Nicer apartment, perhaps, but Broadview Hts. overall is a large step down from Shaker Square.  This includes the greater diversity, and more welcoming atmosphere toward foreign individuals the Square brings over Broadview Heights, in addition to the urban conveniences you noted.

There's a surprising number of eastern Europeans and Russians in/near Broadview Heights -- enough that a Russian Orthodox Church is out that way. But the Shaker Square neighborhood and "the trams" reminded her of home.

A lot of publicity about those two apartment houses along Drexmore, but across East 130th the once beautiful pair of buildings (or they they connected?) with the arches looks pretty bad, too.  Does anyone know the story about these?

 

Also, does anyone know if Shaker Square Apartments is planning to purchase more buildings in the area?  Their properties look at least respectable.

 

I hope a modern building is constructed where these stand. There's too many obsolete and/or under-maintained apartment buildings around Shaker Square -- and most are owned by Montlack...

 

Vacant tenements surrounding Shaker Square going before Cleveland Housing Court hearing

By Thomas Jewell, special to Northeast Ohio Media Group

on March 03, 2015 at 1:48 PM, updated March 03, 2015 at 2:17 PM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two historic but rundown and vacant apartment buildings located behind Shaker Square Cinemas and Dave's Supermarket are scheduled for a hearing Friday (March 6) in Cleveland Housing Court.

 

Located on Drexmore Road and South Moreland Boulevard, both are owned by Shakertown Apartments. Ltd., with The Drexmore having been boarded up and condemned in August 2014 after a fire.

 

And The Drexmore operated for most of the year without working hot water, noted former Cuyahoga County Commissioner and State Rep. Mary Boyle, who lives in the area.

 

MORE:

http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2015/03/vacant_tenements_surrounding_s.html

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/demolish_school_near_shaker_square_and_larchmere_neighborhood_or_convert_to_apartments.html#incart_river

 

Effort underway to save the Jesse Owens School on MLK and Larchmere. Truly astounding that it takes a citizen outcry to get CMSD to even consider saving a beautiful historic building located right between St. Luke's and Larchmere's strip. This is a turning point where a community either gets serious about revitalizing-in-place, or resigns to accepting the ebb and flow and decline-flight-gentrification-structural inequality.

 

Saving the best remaining historic fabric is the only hope left for Cleveland's less-glamorous neighborhoods.

Two condemned apartment buildings near Shaker Square could get new life. Some area residents remain skeptical. http://t.co/QcOiCB9TM8

And one coming down?  Is that what we already determined?

 

Demolitions proposed for two apartments buildings just south of the square:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,7006.msg772852.html#msg772852

Condemned Shaker Square apartment buildings could be moving toward spring demolition

By Thomas Jewell, special to Northeast Ohio Media Group

on January 26, 2016 at 6:31 PM, updated January 26, 2016 at 7:25 PM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After another hearing in Cleveland Municipal Housing Court on Thursday (Jan. 28), two of three condemned apartment buildings could be moving towards demolition by the spring.

 

"They could be down this quarter," Jay Westbrook, Special Projects Manager with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy's Thriving Communities Institute told the Shaker Square Alliance on Jan. 20.

 

The former Cleveland city councilman was referring to 13020 Drexmore Road and 2790 East 130th Street.

 

...Westbrook called the Shakertown properties "poster children" for point-of-sale inspections, or at least the reinstatement of Cleveland's multi-family housing inspection division, which was phased out several years ago.

 

MORE:

http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2016/01/condemned_shaker_square_apartm.html

Building owned by notorious #CLE landlords up for sheriff's sale due to tax arrears: https://t.co/Xag6I1ubw3

Building owned by notorious #CLE landlords up for sheriff's sale due to tax arrears: https://t.co/Xag6I1ubw3

 

Their criminal records are atrocious and they get a pass on fines and jail time. I live practically a block down from this garbage heap. I heard that my property (2828 S. Moreland) was one of the worse properties until Howard Hanna took over management. I managed to nab the first renovated unit at 2828 S. Moreland, which was basically a new and larger kitchen. The rest of it was just fine.

 

Condemned Shaker Square apartment buildings could be moving toward spring demolition

 

The former Cleveland city councilman was referring to 13020 Drexmore Road and 2790 East 130th Street.

