Vulpster03

I just don't think the Riverfront site holds a huge "Rapid" advantage over the Mall site. The Mall site is clearly linked to the Rapid system. (Go back and look at the site plans) The Convention Center at the Mall Site would incorporate the Northcoast Harbor Station as its own. (Not to mention the Amtrak station which would be phenomenal if the Ohio Hub is a success in the near future). The Mall Site close enough Public Square enjoying both the Rapid links at Tower City and the Silver Line. This would be especially true if the West Block is developed as the Medical Mart and Hotel, because the complex is given an Ontario Ave. entrance next to Key Tower. To think that convention/event organizers couldn't communicate directions to attendees how to make a Rapid transfer or cross a street is pretty ridiculous.

Frankly, I think today's news about Forest City's offer to knock out some of its theater space to provide a direct link between the Riverfront Convention Center and the Higbee Bldg Medical Mart must be some kind of response to a complaint from MMPI. Maybe this reveals MMPI always had issues with the Tower City site and would prefer the Mall site.

Welcome to the forum jsz65. I have two comments on your remarks about convention goers not having time to sightsee, shop, dine, etc. A) This would imply that successful conventions cities are actually based on their location and the quality of convention facilities, airport and transportation, which would make Cleveland a great city for conventions if we had new space. B) There still has to be some element of entertainment and tourism appeal for a certain segment of the convention and trade show industry, because why else would Orlando and Las Vegas be such hotspots for events? RE: CONVENTION CENTER & RAPID CONNECTION; Proponents of the Tower City site talk about the advantage of a Rapid connection like the Mall site wouldn't offer a connection. That is false. 1. The Mall site is directly across Public Square from Tower City. Convention-goers can still easily use the Tower City station to access the Convention Center on the Mall from the south side. 2. The Mall site would incorporate the E.9th Rapid station as its own. Convention Goers would have a direct link to the center's main entrance on the North Side.

I can understand both camps, but I fall into the first camp. Aim to build a stronger downtown by utilizing the existing center on the Mall site. If downtown is strong, we will see a better and more vibrant Tower City Center. I consider Tower City a great asset, a regional hub of transportation and a signature gateway to downtown. However, I do not consider Tower City a "civic" space. Tower City Center with its RTA hub is a gateway between downtown and Greater Cleveland commuters. It should reach out to the community to which it is linked by transit lines. Forest City Enterprises should focus on running Tower City Center as the city's signature commercial and retail complex, and perhaps consider becoming a key player in transit-oriented residential development for Cuyahoga Cuyahoga County along those transit lines, which the county has already provided. The Mall site has greater long term appeal and possiblity for downtown for several reasons. It is the only place to do it right. 1. This gurantees the county will not be left with an obsolete monolith in the middle of downtown. Preserves and bolsters one of the leading "civic" spaces in the country. 2. Plenty of room for adequate space or potential expansion. 3. The abundance of intermodal transportation linkage (car, rapid, inter-city rail, ferry, air) available at E.9th Pier 4. Allows for greatest reach by downtown pedestrians by placing the Convention Center in the middle of Public Square, Northcoast Harbor, Warehouse District and Erieview District. 5. Restores faith in Cuyahoga citizens by showing leadership is capable of following through on the Group Plan and Lakefront Plan. Many cities have a regional transportation hub and a seperate inter-city transportation hub. I suppose that is what I am pushing for with Tower City (Public Square) and Northcoast Harbor (the Mall). Needless to say, I'll be disappointed if it goes to Tower City.

^ Well thank you, but I think we still disagree. I am strongly in favor of the Mall site

I think when it comes to Tower City, downtown and Convention Center there are two different thought processes 1. Aim to build a stronger downtown by using the existing/lakefront site, and we will see a better Tower City. 2. Aim to build a stronger Tower City by using the riverfront site, and we will see a better downtown.

