Saving Ohio's Public Transit

Today's e-newsletter from the GCRTA asks me to click a link so that I can inform my legislative representatives that I think more money should be supporting public transportation. Which I do. I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe it with a deep seated burning passion that easy and logical public transit is paramount to livable communities. When I say "livable communities" I don't just mean those places you just feel safe and warm all alone in your house watching (ironically?) episodes of House ignoring your family and neighbors before you go off to work and have your electronic twitter relationships with people you will never see (but will know intimate details of). I mean livable as in you can be alive there and people would know because other people are being alive there. They are interacting and seeing each other and perhaps even conversing and god forbid touching (not in a perverse manner, just in the lend a hand, hold a door, shake hello sort of manner, geeze). There is a humanity to a "livable" community because your life means something to other "real" people and this knitting of existence gives some sense of purpose. Your couch will not win the eternal battle with gravity and fly off into space without your butt holding it firmly down. I swear, you have nothing to worry about. Also, contrary to popular belief, television actors have no idea when you are not watching them during their antics. They cannot see or hear you. Even at a movie theater (I don't understand the clapping thing).

However apparently all this costs a ton of money. All the making people live by each other and want to talk to each other and see each other and accept the fact that although some of the people may look and act just like the people you may see on the television or interweb they may not be as funny without the team of mac/hack writers at their disposal and the cold harsh reality of paying attention and being polite may be a burden to bear but there it is.

At some reasonable point I think the logic behind the argument of how tough sprawl is upon infrastructure (including transit and what not) is going to become more of a reality to those who depend upon it the least. Those of us who find public transportation an option because we own a car or bike or have legs that work pretty reliably will eventually notice that it won't be an option because it will be completely gone. Our city won't have been able to take the strain as it spreads out and spreads thin. Will gas be (I actually hope that soon it will be) $10 a gallon by then? What will our human reaction be? Hide in a cave and pray to Dr. House for sweet merciful death or will we try again to concentrate into a dense area to interact and shop and play?

Why is a state so unwilling to fund public transit so full of people willing to invest millions and millions and more millions and then a few extra millions and how about a secret few billions of dollars to expand highway infrastructure (making it easier for people to spread further and increase the burden upon our infrastructure which is GOING TO KEEP COSTING US MORE)? Is this a quick fix to a problem I don't understand? Are the sprawling suburbs of the state so damn enticing that our suburban tax base is going to grow enough to offset the constantly starved and ill treated urban cores? Seriously? I would like to know what the heck people in NOACA are thinking promoting interchanges in Avon and the like. How about trying to imagine what it will take to keep the ridiculously vital parts of the region (such as Cleveland) not just shuffling along on Life Support but actually work to inject some sort of this LIFE everyone keeps talking about.

I want to live.

So when you are writing your emails or snailmail or texting or twittering your state reps and the like about how you wouldn't at all mind being able to take the bus or train to work instead of having to find a new job or just move out of state ask why it is so very hard to inject a little humanity into planning/money allocation process as well. I mean, this is all being done for us people, isn't it? Isn't it?

CMA expansion clarified

First off I appreciate the comments. I wish I got less comments from the guy named Anonymous but I can't pick and choose who comments here. Actually I can, I have that control.

I am posting this as a full post because I didn't type anything up tonight and part of my new resolutions is to write more on this thing again and also because my response was so long that by the end putting it in the little comment box was driving me batty.

This isn't me yelling at the person who asked the understandable and defendable question:

If Breuer refused to acknowledge the 1916 buliding, why should Viñoly have acknowledged Breuer more than he has?

...this is just my knee jerk, its been a long day and my proofreading skills are at the nocturnal low responsiveness level. I am quite nice in person, I swear it so take any strange aside commentary just as you would an uncle at Thanksgiving who has had a little too much everything interrupting his primary story to tell you about the time his day sailor tipped over in the bay and he lost the pocket knife your aunt gave him when they first met but he was too ashamed to tell her so he saved all his money and bought a new one on his own, pretending its the same one ever since. It's all meant to be a cute allusion. There, just like that.

