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Isn't this within a couple blocks of Gallucci's? Seems odd to move a grocer away from residential and into an office park, but I see it as a gain for midtown... unless it shuts down Gallucci's, in which case we traded two grocers for one.

Not exactly but each "ride" lasts a couple hours. That gives you a chance to transfer if need be, or even make a round trip if you're quick about it.

Single mothers are a problem, but if we're lamenting the demise of traditional family roles then we also have to account for the disappearance of solid jobs for the fathers. Unfortunately when men can't provide, women don't necessarily want them around. It's not always a case of fathers being absent by choice.

Of course they can. While they're at it they could update the zoning code and revise their system to eliminate some approval steps. Unfortunately, we only have twice as many councilpersons as we need... wherever will they find the time?

Our problem is not an inability to finance nor a lack of developers wanting to build big here. Our market is just fine relative to other cities and those arguments need to retire. Our real problem is that every desirable proposal gets attacked by anti-urban activists, some of whom hold public office. Cleveland will continue to struggle until we stop making flimsy "market based" excuses and address this. We must first choose, clearly and definitively, to be a major city. Without that critical first step we have no hope of moving in that direction. Every detail of what happens here flows from our fundamental choice of plan.

Not the point though, not when developers are proposing high rises and the city is demanding they be shortened or flat-out rejecting them. That's the situation in Cleveland. When proposals for hot areas meet this kind or resistance, it's no wonder there aren't many such proposals for lesser areas. When I say "the city" in this context I generally mean neighborhood activists because Cleveland's bottom-up system empowers them. In addition, many public and quasi-public planning bodies in Cleveland actively and purposefully steer development money toward low-density concepts. I think you and I have similar visions for Euclid Avenue, but with every anti-pedestrian development that goes in, critical mass becomes less and less feasible. High Street could never have become what it is today if Columbus had encouraged Battelle and Abbott Labs to set up shop there. Nobody walks to Battelle.

Columbus has the better road system, no doubt about that. Also higher speed limits on comparable roads. That really does help when getting places is your goal. Cleveland could make much better use of its waterfront, no doubt about that either. Unfortunately our waterfront plans never seem to involve the sort of intense development that port cities typically favor there. As for lake views, Cleveland's anti-tower policies sharply limit them. It's a shame because the topography favors amazing views from all over the place. There's just a willful refusal to take advantage of that. Parts of Columbus are beginning to eclipse Cleveland in terms of density, not due to geographic or logistical concerns but simply because that's what Columbus has chosen to do. The new High Street could have been planned like the new Euclid Avenue, focusing on low-density high-security single-use facilities, but a different decision was made and it seems to be working out. Ironically, Cleveland's plan is based on "jobs jobs jobs" but the Columbus method of building walkable density ends up attracting more of them.

It's using equivalent square mileage. I believe it does work. Not clear, devil's in the details. Columbus spreads its population in a 360 degree arc around its center while Cleveland's arc is more like 200 degrees. If the "miles from center" measurement is a radius, the comparison doesn't work because Cleveland isn't arranged around a geographical center the way Columbus is. Coastal cities tend to be oblong and their concentrations of density follow the same pattern for the same reason. Along the lake shore, Cleveland's metro is 60 miles wide. So measuring 9 miles from downtown includes a National Park but leaves out many densely populated areas. Never thought of that. Might be something to it. Strategery!

I would guess Bratenahl is the solitary dot, but then where are the two dots further east? Looks to be roughly north of a blank space I'm assuming is CuyCo Airport, but that would be Euclid?? Those high rises on the lake probably.

Maybe not Licking. Newark is biggish, Granville has money, and sprawl is filling the gap between them and Columbus.

Grocers have been moving in on the restaurant market though, some (like Heinen's) more than others. Buehler's does too but they recently scaled down their menu so maybe that trend is already reversing. I'll miss Gamekeepers. My family had new years eve dinner there for years. The menu was almost the same every time but we liked that.

Apparently it doesn't, yet. These are infinitely better than vacant fields and ruins. If they succeed, they help justify more permanent structures. That logic is what concerns me. A weak stab is being substituted for a full go, with performance of the weak stab being used to determine the hypothetical success of a full go. First of all, apples and oranges. But if this doesn't work, even if the problem is site choice or single-use or the limitations of shipping containers or whatever, it becomes a new argument for the TJ Dows of the world to use against honest to goodness urban retail.

I like the overall arrangement and design in those pictures but now I'm really confused. This isn't just boxes, it's construction using boxes, which means sinking money and effort into something that's still boxes when we're done. Kinsman deserves real buildings, just like the rest of Cleveland.

Dow is Exhibit A for why we can't get ahead. Cleveland invested millions in League Park renovations, hoping it would draw private business investment to revive the area. But when investment comes knocking, local leadership attacks. Councilman Dow 1) wants the area rezoned to block everything except single-family homes, and 2) equates retail with urban blight. There are already several new Solon-style homes flanking the ballpark, which provides him with a built-in constituency of NIMBYs who insist that East 66th can and should resemble Solon. These folks privatize entire city blocks, then complain about people cutting through their yards, and then have the gall to complain about gentrification. But gentrification is exactly what they want, as long as they get to be the gentry. Dow could not be more wrong in his attitudes about development, urbanity, or the world around him in general. But he's not alone in those attitudes, they're unfortunately quite common, and they are robbing us of every opportunity to turn this thing around.

