need park ideas

[letterman]

I kicked it and it moved. Dummy me, kicked it again and it went further. Who invented beer anyway?I live in Cleveland. Really. My address is in Cleveland. And I sail. I would like your outside take on what the USA side of Lake Erie is like. What do you THINK it is?When you enter Cleveland Harbor there are three entrances. The West end, which is really a mess. Mapquest it and you will see that what we call the inner harbor, the area behind the breakwater, runs NE to SW. When the wind blows, as it always does, it comes in from the NE and goes to the SW. Duh! You would think the ACE wold have seen this coming and made the entrance to Edgewater Basin a blocked area. But Nooooooooooo. The water funnels quite nicely down the inner channel and right into our Basin, wrecking havoc, for over 70 years. Next entrance is the East end, which is wide open and has a fetch of some 160 miles, all the way to Buffalo. It is there that they want to remove the E55th street Marina and turn it over to Mittel Steel and the Nazi Harbor Nuts with Degrees. They control what happens, for the most part.Then there is the main channel entrance. This is where all the freighters come in and is the first impression you will see of Cleveland, close up.Now at this entrance there is a lighthouse. Looks like crap. Roof falling in, doors shuttered. It yells Ghetto! Then after you pass that is the old Coast Guard Station, abandoned for years, with falling roofs, weeds, a rusted out dock area...a real eyesore, unless you like Ghetto. This station is on the end of a point and that point is attached to a park. This area is called Whiskey Island and it once was a area of dozens of saloons and brothels, boatbuilding shops, lumber yards, etc. A proper entrance way to any city! It was leveled and washed of the face of the earth in 1911 when a 30 foot tidal wave slammed into it. It was never rebuilt and went decrepit for 70 years. Along came a nice guy named Moore. I am not sure about this part. He bought the property for some reason. His daughter Wendy was killed in a ski accident and so he named the area Wendy Park after her, and he began to clean it up. Were talking about a dozen dump trucks filled with just tires, and enough old fridges and stoves to make a proper Battleship. The land was covered with broken glass, which they cleaned up most of it. In other words, keep your shoes on. That brings us to yesterday. I had a beer. Then another. Then I have no idea what I did.I took over the park by Piracy! Or lunacy. See, I am out of work and bored, and this eyesore is something I see all the time while sailing, and it's THE ONLY park between Erie PA and the Islands, and it's my city, and so I took it over. Turns out it gets interesting!The city, being broke, tried to take over the Island and sell it to a developer by Eminent Domain. Moore fought back and sold it to the County for $1, but with the stipulation he could manage it forever. The city fought back. The CG station was Government property and so the State took it over. They leased it for 100 years to the City for $1 per year. Why? Insurance costs. So the city let it go to pot. There is this huge park, with a few woods, several volleyball fields, and thats it. No water, no electricity.So, I figured I could take one step at a time. We have these guys called CABBS. Cuyahoga Amateur Boat Builders (google it). They make small boats. I wanted to build a boatbuilding school like Eire PA and Philly has somewhere in Cleveland. So, why not marry the two? Cabbs already did boatbuilding projects on WI before, but I want them to have a real building..the old CG station would do. But first we have to get juice in there, then water. As for the Island, I want it to be a place Boy Scouts and G-Scouts and such can stay for a weekend and camp out and build boats and learn to sail, row, kayak, etc. Then there is the Rowing Club on the river. They need a place to store there sculls further up from where they are. All the local colleges and high schools have sculling teams. Not one has a sailing team. So...I called my ex Bro-in-law the Fire Captain to ask if in lieu of fire hydrants, we could have a running pumper truck. Gosh, it's not like there isn't water around!. That would mean building a shed for the truck. A shed for the sculls. A shed for the...well, it's turning into Sim City! Now who to build the road and water supply line and such for this city? Hmmm Great Lakes Construction does this all the time. Who is the CFO of GLCC? My brother! So, I was reading Wooden Boat last night and there is an article about a similar place in Washington and they needed 21 million to get their area up to snuff. So I guess I will have to raise some money. And plan a park. Now as a sailboater, it would be nice to sail to some place, anchor have a picnic, party, and leave. This park would be ideal for that. If it's set up right, out of towner's would have a free or cheap place to anchor and stay, food, a park setting, kids, boats, a beach, and google in Wendy Park to see the skyline view! It's awesome! There is a current boardwalk of about 1000 feet running parallel to the Cuyahoga River so you can watch the ore boats and dinner cruise ships come and go up close and personal! And, the Marina has a working bar, and they just sunk a good buck into redoing it. And their food is good! A full rack of ribs is under $10. And 16oz Canned beer is only $3, sometimes less on sale. Now, ideas! Lots of them. What would you do?

 

[Napa Ed]

"what would you do?"

Move. How much worse could it get?

 

[Ross]

Make a good business plan with an emphasis on

the community and cultural value of this project. Get some local officials to endorse it and send it to you US Senator for his consideration and a promise that if you received funding by way of a grant the whole shebang would have his name on it as in The Robert S. Philabuster Water Park and Boat Building School. Shakespeare in the park every summer, Renaissance festival each fall. Get the old Coasr Graurd Station declared a National Landmark and get federal funds for restoration as a multi use facility. The light house needs restoring so don't forget that. Over in the sails call lounge they are bitchin about how our taxes are wasted anyway.

