Foraker

In other words, inflation is better than special taxes to fund our wars.

I know we all love the U.S., but we shouldn't let that love for our country blind us to the fact that other countries are increasingly beating us in making better lives for their citizens. Social mobility in the US, "climbing the economic ladder" from one generation to another, is not easier in the US than in other places. The US ranks 27th in the world. https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-social-mobility-index-2020-why-economies-benefit-from-fixing-inequality/

100%

I think that the big mistake was not that Ryan didn't run as a "strong progressive" but that he didn't run as a "strong Democrat." Instead he tried to convince Republican voters that he wasn't THAT much of a Democrat. That failed to inspire Ryan-voter turnout.

Disagree. The national party is run by the moderates (the DNC), not the progressives. The Democratic Party is not advocating for universal healthcare or defunding the police -- those are truly far-left policies. The Party actually argued for strengthening access to healthcare without expanding Medicare eligibility, something that progressives were upset about. The Party position is that we should encourage competition among insurers as a way to bring costs down, not start a national health insurance program for everyone; again, much to the dismay of progressives. The Party endorsed "net zero" emissions by 2050, but did not back cutting oil subsidies and not the Green New Deal. Democratic candidates need to stop running away from touting the party platform, because in doing so they are allowing Republicants to define Democratic Candidates as supporting further-left progressive and far-left policies, which most Democrats do not support. Tim Ryan could have run as a Democrat with a message that touted the Democratic Party line and would have had more success than he did by bashing the national party.

Exactly. Democratic candidates need to stop downplaying Democratic Party ideals thinking that that is going to somehow attract crossover voters. All it does is depress Democrat turnout.

Yep -- but recognize it as the design choice that it is. There are ways to isolate and minimize sound transmission, but you have to pay for it. Since we generally don't, we get a preference for single-family housing and a common belief that apartment living means hearing your neighbors.

I'd bet that Vance doesn't run again -- if he even completes his term -- he'll learn that there's more money in lobbying or working in a think tank than insider-trading as a Senator. I just don't get the feeling that playing the political game is what is driving him.

Fingers crossed that this gets resolved quickly.

Derailing this project is certainly not what anyone wants, but I don't think this is all on the school board. (1) the city brought the TIF agreement to the school board at the last minute and asked them to pass it quickly, which was sloppy and disrespectful on the city's part (disrespectful according to the school board, they thought discussions should have started months ago -- I can see their point), and (2) the school board has been asking the city to waive fees imposed on the schools for renting athletic facilities in the city (residents pay taxes to both the schools and the city, why charge those taxpayers again for using city parks -- I can see that argument) for a long time and the city has ignored them. I don't think the school board is going to budge. Mayor Seren doesn't want this to fail on his watch; so if the city wants this project to move along and doesn't want this matter to be part of the TIF agreement, maybe they should negotiate that side agreement and resolve that issue ASAP so that the school board will approve the rest of the agreement, rather than blaming the schools for the city's failure to engage in a timely manner.

Absolutely. But it brings us back to this -- Over-reliance on infrastructure built for The Car rather than The People makes for places that look pretty uninviting to pedestrians -- it's just a place to drive to and drive from. Not even a sidewalk to take a walk at your lunch break, and probably nothing to walk to anyway. But with oil companies racking up record profit margins and buying back stock rather than drilling new wells, those workers can expect unavoidable chaos in their gas-price future in exchange for that 15-minute shorter commute.

New "spot" electrification plan in Germany -- https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/german-railway-group-db-uses-innovative-electric-charging-replace-diesel-trains

There were people trying to get the city to put up the money to buy Severance when it was in foreclosure -- the predatory buyer was a foreseen consequence. Wal-mart's lease ended December 2021. Namdar sold off the Home Depot for slightly more than they paid for all of Severance. They continue to siphon rent from the remaining tenants without doing any maintenance (Dave's reportedly repaved their parking lot themselves). The acreage at Severance is a LOT bigger than Van Aken, but that is certainly seen as the kind of development that CH wants. So that's a plus -- I think you might be right about the risks of redevelopment in 2005. Mayor Seren is reportedly making plans for what to do with Severance once it's free of Namdar, and looking for ways to get Namdar to move on, but nothing has been made public yet.

What do you think of the homeowner's suggestion to extend the median and move the boulders there, force all southbound Taylor Rd. traffic to turn right?

