Metroparks receive Gift. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/cleveland-metroparks-13-million-gift-mandel-foundation-lakefront-bikeway-gordon-park/95-357e0eee-7059-4a0e-953b-39a3e90350b9

13 minutes ago, simplythis said:

Metroparks receive Gift. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/cleveland-metroparks-13-million-gift-mandel-foundation-lakefront-bikeway-gordon-park/95-357e0eee-7059-4a0e-953b-39a3e90350b9

God Bless the Mandels

There is more to the Mandel Gift.  https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/mandel-foundation-awards-24m-cleveland-east-side-lakefront

1 minute ago, simplythis said:

There is more to the Mandel Gift.  https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/mandel-foundation-awards-24m-cleveland-east-side-lakefront

Would you be able to summarize what it is? I don’t have a subscription.

39 minutes ago, JB said:

Would you be able to summarize what it is? I don’t have a subscription.

In summary: The Mandel Foundation has awarded $24 million in grants to various projects on Cleveland's East Side lakefront. The grants will be used for the revitalization of Gordon Park, the unification of three parks in North Collinwood, and the construction of a portion of the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway. The Cleveland Metroparks received the largest grant of $13 million, which will go towards the lakefront trail and Gordon Park. The Western Reserve Land Conservancy received a $10 million grant to help with the transition of the Euclid Beach Mobile Home Community into a green space. Other grants were given to LAND Studio for community engagement efforts and to the land conservancy for tree planting.

23 minutes ago, JB said:

Would you be able to summarize what it is? I don’t have a subscription.

Here is a brief summary.

 

Are they planning to raze old aquarium building?

 

Downtown Lakefront projects flow
By Ken Prendergast / July 11, 2023

 

Several large-scale projects along downtown Cleveland’s lakefront are moving forward thanks to developments in recent days. In addition to multi-million-dollar grants being awarded for lakefront projects, the City Planning Commission approved plans for the $100 million expansion of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Also, a national nonprofit that promotes racial equity revealed it is partnering with the city on designing an inclusive lakefront. And plans for converting the Shoreway highway into a boulevard are crystalizing but may complicate Amtrak’s passenger rail expansion plans.

 

MORE:

https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/11/downtown-lakefront-projects-flow/

Hey @KJPjust a heads up, the final two year budget does not have the $62,000,000 award for Cleveland’s land bridge. It was proposed in the House, but struck in the Senate version of the bill. 
Maybe you mentioned that in the article and I missed it?
As always, thank you for the write up on the other projects.

25 minutes ago, ELaunder said:

Hey @KJPjust a heads up, the final two year budget does not have the $62,000,000 award for Cleveland’s land bridge. It was proposed in the House, but struck in the Senate version of the bill. 
Maybe you mentioned that in the article and I missed it?
As always, thank you for the write up on the other projects.

Well, that does not surprise me. In fact, I believe I expressed shock a while back when I first heard that it was a thing.

Had no clue where to post this. Out for a little cruise on this beautiful evening.

Also, great article Ken!




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Here's an alternative to the proposed, snaking East 18th ramp that would have a slope of about 4-4.5%. This option preserves the East 26th Street Rail Yard and allows development of the Municipal Parking Lots with vehicular and pedestrian access from either the boulevard, the port access road/South Marginal Road, or the new connector roads between the boulevard and the Port Road. Here, East 18th Extension would provide direct access from downtown to Burke Lakefront, whether it's an airport or a park. East 18th Extension would have concrete retaining walls supporting its elevated roadway so new structures can be built immediately adjacent to it. North Marginal Road would slope up at 2-3% from an elevation of about 585 feet to about 610 feet to intersect with East 18th Extension. East 18th Extension then slope up at about 5% to cross over the NS tracks at a roadway surface elevation of about 637-640 using a truss bridge so that the bridge deck thickness is minimized. Of course, the North Marginal slopes could be raised by 1% each so the East 18th Extension slope could be reduced and have a higher bridge over the boulevard. BTW, it's OK to have roadways with right-angled intersections. They slow traffic down. Not every new roadway needs to be designed like a highway. So in this option, the access to the Port Road has intersections that are wide enough for extra-large loads to make turns. A couple of the curbs could be pulled back a bit to provide a better turning radius. I hope the Port Road can also be used by Greyhound and other buses to serve the new Multimodal Transportation Center.

