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Is it supposed to be 80s themed?

They better hurry! http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/11/high_winds_push_crane_into_hil.html#incart_river_home

Be interested to your heart's content. That should not create a legal right. In Houston it doesn't. Other places like here, it kinda does, and that can cut both ways. I agree with you completely regarding the Duck Island residents who fight everything urban that tries to come in. Rights typically have limits. I don't believe people in a city should be able to insist on a semi-rural lifestyle for themselves at others' expense. But I do believe in design review, especially in historic areas where the overall architectural feel comprises so much of the value.

Each property affects the value of those nearby, and in doing so affects the tax base. Thus everyone has a vested interest in everything around them, particularly in an urban setting.

I work upstairs and I will try to stop down at least for a bit.

There are Pittsburgh people all over NE Ohio because they came here for jobs. Pittsburgh has its act together as a city, and it shows, and I'd love for Cleveland to follow suit in many ways. But I cannot agree that Pittsburgh is on a better track economically. Youngstown will always have strong ties in both directions.

It doesn't make any sense at all, ever, to build anything that: 1) is expected to merit demolition in the foreseeable future, or 2) blocks rail expansion. Long-term physical blockage is about the strongest statement RTA could make against extending this rail line.

That's kind of what I'm getting at, the issue is political rather than legal. Surface parking has powerful backers who influence city policy. Considering the relationship between that policy and their own profit interests, and considering the campaign contributions they make, one might call that influence corrupt. Are we not a competing interest? I'm suggesting an alternative policy, one that might be worth fighting for. Or not. But we shouldn't get hung up on "complexities" that have done nothing to stop a broad host of existing punitive taxes. As you've identified, the real issue is that people who profit from surface parking happen to prefer the status quo. Those people aren't kings. They have no more right to influence municipal tax policy than we do.

"Punitive" taxes already exist, all over the place. And Cleveland already has a parking tax. That tax can go up. It has before. "Punitive" doesn't enter into it. Cleveland should raise its tax on surface parking, to encourage (and fund) alternative land uses and alternative means of transport. Just take the existing rate and increase it. Use the funds for... zoning reform, storefront renovation, gang units, bike lanes, whatever.

There's nothing wrong with a tax on parking. Cleveland already has one. Here's an (old) article about failing to enforce it. http://blog.cleveland.com/plaindealer/2007/12/parking_tax_enforcement_still.html

I think I'm done with Pettine. Discipline, personnel, game management... it's all wrong. He's just a bad head coach. Farmer's bad too, but we knew that already.

The Dimora coverage was overblown and salacious but it's still front page worthy. This guy ran our town for years and only the feds could stop him. There has to be a lesson for us in there somewhere... probably not a lesson about hookers though.

Who said anything about punitive? There's already a tax. Anyway, point is I'd bet that Stark met a lot less resistance to building this project on this lot, as compared to his earlier WHD plan. A taller tower with a smaller footprint has less impact on surface parking. We here aren't fans of that, but there is a fan base, and suburban commuters are only one portion of it. All in all, this project is a huge victory so I'm not worrying about what could have been.

If surface parking is an undesirable land use, it could be taxed more. That might solve multiple problems at once. The problem is that it's viewed as a desirable land use. There's actually a lot of support for it. Business owners along West 6th have openly opposed any development of the lots there.

These look great, hopefully a template for future development.

I no longer use the term "bus rapid transit" because it just plain isn't. And I'm increasingly upset by the false equivalence RTA is suggesting.

I don't just mean the immediate railcar crisis, I mean leadership has been silent in a much broader sense. Besides, we shouldn't have to guess where people stand on this. It's the lead-ers who should be lead-ing the outcry, especially if they're the ones to whom critical inside information is available. In some ways, this is the whole point of having people in charge. It's a shame that the last rail expansion, the waterfront line, was so ill-conceived. It's also a shame that the red line cars now feature new "rapid transit" maps that include the bus lines on Euclid and Clifton. "Pay no heed to the distinct advantages of rail!"

Cannot emphasize this enough. Local leadership needs to get behind our rail system if we expect anything good to happen. To this point, no such luck. Where are the mayors and councils of Cleveland, of Shaker, of Lakewood? What about the county council? What about the board members of RTA? Speak up!

Passing Issue 1 was a big step in the right direction. Our state legislature has some balance in its future.

Unlike congress, a state legislature is basically The Crown. Civil rights abuses are subject to rational basis or other tests. Interfering with interstate commerce is also a no-no, but that doesn't apply to what we're talking about, as it would remain federally illegal.

Drops in the bucket. I'm talking about offering businesses a single regulatory entity covering a million+ people. Just think of all those double income taxes we won't have to pay anymore. Summit County is welcome to join too! Let's make it two million. We can start drawing major employers from the coasts... as soon as we prove we can work together with people who live a couple miles away.

On top of the obvious tax consequences, there is nothing "pro-business" about having 50+ different regulatory regimes in one county. Instead of one permit department a business can visit at its own convenience, we have itinerant officers who only show up Tuesdays at 11. Drop everything and get someone down there! Wait... do we have a license? No, not that one, the other one. It takes a whole stack of licenses (each for the exact same thing) to operate in Cuyahoga County.

I would disagree as to what kind of country this is, but that's not even the issue here. I mean, it isn't a medieval nation either. It makes no economic sense-- for anyone-- to encourage municipal collapse or to have explosive messes blossoming right down the road from wherever you are. Reality doesn't change just because Gates Mills fancies itself isolated from the greater metro. The benefits of metropolitan county mergers are easily observable nationwide, as are the perils of resisting them. This isn't a matter of political ideology. This has reached a point of sense vs. lack of sense.

You're right. This should not be an issue solely for destitute municipalities. We can't Cleveland-ize all the poverty while shielding the wealth in little pocket boroughs. That's why it makes more sense to just merge the whole county in one move.

At what point do people understand they haven't escaped anything, and their preference for a balkanized map never was affordable? The damage from their untenable solution is really starting to pile up. Reality has to kick in at some point. Merger is the only long term answer.