cadmen

Love the blue glass, hate the white stripes. The new Hilton is all glass and I haven't read any complaints about it. Feels like the review board thought the glass facade on this one was too monolithic so they slapped some stripes on it. Didn't know what else to do. Cheapens it in my opinion.

I am a boomer who retired 2 years ago from the Clinic. Still live in RR with no plans to move.

Damn! Just imagine if they were still standing. What an amazing street that would be. I see old buildings like these all over east cost cities and when I do I'm envious. They add incredible character and complexity to a neighborhood. Pisses me off that we had them too but were too shortsighted to keep them. City mentality really is different depending on where you go. "Old" is valued on the east coast. I'm making my annual trip to Boston this month to stay with a Cleveland ex-pat. He's been there 30 years now and one of the first differences he noticed is the almost reverential respect they have for their history. We don't have nearly enough of that here.

I emailed Kerry McCormack and Tony Brancatelli. Losing Progressive because the city wouldn't build a parking platform was a terrible blunder. Losing Eaton because the mayor didn't put enough emphasis on helping them make the Flats site work was terribly short-sighted. Losing SW would be a real kick in the ass to all of the recent downtown renewal. What really concerns me is lack of political leadership here. This is a high stakes game. Cleveland cannot lose SW because its politicians were either asleep at the wheel or to incompetent to do what is necessary. I think our only real shot is if SW would actually prefer to remain downtown. They stay ONLY because it's what they prefer and not because the city figured out a way to keep them.

As long as we're off topic here, any idea when/if that last smokestack is coming down? I remember there were 3 of them on that old plant. 2 have come down. Why stop there?

^ I thought I had read previously that the tracks were owned by a railroad company (I had forgotten which one) and that company didn't want to share the tracks. So the holdup is on them and not any particular city. The conductor was obviously wrong then. Its interesting to me how much disinformation and sheer ignorance about ANY subject is out there. Kinda makes it hard to come up with an informed decision about anything.

Having the CVRR travel from downtown Cleveland to its southern terminus is such an obvious idea and its frustrating that the region hasn't been able to pull it off. Coincidentally we took some visitors from Texas on the train yesterday. I hadn't read KJP's post about the possibility of extending the line to Cleveland yet. Just for the hell of it I asked the conductor in our train why it wasn't possible to have a Cleveland stop knowing its been a problem from day one. He said it wasn't that it wasn't wanted, the problem was that, according to him, each city north of Rockside Rd. was responsible for track maintenance and there was no funding available. He said the CVRR owns the trains but not the tracks so that was the hold-up. He also said the reason the railroad stopped going to Canton was because the tracks were in disrepair, plus the terminal was in too bad of an area and the railroad was afraid there might be problems. He said it was so bad there was vandalism while the train was actually stoping there let alone what happened when the place was empty. Anyway those of us who are fans of all things train can only hope KJP is on to something with this possible great news. I live in the old "Pink Hotel" on the Rocky River. Just outside my front door is an old railroad terminal that the city uses for storage. I would love for that to be a RTA stop traveling from Lorain to Cleveland. Alas, the NIMBY's are not in favor of it. Even the people in my building that I've talked to about it don't want it. Sheeesh.

I respectfully disagree Superior on what a parking garage should look like. If YOU want to be able to identify a garage a block away then you must love the garage on the nuCLEus site. I travel all the time and I've never had trouble locating a parking garage even when its architecture blends in rather than stands out. You CAN have an attractive facade and still be able to identify that its a parking garage. You don't have to settle for an eyesore.

So...two out of three ain't bad lol.

Are the 3 lift bridges in good working order? In the past I've driven through the area and at times one or more of the bridges were closed. Of course there is access from the neck of the peninsula but having all 3 bridges available would seem pretty important to any developer looking to build.

Does anyone have the ability to insert the new nuCLEus renderings into that photo? I would love to see what its going to look like from that angle.

I've long been a proponent of merging all the cities of our county into one govt. Other cities in the US that have completed a merger have shown its effectiveness and fiscal efficiencies. Unfortunately I doubt a merger is likely for our county. That would require progressive thought and its simply not possible. Sure, we do have many progressive thinkers here but they are in the distinct minority. Cuyahoga County is comprised of people more interested in hanging on to their turf than doing something that would benefit the greater good. You could show them data that would indicate the advantages of county govt. You could show them data that would indicate the gross inefficiencies in our existing system and they wouldn't budge. They simply don't care. They're ostriches with their heads in the sand. They own their little piece of the pie and screw the rest. Why some regions thrive while others stagnate are myriad but surely myopic thinking is one example as to why we continue to struggle. And that's not changing anytime soon. How many of us on these forums know people who left because of our backward thinking? There's a reason some regions continue to struggle - progressive thinkers leave for more fertile grounds leaving the backward thinkers in the majority. And they will decide policy.