 

13020 Drexmore Road's complex is a pretty generic mid-century/1960's apartment building, and even though it has underground parking, it really isn't all that special. I can't see a renovation on the building bringing in any quality tenants. The unit at Drexmore and S. Moreland (2804 South Moreland) appear to be more solid - I hope these can be saved at the least.

 

2790 E. 130 Street looks to be pretty solid. Isn't there a building on E. 130 that had a fire?

Looks like 2790 E. 130 is coming down very soon. Windows are now out and fencing is up!

Looks like 2790 E. 130 is coming down very soon. Windows are now out and fencing is up!

 

You gonna get in there to shoot it?  Ha!

^This is a downer.  Can we move it to the demolitions thread, because this certainly isn't about SS's development?

^HA

 

^I'm not sure it's much of a downer. Didn't it have a fire? I swore you could look up and see the sky through the non-existent roof. The street behind mine is a hot mess - and I can't wait until they remove that horrible 1960's addition across the street from 2790 E. 130. That will greatly improve the area behind the grocery.

A couple years ago I joined a friend from Russia who was looking for an apartment and toured about a half dozen apartments all around the square -- all Montlack properties. She loved the walkable neighborhood and "the trams" serving the area, but hated the apartments. They weren't even up to her Russian standards of condition, quality, finishes, cleanliness, etc. That area definitely needs some modern (or at least modernized) apartments. I hope that's what will replace 2790 East 130th, as well as a few others being razed or in need of being razed.

The one I'm in has some modern finishes - a new kitchen, but there are many remnants of the past inside - like light switches that no longer work, dead plugs long painted over (so much paint that it covers the holes) and bases of fixtures long gone. And painted hardwood floors in several rooms. While I love my apartment - for the price, it really should be a fuller rehab.

I hope someday, these apartment could be replaced because those dreaded vacant lots with a guardrail and/or wooden posts blocking encroachment is the hallmark of blight, which is something you don't want just a half block from Shaker Square.

The one I'm in has some modern finishes - a new kitchen, but there are many remnants of the past inside - like light switches that no longer work, dead plugs long painted over (so much paint that it covers the holes) and bases of fixtures long gone. And painted hardwood floors in several rooms. While I love my apartment - for the price, it really should be a fuller rehab.

 

The description of your apartment sounds very much like mine on North Moreland. I like the quirky remnants of the past as they add character to the unit, but I have had a couple maintenance issues in the last few weeks. My building's management company / property owners control about 15 structures both north and south of the Square, and seem to be consistently making interior and exterior improvements, as well as more extensive property landscaping. I have also heard rumblings that they are looking into purchasing one or more apartment buildings south of the Square that are in rough condition (one includes the building fronting South Moreland on the southwest corner of Drexmore). Nothing certain though.

Very sad to see this great building neglected so badly....

 

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/2016/04282016/index.php

 

Case 16-023

Shaker Square Historic District

2800 East 130th Street

Demolition and Concept Plan

Ward 6

Mitchell

Ayonna Donald

City of Cleveland

Salus Development

 

 

 

 

 

May there be a special place reserved in hell for landlords who let their buildings decay so badly -- like having them live in a recreation of their building in its last condition for eternity.

I used to live right by that, had to walk past it to the square.  Scary scary.  Thanks for posting these pictures.  That's exactly what I thought it looked like inside, but my version had ghouls.

 

Still it's a shame to lose this kind of building.  Great designs and details that aren't getting replaced.  Shaker Square needs more help than it's getting.  A lot of those apartments are in bad shape, occupied or not.  And Buckeye is right there and it really needs help.  There is no reason for that area to not be nice, but the slumlords have wrecked it and the city has just watched.

You can thank the Sables! They own a couple units in the county, owe back taxes on both of them  :whip:

 

just do a search on Harry Sable OR Corby Sable on the auditor's website.

 

EDIT: They haven't even paid taxes on that property in 10 years, why the hell didn't the county issue a tax lien on this and take it up for auction!

 

 

(There's also SABLE REALTY, INC. which owns dozen properties in back taxes and I believe is unrelated to them).

That building is sketch. It has a center courtyard where I've seen people congregate at night and in the evenings - next to Dave's Supermarket. It's not really that inviting to walk down W130 to the post office anymore - or down the street in general. Two buildings next to it are now gone and that has cleaned up the stretch significantly.

 

I just wish the city would put some money into Shaker Square like they do in Edgewater. The roads are horrid; the sidewalks are in poor condition; the streets are never swept.

