Last Friday, The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com published my Letter to the Editor. I’m using this week’s edition of “The Z-Notes" to repeat it in full:
As an Near West Side resident, I am writing in response to recent articles and an editorial detailing the ongoing friction over parking for the West Side Market and other existing and emerging Ohio City businesses.
The Market has historically been one of the signature attractions in the City of Cleveland, and it has anchored the neighborhood for over a century.
But out of this synergistic history has developed a current and future reality — that the Market’s continued health and that of the surrounding businesses have become inextricably linked. Now, the Market and Ohio City both offer a host of popular venues — and we should not have to choose between the Market and the neighborhood.
Ohio City Inc. is the neighborhood’s community development corporation. In this capacity, it has developed a comprehensive plan that accomplishes the following:
Finally, in conducting its research, OCI found that 1 available space can turn over up to 9 times on a busy day. As a result, the plan seeks to identify additional locations for employee parking — so that otherwise available spaces are not occupied all day by employees.
The growing number of people choosing to visit, work, and shop in Ohio City is a wonderful problem to have.
Finding solutions to accommodate this growth will require a productive dialogue between the West Side Market and its neighbors to craft a mutually satisfactory and beneficial resolution to this issue.
