Confiteordeo

Just for my own information, is the restaurant in the Agora still open?

Virginia Marti is located in Lakewood, but this article about its future had an interesting little tidbit: I think that would be a fantastic move. They'd probably have an easier time attracting students to a central location, and Downtown is certainly appealing to creatives and young people. There's a bunch of smaller buildings that could be renovated for them! Virginia Marti is changing course June 07, 2015 By Timothy Magaw Bold changes are underway at the Virginia Marti College of Art and Design, including a shift in ownership from the Lakewood-based institution's namesake and longtime proprietor. Virginia Marti Veith, now 86, has sold a minority stake of the school she has operated since 1966 to Milan Milasinovic, an experienced fashion industry executive who most recently served as vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at New York City's LIM College, a for-profit school focused on the business side of the fashion industry. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Veith will be active on the college's board of directors, but complete ownership is expected to transfer to Milasinovic — now the school's president — over the next two years. Milasinovic's vision for the school is especially ambitious. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150607/NEWS/306079987/virginia-marti-is-changing-course

Wow, that map is fascinating! Thanks for that, and welcome!

:roll: Did I not just acknowledge that there are plenty of other suburbs? The "higher end" and "if they're only planning one location" caveats are key. For a more mid-priced retailer, there's no real reason to choose one side of town over the other, except that the region's biggest retail center is on the east side (where it was established decades ago when the demographics were much more lopsided than they are now.) If I were new to the market, I'd probably choose that location too, simply because it's already drawing people in.

Oh, of course. I'm not trying to say that a retailer should necessarily choose a west side location over one on the east, especially given that the largest regional retail cluster is along 271. I'm just pointing out that even though most of the extreme wealth is on the east side, there are certainly enough middle to upper-middle income households on the west side to support something like REI.

It's true that there are some really wealthy places in the eastern burbs, and it makes sense that luxury retailers that don't depend on volume would want to locate in the 271 corridor. But the western suburbs are way more populous than the Chagrin Valley, and I think they've grown wealthy enough that they're starting to attract some mid-tier and slightly more upscale retail (e.g. Crocker Park, Maserati in N. Olmsted, etc.) I don't think someplace like REI is that much of a stretch for that part of the metro, but then again, it's easy to be an armchair retailer :wink:

Just playing devil's advocate because like I said, I'm not saying they should, but why *wouldn't* they? If it drives up ridership on the Blue Line.... And yeah, it's very silly (and frankly, very Cleveland) to think that just because things have "always been" one way, that they can't or shouldn't change.

That's kind of a silly statement. I'm glad Dick Pace doesn't feel the same way about lakefront apartments, and that Little Italy disagrees when it comes to a Rapid station on Mayfield Rd., and that the Cleveland Hostel people were willing to take a chance in Ohio City. :wink: I'm not advocating for a Park-N-Ride, by the way. I'm just saying I could see that as a rationale, especially given that there's parking at almost every other Blue Line station in Shaker.

One key player in the development team is a longtime rail advocate. I'd be surprised if he was involved in the decision for putting a parking lot in phase 1 next to the rail station. I've been meaning to ask him about that. That kind of bothered me, too. I guess it's a little justifiable because that station is the terminus of the Blue Line, so there's a bit of Park-N-Ride potential. But it would be more justifiable if there weren't so much parking elsewhere in the development...

Wow, that really does look fantastic. Thanks for the pics, MayDay!

I think that's where marketing comes in. People will vote for what they perceive as being in their best interest, and I don't think it's all that hard to sell people on the notion that what's good for the city is good for the region. The real problem is that people can't seem to connect the dots or see the bigger picture, and there just isn't anybody visible out there making the arguments for our cities.

Even if zoning changes are made to allow these tiny houses, I'm sure they're still going to be a pretty niche product. I don't think they'll drastically affect the number of people buying and rehabbing existing housing stock.