A shame the area's is misrepresented by lazy-azz City councilman Ken Johnson.  Such an originally quality area should have never sunk to such depths.

Very true. If you have an opinion on how the neighborhood is (not) being maintained, look to your councilman. They are the mayor of the neighborhood and its CDC.

When you do see a plow or a streetsweeper around there, it has a sign on it thanking Ken Johnson.  That's how I know who he is.

Way back when I lived by Shaker Square form 1974-1977 that East 130th Street stretch was already an unpleasant place to walk. I don't think it ever improved, and that part of Buckeye has gotten quite unsightly.

 

I noticed today the landscaping on the Square has not been kept up very well.  Also broken lanterns and one removed and never replaced.  Besides the changed, inappropriate windows that have been going up lately (now the n.e. and s.e. quadrants' second floors, the Square, I'm afraid, is slowly losing its architectural integrity.  Such a shame. :oops:

 

Who is the councilman? Are there resident agitators over here? Resident agitators is what gets stuff done. Im about to love over there, I'll start throwing crap around, but I need to know who the players are

Way back when I lived by Shaker Square form 1974-1977 that East 130th Street stretch was already an unpleasant place to walk. I don't think it ever improved, and that part of Buckeye has gotten quite unsightly.

 

I noticed today the landscaping on the Square has not been kept up very well.  Also broken lanterns and one removed and never replaced.  Besides the changed, inappropriate windows that have been going up lately (now the n.e. and s.e. quadrants' second floors, the Square, I'm afraid, is slowly losing its architectural integrity.  Such a shame. :oops:

Curious as the what the neighborhood south and west of the square was like in the 70s.  Was it as racially segregated as it is today?

Yeah, the sidewalks also have a bit to be desired - and many are in different shades of pink and brown, some with texture, others without. I noticed that the original mall-like light fixtures are still there on Shaker WB and EB, supplemented with ugly brown wood poles with giant sodium-vapor lamps...

 

I did see this building being opened up on Friday evening at S. Moreland and Buckeye. It's been abandoned for a while. The planters out front are new, too. (Edit: I found this about Edwin's - I can't wait to see this building be reactivated!)

 

--

 

Also on a related note, it looks like some ADA ramps are being redone, and sidewalk repairs are starting, on Buckeye. This is probably in preparations for paving, thankfully. On the other hand, there is now major debris in the right lanes of Buckeye, including mattresses, barrels and so much garbage and gravel that the right lane is practically useless. I've called it in several times but the garbage remains :(

Curious as the what the neighborhood south and west of the square was like in the 70s.  Was it as racially segregated as it is today?

 

There's a local news video on YouTube from Channel 8 (I think) about the changes in Buckeye/Hungarian Hill area in the 1970s. It was linked to via another thread here on UO a few years ago.

This property purchase was by a small chiropractor based in Canton....

http://listings.findthecompany.com/l/28633966/DC-Properties-of-Ohio-LLC-in-Canton-OH

 

2775 SOUTH MORELAND BLVD

CLEVELAND

Sales Date 4/25/2016

Amount $750,000

Buyer D.C. PROPERTIES OF OHIO LLC

Seller SHAKER SQUARE BUILDING CO.

Deed type WARRANTY D

Land value $55,900

Building value $633,600

Total value $689,500

Parcel 144-11-009

Property General retail with walk up offices

Sad news. Perhaps mjarboe[/member] or others at the PD can investigate what's going on with these trees near Shaker Square and elsewhere?

 

What's up with all the trees dying on the Green Line east of Shaker Square? There is a significant die-off - and all of the trees appear to be of the same type and era.

Yes those are the hawthorns SC is talking about.  There has been quite a drought in Shaker, but most of those hawthorns are fine.  There is a certain stretch a ways down Shaker that has died.  It is a different variety that the others. 

 

Many of the oaks between SS and Coventry have also indeed died or are in decline.  There is something hitting the pin oaks which is causing many to be in decline just about everywhere (even many of the new ones on Euclid in University Circle.  We lost some huge ones in front of Moreland Courts.     

It's one of the reasons why, when I lived in Lexington, Ky., the city essentially banned the planting of fast growing pear trees because a blight had started to take effect on many of them. Subdivision contractors loved planting them because the trees were cheap and could provide good cover within a matter of a decade. They are also quite pretty.

 

If the hawthorns are dying en masse, it might be a good time to add some variety. I noticed a lot of the trees on S. Moreland in the vicinity of my building are dying from the top down.

