Hotel Bruce

Welcome to the Bruce blog—a weekly update on news, events and issues affecting life in Cleveland. Reporting as it happens on transit, development, planning, environment and arts & culture.

Basically, we write about creative ideas forming, talk to the people who have an inside track on the issues, and sometimes offer a commentary of our own. (For disclosure purposes, Bruce blog is a local, independent writer who also works part-time with nonprofit organization EcoCity Cleveland. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of EcoCity or any other organization).

Independent retail watch: Last month, Bruce blog reported on the closing of kitsch retailer Green Tomato and a slew of other closings or relocations to the outer suburbs. The trend continues as Joseph-Beth Booksellers closed its Shaker Square Store on July 11. Commenting on the second anchor to go under at the square, one observer noted, “It’s going to get a lot uglier [at Shaker Square] before it’s all over.”

In addition, B-Ware Video on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, the purveyor of everything indie from “The Icicle Thief” to Hammer horror flicks is shuttering its doors. Not a good sign for Madison Village. In the words of B-Ware owners Eddie and Natalie, “Support independent stores or they will ALL be gone.”

Then, there’s the case of the sudden closing of Tremont fashion boutique Ex-Ray. Amidst disturbing news that owner Thomas Ganley suffered repeated muggings and beatings at the hands of thugs who were apparently targeting him, Ganley’s decision to close two weeks ago surprised few who could see the marks and bruises on his face.

The last time independent retail was suffering this bad, there was a Republican in office and the economy was sucking wind (oh wait...).

But, perhaps more concerning is the anecdotal evidence of independent retailers being worn down from a lack of support from Cleveland’s middle class, compounded in some instances by a rash of violence directed toward them. Of the former, a recent visit to both Shaker Square and later to Legacy Village highlights the situation. Wealthy, mostly white consumers have made their choice: Preferring a Disney-esque simulation of a town square to the real thing.

If Shaker Square hasn’t captured the energy of Legacy, its perhaps because the retail mix didn’t match the real demographic split between middle income blacks and upper income whites. Or maybe it didn’t offer enough unique shops, cool places that can’t be found anywhere else in the region. Yes, Legacy is a profligate waste of an old forest on the Bolton and Blossom estate, a complex without a true village from which residents live and walk to nearby shops. But, it scored a coup by bringing in the region’s only Apple store. And it managed to successfully siphon Shaker Square’s Joseph-Beth and Lush Boutique. The latter, a locally owned women’s boutique, decided to move after its owners were held up at gun point twice at Shaker Square.

Contemplate this as you listen to the giant sucking sound coming from Legacy Village— imagine what it could be doing for Cleveland right now if it was, oh, perhaps built on lower Euclid with side streets including E. 4th and Prospect. Meanwhile, Shaker Square’s next owner, the dynamic developer Peter Rubin, will have another shot at transforming the square once more by reflecting the true demographics of the area, building off the success of Next urban gear, Details, Fire, etc. and attracting boutiques that have cache with hipster whites and blacks such as H&M, Miss Sixty, or even Urban Outfitters.

Planning nerd extraordinaire John “The Guv” McGovern picked up the ball on the new plans for Euclid Corridor—the subject of Hotel Bruce’s Issue 2 feature well. The Guv wove in a thread that calls for WiFi (or wireless remote access to the Internet) in the Euclid Corridor– an idea he and local blog exemplar, Brewed Fresh Daily are trumpeting:

"In the interest of creating economic development opportunities along the Euclid Corridor, where dark fiber optic lines already exist, it seems like a no-brainer to WI-FI the entire Corridor," McGovern writes. "Consider the current 'knowledge worker' served by the route who attend or work at CSU, CWRU, or the [Cleveland] Clinic.

Consider also, the current percentage of ridership represented by this demographic. Pretty low, I'd guess...this is therefore an opportunity for RTA to increase ridership by offering something not possible to automobile commuters.

A while back Hotel Bruce interviewed local developers regarding the potential of the Midtown area which will be served by the ECTP. View their conclusions here. Recently, Hotel Bruce commissioned a conceptual plan which was executed by the Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio. It can be viewed here.

From Brewed Fresh Daily, "Economic development is WiFi" and in an article from the New York Times highlights the ways in which WI-FI can be employed on a train as well as the cities that are doing it, often with grants from the Federal Transit Administration.

