Hip 2B Square Ticket Giveaway!

Hey Clevelanders! Cleveland City Living has TWO EXTRA VIP TICKETS to tonight's Hip 2B Square Party at 78th Street Studios. The event begins at 5:30 and benefits Gordon Square's Near West Theatre.

Enjoy a lavish spread of food, open bar (beer & wine), artist tours, and get down in costume to a great 70's theme (disco music included). We'll be there, so it can't be a bad time!

The ticket giveaway is courtesy of our client Waverly Station Townhomes, a sponsor of the event. (they're giving away a motorcycle tonight, huzzah!)

In order to enter:

- 'Like' Waverly Station on Facebook
- Leave them a comment saying what you LOVE about The Gordon Square neighborhood- and if you've never been... tell them what you'd like to check out!
- Tweet Cleveland City Living (@CLECityLiving) to tell us you've entered! 

It's that simple! We'll announce the winner by 3pm so you have time to get home and pick out your disco duds and give you the tickets at the event (I'll provide my cell phone number to the winner)

If you win I (Nadine Nocero) will message you on Facebook or Twitter. We will pick the winner via Random.org

Satruday Shopping: Open Air in Market Square

Open Air in Market Square is BACK! This Saturday the wonderful outdoor market on Market Avenue in Ohio City comes back to life and lets you know that summer is here (in case the 90 degree heat didn't give you a clue) Pick up some local goods on your way around town. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday West Side Market!

100 years is a long time for anyone or anything so I'd like to take a moment and tip my hat to the ever wonderful West Side Market. Congratulations on the journey that has lasted 100 years, I look forward to it outlasting me and continuing for another 100.

So here's to you- your crepes, your produce, your vendors, your coffee, your cafe, and all you've given this beautiful city.

Check out the Centennial events occurring all summer long by visiting The West Side Market online.

Did you stop by the kick off event this past Saturday? I did- I enjoyed some polka music, caught up with neighbors and friends, indulged in some Mitchell's Sorbet, and of course was in awe over the amazing firework display. BRAVO!

For the Love of Latte Art

Looking to add a jolt to your weekend? Check out the For the Love of Latte Art event this Saturday, May 12th at the Tri-C Hospitality Management Center in Public Square!

CLE Brews, a local coffee collective comprised of Phoenix Coffee, Erie Island Coffee, Caruso’s Coffee and Red Cedar Coffee is hosting the event. The action of the day begins with a latte art tutorial for baristas and amateurs alike and ends with a Latte Art Throwdown with prizes for the winners. Enjoy coffee samples as well!

Registrations may be purchased online at clebrews.org. Latte art workshops are $20, competitor entry fee is $10 and spectator tickets are $5. Spectator and competitor tickets include a beer ticket.

Proceeds from the event benefit a nonprofit in Guatamala, a country that includes one of the world's biggest coffee bean farmers.

Turnstyle: The Honor System

I love public transportation. I hate driving cars and am admittedly the worst driver EVER. Therefore, I can attest to the awesome public transit systems I've rocked in every city I've lived in (Chicago, Rome, and Seoul) I never had a car in any of these cities so I HAD to rely on public transportation. I love taking the subway whenever I'm in NYC and actually prefer it to cabs. So the question I raise here is this- how can public transportation be successful in Cleveland if we work on the honor system when it comes to buying ride fares?

This isn't meant to be rhetorical- I'm really wondering why there is a lack of turn styles operating at the Ohio City and Airport stops (I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I often use) I can't imagine everyone is being honest when riding the rapid. I always am, but have to admit *sometimes* I want to just jump on and save the $2.25, because really- whats the point if no one else is paying?

I do pay because I know what a huge expense public transit is and I know I don't deserve a 'free ride' but why aren't the fares enforced? Isn't the GCRTA losing tons of money by not installing turn styles for fare cards? Do you ride public transit? What are your thoughts on the issue?

*To be clear, I'm not knocking GCRTA, I just want them to be the best they can be- that way we all win!

It Must Be Love... You Moved To Cleveland!

A lot of what I post about on Cleveland City Living has much to do with MY personal Cleveland experience and MY personal choices on what makes living in CLE great. However, Cleveland City Living is not MY personal blog! Which is why CCL has been featuring some guest posts as of late. Below we have a lovely guest post from Tammy Colson, who I happened to meet at the last OBA Blogger event. I have invited her to share her story on her road to Cleveland. Thanks Tammy!

As a recent transplant from the deep south, my Mama had one thing to say when I told her I was coming north, “Honey, it must be love... you moved to Cleveland!”

I first came here for a beautiful May weekend. We did the tourist thing – the Rock Hall, the beach... I had no idea Cleveland had beaches... There was great food from the talented chefs and mom and pop restaurants throughout the city. And then there was a beautiful vista from the deck of a house in Tremont. In only a brief time, I fell in love with Tremont as much as I fell in love with the man who grew up in Lakewood and had returned to make Cleveland his home.

When I moved to Cleveland lock, stock and barrel in the Fall of 2010 – there were Indians games, concerts at Blossom, and a very cool, eclectic neighborhood to walk in on cool evenings. And wow, the West Side Market. A foodie mecca. Not to mention so much pride and history, I couldn't believe I'd never been here before.

