blinker12

I received this rather cryptic e-mail today. Bummer. =========== This is to inform you that at our April board meeting, the board members of A Place For Us Development, Inc. voted not to continue our pusuits of developing the glbt planned community with Tom Gillespie/TEG properties.@ West 28th and Detroit Ave., in OHIO City. We we will be working with another person pursuing apt/condo(for 55 and older) on the shores of Lake Erie and another building to rehab. If you should have any further questions, I will be happy to answer any of them. Linda Krasienko, Ex. Director A Place For Us Development, Inc. 440-227-8556

Can anyone point me to a Web site or article that breaks down ODOT's 2006 budget? I keep hearing this 16.3 million figure for public transit, but I'm looking at a paper right now that puts total ODOT transit spending at 91.7 million. What gives? Is there an official budget posted somewhere online?

Great photos MayDay.

"A modest fitness center will be on the lower (office) level." 'Twould be nice if they offered memberships to non-residents. Ohio City really needs a gym.

Detroit, too, has about half as much office space downtown as Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Wow. I knew they had a pretty small downtown market, but that's pretty striking considering they're twice as big as either city.

Regional light-rail talk gains ground Funkhouser wants to explore a metrowide transportation system that could involve a bistate tax. By DEANN SMITH The Kansas City Star April 13, 2007 Mayor-elect Mark Funkhouser wants to put Kansas City’s light-rail plan on a new set of tracks. Ever since voters approved a light-rail proposal in November, the city has been locked in a struggle over how to make it work. Clay Chastain, the plan’s author, who was in town this week, maintains it should happen now with no revisions. Federal and local officials say it needs at least some revamping. Funkhouser has his own plan: Take the tracks beyond Kansas City, and take the time to make that happen. “We do need light rail, and it has to be regional,” Funkhouser said. “You have to be able to get a train across the state line and north and south of the river.” And regional means perhaps a third bistate tax election, he said. Although Chastain strongly opposes changes and delays to his plan, area officials said this week that Funkhouser’s good-government, frugal image could help open some doors on both sides of the state line, particularly to bistate tax talk. “We are going to have a whole lot better cooperation in the metro area,” said Johnson County Commission Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh. “I think the most important issue facing the metro area today is some form of metrowide transportation system.” Even with Funkhouser in office, Surbaugh thinks political issues in Topeka probably would derail another bistate tax effort. That’s because a bistate tax would require Kansas lawmakers to revise the wording so it could be used for transportation. Now bistate funding can go only for sports, arts and cultural activities. Missouri legislators have already made the revision. Some other regional funding for transportation is possible if bistate doesn’t work, Surbaugh said. “I am not sure Johnson County would want to get into the light-rail business,” she said. But she said layering state-of-the-art buses with Kansas City’s light-rail system is a possibility. A $1 million study of transit options for Interstate 35 between Johnson County and downtown has already ruled out light rail as an option because of high cost, said Alice Amrein, Johnson County’s transportation director. Early study results released Thursday show that a rapid bus line similar to Kansas City’s Metro Area Express, which runs from the Country Club Plaza to downtown, is the transit option most likely to get federal funding. North Kansas City Mayor Gene Bruns said he was eager to talk to Funkhouser about mass transportation because there has been much confusion since Kansas City voters approved a 25-year sales tax starting in 2009 to fund a light-rail system. Chastain’s plan calls for a 27-mile light-rail line from Swope Park to Kansas City International Airport. It includes electric shuttle buses and a gondola tram linking Union Station and Liberty Memorial across Penn Valley Park. Bruns says mass transit, including light rail, is the perfect opportunity for a bistate tax. He says Union Station is the right vehicle for the first bistate tax. Bistate II — an overhaul of the Truman Sports Complex with arts funding — was rejected. Independence Mayor Don Reimal thinks light rail might be a tough sell in a bistate vote, but he’d like to see some funding for it. Lines could run from eastern Jackson County to the airport and to downtown, he said. Wyandotte County’s Unified Government mayor, Joe Reardon, says that he is open to a bistate tax discussion, but that a candid discussion about all funding options is crucial. He said Funkhouser’s commitment to transparency will be key to the discussions and to gaining areawide support. “Financing across state lines is ultimately the right way,” he said. “This is truly something. If we can come together as a region, then I think it will lift up the economic prospects of all the Kansas City metropolitan area.” But Funkhouser’s efforts to delay implementing the light-rail plan while he gets a regional consensus on mass transportation will face stiff resistance from light rail’s biggest proponent: Chastain. Chastain spent much of the past week in Kansas City. He held news conferences and attended forums and meetings, including one at the downtown library sponsored by a local architectural group that drew almost 300 residents. Chastain wants the Kansas City Council to immediately move ahead with designing the light-rail plan so construction can begin in 2009. He says the main “spine,” from the Plaza area north through downtown and across the Missouri River, should be done first. Chastain agrees with Funkhouser that the metropolitan area needs a regional transportation plan, and he wants to see heavy rail commuter trains from the suburbs into Union Station. But he vehemently disagrees with Funkhouser’s plan to concentrate first on renewing next year a tax for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, the local bus company, before moving on with light rail and regional transportation. Kansas City officials worry because the voter-approved light-rail plan will be funded with a 3/8 -cent sales tax that now pays for most of the bus company’s operations. But Chastain dismisses criticism of his plan. “These are bogus technicalities and they’re unproven and they’re not flaws,” he said. During his visit, Chastain verbally sparred with Mark Huffer, the head of the local bus company. Chastain thinks the ATA cannot be trusted to oversee construction, while Huffer continues to maintain that Chastain’s plan is unfeasible and must be overhauled to get crucial federal funds. “It’s the voters’ way or no way,” Chastain said. For his part, Funkhouser said he looks forward to meeting with Chastain later this spring. He commended him for keeping the issue visible. “He should keep stirring the pot,” Funkhouser said. “That’s a good thing.” However, he and his staff declined an opportunity to meet with Chastain while he was in town. The mayor-elect says that it’s too soon to hammer out details with Chastain and that he remains open to all ideas. “This is a high priority,” Funkhouser said. “And I want to move with alacrity but not in haste.”

