Best of the Heights Awards Ceremony 2025

Thursday, May 29, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm
The Fairmount Cocktail Bar, 2448 Fairmount Blvd

We are thrilled to offer an in-person Best of the Heights Awards Ceremony this year!

Light refreshments will be served. Cash bar available. Finalists will be listed on a paper ballot in the May Heights Observer.

RSVP Here

Robert (Bob) Brown, former Director of the city of Cleveland’s Planning Department with over 38 years of experience in city planning, also has been active in FutureHeights for many years, having served on the Planning and Development Committee, the Housing Committee, and as a previous Board chairperson. Bob also served as an interim Executive Director for the MidTown CDC in Cleveland, and we are thankful that Bob has volunteered his expertise during this important time of transition.

The FutureHeights board of directors on May 2 named Brenda Bailey as Interim Manager to oversee day to day operations during the organization’s restructuring. Bailey currently administers the VIP Alliance, an intentional volunteer program that enlists more than 2000 Heights community members. Under her management, FutureHeights’ volunteer engagement grew more than 25% during the first quarter of 2024. Bailey has been a resident of Cleveland Heights since 2020, residing in University Heights for five years prior to that, giving her insight into both communities. She may be reached at bbailey@futureheights.org.

On April 10, the FutureHeights Board of Directors announced that Kristine Pagsuyoin is no longer the executive director of FutureHeights nor the publisher of the Heights Observer, effective immediately.

She held the positions for just over one year. The Board wishes her well in her future endeavors.

The Board of Directors and staff will work hand in hand to restructure leadership and to continue existing programming in support of the communities of Cleveland Heights and University Heights.

FutureHeights would like to thank the community for its continued support, both financial and through dedicated volunteerism. The Board is committed to ensuring that FutureHeights is an organization that represents the best of the Heights community.

Heights Observer link.

CH Mayoral Debate 10.12.21

FutureHeights co-hosted a debate among the two candidates vying to become the first directly elected Cleveland Heights mayor, Barbara Danforth and Kahlil Seren, on Tuesday, Oct. 12, from 7 to 8:40 p.m.

The debate was moderated by  Sara Schiavoni, a professor in the department of political science at John Carroll University where she’s taught for 19 years. Her focus is on American Politics, specifically the federal courts, and regularly publishes about the federal judicial nomination/confirmation process. She sits on the Board of the Shaker Chapter of the League of Women Voters. She also works with the Ohio Innocence Project and through that relationship developed a class on Wrongful Convictions, which is one of her favorites to teach at JCU.  She is active in City government in her home city of Shaker Heights where she was previously a citizen representative on the Recreation Committee and currently sits on the city’s Safety and Public and Works committee.

Due to the pandemic, there was no live audience for the debate.

The public was invited to submit questions to heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org.

The event was videotaped and livestreamed. The video is available on the LWV YouTube Channel.

Click here to view the video of the event.

Many thanks to our co-hosts, the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland and Heights Libraries.

The Cedar Lee Mini-Park is located on Lee Road, tucked in-between the Cedar Lee Theatre and the new Boss Dog Brewing Company. Most of us know this stretch of concrete as the walkway from the rear parking lot and garage to the Cedar Lee Business District. We believe this is a unique and special place just waiting to happen.

In 2019 and 2020, we worked with local artist Tom Massaveg to create an interactive mural in this space.  Additionally, we’ve incorporated some tables and chairs and done some light landscaping to make the Cedar Lee Mini-Park a welcoming place to meetup with friends or hang out with a book, especially during the warm summer months.  Enjoy!

In October 2018, FutureHeights, in cooperation with Noble Neighbors; the cities of Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland; and NOAH, Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, the CDC for East Cleveland; kicked off a planning process for the Noble Road Corridor.

Noble Road is the most significant street in the northeast section of Cleveland Heights, giving its name to an area known as the “Noble Neighborhood.” The study area extends along Noble Road several blocks to the west of Cleveland Heights into the city of East Cleveland to Euclid Avenue.

FutureHeights and its partners have been working with Camiros, Ltd., a nationally recognized urban planning firm, and The Riddle Company, a real estate and economic development marketing consulting practice, to prepare a development and revitalization plan focusing on the four commercial/mixed-use districts along Noble Road between Mayfield Road and Euclid Avenue. The consultants were selected from among seven strong applications. The Greater Cleveland Congregations Cleveland Heights Housing Team introduced FutureHeights to U.S. Bank, which has funded the planning study in its entirety.

Throughout the approximately nine-month process, FutureHeights has continued to seek input from neighborhood residents and other stakeholders.

Give us your Feedback on the Plan here. See the Plan here and the Market Study here.

See the project RFP here. See the Existing Conditions Report here.

The consultants shared ideas for revitalization of the corridor with the community on April 4. See their April 4 Presentation here.

On July 18, FutureHeights shared a revised version of the consultants’ Noble Road Corridor Plan. See their July 18 Presentation here.

On Sept. 16 and 17, the consultants presented a final report to the city councils of Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland at their regularly scheduled meetings. Both meetings were open to the public. See the draft of the Noble Road Corridor Plan they presented here.

The goals of the project as stated in the RFP were:

• to enhance the image of the Noble Neighborhood by improving the commercial and mixed-use development at the neighborhood’s “front doors” along the Noble Corridor;
• to improve the quality of life for residents of the Noble Neighborhood by providing higher quality retail and service businesses along the Noble Corridor;
• to provide additional jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for local residents;
• to promote “placemaking” and the resulting strengthening of community life;
• to make productive use of sites that are currently vacant or under-utilized;
• to promote walking, bicycling and transit use along the corridor;
• to increase safety by facilitating development and revitalization that puts more eyes and ears on the street;
• to increase property and income tax revenues to the cities and school districts;
• to ensure that development is sustainable environmentally, socially and economically; and
• other goals identified in the community engagement process.