Going Analog And Reviving Store Movie Rentals: CLE Daily

⛈️ 80°; Humid, Thunderstorms

🏠 Home Run: Cleveland-area home-renovation company Great Day Improvements is giving one homeowner a $100,000 makeover, open to entrants nationwide through March 31, 2027. The grand-prize winner (picked in April 2027) can mix and match upgrades across Great Day's brands.
🩸 Roll Up a Sleeve: The American Red Cross has declared a national blood crisis — only the second time in its history — and Northeast Ohio is calling for donors. Type O supplies dropped below a one-day level in July, and the Red Cross has begun limiting what it sends to hospitals; the shortage is expected to last weeks.
🏙️ Rocket's Retreat: Five years after landing taxpayer incentives to expand, Rocket Mortgage is shrinking its Cleveland office footprint by two-thirds and relocating — from 115,000 square feet at the Higbee Building to a 32,000-square-foot space at Bedrock-owned 250 West Huron by year's end. Local headcount has slid to about 250 as the mortgage business cooled and work went hybrid.

ICYMI: Two Cleveland icons, one cup. Swensons has teamed up with Guardian Cold Brew on a Cold Brew Shake and a Cold Brew Whip (with root beer), available at all 21 drive-in locations through Aug. 31. 

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Trivia Question

Bratenahl, Parma Heights and Burke Lakefront Airport were among the eight Cleveland-area sites for what anti-aircraft weapons during the Cold War in the 1960s?

Arts & Culture: Lakewood's Way Cool Video revives the corner store movie rental experience.  

By Annie Nickoloff

Growing up, if one corner store didn’t have the VHS or DVD she wanted, Galadriel Olson used to ride her bike to the next one. On the way, she’d discover new favorites, renting films from neighborhood shops to watch at home. She decided to bring it back, opening Way Cool Video, a movie rental shop, in a corner of her Lakewood Art Supply store.

Galadriel Olson: “Every corner store had a little movie section. I didn’t realize until it was gone, and I think a lot of people didn’t, that it was a huge part of my childhood and young adulthood.”

Growing Collection: Movies of all genres line the shelves and are available to rent for a few bucks per title. It’s not a massive collection, but Olson says it’s been steadily growing, as she acquires new films on an almost daily basis.

Recent Resurgence: Though movie rental shops seem to be a thing of the past, Olson says she’s witnessed a recent resurgence in the scene. The business joins Killer Video in Akron among the region's newly opened movie rental spaces.

Be Kind, Rewind: Olson only expects to see more to open up, as some movie fans distance themselves from streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and Apple TV, which can range in cost between $9 and $20 per platform, per month.

Our story about Way Cool Video is featured in a series about the recent trend of "going analog" in Northeast Ohio.

Read more about the shop at clevelandmagazine.com.

Talk of the Town

Property taxes vs. income taxes for schools. With property-tax relief a statewide rallying cry, a growing number of Ohio districts are weighing income-tax levies — but a new Policy Matters Ohio report says it's a limited fix. Unlike the state income tax (which kicks in above about $26,000), a school income tax hits the first dollar earned and exempts businesses — shifting more of the load onto residents, especially lower earners.

Nearly 1 in 6 neighbors can't count on enough food. A new Feeding America report finds about 291,000 people — nearly 16% — in the Greater Cleveland Food Bank's six-county region were food insecure in 2024, led by Ashtabula County at 18%. Looming federal SNAP changes could shift up to $160 million in costs to Ohio starting in 2027. 

Cleveland Heights is spending big to reinvent itself. The suburb is pouring $38 million in federal ARPA funds into a revival: a $25.6 million Taylor Tudors apartments-and-retail rehab, the rebuilt Marquee at Cedar Lee (after a 2025 fire), the affordable Nobility Court, new Cedar Lee murals and even a set of mini-roundabouts. 

FEMA freeze leaves hot-meal sites scrambling. More than a dozen Cleveland church hot-meal programs lost Hunger Network funding after federal FEMA dollars never arrived. That is network that served 40,500-plus meals a year. Trinity Cathedral (Sunday meals since 1983) and others are dipping into reserves and volunteers' own pockets, with some cutting from five meals a month to one. 

Boricua flavors land in Gordon Square. El Kiosquito on Detroit is now open, where owner Jose Pagan, whose CentroVilla25 food-hall stall went viral, took over the former Rincon Criollo with a full-service Puerto Rican menu (think chuletas fritas) and, now, pina coladas.

A Puerto Rican garden is coming to the Cultural Gardens. After years of dreaming, a new nonprofit won approval to build a Puerto Rican Cultural Garden near East 88th Street, envisioned as a space for education and heritage. Organizers will host a soft opening during One World Day on Aug. 30.

A time capsule for shuttered schools. As CMSD closes buildings, alumni are sharing memories such as milking a cow at Mary B. Martin, art class on Collinwood's third floor, Tremont, before it went Montessori.

Development: A 100-foot dome tops out in the Gateway District, and Downtown's sports core keeps leveling up.

By Harrison Whittaker, NEO Trans 

Cosm just hit a milestone. Last Friday, the "shared-reality" entertainment venue celebrated the structural completion — the "topping out" — of its 100-foot, 12,000-resolution LED dome at the northeast corner of East Fourth Street and Huron Road, only two months after crews began vertical construction on the 70,000-square-foot building.

What it is: A Bedrock-developed venue that will beam live sports and events onto a wraparound dome for audiences in the round. Operated by the Cavs' Rock Entertainment Group, Cosm Cleveland will be the chain's fifth location — and its largest nationwide — when it opens in Summer 2027.

The bigger build: Cosm anchors Bedrock's Rock Block development, with a surface lot and new east-west pedestrian plaza planned to the north and room for up to two more buildings down the road. Detroit's Rossetti designed it; Baltimore's Whiting-Turner is the general contractor.

A block on the rise: The Gateway District is getting smaller upgrades, too. Downtown's first public basketball court opened in June at Meet Me Here Plaza (on the 10th anniversary of the Cavs' 2016 title), and a $100,000 Bloomberg-funded "Asphalt Art" streetscape wrapped early at Huron and Prospect.

Cheers on East Fourth: The pedestrianized strip is being prepped as a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) — as soon as this fall, guests 21+ could sip within a 500-foot zone — alongside a new pocket park, an ice cream shop and a seasonal bar called The Dugout, from MRN Ltd. and operated by Hangry Brands.

The Big Picture: Between Cosm, the Rock Block and East Fourth's makeover, Downtown's sports district is quietly turning into a year-round entertainment hub, not just a game-day stop.

Read the full story.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer

What Shaker Heights High School graduate made his acting debut as a child at the Cleveland Play House before going on to a lengthy and illustrious movie career? Paul Newman

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question

From the Editor

When I was growing up, riding our bikes to Blockbuster was a family tradition on weekends with my dad. We'd pick movies off the shelf — occasionally, pretty bad ones — to watch together; each of us would judge the DVD by its cover.

Nowadays, I find myself scrolling through movie options on streaming sites, sometimes without ever ultimately picking out something to watch. That can feel a little empty, especially compared to those memories of walking around the store and discovering new movies on the shelf.

— Annie Nickoloff, Senior Editor

Have a story idea? Tell us what we should cover at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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