American Idol Winner to Perform at Free Concert on Mall B

The Euclid Corridor project, now appropriately called the "Health Line", opens on October 24-25th to celebrate the re-birth of Euclid Avenue. Headlining this public festival is American Idol winner, Jordin Sparx, who This project has been several years in the making, and has been the subject of great debate over the past three years.

Yes, yes, by now we know that the Health Line will connect University Circle to Public Square. We've heard about and/or seen the cool looking bus stations all along the route. We've even heard about how this is revolutionary, environmentally concsious, and so on... But, will we actually use it? Cleveland City Living decided to ask the people on the streets...

• "We'd probably take it to go downtown for dinner after our shift [is over]" - Kathy & Monica from the Cleveland Clinic.


• "I live in the Statler and work at UH, so it's great for me." - William (Downtown Resident)


• "It's cool, but Euclid Avenue is still pretty much a ghost town." - Jessie (Downtown Resident)


• "I've never really rode the bus before in Cleveland, just Chicago and places like that. Is that weird?" - Emily (Downtown Employee in Tower City)

The general feeling for the remaining posts is optimism for the publicity, excitement over the removal of the orange barrels, and surprise by the suburbanites on what Euclid Avenue is becoming. Most people, in spite of all our marketing efforts, still don't know about the 668 Euclid Avenue Building rennovation, the grand opening of Cadillac Ranch, or even the unprecedented growth on East 4th Street.

Ari Maron, partner at MRN (developers of East 4th St), told me that one day, Euclid Avenue will be the premier street in Cleveland. That day I was looking at abandoned buildings, panhandlers everywhere, paintings in the windows of abandoned store-fronts, and a dreadful streetscape. A great deal has changed since then and from the looks of it, Ari can probably say, "I told you so" in the near future!