MidwestChamp

What an amazing first post! Welcome!

Sifco, right? I interviewed there a few years ago. My grandparents said a lot of people initially thought it was war related sabotage. I asked them about it when I was little because of "The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread". Had this been a Jewish neighborhood, that would have probably increased said suspicions. I was under the impression it was Slovenian, though. It was definitely Slovenian then and to this day still has (older) Slovenian residents, plus the area's largest Slovenian National Home (there's like 6 total in Cleveland) and St. Vitus is still the communities main Parish. It's also true that at the time people thought it might have been war related, and at the time there was confusion as to what was going on, as one would expect. One resident at St. Vitus Village told me that she was a student at St. Vitus school (now St. Martin dePorres) and they were rushed into the bomb shelter and stayed until the all clear was given. They also had to wait until their parents could get to them, which was difficult because of rubble in the streets, rescue workers and firefighters in the area...general confusion as one would expect. It's just a really fascinating but tragic history all around. Grdina Park, in the last picture, stands were homes once stood on 61st and 62nd street. That brick building behind the park is Dominion East Ohio's local headquarters as they still occupy the site.

The area north of St. Clair on East 61 and 62 Streets is sometimes locally referred to as Little Parma because of the 1950's style brick bungalows on these streets that otherwise seem so out of place amid the 1900's colonials elsewhere in the neighborhood. Stop into Sheliga's drug on 62nd and St. Clair and ask the old ladies at the register about the explosion and you'll get some great stories about that day.

If that's indeed the case would that be a positive for the city? Would that allow for them to shift flights to concourse D and completely rebuild the older concourses one at a time, shifting flights as concourses are widened and improved once by one? I've always thought that the one good thing with the UAL reduction was the opportunity to completely rebuild the airport from the ground up in phases. Mind you this is just a rumor. The person who posted that tidbit offered no source or corroborating data. It could very well mean that another airline is interested. I don't think it means that the airport will utilize the gates while rebuilding other concourses in phases. Hopkins is still $800,000,000 in debt as a result of phased remodeling and I think before any big capital improvements are made they will have to retire or reissue debt under better terms to lower the interest. Also, it could just mean that the City and UAL have agreed to a lease buy-out whereby the City get a lump sum payment and the keys to the concourse. Wow $800M is a lot! I'm guessing that's a collection of all of the work done in the 90's through now, including interest. Seems like new airports are build for not too much more...maybe $1-2B. Every time I fly I just wish we could open up our concourses more. We've expanded the runways, I'd hope we can put money into substantial rebuilding of the terminal.

If that's indeed the case would that be a positive for the city? Would that allow for them to shift flights to concourse D and completely rebuild the older concourses one at a time, shifting flights as concourses are widened and improved once by one? I've always thought that the one good thing with the UAL reduction was the opportunity to completely rebuild the airport from the ground up in phases.

Wow. Thank you for that history KJP!! Those old photos / postcards are awesome.

KJP I'm looking at the first picture and last picture (map) in your post...is that really the central market sitting in the middle of the intersection?? I assumed that building in the first pic was some kind of trolley/transit hub until I saw the map at the end. It just seems odd to have the market sitting in the middle of a 5 way intersection. I knew there was a central market, but for whatever reason that's not what I pictured. If that's the market that is a piece of Cleveland history I didn't know, and I can't picture how that worked.

IMO that pic shows great style and material harmony between the CC, MM and hotel. Looks really good.

I'm a bit late posting this, but St. Clair Superior wins another very large grant to support their redevelopment efforts at East 55th and St. Clair New $735,000 Kresge grant aims to help St. Clair-Superior residents share in revitalization (photos) By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer on April 26, 2015 at 8:15 AM, updated April 27, 2015 at 7:16 AM CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan, has made a $735,000 grant to the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood to show how redevelopment efforts involving art and food can benefit long-term residents, not just newcomers. The grant, described in detail exclusively to The Plain Dealer by the nonprofit St. Clair Superior Development Corp., will support "Ag|re|culture." The initiative is part of a revival of interest in equity planning, a practice aimed at making sure everyone benefits from urban redevelopment, not just those who already enjoy advantages. In St. Clair-Superior, the focus is on helping low- and moderate-income residents partake directly in the the neighborhood's cultural projects and local food movement by supporting cooking clubs, neighborhood ambassadors, gardening mentorships and other programs. http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2015/04/new_735000_kresge_grant_to_st.html

