8ShadesofGray

Amen. I have a consistent, guiding philosophy. I believe that anything that you can get in the suburbs you should be able to get in the city. Cleveland is geographically big enough to offer something for everyone (or most people). If a Crocker Park on the lake is what it'll take to get some people here, fine with me. I've articulated here and elsewhere my belief that the Flats East Bank project, for example, appears to be an explicit attempt to create an urban answer to Crocker Park I third that notion. If this becomes Crocker Park 2.0, I probably will never in a million years live there. But that's okay. We're a city with 3,000 acres of vacant land and still are seeing population decline ... We've got the room to diversify options to be suiting a much larger diversity of lifestyle backgrounds and preferences. The widely celebrated Baltimore Inner Harbor and Power and Light District in Kansas City both read plastic as hell to me, but a lot of people clearly seem to love both. So long as we end up with something relatively mixed-use, with a pedestrian orientation and public access to the lakefront, along with even more downtown residents, I'll be pretty ecstatic :D I think the more important thing for those of us who don't respond to that kind of aesthetic is to fight to make sure that such flashy, new projects don't start to consume our community narrative and brand ... That we keep a strong focus, locally and nationally, on places like Tremont or Ohio City or Waterloo or Little Italy as what truly makes Cleveland tick.

^ I wonder if I saw you there, Dergon :) There are definitely some clear parallels with Gordon Square, with both neighborhoods having a clear focus on leveraging the arts for a broader community good and both neighborhoods having a bit of social justice bent. That being said, there's been some pretty big distinctions in terms of approach. When it comes to the arts, Gordon Square has focused heavily on really shoring up and resourcing and then leveraging a handful of high-visibility, anchor arts groups like Cleveland Public Theatre and Near West Theater. Waterloo definitely has a growing presence of arts nonprofits but the CDC focus has been much more decentralized and more geared toward serving at the individual artist level, with a real focus on very small arts groups and arts businesses, as well as increasing artist homeownership in surrounding blocks. Detroit Shoreway has taken an approach of acquiring and maintaining ownership of a lot of space along its commercial corridor, allowing the organization to in perpetuity curate the mix of tenants, arguably increasing their ability to support local businesses even if national chains come a-knockin'. Northeast Shores, meanwhile, has an almost exclusive focus on commercial space ownership for the end user, meaning that groups like the Beachland, Music Saves, Blue Arrow, etc. (and now Zygote!) has complete control through ownership over if and when they would leave the neighborhood. Detroit Shoreway is facilitating a lot of private development, which has resulted in a very visible and very quick stream of new housing and housing rehab. Northeast Shores has taken a slower, more hands-on approach that has helped maintain access to very low-cost homeownership but has arguably been less visible at a regional level. I think there are clear advantages and disadvantages to both approaches ... Just noting that they could result in considerably different outcomes 10, 20 years down the line for their respective arts districts.

5^ Great pics! The many murals featured in the photos are part of the Zoetic Walls program (http://artscollinwood.org/zoetic-walls/) ... a curated mural program of Waterloo Arts, featuring top international street artists like Ever and Gaia, that put up 20 murals in about a five-month span last year. ^^^ Northeast Shores is doing a pretty amazing job on the home rehab front ... Something like 22 buyers in 2013, many artists, some recruited from elsewhere in the US with no existing connection to Cleveland and mostly in the blocks surrounding the Waterloo corridor. A big draw of their program is that they sell vacant houses that are in the best condition for $6,500, with the buyer taking on the rehab ... In most cases, that's acquisition and rehab up to city code for less than $30,000. You're also starting to see some private renovation picking up, particularly around Waterloo. The CDC is also leading some additional mixed-use rehab this year (like the "brick" ceramics co-op that appears) and some brownstone rehab on East 156th. I've even heard talk of new construction (!) along the East 156th corridor. And Operation Light Switch is alive and well, so we should see a handful of restaurants opening up in 2014. So lots of vacant buildings continuing to come back to life! ^ This is kind of a weird streetscape plan in that respect ... IIRC, it calls for burying utilities on one side of the street and leaving them up on the other. You can see plans at http://northeastshores.org/initiatives.php in the "Waterloo Streetscape Engineering Plan" section. When I went through there a couple weeks back, I was surprised to see all the poles still up, but hopefully, this is still in the plan ... I seem to recall the poles coming down toward the end of the Gordon Square streetscape project, so maybe that's the case on Waterloo, too.

