• Reader urges MetroHealth to restore community faith in the Transformation Plan and the EcoVillage District process

    To the editor: (Plain Press, June 2022)                            Thank you to the Plain Press for publishing Lynette Filips’ excellent letter in favor of saving the Farnsworth house and St. Nicholas Church.      I am a long-time resident and volunteer on a MetroHealth Patient Family Advisory committee. I echo the despair of my fellow Old Brooklyn neighbors regarding the proposed demolition of St.…


  • MetroHealth Park plans reviewed at community meetings

    MetroHealth Park plans reviewed at community meetings by Chuck Hoven Plain Press, May 2022        The temporary 3-acre park proposed by MetroHealth Medical Center for an area just across Scranton Road from its new Glick Center was the subject of a community meeting held at the Family Ministry Center on Fulton Road on April 6th. The meeting…


  • Resident urges Planning Commission to keep the Farnsworth House and Byelorussian Church as part of the MetroHealth Park

    Resident urges Planning Commission to keep the Farnsworth House and Byelorussian Church as part of the MetroHealth Park To the editor: Open letter to the Planning Commission: Plain Press, May 2022        I am writing to you in response to news I heard about MetroHealth’s plans to demolish three buildings between W. 25th St. and Scranton Rd.…


  • Residents urged to contact Planning Commission to prevent demolition of Farnsworth House and Byelorussian Church

    Residents urged to contact Planning Commission to prevent demolition of Farnsworth House and Byelorussian Church To the editor: Plain Press, May 2022             The full Planning Commission meeting where the MetroHealth (MH) demolitions and temporary 3-acre park concept plan may be voted on has been moved to May 6th @ 9am.       I’ve been talking with some of…


  • Stand with Ukraine


  • Near West Design Review Committee tables MetroHealth park proposal

    COMMUNITY INPUT SOUGHT TO DETERMINE FATE OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS PHOTO BY CHUCK HOVEN Sunday, March 19, 2022; St. Nicholas Belarusian Orthodox Church building, 3518 Scranton Road, SW: A proposal by neighborhood resident Bob Gardin seeks to save this building from demolition. MetroHealth medical center proposed to demolish the building as part of a plan to…



  • 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…


  • Films returning to the Capitol as it celebrates its centennial

    Films returning to the Capitol as it celebrates its centennial by Brian Love (Plain Press, August 2021)                       Film fans cooped up for months can celebrate the return of live screening when the Capitol Theater, at W. 65th and Detroit Avenue, celebrates its 100th birthday with an August 12th reopening. The featured film will be the Wizard of Oz (1939). Tickets…


  • Cleveland Documenters examine opportunities for members of the public to speak at Cleveland City Council meetings

    Cleveland Documenters examine opportunities for members of the public to speak at Cleveland City Council meetings by Doug Breehl-Pitorak (Plain Press, April 2021)         The lack of a public comment period – a space for residents to speak – at Cleveland City Council meetings is once again on the civic radar. A group called Clevelanders for City…