Looking for a map of Cleveland and its neighborhoods* ?

 

I've been working on creating a large map of Cleveland's neighborhoods. It's about the size of 36x27 (in.) if printed.

 

A full size version of the map and some more information about the project can be found at http://skorasaurus.wordpress.com/cleveland-neighborhood-map/

 

There's numerous neighborhoods that haven't been added including Lee-Harvard, Stockyards, Glenville and for these, I don't know the borders for them and would like to hear your opinions.

 

I would also love to hear about any other neighborhoods that I have neglected to add, incorrect borders to added neighborhoods, or anything else that relates to the map.

All of the data besides the neighborhood boundaries is from openstreetmap.org

I've collected the neighborhood boundaries from 2007 SPAs, a few CDCs' service maps, some personal knowledge, and advice from fellow UO's .

 

 

Thanks,

Will

 

This is the map currently: [updated Dec. 21, 2011]

What's the CSU, Tri-C area called now??

What's the CSU, Tri-C area called now??

 

I see them as different. Tri-C being more of a part of Central, while CSU being more with Downtown

The old Stockyard service area was bounded by I-90 to the north, roughly W. 44th to the east, W. 82nd to the west, and Denison to the south.

 

ClevelandOhio, Thanks. I've used that nhlink map (it's the 2007 SPAs) as a reference for mine but I chose to create my own for a couple reasons:

- that ignores several neighborhoods including Slavic Village, Larchmere, and any neighborhoods in downtown (flats, warehouse dist),

- I'd like a map that would be large enough to be printed as a 25x35inch~ size.

- it didn't include roads on it

- and lastly, IMHO, the colors on that map are a bit ugly.  :laugh:

 

What's the CSU, Tri-C area called now??

 

I think it's beginning to be branded as the 'campus district'. I don't know if any signs have been created and displayed within that neighborhood or how much it's used in the lexicon [i'll ask a few interns from CSU on Friday] of CSU students today. Perhaps it's a neighborhood in utero =)

 

 

yeah its not the best, but I think it can be a nice reference point for you map.

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?

 

That would be a cool map item.  Don't know if it's ever been done before.  The closest I've seen is the city kiosks, which at least note commercial districts.  But they seem to miss a lot of them. 

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?

 

I'm a little confused on this question.

Many neghborhoods have a focal point, like a main drag or a main intersection.  Some more than others.

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?  That depends on how you define a neighborhood.  In recent years I think the notion of a neighborhood has been diluted.  It is now considered nothing more than a large collection of homes.  Any large housing development is now called a neighborhood.  Applebey's - "your neighborhood bar". 

To me a neighborhood is something like Cedar/Fairmount, Ohio City, Little Italy, Tremont, Coventry, etc.  All of these places have a "downtown" surrounded by housing.  I think that in the "olden days" neighborhoods were like small towns located within the larger city.

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?  That depends on how you define a neighborhood.  In recent years I think the notion of a neighborhood has been diluted.  It is now considered nothing more than a large collection of homes.  Any large housing development is now called a neighborhood.  Applebey's - "your neighborhood bar". 

To me a neighborhood is something like Cedar/Fairmount, Ohio City, Little Italy, Tremont, Coventry, etc.  All of these places have a "downtown" surrounded by housing.  I think that in the "olden days" neighborhoods were like small towns located within the larger city.

 

Sorry if I'm in the mood for semantics, 327, how would you define a focal point ?

 

With regards to my map, every neighborhood on there has a downtown. Right of the cuff, I would define a downtown as an area that has more traffic: pedestrians, vehicles, and places to visit (whether they're a govt. building, private business, place of worship), and a variety of types of places  than other areas of the same neighborhood. However I may be wrong, and there may be a neighborhood that does not have a downtown.

^^Along those lines, there are many, many different conceptions/definitions of neighborhoods, including the official planning subareas on the map ClevelandOhio posted, the Named Districts that planners and real estate people have spawned with increasing numbers in recent years (The Art Quarter, Market Square District, District of Design, etc.), the service areas of different CDCs, and maybe the most interesting ones, the perceptions of neighborhoods that local residents actually have, which often evolve over time, and often involve hierarchies of sub-neighborhoods.  There is some overlap between all these, but also a lot of indifference of each towards the other.

