Cleveland Convention Center_Litt.JPG

The new downtown Cleveland Mall and the Global Center for Health Innovation on Tuesday.

(Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer)

Great cities around the world

have shown for decades — if not

centuries — that beautiful parks,

streets and public spaces are es

sential to urban vitality, eco

nomic energy and civic pride.

Cleveland finally seems to be

getting the message.

That’s the big take-away from

Frank Jackson over how to spend

excess cash raised for construc

tion of the downtown convention

center and Global Center for

Health Innovation, formerly

known as the Medical Mart.

Built by MMPI Inc. of Chicago,

the $465 million joint facility is

slightly under budget and will

open next week, 10 weeks ahead

of schedule.

Thanks to an improving econ

omy, the quarter-cent sales tax

levied by the county to pay for

the project has generated more

than twice as much as the un

touched $40 million contingency

fund gathered on top of the $465

million. Hotel bed tax revenues

also have been strong.

The total available for fresh

projects, as of Tuesday, is $93

million.

As FitzGerald put it in a pre

sentation with Jackson on Mon

day at The Plain Dealer, he wants

to avoid spreading that sum

around the county like peanut

butter on a thin layer of small ef

forts.

Instead, he wants to leverage

the cash to attract an additional

$225 million to $275 million

from naming rights , federal and

foundation grants, private in

vestments and other sources.

He’d use that new total — pro

jected $300 million to $350 mil

lion — to capitalize on the mo

mentum created by everything

from the new bus rapid-transit HealthL

ine on Euclid Avenue to the new

downtown casino and conven

tion center.

Inside the new Global Center for Health Innovation, which opens June 14.

Projects on FitzGerald’s list in

clude a new, 650-room conven

tion hotel on the site of the for

mer county administration

building, which will be vacated

next year as part of the consoli

dation of county offices in a new

headquarters at Prospect Avenue

and East Ninth Street. The hotel

is intended to help the new con

vention center and center for

health innovation attract large

groups they might otherwise

lose.

FitzGerald wants to help Cleve

land realize improvements it en

visions for the downtown Mall,

which doubles as the green roof

of the largely underground con

vention center, and for Public

Square, where the mayor wants

to close one of two cross streets

to make the 10-acre space more

The county executive also

wants to help the city build a pe

destrian bridge over the lake

front railroad lines and the

Shoreway from the convention

center to North Coast Harbor,

along with a new, 740-space

parking garage.

The new Cleveland Convention Center.

The net effect of all these in

vestments, if carried out well,

could be huge. They’d link the

Mall and Public Square to each

other and to the lakefront as

never before.

They also could trigger resi

dential, office and retail develop

ment that finally fills the gray

wastelands of surface parking

lots on either side of the down

town core in the Warehouse Dis

trict and Campus District.

Public pressure could hasten

better bike and pedestrian con

nections to neighborhoods from

downtown. Who knows? Maybe

the long-delayed final section of

the Towpath Trail, a 110-mile re

gional bike path that’s mostly

finished south of Cleveland, and

the associated Lake Link Trail,

could be finished in the foresee

able future.

The catch here is that good in

tentions are not enough to en

sure a sudden windfall is well

spent by the city and county. Far

from it. If used in haste without

the highest standards of design,

the money could harm rather

than help.

The good news is neither the

city nor the county are starting

from scratch.

The leading American landscape architect James Corner of Field Operations led a proposed new design for Public Square, based on closing Ontario Street as it runs north-south through the 10-acre space.

for Public

Square and the Mall have been

developed in recent years by the

Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a

business service organization,

and the city’s new Group Plan

Commission, a cluster of civic

and business leaders, with strong

professional help from Land Stu

dio, a small but powerful nonprofit urban design and public art agency.

Here’s what ought to happen

next to achieve optimal results:

A fresh round of public forums

The elevated walkway from the

Reconstructed sections of the

The hotel itself needs to be de

It’s great after years of squab

bles among the city and county

to see FitzGerald and Jackson in

agreement over proposed down

town investments. It’s also im

portant that the Greater Cleve

land Partnership, the city’s

chamber of commerce, is fully

engaged.

The partnership signals a new

civic awareness that in addition t

o building excellent attractions,

Cleveland needs to acquire a

beautiful public realm that en

courages visitors and residents

alike to enjoy the city on foot or

on a bike.

Jackson and FitzGerald are ab

solutely saying all the right

things. Now they need to pro