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Snow tires are probably unnecessary... The traffic here isn't bad, especially during the middle of the day. Mapquest or Randmcnally's time should be pretty close to the time it will take you. If you're interested blinker12 and I are in the process of planning our second round of Emerging Cleveland tours (www.emergingcleveland.com). I'm a little biased, but if you're looking to see some cool neighborhoods and hidden Cleveland gems you and your wife should come :)

Is #8 Contstantino's on W.9th??

There are a few art galleries in Little Italy too http://www.dickkleinmanfineart.com/ http://littleitalycleveland.com/gallery/galleries.html or Artefino http://www.artefinogallery.com/ or if you aren't partial to an original you can always get your favorite poster mounted on wood from AllPosters.com - they are reasonable and pretty nice, we have one from there. Lastly I could always paint something for you :-D

^Right on! Good eye MayDay!

^ Yay! How about these pics??

MayDay - Is your #5 image from the spiral access stairways to the Key Tower parking lot just East of the Key Tower??

I had a membership at the HFC Athletic Club at the Cleveland One Center on East 9th Street http://www.cleveland.hfitcenter.com/ until I became a student and had free gym access. They were really great there - not intimidating at all - and had good facilities (swimming pool, outdoor track, etc.) and classes. It is mostly a lunch-hour gym and it does get kind of busy at lunch, but other than that I would highly recommend it!

With all due respect, I would never do that. From Cincinnati I go through Indy to Chicago on I-74 to I-65 and I have no desire to backtrack just for the purpose of taking a bus. Even if the stop was in Indy I wouldn't bother. I would cater the thought of using a bus from Cincinnati but if that didn't work I would drive. I was also pricing Amtrak but I have to leave at 3AM to take the Chicago trip which is crazy! The South Shore line is a great electric train-line. I grew up in Southwest Michigan and it is by far the quickest, most reasonable, clean and convenient way to get to Chi-town if you don't want to risk Amtrak or drive. It drops you off right by the Art Institute of Chicago and has reasonable hours. Besides, it is probably WAY cheaper than parking a car in Chicago at a hotel for the weekend which can run upwards of $50 a day.

Well it looks like the bill has passed both the House and the Senate and now it is on to the Governor's desk. I think the battle is about to begin! :argue:

Ewoops - What I gathered from the meeting was that the proposed bookstore is/was supposed to go on the parking lot/entrance to the loading area of Samsel. This would hinder semis from being able to access their loading dock. Samsel does do great business for the area so I can see their concern. On another note, from what I've heard it is difficult to get major chain bookstores (Borders/Barnes & Noble) without other big box retailers. I believe there was a proposal to put a bookstore around Lake Avenue & W117th (where the abandoned hexagonal bank(?) is) but both companies were reluctant because they wanted other anchor stores like a BestBuy or Target to be nearby. It's really sad that retailers think they can't independently operate.

I was at the city planning commission meeting Friday morning and I believe the problem with the bookstore is more location than anything else. The owners of Samsel Supply Co. were in attendance and when the had a chance to speak they expressed their concern over their loading dock area. They stated that on a slow day they receive something like 30 shipments, by semi-trailer, per day on a slow day. I believe since they are a viable business in the flats they are lobbying to keep what they need intact. It is ashame, I would love to have a decent bookstore within walking distance of my place.

I was getting soup for dinner tonight from the Souper Market and as I walked down W.25th I passed this building - it is the second store west of the Market (next door to the Middle Eastern Food store-front). I hate to say it but it looks pretty bad. The fire department was boarding it up as I stood and looked up. The roof seems to be mostly gone. Although a fair portion of the front of the building is in okay condition but I'm not sure that it could be re-built. If you look at the previous picture all of the windows between the second and third floor (besides being non-existant) have really bad damage to the ceramic tile that encloses them. It was lucky though that the fire did not spread to the other buildings. I was talking with some people nearby and one of the street's business owners told me that next month there was supposed to be a school that instructs bank tellers moving in. Another thing I noticed was that there was a sign in the front window that said "sprinkler system disabled" I believe that sign had been in the window previously. On another note I had heard that the building next to the Agora was supposed to house some nonprofit offices and also the builder's office that was working on the project. At least that's what I remember.