8ShadesofGray

Community Partnership for Arts and Culture will award grants to Cuyahoga County artists Program will award grants to individuals Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Julie E. Washington Plain Dealer Reporter The trickle-down from Cuyahoga County's cigarette-tax money is about to reach individual artists. The Creative Workforce Fellowship program has $20,000 to give to up to 20 artists, to be used to further their careers. The money, aimed at strengthening Northeast Ohio's arts community, could allow an artist to quit a day job, study with another artist or develop a marketing plan ... ... For more information, please visithttp://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1234258275249000.xml&coll=2

Cuyahoga County artists eligible for $20,000 fellowships By SHANNON MORTLAND Crain's Cleveland Business 11:23 am, January 19, 2009 Artists living in Cuyahoga County can apply for a new, $20,000 fellowship to help further their careers. The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, or CPAC, has launched the Creative Workforce Fellowship program, under which those receiving the fellowship will receive $20,000, membership in the Council of Smaller Enterprises Arts Network, and a full tuition waiver for CPAC’s Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute. They’ll also be included in a publication that will highlight the fellows’ work ... ... For more information, please visit http://clevelandbusiness.com/article/20090119/FREE/901199966

Some articles over the new Creative Workforce Fellowships, one-year $20,000 grants for artists living in Cuyahoga County. A total of 40 will be given out in two cycles. This is pretty huge for the Cleve. Early research suggested that there was only a handful of fellowships at this level nationwide, and that came mostly from private foundations. So not only does Cuyahoga County now have among the largest per capita public investments in its arts and culture nonprofits, but we also have one of the highest levels of support for individual artists. Yay! Application forms and additional information are available at http://www.cpacbiz.org/business/CWF.shtml. Arti$t Friendly Cpac Shows Individual Artists The Money By Michael Gill Cleveland Scene It was hard not to think of the old Works Progress Administration as Tom Schorgl rolled out the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture's plan to administer individual artist grants on behalf of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture last week. The economy is in the tank, but the region is spilling over with creative resources, especially starving artists ... ... For more information, please visit http://www.clevescene.com/stories/15/81/artit-friendly

I expect everyone in Europe to have my political leanings but to a higher degree while also being skinnier with cool accents. -Uncle Rando

Anyway, to put this in context. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 74 U.S. cities and counties now have domestic partnership registries. The list is perhaps a little dated ... Cleveland's obviously not there, but neither is Toledo, which has had one for over a year now, unless something has changed that I haven't seen. A sizable chunk (18, nearly a quarter) are in California. There are only a handful in the Midwest: - In Ohio, Cleveland Heights, Toledo and now the CLEVE! - In Illinois, Cook County, Oak Park and Urbana - In Michigan, Ann Arbor - In Minnesota, Minneapolis - In Missouri, Kansas City and St. Louis - In New York, quite a few ... Albany, East Hampton, Ithaca, Rockland, NYC, Suffolk County, Rochester, Southhampton and Westchester County - In Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Philly - In Wisconsin, Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee So it looks like we have some good company, but that the issue is doing better (not surprisingly) in the upper Midwest than in the lower. Noticeably absent are places like Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincy and Columbus. Our biggest regional holdout? Our big sister to the northwest, Ms. Detroit. Where ya at? Meanwhile, registries are few and far between in the southeast and the southwest, but holy sh"%&/t! SALT LAKE CITY had a registry before we did!

I've done my best to not sound the trumpet about the bars that Zack has frequented ... I always say to every closet case their own :-) But seriously, why should I respect his privacy and the decisions he makes in his love and/or sex life if he's not going to reciprocate and show me the same decency.

Cleveland and Minneapolis for that matter, too. And this is NAICS data and not SOC, correct? If so, it would be interesting to see if there have been any significant shifts in the LQs in the past decade ... is Dayton's LQ climbing or shrinking. Or maybe even to do a shift-share analysis over a span of a couple years. What is this in raw percentage of Dayton's employment base? Is this a relatively large or relatively small sub-sector?

