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It goes without saying that the Concert Series along the lakefront this Summer have been a great success.  My sincere thanks to the Beachland Park Association, Coronado Beach Association, the East Shore Park Club, and above all, the Cleveland MetroParks, for bringing “music to the neighborhood.”  We look forward to growing our concert series next summer and beyond.

Since my last update we have taken down an additional six (6) condemned and abandoned structures in addition to the 218 we have already removed.  My sincere appreciation, specifically to the Cuyahoga County Landbank, for the partnership they have established with my office. For the first time in a long period we are making serious inroads in ridding our neighborhood of these derelict properties.  My personal goal is to ramp up this effort throughout the remainder of this year into the next. Please remember, if there is an abandoned house on your street do not assume the City or County knows about it; for some neighbors have taken it upon themselves to maintain the yards and to pick up junk mail. I am greatly appreciative of these proactive neighbors. However, inspectors or our local development corporations wouldn’t know they are abandoned. So, please let us know of an abandoned structure on your street or in the neighborhood.  

Public safety is a number one priority and a foremost concern of all Cleveland residents. My sincere thanks to 5th District Commander, Sammy Morris, and the “men and women in blue” who patrol our neighborhood. This summer, with the help of our “nosey neighbors,” who I love, the 5th District was able to stay on top of many problems which could have grown. When neighbors pay attention and look out for one another, what a difference it makes.  Let’s continue to send a message to those individuals who wish to disrupt the peace and sobriety of our community; it will not be tolerated in Ward 8.  

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District welcomes families to attend open houses at their children’s schools in September.

I needed gutters.

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I needed gutters. I needed gutters bad. I know Peter Quinn the Flying Scotsman is a wizard at kitchen and bath remodels. I have seen firsthand the amazing decks he has built. He and his crew did a 5 star job resurfacing my hard wood floors. But I needed gutters, so I called Peter. He said, "Aaaa Laddie, it's no a problem."

September 9th marks the beginning of another year for the St. Vitus Adult Slovenian School  The language classes meet on two Saturday mornings a month from 9:15 to 11:45.  Classes are held at St. Martin de Porres High School,  6111 Lausche Avenue, Cleveland.   Tuition is $50.00 per semester or $100.00 for the whole year.  Textbooks are from Slovenia and are purchased separately from each instructor.

For more information, please call Lillian at 216.350.6889 or email at elcenta@sbcglobal.net.

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The Golden Age of the American amusement park lasted from the late 1890’s to the late 1920’s. At that time America was becoming more industrial, and individuals had more disposable income and time for entertainment. Hundreds of amusement parks opened in and around most major cities to offer one form of entertainment. Cleveland was no exception as many amusement parks opened. Better known were: Luna Park, White City, Puritas Springs, Chippewa Lake Park, Geauga Lake Park. Lesser known or remembered parks include; Scenic Park, Lincoln Park, Washington Park, Forest City Park, Willoughbeach Park, Gordon Gardens, Orchard Lake Park, Brady Lake, and Mentor Beach Park.  Missing from both lists is arguably Cleveland’s most beloved amusement park, Euclid Beach Park which operated from 1895 to 1969. Individuals growing up in an around Cleveland and who had the opportunity to visit the park on the shores of Lake Erie, have fond and sentimental memories of the amusement park. Just mentioning Euclid Beach Park to someone who remembers the park will prompt a smile and story. Luckly large pieces of Euclid Beach Park have survived these 48 years since the park’s final season. Euclid Beach Park’s “Grand Carousel” has operated in the Cleveland History Center of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland’s University Circle since the grand opening in 2014. Not many carousels have survived since the Golden Age of the amusment park. The Euclid Beach Park carousel operated at an amusement park in Old Orchard Beach after the park closed. Besides surviving the carousel returned to Cleveland something a very few carousels have done, returning to the city where it first operated. Another amazing event, the band organ that was with the carousel for 59 years at Euclid Beach Park is again with the ride after it made its own journeys.  Two different owners have the three rocket ships from the parks Rocket Ship circle swing ride both have motorized them and can be seen during Cleveland’s warmer months traveling area roadways. One rocket ship car owner also acquired a roller coaster car from the park’s Thriller coaster and has it mounted to the back of a 1930’s pickup truck thus street legal.

You never know what you'll find washing ashore at a beach cleanup!

Be part of a global beach cleanup in partnership with the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach program and the Ocean Conservancy. On International Coastal Cleanup Day, thousands of volunteers head to beach cleanups around the world to raise awareness about the challenges of plastic pollution in our water. Debris collected at the Euclid Beach cleanup is recorded on data cards and submitted to the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Ocean Conservancy along with data from beaches across the globe!

