Lorain Avenue Streetscape Prepping for Launch

Joe Cimperman frisks Matt Zone, looking for the missing Lorain Streetscape Plan

 

With the West 25th Street corridor rapidly filling up in both directions from Lorain Avenue, Ohio City leaders started looking toward the next frontier: Lorain from West 25th Street heading west.

In November 2011, community development corporation Ohio City Inc invited Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative to host Launch Lorain, three days of workshops with area business and property owners, residents, and local institutions such as St Ignatius High School. The sessions began and ended with open public meetings in the Ohio City Writers space at 3208 Lorain, where people voiced more interest in issues like crime, potholes, prostitution, and police response than in the collaborative’s pretty — and sometimes fanciful — design plans. (The proposals for decorating the water tower were striking but hardly the number one item on anyone’s list.)

More than a year later, in late February, almost 150 people gathered for another public meeting at the Urban Community School at West 49th and Lorain to hear how those plans had evolved into the Lorain Avenue Streetscape Plan. Among those in the crowd were RTA’s deputy general manager for engineering and project management Mike Schipper, Commander Keith Sulzer from the 2nd police district, and a representative from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The biggest piece of news was that the plans were no longer confined to the Ohio City segment of Lorain stretching from West 25th to West 52nd. The proposed transformation will begin at the west end of the Carnegie-Lorain bridge and extend all the way to West 85th at the south end of the Detroit-Shoreway area. It includes the Lorain Antique Row, a once-lively shopping destination badly in need of a facelift.

So the councilmen from both neighborhoods — Ohio City’s Joe Cimperman and Detroit Shoreway’s Matt Zone — and the directors of both Ohio City Inc and the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Eric Wobser and Jeff Ramsey, addressed the crowd to impart their enthusiasm for the project. They shared that the city of Cleveland has earmarked $1.5 million for the project, and they introduced representatives from the firms working on the design and its execution.

They talked about extending the “brand” of Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway and the upgrades that both neighborhoods have seen in recent years along the shabbier Lorain Corridor. They said they would look at “complete street” opportunities to balance different modes of transportation, green infrastructure opportunities, and clearer, more attractive signage.

They also said that a transportation engineering consultant would be analyzing traffic flow and signals to look at ways to make the street friendlier for pedestrians and bicyclists, while maintaining bus and car access.

As at the Launch Lorain meetings, audience questions tended to revolve around personal and immediate concerns. A business owner with no loading dock worried that street gentrification would prevent him from being able to load off the street in front of his business. The controversial siting of a McDonalds on Lorain and Fulton was described by one man as “out of synch with this project.”  Several people brought up bicycle-related issues, including the type of paint used to mark off bike lanes.

Last week, questionnaires went up on both Ohio City Inc and Detroit Shoreway CDO’s websites to solicit further public input.  It’s available here. Jeff Verespej from OCI responded to an audience member who asked about how those without internet access would be reached by saying that the surveys would be taken to block clubs, business and churches in the area. Paper versions of the survey are available at both OCI and DSCDO offices.

Following a pair of steering committee workshops and analyzing the input from the surveys, there will be another public meeting from 6:30-8:30 pm May 28, with location to be announced.

 

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10 Responses to “Lorain Avenue Streetscape Prepping for Launch”

  1. wish best…I TRULY do…HARD road thou…PRAY MED MART,shale oil comes thru and THAT rippels thru econ and area… I HAVE OWN qualms bout medmaRT or GLOBAL HEALTH CARE whatever they want to call it now…but THAT DOES make lot of sense,brings in lot of biz and all that… PRAY get trickle down biz via culinary services,equipment repair,etc.etc.etc.etc. MOVED heaven,earth,blew lot of $ and politico capital for THAT….DONT forget to give THAT a chance….

    LIMITS to YUPPIE DOM luv fest… WE are WAY behind the curve and stuck doing nichie pell-mell funky specialized products,services,etc. thou considering wha see NOT being done or done well in retail stores to medico industrial complex facilities IS A OPENING FOR GOOD software… TIME to learn BASICS 101 of RFID chips to rest of it…

    PROBLEM….BUILDING owners and REST are gonna view ALL THAT as SAVIOR n NOT gonna take hard actions,TRY n jack up selling/rent prices,etc.etc. GUESSING that…which to a POINT I CAN UNDERSTAND but…

  2. SORRY…misspelled ripples…iDEASTREAM… the *$*@*X* up housing…especially BIG tracts… I HATE sounding like a *$*@ but …WHA gonna do with these old abandoned wrecks,etc.etc. PROTECT wha little left of old decent lived in,used buildings,etc. via good ol CFD spraying down with water SALVAGEABLE HOUSES while level,BURN rest of mess…. hey… MOWERGOAT meets DETROIT DISSAMBLED meets a Hough Winery type deal meets urban farming…….. I JUST don’t see THAT much demand..East side..OR THESE hoods… NOT trying to play race card or ethnic card or socio background card here..or poltico card….