Here’s a question: Why do they feel the need to keep North and South Marginal if that stretch is turning into a blvd with intersections? Could they not just be eliminated from DMC? South Marginal could be continued from 38th street.

2 hours ago, KJP said:

Here's an alternative to the proposed, snaking East 18th ramp that would have a slope of about 4-4.5%. This option preserves the East 26th Street Rail Yard and allows development of the Municipal Parking Lots with vehicular and pedestrian access from either the boulevard, the port access road/South Marginal Road, or the new connector roads between the boulevard and the Port Road. Here, East 18th Extension would provide direct access from downtown to Burke Lakefront, whether it's an airport or a park. East 18th Extension would have concrete retaining walls supporting its elevated roadway so new structures can be built immediately adjacent to it. North Marginal Road would slope up at 2-3% from an elevation of about 585 feet to about 610 feet to intersect with East 18th Extension. East 18th Extension then slope up at about 5% to cross over the NS tracks at a roadway surface elevation of about 637-640 using a truss bridge so that the bridge deck thickness is minimized. Of course, the North Marginal slopes could be raised by 1% each so the East 18th Extension slope could be reduced and have a higher bridge over the boulevard.

I think it would be important to add that this is a lot less pavement to maintain than the alternative, and probably a lot cheaper to build. 

I get that there are competing interests and different ideas on what to do about the downtown lakefront but is it really as complicated as it appears or are we just making it more complicated than it really is? Every solution seems to present new problems.

 

The more l read about it the more it appears to be a Gordian knot. Or maybe we just can't get out of our own way.

2 hours ago, Foraker said:

I think it would be important to add that this is a lot less pavement to maintain than the alternative, and probably a lot cheaper to build. 

 

And is has the potential to foster more development than the Snake Hill alternative.

 

BTW, in the state budget, the North Coast Connector lost out to projects like this:

 

Of the foregoing appropriation item 195503, Local Development
Projects, $22,500,000 in fiscal year 2024 shall be allocated to the City of
Mason to support the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament.

 

I'm sure it's a wonderful project too. But I think $22.5 million directed to the North Coast Connector would have leveraged a ton of private and federal money and gotten a greater long-term return on investment.

2 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

And is has the potential to foster more development than the Snake Hill alternative.

 

BTW, in the state budget, the North Coast Connector lost out to projects like this:

 

Of the foregoing appropriation item 195503, Local Development
Projects, $22,500,000 in fiscal year 2024 shall be allocated to the City of
Mason to support the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament.

 

I'm sure it's a wonderful project too. But I think $22.5 million would have leveraged a ton of private and federal money and gotten a greater long-term return on investment.

$22.5 million for a tennis tournament?!?

11 minutes ago, Ineffable_Matt said:

$22.5 million for a tennis tournament?!?

 

I too was flabbergasted so I looked into it. It is money to turn the current facilities into nice, newly renovated, year-round facilities in order to hope to keep the tournament organizer from moving the W&S open from Cincinnati to North Carolina where they are building a brand new $400M complex for it.

 

https://www.fox19.com/2023/06/05/everyones-attention-is-this-mason-unveils-plan-keep-ws-open-greater-cincinnati/

Spent some time visiting at The Lumen over the 4th and from their sky deck, I thought that the proposed eastern edge of downtown really would be an ideal place for a possible relocation of Cleveland Browns stadium. 
 

It just seems to be an area that isn’t offering anything much from an aesthetic or pedestrian standpoint and such a relocation would really infuse and transform that area while still being at the doorstep of downtowns restaurants hotels and attractions.  It might help to attract a major new hotel and other related development as well. 
 

