blinker12

^Very interesting. I can't help thinking of New York City, where areas like 105th-Euclid descended to similar depths of mayhem but survived and have since rebounded. See Union Square, parts of Harlem, Times Square. I suppose the difference is that NYC had much tighter land constraints coupled with greater population pressures (however many people were displaced from 105th-Euclid, in New York the densities were several times higher and the disruption would have been greater). Different economics too -- New York didn't sink as far or as fast as Cleveland and has long since rebounded from its 60s/70s slump, effectively putting an end to demolition, while Cleveland has not. If the Clinic had left for the burbs, these buildings probably wouldn't have survived anyway, given the level of disinvestment that occurred in Cleveland in the 1960s and 1970s. I can only hope, like KJP, for a more enlightened future -- and I believe there are reasons for being optimistic.

A critique of the study: Phoenix More Walkable Than Sacramento? Walk On 7 December 2007 - 11:47am As we at CP&DR know, the business of rating urban things is dangerous. Our recent rankings of the best and worst big city downtowns and medium-sized city downtowns didn’t exactly thrill everyone. But people, myself included, love lists. You probably read or heard about the Brookings Institution’s recently released report on the walkability of the country’s largest metropolitan areas — “Footloose and Fancy Free: A Field Survey of Walkable Urban Places in the Top 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas.” But if you’re truly interested in the subject, you might want to read the entire report for yourself. Two reasons for reading the report: First, the methodology is problematic, something which the study’s author, Christopher Leinberger, acknowledges. I think the methodology makes the rankings nearly meaningless. Second, the report contains some observations and conclusions – which are not harmed by the methodology — that appear to hold true in California. If you read the news stories, you know that the Washington, D.C., area ranked first in walkability, followed by Boston and San Francisco. At first glance, that seemed like a reasonable top three. What caused me to pause in the first place was the ranking of Sacramento: 27th out of 30. Now, I’ve knocked Sacramento’s alleged urbanism in the past. But it’s hard for me to believe that Sacramento is less walkable than the likes of Houston, Orlando and Phoenix. Sacramento’s downtown and midtown are very walkable. Uses are mixed, many sidewalks are wide, motorists are accustomed to pedestrians, and the streetscape is generally pleasing. Older residential neighborhoods such as East Sacramento, Curtis Park and Land Park are full of people on foot. On the metropolitan periphery, much of the college town of Davis is easily walkable, as is the older core of Woodland. Ever tried to walk somewhere in Phoenix, a place defined by high-speed surface streets and low-density development? Good luck. Turns out the Brookings’ report rankings are based on the number of walkable urban places per capita. For the purposes of the report, a walkable urban place must be “regional serving,” rather than “local serving,” a distinction that I think misses the point of walkability. The definition is thus: “Regional-serving places provide uses that have regional significance, such as employment, retail, medical, entertainment, cultural, higher-education, etc., and generally integrate residential as well.” The report lists five types of regional walkable urban places: downtown, downtown adjacent, suburban town center, suburban redevelopment, and greenfield (such as mixed-use “lifestyle centers”). According to this criteria, the Sacramento metropolitan area’s 2 million people are stuck with only one walkable place — downtown Sacramento. Phoenix’s 4 million people can choose from Tempe and “24th and Camelback.” Houston’s 5.5 million people have the lively Montrose district and two suburban lifestyle centers. Those are the only sorts of places that rate in the study. Moreover, the study admittedly does not account for the size of these places. Thus, downtown San Francisco is given the same weight as the handful of walkable blocks in Emoryville (sic) and Menlo Park. In addition, the study counts only those urban places that are at or near “critical mass,” meaning new development does not require significant public or private subsidies. I’m baffled here. Why consider staunchly slow-growth Menlo Park to be at critical mass, but not nearby Mountain View — where developers are building hundreds of market-rate housing units in the very fine downtown? But enough of my griping. Leinberger does use the survey to make some interesting observations: • “Today, walkable urban places are just as likely to be found in the suburbs as in center cities.” This is especially true in California, no matter how you define walkable urban place. • “Rail transit seems to play a significant role in catalyzing walkable urban development.” Just have a look around a BART, Metro or San Diego Trolley station. • “A tale of two kinds of metropolitan areas may be evolving: Those metros benefiting from the trend toward walkable urbanism, and those out of position.” Those out of position, according to the report, are those not committed to providing good rail transit systems. The report names Cincinnati, Detroit and Kansas City. If this conclusion is true (and I have trouble arguing against it), places such as the Inland Empire and Orange County (both of which have very limited Metro service), Fresno, Bakersfield and Sonoma County are stuck with the car culture, for good or ill. - Paul Shigley http://www.cp-dr.com/node/1875

edit... dumb question. Now I know the one, across from Lutheran Hospital.