 

Out of curiosity, how many of the official planning subareas or whatever they're called do people actually hear used by residents in casual talk?  I guess the easiest ones are Hough, Glenville, Downtown, Ohio City, University (close enough to University Circle), Collinwood [lumped together?], [Old?] Brooklyn, and Tremont (though not for all of the area shown there).  And certainly "normal" people seem to use Detroit Shoreway now, and Edgewater, Cuddell, and Mt. Pleasant.  I use St. Clair-Superior, but I don't know how widespread that is for "normal" people on the street.

 

What about others?  Do people know if someone from "Riverside" would actually say that to help communicate where they live?  What about Kamms?  Is that the same as "West Park" (which I hear a lot more often)?  Jefferson?  Woodland Hills and Forest Hills?  Does anyone ever use Goodrich/Kirtland park in casual conversation?  I'm really curious what people think.

 

 

^^Along those lines, there are many, many different conceptions/definitions of neighborhoods, including the official planning subareas on the map ClevelandOhio posted, the Named Districts that planners and real estate people have spawned with increasing numbers in recent years (The Art Quarter, Market Square District, District of Design, etc.), the service areas of different CDCs, and maybe the most interesting ones, the perceptions of neighborhoods that local residents actually have, which often evolve over time, and often involve hierarchies of sub-neighborhoods.  There is some overlap between all these, but also a lot of indifference of each towards the other.

 

The criteria (of what defines a neighborhood) seems quite messy to me, and there's multiple stakeholders as you mentioned that defined neighborhoods. There's subareas within neighborhoods, gordon square and detroit-shoreway, for example. In the case of Gordon Square/DS, Gordon Square feels like the downtown of DS. Are they two separate neighborhoods ? I don't know, probably not, however, I was thinking about adding Gordon Square shortly after I started making the map months ago, as one of the guiding questions that I hoped to answer while making it was answering 'where is Gordon Square ?' and 'West Park (as you had mentioned). ?'

 

(Or is Gordon Square, also a state of mind, like New York and California  :-D  --- I mostly kid).

 

Another point of yours that I highlighted is that the identities of neighborhoods have evolve over time and that the local residents perceptions,  which haven't been mentioned yet, are important to consider.

 

 

What about others?  Do people know if someone from "Riverside" would actually say that to help communicate where they live?  What about Kamms?  Is that the same as "West Park" (which I hear a lot more often)?  Jefferson?  Woodland Hills and Forest Hills?  Does anyone ever use Goodrich/Kirtland park in casual conversation?  I'm really curious what people think.

 

I also wonder about this as well as I learned about the Cleveland SPAs and was one reason I sought the opinions here on UO. For example, I've had acquaintances and friends refer to the area of Kamms (although they don't live in Kamms), increasingly in the past 2 years since I moved back to Cleveland full-time, but I've heard west park more often.

 

The evolution of these neighborhood concepts and name is really interesting.  Pretty sure "Tremont" is a pretty young name for the neighborhood, and that it was known as "Lincoln Heights" or the South Side just a few decades ago.  Would love to know how "Tremont" became ascendant and stuck.  I also wonder if people ever said "Detroit Shoreway" 40 years ago or if it is just the creature of planners and relatively recent marketing.  And of course some neighborhoods/names have completely died off, like Doan Corner.

The evolution of these neighborhood concepts and name is really interesting.  Pretty sure "Tremont" is a pretty young name for the neighborhood, and that it was known as "Lincoln Heights" or the South Side just a few decades ago.  Would love to know how "Tremont" became ascendant and stuck.  I also wonder if people ever said "Detroit Shoreway" 40 years ago or if it is just the creature of planners and relatively recent marketing.  And of course some neighborhoods/names have completely died off, like Doan Corner.

 

I'll ask my dad, he grew up there in the 50s/60s [Tremont]. he and his buddies nearly always refer it to the south side. He groaned when I recently told him that it's now the name of a trendy yuppie bar in the area.

In my experience people use Kamm's Corner or West Park, but don't use any of the other sub-names around there.  Jefferson is West Park.  I've heard people from "Jefferson" state this with great conviction, and I think that's because it's on the border of not-West-Park.  Another example of this is NORTH Collinwood.  South Collinwood is Collinwood, but North is decidedly North.  And on the neighborhood-downtowns thing, Kamm's Corner is definitely the downtown of West Park.  Maybe that's why those terms get used interchangeably.

