Great cities around the world have shown for decades — if not centuries — that beautiful parks, streets and public spaces are essential to urban vitality, economic energy and civic pride.

Cleveland finally seems to be getting the message.

That’s the big take-away from the historic agreement between Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson over how to spend excess cash raised for construction of the downtown convention center and Global Center for Health Innovation, formerly known as the Medical Mart.

Built by MMPI Inc. of Chicago, the $465 million joint facility is slightly under budget and will open next week, 10 weeks ahead of schedule.

Thanks to an improving economy, the quarter-cent sales tax levied by the county to pay for the project has generated more than twice as much as the untouched $40 million contingency fund gathered on top of the $465 million. Hotel bed tax revenues also have been strong.

The total available for fresh projects, as of Tuesday, is $93 million.

As FitzGerald put it in a presentation with Jackson on Monday at The Plain Dealer, he wants to avoid spreading that sum around the county like peanut butter on a thin layer of small efforts.

Instead, he wants to leverage the cash to attract an additional $225 million to $275 million from naming rights, federal and foundation grants, private investments and other sources.

He’d use that new total — projected $300 million to $350 million — to capitalize on the momentum created by everything from the new bus rapid-transit HealthLine on Euclid Avenue to the new downtown casino and convention center.

Projects on FitzGerald’s list include a new, 650-room convention hotel on the site of the former county administration building, which will be vacated next year as part of the consolidation of county offices in a new headquarters at Prospect Avenue and East Ninth Street. The hotel is intended to help the new convention center and center for health innovation attract large groups they might otherwise lose.

FitzGerald wants to help Cleveland realize improvements it envisions for the downtown Mall, which doubles as the green roof of the largely underground convention center, and for Public Square, where the mayor wants to close one of two cross streets to make the 10-acre space more beautiful and lively.

The county executive also wants to help the city build a pedestrian bridge over the lakefront railroad lines and the Shoreway from the convention center to North Coast Harbor, along with a new, 740-space parking garage.

The net effect of all these investments, if carried out well, could be huge. They’d link the Mall and Public Square to each other and to the lakefront as never before.

They also could trigger residential, office and retail development that finally fills the gray wastelands of surface parking lots on either side of the downtown core in the Warehouse District and Campus District.

Public pressure could hasten better bike and pedestrian connections to neighborhoods from downtown. Who knows? Maybe the long-delayed final section of the Towpath Trail, a 110-mile regional bike path that’s mostly finished south of Cleveland, and the associated Lake Link Trail, could be finished in the foreseeable future.

The catch here is that good intentions are not enough to ensure a sudden windfall is well spent by the city and county. Far from it. If used in haste without the highest standards of design, the money could harm rather than help.

The good news is neither the city nor the county are starting from scratch.

Promising visions for Public Square and the Mall have been developed in recent years by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a business service organization, and the city’s new Group Plan Commission, a cluster of civic and business leaders, with strong professional help from Land Studio, a small but powerful nonprofit urban design and public art agency.

Here’s what ought to happen next to achieve optimal results: 

A fresh round of public forums and brainstorming “charrettes” is needed to update and refine the plans developed so far for the Mall, the lakefront walkway and Public Square. Public aspirations need to be raised and articulated. This need not take a great deal of time — and it could raise excitement and pressure to get the job done right. 

The elevated walkway from the convention center to North Coast Harbor should be a linear work of art that dazzles the eye through its structure and lighting. It needs to be a gemlike attraction that lures people from one end to another. If it’s merely a gerbil tube for humans, it will be a colossal failure. It also must be designed so as not to block direct views of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum from the northeast corner of the Mall, which is exactly what a previous city proposal contemplated. 

Reconstructed sections of the downtown Mall, extending two blocks north from Lakeside Avenue, are now entirely grass. The area needs to be fleshed out with trees, gardens and active recreation areas to make it work both as a casual destination and as a focal point of outside events. It also needs to be reconceived as an amenity for the proposed hotel, which could add vitality to the Mall on a regular basis. 
 
The hotel itself needs to be designed so it handsomely completes the Group Plan District, conceived in 1903 by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham as the city’s monumental civic core. The hotel would be the final piece of an ensemble that includes Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland City Hall, and the Cleveland Public Library. The new building needs to look as if it belongs in such august surroundings — and not as if it’s a piece of generic corporate architecture.

It’s great after years of squabbles among the city and county to see FitzGerald and Jackson in agreement over proposed downtown investments. It’s also important that the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the city’s chamber of commerce, is fully engaged.
 
The partnership signals a new civic awareness that in addition to building excellent attractions, Cleveland needs to acquire a beautiful public realm that encourages visitors and residents alike to enjoy the city on foot or on a bike.

Jackson and FitzGerald are absolutely saying all the right things. Now they need to produce. 

Original Article

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