AMN

It will stimulate the economy in that it will employ some folks to do the work, pay suppliers for the materials, etc., etc., etc. I agree that mentioning the elimination of weekend service, if as a scare tactic, is terrible. If it's a realistic option on the table, then I guess I'll have to start thinking about what kind of car I want and making sure I can find the payroll forms to stop my monthly transit pass purchase, since a void of service for a day would make car-free not work for me.

Did Calabrese seriously just float cutting weekend service systemwide? I know every budget at every level is struggling to balance right now, but we need a new revenue source. The state needs to step up.

I know CityWheels has been frozen in the credit crisis, but I hope expansion does eventually happen. I currently use the University Circle location...and I live in TREMONT! (And work downtown.) And, occasionally, it's still worth it. It is what has made car-free possible. (As a benefit to University Circle, it's also made me realize how accessible that neighborhood actually is.) As much as I'd love a Tremont spot, I realize that's probably not realistic density-wise. However, a spot near Tower City (Where most buses go in our hub-based system) would be ever-so useful.

You guys are fast. While I love rail, I'd be more satisfied with more frequent/later bus service to more neighborhoods in the city. But we all have our wishes.

http://www.riderta.com/park-n-ride_loc_Westlake.asp

As someone who is car-free, standing alone at bus stops late at night has to happen sometimes unless I want to not go out late at night. I'll hopefully be able to catch a ride home, but I always plan like I won't be able to. Because...there's always the possibility it doesn't happen. I'm a guy. I agree about the wait being the most dangerous part...the only other part that's a little nerve racking being the walk. I'm somewhat imposing, but I've been mugged at gunpoint before (not in Cleveland, in DC), so I know that doesn't necessarily protect me. Thank you...this was helpful, especially because you're a resident there. Just to be clear: I certainly don't mean to knock the neighborhood. I really like the Waterloo arts district and part of the reason I'm trying to figure out public transit is because I like going there. If it was a one-time thing, I'd just take CityWheels and be done with it. But I want to do it often. I had the same fear in the Gordon Arts District the first time I went there, but now I'm totally comfortable over there. It's more the unknown I'm concerned about, since I don't know the place as a pedestrian only as a driver. I would take the 37 there, but I probably wouldn't be ready to leave until the 37 has stopped running, so I'd be relying on the 39. (11:30ish) Also, I've chatted up the cops in the former 6th before (when my buddy's car got smashed in after a show at the Beachland). A couple of beat cops are the ones who told me about muggings that occur after concerts on the side streets, which is why I am a tad hesitant. Thanks for the input (and certainly I welcome any more). I'll think it through. I should be watching the Cavs tonight, but a cute girl asked if I wanted to meet her up at the concert, and that's hard to say no to.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. If there's a better place, moderators, please move it. I'm thinking about heading to the Beachland tonight for a show. I've never taken public transit there before. It looks like the bus stop is in the same place I always made sure not to park due to people getting mugged after concerts, but maybe I'm misremembering. I'm not worried about the trip there, it's the trip back I'm concerned about. Anyone know Collinwood well enough to know if it's a bad idea to be standing at 156th and Grovewood late at night waiting for a bus? (and walking to Grovewood from waterloo?)

I would be up for an Old Brooklyn Happy Hour next time.

And by the way: Let's give a little perspective. It's one paragraph buried on a jump page. (Only 10 percent of readers who start a story jump inside.) Asking for a public apology is a tad dramatic. Asking for a correction if there is a fact error is totally reasonable.

If this is the case, that leaves the following people to blame: Joe's editor The Editor-In-Chief Since Joe hasn't answered my email, who do you think or how do you think that information was "inserted" into the article/story? I know nothing more than anyone else does here. Heck, maybe he did write it. In any case, his byline is on it so he takes the heat regardless. I do know that when you work at a newspaper, every story goes through many, many hands. There's more than one editor that reads every story, plus copy editors. An unclear sentence can easily be "clarified' by another hand, only to insert a fact error. I've had very few corrections in my career, and while some were totally my-fault bonehead mistakes, quite a few were inserted by a well-meaning editor. (And those, in some cases, can be attributed to me for not writing clearly or concisely at the outset.)

