I don’t think the city of Cleveland is thinking logically about the whole situation with the Convention Center. Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars if you can't even get what you planed for. All this talk about adding support columns; making the exhibit space smaller; taking away parking facilities and much more... goes against the very concept of building a new center in the first place. ITS LIKE TRYING TO PUSH A SQUARE BLOCK THROUGH A ROUND HOLE. Its just not meant to be, especially when there are other options.
The city already controls the International Exposition Center a facility that is four times the size of the proposed Convention Center 800,000 sq feet. The city feels that it is more important to expand Cleveland Hopkins International Airport then keep the IX center in its present location. I do agree that Cleveland needs a much larger Airport, but tearing down the IX center to build a new runway and airport terminal will not solve any problems. There is no sense in renovating and expanding an 80-year-old airport that is completely boxed in from surrounding businesses, and homes.
My suggestion is to forget about spending all this money on building a new Convention Center downtown... at least for now. Its time to look at relocating the airport in an area where there are large open plains for plenty of room for future expansion projects. The farm lands outside Lorain are an ideal location. The area is properly situated between Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, and the Future Cleveland Quarries Community. I know the city wants the airport to remain in Cuyahoga County, but the fact of the matter is that there is no more room left to build. Airports need room to grow just as cities do.... THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
Basically what im trying to say is that I feel an up to date airport in an Ideal location is much more valuable to the City then a remodeled Convention Center, especially when the city already has the IX center which attracts over 2 million visitors yearly... BUSINESSES LOOKING TO STAY AND RELOCATE IN THE CITY OF CLEVELAND DONT WANT A CONVENTION CENTER, THEY WANT A GATEWAY TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.
The biggest asset of the “chia pet” is its close proximity to the city.
There is nowhere in Cuyahoga county to build an airport and the city will not pay to buy the land then build and maintain an airport in an adjacent county, Since many of those counties are sprawling. In addition with the financial status of airlines, they cannot contribute to helping build. O’hare can’t expand because American and United are not able to help. Atlanta can because Delta is near bankruptcy.
As a person who is in the airport quite a bit (up to 80 departures a year), I wouldn't want a long commute; Hopkins will then have the hellish commutes similar to those using O’Hare, JFK, Dallas Ft. Worth and only aggravating flyers.
YEs we want better air service, but lets face it...there is not hometown airline. We're a hub for an airlines that has it two main hubs elsewhere and limited planes so we get the "short" end of the stick. How we can help is getting behind our main airline and putting your butss in seats.
I want the city to grow and for our leaders to think outside the box as well, which is why expandin the current center over the tracks to NCH and West to ontario could appease all. The smaller use rooms could be above ground and used as the base to the two "proposed" hotels attached and also linked to browns stadium which has conference facilities.
