West 29th Street in Ohio City could soon become a pedestrian street

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – West 29th Street in Hingetown could soon become a pedestrian street, shutting down to cars and other vehicles.

West 29th is home to some of Cleveland’s favorite local businesses. From The Roaming Biscuit, Larder, Saucey Brew Works, and Verbena.

It is a street that sees a lot of traffic, but that could quickly change.

Joyce Huang, the Director for Cleveland’s City Planning Commission says they recently received a grant for $100,000 to make West 29th an open street.

“The money that is coming in is to provide us with the resources to study and to model it and to test it,” says Huang.

This means that West 29th Street would be completely closed off to cars, allowing people to only walk or bike through the neighborhood.

“The idea that we really want to explore is how can we do an open street concept that will really invite kids and families and making it sort of a play space for our younger Clevelanders,” says Huang.

Dave Hausman, who works at Larder Delicatessen and Bakery, says he thinks this is a great idea because it would give people more space to walk around.

“It is a tight space on the street, so I think it will really help bring people and make it more walk able,” says Hausman.

Molly Cheraso, the Owner of Verbena Free Spirited says she was really excited when she heard about the plan to make West 29th a pedestrian street.

“I think it will help bring people and families to the neighborhood and that they will stick around and visit all the different small businesses in the area,” says Cheraso.

Cheraso says she thinks at the end of the day it will be good for the local businesses.

“Our space here is really small, so I could definitely use the additional space to have more tables and chairs outside. I think it will just make the whole place more walkable,” says Cheraso.

Loren Naji who frequents the area and likes to stop by Rising Star Coffee says he thinks this is a good idea, but has one concern: The parking.

“I don’t know where they are going to put all the cars. We are going to have to invent a new parking system,” says Naji.

The city of Cleveland says they are still in the early planning stages for this project, but they hope to have it complete by the end of the year.

“With the Project for Public Spaces’ Community Placemaking Grant in 2024, these two blocks will be transformed into a safe space for families and children to gather and play. As one of the few open public spaces in the neighborhood, this new public space would allow for greater informal interaction between neighbors, greater safety and protection from car traffic, more robust gathering space for the community to patronize local retail, and the opportunity to increase the tree canopy in a formerly redlined neighborhood that still suffers from a generational lack of trees and greenspace.”

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