Much of the neighborhood surrounding the empty CVS off West 100th St. and Madison Ave. has been upset about the deteriorating condition of the site and plans debated in recent years to build a gas station on the site. Nikki Hudson was one of the most outspoken residents.
Since the building emptied in 2022, Hudson, a mother-of-two living blocks east of the building, had led a grassroots effort to have the vacant lot converted into something beneficial for the neighborhood, and against Shaker Madison’s intention to construct a True North gas station, along with a pizza shop and bank, on the land.
The plot has become a magnet for drug use and vandalism in Cudell, neighbors said.
In 2024, Ward 11 Councilman Danny Kelly expressed support for the gas station plan. He backed Shaker Madison’s application for a zoning variance to permit it despite local opposition.
It’s likely one of the reasons that Kelly, if current results hold after a recount by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, lost his race against challenger Tanmay Shah.
Meanwhile, in the years since CVS decamped, Hudson ran and won her own race to join City Council come January.
Which means that Hudson, a self-titled progressive Democrat who’s been a Cudell resident with her husband for 23 years, will have new legislative influence and voting power over the matter. Hudson’s longtime urge to make the west side truly family-friendly is about to gain a huge power boost.
The future of the CVS site is a good test case for that new power and agenda. Especially as Shaker Madison’s desire to build the True North or other stores plays out in ongoing legal battles with Cleveland’s Law Department.
“To have another store in whatever its form, a gas station or a carryout-type store selling alcohol, presumably cigarettes, vapes, you know, things of that nature,” Hudson said, “so close in proximity to where children walk and play is, it’s an issue for me.”
A gas station is not, she said, “the right fit for that corner.”
In an interview, Hudson told Scene her main priorities are to match what neighbors urged for her to fight for when she door knocked—building more speed tables, planting more trees, funding community gardens, forming block clubs and just trying to make housing in Ward 11 at least an inch more affordable.
And, at the very least, more liveable.
Which, in Shaker Madison’s point of view, is what their proposal could do. At a meeting of the City Landmarks Commission on October 9, Carleton Moore, an architect working for Shaker Madison, laid out plans for what the CVS building could look like. Five storefronts, he showed, would be rented out. (He didn’t mention any gas pumps.)
“And all of this graffiti that’s been sprayed on the building,” he said, “that will be removed.”
Three days before, on Oct. 6, Joseph Russo, a lawyer for Shaker Madison, filed a brief in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas alleging that the Board of Zoning Appeals decision to deny a variance was “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.” The building as is, he argued, is “ill-suited” for the site’s current zoning—Pedestrian Retail Overlay—and is “entitled to receive a use variance.”
Attorneys for the city’s Law Department argued that Shaker Madison’s original claim that not allowing it to build the gas station was “economically discriminating” was an unworthy argument.
“The mere fact that one’s property can be put to a more profitable use does not in itself establish a hardship justifying a variance as long as other alternatives are available,” court documents read.
On Thursday, the building itself carried a spattering of graffiti and window writings. Piles of debris have formed near the dumpster out back. A mattress sat behind a concrete wall.
“I’ve definitely seen a few unsavory characters,” Syd Dante, who lives across the street on West 100th, told Scene at her door. A vacancy is “probably not the best thing to have.”
As for a gas station? “We need foot traffic,” she said. “I mean, this is a residential area.”
A few doors down was William, who moved into his home on West 100th about a month ago. “My sister actually hears screaming in the morning: ‘Please no! Please no!’” he told Scene. “It’s peaceful here otherwise.”
Tanmay Shah echoed the need for a purposeful rehab of 10022 Madison, which abuts the new Ward 12.
“I am committed to making sure we prioritize affordable housing and affordable groceries when it comes to development,” he told Scene. “I believe we can bring a grocery store there and would work towards that.”
Earlier this year, the city had marked the CVS site as a possible location where a replacement for Fire Station 23, a building constructed in 1958, a few blocks east on Madison. Danny Kelly, the incumbent who also supported a gas station, told Scene last year the move would be a “win-win.”
Hudson said anything would be better than a gas station or convenience store.
“It’s unfortunate that some people operate like that with money at the forefront of all of their decisions. So I tend to think more about what’s long term good,” she said. “And I think it’s always better to be thoughtful and patient and, you know, look for something that is going to have a long term lasting benefit to the neighborhood rather than just short term filling the space.”
Being what exactly?
“I want the fire station,” Hudson said. “I still want the fire station.”
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