Clinic wants to create a public square on Euclid
Marc Lefkowitz | 07/27/06 @ 9:58am
The Cleveland Clinic wants to divert car traffic off of Euclid Avenue and create a public square between E. 86th and E. 105th streets.
“Removing cars would create a pedestrian-friendly ‘campus center’ along Euclid, as the nonprofit behemoth seeks to green up and soften its institutional look,” The Plain Dealer’s Tom Breckenridge reports today.
A city official familiar with the proposal says, “It reminds me of the 16th Street Mall in Denver,” the 16-block long pedestrian and transitway mall that serves as the retail core of downtown Denver.
It's great that the Clinic is thinking about a more welcoming presence in the city after decades of building fortress architecture (Cleveland State University offers a good model). But the timing of this proposal has created panic at RTA because it threatens to delay construction of the long-planned Euclid Corridor bus rapid transit project — a delay that could jeopardize tens of millions of dollars in federal transit funding.
Other issues and questions:
- City of Cleveland officials are concerned about funneling more traffic on to E. 86th Street, where new housing is being developed.
- How would removal of cars from that stretch of Euclid affect local businesses and churches? (Euclid Corridor planners have already spent years resolving access issues.)
- What would happen to the Euclid Corridor bike lane, which is planned to be the essential bike link between downtown and University Circle?
What are your thoughts?
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