By Joe Baur
Downtown Cleveland Alliance (DCA) has released their yearly video montage promoting, you guessed it, Downtown Cleveland. The result is a beautiful portrayal of the neighborhood. But that’s largely thanks to Fusion Filmworks, the local production company behind the glossy 3:41 video. In reality, the video highlights inconsistencies in the work of Downtown Cleveland Alliance.
“This Is Downtown Cleveland” opens on a young professional waking up in his Downtown apartment, soon cutting to another Downtown resident walking to work as the RTA Waterfront Line zips by behind him. This isn’t anything new. Young professionals and transit alternatives – RTA trolleys and cyclists – are promoted heavily in DCA’s yearly videos.
Last year’s video focused on the influx of young professionals moving downtown. The message: “Downtown Cleveland… It’s here.” Residents note the ease of walking everywhere or biking to work. Cleveland Critical Mass makes a brief appearance here, and is a star player in this year’s video. Even in a year you can see how quickly urban cycling has grown as hundreds gather at Public Square for the monthly ride.
“Snail’s Pace”
In reality, Cleveland has been improving cycling infrastructure at a snail’s pace. Pedestrians find themselves second-class citizens at certain intersections, particularly when crossing Ontario to take the Hope Memorial Bridge path. Cars coming off the highway speed well over the posted 25mph limit without any enforcement, only slowing when the line of idling traffic (good luck breathing over there, fellow pedestrians) at the casino parking garage demands it.
What has DCA done to improve the situation? Sure the DCA and City of Cleveland-backed Bike Rack is great in of itself. But what good is a bike hub surrounded by poor cycling infrastructure? How does encouraging increased car traffic around the corner with a new parking garage demonstrate “a collective effort to create a more bike friendly environment in downtown Cleveland”?
Unfortunately, DCA doesn’t seem to be doing much to improve life for the very young professionals and cyclists they’re highlighting in their videos (myself included two years ago). Their blind support for the casino comes to mind.
Nowhere To Be Found
The casino, billed to Clevelanders as a vital ingredient in the city’s overall economic development strategy, is nowhere to be found in this year’s video. Horseshoe’s Marcus Glover made a brief appearance in last year’s video, saying the casino compliments other assets of Downtown (assets they’re bunkering themselves off from with a skywalk connected to a parking garage).
Instead, DCA’s camera rightfully focuses on people – people who are returning life to the urban core of Cleveland. Restaurants located in walkable areas supported by transportation alternatives are key ingredients to a vibrant neighborhood, and that’s exactly the picture DCA paints of Downtown. Because that’s what young professionals and empty nesters want – walkable environments supported by cycling infrastructure and public transit. Cars appear seemingly by accident, like a confused extra wandering onto set.
Yet this is the same outfit that fully backed the casino’s bait and switch plan to build a new parking garage in a part of Downtown already plagued by unnecessary parking infrastructure, effectively killing any chance of turning Prospect into a cycling corridor. Why is DCA hiding their stalwart heroes of Downtown revitalization, the supposed saviors of Higbee, if you will?
Own It
It all reminds me of the recent government shutdown, admittedly on a much smaller and less destructive scale. House Republicans planned the shutdown and then foolishly attempted to blame everyone else. If they really thought Obamacare was so evil, evil enough to shut down the government – then they should have owned the shutdown.
In that same vein, Downtown Cleveland Alliance (along with fellow casino supporters Councilman Joe Cimperman and Mayor Frank Jackson) have harped endlessly on the benefits of having an urban casino. They call it economic development. They insist the parking garage and skywalk are part of that economic development.
Of course anyone plugged into the world of urban planning can rattle off a list of experts who would vehemently disagree with that assessment. Still, if DCA really believes the casino and its outdated infrastructure is economic development in line with the message of “This Is Downtown Cleveland,” then they should own it. Throw their name, Cimperman’s or Jackson’s name on the skywalk. Don’t blindly support the casino, tell us it’s good for the city, and then fall silent when critics come knocking. Display the parking garage and skywalk in all its grandeur, and show us the young professionals who are moving Downtown to be next to a hip, new “valet center.”