I have been a Lakewood resident for 7 months, and I would agree that Lakewood as a whole does not have an impressive "aesthetic" quality to it. But there are some charming structures and city blocks not included in the photo set, and you couldn't pick a worse time to take photos of Lakewood. For instance, one of Lakewood's best qualities are the tall mature trees that line the streets and none have leaves right now. Plus, everything looks dirtier after the snow (hence the brown sludge lining the streets). What Lakewood may lack in aesthetics is made up for in its location (on the lake and near downtown), popuation (diverse in age and income), local establishments, density and urban design. It find it very livable with affordable housing, safety, neighborhood amenities and walkablity.

There was some kind of editorial in Crain's about regionalism. Could someone post it?

^ There is an Indian restaurant on Detroit in Lakewood (albeit western lakewood, but it might easier than going to Parma)

I agree, but that gap is percisely the area that would be most transformed by the Shoreway's downgrade to boulevard, so I think transformation would happen there relatively quickly.

Corky's Place (Lakewood) Pita Express (Lakewood) Hi-Fi (Lakewood) Gypsy Bean (Detroit-Shoreway) Hooples (Flats) Edison's Pub (Tremont)

I use Society Dry Cleaners in Lakewood on Detroit beteween Nicholson and Waterbury. It is $1.75 for shirts and 2.75 or something like that for pants.

Five Guys is perfect for that area in Lakewood. You order and pick up the burgers at the counter like you do with subs at Jimmy Johns or burritos at Chipotle. It is quick, but pretty fresh and very good.

I just think it is funny to think that Wolstein was talking about the project and described it as something similiar to Shaker Square or Little Italy. I don't recall any Fortune 500 companies in either of those neighborhoods.

I am considering home ownership, and I've started to look at properties in Detroit-Shoreway!

I have been posting responses to questions at answers.yahoo.com in the Cleveland travel forum for a long time. I have seen a drastic increase in positivty in those posting answers as well as questions. you should check it out. I really think this is indicative of changing perceptions on a macro level. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylt=Aq7GRXLZMhufGzQhhCmbrdHsy6IX;_ylv=3?sid=396545572 Someone even asked recently if Cleveland was "urban or rural"

everyone loves cleveland

So, I was downtown yesterday for a seminar and met a girlfriend for lunch. We ate at Corner Alley, which got pretty crowded for lunch. The service was great, and I had no complaints about the food but it was nothing to rave about.

Some of those old Cedar Center businesses would like nice in Shaker Square.

I really don't mind Steelyard Commons and think it has a fair niche in the city, but I'd be disappointed if Trader Joe's went in to Steelyard. I'd rather see a TJ on the eastern end of downtown near CSU. Now something like this in Steelyard would be really cool, http://www.junglejims.com/

very nice website. I thought there would be some sort of residential component to the complex, but there was no mention about residential on the website. Has that been scrapped, or is that just a long way off?

