A developing story

Dear readership,

Your humble hostess has taken on the duties of development news editor for Fresh Water Cleveland. Hence for the past couple of weeks, I've been churning out a lot of copy.

It's an interesting time to have such a gig in this town. I've been in CLE my whole life, so I truly understand the transformation that's going on here. I'm at the street level and I have a healthy dose of historic perspective.

Make no mistake: the renaissance is upon us. That I get to be the Girl Reporter delivering all the details is a pretty serendipitous development of its own.

Now for what I've been writing, with some side notes and images.

I rounded up what's next for Waterloo Road in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood for this article. Took a little road trip down there as well and stopped at Raddel's and picked up Slovenian sausage, smokies and jerky. HELL YEAH

Waterloo Road, Cleveland

Waterloo Road, Cleveland

Now it's Downtown to the 5th Street Arcades. Talk about your transformations. I remember going in this place 22 years ago to get my nails done for my wedding. It was downright creepy.

Not any more.

5th Street Arcades, Cleveland

5th Street Arcades, Cleveland

Cleveland Public Library's downtown branch is one of those magical places that inflates me with breath every time I step into it.

Now dig this: pretty soon you'll be able to amble on in there and scan stuff to your heart's content, including items that are 35- by 50-inches (you read that right), for FREE.

Cleveland Public Library, main branch

Cleveland Public Library, main branch

I've also covered new eats coming to the Uptown neighborhood, apartments and homes that are selling out before they're built in Battery Park and a new charter school where grade school tots are immersed in either Mandarin or Spanish.

¿Qué pasa?

Cleveland's Uptown neighborhood, Nov. 2013

I will not tip my hand on what I'm working on for next week, but know this: one of the interviews included a boat ride (!!).

This will still be the place for my errant commentary and essay, but I must admit that I interact quite a bit on Evil Overlord Facebook, iffin' you're in a mind to friend me over there. I will probably post most of my stories here, particularly if I have an interesting photo or side note to add.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. It means more to me than you know.

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