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Um... that's what a conspiracy is. Technically, every government and every corporation is a conspiracy. Whether the conspiracy is evil, as the word connotes, depends on what their concerted effort leads to for everyone else.

You have a TJ Maxx too? Insert swear word. I can't even buy a sock in downtown Cleveland when my feet are wet. I take that back, I could buy a $50 sock at Brooks Brothers, which we do still have. But you know what I mean.

Can you expand on this any? I was aware of unrest there, but not the extent or the cause.

Thanks. How is the Macy's able to survive? Is it primarily the existence of Saks, or is Macy's recieving any kind of subsidy to stay? The reason I'm asking is that I'm being told Cleveland cannot possibly get ONE downtown anchor retailer until the immediate downtown population reaches 20-25k, something like that. I have found that this is not the norm for cities of Cleveland's size and would like to alleviate whatever roadblocks exist. One problem that comes up is not enough population or wealth within 5 miles. Another problem is that suburban retail complexes are preferred by wealthier areas of the city. Again, these don't seem like unique or insurmountable problems to me. If true, they would seem to preclude any downtown retail in any mid-major city, yet most comparable cities have at least one downtown department store. I guess my question is what could Cleveland do to be more like Cincinnati in this regard? Am I crazy for thinking it shouldn't be this difficult? Many authoritative voices on the Cleveland end of UO seem convinced we have to exponentially boost the downtown population before we can get even basic retail there. I don't think that's a rational goal, or one that is possible to achieve. 20k people aren't going to move somewhere that lacks competitive retail offerings.

It seems like a lot of current Arcade retail is services for the hotel crowd. There may not be a good way around that, until somebody comes up with a more holistic plan for the Arcade. An increasing amount of the one across the street is being used as exhibit space.

That's what makes the for-profit sector inappropriate for health care. Same reason we don't have for-profit firefighters.

I think the Arcade units, in terms of store space and backroom inventory, are too small for the way modern retail is done. Just guessing, but also thinking about the Everything Cleveland store, and the Old Erie Tobacco store from several years back. They needed more space.

Hardy har har. I'm serious! They have every right not to honor an expired sticker, but I shoudn't get a ticket when the sticker is my only problem.

I don't use the trains as often as I did a couple years back, but it seemed like the TC escalators were undergoing major repairs about half the time. These things can't be more than 20 years old, right? Or did the escalators predate the TC renovation?

Question about U-pass: I still have my Fall semester sticker, which technically expired last month. I have long since been billed for the current semester's U-pass, but because of their restricted hours I have been unable to get my new sticker from student services. Recently a driver refused to honor my U-pass due to its being expired. Can't blame him, for all he knows I dropped out last semester. But this issue specifically worries me with regard to the HealthLine. Will I be charged criminally if I paid for a bus pass but have been unable to acquire the actual sticker?

My understanding is that Tower Place still has one or two anchor department stores. Is this true? If so, how has Cincinnati been able to accomplish that?

The thing I found disappointing about New Center was the lack of retail and street activity. It's almost as if it was never designed to have any in the first place. Nearby housing is of a lower density than one would imagine, given the Manhattan-like scale of New Center's downtown. The view of the Fisher Building from any point along 2nd St, which dead-ends into it, is my favorite image in all of Detroit.

It's not that complicated, just impossible. Ideally you'd be buying from American companies with American workers. But as everyone knows that's tough to do these days.

Obama plots huge railroad expansion By DAVID ROGERS | 2/17/09 4:29 AM EST http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18924.html Railroads made Chicago, and now a Chicago-rich White House wants to return the favor: remaking rail with a huge new federal investment in high-speed passenger trains. The $787.2 billion economic recovery bill — to be signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday — dedicates $8 billion to high-speed rail, most of which was added in the final closed-door bargaining at the instigation of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. It’s a sum that far surpasses anything before attempted in the United States — and more is coming. Administration officials told Politico that when Obama outlines his 2010 budget next week, it will ask for $1 billion more for high-speed rail in each of the next five years. ............

