Davidsmith1211538705989

This loss stings more since I felt this was our year to make up for last season's ending. They peaked too early imho. They had everything going in their favor. Still much to be proud of in their regular season play. Here's to next season.

Speaking of unnecessary added design elements added by Mayor Jackson's safety concerns. Who knew these planters were to bring awareness to The Prayers from Maria organization. The paint sure doesn't help their looks. I have always wondered how the placement of these protect anyone standing on the outside perimeter are not protected from cars that easily can enter the walkways up to those planters. Not sure why a simple stainless bollard couldn't replace these. from the official Cleveland Public Square website: Prayers from Maria flowers on display in Public Square A local group has added both color and life to Public Square after planting flowers in a series of planters around The Square. Prayers from Maria started working with the Group Plan Commission in June. The goal was to come up with a plan to raise awareness for their cause and spruce up planters that the city of Cleveland had placed in the Square to reinforce safety. The signature green paint was donated by Sherwin-Williams, and the sunflowers came from Prayers from Maria. Plant experts from Prayers from Maria also designed the bed layouts. Group Plan Commission CEO Sanaa Julien, who oversees daily programming, maintenance and operation of Public Square, stressed the importance of adjusting to change in a public space and community engagement through the changes. “The successful transformation of Public Square has drawn interest from many businesses and community organizations. Prayers from Maria wanted to engage and we had an opportunity with the planters, which were not part of the original design and are temporary, potentially to be replaced with a security mechanism that supports the design of the Square. This partnership allows us to message about the importance of childhood cancer research while visually enhancing a safety mechanism. We continue to look at our Public Square as Cleveland’s premiere public space and have to note safety as a primary tenant of our management practices. Prayers from Maria helped us manage through a short-term challenge.”

Yes they were only removed for the "Cars In Cleveland" event. It shows just how great Public Square looks without them. Fyi. Rodeo drive in Beverly Hills has added the same concrete barriers to the famed street. Recently they added them to protect patrons to cafe tables and chairs along the street. They at least painted them forest green. Still ugly. I wonder what the cost is to move those concrete barriers on Public Square every time they close off Superior for an event. As much as I enjoy this type of event wouldn't this be better suited for Malls B and C ? The vehicles could be placed along the West Mall Drive and East Mall Drive allowing public transportation to remain open on Superior and activating the unused Burnham Malls. This could also involve more activation of the convention center interior spaces. The Group Plan Commission has failed to activate both open spaces.

Heck's Cafe opened at 515 Euclid Ave. Quite a nice buildout and addition to The Beacon

thestandardcle.com Their website has further photographs of the interior apartments and floorplans.

His initial intent may have been a unified Square but it is obvious the 50 million dollar design was a northern and southern section with Superior Avenue opened to public transit. He can state that but was never an option without serious monetary consequences to RTA. His decision not to open the park immediately to public transportation instead opened Pandora's box to ,imho, design elements to justify his threats of terrorism. I will be interested to hear what the corrective/permanent design elements Field Operation proposes and how much additional costs those elements will entail.

It is worth revisiting the proposed designs from the 2009 lakefront station Cleveland Design Competition. The 2nd place design is very similar to the latest design proposal from Green Ribbon.

The crosswalks were designed as continuations of the cobblestone promenades. There were crosswalk signals installed. Both of these areas were ADA compliant. The argument was made from Mayor Jackson that they were unsafe due to their color being too similar to the other pavement areas. The safety traffic study done by RTA felt that a centralized crosswalk would be safer and would shorten the pedestrians' Pashto cross Superior since the promenade crosswalks are curved. That is why Public Square's odd crosswalk path came to be. None of those points made in the safety concerns makes any sense. The Homeland Security's request for the added planters along the promenades further confuse me. Why they are placed halfway into the park makes absolutely no sense. Any vehicle can pull into the park and make an impact into pedestrians before those points. This includes the backside of the Rebol restaurant. At this point I do not trust anyone involved in the planning and execution of the renovated Public Square to get the design correct. $50 million spent for too many obvious flaws. In a recent interview Nora Romanoff of LAND-Studio stated pop up bollards were not installed along Superior as part of the renovated design due to underground utilities. I thought they stated the initial need to raise the budget to move all underground utilities to accommodate all the design elements. Odd she would state that since they were part of the protective design elements when the park was to be used as a unified space. I would like to see the money used for the public art such as "Protest" to be put towards correcting the flaws of the Field Operations designs.