 

I would define a neighborhood downtown exactly as skorasaurus and TMH did.  There's some fairly big ones that don't have a "neighborhood" to call home, like Lorain Station.  As far as what constitutes a neighborhood, I don't think there's any way to answer that.  Or too many.  Cleveland used to be intricately balkanized on ethnic lines.  "St Clair-Superior" was several distinct enclaves, as were many of the current designations.  I think that context makes the whole idea of a Slavic Village or an Asiatown seem weird.  Next we'll be calling Clark Avenue the downtown of Hispanic Heights.  Here's some Lithuanians, let's call this The Baltic District.  Or Baltic-vania, who cares if the word makes no sense.  Those kinds of over-generalizations have an out of touch vibe and I don't like them.  Not sure what the answer is but that ain't it. 

^Next thing you know we'll have a Little Italy!

Should every neighborhood have a "downtown"?  That depends on how you define a neighborhood.  In recent years I think the notion of a neighborhood has been diluted.  It is now considered nothing more than a large collection of homes.  Any large housing development is now called a neighborhood.  Applebey's - "your neighborhood bar". 

To me a neighborhood is something like Cedar/Fairmount, Ohio City, Little Italy, Tremont, Coventry, etc.  All of these places have a "downtown" surrounded by housing.  I think that in the "olden days" neighborhoods were like small towns located within the larger city.

 

Wow, that generated a lot of great discussion.  My first thought was that every city councilman should know where the "downtowns" were in his or her ward.  But the ward boundaries seem pretty arbitrary in some details.

 

My train of thought then led to wondering how well the ward boundaries line up with traditional neighborhood boundaries, and what we could do to revitalize these neighborhoods.  We all hear about how the city of Cleveland proper has a lot of problems with building vacancies and poverty and related problems.  We have all of these layers of social organizations, political boundaries, police/fire station boundaries, etc. 

 

IMHO, to make the city a place where people want to live, everyone should live within walking distance of a downtown area.  Some place where the people in that area can gather and meet.  In some places it might be a transit stop and a coffee shop.  Other places could include a library or a bar or a grocery store or dry cleaner or hardware store or farmer's market, etc.  Coventry in Cleveland Heights and Little Italy and East 4th and the West Side Market area are all neighborhood "downtowns" that many people admire, but each is a little different in character.  If we encourage the development of these kinds of concentrated pedestrian-friendly business districts so that everyone in an area is within walking distance of such a place, I think that would make those neighborhoods more appealing and help to rejuvenate the city of Cleveland. 

 

Mapping the existing "neighborhood downtowns" and potential sites for further development would be helpful in making that happen. 

^Next thing you know we'll have a Little Italy!

 

There used to be several of them plus a Big Italy.  Detroit-Shoreway was a Little Italy, or at least it had one.

 

The ward boundaries are gerrymandered to high heaven.  In many cases they prevent neighborhood cohesion.  Shaker Square, for example, is split among at least two wards.  This is because Mt. Pleasant was intentionally cut in two in a failed attempt to eliminate Zack Reed.  Tremont is attached to downtown and parts east, even though you have to travel through other wards just to get from Tremont to downtown.  Old Brooklyn and South Broadway are now combined.  It's all goofy.

 

Foraker I completely agree that we need to nurture our neighborhood downtowns.  I think they're key to getting the city turned around.  Like Strap's tag says, Cleveland is a bunch of grapes (love that quote), and these commercial districts are the seeds from which we can regrow it.

Out of curiosity, how many of the official planning subareas or whatever they're called do people actually hear used by residents in casual talk?  I guess the easiest ones are Hough, Glenville, Downtown, Ohio City, University (close enough to University Circle), Collinwood [lumped together?], [Old?] Brooklyn, and Tremont (though not for all of the area shown there).  And certainly "normal" people seem to use Detroit Shoreway now, and Edgewater, Cuddell, and Mt. Pleasant.  I use St. Clair-Superior, but I don't know how widespread that is for "normal" people on the street.