(Btw, as you’d imagine, That view from The Lumen sky deck is pretty amazing…and the Lumen itself is a very impressive building) 

 

28 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

Gordon Estate. Sue the state to make them tunnel I-90 under the park and make it whole again. Please and thank you.

did they cut the park in half with a highway or was the edge of gordon park the old shoreline?

54 minutes ago, Whipjacka said:

did they cut the park in half with a highway or was the edge of gordon park the old shoreline?

a little of both I think

If you include Dike 14 (now Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve) which was created by sinking two large, old barges, then there was a significant amount of land added to Gordon Park. But the highway cut off the park from its reason for being -- lakefront access -- moreso than the old Lakeshore Boulevard did.

17 hours ago, dwolfi01 said:

to keep the tournament organizer from moving the W&S open from Cincinnati to North Carolina where they are building a brand new $400M complex for it.

$22.5 million against their $400 million for the new place?   🤷‍♂️

11 hours ago, marty15 said:

Gordon Estate. Sue the state to make them tunnel I-90 under the park and make it whole again. Please and thank you.

I get the sentiment but I 90 already floods there during storms with winds out of the north.  Not sure a tunnel would be a great idea.    Maybe they could build up a green cap over it to protect the roadway and provide the same access? 

Is there any remaining momentum, any at all, for the Green Ribbon Coalition's proposal? 

 

https://www.greenribbonlakefront.org/projects/gordonpark/

 

Edit:

 

 

Further edit: 

 

If this was ever done this Park would be larger than edgewater without even considering the nature preserve.

18 hours ago, dwolfi01 said:

 

I too was flabbergasted so I looked into it. It is money to turn the current facilities into nice, newly renovated, year-round facilities in order to hope to keep the tournament organizer from moving the W&S open from Cincinnati to North Carolina where they are building a brand new $400M complex for it.

 

https://www.fox19.com/2023/06/05/everyones-attention-is-this-mason-unveils-plan-keep-ws-open-greater-cincinnati/

And what happens when this $22.5M "investment" fails to prevent the tournament from moving to a sunnier locale?

41 minutes ago, Ethan said:

Is there any remaining momentum, any at all, for the Green Ribbon Coalition's proposal? 

 

https://www.greenribbonlakefront.org/projects/gordonpark/

No idea, but it's not a bad plan.  Even better, I like KJP's proposal of turning all of I-90 into a boulevard and routing the interstate down I-271 to I-480 -- send the high-speed traffic around the city rather than through the middle of it.  I suspect that there is even less support for that at this time, however.

2 hours ago, Foraker said:

And what happens when this $22.5M "investment" fails to prevent the tournament from moving to a sunnier locale?

 

Cincinnati Republicans love to lecture on fiscal conservatism until it comes to pissing into the wind toward their own mirage of a pork project. 

 

Edited July 13, 20231 yr by ASP1984

11 minutes ago, Foraker said:

No idea, but it's not a bad plan.  Even better, I like KJP's proposal of turning all of I-90 into a boulevard and routing the interstate down I-271 to I-480 -- send the high-speed traffic around the city rather than through the middle of it.  I suspect that there is even less support for that at this time, however.

 

I really think this is our best option. Not only does it better connect east-side neighborhoods to the lakefront, but it connects those neighborhoods to downtown as well.

 

ODOT plans to spend billions in coming years in modernization efforts on the central interchange and dead man's curve. Even with making the curve less dramatic I still don't see how traffic isn't going to back up on 90 westbound with the shoreway converting to a lower speed boulevard at the same place 90 turns south. 

Edited July 13, 20231 yr by Luke_S

48 minutes ago, Foraker said:

And what happens when this $22.5M "investment" fails to prevent the tournament from moving to a sunnier locale?

Very good questions.  And from what I have read there is a more than a 50% chance that it is moving to North Carolina no matter what.  I guess they will argue that the upgrades will help attract another tournament, although nothing as prestigious as the current tournament.

