Idea for Saving an Aging Shopping Center: Remove Cut-Through Car Traffic

Steven Litt updates the ongoing developments with the plan to remake Shaker Square in Cleveland, a "beloved but badly gaining 1920s-era shopping center."

The latest plan for Shaker Square includes a proposal to close Shaker Boulevard to automobile traffic through the site.

"Removing the boulevard is 'the only way to really transform the square,’' said Mary Margaret Jones, a senior principal at Hargreaves Associates, a national landscape firm leading the design." As Litt notes, transit would still cut through the site. "But removing the east- and westbound lanes of Shaker boulevard from either side of the tracks would create room for more landscaping and outdoor events."

While the street closure has support from planners, designers, and engineers working on the plan, the reception from the public at a recent round of public meetings was more ambivalent.