Public Square

Impressive green space in the middle of downtown Cleveland. Even in the warmer weather, I was not troubled by any of the usual homeless or underemployed that would be expected in such a place. I can see how this would be a great spot for an open air concert, but this weekend it was simply open and clean. Awesome.
With statues and flags and high rise buildings all around, it’s a really great spot.

Beautiful area in the center of Cleveland. Yes, there are bums, drunks, and other urban unsavories, but it’s a part of living in the city and it adds character. My first time in the square, the cops were busting up a drug deal in one quandrant while I observed someone carrying their friend who was ODing in another. That said, there is an imposing statue and monument, as well as live music, food trucks, and a farmers market in the summer. Go enjoy it now, because it won’t be the same after they tear it up and remodel it for the RNC.

Public Square is rather… public. It’s a bustle of cars and buses mostly. It’s a central location (central by force, western by geography) where you can get buses, trains and the Healthline — all of which terminate here. I’m not really sure what aspects or rubric this review/​rating should be based on. The mayor of Cleveland has indicated his low rating of the space with his comments on desiring change for the area (perhaps closing it to traffic). Occasionally the square is closed to traffic — for the holiday tree lighting or the 4^th July orchestra concert to name a couple examples. The area, more rectangular in shape actually, has improved with the opening of the casino — if you count improvement as having more occupied doors along the square. I wouldn’t really call it a park and it is far from a peaceful place to relax, but it is a busy and ‘central’ and overall safe area of town. It is the space over which the streets change in number from E to W. It is home to several good restaurants and is the space that must be crossed to walk from the increasingly popular E4th Street to the decreasingly popular Warehouse District. If you are looking for a park to eat your lunch in or some similiar activity I suppose you could sit on the edge of a cement planter — or you might try the newly created area in the NineTwelve District (formerly the Financial District) called Perk Plaza at Chester and E 12^th Street.

The Public Square. Doesn’t that just get you all misty, picturing a Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover, perhaps an earnest man delivering a speech on a real soap box to a crowd of adoring fellow Midwesterners, perhaps from a gazebo, hat in hand, church spire in the background?
Yeah, it’s not like that. At all. (Except perhaps the Old Stone Church spire part.)
What it is like is a grittier version of that. Just yesterday I passed by the north-​west quadrant (the «square» is actually four, distinct city blocks) and saw, and I’m not fabricating any of this, a bunch of executives playing bean-​bag toss. Okay, around these parts people, with absolutely no irony, call this game «cornhole.» When I was growing up, if someone asked, «Hey, feel like some cornhole, downtown, after lunch?» that feller would end up with a bloody nose. Or a dozen roses, depending.
Now, the curiouser part of this whole tableaux was that, while the executives and executrix were cornholing the afternoon away on the raised, center greensward of the park under the adoring gaze of the Tom L. Johnson statue, the regular denizens of that park were still holding their positions on the outer edges, perhaps engaged in amateur pharmaceutical sales, perhaps just waiting for their luck to change. I pointed this out to a few of my colleagues, and was met with shrugs, as if to say, «Forget it Jake… it’s Public Square.»
The block on the south-​east corner is home to the marvelous and wonderful Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. (I’ll try to post a separate review. I love it. Honestly.)
Now that there’s a casino just south of the Square both security and cleanliness have become a priority, and you can’t walk a half block without seeing some type of cop, constable, gendarme, janitor, welcoming committee, cuspidor attendant, all of them smiling. Get that? Smiling. I’m not sure I’d really want to hang around after hours; it ain’t THAT great, yet, but it sure is improved, cleaner, safer and cornholier than thou.
«The Greek agora, however, was different in one crucial respect, a difference that highlights a momentous development in modern life. It was surrounded by civic buildings and temples; it served as the daily centre not only of commerce, but also of religious, political, judicial, and indeed general social life. To be in public in ancient Athens meant to be a citizen, and likely enough to be tossing a bean-​laden bag.»
– John Carroll

Had a nice time at the Carlos Jones free concert. Dont really come down theer for anything else.

Used to skate here 20 years ago almost every night. The northwest corner was our spot for sure! I miss the wafting smell of bum piss and junkies shooting up in the bushes. They used to have a fun ice rink at Christmas time… dont know what happened to that. Still a good place to people watch but now its mostly cabbies and freaks going to the casino.

Wow, I can’t belive all of the positive reviews. I would love Public Square if I didn’t live downtown and drive by it everyday. Over the course of time I have seen everything from fights, drug deals, and people going to the bathroom. Not just number one either. The city will do NOTHING to clean this area up.
The proof Cleveland doesn’t care anymore shows with the relocation of the ice rink in the winter. This used to be a staple that brought thousands downtown each year. City officials understand that Public Square is not safe and have moved the rink to the UH area. Walking from West 6^th to East 4^th one night I had 7 bums hassle me for me.
Be careful walking through this area at night. It is the home to many homeless and desperate people.

A very under appreciated park located right in the heart of downtown CLE. I think that most of us think of it as that place where you wait for the RTA, but its a whole lot more. I wouldn’t exactly use it as a spot to have a pic-​nic, but it’s a nice bit of green space amongst all the concrete surrounding it.
The soldiers and sailors monument is quite nice, too.

it’s not the best tourist attraction, but also live in the city of cleveland. Most of the year it’s kind of dull. Then again it reflects the state of the city. Night time watch out for the craziness of the drunks and weirdos.