KJP

I think Hough needs another riot so those ugly-ass houses get burned down and we can start over AGAIN. Even though it's nice to see the investment, I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I think of the dense, mixed-use neighborhood that had existed there. It was the kind of neighborhood that developers are trying to replicate today with lifestyle centers and they still can't match what Hough had. If you haven't already, visit http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2047.0 Or just look at this picture of Hough in the 1950s (scroll right to see the whole image):

I believe that ordinance was passed in the early- to mid-1990s? And I thought it applied only to the downtown area. One loophole -- that doesn't include buildings that have caught fire. When I first heard about the ordinance (I believe right after it was passed), a building at the corner of Prospect and East 4th Street burned under suspicious circumstances. The owner wanted to tear it down for a parking lot but the city said no, citing the new law.

Part of the reason why states are considering this is because they don't see gas prices going down. Indeed, the price for oil futures are higher into 2008 than they are now. There are simply not enough supplies. So how does this relate? Higher fuel prices mean slower or no growth in demand for fuel (less driving, more hybrid cars and increased use of alternative fuels). That translates into restricted growth and possibly even a decline in gas tax revenues. How transportation is funded in the future is already starting to become a big point of discussion in preparation for the next federal surface transportation reauthorization, as the current authoritization is due to expire just two years from now. Putting tolls on public roads is one option. Leasing or selling highways to private interests is another. A BTU tax is also on the table (basing your vehicle use tax on its energy efficiency measured in British Thermal Units). One this is for certain: the way you pay for highways today is not how they will paid for in the coming years. If change isn't made, the highways you drive will be in much worse condition.

They're definitely worth it. Cleveland's film commission has been pretty successful at luring movie, TV shows and commercials producers here. And, it's pretty cost-effective. They persuaded a feature movie production last year to film in Cleveland instead of Detroit (even though the plot was set in Detroit) and netted a $2 million economic impact from it. And that was for just two weeks of filming here!

Lucky, I write with a perspective of someone who has friends in Columbus and we often visit each other. I'm 38 years old, and most of my friends are in their mid-30s to mid-50s. But we are all urban-minded folk and have been doing the Cleveland-Columbus cultural exchange for the past 15 years or so. One of those friends posts here at UrbanOhio and has lived in both Cleveland and Columbus. I'd be interested in hearing his thoughts as well. Here are some random thoughts... I do agree that Columbus has a decent urban core, aligned mostly along High Street from German Village north to Clintonville. I've been most impressed with what's been happening the Arena District. My Columbus friends rightfully point to that area with pride. But something strange happens to them when they visit Cleveland. They often made comments of "It's a real city" and "We don't have that in Columbus." What causes them to make those comments? When they've said "It's a real city," we were at: > Tower City Center and looking out the windows toward the bridges spanning the Cuyahoga Valley (even though there isn't much below those bridges!); > After arriving on the Rapid at a crowded West Side Market and hearing a number of different languages spoken (too bad it's not open more than just four days a week and never late into the evening); > Standing at a window in the one of office high-rises downtown, looking over what is a pretty dense central business district (and, of course, it could always be denser); > Riding the Rapid through Tower City station at rush hour, with people and trains coming and going, my travel companion noted "This isn't Ohio -- I feel like I'm on the East Coast"; > And, of all places, walking up the hill on Main Avenue from the Flats to the Warehouse District on a busy Friday night, with traffic pounding the 1930s Shoreway viaduct overhead. > My building's seventh-floor rooftop patio on the Fourth of July watching fireworks at Edgewater Park to our east, Lakewood Park to our west and multiple suburban displays to our south. The lights of the Gold Coast high-rises lining the lake shore twinkled beyond on the muggy night. We had a good crowd up there, about half of whom were visiting other residents of my building. They all really enjoyed the urban setting. When they've said "We don't have that in Columbus," we were at: > Lake Erie's shoreline on Cliff Drive (near Edgewater Park) and just sat there on the grass, alternating their views between downtown to the right and the sunset to their left; > Coventry, Lakewood, Larchmere/Shaker Heights and anywhere else that has large concentrations of apartment buildings, especially old brownstones; > Various of R&B, jazz, and rock-and-roll clubs, whereas my friends don't care for country music or the music that younger people listen to, both of which seems to be played a lot in Columbus clubs; > Any Rapid station; > Jacobs Field, enjoying an evening ball game as the sun set over downtown; > North Coast Harbor during a recent air show with all the people, sidewalk vendors and general activity on the ground and in the sky; > The Flats 10 years ago, and the Warehouse District today, taking in the crowd scene which can be great for people watching; > Shaker Square. > The Galleria -- I had a few Columbus friends with me, and even though Galleria has too many vacancies, they remarked that it was still much nicer than City Center and then recognized it was the smaller of downtown Cleveland's two "malls." I reminded them of the Arcade, which at the time was still mostly retail. We headed there next. Now, you'll ask if these guys liked Cleveland so much, why don't they live here instead of Columbus? The one that did live here was working here while his family was in Columbus where his wife had a successful business. Another that moved to Columbus and is not happy there has been trying to get transferred here, but may have to wait to move until he retires in a few years. The others all like Columbus and see its potential for continued urbanization. What I think differentiates Cleveland most from Columbus is Cleveland's soul. You can feel this "thing" that's here, and it extends deeply into the community. It's the colorful history (both good and bad) of its old buildings, places and neighborhoods; its colorful, diverse and unpredictable people (who will bitch about the city amongst themselves but defend it to the end among outsiders) and its varied landscape (Midwestern to the west, somewhat Appalachian to the south esp. near Akron, and East Coast/New England to the east). Cleveland is about as organic as an inorganic thing can be.

