jws

The neighborhood isn't as empty as it might appear. The market from West Blvd to W98th and then again around W85th is also pretty solid and we're seeing a lot more renovations than two years ago. There's a place on Gambier renting for 1.1k/mo, somehow.

That area of Edgewater (Lake Ave. to Madison Ave. and W.107th to W.117th) has top-down micro-branded itself as West Edge. They even bought their own cop car for neighborhood patrols (and branded it). Cudell south of Madison is 100% just a gritty (I hate that word and for the life of me can't think of an alternative) version of Lakewood.

INTERESTING.

As I understand it, the process to get the thing restored would be to go through the Board of Revisions, then have the Land Bank convey the property to Westown and sell it to Kanis (who still wants to assume the financial responsibility for the place!). Unfortunately, that requires that Brady and Westown cooperate which they are not yet willing to do.

Fun fact! At the CPC meeting, when speaking about the TOD plan, Councilmember Brady said "This is the first time I'm hearing about this" and "quite frankly, I don't care."

Very happy to see this gaining more attention. I will also add that residents have attempted to directly engage both Councilmember Brady and Westown after the CPC meeting and have been ignored. If people can show up to the Feb 8 Landmarks meeting that would be very impactful. They are still fast-tracking this thing to demo town.

Planning Commission tabled the item. Discussion lasted approximately 1.5 hours, Councilmember Zone shed light on the fact someone has been trying to buy the apartment building. Councilmember Brady and Westown CDC said they had no knowledge of this purchase agreement, nor did they have any knowledge of the NOACA TOD study. Most of the CPC concern stemmed from the precedent set by this accelerated process and, specifically, the longterm implications of removing a parcel from a historic district thereby forfeiting the ability of the commission and community to have any future say in the use of the land (it seems like Brady really wants a parking lot). This method has been used before, but it was also by Brady so she could demolish a building across the street from the Variety Theater and build a parking lot there.

Cudell Improvement has actually been pretty motivated in getting this building restored. However, because of the weird ward boundaries, the building falls within a slim area controlled by Westown.

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/designreview/drcagenda/2018/01192018/index.php Councilmember Brady is pushing an emergency ordinance to revoke the landmark status of a vacant apartment building across the street from the rapid station. The intent seems to be that they can demolish it and use it as leverage by giving it to the neighboring vacant restaurant as a parking lot. Someone has actually been trying to buy this building and restore it for the past eight months, but Councilmember Brady and the Westown CDC see a parking lot as a better use. We're really killing it with the TOD, aren't we?

W54 really should be a pedestrian-friendly intersection. Here's the issue I see with the current setup: the new trail runs right along the northern side of the road (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4884662,-81.717388,3a,90y,256.01h,64.75t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGmAq36gHIxA_hkM5-iZg9Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) and there are no barriers. The median is now grass. The southern side is also far less imposing looking since it was rebuilt. It really doesn't look like it would be that hard to jaywalk. If someone is walking along the trail and wants to quickly get to Detroit, I see no reason they aren't just going to dart across the Shoreway to W54 since it is so.damn.easy to do.

Popped over to Terrestrial last night after checking out the new trail from W25th to Edgewater. The new apartment building is coming along nicely and has a really impactful presence.

The only other place I heard the CMHA info was on City-Data. That's excellent news about the Flea.

I imagine there is a considerable amount of site prep, support system setup, staging, etc. that must be completed before new structure can be added to the building. I'd assume there is work happening and it just isn't readily visible from the street.

I'm also hopeful that there will be more tangible results from the CDC facilitating some arrangements once they get a new staff. They are in tragic need of an injection of life considering they're now down to, like, 2.5 employees (Anita is only working part time now and Jeff Barkas left) and they refuse to seek grants.

It's an urban overlay district with a 0 ft setback so, hopefully, that will save the intersection. I didn't realize there was even a risk of losing the building, though.

