MuRrAy HiLL

I also hope that with the construction of this bridge, there will be more of an effort to keep the water clean within the "square." Oftentime, there is plenty of gunk that builds up along the RRHOF and in the corner bordering the skate park.

Very interesting article...at the very least, it seems like Cleveland is making a recovery.. http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/the_law_may_be_catching_up_wit.html The law may be catching up with a wrecker of Cleveland's housing market -- editorial by The editors Monday August 31, 2009, 4:12 AM Law enforcement officials finally are putting a face on the parasites whose greed fed the foreclosure crisis. Beachwood businessman Uri Gofman has been fingered as the mastermind behind the largest mortgage fraud scheme in Ohio. More at http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/the_law_may_be_catching_up_wit.html

Hey, this guy loves Cleveland! Adam Wilson uses arm tattoo of Cleveland landmarks to show his hometown pride. VIDEO: http://www.cleveland.com/pdq/index.ssf/2009/08/adam_wilson_uses_arm_tattoo_of.html

Well, goodbye St. Procop The final Mass is held at St. Procop in Cleveland: 'A day of sadness, a day of anger for some' Posted by Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer August 31, 2009 05:00AM Categories: Church Closings, Real Time News, Religion The church closed its doors for the final time after the morning service.Catholics from across Greater Cleveland packed St. Procop Catholic Church on Cleveland's near West Side Sunday to mourn the death of a parish founded 137 years ago. On a gloomy, rainy day, worshippers streamed into the giant, 110-year-old sandstone edifice on West 41st Street for the final Mass said by Bishop Richard Lennon, who ordered the church closed earlier this year. More at cleveland.com http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/the_final_mass_is_held_at_st_p.html

Jim Rome Recap: Rome Takes Over Cleveland August 28, 2009 by: Craig Yesterday, Jim Rome made a visit to ESPN Cleveland WKNR. He did his show from their studios in the Galleria and spent the entire day with Cleveland based guests and praising one of his most supportive affiliates. I listened to the entire show yesterday and for us Clevelanders it was a veritable smorgasborg of Cleveland related talk. Rome talked to Mike Brown, Jim Brown (not related,) Earnest Byner, Bernie Kosar, and Grady Sizemore. It would have been a completely perfect day if Rome had found a way to track down Cleveland Cavalier Delonte West. Rome bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t track him down on the air. But it was eventful day nonetheless. Rome talked to Jim Brown about civil rights, the movie business and even tried to get him to revisit his very public feud with Tiger Woods. Jim Brown likes to speak his mind, but he seemed to not want to do it on Jim Rome’s terms. The rest of his time on the show was mostly talking about his foundation working with fringe gang members to avoid trouble. Grady Sizemore spoke about the Indians and his most interesting answer was when Rome asked him why he continues to play through an elbow injury in meaningless baseball games. Grady’s answer was interesting because it was basically, “I keep playing because I can. Why wouldn’t I play through an injury when I can be on the field?” While I don’t think it casted the organization in the best possible light because it seemed like they didn’t have a plan, you have to give credit to Grady for being a really tough guy. Now, I am sure a lot of people (our own TD included) think Grady should have shut it down at some point this year, but you have to put that on the organization and not the player. Earnest Byner was a great guest. He spoke about how much he loved playing in Cleveland. He spoke about “The Fumble.” After explaining how dealing with that fateful play had helped him become the person that he has become, Earnest was asked by Rome if he would choose to have the fumble take place all over again knowing what he knows now. Earnest Byner provided a big laugh when he responded in the negative. His take was that while he recognizes how that day has impacted his life and how he has been a better person because of it, he still would never wish to have it happen again. Rome also did Byner a solid by comparing his infamous moment with Jim Everett to “The Fumble.” Bernie Kosar was also entertaining with his in-studio appearance. He talked a bit about the current Browns. He talked about his time at Miami. I don’t want to take Bernie for granted, but it was a lot of the same old stories that we have grown to love. When Rome asked Bernie who he thinks should be the quarterback for the Browns this year, Bernie was somewhat noncommittal. He made sure not to get himself into trouble by picking a guy, but he did point out that a lot of the sentiment in the city is that people want to see what Quinn can do. The highlight for me was Mike Brown. There were some interesting nuggets in there. When Brown was asked about Shaq and how he was going to get along with the team and whether he was actually going to defer to LeBron, Mike had a complex answer. He mentioned that he has no problem with guys who say all the right things even if they secretly want something else. Then he gave an example that might have some Cavs fans happy. He mentioned he plans on playing young guys like JJ Hickson and D-Block a good amount this year. He said that even if those guys don’t make the Cavs the absolute best at the times they are on the floor that it was his goal to give them minutes. He expected his veteran power forwards to be good mentors and support the young guys even if they were looking to steal the young guys’ minutes on the floor. So, get ready to see some development of the young guys this year Cavs fans! All in all it was a great show to listen to for us Clevelanders. It is a testament to us as sports fans. It is a testament to the ownership of WKNR, Craig Karmazin. It is a testament to Rome himself for caring enough to come and visit our oft-maligned city so many times in his career. It is nice to have our loyalty rewarded for once even if our sports teams can’t seem to ever deliver. http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/?p=16898 PHOTOS: http://www.espncleveland.com/gallery/album95/DSC01138