Because West Park is so big, the City splits it into four parts for planning purposes. Jefferson is the portion of West Park generally east of Kamm's Corners, and it's named for Jefferson Park on Lorain Ave. As far as I know, the current SPAs have been in use since at least 2000. ETA- The Westown CDC's service area covers all of Ward 11, which includes a small part of "Jefferson," so that's probably why this thread exists as it does. The Variety sits in that overlap area.

Of course they did. Ohio House nixes spending more on buses, trains By Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer May 27, 2015 at 5:02 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- House Republicans oppose increasing the state's contribution to public transit in Ohio, where annual transit spending by the state of 63 cents per person is among the lowest rates in the nation. The determination by the House members to keep the state's public transit budget unchanged at $7.3 million a year comes despite an Ohio Department of Transportation-commissioned transit-needs study that called for a $2.5 million increase in each of the next two budget years. Gov. John Kasich recommended a hike as well, but it was a smaller $1 million in each of the two years. The House removed the Republican governor's $1 million proposal when it passed the budget bill and sent it to the Senate. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/05/ohio_house_nixes_public_transi.html#incart_river

There was some discussion about this on the previous page, but I believe that with the historic preservation tax credits, you're not allowed to add anything to the building that looks like it's original but really isn't. In other words, any addition would have to be obviously modern. I don't think it's impossible to come up with an attractive, modern-looking canopy that meshes well with the building, but I'm not super impressed with the latest rendering. It's ok, but not a slam dunk.

I just happened across this online. What a great guy. From March of this year- ACRES Receives Surprise $1 Million Gift By Sean Bueter 4:45 pm Thu March 12, 2015 ACRES Land Trust announced this week it received a surprise gift of one million dollars from the estate of a Fort Wayne man. The trust was founded in 1960 with a mission to acquire land to create nature preserves. The bequest comes from the estate of Robert E. Pence, a former tool maker, computer technician, and lifelong nature enthusiast. Pence died in 2012. http://wboi.org/post/acres-receives-surprise-1-million-gift

Fwiw, I believe that the census estimate model heavily weights past population trends, which obviously aren't in Cleveland's favor.

That's right, you need a new pass every calendar month. The passes have the month they're valid for printed on the front, and the color changes from month to month (probably to make enforcement easier)

The council president has a lot of say in the ward boundaries. The last map was drawn to favor Eugene Miller (a Sweeney ally- Miller supposedly hand-picked streets for Ward 10) by combining Jeff Johnson's and Kevin Conwell's wards, but Johnson and Conwell worked together to get Johnson elected instead of Miller. There was also a gentleman's agreement to only cut one East Side ward, even though most of the city's population loss was on the East Side, in order to preserve as many seats as possible for black council members. That resulted in some weird stretching of wards towards the West.

I'll add RE: Jeff Johnson that he's been a big proponent of historic preservation and rehab over demolition of vacant structures in the city. I'm not sure how much he's done to translate that talk into action, though.

Whoa, my office is in that picture!

I think CSU has done a pretty admirable job of demolishing its surroundings, too.

Downtown Boston proper isn't exactly bumping at 8 pm on a Tuesday, either. It's a CBD like any other. + 1,000,000. It's such a frustrating combination

I'd bet it has to do with the labor costs associated with the added time it would take to send the empty LRV out onto the CUT viaduct to reverse direction, then travel (empty) all the way back to 55th.

I'm not sure what advantages you mean. Have you been to Bratenahl? Their idea of high-end development is mansions with carriage houses. The residents threw a sh!t fit when those two highrise condo buildings (Bratenahl Place, I think?) went up in the late sixties, and nothing similar has been built since. I'd think that Cleveland would be much more open the sort of lakefront housing developers are interested in building today (condos and apartments) than Bratenahl, since that stuff is going up all over the city. Plus Cleveland hands out abatements like candy. Can a micro-municipality like Bratenahl afford to do the same? Of course, that's all super hypothetical. As much as I would love it, I can't imagine the Shoreway will be relocated any time soon, if ever.