jws

^The entirety of the city-data forum. As someone who personally doesn't love what is commonly the style of new urban infill, I find BP to be on the decent end. I think the later phases are especially solid from an aesthetic standpoint (like the units at the corner of Frascati and W76). They're no Knez Homes, thankfully.

Not so much a development in the sense that something is being built, but a development in the sense that something slightly interesting has actually occurred in the neighborhood: looks like this house sold not too long ago for 175k. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4770972,-81.7480576,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sz1H5rJUDyuGjWE6pxFUnxA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

My biggest issue with that sentiment is that it doesn't have to be a concern if the property has good management. If you're going to have subsidized housing, locating it somewhere the residents have access to quality transit is an important factor if you want the neighborhood to be socioeconomically mixed and you want to avoid reinforcing concentrated poverty. This area is primed for that kind of economic mix, as you have the subsidized apartment rows ending directly where the larger West Blvd housing begins. West Blvd is doing fine and is considered it's own real estate market separate from the rest of Cudell, so you're already targeting multiple income levels and managing to accommodate them.

I agree. I doubt traffic would be slowed at all. It isn't an abnormally busy road, it's just poorly designed. If I had to guess, the reason this section of road is so beefy is because prior to the construction of the Cudell Commons rec center, West Blvd used to have a more significant jog and ran along the east side of the current rec center (it basically followed the path of the sidewalk that runs behind the CVS and up to the clock tower). it joined Detroit at the clock tower. I imagine when they moved the intersection west, someone figured the road needed to be wider to handle the merging capacities of Detroit and West Blvd, which is a great theory if you're designing a fluid piping system but no so much a traffic system. Then they just tapered the road back to normal size between the new West Blvd intersection and Berea Rd.

It's extremely aggravating at rush hour. Also, the signal to turn left onto West Blvd from Detroit doesn't work during AM rush hour. It ~allegedly~ works during evening rush hour. There's also a single crosswalk across Detroit and for a while the signal for pedestrians to cross didn't operate, so people were forced to walk into traffic that was also attempting to turn quickly since it had no left turn arrow. Very fun!

Residents are actively trying to address it. It's easy to say we need more police presence, but there just aren't necessarily more resources to send (I also think resources get directed to Gordon Square, in line with my theory in my previous post). But the odd nature of the crime in Cudell is that it is block-by-block, so while the Brick Lofts have a lot of issues with car break-ins and an uptick in violent crime, there has been pretty much nothing on W 100 for over a year. A lot of issues could be addressed with higher residential density. Cudell is an oddly quiet, low-density neighborhood considering it's urban location, and more eyes on the street would definitely have an impact just through the increase in people engaging with the neighborhood. Someone has mentioned that crime seems to be moving further West, and there have been some new trends. For example, Edgewater has been seeing increasing activity near Detroit and 110th which is far beyond anything happening at West Blvd and Madison/Detroit. To get back on topic, this is a lot of potential opportunity I see around the station. Yellow indicates new construction apartments, blue indicates new construction townhouses, and pink indicates restorations/conversions.

The director of the Cudell Improvement CDC mentioned a TOD study will be conducted for the area around the station. That being said, I don't necessarily expect much as the CDC is essentially a group of well-intentioned but seemingly reactive staff. Or, if not reactive, then not particularly progressive. So, I don't really expect any dynamic plans coming forth if a push from the CDC would be necessary. They're also slowly chugging along to finish the infill around West Tech/Brick Lofts. The historic rowhomes that stretch from Detroit to Madison are all Section 8 which tends to scare off investment, but I think the fact we have this type of housing next to mass transit is great in terms of establishing some socioeconomic equity in the neighborhood. I wish the management did a bit more in terms of landscaping, but overall they're a pretty solid asset. I'd like to see someone restore the apartment building at the intersection of Detroit and West Blvd as it appears it's just been vacant since there was a fire sometime in the past. As was stated above, this building would also make a great conversion: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4798375,-81.7540318,3a,75y,250.39h,101.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sl9vU3vEzwuj7prVhjPgkfQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 I'd love to see the old Italian restaurant replaced with an apartment building (maybe four stories?) that fills the entire lot with some ground-level retail. If you could combine this with a more pedestrian-friendly retrofit of the intersection, the area would be pretty set. The Cudell Commons park is quite nice, the Rec Center is solid, and the arts center is a unique asset. There is also the Chicle Building and the incomplete townhouses right down Detroit, and there is potential right along Berea for some new apartment construction in place of vacant industrial buildings. I've seen a few vacant houses in this area fill up since I moved onto W 100, but it's definitely slow since the investment is almost entirely at the resident-by-resident level. Crime-wise the area right around the station and along West Blvd/W101/W100 is pretty quiet. The real issue is the somewhat irregular spikes of crime between W 98 and W 85. Ultimately, there's no real reason that Cudell shouldn't be way more in demand. It has great access for both mass transit and I-90, Edgewater Park is about a fifteen minute walk, there's good bike lane access, and it's pretty much sandwiched in between two other higher-demand areas. I think spillover is pretty much inevitable, even moreso now that the Detroit-Shoreway CDC is pushing restoration along Colgate Ave west of W 80th. If they can continue to develop and restore Lorain that would also have a very positive influence. It may be a biased personal opinion, but I think a lot of the reason Cudell gets so little attention is that most of the neighborhood proper falls within Ward 15 and therefore any type of larger-scale development is seen as being in risk of cannibalizing Gordon Square.

