Ewoops

^my bedroom has a window cut out of the wall, letting the natural light from the rest of the apartment in. I don't mind the darker bedroom, particularly because my windows are huge and face east. When friends have crashed on my couch, they complained that the sun greeted them like a slap on the face.

Every time a business or organization moves further away from the core city, it stings me a little. But I don't blame Stark as much as I do the Beck Center. He's just promoting his development. However, we need to do a better job of convincing folks like Stark and entities like the Beck Center that it is in their and the community's best interest for them to stay in or near the core. That being said, if the Beck Center absolutely needs a new location, what about Gordon Square, Pesht, or Playhouse Square?

^why couldn't we just create a traffic circle around the square? Is there so much traffic passing through the square that a traffic circle isn't feasible? Eliminating just a few lanes of traffic feels a little like being half-pregnant to me.

^I heard East 4th will be announcing four new tenants soon. . .

Would it be possible to tie the renovation of Public Square to a convention center proposal behind Tower City? Perhaps Forest City could be coerced into making a large investment on the Square as a condition of being rewarded the Convention Center? Many Conventioners would pass through Public Square on their way to/from conventions. Forest City, in my opinion, has isolated Tower City from the rest of downtown, so there is no positive impact on all of downtown. Prospect, Huron and Ontario, where they pass through the Tower City development, are streets with a ton of potential, but are currently extremely unfriendly to pedestrians. Those streets should provide pedestrians with a smooth transition from the WD to Gateway. Instead, they are intimidating and almost force you inside. I wish they could be forced to design their projects in a way that would benefit all of downtown, as opposed to just their corner of it. For example, if they get the CC, the main visitor entrance should be at the intersection of Ontario and Huron, so the project would benefit the Gateway neighborhood as well as Tower City, but I am concerned that no one will hold their feet to the fire on that. Forest City must have never heard the saying that a rising tide lifts all ships. It seems like FC has lost faith in its ability to lift all of downtown, and is now concerned with making sure it has the largest slice of an inevitably smaller downtown pie.

^I agree that we need a way of measuring downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods as a "Center City" area. Sadly, Steelyard Commons is the only entity I have seen attempt to do this. It would be great if we could get the neighborhoods surrounding downtown to look to downtown (as opposed to Steelyard or the burbs) as the place to find things they can't get in their own neighborhood. The city is currently leaving a lot of potential on the table in its leveraging of the economic impact of the population surrounding downtown. As to the impact of upcoming projects, hopefully when we add the next 1,440 units, we will reach a tipping point making it that much easier to attract the next 5,000. Maybe that is wishful thinking, but I have to hope that eventually we reach a point when folks start to jump on the bandwagon. A project like Stark's could go a long way toward making that happen.

How many years do you think it will be before Downtown Cleveland has the population to be its own ward? I think the wards are like 23k now, and downtown has about 8k, so if the city continues to lose population, and downtown continues to gain, the city center residents will start to have a lot more political clout. It will be an interesting shift to witness.

^will members of the general public be able to purchase memberships to the new rec center? Or is it for students only? It looks great. My wife is planning on getting her masters in education (part-time) soon, would she have access and, more importantly, would I be able to use it for a fee if she went to CSU? I need to know, so I can start to manipulate her decision-making process.

^Key's cafeteria is on like the 30th floor and is incredibly busy. If they didn't have that cafeteria, it would inject a lot more like onto the Square and the street.

^Seriously though, does anyone remember the plan a few years back to enclose the East Bank of the Flats? Was that Corna?

^I also heard about the dome over the viaduct, it would allow the entire stonbridge project to be used 365 days a year, rather than the measly 200 or so that are now available. Imagine the economic impact!

^I heard they have a commercial building and townhomes planned next for the site.

^I was there last night as well, it was a great time. The crowd moved up the hill to the warehouse district after the game, and the festivities continued. Do you think it would still be possible to get something done downtown, or has the ship already sailed?

wow, great letter!

^I grew up in Sandusky, and worked at Cedar Point and local hotels while growing up. I would wager that more people come from Greater Cleveland than anywhere else, but that the Michiganders have the largest local impact, due to the fact that they are much more likely to stay over night. Clevelanders tend to drive in and out on the same day, since it's only an hour away for most, and much less than an hour for many west siders.

