Clevelander17

I'm sorry, but despite what Carey says, I still get the impression that, from his actions, his investment in the area is very limited. He worked really hard to bring an MLS team to Seattle when Cleveland, for a long time, was a top candidate for league expansion.

It looks like those projects are all being funded by the Federal government. I guess I'm okay with that, because like I said above, if SH weren't getting it, it may be going to some town in Florida or Texas. But in reality I think we'd all be better off if the Feds weren't taking all of that money to begin with and then making us jump through hoops to get it back.

I've worked for 3 large corporations, a large government organization, and two companies with less than 25 employees. The two small companies I worked for by far gave me the best benefits and the most perks. I'm not so sure your generalization is necessarily true. Google is more the exception than the rule as far as large corporations go. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it, but somewhere a few months back I read a few interesting blogs that essentially argued along similar lines. They basically said that Cleveland needed to cultivate smaller businesses and stop trying to hit a home run with landing bigger businesses. It made a lot of sense.

I agree with ksonic99. While I think Carey's ideas for the city make a lot of sense, I think his advice seems disingenuous and his motives don't seem sincere, considering he's moved elsewhere, helped other cities land pro sports franchises, and seems to have altogether wiped his hands clean of Cleveland.

This explains a lot! IMO, Chrome is so much better than Firefox, though, that I'll learn to put up with the "black hole." :)

No one is attacking SH (or CH). The area needs more people to offer constructive criticism and less cheerleading.

If this is funded by Federal money, than perhaps I'm okay with SH taking advantage of it, since if they don't, it will be lost (though the idea of Federal money in general going to such projects is sickening). That said, I doubt the Avalon Station debacle was funded by the Feds. That came out of the SH taxpayers' pockets if I recall correctly. This still doesn't mitigate the fact that that area of the city needs more than what can be provided by one orchard.

I hope you do investigate, honestly. I haven't been in that part of Shaker in a couple years (I don't live in NEO). I suspect that your wrong if you think that dilapidation is so wide spread that targeted interventions like this are pointless, but photos showing large clusters of highly distressed properties (the "bucket" this would be a drop in) would change my mind. I have to admit your reaction kind of surprised me. You seem to be dissatisfied with the efforts by the City of Cleveland Hts to preserve neighborhood quality of life, yet you piss all over a low tech effort like this to remove blight. I guess it makes sense if you think the neighborhood is already "too far gone" (which again, I suspect is really not the case here), in which case you'd think this is just a waste of money- even though it's not being funded with local tax money. You've got a very strange edge. I know you think it's just "the truth," but I think you kind overcompensate a bit if you see yourself as counteracting some sort of mindless "all is good" viewpoint. Actually, I have a problem when local governments overreach. Both CH and SH are guilty, though you're right, it's in different ways. Just about every bit of engineering that these cities have tried in recent years has backfired. The one thing I would support would be more barriers cutting off these cities from their troubled neighbors (like the ones in south Shaker Heights off of Scottsdale Rd.), since we know that the crime problems in these cities are mostly caused by inner-city Cleveland residents.

I hope you do investigate, honestly. I haven't been in that part of Shaker in a couple years (I don't live in NEO). I suspect that your wrong if you think that dilapidation is so wide spread that targeted interventions like this are pointless, but photos showing large clusters of highly distressed properties (the "bucket" this would be a drop in) would change my mind. I have to admit your reaction kind of surprised me. You seem to be dissatisfied with the efforts by the City of Cleveland Hts to preserve neighborhood quality of life, yet you piss all over a low tech effort like this to remove blight. I guess it makes sense if you think the neighborhood is already "too far gone" (which again, I suspect is really not the case here), in which case you'd think this is just a waste of money- even though it's not being funded with local tax money. You've got a very strange edge. I know you think it's just "the truth," but I think you kind overcompensate a bit if you see yourself as counteracting some sort of mindless "all is good" viewpoint. He's another debbie downer and nothing will ever be good enough for him. Not true. It's just that I don't live in Shaker Square, so I haven't lowered my expectations.