Even so, lake waters near the shoreline usually do freeze over, as does the shallower western end of the lake. So you can stand on the shore and see nothing but ice. But once you go out several miles, then the lake opens up. It's true though that a total freeze over doesn't happen as often. When it does, you can literally walk to Canada. But that's definitely not recommended. Not just because you may encounter a thin spot and fall through, but you can easily get lost. I've been told by those who go ice fishing at least several miles out that you get very disoriented because there's no points of reference. You need a compass or a GPS device.

I think we need to first get a better handle on what are the messages we're trying to get across with these via images, text and design, as well as who the audience(s) we would want to reach. The primary goal, in my opinion, is to lead the audience (be it out of town or suburban) toward a conclusion that they think they are being led to (some other city), and then surprise them with a new conclusion (Cleveland). Such a method of presentation tends to cause the audience to look over and read the advertisement not once, but twice, and increases the likelihood that more of the information will be retained. Thus, when looking over the presentation, I think the flow of information should proceed from the upper-left to the lower-right. Of course, this depends on where the ad might appear. If it's on the left side of a newspaper or magazine page, no problem. If it's on the right-side page, then perhaps the information should flow more directly from the top to the bottom. The information (graphics and text) should not tell the audience they are learning about Cleveland until the very end. Instead, the dominant themes should convey an exciting urban product they would want to buy into -- one that provides them with the satisfaction, utility and, ultimately, a price that meets their needs. However, the price is likely not going to be such a big consideration for the suburban-directed marketing. Rather, for them, proximity to family will probably be a bigger selling point. Some of the key messages to present and the reasons why, are: > Crowds of people but in a sociable, urban, uplifting setting (avoid cloudy or excessively gritty scenes); destroy the empty, boring, depressing city persona; > Provide multiple messages in images as much as possible (ie: if you're showing the interior of an apartment then provide a window view to the city; if you're going to show a transportation resource then show how it relates and interacts with people and its surroundings). Remember that a picture can be worth a thousand words but it doesn't always. So pick your pics that won't limit the messages because you don't want to waste limited space; > Convey movement, activity, interaction, speed and energy in images; > use words like "growing," "expanding," "diversity," "large," "inspiring," "creative," "sociable," "youthful" and so on; > Cause people to redefine their expectations; > For the out-of-town audience, show all the benefits they would enjoy by living in this as-yet-unnamed area, and which are competitive with the areas they live in or near, then hit them with the low housing cost; > Also for the out-of-town audience, show them amenities that Cleveland has that even many of those cities don't -- an interconnected metropolitan park system with dozens of miles of biking/hiking trails; frequent rail service into the airport; proximity to the nation's most visited national park; the nation's greatest concentration of cultural institutions in University Circle; more golf courses than most cities (somewhere I read that Greater Cleveland has the most?); > For the suburban Cleveland audience (I assume to be young people?), tap into their need for independence and exploration, yet stay accessible to family (I can see an ad showing a typical suburban home in the upper left with their family waving goodbye and this huge arcing arrow or swath coming away from the house, and within that swath you fill it with images of this exciting urban setting and then hit the audience with something like (Cleveland's downtown - the out-of-town experience in-town); Anyway, that's probably enough food for thought. Make the space and text count, because there's no way we're going to be able fit the entire message into the space available. And that's another selling point for our fair city!

