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Want to know what is on our minds? Find blog posts written here, by the City Club staff, members, and partners. Every week you can find a new edition of #FreeSpeech in the News — a collection of related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century that’s making the news. You’ll also find takes on current events, past forums, and issues surrounding Northeast Ohio. Read on for all things City Club.

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Wednesday, November 13, 2019

I love Cleveland.

Guest Author, Blog, The City Club of Cleveland

I love Cleveland.

by Kathleen Osborne, Chief Marketing & Communication Officer, Hathaway Brown

I love Cleveland.

I love it for the traits the convention and visitors’ bureau picks to pack the pages of its city guides: the neighborhoods, the food, the music, the sports teams, the culture, the lakeshore.

But that’s not all. I love Cleveland because Clevelanders have each other’s backs.

Just about every time I meet someone new, they go out of their way to give me tips to make my West-Side-to-East-Side commute a little bit faster, or to tell me that they know a guy or a girl who can help me in some way and that I should look them up—or better yet, they’ll even make the introduction. The people who live here are amazingly helpful and committed to the betterment of their friends and neighbors. They may not consider themselves civic champions, but through their everyday interactions with fellow Clevelanders, they make the entire region an immensely more likeable and appealing place to live.

The Cleveland Rising Summit was the clearest manifestation I’ve experienced of that good old CLE instinct. People from all walks of life and all corners of the region came together for three days to learn from each other, make positive connections, celebrate our successes, and find ways to enhance the best in ourselves and in our hometown. But this was not just some rah-rah gathering of civic boosters. That’s maybe what I liked most about the time I spent at Public Auditorium at the end of October. We love our city so much that we’re willing to see her flaws and growing edges. We had open and honest discussions about real, deep, complex problems that can be found here. Problems like inequity, racial bias, insufficient resource distribution, poverty, and a murky future. Of course, it’s one thing to shine a light on these issues, and it’s another thing entirely to do something about them.

I was awed by the sheer intelligence, engagement, and drive of the people who came together for the summit. My group included a lawyer, a market researcher, a city councilwoman, a magazine publisher, a retired police officer, a communications manager, and a self-described “active citizen” who deliberated about how best to reimagine the lakefront in the region’s central corridor, repurposing public land so that Cleveland could become a global model for inclusive community-led planning. The result would be to create public access and bikeways, market-rate and affordable housing, corporate offices, water-based recreation, and a year-round event center all built in an environmentally sustainable way that heals the lakefront. The key to this new development is that it will be accessible to all—a vibrant area of Lake Erie that draws residents and visitors alike.

And I believe it will happen. Why? Because along with the 30 or so other big ideas that were debated and developed during the summit, our concept includes a plan for getting it done. In fact, some aspects of the work already are under way. It’s awesome to dream about the future. It’s even better to do something to get us there. It’s not going to be easy, but the most important things never are. We’ll continue to work at it for as long as it takes, though.

That’s what you do when you love something.

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Fran Bisselle - November 19, 2019

Fabulous message- we all should rise boldly to the challenges of our times in our great city!

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