Author Archives: jgville
Erie, Pa: You Fulfill Me / Mar, 19
I never would have predicted that Erie, Pennsylvania would become my contemplative home away from home. I mean, Erie’s kind of a smaller version of Cleveland, where I live. It’s perched on the shore of Lake Erie. It’s got Victorian-era neighborhoods full of grit and beauty. It’s got hulking factories, many of which appear to […]
Thich Nhat Hanh, facilitator of pure experience / Nov, 17
Beloved mindfulness teacher and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh is slowly recovering in a French hospital after suffering a major brain hemorrhage last week. I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few retreats with him and/or his monastics at Blue Cliff Monastery in upstate New York! Below are my humble thoughts on the uniqueness of […]
The best urban parks are more immersive than pretty / Oct, 07
The other day, after a work meeting, I walked through Washington Park in Cincinnati, on the edge of the city’s Over the Rhine district. A couple of work colleagues joined me. The six-acre park has just been redone, so it has sleek new benches and green green lawns and glass-and-hardwood bathroom huts. The weather’s beautiful: […]
Becoming Unscared of Meditation / Sep, 19
In the West, meditation’s an awfully tough sell. I used to substitute-teach meditation classes at my yoga studio, and I’d get at most five or six people. Not many were repeat customers. People are intrigued by meditation. With life being so fast and crazy, there’s something intuitive about sitting in stillness being beneficial. They want […]
Cleveland Coffee Shops: A Guide for Freelancers / Sep, 03
At a certain point in one’s freelance career, somewhere between “sweet, I can work from home in my pajamas!” and renting, like, Real Office Space, there’s the coffee shop. Coffee shops provide many of the benefits of an office without the risks. You get to leave your house, drawing a distinct line between work and […]
Kayaking the Cuyahoga: A How-To / Aug, 27
There are few better ways to immerse yourself in the geology and nature of Northeast Ohio than to kayak the Cuyahoga River. Huh? Geology, nature, Northeast Ohio? In the same sentence? Well, yeah. The river flows through a full spectrum of landscapes, from farms to acres of national park woodland to the angry steel furnaces […]
From Cleveland to Milwaukee: The allure of the mid-size city / Aug, 14
Maggie, a fashion stylist and my Airbnb host in Milwaukee, stuffs a biking map and tourist guide to the city into my hands. Her two adopted Boston terriers wiggle and pant at my feet. “You’re gonna have a great time here,” she promises. “It’s a fun town.” I thank her, somehow balancing the maps and […]
Cities and Work and Interdependence / Jul, 24
The greatest of human satisfactions lies in working and playing cooperatively with other people. – Charles Montgomery, Happy City I love when I read something and it resonates with something I’ve been thinking myself. Montgomery writes about the importance of collaboration and cooperation in the context of what makes cities valuable. People living together, in […]
Kayaking the Cuyahoga / Jul, 17
Oooh, I’m excited. Next weekend I’ll be kayaking the whole length of the Cuyahoga from Kent, Ohio to Downtown Cleveland — a length of 50 miles in two days, with an overnight camp in between. The trip is organized by the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, “to promote the river as a shared regional asset for education, […]
Exploring: Hartford, Connecticut / Jul, 14
Hartford (founded 1637) doesn’t show up on too many people’s “must-see” lists. Heck, as I discovered during a recent stay with relatives near there, it doesn’t even rate very highly among Connecticuters. (Cuter than what? I’m not sure!) “There’s the Wadsworth Atheneum,” my uncle told me, referring to one of the country’s oldest art museums. […]
Munchen, Minnesota gets a reading / Jul, 06
Last week, Christine and I got word that the pilot episode of our podcast series Munchen, Minnesota will get a featured workshop reading at Cleveland Public Theatre in August. Hooray! We finished writing the 11-episode first season last month, and have sent the scripts (some 400 pages) to a few generous “beta readers” for feedback. […]
Creative Placemaking: What Is the Dream That Is Big Enough? / Jul, 01
With my friend and colleague, Seth Beattie, I’ve been thinking about new ways of doing urban planning. We’ve been testing out our ideas in weekly meetings and by preparing a response to an RFP. The RFP is to do a strategic planning process for Karamu House, on Cleveland’s East Side, along with the neighborhood that […]