Thanks for the kind words. I'm definitely interested in getting involved with volunteering for tours and such around the city about this time next year. This subtle motivation only helps!

I think this is extremely important to reach out to new young minds entering Cleveland for the first time. Great first impressions are always very important obviously. Not to mention, most Case students hardly realize what's outside their bubble until sophomore or junior year. I'm definitely interested in helping out with something like this next year. http://downtowncleveland.org/blog/index.php/2009/08/332/ New students love Cleveland! August 21, 2009 – 11:22 am Over in University Circle, there are a thousand new students to the city of Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University. Around thirty five of those students (only five or six from Ohio) are already city experts because they participated in Case Explores and Case Eats, pre-Welcome Days programs that had them move to campus early and explore what Cleveland has to offer. I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer to coordinate both of the schedules and lead the students on Case Explores. Both groups were able to enjoy bowling at The Corner Alley, dinner at The Greenhouse Tavern, a talk on local food in the Arcade, and experience the North Coast Harbor attractions (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Science Center). However, as can be inferred by the title of the program, Case Eats had a food-centric schedule that also included cooking classes, a farmer’s market, and what many students considered to be their highlight - a restaurant crawl through the Historic Warehouse District. Beginning at Metropolitan and ending at XO with a stop at Crop Bistro along the way, the students ate their way through some of the fine dining culture of Downtown. Case Explores took the approach of digging deep into the culture of Downtown. We took the students to the 49th floor of Key Tower to show off the view from the offices of Squires, Sanders, & Dempsey before getting a backstage tour of four of Playhouse Square’s theaters. After a walk down Euclid Avenue the group had lunch before one of the highlights - a talk and tour of City Hall with Mayor Frank Jackson. The Mayor took pictures with all the students and spoke very candidly for over an hour about leadership, education, Cleveland, and life lessons. We then got a behind the scenes look at East Fourth street from developer Ari Maron before seeing the Tribe in a losing effort against the Los Angeles Angels. These students started the week with no experience in Cleveland and walked away genuinely impressed. I consistently heared them on their cell phones telling people what they had done and what they liked - nice people, clean city, great fun. Hopefully they’ll extend their knowledge to their friends now as well.

Just wanted to reiterate that DCA has an AMAZING blog: http://downtownclevelandalliance.com/blog/

Found this on the Euclid Corridor Design Review District notes Aug 20th meeting. Pierre's Ice Cream expansion sounds interesting. http://www.universitycircle.org/userfiles/file/Design%20District%20Agendas/Agenda%20082009.doc EC 2009-022 Salvation Army renovation © 5005 Euclid Ave Mark Pearson - Schopfer Architects EC 2009-014 Pierre's Ice Cream expansion © 6200 Euclid Ave Mike Novachek - Ray Fogg Building Methods, Inc. M 2009-001 Rainbow Place Renovation (N) 1946 E 79th Street Anthony Hiti & Johnathan Cana - Herman, Gibans, Fodor Inc. Architects Chuck Ackerman - Cleveland Housing Network

I heard he was going to interview Mike Brown. Ernest Byner, Jim Brown, Bernie Kosar, and Grady Sizemore. Is it over?

A nice lengthy article on the Case QB and the upcoming season. EXERPT: "It's been nice to walk on campus and the professors and students are actually excited about Saturday afternoons for the first time in a long time," Whalen said. http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2009/08/11/sports/nh1270708.txt

But also, I think we need to be sensitive that his life long parish is closing this week...

Is it just me, or is that an odd place for the Cleveland location?

^^Man even the top of the Hippodrome is in that picture below the rendering :( Thank god it wasn't built indeed! Well we were able to keep two outta three along Euclid... Thanks for the pics cleB!! Can't wait for the corner to continue..thanks for the update, greyrat

My church is Holy Rosary. Luckily it is supported by Little Italy, Mayfield Hts, and decent amount of people from CWRU, CIA, CIM, and Cleveland Clinic. I think being the "University Circle" Catholic Church has cemented it to stay open for a while. Either way, I still feel for these BEAUTIFUL city churches that are being forced to close. EDIT: I agree there should have been some spreading of wealth though. Maybe a second collection for a year (52 sundays) for the Cleveland Diocese would have raised enough money. I know I would have given to it. Also, it is important to note there is a heavy shortage of priests. Possibly the Bishop saw the need to brace for the future and eliminate potential problems now.

