CLEVELAND — Some homeowners living in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood are concerned about traffic safety and illegal parking near a new wedding and event center that recently opened on Kenilworth Avenue.
Robert Mihalik has lived on West 15 Street in Tremont for 60 years and showed News 5 video and pictures of drivers making illegal U-turns, parking in fire zones and traffic congestion near The Elliot event center on Sat. Oct. 22.
Mihalik believes the valet service hired by the venue isn't doing enough to manage evening traffic back-ups that are blocking his street, and he hopes the city will do more to help manage traffic.
“I’ve witnessed U-turning, illegal parking," Mihalik said. “U-turning from over there, parking over there, blocking this fire hydrant, blocking my egress to this street. Your lane is closing off right here and then the cars are double parking while the passengers exit and enter their cars. I was beside myself because I didn’t sign up for this, I didn’t anticipate this sort of disarray.”
Lincoln Heights Block Club member Henry Senyak said the traffic is backing up into his neighborhood. Senyak told News 5 that more has to be done to improve parking and traffic flow, and he hopes venue ownership and multiple city departments will get involved to improve parking and get after drivers breaking the law.
“They were parked up, lined all the way to Scranton," Senyak said. "The traffic back and forth between Scranton and West 14 was at standstill. That’s an accident waiting to happen every time one of those young individuals that operate the valet company u-turn. The police should be out here any night they have this. Anybody that’s parking illegally should get ticketed, or ticketed and towed.
“I hope the city takes action — have their staff do the proper investigation into what’s happening here. I hope that it also goes to license and assessments, traffic engineering and public safety with the second district," Senyak added.
News 5 contacted the owner of The Elliot event center and the owner responded immedately. The venue told News 5 it spoke with its valet company on how to improve traffic flow and will add additional "do not block" signage near the venue. The owner said it recently partnered with The Well House to use 60 parking spots at the former Grace Hospital parking lot for larger events, hoping it will have an impact in improving traffic congestion.
The venue owner issued the following statement in response to our story:
I am truly sorry for any inconvenience that was caused to the neighborhood Saturday night. With any new business, there are operational growing pains. I will continue to welcome feedback from the community and work to optimize these operations.
We are excited to continue serving our Tremont and Greater Cleveland community.
Senyak told News 5 that Cleveland's safety director, and the director of building and housing, pledged to look into Tremont neighborhood traffic complaints in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Mihalik had a message for visiting drivers.
"They try to market this neighborhood as a walkable Tremont, a bike-able Tremont and these are all hazards," he said. “Have some respect, come down to the neighborhood and have respect, follow the traffic laws."
