tailgates and substitutes

Family Affair

2009-09-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Family Affair
By Lee Chilcote

Michael Fleming first noticed the solid brick façade and big, storefront windows of the former Oddfellows Hall on Lorain Avenue when he was training for a marathon. Wedged between a storefront church and a biker shop, the building seemed like a diamond in the rough.

“I was running one day, and the building jumped out at me,” says Fleming. “Lorain may be shabby and a bit down-at-the-heels, but it’s a very pretty street, and it’s affordable.”

Fleming saw that the property was for sale, and one day he ventured inside. The first thing he saw was the mahogany bar, covered in dust. That’s when he fell in love.

“I’ve always wanted to live above a bar,” says Fleming, who worked as a chef in Boston and Miami before moving back to Cleveland, his hometown, to pursue development in 2005.

Last year, Fleming bought the Ohio City building for $150,000 with his dad, his mom and his brother. The family members formed Solo Development LLC to invest in Cleveland real estate. They plan to renovate the first floor storefront and turn the upper two stories into loft apartments. Michael and his brother David will move into two of the apartments, and rent out the third.

“We are making an investment in the center of Cleveland,” says Ken Fleming, Michael’s father. “Since we purchased the building, we’ve seen other new developments sprout along Lorain.”

Ken Fleming cited over $16 million in investment on Lorain Avenue, including such projects as the St. Ignatius Performing Arts Facility, Providence House Campus expansion, the D.H. Ellison Company, the Cleveland Environmental Center, and the United Office Building.

The Flemings’ development was financed by Western Reserve Bank in Brecksville, in partnership with Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH), a non-profit whose mission is to provide low-interest loans to help spur reinvestment in Cleveland neighborhoods.

“We helped to finance the project at a reduced interest rate,” says Marcia Nolan, Executive Director of CASH. “We made deposits with Western Reserve Bank, and this enabled the borrower to save money.” She added, “Our work helps to make projects like this feasible.”

The developers will spend an additional $275,000 to create apartments in the building. The units will have a contemporary, loft-like feel, and will include such amenities as new kitchens and baths, in-suite laundry, and open floor plans. The third floor – which was originally used as a ballroom in its heyday, and has fourteen foot ceilings – is being transformed into a two bedroom, loft apartment. Michael plans to move into the apartment when it’s finished.

Renovating the building has turned into a family project. “My dad, my brother and I came down on Saturday mornings to tear apart the old plaster and lath from the walls and ceiling,” says Michael Fleming. “We spent about four months doing that before hiring a crew.”

During the redevelopment, the developers have coped with many challenges, including moving walls and reconfiguring electrical and plumbing systems. Michael is determined to restore the cove ceilings in the old ballroom, which were badly damaged by a leaky roof.

“Rehab is like peeling off layers of an onion,” Michael says with a laugh. “It’s a good learning experience.”

The Oddfellows building, which was built in 1870, has a rich, varied history. Over the years, it has housed the Hungarian Men’s Singing Society, the Communist Party of Northeast Ohio, and a hardcore music club called “Speak in Tongues,” among others.

Now that his rehab project is in full swing, Michael has fallen out of love with the building. Yet he still believes that the investment in Lorain Avenue will pay off over time. “One of the reasons I moved back to Cleveland is because it is an affordable place for a young person to invest, and it has great, historic buildings,” he says. “There’s so much opportunity here.”

Michael is already planning future dinner parties in his new home, and he has even talked about starting his own restaurant on the first floor. At the moment, however, refinishing the mahogany bar will have to wait. He’s got a lot of work to do before moving day.

[Note: This profile was written for Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH). It was published in Cool Cleveland.)

Two Organizations I Admire

2009-09-09T12:05:00.001-07:00

Recently, I've been inspired by the work of two exemplary organizations, the Galilean Theological Seminary and Passages Inc. The GTC provides training and mentoring for Hispanic pastors that serve the Latino community on Cleveland's west side (they are the only organization of their kind in the state of Ohio). Passages provides job readiness, mentoring and fatherhood programs for African-American men in Cuyahoga County. Thanks to referrals from my friend Nicole McGee, a fellow grant writer, I wrote small grants for each organization.

granta

2009-04-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, the American editor of Granta, an international literary magazine with a circulation of about 55,000, spoke at the Lit. He described Granta as a kind of antidote to the "get it now" culture of today's media. Much like a magazine, most of the pieces in Granta can be read in a single sitting (or two, if they are of the 50-page variety), but they cross a number of genres that you rarely find in magazines these days, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, photography and visual art. The issues sometimes have a theme (such as "fathers" in a recent issue) to which different authors respond. You can check it out online at www.granta.com.

who put that burger on your plate?

