Abstract
Paul Biber sheds expertise and light on the business and entertainment industry in Cleveland. Barber details the challenges to Cleveland's entertainment districts and the effects of short-sightedness after the 1960s. Finally, Biber discusses plans to improve the city's future.
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Interviewee
Biber, Paul (interviewee)
Interviewer
Hons, Justin (interviewer); Yanoshik-Wing, Emma (interviewer)
Project
Ingenuity Fest
Date
7-14-2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
16 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Paul Biber Interview, 14 July 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 905002.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/284
Transcript
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:01] Okay, thanks for stopping in.
Paul Biber [00:00:05] Just fine.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:07] Could you tell me your name? And are you from Cleveland originally?
Paul Biber [00:00:12] No, my name is Paul Biber. No, I’m from Lorain originally and just, you know, came into town for ball games and Christmas and stuff like that when I was a kid.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:22] What was your first memory of coming down?
Paul Biber [00:00:25] Well, the first one is Christmas, when the square and all the buildings got lit up in the early through the mid-’50s.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:37] Just what are some of the- What are some of the things when you would come down to- Would you just walk around? Would you go into the shops? What are some of the-
Paul Biber [00:00:45] Well, you’d go into all the department stores and then all the little stores as well. But, I mean, you’re just blown away. One, there was lots and lots of traffic. I mean, lot of people walking around and had the electric trolleys at that time that, you know, got people around downtown. But the lighting really from square to square was pretty amazing. I mean, for a little kid, it was pretty dazzling and pretty impressive.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:01:11] How long would you say you would come down for Christmas?
Paul Biber [00:01:15] From as long as I can remember until I was, oh, probably 10 or 12. And the amazing thing is it seemed like it just died all at once. It seemed like it was really like always. And then one year it was a little less, and then the next year it was gone. It was a huge transformation in a very short period of time.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:01:37] Do you have any theories about what that transformation.
Paul Biber [00:01:41] Not really. You know, I mean, it’s just suburbanization, urban sprawl. People just started moving out. I mean, you just. You look at the architecture from that period and you kind of say, what were people thinking? The justice center, the Illuminating Company building, a few others, like, ooh, ugly by comparison to what was already there. You know, this beautiful May Company building across the street, which is now empty.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:02:09] What do you think will become of the May Company building? These really.
Paul Biber [00:02:13] I don’t know. It’s- You know, it’s a big, huge building, and the expenses of rehabbing it and getting it up and running are probably of such a nature that it would have to be some major corporate endeavor. And there doesn’t seem to be a lot of that going on. I mean, what seems to be going on in Cleveland is what you see out here with Ingenuity. It’s just lots of people doing small things and trying to regenerate it from the ground up.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:02:41] What brought you to ingenuity today?
Paul Biber [00:02:44] Well, I’ve had art galleries all over downtown since the early ’70s. And we were just over in the Colonial Arcade and just relocated to the Tower Press Building. So we’ve been part of this sort of thing for a long time.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:03:05] Where were some of your other art galleries? You mentioned the Colonial Arcade and now in the Tower Press?
Paul Biber [00:03:10] Well, we were in the Powerhouse. We were on the third floor of the Powerhouse. We were Art at the Powerhouse at that time. And then I had another wonderful building right across the street from what is now Hooters, which is what at that time was DePuey’s, which is now a parking lot, which is what has happened to so many of our buildings. It was in the old Cleveland Flux Factory and that was Western Reserve Art at that time.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:03:35] Do you see your moves as being a part of maybe a larger migration or movement of artists and galleries throughout the city?
Paul Biber [00:03:44] Well, it’s almost stereotypical. Artists and galleries go into marginal areas when they become profitable. You can’t afford to stay and you have to move on. So personally, I’m looking to buy a building somewhere.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:03:56] How long have you been in the Tower Press Building?
Paul Biber [00:03:58] Just since January, February.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:04:02] I was kind of shocked walking through last week through the Colonial Arcade. And the last time I was in there, it was definitely. There were a lot more galleries.
Paul Biber [00:04:10] Well, it was a project. Supposedly a big tenant was coming into the old Indigo space. And then the whole thing was. It was a sports bar and it was supposed to be all sports related businesses. Kind of a Dave and Buster’s plus. But I guess they’re still waiting for the final investors to come forward with the cash to do it.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:04:35] Now, growing up in Lorain, where do you live now?
