Advocates of a possible convention center expansion are threatening the waterfront connector project’s federal and state backing

OpinionCleveland’s long-planned and economically critical waterfront connector has to be the priority: editorialTalk about expanding the county-owned Huntington Convention Center north toward Lake Erie — into the same general area where Cleveland intends to build its land bridge -- threatens to complicate land bridge plans and funding just as the city of Cleveland was preparing to start evaluating potential designers and contractors. (John Pana, cleveland.com)John Pana, cleveland.comBy Editorial Board, cleveland.com and The Plain DealerOn many levels, it’s a bizarre tussle. On one side is a meticulously planned and already funded Cleveland waterfront connector to goose transformation of Cleveland’s waterfront into an enormous city asset. But on the other is the idea that, maybe, because Cuyahoga County might want a larger Huntington Convention Center to put it on a more even par with competitors -- an idea that, at this stage, lacks specifics, funding or timeline – all those plans should be set aside for now because the North Coast Connector location might interfere with any convention center expansion lakeward.Specifically, Cleveland finally stands on the verge of realizing its long-sought goal to open up access to the Lake Erie waterfront by building the North Coast Connector -- already funded and approved in its current plans and ready to be built. But will those seeking a revision to the Connector’s location and plans force construction delays and other changes that could -- and likely would -- derail it entirely by violating prior project specifications and threatening its funding?And, why do advocates of this convention-center-expansion idea seek such changes now when a possible expansion “has no formal proposal, engineering plan, identified financing or established timeline that Cleveland officials have seen,” as cleveland.com’s Hannah Drown reported recently.It’s pretty obvious what should happen: The North Coast Connector should proceed as planned. Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County needs to get its ducks in a row to first determine whether the convention space must grow and -- if so -- to look at different expansion options, map them out with engineering plans and figure out how a cash-strapped county can pay for such an expansion. Otherwise, it’s beyond pie-in-the-sky and actually destructive to suggest the city should walk away from its waterfront connector plans for such hypotheticals.Adding to the confusion are the overlapping roles cleveland.com’s Rich Exner has noted are being played by David Gilbert. He’s CEO of Destination Cleveland, the city’s tourism arm he’s headed since 2011. And he’s also one of nine board members for the Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Development Corp. So in those roles, he’s pushing for a delay to the North Coast Connector land bridge.But he’s also board chair for the city of Cleveland’s nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. that’s overseeing lakefront development, including construction of the land bridge down to the lakefront. Given the obvious conflict of interest these roles involve, Gilbert ideally should step aside from one or more of them, or at a minimum recuse himself entirely from playing any role in this connector-versus-convention-center-expansion discussion on both sides of the question.Still, that said, there’s really no discussion needed here. “We’ve waited 100 years to build a world class lakefront,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb told cleveland.com earlier this month. “I’m not going to squander that opportunity with a pie in the sky project.”Bibb is 100% right.What’s of more concern is that advocates of a possible convention center expansion are threatening the integrity of the waterfront connector project’s federal and state backing and grant funding with their pressure on Cleveland to rethink the plans and location to which the monies are tied.This speculative push to redo the waterfront land bridge planning simply based on the ill-charted future possibility of convention center expansion is an unneeded 11th-hour Hail Mary with the potential to upend the land bridge when it’s on the verge of starting construction.Drown reported Oct. 8 that the city was preparing “to seek qualifications from teams interested in designing and building the North Coast Connector, a project backed by approximately $150 million in state and federal grant awards.” All that money could be threatened if grantors of the funds decide that the community is no longer aligned on the land bridge and is backing off its prior support.That’s the main reason Gilbert, in particular, needs to recuse himself from one or both halves of this discussion, and all the other officials talking up a convention center expansion at the now-planned land bridge location need to look elsewhere to find that space – if, in fact, they determine it’s needed.About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.MORE BY EDITORIAL BOARD CLEVELAND.COM AND THE PLAIN DEALERHave something to say about this topic?* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.* Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this editorial to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com