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CLEVELAND, Ohio – The charm of Major Hoopples, a working-class bar on a bluff overlooking the west bank of the Cuyahoga River, is its resistance to change.

While many spots in the Flats have tried to reinvent themselves over and over, Hoopples has not. Still primarily a watering hole for those on their way home from work, it’s upgraded some TV’s and added a patio. But not much else.

For 20 years, guitar legend Glenn Schwartz played there on Thursdays before he died in 2018. Hoopples also stuck to a modest food menu, where most items run $10 or less. The beer list includes Stroh’s and Polish lagers. Order a martini and there’s a good chance it will come in a rocks glass.

“We survived the Flats coming and going and now coming again,” Hoopples’ web page says.

In addition to its predictability, Hoopples has benefited from unrivaled views of the skyline and steel skeleton bridges, which fill the large windows behind the bar, and from free parking along Franklin Avenue. The street bottoms out at the bar’s doorstep, not far from the Columbus Road lift bridge.

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I was drawn to Hoopples and its amiable owner, Norm Plonski Jr., because their story illustrates concerns about gentrification that are being raised in a number of rebounding neighborhoods of Cleveland. In the case of Hoopples, change is coming in the form of a bike path that is a part of highly touted and unique trail system slowly moving through the Flats. It will likely force change on the business that’s been largely alone on the street for nearly 40 years. Plonski is powerless to slow the progress but he continues to try.

Last year, Cleveland Metroparks began finalizing plans that would eliminate about 12 to 15 parking spaces along Franklin Avenue to make room for a bike path connecting the Red Line Greenway to the Centennial Lake Link Trail. The trail runs south from Columbus Road along the river.

When Plonski, whose family bought the bar in 1981, learned of the plans, he was immediately alarmed. He has no parking lot, so losing half of the curbside parking on Franklin -- between Columbus Road to just past RTA Red Line viaduct – would cost him $75,000 or more a year.

“It’s going to kill my business,” Plonski told me on a recent morning as we walked along Franklin. “The spots fill up each day with patrons who each spend about $20. On weekends, the spots turn over multiple times.”

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To make his case, he attended three Metroparks Board of Commissioners meetings, his first in December, after he encountered Metroparks officials with blueprints outside his bar. He also attended the February and March meetings this year. And he’s spoken directly to Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman.

I listened to audio recordings of Plonski’s appearances before the board. He was polite but direct, and injected some skepticism into the board meetings. Other than a regular gadfly or two, few people publicly challenge the commissioners and park officials about projects, which largely receive broad public support.

Plonski pleaded with them to reroute the path or wait to connect it to the next phase of the Lake Link Trail that would run north of Columbus Road along Riverbed Road. But that could be years off because the buckling hillside and roadway, known as Irishtown Bend, needs a miracle – tens of millions of dollars to keep it from slipping into the Cuyahoga River.

Metroparks officials walked Plonski through their thinking and noted that they met with other interested parties in the neighborhood. They said they even held a meeting in January 2018 at Hoopples to discuss traffic and parking concerns. (Plonski told me he didn’t know about the meeting because he was on vacation at the time.)

“We have threaded the needle as best as possible, maintained street parking and provided a safe trail connection,” Sean McDermott, the Metroparks chief planning and design officer, said during the February board meeting in response to Plonski’s concerns. (You can listen to the meeting here.)

Improving the park system’s connectivity, especially to the lake, has been a major priority of the Metroparks. Under the leadership of Zimmerman, the park system has helped spur critical links, especially through the Flats, using grants and other funding.

Commissioner Dan Moore, a wealthy entrepreneur whose swagger always gives his comments a rosy glow, questioned why Plonski isn’t welcoming the bike path with open arms. Moore said he can’t think of any “high-traffic” bike or hiking trail located near a bar or restaurant that hasn’t helped the business.

“This is going to be a boon to you,” he said. “ I’ll wager you, if you are up for it.”

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Plonski has a lot of reasons to take the bet. His business is already located near the Lake Link Trail and he says he’s received only a trickle of additional patronage from bike riders and hikers. (The Red Line Greenway, which abuts the bar’s patio, could offer more potential customers. The Metroparks is bidding the $6 million project now. Construction is expected to begin this summer.)

Plonski explained to the commissioners that his customer traffic has been incredibly consistent for decades thanks to his parking. He said that only two things have affected his cash register: the temporary closure years ago of the lift bridge and the Cleveland Cavaliers appearances in the NBA finals.

He put it another way to me: “I get a little business from centennial trail but I get a lot of dog shit thrown in my dumpsters.”

Plonski’s incredulity is also fueled by the fact that the existing Lake Link Trail had been closed for several months because of heaving and erosion, which triggered the Metroparks to close it. The City of Cleveland hired an engineer to study the problem. McDermott said the city has the report. I’ve already asked the city for a copy of the engineer’s report.

The Metroparks recently re-opened the path. Plonski believes it’s no coincidence, given his public complaints. McDermott said the trail is safe for use though the park system will continue to monitor it.

Plonski is also worried that vehicle traffic in the area is more dangerous to pedestrians than Metroparks officials and others recognize, a point he has discussed directly with Zimmerman and McDermott.

Plonski is not a traffic expert, but he has three decades of experience watching from his bar windows as cars race down Columbus Road and make fast and wide turns onto Franklin Avenue. Plonski warned the commissioners at one meeting: “I’ll guarantee that someone dies in the first year.”

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Plonski told me he worries that when everyone finally realizes the dangers of the corner, traffic engineers will make a wider turning lane by removing even more parking from the other side of Franklin.

“Nobody can promise me that this won’t happen,” Plonski said.

The potential parking changes bother Plonski so much that for the first time he recently tried email. He used it to send his traffic concerns about the bike path to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

During my visit to Hoopples, I asked Plonski to reflect on the progress that’s been slowly coming his way for years, which includes the revival of Ohio City and the appearance of trails and condominiums across the street from his bar. He said he supports the Red Line Greenway, the trails and other improvements.

But he can’t shake his frustrations.

“I understand progress,” Plonski told me. “But you get a little disgruntled when, for 30 years, nobody cared about anything down here, and you are the one picking up trash and cutting the grass and you can’t get storefront renovation money because they say it’s not high-traffic enough. So now, people have a vision and want to to take your parking and pump more volume in the area without regard for my business.”

As Plonski’s story illustrates, progress in Cleveland is long and winding -- and messy. I would like to think that the bar will survive the changes. If it doesn’t, Cleveland will lose a little part of its character.

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Norm Plonski's father, Norm Sr., looks out Hoopples window at the location of the future bike path and buffer.