Vulpster03

Everything is mostly concentrated on W.25th Street. In fact when I visit the neighborhood I usually park my car on W.28th and walk over to wherever I am going on W.25th. I've never had a problem walking back to my car there, so I would think living on W.28th would be a great location. It is pretty much in the hub of Ohio City which is really an up-and-coming place with a lot of character. Great choice! It might make you want to stay longer than two months in Cleveland. I cannot say enough about the West Side Market. It is the anchor of the neighborhood and a huge draw. There are only a couple markets like it left in the country. Very Old World style and diverse. The cafe inside is really good too. http://www.westsidemarket.com/ Additions to blinker's list Bars: ABC Tavern (casual neighborhood watering hole) Velvet Tango Room (off-the-beaten path swanky bar) Restaurant: Opa! (tiny upscale contemporary Greek) Coffee Shop: Near West Coffee Retail: Hansa Import House (imported specialty German goods) Pride of Cleveland Scooters (vespas, scooters, etc.) Outside of Ohio City there are a couple great walkable neighborhoods within a 5+ minute drive with great restaurants, bars, and galleries: Just over the Detroit-Superior from Ohio City into downtown is the Warehouse District with a lot of trendy clubs and upscale restaurants. It is really cool, but more of a place "to be seen" type atmosphere, whereas Ohio City has more of a "place to hang" out atmosphere. http://www.warehousedistrict.org Just down Abbey Road from Ohio City is Tremont. Very similar to Ohio City, but a little more artsy in my opinion. Tremont's restaurants and bars aren't quite as concentrated as Ohio City, but are very good. Prosperity Social Club in Tremont is one of my favorite bars in town. Lots of art galleries in Tremont, and the neighborhood has a popular Artwalk event on the second Friday of every month. http://www.restoretremont.com/

