coneflower

The primary issue with the pedestrian-only street from my memory as a kid was there wasn't really a way to see what was there. It's a pretty long strip and without being able to easily drive by it was out of sight, out of mind.

Downtown resuscitated: 5 years after Front Street revamp, heart of Cuyahoga Falls thrives https://news.yahoo.com/downtown-resuscitated-5-years-front-100110849.html This is an interesting counterpoint to the argument some make about making streets pedestrian only. I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls and they made the downtown area a pedestrian only mall decades ago and I always remember the area being a dead zone. It is surprising to see how much the area has been energized by opening the road to cars again. I’m not against pedestrian only roads. It works great on E4. Maybe the lesson is don’t totally shut down your main streets?

Right. The work environment has changed so much since I started working, and I'm far off retirement. I don't believe the idea of workers having leverage is a natural concept in Northeast Ohio compared to other regions where people job hop more frequently. I think the belief that workers here have no real agency and are lucky to have jobs has contributed to a stagnant economy because many people when presented with that scenario decide to move. A little more churn and competition is good for us, and I say that as someone who hates change. I also think something that is not intuitive for some business leaders is that new benefits and office amenties aren't just cushy perks. The brilliant thing the tech companies did years ago was make everyone think they were so generous about catered lunches and lush offices, but they were trying to create an environment where people worked more. I think younger people are more sensitive to that, but the question now isn't "more hours" anymore anyway since that is easy to achieve at home, but being more productive, especially when working in person. And that comes back to the investments building owners and employers make. Just expecting people to come answer emails in a soulless cube farm isn't going to cut it and honestly for the employer, that's not bringing them any value either.

Based on job listings I see, it seems like companies are mostly going with a “hybrid” schedule with around 3 days in the office. Having work from home days was a trend that was growing before covid, so that to me indicates that trend is here to stay. Workers love it and companies can save money. Not many benefits employers offer that actually reduce their costs. The one thing I don’t understand are local employers that want their workers to come into the office 3+ days a week but locate in suburbs that are far out from the center of the region. We’re in a global economy but if you put your office in Westlake or Mayfield, you’re essentially eliminating a chunk of your already small prospective labor pool because people don’t want to commute that far, especially now that they’ve had a chance to WFH. It seems to me it’d be better for our economy, companies and employees to centralize the office experience downtown or near downtown to create a network effect of everyone being close so ideas can be shared, new connections made, etc. On the flip side, a huge element of getting people to come to offices is investing in them to make the experience positive and attractive. Some may make the calculation that it’s just easier and cheaper to let people work at home.

Where does the money come from to pay for this? According to KJP's article, the additional development in the Haslam plan was to help pay for some of the work to build this area out. But if they don't have that component and this is mostly public access/park space..and if the Haslams/Browns aren't into that... does that put the whole thing into limbo?

This concept makes me think the stadium needs to go elsewhere and it should be replaced by more housing and retail then surrounded by a park like rendered.

I know people are down on stadiums for very valid reasons, but if you look at a place like DC, having the Nationals and now DC United stadium near their waterfront I think can at least partly be given credit for helping catalyze a ton of development in the vicinity over the last 15 years. I lived there over that time and the change is honestly mind-blowing. Again, a different market with more people and more money... but I don't think it would be wise to say "Go ahead, Browns, go to Lorain County!" That is a valuable resource that would be squandered in a suburban/rural location.

The Browns leaving Cleveland for a neighboring suburb or county makes no sense to me and seems like a weak negotiating tactic. The Washington Commanders are in the DC burbs of Maryland and it sounds like they may go to the Virginia exurbs. But those areas have much larger populations and wealth. If the issue is the Browns want more local public funding, how could they ever get that from a neighboring county or suburb with much smaller populations. Edit: On the flip side, I could see Cuyahoga County giving them money if they were to say they want another Cuyahoga site..."otherwise, maybe we will look at other states..." That to me is the Browns strongest bargaining chip.

Here is an example of regionalism "stalling." Do we think outreach to Cuyahoga County council people makes a difference? https://www.wvxu.org/2023-07-18/north-coast-community-development-corporation-plan-stalls-in-cuyahoga-county-council

DC Union Market isn’t on the list either, which is stellar. It’s a bit of a food hall/market mashup at this point but that is where West Side Market wants to go, too. I don’t think it’s too late for WSM to reach it’s full potential.

I guess I’m confused because it sounds like they are budgeted to hire many more officers but they can’t fill the positions. So, don’t they have a bunch of money budgeted for police officers that is not being spent? It might be that they are budgeted only to spend a certain amount per officer, but I was thinking that they raise the entry-level wages to attract more candidates and lower the total number of officers if they can’t hire the same number at higher salaries.

I’m sure this is a dumb question, but is there a specific reason why the city of Cleveland doesn’t raise their base pay for police officers above what the suburbs are paying? Maybe I’m missing something but it seems obvious that if you can get a better paying job that is less stress nearby, you’re going to go elsewhere?

