By Joe Baur
I’ve often ridden my bike or walked around the Warehouse District, yearning for a glimpse of our majestic lake (yes, it’s majestic, dammit!), only to be blocked by elevated asphalt – the Main Avenue Bridge of the Shoreway. Whatever your opinion regarding the bridge’s aesthetic appeal, it’s not worth blocking the view or access of Lake Erie for the growing residents of downtown Cleveland.
So why in the name of General Moses did we allow an elevated highway to cut off the view of perhaps our greatest asset and potentially most valuable real estate?
The Bridge
First, the road was constructed for the sake of keeping people busy. Launched in the 1930s, the Shoreway was a baby of President FDR’s Works Progress Administration – the largest of the New Deal programs. This led to four miles of paved roadway from East Ninth Street to East 55th Street. The Main Avenue Bridge came a few years later in 1939. At the time, it was Ohio’s longest elevated structure at 8,000 feet. These developments led to other highway expansions that sought to serve mid-20th Century commuters.
In fact, further construction was planned between Edgewater Park and Rocky River. World War II put a stop to that and, thankfully, plans to extend the Shoreway have stayed in the mid-20th Century where that idea belongs. Instead, the city has plans to convert much of the west Shoreway to a boulevard, allowing residents of Detroit-Shoreway to have access to Edgewater Park and Lake Erie. Smart. Damn smart.
What About Downtown?
But I live downtown. What’s our lakefront access like? Relatively non-existent. At best we can walk to Voinovich Park. Sure, you can get great views of the city. But it’s not not exactly the most pleasant walk, nor will you find a pickup game of volleyball or soccer.
Ultimately, downtown continues to lack the recreational capacity of Edgewater Park that Detroit-Shoreway residents will soon be able to enjoy. Funny thing is (more like morbidly depressing), an aerial view of the city shows that downtown should have tremendous access to the lakefront through the Warehouse District. Sadly, decades of commuter-oriented development have made that a non-priority.
Not Interested
For decades, nobody was interested in living downtown, much less having access to Lake Erie through the Warehouse District. Through it all, the Main Avenue Bridge and entirety of the Shoreway has cut downtown off from its most precious resource and potentially most valuable real estate.
But who cared? Nobody. Making the downtown Cleveland neighborhood a livable environment wasn’t a priority. Our priority throughout the mid-to-late 20th Century has been to ship commuters as quickly as possible back to their American Dream in the suburbs. With the increase in roads and speed limits came more cars. With more cars came the need for more parking. More parking led to a slew of surface lots – or “parking craters” – that led to this infamous gif showing the destruction of the neighborhood.
But again, who cared? Nobody had an interest in downtown living. That is, until those hipster, environmentally conscious, car-indifferent millennials who prefer taking trips on feet started graduating college with a useless degree in communications. Now an estimated 14,000 Clevelanders live downtown, and that number stands to grow over the next decade with a slew of apartment projects taking hold. Millennials and empty nesters want the walkability of downtown Cleveland, and deserve to have access to Lake Erie.
We Need A Plan
Still, walk up West Sixth or Ninth Street and your access to Lake Erie is blocked by Avon’s fastest way out of town. Downtown needs a plan that not only removes this elevated structure, but also shows the development opportunity along our most underutilized resource – the lakefront.
Removing elevated highways and roads has shown time and time again to raise property values and the quality of life for all in the neighborhood. Can you imagine how much more valuable properties in downtown Cleveland would be if the city redevelops the neighborhood for pedestrians instead of cars? Not just downtown, but adjacent Ohio City stands to benefit, too.
As I write this, I can hear folks in their SUVs grumbling. Not to worry, friends. Get rid of the bridge, and people will find a different way into the city via public transportation or another highway. Might I suggest the Detroit-Superior Bridge?
After all, Northeast Ohio has no shortage of highway access to downtown Cleveland. And contrary to popular belief, removing roads has been a proven method to relieve traffic congestion. Not to mention one of the most overlooked benefits of highway removal is it frees up cash to improve other, more vital roads. Hardly a year goes by without the orange barrels taking over portions of the Shoreway. Let’s reinvest those funds into improving our moon crater urban roadways, and possibly – heaven forbid – put a fair investment in our award-winning transit system.