Paul Biber [00:04:40] In Sheffield Lake, about a half hour away. Used to take an hour. The big change is 90. You can get here in a half hour now.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:04:51] Was there ever coming in from Lorain or when you were younger, would you always come in with the cop, take a car?
Paul Biber [00:04:57] No, the bus. Almost always the bus. The Cleveland-Lorain highway coach. And you went through almost, you know, Avon, Westlake. You didn’t really see city until you got to Rocky River. It was all vineyards and farms. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, the changes. Avon has changed so fast in the last five years. It’s amazing.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:05:23] Now having the art galleries. Do you have- Do you have stuff set up today at Ingenuity?
Paul Biber [00:05:30] Right. Red Dot is just- The Red Dot project is right here. And then we did all the artwork out here as well in the symposium downstairs.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:05:39] Were you here last year?
Paul Biber [00:05:41] Well, we were in the Colonial Arcade and we benefited tremendously from Ingenuity. We had two of our biggest days last year. Friday and not Friday, Saturday and Sunday were our two best days of the year. Sunday was mind-boggling. Not only were there lots of people, there were just people coming in, buying in a lot of out-of-town traffic. So Ingenuity is just- Somebody said last night, we should do this every weekend.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:06:06] What are some of the other festivals or kind of community gatherings in Cleveland that you either attend as a visitor or involved?
Paul Biber [00:06:18] Well, with the retail space, you don’t get out and do those things as much. But when you look at them, they’re starting to be more and more on the outskirts. The Boston Mills Arts Festival, I mean, the Lakewood Arts Festival is close to Cleveland, but it’s still outside the city of Cleveland. There’s not a lot. It would seem to me that this sort of thing would be really, if not every weekend, certainly once a month with maybe a slight variation on theme, but the same idea of highlighting small business opportunities and just all the things that are available here in Cleveland for entertainment, et cetera.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:06:58] Is the Tower Press Building- I don’t really know much about it. Are there several galleries in there?
Paul Biber [00:07:05] No, it’s mostly artists, live-work spaces. There’s Artefino, which is a coffee shop gallery. It’s not really a true gallery, but there’s art and jewelry in there. The Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture has their main offices there and there are a few other tenants. I think it’s almost completely filled and it’s a great job of rehabilitation.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:07:29] Has there been any discussion of having open studios there with the gallery in connection with the gallery?
Paul Biber [00:07:38] Yeah, there are talks about that kind of stuff. It hasn’t been organized. And then you have all kinds of building security issues as well. So if I were to guess, I would say something along those lines would help happen in that neighborhood in the next few years, but takes a lot of time and effort and money. I mean, you need the grants to make it happen.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:08:03] Can you talk a little bit about the changes that you’ve seen in Cleveland perhaps in the more recent years? This project is a part of the Euclid Corridor RTA.
Paul Biber [00:08:19] Yeah. Well, obviously this neighborhood, Gateway, has been a big change. The two stadiums, I mean the arena and the stadium, have generated all kinds of new businesses spun off of that. The one that’s surprising, that hasn’t though, is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You would think there would have been more spinoff businesses that would have come off of that. I just was looking at the Sunday Times last week and the fourth, there are hotels that are rock and roll themed hotels, none of which are in Cleveland, it’s kind of shocking in a way, that sort of spinoff business as well, souvenir memorabilia-type places. About the only place that really is directly tied to it is, would be Cooperstown, you know, Alice Cooper’s place.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:09:07] Baseball means rock and roll.
Paul Biber [00:09:09] Yeah, well, true enough, but I mean, he’s a recognizable rock and roll figure. That’s one thing that has me mystified why more of that sort of thing hasn’t sprung up. The new developments in Pittsburgh and Columbus have, I think even taken more of an advantage. Pittsburgh, the restaurants are actually right in the stadium and they’re open 365 days a year. And the hotels are located, new hotels right in between the two stadiums. And Columbus did much the same thing with their convention center. And the businesses that would be logical spinoffs were incorporated almost, it seems like, into the plan.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:09:52] Do you see that as being something that Cleveland would be able to do?
