bizbiz

Hello, if you are coming into Cleveland from the west, I would suggest the following detour into the suburbs: You are probably coming in from I-80/90 (turnpike), so when the two split in the city of Lorain (not the street), take I-90 East towards Cleveland. I would pass right thru the outer suburbs like Avon, Westlake, and Rocky River. Take the Warren Road Exit, #165 into Lakewood. Go north on Warren Road (AKA W. 150th to the south) towards the lake. This way, you will cross right into downtown Lakewood, with the opportunity to go down Madison Avenue, Detroit Avenue, and Clifton Boulevard - the 3 best streets in Lakewood. The first two are mostly shops/bars/misc. shops throughout, while Clifton will bring you right into the junction of W. 117th, where Lakewood borders the Edgewater neighborhood of Cleveland. There, you will find a very dense atmosphere of people, many places to hang out (Flower Child, Clifton Diner, Truffles, etc.). Go back to Detroit (not literally). Take Detroit all the way down to W. 65th St. This is Detroit-Shoreway. Explore that area, then proceed south on W. 65th over to Franklin or Bridge. You can ride those down to the lower W. 20's for a taste of Ohio City until you come out on W. 25th where you will find a lot of different things to do. Cross either of the bridges W. 25th that lead into downtown and then once in the Central Biz District, hit up the eastside by taking Carnegie (Lorain turns into Carnegie). By riding down Carnegie, you will get to see the Cleveland Clinic and parts of University Circle. At this point, Carnegie turns into Cedar. Take Cedar into Cleveland Heights and explore all around, as this is a fun inner-ring suburb with 8 or 9 different retail districts throughout. To the south is Shaker Heights (Shaker Square), to the east is University Heights (John Carroll/Notre Dame), and to the north is East Cleveland and Collinwood (all sorts of nitty gritty fun!!). If you must see more suburbs, I would suggest Lyndhurst and Beachwood to the east of University Heights. Just stay on Cedar and you will eventually cross thru all of the eastside suburbs. Lorain Avenue is such a long street, so it's hard to summarize what it's like. I would agree with Mayday about the lower W. 20's being fun as well as the W. 70's being crummy. However, Lorain also has a lot of funky stuff between W. 117th and Rocky River Drive, where many small shops exist. Lorain between Rocky River Drive and the outer suburbs is nothing but commercial stores for about 5-10 miles straight, climaxing at the Great Northern Mall. Enjoy!

Wow! There are a lot of residential projects in development/already developed in downtown Columbus that I was not aware of!! Keep up the good work you guys!

sam fulwood columns are never any good because he is an idiot.

Lately, I've found too many things going on in Cleveland every night of the week and I just simply can't do more than one thing at the same time. Can anybody? For example, you have got your daily rituals at Cain Park when all else fails. But then you have Openair Market on Saturdays, Concerts at Lakewood Park on Sundays, all the different artconcept shows on E. 4th and WHD at least twice a week, Farmers Market at Coventry on Thursdays, World Cain't Wait on Tuesdays, Mercy For Animals on Thursdays, etc.. I could go on for an hour about how much shit there is to do. Tremont Artwalk, Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, E. 185th Festival, Gay Pride Festival, Beck Center for The Arts, Wade Oval Wednesdays, MOCA street party, Little Italy artwalk, Lakewood Art Festival, University Circle's museums open 7 days a week, MLK Walk And Roll, Jazz Series, Jazz Fesitval, home days - one for each city/suburb, parade the circle, Ingenuity, hip hop/b-boy/grafitti competitions, reggae festivals, Food Not Bombs every Sunday, art galleries, rib cookoffs, scene pavillion, yard sales, flea markets, the beaches, the parks, the bike trails/towpath trail... How the hell does somebody get bored in Cleveland, or ANY big city for that matter?

MGD, the big house on W. 26th and Jay that is now for sale was a re-hab that has an elevator inside of the home. It was done by an Ohio City resident who has already done several re-habs nearby. I believe Wimwar can tell you more on this awesome home.

I want to see development spread to more places than just along W. 25th. I'd love to see development and growth along W. 26th, W. 28th, Carroll, and some of the streets south of Lorain. I love Ohio City and W. 25th's CBD, but it seems so small when compared to the likes of the WHD or a trendy neighborhood in other big cities. I can see this neighborhood becoming a mecca one day, but until it expands in other directions, it's no more than another long strip of bars to me. Ohio City's "downtown area" has the power to become much more, unlike nearby Tremont which never had a "downtown" area full of dense structures. No doubt, Tremont will gentrify and new houses will be built, but it's Ohio City where all the larger scaled projects *SHOULD* take place.

