I look at a bridge and see a bridge. Steven Litt looks at a bridge and sees lost opportunity. He sees where better design could have made it iconic and defining instead of just a stretch of road above a river.
Steve sees beyond the obvious, and his work as a reporter, critic and analyst helps all of us to understand the Northeast Ohio aesthetic a little better.
I worked with Steve for decades at The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com, where he broke news about regional development, architecture and the arts, and then used his expert eye and eclectic experience to provide context for it all. He was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, maintained by the Press Club of Cleveland, in 2016.
When Steve left The Plain Dealer a year ago, I knew Cleveland still needed his voice. And so we talked. This year, Steve came on board as an Ideastream Public Media freelancer, covering art, architecture and economic development in Northeast Ohio.
That’s been great for Ideastream, and even better for our audiences.
He’s reviewed etchings by Black Cleveland artists that were exhibited at Karamu House, two “quietly exquisite” spring exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and plans for a new Cleveland Hopkins International Airport terminal, among other things.
I sent his review of Takashi Murakami’s show at the Cleveland Museum of Art to a neighbor who was planning to see it. She appreciated his honest, not just cheerleading, assessment of the entire show, which he said was big and bold, but perhaps too much of a good thing.
Beyond reviews, Steve does analysis, like his insightful look at the disparate development philosophies of the owners of the Browns, who want to build a complex in Brook Park, and the Cavaliers, who are all-in on Downtown Cleveland. And commentaries, like his advocacy for the redevelopment of the former Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights.
His reporting is top notch, often the most read on the ideastream.org website. He wrote about turning Huron Road and Prospect Avenue into one-way streets, creating Downtown Cleveland’s first protected bike lanes.
And then he broke a big story, about a change of course by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which now recommends that the dam at Lower Lake be removed, resulting in the draining of the second of two Shaker Lakes.
Steve is following up on that story, and, in fact, will be part of a “Sound of Ideas Community Tour” forum on the topic -- offering information, insight and an opportunity for community feedback – at 6 p.m. Monday at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes.
It’s another example of the impact Steve continues to have in Northeast Ohio, providing details, context and the opportunity to question, examine and learn.
I look at Steven Litt and I see a bridge to better understand our past, our present and our potential.
The Cut" is featured in Ideastream Public Media's weekly newsletter, The Frequency Week in Review. To get The Frequency Week in Review, The Daily Frequency or any of our newsletters, sign up on Ideastream's newsletter subscription page.
