tedders55

I should be able to make that.

St. Louis or Minneapolis will happen decades before Cleveland even gets a wiff of an MLS team. Don is right. Everyone in Ohio should support the Crew. Hopefully they can have a decent season this year, even though they are in transition between coaches.

Happy Fat Tuesday to you as well! I just want to let everyone know that I had a King Cake for the first time, and got the baby. Supposedly this means you will have good luck. I am fully expecting to slip on a random spot of ice on my way home tonight.

Pour may not have the comfy chairs, but they do have power outlets on all their tables. Which should encourage some of the mobile office/contractor/creative types to come in have a few cups of coffee and get some work done. Plus they have some large tables which could be great for meetings where you need to get out of the office.

^ I was going to ask about the above. That seems to make more sense. I'm sure there also needs to be a good amount of set up of the "Premiere" as well. Bigger question though is why this can't be done at one of the Playhouse Square theaters? I'm sure there are other events going on, but it isn't like Playhouse can only handle one event at once. I would also guess that Vally View was slightly cheaper to rent.

^ Having grown up in SEO, and then moving to NEO I can confirm that the spring up here is quire short. However Fall actually stretches more than you would think, thanks to the rather warm lake. This is especially true very close to the lake, some of my best boating days always seem to be in the Fall. Also, regarding ski clubs, while there are some in SEO, there seem to be a larger portion here. I think all schools have some type of ski club that is pretty well organized. Also being close to the larger hills of Western NY makes finding entertainment in the winter is easier. Also, Ice fishing around the Islands on Lake Erie is popular too.

When my niece played CYO football, one of her parents or me had to be at every practice as well as the games. Growing up I NEVER remember my parents hanging out at practices. And today with cell phones we are more connected. I don't see any reason why a kid can't function at practice, and a coach can't call the parent in case of emergency, or (oh the horror), act as an adult and make a decision of medical necessity. We still have to fill out the permission forms granting them said right. This is all part of the helicopter parenting that is taking over our society. Let kids be kids. They are going to get skinned knees, bruises and maybe a broken bone. I sure did. As long as parents leave their phone on and show up on time to pick their kid up, I see no problem with dropping them at practice. I grew up in a neighborhood adjacent to the park where soccer practice was held. I never even got dropped off, just walked over and back when they were done. And for the most part there were never any parents there anyway. If there were when my father was coaching us we never would have gotten away with ending a few practices by playing a little rugby. Of course this was all instituted by my father who was an ex rugby player (he may have still be playing around with it when coaching us kids).

When I moved in to a real neighborhood after college (away from the usc campus bubble), I chose to live in Los Feliz largely because there was a Red Line station at Vermont/Sunset. I worked downtown, and it literally took 10 minutes from station to station. On days when I had a meeting in the middle of the day I would have to drive and it would easily take 30 mins on the 101, or slightly less if I took surface streets. I hate the Red Line. It smells. Because the Subways of NYC always smell like roses ... :roll:

Although I want the film to flop, this is really good for the city and hopefully it will lead to move production in the city. For professional reasons? Or do you have something against Chris Evans?

Not sure if Virgin America would really make use of Hopkins, their market is very West Coast oriented with the East Coast being their Gateways to Heathrow. Now with the congestion throughout the northeast it could make sense to fly out of CLE as reliever from NYC, provided that the Customs facilities are updated. Still surprised with Eaton's merger with Cooper (?), and now being "Headquartered" in Dublin that we have not been able to get a direct flight there. Dublin is no London or Paris, but it does seem like there is a built in market. The bigger issue with Europe bound flights is that Cleveland is right on the limit of what a lot of the planes that would be flying out of CLE can reach. It is about 3,900 miles CLE->LHR.

Walking through there that would be my guess. Lots of drwall work on the rooms w/o blinds. Really hope something happens with the lower level stores as it feels very ghost-town-y.

I wonder what is going to happen to those old scoreboards. Do they get sold on some secondary market? Is there somewhere that I can see about possibly buying one? My house could surely use a TV bigger than it.

Can they blow up concourse A as part of it?!? The would be a double win, even if nothing replaces it.

^ I would second this. Unless you were loyal to Marriott there were not many options in downtown Cleveland. By the time all the new hotels come online there will be three new Starwood properties, and a new Hilton. I would still prefer more diversification but this is a good start.

