Gephelte Kvetch

Three always seemed like a magical number. To paraphrase film auteur Jean-Luc Godard in a recent New York Times interview, there’s something about bringing together two that results in a wholly new or third purpose.

For Hotel Bruce, that purpose is to explore whether creative people, urbanites, and environmentalists are coming together to transform the meaning of living in Cleveland. After all, what we make of our time and how we define our place is our culture. That, Cindy Barber of the Beachland Ballroom wrote recently, is our greatest commodity.

Sometimes the point is obscured, like when our favorite independent retail shops shutter their doors and are replaced by more cookie cutter developments sprouting up in farmlands. Why, it makes us want to shout (or move to Canada). But then we find ourselves strolling, shopping, and dining in Ohio City, our own little European hamlet, on a perfectly romantic date as contributor Doug Trattner discovers in this issue’s Outty. Or, we meet Marina & Kristien Marquez-Zenkov, a couple living and working in an art gallery/flat in order to create something life altering.

That’s but a taste of Issue 3—and its all-Ohio City focus on issues such as, Who can afford Ohio City? Questions we explore even as this ever-evolving (some say gentrifying) Cleveland neighborhood continues to grapple with them. And Hotel Bruce isn't content with just exploring those questions. Once again we present a thoughtful and highly imaginative plan that presents a starting point in the conversation of providing shelter and work for the homeless in Ohio City.

We hope No. 3 helps you find a new perspective on this slice of the urban landscape.

Happy Holidays (and support your local retailers!),

The Management at Hotel Bruce

Bruce home