? of the day: what should happen with East Bank of Flats?

There are two issues to be resolved concerning the East Bank of the Flats.

1. Who is responsible for its demolition by neglect, bringing it to its current blight... who are community leaders and past and current property owners and landlords and business operators who drove the Flats to the current state of ruin?
2. What may responsible property owners do with this neighborhood?

Consider the Flats East Bank, to be demolished by Wolstein, the City of Cleveland and the Port Authority, is only a few square blocks of parking lots speckled with historic buildings, so documenting its history and failure up to now, by lot, building, business and owner, should be an easy task.

Who demolished the historic buildings already gone, and owns the surface parking lots? Who owns and leases out the existing buildings, under what terms? Are there businesses that can thrive in the current Flats buildings, and can we develop around the historic infrastructure and buildings to maintain our cultural heritage? Do we care?

Whether we care about our historic infrastructure and buildings and culture or not, and whether we care that the Flats were an outstanding economic resource demolished by neglect, we should care what is built in the current parking lots and any and all lots formed by demolishing historic structures, and we should care about the look, feel and flow, not to mention purpose and function of whatever is built on our region's most valuable property, which has since the days of native Americans been a hub of community in these parts.

To allow all to consider what should be done about the East Bank of the Flats, take a look through the photos here of the current state - consider who made it bad like this, what good is left, and who should be trusted to make this better?

Consider whoever designed and planned these parking lots killed this community to develop something very different and ugly, just now entering a new phase of presence. What will be the form of the presence will be determined by who owns Cleveland. Is it Carney, Stark, Wolstein, Jacobs, Miller and Ratner, or you? What do you want to see happen here, now?