I'd like to suggest some kind of merger of this thread with the Gordon Square thread... Or to keep discussion of the Arts District in the latter thread, with miscellaneous Detroit Shoreway stuff in this one. Lots of redundancy at present.

Thank you Mov2Ohio, a photo thread of the corridor is long overdue! I especially like this one, looking west from E. 55th -- this section is all but complete and (with the bike lane and BRT station) shows how the project is transforming Euclid into a street that accommodates something other than cars.

Yes. The $20MM is their overall capital campaign. And to answer a question posed elsewhere, I don't know where their state tax credit request stands, but I would guess they're pretty safe to get it.

I heard today that the Gund Foundation just awarded $1.2 million to the Gordon Square Arts District. This is for the whole district -- the Capitol, Near West's new theater, and renovations to Cleveland Public Theatre. They have been making major strides with fundraising in the last year or so! I wonder how close they are to hitting their overall ~$20million target.

What is this, 1970? The towers-in-a-park concept was tried back then and resulted -- across the country -- in deserted, windswept plazas fronting soulless office buildings. A well-designed pocket park or two would make sense in this neighborhood, but a generic call for less density and "green space" always smacks to me of pseudo-suburbanism.

Wow, March is pretty soon. I had no idea they had made any progress on the interior of that space... though I have noticed some exterior work has been done. It'll be great to have something in this neighborhood besides another bar/restaurant!

Cool. Maybe someday this could evolve into a full-fledged branch location. Hawken School to open learning center in University Circle Thursday, December 06, 2007 Ellen Jan Kleinerman Plain Dealer Reporter Suburban Hawken School plans to invest $3.5 million to open an urban-extension center in University Circle by 2009. Classes emphasizing innovative hands-on learning and community service will be centered at 10924 Magnolia Drive, enabling the school to plug into the museums, music and medical centers in the area. D. Scott Looney, Hawken's head of school, said a purchase agreement for $357,000 was signed Wednesday with the Western Reserve Historical Society for the now-vacant Ferris House. It will take about $1.5 million to renovate the 8,000-square-foot dwelling built in 1910. Another $1.6 million will be used to operate the center and develop courses... more at: http://www.cleveland.com

I think this fell through the cracks. Crain's Cleveland Business November 5, 2007 Developers give city dwellings a modern spin BYLINE: STAN BULLARD SECTION: REAL ESTATE; Pg. 18 LENGTH: 889 Wörter Brad Klink enjoys his view of the Flats from the rooftop patio at his Tremont condominium, its proximity to downtown where he is an associate at the Roetzel & Andress law firm and bicycling to the West Side Market. And when giving visitors directions to his Clarence Court condominium on West Ninth Street and Brayton Avenue, he tells them they'll know it when they find it...

From today's Restaurant Row: Another week, another new Mexican restaurant opens. El Jalapenos has opened in the space where Kluck's had been for 70 years on West 117th Street. You'll notice the mango-hued exterior, and the interior has been brightened up a bit, too. We're hearing raves about the Mexican dishes, especially the mole poblano, as well as the margaritas.

From E. 40th to E. 79th. The requirements are the same for that whole stretch along Euclid. There are looser requirements for Carnegie and Chester, which are also in the overlay district. Look here for details: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/clevelandcodes/cco_part3_344.html Now that I look at the code again, it looks like maybe parking *would* be allowed on Euclid, as long as it's screened with landscaping. Ugh.

^That would not be allowed under the form-based zoning currently in effect along that stretch of Euclid. Of course, they could try for a variance.

