8ShadesofGray

This may be a distinction between NSP I and NSP II as well. Not really an expert on this at all, but I believe NSP I was more formula-based and gave municipalities greater discretion over how they used funds, while NSP II was more competitive in nature and required municipalities to be very detailed in how the funds would be used. With NSP II, it appears local leaders are applying funds toward demolition a little more judiciously ... There is as much money earmarked for Reimagining Cleveland (the public-private partnership exploring innovative strategies for activating vacant lots) as there is for demos.

Where is the article?

Not to draw us off topic (again), but I gotta defend Indian Flame. I think the food is actually really pretty good, particularly given that they haven't been open all that long, at least not compared to Cafe Tandoor and the southwesties. Their cashew sauce is to die for. Slightly more on topic, both condo projects are looking relatively complete from the exterior. These are a really nice addition to the neighborhood, which seems to have some great momentum in light of the economy. Can't wait to hear the latest update!

Any update on the Titan buildout, tripspapa (or anyone else)? I'm anxious to get a membership ASAP. Also, any idea of what the class schedule will look like? I would really like boxing, spinning and abs if you haven't decided yet. Haha.

Does anyone know if Parkworks take project-based donations? I know that you can make a general pledge to the organization, but I'm wondering if there's any opportunity for small donations for particular projects (Public Square, Perk, etc.).

I believe the city and county collaborated on a proposal through the land bank that garnered an additional $40.8 million in NSP funding. 15% of the money is slated for demolition: http://www.cuyahogalandbank.org/clippings/20100114_pr_consortium_nsp2_award.pdf. Assuming that the $11.2 million is in addition to that, that's just under $7 million in demolition. The one thing I will say for Cuyahoga County is that they've developed a really strong protocol for when and where to demolish as a component of their greenprint plan: http://planning.co.cuyahoga.oh.us/green/elements.html. The concept is to look at the natural environment of the county (watersheds, soil quality, etc.) to determine where greenspace is most desirable, to limit demo to these areas (in order to gradually build green corridors moving southward from the lake) and to concentrate on increasing housing density elsewhere. Assuming they would adhere to this plan, I have less of a concern about demolition than I would with piecemeal disassembly of neighborhoods. Of course, it remains to be seen how much this plan will guide demolition, given the sheer volume of deteriorating housing stock locally and the amount of time and resources it would take to assemble these corridors. And again, even with the benefit of increasing natural space within the county, an argument could still be made that this is a new version of urban renewal.

I was actually surprised when I was looking last year for a one-bedroom how much prices had climbed downtown. I was being shown places for $900, $1,100, $1,400 ... crazy! But obviously a very good sign of the health of the market. There are some great places on East 4th in that range. If you're willing to live a little further east, your money may stretch further. I was blown away by Walker & Weeks (which given the dorms going up across the street is not going to feel so lonely), and Tower Press has done some beautiful warehouse loft conversions. Both come in under your price ceiling, and you'll have a big space with high ceilings and nice finishes.

What concerns me most about Detroit between W 25th and W 28th is that there are already giant swaths of surface lots, but the remaining buildings at least front directly to the sidewalk (with varying degrees of historic exterior detail), and there have been a number of in-fill projects proposed for this area. I don't see how you would be able to expand the road without either cutting severely into both sidewalks or tearing down buildings on one side of the other, both of which seem counterintuitive. Particularly as it seems like there is finally some good development momentum in these couple of blocks.

Very nice. Also check out a full-length documentary that I thought was breathtaking - Steel Valley: Meltdown (http://www.steelvalleythemovie.com/).

City of Cleveland gets into the movie business with loan guarantees for three films By Mark Gillispie, The Plain Dealer March 09, 2010, 5:24PM CLEVELAND, Ohio --- While it's a long shot to visualize Mayor Frank Jackson someday walking the red carpet before the Academy Awards, the city of Cleveland is about to get into the movie business. A City Council committee on Tuesday approved $1.2 million in loan guarantees for three planned feature-length films produced by Nehst Studios, a New York-based production company that has established an office here ... ... More at http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2010/03/city_of_cleveland_gets_into_th.html.

I'm not going to wade too deep into this, as the last several pages have hurt my head, but I guess one concern I would have from ODOT's recent project update: "Widen the intersection of Detroit Avenue and West 28th Street to accommodate the traffic" and "Widen Detroit Avenue between West 28th Street and West 25th Street, and widen West 28th Street to accommodate the new traffic plan" (http://www.dot.state.oh.us/projects/ClevelandUrbanCoreProjects/LakefrontWest/Documents/Projectupdate_022310_FINAL.pdf). Unless I'm misreading this, I can't say I'm a huge fan of that. Detroit Avenue is already crazily wide in the area between about W. 28th and W. 32nd. To add more lanes immediately to the east (if that indeed is the plan) would make this section of Detroit look like a half-mile parking lot. If anything, we should be tightening the street here to encourage a more pedestrian-oriented central "gayborhood" around Bounce, Club Cleveland, the Tool Shed, etc.

