Downtown
As a corporate attorney, Candace Klein has worked with a lot of women who own businesses. She saw many of her clients struggling to stay afloat -- maxing out personal credit cards and mixing personal and business accounts to make ends meet. "My heart went out to them," she recalls. She began researching alternative financing options and discovered a hard truth: Women have a harder time getting financing for companies than men.
So Klein decided to do something about it. In 2010, she formed her own company, Cincinnati-based Bad Girl Ventures. BGV is a localized microfinance company that educates women and helps them successfully fund their companies.
Since 2010, more than 200 businesses have applied for Klein's program, of those 125 have been educated and 18 have been financed with a total of $310,000. "Our goal is to remove as many barriers to accessing financing as possible," says Klein.
Now Klein is bringing Bad Girl Ventures to Cleveland. This October, entrepreneurs will be able to enroll in Klein's eight-week program to learn the basics behind running and financing a successful business. The participants will have the opportunity to compete for $25,000 in funding after completing the program.
Bad Girl Ventures will have one full time employee in its Cleveland location, while Klein will divide her time between Cincinnati and Cleveland. She hopes to have 50 applicants for the first class.
"Significant jobs will be created from our investment in these businesses," she says, adding that 37 jobs have been created in Cincinnati from the 18 companies she's helped.
Klein has gotten support from the Cleveland Foundation, the Business of Good Foundation, KeyBank and the City of Cleveland.
Source: Candace Klein
Writer: Karin Connelly
That project, scheduled to be completed next fall, will add a broad, multi-use path on the north side and narrow intersections so they can be crossed more easily. It will also narrow driving lanes from 12 to 11 feet to allow room for bikers, add 'sharrows' that let drivers know they're sharing the road, and install new bike route signs from W. 20th to Abbey Avenue. This once-dicey link to Tremont will be improved with five-foot-wide bike lanes and new, historic-style lighting.
Does this high-profile victory indicate that the bike advocacy community is becoming a political force with which to be reckoned? Marc Lefkowitz, web editor for GreenCityBlueLake at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, thinks so. "When people ask why it's important to have a bike and pedestrian advocacy group, point them to sustainable transportation advocates 'Access for All,' who negotiated a $6 million commitment from ODOT," he blogged recently.
Now, cyclists are building on this victory by forming a new organization, Bike Cleveland, to amplify their voice in Northeast Ohio. "Cleveland needs a single, strong advocacy organization that will bring the cycling community together," explains Jacob Van Sickle, Active Living Coordinator for Slavic Village Development, a regular bike commuter and one of the the group's organizers. To get cyclists involved, Bike Cleveland will hold a kick-off summit on September 10th and 11th at Windows on the River in the Flats.
Yet despite having wind at their backs, cyclists in Cleveland still have a ways to go, as evidenced by Cleveland's recent approval of casino developers' plans to demolish the Columbia building on lower Prospect Ave. It will be replaced with parking, an overhead pedestrian walkway and valet parking for gamblers.
Until recently, this section of Prospect was envisioned as a prime spot for bike- and pedestrian-friendly redevelopment -- plans that opponents of the demolition say were hastily scrapped to satisfy casino developers' demands.
Source: Jacob Van Sickle, Marc Lefkowitz
Writer: Lee Chilcote
Shooting is scheduled to begin next month and will include Earth-bound stars Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans.
Other principal scenes for the Marvel Comics-based flick are being shot in and around Cleveland throughout the summer. Countless residents have enlisted their services to act as extras in the film in the hopes of snagging a frame of screen time.
BVU's mission is to link businesses and nonprofits to foster excellence in the nonprofit sector. Since 1993, BVU has connected 228 businesses to 439 nonprofits to complete over 1,600 service projects.
The idea is to help out the non-profits while also providing a social event.
"The event is great in different ways," says Nick Borchers, an intern at BVU's Volunteer Center. "Some of the things we were hearing from businesses is interns and young professionals really want to get involved in the community. A lot of the volunteer projects are geared toward leadership functions and team building skills."
The 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey reports that more than 60 percent of young professionals factor a company's commitment to the community in making a choice between similar jobs.
The summer of service also provides a great networking opportunity. "It's an opportunity to meet with other people," Borchers says. "It's another way to connect with more people -- the organizations are looking at the interns and the interns get to see what the organization is really about."