Adding cool technology to the Ingenuity Fest Thursday, April 19, 2007 Karen Sandstrom Plain Dealer Reporter It was one thing to conceive a festival that merges the arts and technology. It seemed another to raise the profile of technology without sedating the audience. Still, Richard Weiss, assistant director of the 2007 Ingenuity Fest, thought it could be done. And now, with about $900,000 raised and hundreds of artists lined up for the third annual event in July, festival co-founder James Levin has let Weiss and others persuade him to give tech more respect at Ingenuity. The festival takes place Thursday, July 19, through Sunday, July 22, in the Playhouse Square neighborhood. The Palace, State and Ohio theaters, as well as the 14th Street Theatre south of Euclid Avenue, will be home to ongoing art installations and interactive events. Art and performances will take place on the street and in now-vacant storefronts as well. In addition, though, Cleveland State University will lure visitors for exhibits in which science, not art, is the focus of creativity. That's new this year. "The big worry was that we were going to bore people with something that looked like a trade show," says Weiss, whose job includes coordinating the technology events for the festival. Weiss and leaders of Northeast Ohio medical and technology companies persuaded Levin that efforts in engineering, biomedical research and science could be presented in a way that would make visitors rethink their hometown. "I think people are going to come [to the festival] thinking that Cleveland is a declining industrial economy full of smokestacks and steel, and leave jaw-dropped about the new-economy ideas coming out of our region," Weiss said Tuesday. He had just finished presenting a case to high school students in Chagrin Falls for why they should join his ever-expanding team of student ambassadors. Teens will act as festival tour guides. Weiss' hope is that as the students research the companies doing work in polymers, sensors and brain waves, they too will see the potential of the region in a new way, and even consider staying in Northeast Ohio for college. It isn't as if technology was completely absent in the first two years of the festival. As Weiss points out, there were exhibits such as one in which a dancer performed while her brain waves were projected on a screen. "But people would still leave thinking they'd just seen an arts festival," Weiss says. This year, the tech component is increased "10 times" over previous years, he says, and there will be plenty of elements that have no arts connection. CSU joins the festival as a sponsor, dedicating part of its campus and showcasing research from its engineering and science departments. Gregg Schoof, manager of student programs at the Fenn College of Engineering, detailed some of the exhibits, including a prototype for a portable device to purify water, an idea inspired in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Another is a "helical wind-powered harness- ing system," which he describes as a windmill-like device that generates more power from slower wind speeds. The American Society of Civil Engineers student group will do timed exercises involving the construction of a 12-foot-long bridge. A "robotic swarm" exhibit will demonstrate how robots can be programmed to interact as a team, detect obstacles and photograph surroundings. "Clearly there are uses for this in toxic waste situations and terrorism," Schoof says. Engineers used observations about how ants work with each other as part of their model, he adds. Beyond the new presence of purely technological exhibits, Ingenuity this year puts far more emphasis on tech-inspired art - everything from video installations to viewer participation events. Levin invited Steven Dietz, director of the ZeroOne San Diego art and technology festival, to be the new media curator for this year's Ingenuity. Dietz was the founding director of New Media initiatives at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. New media is the "intersection where computers and networks allow for new possibilities" in the arts, says Dietz, who was in Cleveland Wednesday for Ingenuity planning. The 14th Street Theatre will be a hub of some of the artists he has lured for the festival. French artist Marie Sester will use the theater for the ongoing presentation of "Be[am]." The project uses a robotic projector to throw pop culture pictures - Charlie Chaplin, Wile E. Coyote and video-game character Mario of "Super Mario Bros." fame - onto the walls around a public space. Visitors create interactions among the pictures by using game-control devices. The street-facing windows of the theater will be occupied by J.D. Beltran's "Telephone Story," in which passers-by can tap various spots on a picture of her studio, see the image of the sound wave produced by the tap, then hear some of the many telephone answering-machine messages she recorded over a year. "Telephone Story" has been done elsewhere, but Dietz likes what he imagines about its adaptation to the theater space. "One of the exciting things is getting art out of the white cubed gallery and working in specific environments," he says. To that end, he's also pressing billboards into service for art. The Ideastream electronic news-crawl banner, for instance, will feature Canadian artist Germaine Koh's diary excerpts. The festival also has 15 featured artists, whose work was selected by a curatorial committee that looked for work that celebrates the intersection of art and technology. Levin and Weiss believe more can come from the new emphasis on technology than pure entertainment. "The question we're going to answer is: Can a festival in four days do something to reverse brain drain?" says Weiss. "I think we can. Because we're cool."