Thanks for the interesting thread, Jeffrey. I always love reading your research threads, particularly the creative industry ones ... even if I don't know Dayton as well as the Cleve :) You definitely put together some of the most thoughtful analyses on UrbanOhio ... and hey, it's a wesite full of brilliant analyses :-)

So ... anyone run across updated population numbers?

Any updated numbers based on the 2007 estimates? I can't find anything for Cleveland, and NEOCANDO, which otherwise is a great source of data, unfortunately only offers population estimates at the city level.

Quartiersmanagement Zentrum Kreuzberg

Okay, technically not from cleveland.com, but definitely in the same spirit and definitely too good to pass up. Comment from a Times-Picayune series that was suggesting us as a revitalization success model, right around the same time we were looking to Pittsburgh for answers on how to "fix" ourselves ... Anyway, is Moonshady one of us?! I question some of the facts they offer but nice to see someone aggressively sticking up for the Cleve ... Posted by NOLABubba on 11/24/08 at 7:26PM So, we want to pattern ourselves after Cleveland also known as The Mistake by the Lake?" Posted by moonshady on 11/25/08 at 12:33AM Actually Cleveland has done wonders with its city and if you ever visit it you would be amazed. They easily have then second best arts and culture in the Midwest. They have the world renowned Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Museum of Art, MOMO, Rock Hall, Great Lakes Science Center, NASA, Federal Reserve Bank with great tours, 2nd largest performing arts center in the nation ... ... More at http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/smaller_smarter_rehab_dollars.html

There is a thread somewhere on media representation in Cleveland somewhere that might be more appropriate to this conversation, but eh, just thought I would share this quickly ... something that I found interesting. Doing a fellowship in Germany and some friends invited me to grab a drink in Berlin, and someone's parents were visiting from Cleveland (lived in Shaker Square for many, many years ... now in Kirtland for maybe 15 or 20). These people were wealthy, educated, Baby Boomer exurbanites, so I held back my "the only thing wrong with Cleveland is the Plain Dealer and Carl Monday" comments initially. But I was surprised when they brought it up ... basically they told me that they would never, ever buy the Plain Dealer again, as they were tired of both "sky is falling" coverage and, quote, "seven-part-series on living with cancer ... seriously, who wants to read that fluffy-duffy stuff over and over?" endquote. It was actually sad, as they said that the PD used to be their way of staying connected to the city and what was happening there. Now, their extent of connection is Cool Cleveland and the occasional Free Times. My point, it's not just Urban Ohioers who are disgusted with this kind of exploitative and often flat coverage ... it seems to be stretching across a lot of demographics and geographic distances. How is this not showing up in focus groups?! BTW, what was the headline? I wasn't around to see it.

^ Tower Press ... Superior & E. 21. ^^ Thanks MayDay :-) Anyone know what those units are priced like? That location looks like it might be perfect, with the obvious exception of lacking a grocery store, and i always thought the building looked pretty cool. I promise I'll shut up and stop asking questions soon :-)

Definitely appreciate the recommendations, rockandroller, but outside city boundaries is definitely a deal-breaker for me :-) i would be willing to pay up to $750, but i just have been lucky in the past finding nice places well under that price limit. i paid $442 when splitting a 800 sq. ft. 2-bedroom off shaker square, $570 for a nice one-bedroom right on shaker square and $273 (!) when splitting a 3,000 sq. ft. renovated Victorian in Chinatown. I'm hopeful I can find something like that again ... just need to make sure they are comfortable having something ready for me immediately and allow me to sign the lease upon move-in. Anyone have any idea who manages the building that Bang & Clatter is in? I could have sworn there were apartments above, but I can't find anything on the E. 4th website.

