The state of Ohio lost population overall for the first time in nearly a decade, according to a study by Community Research Partners.

90.3 WCPN in Cleveland reports that the state lost 35,000 residents. In-migration and birth rates were not able to offset the decline.
Experts believe the out-migration can be traced to job loss. Ohio has a tendency to lose residents during a recession, experts report.
Franklin County, home to Columbus, managed to avoid the decline and gained residents. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County and Cincinnati’s Hamilton County both lost residents overall.
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Cleveland has been named the host of the Gay Games in 2014.

Boston, Cleveland and Washington D.C. were competing for the chance to host the games, which are expected to bring $60 million in investment.
The announcement was named today in Colonge, Germany.
From On Top Magazine:
Cleveland’s 2014 Gay Games IX Sports & Cultural Festival will take place August 9 – 16, 2014 and feature 30 sporting events, including a gay rodeo.
Cleveland’s bid for the event was assisted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which threw a bid party. The bid’s …

The idea for Pop Up City is to re-utilize underused urban spaces, a theme that carried over this weekend in The Bridge Project, a party and art show, held under the Detroit-Superior bridge in downtown Cleveland.

The streetcar level under the bridge has been featured in this blog before. Cleveland’s rapid transit rail service ran under the bridge long ago.  The space has been referred to, perhaps incorrectly, as Cleveland’s abandoned subway.
Well, folks from across the Cleveland area attended The Bridge Project last weekend, and I have pictures thanks to my …

The city was featured in a recent New York Times travel piece.
This isn’t exactly all the Cleveland sights I would recommend, but there’s some good stuff in here. And it’s always nice to see some good press for the Cleve.
Any thoughts from our many northeast Ohio readers?
-KG
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The Director of Cleveland’s City Planning Commission and a private developer tackled zoning issues in artists housing today at the second annual Rust Belt to Artist Belt conference being held in Cleveland through Friday.

The city of Cleveland updated its comprehensive plan a few years ago to include special live-work space overlays that allow artists to make their homes in areas zoned for light commercial activity. Arts promotion of this type is considered to be important to the local economy because Cleveland has a surplus of industrial space that is well-suited to conversion for artists. Furthermore, the arts have played an important role in revitalizing a number of Cleveland neighborhoods.

22-year-old Sylvia Bingham was killed yesterday after she was run over by a truck while rising her bike to work from Ohio City in Cleveland.
The driver, who didn’t stop, was identified by witnesses and questioned by police but no charges have been filed.
Here’s a Plain Dealer article with all the details.
This woman was part of Americorps and working for an organization called Hard Hatted Women, where she helped women learn trades.
What a sad way for a promising life to end.
Is it really possible to run over and kill an adult …

Those of you who know me in person know I just about a house in the city of Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

I know other young people who are buying or considering buying houses in Rust Belt cities, so I wanted to share my story. There’s a lot of second guessing that goes along with this; questions about crime and schools. But I just really felt compelled to buy in the city and in this neighborhood.

For those of you that are familiar with Cleveland, the Detroit Shoreway is just west of Ohio City near 65th and Detroit Avenue, just a few blocks from Lake Erie. In recent years, it has seen a relatively good deal of new investment, fueled by two independent local theater companies, a new condominium …

Freelance reporter Daniel Denvir has taken some interesting travels recently – places like Cleveland – on his “Rust Beltroad trip.”
Here, he highlights an employee-owned company in Cleveland.
I had never heard of Evergreen Laundry, the company he profiles, but it sounds like they are doing a good job of putting people to work.
I like posting stories like this – ones about our cities as innovators, not just victims of de-industrialization and decline.
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A Cleveland Magazine reporter has been following three Cleveland Public School students for 18 months to answer the question: What’s it like growing up in one of the country’s poorest cities?
It’s not a pretty picture, at least according to these three accounts.
There’s Ruben, a West Side Puerto Rican with a learning disability that recently knocked up his girlfriend.
There’s Angela, who spends are her time exhausted from her night job at Taco Bell, where she works to help support her ailing mother and younger sister.
And Gerald, a respectful and promising student, …

This is what happens to nondescript walls if Cleveland Public Art has its way.

The nonprofit organization has spurred dozens of masterpieces (no entry fee required) across the city of Cleveland since its inception in 1984.

Pictured above is one of CPA’s grander and more recent endeavors: Pixelating Morgana, a 300 by 20 foot mural which brightens the Morgana Run Trail in Slavic Village. The work was completed by artists Christopher Diehl, Sean Breslin and John Troxell with support from Slavic Village Development Corporation and ParkWorks last summer.

Cleveland Public Art is also responsible for some of the most recognizable sights in the city of Cleveland.