I wouldn't call Lee-Harvard residents "urbanites".

Are urbanites becoming as petty as their suburban counterparts?

 

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1153125100205330.xml&coll=2

 

What's in a name?:

 

Cleveland City Councilwoman Nina Turner wants to change the name of a street in her Lee-Harvard neighborhood. Sunny Glenn Avenue, she said, should be Sunny Glenn Drive. The street runs through a newer subdivision of suburban-style homes. Turner, who lives on the street, said neighbors viewed Avenue as sounding like an urban street that really doesn't reflect the atmosphere of where they live.

 

"They asked to have it changed to drive to give it more a suburban feel," she said. Councilman Kevin Conwell also wants to change a street name in his ward, to honor the accomplished Glenville High School coach Ted Ginn Sr. The councilman wants to change Gray Avenue to Ted Ginn Sr. Avenue.

 

But doesn't Ted Ginn Sr. Drive sound much more upscale?

 

Did you hear about the new development downtown? Its called the Cul-de-sac District.  ;)

Sounds Parisian.

Sam Fulwood had a great vent yesterday:

 

Saving our city: Why it's so hard

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Sam Fulwood III

Plain Dealer Columnist

 

Chautauqua, N.Y. - One of the many Cleve landers I met during my virgin visit here last week told me that this is "Disneyland for adults." That description is spot-on but avoids something vital to the welfare of our city.

 

The Chautauqua Institution is an idyllic, if really distant, suburb of Cleveland. It's a place where a certain class of our region's mature and wealthy residents spend a week or two - or the entire summer - 2½ hours and 140 miles from the decay of the central city.

 

This impression was inescapable during the hour I spent watching "Making Sense of Place: Cleveland, Confronting the Decline of an American City," a documentary film that debuted last week during Chautauqua's weeklong discussion series on movies and culture. Katie Lincoln, chairwoman of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said the Boston-based nonprofit chose to screen the film at Chautauqua because so many of the people visiting here are from Cleveland. She knew her audience, and to prove it, she asked the Clevelanders to raise a hand. Almost half of the people in the standing-room-only crowd responded.

 

The documentary, filmed and produced in Greater Cleveland during 2004 and 2005, details what nearly 100 years of uncontrolled suburbanization have meant to the core city: racial polarization, white and middle-class flight, fewer jobs, crumbling schools, decaying homes and violent crime.

 

During the question-and-answer discussion following the showing, a long line of Clevelanders stood to say they know about the city's woes. One after another, they asked, "What's the solution?"

 

They needed only to look in a mirror.

 

 

hah i love the last line

sam fulwood columns are never any good because he is an idiot.

^

Care to elaborate?

"In this unspeakable Chautauqua there was no potentiality of death in sight anywhere, and no point of the compass visible from which danger might possibly appear. The ideal was so completely victorious already that no sign of any previous battle remained, the place just resting on its oars...

 

"An irremediable flatness is coming over the world. Bourgeoisie and mediocrity, church sociables and teachers’ conventions are taking the place of the old heights and depths....The whole world, delightful and sinful as it may still appear for a moment to one just escaped from the Chautauquan enclosure, is nevertheless obeying more and more just those ideals sure to make of it in the end a mere Chautauqua Assembly on an enormous scale." - William James

I have some ranting to do about biking in the city.

 

I ride my bike almost every day. It is my primary transportation mode for intra-city trips. Over three years or so of regular biking in New York, I never heard a peep from motorists or people on the road.

 

In Cleveland, on the other hand, I have been heckled at least half a dozen times in the past year. Just today, a fat woman driving a minivan down Euclid Avenue shouted out her window, "You have rules too, you know!" I was simply riding along, heeding all traffic lights and staying to the side of the lane. Other people have been harsher, cursing at me or telling me to move over. One person once said, "This is the STREET. You can't ride here." Where the hell am I supposed to ride??

 

To me, this kind of heckling is emblematic of the car-centric attitude here. To many/most Clevelanders, the streets are for driving. Anyone who chooses to bike must either be a) trying to screw up their God-given right to drive unimpeded everywhere they go; or b) insane.