Thanks for the links. I had looked at those and hadn't seen any prices either. But on closer examination ... whoa ... $1,650 MINIMUM per month in RESERVE SQUARE! $1,395 per month for a STUDIO in the Chesterfield! I had thought an extra $100 or $200 per month, too. But this double, nearly triple what I could pay to stay somewhere nicer downtown with a one-year lease. I can only imagine that the rents in the Warehouse District, etc. Okay, yeah, doubt that's going to work.

Hi All, Okay, so this is forever away, but I'm a little OCD. I'll be moving back from Germany in June and will need to have somewhere I can more or less immediately crash. I'm sure I can crash with friends for a few days, but I wouldn't want to put anyone out for more than a few days. Moreover, I'll be starting work almost immediately after I return, so I won't have much daytime availability to check things out. I've been on the site long enough to have seen many of the Cleveland relocation assistance questions, but the situation is a little weird, so I'm not finding the specific info I need. So here's my scenario. I can either take a short-term or corporate apartment, hopefully only for the month of June, or I can just immediately take a year-long lease. The problem with the lease situation is that I would need something immediately available, so I would likely have to take it sight-unseen (or have a friend check it out for me) and would have to handle all the negotiations from abroad ... i.e. difficulties with original signatures, the leasor not getting to meet me before move-in, etc. Sooooo ... my questions: 1. Has anyone done the whole abroad to Cleveland thing before? Any experience on how willing a leasor would be to do the whole thing remotely? 2. Does anyone know of any affordable, truly short-term apartments within the city of Cleveland? I checked out the Clinic page that someone had recommended, but it looks like the only offerings are east side suburbs. I definitely want to be in the city, but it looks like a lot of the "short-term" is for a minimum of 3 months. I want 3 weeks if I do short-term (would obviously be willing to pay a month) ... and I would prefer not to get gouged staying in a hotel. My background (for recommendations regarding either short-term or understanding real estate reps): - 28, single, gay man, no kids. - Previous Cleveland rentals: N. Moreland, Shaker Heights side, Apartment (3 yrs.); Shaker Blvd., Cleveland side, Apartment (1 yr.); E. 30s, Asiatown, House / former rectory (2 yrs.). - Within the city of Cleveland a MUST. - Proximity to public transportation a MUST ... Will be car-free. Easy access to east side of downtown (work) preferred. Relatively easy access via bike a plus. - Proximity to retail, street life a MUST ... proximity to a grocery store preferred. Prefer something that just spills out into streetlife ... i.e. not a huge setback, etc. - Not inclined toward something street level unless it's a really amazing space. - Small space preferred ... 400 to 700 sq. ft. would be perfect. - Always interested in unusual or unique spaces. Loft or other "weird" space over apartment over house, but all 3 are absolutely fine. - Preferred price range: $600 or so. Could go a bit higher if necessary, but don't really see a need to :-) So that's me in a nutshell. As far as neighborhoods go (like right above the storefronts around 65th) would be perfect, if there were better public transportation or grocery options. Tremont would be great, too, but the public transportation and grocery situation seems even worse. So I think that leaves Ohio City, downtown, Near East Side, Shaker Square and Little Italy in my mind. Definitely don't see myself as a Warehouse District type guy (but if the apartment was nice enough) and Little Italy lacks the grocery store. I dunno ... maybe something above the retail on W. 25th or right on Market Square. Or something Tower Press-ish (but not Tower Press, since I work there). Definitely more flexible with short-term (e.g. Warehouse District would be fine for a month but not for two years, I don't think). Willing to take suggestions on anything, really, as long as it's in the city proper. Thanks in advance for any info!

A Reading Rainbow moment from 8 Shades, courtesy of Wikipedia: The term "Big Five" was coined around the time that long-playing recordings became available, regular orchestral radio broadcasts were expanding, and the five orchestras that comprise the group had annual concert series in New York City. The earliest rubric for the leading U.S. orchestras was the "Major Seven" in the early 20th century. In the mid-20th century, with recordings and radio broadcasts at first available in the U.S only from major East Coast cities, the term devolved into the "Big Three": New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The "Big Three" label was still in widespread use in 1958 (Newsweek, February 17, 1958). However, the Cleveland Orchestra, under George Szell's direction, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Fritz Reiner, were gaining critical and public acclaim. By 1965, the term "Big Five", which included the latter two orchestras, was being widely used in magazines, newspapers, and books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_(orchestras) Nice to see the last two orchestras in the Big 5 rose to the top, albeit by way of a totally subjective, BS'y ranking :-) Personally, I find it pretty impressive that we're 2nd in the US and 7th in the world. Yay to the Cleve!

