Cleveland vs. Inner Ring Suburbs (Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland: 2013, foreclosure, appliances)

[Cleverfield]

It's still about 50 or more percent occupied, and that Home Depot is one of the busiest around. Demolishing it would only make sense if there was a real, high dollar development proposal on the table, which I guarantee you there's not.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Cleverfield

It's still about 50 or more percent occupied, and that Home Depot is one of the busiest around. Demolishing it would only make sense if there was a real, high dollar development proposal on the table, which I guarantee you there's not.

50% is terrible. A Home Depot could serve better in a place where people actually lived worked on their house.

These suburban shoppping centers are a dying breed, like it or not.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by reretarff

The houses in the Superior Triangle are perfectly fine. They are historic and are a big part of Forest Hills. Yes a couple of houses there are abandoned or aren't in very good shape, but they can be easily fixed. Putting condos into a neighborhood with historic houses and mansions is a very bad idea, along with putting in an office park.

None of those houses need to be torn down. Nobody wants it to turn into what happened with the city of Cleveland. Keeping the houses there will keep the historic feel of the neighborhood. If those houses get torn down to build a cheap condo or some dirty business park, then it really will start to attract Section 8 housings and poor factory workers.

A good strategy isn't to ignore and try to keep away from East Cleveland, but to fix it up to the point where you wouldn't realize you were crossing the border into there unless you looked at a sign.

You really have terrible ideas similar to what happened to the city of Cleveland in the 1970's.

First off, I think we're talking about different areas here. At least I hope. The area I'm talking about is north of Mayfield and west of Superior. There isn't really much historical significance there, at least not much remaining in tact. I don't think that much would be lost if it were torn down.

Second, I'm speaking from the perspective of what Cleveland Heights itself can do. CH cannot control what happens outside of its borders. It's clear that East Cleveland has bigger challenges than worrying about how its problems are spilling over into Cleveland Heights. While I understand your goal of making borders "invisible," I just don't see how that can happen when one side is so limited in its resources and is so overwhelmed with problems.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Are you joking? Severance is like 4 miles from Case's campus and there's a bookstore right on Euclid Avenue. Severance is empty. There's no Walmart, no Borders, it's basically a home depot. There really isn't much there, it's massive, it's ugly, it's dead, and it's depressing. Case students live in Little Italy, Coventry, and Shaker Square. I doubt any of them go to Severance Town Center for any reason. Nobdoy would notice if it were gone tomorrow.

I'm not a huge fan of Severance and now that Walmart is gone I do think that CH needs a "grand vision" for how that shopping center can be improved. That said, please realize that lots of CWRU students live throughout Cleveland Heights, including in those low-rise apartments that ring around Severance Circle. Not to mention other professionals working in University Circle.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Cleveland Heights should just bulldoze Severance.

Quite agreed from an urban planner's point of view. I didn't get to see Severance Circle in person during my visit (was curious but didn't have the time) but looking at snapshots and it's layout of it in Google Maps and then it's location on a regular map made me think "what the!? how on earth did that get built there?"

I hate to say it since I'm not a resident of Cleveland Heights but an open space shopping center like that looks totally out of place in a densely built old school streetcar suburb like Cleveland Heights. That space ought to be entirely redeveloped and made a lot denser with businesses, residences, a community center, and mixed retail that can house and employ the local population. And no I do not mean putting in another Walmart because that type of business can only provide low income jobs that benefit almost no one. Someone should lobby CH to push for such development and then someone should lobby the RTA to consider branching off the Health Line BRT to go to it via Mayfield.

The same formula could go for the old Euclid Square Mall (which can be reached with a Red Line Rapid extension) and Randall Park Mall. That's the one advantage Greater Cleveland has that other places do not - plenty of land to develop and redevelop on.

[Cleverfield]

That area used to be an estate of industrial giant John Long Severance. The estate was demolished in 1961 and an indoor mall was built. In the 90's the mall was dying due to high incidents of fights, and nearby competing malls, so they decided to turn it into an outdoor shopping center. I don't like it any more than Bjimmy, but I don't see it being torn down unless a developer actually goes in and purchases the property. With all the available cheap land in Cleveland and East Cleveland, I don't see that happening. If a developer wants to build condos directed at University Circle employees, students, and patrons, they're more likely to build them where they have been -- in the area immediately surrounding those institutions, not up the hill in CH. Additionally, while the shopping center may be on a downward slide, it's still the closest Home Depot for people from the Heights and UC, and the closest main-stream multiplex movie theater for many people, and therefore still has a pretty big built-in draw.

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Are you joking? Severance is like 4 miles from Case's campus and there's a bookstore right on Euclid Avenue. Severance is empty. There's no Walmart, no Borders, it's basically a home depot. There really isn't much there, it's massive, it's ugly, it's dead, and it's depressing. Case students live in Little Italy, Coventry, and Shaker Square. I doubt any of them go to Severance Town Center for any reason. Nobdoy would notice if it were gone tomorrow.

Dave's supermarket there is the closest grocery store for university circle residents other than Constantino's on Euclid, which has a small selection and is also overpriced. Other than Dave's, there is Marc's and Giant Eagle all the way in South Euclid.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by armstrong

Dave's supermarket there is the closest grocery store for university circle residents other than Constantino's on Euclid, which has a small selection and is also overpriced. Other than Dave's, there is Marc's and Giant Eagle all the way in South Euclid.

Marc's has a location on Coventry and there's another Dave's in the Cedar-Fairmount district.

[Clevelander17]

Originally Posted by Cleverfield

That area used to be an estate of industrial giant John Long Severance. The estate was demolished in 1961 and an indoor mall was built. In the 90's the mall was dying due to high incidents of fights, and nearby competing malls, so they decided to turn it into an outdoor shopping center. I don't like it any more than Bjimmy, but I don't see it being torn down unless a developer actually goes in and purchases the property. With all the available cheap land in Cleveland and East Cleveland, I don't see that happening. If a developer wants to build condos directed at University Circle employees, students, and patrons, they're more likely to build them where they have been -- in the area immediately surrounding those institutions, not up the hill in CH. Additionally, while the shopping center may be on a downward slide, it's still the closest Home Depot for people from the Heights and UC, and the closest main-stream multiplex movie theater for many people, and therefore still has a pretty big built-in draw.

I think there could be some demand for condos and development north of Mayfield near Coventry.

[Clevelander216]

Originally Posted by Clevelander17

Marc's has a location on Coventry and there's another Dave's in the Cedar-Fairmount district.

ahhh yes i forgot about the marc's in coventry. although i don't believe it has a deli

didn't know about the dave's in cedar-fairmount. i'm still a bit new to the east side.