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There is an extent to which the program needs to get with them, just a little bit. People adapt slowly to new technology. Those in transit-dependent demographics are less likely to have had much exposure to computer upgrades. It's just like with the Diebold voting systems, don't tell me that the customer is the problem. That explanation carries zero weight in business and has no place in government either.

Scene does good writing but their positions are often just contrarian. Projects like this need large incentive packages. If cities stopped competing so much, there would be less cost of competition and more essential local services for everyone.

Good point. It opens a whole new can of worms, but I think you're right.

Cude, this happens in every country, especially in Europe. I don't find this odd at atll. Based on how you wrote this, the transit police did exactly what they were suppose to do. No need to take owner ship of the other passengers "issue". I didn't say anyone did anything wrong. It's just a new experience for many locals. Also it took two people about ten minutes to explain the various fare systems to a local at one of the healthline stops yesterday. I and the other guy had it down pat, but this lady was pretty much bewildered. I don't think it's a bad system (or set of systems), but I do think better written explanations would be helpful to a lot of people. Separate question about the vending machines, which just came on line. On most of the purchase menus, the options default to a standard pass. But on one menu (can't remember which right now) the default setting is a senior/disabled variety, and you have to move the cursor to switch to a standard pass. This is just asking for trouble. People are going to end up buying passes they can't use.

I often hear "free market principles" cited to defend what is quite obviously immoral activity. I don't want to drag in off-topic examples when this is a perfect one right here. If communism fails to account for human laziness, capitalism fails to account for human viciousness. Nobody charges 391% interest without making the world a much darker place for all of us. These "services" have nothing to do with free will and everything to do with kicking human beings when they're down. How much economic "free will" a person actually has depends on their access to capital. Circumstances can force people into awful choices. "Willingly" profiting from the fact that someone is desparate enough to "willingly" pay 391% interest is diabolical.

I used to live here, corner of Second and Prentis, known as the ABC building. Tons of great stories, most not appropriate for the internet. You should have seen me trying to report a burglary at the police station on Woodward. I told the cop this dude came in and took everything I owned. They would not even send anyone out to do a report. Cop said we don't have time for burglaries. I mentioned that my shotgun was one of the things stolen and he did manage to write that down on a post-it. I told him I had a pretty good idea who it was, and he told me that if I would take it upon myself to bring that person in, someone might speak with them. Here are some of the names of kids who hung out on the front stoop: Black Mike, White Mike, Raw, Well-Done, Crow, Big Show, Adrian, Chuck and She-boo-boo. Adrian enjoyed randomly screaming "niggardly niggardly niggardly" at the top of his lungs. He also enjoyed stealing. But it was Crow who stole all my stuff that night, and Big Show knew about it, but he didn't admit that for a couple months. He was already on the outs with everyone else for associating with Crow, a raging crackhead nobody liked. And no, there was no getting any of these kids off my front stoop at any point in time. They come with the place, just like the refrigerator.

Under that theory, there's no reason to even have cops or laws. Leave it to the market. It would make more sense in a country whose prisons weren't filled with drug cases. Freedom means freedom for everyone, we can't have total freedom for businesses and so little for individuals. I used to be a libertarian, but in the end I found that philosophy far too accomodating toward evil. Prohibitions against usury have biblical origins. No that alone doesn't make payday lenders illegal, but keep in mind that these objections aren't coming out of thin air. These are widely held moral standards that have existed for thousands of years. I really don't think free market principles should trump morality, ever.

Most of the new automated announcements are beneath RTA in my opinion. They detract from their surroundings and from the overall experience. Have a real person record that stuff and don't play it so much. One disadvantage to the healthline payment system appeared before me this morning. I got on at 30th going in, and this lady was dozing in the seat in front of me. Three transit police had gotten on with me and were going from person to person checking fares. Luckily, I had just updated my Upass the yesterday! But this lady in front of me had to be woken up, and she was disoriented so it took her a minute to figure out just why a cop was waking her up and what she needed to fish out. Much awkwardness. I guess if she came from Windermere, it might make sense to doze a little if she needed to, but she was about to have to wake up anyway because the ride was about over. I still prefer this new quicker system, but it creates some odd situations. And to your question #2, I think the drivers are supposed to beep a button for each Upass they see. In my experience they do it about 75% of the time.

