Foraker

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town for work.

I got you: Basically, 1720-1736 Columbus Road, owned by Realife Real Estate Group of Independence -- bidding started at $450k and ended at $2.075m, but did not reach the reserve price set for the auction. That reserve price was not disclosed.

Instead, those executives are all looking at big bonuses if P&G's losses are less than their competitors'.

Not every failed attempt to revive part of a city is a "fleecing" of the taxpayers. It's unfortunate that this particular investment did not pan out to its fullest potential, but the new convention center complex is far superior to the pre-Med Mart convention center. Kudos to the city/county for trying to do something to improve a part of the city and make it more likely to attract outside investment. Arguably it was a better investment than Browns Stadium.

I wonder, what is the comparison between "loans by dollar value" and the number of borrowers in default? And going beyond the loans in default, how many loan payments that were "paused" by Biden are now going to be restarted? Are these post-college, presumably young wage-earners at the age where they're looking to buy a house and start a family, and will they now have to delay, and what will be the economic impact? I expect that the impact will be small, but yet another headwind for economic recovery. In some ways it seems like the government is testing which stick will break the economic camel's back. Yes, "kids" are taking out far too many loans (myself included -- but all repaid) and some colleges are taking advantage of the ability to get loans to raise prices. (That is not the only reason that tuition has gone up faster than inflation, however.) But it is dumb and punitive for the government to provide loans at far higher rates than what they provide to big banks, and to collect many multiples of the principal in interest payments over the life of the loan. The government SHOULD invest in education -- the payback is in lower crime rates at higher levels of education, higher tax collections from more highly-educated workers, higher wage earners contributing to the economy, etc. The student loan program should not be a government money-making venture, however, the government goal should be to break even on the loans themselves. Recover the principal with an adjustment for inflation, that should be a win. Will Congress fix the student loan problems? (Just as soon as they fix the problems with the immigration laws, no doubt.)

More headwinds -- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-boeing-orders-halt-to-jet-deliveries-bloomberg-trump-tariffs/

I'm reminded of several things with this picture. Wow -- look at all the people and all the buses/trams! And look at how few cars there are.... The cars are a small number of people, and just a few cars greatly increases the traffic on the square. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2018/12/03/you-are-not-stuck-in-traffic-you-are-traffic/

Slashing program funding and claiming savings, proclaim improved services provided by the program, rinse and repeat. Just imagine how much better the federal highway system would be if we slashed government funding to $0... (when?)

That says volumes.

When Green Rooster switched from their [rotisserie] chicken I had a bad feeling about their future. Big step down from the roasted chicken to the canned/bagged substitute.

RTA should be far more aggressive in pushing TOD than they are.

Awesome. Really appreciate the work that went into this. I'm on board except I prefer KJP's suggestion to run the Green Line to the airport, with the blue line taking on the waterfront line connection.

I heard a rumor that Driftwood was closing Green Rooster Farms in the Hanna -- it's not listed on the Driftwood website. Can anyone confirm?

The Red Line also runs to Windemere, and there's the Waterfront Line as well -- but your point stands, it looks like RTA will have more than enough trains. Enough for a downtown loop and lower headways on the Blue/Green lines? One can dream....

God forbid we add to government payrolls.

If @KJP is correct, that's amazing that ridership in 2024 was that close to ridership in 1960. It seems like there's been a lot of road-centric construction and reduced investment in transit in the intervening years.

As this property is both huge and arguably essential to be returned to good use, you have to think that the owner, the city, and the county have to be able to come together and find a way forward. Even if the owner can't figure out how to profitably renovate the building without more assistance, is there something that can be done with the grants awarded so far -- removing asbestos and "preparing" the building for renovation in the future?

Very few people, indeed.

At the rate that they've been going, "nearing completion" means Q4 2027! 😁

Raised beds also cost more and dry out more quickly. Pros and cons. We have both raised beds and ground-level beds. For our ground beds, we removed a "row" of sod (we also have an extensive compost system so it didn't go to waste) and added sand and garden soil (truckload delivered to the driveway was cheapest). Then between the rows we lay down flattened cardboard and newspaper and covered that with mulch. At the beginning of the next year, we rake the mulch (now much broken down) between the rows over the planting rows (along with soil from the bottom of the compost pile), and put down new mulch between the planting rows. After a few years we have pretty good soil. The soil in our raised beds has sunk well below the tops. Several of our raised beds are starting to fall apart from the weather, and as our "garden" starts to look like a farm we're wondering whether we want to replace the raised beds. We have one that is almost all herbs, and one that is almost all strawberries (strawberries like to spread, this keeps them contained and is easy to cover to keep the birds off) -- we'll replace those when they go, but we'll probably just remove the others when they fall apart. Good luck!

There are some expensive treatments that work (Deer Scram) and some cheaper ones that mostly work (Irish Spring soap), but you have to be diligent about application and worry about rain. Fencing and planting (so that they don't have a clear landing area and/or have a take-off area pushed back from the fence) are key to ensuring that they stay out. They can very easily jump over a 5' fence -- pretty amazing, but also pretty annoying. We have used a wire fence around our garden for a while, but are in the process of having a permanent fence our back yard to facilitate my wife's desire to expand her little farm yet again. (Like the cost of curtains, the cost of a well-built fence is surprisingly high!)

Is there any way we could get the leadership of GCRTA to join an UrbanOhio meetup to present and discuss some of these ideas?!?

Hey, it was "Wine in Western Culture" -- and it definitely helped my later networking efforts! 🍷

Senior-focused health center.

Here we go again. Will we also eliminate deductions? More of the same -- tax cuts for the wealthy again promising that Ohio will be a jobs destination.