Cleveland Clinic Kills Shroreway Development

[Bill Call]

$20 million of stimulus money has been allocated to Clinic developers to "study" the opportunity cooridor.

Is a "study" a shovel ready project?

The $20 million could have completed most of the Shoreway project.

[Charlie Page]

20 mill? That's a lot of cash to tell us what we already know: There are many many obstacles to overcome, minority and non-minority homes and businesses will be displaced, it will require coordination of the varioius municipalities affected and it'll cost billions and billions that we don't know where we'll get.

Why can't they do a 50 thousand foot study for a couple million until they find the billions and billions to pay for the project?

[Tim Liston]

Bill you are mistaken. The $20 million also provides for "the acquisition of land" for the Corridor.

But I doubt that much land will be acquired with what's left of the $20 million not spent on the study. So it makes me wonder whose parcels will be bought, if any at all.

And I wonder how many new jobs will be created by way of this $20 million. My guess is less than a dozen, if any at all.

Or whether the money just goes into another black hole.

This is so sad. I feel so sorry for the folks trying to revitalize Detroit-Shoreway. They have worked so tirelessly and done such fine work. And they have been lied to for years by the folks in Columbus.

And just how is it that one man gets to decide how $800 billion is spent?

[Jim DeVito]

The "opportunity corridor" will bring despair and hardship for the local residents for many years to come.

Anyway that reminds me a a question I have been meaning to ask. What on earth are they doing on the shore way right around the curve? They have those two giant pipes going from some ware into what looks like a makeshift water treatment plant. Any ideas?

[Bill Call]

Bill you are mistaken.

I'm glad someone is reading this stuff!!

The opportunity cooridor is going to be built at the expense of shoreway development. That's a shame.

[Tim Liston]

Bill you are mistaken again, twice in one day. The Opportunity Corridor will never be built. It's WAY too expensive. How can a project of this magnitude be built at union scale for less than $1 to $5 billion dollars, considering we first have to buy ALL the additional land before one yard of concrete can go down? We're done with big projects. Heck we couldn't even coax a dozen landowners to help with Wolstein's Flat's project. How are we gonna assemble hundreds of parcels to build the Opportunity Corridor?

The Medical Mart won't be built either. Even today, MMPI's Kennedy is publicly questioning Cleveland's resolve and readiness for the Medical Mart. Click here for what you will read in the Pee Dee tomorrow morning.

Finally, there is no way the stimulus-boughten Innerbelt Bridge will ever be built. $200 million for the additional span and the renovation of the existing span is not nearly enough money. As I recall, past estimates for the same work were much closer to $1 billion dollars. So that $200 million goes into the black hole. Which is undoubtedly what was intended....

Oh and of course the Shoreway boulevard is deader than a doornail. A project that appeared to be “shovel readyâ€

[Bill Call]

[quote="Tim Liston"]The Medical Mart won't be built either. Even today, MMPI's Kennedy is publicly questioning Cleveland's resolve and readiness for the Medical Mart.

Oh and of course the Shoreway boulevard is deader than a doornail. A project that appeared to be “shovel readyâ€

[c. dawson]

wow, and next up, the Clinic will quit using LifeFlight and switch to Blackhawk helicopters, because they're so sinister and evil.

Keep your conspiracy theories going, Bill, but to be honest, the Opportunity Corridor is far more important than the Shoreway to Cleveland's economy. Oh wait ... I forgot, you don't care what happens in Cleveland, because whatever happens there in the Evil City won't affect Lakewood.

Sheesh.

But the truth is, the main economic engine for GREATER CLEVELAND (that includes not only Cuyahoga County, but all the surrounding counties) is UNIVERSITY CIRCLE. Home to the Clinic, UH, CWRU, all the cultural institutions, and several bioenterprise companies that are there because of the proximity to the medical institutions. This is the main area for making money in Cleveland. The UH and the Clinic alone employ more than 60,000 people spread over their entire systems ... and for the most part, those are good-paying jobs.

The Opportunity Corridor project is a good idea ... finally extend I-490, which ends at East 55th, all the way to the University Circle idea. Open up that area south of the Clinic, which is literally a no-man's land of old factories from the early 1900s (long closed), or empty lots where those old factories were. Having a road cut through the gully there would open up access to those properties for redevelopment (they were located where they were for easy rail access, which today often isn't as important for a lot of companies). And also allow an easy access for folks from the West Side to get to University Circle ... because there are a LOT of us in the Lakewood/Rocky River/Bay Village/Westlake area who work in the Circle. And if you've ever tried to get over there, there are very few ways to access the Circle. MLK is a bottleneck, as is Carnegie and Chester. Having a direct freeway access to the Circle would do wonders, especially as it's through a gully that is only home to an RTA light rail line. And opening up that blighted area south of the Clinic would be a great advantage to those neighborhoods and might even revitalize them ... though again, I know you could care less about those neighborhoods, as they're not Lakewood. But then again, that means you'd have to consider other areas of the region ... which'll never happen.


I know you'll produce reams of statistics to support your conspiracy theories, and I'd be disappointed if you didn't, but while your watchdog attitude is commendable at times, your attitude that the rest of the region can sink into a big whole and Lakewood won't be affected is completely wrong. The Opportunity Corridor makes sense from an economic standpoint. Slowing down the Shoreway, changing the on ramps, and making a bit more park space is nice ... but is NOT an economic engine.

