A Solution For Walnut Avenue
By Joe Baur
Like death, I’ve come to accept that parking must exist. To rid our downtown of a substantial amount of parking in one fell swoop would incite the kind of rioting seen in other nations when attempting to topple a dictator.
So instead of going cold turkey, I propose weaning ourselves off the concrete teat by incentivizing garage owners to redevelop their ground level into storefront commercial space and redesigning the exterior to something that emanates a livelier vibe than, say, prison. Doing so will not only increase the property values for the garage owners, but give pedestrians a reason to explore and enjoy the block. To begin, I suggest taking a look at Walnut Avenue between East Ninth and East Twelfth Streets.
What’s On Walnut?
Despite living downtown for nearly two years, there are still some nooks and crannies I’ve managed to miss. Though I’ve walked/ran/biked by Walnut Avenue on several occasions, I had never actually walked the entirety of the three-block street. I now know it’s because there’s virtually no reason to make the trip by foot, but more on that later.
Recently I read Jason Beudert’s report in Scene that two new establishments will be opening in the long-vacant One Walnut space on the corner of Ninth and Walnut. They are Table 9 Martini Lounge and Walk in the Park Café. The latter will be modeled after Panera, hinting at the opportunity for consistent pedestrian traffic throughout the day. Both are planning an early summer launch, just in time to join the already wildly popular Walnut Wednesday scene. The weekly food truck meet-up relocated to Perk Plaza on East Twelfth Street last year to take advantage of the redesigned park, and will make its 2013 debut on Wed 5/1, running until September 25.
Still not having walked the entirety of Walnut Avenue, I began wondering if the street has the potential to become the next Short Vincent, a one-block hub of Cleveland nightlife throughout the 1930s and ’40s before the wrecking balls came for, you guessed it, parking.
On paper, Walnut Avenue does seem ripe for activity.
-
New Businesses? Check.
-
Nearby existing and planned residential properties? Double check.
-
Engaging public space? Triple Check.
Sweet Jane Jacobs, it would seem we have ourselves an emerging neighborhood!
Excited, I recently rerouted my downtown run to go through Walnut Avenue from East Ninth to East Twelfth to see the possibilities myself. What emerged was not a premonition of vibrancy, but rather a sudden chill mixed with shocking reality that Walnut Avenue is largely an ugly street. My excitement quickly turned to disappoint, like when the realization set in that season eight of How I Met Your Mother would be a 24-episode stall to the finale, filled with embarrassingly outdated LeBron James jokes. But whereas I can’t write an episode of How I Met Your Mother that gets to the damn point already, I can offer a solution for Walnut Avenue.
We make parking sexy.
Damned Ugly Parking
Join me, if you will, for a trip down Walnut Avenue. Below you can see the corner of Walnut and Ninth.
I’m not very worried about this intersection, because the building to the left is the East Ohio Building that is being renovated for downtown apartment living. Spectacular! The large windows on the ground level also offer the opportunity for some engaging window displays (or maybe even commercial space) that can make the walking experience worthwhile. To the right you can see where the aforementioned establishments will be locating. Spectacular, yet again!
Now prepare to be sad.
The space in between is what I had not seen before. Now as you can see below, it’s all parking. And not just parking – ugly parking.
Barring Walnut Wednesday, when food trucks line this death row of a street, there’s absolutely nothing inviting to a potential pedestrian. It’s depressing. The blandness of the parking garages’ exteriors makes the walk to the other side seem like an aimless trek through the desert. The only saving grace is that should you make it to the other side, you are rewarded with Perk Plaza.
The Solution?
So what’s the solution? How do we make parking sexy? For that, let’s head around the corner to 545 Euclid Avenue – home of Environments for Business and more recently, Potbelly Sandwich Shop.
Nice, right? I can’t tell you how long it took for me to realize that not only does this building house more parking than retail, but that it holds parking period! It wasn’t until a friend visited me and told me that’s where he parked that I came to the realization that it’s actually a parking garage.
This is how parking should be – hidden.
Hidden Parking
In Walkable City, author Jeff Speck shares two examples of parking garages done right. First in Charleston, South Carolina, Mayor Joe Riley rejected designs for a parking garage on East Bay Street that made the building look like a parking garage. The school of thought from the architect being that you must design a building to its purpose.
Instead, Mayor Riley pushed for a design reflective of Charleston architecture. Speck, in a paragraph worth repeating in its entirety, explains the three things Mayor Riley did right.
