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Not the most convincing or flattering article, but still not bad press for Ohio's attractions: CLEVELAND/CEDAR POINT Rocking and rolling on a weekend for the kids By Alan Solomon Tribune staff reporter Published July 10, 2005 SANDUSKY, Ohio -- Our first stops on this Magical Midwestern Tour have essentially been destinations for grownups that young people might, or might not, enjoy. This time, we're blatantly and unapologetically pandering to children. Adults can come along if it's OK with the kids. This is a Rock and Roller Coaster Weekend. First stop is Cleveland, with its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum......, [email protected]

That's a great idea. It's a big regional/tourist draw, and the clothes are hip and urban. It has a department store feel, and a euro look. re-tool TC for a more hip urban market with other stores like: Kenneth Cole Urban Outfitters CB2(crate and barrel's hipper design stores) Virgin Megastore Aldo Club Monaco Container Store DWR West Elm Zara Give them cheap rent they can't refuse. Maybe the cinemas could even be an indie house like the Landmark Theatre chain

Actually, once they enter a market and the fever dies down, people have Ikea hangover, and it is not anything to brag about. It's throw away cheap design for college kids for the most part...kind of an Old Navy of furniture. As stated earlier, it's good for choice items that blend in with some of your more expensive stuff. You really don't want someone spotting it as an Ikea piece the minute they walk in the door if you are over 30. Check furniture for sale on Craigs List in any market where there is an Ikea...everything for sale is from there. The euro clothing version of Ikea is H&M. Dirt cheap, trendy, high style, throw away clothes. Same thing, wear it once or twice and it's off to the thrift store. When they opened here the lines to get in were down the block.

Found a more urban-centric pic on the US-MX border crossing. This is the border between San Diego CA and Tijuana MX. That is TJ in the background. The big gold sphere on the left is a MX cultural Museum focusing on the Upper Baja CA state of MX and the history. You can see the giant MX flag in the middle.

Even though they cater to a younger crowd for the most part, they generally locate in suburban areas in the US. The stuff is heavy pressboard, and they need a lot of loading zone space for cars. The city of Chicago tried to get them to build their 2nd location in the city on the South Side near an "L" stop for city residents and they were really cold on the idea. A 2nd one is going to be in the South west burb's. The Pittsburgh one is tiny compared to most of the newer stores. Actually, I am surprised that it would go into a congested shopping Mall like Legacy Village. They are mostly stand alone with giant parking lots.

You put together all of the fiurniture yourself: Check the website for more info: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/ The quality varies, most of it is pretty cheap, but they are coming out with higher priced items that are better made. They have an entire leather sectional couch now, for example. For the most part it is for younger people that need to furnish an apartment cheap. One bonus is that in this era of 'Super Size' houses and overstuffed furniture, this stuff is generally apartment sized and will fit through older urban doorways and stairwells that most traditional American furniture won't. Also, they offer some nicely designed modern kitchen cabinets that are great as an alternative to the traditional wood paneled/brass hardware boring crap they have at home depot. You can get a stylish Euro kitchen remodel even on a budget.

Are we talking neighborhoods of Cleveland or Suburbs? An Urban paper should not include suburbs...Actual neighborhoods, I'd say, Shaker Square/Larchmere/Buckeye Little Italy/Univ Circle Ohio City Tremont Clifton/W117th/Birdtown Downtown West Park Kamms Corners Grovewood/N Collinwood/E 185 Detroit/Shoreway Lee/Miles Old Brooklyn

And the riverfront in 1982 before redevelopment also found at that website:

Hope this works...A pic I found here: http://www.library.toledo.oh.us/tprofile/HTML%20Files/h132_2.htm

Poor Toledo, looks like it is becoming "Little Detroit". I find that whole Toledo riverfront fascinating...one of the biggest failed projects of all time. They hired Rouse Co. to come up with a festive riverfront just like Baltimore inner harbor or Boston Fannueil Hall. It included the OI Tower, a L'Hotel Sofitel, Portside Festival Market, An amphitheatre, public river walkways and art, a couple of the other Seagate buildings, condos on the river(torn a few years after being built), Historic rehab of a street nearby, river boat slip with a cruise ship. Basically the entire Toledo Riverfront was completely redone with one huge project. It was a huge undertaking for a city that size...and I think the Toledo Trust Bank underwrote the project and it put them out of business. The cruise ship ended up in Cleveland as one of the "Goodtime" boats. The Portside Mall failed miserably and closed down. It had weird stores...one in particular that only sold things that were "Purple". I think there was a Benetton and a few other stores new to Toledo at the time. There was a Shooter's with a swimming pool. Now the OI building might become vacant. Such an ambitous plan with good intentions. It's really quite sad I wrote a paper on this in college sometime in the early 90's and took a bunch of pics at the time. I'll try and find them, as they might be of interest to some of you. At the time, the Mall was shuttered and had broken windows and said " ORT IDE" on the round street front facade because the 'P' and 'S' had fallen off and were laying nearby. The pool from Shooters was covered with plywood.