I think the list of demands has more or less died off, hasn't it? The city makes sense as an additional east side neighborhood and I think at a certain point it will make sense to suck it up and swallow EC solely because of its proximity to University Circle. I realize it's a big financial burden, but if we start seeing more widespread revitalization in Glenville then it would make sense to try and stabilize EC and Forest Hills as much as possible. But like the above post, I really am just dreaming about an ideal future situation.

Just took a quick look on Zillow. Some real surprises in this area! http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1873-Grasmere-Ave-East-Cleveland-OH-44112/33647833_zpid/ http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1820-Idlewood-Ave-Cleveland-OH-44112/33646915_zpid/ http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1876-Stanwood-Rd-Cleveland-OH-44112/33647824_zpid/

Yeah, I honestly just don't get some of the occupancy trends in EC. It's also weird that you get areas like Caledonia and the Brewster Rd neighborhood which stay stable, then little enclaves like Hazel and Oakhill where there's a fair amount of vacancy. On the streets off of Euclid, I almost wonder if it was larger-scale slumlords leading to some streets dying at an uneven rate or just a typical chain reaction of people leaving sparked by foreclosures or concentrated poverty. Or, alternatively, if there are just streets which are fortunate enough to have enough dedicated residents that have kept them from declining. I would say, generally, every time I drive through this area I feel that it's always in far better shape than anyone would expect. The whole stretch - Roxbury, Farmington, Alvason, Idlewood, and Rosalind - are in better shape than big chunks of, say, Glenville. Rosalind is in particularly good shape: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5213239,-81.5902337,3a,90y,130.93h,93.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAVQeFPSdcEQupqD54WJqCw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Idlewood, Windermere, and Knowles all seem to have had the random infrastructure development that you mentioned, which is weird because they aren't streets that appear to be as stable. Although Idlewood has some sweet houses (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5204494,-81.5905703,3a,75y,137.57h,90.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2pihe-TYTT0F_hkAUy5sQw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) Knowles also has this nice whimsical look. Like Edward Scissorhands but with decaying Victorians: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5281367,-81.5821333,3a,75y,136.14h,93.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssC1Rfg4jBSO1uNGFZ8NPFA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Like this one! https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5362571,-81.5652097,3a,75y,83.12h,80.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOMZwvm-LvePcuX3DeH6Dsg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I think the area northeast of Superior could go either way, honestly. It has some factors in it's favor. Just as the segment between Euclid and Forest Hill have their proximity to UC to make them desirable, the section between Euclid and Terrace Rd has minimal physical separation from the stable part of EC and Cleveland Heights (Rosewood Rd is under 2000 ft from the end of Brewster Rd). The invisible demarcation line between these two neighborhoods blows my mind. I think some development in the Euclid/Forest Hills section could help remove some of the EC stigma, allowing spillover into the Euclid/Terrace section. Beyond that, despite the amount of abandonment in the northern section, there is also a fairly large number - by EC standards - of houses that have been maintained. There's also a few anomalous streets that appear to have escaped blight, which again, is very peculiar. There does seem to at least be a trend that the houses that remain occupied are generally maintained and cared for to some noticeable degree - some rather nicely. For example: This section of Chapman Ave is relatively put together - at least moreso than one would expect. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5330503,-81.5747029,3a,75y,297.8h,86.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8IO09q_JwM4W3i9Lfh2GSg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Grassmere Ave has similar sections: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5346571,-81.5756015,3a,75y,134.95h,83.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sh1Tgw0UJL8DB90_HjqgssQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 You can find a decent amount of houses on each of the streets that are looking nice, so I think it's encouraging in terms of viability of a neighborhood comeback. Obviously I'm optimistic because I am abnormally in love with this section of the city, but I'm hopeful.