 

What about others?  Do people know if someone from "Riverside" would actually say that to help communicate where they live?  What about Kamms?  Is that the same as "West Park" (which I hear a lot more often)?  Jefferson?  Woodland Hills and Forest Hills?  Does anyone ever use Goodrich/Kirtland park in casual conversation?  I'm really curious what people think.

 

As a resident, Old Brooklyn is always referred to as Old Brooklyn by its residents, not to be confused with Brooklyn, which is a suburb.

 

In my experience people use Kamm's Corner or West Park, but don't use any of the other sub-names around there.  Jefferson is West Park.  I've heard people from "Jefferson" state this with great conviction, and I think that's because it's on the border of not-West-Park.  Another example of this is NORTH Collinwood.  South Collinwood is Collinwood, but North is decidedly North.  And on the neighborhood-downtowns thing, Kamm's Corner is definitely the downtown of West Park.  Maybe that's why those terms get used interchangeably.

 

 

Thanks for the clarifications, I never knew about the terms for those neighborhoods. :clap:

 

 

Wow, that generated a lot of great discussion.  My first thought was that every city councilman should know where the "downtowns" were in his or her ward.  But the ward boundaries seem pretty arbitrary in some details.

 

My train of thought then led to wondering how well the ward boundaries line up with traditional neighborhood boundaries, and what we could do to revitalize these neighborhoods.  We all hear about how the city of Cleveland proper has a lot of problems with building vacancies and poverty and related problems.  We have all of these layers of social organizations, political boundaries, police/fire station boundaries, etc. 

 

IMHO, to make the city a place where people want to live, everyone should live within walking distance of a downtown area.  Some place where the people in that area can gather and meet.  In some places it might be a transit stop and a coffee shop.  Other places could include a library or a bar or a grocery store or dry cleaner or hardware store or farmer's market, etc.  Coventry in Cleveland Heights and Little Italy and East 4th and the West Side Market area are all neighborhood "downtowns" that many people admire, but each is a little different in character.  If we encourage the development of these kinds of concentrated pedestrian-friendly business districts so that everyone in an area is within walking distance of such a place, I think that would make those neighborhoods more appealing and help to rejuvenate the city of Cleveland. 

 

Mapping the existing "neighborhood downtowns" and potential sites for further development would be helpful in making that happen. 

 

Not to shift the discussion (perhaps it should have its own thread), the ward boundaries are quite arbitrary, imho. In 2009, the last round of redistricting, Old Brooklyn went from being a part of 2 wards [split by Kevin Kelly, and then, Ward #15, last councilman was Cummins] to 3, Kelly, Cimperman, and Brancatelli. Although it's possible for collaboration among CDC's and their councilman, I'd image that the CDC's could work more efficiently by having one councilman in their neighborhood. Having one councilman/neighborhood could promote better planning within the neighborhood with one unified development plan.  Secondly, Cimperman doesn't pay much attention to his little area south of the steelyards..  :roll:

 

As for the downtown areas, I wonder: should each neighborhood try to have a downtown that is each a little different in character and specialize to reach a certain constituency or culture ? The more vibrant neighborhoods right now are the ones that have specialized niches: Conventry, WSM, LI..  But then I wonder... Is that increased vibrancy [relatively higher than other neighborhoods] due to the neighborhood's specialization/niche, or the city and foundation's willingness to invest in those neighborhoods and put them in the NSP (neighborhood specialization program).... As I write this, I'm guessing the increased vibrancy is a result of both....

Just for fun, here's an old ethnic map of what most of us picture as the old ethnic areas:

 

Question for ya'll:  Does anyone know anything about the neighborhood that St. Martin de Porres HS is in?  There's an event there tomorrow that I'd like to attend, but I don't know ANYTHING about the neighborhood.

The school is located in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood (http://www.stclairsuperior.org), just south of a strip of pretty (though largely vacant) storefronts along St. Clair Ave. St. Clair Superior is huge, running from East 30th almost to University Circle, and different parts have distinctly different feels ... St. Clair-Superior also encompasses Asiatown to the west (http://www.asiatowncleveland.com). The part of the neighborhood that St. Martin de Porres is in is, in my opinion, struggling considerably more. That's not to say that it doesn't have some great anchors ... Slovenian National Home (http://www.slovenianhome.com), Goodrich-Gannett Neighborhood Center (http://www.ggnc.org), Empress Taytu Ethiopian Restaurant (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/16/201627/restaurant/East-Side/Empress-Taytu-Ethiopian-Cleveland) and Blue Pike Farm (http://bluepikefarm.com).

