CLEVELAND, Ohio - Monday's decision by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to delay resumption of bus service in Public Square while studying whether to make the temporary stoppage permanent raises a painful question.

Could the square's widely praised makeover have been even better if the city had decided on removing Superior Avenue and closing the square's interior to bus service permanently before starting the 15-month, $50 million project?

Even more to the point, did Cleveland in some sense blow the renovation and commit a needless, embarrassing and hard-to-fix mistake - a word that around here rhymes all too famously with lake?

James Corner, the internationally respected landscape architect who designed the square's renovation, doesn't think so.

In an interview on Wednesday, he said he doesn't think this is a moment for doubts, recriminations and what-ifs.

Design would not have been very different

He said he and members of his firm, James Corner Field Operations, would not have designed the square's renovation in a drastically different manner if the city and RTA had decided up front to eliminate Superior Avenue and remove buses from the interior of the space.

For example, he said, his firm still would have designed the center of the square, now traversed by Superior Avenue, as a paved plaza to facilitate events such as the July 29 "Star-Spangled Spectacular" concert by the Cleveland Orchestra.

And he said the square could be easily modified in the future by adding more greenery at the east and west ends of Superior Avenue, and removing the avenue's curbs to create an even greater sense that the square is a single, unified space.

He did not offer a preliminary estimate of what the cost might be, saying it was premature to offer such an opinion.

Closing of Superior anticipated by design

But he said the renovation of the square was designed with the possibility of closing Superior Avenue very much in mind.

"We always anticipated that one day it might close anyway," he said. "The design itself always anticipated there might not be a road."

Corner also made it absolutely clear that he'd like to see that happen.

"It should be one square," he said. "It's a shame to have to see traffic lights and signalized crossings and all of the demarcations and other elements that happen."

Eliminating buses would be a "massive advantage to the square and to public life in the square," he said. "It will certainly improve safety and improve the range of activities that can take place."

Prior to it renovation, Public Square had functioned since the 19th century as four traffic islands separated by travel lanes, just as it was designed in the 18th century by surveyors working for city-founder Moses Cleaveland.

Four traffic islands

For decades, the square has also felt entirely dominated by concrete and by traffic - not like the green, welcoming refuge openly desired by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

In 2011, Jackson said he favored closing the square entirely to vehicles and unifying it as a single space.

Corner's firm, known for co-designing New York's highly acclaimed High Line Park, proposed several variations in 2009 on how to redesign the square.

Those proposals evolved into the version completed in June after 15 months of construction, just in time for the Republican National Convention.

The major features of the project included removing the two-block section of Ontario Street that ran north-south through the square, leaving it divided by a two-block, east-west section of Superior Avenue, which was narrowed from 77 to 48 feet in width.

Corner's design struck a balance between the mayor's desire for a unified square, and RTA, which still wanted to continuing using the interior of the square as a transit hub.

Data needed

RTA's announcement on Monday that it would hold off on resuming bus service followed the news after the Republican convention that Jackson was still not content with bringing bus service back to the newly narrowed section of Superior Avenue.

On Monday, city spokesman Daniel Ball told The Plain Dealer that the administration wants new data on how transit is functioning around the square, which has been closed to through traffic since the reconstruction began in March 2015.

The data could verify or contrast with predictions made in 2012 by the San Francisco-based consulting firm of Nelson Nygaard, which predicted that closing Ontario and Superior entirely could displace nearly 18,000 daily bus passenger pick-ups and drop-offs.

The analysis said the delays would cost RTA $2.6 million a year, a figure it can hardly afford at a time when it is raising fares and cutting service for reasons that include extremely low levels of funding from the state of Ohio.

Nelson Nygaard also predicted that if Public Square were closed to buses, RTA would be forced to add new routes to maintain scheduled service, and that the square would be surrounded by a "ring of steel" made of buses and cars, making streets around it harder to cross by pedestrians.

Some RTA riders have said they're opposed to closing the avenue and barring buses from the interior of the square.

For example, Clevelanders for Public Transit, a riders' organization, told The Plain Dealer on Monday that removing buses from the square's interior would increase travel time for riders and hike operating costs for RTA, just as Nelson Nygaard predicted.

On Wednesday, regular bus rider Robert Winn handed out leaflets in the square, saying "Buses should be back on Superior."

Carmageddon didn't happen

But now that the square is finished, and following the 15 months in which it was closed for construction, fresh data could show whether Nelson Nygaard's predictions were accurate.

And that's something Corner thinks is absolutely right.

"The mayor should be commended for recognizing the importance of the square and questioning whether or not buses do make sense and now putting it through a trial," Corner said. "I think that's all really good news and a smart and intelligent strategy."

Corner also acknowledged, however, that RTA and its riders need to be heard.

"You're going to have two sides in your commentary on this," he said. "There's going to be more people concerned about the efficiency of transit and buses and the ease of getting from A to B, and there's going to be a contingent who wants Public Square to be whole and to feel unified and special, and not sullied in a sense by buses and public transit.

"You're going to have these two voices," Corner said. "It will be interesting to see how it all plays out."

Correction: The caption that accompanies a photo of James Corner in this post misstated the area of Public Square, which is 6 acres, not 10 as originally stated.

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