Dimora, Hagan and Jones made the right choice in choosing 9th and Euclid as the new location for Cuyahoga County Headquarters.
Like the guy used to say in the Dodge TV ads: This changes everything. The decision to put 2,000 people at the intersection of what was once the heart of downtown Cleveland is just like giving Cleveland a new heart. This is the stimulus needed to turn Euclid Avenue into one of the most exciting streets in the world.
The mayor of Cleveland recently told New Yorker Magazine that the task in front of Cleveland is "connecting the dots." Cleveland has lots of assets, she said, but they are not connected yet in a meaningful way. The new location for the county’s headquarters, plus RTA’s Euclid Corridor Project, are going to make Euclid Avenue dot heaven. No other street in the world will have our mix of businesses, theaters, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, museums, universities, hospitals, startups, and nonprofits.
This is one of the most important and far-reaching decisions made in Cleveland in years. It is good news of the first order, and I congratulate the commissioners on making a courageous decision.
Built For Business
While the commissioners are on a roll, they may as well take care of building a new Business Center.
Yes, I said Business Center, not Convention Center.
When people think of convention centers, they think of Orlando and Las Vegas, and that’s not what we’re all about. The convention game is a tough one to win.
But there is a game we can win, and we can win big. It’s called, "Be What You Are." It was created by the Greek, Pindar, who would say to everyone he met: Be what you are.
Down through the ages, some of the world’s most successful people have attributed their success to Pindar. Here in America such notables as Walt Disney, Bill Gates and Sam Walton have said they owe their success to Pindar.
So if we want to be what we are, what are we? Plain and simple, Cleveland is a city built for business. Business is our past, our present, and our future. All the things we treasure — our communities, schools, museums, universities, orchestras, parks, hospitals — were built with profits from successful businesses. So why not build something that reflects who we are?
There are two good reasons to build a world-class Business Center. First, because Cleveland needs a classy place to do business with the world. And second, because Cleveland needs a place to do business with the community.
Meetings are big business. And they are profitable. If trade shows are the whales of the hospitality industry, meetings are the perch. For every whale we catch, we can catch a thousand perch.
Successful meeting facilities, such as Cobb Center in suburban Atlanta, were built to catch perch. They understand perfectly the waters they fish in.
The Cobb Center hosts hundreds of business and community meetings each year in facilities that include elegant meeting rooms with the latest technology, banquet facilities that accommodate 3,000 people, hotel rooms, and 150,000 square feet of trade show space.
I believe that if the people of Cuyahoga County understood the benefits of a meeting facility for both the community and its businesses, they would vote to built it.
It would be a working symbol to the world of who we are and what we are all about.