

It’s not just an issue in Cleveland. As a country, we’re not good with food. And once that food winds up in landfills, it doesn’t compost into soil. Instead, it rots and generates methane.

However, when you take those foods out of a landfill and place them in an oxygen-rich composting-friendly environment, something else happens. Composting creates biologically living soil, Brown says — soil that can capture and store carbon and put it to good use. That mix is gold for gardeners and forest management services alike.

“Not only are you avoiding those harmful methane emissions; you’re actually doing something that is a natural climate solution,” Brown says. “I like to say that what we’re doing isn’t simply less bad; it is measurably better.”

The business behind it isn’t bad, either.

“Now you have the ability to build an economy from what is currently viewed as a waste stream,” Brown says. “We can reframe that as a resource stream, that creates jobs that are place-based, that relocalize our food systems, and that sequesters carbon, which improves air quality, water quality and property values for people all over our region.”

However, Rust Belt Riders hit a major business snag when COVID-19 arrived in Northeast Ohio. The service provider, which offers commercial hauling to more than 200 local businesses, had to refocus on its residential programs when many corporations and shops nixed their subscriptions to focus on other COVID-19 challenges.

“We lost, like, 80% of our revenue overnight,” Brown says. “Had it not been for our residential services, we really would have been out of business. There’s just no question about it.”

That residential program became more robust; last year, RBR

picked up composting waste from more than 800 households and also welcomed more than 2,000 residents who brought their waste to dropoff locations. The services cost $30-$40 a month for pickup, or $10 a month for drop-off. RBR also continues to offer services to businesses.

Tilth Soil sprouted up during the pandemic, too — and thrived. The brand offers several types of soil mixes. Last year, Tilth brought in more revenue than any other service provided by RBR, says Brown.

“We’ve had a mission of feeding people, not landfills, since our inception,” Brown says. “I think that the work that we’re doing around creating soils is really getting back to that mission of putting soil into the hands of people that are trying to feed our community.”

The company is also an example of a circular economy in action.

“Rust Belt Riders is a fine example of a circular business model,” says Biggins-Ramer. “They collect, they process, they make a product and they get that product back into the economy.”

In the past couple of years, RBR has gained resilience, and its steps forward with the city of Cleveland hint at a growing interest in spreading composting programs for residents, furthering the positive impact and diversion of food waste into a resource.

RBR’s next order of business is looking into accessibility and resources for Clevelanders, creating a system that could embed itself into the city’s waste streams. It will also partner with Rid-All Green Partnership, an urban farm and composting center in the city’s Kinsman neighborhood.

“There’s this famous quote: ‘If it’s inaccessible to the poor, it is neither radical nor revolutionary,’” Brown says. “I think that we need to be developing a system that has equity and justice at its core. We have been doing our best on our own, but I think that this demonstration of the city to commit their funds, their time, their resources to seeing this project through is really an indication that this work needs to be embedded in economic development, in climate justice and in environmental justice.”

Could a citywide composting program for residents be in its future?

That’s a few too many steps ahead to guess. Other cities offer and mandate composting, in the quest to become zero-waste. Brown cited the city of San Francisco, which refers to its “resource management department” instead of using the term “waste.”

Flash back to the West Side Market: the new composting program marks a small but impactful step forward in that direction.

This, the iconic Ohio City building at the corner of West 25th and Lorain, can move the conversation forward in Cleveland — every egg shell, fish gut and scoop of used coffee grounds can mean something in the region’s pursuit toward sustainable waste management.

“This needs to be increasingly part of what everyday business looks like, both for manufacturing facilities and recycling facilities, but also on the sort of day-to-day lived experience of Clevelanders,” Brown says. “We live on a planet whose resources are finite, and we’ve not been using resources in that way. The economy of the future needs to be thinking about the useful life of all materials, from their origin, to their utilization, to their reconception into new products.”

He adds: “I think that foods simply — pardon the pun — represent the lowest hanging fruit.”

ARE OUR CORPORATE LEADERS PITCHING IN?

By Dillon Stewart and Annie Nickoloff

Since the beginning of the environmental movement, corporations have been enemy number one. But in today's climate of political inaction, the business community is actually leading innovation in the climate space — especially here in Cleveland. "There's a massive new set of business opportunities, where you can go green to get green," says Baiju Shah, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. In January, the GCP hosted its inaugural Sustainability Summit, which gathered hundreds of business representatives, students, policymakers and more. “Building a great green region on a Great Lake is going to take all of us, working all-in, embodying our region’s seven core values: the Cleveland Way, as we call it,” says Shah. “It’s about being inspired and innovative, involved, inclusive, interconnected, working with integrity and always working in unity for the community’s benefit.” Here are a few takeaways from this year's Summit.

PROFIT AND POLICY

Forget virtue. Businesses are finding ways to be profitable and future-ready while making strides on sustainability. "When you create a profit motive, you're gonna get a significantly greater amount of investment interest from businesses," says Shah. During his keynote, Case Western Reserve University professor Chris Laszlo, who has written six books on sustainability, described a shift toward green practices among the entities that sit atop the S&P 500, an index used to measure the stock market. Since the introduction of the S&P 500 ESG, similar to the aforementioned ranking but skewed toward companies scoring higher on sustainability. Since the latter's introduction in 2019, 96% of companies on the former list are reporting ESG statistics, and those with better scores seem to outperform their peers. “This isn’t to say that if you focus on ESG, you’re going to miraculously do better than your competitors who don’t,” says Laszlo, “but does it cost? No, it doesn’t have to cost.” In fact, many companies are simply positioning themselves for a world where vendors, supply chains, markets, government regulators and customers demand businesses are good stewards to their communities. “Standards are rising,” Laszlo says, “and increasingly, you are going to be held to that standard.”

BIZ BUZZ

So what is ESG? ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. Basically, it's a score that measures a business’s performance in these categories and gives shareholders a deeper understanding of a business’s community impact. In addition to tracking environmental criteria, the social and governance assessments measure factors like fair wages and healthy corporate leadership. Though large businesses’ ESG measures don’t need to be publicly disclosed in the United States, they do, at least, need to be disclosed to investors. Last May, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed expanding requirements for more consistent ESG reports — meaning businesses must be more transparent about their sustainability policies and frameworks. The push is meant to see past greenwashing practices that artificially balloon some businesses’ actual sustainability efforts. So, sustainability isn't just a marketing ploy anymore; it's part of the cost of doing competitive business. “These mandates are not going to go away. They’re coming down fast and furiously,” says Nicole Stika, the senior business developer of sustainability solutions for World Kinect. “Sustainability at some point is not just going to be that buzzword. It’s just going to be a part of business operations.”

BETTER BUSINESS

So how does being sustainable make businesses more competitive? First off, many companies are supplying other companies that demand it; such is the case in Cleveland-Cliffs' relationship with Tesla as its largest steel supplier. "Everything is being designed in a way that minimizes the environmental impact," says Shah, "because the next customer in line is demanding it." In fact, part of the goal behind the Sustainability Summit — a product of the GCP's Leaders' Council, a group of movers and shakers from the private sector — was to inform smaller providers of the market's new demand. "The large companies said, 'Look, if our supply chains don't understand our new expectations, they're not going to be able to continue to stay as our suppliers, which means they're less likelihood to be able to be someone else's supplier,'" says Shah. "That's going to be a major disadvantage and create a major regional challenge." In other cases, meeting green energy demands has created new business models for stalwart companies. Longtime manufacturer Lincoln Electric found the technology behind its welding machines was surprisingly similar and even less complex than the tech used to charge electric vehicles. Now, it's helping to ramp up charging stations across the nation — and taking advantage of federal infrastructure dollars along the way. Smaller businesses can get into the green game by simply listening to the demands customers are already making, says Michelle Butler, vice president of environmental, health safety and sustainability for Lincoln Electric. "Your customers will often tell you what you need to focus on in order to deliver to them in every phase," she says. "I'd also encourage them to be their own product expert, because what we look for from our suppliers is the knowledge that they have about their supply chain and their product, so that we can translate that into our requirements downstream."

TOUGH TARGETS

Zero-waste. Zero water discharge. Steep reductions in carbon emissions or, even, carbon neutrality. Businesses both in Cleveland and around the globe have lofty goals for the future, whether they set their timelines at 2025, 2030 or 2050. While many speakers at the GCP Summit outlined their companies’ specific guidelines, others put things into perspective while discussing their sustainability work. Laszlo painted a bigger picture of taking steps toward sustainability: “When a company says that it is going to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% next year, are they doing harm, or are they making a positive impact? They are doing harm — they’re just doing harm more slowly.” “The only way we will truly, honestly get to net-zero [emissions] is if we turn off the lights and go home,” says Lubrizol’s chief sustainability officer Elizabeth Grove. “The only product that is 100% net-zero is the one that’s never made. You are always going to generate some kind of emissions in everything you do. Our responsibility is to reduce it as much as possible and be very honest about that.”

Sustainable businesses aren’t the rare unicorn they’re fabled to be. From the urban puzzle of Highland Heights to the tranquil landscape of Kirtland, Northeast Ohio's businesses are living their passions alongside their values — and those values affect the surrounding environment. Progressive Insurance, for example, recently hired a sustainability program manager to enhance an already aggressive sustainability approach. Lakeland Community College went from being critically behind the European Union’s energy standards to having the best energy footprint per square foot of any community college in North America. Here are six corporate leaders pitching in for Cleveland’s water, air and people.

By Becky Boban

GREAT LAKES BREWING CO.

“You can’t brew great beer without great water,” says Adam Ritterspach, Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s multimedia specialist. To protect this resource and others, GLBC sources produce — like pumpkins for Pumpkin Ale — from Oberlin Food Hub, Ohio City Farm and its Pint Sized Farm in the Cuyahoga Valley, fed by Tilth Soil. Solar panels installed in 2017 rule the Ohio City brewery’s roof and motion detector lights illuminate 2020’s new canning facility. Unused beer goes to soups and sauces; leftover grains feed local livestock. Additionally, since 2001, GLBC’s Burning River Fest has raised $680,000 to sustainable causes like Drink Local. Drink Tap. and a study on microplastics in the Great Lakes.

Before Lakeland Community College’s $6.4 million revamp in 2008, roughly $1.7 million was spent on energy. But in 2022, expenses plummeted to $700,000. Replacing archaic boilers and pumps was merely the start of Lakeland’s 49% gas and electric reduction. In 2018, the Health Building was renovated with a green roof, geothermal well and triple pane glass windows. Mike Mayher, executive vice president and treasurer, explains most energy waste happens when conditioned air escapes — exactly why Lakeland’s T Building sports a 20,600-square-foot Solex roof. In fall 2023, construction starts on the new manufacturing center, which Mayher says will likely see solar panels.

