MuRrAy HiLL

Thanks for all the updates!

^ oh no! Seriously though, this is sone if the best news in a while. So much potential spin-off.

How about this for a good morning :D International welcome center set to open on Public Square Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 6:00 AM By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A group of civic and business leaders today will announce the creation of something Cleveland has never seen before: an international welcome center on Public Square. Envisioned as the hub of the coming Global Cleveland Initiative, the welcome center will occupy a storefront in the former BP Tower, across Euclid Avenue from the entrance to Positively Cleveland, the area's convention and visitors bureau. Huntington Bank has committed a leading gift of $500,000 to open the center and to launch an era of welcoming new talent and new cultures to Northeast Ohio. A news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the site of the proposed welcome center. More below: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/04/international_welcome_center_s.html

The new MOCA was featured in the local Cleveland Business Connects Magazine: Merging Contemporary Art With Cleveland Culture By Alysse Dalessandro | Photo by Bradley Hart The Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland has been around for more than 40 years, but finding it has not been easy. The museum’s current home is a 23,000-square-foot loft above the Cleveland Play House complex on Euclid Avenue. According to MOCA Executive Director Jill Snyder, visitors pass through three closed doors to access their current space, and there is no street-level access. But MOCA’s forthcoming new facility is designed not only to expose people to contemporary art but also to mesh with the city’s growing number of cultural institutions. A new location for the museum was first discussed in 1999, when the MOCA board of directors met with a consultant to identify a focus area. According to Snyder, it was then that they began targeting space in University Circle. Construction on the building, located near the intersection of Euclid and Mayfield, began in February and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2012. “We bookend one end of the block, and at the other end is Cleveland Institute of Art,” Snyder says. “It’s an amazing transformation of this two-block area to become what we hope will be a very lively pedestrian area with culture.” http://cbcmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=248&Itemid=82

Looks like no one was seriously hurt: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/fire-spreads-to-3-apartment-buildings-in-Clevelands-little-italy-neighborhood

Fire in Little Italy right now on E. 120 st. At least one house is completely gone but I can't tell if the fire has spread. I awoke to the sound of fire trucks... They are still battling the blaze as I type this... :(

Yes--in regards to CSU's current policies of the area, that could potentially affect development. Changing CSU's policies can better promote the area as a dynamic place to live, specifically the livability of CollegeTown...spurring more development and getting more bodies down there.

I have a complaint about the current progress of CollegeTown...in particular CSU's side of things. University-owned entities close too early...very early. How can you have a 24-hr neighborhood full of students with a library that closes at 6 pm during a weekday? I have a friend who attends Cleveland State, currently lives in Little Italy, who is/was considering moving down around campus. She said she has changed her mind recently and would much prefer to live in a neighborhood. Confused, I tried to tell her CSU is trying to build a neighborhood around campus, and she said it doesn't come close to comparing or feel welcome at all. She told me, for example, about yesterday: She took the Euclid Corridor down to CSU to work on a paper that was due by Midnight last night. It was about 1:50 pm and decided to get lunch at the Student Center at the local wrap place. They have posted hours of closing at 2 pm and when she was half-way in line, they notified everyone they were closing and her and the 10 other people still in line would have to go somewhere else--it was exactly 2 pm. Annoyed she walked around and all other lunch places were closed...except for Bar Uno. She ended up finding somewhere outside. Then, she was back in the library at around 5:45 pm (remember this is a weekday...Friday), when the announcement came over the loudspeaker the library would be closing in 15 min. Now her teacher had given instructions to email in her paper before midnight, and she was getting kicked out of here own university library six before her work was due. At promptly 6 pm, the workers came around and shut all the computers down. Frustrated, she called me and asked where else she could go to finish her paper, and asked when the CWRU library closes....I told her, it doesn't...as long as you are a student. In fact, CWRU has at least two 24-hr computer access areas on campus. So she left Downtown and returned to University Circle to finish her paper. The point is all this is although CollegeTown is slowly progressing, CSU itself seems to be sticking to the older commuter school ways of doing business. Anyone agree?? She basically told me it makes more sense for her to commute instead of living around campus Downtown.

With Opening Day, fans treasure magical baseball event with family Published: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 9:05 PM Updated: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 9:45 PM By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer CLEVELAND, Ohio — Every Indians Opening Day, I think of the old baseball scorecards. They cost a dime, or maybe a quarter. They were just that, a card set up for keeping score. There was a roster with names and numbers. That mattered, because I remember some openers before the Indians had names on the back of their jerseys. With each scorecard, they gave up one of those mini-pencils. My father also kept score -- neatly -- then he'd stick that pencil behind his right ear, the scorecard in his lap. That's because Opening Day is about more than baseball. It's about family. It's about the person who took you to opening games when you were a kid. It's about anyone who takes a kid to a Progressive Field for Friday's 3:05 p.m. opener, the Indians against the Chicago White Sox. http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2011/03/with_opening_day_fans_treasure.html

One more hour!!!

