mu2010

I am hoping to see some apartment buildings go condo, but that is not an easy task either. Buildings like the Bingham (lots of 2BRs, past the 7 year rule for HPTC) should start with their upper floors and convent to condos

Cleveland's poor zoning/urban policies are symptoms of the deeper issues you mention.

You're right, but it's not just within the city, it's also between the city and the suburbs. Columbus has far fewer suburbs to infight against each other.

Columbus is for real. These things don't happen overnight, they are always ten or twenty or thirty years in the making. The Austin we know today got started in the 1950s and 1960s when local leaders decided they wanted to be a tech hub. Perhaps Columbus is a decade or two from that.

Some, or even many east side neighborhoods are emptying on their own, and that already has opened up land for development. This probably will continue. But clearing people out urban-renewal style is morally questionable and has never worked either. Where are you going to send the people you're clearing out? What east side resident will vote for a council member who is going to vote to clear out their own ward? Another issue - the city has more empty areas than it can currently deal with, why empty out others intentionally? Just focus on current abandoned properties. If you look out the window while riding the HealthLine, some blocks it looks a trip through the great plains. Plenty of available land for when demand comes. On the east side, the city needs to focus on economic development in the Euclid corridor and on connecting surrounding neighborhoods to jobs there. Residential development is starting to pop up around UC and that will continue.

Minimum lot sizes have long been considered to be perfectly legal and constitutional by courts. The public purpose has to do with neighborhood character, traffic, etc. So throw the second part of her argument out the window. The first part of her argument is more plausible but still a stretch. It says in the article she's received offers based on the value of the land where the buyer would have torn the house down. She doesn't have the right to be protected from selling her property at a loss. If the house was protected by a historic landmark designation, where it was illegal to tear it down, but there were no offers at all, then she might have a case based on "no economically viable use" of the property. But it doesn't seem to be protected at least from the article.

Honestly in terms of raw research prowess you're probably right. I think it's just that Cleveland, with all the brain drain problems it has, it'd be nice to have a marginally more prestigious/residential CSU to attract more moderate-to-high achieving local kids to stay in town. I grew up and went to high school less than ten miles from Case and I couldn't tell you anyone from my high school that went there, as most kids are going to big state schools. I'm all for Kent State and CSU and Akron but the reality is Ohio's more prestigious public universities are in Columbus or further south, and that doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon. CSU does a fantastic job at educating the local community. As a matter of fact CSU just was recently ranked by Brookings as 18 nationally combining upward mobility with research, the only Ohio school to make the list. Any attempt to make CSU closed enrollment, tougher to get into, etc, would impact that mission negatively even if it benefited the city's economic development. I think for a lot of us it would just be nice to have ten or twenty thousand more undergrads move into Cleveland and stick around and maybe attract people from out of town.

UC is able to serve the community of Cincinnati with that affordable education you mention, while still having a larger research function than does CSU.

The nice thing about Dan Gilbert - he doesn't sit on his properties and do nothing.

^Curious as to the decreases in Highland Heights when Mayfield Heights and Mayfield Village are increasing or holding steady.

It's in 4© in your post, KJP[/member] - "© Includes at least one building that is fifteen or more stories in height or has a floor area of at least three hundred fifty thousand square feet." It does seem like this could go to a Pinecrest....

I gave a small donation to them on November 10, 2016, and they sent a ton of "DONT LET TRUMP DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY... GIVE US MONEY" mail through 2017. Seems to have slowed down now. Don't recall any third party stuff.

Good changes. This could make the credits apply to more projects than just NuCLEus.

Agreed - Lauren says right in the first sentence, she is referencing the dad's email.

I apologize KJP[/member] , between this and Lucky's, that is two Cleveland border establishments you have had to correct in as many days! In my defense, it was my dad's fault, haha.

(No offense intended of course to any UOers a bit older than I am who frequented the Mining Company!)

My parents told me stories of going to discos ("The Mining Company") on Pearl Road in Parma in the 1970s... apparently that was the cool place to be for all the young whippersnappers. Oh, to grow up in the suburbs of Cleveland in the 1970s, and have Parma be your nightlife destination... now wonder why these people don't like to go to the city. ;D

Old warehousey buildings work better than old office towers for modern office space... open floors.

I had the pleasure of touring St. Luke's a few weeks ago - here's a view of the site from the rooftop, with a bonus skyline view.

Well, the convention business brings actual new dollars into the local economy, so that's probably the justification for it on that end.

I think that the reason midwestern cities like Indy, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, (with Indy and Columbus being more successful than the latter two) put so much effort into conventions is for marketing purposes rather than pure economic impact. Our region has lost much cachet to places with warmer weather. Add to that bad connotations that Ohio or Indiana brings. Cornfields etc, or mistake on the lake for Cleveland. And I think the idea is, let's try to attract some people here and show them a halfway decent and interesting place, and maybe over time those reputations can start to change, which could pay dividends in the long, long term.

I used to do these audits for a living, and I just looked at the full audit report referenced above. You can't really tell from this report because it's on an accrual basis and you'd need cash basis reports, but I'm not even sure where they are getting the cash to pay for the expenses the report says they paid. If they are pulling this off it must be by the narrowest of shoestrings, with all the other city funds contributing every last dime to make up the general fund deficit. Usually what ends up happening when a city has a negative balance in their general fund, is that another fund (illegally) makes up the difference. Typically this can be the utility funds or street funds, often flush with cash but that is only allowed to be spent for specific purposes. On paper the city records an expense to the general fund, deep into the red, but since the utility and general fund money is all in the same bank account, the check clears. While the expense is recorded from the general fund, what's really happening is the other fund is loaning money to the general fund. In East Cleveland's case, the net total of all funds together appear to be negative so it's hard to discern where the cash is coming from. The state did not offer them a solvency loan.

For anyone interested, Snavely is speaking about The Quarter at a ULI event in a few weeks and there will be a tour of Bop Stop. Date: May 30, 2018 Time: 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm Venue: West 25th Street & Detroit Road The Quarter: W25D Mixed Use Development Pete Snavely, Jr., Vice President of Development for Snavely Group will discuss the inspiration and challenges of redesigning nearly three square city blocks at one of Cleveland’s most significant intersections. The innovative mixed use development includes the Quarter, a 194 unit, tax credit/market rate apartment building, a shared workplace (Beauty Shoppe), retail (The Grocery and Ohio City Galley, dry cleaner and furniture store), expanded green space, and of course, The Music Settlement. Geri Presti, President and CEO of Music Settlement will be on hand to guide the school’s tour and discuss the non-profit’s impact on the development of this new neighborhood at the juncture of Ohio City and downtown Cleveland. Schedule 4:00pm – Registration 7:00pm – Conclusion https://cleveland.uli.org/event/west-25th-street-project/

I missed this news. Having council members elected at large but hail from different districts seems to be a pretty clever compromise. Kudos.

I don't think it was that stupid of a crime, looks like it succeeded haha