LINCOLN ELECTRIC

As the U.S. speeds toward green energy, some estimates say the country needs millions of new electric vehicle charging stations. This Cleveland-based centurion manufacturer of welding products, which found EV chargers are a much simpler technology than its welding equipment, is set to be a major player in the EV landscape. "There's not just a lot of public sentiment but a significant market opportunity," says Steven Sumner, Lincoln Electric's vice president of corporate innovation, "to add a significant amount of value with our experience in building reliable, rugged outdoor equipment." The company is also well-known for its 443-foot-tall wind turbine in Euclid.

BIRCH CAFE

MITCHELL’S HOMEMADE

While savoring another spoonful of toasted pistachio at Mitchell’s in Ohio City, a mischievous cloud stifles the sun. Daylight sensors, art gallery-like LEDs along the wall, relight the space and dim when the sun's rays return. Mitchell’s Ohio City, Westlake and Strongsville locations also harvest non-potable rooftop rainwater, using it for toilet water and irrigation, thus reducing sewage overflow into Lake Erie. Plus, Mitchell’s uses permeable pavers in several parking lots to reduce pollutant runoff. “It’s about all of us together doing things that make sense, making a difference,” says co-owner Mike Mitchell.

LAKELAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Amid Highland Heights’ busy corporate jungle, Birch Cafe stands its ground. Bolstered by its local supplier (Green Paper Products) just six minutes away, the vegan shop uses all sustainable wares at its restaurant, from silverware to straws, napkins and bags made of recycled paper, to sugarcane takeout containers and sandwich boxes. “We were very fortunate to find someone locally who had all the products we need. Especially because during the pandemic we did so much takeout and curbside,” says owner Roxanne O’Brien Troke. “We have a lot of customers now who take their containers with them to put in their compost piles at home.”

A wave of 4,000 solar panels crest the land east of Interstate 271, feeding the insurance company's Campus 2 in Mayfield Village 2,300 annual megawatt hours. The company contracts 55,000-70,000 annual megawatt hours of power from the Casselman Wind Power Project in Pennsylvania. “We’ve been able to reduce our electric consumption by over 40%,” says Erik Rasmussen, Progressive’s sustainability program manager. In 2021, the company’s recycling program salvaged 548 tons of waste from its more than 300 offices. Currently, an EV pilot program is being assessed.

CLEVELAND,

OHIO

WHY IS LAKE ERIE CRUCIAL TO THE COUNTRY’S FUTURE?

EVERY DAY, MORE THAN 12 million people wake up in the Lake Erie Watershed. For some, the lake is nothing more than a backdrop to their everyday life in the form of a 9,940 mile desktop wallpaper. For others, it’s the backbone of their day, whether it’s the fisherman who uses the lake’s bounty to make a living, the MetroParks employee who keeps the area around the lake clean or the mom of five from Avon who takes her daily walk around Rocky River Park. That lake — the smallest of the five Great Lakes — might be the thing that determines the future of the country. With the world fluctuating daily due to climate change, area leaders are working to make Lake Erie the cleanest and safest it can be while also working to help the lake reach its full infrastructure potential. “We have an unparalleled water economy in front of us,” says Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne. “We just need to make sure we utilize the water as a pillar of our economic future.”

When Ronayne got his introduction in politics by joining former Cleveland mayor Jane Campbell’s administration as the city’s planning director in 2002, one of his main focuses was on how to develop Cleveland’s lakefront. That focus led to Ronayne helping spearhead the creation of the Lakefront Nature Preserve in the Glenville neighborhood. Now, as the newly elected Cuyahoga County Executive, Ronayne’s working to help preserve Lake Erie for the future of Cleveland and the world. He got a firsthand look at the Lake’s international pedigree last November when he was part of Cleveland’s delegation that attended the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Despite being a world away from Cleveland, Ronayne spent the trip inundated with questions and comments about the Great Lakes region and how it can impact humanity’s future. “They may not know Cleveland in Sharm el Sheikh, but most everyone in the world understands the value proposition of the Great Lakes basin,” Ronayne says. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Great Lakes provide water to more than 30 million people. For Ronayne, the Great Lakes basin’s ascent to being a global freshwater beacon is even more impressive when you consider Cleveland’s checkered past with water. “The river once burned here, and now we have a legitimate stake in being the freshwater capitol of the world,” Ronayne says. Now, more than 50 years after the Cuyahoga River infamously caught on fire, Ronayne is part of a new guard of political figures working to regulate Lake Erie. Currently, the lake is primarily regulated through the Great Lakes Compact, a binational treaty that mandates

that any company that uses Great Lakes water for manufacturing has to return the same amount of water to the lake when it’s done to prevent the body of water from drying up. That compact will become even more important with the opening of Intel’s $20 billion semiconductor processing plant outside Columbus. While the plant is located in New Albany, 140 miles away from Lake Erie, and it isn’t slated to open until 2025, the amount of water needed to run the plant could serve as a sort of litmus test for how the waterfront infrastructure could handle a potential boom in growth in the coming decades. “We can’t let anything negative happen to our water system,” says Cleveland Water Alliance director Bryan Stubbs. “We want that economic activity and we want job creation. It’s going to be really good for Ohio in the long run, but it won’t be good if we don’t handle our water resources correctly. We’ll only grow as a region if we’re willing to make clean water a main driver of our economy.” But we’ve also seen what happens when clean water isn’t a focus. While the aforementioned burning of the Cuyahoga is perhaps the biggest example of what happens when Clevelanders have an apathetic view toward the health of the lake, there have been plenty of smaller instances of misuse that are just as important. In August 2014, more than half a million Toledo-area residents were urged not to use their tap water due to a harmful algal bloom caused by agricultural runoff. While there hasn’t been an algal bloom of that severity since, each summer brings its own algal concerns: a stark reminder of what can happen when the proper care isn’t put into the Great Lakes region. “We have an extraordinary situation of being 600 feet above sea level with 20% of the world’s fresh water,” says Kirsten Ellenbogen, president of the Great Lakes Science Center. “We have an advantage for the future; we just need to plan for it.” Ellenbogen and the science center have been thinking about that future in 25-year increments, meaning that the curriculum in their classrooms is focused around building water turbines to plan for a future where water could end up being an energy resource. “We really want the youth to think about the role that water is going to play in the country’s future,” Ellenbogen says. “We want kids to come home talking about how what goes in the sewer grate impacts the lake.” For years, Ellenbogen and the science center have taught classes and held exhibits around the importance of Lake Erie. Now, with an impending climate crisis increasing that importance, she’s hoping more and more people will begin to listen. “We need to start understanding that water is a luxury and not something that’s given,” she says.

By Henry Palattella

AS THE PANDEMIC FADED, the U.S. housing market took an interesting turn. Property values in metro areas in the West and Southwest declined while values remained stable, if not increased, in the eastern states. Some of the most resilient metro areas were in the Great Lakes region and Northeast, among them Greater Cleveland. There are a lot of factors to explain that contrast, including the rise of remote working, but another factor in this shift of fortunes is climate change. Climate-related costs, like higher insurance and utility rates, are burdening property owners, noted a March 2022 Forbes article “The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Real Estate Market” by Los Angeles-based author Ari Chazanas. “We’re seeing these costs rise in real time, right now,” he writes. Dallas-based Reventure Consulting

In a recent Twitter thread, CEO Nick Gerli was more outspoken, claiming “There’s a big migration shift taking place in America right now that no one is talking about. It’s an exodus out of the western half of the country into the Northeast/Midwest. (It’s) basically a complete reversal of the previous 30 years of migration trends.” Our region’s infrastructure was built for a mother city having nearly 1 million people as it did in 1950 — not the nearly 368,000 it has now. It has wide streets and highways, a rail-based rapid transit system, top-notch healthcare services and a water distribution and sewer network to handle many more people. But what is it lacking to accommodate growth and to enable us to live less carbon-intensive lives? Roland Anglin, dean of the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, says the region needs policies to promote urban density with walkable mixed-use neighborhoods so we can link people with services and jobs and not flood the city with cars. The goal is to put more destinations within a 15-minute walk, bike ride or transit trip of home. Creating a “15-minute city” has gained traction with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne. “Discouraging single-occupant auto trips is going to be hard in a nation where the auto is revered,” Anglin says. “Public transportation is critical. Without dense availability and ease of access, automobile use won’t decrease.” “The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has really suffered over the last few decades, and I think it’s worth it for city and county leaders to take a look at some kind of levy for GCRTA,” says Angie Schmitt, owner of 3MPH Planning and Consulting, which seeks more pedestrian safety. “GCRTA is an amazing asset to the region, especially our rail lines. I think we really take that for granted.” Anglin also points to the 2013 Sustainable Cleveland Municipal Action Plan. In addition to more bike infrastructure, plus dense, mixed land uses near transit, the plan also recommends more broadband connectivity to encourage telecommuting, energy-efficient building retrofits, 100% renewable energy platforms like wind and solar and increasing the availability of electric vehicle charging stations. “This region is way behind on EV charging infrastructure, and major employers should offer free charging to employees as a perk,” Schmitt says. “Big employers like the Cleveland Clinic can impact their emissions by incentivizing employees to choose sustainable modes of transportation, especially at its main urban campus.” She notes that Seattle’s Childrens Hospital manages transportation demand with money-saving policies that offer employees free transit passes or a small financial incentive for biking to work. “You’re not going to convert every

CLEVELAND, OHIO

“An idea is to stop asking questions like ‘what should we do to attract more businesses and residents to Cleveland,’" says Nathan Kelly, president and managing director of Cushman & Wakefield — CRESCO, "and start asking the question, ‘how will we be ready for the people and businesses that are going to be moving to Cleveland because of water and climate?’”

employee, especially the ones who commute long distances. But if you can convert some, it can lead to big savings because parking garages are mega expensive.” Jon Utech, senior director of sustainability at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio’s largest non-governmental employer, says the Clinic is starting down that path. “Cleveland is high on the list of climate-safe cities. A good environment makes people healthier.” The Clinic uses a green accounting system to measure its carbon footprint and the energy its facilities and employees use. Overall, the Clinic has reduced its carbon footprint 24% in the past decade. He says the Clinic charges a lower parking rate to employees driving fuel-efficient vehicles, gives free parking to carpoolers and offers incentives to purchase electric vehicles with more charging stations coming. The Clinic does not, however, offer free transit passes or incentives to buy bicycles. Utech says that the lower cost of transit and biking was its own benefit. “NOACA (Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency) has a visionary transit plan in our eNEO2050 long-range plan that connects across four counties,” says Grace Gallucci, director of NOACA, which distributes federal funds to transportation and clean air projects in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. That plan includes autonomous, on-demand bus shuttles, expansion of bus rapid-transit to six urban-core routes and expansion of the rail rapid-transit system into a four-county network. Dan Whalen, a Willoughby native and vice president of design and development at Chicago-based Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors, points to his company’s Intro development in the Ohio City neighborhood as an example of a climate-friendly future. The nine-story building is one of the tallest mass-timber structures in the country. The development used less carbon in manufacturing and continues to emit less pollution. It was built next to a GCRTA Red Line rail station, multiple bus lines and the West Side Market, plus is an easy walk to many stores and restaurants. In 2025, construction is due to start on the Lorain Avenue Cycle Track, from West 20th to West 65th streets. GCRTA also hopes to start construction on 25Connects, a bus rapid transit line on West 25th Street from Detroit Avenue south to near MetroHealth Medical Center and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. With all of the walkable destinations, safe bike routes and transit services, Harbor Bay leased out the building before its ribbon-cutting ceremony last August. Nathan Kelly, president and managing director of Cushman & Wakefield — CRESCO Real Estate, says Greater Cleveland needs to take a cue from such developments. “An idea is to stop asking questions like ‘what should we do to attract more businesses and residents to Cleveland,’ and start asking the question, ‘how will we be ready for the people and businesses that are going to be moving to Cleveland because of water and climate?’” he says.