Anon,

One architect "refused" to acknowledge an existing building during their phase of an addition (if I can utilize your interpretation of Breuer's addition, 60ish years after the original which drastically altered the layout and facing of the museum). The third architect to the mix (Vinoly's office) gave a "tip of the hat" to the addition but failed at all to react sensibly enough to distinguish and or assimilate; the addition is too similar to stand on its own and too dissimilar to be a strong interpretation. Similar to when a really poor addition is done to a public school or when an institution has run out of funds during an expansion and substitutes cheaper, off color materials (can't afford to match the brick) and the whole concoction feels slightly off putting. Sure everyone says that it's all become a cacophony of material and joyous expression but what it ends up feeling like is an unplanned tumor, not strong enough to have an ego of its very own but still slightly sapping the life out of the main body. Jagged boxy edges of the perfect square modern box sitting on a curved retreating wall isn't interplay or even intercourse but indecision as how to react to an urban pedestrian problem. Creating a “slice” or “valley” in order to separate two forms would go over better if the two had some sort of dialogue stronger then just a seemingly coincidental geographic location. Just because you sit next to a pretty girl on the bus doesn't mean she is going to have dinner with you, you need to start a conversation.

It's the whole "finish your business or get off the pot" concept, either make a statement or agree with the person before you, don't mumble your business and hope that no one takes offense.

Cultural institutions are some of the last bastions (or were at least when this was all being planned) of physical built expression. Not everyone likes the ROM but you sure as hell want to react to it and from an urban/placemaking/experience level that is pretty dang interesting. It could all be dismissed as trend/eyecandy but a cultural institution exists quite a bit on making the bold statement of “this is what I am, this is what I do, this is where I am, come and visit, explore, support”.

The shame is that it isn't even that I don't like it. I just can't be bothered to care. That is the real crime. At least make me care, not just yawn and go “I remember when Breuer was reacting to the faux-classicism that Cleveland embraced so wholeheartedly back when it was a booming city with eyes wide open towards the brightest future, where it would last the ages so our buildings, our built representations of how we wanted people to see ourselves, would echo the sentiment of what our interpretations of timeless, classical beauty are. Lo, we are timeless, we are Cleveland! (Spartacus theme) So the idea of creating the insular solid, heavy box seem thin and light, stone alternating as it turns the corner to reveal that it is but a thin veneer, impossibly compressive cantilevers over entry ways, the faux is the celebration. We can recreate the exuberance of the past by celebrating that we acknowledge the lies. Our stone buildings are built by machines, fastened by technology, harnessed by knowledge instead of might.” Breuer knew what he was building onto and used the contemporary style to comment upon it.

If anything I wish Vinoly would have reacted half as cleverly as Breuer did. Then I could have cared or at least not dismiss it.

Of course, who the heck am I? Maybe there are some clever twists in there. Perhaps the poorly met joint work, the sad panel system is meant to convey something. Maybe the way some of the stripes align and others don't quite make it, but aren't off enough to create a sense of deliberance, as if the building is already is a state of slumping decay, like a ruin left to the elements, stripped of frescoes and sculpture and icon by conquering armies and we are to stumble upon it and make it our own secret treasure. Perhaps it is Vinoly's own commentary upon Breuer stating “No Marcel, you have it all wrong, the responsible reaction is that we can build something quite solid and dense and we don't have to comment upon it because we are to be completely apolitical as architects seeking patrons.”

Maybe. I sure as hell hope not, it seems such an easy way out.

2009 TOIstudio Year in Review

So this is the third year I have tried to complete some sort of milestone to track the potential progress the city has to offer. In doing so I checked back with my 2008 Year in Review looking for some sort of benchmark to hit. My, the bar was set so low.

The economy may have stifled the Flats East Banks project but the city has stepped in offering money for a truncated phased development in hopes of revitalizing some drastically underused portions of the city. No news? Some news.

The Euclid Corridor is starting to spark interest and has definitely improved conditions along Euclid albeit not noticeably as for commuting by public transit. Perhaps a transit corridor should time the traffic signals for the public transit...no? At some point telling auto commuters to "deal with it" may be required but I think that will take the importing of manufacturing materials, mostly giant steel balls.

CIA still hasn't seemed to move much on the exterior changes for the maligned MVRDV now Burt Hill expansion project which I don't mind not seeing going up. It's similar to waiting to hear the bad news you know is coming, you can put it off hoping that everyone will forget about it and the problem will go away on its own. Hey, its the Cleveland Way.