 

I know it's not entirely people's fault. It's more the result of expectations that have been created by planners and engineers over the past 50 years that all travel should be done in a private vehicle. Still, it is an angering and disheartening experience to be reminded of how unprogressive this city and its residents can be. I hope things get better when the bike lanes are up and running on Euclid Avenue.

Okay, well it's been said elsewhere, but it's really starting to upset me enough that I need to vent ... Is there any way that we can pull the Plain Dealer back from its Armageddon coverage of our city???

 

I moved to Cleveland in the midst of the Quiet Crisis revolution, and for a NEO newbie, it fell like the sky was on the verge of falling. The series did point out a number of very real problems locally, but the tone of the articles seemed defeatist and scant in covering the many remarkable things that people are doing to address these issues. Perhaps most importantly, the coverage focused almost exclusively on local problems, with little attention to potential solutions.

 

And now I feel like that tone is back with the newspaper's coverage of the American Community Survey results. Nuances like confidence intervals seem to be far beyond their grasp. Moreover, the paper seems to be reporting on statistics that aren't even there - noting that the city is getting poorer when we're still a couple weeks away from having economic data released. I can practically see editors frothing at the prospect of another round of Cleveland doomsday reports; from the PD's coverage, one would suspect that Cleveland will be some apocalyptic wasteland by 2010.

 

I've previously worked in communications and my undergraduate degree is in journalism. I understand that media outlets have an ethical obligation to avoid boosterism and to present facts about their community, even when those facts are unpleasant. But in my opinion, their coverage is bordering on overreaching, and the perceptions that they perpetuate about Cleveland's impending doom will do little to build the confidence of a community whose largest problem is that it lacks confidence. So after three days of covering data from a small sample set, ignoring the limitations of the data and making outlandish claims that the available data does not support, can we PLEASE give it a rest?

"the perceptions that they perpetuate about Cleveland's impending doom will do little to build the confidence of a community whose largest problem is that it lacks confidence."

 

Yes, but that's how they've been doing business for decades - and that's what used to sell ads. Now, their circulation and sales are on the decline and they're losing market share (they've already lost much of their relevance) - maybe they'll learn to rework their model like the city reworked its own. :D

I have some ranting to do about biking in the city.

 

I ride my bike almost every day. It is my primary transportation mode for intra-city trips. Over three years or so of regular biking in New York, I never heard a peep from motorists or people on the road.

 

In Cleveland, on the other hand, I have been heckled at least half a dozen times in the past year. Just today, a fat woman driving a minivan down Euclid Avenue shouted out her window, "You have rules too, you know!" I was simply riding along, heeding all traffic lights and staying to the side of the lane. Other people have been harsher, cursing at me or telling me to move over. One person once said, "This is the STREET. You can't ride here." Where the hell am I supposed to ride??

 

To me, this kind of heckling is emblematic of the car-centric attitude here. To many/most Clevelanders, the streets are for driving. Anyone who chooses to bike must either be a) trying to screw up their God-given right to drive unimpeded everywhere they go; or b) insane.

 

I know it's not entirely people's fault. It's more the result of expectations that have been created by planners and engineers over the past 50 years that all travel should be done in a private vehicle. Still, it is an angering and disheartening experience to be reminded of how unprogressive this city and its residents can be. I hope things get better when the bike lanes are up and running on Euclid Avenue.

I hear you... outside of bike paths, I HATE biking in the US in general. I only enjoy it on a sunday Am when no one is out rather than commuting.. Sadly the cruiser has been pretty much grounded since I got the scooter...but my last trip was rush hour down W.25th-what a frickin nightmare. I nearly died 3x in span of a 1/2 mile...finally got up on the sidewalk only to have some punks pretend to lunge in my path.  On the food chain are SUVS, Pick Ups,Vans, Cars, motorcycles, scooters, bikes and the pedestrians. Your status is progressively worse as you go down the chain in some ways it is worst for the bikes b/c at least when we are a ped. we have the sidewalk! this is an American problem as much as a Cleveland one . Although here is question for hard core bikers. When there is an awesome, smooth, uncrowded, paved bike path available, why are they in the middle of the lane on the road going 1/2 the speed limit? from an outsiders perspective I think they think they look uncool on the path- as such paths are for marginally fit suckers like me when I bike.