Source: Nick Borchers
Writer: Karin Connelly
"CPL knows how passionate Clevelanders are about music, and the importance of music in our community, its history, and its future," CPL director Felton Thomas explained. "CPL has a history of providing our patrons with access to music -- starting as far back as sheet music and records and evolving to CDs. In today's digital world, providing free downloads is the logical next step to give our patrons a way to experience their favorite music."
The music download service launched this week. Library patrons access the available music through a new MyTunes page on the library's website. Cardholders can download up to three songs a week and over 150 per year from Sony's entire catalogue. Patrons get to keep the songs they download forever, legally, and at no cost to them.
To learn more about the service click here.
Parris got the idea to produce the bikes after spending some time in China, where the bikes are commonplace.
"They've been very popular in the past five to 10 years in China with the local farmers who need to get from village to village and transport food," explains Parris. "It's an ideal thing for them to use and affordable. When I came back to Cleveland, I said, 'Let's get rid of the parking problem and gas problem and learn something from the largest industrial nation in the world.'"
The bikes initially take five to six hours to charge using just a standard outlet, and then take about an hour to recharge. They go more than 20 miles on a single charge.
Parris has produced 10 bikes thus far and sold two at around $750 apiece. Additionally, he is donating two bikes to cancer charities. Currently the bikes are manufactured oversees. He hopes to start producing them in Ohio next year.
"By far they are the cheapest and only electric bikes that are around Cleveland," he says.
Source: Benjamin Parris
Writer: Karin Connelly
"Even in this recession there are so many manufacturing jobs that are going unfilled," says Mary Ann Pacelli, project manager for MAGNET. "There's a need for training and people who have an aptitude on the technical side. People may not realize the technical skills learned in the military transfer into manufacturing."
Enthusiasm for the program has been high. "Companies are very interested because they have jobs that have to be filled, and it provides a sense of community spirit," says Pacelli. "Employers are willing to commit."
The project has been two years in the making. MAGNET will be meeting with interested companies through August, and will begin assessing veterans in late August. Pacelli says they plan to have eight to 12 veterans placed by September. "We set a minimum goal to assess at least 100 veterans," she says. "At least 50 will be in some sort of job by the end of the year."
Funding for employers is available through the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. "Companies that are willing to hire and do on-the-job training are eligible for some funding for salaries and training," says Pacelli. "The work behavior piece has already been taken care of by the military. The training may take some time, but it's worth it."
Source: Mary Ann Pacelli
Writer: Karin Connelly
Titled, "Ex-Parea Chef Opens NYC-Inspired Noodlecat Next Week ... in Cleveland," the article reminds readers that Sawyer once led Michael Symon's short-lived Parea restaurant in New York City. (It also reminds readers that he accidentally poisoned himself with a false chanterelle.)
"Last year, Food & Wine named Sawyer Best New Chef for his work at Cleveland's Greenhouse Tavern. Noodlecat's menu, inspired in part by Sawyer's after-work trawls through New York's subterranean noodle houses, will feature ramen, soba, and udon. The chef told the Daily Meal that David Chang makes New York's best ramen, but that he also looked to Hung Ry, Rai Rai Ken, and Yakitori Taisho while researching the menu for Noodlecat. Menu research also took Sawyer to Japan, Canada, and even Australia."
Read the rest of the scoop here.
The top five cities that are most resilient and least vulnerable to climate change are Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis.
"Why do Rust Belt cities do so well in my rankings?" asks Opperman. "Because they have a sustainable water supply (in four of the cities, the Great Lakes); their heat stress rankings are relatively low; and they are less vulnerable to natural disasters that will be exacerbated by climate change, such as floods, landslides, and wildfires."
Looking at the bottom five -- Phoenix, Houston, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Miami -- Opperman states:
"One obvious observation is that the most climate-vulnerable cities include some of the fastest growing regions of the country, while the most climate-resilient include several cities with flat or even declining populations. So the country's population is shifting away from places that are better-equipped to deal with climate change and toward areas that may face the greatest disruptions from climate change. Many of the most resilient cities are former industrial giants in need of new economic drivers. Transforming our economy to one that runs on much cleaner energy will require significant expansion of "green industries" with associated job growth. So, despite the relatively lower vulnerability of the Clevelands and Milwaukees and Detroits of the world, these cities should still pursue the investments required to prevent climate change. Those investments could provide an important spark for economic revitalization."
Read the rest here.
Mike Perry has a rather strange hobby. In his spare time, the president of Szarka Financial Management uses his skills as a hiring manager to help people spruce up their resumes and find new jobs.