By Ken Prendergast

HOW DOES TREE CANOPY PLAY A ROLE IN OUR CLIMATE RESPONSE?

Then the pandemic hit, lockdown began and events nationwide were canceled.

By Ken Schneck

is that right now only 3,000 to 5,000 of new growth is being installed annually.

“There still needs to be a robust amount of work with regards to planting,” Malone says.

Still, Malone explains that there is room for a great deal of tree canopy optimism, especially with an increased investment in education and awareness campaigns.

This awareness includes a plethora of new research that plainly reveals the connection between decreased tree canopy with health and social disparities, including higher rates of asthma and increased energy costs for homes in areas with lower density of tree growth.

SANDRA ALBRO WAS EXPECTING a big turnout at the 2020 Arbor Week Tree Planting event that was to be held at the Michael Zone Recreation Center in the Detroit Shoreway area.

The Cuyahoga County Urban Tree Canopy Assessment had recently been published in December 2019, revealing that the county’s tree canopy — the strata of trunks, branches and leaves that cover the ground when seen from above — coverage had shrunk by 6% between 2011 and 2017. That represented a stunning collective loss of more than 6,600 acres of trees across the county — equivalent to 5,000 football fields.

“There was a sense of urgency for people to act, and we had a lot of momentum,” says Albro, the then co-chair of the Cleveland Tree Coalition, an assemblage of more than 56 local public, private and community stakeholders such as the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

The Arbor Week event that supposed to be hundreds of neighbors showing up to plant new growth morphed into a four-minute video, complete with a 7-foot-tall tree mascot.

“It was a corny, lighthearted video,” Albro laughs. “But we had to do something to underscore the importance of trees in Cleveland.”

That was the first of many pivots that tree canopy advocates have had to make in the past three years.

“The pandemic has certainly posed a lot of unexpected challenges to even the best laid plans,” says Samira Malone, the inaugural director of the Cleveland Tree Coalition, a fulltime position created in 2022.

Malone says that many sources of funding were put on pause, including the second phase of a $1 million pledge earmarked to help with remediation efforts in the chief areas of tree planning, planting and maintenance.

As a result, the goal of locally planting 28,000 trees a year remains, but the reality

Urban forests also play an important role in mitigating climate change. Shade reduces cooling costs and helps combat “heat islands,” a phenomenon where urban areas experience temperatures about 1-7 degrees hotter than surrounding areas. Photosynthesis also captures carbon, and the Department of Forestry believes better forestry could save the United States nearly $2 billion a year.

“There is a direct connection between trees and people’s everyday survivability,” Malone says.

Looking ahead, tree advocates expect that designated tree canopy funds from the national Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will soon make their way to Cleveland, resulting in a dramatic increase in both new planting as well as preservation of the current tree canopy.

The hope is that access to trees will move from a scenic privilege enjoyed by a fraction of Clevelanders, to a basic right for all.

“Clevelanders have an inalienable human right to have access to nature, even in this urban ecosystem,” Malone says. “Trees canopy provides a clear path forward to that right.”

HOW DO WE CLEAN UP CLEVELAND ENERGY?

Businesses in the Great Lakes region and Cleveland are beginning to focus on clean, renewable energy.

AT THE RECENT Greater Cleveland Partnership Summit, Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability director Mike Foley championed the benefits of renewable, electricity-based energy and the danger to our current electrical grid in one breath. “The grid is going to become more and more stressed in the future for businesses, for residents, for consumers,” he says. “As electrification of vehicles occurs, as electrification of heating occurs, there’s going to be a lot more demand on the local electrical grid that everyone is going to experience.” Of course Northeast Ohio’s electric utilities need to be cleaned up in other ways, too. Attention-grabbing headlines of massive bribery scandals plague FirstEnergy, and Cleveland Public Power is notorious for shutoffs. The energy industry is still embroiled in these issues; nonetheless Foley sets his sights on sustainable forward movement for the region. Part of his solution: a micro-grid system that would protect individual areas in the event of grid failure in other parts of the region. In like-fashion, several Northeast Ohio businesses are seeking preemptive, collaborative solutions to the changing energy landscape — a means of giving back to the system — as well. In 2021, Lubrizol, who makes specialty chemicals for the transportation, industrial and commercial markets, hit two birds with one stone as its Avon Lake facility had nonhazardous industrial waste converted into compressed natural gas before being siphoned back into the local grid. In doing so, the company diverted 185,000 pounds of waste from landfills. “Energy can be generated from all kinds of sources,” says Lubrizol chief sustainability officer Beth Grove. “Our Avon Lake plant takes waste and a partner puts it through this very nerdy process called anaerobic digestion. And what that does is it breaks down the waste and it generates energy, it generates renewable energy. So, even from a waste standpoint, there are opportunities that might

not be part of what you think are there, but that distributor now is able to source renewable energy from Lubrizol.” Right now, Ohio is tangling with another source of renewable energy: hydrogen, a low-carbon alternative to greenhouse gas-emitting fuels. In January, the Great Lakes Clean Hydrogen coalition — formed in 2022 with companies like Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., Linde and GE Aerospace, along with energy offset group Energy Harbor and the University of Toledo — received the green light from the U.S. Department of Energy to submit an application for the organization’s proposed hydrogen distribution plan. If all goes well, the low-carbon fuel would decarbonize the steel, glass, aviation and transit industries via pipeline and road transmission to the Great Lakes region. The proposal pegs the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, as its clean energy hub, with an investment cost expected to exceed $2 billion. In neighboring Randolph County, Indiana, just over the state line, Cliffs has also committed to a 15-year purchase agreement for 180 megawatts of the 200-MW Headwaters III Wind Farm. Current estimates predict the farm will be up and running by 2025, which would provide “another step towards achieving Cleveland-Cliffs’ emission reduction goal of 25% by 2030, and will advance our portfolio of renewable energy initiatives that are additive to the power grid,” says Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman, President and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs. As the largest supplier of automotive steel in North America, Cleveland-Cliffs and other Northeast Ohio companies take a vested interest in cleaner energy, envisioning a brighter future for the company and Cleveland alike. “We are very proud of our position on the Great Lakes, and we rely on the Great Lakes,” says Traci Forrester, executive vice president of environmental and sustainability at Cleveland-Cliffs. “We want to see them thrive and survive.”

By Anthony Elder

CLEVELAND, OHIO

POLITICALLY CHARGED COMMENTS, anti-tax rhetoric and targeted digs at local government abounded at the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency’s Climate Action Plan listening sessions earlier this year. But Greater Cleveland’s metropolitan planning organization is plenty used to addressing and engaging both supporters and skeptics alike.

Those listening sessions were an important part of NOACA’s latest Climate Action Plan, designed to give environmental guidance to Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. And despite the slightly cynical air around the early January events, Grace Gallucci, the executive director and CEO of NOACA, says they were productive components of the public engagement process.

Gallucci addressed the mixed response to NOACA’s work, along with the organization’s aims to educate and engage Northeast Ohioans in the climate conversation going forward:

“Anything we get, in terms of feedback, is positive. Even the negative is positive because we get to hear what people think and look to see how that impacts the work that we do. We intend to not only have more public outreach and engagement, we have just talked about revising our schedule to produce the Climate Action Plan, in order to have more strategic public engagement.

“If you participated in any of those, you know that there was quite a bit of negative comments coming through. There were a lot of folks that would be termed ‘climate deniers.’ They’re just a lot of folks who wanted to express their concern with developing the plan and that they essentially don’t believe that there’s a need for a Climate Action Plan; they’re saying something like, ‘We don’t need this, so the region doesn’t.’ Again, that’s fine. If they’re a climate action skeptic, I said, ‘That’s okay.’

“Our job is to help educate and bring the information to you — share that information, get your feedback. Hopefully, as it is in most of the cases, we do public outreach. Once we start sharing the information, people do shift their attitudes, and they do change their perspectives, but we’re not here to force anyone to think about anything a certain way. We just want people to give us their opinions and even the negative ones were worthwhile. I will say it was the minority of people in the region — they were strongly represented at those meetings.

“We had 450 total participants. I want to say there were probably 50 of them that do not support us developing a Climate Action Plan. We’ve done some outreach already while we were doing the long-range plan. We had questions in our

survey that asked people what they thought about climate change; did they think it was a problem? And on a scale of one to five, one being it’s not a problem and five being it is a problem, the average for the regions’ respondents was 4.11. So, most people think it is a problem and recognize it is a problem. Similarly, those same people were asked, 'Is Northeast Ohio prepared for climate change?' and the average was 2.79, meaning not enough is being done about it and our elected leaders need to do something. Overall, it appears that people in the region support the idea that climate change is real, that there are impacts on the region and that we, as public officials and public agencies, need to do more to address it and put together this Climate Action Plan.

“We’re looking at it as a region. We understand the global impacts, and we know that we need to address the global situation, but we’re really looking at our own region. What are the risks to our infrastructure? What are the risks to our way of life? We have a region that has urban, suburban and rural. We have farmland in our region. What’s this going to do to farmland, if the climate action issues are not addressed? We have to really think about it as a quality of life, a way of life and preserving that way of life.

By Annie Nickoloff

“If you think about it that way, maybe it helps people to understand that we’re not talking about something that is so global that you can’t relate to it, and what you’re looking at it is this big scientific problem. It’s science-based at the local level, and also, solutions are at the local level. In order for change to happen, we have to make that change happen and changing our behavior could help make the region more sustainable. Each one of us has something we can do.

“We’re an overall planning agency and we have some funding for implementation, but the implementation happens at the local level. We don’t force implementation. We present a case that we think is a good case and we have the communities accept what they think works for them. Hopefully we’ll be able to make the case that there are so many things that communities can accept to make that change and that doesn’t impact them negatively; quite the opposite. It’s going to impact them positively. Too many times people look at plans like this, that it’s going to take something away. Don’t look at it as it’s going to take something away. Look at it as it’s going to give you so much more. It’s going to give you that better quality of life. You’ll have choices that are good. Options are good.”