I stopped by the Shoreway on Friday night and was so impressed with the new stores. Room Service, especially, is awesome -- lots of funky, hipstery stuff that is exactly in keeping with the vibe this neighborhood is going for. It's a touch pricey, but it has the feel of a place that will last. Duo Home was very classy, too, but way out of my price range. I hope they find an audience of people with greater means than I! Kitsch City seems to have matured a bit, with an expanded selection and funnier joke gifts. When I was first there a couple months ago, I thought it was not long for this world, but it seems to have hit a stride. Finally, The Detroit Studio's line of T-shirts (some of them Cleveland-themed) was fantastic and affordable. I'll definitely be back for some of those. I'm worried about Latitude 41. We passed by a couple times between 6 and 8 p.m. on a Friday night and barely a soul to be seen inside. Cheddars was doing great business though.

I was at Wonder Bar this weeked and was sorely disappointed. The service was fine, contrary to an earlier post, but the atmosphere was awful. I went expecting an intimate, loungey jazz club. Instead, it was just like every other bar downtown -- packed with drunk meatheads and drably decorated. Any sense of class or intimacy it might have had was ruined by two enormous plasma TV screens behind the bar, which cast a fluorescent glow over the whole interior. Why even bother calling it a jazz club? Hardly anyone was listening to the (very good) pianist and bassist, plugging away diligently in the corner. This is probably sounding overly harsh but I was expecting more. If they want to be like every other bar, fine -- but don't mislead people by advertising yourself as a classy jazz and tapas place. Ugh. This and the rowdy suburbanites smashing an ice sculpture on E. 4th Street as I walked out left a bad taste in my mouth about the redevelopment of this neighborhood. It's becoming just another playground for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, like the Flats and the Warehouse District before it. I hope this is just an unruly adolescence that it and other downtown neighborhoods must go through before maturing into more livable, adult places.

Is the Prospect side a more recent addition than the Euclid side, though? If so, it could come down while keeping the tax credits in tact.

That's not true, and the person who said it was obviously both ill-informed and had a chip on their shoulder about LEED. For MR Credit 1, Building Reuse, you can earn up to 3 regular points for reusing interior and exterior structural and non-structural elements, depending on how much you save. If you go beyond the percentage LEED prescribes for maintaining non-structural elements (doors, floors, non-structural walls), you can earn additional innovation points. For MR Credit 3, Materials Reuse, you can earn up to 2 points for refurbishing and reusing permanently installed interior features -- either for their original purpose or reconditioned for a different purpose (e.g. a door used as a reception desk). Again, innovation points are available for exceptional performance. By comparison, you can only get 1 regular point for bicycle storage, and the requirements are more stringent than you imply. For commercial and institutional buildings, you must provide bike storage AND shower/changing facilities for a certain percent of building occupants. For residential buildings, you have to install racks for 15% of all building occupants. To tally, that's 5+ points for reusing an existing building and its elements, versus 1 point for installing bike storage. Don't get me wrong, I think LEED should more heavily reward historic preservation -- but it's false to say you get as much for that as for "putting in a bike rack."

As McCleveland mentioned, the Prospect frontage is actually considered part of the 668 Euclid building. I never knew that until about a year ago, when I did some research on this property. Are you sure that part of the building is historic? The facade certainly looks newer than the Atrium's facade, but they may have just tacked that on in the 1960s-70s a la the Eli Mann buildings. If it's not historic, they could demolish this section of the building without losing their tax credits.

That place looks awesome; they did a great job with the interior. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Yes, this is big.

An additional curb cut on Euclid seems like a terrible idea, particularly given the transit and bike orientation of the street following the Euclid Corridor project. However, if that's what it takes to get the Atrium renovated, I guess I can accept it. The Atrium is the biggest eyesore on lower Euclid right now -- even more so than Eli Mann's properties. It looks post-apocalyptic.

I have heard that K&D -- who appear to have their hands in everything these days -- are buying it. That's about all I know.

Remember the "First Five" initiative announced back in July? Well, three of the ones that were on the list got state historic tax credits. (Cross posted from another thread.) 5 Cleveland projects get $30 million in preservation tax credits $30 million via state tax breaks aids 5 projects in historic urban buildings Friday, November 16, 2007 Shaheen Samavati Plain Dealer Reporter ......

Mostly about Book-Cadillac in Detroit, but also talks a little about his projects here. Cleveland developer John Ferchill brings back historic Detroit hotel Posted by Michelle Jarboe November 16, 2007 06:45AM Categories: Breaking News, Economic development