CLEVELAND, Ohio East 185th Street on Cleveland’s east side will undergo an $11.5 million transformation, a two-mile renovation, and beautification with new intersections, crosswalks, and street lights, and a new waterline.
“The whole street will have a newer, more modern appearance and that will appeal to people, bring more people down here,” said Scott Hanson, who’s run Scotti’s Italian Eatery since 1999.
East 185th Street is the border between Euclid and Cleveland with both cities funding the project along with the Ohio Department of Transportation, which will manage it.
“I’m optimistic working with the new administration indicated, Mayor Bibb, that he wants to focus on the ‘Middle Neighbourhoods,’ which my area is,” said Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek of Ward 8 which encompasses the Collinwood neighbourhood. “It’s the areas that are links, outer edge links to the suburbs.”
“The business along the street will — on their own — just fix themselves up, once they see how nice the street it is,” said Hanson, who expects the renovation to help the area.
Councilman Polensek expects the project to take about a year.
Despite its proximity to Bratenahl, the exclusive residential municipality to its west, Collinwood is a blue-collar enclave. Once a booming industrial area that boasted major railroad switching yards, a diverse array of factories and a confluence of cultures — home to vibrant Irish, Slovenian and Italian communities — the area was also home to Euclid Beach Park, the long-beloved entertainment destination.
While Cleveland’s urban-revival success stories — Ohio City, Tremont and Gordon Square — are all located on the city’s near West Side, they represent a trek for suburban East Siders. Collinwood is on Cleveland’s East Side, less than nine miles from Public Square and about six miles from University Circle. The neighbourhood is an exit ramp away from the Interstate 90 corridor and a short drive from Lake County.
“This has the potential to become the East Side’s Tremont,” says Polensek, “And we have approximately three miles of lakefront in this ward. Not too many other districts in the city can say that. Waterloo is less than a mile from the lake.”
During a walk through the neighbourhood, Polensek says that about $4 million has been committed to structural and cosmetic improvements. (Friedman says the figure is closer to $5.5 million, a combination of federal transportation dollars matched by city funding. Additionally, two arts grants totaling $1.1 million are being invested in the neighbourhood.)
Repairs to the roadway and curbs, new, widened sidewalks, public furnishings and other pedestrian-friendly amenities, plus new noise-reduction walls and rebuilding nearby Lakeshore Boulevard, are set to begin.