Northeast Ohio arts groups prepared to weather economic storm Arts groups put cash away for rainy -- or stormy -- day Monday, November 10, 2008 Tony Brown, Plain Dealer Theater Critic Foreclosed mortgages. Banks failing. Retirement accounts in the toilet. Jobs gone. With all that on the global financial crash's menu of horrors, can we afford to worry about art? Or, in Northeast Ohio, can we afford not to? ... ... For more information, please visit http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1226309471273980.xml&coll=2

I actually see a parking garage as a step in the right direction, again, if it's integrated into something mixed-use. Right now, that area is so barren ... really, it's not like said garage would detract from super-pressing demands for developable land. Even without the current financial situation, it would take years to build out that stretch. Moreover, adding parking spaces can drive down demand for surface lots nearby, thus pushing down the market value of said lots and making it more likely that they will be bought and redeveloped as something that's not parking. Plus, it's also worth noting that a parking garage next to the Rapid Station could actually increase transit ridership, as it makes it possible for people to drive in and then use transit for errands downtown, or for residents to use transit when it's convenient and drive to locations that trains and buses don't travel as frequently or as easily. Just glad to see UCI is still pushing for projects to keep moving.

Haha. Not back ... noch in Deutschland. But I recognized the need to report on the underreported arts funding :)

Info available on cigarette-tax art fellowships November 12, 2008 Karen Sandstrom, Plain Dealer Reporter The diciest part of distributing Cuyahoga County's cigarette tax for the arts is about to start. Beginning in mid-February, individual artists will be able to apply for fellowships worth $20,000 each. The fellowship program, details of which were hammered out this week by two nonprofit organizations involved in creating it, is aimed at building a strong arts community in Northeast Ohio by helping individuals with their development as artists ... ... For more information, please visit http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/info_available_on_cigarettetax.html

I certainly hope the words "You have now moved yourself into a very precarious position in each of your next reelection cycles" come up. Capital-R Red herring. Let's throw out some site ideas like cutting off development opportunities on the lakefront or building in a relatively desolate part of town, make it sound like these are the only POSSIBLE options outside of those already identified and then when we say we need an extra $100 million for Tower City, voters will be lining up to acquiesce. The alternative to them being dishonest about their intents and motives is equally alarming ... that they believe these two sites actually would fulfill the original objectives of the Convention Center concept. Pick your poison - nefarious or oblivious. And yet one more question ... Am I correct in believing that the E. 55th site is not currently under county ownership? If so, and if cost considerations are the primary (seemingly sole) rationale for that particular site, is it wise for them to so overtly announce their interests in a particular parcel at that intersection? Isn't that likely to raise potential acquisition costs?

This is a bit dated at this point, but it might be interesting for everyone ... a map of community gardens in Cleveland as of last summer (http://blog.case.edu/msass/downloads/cleveland%20community%20gardens.pdf). As KJP pointed out upthread, there are TONS of informal community gardens across the city that didn't get picked up on this map, but I think it says something that 171 were of a high enough profile that THEY were picked up. And what's up with nothing showing up in Buckeye-Shaker, the only such SPA where that is the case? A fuller report is available on who's gardening and why, how interested Clevelanders are in the concept and more specific information about each of the 171 gardens: http://www.case.edu/affil/healthpromotion/Publications/Community_Garden_Report_2006.pdf.

It'll be great when we can see a rendering of the project from the Superior side ... how the front of that block interplays with Rockefeller, etc.