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I hope these transplants are bringing jobs with them. If all they're doing is jacking up home prices and rents, that's a net loss for the community.

The WFL is about the worst example of rail transit I have seen, on par with Detroit's People Mover. And I would agree that since this area is already flanked by existing rail stations, it probably doesn't need one... although it's never too early to start thinking about a new Parma-bound line where this might be the first stop. We've needed that for ages. I don't like the name either; Thunderbird is what you buy when they run out of Mad Dog.

I agree, we shouldn't be adding parks on streets like West 25th. And it's hard to believe the ground is that unstable if we aren't evacuating those two big high-rises. But whatever we do with the east side, that Lutheran parking lot ruins the west side of 25th anyway.

There's no way to know (or even guess) that at this early stage. Right. If the population determination is premature, then so are transit options. This logic doesn't begin to make sense when we're talking about the middle of a major city. There's population all around. And it's not like the early-stage planning wouldn't include roads, so why shouldn't it include everything else? That's the whole point of planning.

I love it. Aspiration like this is what we need more of.

This sounds like a bad translation from Chinese.

The "streetscape" money would have been better spent renovating these buildings. I'm not sure the folks in charge understand what a streetscape really is.

KJP once posted a plan to eliminate that interchange mess by re-routing 77 straight north to the shoreway. It's crazy they didn't do it like that to begin with.

The Pittsburgh mayor comes off very well in that article. Can't wait till we can join in on that fun. As to the meat of it, I strongly agree that our region should pursue every opportunity in modern manufacturing.

You never want to do it on Monday or Friday because that heightens the emotional impact.

This area should look like Amsterdam, for all the resources invested in it. Instead we're going out of our way to simulate the aesthetics of a sardine factory. Literally. If we wanted historic waterfront buildings-- we already had those and tore them all down! This is insanity to the power of insanity.

Considering the string of truck-based terrorism attacks that have happened globally since the decision was made it was no "faux" concern. Rather, it was quite prescient. Though if you're not a Jackson fan, I think you can give credit (he did) to his safety forces for requiring the design change. This is a scapegoat of an excuse. How is Public Square any more or less vulnerable to a truck attack than any other public space downtown? Indeed, you can drive right onto Mall B. With sufficient horsepower you could launch yourself over the Rock Hall and into the lake. And then, with sufficient preparation, you could transform into a submarine and attack Canada. I'm not suggesting a truck attack on Public Square is a silly concern, it's not, but the city's handing of this is beyond silly.

Interesting. I had thought the landscaped median, trees and all, was crucial to the boulevard concept. And I had thought ODOT was opposed to the entire project. What did EDG propose? And who is EDG?

And there's probably an out clause if the city doesn't water them. Which plays into surfohio's point, because the long term maintenance gets pricey. You don't just install this type of landscaping, you have to keep installing it forever. And you can't just bring in regular landscapers for that, due to it being in the middle of a road, and you pretty much eliminated the road's shoulders to make room for it, so a truckload of orange barrels is needed for the slightest task. Even if we get 100 new trees for free, we're still 1000 man-hours away from achieving vibrancy. Here's an idea-- let's buy 100 trees and instead of blowing millions to install them in a road, let's just plant them in a vacant lot. I call it "forest."

The number of dead trees in this median is staggering. Also, entirely predictable. Good news is they don't stifle the lake and skyline views quite as badly as I thought they would... but that's because they're dead.

Exactly. That's a problem. That's why we're stuck with a round peg in a square hole, until we spend more millions of dollars on it.

Everyone I know living in those eastern Medina developments is a retiree with a sweet pension. So, not sustainable. It's the last vestige of the old economy.

How vulnerable was the original square? I can understand the safety concerns, but the time to address them was in the design phase not after the fact.

We keep trying to "move on from" manufacturing, while successful metros are aggressively seeking it. What we need to move on from is this jilted lover mentality. Manufacturing is still a big deal here and a big part of any realistic turnaround scenario.

I'm sure this is a factor but MSP is also well managed and well kept. MSP looks just like Cleveland except the buildings are maintained and the storefronts have stores in them. Ask somebody why they want to live somewhere, or why they don't, and few will cite any economic or geographic data. Most will comment instead on what the place looks like and/or the ease of living there.

And we won't stop getting our butts kicked until we admit it and make changes. Naymik's article about it suggests people were asking Pinney to tone it down out of deference to those in power. But where has that gotten us?

Well yeah, they'd better have produced some success stories by now. We've been throwing money at them for years. But there are millions of similar stories for public schools, and they've lost a lot of revenue just to get one kid into MIT.

https://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2018/06/despite_recent_wins_civic_and.html Nice article highlighting some of the region's organizational flaws, like "a local culture in which leaders and organizations are so focused on pleasing funders, boards and partners that the result is milquetoast rather than motivating."

Of course he does. We have developers on the planning board here! Corruption is woven into the fabric of the community.

There is a schism working its way through the local Democratic party; see the recent Scene article. People are finally pushing back, internally, against the machine. We might see some improvement if they prevail. If they don't, then I would probably agree that we need another FBI raid. It isn't so much about changing the faces, because faces have been cycling through all along. It's about changing the policies under which we operate. Individual council seats have far too much power. CDC's and neighborhood boards also have too much power. We need to deal with businesses in a more organized and predictable fashion. We cannot do that the way things are structured now.