unbriacone

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Tower City went up for sale. Forest City gave up on it when they started exclusively gunning for public money. They are the ones that made the mistake of turning it into an indoor, suburban-style mall. You can't "outsuburb" the suburbs. Granted, it's a nice mall; it's still just a mall. I know Forest City is headquarted in TC and they'd probably up and leave Cleveland if they sold the complex, but worse things have happened to the city. Maybe new owners and fresh ideas are what is needed to restore fiscal stability to the complex. Issue 3, as much as i would like it to, probably is not gonna pass. Even still, to appease Forest City, the city and county are gonna try and put the convention center on the river. I don't see Cuyahoga County willing to tax itself to build one, either. Maybe the medical mart will make it a little easier to swallow, but the reality is people are just plain tapped out; especially in a city like mine.(Parma)

It would take another constitutional amendment, i believe, to change anything related to the gaming industry. The legislature couldn't alter the amendment, so i'm betting they wouldn't be able to pass legislation saying it's ok for Cincy and C-bus to pursue gaming because our constitution will say only seven racetracks and downtown Cleveland can have gaming of any sort. I'm gonna hold my nose when i vote yes for this one. It's pretty bad overall, but there is the chance Cleveland will greatly benefit.

Tri-C and CSU could look into sharing facilities. Not just in terms of sports facilities, but entire majors and area's of study. It would be an efficient way to build the "critical mass" of intellect that alot people say Cleveland lacks to attract industries of the "new economy." Say, for example, Cleveland wants to spawn a robotics industry. Why couldn't both schools share a single facililty and provide different levels of instruction at each? If you had something like a robotics magnet school in the city's school district that fed into tri-c's robotics courses, then into CSU's, we'd be cranking out probably some of the best in the field. That would catch the attention of outside companies, and make it more likely that we could just create our own industries. Tri-c wouldn't really even have to move to Euclid Ave. to do this.

i wish the Metropolitan Campus would figure how to make a move to the Euclid/E.55th area and take advantage of the whole idea of physically connecting all of our major research/higher education institutions. The R&R Archive would look very nice next to the Agora and create a more dynamic "rock research cluster", considering the Agora's history. Access and perception of the campus would likely improve, and Tri-C would be be better positioned to collaborate with everything that's going down on Euclid these days. The major drawback would be surrendering more land on Euclid Ave. to an institutional deadzone, but the campus could have a relativley small and dynamic footprint if it were designed right, and could bring thousands of people to the intersection everyday.

throw me into that west-side hillbilly mix. I think if they ever are going to open department stores downtown again, they should use the names of our old department stores. I would like to see "Higbees by Harrods" or "Halle's at Bloomingdales"...something along those lines. They could carry local designs as well as their normal mono-merchandise apparel.

didn't gateway open in '94?....they have it as '96.

By far the L.E. Islands and Cedar Point are two of the greatest attractions Ohio has to offer. (for summertime, anyways)

Care to elaborate on the "industrial design" concept? sounds interesting and like something C-town could excel at.

I would guess he's trying to scare detroit, too. I don't think it's right for Ohio to try and be poaching from Michigan and vice versa cause both economies are in the crapper, but 3,500 jobs would do quite alot for downtown's merchants and the city's tax revenues.

I'm glad it wasn't built. Sure, it's better than a gaping hole on PS, but that thing is a beast. It just kinda seems like the architects took three different buildings and smashed them into one, hulking monster. Whatever is built there has to strike a balance between the Terminal and Key. That doesn't mean it can't be futuristic or brazen, but a few subtle design details (setbacks, massing, crown, etc.) could ensure a harmony between Cleveland's two tallest and whatever is eventually built on Jacob's lot. BP i think was kind of a mistake, too. There are many angles from which it looks fantastic,(from the Jake and the Malls)but seeing it's wide-sides makes me wanna hurl. :-o

The parade this year was great! I think I like it a little bit better on Superior, but overall it doesn't matter what street it is on. This was the happiest St. Paddy's day i can remember. Everybody i ran into all day long, whether downtown or strongsville or parma- were all in great moods. The beer helps, of course, but there was something alittle different about the day. Maybe cause it was a Friday. I already can't for next year's parade. If its OK weather, there could be 500,000 people there cause it's on a Saturday. Next drinking holiday on the docket: cinco de mayo. can't wait.

Cleveland is still one of the most unionized cities in the country. To say that labor unions have no influence in who runs and wins in elections in this county is pretty off base. I live in Parma. No blacks, Jews, Latinos, or gays. My town is probably the most solidly democratic in the entire county. We all know Parma isn't the most tolerant of cities, and yet it will never shift Republican. Old people drive the vote in this city....you don't think they've forgotten everything they used to stand for, do you?

Nothern Ohioans don't view Appalachians as "inferior" or "backwards", as you think C-Dawg. Cleveland and Youngstown absorbed massive amounts of West Virginians during the last rounds of population growth that occured here, and here they still reside. Appalachian dialects still flourish in Cleveland and Youngstown,(maybe Toledo?) though maybe over the last few decades they've fused somewhat with our "flat" talk. NEO is also not "liberal". The main reason this area strongly supports the Democratic Party is labor, plain and simple. Most people in the area supported the ban on gay marriage, as Cleveland and NEO is kinda socially conservative, though more moderately so than other parts of the state. I do agree that we as a whole are very provincial, whether it be region vs.region, city vs.city, suburb vs.city, north vs. south, etc. That's why i'm shocked that most of the Cuyahoga mayors finally agree not to poach business from each other, launching regionalism on an economic platform rather than through government or education. I still think NEO should breakaway from Ohio, though. Whether that thinking is elitism or provincialism, i think i'll always be for it.

makes sense.

I'll sign your petition, KJP. I would like to see a rail terminal built in conjunction with the westward expansion of the convention center and the medical mart. As far as I'm concerned, a rail terminal is just as plausible as the two other projects, as nothing yet is set in stone, and the most elusive piece of the puzzle is, as always, money. But if the convention center eventually does go forward at the Mall site, the northward land currently occupied by Amtrak, railtracks, parking lots, and other disfunctional crap should be slated for a future high-speed/commuter rail terminal, serving all east-west points, like Toledo, Detriot, Erie, Buffalo, Toronto, and commuter lines serving lorain and lake counties, as well as outlining points in Cuyahoga. The land drops off so dramatically here that it could be mostly an underground terminal with new terraces and pedestrian connections on top of it to all major points outward from the terminal. All points south could be served by a new terminal in the Old Tower City Post Office.(Think the new Penn Station in Manhattan). This would be an all-Ohio Terminal serving the two other "big Cs", as well as Akron, Canton, Mansfield, and whatever commuter rail lines would be feasible(medina county). KJP's plan would be needed to create a new agency that would be powerful enough to wrestle with the likes of CSX and Norfolk Southern to gain access to their lines. I wouldn't believe for a second that commercial rail traffic is as heavy as it was in decades past, but that is what the companies would say so they could drive up the price of selling the right-of-ways.