"It all started when one of the financial managers literally walked a client into my office and said, "so-and-so got laid off from the Cleveland Clinic. Can you take a look at her resume?'" explains Perry. "So I sat down with her. Soon, I had a parade of clients, family members, and friends coming to me."
In the three or so years he's been doing it, Perry estimates he's consulted with nearly 500 people -- free of charge. He sees eight to 10 resumes a week, from everyone from tool and die makers to CEOs, and he has an 85-percent success rate finding his 'clients' new jobs. Additionally, Perry speaks to job-seeking groups on a regular basis and has a job-seeking tips blog, In the Business of You.
Perry speaks from experience. "When I was laid off from KeyBank in 2001, I found there's a lot of inaccurate and poor advice for job seekers," he says. "When the economy took a turn for the worse, I saw it as a chance to pay it forward. People are getting terrible advice on how to get a job. I don't rewrite people's resumes. I give them the tools to do a much better job of it."
Source: Mike Perry
Writer: Karin Connelly
Sustainable Cleveland 2019 (SC 2019), an effort by the City of Cleveland and local environmental groups to promote sustainability as a means of growing the economy in Northeast Ohio, will soon have a physical home in Tower City Center.
Andrew Watterson, Cleveland's Chief of Sustainability, says the purpose of the new Sustainable Cleveland Center is to promote efforts to green Northeast Ohio, provide central meeting space for environmental groups, and offer affordable shared office space for companies and nonprofits working to advance sustainability within the region.
"We're increasing our audience by putting the Mayor's Office of Sustainability into a more public space," says Watterson. "Forest City has been extremely generous by donating the space, and we've signed a two-year lease."
The Office of Sustainability will set up shop on the second floor of a two-story retail space that is accessible from the Huron Road entrance to Tower City Center. A number of regional companies, including GE Lighting, Alcoa and Eaton Corporation, have donated materials for the build-out.
Watterson stresses that the Sustainable Cleveland Center is a "collaborative effort" that will ultimately house many partners. The nonprofit Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) has indicated an intent to lease space on the first floor, but has not yet signed a lease. A range of other companies and organizations have indicated a desire to showcase products, information and materials.
Watterson hopes the center will eventually lead to the creation of a sustainable business incubator in downtown Cleveland. "We're testing the idea out at a scale that's manageable," he says. "In the meantime, it provides us with an excellent way to tell the story of what's happening with sustainability in Cleveland."
Source: Andrew Watterson
Writer: Lee Chilcote
A New York Times obituary wrote, "At a time when newspapers were famously inhospitable to women, Ms. Scott made her career by tackling a beat that few writers of either sex wanted -- a beat that barely existed when she began writing about rock 'n' roll in the mid-1960s."
"In Cleveland, Ms. Scott could scarcely walk down the street without fans stopping to take her picture. But she was known far beyond the city, profiled in print, on radio and on television throughout the country and abroad."
Clearly. Read the whole obit here.
Writing for The L.A. Times music blog Pop & Hiss, Holly Gleason says, "If Jane Scott leaves a legacy, beyond thousands of stories filed, it's the artists who knew they were somebody because she turned her notebook toward them. As Reed enthused for her 80th birthday, "I love Jane Scott. I always have, I always will. When I was in the Velvet Underground, Jane was one of the only people I can remember who was nice to us. Interested in the music, the styles -- a very smart, guileless lady who loved music and musicians and had unbiased attitudes towards the evolving culture."
"Her writing gave music deeper context for generations in the city hailed as the "Rock & Roll Capitol of the World." She captured the essence of rock coming of age, growing into maturity and finding its way into the 21st century. Her mark will be felt for years to come."
Read the rest here.
Community leaders want to harness the wind in Cleveland. The future of wind turbines is here, with the recent arrivals of turbines at Lincoln Electric and Olympic Steel. And more are on the way. This industry is why GLWN is hosting a two-day summit, Making it Here: Building Our Next Generation Supply Chain. GLWN is an international supply chain advisory group and network of manufacturers. Their mission is to increase the domestic content of North America's wind turbines.
The summit will cover the biggest issues in supply chain challenges when it comes to bringing turbine manufacturing to the region. "The conference deals with some of the biggest issues: technology, business development and political issues," says Ed Weston, director of GLWN in Cleveland. "With the heavy concentration of supply chains in the region and access to Lake Erie, Northeast Ohio is an ideal location for wind turbine factories."