To my knowledge, Alsenas wasn't invited. I will call him tomorrow to see if he is aware of the meeting that occurred today. There were presentations made by ODOT regarding the trench, the accidents, the takings, etc., but no agreement was made amongst the parties about a response, other than to continue to meeting and talking. One note, though, is that the affected CDCs are uniting to come up with some solutions and political pressure to force a more favorable outcome.

Here's the graphic of mine MayDay posted earlier...with the post brought over from the "Building 'Pesht' - Cleveland megaproject" thread in Projects/Construction: Using just a few of the terrific photos by UrbanOhio forumers, how about something like this to appear in suburban and out-of-town publications and other marketing material...(scroll right)

Wimwar, you probably read in the PD that Chris Ronayne considers that Phase I site as the poster child for developing parking lots downtown. Amazingly, the Warehouse District's master plan allows for significant density in that block, even with a set-aside for greenspace. How much density? Consider that the Wolstein development is 20 acres, and would have 340 housing units (plus retail, cineplex, etc). The Front Street Lofts would offer another 212-278 units (plus a little more retail). The WHD's master plan allows enough density for the Phase I block to build 500-600 housing units (plus retail, structured parking, greenspace et al) -- on just 8 acres! In other words, that block offers to increase the residential and retail population by as much as the Flats East Bank and Front Street Lofts combined, but on 1/3 less acreage. It would make a major difference in making the Warehouse District a truly viable urban neighborhood. I like the idea of narrowing the streets for wider sidewalks. Perhaps the wide streets in that neighborhood made sense back when there were lotsa trucks maneuvering to dock at the various warehouses. It doesn't make sense anymore. Come to think of it, I'm surprised the streets are wide at all, given that that neighborhood grew up in the era of the pedestrian city, when streets were narrow and blocks were short. Hopefully Stark has in mind some narrow but bright alleys for peds only, lined with lots of brick, ironwork, mom-and-pop shops and bistros.

Yes, by all means MayDay! Do you need any of the original images, or are you OK there? I will post the image as part of a new thread in the Ohio Business & Economy section.

Bad news for those of us who support the southern alignment for the Inner Belt bridge... There was a meeting held today between ODOT Director Gordon Proctor, Senator George Voinovich, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Councilman Joe Cimperman and others (ie: support staff and aides). Discussion topics included issues surrounding the Inner Belt trench and the alignment for the Cuyahoga Valley bridge. The end result of this meeting was an agreement by all parties to proceed with the northern alignment. As for the trench, all parties, including the affected CDCs, will continue to meet regularly in the next 45-60 days to come to an agreement on that issue. Thus, it appears the dream is dead for developing a walkable, high-density urban neighborhood next to the Gateway district on the south side. Forever more will the massive pile of concrete spaghetti blight the south side of downtown, while development (certainly the urban extent of it) will continue to be stifled beyond. What a waste of a wonderful opportunity. Unfortunately, I will not be able to write about this until next week's paper. So, if you can be patient, I will find out more details as best I can and share them here if I am able.

I recall an article from a year ago that said 2004's local venture capital amount was among the tops in the nation among major U.S. cities. I wonder what the 2005 figure will mean.

^Good point

And, yes, super photos! I love the views of downtown. Might there be any rooftop patios etc in some of the designs?

Using just a few of the terrific photos by UrbanOhio forumers, how about something like this to appear in suburban and out-of-town publications and other marketing material...(scroll right)

My father was born at St. Luke's, too, but a few years (OK, 50) before you. In fact, today is his 77th birthday. Glad to see the site is being re-used, and in a manner better than an earlier plan I saw which looked like it was transplanted from the suburbs.