Edited July 13, 20231 yr by Htsguy

12 hours ago, Whipjacka said:

did they cut the park in half with a highway or was the edge of gordon park the old shoreline?

See below for old shoreline. (Dotted blue line)

 

1 hour ago, Foraker said:

I like KJP's proposal of turning all of I-90 into a boulevard and routing the interstate down I-271 to I-480 -- send the high-speed traffic around the city rather than through the middle of it.  

I would hope that vehicles not going into Cleveland are already doing that.

 

Edited July 13, 20231 yr by LibertyBlvd

1 hour ago, Luke_S said:

Even with making the curve less dramatic I still don't see how traffic isn't going to back up on 90 westbound with the shoreway converting to a lower speed boulevard at the same place 90 turns south. 

 

I don't see why it would be any worse than it is now, or that it is where I-490 drops down to the Opportunity Corridor boulevard.  And in softening Dead Man's Curve I think the shoreway will split from I-90 further east than it does now.

 

On 7/10/2023 at 10:26 AM, KJP said:

So here's two problems....  This is the proposed design of the East 18th Street extension. The first problem is the inclusion of ramps to/from the surely to be lightly used port access road (unless Greyhound can use it to access an intermodal center for which it has shown little interest). The placement of this ramp prevents any redevelopment of the municipal parking lots at this location unless vehicular access comes from the proposed new boulevard. But what about pedestrian access into downtown?

 

Second problem.... Look at how the city of Cleveland and ODOT have proposed the extension of East 18th Street as part of the conversion of the Shoreway to a boulevard. It would wipe out the west half of the ex-East 26th Street Yard site that would be needed for a build-out of the Amtrak ConnectsUS vision. That vision not only includes new trains originating and terminating in Cleveland to/from Columbus and Cincinnati but also to/from Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh/New York City and Buffalo/New York City. Ironically, the project sponsors would have to acquire Amtrak property to do this (Amtrak is a dba for the National Railroad Passenger Corp.). Although Amtrak is a party to the discussions of the North Coast Connector/land bridge, I wonder if they're aware of this? Wouldn't it be ironic if Amtrak gets a cool new station for Cleveland from the lakefront redevelopment but loses one of the few places to store/service trains for that cool new station from that very same redevelopment?

 

Here's the proposed East 18th ramp, which is needed to divert traffic from the East 9th intersection when the Shoreway is converted into a boulevard. The ramp is needed so East 18th can gradually descend from an approximate roadway surface height of about 640-645 feet above sea level over Norfolk Southern (the two southernmost tracks) down to about 585 feet. -- the current elevation of the Shoreway.

 

Amtrak's property is shown below. Amtrak bought this land in 1979 as a back-up for a station site in case the the city land on which their existing station occupies rent-free is suddenly taken from them for city needs. I'm assuming that the real estate people at Amtrak are talking to the development and government affairs people at Amtrak, so that the Amtrak-owned property isn't thoughtlessly discarded for this roadway ramp. But I can't assume this, so I contacted an old friend there.

 

This is how Amtrak and the State of Ohio had intended to use the East 26th Street Yard for the several daily trains between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. More tracks and facilities would be needed to accommodate additional trains to Detroit, Chicago and the East Coast. 

Just catching up with this and all I can say is that it's yet another project with a 'burb mindset conceptually. Worse yet, it will destroy one of the few places where trains can layover between runs. It's a stupid idea.

With renovations coming to the Rock Hall I was thinking of ways to improve the look of the Science Center. I never liked the exterior of the theater as it kind of drags the whole building down. So I am very jealous of the Sphere in Vegas and thought this would be a way to improve the buildings look and functionality. The structure is already there so for the most part it would just be building on that with the LED panels. Imagine seeing that lit up at night from the Mall or from the water. The programming for it could be endless. Not just Science Center related.

