You can lead a horse to water, but he can't drink if the river's on fire!
Photo credit: John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer
I'm just tickled that Cleveland, ranked consistently as the most miserable city in America, has joined the national restaurant trend toward locally-sourced food, and created green and (hopefully) profitable spaces for its urban population.
Pat Conroy, owner of Great Lakes Brewing Company, has upped his karma points by 1000%. Not only does his company make great local beers (I'm looking at you, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter), he's now recycling the barley left over from the brewing process into compost on one acre of Cleveland's new six acre urban farm project, Ohio City Farm.
The farm sits mere blocks away from the historic West Side Market and just behind the projects, making it accessible to a wide demographic range. The latter will be sold deeply discounted produce, according to Debbi Snook at the Plain Dealer, while the former will get really fresh produce and some good stories.
The Ohio City Near West Development Corporation, the creator of the project, is hoping the farm will re-energize the city, providing jobs and educational opportunities to locals as well as refugees from Bhutan, Bhurma, and Burundi (and local farmers, too)- all lofty, worthwhile goals.
Keep on truckin', Cleveland! Forget Lebron, the corruption scandals, crappy night clubs, and the population loss. You're doing great.
