24 Hours of 9/11: Shaker Heights Native Shares His Story: CLE Daily

🌤️ 76°; Mostly Sunny

🏛️ Haslams Give $2.9M to West Side Market's Transformation: Dee and Jimmy Haslam, through the Haslam 3 Foundation, are donating $2.9 million toward West Side Market's transformation project, converting never-before-public locker room space into new event and educational space overlooking Market Hall and Downtown. The gift will fund a second balcony in the Market Hall's east mezzanine, and the Market has now raised $61 million of the $70 million needed for its full renovation, with construction underway since May 2025.

🎄 Trans-Siberian Orchestra Returns for Its 30th Anniversary Run: TSO brings its reimagined "Ghosts of Christmas Eve" back to Rocket Arena for two shows Dec. 22, part of a milestone tour marking 30 years since Paul O'Neill founded the band in 1996. Tickets go on sale Sept. 18 at 10 a.m., with a portion of proceeds benefiting the St. Augustine Hunger Center. 

🍔 A Former Freddy's in North Olmsted Just Changed Hands: Goodman Real Estate Services Group has completed the sale of a 2,494-square-foot freestanding restaurant building at 27350 Lorain Road, the former home of a Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. The site sits along North Olmsted's main east-west corridor with access to I-480 at the Stearns Road interchange, near Great Northern Mall and several surrounding plazas. Senior Directors Rob Yaskanich and Michael Weiss represented the landlord.

ICYMI: Remember the conceptual plans for Hopkins Airport's new Ground Transportation Center we told you about last week? City leaders just approved the $301 million garage that's the centerpiece of it, the first major step in the airport's $1.6 billion modernization.

If you enjoy our daily newsletters, consider supporting our local journalism with a print subscription to Cleveland Magazine.

Today's Trivia

This luxury automaker was the last car company headquartered in Cleveland to build cars in Cleveland.

History: A Shaker Heights native who worked as a New York paramedic on 9/11 is sharing his story 25 years later in a new memoir.

By Annie Nickoloff

Adam Axler was less than an hour into a 16-hour shift as a New York City paramedic for Lenox Hill Hospital when the first plane hit the World Trade Center's north tower on Sept. 11, 2001. He and his partner soon moved to ground zero in Lower Manhattan. "It was chaos the rest of the day from there," he says.

Writing It Down: Axler recounts the day, including flushing first responders' eyes with water, controlling bleeding and wrapping broken bones, in his memoir American Triage, published in May.

A Career in Emergency Medicine: The book also gathers stories from Axler's years as a firefighter, paramedic and physician assistant in emergency and urgent care settings in Ohio, New York and Florida. He's since left medicine behind for a bookselling career, running his Collectible Science Fiction online store.

Relatively Unscathed, but Not Untouched: A member of the 9/11 Museum and the World Trade Center Health Registry, Axler says he hasn't experienced long-term respiratory issues or PTSD, but he knows the impact and effects the attacks have had on many 9/11 first responders. "If I can shed light on what it was like, and what other people went through that day, and the type of support that they should be showing, that makes me happy," he says.

Worth Noting: "It's a critical moment in our history, and it's shocking in some sense that it's already getting lost in time a little bit," Axler says.

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

Cuyahoga County's finances dominated the Q&A at Chris Ronayne's State of the County. The county executive highlighted first-term wins, including the new jail and behavioral health investments, in Thursday's speech at the Mimi Ohio Theatre, but he wouldn't pledge to avoid new taxes in his second term. The county is asking departments to cut spending 3.3% to help close a $19.2 million deficit, with another $18 million in cuts possible if November's Health and Human Services levy fails. "We have room to grow again," Ronayne says.

A Cleveland nonprofit is putting 30,000 diverse books into kids' hands this year. The Cleveland Kids' Book Bank's "Books Like Me" campaign started after the group noticed only about 4% of its inventory featured diverse stories. The organization distributes 50,000 books a month, and the campaign now carries an added meaning as a tribute to Apollo Bohanon, its young face who died in 2024 at age 5. "We want books that look like them, that have diverse topics, diverse themes, diverse experiences," says Natalie Friedl, executive director. 