This is exciting. I wouldn't be too surprised since there's such huge potential on these few blocks for infill. I really hope there is also eventually some investment in the area between Euclid and Terrace Rd. That area of Marloes, Roxford, and Rosemont has some really, really great residential streetscapes. Just...just look at this: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5300995,-81.580068,3a,75y,189.07h,93.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swCOB8wTO0lgop17u74SarA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5311049,-81.5792614,3a,75y,176.12h,86.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seHkxRWE10NIO3xjZAD9WNA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Truly awesome streets.

You're correct about Old City Libations being the one your sister is talking about. And yes, Gordon Square is a section of the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. I second the post above me that suggested SOHO. It's great.

Very doable. You can use one of the tunnels to walk from the park up into Battery Park and use either 74th or 76th to walk to Detroit Ave, then east into Gordon Square. As for lunch, there are a few places right in Battery Park (Cha and Vita Urbana), then Banter at Detroit and 74th if you're interested in poutine and sausages. They also have a pretty expansive beer and wine selection. Old City Libations just opened right in Gordon Square and that be a good evening stop to look into on your bar rotation. Potentially unpopular opinion here, but in my short 1.5 years living in Cleveland I have yet to eat in Little Italy and be blown away. The best Italian I've had is at Bruno's at Cloud Ave and W 41st in Clark-Fulton. Very similar to the red sauce Italian food I grew up used to in eastern PA/northern NJ. It's kind of out of the way but I figured I'd mention it. The MOCA is a single exhibit museum so just check out what's there. In my experience they're usually worth it. The current one sounds great if it's up your alley: http://mocacleveland.org/exhibitions/anders-ruhwald-unit-1-3583-dubois A lot of very good food options in the area around Superior and E 30, so if you like Pho check it out. You wouldn't know how many restaurants are crammed in that area if you weren't specifically looking for them. Also, while not Asian food, there is also a phenomenal Ethiopian restaurant further east on St. Clair called Empress Taytu that is probably one of my favorite places in Cleveland. You'd probably have to search out a club to find one, so most neighborhoods you wont accidentally stumble into one. The main drag of W 25th is a solid bet if you're into more of the large crowd, general American-type bar scene and Porco is a great tiki bar further south on W 25th. Tremont has some good, slightly higher-end bars and restaurants along Professor, and again for Gordon Square. There are also some smaller, more concept-specific bars off of these main streets (The Spotted Owl in Tremont, Toast in Gordon Square, a lot of craft cocktail-specific places). So this one really depends a lot on what type of bar setting you want.

For sure! I'd also love to see similar development move north up to and over Woodland where there is all of that sweet, sweet infill potential. Also to the East, that triangular section between Woodland, Woodhill, and the railroad tracks basically screams "fill me up with affordable and market-rate housing." There's even a rec center, a public pool, and a church at the center of it to serve as neighborhood landmarks. And if you got really aggressive you could mow down over the abandoned industrial sites around it to make easier connections to TWO (2 :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:) Red Line stations. Also, I think this tract is basically next to two intersections for the future Opportunity Corridor? Right?

I would agree with that. Unfortunately, as far as the Cudell CDC is concerned, it seems that they consider any development outside of Edgewater to be justified on the basis that someone just wants to build it. I could just have a skewed perception, but it seems like the entire section of the CDC's area south of the railroad tracks could burn to the ground and they wouldn't notice unless they smelled the smoke in Edgewater. I can only assume this type of mentality is why the entire area between the rapid station and 90, excluding West Blvd, which theoretically should be a pretty desirable middle, lower-middle, and working class income area, is just sitting untapped and ignored. It could pretty easily be a version of Lakewood within the city limits. I have to wonder if this type of mentality isn't just duplicated throughout the city, leading to something like the low-density, sprawl-type SSA building you're mentioning. I really do hope the general trend is finally pivoting away from all of the short term "build it now because it's the first and only proposal" type of development. I'm pretty happy with what Zaremba seems to have done so far. It's not blowing my mind architecturally, but honestly a lot of the working class and middle class Cleveland neighborhoods on both the East and West sides weren't that architecturally interesting to begin with (so excluding places like Hough, Glenville, Ohio City, Detroit-Shoreway), so I think this is a nice addition to these neighborhoods. Zaremba appears to have a solid understanding of how these developments should exist within the overall physical space, and I really, really, really appreciate how they're conforming to the vernacular of the surrounding neighborhood. I hate when decent infill ends up being the wrong scale.

Let's hope so. Not to get too off topic, but the Cudell CDC mentioned that a TOD study is finally being performed on the area within a 1.5 mile radius of the West Blvd/Cudell rapid station, so maybe there has been a collective realization on both sides of the city (at least outside of the EcoVillage) that this is a thing we should be pushing.

This news is great. Is this builder the same one that initially began the development? I'm unclear on that detail. Judging from the Zaremba portfolio, their stuff looks similar, if not even a little better designed for the urban-historical context. It's totally solid infill that I'm happy to not hate.