It would seem that if the stations along the corridor were WI-FI'd, their proximity would allow near continuous connection while riding the route so long as there existed some means of caching data, as most stations are less than a quarter mile apart. Additionally, these hotspots could serve the local "hang-out" population as the signal will likely "spill-out" into the sidewalks and building frontages.

The synergistic economic and social opportunities presented here seem far too great to pass-up. I intend to let RTA know. I'm counting on ya'll to spread the word far and wide..."

A little closer to concrete reality, Cleveland has finally (again) secured bike lanes for the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project. Due to some arm twisting by Cleveland officials and the tireless work of bike advocates, bureaucrats at the Ohio Dept. of Transportation will reinstate bike lanes after trying to yank them away from the city.

Late last year, ODOT reversed its initial approval and ruled that bike lanes will be replaced by bike routes. ODOT claimed that the design of the lanes as they approached the intersection wasn’t safe. The decision mobilized bike advocates like Ryan Mckenzie at EcoCity Cleveland and Cleveland planner Marty Cader, who argued that the design matched national standards promulgated by AASHTO.

While ODOT considered the arguments, public sentiment swung in favor of the bike lanes as a symbol of the new Cleveland, one with the same quality of life amenities as other big cities. Siding with the advocates, the city led by the planning department and councilman Joe Cimperman, opened a new flank to balance the decision making between the city and ODOT: Develop a local bike lane design guideline, which will effectively adopt bike lane specs from Chicago and apply them to Cleveland.

Meanwhile, the Euclid Avenue bike lane will be the first urban bike lane in the state of Ohio and will guarantee bike riders a continuous five foot wide lane in both directions on Euclid from Adelbert Road in University Circle to E. 22nd Street at Cleveland State University.

Tinkers Creek Land Conservancy (TCLC) was awarded $25,000 from the Gund Foundation to begin a master plan to identify and prioritize ecologically significant land within the Tinkers Creek watershed, the land trust group announced in a press release. The watershed drains 96 square miles and is the largest tributary of the Cuyahoga River. It includes four counties & twenty-four independent localities including areas of Twinsburg, Bedford, Aurora, Solon, Hudson, Beachwood, Warrensville Heights, Walton Hills, and Streetsboro.

“Tinkers Creek Land Conservancy asserts that there is a dire need for a scientific based study that encourages municipal authorities to commit to the long-term process of implementing regional sustainable goals and management for our watershed,” explains Marion Olson, president of TCLC.

The TCLC has selected Kerr+Boron Associates, Inc. of Brecksville, Ohio, to provide GIS mapping and preparing the final report for this project. For more information about the nonprofit group and it’s plans.

Cleveland Heights is moving into the final phase of Coventry Road improvements as the first full installment of public art/wrought iron planters were placed around the tree wells last week on the block in front of Tommy’s and Record Revolution. Local artist Brinsley Turrell won a Heights Arts Collaborative competition to design the planters which incorporate whimsical themes of each establishment. For example, the planter in front of Key Bank has a figure that appears to be ‘holding up’ another as if it was a bank heist.

Coventry Special Improvement District, where each merchant agreed to tax themselves to the tune of $2.2 million and spend the money on collective street improvements, plans on installing 59 planters on the street. Coventry SID president Tommy Fello has said that he expects the planters to be more than ornamental—that bicyclists are and will continue to use them as bike racks. Fello is interested in exploring the placement of bike racks and benches in strategic locations throughout the district with a budget of $20,000 to do so. And, with 747 parking spaces in the district and 800 employees, Fellow is interested in the possibility of covered bike lockers for employees of the street to use for long-term parking.

I just read the lovely feature on Carlo Maggiore...kudos to him for his
accomplishments in urban settlement, but he should know that there are far more than two carriage houses in Cleveland. As we learned in a recent attempt to help our appraiser, Ohio City and Tremont alone have more than forty properties with carriage houses; many of them are used as work/studio spaces for their owners, and many more of them have also provided rental income that has helped fund some of the revitalization of these two neighborhoods.
-Laura (last name withheld)

In Hotel Bruce Issue 2, we asked readers to write in with their favorite Cleveland haunts, places that are both quintessentially Cleveland but simultaneously feel like they might transport you to another place. Here, reader Avril Mcinally responds in a big way…