  3. ONLY a certain % of people are gonna get into hipchic,urban style living and all that…NOT gonna get rid of well hey wild,woolycreaturefeatures….NOT even time,$,etc. Yeah can make it hardER… PART of the color…and SOME AMAZING stories… the YUPS dog out avg poo working stiffs aka US while…. far as taggers and rest…. if MORE CREATIVE and less crappy in quality ACTUALLY a asset…THAT kind of ‘activity’….BETTER FOCUSED and LOCALIZED vs. this mayhem…get a paint job out of it tooo… THINK bout it…GOT MOCA, CIA and rest of it who back MODERN ARTISTS…shovel out art grants,etc.etc.for THOSE artists to create whatever (NOT sure sold on the MUPPET MASSACRE DOLLBALL used as a ‘final thesis project’…) while ARRESTING OTHERS doing THIER thing…maybe I AM A FOO for SAYING THAT but HEY…. whether the taggers n kiddies can USE THAT as a ‘defense’ is ANOTHER story…. WE DONT have ENOUGH cops,time,$,etc.to chase all this….

  4. Old timers…THEY have a REAL quandary and mixed views…HOW long want to drag out stuff…dealing w/age, subprime loans,maintenance thing,WHO the blank gonna pass property(ties) onto and all that….look at SOCIAL revolution…FAMS spread all over place… THEY are gonna come back and FOOL WITH WHAT were?! ….COURSE they are gonna lowball and sell out…THINK bout it…TRYING to get SOMEONE to babysit place…CANT even get professional crews to really foo with likes of buildings…well SOME of em are out of towners n DOGS bout it…

  5. PUT THIS ANOTHER way…HAVE HOW many programs at CITY,NGOnonprofit,STATE and even FED level…SNAP,link,FHLB,HEAP,TARP and other alphabet soup gov programs… and YET SOMEHOW it aint percolating down TO…. YEAH SOME take advantage of and cram 22 into a A FRAME or do other… (which has OWN disdynamics)….

  6. HOW many are single gals…heck..LOOK AT photo above..and OLDER guyz…YOUNG guyz FEW n FAR between…SOME TRY n get ed,work,etc.OTHERS are like *$82 n sleeping during day so can be *$*@ at nite…. criminal to rest… IF ANY value… gets soo *$@* THE GALS cant stand it n CUT THE TUBES, carry mace,etc.n have ONLY one or couple kddies…H cheaper and SAFER for gals n kids… H EASIER to protect said…or flee…. whotever can shot or tase the best or fastest wins… I HATE saying THAT but….

  7. Lets face it…got a NGOnonprofit (?) pseudo industrial complex at work here….THRIVING communities to rest of it… fill a THIRD or FIFTH of buildings around here… or EUCLID AVE…. if any consolation…I THINK enough room n $ to keep u guyz going…whether enough to thrive or not is another story…MEANTIME good ol REST of OHIO, Medina county n rest gonna whisper white picket fence luvfest n low tax and all that into Cuyahoga County resident ears…and considering the corruptioncrapfest that went down recently ….

  8. FUTURE?
    1) CROWDFUNDING
    2) FREAKONOMICS
    3) medical biz
    4) MICROLENDING
    5) VO ED programs…

    U ARE gonna need it ALL…and then some….

  9. MEANTIME certain public whatever wants parking fee $…. side odd lots…city has choice…HOW viable want biz to be? LEAST allow free pkg on SUNDAYS…a semi blessing…OR stuck playing games with these funky little green places..I LIKE GREEN but….PROBLEM…AREA busy ENOUGH at certain times,locations to be a clustercrapf*ckFest to deter traffic n biz…..I HATE sayin asphalt everything over but SOMETHING….

  10. Crackheads n rest…NO idea WHA to do…TIME,medical horror stories,and other FINALLY causes a HORRORSTORY that FINALLY SINKS in…if THAT poor soul able to live long enough…or THEIR fams n friends can deal with it…ENOUGH say let Justice Ctr be the arbitrer and see Ya in 6 mos… IF any solace FEWER N FEWER as time goes on….

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