• 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…


  • 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.


  • 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.…


  • 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…


  • 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…


  • 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…