urbanlife

speaking on the old ctix place @ star plaza: PMO moved out over a month ago and there is nothing in there now. i would have thought there would be a waiting list of sorts to get the next available crack at this space. anyone know what or who is going to occupy this space, and more importantly, when? as for jump starting downtown street level investment (and otherwise), i think that the city needs to become much more transparent. 2 recent examples: I was looking for an email address on the city's webpage (i see city employees with blackberrys, so surely some of them have emails). There are very few department or individual emails. The city needs (and i think wants in many cases) the help of interested parties in identifying problem areas or potential solutions. The city needs to make it easy to communicate and do business with. the second is the City's land bank. although they are collecting properties around the city that are available for redevelopment, none of the properties are listed on the city's website. it will always be more difficult to develop downtown, due to the size and varied interests, but the city has to make it as easy and streamlined as possible for citizens and investors to participate.

i had heard some rumblings of laptop thefts and punchings in this area, but thought they were exagerrated. i've also noticed that since Lola opened, there appears to be an additional (off duty i think) police officer walking e4 at night. Downtown Terror: Teenage Gang Busted for Attacking Unsuspecting Businessmen http://www.woio.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipid1=1027591&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Downtown+Terror:+Teenage+Gang+Busted+for+Attacking+Unsuspecting+Businessmen&d1=93900&redirUrl=www.woio.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage

I don't think that ameritrust or higbees is included b/c it they are not actively on the lease market. my understanding is that FCE is going to begin putting chunks of higbees online, so i was trying to figure out if this would flood the market

what is their ownership interest? do they actually take a stake in their grant projects or just "give" $1000 to help things get going?

i don't understand the absorbtion rate when the overall vacancy rate is still 21%. is new space is coming on to the market diluting the effect of the absortion? is this a net figure or does it include when one company moves buildings and "absorbs" space in a new building, but vacates its old space?

Cleveland Public Power has new leadership. anyone have the back story on this? can we expect the street lights to actually work downtown?

i think it also speaks volumes about this development group and their project management and financing situation. Cleveland desperately needs more outside investment to occur so that we can begin to see "wins". Too often local developers/speculators with little experience or limited financing tackle projects that are either on hold for years or never occur. There is certainly room for the locals and I want them to succeed, however there are so many opportunities that as a city we need to attact some developers and investment $$ (and accompanying fresh ideas, optimism, etc) from the coasts. It still blows my mind that Gateway has been open for 11 years and there are still: - empty and generally unfinished floors above Clevelander - an abandoned stretch of lower prospect (e4 to ontario) - maybe 50% street level occupancy on prospect from (e4 to e8 alley) - multiple available storefronts on e4 (there are at least 5 still). I know that some recent announcements were made, and lets hope that they materialize like the bowling alley did. It feels like everything moves in slow motion in Cleveland. I think this has to change, especially when the main barrier appears to be entreprenuers/investment dollars/new ideas.

Anyone hear about a new Apple store opening in the 44113 (downtown/warehouse) zip code? Edit: nevermind, i think. it appears the Crocker Park Apple store is hiring, but all of the jobs are coded as being in the 44113 zip code.

^maybe on a playaway? this would surely show some synergy between different innovative things going on the region.

in the harry buffalo before cavs game last night, there was some good news. 1. all dortmunder drafts are 2.50 until sold out. 2. christmas ale is replacing dortmunder on draft, and there are FREE drafts on thursday from 5-7p. i don't know if it will be a free for all or a sort of thing where you can get 1 ticket, good for one free christmas ale. could make a nice stop after work downtown though.

almost all of the street do still have the rail. in what condition, who knows. the rails coming out of euclid were in very tough shape. you can also see one rail coming out of E9 and Euclid in front of star bank (near the concrete patch) and there were some rails visable on w6 street this year while they were doing water main repairs. it would have been kind of cool of they would have kept a section of the rails visable along the corridor as sort of a public art/history lesson, with a sign explaining the signifance or something.