I guess when you see this stuff going on in such nice looking urban areas like OTR/Eden Park, there is more shock/passion and caring for cleaning it up. Most things like this in Cleveland would go on in the Woodland Ave/Kinsman Rd urban renewal housing project corridor...so it's just off the radar of most people. No one would care if that whole part of the city was bulldozed.

I agree that big box stores are not neccesarily bad, but typical suburban style throw away type boxes and parking lots are bad. Also, just because a store is being built in Cleveland does not guarantee that it will be kept up at as high of standards as suburban stores. It may become dumpy and people will still flock to other stores in the suburbs anyway. These companies tend to operate these urban stores with a minimum of service because they figure the population is so starved for their goods, and they are doing the community a favor by being there. That is why an urban community has to demand higher standards from these stores anyway ...begining with good design. This big box thing is not new to the city, there are old boarded up K Marts all over the neighborhoods that were uninspired boxes. These new Targets and Wal-Marts may be in the same shape in 15 years...boarded up eyesores. However, a well designed store in a stable mixed use dynamic neighborhood might endure in the long run and be much more attractive and viable for re-use in the future should the store close.

^ I totally applaud your efforts to keep these issues in the forefront, of course these things going on are are completely unacceptable and need to be dealt with. My point was more that for some reason it seems in Cincy this out of control crime theme has permeated the psyche of the residents to a much deeper level than other places. To an unhealthy point where they are projecting it to visitors and outsiders and creating an image that is not deserved. I just wonder if the media is focusing on it too much and causing this perception that crime is rampant in the city? Or was it the riots? I met these girls the other night at a bar, and they had moved from Cincy 8 mos ago. The first thing they said was that it was too conservative, and the second thing was that crime was out of control! I rarely hear anyone else say this about where they are from (not even Detroit). The funny thing was that these girls lived in Rogers Park...not the greatest hood in Chicago! I just find the psychology of a city interesting...everyone says Cleveland has an inferiority complex...and Cincy seems to obsess over crime.

I must say that it really seems like Cincinnatians perceive that their city has a much higher crime rate than what it really is. Not just from this thread, but when I visited there I heard the 'unsafe' and 'crime' concerns a lot, and some of my other friends that visited there said that it was unsafe....and when I asked them specifics on why, they couldn't site anything in particular...until finally they admitted that they had heard it from locals...a waitress, someone at a bar sitting next to them etc so it must be true. Maybe the Enquirer headlines these stories more, or the local news hypes it up...maybe since the riots there is more sensationalism in reporting??? Whatever the case, the residents unreasonably think that it's higher in crime than it's peers. While I agree that crime is always a concern for communities, and I am not saying that something shouldn't be done in Cincy....but over hyping the problem is really detrimental to the overall health and mentality of the city. There is going to be a certain amount of crime in a city of that size, so you have to be reasonable and take it in perspective. Just doing a quick check at this useful site that compares 2 cities http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/crcompare.aspx I found that Cincy's overall crime rate is similar or lower in most categories than Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indy...and here is a comparison to Columbus: Crimes per 100,000 population Natl. average Columbus, OH Cincinnati, OH Population 114,967 676,701 333,750 Violent Crimes murder, rape, robbery & assault 506.1 886.4 800.3 Property Crimesburglary, larceny & auto theft 3,617.9 8,437.4 5,685.5 Murder 5.5 9.9 4.5 Forcible rape 32.0 85.4 78.2 Robbery 144.9 457.8 406.9 Aggravated assault 323.6 333.2 310.7 Burglary 728.4 2,009.8 1,467.3 Larceny-theft 2,475.3 5,366.6 3,622.5 Motor vehicle theft 414.2 1,061.0 595.7 Arson 32.2 n/a n/a

I totally agree with changing them back to 2 way streets. Most one way streets in a smaller city like Dayton aren't neccessary and are just sewers of traffic running through Downtown. Columbus needs to get a clue from Dayton on this one...every street is really wide...and one way! I still think part of what killed the Flats was changing Old River rd to one way.

