Hotel Bruce

Welcome to the Bruce blog—a weekly update on news, events and issues affecting life in Cleveland. Reporting as it happens on transit, development, planning, environment and arts & culture.

Basically, we write about creative ideas forming, talk to the people who have an inside track on the issues, and sometimes offer a commentary of our own. (For disclosure purposes, Bruce blog is a local, independent writer who also works part-time with nonprofit organization EcoCity Cleveland. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of EcoCity or any other organization).

Cleveland has gone from being the joke to the envy of the mountain biking world in less time than it takes to say “end-o.” During the last year or so, since CAMBA established a presence in the area, a number of top-notch mountain bike-only trails have cropped up in the region. Bruce blog had the pleasure of riding both the trail at Atchenson’s Farm in Madison Township and the longer, more challenging trail in West Branch State Park (east of Ravenna) this summer. Both are superbly designed single-track courses with real challenge and knock out scenery (and, apparently, they are surpassed by the privately run course at Vulture’s Nob ).

But the real reason Cleveland is receiving attention (and visitors) from far and wide is the launch of what is being called the country’s first indoor mountain biking park. Ray’s Indoor MTB Park is the handiwork of Ray Petro, a 38-year-old construction business owner who got hooked on mountain biking. Petro bought and converted a 66,000 square foot industrial warehouse on the West side of Cleveland (9801 Walford Rd.) into a mountain biker’s paradise which opened last month.

Petro and a corp of volunteers built three courses with rising degrees of technicality and tricks (although no bmx bikes are allowed). The courses are on raised wood planks that twist and turn, climb, jump, seesaw, and throw in log and other obstacles—all ideas culled from trails around the globe. Speaking of which, the business has been reviewed by a half dozen biking magazines and has attracted visitors from places as far as Canada. So far, about 35 locals have plunked down the $79 membership fee and pay $9 each time out.

The Taft administration announced in early December that it will only budget half of the expected money to the Clean Ohio Fund after state voters approved a blueprint that would have allocated $200 million over a two-year period for urban brownfields cleanup and farmland and parks preservation.

Slashing the state’s de facto sustainability fund has clouded the picture for the 11 projects in Northeast Ohio that were selected to receive a total of $4.97 million Clean Ohio Funds this year. The pie just shrunk considerably and it looks like some projects might go hungry.

What’s left is now in the hands of the local selection committee to decide how to dole out. Their decision will most likely come down to this: Cut projects that didn’t rank as high or to send all the projects scrambling to find more matching funds, which already stand at a total of $6 million.

The selection committee’s decision has huge impact on projects like Canal Basin Park—which requested $434,000 to acquire parking lots on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in the Flats. The plan is to create a park mixing recreation (the Towpath Trail extension, crew teams, etc.) and an outdoor industrial Flats museum (a permanent home for the giant Hulett iron-ore unloaders, restoration of the canal basin, etc.). Supporters say the park will bring new life to the Flats. If its Clean Ohio funding is cut, though, it may jeopardize the $3 million federal earmark that was won by Ohio Senator Mike DeWine last year for Canal Basin Park, since that money relies on a local match. Meanwhile, The Plain Dealer reported last week that the Cleveland Landmarks Commission will ask the Port Authority for an extension at the end of this year to continue storing the (currently dismantled) Huletts on Whiskey Island.

Three cheers for the scrappy entrepreneur: Bruce blog has learned that the defunct incubator space Market 25 (the ground floor retail space of the Fries and Schuele building on W. 25th) has signed a letter of intent with Sam McNulty, the owner of Café 101.

Some may remember McNulty who opened a small sandwich joint tucked away in the basement of a CSU building from money saved dup from his paper route. Café 101 got the boot from the university last April and was replaced by mega-corp Aramark, which, Scene Magazine reported, was taking a $100,000 subsidy from the university for the privilege of running its commissary.

Sources inform Bruce Blog that McNulty approached Ohio City Near West Development Corporation, the nonprofit developer of the building, about leasing the old Market 25 space, presumably for a restaurant, and that OCNW approved. Final details are being worked out and no opening date has been set.

Bruce blog has also learned that Ohio City will soon have its very own Thai/Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant. The owners of Phnom Penh Restaurant are in negotiations to purchase a building on W. 25th and open a new restaurant there.

The popular pan-Southeast Asian resto will maintain its current location out at W. 131st and Lorain Avenue and purchase the building on the east side of W. 25th, between Bridge and Lorain, that formerly housed Felice’s restaurant.

Although no date has been set, the purchase reflects the attitude that Ohio City’s Market Square district is not only a hot destination, but a stable real estate market as well.

Meanwhile, Bruce blog is sad to report that independent retail in Cleveland will take another hit when Coventry Road’s vintage clothing shop Renaissance Parlour shuts its doors for good on December 31.

Bruce blog reported back in the spring when kitsch retailer Green Tomato closed its shop next door, that the building’s new owner dramatically raised rents in the last year (on top of business owners being asked to pay their share for the street improvements). RenParlour owners and Cleveland Heights residents Pete and Deb Gulyas insist that higher rent was only one factor in their closing.