Congratulations, it's looking great!

Yayyyyaaaa :)

^ Yet another example of why St. Clair Superior has enough to go on to warrant its own thread :D

Reaction to Naji Gallery raids: Cultural leaders urge Cleveland to develop proactive policies for the arts By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer May 29, 2014 CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Galleries, theaters and music clubs have become powerful engines of revitalization across Cleveland. The impact is visible in neighborhoods from Collinwood and St. Clair Superior on the East Side to Tremont, Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway on the West. But does city government value the cultural revolution enough to nurture and sustain it? ... ... More available at http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2014/05/cultural_leaders_react_to_raid.html

Not really sure where to put this, but here goes ... Police raid Friday opening at artist Loren Naji's Ohio City gallery; confiscate beer and wine By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer May 3, 2014 Cleveland artist Loren Naji was seeking legal advice Saturday after state liquor agents raided an opening at his storefront gallery in Ohio City Friday night. He said in a telephone interview that agents confiscated roughly $600 worth of beer and $100 of wine from his gallery opening, which continued as a dry party after the authorities left. Naji said he had been charged with a first-degree misdemeanor for giving away beer, and that several lawyers had offered to defend him pro bono. “All I’m doing is trying to make the community vibrant and exciting, and I got this thrown at me,” he said ... ... More available at http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2014/05/police_raid_friday_night_openi.html

I'm honestly a little alarmed that the message ended with "TEST This is an exercise" if there were shots actually fired.

^ Second that.

So who's down there? Pictures, pictures!!!! :D

I'm out of the Cleve for a few months ... Can someone give me a sense of how big the chandelier feels? I mean, I know it's massive, but with all of these new elements being physically BIG, does this one still stand out? :)

Not sure how exactly I feel about the stadium tax ... Can see pros and cons to it. But I don't think cigarette excise tax COULD just be diverted to another community purpose. In the case of the arts and culture levy, the answer is no. For the arts and culture levy, it took state assembly action and a substantial revision of state code to first allow the formation of a totally new government entity, a "regional arts and culture district" (which can only operate in counties with populations of greater than 500,000 people, in Cuyahoga County AKA Cuyahoga Arts & Culture). They had to spell out how the board of the district would be selected (by county council / commissioners), what authority that district had, under what circumstances and to whom they could give grant funding and then VERY explicit language extending the ability of county government to put on the ballot a consideration of a levy of up to 30 cents per pack of cigarettes sold in the county toward financial support of the regional arts and culture district (http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5743.021). That's why we call it dedicated arts and culture funding ... Voters of course don't have to support it, but if they do, it can't be steered toward something else ... This is special authority related to a Regional Arts and Culture District. Funding another government body with tobacco tax would require new approval by the state legislature and the governor and the voters (unless there's already approved taxing authority, and then it's just the voters :)) I'm not as familiar with the stadium tax on liquor and cigarettes, but it looks equally restrictive to me: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/307.697 and http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/5743.323 If I'm reading it correctly (and there's a decent chance I'm not!), the county can't just redirect that levy "room" to another cause if voters don't support stadium support ... Not even to CAC, which already maxes out at 30 cents per pack of cigarette. We couldn't just ask voters to steer those funds toward health or libraries or something. Not unless we convinced two branches of Republican-heavy state government to expand taxing authority in the lead-up to a gubernatorial election. I think the more likely result of defeating the levy is the more obvious one ... drinkers and smokers would retain those funds instead of having them diverted to the stadiums.