1 hour ago, freethink said:

With renovations coming to the Rock Hall I was thinking of ways to improve the look of the Science Center. I never liked the exterior of the theater as it kind of drags the whole building down. So I am very jealous of the Sphere in Vegas and thought this would be a way to improve the buildings look and functionality. The structure is already there so for the most part it would just be building on that with the LED panels. Imagine seeing that lit up at night from the Mall or from the water. The programming for it could be endless. Not just Science Center related.

CC: Dolan Family 

Lakefront vision to be unveiled July 27 at the science center. Article coming.

 

Lakefront vision to be unveiled July 27
By Ken Prendergast / July 18, 2023

 

Although the downtown lakefront plans to be released publicly on July 27 will be preliminary, they will give more insight into the direction city officials received from prior public input sessions on developing the city’s “front porch” as officials call the city’s Lake Erie waterfront. And since these plans are still preliminary and conceptual, city officials said they want more public input on them before refining them and adding more design details to them.

 

MORE:

https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/18/lakefront-vision-to-be-unveiled-july-27/

I'm literally going to die of old age with the lakefront still being a parking lot. And I'm only 31. 

If the future of Burke isn’t at least “on the table for discussion”  it will be a big disappointment.  And if Cleveland Browns stadium’s future isn’t possibly in a new location - I don’t know what all the fuss will be about.  

It may be too soon. The Burke study probably isn't done yet. It's a four-month study that got underway in May/June.

I wonder if this will hold progress up or if they’ll move on without the County

https://www.ideastream.org/government-politics/2023-07-18/north-coast-community-development-corporation-plan-stalls-in-cuyahoga-county-council

12 minutes ago, Enginerd said:

I wonder if this will hold progress up or if they’ll move on without the County

https://www.ideastream.org/government-politics/2023-07-18/north-coast-community-development-corporation-plan-stalls-in-cuyahoga-county-council

As I am seeing it, the county just loses its voice and it will move forward.  In fact I believe the individual lobbying for it at the meeting said as much.  It would be nice to have the county's $250,000 a year, but it appears that it is not vital.  

38 minutes ago, Htsguy said:

As I am seeing it, the county just loses its voice and it will move forward.  In fact I believe the individual lobbying for it at the meeting said as much.  It would be nice to have the county's $250,000 a year, but it appears that it is not vital.  

 

That's what Eric Wobser made it sound like. 

 

The entire district is within Cleveland City limits, I don't know why the county thinks it shouldn't be dominated by Cleveland appointees. The concerns over creating another quasi-public entity to direct development of a large area of the city seems like a much more valid discussion to be had. 

Edited July 19, 20231 yr by Luke_S

Bruised egos.

I wonder if this will hold progress up or if they’ll move on without the County

https://www.ideastream.org/government-politics/2023-07-18/north-coast-community-development-corporation-plan-stalls-in-cuyahoga-county-council

The Lakefront is situated in CLEVELAND.

Even with all of its flaws, CLEVELAND is the lifeblood of Cuyahoga County and a major contributor to its viability and success.

CLEVELAND is contributing 3 MILLION DOLLARS while Cuyahoga County is only contributing a total of $750,000. Why would the county even THINK that they should be an equal to Cleveland on the board.

This reeks of selfish politics.

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Cuyahoga County Council withholds approval of Cleveland’s proposed lakefront development authority

But members of the county council didn’t like the math. They objected that two seats were too few for the county, given its sizable recent investments in supporting the construction of the city’s new convention center, the Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel, and the Global Center for Health Innovation.

“There’s nothing meaningful about our two seats at the end of the day,’’ said District 11′s Sunny Simon. “Cleveland is going to rule.’’

Like I said. They want to be in control and will hold up progress so they can feel needed and in power. This county is so frustrating, it's no wonder why we haven't grown in decades.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/07/cuyahoga-county-council-withholds-approval-of-clevelands-proposed-lakefront-development-authority.html

*SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE*

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$750,000 shouldn't be an extremely difficult feat. Maybe we can redirect some of that $2,000,000 that we took away from NEON and put it towards this project.

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