Sketchbook Cleveland is a twice-monthly feature by South Euclid writer and illustrator Karen Sandstrom. With sketchbook in hand, Sandstrom scouts Northeast Ohio to find its celebrated and hidden treasures, documenting them in her inimitable style.
For this installment, Sandstrom found herself in the upper west bank of the Flats, imagining how it looked to Cleveland's Irish immigrants as the city gained its footing. Her exploration of the Superior Viaduct and beyond revealed not only a rich past, but also a fertile present. Amid the industrial buildings and weathered foundations, vines, trees, grass and even a rose garden had taken root. Decades ago, Mike Carney had planted seeds in the neighborhood with his namesake bar, now owned by his nephew. He still lives in the house adjoining the bar, and like Johnny Kilbane who came before him, remains a fixture of Cleveland's real fighting Irish.
