Foraker

The Mayor is promising more stringent inspections https://www.cleveland.com/community/2024/08/proactive-inspections-on-the-way-after-retro-building-failure-cleveland-heights-council-recap.html

Gee -- why WOULD the Haslams want to show off the Brook Park renderings but not the lakefront renovation plans?!? (I'm not surprised.)

Not that long ago CSU had that fantasy too, and planned to grow to 20,000 students. But CSU should probably be designed for 12,000 students. The budget shortfall is huge (as is CSU's competition with UAkron and KSU for limited funding from the state)

They are.

I'm really hoping this is not the last we hear of federal enforcement of the law. It would be even better if Congress could figure out a way to regain true federal control over at least the interstate rail routes without having to pay out trillions of dollars at once -- perhaps make every interstate route that lacks sufficient sidings and/or impairs the on-time schedule of passenger trains subject to forfeiture hearings; set a high standard that forces the railroads to come up with a short time table to fix the problem or lose control of the tracks. Maybe the federal government could outright buy the tracks from smaller operators, a few routes per year for the next 50 years. I know, states and localities will fight the loss of revenue from taxing the right of way, and the railroads might not be too upset over the loss of maintenance and tax obligations (but they wouldn't like the lack of scheduling control), and it would add maintenance obligations to the federal government/Amtrak -- but the US could control scheduling and impose user fees based on train weight to recover some of the maintenance cost. And we'd have national route planning and on-time passenger rail.

Back in the day, the area around Ohio State's campus had a private towing company that patrolled and lifted cars as fast as you could blink. All the students complained about Shamrock. They made their money on the $75 impoundment fees. Cleveland could do something similar, it wouldn't have to be a government parking agency -- just bid it out and let private companies tow from expired meters.

Seems like sufficient valuation for a stadium mortgage. The NFL really should have a revolving fund for funding stadium projects that owners can tap into. But barring either of those options, I think the city made quite a fair and generous offer and I hope they stick to that level of local contribution. If the Haslams can get state money on top of it, more power to them.

Poor show, CSU. I know the Ivory Tower would never step foot in a Greyhoud station, but a lot of students actually use the bus.

That would be ideal. But with the county stepping in to build on a couple of streets by University Circle, East Cleveland might yet revive itself just enough to remain independent for longer than we expect.

On the local NPR station this morning I think they said that the Haslams responded to the city with a list of questions last week, and they consider that to be a "response." The city is open to further negotiations. Ronayne made some good comments I thought, including how we have already tried the suburban experiment with the Cavs moving to Richfield and how much better is has worked out with the Cavs back downtown.

Makes sense. Move to the suburbs where you have to own a car -- those suburbanites have been dying to ride the bus. Now they don't have to venture into the scary city to do so. Good news for Flixbus.

Fixed.

That seems entirely predictable. Of course, the alternative -- not fixing the tunnels -- would ultimately be far more disruptive.

Who are you dismissing -- the Cavs or the Guards? Personally, I'm a big Monsters fan, but concede that they're not a major league sports team.

Maybe not land that they have purchased. I don't know. But I would think that some outlying portions of properties they own don't "fit" with the park it is attached to -- maybe the park really wanted another portion of a property and had to buy more than they needed to get it. At any rate, it's all speculation. Let's hope the Metroparks is never that desperate for funds.

The Metroparks also could probably find property to sell if necessary. Could probably be done very strategically to retain core parkland but split off properties at the periphery, such as on major roadways to provide buffers to traffic.

EIGHTEEN!!! Wow.

