Urbanophile

I initially suggested that it should move to the Division of Printing site, but I now retract that suggestion in favor of keeping the Justice Center in the heart of downtown. If it's possible to keep just the jail separate, then I'd recommend moving it to the Division of Printing site, or The Pit. If for some reason they have to remain attached (I don't have much of an understanding of how the Justice Center is organized, tbh), then I'm sure good design could make a jail blend in downtown. If it does prove to be too much for just the one Warehouse District lot, I'm imagining they could split it up. The Justice Center complex (courts and police HQ) could be on the lot between Superior and Frankfort, while the jail could be built on part of the lot north of that, with an enclosed bridge connecting them (Cleveland's very own Bridge of Sighs!). The rest of the lot around the jail building could still be used for future mixed-use developments. Here's a visualization... Light blue = Courts and police HQ complex Dark blue = jail building Red = future mixed use retail developments

^ A significant drop in the crime rate? Not sure, maybe not. But it does seem that the recent spike in Tremont's crime rate is from criminals who took the 490 bridge to W. 7, and then back. It's a very easy getaway route. If the freeway was never built there, I think it would be significantly harder for a quick getaway in that part of Tremont. City streets are not so easy to maneuver - remember that guy who crashed and died on W. 14th trying to flee from the cops? It would be ideal if we could reduce the freeway infrastructure (pipe dream), create more density, and have more police on patrol. We can at least possibly achieve the latter two. As for my suggestion of well-lit freeway exits/entrances with cameras... I'm not sure why you think that's crazy since you seem to be very much for the idea of increased surveillance.

Whoa! That went from 0 to Certifiably Insane, real quick. The vast majority of crime in Cleveland exists on the east side - which has little to no freeway access. Highways are not the problem here. Lol pay attention. I never said that freeways are THE problem, just that this is another example of a negative consequence of overbuilding freeway infrastructure. Obviously the worst rate of violent crime is on the east side of Cleveland, but that's not what I was specifically talking about here. clvlndr was referring to the crimes spilling over into the "jewel areas" and I was simply stating a contributing factor to that, and why it's so easy for many of these criminals to get away.

Another reason why over-investment in freeways is a bad thing for the city. In Tremont, those criminals were able to get away so quickly because of the easy freeway access. They just had to drive over from their neighborhood, get off at Tremont, rob the first vulnerable person they saw, and flee back to their neighborhood. Same goes for this incident that happened outside of the Langston. This is another consequence of Cleveland's absurdly overbuilt freeway infrastructure. Since ODOT loves building freeways here so much, they should take responsibility for the negative consequences and agree to make every inner-city free way entrances/exits 1) very well-lit; and 2) equipped with cameras.

^ UrbanOhio's Sherlock Holmes is at it again!

^ Do they for sure need all that space though? Office space is much more efficient nowadays, and it's very common for companies to downsize significantly when they move, while still keeping the same amount of employees. Secretaries aren't really a thing anymore, and they used to take up a lot of office space back in the day.

Too bad about Ken Stewart's. I never went there, but had always heard very good things about the quality of the food, and I had intended to go there at some point. I also heard that they are very very pricey, so maybe that's part of the reason they didn't succeed. I hope the new place does well.

That's not why I'm disappointed. I think I just got a little too excited when I heard "major retailer"

This is not so intriguing. Hopefully that's just pure speculation.

^ Ooh this is intriguing.

^ I'd support re-purposing, but only if someone added additions on the bottom floors, bringing it up to the sidewalks. Sure, the JC is ugly, but I can live with that. The reason I hate it so much is that it completely disregards the urban fabric. If someone can fix that, then by all means, please re-purpose it!

Put the jail & criminal courts on the current Division of Printing site, and put the police HQ and civil courts downtown. I think maybe even the criminal courts could be kept downtown. Just add some holding cells to the new Justice Center.

You just threw a fish to a bunch of hungry sharks. [emoji3] I wonder now if he was referring to the Justice Center moving. It's hard to say, he was very vague.

It would be such a joy to see the atrocious Justice Center torn down. But I wonder where they would build the new courthouse and jail. I'm sure they like having the courts right across from the county courthouse building. I suppose they could build on one of the vast Warehouse District lots, but I'd prefer if they were instead developed with mixed uses. A jail is, by definition, going to be a terrible street presence, so it would be nice if they could build it somewhere more isolated. If the City can consolidate its Division of Printing into another building, perhaps the new jail and courthouse could go on Lakeside, next to the FBI building. I'm just brainstorming here. And obviously, this raises the question: what could be done with the current Justice Center site? I would love to see that site properly developed.

^ Building off of vague, off-the-record comments, Freddy Collier was speaking to my class the other day, and he said to look out for a "very exciting" announcement regarding downtown within the next few days. No idea what that could mean, though.

^ Oh thank God

Sounds awesome, but is it really going to be called Restaurant with a View? Or is that just a placeholder name?

^Maybe I'm picturing it wrong, but I don't think this building goes all the way back to E. 14th. I think that little parking lot in the back is off of E. 16th Pl., which is nothing more than a back alley.

Apparently this is a very common thing at The Bank. Yes, they really need to be shut down.

Isn't the info from these landmarks commission meeting public? Do they post it anywhere online? I just want to know what happened regarding the Juniper Drive house.

^ Did anyone attend that Landmarks Commission meeting? How'd it go?

^ I don't think that's pessimistic. That's just a realistic view of development. It's very rare that a development will be like The 9, where it's brought from conception to completion in a little over a year. However, I doubt this will take as long as Flats East Bank or Uptown. The market is in much better shape now. There should be no worries about attracting enough apartment tenants, they already have that law firm signed on for the office space, and I think they have a hotel tenant in the works as well. I think the only thing really holding this up is the commercial/retail component, and this is probably because (as mentioned previously), certain tenants won't sign until other certain tenants of another type sign. So, I think eventually it will all just fall into place.

^ Very sad. The western buildings on that block are no real loss, but the Delahunty Building had some real character and would have been a great spot for some future retail. In fact, I think I recall that some people were looking to open a hipster-type barber shop in this building. I live a couple blocks away from these buildings and the smell of smoke woke me up in the middle of the night, so it must have been a huge fire. I wonder why they didn't just tear down that vacant building after it caught fire a couple months ago. That could have saved this block.

^ Yeah, that really makes me think that they tarred and painted simply for contractual reasons.

I'm still (pleasantly) surprised at the quality of this building, considering the architectural firm that designed it. Nothing against Cooper Carry, but I was NOT impressed with their hospitality portfolio when I first browsed through it. I think the Cleveland Hilton is going to be the standout best project on their hospitality portfolio (though I'm also a fan of the DC Marriott Marquis).