Cleveland boosts a large amount of interesting and underutilized infrastructure. In its current state these roads and buildings look like any other part of Cleveland. They have character, they have an interesting past, and they can too serve a purpose in a new Cleveland. On a recent trip to New York City, I visited Highline Park, which is a 1.45 mile park built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad of the West Side Line. The park recently opened in 2009 and is not complete, but this type of adaptive reuse would be a great way to redevelop Cleveland’s neighborhood of Ohio City/Near West Side and bring life to the Detroit-Superior Bridge.
First, their are obvious differences between a park being built on historic elevated tracks in NYC’s trendy neighborhoods, such as the Meat Packing District, West Village, and Chelsea. Obviously these neighborhoods are very lively and are lined with multi-million dollar luxury apartments, boutiques, and cafes. However, these neighborhoods were once in decline in NYC and the visionary actions taken turned this area into a highly sought after part of the City.
Cleveland has a unique opportunity to connect downtown and Ohio City to create trendy corridor, lively with art establishments, restaurants, retail, residential, jobs, and a high quality of life. I would propose that Cleveland use the Detroit Avenue/Superior Ave corridor as a pilot for creating a vibrant, pedestrian oriented street, which connects neighborhoods, employment centers, civic and educational institutions with the people.
First, the Detroit-Superior Bridge has a history of temporary uses on the abandoned lower level. In September 2009, the lower levels of the bridge were used as a temporary art installation. “The curious will stroll along the mile-long span, sampling video installations, roots music, drumming, juggling and more. It will feel as if you’re exploring catacombs under a lost city, but actually you are high enough to gaze over the Flats, downtown and the industrial valley.” (http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/09/ingenuityfests_bridge_project.html)
The City should actively evaluate the opportunity to redevelop this corridor by making permanent pedestrian and biking improvements to the Detroit-Superior Bridge’s abandoned lower level. Further, it should look at traffic flow along Detroit Avenue and possibly reconfigure the road to exclude one travel lane. The excluded travel lane could be used as pedestrian and bike path, additional sidewalk space, areas for tables and other measures.
This will make the area more pedestrian friendly and calm traffic. Further, the entire corridor is approximately 4-miles. This allows a large amount of people to be able to actively bike and/or walk to work or school in Downtown.Creating a “trendy” corridor in Cleveland is step in the right direction. It may be challenging to attract families back to Cleveland, because of schools, crime, etc. But, attracting Cleveland’s “Creative Class” may be a good start. This corridor would connect some of Cleveland’s best assets, such as the Detroit-Suprior Bridge, Ohio City, Downtown, The Public Square, Cleveland State University, and so on. Just maybe such a corridor would lead to redevelopment of the existing buildings that have so much character. Personally, if I had the opportunity to live in a trendy neighborhood, with an active night-life, eateries, etc and be able to have an interesting walk/bike to downtown at an affordable price, Cleveland would be very attractive to me.
January 16, 2010 at 8:27 pm
“Great article from From the School of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech; however many of these ideas are already in place in the city. For example, we have already removed a lane of traffic from Detroit Avenue on the bridge to better accommodate pedestrians and bicyclist. I do agree about the need to find a better use for the abandoned lower level. This is not a new idea, and I believe one day we will find a way to use this space safely, and efficiently while making Cleveland a City of Choice.”
January 16, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Excellent post! I lived near the superior bridge for a year and attended several events within it. Always felt it under utilized. To see this develop would be very special for the city. Security would be instrumental in it’s success as well.
January 17, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I saw Richard Florida’s tweet on this topic and clicked over here immediately. I absolutely agree that a great way to deal with the problem of getting people to buy into these neighborhoods and visions is to target groups, like the “Creative Class.” We lived in Cleveland for a few years, but the experience never left us even though we haven’t been residents there for 10 years. We love the neighborhoods and most importantly some of the institutions that are there like Cleveland Institute of Art.
We continue to invest in Cleveland and hope there’ll be some real incentives to get us to move back at some point in the near future – especially with regards to the development of art/design community.
Very good post.
January 18, 2010 at 2:51 pm
As a Clevelander I must say this type of project would not meet the needs of the immediate community or most of the city proper.
While this is a stellar idea on paper (one that I’d like to see for selfish reasons), I think a close study local culture might shed some light on why this type of venture might literally be creating a bridge to nowhere.
Until today’s thinkers can figure out a way to create projects that primarily aim to server the residents of the city proper, none will truly benefit the region. A city can not be sustained by weekend Clevelanders that reap the benefits of development without carrying the burden of social and civic responsibility.
January 18, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Richard_Florida: Creative Cleveland http://tinyurl.com/yz4mens…
January 18, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Scott, thanks for the update. I was only in the Ohio City for a brief trip last semester, but I am glad to hear that Cleveland has started reducing the size of some of their major roadways that are not at capacity.
Ron, I completely agree that the City needs to focus their resources more efficiently and effectively. Choosing between reducing abandoned structures or building an expensive park isn’t a hard choice. Stabilization should be the city and CDCs first priority. My thoughts were that Cleveland has an amazing built environment and certain neighborhoods (Ohio City and Tremont) and ripe for prime rehabilitation of interesting and unique living spaces for Cleveland’s residents. But, Cleveland has a very long way to go in terms of stabilizing before looking at something like this. Thanks for the comment!
February 6, 2010 at 3:39 am
Detroit-Superior Bridge ideas…
Contributors to Virgina Tech’s Shrinking Cities weblog have been considering potential uses for the lower deck of the Detroit-Superior Bridge. Austin Watkins shared his thoughts last month, and yesterday, Michael Hill added his opinions…….
June 9, 2011 at 4:55 pm
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