CLEVELAND — The Downtown Cleveland Alliance (DCA) 2019 Report, released Thursday afternoon, shows the downtown area ending 2019 strong with plenty more growth to come in 2020.
Employment
DCA says 3,085 jobs were added or retained in 2019, adding to the 106,000 people who currently work downtown.
Downtown Cleveland Alliance Executive Vice President Michael Deemer says he thinks that statistic is a good reason to be optimistic about how downtown will bounce back after the coronavirus outbreak has passed.
“I anticipate that once the Stay at Home orders are lifted, the vast majority of folks are going to come back downtown and be part of the equation,” said Deemer.
Residential
More than 1,000 new residents were added to the growing downtown population in 2019, with more than 1,000 new apartments scheduled to be available during 2020. Deemer says that puts the neighborhood in line to be at 20,000 downtown residents by the end of 2020 with 30,000 residents by the end of 2030.
Micro-Mobility
2019 saw 198,000 rides on scooters or e-bikes since Cleveland’s program launched in August.
Not many are in use right now while pedestrians are generally staying at home. Deemer says he thinks when the virus has passed, micro mobility options will become a big part of how people live, work, and play downtown while also starting other important discussions.
“[Micro mobility options have] started a conversation about improving pedestrian and bike infrastructure in downtown so that folks feel safer using them, that they don’t feel like they need to go on the sidewalks, which is not what they’re supposed to be doing.” said Deemer. “I think a lot of folks end up doing that because they don’t feel safe otherwise.”
You can find a the full report here.
