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The obesity issue, while involving many more factors, is clearly tied in with car dependence and lack of walking/carrying. The pills and attitude problems may result from increased isolation. I believe so, at any rate. TV and internet have impacted that as well. But I maintain that the anti-social effects of these factors are exacerbated in subdivisions because subdivisions are designed to encourage them and provide fewer options.

I agree with MTS here, it is significantly different to have something like this in conjunction with anchor stores. What we're talking about is all outlets and no anchors. I don't doubt that those outlets would be patronized, and it's better than what we've got now, but I would hate to see this end up being a substitute or an excuse for the continuing absense of anchor stores. I'm probably being too pessimistic. At least this is a positive plan.

Interesting, I never thought about it that way. I do. All the time. And for purposes of this discussion, I'm referring to "subdivisions" as described in the Rush song of that name. This means Cul-de-Sacs and aggressively compartmentalized zoning. Streetcar suburbs that mimic and extend the city's layout would not fit this description.

I can see now why FCE put these signs out when they did. The film fest has created a noticeable uptick in TC foot traffic. But the arguments they make on their signs range from debatable to debunked. And why doesn't FCE find a way to capitalize on the fact that their facility IS connected via rail to the mall site?

Strongsville is definitely sprawl, most of Parma and Euclid aren't. I don't think Middleburgh Hts is sprawl either, R&R. The inner ring burbs are set apart in their urbanity. They were a step in the wrong direction but still generally liveable. But now there are modern subdivision developments in inner-city Cleveland, like along Euclid and in Central. Of this I do not approve.

I think sprawl is damaging enough, in itself, that it needs to be met head-on. Green isn't the only issue. There's more to it. Erma Bombeck (I think) had a line about how civilization began to fall apart when people started building multiple bathrooms per house instead of having to coordinate and share. Subdivision-style living is antisocial at its core. It's causing us to lose communication and empathy skills on a broad scale. To make it a little more personal: I spent a lot of my childhood in a semi-rural setting. For the most part, other kids were not accessible by even by bike. While some aspects of this were enjoyable, the major drawback was that I learned to deal with other people several years late. Most of my interactions were with adults, with whom there was no peer dynamic from which to learn. This also resulted in me expressing myself, in 2009, as an adult from the late 70s/early 80s. When I was 12 we moved to a suburban area, at which point I began catching up. I still did not really understand people until after I had graduated from the suburban high school and spent some time in the city.

If they're not farming, I do wonder what they need all that space and distance for. And I ask, in all seriousness, where the bears are supposed to live if people keep doing that. If their life revolves around the city, i.e. they work in the city, don't grow/raise food, and commute a zillion miles for everything... then yes I think "country living" is wrong. Actions have consequences beyond our own personal bubbles.

So, basically the PD took what should have been an exciting front page announcement, relegated it to Metro, and described it inaccurately enough to obscure the main benefit of the project. Stupendous.

I've never heard of a city with nowhere else to go. Not even modern Detroit, although it's getting there. I think as a kid there's a limit to what you can do and learn in the confines of a yard. Especially when it's surounded exclusively with other yards. Just having a front porch on an active street, even if the kid can never leave that porch, allows them to observe civilization in action.

It hinders the socialization of their children, it encourages too much driving and not enough walking/transit, and it uses scarce land resources in a wasteful manner. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard of someone casually driving 2 miles each way to Giant Eagle for a gallon of milk. That really does hurt everyone. There are perfectly good reasons for doing it sometimes, but to make it a way of life is just wrong.

Interesting observations. That basketball kid sounds downright creepy. I'm not so much saying subdivision dwellers don't go outside, but when they do it's to work on THEIR yard or to talk with someone very specific and do so over a fence. These aren't necessarily bad things. But they fall very short of having active common areas on every block, like a corner store or a park. I consider those public activity nodes to be crucial. Subdivisions consider them to be enemies.

That makes a heck of a lot more sense. The problem is that, as Jpop noted, the PD article and diagram make it seem like the route has nothing to do with downtown.

Some of the trash cans have prematurely rusted. And the planters all look like giant trash cans in the winter. Not enough evergreen plant selections. Way too much burlap on display for half the year. Several aspects of this system seem perfectly suited for San Diego and inappropriate for Cleveland. The station digital message boards are inconsistent. The one at E6 (or thereabouts) has been unhooked from its data feed for weeks. Others just keep repeating Welcome to the HealthLine when they're supposed to give ETA's. Also, I thought there would be some sort of light diffusion installed in the fare machine marquees? Without this "upgrade," they look unprofessionally built.

