10 Things I Like about Cleveland: Part X

It's difficult to choose only ten things I like about Cleveland, but I guess I'll finish my list with something salient. I like the Cleveland International Film Festival--coming soon!

A Bridge for All

Those who don't have a car still do
Pay public infrastructure taxes too
So why can't those who don't have a car
Use the bridge in their own backyard?…

All kinds of traffic should be delivered
Up over the Cuyahoga River
If they drive a bike or just walk around
Give everyone a way to get downtown.

Let's keep Cleveland on the right track.
Take a step forward not a step back
Now is the chance if we answer the call
To build a bridge that connects us all.

unbound

I say jump! But I do not jump. I indicate energy
and yet I still look for my own bloom—
through fine lines, past flat belly to cold toes.

Everything is careful and documented these days. Lightly treaded.
I am not bound and I feel the burden of what holds me?
Not pursuit of purse and suit.

I work and I walk and I sew and I plant and I cook and I clean and I speak and I sleep

I’m not a real dazzler
but I only borrow the salty soft whys from the unfulfilled.
Incanting patience with a cycle of believe, bereave, be, believe, bereave, be.
I’d rake in all those hesitant moldering leaves and celebrate the end of this season, but they’re not mine to burn.

10 Things I like about Cleveland: Part IX

I like the snow. Winter is my least favorite season, but the snow makes it bearable. I like its variations--from snow-globe flakes to harsh blustery blizzards. I like being tough and trudging through drifts when walking to work. I like being a baby and using it as an excuse to stay home, drink tea and cuddle my cat. I like how it brightens gray days. I like yards dotted with Snowmen.

We Clevelanders are blessed with four seasons made even more seasonal by our great lake. That basin of fresh water ensures springtime slogs will be spongy with a sucking, loamy, flower-sprouting ground. Our summer will be humid, yet made more sufferable because of cool lake breezes. Autumn will be misty with a foghorn soundscape. We'll have mayflies in June and seagulls all year round. And in winter, we'll have Lake-Effect Snow.

10 Things I like about Cleveland: Part VIII

I like Pop Up City. A part of the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Pop Up City activates vacant/underused urban spaces in creative ways. All of their events are at the root, based on collaboration, sharing assets, a wacky sense of fun and having their finger on the pulse of what makes Clevelanders get off of their sofas.

My first Pop Up was Cleveland's initial Bizarre Bazaar. Then I went to Leap Night down in the Flats. I was fortunate to be able partner with P.U.C. when I was a Fellow on the Electric Roller DiscoTech and then again when I was volunteer coordinator for The Bridge Project.

If you've never experienced a Pop Up City event, or if you know you love them, check out Brite Winter Festival this weekend.

10 Things I like about Cleveland: Part VII

I like the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from the Great Lakes Brewing Company. It is heavy enough to suit my winter palette, but fizzy enough for me to enjoy during the heat of summer. The taste is rich, complex, smooth and somehow bitter. I like it in a bottle, in a growler or from the tap at the brewery.

10 Things I like about Cleveland: Part VI

I like the abundance of urban agriculture in Cleveland. We have:

• plots of vacant land you can buy for about $1,
• a diverse group of willing, committed people,
• hungry citizens in need of fresh, nutritional produce,
• free technical assistance,
• innovative urban gardening and urban livestock zoning policies,
• bottom-up DIY-ness and
• top-down support.

I can't wait for the upcoming growing season. The plan is to turn the entire yard into a garden this summer. We've made layers of comforter compost and are letting it prepare the soil this winter

Last spring, garden prep

10 Things I like about Cleveland: Part V

I like the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority--specifically the trains. I know that the RTA has raised fees and cut service. And I'm disappointed in that. However, I do like the convenience of taking the Red Line to University Circle, Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood, the Ohio City Neighborhood and the Airport. I like taking the Green or Blue line to Shaker Square.