The Root Problems of Urban Vacancy
Brownfields, vacant buildings, empty lots, fenced-off concrete disaster zones, that acre of squalor that smells faintly of rust and death — call them what you will. Cleveland, along with plenty of other Rust Belt cities, have plenty of them. Why? The answers are complex. Some have to do with cleaning up the sites, which may…
Superman Plaque Stolen (Updated)
Via the PD Update: OK, you can go back to whatever you were doing before you dropped everything and began your search for the stolen Superman plaque — it has been returned unharmed. The PD reports someone anonymously dropped it off at a fire station and it eventually made it back to its home. (Cleveland.com)…
Dennis Kucinich May Want a Congressional Seat in Washington State
As you probably know, dwindling population in the last decade means that Ohio will lose two congressional seats. Redistricting rumors have the GOP eliminating Dennis! Kucinich’s district. It’s important to note that almost all of those rumors come from… yeah, Dennis! Kucinich. But Dennis! isn’t going down without a fight. He will find a district…
John Kasich Celebrates the Teachers Whose Salaries He Wants to Cut
For months, Governor John Kasich has been saying that public sector workers, including teachers, should take cuts in their salaries and benefits because the taxpayers who ultimately pay them aren’t doing so well in the current economy. He introduced the controversial Senate Bill 5, which would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public workers and give…
Mugshot of the Day: Third DUI for Old Man
78-year-old Jacob J. Kocher was arrested in Alliance on suspicion of drinking and driving after he hit another car this week. It would be his third OVI, reports NewsNet5. But that’s really not the interesting part of the story, at least not to us. Naturally, we hope Kocher doesn’t drink and drive again, and we…
Ohio’s Hidden Bob Evans Subsidies
It’s no secret that Bob Evans cooks up tasty meat treats. Less publicized is how the sausage is made: With millions of your tax dollars. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to move its headquarters from the south side of Columbus to a nearby suburb. Waiting just down the street was more than $7…
Kent State Gay Magazine Rejected by Printers Over Language
For almost 41 years now, the printers of this fine rag have inked enough curse words and naughty photos to entertain a conference of bishops. But the creators of Fusion, Kent State’s student-run LGBT publication, ran into trouble recently when they tried to go to press with a racy new issue of their own. Fusion’s…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to thriving in fabulous Cleveland. Reign of Terror Ends: U.S. forces track down and kill terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden; declassified documents reveal Frank Russo had him on the auditor’s payroll. Smoke Gets in Your Legs: Billionaire Clevelander and noted marijuana enthusiast Peter B. Lewis pours money into effort to legalize pot in…
Afternoon Brew: Thief Caught in Underwear, Online Database of Ohio Soldier Deaths, Manny Acta is Excited, and a Michigan Billboard Taunts Ohio State
Good afternoon, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you’re not reading Osama-related news. — The suspect in the knife-wielding robbery of Papa Smokes in Mentor-on-the-Lake was finally apprehended after cops found him at a factory in his underwear. No word on if he was smoking at the time. (News-Herald) — The Plain Dealer has…
Feuding Neighbors Brawl in Lorain
We told you last week that street-fighting season is officially open in Lorain. Well, it’s doubly official now. The Lorain Morning Journal has reports of a modern-day (but lamer) Hatfield and McCoy situation. It all started Saturday when cops were dispatched after bystanders saw Tony Hrpcha Sr. and Dale Pyles fighting. The weapons of choice…
Browns Mistakenly Call Wrong Player After Draft
USC tight-end Jordan Cameron was one of the players taken by the Cleveland Browns during last weekend’s NFL draft. There’s also a player named Cameron Jordan, who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints with the 24th pick. The Browns, in trying to get in touch with Mr. Cameron afterward, called Mr. Jordan by mistake.…
Lawmakers Propose New Tax on Casinos
More news has come out recently from the front lines of the state’s shiny new gaming industry, where a push-pull is developing between Governor John Kasich and casino developers. Since taking office, the governor has been pretty microphone-friendly with the opinion that Rock Gaming and Penn National jaked taxpayers when they wrote the 2009 legislation…
That Wasn’t a UFO Over Lake Erie, Sorry
For years now, people in Euclid and Eastlake have filmed strange lights hovering over Lake Erie, claiming that UFOs are visiting our dear Great Lake because… they like walleye? Each time, The Man explains away the phenomenon by saying the “UFOs” are really just planes. Next they’ll tell us that Dick Goddard is actually human.…
Pic of the Day: World B. Free is a Sexy Man
Oh, World B. Free will make sweet, sweet love to you on the basketball court right there on the Cavs logo, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, he wants to hear about your day, maybe talk a little poetry, and have a glass of Courvoisier. Get to know the real you, ya know?…
Cop Commandeers Golf Cart to Chase Suspect (Updated)
Update: Well, well. The suspect who was chased down by a cop in a commandeered golf cart is back in the news for, well, the same news. Kirk Fenderson was nabbed last month for stealing booze. This weekend, he was nabbed for the same thing after allegedly lifting some Bud from a Rite-Aid. By all…
The Plain Dealer’s Front Page Today
We imagine plenty of people will be picking up newspapers today. Here’s the PD’s front page. A full review of front pages from across the nation can be found here. (That link is getting bombarded with traffic right now, so be patient if it doesn’t load.)