No, the west side Cleveland dots begin the with a cluster in Lakewood, considerably closer to the core than Bay Village. Likewise the inner east side cluster begins at University Circle, which one would obviously expect. Better off than Detroit. At least we have some dots in the core, however few.

Youngstown has like 8 blue dots. How many people per dot?

Yeah, it would be called the Chernobyl Urban Garden, the veggies would be bigger than humans! As I understand it, certain crops help clean out the soil. Asparagus maybe? Might not want to eat the first batch. I like the idea of moving the freeway here, cost-benefit seems problematic though.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rogue-east-cleveland-cops-framed-dozens-drug-suspects-n736671 "Three cops who worked for the city of East Cleveland are in prison. Cases against 22 alleged drug dealers have been dismissed. Authorities are searching for another 21 people who are eligible to have their convictions tossed. On top of those injustices, there is a slim chance that any of them will be fully reimbursed, because the disgraced officers and their former employer don't have the money."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Cleveland Probably not a complete list but it does try. TV Tropes is a nice website to get lost in if you're into movies/books/games/TV or just storytelling techniques in general.

Right now they're on the 90 WB median embankment near the W 44th exit, doing everything in their power to avoid fighting crime. If Ohio's state police force wants to operate in Cleveland they should be doing it at street level. Woodland Avenue is technically a highway and that's where we need the manpower. Cleveland does not suffer from a crisis of traffic enforcement. To focus resources on that in the face of real crises is incompetent and absurd. We've got professors getting randomly shot in broad daylight. If that trooper is visible on SR 87 instead of IR 90, maybe we don't.

doesn't quite address Only after that do you begin talking ideas. And I'm done talking about this idea, feel like my point has been made. One factual item though, this area is littered with mixed use buildings in need of renovation and tenants. Not this particular stretch of Kinsman, no, but to me that's a myopic view. And it's not like Kinsman itself doesn't have a degree of active retail already. It does, so I'm not sure what exactly needs to be proven. Public investment in retail space should probably focus on streets like Union or 93rd where there are more historic mixed-use structures left to work with. As noted, Kinsman has seen enough demo to provide a nearly clean slate. I just hate to see this sort of thing happen with a clean slate. This can't possibly be what we cleaned it for... right?

Why does this need to be personal? Why does any discussion of public investment choices need to be personal? I haven't questioned your qualifications to talk about it. That's not appropriate here. Many cities in this area, and others, have storefront renovation programs and small business support programs. Those programs are specifically intended for distressed areas. Are you suggesting they aren't viable because they don't use trailers? I'm suggesting they're more viable for that very reason. The whole point of any such program is using public funds to address private disinvestment. That's a constant. It doesn't distinguish this approach from any other. But this is not the only way to approach the problem, just like dirt bike tracks aren't the only way to approach whatever they're supposed to solve. IMO neither of those ought to be Plan A. If you disagree, good for you. I don't believe our disagreement makes you ignorant. Give that outlook a try, you might find yourself happier.

The PD article makes that clear. The parking deck was essential and this development has scant relation to public transit. I don't see this offering any more neighborhood benefit than Third Federal did for Broadway, but it's a big win for the city as a whole. Big enough to assuage other concerns. Still, it's troubling to hear city officials suggest that corporate HQs will somehow spawn nearby retail. There's already plenty of evidence to the contrary. This facility even includes an indoor walking track, so people can hold meetings on foot without ever touching Euclid Avenue.

Boojee? I don't know what that is. Why must neighborhood retail must come with weights attached like operating out of trailers, especially if the intent is to prove whether neighborhood retail can work? Of course it can, it does all over the world. In trailers though? That adds challenges. Why add challenges? This only serves as proof of concept for trailer-based neighborhood retail. If I had to bet, I would not bet on that specific plan working out very well. Too many limits on what can be sold like this and when. Too many strikes against it for too many potential customers. When we do things in Cleveland, we should do them right. There ought to be complaints any time we choose half-measures instead. Same goes for "TOD" projects skipping retail entirely like that's no big deal. Sorry, halfway is not good enough. Do. It. Right. All of it. Where retail is concerned that means real buildings, with full utilities, the whole nine yards. It blows my mind that's too much to ask. This is the middle of a major US city. We have options other than trailer parks, those options are better, and we should pursue them.

IIRC the ones downtown are painted up and do have some windows carved out. And they're arranged in an orderly fashion, like any decent trailer park. I get that we don't agree on the merit of this proposal, and that's cool, but I hope we can agree that the proposal is fundamentally a trailer park. So Kinsman Road is now getting that to go with its dirtbike track. What's the next step in Operation Bucyrus, a grain elevator?