smith

my money is on uptown. I hear leasing is going very well there.

When you are in a thread and click on the logo at the top of the page, it takes you to forum home as opposed to urbanohio.com. Is this on purpose? Seems a little redundant since you can click on "home" right below and also get taken to forum home.

I wonder if that went out to all CH residents. Do you have the ability to scan and post? I thought the same thing about renaming the thread. If I'm not mistaken, the developer has not purchased any land yet in CH.

Took a trip last month to Stowe, VT. It was a good time despite the very cold weather - 3 degrees on top of the mountain.

There's nothing wrong with McNulty's. They have Dogfish Head on tap. :) I like dumpy Irish joints. They remind me of pubs on the other side of the pond. Although my Irish/Welsh family has been in this country for 300 years, I really feel at home in places like this. Must be in the blood. Like I said, I have not been to McNulty's recently, but besides the name, nothing seems irish about it to me. More like dumpy college joint than dumpy irish joint. to each his own though!

McNulty's? Have you been there recently? I admit I have not but I would think you could do better. If you are going to do CH, I have never been to Fracas or Rockefeller's, but I'd suggest trying something new. http://blog.cleveland.com/sunpress/2010/12/fracas_to_start_in_cleveland_h.html http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/4/2/rockefellers-set-to-open-in-historic-banking-hall

I don't see the argument for ownership as opposed to rental here. I agree that ownership typically is a good thing to encourage for most neighborhoods and I certainly have not done a market study here, but with a university you absolutely have a market for people that are only going to be in the area for 1-4 years. These people obviously don't want to buy. EDIT: I seriously question the relationship between Johnson and Brickman and whether Brickman is appropriate for Johnson to seek advice from as Brickman may have his own biases if he wants to develop this site himself.

in the comments someone asked if another commenter was kjp from urbanohio. I think urbanohio should never be mentioned on cleveland.com. we don't need to encourage those idiots to find this site.

Looks like a "go" to me..

Office campuses would be great - but the huge problem is what you would need to acquire land from probably hundreds of property owners, many of which I'm sure would argue that their building that has been vacant for years is worth millions of dollars, thus making it economicaly impossible. Instead, Eaton only has to deal with one property owner, who probably is a lot more pragmatic than these individual property owners would be.

I guess this is as good a place as any for this question - does anyone here sell used photo equipment or know of good sites that do? (specifically Nikon). Thanks!

I'm a big fan of urban exploring and urban exploring photography. The reason people take these pictures are many including documenting the past and there is a certain amount of beauty in the abandonment. The reason Detroit is so prevalent is because of the sheer amount of historic buildings that have been abandoned including beautiful theaters and train stations that you don't see as much in other cities. Other cities certainly have abandonment, but often not the historic structures. Even cities like NYC have some great urban explorers. Check this out.. (NSFW)... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/nudes_n_819790.html?ir=Arts#236162 ... I really need to get out there for some more exploring!

Just like cleveland.com, the peanut gallery is terrible. Never a positive comment. I had jury duty a few months back and people were making comments like "who goes downtown?", "downtown's a ghosttown, etc." Pretty ridiculous.

I've driven by many times and wanted to do some urban exploring in this building. Oh well, it's good that this is moving forward.

Not necessarily will they get the first pick. The team with the worst record has a 25% chance of getting the first pick.

I can't figure out how to embed the video, but check out this video from last night's Colbert Report titled "Affirmative Reaction". Funny stuff. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/373359/february-03-2011/affirmative-reaction?xrs=share_copy

(in cleveland) You call that an ice storm?!?! Bunch of hype if you ask me.

I view all of those items you mention as redevelopment of antiquated property, not a new development which in my opinion the community continues to resist. And as to being progressive, I think there are many progressive people in the city, but as a whole I don't consider the city as progressive as others. i.e. same old political "machine" stays on city council and when a seat is open, the machine's choice gets elected. Also, they are now revamping the zoning code to make it more green friendly. It's never too late to do this and I applaud the effort, but when you think of Cleveland Heights, doesn't this seem like something a truly progressive city would have undertaken years ago? Although I will concede that they were ahead of the game with the domestic partner registry. I'm not trying to bad mouth the city by any means and I love living in CH and have lived in the city for the first 13 years of my life and last 8. If I ever moved out it would probably be just to the city of Cleveland. I'm just trying to offer an alternative view. Again, I am not a big fan of big-box centers, but fine, the opposition needs to give me a better alternative than green space.

Probably means "letter of intent" not "lot of intent"

So how do you define "progressive"?

I get the general sentiment and I do tend to agree with being anti big-box. Of course, I prefer local and more unique businesses over big-box. But I do think that residents of CH consistently resist change in the city and that is a terrible way to compete in the 21st Century. The Top-of-the-Hill site has had something like 4 proposals to be developed going back 30 years and everytime residents come out in force against it. I suspect this can be said about several sites in town. As to Oakwood, even if someone proposed an office park, I think you would have the some opposition group (led by Fran Mench) that argues for it to remain green space. If the opposition to this development is only opposed to big-box development, they need to talk about what types of development they would support. Instead the conversation from the opposition is not HOW the site should be developed but WHETHER it should be developed.

I have a hard time disputing that, but I feel like we (not us here but the community in general) are having the wrong conversation about this property. The conversation shouldn't be a question of develop or not develop but what type of development. That's my opinion.

Well first I was saying there's no demand for office/flex. I think one of the biggest issues with ever getting office/flex space in the Heights is the lack of highway access. I like that the Heights lacks highway access but it's a double edged sword. As to retail, someone mentioned Costco and I have heard rumors of other big-box retailers that could have an interest. I think the developer is not going to build this on spec and will have several large tenants lined up beforehand. Yes, there's lots of vacant storefronts on Mayfield and other areas, but these spaces are older and not as functional as a newly constructed building. If you want to talk about University Square (I think that's the name) - they have vacancies, but again the vacant spaces are not desirable. The old Topp's is not convenient for grocery shoppers and the vacant ground floor retail is in a terrible location. Like I said, I'm not 100% sold on big-box by any means and would prefer something else, but I am more concerned with the fiscal impact to the city of green space, which I think too many people are overlooking.

So I'm thinking of starting a blog where I post articles from the PD that have spelling or grammatical errors in them and calling the blog something along the lines of "The PDoesn't Have Editors." What do you guys think? I feel like several times a week I see grammatical and spelling errors and I think its pretty ridiculous that a NEWSPAPER allows this to happen so often. I probably shouldn't complain about getting my news for free, but I think there is no excuse for a media outlet to have so many errors.

I think it's fiscally irresponsible for residents to dismiss development of the site. While I am not really in favor of a big-box development, and would prefer some sort of office/flex park, there is not demand for something like that in this area. He is a letter I sent to the Heights Obsever. Cleveland Heights needs more money, not green space by Kevin Smith I was delighted to hear about the plans by First Interstate Properties to develop Oakwood Country Club, a site that I suspect most residents of Cleveland Heights have never set foot on as it has historically been a private country club. I can appreciate the sentiment of many residents that this property should remain green space, but Cleveland Heights already has more parks than most inner-ring suburbs—Cain Park, Caledonia Park, Cumberland Park, Denison Park and Forest Hills Park, not to mention Shaker Lakes located nearby. Further, I applaud the developer for recognizing the importance of green space to residents and agreeing to donate 69 acres for use as green space. http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/4/2/cleveland-heights-needs-more-money-not-green-space