Concert Review: Iron and Wine at House of Blues
For a little more than 90 minutes Friday night, Iron and Wine mastermind Sam Beam captivated a sold-out audience at House of Blues — not just with his words and voice, but with his dedication to redefining his music. Accompanied by a 10-person band, including two female backing singers and a three-piece horn section, Iron…
Man Fires Shots After Mom Says He Can’t Use Car
In the latest installment of Ma, the meatloaf!… Cops in Clermont County Ohio got a call from a concerned mother after her son, 22-year-old Shon Robinson, grabbed a .22 rifle that the family kept in the house and started shooting up the walls, windows, doors, and anything else he could set his targets on. What…
Working the Loading Dock
Esquire, photo by Andrew Spear 59-year-old John Hyduk is one of the best writers in Cleveland. We know this both because his work, which has appeared in numerous publications over time, is damn good and because plenty of folks vouch for his talent. But he doesn’t write for a living. Instead, he works at a…
A Brand of Heroin Named “LeBron James”
The Village Voice passes on the rather innocuous and not unusual news that the DEA took down a heroin mill in Fort Lee, NJ recently. Ah, but there’s more. About five and a half pounds of heroin was seized yesterday, as well as 100,000 glassine envelopes. The envelopes bore names of different brands of the…
Patch Looking for Bloggers for “Full-On Course Correction”
A few good, reliable people. Bloggers of the world, pull out your headphones and listen up: stop emoting about the Royal Wedding. That post on Foucault and Danger Mouse? Junk it. All the possible jokes about Rebecca Black have been made and beaten to death; quit trying to cook up a new one. It may…
Peyton Hillis Does Letterman’s Top-Ten List
The top ten perks of being on the cover of Madden, starring Peyton Hillis. (Clever, but could have been funnier.)
Browns Draft Salmon-Eating Defensive Lineman Phil Taylor
The Browns traded their No. 6 first-round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for a bunch of other picks, then traded up from the No. 27 to the 21st spot to snag Baylor defensive lineman Phil Taylor. It seems some had concerns about Taylor’s weight, which hovered at more than 330 pounds. Let’s head to the…
Not Fast Enough
In yet another Fast and the Furious sequel, the original crew (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, et al.) heads to Rio to orchestrate an Italian Job-style heist that could just as easily have been staged in Santa Monica. Directed with more sizzle than style by Justin Lin, the fifth entry in this decade-old boys-and-toys franchise is…
Teenage Wasteland
Aimed at teenage girls (and maybe their nostalgic moms), this Disney flick crams in just about every romantic-comedy cliché in the book. First, there’s a squeaky-clean class president and prom organizer (Aimee Teegarden), who just wants everyone to have an unforgettable night. When things don’t work out with her date, she falls for the school’s…
Crop Closes After This Weekend, Cropicana at Whiskey Island Opens Next Week
After just shy of four years on West Sixth Street, Crop Bistro (www.cropbistro.com) will shutter on Saturday, April 30. Five days later, at 5 p.m. on Thursday May 5, owners Steve and Jackie Schimoler will open Cropicana (www.cropicana.com), their casual waterfront kitchen on Whiskey Island (2800 Whiskey Island Dr.; 216-631-1800). “It’s moving really fast now,”…
John Boehner’s Approval Ratings Slip
Giving them the finger. Rep John Boehner — the tan man trying to make good on a plan for American stability — suffered a bit of a blow today. According to the Dayton Daily News, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll says the Ohio Republican’s approval rating has slid: now, as many Americans who are stupid…
Lorain County Residents Are Drunk and High
OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But not totally. It’s just that Lorain County folks are drunker and higher than people in other places. The Chronicle Telegram reports on a study that surveyed drug and alcohol use. The target demographic — 18-25 year-olds — were asked about marijuana, booze, and narcotics, but…
Concert Review: Lady Gaga at the Q