The Future
Folks in the exurbs don’t like hearing it, but the future of American cities is in the millennial workforce. And with fewer millennials than retiring baby boomers, we’ll be competing with downtowns across the world to attract this incredibly nomadic workforce with very specific lifestyle demands. If Cleveland doesn’t give them what they want, someone else will.
Access to Lake Erie is a seriously underutilized card in our deck. There’s absolutely no reason we shouldn’t do everything we can to make walking from the Warehouse District to Lake Erie not only manageable, but also pleasant. Go a step further and connect Wendy Park to our hypothetically redeveloped lakefront with a pedestrian bridge.
Right now, Wendy Park is approximately four miles away for a downtown pedestrian versus what should be no more than a mile. Connecting one of the city’s greatest outdoor recreation facilities to downtown Cleveland should be an immediate priority that will benefit every resident of the City of Cleveland.
“Be The Destination”
The only Clevelanders who don’t stand to benefit from removing the Shoreway and refocusing development on our lakefront with pedestrian connections are exurban commuters who have made it clear in where they’ve chosen to live that they don’t want to be in the city anyway. We can’t continue to develop for that crowd if we’re going to win over the next generation of workers who want to be in the city. We can’t continue to allow elevated highways to exist whose soul purpose is to bypass the city. The city needs to be the destination.
Quick anecdote, what surprised me most about my travels to Ireland last year was the vibrancy in cities with no more than 80,000 residents. Cities like Galway and Cork were filled with pedestrians in the middle of a chilly Sunday afternoon. Sure, that’s to be expected in world-class Dublin. But growing up in suburban Ohio, I was indirectly taught that small cities are dead on the weekend.
Not so. And I have a sneaking suspicion as to why that wasn’t the case in Ireland – no elevated highways. No incentive or encouragement to get the Hell out of the city.
Whether it was Dublin or Galway, you could not get out of the city without driving through the city. There was no elevated bypass around any of Ireland’s urban cores. Without an excuse to flee the city quickly, people have stayed in the city to the benefit of all.
Conventional Wisdom
Conventional American wisdom would say a city with twice as dense a population and no elevated highways, such was the case in Dublin, would make for heinous traffic. Granted this is all anecdotal, but I can happily report that wasn’t the case during my travels. Yet Greater Clevelanders still suffer from the outdated belief that we need these highways to alleviate traffic.
We’ve tried it that way for 60-some years. It hasn’t worked. Traffic still exists. So rather than trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results (Einstein’s definition of insanity), why not try something that 21st Century thinkers have said is a winning formula? Let’s make our city a destination, get rid of the downtown Shoreway, and finally give downtown residents access to our beautiful body of fresh water – Lake Erie.
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.
3 Responses to “Remove The Elevated Shoreway, Reconnect Downtown To Lake Erie”
Nancy Likens
Jeff – you are right on! Why Cleveland never took advantage of it’s lakeside location has always been a mystery to me. The city has literally turned it’s back on its most precious (and beautiful!) natural resource. If we had an accessible lakefront district, maybe I’d move to the North Shore rather than to the Carolina coast when I retire.
Dru
Joe,
Maybe you are just living in the wrong place. I understand the desire to connect the city to Lake Erie or even the Cuyahoga. It seems ridiculous that an urban center would seemingly ignore its two greatest and nearest natural amenities but how interesting/fun is ro/ro, container or other shipping dock? I could easily argue that if you have no intention of activating the water front you may as well visit Voinovich Park (off of East 9th, must closer then Wendy Park on your Google Map overlay, which to be honest, if you wanted a beach you would stop halfway on your journey at Edgewater, if you would rather play volleyball/drink outside then your destination is much more correct). More to the point while I completely agree that we need to take design precedence away from the single occupant vehicle and concentrate more on pedestrianism/public transit in order to justify severing a major artery and connection to East Side. Simply shunting traffic through Public Square would only create entirely new set of problems are being because of someone’s hindered view of a Lake they can’t do anything but stare at regardless.
