| Vol. 1, Issue 4 | 
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Gephelte Kvetch Thanks for checking in to Hotel Bruce. Admittedly, Gefilte Kvetch sounds like a venue to critique things in a way only editors seem capable of doing. But, on the occasion of launching HotelBruce.com, I’m feeling too joyous to kvetch (‘complain’) about a thing. Oh, sure, there’s no shortage of problems to shine a spotlight on these days in Cleveland or the country. It’s just that, as we like to say around here, let’s focus on what’s working and leave the finger pointing and wrist slapping to someone else. Hotel Bruce is a celebration of creative urban living. What does that mean? Creative living is the artist working in her studio, but it’s also the activist, the urban planner, or the research scientist using their minds to inspire change, especially in the urban environment. Why call a journal Hotel Bruce? The hotel, formerly on E. 63 Street and Euclid Avenue, was mostly home to squatters when it was torn down in 2001. We were curious, how did this place and similar ones that exemplified the grit and hustle and community which so many argue Cleveland lacks today become this way? The Hotel Bruce was where hep cats—the vaudeville and jazz performers of the 1930s and 40s—crashed after late night jam sessions in the nearby juke joints around Euclid Avenue. A place like The Party Center next door or Moe’s Mainstreet at E. 75th and St. Clair. Actually, the hotel was where white musicians crashed (African American musicians stayed in hotels in Hough because it was segregated at the time). This was the era before the economic prosperity of the city changed, due in some measure to white flight and the rise of a car culture. At one time, the hotel was surrounded by a thriving neighborhood; the largest textile mill cluster in the country outside of New York, and large manufacturers such as turret lay builders Warner and Swayze. Now, after nearly half a century of suspended animation, the city is starting to breathe new life. Young people care about its future (and its past) once again. The first feature story is dedicated to Hotel Bruce, but it could be Hotel Quentin or a settlement house. We bring you the low-down on what happened to the hotel and the neighborhood—and what’s going on there today. We don’t intend to glorify the past at the expense of the present. In fact, the Winter issue of Hotel Bruce imagines what the immediate future use of the land where the Bruce once stood might look like as imagined by an urban planner and an artist. Each issue of Hotel Bruce will bring you a new exploration of an area in the city that could use some creative inspiration—within the context of the history of the place. And we have lots of fun ideas for the future urban landscape inspired by Cleveland’s creatives. So, welcome to the new city. We think it’s pretty inspiring. |
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