Oldmanladyluck

Uh... "The Ohio Licensed Beverage Association commissioned the study by four professors from Hiram College TO BLOW HOLES in Issue 3..." pretty much sums up this half-ass story. The study was commissioned for the sole purpose of dissuading voters, making it blatantly biased. Give me a real study, not one covering only half the story.

I gotta say that I had no doubt that the city would get this event. Should be a great event in a GREAT CITY.

GREAT WORK CLEVELAND!!!!

The presentation at the last City Planning Commission meeting showed the aquarium at 55,000 sqft, and was approved by the CPC. I wonder where the PD is getting their numbers from as well; though a 125,000 sqft aquarium would be great, this is inaccurate information.

Great to see this neighborhood get some recognition. Developments like this can change the perception of the city to outsiders who wouldn't otherwise venture into the area. I plan on visiting this weekend to see what's going on.

^KJP- have you spoken with Weston about his plans for the project? It would be great if the bricks could be saved from this structure and used in some type of way.

Having it behind Tower City leaves the Scranton Peninsula vacant for "future" development. As much as Forest City has been holding that land as a carrot in front of the city for big projects, I don't know if they could get anything bigger than having a casino directly behind Tower City. That would have to be the highest and "best" use of land for them as land owners/developers.

I believe that is what he was speaking of in regards to "clustering" all entertainment within downtown Cleveland for the greatest effect. Putting it behind Tower City would do just that. A person could leave the casino, go shopping or to a movie in Tower City, then go to a game at the Q, while being a stone's throw away from Progressive Field. All of that within a short walk of E. 4th Street, Gateway, and the Warehouse District. I like the plan. I just hope that the city is able to market itself properly IF the measure passes as a true tourist destination.

^Thanks for posting those. If this were to go on the Scranton Peninsula in Cleveland, IMAGINE the riverfront potential directly south of Tower City...

Senior public housing in place of this... probably with craptacular design. Though having residents on this stretch of Euclid is better than having an abandoned building, I'm still frustrated that more planning did not go into this site from the owner. If the building was structurally sound, senior housing would have been a good adaptive reuse for the existing structure. We could have kept a part of the history of Euclid Ave. which keeps slipping away, day by day, demolition by demolition. The City Planning Commission HAS to do a better job of preserving what is left of our historic physical infrastructure. I, personally, just don't see how the sake of having something "new" on the street justifies the loss of buildings such as this one. This building, along with the current demolition of OCPM, are tragic losses which the city will look back on when these are replaced by mediocre structures which could be placed in Anywhere USA. I don't blame the owner... the owner is obviously looking for the best use of the property along this stretch. Unfortunately, through his research he probably found that senior public housing was the best use for the property. I BLAME THE CITY- and the lack of leadership on all sides, including within City Planning. This frustrates me to no end.

^That's GREAT news! Creating an attractive K-12 school downtown would draw more families to the area. Great move!!

^And the Moda was a GREAT space. Now that you mention it, it is kinda surprising that the space has not been reused yet.

^Especially with the available tax credits from the State, which would require apartments for 5 years before conversion to condos. How sweet would that be- condos on E. 9th in a historic building?! Yep, I'm in.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the problem with the Detroit model is that the state pulled funds originally allocated to the city yearly after the casinos arrived. This made the casino funds fill up the hole left by the state, which would eventually lead to problems. I don't know why so many Clevelanders love to bash Detroit, as if Cleveland hasn't seen the same predicament, and is at best, only a couple steps ahead. The amount of abandonment that is plastered all over national news that Detroit is seeing? Those of us from Cleveland know that the same thing is happening in this city's neighborhoods, only we don't get the same coverage (albeit thankfully... we have enough bad news from the local media). Enough about Detroit and other cities. This is Cleveland.

I'm working on a project in my UST 610 class regarding the possibilities of the Scranton Peninsula. I haven't considered a casino there, but who knows? I don't see Forest City turning away the prospect of a new casino on their land, even if they don't own the casino outright. They could charge plenty for the lease of that land.

Politics...

^Preach!

The blog also fails to mention that we are in some sh!tty times, with banks across the country not lending towards construction projects nationwide. This isn't just happening in Ohio. The bad part of the whole situation is the fact that if Wolstein could have payed off the former property owners INSTEAD of dragging everyone through eminent domain, he would have had enough time to get construction started BEFORE the banks stopped lending. Now we're stuck with an empty east bank which may not be developed in the near-term. I don't see his lease agreements holding up either... to my understanding it was all or nothing for this project. I hate to even think of this, but I really hope that this project does not go the way of the Scranton Peninsula, which was planned for development in the 80s. Talk about valuable land sitting vacant... And yep, Chicago changed the direction of it's river flow a long time ago. Doing the same for the Cuyahoga would do little, as the Cuyahoga does not connect to any other river system. I believe the Chicago River eventually finds it's way to the Mississippi, carrying all of Chicago's waste (and other large metro areas waste as well) to Louisiana. Our river is a sandy color due to all of the run-off of sediments upstream, which has accelerated because of surface parking lots, sprawl, etc. We can forget about actually having a "blue" river... I love my Cuyahoga anyways.

Well said. As I don't support the PD any longer (and haven't for years), it's no problem for me to NOT post any more of their bush!t articles. We learn so much from each other through discussion than we will ever learn from reading a biased news article.

That's one sexy building! That has always been my favorite building downtown since I was little. Thanks for the pics!

^Agreed. Good points made.

To be serious, the entire Pierre's plant is set back from the street with a black fence in front of it. There is greenspace directly to the west of the complex, where the warehouse will go. I would assume that the planning commission won't allow the warehouse to look like just "anything". Pierre's is what it is- I would rather have them expand here- even on Euclid- than to loose them to another municipality/region/state later. As long as SOME type of above par design is part of the proposal, I'll be ok with it. I honestly don't know how to feel about this section of Euclid. Part of me wants to scream out that we're squandering the greatest opportunity for our main thoroughfare with these proposed developments. Another part of me wants to just wait and see what happens in regards to whatever plan is in place for Midtown. But I surely feel that the LACK of a concise, well thought-out plan for this street could possibly lead to us missing a great opportunity for one of the nation's greatest avenues. If there is a plan for the street, as of right now, I'm not a fan of the planner.

Well, the "future" clinic building better be one kick-ass magical building, better than anything the Clinic has built thus far.

That would be GREAT!!! I love it!

I can't wait for the top section of the tower to be totally lighted! And the TT looks GREAT!