Thought I would cross-post our "where artists are located map" :) Not limited to Cleveland, but it does tease out "artist neighborhoods" in Cuyahoga County ... The places where artists are particularly concentrated in proportion to the total number of residents.

 

Now THAT is a cool map!

What's the history on the "Big Italy" on that ethnic neighborhood map? Was that centered around central market? I am also surprised that the Italian enclave up in between Father Caruso Dr and Detroit did not show up. Judging from what remains today that area was very Italian in the past.

I think the more impressive "other" Little Italy is the one along Fulton south of Clark.  There are actually still some Italian businesses there (e.g. Johnny's, Mazzone's Bakery, Jo-De's Pizza, Bruno's, that bar with the picture of Italy on it, and until a few years ago the import house on the corner of Clark and Fulton) and the greased pole climbing contest at the St. Rocco's fair every summer.

What's the history on the "Big Italy" on that ethnic neighborhood map? Was that centered around central market? I am also surprised that the Italian enclave up in between Father Caruso Dr and Detroit did not show up. Judging from what remains today that area was very Italian in the past.

 

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History has more comprehensive map of ethnic settlements here which show the other Italian neighborhoods:

http://ech.cwru.edu/Resource/Image/I01.gif

 

Thanks StrapHanger, I looked up "Big Italy" on the ECH, and it was a neighborhood at it's peak of about 5000 Italians that had a major importer and produce stand operator as it's main businesses. Weren't all the produce greenhouses in that general area too? I imagine though that most of the men worked in the mills.

 

http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=BI2

I love making and working with Cleveland maps! I actually used to have all 27 neighborhoods lined out on Microsoft Streets & Trips, but now use Mac so I don't access those files anymore. I have resorted to a gigantic map by Rand McNally of Cuyahoga County, which I had laminated and mounted. I then use dry erase marker to draw lines and use tacks to mark points. I'd be interested to give you info. if you like regarding anything.

 

One of the most enjoyable things is trying to find a way to not only track the 27 neighborhoods but also some of the neighborhoods in the inner rings: Cleveland Heights in particular. Cedar-Fairmount and Coventry for example are neighborhoods, but it's not so easy to draw the boundaries. When you factor in the new "Forest Hills Historic District" it gets trickier since it lies in both neighborhoods. All in all it's fun to work on and over time by not only plotting maps but driving/walking through the areas, you learn where real boundaries are, such as main artery roads and whatnot. As for Little Italy, that is within University, and Quadrangle is the official title (or at least it was) of CSU/Tri-C/St. Vincent. Some of the neighborhoods and districts are intertwined, such as MidTown, AsiaTown, Artists Quarter's, and so forth. As for even further micro-neighborhoods, some exist, some no longer exist, such as Poznan and the aforementioned Big Italy. Again, if you'd like to know more, just ask, or you're welcome to stop by and see my map - it's in my office downtown.

^ Cool stuff. Sent you a PM, but your mailbox is full!

 

Here's what I said about our artist map for anyone who's interested:

 

This map is from a huge study we recently completed called "Putting Artists on the Map". Due to the size of the study (a couple hundreds of pages!), we're releasing it in five installments over the next month. We've released two so far - an overview of the entire study (http://www.cpacbiz.org/ftp_file/10-11/PuttingArtistsontheMapSummary.pdf) and a breakdown of where artists are currently residing in Cuyahoga County (http://www.cpacbiz.org/ftp_file/10-11/PAMPart2.pdf). The next three installments include a survey of artists' preferences regarding buildings and neighborhoods, a regression analysis that predicts where artists will be living next in Cuyahoga County and an analysis of the type of building stock artists are currently living in. So stay tuned :)

 

All of this is happening opposite the launch of Artists in Residence (http://www.cpacbiz.org/ftp_file/10-11/ArtistsinResidenceGuideline.pdf), a new program where we'll be investing $500,000 in one Cleveland neighborhood over the next two years in an effort to increase artists' opportunities for ownership of space and to increase their role in neighborhood affairs. CDCs are applying to host the pilot program, and we should have one selected by the beginning of July.