Cold shooting was bound to happen. We didn't normally hit shots like we did against Wake. Norris Cole is a great building block for the future. We'll be back.

So... it's going to take people from the west end of Lakewood and drop them at the west end of Cleveland in the morning, when they all want to go downtown? That can't be. I imagine they won't build any stations or grassy knolls on the shoreway, but it's a necessary part of the route. BRT that only serves Clifton proper would be virtually useless.

I'm in the opposite camp. Rehabbed reputations don't just fall into your lap. Over 10,000 years of human civilization, it has been demonstrated that reputation matters. It's the backdrop against which all decisions are made. Specific factors like "health care leader" or "culinary hotspot" can only add to this backgroud. They cannot supplant it by themselves. I'd like to see every "Cleveland sucks" to be met with an immediate "no, Phoenix sucks" or a "do you realize how many people you just insulted" or just some wordless cartoon violence.

We need a fiery leader who jumps all over this crap when it happens. I'd like for TNT to let Frank Jackson on the pregame show just to roast Barkley. But can you see Jackson doing that? No. Maybe PLJ.

I think R&R describes the prevailing thinking accurately. This was never an unfortunate tick of zoning, it was deliberately created through zoning. Commerce, and activity in general, are to be isolated and avoided. People are too. Subdivision dwellers want to pretend the outside world doesn't exist. They're going for sterile and bland safe because they consider those to be virtues. They're specifically rejecting diversity. The answer to subdivisions and sprawl is psychological and it's really very ugly.

I agree we need more crosstown 1-seaters. Hopefully that would be a possibility for this. I'm all for improvements to transit on Clifton since that's the corridor I primarily use. It will defeinitely have high ridership. But I find it frustrating that we would add more BRT before rail. I was hoping RTA would move strongly toward west shore rail. This is no longer the Bush administration. Also Clifton in Lakewood is neither a commercial street nor in need of development, so there would be little economic spinoff from upgrades to that route. Seems like spinoff should be an important goal for transit upgrades, and seems like several other west side streets like Lorain/Detroit/Madison/Pearl would be more appropriate for investment. And the article isn't clear... these buses will continue downtown right? So the route technically includes the whole west shoreway, not just Clifton as illustrated, right?

Apart from the concerns expressed by MTS and Hootenany, which I think are legit, I like this idea. I would prefer to condense the outlet stuff into as compact a district as possible. It doesn't sound like the ideal theme for Euclid Avenue, but if its the only way to get businesses into the arcades then so be it. And I'd still rather fully explore traditional approaches used in other cities before trying something like this.

I don't disagree with any of it. It would have been nice to have taken bids, but this was MMPI's idea in the first place, wasn't it? I thought they came to us with it. I don't remember. I have no problem with the deal as presented. It's all been handled very clownishly on our end, and I'd like to know more about how that worked.

This means war, Barkley.

Cavaliers shrug off Barkley's 'dreary' comments about Cleveland by Mary Schmitt Boyer/Plain Dealer Reporter Friday March 20, 2009, 6:53 PM http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2009/03/cavaliers_shrug_off_barkleys_d.html CLEVELAND -- Charles Barkley is at it again. The controversial TNT announcer made some disparaging remarks about the city of Cleveland before the network televised Thursday night's game between the Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. Bantering in TNT's studios in Atlanta with co-hosts Ernie Johnson and Chris Webber, Barkley, who also thinks the Cavs need to speed up their offense, took off on Cleveland and Milwaukee. Barkley: If you were to swap the people in Cleveland and Milwaukee, it'd be the same dreary ass city. They are both dreary places. C Webb, would you agree? Cleveland and Milwaukee, other than Perkins Soul Food joint, they are the same dreary ass city. ... More at: http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2009/03/cavaliers_shrug_off_barkleys_d.html

That sounds right. No menu, just peanuts and popcorn.

Most of them, one hour apiece. We started at OMalleys, hit the big chain places early, then did some smaller ones toward the end. I think my favorite was Nicholsons. It's about time somebody did Scottish instead of Irish. I can't remember the name of that one place. Over the line? Across the line? Something like that. It was on the last street south before the freeways and stadiums. SW corner of downtown. The bartender said the owner had some racehorses and that's why they paid for the deep TV coverage. It wasn't ESPN, this channel was exclusively racing and it showed all kinds of stats and figures.