Plain Press

  • In Memory – George Hrbek

    We’ll See You on The Frontlines, George PHOTO FROM PLAIN PRESS ARCHIVES In Memory of George Hrbek: June 20, 1931- February 19, 2023. by Molly Martin      (April 2023, Plain Press) I can hardly believe that George Hrbek is gone, but if I find him somewhere, I know it’ll be on the frontlines of social…

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  • Board of Zoning Appeals approves Youth Drop in Center

    by Bruce Checefsky      Tasha Jones gets up every morning to go to work just like thousands of residents of Ohio City. She buys food at the West Side Market and shops for groceries at Dave’s Supermarket on Carroll Avenue. Jones exercises at the local gym and uses the Cleveland Public Library West Branch. She…

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  • Street Studio

    PHOTO BY IAN HEISEY Saturday, February 11, Street Studio, St. Paul’s Community Church, 4427 Franklin Boulevard: Sundown plays the piano accompanied by Michael Wells on the drums. Street Studio provides a place of peace and respect for people to share a song or a poem and have access to a piano, guitars, drums, a microphone,…

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  • Letters to the Editor

    Variance for Youth Drop-In Center applauded To the Editor:    I have been a resident of the Near West Side for over 25 years, and I am grateful that the City of Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals granted the variance needed for the Youth Drop-In Center project on Franklin Blvd.    Finally, a new project…

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  • St. Paul’s Community Church installs new pastor

    On November 13th, St. Paul’s Community Church at 4427 Franklin Boulevard held an installation service and installed Emily Culp-Ashby as its new pastor. Culp-Ashby has served as “dedicated” pastor for over a year.

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  • How residents fought for – and won – a slower Franklin Boulevard

    by Xavier Yozwiak, The Land      (Plain Press, December 2022) The first phase of the construction of seven traffic circles along a busy west side boulevard recently finished. Franklin Boulevard residents have been concerned for over a decade about speeding and reckless driving on the street, particularly the portion which runs from W. 25th St.…

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  • Four area schools slated for renovation or new construction

    PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Thursday, March 17, 2022; Marion Champlin Seltzer Elementary School Building, 1468 W. 98th Street: The Cleveland Metropolitan School District plans to build a new school next to the current building on land that sits behind Cudell Recreation Center. Once the new school is completed, plans call for the current building to be…

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  • In Memory

    Michael O’Brien 1945-2021 (Plain Press, November 2021)                  Michael O’Brien, a librarian turned bookseller, came to the Near West Side as part of the Catholic activist movement to the neighborhood in the early 1970s and joined the Thomas Merton Community living in their house on W. 38th and Clinton.      O’Brien was the proprietor of the Six Steps Down…

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  • Call to action: Cleveland needs to address lack of low-income housing options

    Call to action: Cleveland needs to address lack of low-income housing options To the Editor: (Plain Press, May 2021)      My name is Paul Sherlock and last Friday (April 9th) my friend Jim Schlecht and I staged a protest of four apartment development sites currently underway on the Near West Side of Cleveland. We were protesting the lack…

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