Collinwood Railroader's:

Primary Cluster Students explore math materials.

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On Wednesday, August 16th, the doors opened at Lakeshore Intergenerational School (LIS) for the start of our fourth school year! We now serve over 200 students (K-5) in the North Collinwood Community. We could not be more thrilled to welcome our students back into the building.

Join us for the annual St. Jerome Clam/Steak Bake!  Good food, great friends, fabulous raffle prizes!  YUM!

The annual St. Jerome Clam/Steak Bake will be held on Sunday, September 24th.  Your $30 ticket includes your choice of one dozen tender clams with a half chicken or a delicious strip steak.  Both entrees come with Clam Chowder, potato, corn on the cob, and a roll.  Extra clams may be ordered for $10 a dozen.  Dinners will be served from 1-4pm.   Tickets can be purchased on line at www.stjeromecleveland.org, or in person after any weekend Mass, or by calling the church office at 216-481-8200

Concert goers Michele Biondo and Judge Suzan Sweeney relished the oportunity to hear live music performed by the composer right in our own neighborhood.

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In celebration of their third wedding anniversary, Lawrence and Julia Wallace gave the people of Cleveland a gift in the form of an original concert.  The music was written and sung by Julia with Lawrence accompanying on piano.  Julia drew inspiration from the poetry of Charles Simic.  Jordan Dryer, Julia’s brother who read each poem before they were sung, actually started this project when he gave her Simic’s book “The World Doesn’t End.”  Julia was inspired to put the poems to music and met Lawrence when she needed an accompanist to record selections of the project.  The two have been inseparable ever since.  We hope they will continue to grace St. Jerome with their musical abilities for many years to come.

After providing a STEP UP to thousands of students and enduring Cleveland winters for  95 years, the steps of St. Jerome School are being rebuilt to provide the foundation for the next 95 years.

If you have driven past St. Jerome School lately, you will have noticed that the front steps to the school are being replaced.  95 years of Cleveland winters have taken their toll.  It is a big project but the safety of the children comes first and as the stairs were disassembled we discovered that there was structural deterioration to the support beams for the landing that had not been visible.  Repairs are well under way and we hope to have the steps completed for the first day of school.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and Ward 8 Councilman Michael D. Polensek will host a public meeting on Sept. 7 to discuss plans for the Euclid Creek Flood Control Shoaling Removal Project. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and will take place at St. John's Lutheran Church Community Room at 17403 Nottingham Rd.

Many thanks to our Sponsors who made this all possible!

Collinwood Branch Library

The Preventative Care Center at the Metropolitan Campus of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) will reopen for fall semester on Sept. 5.

The Glasbena Matica Slovenian Singing Society performs in concert in Collinwood at St. Mary’s Auditorium, 15517 Holmes Avenue, Cleveland, on Sunday, October 22, 2017.

“A Family Affair” with Glasbena Matica,

A Summer Full of Fun at Collinwood Library!

Irving Berlin's "ANNIE GET YOUR GUN" scored a bulls eye when it returned to Broadway in 1999, starring Bernadette Peters and sporting a revised libretto by Tony, Oscar and Emmy winner Peter Stone. As Newsday reported, Stone's revisions 'are sweetly ingenious, and the show is a dream.' Stone reshaped the 1946 book to create a Wild West show-within-a-show that frames the ageless 'Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better' love story of sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Stone has added a secondary romance between the younger sister of Frank's bothersome assistant Dolly, and a boy who is (to Dolly's horror) part Native American. 'The book has been updated in ways that pass p.c. muster,' reported Time Magazine, 'without losing all the fun.' Joined to the new book, of course, is that amazing Irving Berlin score, featuring hit after hit after hit. 'Irving Berlin's greatest achievement in the theater,' wrote the New York Post, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN 'will always be a musical for the ages, one of the Broadway theater's enduring triumphs.'

Silhouette Productions woul like to thank all Volunteers, Donators, Hole Sponsors, Golfers, Entertainment, Briardale Greens and their professional Staff for making this event a success.

Participants create lasting mementos of their loved ones in Fabric & Feelings. (Photo by Bob Perkoski) 

Are you grieving the loss of a love one?  Healing Arts Workshops use art therapy to provide grieving people with a creative outlet for their feelings. The free workshops are offered by Hospice of the Western Reserve to any adult in the community who is grieving a loss.  Anyone can enroll, whether or not they had a loved one cared for hospice. No art experience is necessary. The workshops are made possible through funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Paladar Latin Kitchen served specialties of the house to residents and families at David Simpson Hospice House recently.