“Water is one of the most universal bipartisan issues that is shared across the region. It cuts across race and class politics. We have done it. We are doing it, and we can do more.” —Joel

Brammeier, President and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes

WHY SHOULD I BE OPTIMISTIC?

By Dillon Stewart

“We’ve gotten better at understanding the scale of the problem.” — Grant Goodrich, executive director, Great Lakes EnergyInstitute

“I think the global economy will decarbonize. What’s the worst case scenario maybe five or six years ago, seems increasingly unlikely at this point." —Cyrus

Taylor,ProfessorofPhys-

icsandClimateChange, Case Western Reserve University

“It was dismal a couple of years back. The biggest polluters weren't doing anything. Now, there's an arms race. The last two years seems to be a wake-up call, and I think we’re going to get there.” —DavidPogue,

author of How to Prepare for Climate Change

“Before the ‘70s, we were not a place that people would think about when you think about good climate and sustainability and all that, so we’ve come so far."

— Ren Brumfield, RecyclingCoordinatorfor

theCityofCleveland

WHAT CAN I DO TO PREPARE?

HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE. Pogue says most people are surprised to find out their insurance doesn’t include floods and often have to turn to the government to get it. “Eight out of the 10 most flooded states, as measured by federal disasters, are not coastal cities — they’re inland states because of that driving rain.”

PREPARE A “GO BAG.” First aid, flash lights and snacks — having the essentials ready to go is a relief. “I did this with my kids. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt. It was fun. It’s just a matter of feeling like you’ve taken some steps so that you won’t be caught in the worst situation.”

SIGN UP FOR THE RED CROSS’S “EMERGENCY” ALERT APP. “The saddest thing you hear is that when most people die it’s because they never got word that they were supposed to evacuate.” The app also automatically notifies your loved ones that you’re experiencing a disaster or serious weather.

David Pogue, a Cleveland native and the author of How to Prepare for Climate Change, shares a few things you can do to feel more prepared for the effects of climate change and protect your family from extreme weather.

CLEVELAND, OHIO

From trash pick-up to creative repurposing of recyclables for art, the average Clevelander has more than a few ways to participate in sustainability with no training necessary. Walk around town and you’ll see people making a difference already — picking up trash, installing solar panels, maybe even building a sculpture from those extra Chinese takeout containers. However it may be, various residents of the Land know a thing or two about getting involved.

COMMUNITY CLEAN

Eddie Olschansky sits in his kayak and paddles through the serene Cuyahoga River — keeping his trash bag and picker within reach. As he roams the river for his latest discovery, his arms sway from side to side and the water swashes with each pass. Suddenly, he spots what appears to be a heap. He grabs his picker and plunges underneath, pulling out a wrinkled love note encapsulated in a bottle, an old tire, and a used tampon applicator. In 2018, he started to post about it on Instagram, and people took an interest in the initiative and volunteering. The organization has since garnered over 400 volunteers and more than 3,000 followers on social media. “Then I had some smarter friends than I who would come out with me, borrow my spare kayak, and end up picking up trash with me,” Olschansky said. “And they’re like, ‘Dude, if you want to really make a difference, you've got to tell other people. You've got to find a way to get a message out there.’” Interested locals can visit Olschansky’s Instagram @trashfish_cle.

HOW CANI A DIFFE

By Anthony Elder

COLLEGE STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

Cleveland State University's Office of Sustainability launched a dining program in 2022 where participants can exchange a reusable takeaway container for a fresh one to reduce the campus’s plastic waste. “Students seem to be appreciative,” says Jennifer McMillin, the director of the Office of Sustainability. “I think it’s really important to make these initiatives fun and accessible.” CSU also holds an annual Earth Day celebration called Earthfest, hosted by the Office of Sustainability and the Student Environmental Movement. The goal is to “showcase environmental programs” McMillin says. Students who attend this event can expect to find informative displays, interactive educational installments and prizes. “Student involvement is really important for lots of reasons,” McMillin says. “Students bring fresh ideas, insights, energy and enthusiasm to projects.”

SUSTAINABLE ART

Upcycle Parts Shop owner Nicole McGee sits in the art supply store, but things look a bit different than the average lineup of acrylic paints and untouched canvases one might expect. Instead, McGee sits among a collection of unused vinyl flooring and carpet; bottlecaps and shreds of plastic fill up bins that might’ve held paint brushes at another shop; pill bottles lie empty, and it isn’t because someone has a problem. Rather, someone found a solution. “This is about environmental impact and education and demonstration, but without being overtly about the problems of our need to be more sustainable,” says McGee. At Upcycle Parts Shop, McGee and her team demonstrate the ways local artists — and anyone else looking for something to do with their empty plastic containers — can participate in sustainability by creating with products that would normally hit a landfill. Clevelanders show up to the St. Clair-Superior store daily to gather odds and ends that might complete their current artworks.

I MAKE RENCE?

CYCLING FOR TRANSPORTATION

Looking for a way to lessen your carbon footprint? Craving a little fresh air in the outdoors? If you said “yes” to either of these questions, then go grab that dusty bike from your garage and ditch the car keys. Choosing a bike over a car just once a day can reduce individual carbon emissions by 67% according to a University of Oxford study reported by Bloomberg.com. Joy Machines Bike Shop owner Alex Nosse preaches the emotional and health benefits of the hobby. “I think walking and biking places is extremely healthy,” he says. “The mental component of walking [or] biking is as important as the physical. A lot of people who drive long distance, like a tough car commute every day, I get the sense that that really can drain you.” In January, a Cleveland City Council committee approved plans to create more than four miles of bike lanes to Superior and Lorain avenues.

SAVING ENERGY IN NORTHEAST OHIO

Looking ahead, plenty of Clevelanders have begun to wonder about renewable energy in the home. Some of the easier options outlined in CSU’s Energy Saving Check List include turning off unnecessary electronics like laptops and coffeepots, keeping windows shut tightly for insulation and monitoring for leaky faucets or pipes. For something a bit more involved, locals should look into solar panels for the home. It may seem counterintuitive in a city known for its lake effect precipitation, but in a 2017 guide to solar energy, the City of Cleveland claimed that it saw more panel installations per capita than sunnier destinations like Houston and Atlanta. To get started, locals may want to take advantage of DIY starter kits from Sun Hub or free consultations and heftier installations from YellowLite — which claims that buyers will see a complete return on their investment within 5-8 years. The business offers a solar calculator on its website for a general estimation of your home’s energy savings.

At Laurel, girls are leaders in the classroom, on the field and on the stage. Through a demanding academic curriculum informed by our Center for Research on Girls, our unparalleled public- speaking coursework and our beyond- the- classroom experiences, girls at Laurel lead every day.

Come see how Laurel girls lead.

The list of celebrities, athletes, business titans, well-known scientists, and creative leaders who identify as dyslexic seems to be ever expanding. LinkedIn recently added dyslexic thinking to their lineup of valuable professional skills. The strengths of the dyslexic mind are being discussed everywhere from The New York Times to NPR to TikTok. And right here in Ohio, the Department of Education just published their Dyslexia Guidebook, which lays a foundation for public schools to better support every child’s journey to becoming a reader. For these reasons and many more, the word dyslexia is popping up

WHAT DO THESE FAMOUS FOLK HAVE IN COMMON?

They

in conversation quite frequently. But what is dyslexia, really?

Neuro-biological in origin and often hereditary, dyslexia is most simply defined as unexpected struggles with reading and spelling. Functional MRI technology shows dyslexic individuals process language in a different area of their brain, weakening their ability to connect speech sounds with letters and words.

Schools and private psychologists identify dyslexia, also referred to as a specific learning disability or reading disorder, when a student’s reading skills don’t align with their level of intelligence and they exhibit a pattern of weakness with the phonological component of language.

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia

COMMON SIGNS OF DYSLEXIA

Difficulty pronouncing words

Uses general terms to describe specific objects and/or adds new vocabulary slowly

Trouble with the alphabet and letter sounds

Difficulty recalling song lyrics, days of the week, colors, numbers, or shapes

Struggles to write their name

Problems following multi-step directions

Slow development of fine motor skills

Retells events out of order

Loves to listen to stories, but avoids reading on their own

Difficulty learning letters and recalling their sounds

Substitutes words when reading, and often relies on accompanying pictures

Difficulty separating or blending sounds, as well as identifying words that rhyme

Frequent errors including reversing, inverting, and substituting letters/words

Confuses sight words, such as: at, to, said, and, the, etc.

Pencil grip is awkward, fist-like, or tight

Poor fine motor skills and coordination

Reading is laborious with long pauses and repetitions

Reverses letter sequences: soiled for solid, left for felt

Skips over words when reading out loud

Difficulty sounding out new words

Trouble describing what they read or answering questions about it

Slow to discern prefixes, suffixes, and root words

Struggles with spelling; spells the same word differently on a single page

Illegible handwriting

Difficulty with planning and time management

& Creativity, dyslexia affects 20% of the population, which means every classroom in every school has dyslexic learners sitting at its desks. Yet, many children are still not properly diagnosed and misconceptions persist. There is no correlation between dyslexia and low intelligence or low motivation. A hard-working student with a high IQ can still face reading struggles. Simply seeing letters and words backward is another popular myth—dyslexia is based in the brain, not the eyes.

While dyslexia isn’t something a person outgrows, the brain is malleable. Parents and educators who notice signs, which can vary in presence and severity, should be proactive. With early identification and a heavy dose of specialized instruction, dyslexic students not only learn to read, but read well!

Reads slowly and/or robotically; doesn’t pause appropriately for punctuation

Reads word-by-word rather than grouping words/phrases together smoothly

Trouble summarizing what they’ve read or answering questions about it

Often spells the same word differently within the same body of writing

Procrastinates reading/ writing tasks

Finds school exhausting Many missing or incomplete assignments

May not have difficulty in math, but struggles with word problems

Trouble learning a foreign language

Free Reading Screenings

Lawrence School’s Schafer Center for Learning Differences offers 60-minute reading screenings for kids in grades K–3. This free community service helps parents understand if their child would benefit from more intensive literacy instruction.

SCAN TO LEARN MORE:

Sculpting letters/words out of modeling clay is one of many multisensory activities used to teach students to read.

AGES 2–4

AGES 5–8

AGES 9–12

AGES 13+

Steven Spielberg, Eleanor Roosevelt, Richard Branson, Henry Winkler, Whoopi Goldberg, Anderson Cooper, Leonardo DaVinci, Keira Knightly, Winston Churchill, and Thomas Edison

are among the millions of dyslexic individuals whose unique way of thinking positively impacted our world

Student-run Executive Grille Restaurant is ‘dream come true’ for culinary students

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s popular culinary arts program and student-run Executive Grill restaurant made headlines in February with the grand opening of its new, state-of-the-art Culinary Center at East Tech High School. Culinary instructors and students gave key patrons a sneak peek of the new facility at a VIP event where students surprised CEO Eric S. Gordon with a dedicated table in his name.