But you won’t find that in this year’s offering. Most likely because nobody is moving Downtown to be next to the casino and nobody wants to live next to a freaking parking garage.
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 @BaurJoe.
4 Responses to “Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s Inconsistent Message”
Bob Yanega
Joe – having lived here all my life (which is probably at least twice as long as yours) the pace is actually faster than ever before. Also, have you been to many other large cities lately? NYC is great but you are always walking under scaffolding tunnels or finding that the sidewalk ends, etc. Boston is very walkable in areas, but a transportation disaster otherwise. Salt Lake City light rail and other stuff that they built for the Olympics is a joke. Pittsburgh – forget it! Worst city ever to try to get around. I could go on and on. I think that you are looking to create controversy that is unwarranted. There are legitimate things to criticize, but this video isn’t one of them. It makes downtown look great and marketable – why bash it?
Joe
Bob,
I’ve been to cities across the country and a few international. Lived in Chicago for two years.
Not sure I agree with your assessment that Boston is a transportation disaster or that Pittsburgh is worse. Maybe if you’re talking about driving around, but I don’t evaluate cities behind the wheel. I found Boston’s light rail easy to use and accessible. Pittsburgh was pretty walkable for me, too.
The video does make Downtown look great. I’m not disputing that, and I understand this is for marketing purposes. My point is that if DCA truly believes putting the casino downtown, building a parking garage and skywalk were all good things, assets to Downtown that contribute to the message, “This Is Downtown Cleveland” — then why aren’t they showcasing them? They pushed for the casino, its garage and skywalk. So why aren’t they publicly owning it?
Truth is, they know that the young professionals moving into Downtown Cleveland want walkability and cycling — not cars, parking or skywalks. That’s why the showed what they showed.
This article is my wish that DCA’s actions were consistent with what they’re showcasing in the video.
Jeff
Bob seems way off. Pittsburgh and Boston are thriving cities, mostly because they’re so easy for people to get around (people being more important than outsiders driving through with cars). Salt Lake City’s light rail is universally praised by the development and transportation communities…and Salt Lake City itself! It’s gotten rave reviews for community building in a more conservative area where neighborhoods, families, and communities are valued highly.
Minneapolis and a number of other cities are systematically dismantling their skywalks specifically because of what we’ve learned over the years: that they’re destructive for economic development and transportation purposes.
Successful cities are building to the scale of people who live there–not long distance commuters who expect wide roads and endless parking garages/surface lots. They’re doing this because it adds value to the city (which is seen in their municipal finances) and creates a more vibrant, healthy downtown. It also attracts migrants. In the end, all of that is, in turn, better for the long distance commuters, too: the city they live around is more successful.
Virtually nobody would say Cleveland is healthier than Boston, Pittsburgh, or even Salt Lake City. Unless, of course, they just want to drive through and not actually live there.
John J. Polk
I found the video (which is EVERYWHERE) to be quite…nifty…and, as you say, representative of the selective awareness brought to us by DCA, GCP, and the other avatars of The Men Behind The Curtain…Local economy losing tens of thousands of jobs and residents?…But hey, we’ve got a new convention center and Whatever-The Hell-It-Is-We’re-Calling-The-Medical-Mart now…Poverty continues to deepen?…But we’ve got a casino…The attitude of Cleveland’s movers and shakers is that, as long as cranes are visible on the skyline, the economy MUST be booming, and reality need not intrude as long as we can point to new construction as symbols of progress…Used to be known in Chamber of Commerce circles as “The Edifice Complex”…This is Cleveland, where nothing is really as it seems, the corporate and institutional powers that be tell us that reality is what they say it is (because, like loyal Tea Partiers, they pride themselves on their ability to reject contrary data, no matter how definitive), and we’re all supposed to gamble and go to sporting events, and above all, “Pay no attention to The Men Behind The Curtain,” who by and large are enriching themselves by sucking the life…and the remaining wealth…out of the region… And when they run out of taxpayer subsidies, they just concoct another “crisis,” and trot out another slick ballot issue to raise your taxes…We shouldn’t get fooled again…But we probably will…