Cleveland?!? Former Mistake by the Lake is getting national attention as a hot new dining city. So we sent our intrepid reporter, who had never been there, even to see the Polka Hall of Fame. By Monica Eng Chicago Tribune reporter January 16, 2008 CLEVELAND Michael Ruhlman can come off as such a snob. In his latest book, the world-famous food writer insists that everybody should be using veal stock in their home kitchen. He advises all meat eaters to slaughter and eat their kill once in their lives. And earlier this year, on his influential Web site ruhlman.com, he launched a withering attack on the unsuspecting chicken Caesar salad. So you might think that this dashing uber-foodie would make his home in a culinary capital such as New York, San Francisco or even Chicago, right? Nope. Cleveland. "What I love about Cleveland is that it is so eccentric," Ruhlman says between sips of a negroni cocktail in his favorite hometown bar. "There's no other place like it. People are so quirky." One of those quirky people is Ruhlman's friend and the nation's newly minted "Iron Chef," Michael Symon. In a surprising upset a couple of months ago, the born and bred Clevelander Symon beat out New Orleans chef John Besh to claim the national "Iron Chef" title. His two restaurants in town -- Lola and Lolita -- are busier than ever. But he's not the only culinary bright spot in the city. The national food press -- Gourmet, Food & Wine, Esquire and Playboy.com -- heaped praise on several Cleveland spots this year for best new restaurant, best steakhouse, best farm-to-table programs and great new neighborhood eateries. During the last 10 years, Ruhlman says, he has seen food offerings blossom from retail to restaurants. "Today I can pick up a few baguettes from Adam Gidlow [On the Rise Bakery] that are every bit as satisfying as the best Parisian baguettes," he says. "I can swing by Paul Minnillo's Baricelli Inn for some raw milk cheeses and then stop by Bob Fishman's Grapevine, where Bob picks out some incredible American wines for my under $20 budget. All five minutes from my house. ... We couldn't eat better even if we were in the Dordogne, [France.] This shows the extraordinary product available even to us schmoes in Cleveland. "And yes, more and more restaurants can do ambitious food because people here now demand it. ... What this means is that someone like Dante Boccuzzi -- for five years chef de cuisine at Aureole in Manhattan -- is happy to move his family back here because he can open a restaurant and serve the kind of food he did in New York." Whoa. Is there something going on in that city that I should know about? Had Cleveland quietly become the epicenter of the Midwest food scene. I'd never been there. Never even considered going except to visit the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame -- seriously, I used to cover polka. But suddenly it dawned on me that I might be missing out on some fabulous Cleveland-style chow. So I called Ruhlman and asked if he'd take me on a eating tour of his hometown. The author had been traversing the country on a book tour for his latest work, "The Elements of Cooking," but I caught him back home on the heels of a holiday weekend. We started the tour Friday with old-fashioned cocktails in a luxurious speakeasy-like bar. And in the next 48 hours we would eat, drink, visit and shop at Ruhlman's favorite restaurants, bars and markets. In the process, I would learn that Cleveland is not the culinary backwater that arrogant Chicagoans may assume, but an affordable town full of joints we'd be lucky to have. By the time I hit Cleveland for the grand culinary tour, Ruhlman had the routine down. Earlier in the year, his chef/writer pal Anthony Bourdain had filmed a whole episode of his Travel Channel show "No Reservations" in Cleveland. Ruhlman acted as his main guide, along with Cleveland icon Harvey Pekar and chef Symon. In the meantime, Symon had become an even hotter commodity. So hot that Ruhlman could barely snag a table at his flagship restaurant, Lola, for Saturday night. Still, he got squeezed in -- at 5 p.m.! -- because, it's true, the two famous Cleveland foodies are friends. There, I said it. Preferential treatment? This was no small matter last November when, after Symon's victory on the show for which the author served as a judge, critics wrote into Ruhlman's Web site insisting that he should have recused himself from judging. Ruhlman, who has written a whole book on cured meats, calls the criticism baloney. "If anything, I was harder on Michael Symon," he says. "Because of my connection [Ruhlman profiled Symon as part of his book "The Soul of a Chef"], I was more likely to withhold good comments just because I didn't want to seem biased." Next we poke our heads into the Great Lakes Brewing Co., in the Ohio City neighborhood, where Ruhlman brags about the Dortmunder Gold lager. It's crowded, so we head across the street to The Flying Fig for breathtakingly tender short ribs and crispy tempura green beans. Here he explains how he returned to Cleveland with his wife, Donna, after spending the much of the '80s at college and working on the East Coast. It was the lure, for the freelance writer, of a steady job as an editor at a regional