University Circle
University Circle is the cultural and educational capital of the City of Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland region, located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. University Circle occupies approximately 550 acres (2 km²) 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 (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. The CircleLink shuttle service (colloquially known as the 'greenie') provides free public transportation within University Circle.
Member institutions
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
- Cleveland Museum of Natural History
- Severance Hall, home to the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the United States' Big Five orchestras
- Cleveland Botanical Garden
- The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Cinematheque, and Sculpture Center
- University Hospitals of Cleveland
- The Louis Stokes Veteran's Administration Medical Center
- The Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine
- The Cleveland Institute of Music with its affiliated Cleveland Music School Settlement
- The Children's Museum of Cleveland
- The Western Reserve Historical Society and Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum
Located nearby are a number of other museums, places of worship, and specialty health care facilities, including:
UPtown Initiative
In the spring of 2006, Charter One Bank announced its $150,000,000 "UPtown Initiative". The UPtown Initiative will earmark $100 million in funding for economic development, including financing for the large amount of research, medicine, and technology industries in the area. This funding will be used to create jobs and spur further investment in the circle and areas around it. The other $50 million in funds will be used to upgrade, renovate, and build new housing in the Circle and surrounding neighborhoods, making city living a viable for choice for the thousands of people employed at the present, as well as create new choices for the thousands of new jobs expected to be created in the area. Portions of the funding are earmarked for local retail and other amenities of a successful urban district, creating new hope that Cleveland will be able to fully capitalize on the Circle as a catalyst for city and regional growth.