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Arts & Techno fest... I don't believe planning should revolve around CDC's to the extent that it currently does. It's analogous to having 60+ municipalities each fighting for their own piece of the county pie, making it tough to focus on the good of the whole.

Sounds like a winner. I especially like the focus on making it functional for pedestrians.

I know Litt didn't like them, but the recent Case dorms are another good model.

I tried to being ISO 9000 style procedures to a county agency here a few years ago. For the most part, they were flabbergasted at the concept. We did have some success but not without overcoming substantial resistance. They didn't even want to write down what their procedures were, let alone analyze them.

Maybe we are, but will they do that? Do they even realize how important that is, how it reflects on the institution, the city and the state?

Taking the buses off public square is a terrible idea, because that's where the rail hub is. Our whole system becomes disjointed if the buses converge elsewhere. I've asked several times for someone to explain the logistics behind this "east/west transit center" concept and I'm still curious. And yeah, bus stations rarely improve their immediate vicinity. Seems at odds with all other aspects of WHD development to this point. Also, RTA has a lot of other needs that ought to trump this. I don't even see why this is a need at all. It just seems like yet another horribly misguided move.

For alumni? You may not.

Great news and great pictures. Let Cleveland lead if others won't!

Perhaps some letters to President Berkman are in order. I paid CSU a ton of money, and I don't want it used in this manner. The quality of this campus build-out is so awful it could impact value of my degree. We're talking about a school that claims the #2 urban planning program in the country. No amount of marketing can overcome a string of decisions this poor. Strap, you may be right about what's available locally design-wise... evidence abounds... but this borders on gross incompetence. They missed the point entirely. They should be personally and professionally ashamed. This is a disgrace in the making, and we shouldn't have to take it.

Those theories are both plausible. In either case, how awkward.

Is the planning commission out of the picture at this point? Can they not say "Guys, we told you once and we'll tell you again, this design is not appropriate. We don't live in an anarchy. You don't get to ignore us." How can there be such a disconnect on the part of CSU and the developers? If cost is an issue, build less of them. Public institutions like CSU should not be involved in making downtown look like Twinsburg. If everyone knows this is wrong, why is it impossible to do what's right?

This story isn't as clear cut as some make it seem, at least regarding Paterno. I'm not saying Paterno comes out looking rosey, but the guy who actually saw this take place... and didn't stop it... didn't go to the cops... didn't even go to Paterno right away... he's still coaching this Saturday! Paterno reported it as soon as he was informed, and he wasn't necessarily informed at that time of the grisly details. Even the Attorney General of PA has questioned how disproportionately this has been handled by the university. If Paterno didn't do everything in his power, and it certainly appears he didn't, that ginger guy came nowhere close to doing the right thing.

Depending on the tenant, retail could do extremely well. And the building is not without architectural merit. Compared to what gets built nowadays it's a palace. I love gottaplan's idea... but I share surfohio's fears that whatever ends up there will be suburban in character. Pretty sure Cleveland's outrageously stupid zoning code demands it, and even if it didn't, I don't trust (most) local developers/architects to do it right. Look at that new CSU project... even the planning commission called it too suburban, and that's right downtown. Unless Ari Maron himself has a specific plan for the site, I think demolition would be unconscionable. It's not even abandoned! That bar gets packed on weekends and does good food business during the week. Closing it-- FOR A VACANT LOT-- would really hurt the neighborhood. It's not like we have 3 or 4 of those, we only have one. If it's so much more marketable as empty land, why not have a deal in place before ripping it down. If that's not in the cards right now... don't rip it down!

I mean the planters beyond DCA's area. Not the big bucket things, the treelawns. DCA does a nice job downtown (which is why I think a BID will help a lot in Ohio City) but Euclid is a long street. Many of the plantings are dead, others are overrun with toadstools, and some never even received plants in the first place. I wouldn't want that to happen on Lorain.