I think I agree with you. Certainly having the city less car dependant and having more commuters on rail or living within walking distance of work would have helped, but the problem was primarily caused by shutting down the city causing everyone to try and get onto the road at once. A few years ago Cleveland told everyone to evacuate due to snow and having everyone on the road at once shut down downtown. (I left work at 3:30 that day and didn't get home till 8.) This was a pure lake effect event too. So downtown and the snowbelt areas got hit particularly hard, while the west side barely got 1-2 inches of snow. During all this the rapid was running, and I was able to get home at a the standard time. So I felt justified, although I have had reverse situations occur as well. Is there really a good way to empty out a regions major employment center?

^ It probably would be cheaper, but the divorce payments wont.

The Red Line was back up and running this morning. I just want to thank all the RTA workers who put up with the cold and an Ice wall apparently.

Yeah they do. That good rep, and some $$$, got Draft Day moved here.

So what happend to the Red Line today? Some wire issue caused shuttle busing to be implemented between 98th and 25th. It didn't seem like that much snow or ice had fallen, but it did cause a nice delay for the morning commute. I persoanlly thought RTA did a good job communicating the issue, the text alerts seemed to comeout pretty quick and our driver was making announcements to everyone that boarded. As it was ruch hour she did mention that the 26 would take you downtown from 98th, and there were people at the station providing updates. The only thing I would mention is that it would be nice to mention any other bus routes that go downtown from the stops prior to 98th. Also, really good to see that everything was back up and running pretty quickly. That could have caused a major headache tonight.

Also, not a great time for movie releases. Granted this is more likely done to take advantage of the pre-draft build up but most movies that are released in late March and April are ones the studios are not too sure about. This is no longer true. A movie released in March or April is no indication of quality. More and more, studios are releasing bigger pics in March and April because the summer months are becoming too crowded. Last April the baseball movie 47, the one about Jackie Robinson, was released because it wouldn't have found an audience in the summer, and it was a decent hit. It was true in the past that Feb and March were movie dead zones, but for the last several years, studios have been releasing more and "bigger" movies in March and April to capitalize on the breathing room. 42 was the Jackie Robinson movie. And actually, that release window is probably right in this movie's wheelhouse. It was likely relatively cheap to produce, at least by Hollywood standards. And it clearly isn't designed to be a summer blockbuster style, or fall winter awards type movie. I think it will do pretty well, between the overall NFL Draft hype and Kevin Costner being back in a sports movie (the only thing he does well, Dancing with Wolves excepted). The more worrying, at least in my mind, situation is the Captain America release date; April 4th. This really should be a movie released in May, it is a busy month but even the end of April would seem to work better. Unless the studios are really trying to push out the calender it seems very early for this type of movie.

Also, not a great time for movie releases. Granted this is more likely done to take advantage of the pre-draft build up but most movies that are released in late March and April are ones the studios are not too sure about.

Ohh come on, it's always entertaining to watch just how the Browns are going to throw away a game on Sunday. They never seem to do it the same way. It's like watching CSI or something, you know they are going to solve the crime you just don't know how. Same with the Browns, you know they are going to lose, you just don't know how yet.

The NextConnect System is due to the back-end tracking system that RTA uses. It is provided by a company called Trapeze Software. They are limited by that system to what can be used. While NextBus would be an improvement, they may not be able to provide a real time stream of their system data. Also, while the NextConnect system may be extremely unfriendly to the user, the data may be correct. It is tough to say though because there is no differentiation between when a displayed time is based on Real-Time Data or just the Route Schedule.

^ It does seem that there is more plastic up each day covering the windows. So hopefully that means a good amount of work will be done in the winter. As for the Drury, I had the unfortunate experience of staying at one of their properties. While this was their lower end Inn brand, compared to the Plaza which is what will be going in here, I was less than impressed. Everything about the hotel seemed cheap. Also, they do this weird "kickback" thing at all their properties where you can get drinks and crappy food. I'm really hoping that either they have some new concept they are going to try or some other operator comes in and takes over for them.

The other reason there is no Staples type of store is that most companies that are downtown are large enough to make significant use of ordering in bulk. The rents are likely too high for smaller companies that would use a brick and mortar store. Also, regarding the hardware store, while it would be nice to have I have to wonder where most of their profit is made. They can't be making much on a $0.05 nut, or even a $10 hammer. Likely their main profit centers are on bigger items. So even for a small shop this will mean electrical tools, which besides a drill I'm not sure what item an apartment dweller would need. Certainly not any yard tools. I feel that a City Target, or even a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, would solve many of these wants.