I'd be very surprised if those were Joe's words. He lives in the city, in a kind of rough neighborhood, and I've always found his reporting to be thorough and accurate. He's someone I respect. I don't know him well, and certainly I know nothing about the reporting or writing of this story, but I was surprised to read that. A word of advice: No letters that I've seen posted here point out the fact error. I would write a direct letter concisely explaining why the sentence is inaccurate with actual cited figures. Any respectable journalist, when confronted with a verifiable fact error, will lobby his editors for a correction to be run as a matter of credibility. Put the passion in paragraph two.

Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer are technically separate companies, but they are both owned by the same company (Advance Publications). It's one of the backwards ways the Newhouses set up their company. In New Jersey, up through 2000, the photo staff was a separate company. Any time they needed a photo, the editors called that company to set up a shot. It was ridiculous. Same deal with their Web site.

A few weeks ago when Goldberg spoke at an SPJ event, she mentioned the PD was in contract negotiations with Amazon to provide the PD via Kindle. I know it's a niche product right now (and one I happen to own), but I think a cheaper version of the kindle a few device generations with color and touch screen could be a serious new delivery model. I love reading my Washington Post every morning on it now (delivered to the device wirelessly each morning). Right now, you're just paying subscription cost. Once a device is a tad larger, maybe magazine size, with color and video possibilities, I could see ad revenue working out fine in a device like this. I don't think it will be the ONLY delivery option, but I think it could certainly help.

The main reason that a non-print newspaper hasn't worked and it's not really considered an option? Advertising rates are still ten cents on the dollar online. The massive staffs (which are too small to cover what they should be covering) can't be supported. As far as charging for online subscriptions: Beyond the Wall Street Journal, no newspaper has been successful gaining a real subscriber base that way. One thing many people don't like to admit (especially us in the industry) is that for all the noble goals and ideals we have, more people bought the paper to see sports scores, get the weather, do the crossword and check out the funnies than to read the stories. Once all that other stuff became ubiquitous, part of the model fell out right there. Then newspapers gave away all their stories for free online. And they undercut their credibility by continuing to lay off good reporters while cheaper, crappier, younger journalists take over. Institutional knowledge fades. Ethics get bent more and more and more as they try to come up with some kind of advertising model to fix the damn thing. And we wind up where we are today. A crappy paper and no real alternative for solid news.

By the way, I will be a little late since I don't finish work until 5:30. Probably 6ish.

I'll be drinking anyway. It might as well be with you guys.

I always hated driving anyway. It's stressful and expensive.

Works for me so long as it's PT-accessible.

I sold my car on Saturday. I re-upped with City Wheels, and I'm going to give car-free living a serious try. The only reasons I need a car are very occasional trips for work (I try to cover things in the city anyway) and visits to my folks in Mentor. Hopefully my brother will cart me along to some of those — he lives in Lakewood. None of the nervousness of my initial one-month experiment is back. That is probably, in part, due to knowing a lot more about public transit and being a regular user of it for two years. Some of it probably has to do with City Wheels' advantage of not having a gap in car insurance, so I can try this as long as I want without real penalty. WOO! I'm pumped!

This development can help provide a true connection to the lake from downtown, right? If I'm not mistaken, one of the advantages of this choice was it would allow pedestrian access across what is now train tracks, over to the Rock Hall, Science Center, Browns Stadium, etc.

Are there any other for-sures? I'm hoping not to sit there crying into my beer alone. I do that on Tuesdays, not Thursdays.

If anyone is planning on taking public transit, you can take the 81 (which runs 24 hours) or the 23. Directions on maps.google.com (select travel by public transit) or, of course, on www.gcrta.org. And if you have trouble figuring out the directions, feel free to post and ask questions.

Posting in such haste! Don't forget to dot your i's and cross your l's before hitting post! Wrocław.

Katowice, Poland?

Gdańsk, Poland?