Cool.

Jeez, maybe they'll actually be nice to us. Cleveland's cameo Crain's Cleveland Blog entry: April 17, 2007, 2:38 pm Author: JOHN BOOTH .......

Can anyone list the Cleveland suburbs that offer housing tax abatements, and what the terms are?

I think the more exciting news here is the collaboration between the two cities to market themselves jointly. That has been a long time coming, and it makes so much sense.

I walked by Teresa's today; it's still a white box. I haven't seen any noticeable work going on in there for months. Can they really open by the end of spring? Meanwhile, I did see some workers inside the old Cafe 56, across from Corner Alley. I wonder what the plans are for that space?

^They might stay open that late on weekends, but probably not on weeknights for a while. There just isn't the population yet to support it.

^^^I don't know, I'd blame UH themselves a lot more than the project architect. Crap like this is why we need a form-based zoning overlay all up and down Euclid. You'd have to build to the sidewalk with some kind of transparent frontage on the ground floor, period. Then we wouldn't need to have this same discussion every time a new project comes up.

Guys, I may have spoken too soon on 1020 Euclid. I checked with the County and they do not own it -- yet.

Yeah, it's truly hideous. And as Litt points out, it will be a complete dead zone right next to the new Triangle and Euclid/Ford redevelopment, which will be very street-oriented. I wish I had the hard copy of yesterday's paper; I would scan it. Anyone?