Threatened Catholic churches seek suburban support Posted by Michael O'Malley/Plain Dealer Reporter August 26, 2009 04:00AM Categories: Church Closings, Real Time News, Religion CLEVELAND -- A group of Catholics organized to protest the Cleveland Catholic Diocese's closing of 50 parishes, mostly urban, is putting out a call to suburban parishes to stand in solidarity against the shutdowns. The group, known as Endangered Catholics, has begun a massive letter-writing campaign and a petition drive. More than 1,000 letters were mailed this week to priests, secretaries, music directors and other parish officials at 95 suburban churches. More at cleveland.com http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/08/threatened_catholic_churches_s.html

Cleveland's innovation schools show improvement Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Ellen Jan Kleinerman Plain Dealer Reporter The strong performance of Cleveland's innovation schools and those with citywide draws could help drive improvement districtwide, school officials and community leaders agree. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1251275508230050.xml&coll=2

From Litt: Cleveland Museum of Art seeks OK from probate court to use art endowment income for construction by Steven Litt / Plain Dealer Art Critic Tuesday August 25, 2009, 3:20 PM The Cleveland Museum of Art wants to fill a gap in funding for its $350 million expansion and renovation by dipping into one of the deepest pockets in town -- its own. On Tuesday, the museum petitioned Cuyahoga County Probate Court for permission to tap up to $75 million in income over 10 years from two funds in its endowment and two outside trusts normally restricted to the purchase of art. More from cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2009/08/the_cleveland_museum_of_art.html

I've heard similar as well...

House prices rise in June, with Cleveland ranking among the best of 20 markets by Michelle Jarboe/Plain Dealer Reporter Tuesday August 25, 2009, 9:30 AM House prices kept inching up from May to June, with Cleveland seeing the greatest improvement of 20 cities tracked in a much-watched report released Tuesday. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/house_prices_rise_in_june_with.html

Interesting... http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-25-2009/0005082625&EDATE= Forest City Named Program Manager for Redevelopment of San Juan, P.R. Waterfront CLEVELAND, OH UNITED STATES CLEVELAND, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced that a subsidiary has been selected by the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) and the Puerto Rico Tourism Company to become the program manager for the redevelopment of a 21-block area of San Juan's waterfront district. Forest City will provide wide-ranging program management services on a fee basis for the project, which is proposed to include residential, hotel, office, retail and parking components, as well as public parks, including a marina. The 100-acre site is located just east of the historic Old San Juan district on the San Antonio Channel in the area of San Juan known as the Isleta. The site includes nearly two miles of waterfront. "We are honored to be selected and extremely excited to provide our full array of development management services for the redevelopment of San Juan's waterfront," said Charles A. Ratner, Forest City president and chief executive officer. "This is precisely the type of project - including elements of urban infill, revitalization and waterfront redevelopment - that Forest City has experience with and does well. This selection also reflects our continued strategic expansion into asset management and third-party advisory services," he added. The decision to choose Forest City to manage the redevelopment of San Juan's waterfront was the result of DDEC's recent open request-for-qualifications process, which attracted more than 30 initial bidders. A definitive agreement is expected within the next several weeks. This is Forest City's second project in Puerto Rico, the first being the former U.S. Navy property at Sabana Seca. During the proposal phase, the company teamed with San Juan-based PG Engineering Solutions, as well as Strategic Advisory Group of Atlanta, in its bid for the project. Forest City and DDEC will work together to build a full development advisory team for the project. About Forest City Forest City Enterprises, Inc., is an $11.7 billion NYSE-listed national real estate company. The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.

Thanks for the pics! next game, this Saurday!

OK, I'm going to be out of the country (or at least state) for about the next 10 months. For many little reasons, I want to make sure I am counted in the 2010 city of Cleveland census. Could someone give me some info on how to go about this/who should I contact?

It's passed 10 am...Anyone hear anything yet? Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to announce new downtown tenant at 10 a.m. news conference by Henry J. Gomez/Plain Dealer Reporter Monday August 24, 2009, 9:11 AM Mayor Frank JacksonAs his re-election opponents second-guess his economic development record, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson this morning will announce a new downtown tenant. A media advisory from City Hall says Jackson and his economic development director, Tracey Nichols, will announce the relocation of a company's regional offices at a 10 a.m. news conference. The advisory indicates the company specializes in finance. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2009/08/cleveland_mayor_frank_jackson_2.html

Exciting times for the future of CSU. ODOT holding up dorm construction. Really?