DavidJames

My understanding is that Flaming Ice Cube has left Cleveland for a yet to be announced Eastern suburb... sounding like Beachwood?? A cheap pizza place took their spot. Pure & Supreme Cuisine, another vegan restaurant that was located in the 5th Street Arcades, was just booted for being behind on rent for a while. They're hoping to find another place downtown. A hot dog/sausage place is taking their place. So for now, our only vegan restaurant downtown (and in Cleveland I believe) is Helio Terra Vegan Cafe, which is excellent btw.

Lots of people voting. This has been great! So far there have been 38 votes. 21 in Cleveland neighborhoods - all spread out pretty evenly. The most have been 4 in Downtown. And 3 each in Shaker Square & Detroit Shoreway. I'm surprised there has been no Collinwood, Slavic Village, or Clark-Fulton yet. 9 in Lakewood, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights. The most have been 5 in Lakewood--and the most of one area total so far. 8 in the "Other Suburb" categories. 3 of these are in the East Side Suburbs category. All of these categories are broad strokes, which I understand. I wish I could have put more in, but as KJP said there are so many in Cuyahoga alone, I just wasn't sure which ones to put in. How big of a sample size do you think this is of those who live in NEO on this forum? 10%? 33%? And do you think that any area has been under/over represented so far?

Glenville is on there. I was surprised no one had said they live there yet.

This is so awesome, and I've heard great things about Campus International. I would absolutely love for our family to stay downtown. For us, it's not that we don't want to raise a family downtown. We're looking at other Cleveland neighborhoods mostly for long-term financial reasons. If an opportunity will arise that allows us to move back, then we'll take it. And if we do, I'll definitely contact you to learn from your insight & experiences.

Are there cities or neighborhoods I should add to this poll?

Hey everyone. I thought it would be fun to do a poll see where everyone in the Cleveland area lives. Feel free to use the poll and/or write where you live in a reply. My intention was to include more suburbs in the poll, but there are a lot of suburbs so I only included a few. Feel free to write it out! It'll be fun to see the results!

Welcome back to the Cleveland area! My wife & I live downtown with our one-year-old. It honestly has been fantastic, and we've gotten to know the few other families in our area. We found some great daycare options in the city. We love it, but probably won't stay here much longer. We plan on staying in Cleveland. Nothing against the burbs. Lakewood, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, Westlake, wherever are great cities & many families choose that, and that's fine. We want to stay in Cleveland and have just started looking at school options. I would say the most family ready neighborhoods are Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit Shoreway, and Shaker Square. My family will end up in one of these neighborhoods long-term, as they're walkable, family-friendly, fairly safe, in the city, and transit-accessible. With Shaker Square, you live in Cleveland while your kids can attend the suburban school district of Shaker Heights. Plus with Ohio City, Detroit Shoreway (depending on where you live), and Shaker Square, you'd be very close to the trains. This has been our experience and what we're thinking through. Cheers to you! I hope you find what you're looking for!

In trying to work out what a more regional approach looks like, we need to remember that cities like Lakewood have historically fiercely fought becoming a part of Cleveland, which is fine, and they have every right to do so. But it seems to me that this is the schism we need to get past. If we did take a more regional mindset and non-Cleveland residents had more of a say in Cleveland matters, then should the same be true vice versa? Should Cleveland residents have a say in Lakewood decisions, Mayfield Heights decisions, or any other Northeast Ohio City?

Nice find, but I'm guessing the Garfield building at E 6th & Euclid. On Jeff Ruby's twitter account, he confirms he's opening a restaurant in Cleveland after someone posted a picture of Ruby's truck next to the Garfield building on E 6th.

The furniture store, Metro Home, is now open downtown in the Residences at 1717 building on E 9th & Superior. As I was walking from the Library to Heinens, I saw that the furniture displays were all set up inside. I figured it wasn't open yet as no announcement had been made, but I saw sales people mulling around so we went in. They said they had opened in the last day or two, and were pleasantly surprised at how many people had stopped in already. I, personally was pleased with the furniture selection there. I'm sure we'll be buying some new furniture from them soon. Super excited to have them in the neighborhood!

Here's the website for Cathy's Creamery: http://www.cathyscreamery.com/

How did this meeting go? Anything my wife & I (and new daughter) can do to help advocate and/or move this forward?

Yes yes yes!!! This is something I think about often as my wife & I live on East Fourth and are expecting our first child in February, and we're planning on living downtown for a long time. While there are many things important to us as we work through raising children downtown, a playground is definitely on that list. In fact for the size of downtown, I hope that eventually there would many playground options (by the lakefront, settler's landing, gateway district, playhouse square/perk park area etc). For the first one, I would hope for a central location so that families from W. 10 all the way to E. 14 would find it a manageable walk with infants & toddlers. For where people live right now, I would rule out by the Science Center & Lakefront. Public Square would be incredible. As would some place on one of the Malls. An intriguing spot could also be in between the old & new library buildings on Superior. That is a central location. It is a highly visible area, yet also has a sense of privacy. I would think that being between the two buildings could provide some cover from the elements & high winds. Plus, it would increase the library's service & outreach to families. The more I think about it, the more I hope for the library spot. Anyway, thank for working on this and engaging the Councilman on it.

I do agree that I would have liked to see more places & what's happening in those places. But as far as the Cleveland Flea, I've been following them since their start, and they have never held anything Downtown. They've mostly been in the St Clair Superior Neighborhood. But overall, yes, I agree with you.

It appears that the Piccadilly's Ohio City Location has been closed indefinitely after being open a year. Starting this weekend, they had a sign up that says, "We apologize for this inconvenience but this location will be closed until further notice. Please visit our Coventry & University Circle locations. Thank you, Adrian & Cosmin." They've also seemed to empty it out pretty well. Business always seemed to be scarce at this location. From my perspective, they suffered from opening quietly in the beginning of last winter, Mitchell's competition which blew them away in options & experience, being out-of-sight of many evening restaurants, and perhaps not offering options as much as other Piccadilly's locations. So sad. I wanted them to do well. But I especially wanted them to bring their liquid nitrogen ice cream to this location.