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Reporting anything that commonplace to the CPD often gets you laughed at, by whomever answers their phone. I'm not kidding. I know some excellent CPD officers, but as a whole there needs to be a major attitude adjustment in that institution.

Stark's not the only one who could do that. I don't think there's really that much missing from downtown, but the things that are missing are so egregious they make the situation seem worse than it is. My own personal needs and preferences are not the end-all-be-all of development priorities... but I can't see why we'd prioritize $1000 purses over normally-priced underwear, if we're trying to build a residential base. The purse seems to justify a trip to Beachwood so much more than the underwear.

A camera will not help if you're in immediate trouble. Neither will a city cop out monitoring traffic somewhere, hoping someone who already got away with a crime happens to drive by. Get out of the car. Fight crime. Defend citizens. Focus on commercial areas that depend on pedestrian traffic. Our law enforcement priorities are really really screwed up IMO.

I think a lot of this is due to the chicken/egg problem, unfortunately. Neither side (potential residents or potential retailers) often times wants to make that first risky move. To me, that's the signal for govenment to step in. Downtown is so close to taking off. My position is still: do what must be done.

I don't think avenue supermarket compares favorably with what would be considered full-service in the burbs, not at all. Still room for improvement in groceries, but between them and constantinos downtown is not without service. It just isn't competitive. I'm guessing larger cities, which also lack giant eagles downtown, have more specialty produce and meat places to make up for what their groceries lack. As for BB and J&M... my belt broke one day downtown and I needed one pretty desparately. I went to J&M in tower city and got mugged for $75.00. Cheapest belt they had. That is not a realistic shopping option for many people I know. I have browsed Brooks Brothers and they seemed to have similar misconceptions about the economy. During construction, I wanted to buy a shirt from one of the oppressed Euclid Avenue tailors. They wouldn't sell me one. The minimum purchase was four (or two in February for some reason). Even with the cheapest material they had, the prices were not competitive. I checked out two places, same basic deal. I'm sure the shirts would have been of superior quality and fit. But theirs is not my market segment, and given the cost of education it may not ever be. Tower city theater isn't that bad, but unfortunately due to bathroom conditions it should be condemned. I'm not a stickler about bathrooms either-- this one was truly shocking. Have some freaking pride, FCE. Why doesn't Playhouse Square show indy films once in a while? I maintain that lack of reasonable retail options for average people is a severe impediment to downtown residential growth. Requiring a drive, however short, violates such a basic priciple of the downtown living concept that the contribution from those options is limited.

Yeah. I'm not even looking for original anymore, just good. Siding isn't the only thing wrong with this rendering, it's also the plasticy-looking grey panels and the little bitty windows. What it really needs is for one corner to come up at an odd angle for no reason. These are all unfortuately becoming recognizable local style elements.

NBC reports that the Browns are indeed after Bill Cowher and are offering / have offered him $9 million. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27833751/

This siding craze does need to end. Is it like RTA, is there somebody high up in zoning who just hates brick and wants to make sure we get as little as possible?

I had no idea those places on 12th were that high. Wow. I also suggest Lakewood. Best bang for your buck in the area. You're not likely to find what you're looking for at that price range elsewhere. Many of the buses from Lakewood go to the east end of downtown and turn around there. The 55 on Clifton goes to E 21st/CSU and the 26 on Detroit goes to E 13th I think.

That wasn't me, it was the other number guy. I agree though. Except about the bridge, I kinda like that.

I concur. Although there is apparently a "downtown" unit, it says so on their cruisers. They also had mounties out around the square until it got cold out. The DCA people also help... I see more of them at night than I do police... I almost never see police downtown at night. The city's budget is balanced, so that's a hopeful sign.

Maybe it's this browser, but for me there's no picture at all. Just black background and text.

Some friends of mine just opened a "meadery" in Columbus. Is there anything like that around Cleveland?