Rocky River High School was closed after a mercury spill. A small vial broke during a chemistry class Wednesday afternoon. No students touched the chemical, though the school contacted the family of one student who was nearby. Cleanup crews began work in the affected classroom Thursday morning with the air system shut down during the process.

Ohio education officials are questioning test results at 15 Cleveland-area schools. Three CMSD elementary schools and a dozen Cuyahoga County charters, most managed by ACCEL, were flagged for testing irregularities like answers switched from wrong to right at unusually high rates. Schools have two weeks to respond before officials decide whether a deeper investigation is needed.

Downtown Cleveland's streets got a colorful, safety-minded makeover. Nine local artists led by Ryan Jaenke completed a 7,500-square-foot asphalt mural around Huron Road and East 9th Street, funded by a $100,000 Bloomberg Philanthropies grant. "Safety is the very foundation of everything good that has happened in downtown Cleveland," says Michael Deemer, CEO of Downtown Cleveland Inc., citing Bloomberg's finding that similar murals cut pedestrian and cyclist crashes by half elsewhere.

A Lakewood musician is turning her own barriers into a bigger fight for accessibility. Tracy Marie has built a music career around a rare disability affecting her skeleton, organs and energy. Her push began after a wheelchair-using friend couldn't get into one of her shows, and she's since worked with the city of Lakewood on an ADA transition plan.

Things To Do This Weekend 

Studio-A-Rama, WRUW 91.1 FM's annual showcase for local music, fills Mather Memorial Courtyard Saturday. The free, daylong festival starts at 1 p.m. and is headlined by Cleveland's own Mr. Gnome. 11220 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, wruw.org

Rocky River marks America's 250th with a City Hall Park celebration Sunday. The Rocky River Historical Society's event runs 1 to 4 p.m. with performances from the high school marching band and Tower City Chorus, plus results from the historical society's essay and art contest. Rocky River City Hall Park, rockyriverohio.gov

Lang Lang brings Mozart, Beethoven, Granados and Liszt to Mandel Concert Hall Saturday. The famed pianist and educator's program begins at 7:30 p.m. 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, clevelandorchestra.com

Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves pay tribute to John Coltrane at Cain Park Saturday. The jazz superstars' concert begins at 8 p.m. 14591 Superior Road, Cleveland Heights, cainpark.com

Elvis Costello & the Imposters bring "Radio Soul!" to the Agora Sunday. The Rock Hall inductee's tour spans songs from 1977's My Aim Is True to 1986's Blood & Chocolate, starting at 7 p.m. 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, agoracleveland.com

The full list of weekend activities.

Food News: The inaugural Michelin Guide for American Great Lakes ceremony will be held in Detroit on April 21.

By Douglas Trattner

Cleveland restaurants will learn their Michelin fate April 21, when the guide unveils its inaugural American Great Lakes selections at Michigan Central in Detroit. The new region includes Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. 

Inspectors Are in Cleveland: Michelin’s anonymous inspectors are already dining across the city, evaluating restaurants based on factors including ingredient quality, mastery of cooking techniques, harmony of flavors and consistency between visits. 

More Than Stars: Restaurants could receive Michelin’s coveted one-, two- or three-star ratings, but the guide also recognizes establishments with distinctions including Bib Gourmand and Green Star honors. 

A Spotlight on Cleveland: Destination Cleveland President and CEO David Gilbert says inclusion in the guide could help strengthen perceptions of Cleveland’s culinary scene, attract new visitors and boost business for local restaurants.

“We are delighted to recognize and showcase the outstanding culinary talent found throughout the American Great Lakes for the very first time,” says Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide. 

Read the full story.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

What restaurant, which closed in 2018, spent a century on East 4th Street before moving to Playhouse Square for its final 14 years? Otto Moser’s

Check back Monday for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

Twenty-five years since 9/11 is hard to believe. Annie's story today on Adam Axler, the Shaker Heights native who worked at ground zero as a paramedic and just published a memoir about it, brought me right back to that morning.

I worked at the Akron Beacon Journal then, and I remember the newsroom scrambling to put out an extra edition as the news broke. It's one of those days everyone who lived through it can place themselves in exactly. 

Axler's book is a reminder of how much weight the first responders who were there still carry a quarter century later.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

Subscribe to Cleveland Magazine in print or daily email newsletters.