MayDay

On the Towpath Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park:

Knowing that the weather was going to be good this weekend, I suggested to my partner that we do something "outdoors". Not outdoorsy, because as we all know - I'm not, never have been, and never will be "outdoorsy". But I thought - how about a hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park? Looking at the maps they provide, I thought we could hit the Towpath and venture off onto the Buckeye Trail and it wouldn't be so bad... well, when we got home I plotted our route - turns out we hiked about SEVEN miles :-o http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1339100 Anyway, here are some photos from our death march hike: Pulling into downtown Peninsula, we first stop and fuel up for the hike at the Winking Lizard (hey, two black and golds count as fuel!) The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train ready for departure: The entrance to the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail: Off we go! All kinds of interesting bits of nature to see - a birds' nest: Hard to imagine that this (former lock of the Ohio & Erie Canal) was the infrastructure that made Cleveland boom into a major city: My partner wanted to take a photo of the flowers - not bad! :-) A tunnel underneath an old rail line: Either a crane or a heron - tried to get a pic, but the little bugger got away: Some flora: I have to interject with some fashion commentary. There are shorts out there that are loose-fitting and make jogging enjoyable but are long enough to prevent blinding everyone with your pasty thighs - please consider them. Thank you! "Lonesome Lock" - so called for its isolated location: Some leaves starting to change color - we'll probably be back later in the fall: A portion of the trail is on an elevated boardwalk; something about "sensitive ecosystem": Looking back at the Cuyahoga: Some more flora - Baby's Breath I believe: The marshy Stumpy Basin area: Aflac! The Turnpike bridge looms in the distance: Thought this might look good in b/w: There's that d@mn bird again - got him! Pretty colors! No idea what this is, but it was colorful: Under the bridge... wasn't that a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Gooo Turnpike! Now officially on the Buckeye Trail - a little less groomed than the Towpath but it'll work: *Ahem* - reason #247 not to let the partner hold the camera when nature calls :roll: Back to the trail: The trail leads to a clearing on a hill - lovely view: These paint stripes were how we knew we were in the right place: Now over the Turnpike on a bridge: Pine trees! Grassy knoll? The fungus among us: Once we got closer to Peninsula, the trail was brick paved - pretty cool! Back where we started: And taking the Turnpike back where we belong (downtown just visible in the lower left): Home sweet home - hope you enjoyed!

Yep, and right around the very early 1980s - the collapse of the steel mills along with white flight (and retail) to the 'burbs, along with the weekly mob rub-outs, along with the influx of crack cocaine, and you had the "perfect storm" to wipe out much of the vibrancy of the city. I remember when I was about six years old (in 1978) and my parents took me to downtown Youngstown and while it wasn't Times Square, it was pretty active - we stopped in at Strouss' (renamed Kaufmanns, now Macys), did a little window shopping, and had to decide between a dozen places where we'd eat. That was gone in the span of a few short years.

"Glad to see some new private enterprise (Sky Bank, Chase etc)." Not so much new, just the newest incarnations of merged/acquired banks (Sky used to be Mahoning Bank, Chase was Bank One, etc.).

Then again, it could be an opportunity for City Architecture to directly work with more groundbreaking firms (since they're considering utilizing multiple firms), and thus start producing less conservative designs. I have to imagine at the price point they're going with, not every single buyer would want something ultra-modern.

^Tell me about it... many a night of my teen years were spent there. They've cleaned up downtown a lot - it helped that they reopened Federal Street to traffic through the center of town.

"There are plenty of folks happy to enjoy good beer with food a few notches up from pub grub-" Absolutely, and I'm usually one of them. However, I think there's a limit - it's one thing to have a menu a few notches above pub grub (like The Southside http://www.southsidecleveland.com/ssmenu.htm or Prosperity http://www.prosperitysocialclub.com/menu.html; it's another to try to get someone to have something along the lines of "salmon mousse with vinagrette-drizzle frissee" with beer. See what I mean? :-)

Do you mean the County courthouse on Lakeside, or the Old Federal Building (aka Metzenbaum) on Superior and Public Square?

There are two Tiffany windows in the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Tremont (West 14th and Starkweather).

If you hear of an obscure place with lots of hotties, just be careful...

Sorry - I get emails every now and then, usually people asking about one building or another. One of the biggest misconceptions is that the Rotunda dome is a work of Tiffany studios.