Paul Biber [00:09:56] One would hope. I mean, it doesn’t seem like it could be that hard. You know, these things are all difficult. They all take money, time, planning. But it would be something you would, one would think would be something you could do, you know. And then, you know, as I said, things changed drastically through the ’60s. And I think the downtown and really was really dead there through the late ’60s and early ’70s. And then all of a sudden the Flats, from a very slow start, really exploded through the ’70s and the early ’80s. And the strange thing that happened there is it never developed that residential retail mix. It just went overwhelmingly bar, restaurant. And the Warehouse District, which came later, seems to have kind of supplanted it as a place for people to go out. And I mean, those places are, you know, adult playgrounds. I mean, the Warehouse District is a very nice place for entertainment, food, etc.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:11:01] Where in I guess the buildup of the Flats, like the timeline, when was your gallery located down there?
Paul Biber [00:11:10] It was there. Oh, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84. Right in through there.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:11:15] Was that during kind of the rise?
Paul Biber [00:11:17] Right. Yeah, it was right at the height of it. And there were about five or six other little retail establishments down there. There was a Polish store with Polish antiques. There was an Irish store. There was a big brass place. There were a couple antique dealers. And we thought that was a real nice fit with our gallery. I had a partner at that time and it was right when Sammy’s opened up, when Sammy’s was the place to go. And you know, it just seemed like it would go more in that direction, but it really went the other way. It went more to the lower-end, bar, bar, bar kind of thing. Easy, quick, fast money. And then, you know, that kind of fizzled.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:12:00] What was Sammy’s like? I only know it from the sign.
Paul Biber [00:12:03] Oh, it was- It’s a beautiful place. It’s one of the most beautiful views. If you go up to the top floor, you know, big, exposed, you know, wooden beams and lovely decoration. Just the best food in town, but just spectacular view out over the river in that way. And it was just a very elegant, wonderful place. And very shortly after that, the Watermark opened up as well, which was not quite as upscale as Sammy’s, but which is a fine, fine place with a great dock. And then, as I said, from there on it seemed to go in the other direction, the shot-and-a-beer direction, if you will. Then the more upscaled direction that the Warehouse District has gone. I mean, there’s, you know, you can get- You could eat a great meal at a great restaurant every day, I swear, for a month, and never leave downtown.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:12:52] How do you feel about some of the plans for the fFats now that they’re discussing in terms of introducing the residential?
Paul Biber [00:13:00] Yeah, one can only hope. I mean, that would seem to be. It seems pretty clear that what’s going to make it more vibrant is more residents, and that seems to be part of it. I think the other thing that hasn’t been explored is making Cleveland State more of a residential campus than a commuter campus, I think building more dorms there. And it’s not that students are going to spend so much, but they are going to spend some. It’s just they bring down families, they create an energy, et cetera. And I think that’s something that hasn’t been, at least to my knowledge, studied all that much. And one of the great models would be Northeastern in Boston. That was a commuter school for the longest time. And they had a president about 10 years ago that gave, came in and said, no, we’re going to make this a residential campus. And it’s totally changed the atmosphere of an urban university. Cleveland State. I mean, that’s something that could- Those two projects, Cleveland State dormitory resident students and those projects down in the- Not only in the Flats, but there’s one supposedly going to happen near the Galleria as well.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:14:15] Just to kind of wrap up, when you have people in from out of town and you’re going to be bringing them into Cleveland, where do you take them?
Paul Biber [00:14:22] Well, I would take them probably to Johnny’s on West Sixth and then to the Velvet Tango Room for after-dinner drinks, and then maybe, you know, before that, do theater. The one thing that is not so good downtown, you can’t really find, you know, a movie. You know, Tower City is not as accessible as it could be for a movie. It’s like a hike to get there. So, other than that, though, you can, you know, Playhouse Square is great. You can do a play. You can do- Severance isn’t that far away. You can do the orchestra, ballet, all kinds of things.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:00] Did you ever hit the Cleveland Film Festival?
Paul Biber [00:15:05] Yeah. Yes. That’s great. And that is great having it at Tower City.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:12] Are there any- Just as we wrap up, are there any other kind of interesting stories about life in Cleveland that you want to share? Something funny or memorable or just-
Paul Biber [00:15:23] Yeah, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head or anything that I can repeat publicly. [laughs]
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:30] Well, that’s tempting. So, yeah.
Paul Biber [00:15:36] Okay, great.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:37] Thank you very much.
Paul Biber [00:15:38] You know, another guy that would have great- [recording ends abruptly]
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