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About this Shaker Square website

This is an independent site for Cleveland's Shaker Square.

It is not affiliated with the owner of the Square or any organization. I've maintained it since 2004, pro-bono, no ads, no sponsors.

Our start

In February 2004 Key Bank, which had helped finance the Square's 1999-2000 purchase and renovation, took it back from the new owners who could not meet their financial obligations. At a Saturday public meeting that filled a theater on the Square, mayor Jane Campbell spoke. Knowing that the Square had no web presence, before going to the meeting I registered shakersquare.net

The early years

With the help of the merchants and restaurant owners, within weeks this website had a page for each store and restaurant, plus pages on how to get here and park. Nearly three years passed before the Coral Company's site for the Square went online. By then we had added community and history pages and had more than 100 pages. Other sites linked to it and it ranked #1 on a Shaker Square search. It welcomed more than 10,000 visitors a month.

The middle years

With the Coral Company's website listing all the businesses on the Square and the websites of those business showing details such as menus and hours, we gradually reduced our pages on each business and then deleted them. Our community and history pages grew.

Later years

With the Coral Company and SHAD.org promoting events, this site now focused on history, community links, and support of community initiatives.

2021-22 Putting the Square in strong hands

Coral Company Shaker Square, which had borrowed more than $10 million just before the pandemic, cannot repay the loan. With sale in a foreclosure auction looming, City Council bill 2021-1038 is proposed to put the Square in the hands of two experienced non-profits. To help, we created www.FriendsofShakerSquare.org. After months of delay, the bill passes.

In September 2022, to help enroll and inform a new generation of Friends of Shaker Square, we gave the domain name to Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.

Current status

This Shaker Square website now reports news of the re-envisioning and renewing of Shaker Square.

See you on the Square.

Arnie Berger   January 11, 2023

  About the Webkeeper

Arnold Berger has lived in a condominium near the Square since 1992. 'Arnie' previously lived downtown and before in the Onaway School neighborhood of Shaker Heights. An Industrial Engineer, he worked at Lincoln Electric, earned a PhD at Case, taught at Case, Pitt and CSU, and owned a company that developed applications for law firms and the Cleveland Foundation. In 2016 Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson recognized his community service as webkeeper for Shaker Square. (See proclamation.)

 
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