 

You might also check out the thread "Cleveland and Its Artist Pioneers" (http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,25429.0.html), which includes more info on the Artists in Residence program and a bunch of articles on artists moving into the city.

 

^Thanks 8Shades for posting about this project.  I'm sure there are many others like me who are very interested in it but haven't had a chance to look at the reports yet so haven't posted anything about them yet.  I look forward to digging in when I get a chance.

 

The evolution of these neighborhood concepts and name is really interesting.  Pretty sure "Tremont" is a pretty young name for the neighborhood, and that it was known as "Lincoln Heights" or the South Side just a few decades ago.  Would love to know how "Tremont" became ascendant and stuck.  I also wonder if people ever said "Detroit Shoreway" 40 years ago or if it is just the creature of planners and relatively recent marketing.  And of course some neighborhoods/names have completely died off, like Doan Corner.

 

Tremont was always referred to as the South Side by its residents, businesses, and other stakeholders in the neighborhood (he moved there as a child and grew up there in the late 50s and 60s). As I'm writing this, I do wonder if the neighborhood Cleveland Public School, located on Tremont Ave, always had Tremont in its name, and I forgot to ask him that.

He said the use of Tremont as a name of the neighborhood didn't start until the 1980s, when the yuppies started moving in.

 

8shadesofgrey, great map !

 

^ Thanks! According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Tremont was part of Ohio City before the annex to Cleveland and was known as Cleveland Heights, University Heights and then Lincoln Heights before it was known as Tremont. And the neighborhood is named after Tremont School (Tremont Montessori today). http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=T7

Thanks everyone for your help and comments. I updated the map. An updated version is added in the first page of the post or if you don't want to scroll back, click http://skorasaurus.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/version4-1-final_2011_05_05-cnm-1290x996.png.

 

In this version,

I added Hough and renamed the Collinwood neighborhoods (as North Collinwood and Collinwood as 327 had mentioned) and updated the street data (imported from 2007 TIGER and verified and updated by myself and a few others) from Openstreetmap 

 

EDIT: Just realized that I forgot to include Ohio City in this version  :lol:

I'd take Edgewater down to the train tracks. No one refers to Clifton Blvd as being in the Cuddel neighborhood.

 

Thanks everyone for your help and comments. I updated the map. An updated version is added in the first page of the post or if you don't want to scroll back, click http://skorasaurus.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/version4-1-final_2011_05_05-cnm-1290x996.png.

 

In this version,

I added Hough and renamed the Collinwood neighborhoods (as North Collinwood and Collinwood as 327 had mentioned) and updated the street data (imported from 2007 TIGER and verified and updated by myself and a few others) from Openstreetmap 

 

EDIT: Just realized that I forgot to include Ohio City in this version  :lol:

Just wondering if it will get jumbled if you try to show every downtown district

Just wondering if it will get jumbled if you try to show every downtown district

 

I hope not and I'm optimistic that it won't, if I decrease the size the neighborhoods' names. The names would still be readable on a printed out copy (32inch by 25inch~). I'm playing around with different sizes and don't have a fixed size in mind yet.

Interesting. City of Cleveland redrawing it's statistical planning areas: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/07/cleveland_neighborhood_names_c.html

Interesting. City of Cleveland redrawing it's statistical planning areas: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/07/cleveland_neighborhood_names_c.html

 

I was about to post that, straphanger beat me to it by a couple hours,  :lol: though I gotta run now, I'll update a bit later today.

Utterly ridiculous. Why in the world would they get rid of the Edgewater name? They just put up new signs too. It's not like residents are going to start saying, I live in Clifton-Cuddel. No one ever uses the Cuddle name.

 

South Brooklyn? Aerotropolis? No Kamms Corners? WTF?

Utterly ridiculous. Why in the world would they get rid of the Edgewater name? They just put up new signs too. It's not like residents are going to start saying, I live in Clifton-Cuddel. No one ever uses the Cuddle name.

 

South Brooklyn? Aerotropolis? No Kamms Corners? WTF?