It's one of the reasons why, when I lived in Lexington, Ky., the city essentially banned the planting of fast growing pear trees because a blight had started to take effect on many of them. Subdivision contractors loved planting them because the trees were cheap and could provide good cover within a matter of a decade. They are also quite pretty.

 

If the hawthorns are dying en masse, it might be a good time to add some variety. I noticed a lot of the trees on S. Moreland in the vicinity of my building are dying from the top down.

 

Its just a stretch of a particularly ugly variety of hawthorn that is dying on the Green Line.  The more common one that is used along there is mostly fine (except for a few newer one that have not received enough care. 

 

The bigger ones dying from the top down everywhere tend to be the pin oaks which have a sort of blight attacking them. 

 

Shaker has been actively diversifying their trees (as they had been hit hard, first as the origination point of dutch elm disease and most recently by the emerald ash borer (the other tree that is dying everywhere most evident in woodland settings), to the detriment of the future tree canopy as they are selecting varieties that tend to be dwarf or columnar (this even includes a dwarf version of a pear), which ruins the continuity of the large tree canopy that I love so much there.     

Hard-fought efforts continue to wipe out blight, bring in "Resident Voices" around Shaker Square

http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2016/08/hard-fought_efforts_continue_t.html

Hard-fought efforts continue to wipe out blight, bring in "Resident Voices" around Shaker Square

http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2016/08/hard-fought_efforts_continue_t.html

 

This new group is definitely a move in the right direction.  As the writer notes, this approach was tried back in the 70s but didn't make a ton of progress -- but those were volatile times and a different era, so I hope progress is made this time around.  I just hope the Buckeye Road corridor can be saved and enhanced; it's got great bones.  Buckeye and it's norther cousin Larchmere are very similar, but Buckeye actually is denser with more brick mixed-use buildings built closer to the curb making Buckeye seem considerably narrower than Larchmere... I just hope these demolitions around Drexmore and Buckeye are replaced with viable projects and soon.  As much as I dislike all the fast foods in the area, that big vacant lot at E. 130 & Buckeye is off-putting...

What's happening at E. 130 and Buckeye lately? They've dug quite a big hole which I thought was to remove underground storage tanks, but there hasn't been anything taken out.

^Within the last year or so they tore down that vacant KFC across the street (E. 130) from the gas station.

^So they are digging up the old underground grease storage tanks?

^They apparently already have; noting but a vacant lot... must have been a huge job.

Ho hum... Another week, another Transit Oriented Development in Cleveland! This one at Shaker Square http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/2017/07132017/index.php

Nice. What was the anchor along Van Aken? And was the parking on the roof for that tenant? I never saw it used in the two years I lived there and it was, for all intents and purposes, abandoned.

I would get rid of the plaza.  Not need with the square right around the corner.  Just a hang out space looking for trouble.  Fill it with convenience retail.

^^^Get the hell outta here KJP, you find all the good stuff!... This came outta nowhere.  Would really be a game changer for a moribund section adjacent to the square.

That's outstanding. I think about that strip all the time

^^^Get the hell outta here KJP, you find all the good stuff!

 

Because I spend 15-45 minutes a day searching databases for any information about new projects. This one was pretty easy to find since it was on the Landmarks Commission agenda. :)

Nice. What was the anchor along Van Aken? And was the parking on the roof for that tenant? I never saw it used in the two years I lived there and it was, for all intents and purposes, abandoned.

 

It was Market on the Square when I lived there in the 90's. A full service grocer. I'm not sure if there was parking on the roof. I walked there. A Hough bakery too... I think next door.

I generally love it.  It's good to see, in so many instances, local officials and developers finally embrace the rail system for TOD... However, a couple criticisms is that 1. I wish the building followed the curving contour of Van Aken so that portions of the building would not be so far set back behind widening lawns and, with that, 2. I wish there was ground level retail in the bulding.  Just because the current retail at that location is a failure, doesn't mean that modern, attractive spaces at the base of a high-end apartment building, wouldn't succeed... In fact, the opposite would likely be true.

^^^Get the hell outta here KJP, you find all the good stuff!

 

Because I spend 15-45 minutes a day searching databases for any information about new projects. This one was pretty easy to find since it was on the Landmarks Commission agenda. :)

 

You're obviously way ahead of the PD, Crain's, Scene ... or anybody else.