i believe that ownership transferred to a group from NYC last year, I don't know who all the players are, but i'll see if i can find out. There were problems with the Euclid Corridor project and obtaining temporary easements to use the front/vault portions during construction. the new owners wanted significantly more than RTA had valued the temporary easement at. but, seeing as how that section by public square has taken a LONG time to complete (anyone remember original 60 day timeline, which would have been end of August? or the "new" deadline of end of Sept?). Apparently it now won't be open until Nov 10. on a bit of an unrelated note, why didn't they do both sides of ontario first to restore traffic? as it is now, they are going to start on the NE quadrant in the spring and close the northern stretch of ontario (which is now open, but not heavily used as it is cut off).

www.statlerarms.com they have some corporate suites (usually a few hundred more than the prices listed and will do month to month, 6 month, etc.)

preliminary numbers for SEP 2006 ridership: overall, DOWN 5% when compared to SEP 2005. year to date, there is a .4% increase over 2005. there were more that 44000 rides on the trolley (i'd like to see a time of day breakdown, as the service also expanded until 11pm in Sept as well).

the one thing is that you don't really know if they are on-duty or off-duty b/c they can wear their uniforms either way. so, if they are actually off-duty (acting as private security) and following FCE commands (ie don't enforce everything, just be present) it is hard to complain. half the CPD you see downtown is acting as private, off-duty security in their normal uniforms. in parking garages, at games, at bars, at restaurants, office buildings, etc.

there is no seat in the front, but you can stand and see through the luggage storage area.

^the third district building is the best part. perhaps they can sell that to a developer and use the money to improve downtown police presence. i haven't seen the horses out at all (except for the first few weeks after the announcement that they were coming back) and what has happened to the helicopter? i thought that was coming back as well and that they had fixed one of the choppers. i'd also want to see bike/foot police patrols downtown. there is something about being able to snake through back alleys and tight spots to find trouble. bottom line: i'm all for less buildings and overhead (especially when it isn't a big as presence as it could be) if it means that other services will be restored or more frequently deployed.

same family, different brother. the one at CSU went to the Statler and then to edgewater/gold coast (where it is now). this is a new location. edit: fixed typos.

^ 1010 euclid, and the 4 or 5 story building connecting to the parking deck (this may actually be 2 buildings) at the corner of e9 and prospect. this project just seems slow. no plans until end of 2008? construction starting in 2009? jeez. the county has already had site control for more than 1 year.

^yes, but legislation has been introduced to repeal the ban. key aldermen have changed their minds and apparently it will pass.

and i also think that at least part of the 2d floor was supposed to be overlooking the bowling alley area. but i don't know how much of the 2d floor the corner alley is taking.

the section that is over the bowling alley area had drywall, an air space and new framing, and then double drywall again. i don't know if they insulated inbetween, but by leaving this air pocket, it will significantly reduce vibrations and noise above. they did not do this type of consruction in the other areas of the restaurant.

FC could have also taken the approach of the recent washington monument renovation and actually done something with the structures at the top in an artistic way. it seems to be another example cleveland needing fresh money and ideas in the city. in my book, you can only live for so long on what you did years ago. you also have to be doing and planning good things now. the group that re-did flannerys and now the bowling alley, seem to have their act together. if local investors won't step up, we should be heavily courting investors from chicago, new york, san fran, and other cities where they may be priced out by costs, returns, or competition.

there are a bunch of renderings posted on the Landmarks Commission page, agenda from Sept 28. http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/photo/092806/index.htm i'll link a couple of thumbnails (the images are large, but there are many more, including the floor plan showing 16 lanes). i can't figure out how to link the actual images as the javascript is limited options in the pop up frame.

they lit the bottom portion for the RNC events. why can't we at least get that on for a few hours every night? 7-midnight or something? it makes a huge difference.