 

It would be a mistake to remove the Edgewater name. And it seems that Old Brooklyn residents are fighting to keep the name as it is. Aerotropolis sounds like a Disney movie.

This is happening all over, not just Cleveland.  Developers and in some cases neighborhood associations believe in "fresh starts" and name change makes "gentrification" and new development easier.

 

Right in Harlem, developers are trying to change the name of a portion below 125 to SoHa from the more common "Central Harlem"/"Harlem" or the historical "the flats" name.

 

This is happening all over, not just Cleveland.  Developers and in some cases neighborhood associations believe in "fresh starts" and name change makes "gentrification" and new development easier.

 

Right in Harlem, developers are trying to change the name of a portion below 125 to SoHa from the more common "Central Harlem"/"Harlem" or the historical "the flats" name.

 

 

I could see that being the case, but why change the name of the neighborhood in Cleveland that's one of the nicest in the city and replace it with a name that's not well known and associated with a mediocre housing stock? It should ne the reverse, give the neighborhood that's a bit fallen down the same name as a prominent neighborhood.

 

While we are at it, might as well start referring to Edgewater Park as Clifton-Cuddel Park.

Good grief, who's bright idea was it to not just give these zones numbers and continue to let folks call their neighborhood whatever they want.

This is happening all over, not just Cleveland.  Developers and in some cases neighborhood associations believe in "fresh starts" and name change makes "gentrification" and new development easier.

 

Right in Harlem, developers are trying to change the name of a portion below 125 to SoHa from the more common "Central Harlem"/"Harlem" or the historical "the flats" name.

 

 

I could see that being the case, but why change the name of the neighborhood in Cleveland that's one of the nicest in the city and replace it with a name that's not well known and associated with a mediocre housing stock? It should ne the reverse, give the neighborhood that's a bit fallen down the same name as a prominent neighborhood.

 

While we are at it, might as well start referring to Edgewater Park as Clifton-Cuddel Park.

 

That the Million Dollar Question!  However, I don't think it has anything to do with today's (current) housing stock, that's a non factor in my opinion.

 

If a neighborhood has a significant historical reference, then I believe that should remain. 

 

How have neighborhood/district names in Cleveland changed over the years?  A good look back may provide some insight.

 

 

Although important, SPAs are just one influence in the name of a Cleveland neighborhood.

 

 

Regardless, I think that the name changes proposed in the article aren't good.

 

At the end of the article, Old Brooklyn was mentioned to possible change to 'South Brooklyn.' That proposed change is asinine and wouldn't benefit the neighborhood. Old Brooklyn, as a name, has been perpetuated in its use by residents and stakeholders in the neighborhood for over 2 decades. As mentioned in the article, the historical significance of 'South Brooklyn' is very limited and is very distant, last formally used in 1905. Currently, the only business or entity in the area that refers to the area as South Brooklyn is the Cleveland Public Library's South Brooklyn Branch, located on the corner of State and Pearl. As an Old Brooklyn resident, the change wouldn't benefit the neighborhood. 

 

I'm rolling out an update in the coming days but I'd like your advice for the borders of Asiatown and st. Clair-Superior.

 

According to the St. Clair-Superior CDC, their borders are "St. Clair Superior Development Corporation service area extends from East 30th Street on the Western Boundary to Martin Luther King Boulevard as the Eastern Boundary, South to Superior and Payne Avenues and North to the Lake" http://www.stclairsuperior.org/ABOUT_US.neighborhood.html

 

The Asiatown website defines its own borders as "East 30th to East 40th Streets between St. Clair and Payne Avenues."

http://www.asiatowncleveland.com/current.asp

 

According to those two self-definitions, Asiatown is completely within the St.Clair-Superior neighborhood. 

 

Personally, I always thought Asiatown as a distinct neighborhood separate from St.Clair-Superior. I also didn't know a CDC serviced that area of 'st. clair-superior' or I wonder if that's the name its stakeholders (residents, business owners, community leaders - elected or unelected, and others) use to self-identify their neighborhood and what area(s) do they define to be their neighborhood.

 

Anyone on the boards who spends a lot of time in those areas would like to share their experiences ? What do you believe Asiatown and St.Clair-Superior to be ? Do you call the neighborhood St.Clair-Superior ?