RioToblerone

Thanks very much for the welcome!

Hey everybody, I'm a senior from Shaker Heights High heading off to college next year and I want to help revitalize Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, too often I see so much negativity from the people who live here and no one wants to be proactive. So instead of complaining I want to study in the field of Urban Planning/Design. I work downtown and I think Cleveland has all the amenities and resources that make a great city but when I look around it just strikes as me as lots of underdeveloped potential and lazy urban layout. I'm hoping that someday soon I can take experience and use it to help transform the urbanity here so I figured I'd ask what kind of ideas Clevelanders or anyone else had to help improve the urban landscape more so I can implement these ideas for future development. For example, for a couple of my thoughts from a design perspective (I don't know if this would qualify necessarily as planning/design ideas): Cultural attractions and amenities>Downtown:I love the University Circle neighborhood but at times it feels like a double-edged sword. I travel and in other cities, its museums, orchestra, businesses, restaurants and shopping are usually all located in its downtown area. I think that kind of concentration of amenities in a city's "front room" is what helps give it urban vibrancy. Even the best upscale shopping in the Cleveland area isn't located in the city itself but in its outer suburbs. As one of my friends put it "How awesome would it be if Legacy Village and Crocker Park were downtown,and the Art museum and the orchestra were around the block from Playhouse Square, and Parade the Circle and Wade Oval Wednesdays were at the lake on Game Day?" haha. Lakefront: The underdeveloped lakefront is hit or miss. Even with the bluffs and cliffs I think that feature could add to the recreational beauty. I think Burke airport should be converted to commercial/recreational use with parks,trails,bikeways.Maybe build a hotel there with a park and marina. I also think a large shopping complex could be built around the port at the river, something like Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan. With only 15% of the world having freshwater and Erie being the warmest and shallowest Great Lake I think it's an asset we should be taking the highest advantage of as an accessible public amenity. Cityscape/Skyline: I definitely think the city could use some more buildings to add more density to downtown with a compact appearance. Part of a city's physical attractiveness is its skyline. I think we should get rid of the parking lots and dead zones and add a good amount of mid-height buildings mixed with the older buildings and more talls/skyscrapers for a contrast of old modern architecture. I think more taller buildings and skyscrapers would look fantastic lining Euclid Avenue that would give awesome density/height and a unique skyline to downtown viewed from each angle. Those large parking lots in Public Square around W. Superior and Ontario are real eyesores. (Adding onto this I know that in order to have more buildings we probably need to bring more companies and businesses here by lowering and getting rid of some taxes and implementing some type of privatization where taxpayers don't have to kill themselves to pay for it. I don't know much about government but I play SimCity and when taxes are high the sims and businesses leave and buildings have to be torn down...so yeah :| ) The Flats: Make it residential. The Flats seemed to traditionally attract younger crowds and I think it should keep catering to the younger crowds like students and yuppies, maybe a couple of residential high rises should go up down there, lay out a boardwalk along the riverbank and put some coffee shops and cafes on it, a dance yoga studio, a live music venue and things like that. Public transportation: More residential development should center around the rapid train stops to be better utilized and pedestrian friendly. I think more parking garages should be built downtown and have bus/shuttle routes that service each one in the downtown area. That way parking lots can make way for more buildings and more people can park their cars and have reliable transportation right there. Again I'm only in high school so a lot of these ideas are really amateur, but that's why I'm going to study this stuff so I can actually know how to pull it off lol. Plus I love cities and everything about them so I think this is a perfect way to put my interests to use. So are there any other Clevelanders or anyone who have ideas on what could be done to improve our urban landscape and help out with some suggestions? After all this city lives off of its people.