I like convenience stores. If rough people are hanging around, I'd say you have not enough police, rather than too many stores. Agreed about the front lawns.

If you put in a bus line that runs on bio-fuel, you're locked into that choice. If you plug into the power grid instead, you have a limitless range of choices in terms of power generation. They may not be everyone's favorite choices immediately, but the range is limitless. Installing a self-contained fuel system on each vehicle eliminates future choices that may be a lot more clean/efficient than burning bio-anything. With a train, efficiency is also gained because the vehicle need not burn any fuel just to carry the weight of the fuel itself. Also, building infrastructure beyond "painted lines" signals a more permanent commitment to the affected area. Instead of just having more buses, which can be yanked at a moment's notice, the businesses served by a train line can count on it being there for decades-- making their store walking distance from everywhere else the tracks go. Bus routes change all the time. Another issue is that buses carry a certain stigma that trains don't. People who are not predisposed to try public transit are much more open to riding a train than a bus.

Thanks for the details. Based on those figures, I like the idea of this much more than I once did. Also, I had been confused as to the location proposed. I had originally thought it was to go in the Jay-Carroll-25th area, but that was a misread of the original post. I'm not certain W47th is even technically within Ohio City. Either way, it's a long distance from the existing CMHA concentration on W25th. When I see income limits listed like this, when they're going for "families," I wonder if those limits are contingent on X number of dependents, as in a single person making 37k would not meet the requirement.

Can we assume the announced plan puts the kibosh on anything like this? What about doing caps over the trench, as was also discussed?

The street is all torn up. It's still in the early stages. Utility lines were still overhead last week, and presumably what they're doing now is digging trenches to put them in. It doesn't seem like they're getting anywhere fast. But they are working first thing every morning in this awful weather. I don't know what's going on with the theater.

This would be my #1 skyline view. It's the only one where downtown seems integrated with everything else. It's got 3 smokestacks, 2 domes, and a steeple. I love the way Terminal Tower commands its own scene. This view does the best job of making Cleveland look big.

I'd vote for Traficant again. At least he was open about knowing the mob guys. He was the sheriff of Youngstown, he had to know the mob guys, and to some extent deal with them. It would have been great to just take em all down, but that wasn't a realistic possiblity then. It isn't now either, though they're greatly diminished. He gave like a 20 minute speech about that. Said their gene pool was down, way down, and all kinds of other inflammatory stuff. On his way to prison. I can't say anyone representing Ohio, from either side, has that kind of balls right now. We need people to stir things up. One insane Traficant plan was to make Youngstown a port by digging out most of Ashtabula County and half of Trumbull for a new bay. They did a huge model of it that used to be in the entrance of the Maag Library at YSU. Might still be there. I don't want that done, but they'd never let him do it anyway. I'd still vote for him though. The 711 freeway was his baby and it was badly needed. He made things happen. Cleveland got that courthouse and that's been about it recently. LaTourette has done more to get/keep jobs here than anyone, but it's a different everything now. Somebody from around here needs to step up. I like Tim Ryan and Brunner and PLJ. Armond Budish is another good one. We need him to get us some Columbus money and it looks like he will. Overall, we just need some new people to come in and create positive Ohio associations.

I know people of many ages, sometimes advanced ages, who hook up pretty randomly. I know plenty more people of all ages who rarely hook up at all. Then there's those who honestly don't see things that way. They're looking for "the one" and that's all that matters to them. Those people are almost always lonely, it seems. Rarely do they find what they're looking for. I think it has less to do eras or stages of life (which do factor in) and more to do with different kinds of people and situations. It's a big world and it takes all kinds. Being in a poor environment for meeting people, for years on end, can certainly contribute to loneliness for any person.

I want to be stuffed, in a threatening pose, like I'm yelling at you. The grandkids will love it.

Fantastic pix. I'd be happy to keep the fast food, as long as they put the buildings up to the street and parking in the rear.

Well, that would make me like it a lot less.