Here is a test on what dialect you speak from today's Cool Cleveland: http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/

One thing I get made fun of in Chicago is saying "I am calling off work tomorrow" instead of calling in sick. Or as in "Are you working tomorrow?" "No, I am calling off". Doesn't everyone in Ohio say that? I never thought it was odd.

Yeah, but Federated HQ in Cincy is probably the only reason Lazarus/Macy's is still open Downtown. Same thing in St Louis, Famous Barr was still open Downtown because of the May Co HQ. In Chicago there is a fairly new downtown Sears, and many free standing old stores all over the city (there is one within walking distance from my house :-D). I doubt that would be the case if they weren't headquartered here

Yeah Cleveland...Milwaukee was actually forward thinking and ripped out a lakefront freeway years ago. The Art Museum is amazing. One reason they still have a Downtown Dept Store 'Boston Store' is because it is owned by Sak's and that is the headquarters for the 'Boston Store/Carson Pirie Scott' division. They keep threatening to close it though.

The Shaker Diner at the rapid stop....for the pure ambiance of the trains going by. That place on Bellflower. They are probably both closed now...it's been a while since I lived there. :wtf:

Actual sunny day @ Edgwater Beach

Just curious, which space is Kauffman's in? Originally wasn't there Lazarus, Marshall Field's and Jacobson's in there? I seem to recall that the Field's store was really nice...kind of a smaller version of the flagship State St store...is that where Kauffman's is? If so, that would be a nice store even though Kaufmann's is kind of junky...even the flagship downtown store in Pittsburgh is in pretty rough shape.

The ones I remember were Akron: Chapel Hill, Rolling Acres, Summit Mall, Stow/Kent(freestanding store like the old May on the heights) Canton: Belden Village, Canton Centre(Mellett Mall), 30th St Plaza Mansfield: Richland Mall

O'Neil's was a big store in Downtown Akron...plus I think 4 suburban Akron mall stores, 2 Canton mall Stores, and one in Mansfield and I think one in Coshocton. They remodeled the Downtown store in the 80's but then closed it in 1989 when they took on the May Company name. A law firm is in the building now...but my Mom says that they still decorate the windows at Christmas. From the Beacon Journal: 1876 -- Michael O'Neil, a young Irishman traveling from New York to St. Louis, steps off the train in Akron. He decides it's perfectly suited to his new concept -- a department store. 1877 -- A year later he and a partner open O'Neil & Dyas on East Market Street, a multipurpose store that would replace dozens of tiny, immigrant-run shops on Howard Street. 1880s -- O'Neil moves his store out of town even farther, to Main Street along the canal. The store becomes simply O'Neil's. It remains on Main Street for more than a century. 1912 -- O'Neil's is purchased by the May Co. of St. Louis, becoming one of the company's 11 department store chains. 1960s and 1970s -- The M O'Neil Co. expands its locations to nearly a dozen malls and shopping centers in the area. 1989 -- The O'Neil's store in downtown Akron closes and all O'Neil's stores are switched over to the May Co. name. 1993 -- All the May Co. stores switch over to the Kaufmann's name. Kaufmann's, based in Pittsburgh is one of May Co.'s most valuable chains. 2005 -- The merger of May Co. with Federated Department Stores of Cincinnati is announced. It will create the country's largest department store chain, with 1,000 stores. All Kaufmann's stores are expected to switch to the Macy's name.

Stern and Mann - Original Downtown store in Canton...and actaully survived until the late 80's or early 90's downtown and with branch stores at Belden Village Mall in N Canton and Fairlawn Plaza in West Akron. It tried to be very upscale...but small and limited in the selection. Random thoughts about other Ohio Dept stores from my memory: Halle's was not only in Cleveland, they had branches at Belden Village and Summit mall in west Akron...also an old Halle's store building still sits west of the SW quadrant of Shaker Square. Downtown Youngstown had a Higbee's, Strouss and Carlylisle's(sp) as recently as the 80's. I think Carlyisle's was the last Youngstown mainstay that is now closed. Anyone from the NE Ohio area has to remember the commercials on tv that always said "At May Company and O'Neil's" before they became all became May Co then Kauffmann's. Joseph Horne's - A Pittsburgh store that had branches in Cleveland...at Randall Park, Severance, Westgate Why stop at department stores...what about aplliances...Sun TV...Northeast(no lemon pledge)...Fretter... discount stores...Silverman's...Uncle Bill's...Clarkin's...Gold Circle grocery...Fazio's...Fisher's...Finast Arrgh...to many memories