9/5-9/10 Weekly Arts and Urbanism Roundup

Pittsburgh 

Downtown finally gets bike lanes. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

New community ideas for the August Wilson Center (Essential Pittsburgh)

Meet the performance artist who "married Pittsburgh"  (Essential Pittsburgh)

Steeltown Anthem visits Carnegie Coffee Co.  (Steeltown Anthem)

National Forum in Pittsburgh focuses on art's role in improving education (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

In Pennsylvania, buying beer out of state makes you a bootlegger. (Pennsylvania Independent)

Cleveland 

Beachland Ballroom and Space"ROCK Gallery celebrate 50th anniversary of Beatles landing with concert and photo exhibition.

RTA introduces Ohio City Connector, making it easier to travel between downtown and Ohio City. (Freshwater)

Northeast Ohio Skate Parks attract skaters and bike riders of all ages (Cleveland.Com)

Interview with owner of Cleveland's Upcycle Parts Shop (Cleveland Scene)

Johnny Manziel racks up 10th trademark filing with Johnny Cleveland. (Cleveland Scene)

Cleveland Rock and Roll half marathon cancelled. (Cleveland Scene)

The New York Daily News will no longer publish, The Cleveland Indian's Chief Wahoo logo.

Richmond Times Dispatch travel writer tours Cleveland's quirky side. (Richmond Times Dispatch)

Columbus

Downtown's population growth slowly attracts restaurants and shops. (Columbus Dispatch)

Other Ohio News

Hocking Hills Zip Line makes USA Today list of best zip lines in America. (USA Today)

Storming the beach at Conneaut: (Belt Magazine)

West Virginia and Appalachia News

Will legal pot end Appalachia's biggest cash crop?  (The Revivalist)

Carrie Williams, West Virginia's little known civil rights hero (The Revivalist)

Other Arts, Architecture and Urbanism News

Extensive archive of avant-garde and modernist magazines available online.  (Open Culture)

Why walking helps us think (The New Yorker)

New Orleans' Afterschool scene has a transportation problem (Next City)

Are we approaching peak land use control?  (Planetizen)

It's OK to build transit oriented development before transit (Streetsblog)

Here's what Silicon Valley can learn from good old Midwestern Values.

Should you say you are from the city if you live in the suburbs? (article3)

What smart cities can learn from Denver. (Pop City)

Pinterest accidentally congratulates single women for getting married. (New York Magazine)

Small Clubs and Local Musicians Work To Fight Cleveland's Destructive 8% Admission Tax

Ever wonder why in spite of an incredible asset like The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland's living small club scene still struggles?

First reason is that small music clubs almost everywhere, don't often rate as the world's most profitable businesses. Add to that the range of licencing fees and taxes on the one steady moneymaker, alcohol sales and Cleveland's special gift-An 8% across the board tax on admissions.

From Cleveland.Com

"Mayor Frank Jackson has shown no interest in a tax break for music clubs, telling The Plain Dealer: "People owe, they should pay. We have a city to run. We can't run it on air."

The Cleveland Music Club Coalition is growing, and it's planning a big push in February to get hearings on the legislation and to raise awareness with a single night of concerts at their venues called "Defend Music: Stop the 8 Percent," said Sean Watterson, owner of the Happy Dog on Cleveland's West Side."

LOL my flippin ass off. What do the Cleveland Brown's, Indians and other freeloaders do to pay off the tens of millions in cash they took from taxpayers?

Recent plans to collect on back taxes (To fund Cleveland Browns Stadium repairs?) have driven a number of clubs to the wall.

From Cleveland.Com

"Cindy Barber, owner of the Beachland Ballroom on the city's East Side, said this week that she faces a demand for $400,000 -- three years' worth of taxes plus penalties and interest.

Peabody's, near Cleveland State University, recently began adding the 8 percent tax to the price of tickets but also remains on the hook for collections dating back three years."

Local musicians are trying to desperately to repeal the tax.

Kirby is urging them to send a copy of their CD, cassette or mp3 to Mayor Frank Jackson, along with a note of support for Cleveland Music Club Coalition and a pending ordinance which would exempt small music clubs from the admission tax.

He’s asking them to do so by February 29th “for maximum impact,” saying “I would like to make a huge impression on Mayor Jackson to support our local venues and musicians that helped bring $840 million dollars of income and $91.6 million in taxes to Cuyahoga County in 2010.”

Here’s how to get your music to the mayor via snail mail or email:

Mayor Frank Jackson
Cleveland City Hall
601 Lakeside Ave.
Cleveland 44114
mayorsactioncenter@city.cleveland.oh.us

Win Passes to Every 2012 Beachland Ballroom Show

OK, if you live around Cleveland, this is a pretty great prize to go for.

Pretty much, just what it says. You enter on their Facebook page. Deadline December 29th

Cleveland Considers Dropping 8% Admission Tax on Small Clubs

People have wondered for years, why Cleveland's strong music heritage, central location, affordable living costs and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hasn't spawned a healthier music club scene.

Cleveland's 8% across the board admission tax might be a big factor.

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"The charge became an issue earlier this year after the city started hounding club owners to pay back taxes. The legislation would require owners to clean up those debts before receiving the exemption.

