Fog sat on Cleveland Wednesday like it had just finished a 12-hour shift in the salt mine and finally collapsed into the family-room easy chair. I was crowded into an airport terminal with 200 others, shoulder to shoulder, no flights in or out. And not a Cinnabon stand in sight.
And I could not have been happier.
No one was in a hurry to go anywhere. The terminal inside Burke Lakefront Airport wasn鈥檛 a layover spot 鈥� it was the destination for the 鈥漇ound of Ideas Community Tour.鈥� There would be no departures until, like at all of these events, ideas were shared, differences of opinion were aired and the public was heard.
Like potholes, snow plows and the Cleveland Browns鈥� draft, the fate of Burke always gets people talking in this town. And the community tour provided the perfect arena for the community to engage on the topic with decision makers and stakeholders, which was everyone in the room.
Host Stephanie Haney guided a conversation in which Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb made his case for closing Burke, saying Cleveland has a unique opportunity to become a two-waterfront city, river and lake.
Despite limitations on the kinds of buildings that can be stood on 450 acres representing two miles of lakefront, a third of the frontage from Edgewater Park to East 55th Street, closing the airport would offer a rare opportunity to connect Downtown Cleveland to Lake Erie.
We could be more like Chicago.
Ned Parks, president of the Northeast Ohio Pilots Association, countered that closing the airport would be a blow because it is a factor that attracts so many major events and that it鈥檚 an important hub for medical flights, including organ transplants. Plus, the cost of remediating the site, built on landfill, would be too steep. And what about the Cleveland National Air Show? Kim Dell, its executive director, argued Burke is essential to its success.
Scott Skinner, executive director of the nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation, filled in details from the mayor鈥檚 perspective. Much is known about the site. Development can happen.
Cleveland City Councilmember Charles Slife said the whole idea needs a lot more study before he鈥檚 ready to make a call.
The audience lined up to offer their thoughts and ask questions. There was no group-think. Supporters of closing Burke, advocates of keeping Burke open and backers of some sort of compromise all found a place in the conversation.
And that鈥檚 why I was so happy, even without an airport Cinnabon.
Big ideas need light. Discussions need facts. And 精东影业 鈥� the 鈥淪ound of Ideas鈥� team, as well as our broadcast engineers, marketing and development folks and Idealeaders who support the enterprise financially 鈥� provides the light, the facts and the forum for dialogue.
If you missed the tour stop, which is way less stressful than missing a flight, we鈥檝e , where you can see for yourself what was said and join the conversation in the comments.
And be sure to tune in to the 鈥淪ound of Ideas鈥� on Monday, March 9 at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on 89.7 WKSU. It鈥檚 complimentary.
"The Cut" is featured in 精东影业's weekly newsletter, The Frequency Week in Review. To get The Frequency Week in Review, The Daily Frequency or any of our newsletters, sign up on鈥�精东影业's newsletter subscription page.