Another opinion piece noting the decline of Severance. https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2022/11/economic-vacuum-widens-as-shopping-malls-like-severance-center-die-a-slow-death-justice-b-hill.html

Not exactly "development" news, but the Taylor Road home now has "boulder" protections. (Report by Cleveland Heights's own, Vic Gideon) https://www.cleveland19.com/2022/11/03/wheres-my-guardrail-house-gets-huge-boulders-solution-frequent-accidents/

"If God is willing and the creek don't rise" -- Miami is a great destination city, but maybe not the best long-term investment... https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/scientists-warn-south-florida-coastal-cities-will-be-affected-by-sea-level-rise/

Yes, although I've walked to the BWI MARC/Amtrak station, it's that close. It's very easy to fly to BWI and take the train down to DC -- there are multiple options for doing so, as you've noted.

That is awesome! Two airports in the same city connected by rail is great. (And Baltimore's airport is just a short walk to a ViaRail station down to DC's Union Station.) New DC Metro map: https://dcist.com/story/22/09/23/new-metro-map-first-look/

what the heck happened at Tri-C from 2018 to 2019? 2018 to 2020 looks like a nice increase. Tough to read too much into just four years. Speculating -- with the COVID-induced change to a preference to working from home, there's not nearly as much need to go downtown to Tower City. Which also means that there is less travel back from downtown out to the outer stations. And while there's been a huge increase in workers at the Cleveland Clinic in the past decade, RTA rail stations are not conveniently located to get to the Clinic (plus, Opportunity Corridor opened in this time, making the drive time to this area shorter from the south and west). The bunching buses on the Healthline that have been discussed elsewhere suggests that catching the Healthline bus from a Red Line station to the Clinic might not be helping Red line traffic either.

Political nonstarter suggests that the politics can be changed. Women got the vote, etc. I don't know what history suggests about unrest vs. immigration rate and at what rate that becomes a problem. The US is one of the few that has a long history of actively encouraging (limited) immigration. I suggest that the "unrest" you fear (that Republican politicians will stoke, of course, because "fear" is their stock in trade) can be greatly minimized by doing a better job of integrating immigrants into society. We should pay immigrants to help them assimilate. Paid English classes, help them find housing, learn how housing and banking and such work in the US, all the unwritten rules of American society that can help a newcomer navigate with less friction. The result is not just new bodies, new taxpayers and consumers, but better and more productive citizens than our current policy of opening the door and then mostly letting them sink or swim on their own. But yes, *gasp*, more government spending may be a political nonstarter. We are already seeing a lot of low-skill and low-pay jobs going unfilled. Raising the pay may fill some of those jobs, but in a tight labor market people will have options to avoid the worst, dirtiest, hardest, and lowest-paying jobs. Some, or many, job openings are not going to be filled. If countries have been unsuccessful in raising birth rates, and we are not going to increase immigration, shouldn't we be planning for how to manage a declining population and ensuring that the most-necessary jobs are filled? The last year of the boomer generation is 1964, and they'll be 70 in 2034 -- just 12 years from now, and most of them will retire before then. Given that it seems to be the American Way, maybe we'll just wait until 2034 to think about what to do....

They also have much smaller houses. But I don't have any idea why they have smaller families. I do know that raising a child in the US is ridiculously expensive (see mrCharlie's post above), and like our healthcare system, we should do something about it to make raising a child less of an economic burden, because we know that's something we can fix. Then we can move on to the next problem of getting couples to actually have more children. I think this is the better solution. The US population is around 330 million. Why not boost immigration to 3.3 million -- just 1% of the population -- and immigrants tend to have larger families. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/10/26/foreign-born-moms-have-a-different-demographic-profile-than-u-s-born-moms-and-among-the-foreign-born-there-are-sharp-differences-tied-to-region-of-birth/ It still might not be enough to keep the population from dropping, but it seems like the best option. Part of immigration reform should include not just increasing the number of immigrants, but providing support services to help those immigrants integrate into US society and get their feet planted so that they can succeed here.

Well, if you want to encourage couples to have kids, how about free maternal healthcare, free childcare, paid parental leave, advanced child tax credit -- all things that would make it easier for couples to have and support kids. All policies more heavily favored by Democrats (and Jesus) than Republicans. If you just want tax cuts for the rich and policies of "we can't afford that" then you vote Republican, the Be Afraid Party -- They're Coming For Your Job/Guns/Religion.

IF they actually show up and vote. That's been a problem.

Agreed. CSU bringing students to campus has made a huge difference, and the Lumen and other residential have helped, but the number of residents within a fifteen minute walk isn't there yet -- lots of parking lots on Chester and Prospect still, and far fewer business workers in the buildings on Euclid. Does anyone have any updates on what PS is doing with the Bulkley Building?