blinker12

Community News Briefs Friday, June 16, 2006 CLEVELAND Eminent domain hearing A request to halt attempts to acquire property on the east bank of the Flats through eminent domain is scheduled for a hearing in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court on June 28. Cleveland resident Cynthia Roether filed the suit as an interested taxpayer. She is represented by Thomas Scanlon, a lawyer for an affected property owner. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

This backs up what I found when moving back to Cleveland from NYC. Most people there just shrugged at the mention of Cleveland. When I got here, however, there was much head scratching about why I would want to leave New York for Cleveland. We're our own worst enemies...

Opinion of city? They just can't say Cleveland inspires neutrality in outsiders Friday, June 16, 2006 Sarah Hollander Plain Dealer Reporter If you drive a Ford Taurus, you fit right in with Cleveland's image. Both locals and out-of-towners associate Greater Cleveland with a practical sedan - family-friendly and far from racy - according to recent surveys by the Greater Cleveland Marketing Alliance... www.cleveland.com

Guys, it's TV news. Don't give it a second thought -- the reporters themselves don't. They just aim to titillate. (BTW, I agree with gotribe -- 41% across the metro area is pretty good.)

Some photos from today. The old Lou's furniture, with scaffolding removed and new windows, Detroit and W. 67th. The back of Lou's from W. 67th, with Near West Theatre's site in the foreground. The P.J. Shier building. Future home of M% Gallery. Detroit between 65th and 67th. The Kennedy building, on the far corner, will be the new home to Gypsy Beans & Baking. Detroit and W. 65th. The unique Muriel Building, part of the Gordon Square Homes project, Detroit and W. 70th.

^So demanding! ;) Here ya go. The two model homes, at Goodwalt and W. 74th. Another exterior view. Look! It's real brick! Inside the unit on the right: The ground floor room. Second-floor bedroom. Balcony off the third-floor master bedroom. Powerhouse and the lake in the distance. Closer view of the lake. You can only see it from the third floor. Skyline view from third-floor window. Inside the brick unit: Ground floor. The entrance to the development from W. 73rd. Not crazy about this -- it's very subdivisiony to me. I *think* two of these are new infill, and the third is being renovated. On 74th and Goodwalt, across from the model units. And here are a few of the surrounding neighborhood. Some houses are derelict, others are in great shape. Goodwalt between 73rd and 74th. Goodwalt and 73rd. That's sooooooooooooooo Cleveland... A-frames march down W. 74th toward Goodwalt.

Yep. St. Josaphat's, on E. 33rd between St. Clair and Superior. It's now an art gallery (and quite an impressive one). As for West Side Jews, I think Straphanger is right. The cemeteries were there but the Jews themselves were always nearly 100% East Siders. (There's another, really old, Jewish cemetery on Fulton and Monroe, in Ohio City/Clark-Fulton.) Today there is one West Side synagogue, in West Park. That's it. On a side note, it's too bad how the Cleveland Jews have so thoroughly suburbanized themselves. I wish they had at least put the Maltz Museum in the city.

news alert... The grand opening of Battery Park is today, from 4 pm - 8 pm. The model suites on Goodwalt & W. 74th are open and the model office on W. 73rd is open. There are supposed to be some good eats too.

Cast your votes in the following categories! No runners-up! Best Coffee Shop Lucky's (Tremont) Best Restaurant (food) Minh Anh (Detroit-Shoreway) Best Restaurant (atmosphere) Cafe Limbo (Shaker Square) Best Diner My Friend's (Edgewater) Best Bar Great Lakes Brewing Co. (Ohio City) mostly because it's smoke-free Best Shop Chelsea's Vintage Clothing (Edgewater) Best Neighborhood Chinatown Best Bus or Rapid Line The Red Line, of course! Best Summer Event Ingenuity Best Abandoned Building The old school at Detroit and W. 74th, pictured below:

Matches, don't tell me you live out in the burbs somehwere?!? ;)

That church is owned by James Levin, and finds its way in and out of the Arts District plan almost daily. His long-term goal is to have it become an acoustic music hall, or to have Cleveland Public Theatre acquire it. No one has bought it from him yet, and I don't think he even has it listed on PURE anymore, but I'm sure he'd be more than willing to talk to any interested buyers. Meanwhile, the Parish Hall next to the church is now permanent home to the Miller-Weitzel Gallery, previously located at 5304 Detroit. Oh, the Ballycroy will have an indoor bocce ball (sp?) court.

I think there's also a Shambala Center in there! Typical of Cleveland, you'd never know this amazing stuff was there unless you dug around. Let's get some big signs up or something...

