Tours Take Clevelanders Off the Beaten Path

When it comes to finding entertainment, the mentality of Cleveland's young people is often the same.

"There's never anything to do," cry the masses of bored twenty and thirty-somethings.

Enter "Emerging Cleveland," a tour created to familiarize students and young professionals with new and exciting developments in their hometown.

The tours, offered during the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, include destinations such as the new Battery Park development and Eco-Village in Cleveland's up-and-coming Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, the Avenue District and East Fourth Street downtown, the West and East banks of the Flats, the artists' live-work district, Chinatown, and more.

Tour-goers will be led off the beaten path of the city in a 25-person van, a three-hour journey that concludes with a gathering at a restaurant or bar. The tours will be lead by creators Justin Glanville and Erin Aleman, urban planning graduate students from Cleveland State University.

Glanville, who moved back to Cleveland approximately a year-and-a-half ago, brainstormed with Aleman to create the "Emerging Cleveland" tours after hearing time and time again how nothing interesting was happening in Cleveland.

"When I moved back here, I came to do the urban planning program," Glanville said. "And I had always wanted to come back and contribute to making Cleveland a more vibrant place…and I finally acted on it."

Glanville explained how he and Aleman used their own personal experiences to come up with interesting destination points along the tour, spots that the average Clevelander may or may not know about.

"Just from having lived in the city, we had an idea of places we thought would be good to go," Glanville said. "We also got ideas from being in the urban planning program. We were just interested by nature."

Glanville pointed out that one of the biggest hits on the tour was the roof of EcoCity Cleveland.

"The whole building was renovated green [environmentally friendly], and the roof has solar panels," Glanville explained. "Most importantly, the views from up here are breathtaking…there is a sweeping view of the whole city and the lake."

This year's tours are slightly different from last year's. There are more tours scheduled so that more people have an opportunity to go, and the tours last for three hours instead of four. There are also a few places included on the tour that weren't last year.

Glanville explained that even though minor changes were made in the way the tour is run, the general idea remains the same.

"I would say that you'll find out about stuff you didn't know about that's pretty cool," Glanville said. "Also, the tour itself is just fun. Last year, both groups of people had a bunch of people who were from here but didn't live here, and there was a lot of fun energy."

Thanksgiving weekend tours are sold out.
The next tours will be held Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., and Wednesday, Dec. 27, 10 a.m - 1 p.m.
Guests will meet at the Levin College of Urban Affairs. Cost is $5 dollars, payable on the bus.
Tour seats must be reserved.
Email Justin Glanville at emergingcleveland@gmail.com.