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There's a sense among Cleveland's old-line leadership that density was part of the problem, part of what led to the riots, which is why Hough's redevelopment has been so suburban in character. One can see the results of this thinking throughout the east side, but particularly in Hough. Density is still viewed as an undesirable condition set aside for undesirables, and the solution has been to replace it with suburbia. Whitey said apartments and transit are for you, single family homes and car dependent lifestyle are for us. This positioned urban density as a badge of inferiority and the response was a conceptual rejection of urban density by both sides. Hence we have Church Square plaza and scattered McMansions where it once looked like Boston. This is the response to redlining, to white flight, to widespread discrimination in the suburbs. That line of thinking needs to be addressed directly if we're ever to turn things around. We need to move past the idea that density is something that whites foist upon unwilling blacks. Maybe for a time it was, but too many have gleaned the wrong lesson from that tragic episode in our history.

Very cool!

I'd love to see that happen.

I'm aware of those apartment plans, but they take up only a fraction of the open space between Chester and Payne. I'm sure CSU could fit a quad-like lawn somewhere around there, and I thought their master plan already included such a thing. Until recently they planned an entire ballpark in that area. Don't get me wrong, Euclid Commons and the admin building (as well as the law school frontage and the ed building) were great additions to Euclid Avenue, but I think their effect is mitigated by several questionable teardowns.

Re Carlos Beltran there probably is a sense that we're not really contenders, as KJP said. And even though they did give big contracts to a couple people several years ago, the Indians are known for not being willing to pay top players competitively, going back to Jim Thome. And in the case of Thome, the fans here turned on him forever because he accepted an offer the Indians wouldn't match. That's cold. There's no direct evidence the Cavs ever had to overpay, but even at the height of the LeBron era we never seemed to have a shot at top tier free agents. And then you have Noah's comments. And Barkley's. Eva Longoria once said she'd be happy with Tony Parker getting traded anywhere but here. I think the city needs to promote itself better to the players' 18-34 demographic. It needs to be more aggressive in responding to the open public criticism it's been getting. Detroit has a much better reputation for coolness, and that's about the only major league city as torn up as ours is. We haven't had young leadership here since Kucinich and I think it shows. I also think the destruction of the Flats plays a role in this, because it was our sole claim to fame in terms of offering a fun party atmosphere. Back in the 90s our teams didn't have nearly as much trouble signing big-name free agents.

I wouldn't say it's architecturally significant but that's a lot of housing units to lose, in a downtown that can't get high rises built despite long waiting lists and 4-digit rents. Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to convert it to sorely needed 1BR units. So we're giving up that, plus yet another historic commercial building, in exchange for yet another squat private bunker on main street. There are plenty of vacant lots around CSU. Build on one of those, if the idea is sustainability. I feel like CSU already had an abundance of open lawn for a downtown campus. In our climate greenspace is snowspace for half the year, and bare grass breaks up the north wind about as well as Lake Erie does. And if more greenspace really was needed, did it have to replace the street wall of Euclid Avenue? Multiple times? Again, it's not like CSU isn't surrounded with surface parking. These teardowns seem really unnecessary.

I see what you mean, and I agree, but I think you still applaud that serial killer for decency if his machete license has three more years on it. Hopefully the man can be taught compromise and moderation through positive reinforcement. I applauded W when he agreed to raise steel tarriffs, and when he expressed support for NASA. And the right should be applauding Obama for his overwhelming centrism, though they never will. I'll take any opportunity for good policy and less partisanship.

Gotta give credit where it's due. The guy's been horrible and this sticks out as not-horrible.

They're not going all-in with it, that's for sure. Tearing down two buildings for a "sustainability center" is hopelessly ironic. For every appropriate structure CSU has built on Euclid, they've torn down another and replaced it with lawn. And while I like the new student center on the inside, its street presence is no better than the old one, maybe worse. Last year I got a chance to tour the University of Minnesota campus... seems like a decent model to emulate.

Every time I ask about this in Cleveland I'm told there's a brick shortage, or something to that effect. But then I see pictures of new construction in other cities, including Columbus, that uses brick (and even ornamental stone) like it's no problem at all. Maybe Cleveland and Dayton are home to the world's best vinyl siding salesmen. Or the world's worst architects.

Nice to know he has limits. The huge numbers in this bill were insane, millions of gallons per day per company.

We also need height, and this will do.

Concession is the right word for it. While it looks nicer to have this structure built up to the sidewalk, the structure functionally has nothing to do with the sidewalk. They didn't put storefronts in it because industrial parks don't have storefronts, or sidewalks, or pedestrians. If street life were the goal here, something completely different would have been built. This building's quasi-urban siting is a concession to modern sensibilities and nothing more. An empty feint. Don't get me wrong, this would be an absolutely wonderful development if it were on Carnegie. I'd be throwing a party.

Great info. I'm still curious if those other buildings near the Allerton might be on shorter contracts, or if being CMHA changes anything at all. Because yeah, $720 is really low for a 2BR in the downtown market, you can probably get that for a 1BR. I'm thinking if those high rises could go market rate, it would really help spur development in that area.

While all this gentrifying is taking place, the west side is also continuing to integrate. Two separate phenomena. If the data were available I imagine we'd see the income of the whites in these neighborhoods increasing. Low income whites on the west side are just now getting around to white flight, while the ones coming in are generally better off.

What about the Bohn tower, and other more recent buildings near 13th? Those probably haven't undergone HUD renovations like the Allerton.

One thing mentioned in the video from the "Parallels with Philadelphia" thread is that Philly got some office towers converted. We're starting to see a lot of those standing empty on E9th St and they all have killer views. Breuer plus two on Superior, the Key Bank building and the one across 9th from it. Empty or almost empty. Any one of them would be a game changer. And those mid-late-century towers are probably easier to convert than older buildings like the CAC.

I agree... this post should probably move with the rest, but the discussion is here at the moment... I just came across this article, which talks about violent "flash mobs" of teens as a national phenomenon. It also argues we shouldn't call them flash mobs, so as to not besmirch the peaceful ones, but that's beside the point. http://www.avclub.com/philadelphia/articles/av-club-editor-injured-in-flash-mob-attack-in-phil,58134/

Let's keep spreading the word and help them out.

Not hard to believe at all, that's actually the way it's supposed to work.

I would recommend both Heights neighborhoods over SS for someone in the OP's position. My original post in this thread also made clear that only certain areas of SS are problematic, which seems to be the concensus. It's kind of like the "stay south of Mayfield" thing around Coventry.

I'm pretty sure the cleveland.com extremes are just that, extremes. But even after filtering those out, this still sounds like more than a handful of kids misbehaving. And as noted above this is hardly the first time we've had festivals disrupted in the very same way. I remember plenty of fights in high school but nothing like these. What's the point of ruining a festival if you can have your fight uninterrupted in a more private locale? I like R&R's idea about giving kids more to do. Last year I worked on a summer jobs program that got a few thousand off the street. But we had to turn away about 8,000 more applicants due to funding limits. Many who did get job placements just stopped coming to work after a couple weeks (or days) and one kid literally said he was quitting so he could go "run the streets." It's an uphill battle but one worth fighting.

Hopefully.

I don't either. There's plenty of excess demand, as there has been for some time. And it's reasonable to expect rising prices when demand is growing so much faster than supply.

I agree with what they're trying to accomplish (restaurants should not face different rules every few miles) but the method is bogus. State bills are supposed to follow a "one subect" rule so they don't become unweildy like the ones in congress. So if you want to ban these local regs that's great, just do it in a separate bill.