blinker12

MGD, it got a lot better after the lecture was over... there was more time to look at the maps and ask questions of the ODOT officials. It was cool that they had ballots for people to vote on different plans. Whether they'll actually pay attention to the results, who knows. I hope so. During the official Q&A session after the Powerpoint, someone commented that the plan suffers from a lack of overall vision for how it will benefit the city as a whole, as well as individual neighborhoods and the lakefront. Is this about just making a freeway into a boulevard, with little attention to streetscape and design? If so, it may have minimal impact. The same issue was raised during the Innerbelt trench meeting I attended a few months ago.

Yes, it would. You could access the Towpath Trail at several existing stops, including Brecksville and Peninsula, where the trail is only steps away from the station. It reminds me of how I used to take Metro North out of New York up to the Appalachian Trail to hike!

Here's one: The Romanian Orthodox Church at W. 61st and Detroit is the oldest Romanian Orthodox Church in the country, at least according to current owner James Levin. It was built in 1907.

Case remains committed to Quad plan, leader says Thursday, July 20, 2006 Mary Vanac Plain Dealer Reporter The West Quad biomedical campus planned by Case Western Reserve University remains a "critical undertaking," the project leader says, despite a budget squeeze and new leadership for the university. "We have been working very deliberately with Forest City, putting together the business terms of a partnership between the two institutions," said Ralph Horwitz, dean of the university's medical school and head of the project.

West Shoreway conversion plans received with enthusiasm, concern Thursday, July 20, 2006 Tom Breckenridge Plain Dealer Reporter Jeff Blazek looks at plans to convert the West Shoreway to a tree-lined boulevard and sees Edgewater Park pushing south to join Lake Avenue, a possibility he loves. Jerry Schmelzer looks at the same plan and sees increased traffic on Lake Avenue, an inconvenience for tenants in two buildings he owns on that street... City and state planners want to have a final plan by early next year. The highway conversion is scheduled for completion in 2011.

Posting the relevant part of the article below here, even though it was already posted in the Lorain-Cuyahoga rail thread in its entirety. Talks on extending scenic railway rolling along Thursday, July 20, 2006 James Ewinger and Carl Matzelle Plain Dealer Reporters More passenger rail service is chugging a little closer to reality this week, but don't look for any immediate changes in Northeast Ohio. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway continues to gather necessary support for an eight-mile extension that will join Tower City to the railroad's existing track. Currently that track runs 51 miles from Independence to Canton.

How absolutely outrageous! Ohio, as a whole, is probably more urbanized than either of those states. And we spend 2% -- TWO PERCENT! -- of what they do on transit. What is wrong with us? Strickland, please save us...

The Flats and CSU area/Quadrangle are other areas that have been discussed for future festivals. Personally, I'd like the festival to stay right where it is until lower Prospect and Euclid revive.

Good idea, 8Shades. Here's a link to The Economist's ranking of Cleveland (and Pittsburgh) as the two most liveable cities in the U.S.: http://store.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=pr_story&press_id=660001866&ref=pr_list The Playhouse Square thing is tougher, and has been debated before on this board. Apparently Denver claims to have the second largest performing arts center, too. Here's a link to Time magazine saying the Cleveland is the best symphony orchestra in the country (a little old by now unfortunately): http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,979946,00.html

Saw this; cool news! The Idea Center has a very impressive tenant mix.

I think urbanlife is right. It's all about the financing. Until the local banks get riskier in making loans, the projects most likely to get off the ground are those that rely on sweat equity. How exactly is Stonebridge working so well? The PeeDee should do an article about it.

Don't punch him, punch -- punch the ODOT Director, whose name I can't remember, and his boss Bob Taft.

Nicely said, 8Shades! Cleveland truly does stand poised to redefine itself as an arts and culture mecca, as older industrial cities in Europe have done. We have everything it takes right here, we just have to publicize it and fund it a little better -- both of which we seem to be doing.