[Jim DeVito]

To be fair to the black hawk... It would make a better life flight helicopter. You use the links below to compare the specifications on the two helicopter. The UH-60 Black Hawk and what I believe to be the helicopter that metro health is using, The Eurocopter EC 145

The Black Hawk excels in pretty much every area. It can carry more, fly faster for longer, and is only $400,000 more than the current helicopter.



Eurocopter EC 145

.vs

UH-60 Black Hawk

[Bill Call]

Keep your conspiracy theories going, Bill, but to be honest, the Opportunity Corridor is far more important than the Shoreway to Cleveland's economy. Oh wait ... I forgot, you don't care what happens in Cleveland, because whatever happens there in the Evil City won't affect Lakewood.

You are wrong on all counts.

The Cleveland Clinic and the arts industry are not the economic engines of Northeast Ohio, they are the caboose.

The Clinic employs 60,000 people in the region but no more people are employed in the medical field in this area than 10 years ago. Hundreds of independent practices were merged and submerged by the Clinic. Part of that was made possible by the reputation of the Clinic and the synergies of a large, well run organization. Mostly it was made possible by the tax free status of the Clinic.

It’s like the GM telling us that we are better off with one big tax free, taxpayer subsidized car company than we are with 10 medium sized taxpaying companies.

The arts industry around University Circle could not survive without hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies. An economic engine dependent on money extorted from taxpayers is not an economic engine.

Regionalization has achieved a mythical status independent of any reality. How does spending $160 million to widen a few miles of freeway on I-77 and I-71 help the region? How does extending 490 help the region? Such projects just rearrange the existing economic center of gravity and do nothing to enhance the competiveness of the “regionâ€

[Jim O'Bryan]

Why is it that every regional solution involves sacrificing cities like Lakewood?

Bill

Might be something to ask LakewoodAlive and their regionalist leaders.


FWIW

[Tim Liston]

Some years ago the man who was the Planning Director under mayor Jane Campbell felt that the area's money was best spent on Shoreway development and other improvements to our lakefront. He had plans drawn up for an undertaking that would have benefited hundreds of thousands of residents of Cleveland and inner-ring suburbs. The so-called Opportunity Corridor had not even been thought of.

Now, the man who heads University Circle Inc., the primary spokesman for the Opportunity Corridor, instead trumpets an initiative to make it easier for west suburban residents to commute to and from University Circle, and says lakefront development should take a back seat, and perhaps never be undertaken.

As opposed these views are, the two men have something in common. They are the same man, just in a different job and with a different constituency. I guess it has less to do with what's right and wrong and more to do with who signs your paycheck.

Bill is right. The Opportunity Corridor just rearranges what we already have. And if anyone thinks that shiny new enterprises will arise up along it, well, take a look at Chester and Carnegie, the route people travel now. Not much there other than red-light cameras. Or check out the Euclid Corridor. Not much happening there either, contrary to what was promised. Anything that does pop up will just displace other business.

All the Opportunity Corridor will do is make it much easier to commute from Rocky River and points west to University Circle. That's it. It will do nothing to enhance the quality of life for anyone else. If you really want growth in this area, you have to leverage that which makes it unique. Hospitals do not make us unique. Every city has hospitals. Our lakefront makes us different and potentially better than most other cities.

Oh well....

[Gary Rice]

Your Lakefront thoughts would seem to be well-taken Tim, but just like here in Lakewood, much of that lakefront long ago became PRIVATE PROPERTY.

We can grouse all we want about whether the government in the 19th century should have permitted that kind of thing to occur or not with public beach access, but the fact remains that just about any kind of water rights and access has always been a big private busine$$.

So I would not wait with baited breath for a huge public Cleveland or Lakewood beach party anytime soon. (although Edgewater's not bad!) It is true however, that more areas are opening up. The more water access the public has, the greater all property values will probably be in a given area.

[Bill Call]

Your Lakefront thoughts would seem to be well-taken Tim, but just like here in Lakewood, much of that lakefront long ago became PRIVATE PROPERTY.

All the land for the Opportunity Corridor is privately owned. All the land for flats development was privately owned. It would be interesting to see who owns the now worthless land along the Opportunity Corridor and what premium they will demand.

Here is the project killed by the Cleveland Clinic:

http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/lakefront/

The site points out that there were more than 200 community meetings to discuss this project. The meetings were attended by thousands of people.

How many community meetings have there been about the opportunity corridor? How many community meetings were there to announce the end of Lakefront development?

[Jon Eckerle]

The opportunity corridor is an essential project for Cleveland's future. Here is why. For the next 20 years ODOT will be reconstructing the innerbelt. When it is finished we will be lucky to still have a viable Cleveland. University Circle is the primary sorce of income for the city outside of the downtown area. We need a direct connection between the west side and a primary employment center. Chris Royane wants both the Opportunity Corridor and the the the lakefront development. We will need the Opportunity Corridor prior to the inner belt being turned into a sea of orange barrels. It will happen late, but it will happen. They are closing exits downtown, the bridges will be torn down, the roadway rebuilt and dead man's curve will be rebuilt, moved and made less deadly..... 20 years of construction!