Cleveland historically has been a leader in harnessing the wind. In fact, Charles Brush built the first automatically operated wind turbine for electric production in 1888. He used the turbine to power his house on 38th Street and St. Clair Avenue.
"Nearly 100 years later, the industry was commercialized in Cleveland with government-subsidized programs," says Weston. "In the late 1970s and early 1980s NASA was building turbines that were larger than anything we see today. Then wind turbines went out of vogue in America because the government lost interest."
While the industry was exported to Europe in the 1980s, Weston is optimistic he can bring it back to Cleveland. "The challenge is we're competing with companies that have been making parts for many years, so they have an advantage on us," he says. "But ur advantage is most of the parts are very big and don't travel well. With a turbine OEM and a busy supply chain, the number of jobs created would be in the thousands."
Source: Ed Weston
Writer: Karin Connelly
Huntington showed its commitment to Cleveland last week with the opening of 10 branches in area Giant Eagle stores, with plans for eight more on the way.
"The 10 openings have created 77 jobs to date," says Huntington's Greater Cleveland president Dan Walsh. "By the end of the year we will create more than 100 jobs in Cleveland. With the Giant Eagle openings we are one of the largest markets in Cleveland, and by 2012 we will be the largest."
Over the next four years the bank plans to open a total of 45 branches in the region, creating 300 new jobs. "It shows our dedication," says Walsh. "As a lifelong Clevelander, one of the really exciting things about Huntington is its dedication to Cleveland. This Giant Eagle endorsement is another way of talking the talk."
The new branches will tout the convenience of being in the Giant Eagle stores, with extended hours and banking seven days a week. In addition to the 45 branches in Giant Eagle, Huntington has 62 free-standing branches.
Walsh says Huntington just wants to be a part of the economic growth in the region. The bank is the top SBA lender in Cleveland, with a $4 billion commitment to invest in small businesses. "We believe Cleveland is a great place of opportunity," says Walsh. "We expect through these investments we'll catalyze our economic share. Huntington's really thrilled to be a part of this economic growth."
Source: Dan Walsh
Writer: Karin Connelly
"They ask if I have a location in their city, and then rave about the store and insist that I open one where they live," says DeBoe with a laugh. "I'm excited because we're providing out-of-towners with a more well-rounded retail experience."
DeBoe, who also owns Room Service boutique in Ohio City, launched Dredgers Union with clothing designer Sean Bilovecky to revive and update the tradition of shopping in downtown Cleveland. Stocked with sizzling dresses, snazzy suits, trendy lamps, bedding and a range of other items, the store functions as a smaller, more stylish version of the department stores that once thrived here.
A stroll through the store, which is about 4,500 square feet, reveals what DeBoe calls "vignettes," or discrete sections featuring lamps, bedding, kitchen items, perfumes and soaps, women's lounge apparel and even a children's section. These areas are housed on a raised platform that is separated by a railing.
Bilovecky's private label clothing line is featured at the rear of the store. The merchandise includes denim jeans, suits and casual button-down shirts he calls "wovens." So far, men's apparel has been the most popular store item.
"We create custom, made-to-measure suits, so instead of getting them shipped overseas, our customers can get them right here," says Bilovecky, who specializes in edgy, contemporary design and created the successful Wrath Arcane label. "People love the fact that they're designed locally and made in the U.S."
Dredgers Union will celebrate its grand opening with a big party on Friday, July 8th. The event will also kick off this year's "Made in the 216," an annual design show that DeBoe created several years ago to showcase local talent.
This year's 216 event, which takes place all weekend long in the expansive lower level of Dredgers Union, has added local furniture designers to the mix.
Source: Danielle DeBoe
Writer: Lee Chilcote
Each year, the U.S. EPA bestows its Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards to five individuals and organizations. Claiming one of those five spots is Cleveland's Sherwin-Williams, who was awarded the Designing Greener Chemicals Award for its water-based acrylic alkyd technology.
Oil-based "alkyd" paints have high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that become air pollutants as the paint dries. While other paints contain lower VOCs, they can't match the performance of alkyds. Sherwin-Williams developed water-based acrylic alkyd paints with low VOCs that can be made from recycled soda bottle plastic, acrylics and soybean oil. These paints combine the performance benefits of alkyds and low VOC content of acrylics. In 2010, Sherwin-Williams manufactured enough of these new paints to eliminate over 800,000 pounds of VOCs.
Read the whole report here.