The Cleveland International Film Festival schedule is now up (www.clevelandfilm.org)! And congrats to surfohio ... so excited to see that you made it in and can't wait to see the film!!!

Can someone explain to me where exactly Zinc will be located? I looked back through the past 10 pages or so of the thread, but it's still unclear to me. Thanks!

I guess my question is whether nonprofits are exempt from the assessment, even when they have frontage (as they are with most levied taxes) or not. My point being that in the downtown SID, nonprofits with frontage represent a small portion of the market. But if you were to try to set up a similar arrangement, if nonprofits are exempt, I don't see how it would be financially feasible (as you'd lose three hospitals, three colleges/universities and at least a dozen arts and culture orgs.). It would be interesting to see a SID set up for the entire length of the Health Line, but I'm not sure we're there yet (it seems like opposition like CSU and other institutions in the Quadrangle have already limited the size and scope of the existing SID).

To the best of my knowledge, no component of Euclid is in a TIF. But the downtown section is a component of a SID (Special Improvement District), where businesses with street presence pay a special tax assessment that goes into maintenance and ED activities within the district (rather than a TIF, where tax revenues would be redirected to financing of projects or to subsequent improvement work, these funds are an additional tax assessment and therefore don't divert funds from other government services, like schools or police). This is the funding that supports the work of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. The recent five-year reauthorization of this special assessment (pending city approval) will allow them to continue their work, and it appears from everything I've read that there will be a stronger emphasis on securing tenants for downtown offices and for retail, particularly on Euclid. So hopefully they will be able to accomplish much of what a TIF could, but on a much larger scale. I would be interested to know if this tax assessment is also levied on nonprofits downtown (or can be), as I think a similar SID in University Circle along Euclid would be pretty much impossible if not (given the nonprofit statuses of the Clinic, University Hospitals, CWRU, CMA, CIA, the Orchestra, etc.). Although I believe that in University Circle, institutions do pay a voluntary fee for UCI member services, such as policing, marketing, signage, etc.

Allegedly, it is home to the largest collection of Ukrainian artifacts outside of Kiev :) Excuse my ignorance, was that sarcasm? Nope, absolutely no sarcasm. I actually have heard this a number of times. This archive is nearly 60 years old and has accumulated tens of thousands of items, including more than 20,000 books alone. I would wager that it's pretty close to accurate (i.e. if it's not the largest collection outside of Kiev, I presume it's one of the largest and certainly gigantic in terms of an American collection).

Personally, I think that's a great use. As ragarcia eluded to earlier, Berlin has these all over the place ... along the not-so-scenic Spree Canal, where tiki bars and lounge chairs provide some kitsch, and I think even more interestingly for FEB, at construction sites, where temporary Biergartens help bring in revenue and also can draw visitation to the site before the final use is complete. I love it.

Allegedly, it is home to the largest collection of Ukrainian artifacts outside of Kiev :)

I can't believe that we would even have a discussion about tearing down Public Auditorium or filling the malls, given the sheer volume of open space we have downtown ... it seems we are collectively hoping to program large swaths of the Flats (both sides), the Port Authority land, parking lots along East 12th, Superior and throughout the Warehouse District, vacant storefronts on Euclid ... Not to mention the area along Euclid from East 9th to East 12th that could accommodate thousands of residents and employees if properly activated. I just don't see how we could justify tearing down a historic gem given the sheer volume of opportunity to fill existing buildings or parking lots within a pretty small radius. Meanwhile, can anyone explain to me what is going on with the stimulus bonds? A good portion of that article led me to believe that they would be used to pay down the debt faster and at a better rate, but there also seemed to be some indication (though not blatant) that it would ultimately expand the sales tax revenue available for the project. Does that mean that if they pay the bonds down earlier, they will have additional revenue on the backend before the tax would sunset? Sorry, finances hurt my head :)

I went to a New Year's Party at the pagoda this year. The house was amazing, inside and out, and then you walk in the back yard, and BAM! LAKE! It was amazing. As far as I know, Northeast Shores' artist housing project is alive and well, although I think it like most housing initiatives has slowed a bit due to the economy, particularly as artists' variant income can slow a loan approval process considerably. It's situated a bit south of here, though ... the focus is a Model Block situated in the streets to the south of Waterloo. CPAC, the Land Bank, Village Capital Corp. and Cleveland Action to Support Housing are also doing additional research and planning work this year to supplement these types of initiatives by getting vacant, abandoned and underutilized properties into the hands of artists. Stay tuned.