So what is the latest from the Gordon Square Arts District, you may ask? 1. We have another firm lease signed, by M% Gallery, currently located on Larchmere. The gallery will move to the P.J. Shier building (former adult bookstore) on Detroit circa fall. The owner lives in the neighborhood and wanted a shorter commute. 2. A major restaurateur is in talks to purchase the old Perry Family Restaurant building and turn it into -- what else? -- a family-oriented restaurant. 3. The new bar by the owner of the Treehouse, Pete Lenaghan, will be called Ballycroy. It is on W. 65th north of Detroit and is slated to open this fall. Lenaghan has spent $2 million on renovation. 4. Gypsy Beans & Baking started build-out on their new space in the Kennedy Building at W. 65th and Detroit, but work seems to have come to a screeching halt. We're hoping they're open by fall. 5. Scaffolding is down from the old Lou's Furniture building (now called Near West Lofts), which should be online by September. I toured the apartments last month and they will have gorgeous views and wood floors. The other buildings in the Gordon Square Homes project are also on track to be open this fall. Other things are simmering retail-development-wise but these are the most prominent. As for the Arts District capital campaign, the three member organizations (Detroit-Shoreway, Near West Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre) are on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding outlining their shared goals and responsibilities. We are almost done with an economic impact analysis and parking study and have started a green building analysis. We are in the process of forming our capital campaign committee to lead our $20 million capital effort. I know, nothing too sexy yet, but it's all important groundwork.

Stunning!

No one's posted here for a while, but there are a couple new houses up adjacent to the main site (infill) and they look fantastic. Sort of a cross between Orchard Park and Tremont Ridge. I'll try to get some photos soon.

Hmmm. This person must be talking about actual construction of the houses, then.

I have to say, I think the building is going to look wonderful on the skyline from both the Detroit-Superior and Main Avenue bridges. It makes me happy every time I see it.

Yeah, bring on the brick. It's the demolition and site plan I'm not wild about. The site plan is so... Floridian.

I've heard groundbreaking is supposed to be around Labor Day.

I agree, X. I've never liked the clear-cut approach Wolstein is taking. It makes no concession to history, and therefore I worry about it feeling fake. This is a very Cleveland approach to redevelopment (raze and start again). Still, I guess I'd rather see the project go forward than not. The West Bank proposal, where new buildings will be constructed alongside old ones on surface parking lots, is much more to my liking.

The land on the east side of W. 25th between Franklin and Detroit is being turned into a park. See extensive discussion on the last few pages of this thread: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2492.0

Welcome to the neighborhood, letsgorams! You made a great choice; Ohio City is perfect for newcomers to Cleveland because there's lots to do and it's adjacent to Downtown. Exactly which building are you in?

^Nicely put. MTS, I agree that many components are necessary to revitalize downtown. But I think we'd be more successful in pulling them off if we prioritized them and got everyone (downtown business oligarchy and the public) behind them, one by one. Instead of the current, scattershot approach. I love you too, BTW. ;)

Building on what KJP said, I got to thinking, what number of units will current projects add to the downtown population? (Numbers are approximate) Avenue: 400 Flats East Bank: 340 Stark-Warehouse District Phase I: 300? Eli Mann (E. 9th and Euclid): maybe 75? Apartments above "The Corner Alley," E4th and Euclid: maybe 25? (David Goldberg's 15-story tower at 515 Euclid seems a far-off dream.) That's 1,140 new units. Assuming they'll have an average of 1.47 occupants (using the FEB figure), that's 1,676 people. Throw in CSU's Fenn Tower, with housing for about 400 students, and we're up to 2,076. This is rather sobering. A couple thousand new residents will hardly "tip" downtown, even using optimistic current population estimates of 10,000. We'd only be at about 12,000. Even if you add current and future units on the Flats West Bank -- which the city does not consider part of downtown -- we'd probably be at around 15,000, still not enough to anchor a full-service grocery store. And of course, none of these projects (except Fenn and E4th) have actually broken ground yet and could founder at any time, making downtown's immediate future even more tenuous. Perhaps it's time we start thinking about a "Center City," rather than a downtown, as Philadelphia does. Then we could include traditional residential neighborhoods that are adjacent to the CBD: Ohio City and Chinatown and to a lesser extent Tremont. As the above numbers show, it's quite difficult and time-consuming to build a neighborhood from scratch.

Exciting stuff. As critical as this project is, I think Coyne is on to something. There are so many ideas for improving downtown Cleveland right now, but absolutely no consensus as to what should be top priority. There's a sense of desperation and scattered-ness. We need everyone pushing for the towpath, or for public square, or for the new convention center, at the same time. Then we can move on to the next task.