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Ironically, they just closed a big police station in that general area. The point of doing that was to get more feet on the streets with the same resources, so I support it. I believe the former 3rd district HQ on Payne is now some sort of community/safety relations center. Not sure how that works, or the proper name for it. I don't care where they're based-- they need to be present, on foot, on the streets.

I'd like to see them spend all that money on shoring up and preserving the larger apartment and mixed-use buildings throughout East Cleveland. These contribute mightily to Cleveland's urban feel. Areas of the city that have lost them, yet kept the houses, barely look like they're in a major city anymore.

There comes a point when it's no longer DCA's problem. 3am with guns drawn is past that point. We have downtown CPD, we have RTA PD, we have CMHA PD, we have CSU PD. That's plenty of people to guard the obvious areas at the obvious times. I see too many cruisers, of all varieties, driving around aimlessly at midday or harassing others about their driving. We have a state police force that spends most of its time using radar guns. That all has to end. Defend the cities first-- all other goals pale in comparison.

That's true, but I don't have a lot of confidence they'll catch anyone for this. Someone would have to blab. And catching people is beside the point now. This could have been prevented and the police should be called out on it. The first specific change I would make, if possible, would be to recall all mobile traffic camera units and permanently reassign them to downtown murder prevention. We have a specific downtown unit within the police, it says so on the side of their cruisers. But you never see those cruisers at night. That unit needs to be bolstered and its shift scheduling reconsidered.

You know that eyewitness stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be. Think of that experiment where they have someone randomly come into a class and "shoot" the professor, or steal something, and everyone has to write down a description of them. The descriptions come out mostly wrong, because the brain doesn't store those details unless you were looking for them initially. Plus, many ethnicities look similar to each other. At that time of night it could be hard to see a skin tone clearly.

How many bad loans were made to businesses? Just from the articles I've seen, one would think the bad loans were concentrated in residential. So why cut off business lending too? If the crisis is making them refuse to do business loans as well as home loans, what role do banks still have? Collect on credit card debt? Are they not doing business loans because the home value problem has them convinced that no business has a market right now?

A tourist is a suburbanite who goes out in the city on weekends. They aren't ready to consider moving in and many never will. SS gets a lot of these, because it sounds so cool to say "south side" no matter what the context. Good job whoever came up with that name. I liked some of the weird bands they used to get in there when it was the Hi & Dry. I only ate at Hi & Dry once and had a similar experience to MayDay's-- food average, service worse. The place seemed too pretentious for that and I don't think I went back. They had cool art for sale on the walls though, and I almost bought something. This was back when Prosperity was still Dempsey's Oasis.

There is plenty they could do, like having someone there to watch over a large gathering downtown. You can't prevent all crime, but this isn't all crime. This appears to be people getting executed on E 12. The whole street isn't that long, and the part with nightlife on it is even shorter. All we have to do is post somebody there for a couple key hours. Based on deployment patterns I've observed, I don't think a lack of overall manpower is as big a problem as the union (rightly, from their perspective) claims it is.

That's kind of what I'm saying, this doesn't reflect well on the bar if they're letting this stuff happen right outside the door. Technically it's police territory outside... but if it came from the bar, it came from the bar. So bring in Patrick Swayze or some such.

How does someone get shot right outside a downtown bar, at which there's been "a party," at closing time on a Saturday night? How was there no police or private security presence during that short yet critical period of need? It's only people's lives and downtown's reputation at stake, no biggie. In other news, speeding has been greatly reduced on Detroit Avenue at 9am.

Agreed, although I like having the strong second node at UC. However the lakefront should have neighborhoods and the attractions should all be more central.

Saw it last night, looks cool. But even with winter foliage, you can't see much more than "Batt" heading west on the shoreway.

I love it, though it sounds like lot of pressure if you get one. At what point does someone decide that a resident's ingenuity has faltered? That could get touchy.

Say hello to our new claim to fame. It's a morbid and tragic story, which I would like to have vanish from the news, except that they say such nice things about the Clinic. Chimp attack victim moved to Cleveland Clinic By Stephanie Gallman CNN http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/19/chimp.attack/index.html (CNN) -- A Connecticut woman attacked Monday by her friend's pet chimpanzee was taken Thursday from a Connecticut hospital to the famed Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a hospital spokeswoman said. She would not divulge the victim's condition nor the reason for the move. Charla Nash, 55, was transferred by airplane and ambulance to the clinic, where doctors in December performed the first facial transplant in the United States.

The last time it flared up in Warren was about 10 years ago. There were several killings and they had to have a guy testify from prison. Lenny Strollo. I can't remember if he was the guy killed, the killer, or the one testifying. Prior to that the last big thing was Joey Naples getting snipered in Canfield, 1991. I used to remember which ones were on which sides but it's been years since that stuff was in the news.

Specifically, Cuyahoga had trouble with the GEMS operating system that went with the Diebold touch screen machines. Go to www.cuyahogavoting.org to download a detailed report on how the system failed.

No Detroit to Toledo either. I remember trying to take Amtrak from Detroit to Youngstown, and they told me I had to go via Chicago. Suddenly the Greyhound station looked 10x nicer.

Odd they don't connect the east coast and Chicago networks. Is that a misprint? It's so much better than what we have now it seems stupid to complain, but it also seems stupid to build all that and not connect Cle with Pitt.

But the Healthline drivers aren't supposed to have to look. I flash it when boarding from the righthand side at Adelbert (because I feel inclined to when I walk right past the driver), but there really isn't any reason for me to fight through people in the morning when I board from the left side just to get to the front of the bus to show the driver I have a UPass. And considering the Healthline serves CSU and Case, I'd think RTA would want to keep better track of us for their numbers. I want to make sure the numbers reported aren't deflated cause I want RTA to have continued success! I have similar concerns. I don't know how any of the healthline ridership is counted, since there aren't many discrete transactions involved.

Indeed. I keep wondering about that. One would think reconfigurations would have been finished sometime between the system's official debut and the day they said it was all finally working. Let's not give more ammo to the Cleveland.com people. RTA should not take the blame for all this.

Well, I wouldn't go too far with the family friendly component. No further than is represented in that picture. Family friendly works for tourism in a handful of fully-themed places, like Sandusky or Orlando, but it doesn't do well in a place where most of the entertainment targets adults--a place like Las Vegas or downtown Cleveland. I've never liked the placement of the rock hall or the science center, partially because they have two entirely different audiences. There is no synergy to be gained from having them side by side. My biggest reservation about this Rockometer is that it might further reduce the rock hall's legitimacy by over-sanitizing the subject matter. I'm glad we have the science center downtown as a kid-friendly attraction, and we need more of them. I just don't think they should be tied in with the rock hall.

But the draw is the Rockometer, don't you see? OK... now I'm almost back to not liking this. That was fast. I guess I'm ambivalent.

I have a similar paypal problem, is there an alternative method? Can I mail something somewhere?

It's whimsical. It adds street life and give the area some life. This is a project that might start of slow but evolve into something unique that offers something for all. Especially kids. Downtown isn't exactly kid friendly and this is a start. Very good points. I hadn't thought of it that way. Normally I think all family-friendly stuff is overkill, but downtown does need more destinations for kids.

Deadman's Curve is a complete debacle. I mean, we don't call it Safety Curve or Competent Engineer's Curve do we? No amount of signage makes up for bad work. If you're betting on people getting things done, and new technology is involved, it is highly advisable to bet against them. It is highly inadvisable to blame them for failing, when the same pattern plays out over and over again. The new technology was invariably designed by a non-user and they failed to account for one or more major factors. What may look like people failing to adapt to technology is actually people adapting failed technology to reality.