Not that it opens up the information to everyone, but I do have to commend RTA here for making their routing information available to Google. In addition to RTA's decent Trip Planner and the Google Trip Planner, I can now get advised routes wherever I am on the iPhone. Another car-free friend and I were just talking about how amazing it is to have this ability now; it's completely revolutionized my ability to use public transportation extensively, particularly in places I frequent that don't always have great evening service (e.g. Tremont and the Heights). Previously, I would have just. I also heard that another app is testing out the potential for providing real-time GPS-linked information about bus and train service and that the area around Case is to be one of the national test sites. All that being said, I don't want to suggest that this detracts from people's arguments that route information should be more readily available, given that a sizable portion of the RTA ridership doesn't have Smartphone capability, at least not as of yet. But for those that do, it's turned a difficult system into one that's completely manageable.

I've unfortunately run into similar unsafe driving on both the 9 and the 7 (although I unfortunately have not been recording bus numbers, etc.). I believe part of the problem is that, particularly during rush hour, these buses tend to run 5 minutes late eastbound out of the downtown, and the drivers then appear to feel pressure to catch up to the scheduled times. I don't want to suggest that RTA drivers, which I generally find good to exceptional, are all driving around recklessly, but I have been on several 7 and 9 buses where the driver appears to be driving significantly above the speed limit and then braking suddenly at lights and at stations. I haven't noticed this on the Healthline at all.

My understanding is that, while the primary focus of the district would not be retail per se, the public would be engaged in at least three ways: 1) One of the potential draws is that it can be a hub for consumer research. Cleveland and Columbus are already sites for all sorts of product testing because the metros reflect something of an "average American". This type of concentrated district allows the tenants the ability to host special events where they test new product concepts with the general public ... a purveyor of fine coffeemakers has a coffee tasting, a furniture designer has an ergonomic workshop, etc. These could either be focus groups or open to the general public; either way, it begins to bring in residents in an unconventional way. Designers get to test concepts before proceeding to general distribution, tweak anything that doesn't appeal to the consumers, take their recommendations for quality improvements, etc. Clevelanders, meanwhile, get to experience products before the vast majority of Americans do. 2) Some of these tenants would indeed have a retail component ... it just wouldn't be the main focus. So you might have storeroom offerings that are not available to the general public but have a small display area that is. Again, if you're a fine coffeemaker designer, your primary interest may be bringing in major buyers, but since you're renting the space anyway, you can dedicate a portion of the storefront to retail space. The beauty of this is that because it's not your primary purpose, you don't have to support your full rent by selling coffeemakers; even if you sell one every three months, your only real loss is the opportunity cost of not using that 200 or 300 sq ft for "buyers' storeroom" space. So it gives us the opportunity to have a retail presence in an area where there is not yet enough retail demand to fully justify the rent costs. 3) Some of these spaces would indeed be more focused on the general public than buyers. One type of potential client is one that would be interested in engaging the general public around the history, culture, etc. of product/industrial design; think the V&A in London or the Bauhaus Archives in Berlin or the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen ... or the proposed Schreckengost Archives in Cleveland. Beyond this, there will also be the potential to support more retail establishments in the vacinity because of the clustering of additional workers and students, who themselves would be potential consumers in the neighborhood. I don't know; I love the concept because it could go in so many different positive directions, and almost anything would be additive to a district that, despite its beauty, can feel a little sleepy. And having an emerging design district here may be an additional amenity that can be marketed to potential tenants for the outlet retail strategy forming on Lower Euclid.

If I was pitching a Cleveland location, I would focus on something more along the lines of Tyler Village. Here, you would have more proximity to the highway and closer proximity for East Side residents. You have an existing facility, rather than new build, and from what I've heard, incredibly reasonable rates. You have the ability to house lots of people on one single campus and, in the specific case of Tyler Village, you have warehouses, loading docks, lift elevators, etc. that would facilitate any distribution or intake of supplies and materials AND you have the type of industrial loft space that might be an appealing work environment for the staff (particularly the creatives). You also have proximity to a ton of other creatives already in the facility and in the warehouses down Superior. In some ways, this is the best of both worlds ... all the capacities that MayDay pointed out might be rough to offer in the CBD, as well as the type of urban environment that might be more appealing to talent. All of that being said, I do feel really badly for Brooklyn, which seems to have had a lot of bad shakes lately. And I can't help but think that these proposed relocations in Brooklyn could have serious implications for the city proper, and particularly for the stability of Old Brooklyn. Definitely can't imagine that this is necessarily a "good thing" for Cleveland proper.

I believe the article said that Middough would be directly connected to CSU gallery space that would front Euclid, right next door to the new CUDC space.