Nonetheless, Coventry will be the poorer without their indie attitude—it was always the coolest place to hang out, get a pair of Levi’s or score an outfit to hit the town in. Pete and Deb shared their love of Coventry with their customers and with their fellow retailers for more than a decade.

Signs that the blandification of Coventry continues…Dave’s Cosmic Subs, a local chain, will open in the former Green Tomato space. Observers note that another restaurant, particularly another sub shop, is not going to attend to Coventry’s dwindling retail mix.

We've said it before: Someone at Midtown Cleveland must be reading Hotel Bruce. It's too coincidental that after Hotel Bruce Issue No. 2 focused on Midtown as a prime redevelopment area, with a conceptual plan for mixed use—the business development group is touting those very same aspect. We say—right on! Read the following excerpt from their Web site:

The MidTown Technology Center is the catalyst for a larger redevelopment effort. In concert with this initiative, the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project and MidTown Cleveland, Inc.’s Mixed-Use District vision will transform the economic landscape and neighborhood tapestry of MidTown. The Euclid Corridor Transportation Project will
link this new business and technology hub to The Cleveland Clinic, University Circle and Downtown Cleveland using modern, European-styled hybrid buses. Additionally, the establishment of a residential Mixed-Use District surrounding the MidTown Technology Center will capitalize on the area’s best qualities and create a true neighborhood
center along Euclid Avenue. This transit-oriented development will combine upscale residential, commercial, office, civic and open space uses into a pedestrian-friendly environment.

December 10
Hotel Bruce in the OC: Come and celebrate as Hotel Bruce releases Issue No. 3, the all-Ohio City issue, on December 10. Enjoy wine, cheese and refreshments; take in an exhibit of local artists' work and see an urban design showcase of an innovative plan for a sustainable and affordable ‘village’ in Ohio City. That’s Friday, 12/10 at Cleveland Public Art, 1951 W. 26th Street (right behind Market Square). Mark it in your calendar!

December 11
SPACELab presents an installation by Cleveland artist Sarah Kabot (through January 7, 2005) with an artist reception. SPACES Art Gallery, 2220 Superior Viaduct on the West side of the Flats. Click for more information or call 216-621-2314 or

December 17
The Cleveland Planning Commission regular meeting will give final consideration to the Lakefront Plan, 9 a.m., City Hall, Room 514. This meeting is open to the public, and residents are asked to come and share their concerns and/or support of the plan with the Commission. For more information.

In your interview with Peter Rubin, he mentioned that only large businesses were lost in the last redevelopment; that is untrue. Many stores were ousted to make room for the nationals, which all failed. Antiquarian Books, Helen Milner’s, Joe Gross Gallery, Ohio Signatures, and Lucy's Sweet Surrender, just to name a few. I think people need to pay attention to the condo component; that is where Rubin will make his
money. The rest is a diversion, in my opinion.

We are still on Buckeye Road, the last Hungarian business of its kind. Since 1957, Lucy's has been here. I bought it in 1994. At first, I thought I could make it with this location only, but within a year, I realized that would be not viable. I opened on Old River Road in Gates Mills at the Gates Mills Market, and, with a partner, we tried to reach out to the Hungarians in Lyndhurst, Mayfield, Chesterland, etc. We never made enough for my partner to make a living and sold it off. Then, I (got a stand at) the North Union Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings at Shaker Square. That led to opening my Lucy's on the square next to the old Stouffer space. That store started to make good money and I began catering from a rented space at Fairhill Center for Aging.

With the retail at the square, the Buckeye store, and the onsite catering we were really hitting numbers that, if sustained, would have finally stabilized Lucy's financial future. Then the square was sold, we were out and the catering failed.

When I opened on South Moreland, I thought I would pick up where I left off, but never attracted customers from the north side of the square to the south side. We sold it off to Phil the Fire who went bankrupt and left me in litigation with both the landlord and Phil Davis. Both suits are pending and the determination of those cases will determine whether I will be able to continue in business or not. If I lose them, I will probably be forced into bankruptcy.

I moved back to Cleveland from San Francisco 12 years ago to own my own business. Clevelanders are just to narrow minded, cheap, lazy, and prejudiced to support the Buckeye store. All year we are slow except the holidays.

I also own a home in the city down by old Euclid Beach. My commitment to the inner-city is total. I see the sprawling ‘burbs and the favorable economic forces that started in the 60's which continue today to leave the Cleveland center as a GIANT BLACK HOLE; this will suck all the life from northern Ohio and leave it empty in the near future. My exit strategy is in the works unless a miracle happens. At 50 years old, I am not willing to risk any more debt to grow.

Rosen and Centerpoint (Centerpoint Properties, the developers before Coral Company) received tons of public money and free publicity when they re-developed the square. Now Rubin and co. are getting the place for half-price and they want $30 per sq. foot to get me back and I would still have to build the store for $100,000 or so. I only wish I had a nickle for every time some tells me how great my store was.