I didn't waste my time commenting. I'm retired now. Looks like you wasted your time though. Chill out man. We're not saving the world here. just having our little say.

Too dense......in a city. Brilliant comment. Wish I would have thought of it.

Hey! It's all about the parking. lol

Uh...no.

Anecdotal story on Cleveland population: I have a friend who is one of those highly educated but insular Bostonians. While he is far more accomplished than me I'm way more traveled than him. "Why should I leave New England? It has everything I need." Anyway, he did manage to visit me awhile back and we hit all the usual CLE sites. I'll sum up his impression in two sentences. "Cleveland is different, more interesting than I expected." and "Where's all the people." Yeah, I think he nailed it.

You have more connections than I do KJP. If you're curious tap those connections and see if you can get an answer. As you know to be successful in the business world an idea often needs a champion. On these forums you are our champion for TOD. You are one of the leaders for density (believe me, I'm in complete agreement) but in this town I feel like we are too often swimming upstream. That being said, there has been real progress especially when you consider how steep our fall. Its just that when we compare our progress with other regions that are really growing we realize our progress pales in comparison. Still, we're here and doing our best to encourage ANY positive steps.

Stap you are right! Conversely $70 -$100 a month to park would be considered a great deal in a large market. Our complaints are really more of an indication of our small city thinking. Many in CLE don't know what real traffic is, what the real cost of housing is in a large city etc. In many ways we just don't get it. We compare our costs locally as in the difference between urban and suburban not between Cleveland and Boston, Chicago etc.

KJP, to answer your question there are at least three huge parking structures with possibly more planned as the Clinic is not finished fleshing out the campus. More to come. You ask some interesting questions about whether or not the existing garages can handle additional housing built on top. A better question might be "IF the garages could handle it would the Clinic be interested?" Under Cosgrove the Clinic was focused on delivering the best medical care in the most efficient manner. It wasn't focused on the neighborhood and it certainly wan't focused on housing built on garages. And that thought is reflected in Clinic architecture which many on these forums have complained about. Unlike Mayo the Clinic is not integrated into its neighborhood. Its design seems to turn its back on the community. Now that there is a new CEO that may change. I don't know because I retired so I no longer have any insight on a directional change - if any.

Stap...I'm not saying Clinic employees knowing anything about what it costs to build the parking structures because they don't. I am simply saying most think that whatever the cost there is no way the Clinic is losing money i.e. subsidizing employee parking such that employees are not paying the real cost of parking and the Clinic is losing money on the garages. Now that prevailing opinion may be wrong but I will say that as an employee we were never told that the Clinic was taking a financial hit in order to help with the cost to employees. We simply had a monthly debit for parking taken out of our paychecks. When management is silent on an issue employees will come to their own conclusion - right or wrong. And of course I know that its not just Clinic employees who pay for parking but also downtown workers in any large city. I thought that was assumed.

KJP I'm not an architect so I can't speak to the viability of building housing above the garages but even if it was possible have you seen the footprint of those garages? They are HUGE. Much bigger than say, the Beacon downtown so even if it was possible the footprint is just too big to be viable IMO. StapHanger I can''t say the Clinic subsidizes parking but I doubt it. For what it's worth the prevailing opinion among Clinic employees is the Clinic makes money on employee parking. And it may just be sour grapes but one reason employees hate to pay for parking is because a big chunk of them drive in from the suburbs and EVERYONE knows people who work elsewhere who don't have to pay for their work parking. It's a common complaint among workers. Probably because the average employees don't compare their work place with the likes of NY, Boston, Chicago etc where it is common to pay for parking in the urban area. Most of us come from suburban Cleveland where we don't pay for parking at our jobs. So there is that underlying resentment about paying to park at the Clinic.

Oh and the Clinic leased out the parking to a third party. They received a flat fee from the parking company and the parking company determined the costs for the various lots. Whenever employees complained about the cost of parking going up the Clinic would say "We have no control over that."

I recently retired from the Clinic after 20+ years. In all that time I'm not aware there was a parking discount for employees. You paid various amounts for parking which was determined by the location and whether or not it was a garage or surface lot. Employee discount? That's news to me.

Another problem with economic segregation is a lack of role models for the young. If all you see around you is poverty, low end or no jobs what kind of work are you going to look for? If everyone around you has limited or no exposure to education it is that more difficult to educate yourself. If your role models are those looking for crime or the dole what do you think you will gravitate too? There's an old saying that some of our parents used to hammer into us. Something about 'You are who you hang out with." In other words, if you hang with people going nowhere you'll probably go nowhere and if you hang with people getting ahead chances are you'll get ahead too. It's trite but still true.