TBideon

Apparently a big reason for their money problems the last few years was the costs of the VP debates in 2004. At least that's what I've heard from a few sources at the school.

If the noise is that distracting, you guys might want to consider some kind of legal action i.e. an injunction or seeking damages. It may behoove you guys to talk to a lawyer or do some research as to any possible noise violations.

From facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=124018574299639

Aw, La Boca is closing:(

I don't think it's fair to vilify the two RTA guys for not responding to inquiries within this particular forum. These are informal channels that, as far as it seems, the RTA reps have been distancing themselves from lately. Having read their earlier responses from when they were more active, both guys don't appear like they're lazy workers just going through the motions. Perhaps Jerry and Jetdog are just incredibly busy and don't have the time to go through the dozens/hundreds of comments directed to them. Perhaps the RTA doesn't want them to comment on forums such as urbanohio any longer. It would be nice for them to comment on what's going on, but I can't grudge them for not. Now the RTA directly ignoring emails and phone calls - that's unconscionable and unprofessional. But as to Jerry and Jetdog being criticized, I think you all should remember that they're on this site on their own time, and we were probably lucky that they did so at all. And just to be clear, I am very upset with how the RTA has fallen apart in recent years and am not defending them in any way. Just those two guys who would post off and on the last 5-10 years or so.

I imagine the developers will conduct extensive research as to what the market will allow with monthly rates. I don't really see any issue here.

It literally is night and day. Great wine, calamari and bruschetta a little over priced

I don't know if this is a big secret, but I went to the Hessler street fair last week and afterwards hit up Guarino's in Little Italy. There's apparently this huge back patio with really colorful tablecloths on the tables - I had no idea that the restaurant opened up so much in the back, which is funny since Guranio's is kind of a darkish place on the inside.

I read on cleveland.com that these 668 residences are almost at full occupancy. Is that true?

I agree with everything MTS just said. With the unconscionable increase in tuition rates all over the country along with the current depression (not recession, not contraction, DEPRESSION) we're in, schools like CSU are surely seeing a huge boom in student applicants, many of whom are seeking a more conventional university life i.e. non-commuter. Universities like Georgetown, NYU, Vanderbilt and Duke are all well over $50,000/year for undergrads, and lord knows what cost of living expenses are. Those numbers are just baffling, especially in an economy where jobs are scarce and a college degree just doesn't cut it by itself unless you're in some kind of specialized field. In a sense, this a good thing because higher caliber students will want to attend less expensive schools like CSU, which in turn will increase the reputation of teh school and become even more attractive to high quality students, professors and investors. And with projects like this, students who still want to have a somewhat conventional college experience - dorms, frats, parties, fun, lifelong friendships, diplomas -will now have extra incentive to go to these local schools, thereby pouring money into the local communities. Of course, everything I said here is pretty obvious but it's still all goooood. How the heck can cleveland.com posters be afraid of this project?

Are there any good places to have dessert around the area?

I say go radical. 1. It all comes down to jobs. How you get those...well, that's for another topic. But more jobs equals fewer crimes equals better neighborhoods equals people not wanting to move equals staying in school. 2. Legalize all drugs; therefore, some of these daddies will no longer be in prison for dealing and possessing and instead can stay around and actually be parents. 3. Incorporate broken windows type legislation. Severely punish people for small infractions and they won't get around to doing big ones. 4. Mandatory high school diplomas. You have to get a diploma or else you get punished in some way. Not sure how, but again, that's another topic. A 5. Teacher re-certification every few years. Teachers no longer get to hide in tenure or seniority. Doctors and lawyers have to get retested or re-licensed every few years. So should teachers. And if they fail (say 2 or three times), then they're OUT! 6. Permit expulsions from all school districts. Bad kids should be kicked out if they continue to be bad. Not transferred to other schools. Completely removed. What we do with them, again, is for another topic. 7. Pay kids to succeed. Since a lot of these kids don't care about bettering themselves for the sake being educated, then let's bribe them. You get an A, you get $25. Something like that. 8. Privatize schools. We spend a lot of money on kids to go to schools, and it's gotten us nothing. Charter schools do better usually. Therefore, let's refocus our public funds on those kinds of places. 9. Incorporate trade schools and apprenticeships in school. Let them learn a trade and get hands on experience. It seems win win. 10. Schools should be year round and longer hours. Pay teachers more if you have to and cut those excess administrators if need be. Get these kids out of the streets and into the classroom. 11. Criminalize gangs. Treat gangs as you would terrorist sect. We need to stop accepting gang life as cultural and instead treat it and its members as you would if they were Al Queada. And based on the number of people who have died due to American gangware, I'd say they're a lot worse.