“It’s a dream come true for our students and staff,” said Michael Szalkowski, graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and chief instructor of the career-tech program. “We now have stateof-the-art combi ovens, a hand-held ordering system, variable dining seating in our dining room, and an integrated camera system to livestream our lessons.”

The restaurant became a popular lunch stop in the CMSD community when it opened in the

Jane Addams College and Career Center in 1998. Transfer of the program to East Technical High School this year is part of the District’s $5.6 million investment at the school, and Szalkowski said CMSD’s program now rivals the training facility of any suburban career center, and is likely to attract more students to pursue careers in culinary arts in Cleveland.

“Our students now train on the modern equipment used in the nation’s finest restaurants,” he said. “This will make it easier for students to enter the workforce after graduation or move on to college or culinary institutes for postsecondary training.”

The new facility at East Tech includes a computer lab, demo kitchen, locker rooms a restaurant kitchen and a separate pastry arts kitchen. In addition to the restaurant, students operate the only student-run food truck in northeast Ohio, fully supported by the

Grille’s

Executive Grille’s work stations where students prepare all menu items.

The Culinary Arts career path is part of the District’s Career-Technical Education (CTE) program that gives high school students an opportunity to get a head start on preparing for college and careers.

preparing for

Career Tech students at East Tech HS serve the public not only in their Executive Grille restaurant but also in showcasing their work through annual holiday meal and pastry sales and floral sales. Students engage in internships, apprenticeships, and job-shadowing in the

Students internships, Agriculture, Animal

and make all-natural, dog biscuits sold in the Executive Grille.

Career tech programs at CMSD are available to student in grades 9–12. Incoming freshmen are introduced to career pathways through orientation coursework in their first year, before enrolling in coursework specific to their chosen career path in grades 10-12. Students earn certificates and

credentials and graduate with a competitive advantage as they advancing toward careers in their chosen field.

fields of Culinary Arts, Horticulture, Urban Agriculture, Animal Science and Hospitality. Their classrooms include a greenhouse on the Washington Park campus, and hydroponic garden towers where students grow plants, vegetables, and herbs used in their Executive Grille restaurant. In other classrooms, students study and care for birds, mammals, and reptiles

the Park plants, in birds,

WE ARE THE WORLD

BY KRISTEN HAMPSHIRE

haring Korean foods, teaching classmates about the Lunar New Year and writing about culture shock for the student newspaper are a few ways Sunwoo Skylar Hyun shares her global perspective at Lake Ridge Academy.

“We can bring different perspectives and cultures to school,” says Hyun, a junior, not-

ing the growing international student population at the school, which is about 10% of the student body and includes 10 different countries.

Her sister and parents are back home in South Korea – and Hyun has adopted a Lake Ridge family that welcomed her into extracurriculars, social experiences and more.

“Not a day goes by where we aren’t learn-

ing from each other,” points out Kelly Prill, the school’s dean of international students and assistant director of college counseling. “We make cultural mistakes and learn from them. We bring diverse perspectives and share them. We strive to make sure our students see themselves reflected in the curriculum, so if we are studying ancient China, we’ll ask one of our Chinese students to be the expert.”

Sometimes, global learning is about forcing real and uncomfortable situations. For instance, the Upper School facilitated a program called BaFa BaFa, a simulation where students are grouped into two fictitious cultures with wildly different values. “The whole idea is to force cultural misunderstandings and mistakes to give that feeling of culture shock,” Prill says.

Meanwhile, with the growing international population at Lake Ridge, Prill says global relationships form and students learn tolerance and respect. “My life is changed every day in this job,” she adds.

Global perspectives are ingrained in engaging programs and curriculum that teach students respect, tolerance and an appreciation of differences.

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) at Laurel School starts in the youngest grades with three-year-olds. They might read a book like Our World Is a Family and discuss immigration. Respect is modeled in the classroom and teachers overhear the outcomes during play. “The little ones say, ‘Listen to what she has to say,’ or, ‘You need to be respectful,’” says Lauren Calig, director of multicultural curriculum and co-director of DEIB with Candace Maiden, who is based at the Upper School.

As students advance, their global learning digs deeper. For instance, a six-week high school course called Perspectives is centered on global headlines. “We are constantly asking the questions: Who is writing the article? What is the audience? What voices are heard? What voices are not heard?” Maiden relates.

Last year, topics included homelessness and COVID-19, sexism and female Olympic athletes, environmental injustice and lead

All of the things I just found too hard to say.

WHEN YOUR KID CAN’T FIND THE LANGUAGE, FIND THE LYRICS. USE THEM TO START A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR KIDS ABOUT EMOTIONAL WELLBEING. LISTEN TO THE ALBUM, FIND TOOLS AND GET TIPS FROM PROFESSIONALS AT SOUNDITOUTTOGETHER.ORG

poisoning and Afghan women's perspectives when U.S. troops left. “We see how information in the media is shared in different countries and allow our students to look at news in a broader way,” Maiden says.

Calig says more schools are introducing global perspectives, and Laurel has consulted with other institutions to share how they ingrain DEIB into the culture. “Everything

we do here at Laurel is deliberate,” she says. “So, students in a math class learning about statistics might learn about redlining and why one school district gets more money per pupil than another.”

BREAKING BORDERS

The Center for Global Citizenship at

Lake Ridge Academy includes international travel opportunities, and a chance to conduct a two-year independent research program. According to the Center For Global Citizenship website, upcoming travel opportunities for students include Great Britain, Ecuador, Peru, Madrid, Paris and Rome. These trips allow students to expand their world view while learning about art,

culture, STEM and more. French teacher David Wagner leads this Global Scholars program. “Our main goals are to help students do research programs with an international focus so students can share that knowledge with the student body,” he says.

The Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship introduces students to global business practices and includes trips. “We want students to have this understanding that everything in the world is connected,” says Donald Bittala, one of the Upper School’s social studies teachers. One effort is opening a campus coffee and spirit shop with products from local and global companies as a supply chain lesson.

Meanwhile, U.S. history students research immigration history in their junior and senior years and participate in a processing simulation. They are met with guides and move through various stations for testing, and some are quarantined.

“For our international students, it’s about validating what they have been through and showing others their struggles,” says Elizabeth Russell, history and psychology teacher. “For students who can trace their history, it involves storytelling. It has the potential to be transformative.”

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“For our international students, it’s about validating what they have been through and showing others their struggles.”

- Elizabeth Russell HISTORY & PSYCHOLOGY TEACHER

DOUBLE TEAMING

BY KRISTEN HAMPSHIRE

ortney Dargaj works in tandem with associate teacher Aubrey Cornwell in her second-grade classroom at University School — one works the room, visiting with small groups to answer questions. The other leads a lesson. They trade off, collaborating with a natural synergy that brings connectivity, support and different perspectives to the learning experience.

It’s twice as nice.

For one, they can model problem-solving. “If we can purposely make a mistake and say to

the other teacher, ‘I wonder how we can fix it?’ it shows students there is room for growth from failure and mistakes,” Dargaj says. “It gives them an overall much richer experience in the classroom, and then we hear students repeating that language.”

STUDENTS BENEFIT FROM PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTION SINCE TEACHERS CAN TAG TEAM.

Parents gain double the perspective on how their child is performing in the classroom and

Co-teaching in the classroom delivers benefits to learners, parents and educators.

can more easily access teachers for feedback on behavior, grades and more. Plus, co-teachers can brainstorm lesson plans, reflect on what worked and grow together as professionals.

“The students have an opportunity to thrive because there is always someone there to support you,” says Lisa Cummings, University School’s Lower School director. “When you have multiple eyes in the room, you gain different perspectives.”

MEETING STUDENTS WHERE THEY ARE.

University School’s team teaching structure is targeted toward students in the Lower School, and Cummings explains that especially during early learning years, students are at different developmental stages. “Some students are readers and others are still looking at letters and letter sounds,” she says. “There is a lot of scaffolding that is needed for the youngest learners, so we have an opportunity to meet them at their various levels.”

“Having an additional teacher in the room

makes small groups even more meaningful and scaffolded,” Cummings says. Especially after home and hybrid schooling amid COVID-19, the youngest students who missed out on a “normal” school year might not have experienced the educational push from online learning, whether that was through Zoom lessons with the teacher or school work on a digital platform. So, having two teachers help close the gap can boost students who have fallen behind in the early educational standards. “There were students who continued to excel and others who were more isolated,” she points out. “Those little guys who missed pre-K or kindergarten are already coming in behind on social skills and having two teachers is a nice way to address those on top of academics,” Dargaj says.

INTRODUCING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES.

“None of us comes into a room with the same personality,” Cummings points out. “You can get a student who completely connects with one teacher because she has a great sense of humor, and maybe the other teacher is an empathetic and soft-spoken individual.”

Team teaching brings a sense of balance to a classroom’s culture and fosters natural relationships. Plus, teachers pick up on different nuances and behaviors from each of their students, which brings an even more well-rounded perspective when the time comes for parent conferences. “They both have insight

to share, adding anecdotes or examples of what they witness for parents to consider,” Dargaj says.

REFRESHING THE ROOM.

“Two heads are better than one,” Dargaj says of lesson planning, and “rich conversations that I have with my co-teacher are beyond what I

could come up with on my own.” She says she’s a better teacher for it. “And it’s exciting to learn from each other’s styles because you can get set in your ways. We learn from each other.”

For students, this keeps lessons fresh and engaging enough to keep focus intact. “Co-teaching naturally lends itself to students being more engaged,” Dargaj adds. “It’s not as easy for students to get off track when one is teaching and

the other is walking around and hands-on.” And again, there’s modeling—the nonverbal teaching—that occurs when two professionals are interacting and students can watch and learn. “It really builds character education for them,” Dargaj says. “Not only do we talk about it and teach about it, we show it to them. They see us being respectful to each other and bouncing ideas off of each other.”

“Co-teaching naturally lends itself to students being more engaged. It’s not as easy for students to get off track when one is teaching and the other is walking around and hands-on.”

- Cortney Dargaj

SECOND GRADE TEACHER AT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL

TAPPING THE SENSES

BY KRISTEN HAMPSHIRE

sensory pathway winding through the halls at Canterbury Elementary School in Cleveland Heights is paved with stickers that guide students to crab walk, march, hop and move the busy out of their bodies. “Ultimately, it helps students self-regulate their physical and emotional state and improves focus,” says Julie Meese, intervention specialist.

Meanwhile, a dedicated room in the school is outfitted with tools like a cocoon swing, tunnel, weighted blankets, stretchy bands, calming bubble lamps and a soothing sound machine, among other items curated for the purpose of providing sensory integration. Some kids are easily overstimulated in the classroom, so the sensory space offers ways to re-center. Others lose focus because they need more “input” to get in the game. And while sensory integration is a well-known concept in the autism community, all kids benefit.

“Teachers have been using sensory

in their classrooms for years,” Meese says, pointing to cozy corners with fuzzy pillows, fidgets, wobble stools and reading nooks.

