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Cleveland-University Circle- We've got a
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University Circle Information
University Circle is the cultural, educational, and medical center of Greater
Cleveland, and is located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. University Circle
occupies approximately 550 acres (2 km) around the campus of Case Western
Reserve University and the adjacent Wade Park Oval. It borders Cleveland's
Little Italy, home to many private art galleries and restaurants, as well as the
neighborhoods of Hough, Glenville, Buckeye-Shaker, and Fairfax (also known as
Midtown).
University Circle is a major source of employment in the Cleveland area,
currently providing more than 30,000 jobs in a variety of fields. Over 13,000
undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attend area institutions, and
approximately 2.5 million people visit the Circle each year. University Circle
Incorporated, a not-for-profit corporation established in 1957, fulfills many
administrative and quasi-governmental functions for the area, including security
and transportation administration. Overall nearly 50 cultural, medical,
educational, religious, and social service institutions are based in the
University Circle area, the largest of which is Case Western Reserve University.
University Circle houses a large number of allied and independent
institutions, most of which are members of University Circle Incorporated. The
Cleveland Museum of Art, a world-renowned art museum situated in front of Wade
Lagoon, is currently undertaking a massive expansion project that will more then
double its exhibit space. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is located in
the Circle as well. Severance Hall is home to the Cleveland Orchestra, one of
the United States' Big Five orchestras. The Cleveland Botanical Garden includes
a brand new greenhouse offering two ecosystems: Madagascar Desert and Costa Rica
cloud forest. The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Cinematheque, and
Sculpture Center are located in the Circle. Case Medical Center is one of the
nation's premier cancer hospitals and is closely affiliated with Case Western
Reserve University. The Louis Stokes Veteran's Administration Medical Center is
another medical institution in the area. The Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine
is currently located in the Circle, but will soon move to suburban Independence.
The Cleveland Institute of Music with its affiliated Cleveland Music School
Settlement is located here. The Circle is home to a variety of smaller museums
as well, such as The Western Reserve Historical Society and Crawford
Auto-Aviation Museum, and the Children's Museum of Cleveland.
Located nearby are a number of other museums, places of worship, and specialty
health care facilities, including the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Playhouse and
the Health Museum of Cleveland.
There are a large number of future plans for producing growth in the University
Circle area. Case Western Reserve University is involved with a large amount of
planning in the area, including the creation of a large medical and
technological research center, known as the "West Quad", which is to be built on
the campus of the former Mt. Sinai Hospital. Case is additionally working with a
developer (as of yet undetermined) to rebuild the area known as "The Triangle",
an underused retail district near the campus. The Triangle is set to be rebuilt
as the centerpiece of a new University Arts and Retail District, intended to
give Case more of a college town feel. Anchored by the Museum of Contemporary
Art Cleveland (MOCA), which will be moving to the area as part of the project,
the university envisions restaurants, bars, entertainment spots, fashion and
specialty clothing stores, as well as general retail, in addition to student
housing. The current apartment towers of the Triangle development will remain.
It will also be home to the university's bookstore which will sell student and
general merchandise in addition to books. Future plans for the area include
large apartment and condominium towers, and other housing for residents, with
projections of 20,000 people living within the University Circle area.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for an Apartment...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.