It's going very strong! The South Side around Lehigh has really changed in the past five years. Poverty is still an issue in places, as is standard with a lot of US cities, but I wouldn't call it "considerable."

The OP's PA posts have been awesome. Really enjoying these. Allentown is a place that I never learned to appreciate until I left the Lehigh Valley. There's a very unfortunate stigma attached to the city and therefore most of the surrounding residents tend to view it more negatively than it deserves. I don't see it as being that dissimilar to how a lot of suburbanites view Cleveland, though Allentown's "resurgence" is much less intense and considerably more recent. The city has really great density and the rowhomes are fantastic. A majority of the city is also intact as it thankfully never experienced a population loss; just a socioeconomic shift. I think it's probably the Lehigh Valley's, and probably one of eastern PA's, biggest untapped assets. I think streets like these are great: Utica St. rowhouses https://www.google.com/maps/place/Allentown,+PA/@40.6092238,-75.4841284,3a,89.4y,180.48h,92.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scoYmV0ueeBK0PaeInNIz1w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c439929f4adce1:0xeaf9df4b246824a1!8m2!3d40.6084305!4d-75.4901833 Tilghman St. rowhouses https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6106762,-75.4805215,3a,50.9y,261.78h,97.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ss4cQt7WYp3MNLEMWYL_6Qw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 These rowhouses on Chew St. are some of my favorite in the city: https://www.google.com/maps/place/1430+W+Chew+St,+Allentown,+PA+18102/@40.6021805,-75.4891363,3a,60y,174.23h,100.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVsuWmOv1J7NOJ_I-6XrZuA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c439876ff38ead:0x40845b1fe0c7cc67!8m2!3d40.601949!4d-75.489012 There's also the neighborhood of West Walnut. This area was developed for wealthier residents before the city began a more typical suburban expansion and has some excellent mansions. (If anyone is interested, take a look at Catasauqua, PA. Lots of early industrialist's mansions from a similar time period) https://www.google.com/maps/@40.595753,-75.4894026,3a,75y,261.89h,92.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssvqBEFHDq_3QlnYIVGKk6A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.595914,-75.4907217,3a,75y,147.05h,111.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQw3gcH5y_9F3_4U05rsk9g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's definitely had a net positive effect on the psyche of everyone in the city, and a good chunk of the Lehigh Valley as a whole. Bethlehem was in a fortunate position of having the local economy and primary employers switch pretty rapidly to healthcare, logistics/trucking, and some tech. The downtown never really saw a decline like neighboring Allentown and Easton experienced when their respective industries died. Healthcare is the dominant employer in the Valley now and, I believe, one of the top ten employers in the state. Bethlehem Steel had also been dying for a very long time, so the end wasn't terribly sudden. Anyway, my point is that the steel plant wasn't necessarily more than just a visually depressing thing to see. There is still a huge hulking reminder a bit further from downtown called Martin Tower. This building was the final headquarters of the company and keeps proving too expensive to retrofit. The reuse of the site was initially part of a much more aggressive scheme that was slowed by the 2008 bust (the apartments/condos/extensive retail have yet to manifest), but it's still on track and has continued to develop. They've recently opened a sort of elevated park that can be seen in some of the photos in front of the blast furnaces. I believe it connects the heart of the area to the Sands Casino at the eastern end of the site. The redevelopment of the property also kick-started a rapid revitalization of the South Side of the city. The main commercial streets always catered to Lehigh students, but they've really evolved and there's a much more cohesive feel to the North and South sides. There's also been spillover into Allentown and Easton, where there are also noticeably more aggressive redevelopment schemes happening in their downtown cores. The changes that occurred in Bethlehem during my four years of high school (2008-11) were pretty drastic (We got a new independent arthouse movie theater!) and now that I've been gone another five years I'm always impressed when I return to visit family. The OP did a great job capturing Main and Broad Streets.

This map is an awesome find. I think it's pretty interesting how the southern stretch really defies the development trends that actually progressed. The segment between Brookside and Washington parks would basically run along the southern property line of the steel mill, wouldn't it?

I noticed that as well. I'm wondering if the initial plan for West Blvd either pre-dated the cemetery, part of the cemetery, or was just intended to pass along the perimeter. It could have possibly been intended to pass along the southern edge of the cemetery where 71 is currently located. However, that seems unlikely as in the map posted by TPH2, there's a "West Boulevard Parkway" marked in the space north of the cemetery.

That's some great information! Thanks It's a shame that more of this didn't come to fruition. It's odd that, from what I can see, this plan remained intact in some form for a while, as the housing along the road south of Brookside Park is considerably newer than that of the northern West Boulevard section. If my immediate assumption is correct, large swaths of the original East Boulevard became MLK?