8shades,  they do it because that crap plays in the sticks.  For every suburbanite that realizes that their fortunes are tied to that of the major city, there is one that actively would like to dance on Cleveland's grave.  Most just don't care, except to tsk tsk at articles like these.

^Perhaps it reinvorces their readers' decisions to leave the decay of the inner city (and now, inner suburb) for the flourishing prosperity of the exurbs!

 

8Shades, have you sent an editorial like that to the PD?  I was taken by it and would love to see them print it!  Hell, I'd even buy a copy if I knew it were in there!

 

Next, in response to B12 and others [on bikes].  The only time I've ever been heckled here while on my bike was by another biker...the hardcore gangster kind...you know, the fixed gear/no helmet, "this is my life" kinda biker?  Anyways, he hooted at me while blowing by me at the bottom of the Detroit-Superior bridge. 

 

However, I do agree that there is some angst built up from the automobile community.  A driver in New York once harrassed me on the Bowery, telling me to "Get a car!"  WTF?  I'm quite certain I passed him by later on the Manhattan Bridge...  My main gripe in Cleveland, however, is that many of the designated bike lanes or paths are often strewn with litter, stones (?), broken glass, and other hazardous and to-be-avoided materials (like poop).  But that gets into the broader discussion of how our DOT or our other public agencies attend to the infrastructure in the city. 

 

As for our rights as bikers... as far as I know, we are to be treated as any other vehicle on the road.  If we can stay to the side, great, but if you're biking down Euclid, you can take up an entire lane, as long as you're following the law (not going faster than 25 mph and stopping at lights).  I actually get pissed off when bikers take to the sidewalks.  That may be illegal.  Anyone got the rules?

MGD -- it is illegal to ride a fast-moving bicycle on the sidewalk. Speed differential is the key. A father riding bikes with his little child is OK on the sidewalk -- they're riding slowly and doesn't create a speed differential with pedestrians.

 

8shades,  they do it because that crap plays in the sticks.  For every suburbanite that realizes that their fortunes are tied to that of the major city, there is one that actively would like to dance on Cleveland's grave.  Most just don't care, except to tsk tsk at articles like these.

 

From the "you've heard it from me before" department: someone get me a sugardaddy with deep pockets and I'll get you some reporters, advertising reps and an editor to work for a web-based core-city news venue that tells what's really going on in the heart of the city -- the bad AND the good! Plus, we'll get some research-based analysis articles so that readers know not only know what's going on, but why.

 

I'm one of those you'll get for such a news venue -- and I'm pretty sure I can get for you the other staff I mentioned. But there has to be a sound, long-term and patient financial commitment so we're not back out on the street after the first months of struggling to get our legs under us.

so, 6 weeks later and the downtown cleveland partnership is still highlighting that the alliance website is coming soon!  i can't wait!  i'm also still super excited about parkworks renovation of perk plaza that is starting in 2004!

 

these updates are internet 101.  get an intern, local company, high school student to update the f'in sites or take them down. 

 

it is a real disservice to the residents and makes cleveland look bad.  the web is one of the cheapest methods to get your message out and many local organizations seem aloof.  come on cleveland!

^ Is this the place that can only be reached via snail mail??? what a joke. Can't  one of you crazy college kids make updating this site or training these fools a project for credit? Maybe the project could be an analysis of how ridiculous this is for a big city to have such a crappy site?

after another trip to chicago, where i remembered a camera (and getting some strange looks as others were taking pictures of buildings and i was taking pictures of newspaper racks...)