I always thought it was the Maron family's penthouse .... "Byline: STAN BULLARD When Rick Maron and Judy Eigenfeld announced two years ago to friends in the eastern suburbs that they were moving to downtown Cleveland, they got the usual reaction: Friends cited crime worries and wondered how the couple could consider such a thing. After 30 years of living in Shaker Heights and raising their sons, Ari and Jori, in a house designed like a "milk carton,'' the East Side couple set their sights on converting the top floor of the Holiday Inn Express and Suites on Euclid Avenue into a suite they would eventually call home. " http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-150686926.html

Guys, I feel like these last two stories/topics have threads...and aren't so random...: Flats Developments (Non-Stonebridge or FEB) http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,6840.0.html NE Ohio: Cleveland Clinic Developments (Non - University Circle) http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,16069.msg174616.html#msg174616

^ Correct. They will breakground this summer. I think the projected day of ground-breaking is July 1st.

AMAZING!!! Cincy is looking great like usual.

Interesting read http://www.rejournals.com/2011/03/29/celebrating-a-resurgence-in-cleveland/

haha... Thanks!

Little Italy: - Public Transportatio - Tony Brush Park - Restaurants and bars - Walking distance to Case and museums - close to Coventry - affordable enough said ;)

However, the Casino, Convention Center/Medmart, and Aquarium will all be finished by the time these are all complete.

Thanks for the transfer... Hadn't seen the page before.

Thanks CO. I've added the two others. Obviously not all of these are going to happen, but there is a good we will see a few of these complete within the next 2-3 years.

Cleveland hotel additions/improvements recap: 1) Aloft Hotel (Downtown-Flats) $20 million -- 150 rooms -- completion 2013 http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/08/clevelands_flats_east_bank_hotel_will_carry_the_aloft_brand.html 2) Crown Plaza renovation into Westin? (Downtown) $45 million -- 472 rooms -- completion 2013 http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/03/sage_hospitality_optima_ventur.html 3) Schofield conversion Kimpton (Downtown) -- $40 million? -- 140 rooms, 24 apts - completion 2013? http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20100625/FREE/100629890 4) University Circle Courtyard by Mariott Hotel (University Circle) -- $27 million -- 150 rooms -- completion 2012 http://www.cleveland.com/business/in...el_will_b.html 5) Tudor Arms conversion to Double Tree (University Circle) -- $22 million -- 157 rooms -- completion 2011 http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2010/08/tudor_arms_renovation_is_bring.html And now, potentially: 6) Hilton brand hotel on St. Clair (Downtown) completion 2013? 7) Uptown Phase II hotel (University Circle) 8) Cleveland Board of Education Conversion (Downtown) 9) John Harkness Brown conversion (Downtown)

Whoa...thanks for the heads up Pugu and Hts121.

I wanted to report I was a big Cleveland tour guide this past weekend...unexpectedly too. I ended up showing around 3 different groups of people who were in town for various reasons. They were coming from: 1) Zurich 2) Miami 3) Buffalo All said they loved Cleveland and couldnt believe all the hidden gems around the city. The guy from Miami said he was even considering relocating here to the Little Italy neighborhood. The people from Zurich are now fans of the Cleveland Cavs, Cleveland Orchestra, Lola, l'ablatros, La Cav du Vin, Corner Alley, Foundation Room, Westside Market, and Great Lakes Brewery...they were here for the week so I made sure they knew where everything was. The Buffalo people said they were here for the RRHOF and little idea so much was here and were blown away. They told me they'd be back again to explore more. Of course I was enjoying every min and getting free drinks bought for me!

Looks like the new urban farm at E.67 and Superior is still pushing ahead: Cleveland Urban Farm Takes One Step Forward, One Step Back Posted by Vince Grzegorek on Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 10:02 AM One of Cleveland’s most ambitious urban farming projects took a big step forward and one step back last week. Community Greenhouse Partners raised enough money to start putting up its first “hoop house,” a greenhouse-type growing structure, at East 67th and Superior. But their attempt to have the water turned on in the rectory of St. George — the decommissioned church the group bought from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland — nearly ended in disaster. Water poured into the building, flooding the sacristy and a classroom. Quick action by volunteers and the donation of industrial fans and dehumidifers http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/03/29/cleveland-urban-farm-takes-one-step-forward-one-step-back

Cleveland is finally expanding into the IFL! :) :wink: The games will be played at the Q. Here's the league website: http://www.lflus.com/ More Than 200 Women Tryout for Lingerie Football Forty women will make the cut and be invited to compete at a mini-camp in April. If they survive the camp, 30 of them will go to training camp to compete for a coveted spot on the roster. Lingerie football began as Super Bowl half-time entertainment and has become the fastest growing sports league in the country: Sell-out crowds, big-time advertisers and now, a deal with MTV. The founder of the league sees Cleveland as the ideal city for expansion. "People eat, sleep and breathe football in Cleveland. And look at the support they put behind the Browns...and the Browns haven't done anything in quite some time. So if they can get behind the Browns in that way, imagine what we could do with Crush football at The Q? Especially given the NFL situation. If they go into a strike, this will be the only game in town," Mortaza said. http://www.kplr11.com/news/wjw-lingerie-football-league-tryouts-txt,0,6603631.story