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 reported on July 14, 2006.

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? To read other comments and leave your own, go here.

Updates
August 7 — In the wake of Mayor Frank Jackson publicly rejecting the Clinic's plan, RTA's board chair George Dixon and president Joe Calabrese told Crain's Cleveland Business today that RTA and the Federal Transit Administration would not support the Clinic's plan as is.

"FTA is interested in the Cleveland Clinic concept, as long as it doesn't impact the budget or schedule of the Euclid Corridor project," Calabrese said.