Category: General Information

The next cure for cancer could come from one of these smiling faces. The sky is the limit for them. But even the sky cooperated May 28. The rain held off just long enough for these happy graduates to walk from St. Joseph Academy to Our Lady of the Angels Church, as plenty of proud parents watched.

By Jerry Masek for The West Park Times

Neighbors on West 140th Street, from PPG to Puritas, put together a huge yard sale June 8th on the yard of Blessed Trinity Church.

The event was organized by the Bellaire-Puritas Development Corp.

If you live in West Park, RTA could be your best friend this summer. Consider:
From June 2 through Aug. 10, children ride free on all buses and trains.
West Park is served by four major Red Line rail stations — Brookpark, Puritas-W. 150, West Park, and Triskett.
A trip planner is available 24/7 at www.rideRTA.com, or during business hours at 216-621-9500.
Children ride free

For the third straight year, children age 12 and younger can ride free on RTA from June 2 to Aug. 10. They must be accompanied by an adult age 18 or older, and there is a limit of three children per adult. In the first two years of the program, more than 135,000 children have received free rides.

Riding the Red Line

Trains operate until after midnight, seven days a week, with direct service to Hopkins International Airport, the West Side Market and Ohio City, Downtown, University Circle and Little Italy.

At the Tower City Station, transfer to the Waterfront Line to reach these popular destinations — Flats East Bank, Great Lakes Science Center, Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame and FirstEnergy Stadium. You can also transfer to the light-rail Blue and Green lines, to reach the historic Shaker Square.

Exiting at Tower City gives you direct access to free downtown trolley service and the HealthLine, which operates 24/7 on Euclid Avenue. The HealthLine stops at many summer fun destinations, including Playhouse Square, University Circle museums, and two universities.

Using the on-line trip planner

From the RTA Web site, you can access an on-line trip planner. If you plan to use it a lot, you can set up an account to store all your trip information.

Just tell the planner what your starting point and destination, and when you plan to leave (or need to arrive). I tested it out for a trip from my home in West Park to Cleveland City Hall. Here’s what it told me:
Walk to a bus stop on Puritas Avenue.
Board the 78 bus to the Puritas Rapid Station.
Ride the Red Line to the Tower City Station.
Transfer to the 79-79A bus, or walk to City Hall.

The trip planner even gave me the distance of each walk, how many calories it would burn, and the time each bus or train arrives.

So, now you know more about riding RTA. Go have a great summer!

Jerry Masek worked at RTA from 2000-2018.

By Jerry Masek

Sisters in the Congregation of St. Joseph have been a part of the West Park community for more than 125 years.

Now their future here has been ensured, as a new motherhouse has been completed at 3430 Rocky River Dr., just north of St. Joseph Academy.

The motherhouse includes private living quarters for about 20 nuns. The new structure is more environmentally-friendly than other buildings on the campus.

Apartments include private bathrooms and kitchens for each nun.

The motherhouse also has a new chapel and new dining room.

Part of the building includes River’s Edge, a spirituality and wellness ministry offering classes, programs, and services to the public.

A new yoga studio is now being used by the many yoga classes that are offered. For details, visit www.riversedgecleveland.com.

West Park Academy, 12913 Bennington Ave., is having graduation ceremonies for both Kindergarten and 8th grade classes today. The Kindergarten ceremony was held this morning at 10 a.m. and the eighth grade ceremony is at 2 p.m. this afternoon, Wednesday, May 22.

By Jerry Masek

A vital transportation link in West Park will soon get some attention from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).

A $620,000 project on the Lorain Road bridge over the Rocky River Valley will start in May, says ODOT spokesman Brent Kovacs. Weather permitting, work will be completed by Labor Day.

Workers will upgrade fencing on the 1,219-foot bridge. Traffic will be maintained, and pedestrian detours will be posted. The structure is part of State Route 10, which runs between Downtown Cleveland and Elyria, where it merges with U.S. Rt. 20 and crosses the nation.

The original bridge, built in 1897, was replaced in 1935. It rises 130 feet over the valley floor in the Metroparks.

By: Jenn Wirtz,Restaurant owner & beer drinker
www.derbrau.com

The ingredients are simple: water, barley, hops, and later yeast, that come together and make what we love…

Beer is now over a $110 billion market. The process was refined in Germany before making its way all across the world, including to Cleveland!

Beer, for me, has not only fascinating history, but it inspires a way of life.