This also could be built at Voinovich Park, just down the pier from the RRHF. Hilarious -- I just looked at Google Maps and Google already thinks that there is a concert venue there. "Voinovich Bicentennial Park, Lakeside park with a concert stage"

The Browns will continue to play on the lakefront for a few more years, which will give the city time to decide what to do with it after they move. One option is to demo the stadium and turn that entire area over to redevelopment into a new neighborhood. Personally, I think it would be great if we could renovate the existing stadium to smaller capacity uses -- a soccer/high school/college sports stadium and maybe build residential on the north side. But I don't know whether that is feasible or what it would cost. @KJP said that the stadium is falling apart because it wasn't built well, but I don't know what that means in terms of whether it could be converted to a velodrome (ha! that will never happen) or other kind of sports venue and what it would cost to build and maintain. Just seems like repurposing is a better use of resources than complete demolition. The Roman Coliseum is more amazing with every teardown of modern structures.

Architect Paul Volpe proposed that plan in January 2023, and it was endorsed by SAG. But neither Paul nor SAG are in charge of the planning now. MPACT has 20 months to come up with a plan that NAMDAR approves of (not Paul Volpe or SAG, and the City of Cleveland Heights only has a say insofar as it must meet planning and zoning requirements. Plus I think there is a Severance oversight board of some sort that may have a say in development there.) No one has any idea what Namdar is willing to be convinced to do. For all I know this is just another way for Namdar to delay having to do anything, while obtaining a way to jack up the price for Namdar's exit. Hopefully MPACT and Namdar prove me wrong on that and actually come up with a plan that Namdar is willing to enact. Paul's plan for a community rather than another mall is a good one, and I think that general idea will win out in MPACT's final plan. But I don't think Paul consulted with the city or Dave's or Home Depot or Namdar -- so I wouldn't put too much faith into this particular arrangement winning out. If I was thinking about improving this plan, I would first plan for pedestrians. How are they going to interact with the space, what placemaking and pedestrian infrastructure are needed? I would want a wide shared-use path around the perimeter with a tree lawn and trees between the roadway and the pedestrian path. Then I would design the sidewalks and paths within the development to be pedestrian-friendly. With wide sidewalks by the retail and on-street parking and more trees to provide a buffer from the cars. Next, consider the cyclists. How will they enter and exit the space, and where will they park? Next, where are the bus stops? And consider the pedestrian experience from the bus stop into the development. Parking for personal cars would come last. I would eliminate the traffic lights for traffic circles and yield signs, and concentrate the parking in parking garages to the extent possible and wrap the garages with buildings. Overall, I would make sure that the ease and convenience of getting to and moving around Severance was in this order: pedestrians walking from nearby neighborhoods or buses, cyclists, and then personal vehicles. (I doubt that will happen though.) When considering the structures, I like the idea of multi-use park space, more residents, a wide mix of housing types, and also multiple types of working spaces. For working spaces, I've heard a huge range of ideas, from movie sound stages to medical laboratories to light manufacturing to educational campus to more warehouse/retail (IKEA, always IKEA -- seems highly unlikely) to modern office space. That is all TBD -- I think the key is that the structures be flexible so that they can be transformed to another use in the future as the world will surely change. And yes, there should be public art. Sadly, I also am not the planner for this project.

Worse than just the continuation of cubicles, now many companies have people sharing cubicles based on what day(s) of the week they're in the office. So less personalization of the cubicles.

Oh, man -- what an opportunity for ground floor retail! Thank you for making me really hungry for a 3-way....

I guess I would prefer that the county own these lots. But it sounds like they'll still just be parking lots. And there are a LOT of parking lots in that area with a lot fewer daily parkers that should be ripe for redevelopment.

North Collinwood and Euclid also do not need to attract national developers/investors. The downtown core, however, is a symbol of the health of the city. That's what's going to be shown on TV whenever something of national interest happens in Cleveland. We need to fill the downtown parking craters before we spend a lot of money to close Burke so that it can be redeveloped into a luxury gated community and public park (which seems like the most likely outcome).

Indeed And yet -- if Ohio and Cuyahoga County and Cleveland cannot afford a world-class metro, then how about a BRT loop with signal control? Is RTA is silently waiting for funding and vision?