CMA phase one expansion is completed to fanfare. I haven't figured out why yet. I don't have a problem with meandering art museums, I think you are supposed to get lost in the art. As for white rooms, congratulations, you built some white rooms to show art. I suppose they don't have to be inspiring or interesting but it probably wouldn't have hurt. The half hearted attempt to communicate with Breuer's addition seemed to be done without either understanding Breuer's commentary on materiality or just not caring, which, if that was the case, then the addition should have been a complete departure not a bastardized caricature. Regardless the detailing is pretty miserable which is sad to see for the home of a cultural institution you hope to last longer than 15 years.

Uptowne what?

Ameritrust Tower is still vacant after the economy forces K&D development to abandon plans for it. 668 is going strong though. Yay.

The HoJo got all torn down! It took forever but it was finally accomplished. Now people with have to find another vacant building to watch the airshow from the roof of. Good luck with that!

Detroit Shoreway got all prettified with a rehabbed Capital Theater as an anchor. The neighborhood seems to be doing well which is pretty nice to see. It is also a nice place to visit. The street was improved for vehicular traffic and parking, the sidewalks got cleaned up, park benches, better lighting, trees, buried power/comm lines, it's all pretty dang snazzy. Feels completely different, in a good way.

Waterloo Entertainment District also got some minor street scape improvements, mostly noticeably a green space where the strangest parking/street occurrence was placed. It cleaned up the street and started to create a identifiable gateway for the area which is running on the sweat and dreams of some of the hardest working people I know. When asked what I love most about Cleveland I have to admit those folks are some of the first that come to mind.

ODOT refuses to admit that people can move by any mode other than vehicular and seem to want to slug it out over the long debacle Innerbelt Bridge project. At some point one has to honestly wonder if Cleveland would be better off if we just let it fall into the river.

That would probably reinforce the need of the 490 Innovation Corridor which is under re-advisement. I'm not sure what that means anymore to be honest. I think it means that I will be writing about how nothing has changed with it by next year too.

Speaking of reoccurring themes the Medical Mart project is still being discussed. Any day now some news will break. Any day. See you in 2011!

Remember the aquarium we have been hearing about for the past 30 years? Guess what, we may get two! Maybe. Two different groups are trying to be the first to put a Cleveland Aquarium back on the map. The Jacobs group is looking towards the Powerhouse Building and the non-profit Cleveland Aquarium Inc. who is raising funds and looking for a site.

And if that isn't enough water related news for you, the Port Authority was moving to East 55th, but after Adam Wasserman left that plan is also undergoing scrutiny. What does that mean for the new Lakefront Plan that just received approval from the Planning Commission? Not much it seems, that is still a go. So where will the Port move to?

Not to Whiskey Island, at least if they do then the newly released land acquired by Parkworks for the bike-n-hike (part of the Cleveland Towpath Trail) trail will lead to a very unappealing terminus. Unless you are a huge fan of container shipping, then the bike ride would be amazing for you! And although the Old Coast Guard station is sitting vacant and exposed it still stands stalwart to the elements, a beacon of hope looking for someone to love it.

Perhaps in response to the Cleveland Planning's new paradigm shift of planning for people (seriously that statement was made at the landbank lecture at CSU's Maxine Goodman, check the video when it becomes available, I have been waiting for over a month!) Public Square is getting a second look. PPS already calls it one of the 10 worst public spaces in the world, apparently we are looking to shed the infamy and called in Field Operations (NYC High Line Project) to work with the CUDC in rethinking what would make Public Square better/nicer for, well, people. This should be really interesting to see develop, for those interested in design and the jerks who just like to make snide comments. Everyone can be a winner with this one.

Also, Ohio legalizes casino gambling with Cleveland slated as one of the four "lucky" city's to receive it's own casino, supposedly slated to go behind Tower City (they can probably reuse the Med Mart Plans). Will this improve things for Cleveland (or Cleveland architecture)? I'm not going to bet on it.

Speaking of snide comments, Sustainable Cleveland 2019 had their first meeting. A whole lot of people got together, ate bagels, drank coffee, made puppets and posters and decided to work towards making Cleveland more Sustainable. I don't know if the definition of sustainable was ever proffered but I think enough people know what they think it means to move forward with it. I didn't make the snide comment I was going to. It wasn't about the summit though. I'm going to be nicer in the new year.

Scout's honor.

Here's to 2010. Let's hope it is a ton better than 2009 was. That year sucked.

(ps. yay Browns for ending better then expected)