I personally use Rockefeller Barber and Studio Palmieri - both on W.6th St. I think mrnovember wanted specific apartment building recommendations, and it sounded like he was pretty interested in downtown so he could walk to work. Here are some listings of buildings I am familar with: Warehouse District: This is where the overwhelming majority of downtown residents live. It is one block west of Public Square located primarily on W.6th, St.Clair, and W.9th. It is also where the nicest restaurants downtown are most highly concetrated. The atmosphere is generally swanky upscale, but there is still a decent variety. This list is pretty much copied from warehousedistrict.org, and it is a little dated. Some of the buildings may have been converted to for-sale-housing and the Bingham is a major building that wasn't included on their list. The Bingham is a must-see because the units are brand-new, utilities and many amenities included, the neighborhood's main grocery store is in the building, it is off the main (more noisey) W.6th strip, and priced pretty reasonably I think. BINGHAM - W. 9th Street http://www.thebingham.com 425 LAKESIDE APARTMENTS - 425 Lakeside Avenue http://www.downtownapartments.com Phone: 216-861-4080 APARTMENTS at NAUTICA - 2249 Elm Street http://www.downtownapartments.com Phone: 861-4080 BRADLEY BUILDING - 38 units/5 suites 1220 West 6th Street http://www.bradleybldg.com Phone: 216-621-2001 BRIDGEVIEW APARTMENTS - 1300 West 9th Street http://www.landmarkmgt.com Phone: 216-781-8510 CLOAK FACTORY - 635 West Lakeside Avenue http://www.cloakfactory.com Phone: 696-9500 GRAND ARCADE - 408 St. Clair Avenue http://www.grandarcade.com Phone: 216-781-8510 HAT FACTORY - 1235 West 6th Street http://www.apartmentguide.com Phone: 216-861-7200 MARSHALL PLACE APARTMENTS - 1211 West 9th Street Phone: 440/975-8118 NATIONAL TERMINAL - 1215 West 10th Street http://www.apartmentguide.com Phone: 216-579-9766 PERRY-PAYNE BUILDING - 740 Superior Avenue http://www.landmarkmgt.com Phone: 216-241-4340 RIVERBEND CONDOMINIUMS - 1444 West 10th Street http://www.multivesting.com Phone: 216-781-5400 WATERSTREET APARTMENTS - 1133 West 9th Street http://www.landmarkmgt.com Phone: 216-241-4340 WORTHINGTON SQUARE - 840 St. Clair Avenue http://www.downtownapartments.com Phone: 216-861-4080 Lower Euclid and Gateway: This neighborhood is on the opposite side of Public Square from the Warehouse District. It is very close to Jacobs Field and Q Arena. Other main attractions include the House of Blues, Pickwick and Frolic (upscale restaurant and comedy complex), and Lola's (reoppening soon - the flagship restaurant of national celebrity chef Michael Symon). Playhouse Square is also within walking distance. COMMERCIAL, BUCKEYE, FREDERICK, WINDSOR BLOCK E.4th Street http://www.east4thstreet.com/ POINTE AT GATEWAY 750 Prospect 621-6300 CARTER MANOR 1012 Prospect 241-2850 HURON SQUARE 1001 Huron 575-1175 OSBORN BUILDING 1020 Huron 575-1175 STATLER ARMS 1127 Euclid 696-6800 Main Attractions Downtown: Any of the above mentioned apartments are within walking distance to these attractions TOWER CITY CENTER - a complex of shops, restaurants, movie theater, hotels, offices, and county-wide transit hub of rail and bus lines. The city's landmark tower on Public Square, Terminal Tower, is a part of the complex. http://www.towercitycenter.com PLAYHOUSE SQUARE - The second largest performing arts center in the country in beautifully restored historic theaters. http://www.playhousesquare.org/ ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME http://www.rockhall.com/ LOLLY THE TROLLEY TOURS - of course its touristy, but maybe a great way to orient yourself with the city face-to-face when you get into town. The Trolley departs from Lake Erie Artists on Huron Road and in Tower City Center. http://www.lollytrolley.com University Circle Attractions: After downtown University Circle is the second major hub of employment and activity. It is like a ten minute drive, and where most of the musuems, the orchestra, higher education, hospitals, etc. are located. You must go there soon after you get into town. Little Italy is a neighborhood right next to University Circle with great art galleries and of course food. http://www.universitycircle.org/ For Sale Housing in the City: Depending on what your plans are after initial residency in Cleveland, buying within the city might not be a bad way to go because most of the new for-sale housing downtown and in all of the city limits is presently tax-abated for 15 years. The downtown population is growing, and if you surf this site some, you will learn that a lot of really big exciting things are in development for the city in terms of transportation, new housing, retail, attractions, etc. It seems like it is relatively affordable right now, and a very good investment. Perhaps the best way to get an idea about this for-sale housing in the city is to check out Cleveland's Progressive Urban Real Estate. They pretty much list everything within the city limits right now. http://www.progressiveurban.com

Lorain County: Avon Lake Cuyahoga County: Lakewood Beachwood Pepper Pike Hudson Montgomery County: Oakwood Butler County: Oxford

^Yeah probably. That's what I thought, but I'd still like to read the whole article.

Has anyone read the reccent article by Crain's? I don't have a subscription.

When was Three Days of Rain filmed? Its the first I've heard of it, and it looks really cool. I find it frustrating that it isn't playing anywhere in Ohio.

I dislike Spy Bar, but whatever.

Someone out there apparently feels pretty strongly about Cleveland being under-represented with retail: Shopping man fashions a plan to attract stores Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Kim Crow Plain Dealer Style Editor When you think about folks with quirky hobbies, you tend to think along the lines of beekeeping, sky-diving and stamp collecting. Compiling extensive spreadsheets about market saturation and retail/restaurant development among the top 20 metropolitan areas in the United States seems, well, a lot less fun. More at cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com

