ELaunder

I am happy to see something proposed once more as this really sounds like the closest a development for this site has come to shovels in the ground in quite a while. However, that 2017 Carnegie proposal... "he lives now, only in my memory."

Is that so? All jokes aside, the A’s played a decent ballgame and had a few good moments — but it’s great to see Cleveland pull out a series sweep to help cement their standing in the ALC.

Since apparently the Dave's Hot Chicken spot fell through Chipotle could very well land in 2104. It's a highly visible corner with nearby parking, and I'm sure corporate would be optimistic about all of the new and upcoming development directly across the street.

My wife dragged me down there on Sunday to buy a table that she "needed" and the whole place was gutted. From what I understand they had some major water damage recently that they are looking to repair, and then reopen. I hope everything works out in the process, it was/is a great store.

Directly across from the Community Garden on 74th. They tore down the street-facing garages that were on the site a little while back for infill housing. This is that project.

I think this project is a case of expectations. It has gone on for so long, with so many different iterations, that many people have forgotten what the various plans have actually included. The city, county, and neighborhood leaders certainly want to see this corner developed in tandem with the park — there has obviously been so much advocacy for it from local leaders. Having said that, I *don’t hate* this plan. I wish it had a little more height and that the architecture had a little more character, but overall, the site plan is very good and it has a lot of bulk to actually fill that whole property. They’re not calling for a surface lot, everything is built up! I would hope that the review board calls for a fix of the mansard-style roof, ensures community access, and quality material selection; but I would not be upset to see this project added to the neighborhood.

Hey @KJPjust a heads up, the final two year budget does not have the $62,000,000 award for Cleveland’s land bridge. It was proposed in the House, but struck in the Senate version of the bill. Maybe you mentioned that in the article and I missed it? As always, thank you for the write up on the other projects.

I absolutely agree that we need to focus our government on becoming a more regional entity -- however, I can speak to the "battle of the libraries" aspect. The Cuyahoga County Public Library was initially a department of Cleveland Public Library, CPL wanted to expand access to more rural county residents, and an office was established in the basement of the main library downtown with a small team to get this service off the ground. When the CLEVNET system was established in the 70s (The Northeastern Ohio regional library catalog sharing cooperative), each branch outside of the city limits had established themselves with a specialty (architecture, history, religion, medicine, etc...). Those branches, and the unique director of that department, were not interested in having to loan their books outside of the county because they had a more limited budget for replacement materials and programming at that time, and after employee votes and political discourse, what we now know as the Cuyahoga County Public Library was formed, with its own board of directors and wholly separate functions from CPL and CLEVNET. Having said that, CLEVNET and CCPL have been in talks many times to form one entity, the closest they ever got was in the early 2000s, which fell through after many months of negotiations, but did result in the joint "Greater Access" library card between the systems. There was a brief period in 2011/12 where officials were meeting, but that didn't last long. Now, since CPL is a government depository and CCPL is with the inter-state collegiate resource consortium, they are each receiving funds from government entities that they may lose (and thus losing resources for their respective communities) if they combined. It's a tricky subject. So to answer your question, yes, it would be pretty hard and costly for our communities if these libraries merged at this time. Having said ALL of that, you can walk into any library between Conneaut and Port Clinton and if you ask about Lakewood Public Library, you'll get the same answer: "No one ever goes in, and no one ever comes out." Lakewood is their own little bubble in the the Ohio library world, and no one knows what their deal is besides wanting to be left alone.

The Samson Pavilion for the Clinic/CWRU. That's where the presidential debate was in 2020.

All of my children went to William Cullen Bryant which, after touring four different public/charter elementary schools in the neighborhood, I determined was on-par with the school I attended in Lakewood. I have one child still there, and my older two are at a charter on the west side, and the other at John Hay. My wife and I have loved the experience with John Hay, it’s certainly the best public high school in Cleveland. When we bought our house, we were heavily leaning toward Lakewood because of the schools, and it was still affordable at that time. After meeting with school administrators in Old Brooklyn, we felt more comfortable with the school system and it entirely eliminated the stigma we associated with the public schools here. I know that’s what is holding a lot of people back, and the high schools in the city definitely need more work to ensure student success and safety. However, I’ve personally witnessed test scores and extracurricular activities receive renewed focus in recent years. Cleveland’s biggest problem with attracting population/young families is the schools, but my experience is that when you work with the teachers, and stay engaged with administrators and events, there is very little separating students on an academic and opportunity basis from kids in Rocky River or Solon.

