2 May 2008 – Friday
Ho Ho HoJo
Cleveland, you gotta’ be kiddin’ me.
I pass this amazing piece of crap twice a day, every morning and every evening, and I’m always amazed that it exists.
How long are you going to sit passively in your cars and pass this wretched hulk day after day? Take a good look, Cleveland, because this is the real face of our city:
A real beauty, right?
The city could probably take this building by Eminent Domain, and for a song. The only problem is that this hulk has been sitting on this spot, just like this, for years: open, broken windows, open doors — the works. It’s probably going to cost a fortune to clean the hazardous waste out of this building.
What? Hazardous waste? What hazardous waste? In an empty building?
You bet: just about every bird living within 10 miles of the city has to know that this nice, little shelter is here waiting for them in bad weather. Just about every rat the size of Shamu does, too. And every stray dog, too. What about snakes? We have them in this region of Ohio. And I’ll bet there’s more bird shit and rat shit in there than Exxon has oil.
THAT hazardous waste. (It’s time to call in Mike Rowe for another episode of “Dirty Jobs.”)
The land could be worth a fortune — if it were habitable, which it’s not. Not by a long shot. You could build something very nice here: a housing complex, perhaps, or an aquarium, maybe, or an office building, possibly. Gee: maybe even — dare I say it — a casino? Not that I’m for having one in Cleveland, but if we did have one, this would be an excellent location…
The possibilities are endless for a property with an outstanding lake view like this.
But instead, we have this hulk just sitting here, taking up space, rotting from the inside out and the outside in, housing all sorts of vermin, rodentia, and the like. Just a thought: if mosquitoes are breeding there, and they are breeding in water polluted with rabid or diseased animal waste, you have to wonder what kind of diseases they carry with them — and what they can infect us with.
Our priorities are elsewhere: a convention center, a medical mart… not that these things are unimportant — they certainly are important — but you can’t forget about severe rot like this. Not in an area so visible.
So, Cleveland, there you have it: your fair city. This is the face of Cleveland, Ohio, like it or not: this is what every visitor to this city sees every time they go down to Progressive Field, or Cleveland Browns Stadium, or the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame, or one of those supposed conventions our politicians want so badly that we never seem to be able to attract.
They blame the lack of hotel space (ironically — and laughably — this is an abandoned Howard Johnson Hotel!) for the lack of conventions here. Yeah, right. If you were hosting a convention, and you had a choice between just about any other American city — and this dung heap — what would you choose?
I’ve been meaning to get down there with my real camera and take some better photos; I just might tomorrow morning, if the weather holds. I will post more photos here as I take them, believe me.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
Because other cities don’t have abandoned and rotting buildings, of course.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Indeed. None of this is to say that other cities don’t have abandoned and rotting buildings, of course. Heck, just a quick day trip to Detroit would dispel that idea right away. And you really don’t have to go all that far, either: the mid-town corridor has plenty of deterioration as well.
But the idea here is that this highly visible eyesore has been there for a long time in a deteriorating state, right under our noses, and we as a city have done absolutely nothing about it.
Our politicians want to spur economic development — yet they ignore obvious avenues of advancement. Somehow, I don’t think ignoring this building qualifies as a valid strategy for Strategema.
This place has been empty for a very long time: Jill Zimon twittered me last night with a reminder that this building used to house one of the best Chinese restaurants in the region — something I had totally forgotten about because it has been closed for so long.
As it stands right now — and you’ll see this in some photos I took this morning that I will post in a little bit — there is no way anything could be built there unless someone puts some major work into the place. The easiest course of action would be to detonate it and scoop up the debris and bury it somewhere.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Sadly, your post hit’s very close to home. If I had the money (aka resources) I would have bought & redeveloped that property so long ago.
My high school class (Aviation High, Class of 1987) had our prom dinner there at the restaurant located on/near the top floor.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Somebody made the Coliseum in Richfield disappear, practically overnight.
PFFFT.
Gone.
Nary a sign that it ever existed.
You’d think this place could at least earn a similar fate.