Leaving the south, where I'd lived most of my life, for what is really the largest city I've ever lived in, was a tough decision made easier by the fact that the people who make the City of Cleveland home have so much passion and promise. I've met enthusiastic entrepreneurs, hopeful students, hard working blue collar folks and starched business executives in my neighborhood, and each of them sees what Tremont and downtown can be. They protect that dream, and in so many ways they live it.

Work in my field was scarce, so I decided to take my small part time wine business and devote the effort to growing a Cleveland based clientele for tastings, pairing events and eventually, the first public Wine and Cupcakes event in October, 2011. The restaurants, wine bars and bakers and caterers here in the city have been mostly welcoming and helpful as business has grown to include private, corporate and monthly public tastings. When I rebranded the business in the summer of 2011, I chose a name that reflected my adopted state of Ohio, rather than the southern roots that are so obvious in my speech. MissWineOH has been welcomed with open arms.

Folks back home ask me all the time why I'd move to a city that tends to freeze over in the winter – a city with political corruption, crime, and well, issues. I say they don't know Cleveland.

Problems exist in every city – but not every city is investing heart and soul, and dollars, into the future. Cleveland is revitalizing, and taking steps to do it well. Friends who visit here like it and want to return. Boomerangs are returning in large numbers and companies are drawing new talent to the area.

Entrepreneurs across many industries are flourishing here. There are all sorts of business owners just like me, making it happen with the help of an incredibly vibrant, diverse and supportive population. There is room for more – and with hard work and the gritty determination Cleveland is known for – much like southern women – city living is everything it should be. It is love. For a Cleveland man, and this city on the lake. There's no mistake here.

Tammy Colson is a transplant from south of the Mason-Dixon who loves Cleveland just as much as she loves her Kentucky Wildcats and North Carolina mountains. She can be found at @tlcolson on twitter, or at MissWineOH – where unique wine events are her specialty.

The Lion in March

Happy Post St. Patrick's Day Clevelanders! Were you one of the 500,000 people who ventured Downtown to celebrate? I was, and I can assure you it was a blast! The beautiful weather coupled with the waves of green made for a great afternoon. Below I have a guest post from reader and fellow Clevelander John O'Brien Jr, co-founder of The Ohio Irish American News, sharing some history on St. Patrick's Day in America as well as in Cleveland. Enjoy!

This time of year, we Irish tend to wax poetic.  The nostalgia of our past, the heartbeat of our songs and our stories, has fertile ground all year long for a country so shaped by emigration and strife, but it has new energy and searching around the gatherings and significance of the St. Patrick’s season.

I could be talking about America, I could be talking about Ireland; they are indelibly linked. We can’t go back, so all year long, but especially around St. Patrick’s Day, we bring a little bit of Ireland here to Cleveland.

The longing for love that echoes thru February gives way to trademark Irish longing for connection, roots past and present, that steals our hearts and shapes our journey.  We recognize the nostalgia, give nod to the tuggings, but it has never stopped people from going forward, to new lands, higher ground, and an ever growing legacy of refusing to accept today as enough.  We are a people who firmly and actively believe in paying it forward.

Call it Catholic guilt, the Immigrant’s Inspiration (to do better) or the simple crafting of our lives shaped by past struggle; we do not stop going forward.  Cleveland, and the world, have been so shaped by the Irish Diaspora that it has become seamless into each’s own history. All across America, it is no different.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is great and the music brilliant, but it is the family that unites us all.  God, relations, and friends - these are what has carried us through starvation and immigration, achievement and paying it back, and forward.  Now we say thanks, and celebrate the gifts we have received.

Cleveland has welcomed so many nationalities through offering an opportunity to stand on your own two feet and build a life by your character and your efforts.  It still does.  We read earlier this year about the opening of the Welcome Center, and Positively Cleveland is doing remarkable work from their new location on Euclid.

So please let me take this opportunity to wish all Clevelanders a Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and the start of March’s Irish Heritage Month. Thank you for making our community, part of your community. The green season is at the forefront this month, but don’t forget the man himself; Ireland’s patron saint.  St. Patrick.  Yes, St. Patrick was a man; so if you must shorten it, please replace your Patty with Paddy.

Does it matter?  Sure it does, for two reasons; you don’t misspell someone’s name deliberately, or call a man a woman; it’s rude.  Secondly, most importantly, and maybe without your knowledge, calling an Irishman a Paddy has strong historical connotations, almost all of them negative.  For a long time, Paddy, like “Mick” was a pejorative term aimed at Irish immigrants, mostly by American’s who may have only a generation or three in America, but considered themselves natives.  The “Irish Need Not Apply” signs are a dark mark part of American history, indelibly tainting both the sign maker and the sign holder.

The events throughout Cleveland on and around St. Patrick’s Day are overwhelming positive, diverse and capture the essence of the Irish in music, dance, history and hope. The shear volume of special events coming up this month highlight the rich and varied culture that hasn’t just survived, but has thrived.  This is the 145th St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the nation’s 5th oldest.  Ireland is a country of four million that has a Diaspora of over 400 million – over 400 million satisfied customers cannot be wrong!

In America, we are in recovery and inch by inch, row by row, we make this garden grow. Enjoy Irish History Month, and learn a bit of Irish history while you’re at it – it is indelibly linked with our American heritage. God willing, spring is just around the corner           

Hope to see you Out & About,

John

John can be reached via email at john@songsandstories.net or follow along with his story on Facebook here. You can follow him on Twitter @jobjr.