“First, [the parking garage] places high-ceilinged commercial space on the ground floor directly against the sidewalk, giving it windows, doors, and human activity. Second, it hides its tilted car ramps away from the edges of the building, so that it doesn’t shout ‘I am a garage.’ Placing the flat parking areas at the building’s perimeter also allows for its eventual transformation to nonautomotive use. Third, it details its upper floors as if they were inhabited with window-sized openings equipped with Charleston-style shutters. The shutters are closed, which limits the building’s gregariousness but also hides the cars behind them. Upon closer inspection, this building clearly serves cars more than humans, but you have to look hard to see it.”
Speck continues, noting, “…hidden parking boots retail sales and property values.” Surely we can all agree that’s a damned good thing.
Parking at 545 Euclid Avenue mostly meets Speck’s three criteria. Even though I walk by it nearly everyday, I had to squint my eyes like Mr. Magoo to see the slanted parking structures for the first time. No, it’s not completely hidden like in Charleston, but it’s a much sexier option than what we currently have resting in the middle of Walnut Avenue.
Overshadow East Fourth
Without completely understanding the bureaucratic nuisances needed to make a revitalization of Walnut Avenue possible, I suggest offering financial incentives to the owners of the parking garages to open both their exteriors and ground floor to redevelopment. As people come back to Walnut Avenue with the opening of the new East Ohio apartment, Table 9, Walk in the Park Café, and Walnut Wednesdays, perhaps other entrepreneurs will want to get in the action. After all, what better spot to be as a business than right in between two residential high-rises, a vibrant park and in the heart of Walnut Wednesday?
Come to think of it, those parking garages have an entrance and exit on their northern end at Superior Avenue. Right now, Walnut Avenue only serves cars entering and exiting. No wonder it has become the glorified driveway that it is.
But with hypothetical commercial space on their redeveloped ground floors, perhaps we can explore closing Walnut Avenue to cars altogether, giving the 9/12 District their own pedestrian paradise with the potential to overshadow East Fourth thanks to the adjacent Perk Plaza – an amenity the Gateway District is without.
“A Place Worth Being”
Granted this can all very easily be criticized as grandiose thinking. But I’ve always believed that Cleveland holds itself back by only thinking in the short-term. I’m not naïve enough to believe a project of this magnitude can happen overnight – something that usually kills any plan to improve livability. This would take the better part of a decade, if not longer.
But Cleveland plans to be around in 10 and 20 years, right? We’ll still want to attract young talent and new businesses, correct? Then let’s invest in our future now, incentivize the redevelopment of Walnut Avenue’s parking garages, improve the sidewalks, plant some trees (might I suggest walnut?), and make the 9/12 District a place worth being.
Joe Baur is a freelance writer, filmmaker and satirist with a diverse array of interests including travel, adventure, craft beer, health, urban issues, culture and politics. He ranks his allegiances in the order of Cleveland, the state of Ohio and the Rust Belt, and enjoys a fried egg on a variety of meats. Joe has a B.A. in Mass Communication with a focus on production from Miami University. Follow him at http://JoeBaur.com and on Twitter @MildlyRelevant.
Cleveland, OH 44114
5 Responses to “Make Parking Sexy”
John Ettorre
Nicely done, Joe.
Richard Pace
Joe, you are right on target. Walnut has the potential to be a memorable place in downtown, even though today it is a dead space. DCA’s Walnut Wednesdays are a great start to activating the street, but you are right more is needed.
First, both buildings (Ohio Savings and East Ohio Gas) on e9th should spill out onto Walnut with activity. 1111 Superior should also extend its café onto the sidewalks.
The great “inbetween” is the problem, 3 parking garages. So the second part of the solution is adding landscaping/streetscaping to the dead concrete sidewalks.
Third, I agree, is good architecture and good programming for the garages. Dick Fleischman did a great job at the Euclid/e6th garage and refacing those existing 1960’s garages would make a world of difference.
All of this is doable with good input by the Design Review at City Hall and enlightened developers like K&D. Let’s reclaim our city.
ragarcia
Keep up the great work!
snarky
In my youth Walnut , Vincent , and Chester around East 9th to East 12st constituted some lively turf.
Erieview was along with the Terminal tower complex the largest desstructive forces to destroy urban flavor downtow.
Surface parking is the real enemy in Cleveland , Ohio.
Change the onus of the tax burden to a heavy tax on surface parking lots instead of the easy tax enjoyed by surface parking lot operators and a whole new ballgame exists.
As for the current brutal little stretch of parking structures along Walnut , ground floor anything [ retail , food joints , whore houses , whatever , would provide a better place than those hideous pigs of buildings.
The Walnut Avenue parking structures you depicted belong instead somewhere within the fabric of the most brutal and useless of all Unversities , thhe Harvard Road of the midwest , Cleveland State.
Bob Yanega
Snarky – not disagreeing with most of your comment, except the brutal Cleveland State reference. Have you been anywhere near CSU lately?? It is SO different than it looked even 5 years ago!