2009-03-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

The Elysium Charter School in Hoboken, NJ recently won the national "Farm to School" Youtube competition. A friend of mine, Aram Rubenstein-Gillis, is an arts consultant at the school (and who, after all, wouldn't want to be one of those?). He teaches music education, and he worked with a class of 5th graders to write, record and film the song and video, "Who Put That Burger on Your Plate?" The song is unbelievably cute, tells the inside story behind the travels of the aforementioned burger, and is kind of like Woody Guthrie meets today's green movement ... You can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZlCoG6RMgs.

creating model blocks in cleveland neighborhoods

2009-03-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood Progress Inc., a nonprofit that serves as an intermediary to community development corporations in Cleveland, is working on a "Model Blocks Resource Guide." The purpose of the guide is to help Cleveland residents to create a model block. What I find exciting about this project is that the "model block approach" combines grassroots action with coordinated and targeted resources. Done well, it seems to take community organizing to a higher level, layering various approaches to community redevelopment on top of one another, and applying these tactics simultaneously to maximize the impact. One example would be forming a block club, then applying for grants to fix up houses on your street while also using volunteer labor. NPI hired me to assist with the writing and organization of the brochure. Read more about NPI and model blocks by clicking here.

ciff

2009-03-24T08:21:00.001-07:00

If you plan to check out some films at the Cleveland International Film Festival, I highly recommend "Pachamama", "El Camino" and "German Plus Rain". I had an opportunity to view these films before the festival, as I was hired as one of the synopsis writers for the program guide, and enjoyed both of these films. I know, I know - so many movies, so little time!

the namesake

2009-03-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to read The Namesake, a novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, while I was vacationing for a few days in California. What a great book! The novel explores issues of ethnic identity in our so-called post-racial world. It also has some very tender and funny scenes, and the lead character, Gogol, unexpectedly turns out to be a bit of a lady's man. The novel centers around an Indian family that emigrates to the U.S. Told largely through the eyes of the second-generation Gogol, it asks the question, "can you ever go home again"?, yet does so in such a charming way, with seemingly fresh insight into the immigrant experience in today's world, that it works.

schools study ways to promote digital alumni connections

2009-02-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

By Lee Chilcote
Published in Crain's Cleveland Business, 1/26/09

clbfreelancer@crain.com

Imagine a group of Oberlin College alumni, gathered in front of a high-definition television in New York City or San Francisco to watch a concert being performed live on campus.

That’s the vision of Ben Jones, Oberlin’s vice president for communications. “We need to create a communications system that engages alumni in lifelong participation,” says Mr. Jones, who sees technology as a tool to link alumni with campus activities.

Alumni communications in Northeast Ohio are rapidly changing as colleges and universities use the next generation of technology — including blogs and social media tools — to reach out to alumni. But many alumni groups are struggling to effectively use technology and stay on top of technological trends.

“Technology has shrunk the world, and it makes it easier to communicate,” says Dan Clancy, executive director of alumni relations for Case Western Reserve University. “But we don’t want to send out e-mails that people don’t read, so we try to be strategic.”

Citing a digital divide, most schools still send alumni magazines by mail. Many of these institutions also offer additional content online and send e-mail newsletters to appeal to Internet-savvy alums.

“We have many alumni who grew up with technology, and others who didn’t,” Mr. Jones said. “In five to 10 years, this gap may not be there. In the meantime, we don’t want to leave anyone behind, but we also don’t want to limit ourselves.”

The divide, Mr. Jones adds, is not necessarily between older and younger alumni. “We have older alumni who are computer scientists that helped to create the Internet, and younger alumni who don’t use the Internet every day,” he says. “There is a spectrum in each generation.”