The complication will be that the arts and culture tobacco excise tax is also up for renewal (I believe it was passed in November 2006, so funding collection would expire in 2016). The closer together these two levies get pushed, the more likely I think it is that the arts and culture levy might suffer as a result of taxpayer fatigue. None of which is to say that one should vote for or against either levy ... Just that an unintended consequence of seeing this levy get pushed a year could be a lot of financial anxiety for arts and culture organizations, community development corporations, etc. that receive funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

I could just be making it up, but I feel like there was an article about an intentional district strategy to site more schools of excellence on the West Side, as there were growing complaints that many of the strongest magnet schools were locating between downtown and University Circle. It might have even been an early article about Bard.

The more I look at it, the more I think someone must have said, "Could you give us the Seidman Cancer Center but make it look, you know, normal?" :D Have to agree; not a show-stopper, but outside of the atrocious gerbil tube, it at least seems height appropriate and non-beige ... A 2013 government building could be a LOT worse :)

From their Facebook page: Things we know: 1) our firefighters are awesome. They deserve a ton of praise (and benefits/pensions worthy of their efforts). 2) everyone is safe 3) The APl are great neighbors and letting us use their facility to stay warm 4) we are well insured 5) it seems as if the fire was only in one particular area and fairly contained. No one has been inside yet to for sure inspect 6)Cork creates a ton of smoke 7) grateful this was the first two weeks of construction and not the last 2 weeks 8 ) we really appreciate the kind words, prayers etc 9) will post more when I know more https://www.facebook.com/thefairmontcreamery

Also, is it just me, or does this building look unusually short for 8 stories? It looks significantly shorter in the rendering than the 1900 building, which I think is 8 stories, and about the same height as the business school, which has got to be, what, like 6 maybe? Maybe it's just my 3-D challenged mind :)

Regardless of the aesthetics of the property or its ground-level uses (or lack thereof), I PRAY that we verify all financing is in place before there's even a hint of a wrecking ball showing up. Given their timetable, it sounds like they have funds in hand, but Planning, please let's check :D This property already sits across the street from the little used greenspace next to Levin, and the requested demos open up a sightline of an immense amount of existing surface parking ... Walking across East 18th on the south side of Euclid, you would have a big swath of green to the north, and to the south, you could see surface parking all the way to East 14th and Sumner ... a quarter-mile of parking only interrupted by road!!! If this project starts to fill in some of those lots and fronts the streets, bully for us. But if this falls through post-demo, or just gets tied up for a few years while the developers navigate layered financing, it would be a huge blow to an intersection that otherwise stands to benefit from increasing pedestrian cross-traffic between PlayhouseSquare and CSU (opposite placemaking by PlayhouseSquare).

