jborger

Most of the garbage ends up farther down the alley. This patio looks to be right on the street which is a lot cleaner.

Move to Beachwood?

(I searched for a Port of Cleveland thread but couldn't find one... I'm sure this will be moved to where it's supposed to go... :) ) Moving Port of Cleveland gives city the chance to reinvent a downtown Cleveland waterfront A forum was held Thursday night to discuss the revitalization of 100 acres of lakefront property in downtown Cleveland once the Port of Cleveland moves to East 55th Street. About 150 people attended the forum, entitled "Transforming Cleveland by Building a WorldClass Waterfront", which was held at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. This was one of the first public meetings about the waterfront although Eric Anthony Johnson, real estate director for the Port of Cleveland, said multiple meetings will be held this summer and fall. The focus of this meeting wasn't to show development plans or architectural renderings (there aren't any) but to provide an overall vision of what the waterfront could be. The number one message of all four speakers was to create a sense of place -- the private development around those public spaces will come later. It's up to the public sector to create public boardwalks and parks and sidewalks and bike paths and courtyards. Development will automatically happen around those areas if the city and county focuses on creating a unique sense of place. Complete article at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6824-Downtown-Cleveland-Examiner~y2009m5d1-Moving-Port-of-Cleveland-gives-city-the-chance-to-reinvent-a-downtown-Cleveland-waterfront

w28th - Forget what I said about the Erie coffee company tables and stairs being unrestricted from the gate. They put up a metal fence around them... That street's starting to feel like a cattle chute.

First residents move into The Avenue District condos in downtown Cleveland The first residents moved into the The Avenue District condos at 1211 St. Clair Avenue in downtown Cleveland last Friday. The 10-story condo building at the corner of St. Clair and East 12th Street broke ground in September 2006. It features 54 lofts and eight penthouses. Prices range from $240,000 for a 950 square foot, one bedroom loft to $1.2 million for a 2,700 square foot, two story, three bedroom penthouse with three balconies that occupies the top two floors of the building. The rest of the article (and pictures!) can be found at: http://www.examiner.com/x-6824-Downtown-Cleveland-Examiner~y2009m4d9-First-residents-move-into-The-Avenue-District-condos-in-downtown-Cleveland

Tri-C to rent space in old May Co. in Cleveland for culinary learning center Cuyahoga Community College will set up shop at one of the remaining storefront spaces in the May Co. building downtown for what is being billed as a culinary learning center... for more information: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/03/tric_to_rent_space_in_old_may.html

I walked my dog down East 4th Street yesterday afternoon and there were some people sitting outside Erie Coffee Company. Since their coffee is non alcoholic, they can have tables and chairs outside without having a metal fence surrounding them. That's a first for the area and really helps give the street a friendly, inclusive feel.

About 750 surface parking spaces will be detroyed with this project. Take that and add 500 more spots for the new residential units and you're at 1,250 (assuming every one of those 500 residential units have just one person living in them, which they won't). So that's only 1,150 more spots to cover 700,000 sq. ft. of office space plus restaurants and a hotel. I don't think that's "overkill". "People who chose to live in locations like this most likely will be walkers" is a great dream but just not true at this point in time. I've lived downtown for 3 years and have a car. My girlfriend has lived downtown for five years and has a car. Her sister has lived downtown longer than that and has a car. My girlfriend's friend in the Warehouse District has a car. My sister was downtown for two years and had a car. And she even worked downtown! The person renting my condo downtown has a car and he walks less than a mile to work. The vast majority of people I know that live downtown have cars. It's just a fact. And getting rid of parking spaces will NOT make people say, "Gee, there's no parking downtown so I guess I'll ride a bus." It will make them say, "There's no parking downtown so I'm not going downtown." Parking is the number one complaint I hear from suburbanities about visiting or living downtown. Americans (including Clevelanders) love their cars. And people that talk about the values of public transportation (myself included) will not be able to change anyone's mind just by making downtown less car-friendly.