 

i think downtown has to brand itself better.  i'm not saying exactly like chicago has done, but along those lines (and other cities as well).  i REALLY want to see the following elements added to the downtown streetscape - even if it is only on a project-by-project basis (ie, ECP, e12, public square).  slowly, this would take over downtown.

 

If i get some time, i'll post the cleveland equivalents.

 

Bus Shelters that are inviting and create a brand for the RTA (consistent lighting, signage, seating at all bus stops with shelter):

 

Consistent placement of traffic control boxes, trashcans, light poles:

 

Integrated newspaper vending:

 

Raised planters along city sidewalks in CBD (or near CBD areas):

 

 

 

None of these are million dollar initiatives, but i think Cleveland needs to start thinking of a better, more consistent brand for the downtown experience. 

 

edit:  as promised, a few cleveland examples of similar street experiences:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, considering that Downtown Cleveland Partnership, *ahem* Downtown Cleveland Alliance STILL hasn't updated their site (other than having the new URL link to the old site http://www.downtownclevelandalliance.com/), I'd be reluctant to put them in charge of branding anything.

 

Sorry, it's just a flat-out embarrassment that the latest press release is from January of 2005, and the latest newsletter is from August of 2005, AND there's no direct email link on their contact page - that particular aspect is the worst, imho. It's 2006, folks - get some spam filters, get some technology, take a class on how to use email, and get with the program. An organization's site is its calling card, and when the image they promote is one that needs updating and doesn't embrace communication - what does that tell you about their level of commitment?

 

Sure, my site hasn't been updated since July of 2006, but then again I don't have a multi-million dollar budget, corporate backing, or a staff of more than one :roll:

I would love to see some if not all of the improvements mentioned....but I think the problem is, there seems to be a much different presence in DT Chicago than there is here.  It seems like a lot of people that use the downtown area here just plain don't care about nice things or treat things as if they were theirs.  I would love to see more art, upgraded bus stops, etc etc.  It just sucks to see nice things placed in DT or even the neighborhoods only to see them vandalized or destroyed. 

here is a curious question....why do a lot of the Cleveland bus stops face AWAY from the street?  I have never understood why you would sit in a bus stop where cannot see the street or the bus coming? 

^ I 'll let Marinucci know about it. I don't think he is aware.

 

 

There is a grant request going to he Cleveland Foundation that is due in the end of October that is addressing some of the things urbanlife mentioned as well as others (Homeless, Waterfront, Programming, etc)

"^ I 'll let Marinucci know about it. I don't think he is aware"

 

Not aware??? If that's the case, that's completely unfathomable to me. I can't imagine a CEO of any organization, much less a "not-for-profit advocate dedicated to building a dynamic downtown" not being aware that one of their most potentially powerful marketing tools is out of date, and obsolete. That's very telling.   

the newspaper machines are relatively inexpensive, around $1000 each depending on options.  RTA has a purchase order for new bus stops, but it appears they are just ordering the same old style.  I would have thought with the transit zone improvements, it would have been a good time to brand the downtown stops.  apparently not. 

 

who is requesting $$ from the cleveland foundation?  the city or the DCA?  i think the city should be spearheading some of these street improvements. 

DCA is really taking an active role in regards to downtown. I am not surprised that they would be making that request.  By the way, Musky, are you talking about the Public Square initiative?

Whoa!  Lights and signage at a bus stop!  Hold the phones!  I sat in a bus shelter last night in the rain, facing away from the street, surrounded by dead street lights, with water splashing me all the while.  My view?  A parking garage.  My location?  Directly behind Tower City on Prospect at a pretty major transfer point.

 

The good news was that the bus came after only about 10 minutes. 

 

Thanks for all the great pics on these threads UrbanLife.

^Public square is just another part of the proposed grant.

Basically it covers the whole BID.

Are any of these streetscape improvements going to be included in the Euclid Corridor money-at least in the areas where the silver line will travel? I know a fair share of cash will be spent on fixing up sidewalks, I just don't know if this will extend to things like newspaper vending.