The Cleveland Trust Rotunda is NOT Tiffany! It's Tiffany-style but whoever told you that it was Tiffany is wrong.

Congratulations!!! :clap: Gastropubs are one of the latest buzzwords in the foodie world. Honestly I'd be leery of bringing in too much foo-foo food. I say that because Great Lakes Brewing has tried on and off to bring in chefs who create great food - but who the h#ll wants risotto with salmon mousse with BEER?!? As their chef said "we ended up selling 60K burgers". I'm not saying it can't be done but let's face it - most people want casual (not necessarily crappy bar food) food with beer. If you're going to focus on a great beer list, keep the food simpler - quality, but simple comfort food. If you are the day-to-day operations guy, you'll have a lot more passion for a place that you can relate to, rather than a place that you've developed based on the latest trend - be true to yourself and keep it real. The very name "Motor Row" sounds really cool but not the kind of place that should have an uppity menu. I'd say focus on building the menu around something simple - burgers for example, but offer a few twists (something as simple as offering gouda in addition to the usual cheese suspects) to appease the foo-foo crowd. Heck, how about hot dogs? Offer kobe beef dogs, veggie dogs, toppings of every kind out the wazoo... you're close to Soldier Field for god's sake, run with it!

Your neighbor was hosting a fundraiser - there was a blurb in the "Tipoff" section of the PD.

Perhaps he's proposing such an absurd site so we eventually say "well, I guess the Tower City site ain't so bad"?

That can all go on the Erie Street Cemetery! :-P

""It,s one of the sites we think ought to be considered," said Commissioner Tim Hagan." Suuuure... let's consider it! How about we take the footprint of a comparable facility... say Pittsburgh's convention center and see how it might fit at that site: What the heck - for sh!ts and giggles, how about the Columbus convention center? Commissioner Hagan, as a taxpayer (aka someone who pays your salary), I respectfully ask that you remove your head from your arse when you contemplate site selection. Thank you! :-)

"As you know, there are only a few blocks (Warehouse District and Tower City) where both lines operate. On the most of the route, it is not an issue." As someone who rides the B Line once a week (at minimum), I don't really see a need for differentiating signage. I think the trolley signs are about the brightest and easiest to read on the entire RTA fleet. However, they should always display the "E" or "B" at all times. Now if we could get some of the operators to stop blocking crosswalks...

Off-topic, but to this day whenever I go home for the holidays and mashed potatoes are being served - my dad sculpts a "Devil's Tower" out of them.

5'9" and 200 lbs? I can see why it took four officers to carry him out! He has all that energy to expend, he oughta hit a treadmill! :lol:

"OK, WTF is "cornhole"? Pretty sure this game is NOT pretty popular in the eastern 'burbs (at least within Cuy County)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornhole - trust me, click on the "corntoss" link. Given the connotation of the term "cornhole" (as a verb), imagine my surprise when I learned that it's quite the popular backyard game (a la horseshoes).

And in other media news, from cleveland.com Robin Swoboda welcomed a surprise guest to her morning chatfest last week -- her new station buddy, Stefani Schaefer. The former WEWS Channel 5 anchor is joining "Fox 8 News in the Morning" starting Monday. More at cleveland.com http://blog.cleveland.com/entertainment/2007/09/stefani_schaefer_returns_home.html

"I can't for the life of me figure out why they do it." To hear Connie Schultz describe her colleagues at the PD, "...there are lots of good people here, and most of them care a great deal about the state of this city. It's not exposing the flaws, but ignoring them, that hurts this great town." The problem is that the PD rarely exposes the successes of this great town, and if/when they do, it's always delivered with a backhanded compliment. They don't engage anyone beyond their circle of backslappers (there are plenty of them lurking on this forum but how many actually participate? (KJP being a notable and terrific exception) I truly believe that there are people in the media (not all, but a lot - and many of them at Channel 19 and the PD) who project their personality-disorder/chronic-depression-driven agenda onto their audience. And they wonder why their ratings slip, or their circulation plummets. When you dare suggest that they focus on the positive once in a while, you're accused of wanting to cover up/ignore the city's problems.

^What the h#ll kind of crap photo is that?!?

No, I think he needs to learn "the idea of respect (aka don't annoy the f#ck out of other people in the world)". :-D