And the reality is, we all have sensory needs that we fill throughout the day, often without realizing it. (If you're a gum chewer, a nail biter, a foot tapper, a hair twirler – you get the idea.)

Canterbury Elementary’s dedicated room gives students supervised time to regulate their bodies so they’re ready to learn. Students enter the room with adults who are there to help facilitate, and the opportunity is open to all students based on

Dedicated sensory spaces and integrating ‘the five’ into lessons helps learners focus, regulate emotions and gain more from the classroom.

ISTOCK PHOTO

their needs.

“Ten years ago, this was more for special education students, and it is for everyone now and an effective approach we can use to help refocus students, calm them and help with social emotional issues,” says Principal Erica Wigton, noting how the sensory room and pathway have led to other efforts, including sensory boxes with tools for every class-

room so that more kids can get their hands on resources without leaving the classroom. While most schools do not have dedicated sensory rooms, integrating sensory learning into the curriculum is common, particularly at the elementary level. It’s essentially how we learn, points out Stacey Weiher, the toddler community guide at Ruffing Montessori School.

“Starting with toddlers, they are free to explore. If they want to go and play with water in the sink to experience cold and hot, they can do that for a period of time. For sensory education at home, a child might have a series of bells they can strike to learn the tones and put them in order from lowest to highest.”

Engaging, hands-on time in the classroom reaches different types of learners. “It’s easi-

N

Children

Individualized approach

Academic mastery

Independence & responsibility

Social and emotional learning

Financial literacy

Meaningful social connections

Stress-reducing integration with nature

Life skills & college readiness

World-renowned education

CONTACT US TO REGISTER OR REQUEST MORE INFORMATION

(440) 357-0918

admissions@hershey-montessori.org

Financial Aid is available to qualifying families. Ask about our transportation & boarding options!

SPRING 2023 OPEN HOUSES

*Registration is required.* Concord Campus (Birth-6th Grade)

10229 Prouty Rd.

Concord Twp., OH 44077

From 9-11 am on Mar. 8 | Apr. 12 | May 10

Huntsburg Campus (7th-12th Grade)

11530 Madison Rd.

Huntsburg, OH 44046

From 9-11 am on Apr. 10 | May 8

Virtual tours are available on our website.

Visit our website at www.Hershey-Montessori.org

COURTESY LAUREL SCHOOL

A child's preschool experience should build a foundation for their education and lifelong skills of perseverance independence confidence curiosity and finding joy in their own interests.

Located in the heart of Little Italy, our students grow and thrive in a learning environment that promotes a lifetime passion for learning. Unlock your child's potential with a solid foundation for life.

Applications are now being accepted for PreK through 8th grades. Call for information for tuition discounts for employees at select University Circle institutions

Contact the Director of Admissions at 216-421-0700 or email at info@clevelandmontessori.org to arrange a personal tour.

er for children to learn if they can hold, touch and explore,” Weiher adds. “If you think about newborns, that’s the only way they learn. They put things in their mouth, they look, they listen, they smell. Sensory is how we were born to learn.”

If you think about it, sensory materials are everywhere; they’re at the checkout counter. Slime, fidget spinners, poppits, squishy balls and beanbags are some examples. By filling a child’s sensory bucket in an organized way at school, teachers can reel in the student who might act out, drift during a lesson or experience social-emotional effects of dysregulation like agitation or anxiety.

“The fact that more schools are open to this and recognizing the important role of sensory makes me happy and hopeful as a parent and educator,” says Weiher. “The more input students get through their senses, the more rich their education will be.”

“The fact that more schools are open to this and recognizing the important role of sensory makes me happy and hopeful as a parent and educator.”

- Stacey Weiher

TODDLER COMMUNITY GUIDE AT RUFFING MONTESSORI SCHOOL

A lifetime of learning star ts here.

Compassion, Understanding and Empowerment

March is National Developmental Disabilities

Awareness Month! This month, we encourage you to learn more about the local DD community and to think about how you might personally or professionally join us in making Cuyahoga County a place that truly celebrates, welcomes and accommodates people of all abilities.

Live, Learn, Work and Play

Discover how the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities empowers residents in our community.

Since 1967, the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Cuyahoga DD) has proudly supported Cuyahoga County residents with developmental disabilities (DD) as they live, learn, work and play in the community. Over the last 56 years, Cuyahoga DD’s work has grown to include a robust set of supports and services, two-thirds of which are funded by Cuyahoga County taxpayers through a continuous levy that was last passed in 2005.

Today, with services that support people and families from birth through adulthood, Cuyahoga DD serves more than 13,000 county residents with DD annually with one primary goal in mind: helping them live their best possible lives.

Whether working with our county’s youngest residents through early intervention or connecting adults to the community through employment and innovative housing, Cuyahoga DD works with each person and family to create a plan that tailors programs and services to meet their needs.

With physical and occupational therapy, speech language pathology and assistive technology offerings, Cuyahoga DD addresses a wide range of mobility, daily living and communications needs.

Cuyahoga DD is one of the only county boards in Ohio with a comprehensive behavioral health team that includes nurses and psychologists, as well as a human sexuality specialist who provides consultative clinical support to families.

In the community, Cuyahoga DD partners with school districts to support students with DD and helps them prepare for life after high school, including postsecondary education and employment. Cuyahoga DD actively prepares young people for competitive employment opportunities that are created through its partnership with the Employment Collaborative of Cuyahoga County.

With a goal of inclusion for all, Cuyahoga DD’s community outreach team develops relationships with businesses and organizations in the community, consulting on ways they can be more accessible and inclusive in terms of physical spaces and programming and providing grants to organizations as they make changes that support community inclusion.

Cuyahoga DD does not do this important work alone, though. A network of 1,700 agency and independent service providers that is vital to supporting people with DD has experienced the same unprecedented staffing shortages seen in other sectors over the past few years. Cuyahoga DD works closely with the providers in Cuyahoga County, supporting them through grants that help them attract and retain high-quality, professional caregivers.

The pages that follow introduce you to some of the services and supports Cuyahoga DD provides and the impact they have on families.

For more information about Cuyahoga DD, visit cuyahogabdd.org.

Making a Difference

Meet four individuals whose lives have been changed with support from Cuyahoga DD.

Helping Cuyahoga County’s Youngest Residents Meet Milestones

For 2-year-old Rosie Utrata and her parents, Meghann and Nick, Cuyahoga DD’s early intervention services, delivered in partnership with Bright Beginnings, have been vital for the toddler’s development. Connecting with Cuyahoga DD as soon as Rosie got home from the neonatal intensive care unit, the Utratas have been supported every step of the way.

Cuyahoga DD Physical Therapist Paula Clark has spent the past year working with the family to develop and work toward Rosie’s goals in several areas, including transitioning from crawling to walking, eating solid foods and improving her communication skills.

Cuyahoga DD’s early intervention philosophy is that children learn best in a natural environment: in places and with people

Using Technology to Achieve Goals

Joseph Rowe, 16, has worked with Cuyahoga DD since he was 3 years old. His family took advantage of every Cuyahoga DD opportunity, from occupational therapy, speech language pathology and assistive technology to Family Supports Program funding for specialized equipment. For his mom, Christine, “It is a pleasure and a joy” to have Joseph “engage in services that are beneficial to him.”

These days, he works with Behavior Curriculum Intervention Specialist Laurene Sweet to help him improve social interactions and be safe in the community. To help Joseph, Sweet uses a virtual reality program called Floreo, which allows him to practice skills from the comfort and safety of his own home. Floreo moves Joseph through situations he might encounter in real life using prompts, and Sweet guides the process, indicating to the program when he has responded correctly and redirecting him when necessary.

With an interest in computers and technology, Joseph thinks Floreo is “pretty cool,” and his favorite modules allow him

and things that are familiar to them. Clark spent time with the Utratas in their home, demonstrating daily movement exercises that taught Rosie to sit, roll, stretch and crawl — exercises that eventually helped her begin walking at 18 months.

Clark has also supported Rosie’s speech and language skills. Her parents and grandparents were given the tools they needed to continue the work between their weekly appointments, and her communication has improved dramatically in the last six months.

Also in the last few months, Clark’s work with Rosie has resulted in the toddler transitioning to solid foods and drinking from a cup. Rosie’s development, thanks to Cuyahoga DD’s services, is evident. “It is like night and day,” Meghann says.

to practice moving through an airport and practice having conversations.

Outside of school, Joseph is an avid rower at the Foundry, plays keyboard at PNC Fairfax Connection and enjoys art. His work with Sweet and Floreo — specifically in the areas of social interaction and safety — will be key as he works toward his goal of getting a job after he graduates from high school.

Building Community Connections

For families who are not eligible for a Medicaid waiver, it is challenging to manage expenses for things like specialized equipment, nutrition, respite care, and recreation and leisure for their loved ones with developmental disabilities. The Cuyahoga DD Family Supports Program uses local tax revenue to provide more than 3,800 families each year with funding to help them purchase the goods and services they need to help their loved ones live their best lives.

For Carla and Louis Smilanich, however, the Family Supports program is about so much more than the money and what it buys. For them, it’s about opportunities to feel included in the community. Their 15-year-old son, Michael, is a student at Westlake High School and works at

Setting Goals for Increased Independence

A Support Administrator is an important partner in goal-setting and planning for someone with a disability, connecting them to services and supports that help them live how they want. Grace Gorton, a Deaf woman, wanted to live independently but had some reservations. She had lived in a group home and was living with her aunt when her Support Administrator, Neil Lipschutz, told her about TryTech.

TryTech, Cuyahoga DD’s short-term rental apartments furnished with assistive technology and services, gives adults served by Cuyahoga DD a space to build confidence in living on their own. Knowing Gorton’s goals, Lipschutz approached her with the opportunity. “Neil said it could be a good fit and I said, ‘yes, of course!’” Gorton says.

Lipschutz and Gorton made a plan, and Gorton lived at TryTech for two months. Once her stay concluded, she took time to consider her next living arrangement. She credits Lipschutz, as well as her parents and her aunt, for helping her decide.

“Neil helped me navigate how I felt about living independently. He gave me the space to take a step back and figure out what help I needed. He gave me a bridge to be more independent,” Gorton says.

Winking Lizard as part of a vocational program there. The Smilanichs have used Family Supports funding to purchase an iPad, which helps Michael communicate with school peers and work colleagues. They have also used the Family Supports Program to purchase memberships to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Lake Metroparks Farm Park and their local recreation center and outdoor community pool.

“It doesn’t make your challenges go away, but you feel like you’re supported,” Louis says of the Family Supports Program. “You’re not forgotten. You’re not left alone.”

“It’s about making him feel a part of the community, just like any other kid,” Carla adds.

After finding a sunny, newly renovated unit in Lakewood, she moved into her own apartment in October 2022. “Now, I’m able to use my paycheck [from Mitchell’s Ice Cream, where she has worked since 2018] to pay for my apartment; I have something to go to work for,” she says.