I generally have a lot of objections to intentionally isolating neighborhoods. But, in regard to the triangle bordered by Coventry, Superior, and Mayfield, I don't agree with the initial assertion that it's even in that bad of shape. "Severely blighted" seems hyperbolic. It's overwhelmingly occupied and in pretty solid shape. I don't think many of the structures even require extensive work. Street-by-street: Luxor: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.517303,-81.5802797,3a,75y,196.42h,86.78t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skIHd5Mh9hJ72QNTo-7704Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Glenmont: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5161046,-81.579362,3a,75y,5.38h,91.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1somdUMWvQSrHdTSbMzwsTRw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Belmar, which is probably in the roughest shape: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5169943,-81.5781215,3a,75y,186.43h,86.61t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shB7n5pcCt31FUfhjBucKfg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Eddington: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5167051,-81.5769357,3a,60y,187.13h,87.35t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slWyIsUEgW4nxP933Y8kpIg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Hillcrest: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5162402,-81.5758299,3a,75y,190.84h,93.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slmi_eeHddk4m0LSH1OJq4w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 StreetView is two years old, but I drove down Belmar and Eddington two weeks ago and still remarked that it looked pretty alright. If Glynn Rd, Brewster Rd, and all of those other areas of EC are doing fine (or as well as they can with EC services) then there's no reason that the above streets need to be isolated in order to "save them." Stabilizing and filling the apartments along Superior could really be the catalytic investment that this neighborhood needs.

Why does that look so familiar? There's some veracity to this, but Edge 32 is not of this basic design - at least not the major highrise right on Detroit. If one doesn't want this sort of building, there are all sorts of older buildings one can consider, including all the hundreds of older retrofitted buildings. This can be said of all periods of the past century - e.g. apartment houses of the early '60s tend to look similar, also from the early '40s, the late '20s, etc. I disagree, I think Edge 32 looks exactly like this sort of design. And while it's true that we don't have to live in them if we don't want to, we still have to look at these turds when we go about our lives in these neighborhoods. they're the urban, multifamily equivalent of a McMansion. To that point. So many people I talk to absolutely HATE the new construction on Jay and West 30th; I love it, though. Is that the weird house with the sort of Victorian (?) detailing? For the life of me, I cannot figure out what is going on with that house. Were they trying to design a traditional home and couldn't quite figure it out? Were they trying for some sort of interpretation of a traditional home and it didn't come off? Was the client asking for and insisting on weird detailing (it happens)? It is worth noting that the project does not make an appearance on the architect's website so I suspect that they aren't thrilled with the result. I always figured they just tried to mimick the house across the street but then, whoops, that didn't work out as planned. Overall I don't really mind the place. The actual scale of the structure is more or less in line with the neighborhood vernacular.

For a city that claims to love trees they really force residents to work hard to protect whatever trees they can. I feel like really great tree canopies are constantly being destroyed,

The Scranton Flats at Duck Island, Luxury Industrial Loft Living and Townhomes. The Scranton Flats @ Duck Island? :-(

I haven't encountered this wide scale of young Madalone supporters that has been mentioned above. Are they all just downtown? Everyone I've talked with has been impartial at best.

About a week ago the PD had an article regarding colorful murals being painted by students in the vicinity of the greenway and madae it sound like work would be done very soon. They just completed a very nice mural that takes up the whole south facing wall of Lorain between the bridges over the red line and Columbus I thought the greenway phase 1 was opening was around 2020. They're hosting a 5k down there in September which should be cool. I really like the yellow mural. It was on the building before they renovated it and I'm glad they retained it.

Yeah, but I think the address in question is its former location and not the strip mall. What do a vacant lot and this McDonald's have in common? The lack of a shake machine. (They didn't even say it was broken, they just said "we don't have a shake machine"). I wish the renovation would make the building interact with the street better. The BK at Lake is still worse and I'd love to see that thing just come down.

I thought this address was the place on the corner where Guide to Kulchur was located, not the strip mall.

Fingers crossed. If they're willing to removal a marginal road then it gives me some confidence that at least some engineers within the city are willing to rethink aggressive roads. I'd love to see Detroit work wrapped in with the MC Seltzer construction and Cudell Commons renovations.

My real fears all stem from that TOD meeting at Cudell Rec where we were basically told, "Ok, now it's your turn to tell your leaders to make this a reality." :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: Hopefully NOACA can bring in an interested party for the site. If the apartment restoration at West Blvd/Detroit goes through then I think that may have an impact. I'd love to see the old restaurant next door be replaced with four story mixed use as well and, in a dream world, get the owner of the old bank building at W101/Detroit to do something with that place. I know Cudell Improvement keeps claiming the kennel will have an impact, but I honestly don't foresee that really changing much in terms of transit utilization or the neighborhood south of the red line tracks.