I don't believe in the "If you build it, they will come" theory with projects in general, as I usually think that demand has to be there before supply. This Velodrome is a cool sounding idea, but I'm a little pessimistic here.

Really cool pictures. I don't know much about the area other than some occasional stories on cleveland.com and the PD. And regarding the above conversation, eh, you're both right.

He was on Triv today talking about utilizing only a consumption tax.

Anyone ever eat at Table 45? Any thoughts?

A bit pricey? 22 dollars is ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS. That's what the Newseum in DC charges for crying out loud, and you can spend an entire weekend there without seeing everything. I'd love to see the E4 exhibit but this is going be a complete failure unless the price hits reality.

This is absolutely depressing. "The brand-new concrete pavement on Cleveland's reborn Euclid Avenue is disintegrating after only a year. If this were your driveway, you'd sue, right? Was it fraud, or just incompetence?"

roller blader I guess. Yeah, I forgot

That kind of reminds of Kitao Sakurai, who went to University School in Hunting Valley and made a surprising number of Hollywood films while living in Cleveland. He's the Asian skateboarder demon in Kevin Smith's awesome film, "Dogma"

I had lunch with a client at John Q's last week, and we heard those buses. It was....shocking.

But why actively discourage my brother-in-law and nephew from buying two passes for when they leave the game? Even if the cards weren't activated upon purchase, shouldn't they become activated when they're used later that night? The whole idea of wanting to buy those extra passes was to avoid having to buy them before getting on the train to leave, thereby bypassing the inevitable line of people. I hope this wasn't was some nickel-and-dime ploy to coerce them to buy day passes and therefore spend an extra and unnecessary $1.50 in total (or whatever it is). I think I'm still missing something here. Also, can these machines be converted so you can have the option of putting as much money as you want on one card like in Chicago? It would save a lot of hassle.

My brother-in-law took my nephew to game 2 of the Cavs game via the Shaker rapid. Usually they drive downtown, so this was a different experience for them. While the rapid line was smooth and everyone relatively friendly - people were loud and excited but not in a bad way - they really had a problem with the vending machines, and the confusion was fairly prevalent with other passengers. The biggest problem was the complete confusion of buying two passes now and two later (since they didn't want to blow the extra few bucks on two full day passes) and whether or not they're immediately activated upon purchase. The idea was to buy 4 passes as soon as they got out of the train (2 for now and 2 for later) so they wouldn't have to worry about it later, but an RTA worker discouraged them from buying the latter two due to activation concerns. Yeah, I don't know what that means and neither did my brother-in-law and his son (both of whom are pretty smart to begin with), but they were warned against buying those other two passes since they would not be activated and the two would have to buy another two passes after the game. I don't exactly understand what that's all about (what the heck is an inactivated pass anyway - when you buy it, it should be good for 24 hours. There had to be some kind of miscommunication, please tell me there was!), but the RTA worker didn't help them all that much either. I didn't get the impression she was all that nice either, and evidently she was a very soft talker - not really someone who should be instructing people how to use these complicated machines in a noisy environment. Also, the workers really should make an effort to be a little extra pleasant and understanding at all times, especially when we have nationally exposed games and higher-than-average RTA usage due to the playoffs. Overall, it made for a kind of funny anecdote during family dinner on Sunday, but it does speak to the inexplicably poor design choice for the passes and other issues with employee attitude.

I'm sorry if this has been addressed, but is this all covered under warranty, including a more permanent fix?

Damn, Melt had a TWO HOUR WAIT yesterday (got there around maybe 7:45). So I called up Tai Fun Bistro and made an immediate reservation. God is the food amazing there. They could have refilled my coffee a little faster (I had to ask twice), but I've never had tofu that tastes so much like chicken. They're doing something right there, that's for sure. Afterward, we finally went to the Chocolate Bar (even though I'm not a desert drinker) and split some kind of chocolaty martini and a creme buele. The martini was fine but nothing to go crazy over; however, holy crap, I almost had an attack watching the server use the blowtorch on the pudding. It was beyond delicious. Outstanding food all around:)