Would she be living on her own now if she hadn’t stayed at TryTech? “Probably not, no,” she says. “It would have taken me a lot longer.”

Offer Valid on Potomac and Imperial LS Models. 4 Window Minimum. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Excludes Labor. Financing offers a no payment - no interest feature (during the “promotional period”) on your purchase at an APR of 17.99%. No finance charges will accrue on your account during the promotional period, as set forth in your Truth in Lending Disclosures, and you will not have to pay a monthly payment until the promotional period has ended.  If you repay your purchase in full before the end of the promotional period you will not have to pay any finance charges. You may also prepay your account at any time without penalty. Financing is subject to credit requirements and satisfactory completion of finance documents. Any finance terms advertised are estimates only. Normal late charges apply once the promotional period has ended. Offer expires on 3/31/2023.

Thank You

MEDIA SPONSORS AND PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS

WELCOME!

WITH HUNDREDS OF EXPERTS UNDER ONE ROOF, the Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo is your source to discover fresh inspiration, helpful renovation tips, innovative products and fantastic deals in remodeling, home improvement, decor and outdoor spaces. Plan your next home project as you shop, compare and save with more than 225 exhibitors ready to answer your renovation questions. We hope you enjoy the show!

SHOW LOCATION

CLEVELAND I-X CENTER

1 I-X Center Drive, Cleveland, OH 44135

TICKET INFORMATION

$10 Box Office (Adult Admission)

$8 Online at homeandremodelingexpo.com (Adult Admission)

$7 Seniors 65+ with ID (tickets must be purchased at show box office)

$5 Children (Ages 6 to 12 years)

THEME DAY:

HERO DAY | FRIDAY, MARCH 24 Active and retired members of the military, as well as first responders receive free admission to the show with valid ID.

THE MOST UP-TO-DATE SHOW DETAILS and discounted tickets are available online at homeandremodelingexpo.com. Use the promo code GUIDE when purchasing online to receive $3 off.

@ohiohomeshows

/homeandgardenevents @GreatBigShow

2023 SHOW TEAM Cathy Berthold, Kelsey Christopher, Rosanna Hrabnicky, Rese Pardue and Maddie Rice

SHOW FEATURES

Tiny Home Village by Tiny Home Living

Tiny Home Living Dundee, 330-852-8800 tinyhomeliving.com

EXPERIENCE THE LATEST IN DOWNSIZED HOME

DESIGN as you walk through Tiny Home Village from Tiny Home Living. The first of several living spaces in the village, an 8-foot by 24-foot tiny home built on a trailer for easy transportation, features a first-floor living area, kitchenette and bathroom. Head upstairs to the loft bedroom with queen size bed and office space. The home features the latest in design and space-saving innovation.

From there, as you meander through the village, step inside several studio sheds that are ideal for a backyard office, guest bedroom or exercise space. Studio sheds fulfill a gap in livable space and provide the freedom and flexibility to find more enjoyment in your daily activities.

Tiny Home Living opened its doors in 2022 and is operated by Ivan and Emma Keim. The company specializes in creating spaces that allow you to enjoy your life. Bring them your ideas, and they will work to make your tiny home or studio shed vision a reality.

Doggie Drive by Cuyahoga Valley Career Center

Sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland Cuyahoga Vallery Career Center Brecksville, 440-526-5200 cvccworks.edu

EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY deserves a space of their own, including the dog of the house! Bid on your favorite one-of-a-kind dog house as you walk down Doggie Drive. Built by juniors and seniors at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, each student team received a $200 budget to design and build a fur-tastic living space for medium- to large-sized dogs. Proceeds benefit students taking classes in architecture/ engineering, heating/air, electrical and construction trades.

Cuyahoga Valley Career Center serves more than 25,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade through its career development program, as well as nearly 3,000 adults annually from 25 Northeast Ohio communities who seek career training.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland (hbacleveland.com) represents Northeast Ohio’s network of craftsmen, innovators and problem solvers dedicated to building and enriching communities.

The UFO House by Futuro Houses

Futuro Houses

Cleveland, 440-255-5113

futurohouses.com

THE UFO HOUSE FROM FUTURO HOUSES combines space age design with luxury and comfort. Step into this 13-foot by 30-foot home with 600 feet of living space that includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living space. Its shape is reminiscent of a flying saucer and features an airplane hatch entrance. An energy independent housing solution, the UFO House has its own water collection and energy systems for a truly self-sufficient off-grid living space. It is manufactured from 100% molded fiberglass composites and fits into a standard shipping container for worldwide shipping. Futuro Houses’ headquarters in Cleveland includes sales, manufacturing and R&D facilities.

Let’s Grow! Celebrity Designed Flower Pots

Sponsored by Petitti Garden Centers

GARDENING SEASON IS ALMOST HERE, and 12 of Cleveland’s favorite television and radio personalities are getting ready. Each has designed a terra cotta flower pot that can be bid on during the expo for the chance to add it to your own garden. Auction proceeds benefit Believe in Dreams. Petitti Garden Centers (petittigardencenter.com), family owned and operated since 1971, is Northeast Ohio’s premier garden center organization, offering nine retail locations to serve garden enthusiasts and homeowners in the Cleveland, Akron-Canton and Youngstown areas.

Keeper’s Turf Putting Green

Cleveland, 440-653-7971 | KeepersTurf.com

PUT YOUR PUTTING SKILLS to the test by taking a free chance to make the putt on this beautiful 35 foot long putting green built by Keepers Turf. Make the shot and be entered to win some great prizes. Located at booth #1428.

Homes That Roam RV Showcase

WHETHER YOU ARE LOOKING TO TRAVEL FULL TIME or simply want your next vacation to be less stressful, Homes That Roam features the latest in luxury living on wheels. You will be ready to hit the road on your next adventure after stopping by this feature presented by General RV (generalrv.com) and Avalon RV (avalonrvcenter.com). Visit booths #1438 and #1538.

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

Don't miss these appearances on the main stage designed by Ora Designs.

PATRIC RICHARDSON

When Patric Richardson was 3 years old, Santa brought him a toy washing machine, fueling a passion that already presented itself whenever he helped his Granny Dude with her laundry.

He studied merchandising apparel and textiles at the University of Kentucky and then left for a career in luxury fashion at McAlpins, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom. Time spent in these legendary stores taught him that all clothing, regardless of price, can be cared for at home.

Richardson opened his designer vintage store, Mona Williams, in 2013 at Mall of America. The store carried a small, curated collection of fine laundry products, completely changing his direction into the world of laundry and clothing care.

Richardson started sharing his expertise at his often sold-out Laundry Camps, where he taught people new and better ways to care for their apparel and home textiles. These camps sparked a revolution, prompting the book, “Laundry Love,” now in its fourth printing, and a television show, “The Laundry Guy,” on HGTV and Discovery+.

MATT FOX

A show favorite, Matt Fox will delight visitors with his quick wit, home improvement knowledge and special educational presentations.

Fox is best known for creating and co-hosting the first and longest-running show to air on HGTV, “Room by Room,” as well as hosting and producing the public television series, “Around the House with Matt and Shari.” Learn more from his website, mattandshari.com.

Visit homeremodelingexpo.com for the complete stage schedule.

EXPERT ADVICE

GETTING YOUR HOME READY FOR SPRING

You know what they say — April showers bring May flowers. This year, be prepared for rainy season by ensuring your home is protected in the event of a storm. Here, we highlight four maintenance items to tackle this season.

GUTTERS

GUTTERS COLLECT RAIN AND HELP MOVE IT off of and away from your home. Uncovered gutters will fill with debris (leaves, sticks, rocks, trash, etc.) over time and should be cleaned out regularly. Unkempt gutters are unable to adequately move water away from your home. Instead, it will pool in the gutters and overflow onto your roof, which can cause serious damage. Cleaning out your gutters twice a year (in the fall and spring) can help save you from major repairs.

ROOF

IT’S

A GOOD IDEA TO ASSESS YOUR ROOF

after the snow has melted. The several inches of white stuff that’s been on your roof for two or three months can hide damage. Once it’s gone, grab a ladder (and a pal — don’t do this on your own!) and see what shape your shingles, flashings and chimney are in. You want to make sure that everything is attached properly and in good condition. Winter weather hits roofs very hard, so it’s important to ensure yours has fared well when things start to warm up or else you could be at risk for water damage when the first major rainstorm hits.

CRACKS

HERE’S HOPING YOU SEALED ALL YOUR CRACKS before the winter, but if you weren’t able to take care of this chore a few months ago, it’s still valuable to do it now. Go through your home and caulk all of the cracks in the walls and around windows and doors you see. These holes allow air to seep out and pests to get in. Sealing minor cracks will help make your home more energy efficient and deter unwanted bugs and rodents from making nests in your space.

GRADING

WHILE YOU MAY LOOK AT YOUR LAWN and yard in terms of gardening and landscaping regularly, how often have you thought about your grading? The slope of your outdoor space can have a big impact on the state of your indoor space. If your yard slopes away from your home, there’s nothing to worry about. However, if your yard slopes toward your home, you might be in trouble. Rain, like everything else, has to follow the laws of gravity. If your home is at the bottom of a downward sloping lawn, water will follow that slope, pooling around the base of your home and seeping into your foundation. This can cause all sorts of damage. Setting up your lawn so that it is flat or sloping away from your home is a must-do.

Taking care of these chores will help make your space more comfortable this spring and summer, and these little home improvement projects can prepare for your next big renovation or remodel. Not feeling confident enough to tackle these chores on your own? Connect with a local pro at the Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo and see how they can help with your space.

CREATING YOUR DREAM HOME GYM

Discover how to build the perfect workout space with design tips, equipment considerations, lighting and everything in between.

Location, Location, LOCATION

Do you have an entire room to dedicate to your dream home gym, or will you be working on a partitioned section of a larger room? Will your home workouts be in the attic, basement, backyard or spare room? Make sure you put your home gym somewhere with a water source and/or a bathroom nearby.

What’s YOUR BUDGET?

A full room renovation project is going to cost you more than redesigning part of an existing space and converting it to a home gym. Ask yourself what exercises can you do without a gym? What are your non-fitness related goals when you undertake this project? What do you need to buy for your space and what is a nice-to-have? Dream home gym projects can run anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000. If this budget seems like a lot, just remember, you can build a home gym one step at a time and upgrade it in pieces to keep it economical.

Square Footage NECESSITIES

Once you know what types of exercises you plan to do in your home gym, it’s easier to understand your spacing requirements. Some general requirements indicate you need approximately 20 to 50 square feet for free weights or yoga mat work, and 50 to 200 square feet if you’re adding treadmills, additional workout stations or larger home workout accessories, such as steps, Pilates balls or a pull-up bar.