Sam Fulwood had a great vent yesterday: Saving our city: Why it's so hard Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Sam Fulwood III Plain Dealer Columnist Chautauqua, N.Y. - One of the many Cleve landers I met during my virgin visit here last week told me that this is "Disneyland for adults." That description is spot-on but avoids something vital to the welfare of our city. The Chautauqua Institution is an idyllic, if really distant, suburb of Cleveland. It's a place where a certain class of our region's mature and wealthy residents spend a week or two - or the entire summer - 2½ hours and 140 miles from the decay of the central city. This impression was inescapable during the hour I spent watching "Making Sense of Place: Cleveland, Confronting the Decline of an American City," a documentary film that debuted last week during Chautauqua's weeklong discussion series on movies and culture. Katie Lincoln, chairwoman of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said the Boston-based nonprofit chose to screen the film at Chautauqua because so many of the people visiting here are from Cleveland. She knew her audience, and to prove it, she asked the Clevelanders to raise a hand. Almost half of the people in the standing-room-only crowd responded. The documentary, filmed and produced in Greater Cleveland during 2004 and 2005, details what nearly 100 years of uncontrolled suburbanization have meant to the core city: racial polarization, white and middle-class flight, fewer jobs, crumbling schools, decaying homes and violent crime. During the question-and-answer discussion following the showing, a long line of Clevelanders stood to say they know about the city's woes. One after another, they asked, "What's the solution?" They needed only to look in a mirror.

City is ready for its close-up Plain Dealer Editorial Thursday, August 17, 2006

Big surprise there. The company's property at their Avon site already encompasses acres and acres of virgin forest. The company's land is also adjacent to the future interchange at Lear-Nagle. Not to mention that the Avon site is Henkel's North American adhesives division headquarters, and Avon's industrial tax rate is relatively low. It is kind of ironic though that Henkel is one of the companies touted world-wide for their "green" technology, but is the poster child company in Northeast Ohio for urban sprawl. The company (once known as Manco) was founded in the Flats. As they got larger it moved to a site near the W.117th rapid station in Cleveland. Later they moved to a brand new facility built in Westlake in the late 80s for room to expand and pay lower taxes. Avon came along and decided to lure the company over the county line with tax abatements, and why not? When they had been growing at their Westlake location, most of their employees had moved or relocated from outside the region into suburbs on the western edge of the Cleveland metropolitan area. Avon was just the next exit off of I-90. Nevermind that it meant longer commutes and less opportunity for Cleveland proper residents, and nevermind that one of Cleveland's greatest homegrown corporate successes of the past decade isn't even located in Cuyahoga County. Virtually of the people who built up Cleveland's duct tape fortune are great cheer leaders and philanthropists for Cleveland, but virtually of these people now live in Avon Lake where property taxes and their high incomes contribute to raising property values in Lorain County and the decline of Cuyahoga County's inner core. Less trees, more interchanges, and dispersed wealth and people away from Cleveland, more difficult commutes of blue collar workers residing in the urban core is what Henkel Consumer Adhesives North America represents. I wonder what their environmentally-conscious German bosses would think if they really knew the truth about HCA North America's impact on Cleveland has been?

I certainly don't oppose the arts, and as a smoker I don't oppose funding them through this tax either. However I think this type of policy is dangerous and could do harm in the long run for both the arts community and smokers. As less and less people smoke due to natural trends and increasing prohibition of smoking in so-called public places, do we really want the general public or arts community to get addicted to this tax revenue? The future revenue stream from this tax just isn't very dependable, although it does help that those consumers generating this revenue are addicted to doing so. I suppose that twenty years down the road when there are even fewer smokers - smokers who are seriously addicted - it will be necessary and facile (for the arts) to escalate the tax per pack of cigarettes. Do we want people to fund the arts or smokers to curb their habit? To think we can kill two birds with one stone in this instance is simply unfair.

