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I'm not sure what you're getting at here. We aren't proposing that racism is OK for women with children on a train, are we? Look, I admit to being somewhat racist, and I believe that's true for every person of every race. We can't help it, we're wired for it. But attempting to justify it, or to turn it from a wrong into useful tool of some sort... I can't get behind that. It's wrong. When you feel yourself doing it, that doesn't mean you're a bad person. But if you're not a bad person, you'll presumably wanna make yourself stop doing it. You feel the prejudice well up inside you and you either reject it, and try to learn from it, or you roll with it and try to rationalize it. We're each faced with these challenges pretty regularly, so even if we fail here or there, we always get more chances. BTW, sometimes the prejudice is correct, and that dude of a different race with the shifty eye is in fact a sex offender who litters. Does that justify the prejudice? Nope. We always need to be on the lookout for shifty-eyed littering sex offenders. I'm just saying that racism does little to help us identify these people on an individual basis, and considering what racism has done to our world, it's worth standing against even when it seems most prudent.

Wow, this got dicey in a hurry. My observation is that I haven't seen anyone have to defend the generalized behavior of "women" or "the Irish" in this thread. Nobody has stated or implied that if women or the Irish were to step up their game, other types of people wouldn't hold so much against them. Nobody has stated or implied that it's OK to hold these generalizations against random women or random Irish because statistics back them up, or because women or the Irish give off a mysterious air of hostility and/or filth.

genuine anger Bingo. A friend of mine from some years ago in college was from Kenya. He lived in East Cleveland and I remember him being shocked when he would tell people "you can't believe the anger, you don't make eye contact with people". To me it's unbelievable that people (like shs96, not to pick on you b/c I don't think you're a bad person, I just think you don't have a very good understanding of the complexity of racial problems) think that hundreds of years of racism, a cycle of poverty, and the disillusionment of an entire culture can just be wiped out in no time. It's easy to come up with solutions for others when you don't have to live their problems every day of your life. What he said. This anger isn't directed at anyone in particular, but at history and at the nature of things. Occasionally it does get released upon individuals, because you can't glare or yell at history and you can't rob it either. I get these looks too. I'm one of very few white people on my block. I can get upset about it, because I never owned a slave in my life, but then again I didn't grow up in the hood and I have an all-white office job to go to. As rough as things are for me right now, they could be so much worse.

genuine anger

There shouldn't be a City of Brooklyn, Ohio. If we're consolidating suburbs that one's in my top 3. The shape of Brooklyn on a map is a pictogram that says "Cleveland sucks." Get rid of it.

That's a tough one, since the inner-city culture wasn't exactly a spontaneous occurrance. How bout we do a switcheroo, and see what happens to the inner-city culture after racism subsides?

That's worth considering, as there is an efficiency to be gained. The problem is that RTA's customer base isn't a warehouse full of WalMart products. Moving them efficiently is only one of several inescapable requirements. The system also must be practical for use based on actual human lives. It's not just a matter of creature comfort... each time you have to transfer, the standard deviation in your ETA ratchets up. If the transfer you need gets there right when you do, that's most serendipitous. If that happens twice in a row in one day, buy yourself a lottery ticket. But you can't stake your career on that sort of thing. Adding transfers adds travel time, and adds enough variation in day-to-day travel times to render transit use impracticable. You'll get fired-- and that's not worth it. So there goes RTA's base of power and influence. If we want broader and deeper public support, the current path cannot get us there. Those cushy 1-seat rides feed a lotta babies that transfers won't feed. Still wondering what the deal is with the E/W "transit stations." Also thinking that even if the feds pay 90% on that and other capital projects, we still can't justify spending a dime on them in this context. The least RTA could do is maybe explain what certain capital projects, like STJ-TC, are even expected to accomplish for us. Then maybe we as a community could evaluate whether that's something we'd even want to pursue, with our scarce beyond scarce dollars. How much bus infrastructure (bus! infrastructure!) do we need when there's no end in sight to the cuts in actual busing?