The lady takes a victory lap Performance artist, marketing machine, pop star — Lady Gaga meets and exceeds all those titles. She brought her Monster Tour to a packed Quicken Loans Arena last night, dazzling with huge sets that made room for a neon-lit skid row, a burnt-down Narnia, and a gigantic anglerfish. There were…
Local TV Reporter Proves it Was Windy Last Night
Rule No. 1 of weather reporting: It’s not raining unless your anchor looks like he just emerged from a dunk-tank, it’s not snowy unless he looks like Frosty the Snowman standing next to a grid-locked highway, and it’s sure as hell not windy unless he’s outside, being blown around, hair whipping in the wind, trying…
Tree Falls on Shoreway, and Other Wind Damage
The winds that rolled through Cleveland last night and early this morning did plenty of damage: Exhibit A: This tree that fell on the shoreway, causing quite the backup, we hear. NewsNet5 has a gallery of some other damage, from a roof ripped off an apartment complex in Lakewood to the ever-scary tree-falls-on-house pics. Estimates…
Drunk Driver Makes Cops Wait While She Gets Taco Bell
And we’ll end this glorious day with more fun from the police blotters. Let’s travel to the taco-craving land of North Royalton, shall we? At 1:12 a.m. April 16, a patrolman was dispatched to the Royalton Road eatery in regards to a gray Lexus weaving and driving off the road. The officer pulled alongside the…
Peyton Hillis Wins Madden Cover Vote
Results just in from the live unveiling on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’ and — pat yourselves on the back, Browns fans — Peyton Hillis beat Michael Vick in the final vote to land the cover of Madden 2012. Hillis received 66% of the 1,091,677 votes cast. And screw the Madden curse. Huge win for the White Rhino,…
Teach for America Cleared to Come to Ohio
A bill signed today by Governor John Kasich will allow Teach for America to finally come to the Buckeye State. If you’ve ever wondered why the bright, talented, young folks who join Teach for America don’t end up in Ohio, it’s been because they couldn’t — “certification barriers” existed that prevented the program from working…
John Kasich Tells President Obama to Mind His Own Business Over SB5
As we told you earlier today, President Obama did a sit-down interview with WKYC during which he voiced his opinion on Ohio’s controversial SB5 collective bargaining bill. Governor Kasich was asked about Obama’s remarks at a press conference today and had some pretty strong words. Summary: Go back to your corner, Prez, and deal with…
Woman’s Date Steals Her Car, Credit Cards
Fun from the police blotters of Fairview park where we find a young woman who woke up to find her car and credit cards gone. The terminology is the troubling part here. She doesn’t know the name of her male companion, and they were at a motel. Blind date? One-night stand? Something else? Judge for…
Drunk Man Bites Chunk of Flesh From Victim’s Neck
A taste for blood? A Mike Tyson fan? Read too many Twilight books? The excuse 48-year-old Sheldon Wade gave in court today for biting a three-inch chunk of flesh from a man’s neck was much simpler and more predictable: “I was extremely drunk,” he told the judge. Shocking. The Canton Repository reports that back on…
Pic of the Day: Cleveland Men Ogle Women in Hot Pants
Richard Ader Via Cleveland.com’s ongoing reader memory series, here’s a dynamite shot of 1500 young men gathered on Public Square staring intently with covetous looks at young women participating in WIXY’s First Annual Hot Pants contest. We particularly like the fellas who have climbed trees for a better vantage point. The photographer is Richard Ader,…
Where Artists Live in Cleveland
We felt like making acronym soup when we woke up this morning. Luckily a new report allows us to write the following sentence: CAC (Cuyahoga Arts & Culture) passes along news from CPAC (Community Partnership for Arts & Culture), mined from the OAC (Ohio Arts Council) and others, about where artists in Cleveland live. There.…
Local News Anchor Sits Down with President Obama
One local news personality has landed the big score: a sit-down with the President of the United States. Yesterday, News Channel 3 aired portions of a White House interview with anchor Ramona Robinson. As the station reminds you again and again, she’s the only local newscaster invited to chat with the big man. Props indeed.…
Ohio Turnpike Shut Down After Cereal Spill