 

The silver line stops are going to be new, to accommodate the new vehicles obviously, but will any federal money or RTA money for that matter be spent on updating the other bus shelters in the downtown area? If not, it would be nice if someone would get on the stick and coordinate the silver line debut with a larger city sidewalk makeover, via BID or whatever.

^You know, I asked this very question of the ECTP's public relations person (Danielle Willis) and was promised a mailing, but never got it!  I'll have to follow up on that.  I got the impression, however, that she was only sending me ECTP-related stuff, even though my question involved the entire system and its third-world station waiting environments.

Oh man, those comparison shots of Cleveland and Chicago are almost comical.

 

 

 

They'd be comical if we were UrbanIllinois.com.  We should hang our heads in shame.

They'd be comical if we were UrbanIllinois.com.  We should hang our heads in shame.

 

I'm not hanging MY head in shame. I'm pissed off about it, but I'm not going to take the blame for how ugly it is downtown.  If the city named a day and offered the tools, I'd volunteer my time to fix it up down there, but as it is, there's not much I can do. I already contacted the downtown alliance about volunteering, and never got a response.

 

 

I hope someone will forward these pics to city leaders, downtown alliance, RTA, and whoever else might be able to do something about this  (God forbid, but would the PD actually run a possible story on this?)

some of it is size, money, etc.  i don't want cleveland to be chicago, or copy everything chicago has done.  i DO want cleveland to become a leader in certain areas and take pride in city services, amenities. 

 

Can and should we demand the best that our limited dollars can buy?  i think so. 

 

however, at the end of the day, we need leaders and residents that want the best for cleveland.  it is hard to manage a city that is losing population, has a high poverty rate, and is suffering from years of disinvestment.

 

but, if the leaders we have now can't or won't take cleveland to the level it deserves, then 1) they should leave their posts (non profit, govt, or otherwise) or 2) we should vote them out. 

 

we can't expect to attract people to cleveland (or even maintain existing levels) with the city in a state of disarray.  i'm not asking for a macys downtown, euclid in its glory days, a skyskraper on a WHD parking lot.  these would all be nice, of course, and i want them to come.  but, we DO have control over some things, namely the streetscape, building code enforcement, zoning and variance enforcement.  we HAVE to put a line in the sand somewhere and take this city back. 

 

we seem to have set the bar so low, that any progress looks good.  this DCA/DCP should be communicating regularly with it's stakeholders and we have to hold the leaders accountable.

 

oh, and on the way home tonight, ALL of prospect ave from e9 to ontario had NO street lights again.  give me a break CPP and turn the f'n lights on, or hire some people who can.

"I already contacted the downtown alliance about volunteering, and never got a response."

 

I wish I could say I was surprised. That's absolutely pathetic on their part.

oh, and on the way home tonight, ALL of prospect ave from e9 to ontario had NO street lights again.  give me a break CPP and turn the f'n lights on, or hire some people who can.

 

Seriously!  I walk down that way from CSU at late hours and the lights are off half the time!  Even on the opening night of Ingenuity!  Didn't they just redo this whole corridor about 10 years ago?

that no lights on stuff at night really rankled & rattled me last visit. that was the most awful experience of an otherwise nice visit.

 

^Does Cimperman know about this?

^Of course he does. He wants the lights out because according to some posters, he's afraid of his own shadow!

^i've emailed and called about the lights numerous times.  there seems to be very little action or accountability for whoever is in charge of these.  and there always seems to be an excuse, ie "the circuit flipped" or "it's the construction." 

 

well, ok, i'd take the circuit excuse about one time - then it better be fixed.  this section is continually off at night.  the empty storefronts, 14 and 15 bus lines and no street lights is not a nice walk.

 

as for the construction excuse - this city has so many wires strung between poles above ground, that i find it hard to believe that if someone either cared or was accountable, they couldn't string some "temporary" wires for the duration of the underground construction. 

 

here is the cpp power out number.  not sure it helps, but the more calls the better.

216-621-5483

As long as we're complaining about out-of-date websites, I went to University Circle's website for some event information for this weekend. Their monthly featured events page "cannot be found". No need to worry though; they have a PDF quarterly calendar of events. Unfortunately, that calendar is for events in January through March 2006! Argh!!!!!