That's a great point-- statistical facts are only as good as the record keeping. Someone has been in charge of that historically, and someone else has not, if you know what I mean. And (broadening it slightly for illustrative purposes) I love how it can't be terrorism if you use a fighter jet to do it. Same effect, same goal of intimidation, but different equipment used by a different faction somehow changes it morally. One side gets a lilly white "record" while the other is typecast as barbaric. Often in these cases, any measurable slaughter ratio tells the opposite tale.

RTA thread certainly is taking a turn for the surreal... and that's because RTA policy and planning have taken a turn for the surreal. Get it together, guys. None of this stuff is making any sense. When county govenrment elections start to heat up later this year, I plan on asking every candidate: What are you going to do to change the direction of RTA?

bubble bubble toil and trouble

This is a battle between the unions and the administration, not the unions and the citizens. There are plenty of citizens who would favor the unions' stance and there are plenty that will side with the administration. But it is not like cutting the safety forces is the only way to balance the budget. The police and fire personnel already make less than similarly situated employees in comparable cities. Yet, the administration has told them to accept a pay cut or face significant layoffs. Has Frank Jackson announced his pay cut yet? How about Martin Flask? Sweeney? I don't know personally... just asking. This is a mess and there is no easy solution. That's fair, good points. I guess my response is that the administration is not a private corporation, so as a city resident I do have a horse in this race. Completely agree that city hall is overpaid. Would prefer that safety forces aren't underpaid. Then again, how's their performance recently? I'm referring to police... not fire, whose performance I have no clue about and assume is exemplary. But the police have had some hi-profile nonfeasance in the news this past year. Not a good time to complain about pay, when theirs is still some of the best in the city.

Quite correct Punch, but still a questionable approach for this site. Why have a park abutting a park, when we can have a park abutting a park abutting a park abutting a park, right in the middle of downtown? It's not like we're trying to encourage density.

Great, more transfers on a system that got rid of transfers. The "buy an all-day pass" solution is great if you have the physical means to do so before embarking on your cross-town trip. Otherwise this sort of thing has a way of looking like a backdoor fare increase. I'm not opposed to necessary fare increases... but I'm a big supporter of transfers, and I wish we'd bring them back as our cross-town routes continue to vanish. Related issue: how is this whole East/West Transit Center system supposed to work, logistically? I'm very confused about that. Seems like it takes a lot of routes that 5 years ago were one-seat, and now have become two-seat, and makes them into three-seaters... unless the east side routes go to the west transit center, and the west side routes go to the east transit center. But then which routes would still service the rail hub at public square?

Ohio has a state police force. Get them off traffic duty immediately. Coordinate with the other police forces operating w/in Cleveland city limits to maximize overall street presence. Set up a "slacker line," so that any officers seen shirking their duties can be anonymously reported and dealt with. If the union wants to play hardball the citizens can too.

Very much so. For this reason, I can't figure out why it would bother with Dayton (sorry Dayton), let alone all these small town stops. This thing needs to bend over backwards to impress people with its speed. Speed seems to be the biggest source of apprehension. I'd prefer we focus on building the most effective 3-C train possible. Dayton and Grafton stops would tend to frustrate that purpose, no?

More lighting on 13th is a great idea. Downtown is way, way behind on lighting. I can't help thinking that if you're taking a bus from E13th to CSU campus, you better be in a wheelchair. That's two blocks. And if the immediate Playhouse Square area is as dangerous as we're implying here, it sounds like a solve-it-by-noon crisis for this city. I mean, Parkview only has so many doors, and it's not like the residents have gun turrets sticking out everywhere. I understand it's the projects but its not Castlevania. Maybe CSU can patrol the area if CPD chooses otherwise. It shouldn't take more than a couple cops to keep one building from spoiling the entire east end of downtown.

shs96... none of the other ethnicities you mention were legally livestock in this country, not ever. Absolutely unfair. You're comparing apples to asteroids. Does that distinction exsuse any particular behavior? I suppose not. But it provides a unique context that demands consideration. Speaking of "consideration," I can think of no other context in this society (prior to the recent bailouts) in which a debt so substantial was expected by anyone to be written off. That simply isn't what we do around here... wealth travels across multiple successive generations, and so does debt. Except in this case. In this case, and in no other case in our society, people are supposed to accept "yeah we were doing that to you, but we stopped, so that makes everything OK." Try that in criminal court. I did it but then I stopped, so I don't owe anybody anything. My point is you can't expect people to follow specified standards when they've been conveninently exempted from every beneficial standard we have. How many generations do you think it will take to smooth things over from Jim Crow, from local segregation, let alone from what happened before that? My guess: several. It took centuries of bullcrap to get to this point.