The Beachland Ballroom, in the Waterloo area, would squeeze in just under the law's cap. Owner Cindy Barber said in an interview last summer that she was under order to pay $400,000 -- three years' worth of taxes plus interest"

Four city council members are proposing dropping this tax for smaller clubs. As the article states, these are usually not the most profitable businesses to run.

Cleveland's North Collinwood Neighborhood Wins 500 Thousand Dollar Arts Based Development Grant

I have actually not been in this neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side, best know for The Beachland Ballroom. Collinwood is also one of several areas of the city gathering momentum at attracting artists and art related businesses.

Several things make this grant, partly funded by The Kresge Foundation.
seem fantastic-starting with it's size! Also great is that the money is going to folks in the area who have already shown themselves good at doing things-not just making grant proposals look good.

"We wanted to work with someone that got it, and Northeast Shores made a compelling case," says Beattie. "They've done a great job of giving artists license to use the neighborhood as their canvas, yet they've followed behind and supported them, resulting in organic, grassroots redevelopment of the neighborhood." He cited the arts-based businesses on Waterloo Road as one example."

Trust artists?

Many details are still to come, but the grant is likely to fund a program to help artist's purchase and rehab area homes and buildings as well as a small "$2,500-$10,000 grants to artists for community-based projects, arts-based community dialogues, and integrating arts-based development into current redevelopment projects in a deeper way."

Would love to hear from people with more knowledge of this area or projects like this going on in Cleveland-or almost anywhere else.

IMHO, all projects of this type would be leveraged by having a well done regional arts website to help spread the word and keep artists more aware and connected.

Cell Phone Aps Help People Know and Enjoy Cleveland Better

What I saw in Cleveland was sort of what I expected--a city loaded with unexpected and under leveraged assets and surprises, that more people should know about. Sadly, at least the hotel we stayed in seemed to have very little info on the real city out there--beyond a tiny number of things.

Hopefully, more people are taking matters into their own hands. A great post on Rust Wire looks at some of the cell phone aps out there to help you know the city better.

"Community groups, neighborhoods even whole suburbs in Cleveland are helping advertise their offerings using smart phone aps. These portable guides can help you catch a film, catch the bus or grab a bite to eat when you’re on the go in the Cleve.

This is definitely a policy other communities, public agencies and businesses should be looking into to help with marketing and customer service"

Great Cleveland Idea: Lottery League 2010

Draft Night 2010







OK, it would have been a pretty extreme stretch for me but I was sorely tempted to try to get up to see the 2010 Lottery League performance @ The Beachland Ballroom.

"I’ll rehash the League comp CD liner notes for the uninitiated (though you should of course buy the CD for the full story, nudge nudge): the Cleveland Lottery League started in late 2007, when six CLE indie-scene habitués bemoaned the tribal tendencies of rock recidivists, and hit upon the notion of a lottery as a way to reshuffle things and force collaborations between strangers. The Lottery took place on February 2, 2008 (Groundhog Day has a weird significance to this crew, which I’ll maybe cover in a later post), and resulted in 33 new bands from 144 musicians. All these new bands had 10 weeks to concoct a 10-minute set with at least one original group composition. (As it turned out, every group did all originals, the sole possible exception being mighty debatable — the band Boris Karloff's version of "Monster Mash" was entirely too fucked-with to properly count as a cover.)

At the end of the 10 weeks, on April 12, 2008, all 33 bands played one giant show with three stages. Nobody flat-out sucked it, and some went completely all-out. Homelesssexual performed with an accompanying narrative film. Semper Fi staged a fake war-on-terror battle (I’m pretty sure Iraq won, but honestly, I’d had a few drinks by then, so who knows?). Rad Bathhouse performed in ancient Roman costumes. Stimulus Package, Mohammed Cartoon, Free Moments and Hapsburg Lip were so completely fucking excellent it strained belief to think that their members had only been introduced a couple of months beforehand. It was one of the single greatest days in CLEmusic history, and we’re doing it again this year. Big Show Mk. II is on April 10 at the Beachland Temple of Rockawesome. Watch this space."

Gets back to why cities exist in the first place as a place to mix shit up. Seems it all started as an outgrowth of a Cleveland band opening up it's practice and recording studio. (Ever wonder how many of those were once in a place like The Lower Hill? Ever wonder what was lost, or never born?)

"In the summer of 2006, Jae Kristoff, Nate Scheible and Mike Wilkinson, all members of the experimental band Self Destruct Button at one time or another (another disclosure: this writer is currently on the inside of the SDB revolving door), opened the doors of Zombie Proof studio in midtown Cleveland free of charge and one hour at a time for three full days. Musicians were invited to each record one hour of music, sound, stuff breaking, whatever. More than 40 people took them up on the offer, and the results were edited together into songs, collaborations of a sort between people who may have never even been in the same room together."

The Lottery League: The Big Show.

When: 5 p.m. Saturday.(This Past Saturday)

Where: Beachland Ballroom & Tavern, 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland.

Suppose we had an Art Lottery league?

Do you know a lot about the Cleveland art or music scene and want to tell people in a wider area your perspective? Shoot me an email: diggingpitt@gmail.com. We have enough hyper local media.