We've come full circle. Nothing to worry about... according to Falanga, MMPI just had some "miscommunications" about the essential nature of the project. MMPI says med mart mission is still to showcase medical technology http://www.cleveland.com/medicalmart/index.ssf/2011/11/mmpi_says_medical_mart_mission.html

Much of what EC suggests could be dealt with through a Business Improvement District, which I believe has been proposed. Not sure where that stands right now. But these maintenance issues are a big reason I prefer not to see planters and landscaping effects included in redevelopment plans. Planters were added along Euclid that the city refuses to take care of, which looks worse than if we'd just left the sidewalks alone. I'm excited about the upcoming... charrette... but I'm also somewhat worried its recommendations will be the usual suspects, namely greenspace and single family homes. Perhaps a solar-powered barrel for rainwater. I'm not sure what "activating public greenspace" means. It doesn't sound like an appropriate priority, unless you "activate" greenspace by putting apartments on top of it.

I would start by increasing the transit options available to OTR residents, which seems to be underway. Another possibility would be locating a large job center there, like a casino. That too seems to be underway. I'm not sure what "draconian measures" would entail, but whatever you have in mind, that's probably not a term you'd want to use in your advocacy efforts.

Interesting. What I take from that is: the planning commission was powerless here only because the zoning code wasn't up to snuff. That can be fixed. There probably should be a no-drive-thru provision for Detroit Avenue. It won't save the twin cinema but it could save a lot of other buildings down the road.

Actually, restaurant franchisees often raise these issues, having been falsely assured certain territories. But I was talking about the project as a whole, which revolves around major retail, which the eastern suburbs have no shortage of. Building more of it only leads to emptiness nearby, as well as more excuses to never add any retail downtown. There's no reason you can't have your Jimmy Johns without the megaplaza. Does South Euclid not have any empty retail buildings that could house a Jimmy John's? I'm pretty sure it does.

That's too bad, I really think it would help the project and therefore the city. Ridiculous that it's perfectly OK to tear down a historic building but verboten to attach a hallway to another one, leaving us with the worst of both worlds... no Columbia, plus an incomplete parking arrangement in its place. Either don't tear down anything (too late), or finish the job that supposedly made the demo worthwhile.

This is indeed another example of CSU dropping the ball design-wise. So frustrating that we can't ever get it right. In other news, I gotta meet this Lillian Kuri. Based on a couple quotes here, she should be mayor.

According to a Sun blurb I read today, Lakewood's planning commission has rubber stamped the McDonalds on Detroit, citing McDonalds' right to pretty much do whatever they want anyway. So if it has zero power... exactly how much is it costing us to maintain a planning commission? I'm a fan of planning, but not of paper tigers. Would McDonalds be able to do whatever they wanted in Beacon Hill or Tribeca?

To be honest, no I do not think South Euclid should have every store every other suburb does. Those lines are arbitrary, and that sort of "competition" hurts the entire region. South Euclid residents are hardly starved for retail in their general area. And some of those restaurants you listed in Lakewood are located in historic mixed use buildings. If this project looked more like downtown Lakewood (as a whole), it would be eagerly welcomed by the region's urbanists.

"We don't go downtown anymore" happened in a lot of cities, probably most of them. Cleveland has fought back from that better than most, despite several factors working against it. Your description sounds more like downtown Columbus. As for downtown not being in the center, it's a port city and that's how most of them are set up. There's nothing wrong with having additional downtowns like Independence and Beachwood, this too is common, but I think it would be beneficial if they were all in the same municipality. Case in point Atlanta, as mentioned above. As much as we need new rail, RTA also needs more non-radial routes that reflect the current dispersion of jobs and retail. If downtown weren't so devoid of retail, the radial system would make a lot more sense, because it was designed for a downtown that wasn't just offices and restaurants. Having one "center of everything" is the most efficient way for a community to function. Now that we don't, transit planning becomes a challenge and we're guaranteed less bang for our buck. It also causes new bottlenecks on the freeways, as capacities planned for one traffic pattern are increasingly used for another. 480 between Independence and Beachwood, which also serves as Cleveland's outerbelt, is the clearest example of this.

Battery Park originally included a large apartment building but I'm not sure if that's still in the plan. To get what you're looking for, WestBLVD, we'd have to develop all that area north of Superior between downtown and E 30th. Extend the "Avenue District" eastward. Based on the geography that's the only place it could occur. Downtown is, shall we say, fortified from attack in all directions except east. And that land is just sitting there, vaguely industrial and generally uninviting. But if you lived there, you could easily walk to anywhere in downtown or Asiatown. It has Success Tech Academy plus CSU just a few blocks away. A full size Dave's is nearby on 36th.