Just make sure to stay in your car with your windows rolled up :) We won't hold it against you if there is a glare present in your pictures. Obviously.

Please feel free to post a photo thread of this bucket-full of "run-down/dilapidated" houses in southern Shaker Heights to prove me wrong, but I think you have a misconception of southern Shaker Heights. It's not fancy and it's suffered from several foreclosures, but it's not physically falling apart en masse. No, I don't have any misconception about that part of the city. I'm familiar with the area, maybe I will do a photo thread one day to familiarize people with the other side of Shaker Heights. Heck maybe I'll do Cleveland Heights, too. If the city government is getting involved in things like this, it has a lot of work to do.

Oh sh!t...here you go again with some BS. What, no cliche, marginally funny picture to respond? What, exactly, was wrong about what I've said?

Clearly it's sour grapes. The Bulls/fans see the writing on the wall and realize that they'll be lucky to push this series to five games.

So Pavlik lost a fight that he really needed to win. Sadly, I think this is the end of the line for him as a big-time boxer.

That's the house I referred to in my prior message: (one is a new English-style estate and gardens off South Woodland and is larger than the Vans' home). I was looking at the new Lerner house with Bing birdseye views and rotating around the house. There also looks like something is below the ground to the east of the house. BTW, with Bing birdseye, you can check out a lot of the mansions in that area, including some that are very secluded. One large home is on the cul de sac of Creekside Drive (off Shaker east of SOM Center). While it is much larger than many of the other mansions (it also has a large guesthouse/servants quarters), the landscaping in the backyard is absolutely amazing. It's the one with the lone tennis court. So the Lerner estate in Hunting Valley is actually on the grounds of the old Van Sweringen estate (Daisy Hill)? That's really cool information, I never really put that together!

I think there's a street that runs perpendicular to South Woodland, and it has an incline, so if you go up the street, and look towards the estate, you can sort of see over the privacy fence/bushes.

It's pretty sad to see Ohio slowly sliding down the list. We were #4 a few years ago.

I have a hard time believing that this is the only run-down/dilapidated house in the southeast part of Shaker Heights. I'm not sure how much I like the idea of city governments getting involved in things like this, especially when I'm fairly certain it's just a drop in the bucket.

Great photos! The home for the new president of Cleveland State is also in that area, on Eaton, just off of North Park. Like someone else said above, parts of Shaker Heights are similar to Oakwood near Dayton and Upper Arlington near Columbus. Also, in regards to Al Lerner, I know that he lived in Shaker Heights, but a friend of mine swears that he also had a large estate further east (Pepper Pike, perhaps?) and we once went looking for it.

15 to go!

Good points. Highland isn't too far from Acacia, too. If you live in that area, there are public golfing options available already. I'd really prefer not to see anymore local taxpayer money invested in golf courses. From an environmental point of view, golf courses use an incredible amount of water, and I'm sure they do all kinds of other damage their surroundings, as well. Turning Acacia into a public park may not be a terrible idea, but I still get the impression that the new property owners (whomever they may be) will have bigger and perhaps better ideas.

If they go that route, are you thinking Metroparks? Maniki has been maintained pretty nicely, so something like tha tmight be okay there. I think I read that Lyndhurst has already been working to change zoning in that area, so I'm guessing there may be other ideas. Yeah, but what about the other 158 acres? :yap:

I just don't see that ever happening there, but who knows...

Looks like there are three offers for Acacia: http://www.cleveland.com/sun/all/index.ssf/2010/04/shareholders_of_acacia_country.html That area doesn't need anymore retail and probably doesn't need any more office space, but if I'm a Lyndhurst city official, that's what I'd be looking for. Considering what neighboring Beachwood has carved out and horded for itself, Lyndhurst may be looking to get a piece of that action.

The stadium has looked empty the past two games. edit: Nevermind, the record for lowest attendance in Jake history was set last night. :cry: