TPH2

I'll admit, I've been anti-new JACK casino sign from the start, but I honestly have been trying to keep an open mind and wait for it to be installed before passing final judgement. But man, I really don't think that looks good.

No excuses, but at least it was against the 2nd best bullpen in MLB

^ I wish we only had to please just the 3 C's to get something done in this state

First time being in sole possession of 1st place since July 2, 2013

Yes, 1890s

I noticed windows had been replaced on the north side of the building recently. Hopefully that means they'll be doing the same for the rest of the building.

From today:

The sign went up today:

^ To give some perspective on that, all of Euclid Commons and Fenn Tower combined are only just over 1,000 beds

Yes, the portion of MLK that runs south of Euclid Ave used to be "East Boulevard." Edit: Actually, I forgot that the portion north of Euclid was also known as "Lower East Blvd." and was later changed to "Liberty Blvd" in the late 1910s/early 1920s? The MLK Jr Drive name came in the early 1980s. My assumption was it was referring to present day Garfield Park in Garfield Hts, which at the time was a park of the city of Cleveland

Cool post. I grew up just off of West Blvd, and never knew much of the history behind it. Here's a PD article from December 8, 1907 about the plans for West Blvd: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B16RJdSArUFaQzdISGhrQ3NOZUU/view?usp=sharing "The boulevard will be 130 feet wide from Detroit av., N.W., two miles south to Big creek valley. From there on the intention is to have an upper and lower parkway, like that in Rockefeller park." "Behind the West boulevard project there is the further plan to develop one mammoth parkway belting the city. The East boulevard at present extends from Gordon park, through Wade park, Rockefeller park, and Shaker Heights park, a distance of approximately eight miles, which in the end will terminate at Garfield park, adding another five or six miles of continuous driveway as picturesque and attractive as the forestry department of the city can make it." Also, here's an ad from the PD in May 1909 for the West Blvd development: Edit: I was looking at old maps from the late 20s/early 30s and noticed a marking for "West Boulevard Parkway" labeled on top of Big Creek, just east of Ridge Road:

Another one bites the dust. This has been a bad year for old luncheonettes downtown. First we lost PJ's, then Huron Square Deli. And now Sammy's Today is last call at Sammy's Grille after 48-1/2 years of feeding downtown Cleveland By Janet H. Cho, The Plain Dealer on May 27, 2016 at 6:00 AM, updated May 27, 2016 at 6:06 AM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After 48-1/2 years of feeding downtown Cleveland, Sammy Abounader will fire up the grills for the last time today at Sammy's Grille, tucked away in the lobby of the former National City Bank building at 629 Euclid Ave. "After 48 years, it's time. I'm overdue," he said, looking apologetic as his customers clucked their disapproval. "I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I'm 72 years old." Business has been good, he says, enabling him to support his wife and 10 children and put nine of them through college. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/05/today_is_last_call_at_sammys_g.html

With warmer weather finally coming to the north coast, how about another Cle UO meetup? This time I'm thinking an early evening or weekend happy hour type meet up at one of our local breweries? Thoughts?

Another view of the crane at the construction site

Retail is returning to the May Co. Building!! (If only it were real)

^ Change the name? You serious? If Public Square suffers from severe vandalism after the RNC due to protestors, I'll be sure to concede to you that you were correct. To get us back on topic, here are some pics from tonight:

Public Square is the center of our city. It is where we come together to celebrate, to mourn, to voice our opinions, to commemorate, to protest, etc. There is no better place than Public Square to serve as the center of free speech. It's called "Public" Square for a reason.

Seems obvious that the reporter doesn't: "Apparently Cleveland's skyline beats views in other places such as Florida, France and Italy." It is a cool picture (but it also bothers me that it's at least 6 years old. Notably, the Columbia Building is still standing and the old LeBron banner is still hanging.)

I was glad to see that the comments on the Reddit post were all mostly positive

^ I hate to be a hater, but I find it kind of sad that we got so excited over a Reddit post that a Cleveland.com article was written about it. And the picture has since dropped to #2 on r/cityporn

^ Oh, well there we go. Litt's most recent article was more ambiguous: "It looks like the square, which is on schedule and on budget for completion in June, in time for the Republican National Convention in July..." http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2016/05/first_look_nearly_finished_pub.html#incart_2box

Everything so far has mentioned an opening some time in June, not specifically June 1st.

The fountains are running tonight again as well:

^ Either way, it looks a lot better than it did before

Make that 40+ years. I found references to a "Cleveland Renaissance" as early as the mid-'70s. Also, I noticed that the pizza place next to the old McDonald's in the Tower City food court is now gone as well