magazine. The move back was supposed to be temporary. But the draw was strong. The couple purchased a three-story, 100-year-old Victorian fixer-upper. And as with many such houses, remodeling it became a full-time job. In 2005 Ruhlman wrote "House: A Memoir" about the remodeling largely "to explain why I live in Cleveland to my wife. We're a vagabond culture, and we give up a lot to raise families in a series of disconnected homes. This is my home, and there is a richness here that's not available to me anywhere else." To illustrate, Ruhlman takes me to the spot in his old 'hood where, as a 2nd grader, he received his first kiss. Whenever he passes it, he's "transported back to that day. ... I can't do that just anywhere." Iowa prosciutto Taking a left turn off memory lane, we head to the groovy Tremont neighborhood for a late meal at Lolita. It's Symon's more casual spot, where we eat delicious mountains of Iowa prosciutto and Neapolitan-style pizzas washed down with cold local beer. The next icy morning we meet at 8 a.m. to tour Cleveland's enormous indoor West Side Market. One side features greengrocers displaying colorful pyramids of fruit and vegetables; the other side of this European-style emporium is lined with rows of butchers and gourmet food purveyors. Next stop: the chilly outdoor Shaker Heights Farmers Market, where we pick up fresh eggs, oyster mushrooms and a stalk of Brussels sprouts. Back in the handsome kitchen of his elegant Victorian house, Ruhlman effortlessly whips up mushroom omelets, home-cured bacon and reheated crusty baguette from his favorite local bakery. Ella Fitzgerald coos on his iPod stereo and a fire crackles in his kitchen hearth as he presents two beautiful breakfast plates. Washed down with strong cups of percolator coffee, this breakfast could be my best this year. We skip lunch, because only a few hours later we are expected at Symon's Lola for a super-early dinner. There the chef would pile on the treats with marvelous plates of beef cheek pierogi, maple-bacon ice cream, fried bone marrow, pork belly over polenta, seared sweetbreads and more. Ruhlman would blush at the lavish spread while barely containing his pride in hometown fare that could rival just about anything in Chicago. Although he has not ruled out moving when his kids, ages 8 and 12, head to college, Ruhlman is happy to continue writing and eating from his hometown. "Our move back here was supposed to be temporary, but I didn't realize how much of a draw this place has for me," he says. "I just like living in Cleveland. I know who I am here." - - - A taste of Cleveland A handful of places food writer and chef Michael Ruhlman might take you if you were his guest on a Cleveland culinary tour. The Velvet Tango Room: 2095 Columbus Rd., 216-241-8869. Dim lighting, tin ceilings, luxurious surroundings, cabaret tunes and top-notch, hand-shaken drinks make this a must for any visitor looking for a classic cocktail. The Flying Fig: 2523 Market Ave., 216-241-4243, theflyingfig.com. Chef/owner Karen Smalls cooks up inventive small plates with an emphasis on regional ingredients and international touches in the Ohio City neighborhood. Think Blackbird meets Avec in a place with the most delicious braised and grilled short ribs in the world. Sokolowski's University Inn: 1201 University Rd., 216-771-9236, sokolowskis.com. Established in 1923, this Polish cafeteria-style restaurant serves belly-busting portions of pies, cakes, pierogi, stuffed peppers, cutlets, stuffed cabbage, soups, sausages and hearty sides. I'm especially proud of the kitchen towel I bought there that says "I? Pierogi." Lolita: 900 Literary Rd., 216-771-5652, lolabistro.com. Small plates, Neopolitan-style pizzas and house-cured meats dominate the nouvelle Mediterranean menu at Michael Symon's casual Tremont eatery. Try the charcuterie board -- with mountains of salami, Iowa prosciutto and soppressata -- and you may not need anything else. Lola: 2058 E. 4th St., 216-621-5652, lolabistro.com. Iron Chef champ Michael Symon's flagship restaurant featuring upscale American regional cuisine with Symon's hip modern touches. Try beef cheek pierogi, deep-fried bone marrow, seared sweetbreads and even pig ears, if they are available. West Side Market: 1979 W. 25th St., 216-664-3386 or 216-664-3387, westsidemarket.com. This huge indoor market features green grocers on one side and meat and seafood vendors on the other. Gourmet and specialty foods also are available at this European-style emporium. Ruhlman's kitchen: Address undisclosed. At home, the Culinary Institute-trained writer makes home-cured bacon, a perfect mushroom omelet from fresh farmers market fungi, a beautifully reheated frozen baguette from his favorite bakery, and hot cups of Folgers coffee (yes, Folgers) made in an old-fashioned percolator he bought on eBay. "Regular coffee makers burn coffee while it's sitting," he says. "Percolators don't, and I love the sound they make. Folgers is fine since I drink about six cups every morning." -- Monica Eng

Maybe a Pet's Mart would be nice for Moda/City Buddah

I think a BRT line traveling down Detroit and transfering over to Clifton via Lake Ave. (after w.73), would be a good route.

How about a nice strip club for the old moda space?