8Shades, I LOVE the photo!! As for a picnic basket, hmmm. Is the Hansa Import Haus in Ohio City still open? 2717 Lorain. They might have baskets. Marc's in West Park? China Merchandise Exhibit? A party supply store might have them. I can't think of any offhand, but maybe the phone book would have some suggestions.

Some interesting letters from Sunday's PD. I'd swear the woman from DC was paid to write that letter by a local developer who wants to keep the abatement... it just sounds a little fishy to me. Letters Removed

As the University Circle thread has become a little unwieldy, I thought it would be a good time to start a thread dedicated to University Hospitals' upcoming projects. The article featured renderings but they don't seem to be online. 3 projects fail to put UH's best foot forward on Euclid Sunday, April 15, 2007 By Steven Litt PD Architecture Critic Euclid Avenue, once home to the mansions of Millionaires' Row, is becoming the backbone of Cleveland's new economy. Big investments are under way, bolstered by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's $200 million rapid transit bus line, now under construction. Cultural institutions, the city's two big universities, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are spending more than $2 billion on projects that could redefine Cleveland as a city of education, medicine and the arts. But with the city losing population steadily and suffering from concentrated poverty, it's crucial that every institution strive for the best in architecture and urban planning to make Cleveland a more attractive place to live and work. sculpture. more at http://www.cleveland.com

Healing garden fence ruled illegal City orders woman to remove it Monday, April 16, 2007 Susan Vinella Plain Dealer Reporter Linda Shay wanted to create a community healing garden on vacant land in her Cleveland neighborhood and dedicate it to the people who have been murdered on her street. But city officials declared that a fence she erected to protect the garden is illegal. And on Friday, a fence company crew tore part of the barrier down. Shay, a former city schoolteacher who lives on East 71st Street, contends that the 6-foot-high, chain-link fence is illegal only where it stretches across a private lot with a boarded-up house. She said she didn't get permission from the absent homeowner to put it up. more at: http://www.cleveland.com

I didn't think my neighborhood could possibly handle another name. Guess I was wrong. At least it's not "Funky Town." *shudder* Group gets a handle on art haunts Renaming area underscores trend Monday, April 16, 2007 Jesse Tinsley Plain Dealer Reporter A Cleveland neighborhood is gradually becoming an art district - one of those funky, vibrant enclaves of artists' studios, galleries, bistros and live-work spaces that are spreading all over the country. A group of artists and nonprofit groups dedicated to art and culture renamed a 22-block area straddling St. Clair and Superior avenues Friday and held a benefit to raise money for banners in the neighborhood. The neighborhood's new name is the Cleveland Art Quarter, which will be framed by Lake Erie, Euclid Avenue and East 18th and East 40th streets. Read More...

Cleveland has some great thrift stores. Why not a thread about them? Church's general store: market with a mission Malachi Mart offers bargains while raising money Monday, April 16, 2007 Michael O'Malley Plain Dealer Reporter At Malachi Mart, a small general store in an old Flats warehouse, you can buy a white, frilly First Communion dress for only $8. Or a box of Kix for 50 cents. Animal crackers are a quarter. For more information, click the above link.

This just in: I was just told by a reliable (though not foolproof) source the 1020 Euclid building is on the demolition block as well. This is the building that housed the old Loretta's Restaurant and Greek Express. A true outrage, as it is in many ways an even better example of early 20th century commercial architecture than 1010... featuring a beautiful terra cotta facade. WTF??

This is quite a slam on Carmody. Much of it seems pretty trumped up to me, but who knows. Cleveland Free Times Volume 14, Issue 51 Published April 11th, 2007 Web Spinner: Reputation Aside, Chris Carmody's Record At the Film Commission Is No Blockbuster. By James Renner The Preview

What whiners. Build green. Then you get 12 years. Also, I wouldn't be heartbroken to see the next phase of Price's project delayed. I'd rather see the heart of downtown buzzing again before we worry about the west bank of the Flats.