Around 8:30 Friday evening, during the Tremont neighborhood's monthly Art Walk, something very cool is going to happen. A switch will be thrown and 17 LED light fixtures attached to buildings along Professor Avenue will come to life.
That moment will mark the culmination of a 2-1/2-year grass-roots effort to make a neighborhood that includes some of Cleveland's hippest restaurants, galleries and boutiques feel even safer and more welcoming.
And the driving force has been a group of (mostly) young professionals who call themselves 10,000 Little (micro) Ideas to Keep You Believing in Cleveland.
The group's goal is pretty simple: Make this a better place to live.
When 10,000 Little (micro) Ideas held a civic brainstorming session in 2008, one idea that quickly gained traction involved better street lighting, for aesthetic and safety reasons. After some consideration, they picked Tremont.
As volunteers, they sought expertise from the corporate world, neighborhood groups and City Hall. They raised money with help from Tremont restaurateurs, and immersed themselves in the study of lighting systems. There were setbacks and disappointments, but tonight, in the city where Charles Brush introduced the electric arc streetlight in 1879, 10,000's tenacity is going to pay off.
The array of lights that will fire up may not be as extensive as originally hoped, but, as 10,000's co-President Erin Smith says, it's a start -- and if stakeholders in Tremont or other neighborhoods want to expand on it, she and her colleagues have shown them how.
It is easy to complain about what isn't being done or what someone else ought to do to make Cleveland better. But it's inspiring when passionate volunteers show that, through hard work and tenacity, this city can find ways to renew itself.
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