I'll answer your question why it wasn't built three years ago. 1. Maybe it would have if funding had been approved. It hasn't. A new convention center is controversial no matter where you put it, because politicians and their constituents want to believe that it is worth it. 2. Maybe because despite the fact the city and county would prefer a mall site (which they do), you have contigencies like Forest City making threats and throwing their political weight into the issue. Now I'm not criticizing their right to do so. Forest City is a major downtown land owner and they have the right to make their proposal and for it to be seriously considered, but their influence has cost the city/county lots of time. I think Tower City is a great mixed-use development and can't imagine the city without it, however FC has kind of failed on maintaining it properly since it was installed. It is a shell of what it once was. No matter what we seem to connect to Tower City it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Despite the facts that after Tower City was installed Gateway was connected to it, the nightlife/entertainment district downtown has moved from the Flats closer to Tower City onto W.6th and E.4th, the new Federal Courthouse was built on the river with connections to it, the downtown residential population has doubled, and tourism has been on the rise, WE STILL DON'T SEE A HEALTHY TOWER CITY - at least not like it used to be. What makes anyone think that the convention center goers will be the "silver bullet" for Tower City or that convention goers would even want to do a ton of shopping and dining there. Its simply the most important thing, for everyone's interest, to do the convention center right so we get as much conventions as possible, and make the smartest decision when it comes to land-use policy. The Mall/Lakefront site seems like a better site to me. 1. It automatically assumes the existing facilities will not sit empty. 2. The potential for a tourist/visitors district is a lot more promising for the land between E.9th and W.3rd on the Lakefront. Whereas the riverfront and Scranton Peninsula seems to be a lot more promising in terms of residential and mixed-use as the present land-uses suggest. 3. The designs for the center at the Mall/Lakefront site, seem to be a heck of a lot more attractive. The space is potentially larger, there are sweeping views of the Lake and Rock Hall, there are the manicured lawns and landscaping of the Mall. 4. A new hotel would most likely be built on the western portion of the Mall or on E.9th across from the Rock Hall. There is no space to build a new hotel at Tower City. Why do you need a hotel for this convention center? Because the Renaissance and Ritz aren't really "convention" type of hotels. A Hilton or Lowes maybe (which we don't have), but not a Renaissance or Ritz. 5. The reason why the current convention center at the Mall site has not succeeded is not because of its location! It is because the facilities are very outdated.

Speaking of E.55th and Euclid, Midtown needs an anchor on Euclid Avenue as soon as possible. Maybe a development like Rockport Square, or a new Midtown Market? I know that bridge gets in the way, but if Midtown is ever going to have identity and vibrancy I think that location is pretty cruicial.

That first part is a lot more interesting, but there is a second part to that audio in which Chris Montgomery says some interesting things about a new generation of developers, some nice things about Stark's vision, and anti-sprawl recomendations: http://www.cleveland.com/podcast_files/business/kroll.mp3 And a little blurb on the six projects mentioned as background for the audio on cleveland.com: Development in Cleveland Thursday, July 20, 2006 In this week's Weekend Diary podcast, former Plain Dealer commercial real estate reporter Christopher Montgomery discusses six major projects planned or underway in Cleveland. From The PD archives, here's more information about those plans. Forest City: West Quad Web site Proposed: 2003-2005 (plan evolved over time) Current status: Case says it is still talking to Forest City about the plan. Most existing buildings have been demolished. Bob Stark: Warehouse District Proposed: 2005 Current status: Stark has options on property and has been talking to retailers. Scott Wolstein: Flats East Bank County's site update Proposed: 2005 Current status: The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has purchased some land on Wolstein's behalf and begun eminent-domain lawsuits against other owners. Wolstein already owns a large chunk of the property. Mitchell Schneider: Steelyard Commons Web site Proposed: 2004 Current status: Construction underway; opening planned for spring of 2007. Rick and Ari Maron: East Fourth Street Web site Proposed: 1990s Current status: House of Blues and Pickwick & Frolic already open; more under discussion. Nathan Zaremba: Avenue District Web site Proposed: 2003 Current status: Apartments being reserved; construction planned for later this year.