^ I'll bet some of it is a trade-off, as the ground is very soft this time of year. Check out all the standing water in the Stonebridge construction pit. Not too good for supporting construction vehicles. But, like I said it's probably a trade off. I suspect workers would rather be stuck in the mud in 40-50 degree temps, than sliding on ice with a 0-degree windchill.

^ That's probably true.

Speaking of cute birds, who is the chick in the last picture?

As for the rest of the "Y Cleveland" area -- note the string about Front Street Lofts. I discovered who the developer of the project is -- Victor Shaia. He owns numerous parking lots downtown, including the one on which Front Street Lofts would be built. Other parking lots he owns are on Prospect and Superior avenues in the East 15th area, plus one on West Third Street between St. Clair and Lakeside. And guess what? Shaia and Tony J. Asher (developer of the 1.2-million-square-foot Tyler Village and property owner for Stark's Phase I) are card-playing friends who compete as a team in regional bridge tournaments. Shaia's retail broker for Front Street Lofts has its office in the same building where Stark's headquarters are located, a building owned by Stark. Shaia appears to be part of Stark's Y-Cleveland, along with Carney and possibly Ferchill. I mention Ferchill because he has been a local developer in absentia for too long (thanks in no small part to Mike White!), but the two development sites he is eyeballing are, perhaps not so coincidentally, in Stark's Y. One is the six-acre plot on Scranton Peninsula. The other is the $40 million condo development he let on to, located west of West 9th and north of Front Street. The latter is a pretty small piece of land, so you know how high you'd have to build to represent a $40 million residential project? I'm suspecting that's going to be at least 20 stories -- which is what the Warehouse District master plan shows for that site anyway (in fact, their plan shows two 20-story residential towers). There is an awful lot to keep track. Thus, I think the Downtown Cleveland Projects List needs updating -- and it needs a map that starts with Stonebridge on the west and goes as far as Tyler Village in the east, showing the who, what, when, where and why. I can produce such a map, but it will be a couple of days before I can start.

Check out Portland Tri-Met's new website, including its streetcar site.... http://trimet.org/index_new.htm

There also was an article about the Tyler Village development as part of today's PD section on Chinatown, but I posted that article in the Tyler Village string at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4058.msg72033#msg72033

Chinatown: 12 places to visit Sunday, January 22, 2006 World Cup Coffee Roasters, 2102 St. Clair Ave. Bo Loong Chinese Restaurant, 3922 St. Clair Ave. Siam Café, 3951 St. Clair Ave. Asia Plaza, 2999 Payne Ave. Seoul Hot Pot, 3709 Payne Ave. Artefino Art Gallery Café, Tower Press Building, 1900 Superior Ave. Phoenix Coffee, 2155 Superior Ave. Pho Hoa Restaurant, 3030 Superior Ave. No. 1 Pho, 3120 Superior Ave. Korea House, 3700 Superior Ave. Town Fryer, 3859 Superior Ave. Tastebuds, 1400 East 30th St.

^ My guess is that the goal is to draw in more businesses, better jobs and more well-moneyed residents so that Jhonnee is no longer surrounded by uneducated people like him. So, Jhonnee is faced with at least two choices.... One, he could seek a better life for himself, by working two crappy jobs during the day, and spending nights getting the education he never got. He emerges from that hell that many of us have to endure so we can become a marketable person for the workforce of today. Or, his lack of self-confidence gets the better of him and decides he can't afford to live in the neighborhood any more. All the higher-income residents and businesses have raised the property values and tax impacts. So he moves out so he can live with other uneducated, low-income people just like him and to artificially make Jhonnee feel better about himself again. If you live in Cleveland, you send your children to the Cleveland Municipal School District because the law says you have to send your kid somewhere. But families in the city today, who want more for their children, have many more choices than that. The number of charter and paroachial schools in the city have increased to the point where there are substantial choices available. I realize the supply of these (and the vouchers to make them affordable) is still not enough. But there is progress and it appears to be continuing. Unfortunately, for those of us who still believe in public education, the Cleveland Municipal School District is at risk of becoming a place where neglected children go to start the end of their lives.