Shouldn’t there be a better way to activate the shoreway in Cleveland and re-allocate transportation priorities instead of a simple “snip it and people will begrudgingly alter their behavior to fit my world view” solution? Remember the Shoreway doesn’t really connect to downtown, it bypasses downtown and connects to 90/2. You don’t want to recreate the commuting v retail problems of Lorain Ave. along Detroit Ave. and create another struggling inner ring area.
It would also make your argument more rigorous/believable if you would make a clear distinction between your ability to “see the Lake” versus your ability to “connect to the Lake” via W 9th and 6th. Eg. where W6th has an obstructed view W9th actually has a gated drive, which are two distinct urban conditions.
I personally don’t have a dog in this fight, I take the train the vast majority of places I need to get to, or walk (oh noes!) but specious arguments are specious arguments.
Derek
I don’t disagree with your ideas about connecting the warehouse district to the lakefront, but I have a few sticking points with how you present your points. First, to be clear, there are physical connections to the lakefront/riverfront via W 9th, W 10th, and Front. W 6th has no direct connection to the lakefront. That being said, I think much can be done to improve the pedestrian experience through these areas, especially W 9th as this is a foreboding and uninviting underpass. Brighten up the underpass with lights, clean it up, public art, signs etc to make it feel less obtrusive. Your article seems to imply that there is no physical connection and the Shoreway is the main culprit (there is that pesky railroad that has been there much longer than the highway). The point about the Shoreway being a visual barrier to the lakefront is the crux of your argument but it lacks the reasoning as to why this is a problem. One reason is that is creates a mental “barrier” that turns people away from walking in that direction because people cannot see what they are walking towards; a view of the lakefront is inviting, and not having the view is very uninviting (so in a sense it does become somewhat of a physical barrier, but not in the same way the Shoreway is to say the neighborhoods of Detroit Shoreway or Glenville). Removing the elevated highway would create a much better pedestrian experience and a stroll to the lakefront would be much more inviting, and this would probably result in an increase in property values in the neighborhood. W 10th is OK as is, and will improve once the Flats East Bank project is up and running.
That brings me to my second point, what good is a connection if there is nothing there to connect to? A connection at W 6th is unnecessary due to the Port of Cleveland, which is not going anywhere anytime soon. Even W 9th north to the lakefront is worthless due to the Port. W 10th and Front (via W 9th) are the opportunities to build upon due to the Flats East Bank project and its riverfront access (there’s a waterfront plan if you’re looking for one. Maybe not the greatest and surely not comprehensive to the entire lakefront, but decent, especially for the Warehouse District). I think you are spot on regarding the pedestrian bridge connecting to Wendy Park, and I’d even take it a step further with 3 pedestrian bridges: East Bank to Wendy Park, East Bank to West Bank, and West Bank to Wendy Park (which is now in the planning stages, connection to the towpath). There are issues with the Cuyahoga being a federal shipping channel and this would raise the cost of any proposed bridge, but I think this is too important not to work through the challenges there.
Thirdly, I understand the point you are trying to make labeling the elevated highway as “Avon’s fastest way out of town.” Avon is the poster child for sprawl, etc; and as a studied urban planner, I get it. But this statement is just factually incorrect. The Shoreway is the main access point for residents of the west side of Cleveland and Lakewood to downtown, not Avon. No one from Avon is taking the side streets through Westlake, Rocky River and Lakewood to the Shoreway in order to get downtown; they are traveling via I-90. Really, when it comes to talks of reducing the Shoreway to a 35 mph boulevard, the majority of the opponents are probably residents of the Edgewater neighborhood of Cleveland and residents of Lakewood. However, that’s old sprawl and not new sprawl, so you can’t really lambast the people who live there. And taking a shot at Lakewood is unheard of in the planning world, but that would have been more appropriate in this situation (I like Lakewood, but let’s be honest, the chances are pretty good that there are residents there who do not think sprawl is a problem and love the convenience of the Shoreway. Every city has plenty of people who feel this way, it’s America). Don’t get me wrong, Avon can be criticized for many a thing, but this highway has very little to do with Avon. (I hold no allegiance to Avon at all; I am a resident of the Heights).