The primary difference, says Carolyn Champion-Sloan, executive director of alumni affairs for Cleveland State University, is in how alumni use the Internet: “Those over 35 use e-mail to communicate, but aren’t necessarily on it all of the time.”

Lines of communication

Technology has afforded alumni groups the chance to communicate quickly and to target communications to specific alumni groups, CWRU’s Mr. Clancy said. He cited a recent visit to Tokyo by CWRU president Barbara Snyder. After the alumni association sent out an e-mail invitation to the Tokyo alumni chapter, 50 alumni attended the reception.

“The next morning, when I arrived into the office, pictures from the event were waiting in my e-mail in-box,” Mr. Clancy said.

In order to cultivate personal relationships with alumni, schools also are trying to personalize their communications by creating alumni-only sites that allow graduates to specify their interests and network with other alumni where they live.

“Our graduates could be anywhere, chatting with one another in real time,” says Mr. Clancy of the AlumNet system recently launched by CWRU.

Oberlin also is working on an opt-in communications system that will, among other things, allow graduates to receive their alumni magazine by e-mail only. “We need to move beyond a one-size-fits-all strategy,” Mr. Jones said.

Another trend is the explosion in popularity of social media sites such as Facebook. This popularity has led alumni groups to use these sites for networking.

“We know that our graduates are already using these sites, and this is one way we can reach them,” says Lori Randorf, director of alumni relations for Kent State University. Ms. Randorf has created Kent State alumni groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Other schools, such as Oberlin, are using interactive blogs to communicate with the extended campus community. Mr. Jones recently launched a blog (www.weareoberlin.org) and hired student bloggers to write entries.

Many schools also view technology as a tool for raising money. “Through the Internet, schools can cultivate relationships without relying on face-to-face contact and phone calls,” said Ann Womer Benjamin, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education. “It’s also easier to maintain contact lists.”

Not everyone agrees, however. “Fundraising electronically just isn’t warm and fuzzy,” says Vondea Sheaffer, coordinator for development and alumni relations at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, who says that personal outreach is essential. “You still need to create a connection.”

Not without its downfalls

While technology offers many advantages, it can be time-consuming and expensive.
“People think technology is cheap, but it isn’t always,” said Mr. Jones. The toughest part of his job, he adds, is choosing what to prioritize. “It changes quickly. There’s always a danger that by the time we implement ideas, they’ll be outdated.”

While technology is certain to advance in the coming years, it also is likely that some things will remain the same.

“Just because Amazon introduced the Kindle doesn’t mean that books are obsolete,” Mr. Jones says. “The alumni magazine will always have a print version, because some people want that.”

the most points on a single turn in the game of scrabble

2009-01-30T14:43:00.001-08:00

Was for the word "quixotry". 365 by a carpenter named Michael Cresta in Lexington, Mass.

Sheila Schwartz has a new book coming out entitled "Lies Will Take You Somewhere". It's kind of like a twisted travelogue about self-deception, love and family. There will be a celebration of the publication of this novel by Etruscan Press on Feb. 28th at the Lit. Sheila, who taught at Cleveland State, unfortunately passed away in November 2008 after a lengthy battle with cancer - an incredibly sad loss to the Cleveland literary community. I am currently reading the book, and writing a review that I hope will find a home soon.

I have been writing film synopses for the program guide of the Cleveland International Film Festival. This fulfills my lifelong goal of getting paid to sit on my couch and watch movies. Seriously: go see "German Plus Rain," "Pachamama" and "El Camino." So many films, so little time. What better way to escape the snowmelt/snowfall season that we call March here in the Cleve.

This week, I had a piece published in Crain's Cleveland Business, in a special section about alumni at colleges and universities. The piece that I wrote is about the challenges and opportunities that schools face in using technology to reach out to and engage alumni.

And finally, here's my recession story: as I said last year, "bad year for real estate, good year for writing". The state of the economy has pushed and prodded me to focus on my writing, and lately I've been freelancing and writing non-fiction and poetry like nobody's business (what does that phrase mean, anyway?). As always, if you've got a referral, please send it my way.

Thanks for reading.