That's not so much disappointing as disturbing. How do you blow something like that? My take on CSU, having been there 4 years now, is that they lack a sense of proportion. They do most things very very well. Faculty and staff are great. They're moving the campus in a 100% positive direction. In general the school deserves more recognition. But it'll never get that because they keep missing the boat on big issues like this one. Food service is another drive-killing fumble. I've seen branch campuses and gas stations with better food service, and nobody is on the same page as far as what can or should be done. Why have they been doing so much construction recently that DID NOT have a giant grant riding on it? It seems like an inexcusable misallocation of resources, unless there's some big factor we're missing.

I've noticed that girls at school who are from other areas and other countries seem to like living downtown, even alone. Sometimes they aren't ready for what they'll encounter and it really throws them off.

I applaud them for creative legal work too, but it's wrong. Nobody is willing to pay this kind of interest, they pay it because they have no other access to financing. As long as so much of their money goes to the payday lenders, they will not build up savings and they will continue to have no other access to financing.

You can have an ad as my avatar if you want. 327, brought to you by Bisquick and Mail Pouch. Chew some today.

C'mon, it has a Skip's Mega Grill. We need one of those.

I think you are right on, particularly in the selling of 'cosmopolitanism'. But I also get the sense that (northern) Ohio culture is very much contiguous with 'generic American' culture in foodways, religion, dialect, clothing, music, etc. Perhaps Ohioans leave Ohio because they are 'seeking' culture, and because they are so well schooled in the dominant US culture that it feels easy to move other places? Yes but: this thread is 8 pages long, and it keeps going. A lot of the stuff described here, and in picture threads of individual towns, doesn't happen everywhere else. Some of it does, and people have identified those things when they come up. There's a lot of commonality between Ohio and other midwestern states. But outside of that things are different and we're no better prepared than anyone. I used to have a job where I worked with people all over the country, on a daily basis, all through the phone. Never saw any of them. I had to exert authority over them and it was a completely different game in each region. Of particular note were the Canadians (it's not that they don't like you, it's that you have no meaning to them... everyone's autonomous) and the southerners (very formal and deferential, but more talky). The most ruthless were the east coast people, who seemingly despise all authority and each other. Midwesterners were the easiest to work with. Cantankerous, even grim, but ultimately willing.

I'm more OK with the result of the demo than I thought I would be. It exposed all kinds of new (old) windows to the street. The surroundings of the new gap are cool architecturally, and previously invisible. It looks like it's wide enough for significant action besides the ramp. The positioning along Euclid is terrible, but if they do it right we could end up with a nice little space there. Filling in the parking lot next door would do more to improve the street wall effect than Dollar Bank ever could, it has twice the frontage. And that Dollar Bank building never did fit there style-wise.

It's a major cultural touchstone for Ohio, that we're thought of as being so "nice." Some of it is a larger midwest attitude of quick yet distant kindness, as opposed to the deeper and slower "come sit a spell" southern version. But some of it I think is economic and demographic change taking effect. Not only have we suffered a brain drain, we've also had an aggresiveness drain. Antsy people with an itch to make a big impact move away in far greater numbers than those seeking quiet stability to sit home and watch the rain. We're quickly becoming the nation's Eeyore.

I know several people who recently bought new GMs, including Buicks. Buicks in particular are highly sought after in China. That is one big bucket of hate to be dumping on a largely local workforce. What do you do for a living? Guess what-- I think it sucks and I think only Japanese people should do what you do. You're no good to this country so scram. It seems like every point you make about the car companies should also apply to the banks and insurance people, perhaps residential builders as well, but nobody ever says that. They just keep bashing midwest industry with all their might. Keep going, you'll be thrilled with the results.

Philosophically it makes no sense at all, but I can see why they'd do it anyway.

Sweet! Wish I coulda seen that.

I thought they meant Cedar and Mayfield as the two new stations. Sure a rail expansion would cost a lot, and it may not be shovel ready, but I'd like to know if it was even mentioned to Joe Biden or Pelosi or the new transportation guy or anyone. Ohio didn't get its fair share of rail money under Bush because our metros weren't growing. We could use some make-up cash.

While these are good projects and necessary, I'm still disappointed there won't be enough to extend the waterfront line or the blue line.

I like the trellis stuff. It breaks up the monotony of the siding and gives an organic look.

^ Agreed, that's probably #1.

The density complaints are absurd. Cleveland needs more density just about everywhere. All in all this seems like a great project and hopefully there will be more like it.

I can't think of any topic where the answer would be that picture.