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$100k is low? There's been a lot of controversy recently about bonds being too high, not too low. In this instance, he couldn't pay it and remains in jail. I do bail hearings all the time and your edit is correct. The issues we normally deal with are flight risk and public safety risk, based on the defendant's record and life circumstances. I also bring up the needs of dependents at home if they have any. The charge is a factor too but it speaks for itself.

The grass is bad because it doesn't belong there and wasn't a wise investment. As to the people on the square, they're passing through to actual destinations rather than treating it as a destination itself. They aren't stopping to vibrate the greenspace. Aside from people who are in transit to somewhere else, the square is empty most of the time. Love your pedestrian bridge idea, but we gotta think bigger. Perhaps a cable car or a monorail.

Every time a hospital expands, that parcel stops paying property tax. This is a major flaw in the concept of building an economy around them.

Let's spend $50 million to get the homeless off Public Square! What do you mean "give it to them?" That's crazy.

They didn't just close Ontario, they tried to pretend Ontario never existed and there was never any use for it. But Ontario is still the road between the train station and two courthouses. That reality will always take precedence over a lawn in the middle of downtown. Go ahead, ignore logistics all you want. Logistics doesn't care. It's going to win anyway. You might think you've beaten it, but it will rip the axles off your buses and kill your precious grass.

I can't share my stories, but they involve people having difficulty getting to court via public transportation. Some local muni courts are on bus routes but some aren't. Cuyahoga County juvenile court is easily accessible via the red line train but that only helps if you live near the red line. Many other west siders have a crosstown bus trip to deal with. Even if you live on the east side, you may need to go downtown and transfer to reach 93rd and Quincy.

It's like they're worried their heads will fall off if they do a single thing right.

I don't get this argument. In CH, you can get to I-271 in <15 min from most parts, I-90 east or west in <15 min via MLK, and downtown in <15 via Carnegie, where you can pick up I-90, I-71, or I-77. So even when you do need a freeway (which isn't often because many places are nearby), it isn't that awfully hard to get to one. I know people who complain about the lack of freeway access and then move to an exurb 40 miles from the city in a development 10-15 minutes from the freeway (the ONLY freeway, which they then need to take for many miles to get anywhere of interest). It's a nonsensical argument. What about Lakewood? Not exactly an exurb. My brother works in Solon and still made that move. To this day he comments on how much easier it is to get around. A friend of mine in Cleveland Heights just visited another friend in West Park and it took him 40 minutes each way. The uber bill was quite large. FWIW the Opportunity Corridor is going to bring these two friends closer together. Both of them live in urban neighborhoods and both of their neighborhoods benefit from additional connectivity with each other. I daresay the OC might even help get something built at Lee and Silsby. Speculation, obviously. But increased access and connectivity are not likely to hurt that parcel or any other in Cleveland Heights.

Anecdotal of course, but freeway access is the overwhelming complaint I hear from people who 1) move out of CH or 2) won't go to an event there.

CH does not seem to realize how much it's hurting itself with those traffic and parking policies. We all know about the tickets but the needless parking problems are rarely discussed. People don't carry around change like they used to. Parking meters in Cleveland take coins other than quarters and there are very few meters in Ohio City at all. And "no overnight parking" policies belong in places like North Royalton, if they belong anywhere. If you're staying with a friend in CH you actually have to call the police and beg them not to tow you. Can't complain about lack of visitors when you're hostile toward them.

Commuting from anywhere on the west side may be difficult, though not by California standards. For a consistent 20 minute drive you need to be east, near Warrensville. Solon and Mayfield both sound like what you're looking for. Personally I love Shaker. It is older and has urban and suburban aspects.

Suit yourself. This is the very sort of thing I believe merits discussion-- differing opinions of passionate people on subjects they care about. In the immortal words of Don Fagan, the things you think are useless I can't understand. Oh well. Cheers!

Not everyone believes additional bus stops are needed to justify quality urban planning. I happen to believe it self-justifies and should not face the headwinds it does around here. I also believe our common losses from bad planning and bad public investments are already staggering and continue to grow unchecked, so it's important to talk about them. Still not understanding the shoulder-chip thing but that's OK. These are matters of public concerns so let's approach them as such. It's not about good/bad people, or right/wrong people, it's about ideas.

I still like a couple of people on 850 but 92.3 is so much better. It helps that they focus on sports.

Shoulder chip? Nothing personal on my end. Sorry to criticize your suggestion but I thought you were seeking opinions on it. My understanding of BRT is that it needs to sail past quite a bit because otherwise the "R" doesn't apply. Nobody calls streetcars "rapid" because they're designed to serve a very different need. Neither one can be all things to all people and neither is interchangeable for the other. Residential going away? Nobody proposed that. But single-use planning is fundamentally suburban and at some point we're going to have to rethink it. The money we spend on transit and subsidized development is wasted if we choose to do it wrong. With the Euclid Corridor, we spent a fortune on elaborate bus stops for nobody. Then we planned the area around it in a single-use fashion that encourages driving and guarantees minimal utility for those stops. And yet the line is still packed with people using it to cover significant distances, a purpose for which it's not designed. I guess all I'm arguing for is round pegs in round holes, square pegs in square ones.

It's just that every time anyone mentions the need for more mixed use in this area, the response is always "they can walk to Detroit, it's right there." Some have even said its proximity to Detroit justifies the suburban style planning. This new development is not particularly Transit Oriented. It's a car-based bedroom community that happens to have urbanity nearby. But it offers scant reason for anyone who doesn't live there to utilize a bus stop there. I feel like we've subsidized this cul de sac enough.

Is the 26 not sufficient, this close to downtown? The whole point of the 55 is weekday express service from further out. Adding stops on this end would frustrate its core purpose.

I like it too. This will look really good there, nice new centerpiece.

Cleveland: I need you to rebuild the arena and the park outside my casino. Chop chop. And you seemed hesitant when I asked you to move the river, so... Detroit: TOWAH!

Republican controlled areas are so rural that few people can move there. Those who move to Wyoming and Idaho already have money, and they're moving to areas that don't even have fire departments. People generally don't move to Mississippi or Arkansas at all. The red-state places people tend to move toward are urban and run by Democrats. Other than North Dakota, and the people moving there are disproportionately transient males.

Hopefully, this dark and silly chapter is coming to an end. And a nice new square with unencumbered bus service is a good place to end it.

Ultimately? Citizens who vote.

This is cold water, but fact. From an apt POV, Michelle notes low area rental rates per construction costs. The only way to raise those rates is wage growth, which would require a lot more effort to bring in businesses, which would require significant turnover at city hall. But I applaud Stark too. At least he's trying, at least he's hopeful and gives hope to others.

Agree. I think some renderings showing new construction that fosters more business growth AND preserves access to the park (and its views) could easily change peoples minds. Also agree, but there's a chance that nothing can be safely built on these parcels. Isn't the subsidence risk pretty severe? Besides, this stretch of road is almost a lost cause until something can be built along that Lutheran parking lot. Feels like 1/2 mile when you're walking past it.

The Galleria was doomed without an anchor. When Tower City lost its anchor, same problem. A Target here, like the one Columbus is getting near OSU, could serve as a retail anchor for all of downtown. If rent subsidies are needed to make it work then they're needed. Our inner city is not oversaturated with retail, rather it's dying for lack of access to retail. Doesn't matter how abundant it is at the edges of the county. A certain scale of it has to be present downtown for the city to meet its residents' needs.