- St. Clair Superior has launched two new websites - one that's a redesign of the CDC website, with more focus on what you can find in the neighborhood, www.stclairsuperior.org, and one that focuses in on what gets made in the neighborhood and includes an online shopping feature that lets you explore some of the stuff emerging from Upcycle St. Clair and the Cleveland Flea (and also will profile some of the very long-term businesses that make things in the nabe, http://www.stclairsuperiority.com/ - St. Clair Superior is also marketing the Upcycle St. Clair effort by taking the show on the road with a new project called "Shop the Window" ... Going out to the suburbs and activating vacant storefronts with window displays of the upcycle artists. Passers-by will be able to point at QR codes of the products in the window and buy them on the spot, either shipped to them or picked up from upper St. Clair. First up is 20300 Chagrin in Shaker (Beachwood?): http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2013/11/shaker_pops_up_this_weekend_on.html - The holiday version of the Cleveland Flea was their biggest ever ... The event has climbed from an attendance of 2,000 when it launched in April to an attendance of over 10,000 just 7 months later. Hopefully, we'll see a similar success story when St. Clair Superior launches night markets in Asiatown, a series of evening markets that will showcase the neighborhood's arts community, restaurants and Asian culture all together. - Opposite all the early success of the Cleveland Flea and Upcycle St. Clair, a number of businesses have relocated to the neighborhood, including the Flea itself, Borrow Rentals (http://borrowrentals.com/) and Yates Apothecary (http://yatesapothecary.com/). The upcycling community itself now has a permanent home on St. Clair, as Collective Upcycle has opened up a storefront business (6202 St. Clair, TH - SA 12 - 8, SU 10 - 4, https://www.facebook.com/CollectiveUpcycle) ... Great place for holiday gifts :) Work is also underway on an Upcycle Parts Shop ... If Collective Upcycle is the store where people buy finished upcycled products, the Parts Shop is where you can go for raw, post-use materials for upcyle projects. - As interest starts to spill off of upper St. Clair onto East 55th Street, a number of neighborhood institutions are submitting a Transportation for Livable Communities application for planning of a more pedestrian-friendly/bike-friendly environment along the two streets. That's separate and apart from St. Clair Superior's TLCI application to plan for better multi-modal use of the marginal roads and increased pedestrian/bike access from the neighborhood to the lake. - The LoftHome partnership with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank continues (http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/03/loft_home_conversions_offer_a.html). It's a strategy that focuses on house-by-house conversion of obsolete vacant properties into lofted homes with open floor plans ... A move that makes them more marketable but also dramatically reduces rehab cost, reducing systems complexity in the properties. To date, the model has been employed on rentals, but St. Clair Superior is also exploring how an ownership model might work. The organization is also continuing to fundraise for the Edible History Project (http://clevelandmagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/make-something-good-happen.html), which would restore a pre-Civil War Greek Revival on E. 71 St. and turn it into a locally sourced food co-op ... Basically converting a 19th century farm house into a farm house for the 21st century :) - A ton of public art is also popping up around Upper St. Clair, including large-scale quotes from residents and visitors going up on walls, sidewalks, etc. - Work has started on Year 2 of the popular Slovenian winter festival Kurentovanje, taking place on March 1: https://www.facebook.com/KurentovanjeCleveland - From what I've heard, there's also early conversations about how to celebrate the centennial of the Cultural Gardens (the eastern border of the CDC service area) in 2016 ... And how the centennial could be leveraged to get more ambitious with revitalization of the immediately adjacent neighborhood fabric on all sides (St. Clair Superior, Glenville and Hough). Now that they have two new websites and whatnot, maybe we can finally get that St. Clair Superior thread or merge it with the Asiatown thread :D

^^ Oh surf's suggestion is a good one, too! I seem to recall that LAND and Positively Cleveland were partnering on a large-scale partnership to create art projects downtown that would improve the visitor experience ... That seems to be a logical place to talk about improving the Justice Center campus. And there's also Aha, LAND's light art project set to happen on multiple sites downtown opposite the Gay Games. The County also seems to be directing at least some of the casino revenue toward this thing, directing $4 million in casino receipts toward PlayhouseSquare's $16 million project, but in the absence of a clear process for proposing projects, don't know how you would crack that nut.

^^ Haha. If you say so ;) The Justice Center seems like it could be a tough one. Most of the creative placemaking work happening around town is either being led by a CDC (see Gordon Square, Waterloo, upper St. Clair, Morgana Run), directly by an arts organization on their property/adjacent to their property (see PlayhouseSquare) or by neighborhood activists and private property owners (see Hingetown). LAND Studio is probably the exception, as they clearly work across neighborhood boundaries and push public art onto the agenda when it otherwise might not be there. When it comes to municipally owned spaces and public spaces, the only time it seems like those placemaking investments are being made are when there's some non-arts infrastructure improvements happening that might trigger either the city's or RTA's Percent for Art funding ... That happens when a train station gets built or upgraded, opposite streetscape improvements, etc. The only place I can think of that municipal government is pushing placemaking in the absence of Percent for Art requirements is with greenspace improvements downtown (I'm thinking about Towpath, Canal Basin, Public Square, and the Mall). So with the Justice Center, you don't have a nearby arts organization that would be a natural fit for wanting to see that space programmed. I don't think any of the downtown CDCs are currently focused on that particular area per se ... It's outside the boundaries of Historic Warehouse and Historic Gateway, so Downtown Cleveland Alliance is probably your best bet. And there's no built-in funding stream ... Until you get city-funded resurfacing on Ontario or Lakeshore or building improvements at the Justice Center itself. With that context, I'd reach out to LAND and DCA with the concept and try to keep an eye out for funding sources - either anything in that immediate area that would trigger Percent for Art (and wouldn't get redirected to the Mall) or to sources like Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and Neighborhood Connections.