You're thinking Soul Man, I'm thinking Outsiders. Same difference. And yes, he looked Indian and not even slightly black in that movie.

Stay gold, Ponyboy.

Uh-oh. This is very bad.

He's suggesting that Christine's move to Utah was motivated by racism and she's skating the cusp of admitting it. "Tired of defending conservatism" is a euphamism. I'm sure she wasn't referring to Scalia's constitutional originalism theory. In the PC era you have to ask "which aspects of conservatism? Anti- affirmative action? Anti- fair housing laws? Anti- immigration? Anti- integration? Social Darwinism in a society where wealth is statistically a racial issue?" This is like people saying the Civil War wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights. OK... states' rights to do what, exactly? To interefere with the dormant commerce clause? Didn't think so. "States' rights" is another one of those euphamisms, one popular with anti-integration activists of the 60s. She could have moved to a Republican county in Cali, but no, this lady moved to Utah. Utah's NBA team often has 5 white guys on the floor. Come on. And the religion that happens to dominate Utah has somewhat embarassing historical positions on race. By historical I mean not that long ago.

Maybe stale and reductionist to us, but clearly not everyone believes that the world is round in this regard. To me, the book's stated premise seems undeniable. Of course no study will ever "prove" white racism to have been a leading factor in sprawl. But a quick glance through the history of fair housing laws leaves little question. If you're white, it only takes a few minutes of conversation with many exurbanites before they throw you a "THOSE people" reference to see where you stand. If it turns out you're not racist then "THOSE people" means, and always meant, shady low-lifes of all colors. Because we're not racist, we just have standards, that's all. If it turns out you're racist too... the euphamism disappears.

Operational matters are no concern of the citizenry, eh? Something tells me that approach won't sell in Peoria. If the idea is to garner people's support, I would place a moratorium on minimizing their concerns.

I've liked Mangini throughout his time here. I really hope we keep him. The QB situation was bungled horribly but aside from that he has not deserved all the bashing. Gotta break eggs to make an omlette. At this point it appears that Braylon and K2, and especially Jamal Lewis, were dragging the team down.

Interesting... -- RTA itself contributed enough money ($20 million or 10%) to the Healthline project to purchase all the BRT vehicles. I had believed the feds essentially covered the capital costs themselves and I stand corrected. For reference, this $20 million in local BRT investment (spread over years, with interest) compares to a 2008-2009 sales tax drop of $18,982,598. So the amount spent on BRT vehicles exceeds the deficit in sales taxes that we've heard so much about. Yes, I realize one is capitalized and one isn't, and my response is that money is fungible. My other response is "He says if I spend $10 on stupid, he'll contribute another $90 worth of stupid. What a deal!" That's not a deal... that's you trading a perfectly good $10 for $100 worth of stupid. This publication spends considerable effort justifying the Healthline project. Perhaps that effort would be better spent on rail planning. --To be fair, it also spends time defending the Waterfront line project. In doing so it puts forth some interesting numbers. The Waterfront line cost only $100k to operate in 2009. RTA is getting a federal grant of $3 million to operate the Healthline in that same year, and is requesting $7.2 million for such purpose in 2010. I realize that comparison isn't apples to apples at all, but one mode still seems substantially more efficient and green than the other. That's why the entire nation is getting on this railroad bandwagon. I'd like to know specifically what RTA is doing to position Cuyahoga County for the coming age of passenger rail. It's one thing to be generally supportive of it, it's another to take positive steps toward new rail in Cleveland's future. We understand that times are tough right now. Give us something positive to chew on as we look forward to better times.