To keep life on track, I came here to report that there is a remarkably low number of for-sale, single family housing in Old Brooklyn right now. I was catching up with the realtor I purchased my house from, and he said that well-maintained and renovated homes in the neighborhood are selling faster than they have for the last twenty years. I've tried to keep an eye on owner-occupant vs. investor purchases, and it does appear that the majority of the housing stock is selling to occupant purchasers. It's really a good sign, and I'm glad younger families are moving back in again -- the amenities and access in the city proper are hard to beat. Three doors down from us I noticed that a couple and their son had moved in, and of course being nosy, I introduced myself when the husband was walking their dog. The guy said they had moved from Seattle because he had been offered a position with a local law firm, and given the option between Cleveland and Chicago field offices, they picked Cleveland for the cost of living. He added that his wife's parents are looking at Rocky River and West Park, also moving from Washington state, so that the family can be together. That story is certainly a trend I'd like to see continue!

My wife and I were raised in Cleveland, Lorain, Brunswick, North Ridgeville, Westlake, and Lakewood between the two of us throughout our childhoods, and while those places each have their charm, we made the decision to purchase a home in Cleveland. You can't say we haven't seen what the western suburbs have to offer, we've sampled them all, lol. I am now the fifth generation in my family to be a City of Cleveland homeowner, my father grew up in Jefferson, my grandfather in St. Clair, and the two generations before both near Mt. Pleasant. We bought our home in Old Brooklyn off of Broadview, a good sized house with decent acreage for the city proper. We have three children, who all attended Cleveland Public elementary schools, and various high schools in the city (Hay and 1 at a charter for accelerated pupils). Each of them have excelled, and my oldest is one of the highest scoring students in the state in the sciences -- the resources and staff in the Cleveland Public schools, along with guidance at home, have ensured their success. I work for the government, and my wife works for some little, insignificant, Cleveland headquartered corporation (this company is currently erecting some undocumented 600 foot building downtown, I'm sure no one here has heard of it.) There are five degrees, and four languages between the two of us. I only say this because you make it seem like we are the kind of people that would be scratching and clawing to get into a suburb far from the blight and terror of the inner-city. There is a problem with crime in Cleveland, and these problems need to be addressed, but the funny thing is that Lakewood and Cleveland Heights also have crime (Maybe we should criminalize crime?! Food for thought, guys). There are neighborhoods on the West Side and a great deal of East Side that need meaningful investment to encourage and ensure prosperous, safe, and growing communities; we all know this doesn't happen over night, but we're on a good trajectory right now. Having said this, my wife goes running at night and we're proud to pay taxes here. But please, I'm begging, tell us more about how you saw a guy ask for bus money outside of Townhall one time or that you read a story from Fox 8 about a shooting (where they skillfully omit that the culprit was sent to prison).

Wait 'til this guy gets a load of the f***ing cannon that's on Public Square. (But to keep this on topic, I did see crews working pretty late tonight as I left a meeting at my office, around 9:00, hopefully there's some new steel soon.)

@KJPThanks for the insight on this project, Chester is really turning into a residential corridor! Just a heads up, the "Madonna Hall" was razed in '07, not '08, I worked in University at that time. This might also be verifiable by a Google Maps search.

Oh no! Toronto isn't endlessly suburbanizing and encroaching ever further into it's rural landscape to accommodate wasteful, fiscally irresponsible, publicly subsidized single-family housing and industrial parks! What a travesty. It's great that some people want to live in the country and exurban enclaves, that's good for them. But as many people can live in a city center is better for the economy, stretches infrastructure dollars further, and protects undeveloped land for actual farming, wildlife, heritage, and parkland uses -- to which Metro Toronto has amazing, sprawling parks! When banks and corporations can build their headquarters in these dense city centers, it promotes increased land value and minimizes the amount of land wasted on suburban business parks. Not everyone likes buses and trains, and there's not a problem with that! However, the "Manhattanization" word gets thrown around a lot in urban development conversations, and it just leads me to believe that all the people on this site that yearn for "what Cleveland used to be," or Milwaukee, or Detroit, or Toronto, wouldn't have really liked that place at all. When, in Cleveland, ~1.1 million people were within city limits during business hours in the 1950s. Poor "Manhattanized" Cleveland, thank God we got all those people out and it's better now. lol I'm glad Toronto was able to continue to grow, and really heal some of it's scars from 60s and 70s era planning policy. They seem to be on a good trajectory.