Please click on photo above to view full size.
The aerial photo above is Cedar Road between Warrensville Center Road and Richmond Road.
Does the "Hillcrest" area have sufficient retail stores?
Starting at the intersection of Cedar and Richmond Roads there is Beachwood Place/La Place shopping malls. Across the street in Lyndhurst is Legacy Village.
At Cedar and Green is a shopping area including a Heinen's grocery store. Cedar and Warrensville is Whole Foods, Target, JoAnn Fabrics and a variety of other stores. At Cedar Center on the South Euclid side is the shopping plaza which is soon to be torn down to make way for new development.
Other retail in the nearby area include:
- Severance Center in Cleveland Heights including Home Depot and Walmart
- Richmond Town Center in Richmond Heights and the shopping plaza across the street on Wilson Mills Road
- Mayfield Heights is chock full of retail up and down Mayfield Road, including: Costco, Walmart, and the entire Golden Gate shopping area.
- Also in Highland Heights at Wilson Mills and 271 is Home Depot, Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods.
- South Euclid also has stores at Mayfield and Green. Chain drugstores are generously dotted throughout the area.
All of this retail has not had an effect on the exodus from this area.
5 comments:
In the Plain Dealer article, Kastelik said "I often wonder how our parents were able to live without so much retail." Looking at your aerial photo, makes one wonder how the residents in the homes that are left (dotted amonst the retail) are living WITH so much retail. Retail brings much more traffic and statistics show crime increases in areas where retail abounds. How are Walmarts, Targets and Kohls justifying adding more new stores when the population is barely sufficient to sustain business at the existing establishments? E-tail is likely taking a large bite out of retail as well. City governments need to face reality, and stop forcing development down residents throats in the forlorn hope that it will somehow fuel growth. When will cities abandon that foolish notion, and begin to concentrate on improving the existing city structure. Improving parks, neighborhoods, schools and city services are where northeast Ohio's communities should place their focus.
I couldn't agree more. Politicians talk about "sustainability" & "green buildings" but they have no clue. It's buzz words for them to throw out in the face of mounting critizism to their money hungry "economic development plans". Cuyahoga county is one of the most developed counties in Ohio and South Euclid is one of the most densly populated cities in that county. Why would you not put environmental stewardship ahead of, or at least on par with, economic development? I have seen the future and it consists of unlimited retail mixed in with retention basins and cluster homes and it be comming to a neighborhood near you!
Not one, not two, but three golf courses in one aerial shot. You might scoff and say they are just there for the idle rich snobs of exurbia. Don't scoff. Those might be the only green spaces left in a few years if the city goverments have their way. Hey, do you think the golfers would mind a few park benches and a bicycle trail?
I worked on the research study and the Plain Dealer coverage was a bit out of context. In our conclusion - some of which is quoted below, we discussed the need for the revitalization of "walkable" business districts in our urban core - like Cedar Center and needing to halt Urban Sprawl that's eating our greenspace and farmland. Please go to the CSU website to download the full report.
"The Northeast Ohio region, despite seeing little or no population growth, has not been immune. Unchecked retail development on the region’s periphery has continued at the expense of the core. Aging infrastructure goes without maintenance, surface runoff creates flooding and other
problems, old retail facilities sit vacant, and Clevelanders spend more time idling in their cars,
increasing physical health problems and polluting the air. In fact, the Cleveland-Akron-Elyria
area was named the nation’s sixth worst air pollution problem among the nation’s metropolitan
areas in a study done by the American Lung Association (using 2003-2005 data)"
The revitalization of Cedar Center is not the problem. That's great if a developer had come along, negotiated with the landowners and tenants, and purchased the property in a civilized and private manner. The City of SE had no business to force the sale as they did by threatening eminent domain and then on top of it all borrow money that the taxpayers of the city are ultimately responsible to pay back. If they are looking for ways to make the city better and keep people around, they should have spent that money on increasing the police force and work on keeping the city safe for the residents. In addition to safety, they need to get the school system back on track up to the level that it once was. Just for kicks, ramp up the basic city services. Those three issues would definately make SE more attractive to any prospective buyer than any kind of shopping area will ever do.
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