Crews worked early this morning to clean up after a tow truck collided with a semi on the Ohio turnpike, spilling hundreds of boxes of cereal across the road and shutting down traffic for three hours. The accident happened near Toledo on the eastbound-side of I-80. Using bulldozers, workers eventually cleared the tasty treats, though…
Waiting for the Men
A few years ago, the New Lou Reeds were one of the most promising indie-rock bands in Cleveland. But it took them more than four years to follow up 2006’s Top Billin’. They finally got around to releasing their third album, Hit Songs, last year, and they’re starting to rebuild some of that lost momentum.…
Concert Calendar
Femi Kuti & the Positive Force Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s 48-year-old son Femi comes with tons of built-in cred, but there he is onstage, sporting a big grin like he’s just happy to be keeping his dad’s spirit alive. With zero interest in breaking away from the family business, Femi cut his teeth in his…
Outer Limits
Ever since Sam Goldberg gripped a test pressing of Having Had Forgot, he’s been pondering how fans will react. “When I recently listened to it, I realized just how weird the record is,” he says of his latest solo album, due out soon on Arbor, an indie label focusing on music’s outer fringes. “I don’t…
Pass the Whiskey and Ammo
“It’s been said that computers give human beings the easiest opportunity to make mistakes. As someone who’s worked behind a bar his whole life, I can tell you it’s actually handguns and tequila.” Rapping philosophic here is Joseph Deluca, a guy who knows his way around the nightlife world. He’s a longtime bartender and local…
The Bearded Bard
Many things qualify Sam Beam as one of the most awesome men on the planet. He can grow a hobo beard that falls somewhere between hipster-cool and serial-killer-crazy. He’s raising five young daughters with his wife outside of Austin. And, despite the sometimes gloomy nature of the music he makes as Iron and Wine, he…
Home Movies
Blow Out (Criterion) One of Brian De Palma’s best movies, from 1981, is a re-imagining of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 classic Blow-Up with a twist: instead of accidentally photographing a murder, John Travolta’s movie soundman accidentally records one. As he gets closer to the truth, he stumbles onto a conspiracy theory that wraps two decades of…
CD Review: Brian Henke
(myspace.com/brianhenkeguitar) Guitarist Henke, who used to rock out before he started making new-age music more than a decade ago, evokes the late Michael Hedges on this unassuming instrumental album. Henke spends a lot of his spare time trudging through the woods, and you can hear nature’s inspiration in aptly titled songs like “A Dancing Gnome…
The Bad Hands Team
An editor at The Plain Dealer once explained that the reason the Cleveland Browns get so much page-one coverage on Monday mornings after a game is because people care more about the team than they do about the welfare of the city or the competence of the officials governing it. Sports are an escape from…
No Doze
One way for an actor to gain control over her craft is to become a director. Another is by participating in devised theater, where the script is created through the collaboration of the actors and director. The result, as you might imagine, can often be a shapeless and self-indulgent pile of fetid glop. Or it…
CD Review: Steve Earle
After taking some stylistic detours over the past few years, hardcore troubadour Steve Earle is back to embracing his rootsy roots on I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive. Working for the first time with legendary producer T Bone Burnett, who gives a casual warmth to the songs, Earle occasionally evokes his classic post-rehab…
On Stage This Week
Circle Mirror Transformation Adult education meets group therapy in this dark comedy by young New York playwright Annie Baker. It follows five small-town Vermonters who discover more about themselves than they had bargained for after enrolling in a community acting class. The play was the hit of the 2009 off-Broadway season, earning an Obie Award…
Get Out!
Thursday | 28 Tri-C JazzFest Parade Mardi Gras on Public Square Now in its 32nd year, the Tri-C JazzFest kicks off today with a Mardi Gras-style parade, starting at Tower City Center and marching into Public Square. Featuring the award-winning Shaw High School Mighty Cardinals (whose assorted honors have included performing for the Prez at…
Stay In!
