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The simple fact that they built it justifies running it until the bars close. Otherwise it's sunk cost sitting there idle. The price of building rail is high but the price of building unused rail is prohibitive. As for extending it into a loop, I can't see that performing better than existing options for getting around downtown. If we're going to lay track we should lay track right up St. Clair. That would solve a problem in a way that only rail can.

I believe the Rockometer is still on the table.

Better than a stick in the eye but hardly a career, and they lack the stability of the jobs they're replacing. In too many instances they're also replacing local businesses, which is not an even trade at all. And it's nice that you can move up from these jobs but then again you kinda have to. For the most part I agree about the transit benefit of their site selections though.

Also roads and transit overlap in the form of buses. This isn't a zero sum game. Nurse aides living off Clark Avenue don't need to suffer just so doctors from Avon can suffer too.

Ironically it's only the most "well paid" CCF and UH employees who can afford the new housing in that area. The rest have little choice but to commute, which means this road is being built primarily for University Circle's working class. It would be great if the entire CCF staff could all move to Fairfax tomorrow, but Fairfax is not up to code right now and that isn't their fault. I would say the secondary market for this road is not doctors but visitors to Cleveland. How do we get to your museum district? Well, you go to where the freeway ends and you hang a left at the scrapyard, make sure you're in the correct lane at the 5-way by the big vacant lot because they shift and the last thing you need is a forced turn down Kinsman, so anyway you keep going north a mile or so to the projects and take a right, and then you're on your way.

The last suburb adjoining Cleveland incorporated in 1960 and the a word was not only a non-starter but a discussion poisoner from that point forward. The nature of big city government was one of the things the first wave sprawlers were trying to escape. Remember, Cleveland has always been a northeastern type city, Columbus midwestern, Cincinnati a southern-midwestern hybrid. Northeastern cities sprawled into suburbs. It wouldn't have worked anyway. Facing an ultimatum like Columbus put out, Euclid and Lakewood would likely have built their own water systems, and then offered towns further south an option. No doubt, Cleveland's "neighbors hating neighbors" philosophy was also a factor. Wherever there's legal and political technicalities, there's always a belief system driving it. You can try to address it at the technicality level but ultimately all that matters is what people want to do. Can't make the horse drink. Regarding Lorain County, it's a big swamp so not the ideal place to dig a bunch of basements. No surprise that it would be our last frontier for sprawl. I suspect it's gotten a good share of the city workers vacating West Park in recent years, as have Strongsville and Brunswick. The residency law was an instance of home rule turning the tables and working against sprawl, until the state stepped in.

Columbus required any new area receiving Columbus water service to join Columbus. Cleveland did not. That is the primary reason Columbus has less suburbs. Ohio's home rule system encouraged balkanization by promising cities and their officials more power. So in the absence of a competing force like the Columbus water ultimatum, suburbs gonna happen. Note that most of Cleveland's inner ring incorporated during the early home rule era, 1910-1930. This would probably have happened to Columbus as well, if it had been booming like Cleveland at the time. It happened to every US city that boomed early. Since then, the pendulum has swung away from home rule. We still have it but it doesn't amount to much, because the state preempts everything and the courts generally let it. Developing later was advantageous because it gave Columbus a chance to try something different in a more favorable legal environment. On the flip side, developing later also gave Columbus its sprawly character. There's good and bad to everything.

At least this road serves a widely recognized need and will likely get a lot of use. The WFL does very little for very few people. We need to emphasize rail over driving as much as possible but we also need to separate good ideas from bad ones regardless of modality. We'd all have been thrilled if RTA had proposed a rail extension to Solon as an alternative to this investment. But they didn't, and we can't blame that on the Opportunity Corridor.

Option B is pretty solid, after years of seeing bungalows proposed as TOD. Those freight tracks are on an embankment so there's going to be some buffer space no matter what you do.

There are very few storefront vacancies nearby. Not only is this across from the theaters, it's right next to an increasingly residential university. I wonder what they're using for a demand metric. This is one of those situations where the city might offer assistance in doing the right thing. Litt compares the current proposal to Superior between 9th and 12th, a perfect example of what not to do.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. The point where we diverge is that I objectively do not think that this proposed building is bad, and I'm not sure your concept of what should be built aligns with what a community farmer's market actually is. As I pointed out above, it seems you want this to be a full-out market which is just not the scope of this project. That's fine if you like it, and you may be right that the next rendering will look better. I can't even discern what it's supposed to be made of. The footprint looks to be pretty minimal and that troubles me more than any specific design aspect. Does the "farmers market" concept require big lawns? If so, this probably doesn't belong on the corner of 105th.

"We want to build taller but we were told no. It's not about market, not about money, it's about the city actively stopping us. Still trying."

Perhaps modular containers? Let's just pave it over and have people sell things from the trunks of their cars. We'll call them "buskers" and that'll elevate the whole affair.

Not all mass is equally critical. We should never think ourselves so desperate that bad ideas become good. North and east of this is practically the lakefront and we should be rooting for towers there, not suburban townhouses.

That's a barn, and not a very attractive one. We'd be better off using tents until an appropriate structure can be built.

Anything on a major downtown Avenue should be pedestrian oriented mixed use, and should better utilize its acreage. This proposal could be for downtown Cleveland or for Gahanna, there's no way to tell just from looking at it and that's shameful. Design Review should laugh at it and move on. The time for competence is now.

Yes I meant 80 meters, not feet. Sorry about that. Reality determined the cutoff metric as 80-100 meters turns out to be the most common height for them. The heights follow a pretty regular distribution up from there, 100 meters being a bit more rare, 120 a lot more rare, etc. Below 80 meters you get a lot of church spires and city halls and other structures that don't really fit the bill. 80 meters still eliminates a few things it shouldn't, like Cleveland's Midland/Landmark building at 79, but them's the breaks.

Over 30 US cities have more than one prewar skyscraper. I once did a spreadsheet on this very subject, using 80' as the minimum height. Cleveland has 7, Cincinnati has 4, and Columbus just the one. Akron has 1, Toledo and Dayton both have 2. For reference, NYC has 118 (remaining) and Chicago has 37.

^^ I really like the look of the ones they've built so far. ^ There's demand for newer housing here so that seems like a good idea. We definitely don't need a plaza, we already have one and it's more than enough.

Technically anything is possible under the US constitution, if discussion leads to widespread agreement. That's one of America's greatest strengths. The only drawback is things like "NO BEER! OK fine, beer."

Not that I know of. Virginia spawned WV and KY, plus western PA.

Real headline: Amazon monopoly gaining ground, will soon eliminate all competitors and solidify control of global distribution

There's just no way they're letting us have our own 2 senators. That would change everything. Same problem for DC and PR.

For me, it needs a painting of Brian Sipe on it to look historic.

Johnson's history shows he is all about stiff-arming. I agree with Johnson on some issues, disagree on others. But you're right about his history. I'm beginning to fear that Jackson may be the best option we have. And wow is that sad.