Euclid Corridor Project

In its earlier days, it was a street of dreams. Euclid Avenue was the cut through for most travelers from the east to the west side and vice versa. However, the 200 million dollar Euclid Corridor Transportation Project was incepted to change the face of Euclid Avenue; to improve transit service and support increased development along Euclid Avenue. But, much like a botched facelift, the beginning surgical stages of Euclid Avenue were filled with re-routing and therefore aggravating many "walk-in and have a seat" businesses in the downtown area. In the end they have suffered-some have even closed down.

January - June of 2003
In the planning stages, the designs of the project were revealed: space for on-street parking, deliveries, and drop-off from Public Square to the East Cleveland city line, bike lanes from Cleveland State University to Case Western Reserve University, sufficient sidewalk space to support retail and sidewalk cafes, and new passenger stations throughout the Corridor.

March 2006
Euclid Avenue construction begins! RTA issued a "notice to proceed." Work began on the north side of Euclid Avenue, from the Innerbelt to east 55 Street. RTA will have a new line named, "The Silver Line." The designed plan features exclusive transit lanes used by all RTA vehicles from East 17th to East 107th Street, each bus station in the median strip will offer level boarding and off-board fare collection, and RTA will purchase twenty 62-feet low-floor environmental friendly vehicles with doors on both sides. This vehicle is supposed to seat approximately 46 passengers and passengers will see a 12-minute travel time savings between Public Square and University Circle.

By the year 2025, the project is expected to produce one million new riders annually, 13,000 new jobs, and 7.9 million square feet of commercial development.

RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese said that he knows there will be interruptions and distraction towards surrounding businesses, but they will work hard to minimize the disruptions by individually contacting and visiting all affected merchants. Entrances to all businesses will be accessible, and Euclid Avenue will remain open at all times. We will see about that.

June 2006
Almost three months into the Euclid Corridor Project, motorists and merchants began to feel the drag and irritation of construction at their front door. While the project was incepted to stimulate economic development, business owners began to see hints of inconvenience; torn up streets, sidewalks and covered parking meters where their customers could no longer park.

November 2006
For decades Nick's Sarris' Restaurant was known for the best gyros and pizza. The project forced him to close his doors for good after forty years.

During this time, the city of Cleveland considered providing special loan programs for Euclid Avenue businesses that were hit hard by the project however; it was too late for Nick Sarris.

Calabrese Statement
In late 2006, Calabrese released a statement saying, "We truly appreciate the patience of our many loyal customers. We realize that many people were inconvenienced, and we worked to minimize the construction impact. We also realize that we are making improvements that will affect Cleveland for decades to come. We fully expect the 'wow' factor to sink in when the Silver Line is fully operational in 2008."

March/April 2007
New signs popped up along Euclid Avenue showing that the traffic will now shift from the Southside of the street to the Northside. For some business owners, this was a sigh of relief. For others, this was just another addition to their frustration.

A Cleveland State Business Student said, "Just as I got used to driving this way, I have to get used to driving another way all over as well as finding other detours. This is very aggravating."

At this time, the Euclid Corridor Project fell a month behind schedule. Construction crews had to tear up new concrete because of problems and not being up to transportation inspectors' standards. As you probably realized, this cost more money.

May 2007
The RTA unveiled the new bus-rapid transit vehicle or B-R-T-V. One transit vehicle can hold up to 120 people and bends in the middle. The plan is to have 21 of these special hybrid vehicles making stops every five minutes from Public Square to University Circle.

During this time, the irritation of the Euclid Corridor Project got the best of Café Aroma co-owner Mary Wright-Ally. Here's the story:

Ally was arrested for trying to keep her business open to customers. Yes, that's right. Construction workers on the Euclid Avenue cut off the store and she went outside to question them. Taking a stand, Ally refused to leave the construction zone when asked to by security officer (who was also a Cleveland Police Officer) because she wanted answers. Ally was arrested and sat in jail for almost 24 hours waiting on paperwork to be processed and to be actually charged with something.

Because of the project literally at Ally's front door, her business dropped thirty percent since January of 2007 which amounts to seven-thousand-dollars a month.

Ally appeared in court August of 2007 and pled not guilty to disorderly conduct and trespassing charges.

Mayor Jackson was advised of this situation by several protestors and concerned citizens.

Late May 2007
In Cleveland, there seems to be some sort of "fad" going around… that fad is getting a team's building named after your company, e.g. Jacob's Field is now Progressive Field; The Gund Arena is now Quicken Loans. So RTA decided to jump on the "fad wagon" and offered the naming rights to the Euclid Corridor Project. RTA hired a company on a thirty percent commission to find a buyer.