^^^ MayDay, feel free to shut me down here or redirect me to another thread ... because I want to talk about Angie's article just a little more ... Hope it pertains enough to Playhouse Square :D While I'm a huge proponent of this placemaking project (and placemaking projects like it across the city), and while I believe that making places welcoming (particularly places on major mass transit routes) will lead to the foot traffic, car traffic, etc. that will likely increase public transit use and increase the likelihood of future transit investments that Angie advocates, I do think she has a very valid point about whether this is the best use of limited public funding. $4 million of public funding is a sizable investment for a single project in a single neighborhood. It vastly exceeds the amounts being invested in small business development in the Warehouse District's shipping container concept and the 5th Street Arcade strategy and the incentive grants for businesses on West 25th. It's bigger than the already pretty big placemaking work happening in St. Clair Superior with Upcycle St. Clair and in Collinwood with Collinwood Rising. It's a huge chunk of change on one placemaking project. Is it the right investment for the County's use of discretionary casino funding? Quite possibly. I think it will be a really transformative shift in the tone and feel of the district and is likely to have all sorts of economic and social impact. But it doesn't seem like this investment has come out of any careful, deliberative vetting process. I could be wrong, but it seems like there hasn't been sufficient discussion of how funds would be spent, outside of some desire to invest disproportionately downtown. But downtown investments could be building rehab or greenspace or placemaking or small business development or workforce development or ... Lots of things. And even if we collectively decide that placemaking downtown is the best use of this funding, it does seem like we could benefit from a competitive process that enabled community development groups to float proposals for a variety of placemaking projects ... And then adjudicate which one (or more) are the best. At least in this sense, I think Angie's right on in saying we need more dialogue about how public funding is getting steered.

^ True, but it's a pretty narrow neighborhood ... From the southern corridor that is Waterloo to the northern boundary that is the lake is only 2/3 of a mile, a leisurely-paced 14-minute walk ... Or if you must, a 4-minute drive :D Pretty comparable to West 25th, which I think successfully serves as a neighborhood center of Ohio City, despite its location on the far east of the neighborhood, 0.8 miles from its westernmost residents, a 16-minute walk and 3-minute drive. Make Waterloo enough of a destination and I don't think distance will be much of a barrier for neighborhood participation, particularly since many residents and workers already arrive and depart via the highway. a block to the south.

^ Collinwood is about as UPPER east side as you can get in Cleveland. Haha. From my understanding, generally not. A lot of CDC services (home repair, weatherization, etc.) cover the entire North Collinwood area, and the extensive marketing of vacant properties for sale, locally and nationally, touches residential properties on both the Waterloo side of the neighborhood and the East 185th side. Outside of that, most of these arts-related investments seem to be getting made on the Waterloo side, with a real attention to wanting to build critical mass around Waterloo and not dilute the impact of the arts approach by trying to dilute it too broadly across the entire neighborhood (the residential area immediately surrounding the Waterloo Arts & Entertainment District has a population of about 1,500, while North Collinwood is a much broader geography with 15,000 residents). That being said, there is a lot of attention on the 185th corridor. There's a business development specialist on Waterloo and a separate one on East 185th. A market analysis of the 185th corridor has been completed. Work continues on trying to bring the historic LaSalle theater back. And it looks like a program called ActiVacant, which is designed to repopulate vacant storefronts on East 185, is moving ahead, with some seed funding from Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. So while the arts investments aren't necessarily spilling over, I think we'll be seeing a lot of revitalization energy picking up steam there.