2019 Annual Report MidTown Cleveland Inc. drives planning, placemaking, and real estate development projects to ‘establish a shared vision and lead a collective effort to plan and develop a neighborhood that embraces and exhibits a sense of place.’ What do we mean by place? MidTown Cleveland, Inc. Our Vision 5000 EUCLID AVENUE SUITE 100 MidTown is a connected CLEVELAND, OHIO 44103 community in the center 216.391.5080 PHONE of it all, an inclusive place for people to innovate, midtowncleveland.org create, prosper, and live. Annual Report Last year’s annual report focused on how MidTown is becoming a more connected community through health care, food, people, and place. MidTown’s vision statement opens with “a connected community in the center of it all,” and as we enter the final year of our three-year strategic plan, strengthening the connective tissue of our neighborhood remains a core focus. This year’s annual report is focused on a second strategic plan priority — creating a complete MidTown neighborhood that transforms MidTown from a pass through to a place. This Must Be the Place This goal, equally as important as community connections, is one What do we mean by place? Creating quality places for all the Town. We work to engage the residents and stakeholders in our Market and eatery, murals, wayfinding, and utility boxes). we’ve spent considerable time working on over the past year. Our people to live, work, play, learn, and be, places that feel good to community in designing, programming, and activating place We are grateful to our dedicated board and staff who team is constantly working on planning, placemaking, and real be in, that enhance quality of life, and that draw people in. We throughout the Town. Sometimes placemaking is work to advance the neighborhood in countless estate development initiatives under the goal of establishing a work at both a macro-neighborhood level (corridor planning for temporary and occurs every week or just once a ways, as well as to our 200+ members, donors, shared vision and leading a collective effort to plan and develop a Carnegie) and a micro-street level (improving the intersection of year (the CHOMP, our kickball tournament) and and financial supporters who believe in our neighborhood that embraces and exhibits a sense of place. Euclid and East 55th) to help create a stronger sense of place in sometimes it is designed to last for years (Dave’s vision and share in our success. ABOVE A mural by Lauren Noel, part of a series throughout the neighborhood, brings color to the corner of Euclid Ave. and East 36th St. CHAIR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie McHenry Board of Directors Jeff Epstein MidTown Cleveland Inc. 1 Introduction & 2 Table of Contents 3 4 A Connected Annual Report PAGE PLACE 04 5 6 7 A Beautiful PLACE 8 PAGE 06 9 10 11 A Vibrant PLACE 12 PAGE 10 13 14 A Dynamic PAGE PLACE 14 15 16 AN Inclusive PAGE PLACE 16 17 18 The Neighborhood By-the-Numbers 19 20 21 Membership, 22 PRINCIPAL EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAXEL IMAGE GROUP Leadership & Financials THIS PAGE The team from Dealer Tire hoists the championship trophy at the second annual Kickball Tournament. 23 24 A Connected Place Several dynamic new community gathering places where you can find a diverse cross-section of our community coming together to shop, learn, connect, or just hang “third spaces” opened in out. These spaces evolve organically, but they are a key building block in MidTown in the last year, creating a connected community with a sense of place. PICTURED AT TOP Café Phix MidTown & MidTown Tech Hive Dave’s Market Dave’s Market and eatery has quickly become a point of pride in the Town and the go-to spot for the community, with neighbors from across the neighborhood shopping or crowding the aisles during the lunch rush. DAVE’S MARKET Teaching Kitchen A focal point of technology and Programmed by University Hospitals and community in the neighborhood, the other community partners, the teaching Tech Hive has become Cleveland’s most kitchen at Dave’s hosts classes such as diverse coworking space and a home for “cooking with your kids” and “healthy meal seemingly every meeting and event in planning on a budget” which add to the MidTown. Café Phix, a locally-owned vitality of the community. coffee shop in the building, serves as a meeting hub and refueling station for the Tech Hive’s innovative users. 05 MIDTOWN A Beautiful Place MidTown is in the midst of a with small and large-scale public art and beautification projects that delight and inspire the people who live in, work in, or visit MidTown. major push to improve the look Several projects will be completed this fall, and the effort will and feel of our neighborhood culminate in a ten-day international mural festival in June 2020. PICTURED AT TOP Pocket Parks Spring Cleanup A dedicated collection of community members, representing businesses, residents, and local groups, came together in early May to plant and prepare MidTown for the arrival of spring and summer. Children's Museum image : © Hattie Kotz Photography Kotz : © Hattie Museum image Children's Children’s Museum Lawn Colorful Adirondack chairs, outdoor tables, Volunteers and staff – including a and interactive games make the front yard of tremendous team from Cromwell the Children’s Museum a great place to linger Mechanical – helped clear brush from and enjoy lunch from the food trucks which a vacant parcel at East 55th and frequent the Museum parking lot. Euclid and plant flowers, beautifying an overgrown corner that is a frequent pedestrian cut-through. 