TBideon

That's great! My girlfriend works at City Hall and she was worrying about cutbacks (like they're doing in virtually every other city, with Chicago apparently taking a huge hit soon)

I said that 18 months is a long time for JUST site selection; obviously a project like this in total would take longer

That's still a long time to discuss the pros and cons of, what, 3 or 4 areas at most?

http://law.justia.com/ohio/codes/orc/jd_2923-5afd.html Looks like Monday's in the clear. He's still a irresponsible dick.

But this isn't a getting it done fast vs being accountable and careful and what not - it's about getting it done at all. I mean, it's been years of discussion of where the site will be, and considering how bad things have been in Cleveland lately (and they've been very very bad, let's not kid ourselves), there is a real threat we're not getting the Med Mart, even with $40 million in financing.

My buddy from LA sent me this. It's is a nice article. http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/11/13/rave-review-for-cleveland%E2%80%99s-brt-debut/ Rave Review for Cleveland’s BRT Debut by Ben Fried on November 13, 2008 Cleveland bus riders at one of the Health Line's new stations.Cleveland's first venture into Bus Rapid Transit -- a 10-mile route called the Health Line -- was turning heads before it fully launched, attracting planners from other cities looking to boost transit ridership. Now that the ribbons have been cut, the Plain Dealer's Steven Litt hails the finished product: .......

Didn't Summit Mall just announce it's closing down?

I never said RTA is solely to blame, but it clearlyis as responsible for this project as an employer whose employee does something wrong. I also lay some blame to Cleveland because I was under the impression that the city was working with RTA in some kind of joint capacity with this project - I mean, RTA obviously can't seek local tax money without city approval. Monday definitely should have come forward earlier, but I'm more concerned with RTA and Cleveland at this point

^^Cleveland and RTA absolutely have some responsibility here. With all the years of careful and planning, Cleveland and RTA should have paid extremely close attention to every detail. Any conflict of interest (and there are some major ones) between Perk, McTech, and TTL Meadows should have been thoroughly investigated before construction, and it's completely unacceptable that Carl Monday found out, not the city or RTA. And only now, several weeks after a big and, in my opinion, unnecessary celebration of the Project's opening (it should have been cancelled or at least toned down, at the very least due to that day's loss of National City), these issues come up to the public. And not only do we now know of conflicts of interest and collaborations, but I am growing suspicious that RTA and/or Cleveland knew of these connections but did nothing about it for whatever reasons. This may just be paranoia, but the fact that it's a reasonable paranoia makes this whole situation even more upsetting

I'm sorry but the whistleblower with the voice modulation is freaking hillarious. It's good to hear there are remedies, though I would prefer they at least give us some idea of what that would be. And Carl Monday is such a tool. with this delayed-until-sweeps report. I wonder if complicity is against the law in Ohio.

That Olberman piece was something else. I usually can't stand the guy - the whole 'worst person in the world' and bill o' reilly feud is poor journalism at its worst - but he is truly passionate about this issue and it shows. What is wrong with these anti gay marriage people? How can they be so blind

I don't see this (yet) as a major loss because there is still a committed group willing to work on the project when the credit market and economy improve 12-18 months from now. And did any of us really expect this thing to get off the ground at any time before then with this economy. My point - This is now the Weston Warehouse Project, and until I hear otherwise, I choose to remain cautiously optimistic about its eventual success.

Well, it's not completely dead. http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/11/developer_stark_drops_warehous.html "...T.J Asher, president of Weston Acquisitions Group in Solon, said Tuesday afternoon that his family still plans to build homes, offices, shopping and parking in an "urban, mixed-use" project on their portions of the parking lots between West 3rd and West 6th streets and between St. Clair and Superior avenues. He would not provide additional details but said more information about the family's plan could be available before the end of the year. "In today's environment it's going to be very difficult to get anything accomplished," Asher said. "But nothing's going to happen immediately, and we are very confident that the near future will enable us to develop the project." The family's commercial real estate company, Weston Inc., has moved during the past few years from simply acquiring property to developing it. The company launched a new arm, Weston Development Co., earlier this year. Mark Horton, president of Weston Development, said the company is putting together a development team for the Warehouse District project, which he said could move forward within the next 12 to 18 months. "I guess we had some of our own ideas," Asher said about pursuing the project without Stark. "It's a very amicable situation between Bob Stark and us. We just decided because of the economic times, because of a little change in direction for both parties, it was good to move on."

Perhaps he's using this announcement as leverage against the parking lot owners, or maybe blaming them is just an excuse to bail on the project since finanacing is so hard to get these days.

JMasek, I have to take umbrage with that. As a taxpayer who funded this project both on a local and federal level, I feel that's a reasonable question and RTA should have a more detailed response other than wait-and-see. What if I were a potential business owner looking to expand to Euclid - surely a massive repaving project would be highly relevant to my decision. I don't mean to attack you - I'm sure you and the other RTA people are furious by this news - but we have a right to know what's going on regarding the various scenarios. Just as you were undoubtedly angered by Carl Monday's hiding this information until now, I kind of feel the same way about RTA's response thus far.

"Preventing small crimes, stops larger crimes and make the city safer, REAL OR PERCEIVED" I agree. Broken windows (or shattered windows or whatever it's called) seemed to do wonders for New York, and I see no reason Cleveland cannot follow foot.

^My perception comes from a few things. First, I could have sworn I read some stats on cleveland.com that repeated my comment - if I have some time I might look into the site's archives. Second, I read something in the PD/cleveland.com about crime being on the rise in Midtown specifically. Third, my friend's great aunt just moved from Slavic Village (a Cleveland neighborhood) to Euclid (a Cleveland suburb), and he told me some heartbreaking and downright scary stories about her daily life there. Fourth, I would think that that since foreclosures and job losses are so rampant in today's economic climate, crime would unfortunately tend to rise alongside.

I really have to applaud CSU for all of its accomplishments and investments in downtown Cleveland. It's very easy for Boston residents to be proud of BU and Chicago residents to be proud of University of Chicago because these schools have always excelled... but to see the quiet rise of CSU is something that really does not occur with most schools, and whenever I'm down about Cleveland (face it, it's been a brutal month here), I think of this fine university and give it the ULTIMATE kudos. They've accomplished so much and did so quietly. I really can't applaud it enough, and things are only improving there.

Other than murder rates, I was under the impression crime was up in Cleveland.

Didn't Guiliani try to crack down on jaywalkers about 10 years ago but with only 2 dollar fines? Seems like a good idea - it's not enough money to really piss people off but the fact that it's enforced will likely make some kind of dent in the number of jaywalking incidents

Just watched it. Yikes. JMasek or JetDog, what would be a worst case scenario with this situation. Is it foreseeable/possible that, if the cement really is substantially tainted with that stuff, the entire Corridor would have to be repaved?

Did anybody watch that shmuck's piece last night? Was it basically the same story as discussed a few posts ago?

I don't even understand what his point is

Carl Monday is such a twit

applause