The one thing Cleveland has going for it is a lot of suburban communities are so anti-change, they won't be able to compete, especially if Cleveland is able to offer a compelling alternative. Young families and retirees want to live in walkable, dynamic neighborhoods. Who is gonna give it to them?

I agree with you it comes back to the number of volunteers willing to put together events. They are hard work. I don’t know about the remote work aspect. I work remotely and like to volunteer but find the problem often is the other volunteers are retired and they want to do schedule meetings during the day when I’m working. I have a little flexibility since I don’t commute to an office but I can’t regularly skip out during the workday. And the older volunteers aren’t interested in meeting after hours.

There should be more pressure on our local universities, especially the state schools, to work together more closely and to be measured on meeting economic development goals. I know there are some partnerships happening, but more needs to be done to leverage all that infrastructure. If you add up Cleveland State, Akron, Kent, Tri-C, Lakeland and Stark State, that's almost 140,000 students enrolled (according to Google).

I would be curious to see a credible study on whether there would actually be major tax savings here in Northeast Ohio. The big budget items are things like schools, police and infrastructure. If we were to regionalize all these services at the county level, for example, would we really have less expenses? It seems more likely the same amount of resources would be redeployed more equitably throughout the region. That would be a worthy outcome but not really a cost savings.

Despite the tenor of this thread, our region is looking at ways to merge services. Once can argue it's not happening fast enough, but across the region jurisdictions share schools, 911 call centers, ambulance, libraries... The way you can advocate for more of this is let your council people know you support it. A lot of times when this stuff comes up as a way to collaborate and save money across borders, certain residents freak out. Nobody wants to give up control to "outsiders," and that's true if you live in Cleveland and if you live in Rocky River. There was coverage recently out of Solon where some folks are unhappy with ambulance response times (which are part of a regional suburban service that serves multiple towns), and they are making their voices heard. All this discussion of merging/not merging has to deal with the reality of our political system. In Ohio today, merging cities into each other is the local government equivalent of ammending the US Constitution. Possible, sure, but you're likely not going to be happy if that is your #1 political solution to whatever problem you're trying to solve.

Not to push any buttons, but I think we owe it to ourselves to focus on solutions that are actually attainable. And from what I've read (especially that presentation I posted yesterday), merging municipalities is virtually impossible.

This is a recent presentation on regionalism locally that I learned a lot from watching: https://case.edu/law/our-school/events-lectures/regionalism-death-or-salvation-cleveland Based on the presentation, consolidating jurisdictions locally is almost impossible. The speaker raises the idea of merging services and other collaborations. That seems like the most realistic way we can achieve more regional approaches. But doing anything like that with big ticket expenses like police would require a powerful champion to overcome all the obstacles, and I don't see any obvious candidates that could be effective in that role. Very tough to navigate that politically.

I don't know about what's happening here in Cleveland but I interviewed for a non-architecture/design job at Gensler maybe 10 years ago and what I saw doing my research was really cool. I'm sure architects have more sophisticated views on them than me, but what I saw in their office and the projects they worked on listed on the website was impressive.

I don't know anything about firefighting, and I'm sure having the fire department running something like this is as safe as it gets.... But putting a burn tower across the street from a Summit Metropark forest that merges into CVNP seems weird. Will Smokey the Bear at least be on duty? Maybe the risk is so minimal it doesn't matter.

I personally think Hicks and Weinstein make compelling arguments. When I moved back to NEO from a big coastal city a few years ago, my spouse and I created a spreadsheet where we ranked 11 potential destinations all over the US based on variables like job prospects, outdoor activities, culture, and proximity to family. If our families weren't here, I don't think Cleveland would have been on the list. I love this region and am happy, so don't get me wrong, but we also had on our list places like Boise, Ashville and Portland, Maine. If you think of people who don't have any connection to this region, Cleveland isn't likely in contention when they make similar decisions. You could say our region has a marketing problem, but I don't think that's so much the issue. The "problem" is this region needs to invest more in things that are important to people who live here. Services, schools, housing and amenities (improved lake access, clean the water). I moved away in 2008 and came back more than 10 years later and the positive changes are honestly amazing. We just need to double-down and accelerate investment in our existing communities.

Can't they program the vacant lot so it's not just a bunch of cars? In DC near the National's stadium there is The Bullpen, which is basically just a parking lot surrounded by shipping containers where there are picnic tables, food trucks, beer and music. It's a popular spot to go before games.

IMHO, it's nearly a slam dunk they get taxpayer funding. And I say that as someone who isn't a big sports fan or ever gone to a Browns game. Our region loves sports and none as much as the Browns. Like anyone, I'm skeptical of public funding. But a potential proof point for the ROI is the area around Nationals Park in D.C. 15 years ago there wasn't much to draw you to that part of the city but in the time since it has blown up with development. Apartments, condos, restaurants, offices. It completely changed the city.

I didn't see design before. This is awesome! Why would this hurt anything? This is basically what downtown Medina has and their shopping/restaurants are thriving. If car-centric Medina can do it, why not Shaker Square?