The Evergreen businesses are aptly named: all aim to be environmentally sustainable. The Evergreen Laundry, for instance, will be the greenest commercial-scale laundry in Northeast Ohio. The cooperative plans to construct its building to LEED silver certification standards, and it will use energy-efficient washing machines and dryers along with processes to reuse waste heat and water.

These green features give the cooperatives a competitive advantage. Most of the city’s anchor institutions are committed to decreasing their carbon footprints, and doing business with the Evergreen enterprises will help them deliver on their goals.

These co-ops are a good start, but there are many people in Cleveland who need good, stable employment.

So the issue of “moving to scale” is central to Evergreens’ economic development strategy. Put simply, how do you move from 50 jobs to 500, and then to 5,000?

These days it still helps to be at least a little tough; a fiercely blue-collar ethos endures. But instead of abandoning the city, local entrepreneurs and bohemian dreamers alike are sinking roots; opening a wave of funky boutiques, offbeat art galleries and sophisticated restaurants; and injecting fresh life into previously rusted-out spaces.

Don’t miss the slideshow or the Cleveland Travel Guide (with links to other Cleveland stories). A lot of these people and places I’ve been talking up for years, so it is nice to see the NYT finally get on the bandwagon. If you’re not, it’s time for you to do the same.

You can listen live online or at 91.1FM from 9am until 10:30am every Monday. Hey, it’s Monday today! You should give it a listen. You can also follow DEFEND Cleveland on Twitter @defendclevo.

I’m a mild typography enthusiast, and ever since I read about Clearview in the New York Times two years ago, I’ve been waiting for a chance to see it in the wild. It finally showed up in Cleveland a couple of months ago, and I’m quite impressed with it.

If you’ve noticed that driving on the Interstate highways around Cleveland has been a bit easier of late, this new signage is partially responsible for it. Clearview was specifically designed for use on highways; its increased legibility means you can read the signs faster and earlier than the old signs that use the Highway Gothic font.

In addition to the safety improvements, the font can be used without a corresponding increase in sign size. It indirectly saves lives and money lost to property damage and also directly saves money in production costs.

Here’s a local comparison:

What I’ve noticed most, in addition to the increased height of the lower-case letters, is how the tail on lower-case “l” glyph is almost invisible to a quick glance, yet still manages to distinguish the letter from an upper-case “I”. (Unlike the font in this post). I’ve also noticed how much faster I can read the new signs, so I can keep my eye on the road that much longer.

If you’d like to read up a bit more on the methodology behind this change (and see some better graphics depicting what’s different) I recommend checking out the following:

• Clearview: A New Typeface for US Highways
• ClearviewHWY