Electrical REQUIREMENTS

If you are planning on purchasing specific pieces of cardio equipment or other hardware requiring electricity, you need to make sure the room can support it and that you are aware of where the outlets are in the room before you spend too much time designing the space.

Flooring

If you are performing your home workout on an upper level of the house, you want to ensure you aren’t disturbing the rest of your family below you. If you are doing any indoor cardio without the use of a machine, you need to make sure the floor has good enough traction that you don’t slip and injure yourself. Whether you’re installing hardware and accessories or lifting free weights, you don’t want to damage the floors in your home, which are costly to repair. Horse stall mats, yoga mats or rubber flooring are all great options to avoid damaging your home while still being able to build a gym.

Air FLOW

Whether you work out at a designated facility or in your customized home gym, you’re probably going to sweat. Ventilation is another important design consideration when you build a gym. Consider your room’s airflow. Does the room have ceiling fans, or can they be installed? Is there a window that opens, granting you access to fresh, outdoor air? Do you want to add a small air purifier and air freshener to help with that familiar but unpleasant smell of dirty gym socks? Do you have room to include purifying plants in your home gym design?

Hardware

Pick your hardware carefully when you have limited space to allocate for your dream home gym. Do you want cardio machines or a squat rack? If you decide to purchase larger hardware, it will likely mean that you will have to do the rest of your gym design around this piece of equipment. Next, you want to consider smaller pieces of gear. A barbell is a good first choice to purchase — or free weights to ensure you’ve covered strength training. Next up, do you want steps, a BOSU or Pilates ball, a Kettle Bell, yoga mat or skipping rope? Design tip: pull-up bars and resistance bands can be installed in doorways to save you valuable space.

Accessories

Typically smaller than your larger gym equipment, it can be easier to incorporate smaller accessories into your overall home gym design. You should anticipate having somewhere to store towels, fingerless gloves, blocks and possibly a mini fridge. Will you incorporate a sound system or a TV? Do you need a small table or tray to put your water bottle during workouts?

Lighting

Generally, it’s harder to exercise in the winter because it’s dark and cold. When designing your home gym, keep lighting in mind. Whether you have the luxury of natural lights from big windows or can install overhead lighting, bright lighting and nice colors can help you feel motivated. Speaking of colors, are you looking to go with blacks and reds for a passionate and aggressive home workout routine, or pale relaxing blue and green shades to create the perfect ambiance for a yoga studio?

If you’ve decided to take on designing a home gym, check out the Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo to get inspiration and speak with an expert.

STAGE MAP

Soapstone

REMODELING 101

HIRING A CONTRACTOR

Make your next home renovation a success with these tips to ensure you hire the right person for the job.

WHEN IT COMES TO HOME REMODELING, you have hundreds of options when choosing a contractor. To avoid common mistakes, such as adding water lines for portable kitchen appliances, putting a ceiling fan above your brand-new custom soaker tub, not having proper clearance around your heat-emitting kitchen appliances or choosing the wrong paint for your surface, make sure to hire a professional home contractor. They are the key to helping you save hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars.

1 | DETERMINE YOUR NEEDS

Figure out what you need versus what you want, and then consider what you can afford. It might seem easy to choose a cheaper contractor that can do it all within your budget, but there are some dangers in doing that. Is your project a job that needs to be aesthetically pleasing or just a functional upgrade? This is one of those cases where you might not get what you paid for. Or, you might get exactly what you pay for, and that could be scary when it comes to the value of your home or fixing costly mistakes. Consider what it is that you want and which company can best execute your vision properly.

2 | DO YOUR RESEARCH

Don’t underestimate the importance of doing your own research and familiarizing yourself with the work that is going to be done to your home. Write out all of the questions you have regarding your home remodeling project. Reach out to multiple contractors and determine how familiar they are with the type of job you want done, as well as how many times they’ve done the specific project you want completed. Remember that Google reviews, Facebook recommendations and social media sites are great resources to read about real customer experiences.

3 | LEVELING UP EXPERIENCE

Be aware of home contractors, especially those who have less experience than more seasoned workers. They may be cheaper, but it also can mean that they are more willing to bend the rules. It might seem fantastic to get a contractor at a more affordable cost, but it’s important to consider why they can offer their service at such a reduced cost.

4 | SECURING THE PROPER PERMITS

What are the required permits and bylaws associated with home renovations in your area? If you don’t know these, check online or call your municipality to get more information on what certifications the home contractor needs before they can legally work on your home. Make sure you ask about their insurance during your initial telephone interview to hire a contractor. If they don’t have a permit or license, they should be willing and offer to get it if they want the job. Never take out the permit for them because this can place liability on your shoulders if they decide to break the rules.

ARE YOU LOOKING TO FIND A HOME CONTRACTOR FOR YOUR NEXT BIG RENOVATION OR UPGRADE?

The Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo is filled with experts who can answer your questions, provide inspiration and guide you through the process of a successful project.

For more information

Futuro Houses

UNIVERSAL WINDOWS DIRECT

Universal Windows Direct is Cleveland’s top source of quality replacement windows, vinyl siding, entry doors, roofing, gutter protection and attic insulation. Established in 2002 by William Barr and Michael Strmac, UWD holds an A+ rating with the BBB, No. 4 spot on Qualified Remodeler Top 500, No.6 on Remodeling 550 and is an Angie’s List Super Service Award recipient. The company is one of cleveland.com’s Top Workplaces in Northeast Ohio. Universal Windows Direct is committed to offering outstanding products at an incredible value, and satisfied recurring and referral customers are the main component to their success. Visit them online at universalwindowsdirect.com and at the show at booth #400 or #1523.

FIBERON

Founded in 1997, Fiberon is a leading U.S. manufacturer of wood-alternative decking, railing and cladding distributed worldwide. Fiberon also provides products like lighting and outdoor furniture for a complete outdoor experience. Fiberon products are available in a wide range of styles and price points, all providing the warmth and beauty of natural wood without the costly, time-consuming maintenance. At Fiberon, we believe that decks are meant to be enjoyed, not maintained. Our composite PE and PVC decking won’t warp, rot or splinter, so the look you love today will be there tomorrow. Wood decking simply can’t compare. For more information, visit fiberondecking.com.

OHIO STATE WATERPROOFING

Ohio State Waterproofing has provided quality waterproofing and foundation repair services since 1978. We are committed to providing honest, courteous and guaranteed service to every customer. We are members of the National Association of Waterproofing Contractors and work alongside NARI, NAHB, NHIA, the BIA and the FHA, and a number of consumer advocacy groups. Our patented processes and our stellar reputation make us the clear choice for all your waterproofing needs. Visit us at booths #522 and #1242 for more information.

WHO IS MARKETPLACE EVENTS?

The Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo is produced by Marketplace Events, producer of home, garden, holiday and bridal shows across Canada and the U.S. This diverse and experienced team produces some of the most successful and longest-running shows in North America, including market-leading shows in Cleveland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal — some of which have thrived in their markets for more than 75 years.

Distinctive Homes

RESULTS. GUARANTEED. LOU BARBEE | 440-899-0000

BRATENAHL

Outstanding free-standing cluster home just steps from Shoreby Club and Lake Erie. The 2-story entry opens to the great room. Open. Bright. High volume ceilings. Elegant dining room. Home office. Kitchen and dinette open to a spacious “hearth room.” All redone.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS

Classic 4 bedroom colonial offering outstanding “work from home” opportunity. A 2-story addition provides an exceptional home office on the 1st floor and a huge master up. 1900 sq. ft. Fresh. New HVAC. Replacement windows. Hardwood floors. 2 car garage.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

WESTLAKE

Outstanding new construction with no detail left undone. Offering 3500 sq. ft. of one floor living plus fabulous lower level. Unparalleled quality. If you appreciate perfection and work from home, this is it!. Simply stunning. Deep wooded lot. 2 car attached garage.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

BROOKPARK | SOLD

Pristine all brick ranch. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths. Hardwood floors throughout. Updated eat-in kitchen and baths. All appliances. Newer roof and more. Lovely covered patio and fenced yard. Finished lower level rec room with fireplace. Excellent storage. 2 car garage.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

BRATENAHL

One floor living. 1st floor master with walk-in tub and jacuzzi. Private brick courtyard.  2nd floor loft overlooks the great room. 2 generous guest rooms. Over 4000 sq. ft. above grade plus 2400 sq. ft. in finished lower level with rec. room, bar, full bedroom suite.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

LAKEWOOD | LAKEFRONT

When only the best will do. Lake Erie front. Minutes to downtown. Breathtaking views. Over 5000 sq. ft. of spectacular. 3 full bedroom suites including master with fireplace, office, and sensational master bath and much more. 4 prime garage spaces with EV charger.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

AVON LAKE | LAKEFRONT

Panoramic sunsets and landing at water’s edge. 3-story vaulted ceilings and open concept living. An elegant look throughout. Marble and hardwood floors. Crown molding and custom cabinetry. Beautiful master with wonderful views. Fresh. Bright. So many extras!

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS | SOLD

Spacious brick colonial with 1st and 2nd floor master suites. Located on a quiet cul-de-sac lot. 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. Over 3000 sq. ft. plus a finished lower-level recreation room. Nearly half an acre. Heavily wooded. Convenient location. 2 car attached garage.

RE/MAX REG | LOU BARBEE (440) 899-0000

Look Back

IT HAD BEEN LESS THAN six months since Blanche Wilcox Noyes earned her pilot’s license — becoming Ohio’s first aviatrix. Yet in August 1929, Noyes started her Travel Air biplane, Miss Cleveland, for the first-ever Women’s Air Derby from Santa Monica to Cleveland in Clover Field. Noyes was sponsored by the Halle Brothers Co. and set to visit the store after the eight-day race to promote the latest aviator styles.

When the Lakewood actress wasn’t performing for Roberson-Smith Stock Co. at Gordon Square Theater, she was climbing clouds in her WACO 10 at Cleveland Municipal Airport. In 1930, Noyes piloted 90-year-old John D. Rockefeller on his first and only plane ride. She would become head of the Bureau of Air Commerce’s air-marking division and win the 1936 Bendix Trophy race with Louise Thaden.

The 1929 derby was brutal. Navigation by “dead reckoning” was only the start of Noyes’ problems when she inadvertently landed in Mexico. Flying to El Paso, a smoldering cigarette caught fire in the cabin near the engine. Noyes sideslipped 2,000 feet and drifted to the earth, smacking into three-foot mesquite bushes. She ripped the extinguisher from its screws. Then the can failed to spray. Desperate, Noyes smothered the flames with sand. Her plane arrived in Pecos resembling a wounded duck.

Noyes was able to find a blacksmith who was willing to weld the damaged landing rig while the pilot spent most of her night sewing the plane’s wing together with fabric before taking off the next day.

On Aug. 26, to loud Cleveland applause, Noyes finished fourth, right behind Amelia Earhart. Noyes later told The Plain Dealer, “I think I’ve autographed everything but flypaper."

WHEN EVERYTHING MATTERS

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