07 MIDTOWN A Beautiful Place CONTINUED PAINT THE TOWN Mural Program As part of the Paint the Town program, MidTown coordinated the design and installation of two colorful murals along Euclid Avenue — these will be followed by more than a dozen more as part of the 2020 international mural festival. PICTURED AT TOP Wayfinding Prospect Repaving Program This fall, more than 60 signs will go up across MidTown to direct visitors to their destinations and help brand our growing neighborhood. Top mural image : © Bob Perkoski, www.Perkoski.com : © Bob Perkoski, image mural Top ASIATOWN HEALTH-TECH UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS Bike Racks Blade Signs Signal Boxes Public Art Twenty brightly colored MidTown- Working with a local artist, With artwork from students at The one-year old UH Rainbow themed bike racks will be installed MidTown and community partners the Cleveland Institute of Art, Center for Women and Children across the neighborhood in September from AsiaTown installed these MidTown helped brighten up nine is upgrading its public space 2019, encouraging people to bike to colorful street signs throughout gray utility boxes with biomedical with a sculpture near the Euclid and from home, work, or the Town’s The potholes on Prospect Avenue have the neighborhood to help create designs to highlight the innovation Avenue entrance and a sunshade many visitor destinations. given way to a smooth new surface a sense of arrival in AsiaTown. of the Health-Tech Corridor. green space on its northern lawn. after two seasons of construction and plenty of orange barrels! 08 09 MIDTOWN MIDTOWN A Vibrant Place A place is only as vibrant as and many of our partner organizations have coordinated an array of engaging programs and events to help its people, and throughout animate and activate a variety of spaces in the the last year MidTown neighborhood and bring new energy to the Town. PICTURED AT TOP Kickball Tournament The CHOMP Back at Colonel Young Park after a brief relocation for Prospect Avenue construction, the CHOMP entered its eighth summer of feeding the Town. Leo’s Listening Party A community-led initiative to celebrate the tradition of black music along Euclid Avenue, the Leo’s Listening Party program added a series of dinner and dialogues as it evolved into a multi-generational and multi-layered discussion of how to weave history and This year, more than 300 participants culture into the future fabric of MidTown. took to the field at League Park. The competition was fierce from the sold- out group of 16 teams, each vying to become MidTown’s kickball champion. 11 MIDTOWN A Vibrant Place CONTINUED 10TH ANNIVERSARY Cleveland Asian Festival This year’s Cleveland Asian Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary, a remarkable achievement for this volunteer-led event which brings over 40,000 visitors to AsiaTown each year. PICTURED AT TOP MidTown and MidTown HTC Happy Hours Mornings The MidTown Mornings series continues to promote dialogue over breakfast with topics focusing on strengthening and enhancing our community. First Pitch Community : © Joshua Foster of Summer images Pitch First Holiday Dinner of Summer In connection with this year’s 2018 marked the first community MLB All-Star game, Destination holiday dinner, which saw neighborhood Cleveland coordinated an event residents come together with a select MidTown and Health-Tech Corridor allowing Clevelanders to “pitch” a group of business and nonprofit leaders Happy Hours offer regular networking baseball from League Park through for a night of music, food, and games. and community building opportunities MidTown to Progressive Field. in unique locations throughout the neighborhood multiple times each year. 12 13 MIDTOWN MIDTOWN Conceptual Rendering A Dynamic Place The built environment in with vacant and blighted buildings being demolished and new apartments, retail, hotels, and restaurants coming to the area. The projects currently in MidTown is constantly progress will catapult us towards achieving a greater sense of place and help evolving and improving, connect adjacent neighborhoods to jobs, services, and transit in MidTown. PICTURED AT TOP The Cleveland Foundation Tru by Hilton The Cleveland Foundation’s planned move Cleveland’s first Tru by Hilton hotel had its grand to MidTown will anchor a new civic district opening in June and has been well-received by around Dunham Tavern and East 66th and visitors for its design and accessible location.