Last Thursday, there was  a presentation on the Lorain Ave. street improvements held at the church at 3625 Lorain Ave. The presentation was given by a panel of the City of Cleveland Street Engineers, the contractor for the project and the design firm. It seemed very positive to me. They will be removing unused utility poles along Lorain Ave., planting trees, adding pedestrian walk ways with a meridian in the middle of the street and flashing yellow lights at several intersections, adding dedicated bike lanes, and reducing some of the street parking. This is for the area from W. 117th to W. 140th street. Unfortunately, they will not be able to bury the utilities as they did at Kamms because Kamms had stimulus money and it is quite expensive to bury utility lines.  Hopefully, more businesses will come into the area once the project is done.  There were some people there who were wondering why there needed to be bike lanes and less parking. It was explained that cities all over the world use bikes and that this is part of the complete streets program. Where much of Lorain is now four lanes of driving, it will become two lanes of driving with more space and safety for pedestrians and people on bikes. 

I don't know as much about the area west of W. 117.  I do know that, east of W. 117 all the way to Ohio City, Lorain Ave. is pock-marked with these ugly, small used-car dealerships.  Was there any discussion about getting rid of any of these?  Until these lots are consolidated, relocated or put out of business, Lorain can never generate the density and feel of a true urban, walk-able street.  Right now there are islands of urbanity along Lorain, but not the true connectivity the street sorely needs.  Detroit Ave, while it has it's holes, is in much better shape than Lorain.