If you mean the one set back a bit from the street, that's going to be a law office. I forget the firm but I believe they're coming from Terminal Tower. The space in front of the building will eventually have another office building. Until they build that it will be greenspace. I once lived near the site and the developers told us all this in a letter.

Wages and benefits, for new workers at least, have been going down through many recent negotiating cycles. That isn't how things worked in prior decades. I still don't see any stronger argument for bailing out banks than auto companies. Either come-what-may capitalism makes sense or it doesn't... for it to apply differently to different sectors (and frankly regions) really sounds scamalicious.

Cue thunder and lightning... if hostility is the reality then I guess we don't disagree. Actually the workers/unions have changed their approach a great deal, making unprecedented concessions, and it is the upper management and design departments who have refused to change.

To me, the hostility and derision faced by this economic sector at this time is just amazing. We are not better off without them, long or short term. If executives need to be punished for bad decisions then so be it. But that is where the blame for executive decisions must stop. For the record, American cars have been doing better than European cars in quality surveys for some time now, though Asian manufacturers have been better than both by large margins. Many European cars are absolute rubbish, but as always it's quite unfashionable to say so. There is just so much nigh-hateful prejudice against US manufacturers from their own home market (unprededented in world history, no?) that they may indeed have no chance.

The bottom line is that retirement needs to be paid for somehow. Comparing our model with overseas examples, it seems that directly burdening employers with it may not be the way to go. It also isn't fair that those in the auto industry get so much while others may work just as hard for just as long and get nothing. This brings me back to the need for government to consolidate the pension system and make it a benefit of citizenship. That would bring us in line with our competitors and give our larger industries a fighting chance.

The Cleveland area happens to have a really good transit-system-maps company, I used to work there.

that work or car type line could be absorbed by one of the remaining company's. One going down doesn't indicate that all lines would stop. I don't know... why would one company make want to build both Neons and Cavalier/Cobalt/Cruze's? And making the same model at two different plants simultaneously is almost unheard of. The whole idea of merging would be to eliminate redundancy, and those models directly compete. One would have to go. I'm lookin at you, neon. The combined entity would only need one product in each market segment (like a Japanese company)-- one compact, one small SUV, one luxury sedan, etc. Another part of GM's problem is too many brands, leading to too many near-identical models. The extra models don't keep extra plants open because they're all made together anyway. But it costs a lot more to market them.

Yeah, that section of downtown will be stuck in neutral as long as there's so much concentrated distress there. Maybe the Greyhound station can be repurposed as a retaurant, with some new construction filling in the rest of the lot.

If one of these companies goes down, including through a merger, at least one smaller metro area will be severely damaged. GM and Chrysler build their compact cars at Lordstown and Rockford, respectively. I hear that new Cruze is pretty decent... Chrysler's cash cow minivans might be the only thing of theirs (other than jeep) to survive a merger, and they're made in Canada. Body panels for them are made in Twinsburg though.

They deserved more fanfare when they won that title. Is there any possibility of the City Stars moving up a division or two if they keep doing well?

David, I completely agree that unions undermine flexibility. Also that it's a bad thing for competitiveness. My opinion on unions is complex and has evolved many times over. As I look around today, I see signs that the chameleonic (I like the word) economy has tremendous downsides. I'm sure it gets us our new blackberrys a year sooner every time. Whoop de da, standards of living are tanking. All this economic agility is wonderful but the fact remains that most financial obligations are not similarly flexible. Workers can't just bounce around when they lose points for every missed bill. It didn't use to be like that, in either direction. Some of this can be blamed on the decline of the labor movement. What unions typically fight for now is commitment and stability. We can't really have those things slip any further, look what's happening. This came up in class tonight, in looking at the labor relations act: Overtime was not created to enrich the existing workforce or to provide additional leisure time. It's an incentive to hire more people instead of squeezing the ones you have. As the workforce becomes more white collar, and in turn more salary-based, this pressure against unemployent eases. Less leisure time is also a consequence, plus someone else is getting enriched. It's a whole bad package.

Cool