You've tempted me to visit these 2 cities that I previously never even heard of! It sounds like the quality of life is extremely low? Tell us more about these 2 cities, please!

East Cleveland gets my vote. Too many foreclosures/abandoned buildings/boarded up houses allows for prostitution, drugs, and all that other stuff to take place off the streets. A small and corrupted police force/city hall doesn't exactly help either. As for Cleveland, all along and around E. 105th between St. Clair and Superior is bad news, as is Garden Valley, the "Forgotten Triangle" that encompasses it, and of course Hough in the high E. 80's. Also, the city of Lorain (not the street, but the actual city) is very dangerous for its size.

So we're no Hong Kong, <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/Hksycss.jpg"> But we're getting there: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0638.jpg"> :)

Silly goose. Cleveland doesn't HAVE highways! It has grand boulevards that are like 10 lanes wide that take you to Legacy Village and that beach thingie with Nordstrom. Good for Cleveland; stay positive! You're so unfunny that you're funny. I love it. Somebody should just rename this thread, "ColDayMan Sticks A Decent Cleveland Thread Into The Cyber Shredder".

i agree with what you are saying.

excellent job as always mayday!

The space between Milwaukee and Chicago is definately not rural, at least not anything east of I-94. Most big cities on the Great Lakes have lakefront land developed further outside of the metro region, simply because it's desirable even in rural areas. However, looking at Cleveland on a map, think of what is NOT included in the CSA but is nearby: Kent, Canton, and Youngstown. Especially considering Kent and Canton are very close to Akron, which is on the CSA.

Hey I'll start it! I tried explaining that Canton/Massillon should be part of the Cleveland-Akron-Elyria CSA a while back in another thread but got grilled by some know-it-alls that I was cheating and trying to make my metro area bigger and that those cities are totally not a part of Clev's CSA.. ha!! You can clearly see that Cleveland is one of the densest on this list with other comparable cities having their CSA based on 2-3 times the number square miles (e.g. Minneapolis).

I attended all but one day of the festival and let me tell you, it was the best 3 days I have ever spent in downtown Cleveland! What an awesome event which easily surpassed both quality and attendance on last year's debut! Looking forward to '07 no matter where they end up in the city!

Just about the best reason to LOVE CLEVELAND: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_07372.jpg">

I Love Cleveland!

raleigh and wichita are "better" big cities than nyc. i stopped acknowledging lists like this for a reason..

Mayday, that was a funny story man! :-D

So that explains my interest in that library! :clap:

I don't see the store doing too well, the Chinese supermarket concept is a niche market and just how many of the residents will give up Chinatown for this?? I think Chinatown is knitted tight enough where the residents and visitors will continue to support the locals as opposed to going for the "big box" store out east.

<img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0185.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0191.jpg"> Stonebridge Phase V: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0198.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0169.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0174.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0180.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0193.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0197.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0203.jpg"> Construction continues: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0211.jpg"> <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0224.jpg"> Other random stuff from July '06: Gordon Park (E. 55th/Shoreway): <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0075.jpg"> W. Clifton/Detroit intersection: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0136.jpg"> Lakewood Park on a mild summer evening: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0291.jpg"> A very beautiful portion of Clifton in Lakewood: <img src="http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/bizbizjohn/IMG_0234.jpg">

Where at is the trash ankle deep in Public Square?? Umm... :?

jamiec, Ohio City is as urban as Cleveland gets, so you will always have crime present in the city proper, no matter how gentrified or rehabbed the neighborhood becomes. I have several friends in OC and almost bought a house last week on Clinton Avenue in OC and spent many weeks researching the crime situation in Ohio City and Tremont. As urbanlife stated above, OC has more crime only because it's a larger neighborhood and covers more area overall. Tremont is sort of tucked away near the Industrial Valley and bordered by several interstates, giving it somewhat of a shield to crime. I would be comfortable living in either or neighborhood as long as it's within my personally designated safe areas - my own conclusions that I have drawn for both 'hoods. For Ohio City, anything north of Lorain and south of W. 52nd is okay in my books. The further north and the further east you go, the safer you are. Franklin, Clinton, Bridge, Fulton, and Vine are the streets where most (but not all) the new development is going on at. You will find more young urban professionals along those streets - gentrified areas have lowest crimes. South of Lorain (SoLo) is what I consider the cutoff line for being "safe". The only part of OC SoLo that I would not have a problem living in is the low W. 30's near Chatham. As for Tremont, it's real simple: stick to north of I-490 and east of I-90. That's the true heart of Tremont and the area with the least amount of crime.

awesome stuff, but too bad it's happening outside of ohio..