 

[MoonSailer]

Google earth view

Wow Cleveland looks awful from google earth.At least around the marinas. Big piles of something to load or unload then the sewage treatment plants and let's not forget the airport and some industrial looking buildings. Constant noise and aroma to enjoy wile sitting in your slip. What do you do when going for a sail???  Here in Alabama we have a sewage treatment pond but it is hidden in the golf course. There is a paper mill that stinks when the wind is out of the south. We do have to dodge a few large barges. Good luck with the park!!!! Parks seem to depend upon the community. Some communities really support their parks and they are great places but other parks are more or less orphans with no community support. These parks become hangouts for drunks and gays(drunk gays). Where I used o live they had a really nice park for hiking on mountain trails. The gays have taken over the park and the park gets little use by the reat of the community. I used to hike there regularly but finally quit because of men sitting around in cars doing whatever. The good thing was that once I was 150' away from the parking lot in the woods it was great. I was very rare to meet anyone on the trails. The park was next to a large section of national forest so there were(are) deer racoons even a few bears wandering around. Several people that I talked to said that they were afraid to use the park because of the men sitting around in parked cars. The police would chase them off but once the police stopped regular patrols the gays returned. I have nothing against gays but they should take their activity to someplace besides a public park meant for families and hiking.

 

[CalebD]

I have been to Cleveland

And I have seen the waterfront of the city when taking off and landing by airplane. It is rather impressive from the air but I gather a little less so up close and in person. A quick google search turned up the Wendy Park Foundation http://www.wendyparkfoundation.org/index.html who already have designs on the places you mentioned. Beer can help you make some mental leaps of faith but the sad fact is that we are not the only ones who drink beer. Why badmouth beer anyway? Beer helped make Milwaukee famous after all.Maybe you should check with the Wendy Park Foundation people. You might just find some kind of job (paying/volunteer) helping to achieve your dream. Their goals for Wendy Park may be a little different than yours but perhaps not that far off.I live near the Hudson River in downtown New York. There were old piers that the city neglected for years that some people began to notice and develop. There was even an un-official mooring field for a time where a few brave souls moored some questionable water craft. One of the best things that came out of that era was the Downtown Boat House. Some avid kayak people took over a big shed and stored their boats there. I believe that the city made them make the facility open to the public so for FREE (after signing a waiver) you could paddle a kayak (one of the plastic ocean kayak affairs) on a small section of the Hudson. It was a funky place with a Hudson Fisheries exhibit to show kids the various sea life that calls these waters home. Since the city owned the waterfront and piers the Parks Department decided to re-do the whole west side and make one gigantic park for bicyclists, roller bladers, joggers and strollers. The kayak people and fish tanks have been moved somewhere up town as our section is being totally redone. It will look nice once completed but I kind of miss the old funky, weathered, creaky atmosphere it used to have. Nostalgia mostly. Good luck with this.Attached website is for the Hudson River Park Trust...

 

[CalebD]

Re-post to add

There are still drunken gays to be found in the HR Park but at least now it is patrolled quite regularly.Letterman,Do we know what caused the huge tidal wave/tsunami that wiped out this area as you described? Was it an asteroid or earth quake or what?

 

[KorculaChris]

Wow!

Great idea!Check into grants through BoatUS...they sponsor this kind of thing, although not the megabucks you're looking at.Also, community grass roots movements canbe an irresistable force once they start rolling, so get the community involved as well.

 

[higgs]

Mistake on the Lake

This is, apparently, an accurate nickname for Cleveland.

 

[r.w.landau]

Letterman, your description is accurate.

I think Cleveland could be a wonderful Port. I also think that money is the problem. Maybe not for some of the museums but for private infrastructures like marinas. My son went to Cleveland Art Institute. I always took the north route so I could see the lake. I often wondered why this area with such a great view was worthless and not being used.My daughter lives in Traverse City Michigan. They have a higher tax for properties that can view the lake!It could be that the property value is so high priced that private enterprise will never be able to afford to make an endeavour there. The other option is to create a state marina/park that would make this dream possible. There were a group of us in Pa. that wanted to build two pavilions. It was a dream that was pursued for about 15 years. We found the right avenue and the most dedicated person we knew ( Sailor man Mike O'Shurak, owner and good sailor of an "83" 25'O'Day cb) .We built two pavilions on State property this year. We did it, they own it and maintain it.Letterman, it is your idea, it sounds...sound. Pursue it, it could be your job you aren't looking for. Pursue the city and the state, not with vengeance but with ideas. The politicians want the ideas. They need people to see them out. I have to say that you are a guy like me that is casual or less most of the time. If you pursue this, you will need to stay polished so that you are abovequestion not only in the political, but the public eye.If fault is found, you will be rejected and ejected asap.Letterman, start meeting your city and state reps. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Dress for the occasion and go! The hardest thing you will battle is failure. You will have a lot of that. The Mike I mentioned before is a Financial planner. He deals with rejection everyday! He also knows that good ideas are good ideas. He was persistent. You will need the same gift.Best to you!r.w.landau

 

[letterman]

some input

I contacted the Foundation on Friday. They were blown away by my proposals.Today I met the Marina manager and he went over their plans for the park, and what they did so far, and it was exactly part of what I planned. I showed him my plans and the smile he gave melted the snow!The CG station is already a Historical Landmark. Thanks for the suggestions Ross.The gays have their own part of the park, at the opposite end, about 2 miles away.Yes, my marina is right next to the poop factory. Yes it smells every now and then. But it blows away from the marina most of the time.As for dirt from the planes, the dirt from the ships and taconite are worse. The good news is nobody uses the Lake, so when I go sailing, I can usually count on two fingers the other boats out there, always. I find peace in that.My Congressman is a friend. He asked for a written proposal.Yes, I thought about moving.