What does this do to the Cedar Point v King's Island rivalry? http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/business-6/1148306054183300.xml&storylist=cleveland Cedar Fair buys Paramount Parks for $1.2 billion 5/22/2006, 9:52 a.m. ET The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Cedar Fair LP, an Ohio-based amusement park operator, is buying the Paramount Parks business from CBS Corp. for $1.24 billion in cash, the companies announced Monday...

^I am being realistic, and Kansas City is trying to get it done right now, it's also a big reason why Seattle's field was built with a retractable roof. I didn't say that Cleveland would get all of those events, and I never mentioned conventions. I said that it would be worth it if they could get those events. But let's go over your list: Super Bowl: Detroit has gotten two and KC is guaranteed one if they roof their stadium. Also, Minneapolis has gotten the event. Indy is currently trying to get a Super Bowl. Final Four: consistently held in cold weather midwestern cities with domes, will be in detroit next year. Bowl games: Detroit has motor city bowl, I didn't say try to get a bowl relocated here, I said see if we could get one. Maybe we could, maybe we couldn't. MAC championship: they are headquartered here, we should be able to get it. detroit has it now, along with Motor City Bowl, in which MAC champ plays every year. It is silly to have them play in same stadium two games in a row. Etcetera: I didn't mention anything else. There was nothing naive about saying that we should look at what it would cost and who we could get to pay for it, and then looking into whether or not we could secure commitments from the aforementioned organizations. It is cynical to dismiss it before looking into it.

^it is Ferchill's project. But that name is dead. They did a survey, and half the people liked it, the half that didn't like it really didn't like it, so they are going to call it something else.

I would like to see an economic feasability study done before I would commit to supporting a retractable roof. But, if the study showed that increased business would pay for the roof, and we could secure commitments before building it, it could be worth it (depending on who's paying for it). Commitments I would need to see before building it would be: 1. At least one Super Bowl to be played w/in 10 years, patterned after the deal Kansas City got. In fact, I would push for two over 30 years. If we could get the NFL to commit to this, it would have a huge economic impact on the city. Estimates on the economic impact of a single Super Bowl range from $30 million (on the low side) to $60 million (a conservative high side estimate). So, one Super Bowl would bring in a benefit at least equal to 1/3 the cost of funding this, two would pay for at least 2/3. Also, I think a Super Bowl could be a catalyst for reviving the public/private partnership and bringing a focus to everything incredible that is happening downtown. The idea would be to get everything that is planned done before the Super Bowl, and then use the Super Bowl to bring media attention to the whole of downtown by highlighting the Euclid Corridor, Flats East Bank, Avenue District, hopefully Pesht, and possibly a new convention center, medical mart, and high-end casino. Not to mention anything else that might happen due to the increased momentum. It would be a way to get the suburbs behind the city, and to get the region positive publicity nationally. A Super Bowl is the sort of thing Clevelanders rally around. Get them involved for the Super Bowl, get them to stay for the incredible incremental growth that you all mentioned above. I think the intangible and marketing aspects of this could be large. More so in Cleveland than in other cities that have hosted the event, due to our much needed shot in the arm. 2. Get NCAA to commit to at least one, hopefully two final fours. They bring a lot of attention and economic impact as well. 3. Get the MAC conference to move its championship game here. They already play the basketball event here and are headquartered here. I think the basketball event is great for downtown, it brings students likely to stay somewhere in the midwest into Cleveland for a few days of partying and having a good time. The MAC football championship could be an annual event, drawing 30 to 40k per year. 4. Get NCAA to award a bowl game, similar to Motor City Bowl, which would be another annual event. If we can get these commitments, the roof would pay for itself, and have an impact on improving the public/private partnership and psychological outlook of the region. I think it is at least worth looking into.

^it is being converted to housing.

^I agree with the first few things you said. He's not using your tax dollars though, the Cleveland Foundation paid for the searches. He's using some of his capital with that organization, however, to hire a firm in Beachwood. An incompetent one at that. I can't elaborate on the trust me comment above, but trust me.

^While we're talking about dreams for lower Euclid, I think the City Club building would be an amazing residential address, rather than B office space. They would have to strip off the ugly attached building and do a power washing, but I think it would be a prestigious address. Also, they could add a gym that could be used both by members and residents.

^Trust me, this is for the best.

Incredible performance by LeBron and Wade today. Instant classic.

^I bet he would want the lot in front of the Q that was proposed for the Cavs.