War and Peace

2008-12-28T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last night, I went to an engagement party for a friend from elementary school, and I bumped into a number of my parents' friends that I had known growing up. I got into a long, interesting conversation with one couple, who are avid readers and have had a lifelong dialogue about the books that they've read. I haven't read any Orwell, so we were discussing that, but it was when I told them that I hadn't read War and Peace that they began to lobby most heavily for me to pick up a copy and read it in the coming year. Apparently, the most difficult part of reading it is getting past the first one hundred pages, because Tolstoy introduces so many characters, it's almost impossible to keep up. However, once you reach this mark, if you're not completely confused, the rest of the book is a bit easier. I did read Anna Karenina in college, and enjoyed it very much.

We also talked about book clubs, and how difficult it is to find one that is truly serious, because there simply aren't very many people that carve out the time to read literature these days. "Life takes over", as we all know, and it's easy to get distracted by work, family and friends. The book club that I am a member of is famous for its many slackers, and when we gather, typically only a few of us have finished the book. It's a very fun group, yet I admit that it's a bit annoying to have really spent time with the book, and find that not everyone has done the same. One of my goals for the coming year is to start a new book club, and to develop relationships that are based around reading books that move me and cause me to grow - personally and as a writer.

Book Club at the Lit

2008-12-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

I am working on a collaboration with Judith Mansour-Thomas of the Lit to establish a regional book club that focuses on writers that either live in or have roots in Northeast Ohio. This organization is the nonprofit organization that serves the literary community in Northeast Ohio. We are hoping to launch the new book club in March, and to host special events in which we bring writers in to talk about their own work. I am excited about the chance to help foster a community of writers and readers in Northeast Ohio, and also to help celebrate the talented writers that we have in our region. For more information on the Lit, visit www.the-lit.org.

Green Machine

2008-10-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Blue-collar city, meet green-collar jobs. Are you ready?

By Lee Chilcote
Coolcleveland.com, Issue Date: 10/15/08

Ed Weston spends his days working with companies that make wind turbine parts, an industry that he says is bringing jobs to Northeast Ohio, but as he meets with companies across the region, he's vexed by one question: Why do they have trouble finding workers?

"I'm talking about good jobs that pay fifteen dollars or more per hour," says Weston. "You walk into a foundry, the same old foundry that's been there forever, and the lines are jammed. They're making castings and parts for wind turbines. But they’re always looking for people."

Part of the issue, he says, is lack of training. Ohio companies supply a large portion of the wind turbine parts built in the U.S., his research shows. Yet while the state's 7.4% unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country, the companies that supply parts to this growing industry are often hiring.

Wind power is perhaps the most iconic of green industries in Northeast Ohio, yet experts say that there's potential to grow other types of green-collar jobs here, as well. A recent study by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) cites the potential for 550,000 new green jobs in Ohio over the next few decades. Advocates say that Northeast Ohio has assets that could help us to progress into a green economy, including a strong manufacturing base and growing programs to train workers.

Yet as the effort to pair green-collar jobs with blue-collar workers ramps up, some leaders question whether our workforce is ready. Others question the significance of the green economy. Still, leaders from the city of Cleveland up to the Governor's office are betting that green-collar jobs will help Cleveland's economy to grow.

"Green jobs can be an economic driver for Northeast Ohio," says Leo Russo, Executive Director of Cuyahoga Community College's Green Academy.

Tom Waltermire, CEO of Team NEO, an organization whose mission it is to attract business to Northeast Ohio, is not sure that green jobs are a trend. He also says that it's tough to measure green-collar job growth in Cleveland because no one has completed a quantitative study.

"What the heck is a green collar job, anyway?" he says, chuckling at the notion's newfound celebrity. "There's no data on green jobs. My job is to get any kind of business here -- whether they are polluters or not."

Waltermire admits that wind power could give our economy a big lift. "It's got Northeast Ohio written all over it," he says. "Steel poles and fiberglass blades... This is the kind of stuff that we're good at making. We're already making the components here. Now we want to attract a company that assembles the turbines."

Many experts agree that if Cleveland is to capitalize on this trend, then more work force training is needed. "Every politician is talking about it, but there's a training gap," adds Andrew Watterson, the city of Cleveland's Sustainability Manager. "In manufacturing, we have a big advantage over other areas because we have the supply chain and the work force, yet workers still need to get certified."