My first sip of beer was at age three and it was a DAB. My Opa drank it and when I could walk, to get him to chase me in the backyard, I would steal his DAB, run with it, and sip the bitter beer in its green bottle to make everyone laugh. That was the 80’s and we, after all, are Germans. However, it was approximately 5,000 years ago we can find Babylonian hieroglyphs that reveal ale recipes. In 1999, an archaeologist digging in Egypt put a 2,700-year-old urn under a microscope and deciphered an ale recipe. You can taste what early beer drinkers might have drunk with Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch. Sweet and almost like a wine, it is a high-ABV beer, fit for kings.

However, leave it up to the Germans to invent what we know today as beer. Hops in the 13th century was a game-changer that was a process from Northern Germany. Then, bottom-fermentation in the 16th century gave birth to the lager beer brew. Only a little over 200 years ago, Bavarians brought yeast into the mix. My German ancestors gave way to the idea of mass production with their every expanding polished process. It was in the 1800s that the perfection of lagers changed beer brewing from a home hobby to an industry. Many of those recipes have not changed and our always available on draft at Der Braumeister. Beers like Paulaner, Krombacher, and Weihenstephaner still follow the purity laws of 1516 and the traditional German lager recipes.

Finally, without borders, walls, and little restrictions, 1.7 million beer-drinking immigrants poured themselves into the United States in the 1840s. An estimated 75% of them were German and Irish. The Germans brought the skilled brewing practices and the Irish brought their drinking habits. Ales were within the colonies dating back to 1588; however, it was that wave of immigration that gave birth to beer as we know it and breweries like the legendary German Anheuser-Busch.

Cleveland, like other cities, was no exception. Some accounts have its first brewery opening in 1852. However, with the surge of drinking came the temperance movement. Yet, with the Civil War, early thoughts of prohibition were put on hold- but, in 1920, things changed and prohibition was a thing. As we all know, when someone tells us ‘NO’ or ‘CAN’T’- it sometimes, but not always, inspires rebellion.

And in 1929, Frank Herzog opened a delicatessen in West Park, Cleveland. However, the confectioner’s shop & deli was only a part of the building, next door to that deli with its high windows, unable to see in from street level, was a men’s only German club. It was one of Cleveland’s first taverns and we now know it to be one of Cleveland’s oldest bar and restaurants as Der Braumeister. But that is a history for another day. So in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 said after repealing prohibition: “I think this would be a good time for a beer.”

In the words of your author: “Prost!”

Visit Der Braumeister at derbrau.com. Learn more about them, view their menu and check out what’s happening and different events.

Those of us who live and work in West Park are abundantly blessed in so many ways.

Those blessings include two great local development corporations — Bellaire-Puritas and Kamms Corners — that guide our neighborhood growth.

Bellaire-Puritas Development Corp.

On April 13 — with an eye toward developing future generations — BPDC sponsored a Youth Job Jam at Gunning Recreation Center. More than 60 local youths gained interview skill with workshop training and practice with adult volunteers. Twelve youths also completed a resume-writing workshop.

The event enjoyed strong community support and that is the key to so many projects. About 30 community and business people volunteered their time on a Saturday, and more than 20 local employers talked to youths about opportunities to work or volunteer this summer.

Feedback from both the youths and volunteers showed the event was a win for everyone. We applaud the strong community support.

Kamms Corner Development Corp.

KCDC staff is active all year but now, they are working on some high-profile projects. Staff and volunteers are preparing for both the June 15 Hooley, and the June 16 kick-off of the popular Farmers Market.

KCDC is also helping to guide a major restoration of the key public parking lot on Albers Avenue. The project is long overdue. We will experience the smooooth pavement, when work is completed in mid-June.

Summer is a busy time for both groups. We appreciate their hard work and hope that strong community support continues, as we watch West Park grow and prosper.

Photos courtesy of Jerry Masek

CONTENT AND PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEALPOINT MERRILL, LLC.

DealPoint Merrill, LLC, an owner and operator of value-added real estate opportunities and sponsor of real estate investment offerings, redeveloped the 124,000 square foot former Giant Eagle grocery store on 4.3 acres at 13820 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44111.

The redevelopment managed under the CubeSmart self-storage (NYSE: CUBE) a national brand is in addition to a 10,500 square pad for a restaurant planned for the street front pad.

The Grand Opening ribbon cutting ceremony with City Council Members of Cleveland, the Chamber of Commerce and team members of both CubeSmart and DealPoint Merrill is scheduled for Monday, May 22, 2019 at 11:00 a.m.

“There is a lot of revitalization projects going on in the Cleveland area is this building is a great addition to our climate-controlled self-storage portfolio and an excellent fit for our co-investment and redevelopment projects throughout the United States,” said DealPoint Merrill.