Hospice of the Western Reserve welcomed the culinary staff from Paladar Latin Kitchen, 28601 Chagrin Blvd., Woodmere, to David Simpson Hospice House recently for its Meal to Remember program.  Chef Charles Sackman and his culinary staff prepared a festive gourmet dinner for patients and their families featuring specialties of the house, including mojo chicken, rice, seasoned black beans, homemade plantain chips with pico de gallo and homemade margarita donuts with frosting. A selection of fine wines was donated by Scoperta Importing, Inc.

The city of Cleveland has been through ups and downs over so many years. Living the simple life in the city of Cleveland wasn't boring at all. But as I grew up their was a change of plans in my city. Why is their so much senseless murders in Cleveland? It's in my opinion that when Cleveland won the NBA championship it made the city stand together with over 1.4 million people believing that dreams do come true. But it is in that same opinion that once again their was a change of plans. Spiritually you could see the spirits of the people whose lives came to a sudden or tragic end. A few of those spirits were my family and friends. So I speak from experience of what I've seen happened to my beautiful city. I raised all three of my son's in Cleveland. It's been a hard task keeping all three alive by myself. Now I truly thank God for the gifts that he stored in me to help keep my son's safe and off drugs with no guns in their hands. 

More an 2200 visitors came to last year's Open House at the Sewer District.

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by Brittney Fort

Bruno by Dana Depew, courtesy of the artist

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I am always amazed by the seemingly endless inventiveness of artists. They seem to get inspiration from so many different things. Some find excitement in the natural environment, others in a fantastic world. The expressions are equally varied and exciting. In Cleveland and in my experience with SPACES, a non-profit art organization, many find rich inspiration for their artwork in the fading industrial landscape of Cleveland. Often the artists will arrive from foreign lands and other cities and are drawn immediately to the large warehouses and manufacturing centers, and of course the steel mills with their stacks spitting fire over the downtown skyline. When the artists arrive to work at SPACES as part of the residency, HGR Industrial Surplus often comes up as a resource for material and inspiration.

3D printers

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How and when did think[box] come about? Where did the idea start, and who spearheaded it?

The extrordinarily talented violinist, Tessa Lark will perform at St. Jerome Church along with the City Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra on October 18th at 7:30pm.  Don't miss this marvelous free concert featuring works by Schumann and Corigliano.  

City Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra will open their 14th Season with a concert at St. Jerome Church on Wednesday, October 18th at 7:30pm.  Avner Dorman will conduct and the program will feature the amazing violinist, Tessa Lark.  The performance will include

Perhaps you have lately noticed a fresh spot of color acting like a beacon to Waterloo Road. The new mural, designed by French-born and British-educated designer and artist Camille Walala, was commissioned by Jack Mueller, a real estate investor who owns the former bank building on Waterloo Road. The building, upon completion of its interior, will be home to Poplife, a pop-up gallery, health food space, and donation-only yoga studio.

Walala’s work is inspired by the Italian-lead Memphis Movement from the 1980s but is updated with influences from the Ndebele tribe and optical art. She has large-scale works in some of the most important cities in the world: New York, Paris, London, Sydney, and now Cleveland. Mueller said he stumbled across Walala’s work online and was excited about its Memphis influences. From there the artist and the investor developed a friendship over Instagram, both sharing a love of graphic shapes and bold colors. When Mueller saw an opportunity to commission a mural from his favorite artist, he reached out, bringing Camille and her partner Julie Jomaa across the Atlantic for the project.

Mueller has said it is important to him that the building’s exterior reflect its interior, revealing his business’ dedication to the sublimity of bold shapes and bright colors. Simply, he “wants to make the world a more colorful place.” Walala’s aesthetic, bursting with sunny colors like cherry red, millennial pink, canary yellow, and “nifty turquoise” adds a splash of color, hopefully a smile, and a little bit of wonderment to the days of many Clevelanders.

Waterloo is lucky to have an investor like Jack, who believes in public art and in making art as accessible as possible.  Amy Callahan, Executive Director at the nonprofit Waterloo Arts, notes that public art is important because: “[if] you live in a neighborhood where there’s poverty, that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be able to see art on their walls just for art’s sake.” Callahan went on to say that every neighborhood deserves something beautiful, something that provides a unique point of pride and helps carve an identity out for residents. In particular, street art is like “having a conversation outside,” and murals act as canvases that humanize our urban landscape. Walala’s piece starts a conversation about the creativity and energy of humanity and about the egalitarianism of street art to passerby.

CASA of Cuyahoga County, a program of Child and Family Advocates of Cuyahoga County, recruits, screens, trains, and supports volunteers who act as independent fact-finders for the court in cases involving child abuse and neglect.