Leo Russo, Executive Director of Cuyahoga Community College's Green Academy, which provides training for green-collar jobs, agrees that more focus on training is needed. "I get complaints from contractors who have trouble reading green specs when they are bidding on jobs," he says. "There are training programs for architects and other professionals -- but until we started the Green Academy, there was virtually no training for the trades."

Other cities have joined in the effort to attract green-collar jobs. In July, the city of Oakland, California allocated $250,000 in seed funding for a "Green Collar Jobs Corp" that provides workforce training for city residents. Washington D.C. and Portland, Oregon are working on similar programs.

To grow Northeast Ohio's ability to attract green-collar jobs, Watterson believes that more effort is needed to provide training for low-income workers. In partnership with Tri-C's Green Academy, he has helped to create "Pathways out of Poverty," a training program for people not currently in the workforce.

"The missing link is getting people ready for employment," says Watterson.

To this end, Russo's program is expanding rapidly. While the Green Academy initially provided training in green building, the program now offers classes on interior design, health care and green business innovation. Approximately 200 people have participated in the program since January.

In addition, the Green Academy recently received a $600,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development to fund efforts to take its training programs statewide. With this grant, Tri-C will develop a sustainability curriculum for other community colleges in Ohio. Russo plans to roll out the training programs in Columbus, Marietta, Youngstown, and Cincinnati by April 2009.

Jennifer Connolly, Executive Director of the Green Building Coalition (GBC), says that the demand for subcontractors trained in green building is rising. “The number of professionals accredited in green building in Cleveland is constantly going up,” she says. As more green building projects get underway, trained subcontractors will be needed.

The GBC coordinates training for the Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) program, a national certification program in green building. Currently, there are about 150 architects and other LEED-certified professionals in Cleveland.

Watterson expects "Pathways Out of Poverty" and other city-led initiatives to create more job opportunities in the future. One example is a city jobs program that hired 250 youth to install rain barrels on Cleveland residents' homes this past summer. The program, he says, helped residents to save on their water bills, provided work experience for city youth, and kept excess water out of the city's sewer system.

While industry leaders say that more work force training is needed, they also agree that there is a near-consensus about addressing the problem at the state and regional level. Watterson says that a turning point for him was seeing Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher attend the American Wind Energy Conference this year.

"Fisher spoke at the conference and met with companies there," he says. "Previously, the Ohio Department of Development had sent only staff people."

Weston agrees, citing Ohio's recently passed "portfolio standards" requiring power companies to use renewable sources to produce a portion of their energy. A little over half of the states in the U.S. have passed portfolio standards. "Ohio's new standards are going to help drive the sustainability economy, including wind energy," he says.

As training programs like the Green Academy ramp up, providers says that they must walk a delicate line between training workers for jobs in emerging industries, and providing them with skills to help them find jobs right away.

"It doesn't make sense to train people for industries where there are no jobs," says Watterson. "There’s just not much of an economy yet around solar panels."

That, too, may change. Jean Stepanik, who manages training for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workes (IBEW) in Cleveland, expects demand for solar installation to rise in coming years. The IBEW apprenticeship program for solar panel wiring graduates about fifty journeymen each year. The union recently rewrote its training curriculum -- starting in 2009, every journeyman going through the program will have to get certified to wire solar panels.

"You can't just look in a phone book and pick an electrical contractor," Stepanik says. "There's a lot of accountability, and solar installation is a difficult certification to get."

In industries such as wind, a surge in demand across the board will likely cause a shortage until Ohio industries get up to speed.

"When [billionaire businessman and alternative energy advocate] T. Boone Pickens places a two-billion-dollar order for wind turbine parts, you know it’s going to take a while to get caught up," Weston says.

In the long term, this means greater demand for green-collar workers. Watterson says that means Northeast Ohio's leaders need to continue to step up efforts at workforce training. He's not worried, however, stressing that we already have an edge because of our manufacturing base.

In a way, Watterson says, we're so far behind that we're now ahead. "When it comes to green jobs, we are benefiting from having so much manufacturing here," he says. "It's a bit like those plaid pants in your closet coming back in style."

fish and wigs on h street

2008-08-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I visited my friend Brian in DC. The ostensible purpose of the trip was to help Brian, his brother Duncan, and his mom Rosie to move from an apartment in Germantown, Maryland (DC metro area's hinterlands, or affordable housing located at the city's fringe) to a slick, brand spankin' new condo in the up-and-coming H Street neighborhood.

