SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- After a delay of several months brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is again focusing on what it can do to make its downtown -- the Mayfield-Green roads area -- a more attractive place for businesses, pedestrians, shoppers and those seeking entertainment.
An online community forum was held Wednesday (Oct. 7) evening, in which participants heard from representatives of Heritage Ohio, a non-profit entity based in Columbus that serves as Ohio’s official historic preservation and Main Street organization.
According to its mission statement, Heritage Ohio “fosters economic development and sustainability through preservation of historic buildings, revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, and promotion of cultural tourism.”
The Main Street program is “designed to improve all aspects of (a community’s) downtown or central business district, producing both tangible and intangible benefits,” the website states.
In South Euclid, the project of enlivening Mayfield-Green began in December 2018, when plans developed by the Cincinnati firm YARD & Co. were first shown to the city’s Planning Commission. Those plans were then shown to the public a month later.
YARD & Co. suggested ideas such as converting the Key Bank building on the northeast corner of Mayfield and Green roads into a brewery, complete with rooftop seating.
It also suggested, among several other things, redeveloping Garden Drive -- a street off Mayfield Road -- into a hub of activities. The city began acting on this idea in summer 2019, when it held a series of Friday after-work “Intersection” events, complete with music, drinks and games, as a means of getting young people to think of the area as a go-to entertainment district.
COVID-19 led to the cancellation of all such events in 2020.
In addition, YARD & Co. recommended that a mural be painted marking the area and welcoming people to downtown South Euclid. That “Come Together” mural was painted in 2019 on the side of the House of Swing building, 4490 Mayfield Road.
The city began working with Heritage Ohio in February of this year, but the virus put a stop to that work until recently.
South Euclid is paying Heritage Ohio $5,000 for one year’s work in attempting to bring about the plans YARD & Co. suggested.
“There are certain communities around the state that are designated as Main Street communities,” Economic Development Director Michael Love explained following Wednesday’s forum, “meaning they’re permanently working with Heritage Ohio, so Heritage Ohio is always working to guide them with their downtown districts.
"This is vs. (Heritage Ohio) doing this one-year report for us, and then leaving after this one year. They would be permanently working with us.”
Heritage Ohio Director of Revitalization Frances Jo Hamilton conducted a good deal of the forum. Participants included Mayor Georgine Welo; Love; some council members; members of the city’s community development corporation, One South Euclid; community stakeholders; and residents.
Hamilton, who has had experience working with several Main Street communities in Ohio, such as Medina, Cambridge and Wadsworth -- the closest to South Euclid is Bedford -- told of some of the important contributing factors to making a downtown area thrive.
As one example, she said, “Everything we do should be done at a level of excellence, of top quality.”
Hamilton went on to explain that too many flowers were planted in one community that was attempting to highlight flowers. As a result, some of the flowers died, leading Hamilton to say it would have been better to plant fewer flowers and ensure that they thrived, as opposed to following a planting plan that showed some failure.
She also said, “We have to change the local attitude and let everyone know that things can happen in South Euclid.” Emphasizing creativity and a community’s individualism are also important, she said.
“We want personality to shine through each of our (Main Street) communities. I want each community to be just what they are.”
Hamilton said it is important to have activities that regularly bring people back. But, she said, these activities can’t be forced, and that they must be genuine to the community.
In Wadsworth, for example, the center of town hosts the “Scare on the Square” and an annual “Thriller” dance to Michael Jackson’s song of that name.
“It’s about originality,” said Heritage Ohio’s Frank Quinn. “It’s what you want to celebrate.”
Cambridge’s Main Street holds events such as its upcoming Halloween “Brews and Brains” and “Trick or Treat on Main,” as well as a gift basket auction.
“You have to have something routinely happening,” Hamilton said, “not just one three-day festival it takes a year to plan.”
She said that a regular farmers market -- not one held in a parking lot, but along a sidewalk -- is a good way to bring people together. A few years back, on Thursdays, the South Euclid Farmers Market had been held on the lawn of South Euclid-Hillcrest United Methodist Church, off Green Road. Welo noted that that market had moved on to Legacy Village in Lyndhurst.
Hamilton, after visiting the Mayfield-Green area on Wednesday, said, “Your sidewalk could be more walkable.”
She suggested moving benches that now face the street inward, so that pedestrians may be inclined to take a seat facing each other and talk. Signs that say “no parking,” she suggested, could be changed to let motorists know where they can park, to bring about a friendlier, more welcoming atmosphere.
At one point during the forum, participants were broken up into groups, with each devising suggestions for what they thought would make for a better downtown South Euclid. Ideas were put forth that included adding string lighting, branding the area, working to bring in different nationality restaurants, installing decorative lampposts, adding bike racks and artwork, and creating space for intergenerational mingling.
Hamilton plans to speak more with neighborhood stakeholders, city leaders and interested residents in developing a study on Mayfield-Green that she plans to release in 60 days.
Love said that an analysis will take place in which it will be decided if it is best that One South Euclid leads the Main Street program, or whether a separate downtown organization would have to be formed.
After receiving Heritage Ohio’s report, another public meeting will be held.
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