WHAT'S NEW ON THE SQUARE

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE !
Counting outdoor toilets

For many months three outdoor toilets were on the south side of Shaker Boulevard, near the Cleveland Breakfast Club. Then in early November only one remained. And by November 16 there were none!

Hurray.  By this simple metric, eight months disruption has ended. The utilities below the street have been upgraded, the streets and sidewalks restored. We look ahead to a Spring and Summer 2025 so much better than the years before.

We removed the Home page link to our Ken Johnson page, but he is back in the news.

October 28, 2024

Judge rejects former Cleveland City Councilman Ken Johnson’s request for early prison release

Adam Ferrise Plain Dealer

AKRON, Ohio — A judge on Monday rejected former Cleveland City Councilman Kenneth Johnson’s request for an early release from prison. Johnson had cited health concerns in his request.

U.S. District Judge John Adams wrote that he was aware of most of Johnson’s ailments in 2021, when the jurist handed down a six-year prison sentence. Adams also noted the seriousness of Johnson’s convictions for running two different schemes while he represented Ward 4 in the city’s Buckeye-Shaker Square neighborhood. Finally, and perhaps most important to the Court, Johnson has never demonstrated any remorse for his criminal conduct,” Adams wrote. “Johnson appears to believe that he was simply doing what all elected officials were doing.”

Johnson in July 2022 asked for compassionate release from prison, which is rarely granted. Adams noted in his decision that a clerical error prevented a quicker decision. In his request, Johnson said he suffers from arthritis in his knee, sleep apnea, a severe blood-clotting disorder and lasting effects from COVID-19.

Johnson, 78, served on city council for 41 years. He is currently serving his sentence in a federal prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia.

A jury in 2021 found him guilty of orchestrating schemes in which he stole from the city and federal government. Johnson siphoned tens of thousands of dollars from council by signing off on reimbursements for work that was never performed, then pocketing the money. He also underpaid his taxes and steered grant money to keep his adopted sons on the payroll of the Buckeye-Shaker Square Development Corp. that Johnson helped fund as a councilman.

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Here's our page on our former city councilman.

New Generation Directories

The directory signs in each quadrant of the Square were erected in the renovation of 2000, and their printed maps updated from time to time. A month ago they still showed long-gone places like Yours Truly and fire restaurant.

The picture below shows the new sign in front of the CVS store in the northeast (also called "A") quadrant. It is a simple attractive sign that tells visitors the Square's birth year (1929) and that they are in the City of Cleveland.

At the lower left corner a large QR code allows visitors to use their smart phones to access the ShakerSquare.com website. There they can find a directory for each quadrant and the names of the restaurants, stores and offices (street level and second floor) on the Square. Then one click to see their address, phone number, website link and more.

So good that this aspect of historic Shaker Square has been updated to serve a new generation of visitors.

September 27, 2024
 

A New Day Is Dawning

Shaker Square is at its best in the summer when its restaurant patios are full with locals and visitors, young and old, enjoying our nearly 100 year-old gathering place. You can feel the energy.

This summer it was a construction zone. Its streets and what lies below them were being rebuilt. Closed streets, construction equipment, piles of materials, dust everywhere. Few visitors. Empty restaurant patios. One welcome sign of life remained: the Saturday morning North Union Farmers Market.

On August 26th the construction equipment was gone, and the barriers too. This once-in-a-generation rebuild will soon be done.

The renovation of Shaker Square's buildings is also nearly complete. The new owners of the Square, finding them in poor shape, invested and did what had to be done to enable a better future.

Our Square's darkest time is ending. A new day is dawning. It will move ahead, step-by-step, more vital, with old friends returning and new friends discovering it. Let us all enjoy this and, each in our own way, support it.

See you on the Square.

Arnie Berger   September 1, 2024

A good coffee house, as Dewey Forward's place was for many years, can be the heart of a neighborhood. Melissa Hirsch, a creative local entrepreneur who operates Cafe Unbar on Larchmere, will be opening Cafe Indigo in the old DEWEYS space at 13201 Shaker Square.

The new cafe will offer ice cream in addition to coffee and other traditional cafe items, such as sandwiches, soups and salads. Look for an opening by November.

This is great news for friends of Shaker Square ─ to have a place with character and local connections, and not a cold franchised enterprise.

Consider this my order for a coffee mocha milkshake. Please call me when it's ready.

Arnie Berger   August 27, 2024