I would not say downtown is spread out at all. I think it might seem that way at first, because of all the surface parking lots, but the reality is that downtown is extremely walkable and distances are very short. These are my approximations of travel on foot to attractions from Tower City - just to give you an idea. Now I haven't timed it exactly, but after having worked downtown and walked to all these places from Tower City these are my impressions: E.4th St. - 3 minutes W.6th St. - 5 minutes Q Arena + Jacobs Field - 6 minutes Convention Center - 7 minutes Rock Hall - 9 minutes Playhouse Square - 10 minutes Now all the hotels are very close to everything as well. I can't give you the total number of hotel rooms downtown, but they are all located between Public Square and Playhouse Square. In reality, downtown Cleveland is one of the most walkable downtowns and attractions are highly concentrated. All the downtown "attractions" in New York, DC, LA, and Boston are more spread out in my experience. Now if you take into consideration the whole city of Cleveland and its "nodes" of new development or additional attractions that include places like downtown, Ohio City, Tremont, University Circle, Little Italy, Coventry, etc. then I would say you need to take a car, cab, or rta. Whatever means you choose to get there it shouldn't be that cumbersome or take that long. And once you get to these places from wherever you are coming from, all these neighborhoods are highly concentrated and walkable. The whole issue with "downtown" in my opinion is that people don't walk around that much. Why that is? I can't really say. It could be from lack of awareness of downtown attractions, a perception that walking distance is too far, a perception that it is unsafe to walk around, or simply laziness. I do think that whatever the perception is, the surface parking lots don't help. Namely the parking lots between the Warehouse District and and Public Square. I think once development takes place on these lots we will see a lot more pedestrian activity funnelled throughout the city. No one wants to walk through or past a sea of parking lots to get somewhere, but people might be more apt to walk around if they were walking past occupied street level retail space with shops, dining, and entertainment. Anyway, the location of the new convention center really isn't an issue in terms of visitors being able to walk places. I'm not saying that location isn't important. The location is important to create a favorable impression from the visitors standpoint, and spur some new economic development in its immediate area.

Can anyone tell me what is going on with the gutted street level space at E.4th and Prospect. I'm talking about the space across from Flannery's. It isn't just that they have no windows, they have no walls there! What's the deal?

No I think that misconception comes from the people who grew up in the city and left for the suburbs or no, maybe you're right. Anyway the new people certainly don't think so.

Well the idea behind advocating the Mall site is that the Group Plan would be fulfilled and pick up where it left off 85 years ago and "complete" it to the envisioned space that it can still become. With the mall site convention center you have the opportunity to include public access to the lakefront through a promenade or walkway of some kind stretching over the railroad tracks (as was envisioned), and you still have the opportunity to create a new rail station there directly across from the Rock Hall (as is envisioned for the Lakefront plan). In my opinion advocating the mall site has a lot of advantages. It preserves and improves the Civic Center integrity, benefits from the lakefront views (which are a lot more attractive than the river views from the TC site), and has better transportation access. Why the transportation access better at the Mall site? I believe the Mall can accomodate a lot more automobile traffic - both its roadways and parking facilities, it includes a rapid station, and it would be extremely close and connected to the proposed ferry terminal and inner-city rail station. If we don't keep the convention center at the Mall and make these improvements there, we will loose the Mall. In the future it would become the worst tragedy in the city's history since the destruction of Millionaires Row. The Mall Site: Or the river Site at Tower City:

Many rivers, including the Hudson, caught on fire many times

The Convention Facilities Authority is virtually disolved, and the medical mart debate is not the reason the decision is stalled. The real reason is that no one in the city/county wants to work on this issue right now. For the politicians it is seen as too controversial.

I honestly don't mean to offend anyone, but I'm curious about what culture exists in Columbus.

^ Yeah, it'd be really nice to build off the vibrancy of Market Avenue with some new space and make it more intimate. It'd also be nice to be able to sit outside on the patio at GLBC and not have the eyesore of those gothic spires in view.

Speaking of parking garages, You know that parking lot (owned by the city I think) at W.26th and Market Avenue? Has their ever been any talk about putting a parking garage there instead. Not that they really a garage, because parking is pretty ample in the neighborhood, but that would be such a great spot for something like a 515 Euclid building.

^ Isn't target set for Steelyard Commons? or is that irrelevent. I don't know. I would characterize Constantino's as a real grocery store. Dean & Deluca would be a very "destinational" shop. It is very popular to buy food items as gifts from Dean & Deluca. In addition, it would provide a really nice cafe concept for the neighborhood that is missing. You don't get much more New York than a Dean & Deluca. They are all over the city, and their main flagship store is located in Soho.