^I think that UCI is working to upgrade and improve their website. 

^ Since March?

Hey, they're working hard over there (seriously). There were a lot of staff changes (for the better) in April, May and June.  The Marketing staff is completely different and working on the website changes.  Be patient, they're fighting the good fight over there.

I know they are. And I don't mean to grouse (too much). I just wish that if they lacked the capacity to update the events listing on a quarterly basis, they had at least temporarily removed the link to the document. My concern is less with UCI, who I recognize is doing some substantial work and primed for even more great stuff, and more with a somewhat systemic problem in Cleveland regarding old information. This seems to be truest when organizations are going through leadership transitions (e.g. UCI, DCA, the City of Cleveland).

I've got a rant. This is my biggest rant with Cleveland, and maybe it seems silly, but it's this specific retail location on Euclid Avenue....

 

edit: Looks like the picture didn't work right. It's the picture here: http://lccleveland.blogspot.com/ that is of "Loretta's Restaurant." It's the one that's all gated up and stuff.

 

It's repulsive. It is so dirty, it makes me sick when I walk by, and the smell is enough to make you gag even when you're a few storefronts away. This is seriously is shameful. I will even say I understand that the real estate market here is tough, that's why there are vacancies, but come on, why do WE, the pedestrians, have to be grossed out?

 

Man, this makes me SOOOOOOOOO mad. This building is OWNED by someone. Clean up the damn mess!

 

EDIT 2.0: I also was hanging out in Public Square today, and that place was a mess. I don't blame the downtown alliance workers because I saw three of them cleaning up on the east side of downtown only minutes prior to arriving in the square. They are doing their job.

 

But why can't the people sitting around, resting or waiting for buses throw away their garbage? That's the biggest problem there. People have a bottle of coke, drink half of it and leave it behind when they go. There are trash cans all over the place. Why don't they use them? The downtown alliance guys aren't servants. Not only do we need to clean up downtown, we also have to change people's behavior. What a pain in the ass.

^ I hear you about littering. it has always deeply enraged me-esp with trashcans available. I sometimes think that is how I will buy my lunch one day, confronting some fool about this.

I'm sick of the slobs, too. I even used a photo I took of a trash-strewn Public Square as a "Sun Guard." The Sun Guard is a box on the front page of most Sun Newspapers, which uses a photo and text to point out a persistent problem -- recurring graffiti, an unmended pothole or, in the case of Public Square, the trash that is always present.

 

Normally, with a Sun Guard, the blame lies with a public agency. But there's only so much they can do when too many low-class slobs waiting for the bus or walking around just toss their garbage to the ground, only a few feet away from a trash can. Hey, if you don't like the way your city looks, start by looking in the mirror!

 

Police can help, but changing the culture helps more. When you see someone toss their trash on the ground, tell them to pick it up. Or, if you've got the urge, throw away the trash and then tell the slob they are what they create -- trash.

I wish we could get the slobs who own vacant retails spaces downtown to clean up, too.

I was on the bus the other day with a jackass who kept hawking up major loogies and spitting them out the window, indiscriminately, as we moved along busy Prospect Avenue. 

 

On a different occasion, a woman was having some phlegm problems of her own, but instead of hurling her refuse out the window, she'd ring the stop bell and spit out the back door when the driver stopped, then go and sit back down.

 

Seriously, some people don't comprehend that there is anyone sharing this world with them.

As long as we're complaining about out-of-date websites, I went to University Circle's website for some event information for this weekend. Their monthly featured events page "cannot be found". No need to worry though; they have a PDF quarterly calendar of events. Unfortunately, that calendar is for events in January through March 2006! Argh!!!!!

 

Did you let anyone at UCI know?  Sometimes a link gets broken for some reason or another and no one picks up on it until a user lets them know.

 

And yes, UCI is working (diligently) with a local firm on redesigning their website.  They're looking at an October launch.