Near West Community Gardens

I entered in the addresses of all of the community gardens I could find on the Near-West Side of Cleveland into a Google map. I thought I'd share. Let me know if I'm missing any.

You can click through to see them all or use your mouse to pan across the map.



View Near-West Community Gardens in a larger map

Being Scrappy

"I operate within the constraints of my life. Opportunities abound. " My friend Doug Lodge's statement in the recent Antaeus Dance program uses graceful prose to refer to what I call "being scrappy".

My job history is comically diverse, but the through line is that I am open to opportunities as they arise. So far it's been a real trip.

I've been a babysitter, lawn-mower, athletic club janitor, baton twirling teacher, journalist, drive thru cashier, waitress (from 3rd shift at Country Kitchen to fine dining), bartender, pizza maker, telemarketer, knitting store employee, modern dancer, choreographer, audio book quality assurance tester, dance educator, assistant to a city councilman, archival property researcher, passenger train advocate, after-school program designer, community researcher, Volunteer Coordinator, Healthy Lifestyles Coordinator and a Census Campaign Coordinator.

I'll be starting a new job soon. My first full-time, grown-up, benefits and retirement job. I know the constraints and opportunities will continue to keep life interesting. I am never bored.

Down Home

I went on a pilgrimage to Southern Ohio last weekend. My grandparent's house on S. 10th street in Ironton has been torn down since I was last there. In place of the mint green and chocolate brown post-war bungalow is a parking lot. The unchanged view of the hills from their former backyard did console me.



View from my grandparents' former home.

I visited my grandparents in their retirement community in Portsmouth. My93-year-old grandfather complained about the lack of decent chess and checkers. He also told me stories about the rooster his family had when he was growing up and about how my grandparents got married when he was on leave in the Navy. My grandmother followed him up and down the west coast via train when they were newlyweds so they could be together while he finished his enlistment.



Charles E. Morrison, Navy photo


I also went hiking at Lake Vesuvius in the Wayne National Forest. I stayed a a great little bed and breakfast right on the Ohio River: , Riverview Inn in Franklin Furnace.



Lake Vesuvius, Wayne National Forest, Ironton Reservation

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.