And move we did. A group of us that included family friends from Cincinatti, New York City, DC, Boston and Cleveland (myself) slogged through a 10-hour day of schlepping, schlepping and more schlepping. It ended up being quite fun, though. After a few adventures getting the U-Haul truck (can anyone say, 'the evils of corporate monopoly'?) we managed to get most of their worldly possessions (including Brian and Duncan's high school yearbooks .... mmm, on second thought, maybe we should have left those behind) from G-town to H Street in 2 trips.

H Street is a fascinating neighborhood. Apparently the city has put quite a bit of effort into redeveloping this area, which is adjacent to the fancier (and more expensive) Capitol Hill community. Rosie calls it the "fish and wig district" because it's just that: a place where fish and wig shops abound. Somehow, they now coexist alongside hip and too-trendy-to-have-a-sign-that-stands-out locales such as the Argonaut (a restaurant) and the Rock and Roll Hotel (a club with an unbelievably talented DJ spinning danceable grooves on Saturday night).

Here is a link to the wikipedia article about H Street:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_Street_(Washington,_D.C.)

And here is a link to the website for one of the gems of Washington DC that lies adjacent to the H Street neighborhood, the Eastern Market:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_Street_(Washington,_D.C.)

so what do you do again?

2008-07-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

"You know those people who you know have jobs, but you're not exactly sure what they do?"

That's how a radio essay on NPR's Marketplace opened last week. The essay, by university professor Dan Drezner, recounts a conversation with his brother in which he tries to explain why he's not teaching classes in the summer. Drezner is doing research and writing then, but his brother, a hedge fund manager, doesn't seem to believe him.

My jobs - one part real estate professional, one part freelance writer - are also not exactly easy to explain at a cocktail party. Maybe it would be easier if my job were more boring ("I'm an accountant"), brilliant yet technical ("brain surgeon"), or if I were forbidden to discuss it ("child psychologist", something like that).

A part of the challenge of explaining my job to other people, at least with the writing part, is justifying to people that I'm not simply hanging out at the park or the bar all day. I actually do work. And every so often, something that I write gets published. Really.

The writing job sounds like fun to most people. "So you just hang out and talk to people all day?" Writing can be fun, but it can also be really difficult. Just ask my wife, Katherine; she has to put up with my moodiness when I'm stuck or frustrated with a story.

Katherine once heard Anthony Bourdain, the host of the travel show "No Reservations," speak at a conference for the organization "Iconoculture". Bourdain, who travels all over the world searching for authentic culture in places that most people wouldn't think to go to (like Cleveland, for instance), gave the keynote address.

He opened with these simple lines: "My job doesn't suck ... "

I suppose, when asked what I do for a living, that's one answer that I hope I could give.

Here's the link to the Marketplace story:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/24/summer_job/

turning to t-shirts

2008-07-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

The NY times recently ran a story called "Turning to T-Shirts to Spiff Up Downtrodden Cities". The article chronicled the efforts of t-shirt makers in cities such as Youngstown and St. Louis to create and sell apparel that "rehabilitates [the city's] image from the inside out and makes people want to stay".

Among the companies cited is Rusty Waters Apparel, based in Youngstown. The article also quotes Abby Wilson of the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE), a group focused on bringing together Great Lakes cities to focus on common solutions to urban problems. "It's reframing the identity of those places that have been misrepresented," Wilson is quoted as saying.

T-shirts have long held a certain power in American culture. Advertisers use them to sell their product; people wear them to express themselves. For those of us living in the city, our t-shirts are something of a brand for ourselves - the images represent our city-loving hipster culture.

Right now, I'm wearing a t-shirt that reads, "Cleveland - West Side." It has this kitsch image of a skull sprouting wings - kind of a skull and crossbones thing. It's kind of a pseudo-Harley t-shirt for the intellectual urban planning nerd. I love it. I bought the t-shirt at Room Service, a boutique in the Gordon Square Arts District within the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

I'm sure you'll want to run right out and join the t-shirt brigade. Room Service can be found online at http://www.roomservicecleveland.com/ or visit their shop at 6505 Detroit Ave. (at the intersection of Detroit and W. 65th).