Playhouse Square Puts Life Into Cleveland's Old Greyhound Station: CLE Daily

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🏀 Harden Locks In: James Harden has agreed to a three-year, $97 million deal to stay with the Cavaliers, including a player option for year three — the 11-time All-Star waited out his decision so Cleveland could chase LeBron James first, then used the leftover cap room to land Peyton Watson once LeBron signed with Philadelphia instead.

🌪️ Sky Show on the Lake: Waterspouts twisted across Lake Erie Wednesday morning, with viewers catching several forming at once off North Perry and Mentor — a common late-summer spectacle on the lake, and usually harmless.

🚨Wing Week: Cleveland Wing Week — today through Aug. 23 — is your chance to compare chicken wings from all around town, with more than 25 restaurants offering $10 wing specials.

ICYMI: Doriyan Coleman teaches analog photography to a generation raised on smartphone cameras — instant film, discontinued stock and all — as University Circle's artist in residence.

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Trivia Question

The westernmost part of the Western Reserve – in present-day Huron and Erie counties – was known as this, ostensibly because it was for people who’d been burned out of their homes during the American Revolution?

Development: Playhouse Square is bringing Cleveland's old Greyhound station back to life. 

By Ken Prendergast, NEO Trans

Work starts in a couple of weeks on the vacant 1948 Greyhound station at 1465 Chester Ave. — the first step in Playhouse Square's plan to turn the Streamline Moderne building into its 13th performance venue.

• First up, the roof: Playhouse Square hired West Roofing Systems to reroof the building and replace the gutters, at a cost of about $391,605 — part of a $2.33 million repair project that also covers the parapet windows, plaster walls and ceilings.

• "Restoring it to 1948": Nathan Kelly, Playhouse Square's president of real estate, says the near-term goal is a secure building the public can use for pop-ups and special events, while the foundation weighs a longer-term future as a food venue, cabaret, concert space or museum.

• A Great Migration landmark: That museum idea could honor the station's history as a gateway for the roughly 200,000 Black Americans who moved to Cleveland in the postwar Great Migration — bus service out of the downtown station ended for good on Feb. 4, with Greyhound, Barons Bus and GoBus now operating from a modular facility near RTA's Brookpark Red Line station.

• Who's paying: The work is funded by $1 million from the state capital budget, administered through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, plus money from Playhouse Square's own $3.35 million purchase of the building and 2.2 acres around it in 2024.

Worth Noting: Add it to the theater district's 13 venues — five historic stages plus seven smaller spaces — and Playhouse Square keeps expanding its footprint north from its traditional core, this time with a building that already has a story to tell.

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

Most Cuyahoga County school buses passed inspection, but 511 crashes since 2020 keep the county near the top of a list it doesn't want to lead. State troopers checked 4,393 buses across 141 districts this year and about 4% were flagged with out-of-service violations. Fifteen districts had 20% or more of its fleet cited, though most run fewer than 15 buses total.

Cleveland City Council approved a 30-year tax district for the East Side, but a council member says it's coming at the library's expense. The Hough-St. Clair Superior and Central TIF districts could generate up to $182 million combined over three decades, but Councilmember Tanmay Shah argued Wednesday that TIFs like this one siphon property tax revenue Cleveland Public Library depends on. Council also cleared $1.1 million to reimburse the Browns for emergency stadium repairs and a Cleveland Clinic pedestrian bridge near Fairview Hospital.

The Cavs are opening a new club named for their late good-luck charm. Gilly's Clubhouse, an all-inclusive, 2,400-square-foot space on Rocket Arena's Loudville level with all-you-can-eat food and drink from Aramark, honors Nick Gilbert, son of Cavs Chairman Dan Gilbert, who died in 2023 from complications of neurofibromatosis. Fans will remember "Gilly" as the 14-year-old in the bow tie who represented the Cavs at the 2011 NBA draft lottery. Memberships for the 250-person club, the Cavs' eighth premium space at the arena, are on sale now. 

Cleveland Public Library workers could strike as early as Monday. The union representing library staff says there's still time to reach a deal before its Aug. 24 strike deadline, though talks this week ended without an agreement.

A powerful Cleveland family's donations are drawing scrutiny of the county prosecutor. WKYC Investigates found that the George family has given more than $36,000 to Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's campaigns over the years — including from relatives of Bobby George, the restaurateur O'Malley's office was set to prosecute before he recused himself over the conflict.

Music: The Current Year creates a community hub around physical media in Parma. 

By Annie Nickoloff

The Current Year owners Michael and Marie Stutz serve a growing community of collectors moving away from music streaming. Starting with records when it opened in late 2020, the Parma shop gradually branched out into other musical formats: cassettes, 8-track tapes, reel-to-reel tapes, zip drives and even floppy disks.

Michael Stutz: “People are realizing the scam of streaming. Nobody wants to rent their environment.”

• All-Ages: The physical media movement is not generation-specific; Stutz notes that teens and older adults alike often discuss analog tech swaps like flip phones.

• Record Revolution: But the modern trend really started with the record revival two decades ago. Recording Industry Association of America data shows that vinyl sales have grown for 19 consecutive years in the United States.

• Vinyl Variety: Shopping opportunities have grown, too; the Current Year is just one part of a vibrant local record store scene. 

Read more about The Current Year in our "going analog" series.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer

Cleveland-area Congressman Robert Sweeney was the last Ohioan to hold this title, which was made obsolete by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At-large representative

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question

From the Editor

There is a particular Friday in August when Cleveland and Northeast Ohio stop pretending it cares about anything else. The evening still holds heat, the marching band is out of tune in a way nobody minds, and somewhere a public-address announcer is testing a microphone over an empty field.

That's tonight.

Ohio high school football is back — a few games were last night, including St. Ignatius — and the road that starts now ends Dec. 3-5 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

A couple of programs that define this city's football identity did not draw an easy first assignment.

St. Edward vs. Olentangy Liberty — 7 p.m., First Federal Lakewood Stadium. The Eagles went 11-3 last fall, won Region 1 and reached the Division I state semifinals, and their 2026 schedule reads like a travel itinerary — Canton McKinley, Massillon, Hoban, Moeller, plus opponents from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Canada. Before any of that, Lakewood. Olentangy Liberty is no soft open: the Patriots went 8-5 and pushed to a regional final before losing to Olentangy Orange, who went on to win the Division I title.

Glenville at Massillon Washington — 7 p.m. The Tarblooders, reigning Division IV state champions after dismantling Shelby 45-7, do what Ted Ginn Sr.'s teams always do and go find the hardest room in the state. Massillon went 9-4 and reached a Division II regional final. Tiger Stadium on opening night, 90 minutes south, in front of a town that treats this sport as municipal infrastructure — Glenville wouldn't want it any other way.

We'll be following all of the high school football action from now until Canton.

Go find a bleacher.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

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