Agreed. The more the Cavs win the more angry sports writers will trot out old lines about Cleveland. It's the nature of sports and the trash talking that will ensue between cities. In our case it's just particularly sensitive because we've historically been the brunt of not-so-fun natured trash talk about our city, and we're working hard to change perceptions right now. Just wait until Chicago's Joekim Noah comes back to town... :drunk:

In more happy news...positive press from Forbes...FORBES!!! Great Urban Weekend Escapes: Cleveland By Larry Olmsted Contributor LeBron James isn’t the only one suddenly rediscovering Cleveland these days. Increasingly it’s showing up on various hot lists for cities, attractions and dining, while enjoying a Downtown renaissance. Landing the 2016 Republican National Convention anchors a slew of additional urban redevelopment and new hotels, while a surprisingly impressive slate of tourist attractions already draw visitors. Ohio’s prodigal NBA son is only one example of what is known locally as the “Cleveland Boomerang,” with many once displaced natives returning home, lured by the combination of dramatic quality of life improvements and low cost of living. http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2015/04/21/great-urban-weekend-escapes-cleveland-oh/

While it did have some gross inaccuracies it does seem shady that rather than correct the issues they pulled the positive article about CLE at the same time that this article totally ripping the city was published. Guess they changed their minds about "Cleveland Rocking" once LeBron rocked the Celtics.

^My best friend worked at Super City in the mid 90's while we were in high school...fun times!

Man those stairways are claustrophobia-inducing!

The Rooftop Party Deck at Coors Field was not part of Coor's Field's original plan. But you're right it is still not apples to apples, because according to this article from the Denver Post, they did "an extensive redesign and renovation to the upper right-field seating area and concourse." http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_24275380/rockies-unveil-plan-bar-restaurant-upper-deck-right For the $25M the Indians spent we were never going to get a redesign of the upper deck while I'm sure the Rockies spent substantially more to redesign the actual stadium (I'd be curious to know how much more, this article doesn't say). I was ok with that since the Indians did not ask for public dollars, but they totally cheaped out on the design and materials used for these boxes and it shows. And that takes away from some great work they did on the concourse and concession areas. There is an article in today's PD that shows the middle boxes painted green, which does help some, and shows some of the better aspects of this project. http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/04/9_things_about_progressive_fie.html#incart_big-photo

^From the article: "Anticipated milestones include completion of the hotel tower by September 18, with completion of the hotel's facades a month later. "You're going to see some pretty dramatic work on that tower this summer," Appelbaum said." The article also says about 12 stories of the tower are complete, so by September they should be done with all 32 floors...completing 20 floors in about 20 weeks...should be fun to watch!

What about a place our of the three C's but larger than a small town? Dayton would be awesome, but so would Toledo and Akron...showing those cities some love.

Two things: 1. The other parts of the renovation do look to have been done well. Unfortunately the terrace boxes are the most visible part of the renovation and they were done so poorly that that's really all you can see / focus on. 2. It is interesting to note that the Browns and Cavs each completed or proposed more sweeping (and expensive) updates to their facilities while also asking for public dollars. While this renovation definitely looks value driven, it did not include public dollars. I guess I'm using that rationale to find some favor-ability in this situation. Local dollars can certainly be put to more pressing needs than paying for stadium updates that owners should pay for. I'm curious how other UO posters feel about that.

^that's how it looked to me, but again it was a cloudy day too and it could be more the way the sun hits it. I was driving and couldn't take a picture unfortunately.

I think it's just that picture. I had a meeting at 9th and St. Clair earlier this week and looking at the building from that intersection the glass on all the sides looked frosted. It was also a cloudy day, so maybe it depends on how the sun hits the glass.

I hope you're right but from the looks of things in these pictures it will take a bible-sized miracle to bring this all together in 7 days...

Looks to me like they just created a bunch of billboards in the upper deck :-(

I love the pace at which this seems to all be coming together. So often in the past it seems like a project this size takes a decade before anything substantial happens. Loving this momentum!

^I hope so, I love the walk up style.

I brought this over from the Midtown page since it's in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood. Cafe 55's opening is the 2nd retail offering at Hub 55, a game changing mixed use development for the St. Clair neighborhood and part of the larger redevelopment of East 55th and St. Clair. Stay tuned throughout the year...