TOP PICK – CD Derek and the Dominos: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (UMe) One of the greatest albums ever made sounds even better today than it did when people were calling Eric Clapton God. This four-disc 40th-anniversary box tags on an extended version of the temporary group’s 1973…
Organically Growing
There is something so organic about the Root Café — and we’re not just talking about the food. Evolving gracefully from a cramped but cozy coffeehouse to a bustling neighborhood café, the Root is a lesson in rational, sensible growth. While many operators take a build-it-and-they-will-come approach, Root owners Bobby Breitenstein and Julie Hutchison waited…
On View This Week
A Question of Balance Liliane Luneau doesn’t name her paintings. “A title can be a distraction for viewers,” says the Kent-based artist, whose pieces are now on display in New Work, a solo exhibition at Arts Collinwood. Instead, she prefers to allow her images to speak for themselves through a language of color, rhythm, and…
CD Review: Emmylou Harris
Only three people play on Emmylou Harris’ first album in three years, and the 64–year-old singer-songwriter is one of them. But Hard Bargain sounds big and spacious, like all of the albums she’s made since 1995’s career turnaround Wrecking Ball. Still, there’s more emphasis on songs than mood here, as Harris looks back on a…
At the Arthouse
Poetry The 66-year-old woman at the center of director Lee Chang-dong’s latest movie isn’t having a very good week. First, she’s raising a grandson who’s going to be either in jail or dead before he escapes his teens. And she just found out she has Alzheimer’s disease. So she enrolls in a poetry class to…
Woman’s Glib
Potiche means “trophy wife,” and that’s exactly what screen legend Catherine Deneuve is at the start of the latest movie by French director François Ozon, the man behind such fanciful films as Swimming Pool and 8 Women. Ozon, Deneuve, and Gérard Depardieu play to and against their types in this slight, frothy, and occasionally amusing…
Fruit and Nuts
One of the great recurring themes of Western Art involves naked people lying around in the grass. From mythological romps by Titian or Poussin, through Manet’s unlikely combo of clothed and naked figures in “Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe,” all the way to late-mod Brit painter Cecily Brown’s delightful orgiastic works, you can hardly take a…
Film Caps
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (PG) — This mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable sequel picks up with Red Riding Hood, Granny, and Big Bad Wolf as new members of the elite Happily Ever After Agency. Once again, the CGI is mediocre, but it’s the movie’s smug tone that brings it down, with way too many…
Bites: Palookaville Opens This Week
Restaurateur Ian P.E. had hoped to open his chili-themed eatery called Palookaville back in mid-winter — but we all know how these things go. As it turns out, the official opening date is now Friday, April 29, and the weather seems to be cooperating just fine. “I’ve been cursing the cold weather, but it’s going…
We Get Mail
Clueless in Cleveland I am a professional who has lived in Cleveland my entire life [“Young People Love Cleveland’s Grit and Funk, or Something,” April 13, 2011]. I know about the connectivity we have here. As people come in from out of town, I show them the best we have to offer and the countless…
CD Review: Bootsy
Bootsy Collins’ first album in five years sounds a lot like the classic albums he made with the Parliament-Funkadelic mothership back in the ’70s. Appearances by P-Funkers George Clinton and Bernie Worrell certainly help, but so does the album’s sprawling theme; it’s a 75-minute opus about cultural, historical, and musical shakeups that have occurred since…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: Ed “Stevie” Caner (fiddle, viola profunda), Laurie Michelle “Tootsie” Caner (banjo, vocals), and Sarah “Mavis” Benn (bass, vocals) The Road to Old-Timey: After globetrotting with Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and Pavarotti, renowned fiddler Stevie returned to Akron in 2008 and joined forces with the vocal duo the Rhondas, creating…
Club Night
Becky’s Bar and Grill boasts astonishing depth. And you’ll be thankful for the long bar and cozy booths at its weekly Saturday-night karaoke — particularly when some dude turns Pearl Jam’s “Better Man” into a thundering and tuneless dirge. The diversity on display is quite something: business professionals sip Blue Moons. Blue-collar types squat at…
Food Fight Between Hunger Network and Foodbank Over For Now
An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated both groups received money from local foundations. In fact, the Hunger Network receives no money from foundations. The text has been changed to reflect the correction. Northeast Ohio has two very different emergency food distribution agencies: the Hunger Network, which runs handout centers from predominantly black churches;…