Clvndr, you have nothing beyond your own negativity to back up your suspicion that the downtown housing market will become "sour." Cleveland has the fastest-growing downtown population in the Midwest. The Downtown Cleveland Alliance started its clean-and-safe program in April and will expand its programs in coming months to boost downtown events and, possibly, retail hours among other improvements. Who cares whether most housing units being added are renovations? I think that's cool, and it makes sense to reuse what we've got first before building new. Meanwhile, the Avenue seems on track to break ground in late summer/fall (fingers crossed). Try to concentrate on what's going on now rather than what's happened in the past. Look at what's happening in other old industrial cities like Cleveland. While the inner-city neighborhoods of places like Baltimore and Philadelphia continue their slow death, their downtowns have become quite vibrant. People want to live in downtowns. Now that we're finally paying more attention to quality-of-life issues, through the DCA, than building venues to lure suburbanites, I think it's entirely reasonable to expect our downtown to continue gaining momentum. Downtown housing projects that fail from here on out are failing because of their own flaws -- and Wolstein's is probably the most flawed among them, for a number of reasons -- not because downtown itself isn't viable.

I'm not sure I understand. Are we being asked to help determine which of these intersections can be sacrificed?

It's on Superior and E. 12th or thereabouts. It's a black Death Star-looking building with Eaton on the side. I agree with you about the rehab. Namely, the Atrium building needs a facelift (or at least the Christo treatment) post-haste. Shame on David Goldberg for letting that building look the way it does.

^Yeah, that's what you have to do: plan. It's not an ideal situation, I agree, and it's difficult to plan well when the only descriptions of the performances are on the Internet -- not on the programs. This is something I hope to see the festival improve for next year. For my part, I had two very different experiences of the festival. Thursday night I found to be magical. The drum symphony, a couplde of good emerging bands, great weather, just the right number of people so that I could wander freely and discover all the different spaces. On Saturday night, I was depressed. It was sticky-hot, packed with people (so much so that you couldn't even see some performances), derivative bands were playing and I saw a very dark play, "Lost Prospect," that lasted 2.5 hours. It goes to show how much your experience of the festival can vary based on circumstances and what you choose to see.

Here is a snippet from Cleveland.com today as an intro to a photo spread -- this is a huge improvement on last year's attendance figures! "Despite the near-record heat, downtown Cleveland's Ingenuity Festival, a celebration of art, culture and technology, drew about 100,000 people, up from 75,000 who attended the festival's debut last year." I heard some of the same complaints from attendees this year as last year -- i.e., not enough technology and confusing to navigate. Those are valid complaints and I think you'll see improvements as the festival matures.

Gorgeous photos, musky! You really captured the excitement of the night. Great photo of Mayor Jackson. I looked at your full set... my mom is in one of the crowd shots!

^"People will want to live near the Clinic because it will be like a park." -- from the WKYC video. What is this, 1960? Urban parks only work if there's a vibrant city around them. The Clinic, on the other hand, has created a suburban dead zone in the middle of what was once a thriving uptown entertainment district. I might support this plan if the Clinic also intended to add street-level retail and residential units at its main campus, but it doesn't. Green space alone isn't enough to attract people, at least not in an urban setting. You have to enhance the whole pedestrian experience around it.

Nice ones, MGD! Especially glad to see Meet Me on the Mall getting some coverage. Straphanger, enjoy your visit home.

Yeah, it was. I'm going to see it tonight! Meanwhile, I stumbled on this negative review from the L.A. Times. A kind of back-handed shout-out to Cleveland at the end! MOVIE REVIEW 'The Oh in Ohio' By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer .......Ohio, and Cleveland in particular, deserve much better than this.

Yeah, this strikes me as a bad idea. Euclid is the city's main East Side artery. It shouldn't be emasculated by turning it into some kind of quasi-suburban promenade. CSU tried something similar decades ago, turning its section of Euclid from a vital urban retail district into a half-assed greenway with 50-foot setbacks. They're just now realizing their mistake and are restoring Euclid back into what it wants to be: a city street. I just can't stand how the Clinic keeps trying to make itself into a suburban island in the middle of the city.

Guys, I just have to say -- $10 is not much to ask for a festival that is costing $1 million to mount. Trust me, the performances and exhibits are worth much more than that. You will not be disappointed. Get a schedule and go at a time when there's stuff you want to see. I was there last night; it's so much better this year than last! (not that last year was bad.) A more intimate festival village, more exhibits and performances. Just being there sent chills down my spine and made me feel so proud of Cleveland.

Finally, it looks like significant progress is being made at Lola. A large sign is up (as someone else mentioned in another thread), mounted 90 degrees to the building, and it looks like they've installed the bar. Also, the boards on the ground floor of the Sincere Building have been removed, leaving the whole floor entirely open. I'm assuming this is for the Ingenuity Festival, but there's nothing in there yet. Anyone have any info?