Cleveland Metroparks

At the start of the week of August 15, 2016, we were prepared to write a blog post about how lucky we are in Cleveland to have PechaKucha Night Cleveland (@PKNCLE), which was coming up on Friday, August 19th. As the week progressed, we realized that, starting on Wednesday, we were going to have the opportunity to attend five consecutive free creative arts events! All of these events deserved at least a special mention and a thank-you, while some even warranted a full blog post.

Thus, this blog post has morphed into something different. While focused on PechaKucha Night Cleveland, it will also include mention of the other free creative events, and an additional inaugural arts event. This is our way to publicly thank the following organizations for their work to provide these free arts events:

• Wednesday: WOW! Wade Oval Wednesdays - University Circle (@InTheCircle)

• Thursday: Edgewater LIVE 2016 - Cleveland Metroparks (@CleveMetroparks)

• Friday: PechaKucha Night Cleveland (@PKNCLE)

• Saturday: Arts In August - Tremont West Development Corporation (@TremontWest - @ArtsInAugust),
  plus the inaugural Flats Festival of the Arts (@FlatsForward) which cost $10.

• Sunday: Celebrate100! Party in Your National Park - Cuyahoga Valley National Park (@CVNPNPS - @forcvnp)

I was very fortunate to see on Twitter an announcement about a very interesting panel discussion. On Tuesday, February 9, 2016, I attended the discussion about recent developments on, and potential future plans for Cleveland's lakefront and riverfront.

By arriving early at Lakewood Public Library, I was able to get a good seat for this function, which soon became a standing-room-only event! 

Even though I had heard about most of the projects separately, it was exciting for me to hear about all of them at one gathering! It was great to hear directly from these panel members, who are intimately involved with these projects. 

My weekend plans went from nothing planned to really fun when I learned about two free events via Twitter.

I had not planned on writing this blog post about the weekend. I even told people I talked to at the events that I was not going to write about the weekend. However...

After the weekend was over, I decided I wanted to capture the information I learned about local adventures. I also wanted to thank NEO Cycle and the Cleveland Pops for the good time.

EASTSIDE GREENWAY 
The Eastside Greenway seeks to connect the east side of Cleveland with 18 Greater Cleveland municipalities through a unified trail network that will link neighborhoods to employment centers, transit and existing green spaces. The communities within the study area include East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Beachwood, Pepper Pike, University Heights, Richmond Heights, Highland Heights, Highland Hills, North Randall, Mayfield Heights, Mayfield Village, Euclid, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Bratenahl, Orange Village and Warrensville Heights and eastern portions of Cleveland.

The Eastside Greenway project is a great idea, but in some ways I feel that it might be too early to write about it. Today it is just a great idea -- a concept for the future. I look forward to writing again about how the work of today's leaders made a difference in the quality of life.

Just imagine having bike paths that would tie the different eastside communities together! I think it could make a big difference in how the people there will live and interact.

Thank you, Cleveland Foundation, for your September 13 & 28, 2014 Centennial Gift: Weekends on the Water!

We are very fortunate to have been among the 6,000 Clevelanders who received free tickets to an educational cruise on Cleveland's largest excursion ship, the Goodtime III. On Saturday, September 13th, we joined a joyful crowd on the docks at the end of East 9th Street near Voinovich Park. A light rain did not dampen the spirits of those waiting to board the ship.

This blog post was originally intended to be a short description of a pleasant Sunday morning tour of part of the Flats area of Cleveland. However, as we learned more about Cuyahoga River-related developments, we kept finding additional important facets about which to write.

• A Sunday Morning Hike
• Lunch By The River
• Bike Ride - Scranton Flats
• Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation
• Tweets & Retweets
• A Great Gift!
• Bike The Ohio & Erie Canal
• Sound Of Applause - Live Remote: Merwin’s Wharf
• The Next Gift: Cuyahoga River & Lake Erie Educational Cruise