Foraker

Guilty. But I view it as a way to keep in touch with somewhat "distant" friends and relatives and old classmates (people I might be interested in what they're doing out of curiosity, but who I would rarely pick up the phone and call). For that it's been great. I don't do business or networking or anything on FB and I rarely post -- and it if it went away, not a big deal.

Not "eventually" -- soon!

It's not the quantity of busybodies, but when I lived in a small town (around 2000) there was nowhere to go to get away from the busybodies. Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. And had an opinion about how you washed your car or how the pattern in your lawn was wrong. And I'm not saying that having to make an effort to know your neighbors is a benefit of city living, I'm just saying you don't have to live in a rural small town to know people really well and have a community, which is what Lazarus seemed to be saying. I still say that physical layout of a place can really make a difference in developing that sense of community -- because in the suburbs you have to get in your car to go anywhere other than your neighbor's house, you are less likely to make that drive to meet someone you don't know. That is somewhat true in small towns too -- because the town is small you often have to drive to a nearby town to get groceries, gas, get a variety of restaurants, etc. So the physical layout of the small town probably doesn't contribute as much to the community as the social groups -- church and school activities. In a walkable urban community, where you can walk to the library, grocery, church, local bar, and park, and randomly run into people you know or have seen many times before in those places, you're more likely to have casual acquaintances and to strike up a conversation with a stranger and make a new friend, maybe discuss community issues like water bills and trash collection and how the mayor is doing. That physical layout that makes the area walkable thus contributes to people getting to know each other. I suspect that in the suburbs today those "community" conversations are happening online rather than in the local coffee shop. Nextdoor, twitter, facebook, etc. -- those bastions of civility and friendly discourse.

I disagree. Having a local bar or coffee shop or diner where you randomly bump into friends, acquaintances, and neighbors is as good as a church in helping to create a community. Some places in the Cleveland area are known for their annual neighborhood block parties. Neighbors can and do know each other if the effort is made. And while there are certainly benefits to really knowing everything about everyone in your community, there are downsides as well. The town busybodies not only know you but they can be vocally critical of your choices, which discourages diversity; and it can be suffocating for young people trying to figure out their place in the world -- lots of young people say they can't wait to leave their small-town communities where everyone not only knows everyone else but they get in each other's business and never want to try anything new. Air conditioning, auto-centered suburbs, single-family homes on large lots in non-walkable neighborhoods, the lack of front porches, televisions, and the internet all contribute to social isolation. And modern jobs -- the "mysterious office/computer-based jobs" -- make it really hard for young people to know what they want to do in the modern work world because they're not exposed to what those people are actually doing in their offices, on their computers. Maybe there is a happy medium, the infamous "goldilocks density," between small-town rural life and auto-centric suburbia, where that physical structure of the place actually encourages community -- walkable places where you can randomly run into friends and acquaintances and feel like you can participate in the community. The new Van Aken district in Shaker Heights is a great place. It's true, the neighbors do not all gather together and get to know each other's grandkids and what kind of laptop they own, but they're much more engaged because of physical environment and the community spaces nearby.

Agreed. But despite the messenger the letter makes several good points about how all of these delays are increasing costs significantly. And I'd be interested in knowing why our length of jail time pre-trial is so much greater than the national average.

I'm not disputing any of that. But going forward we should recognize that additional sprawl is a fiscally bad idea and we should be looking for policies to prevent it.

Ya. This is totally true. Unlike 90s sprawl, which was definitely more a choice than a necessity. Agreed that there were many factors that led to sprawl. After the population growth and before sprawl, we had a lot of overcrowding in outdated housing by the 1940s. That overcrowding was a starting point for "I gotta get out of here and get some more space and privacy!" that the post-war boom and improved auto-centric infrastructure enabled. The ability to live further away and still be able to drive to work was suddenly affordable and practical in a way that wasn't true for most people in the 1920s. Quality multi-family housing can provide density with high quality of life, and is quite evident in dense but livable European cities from London to Stockholm to Paris, etc. Now that the US is not the super-dominant wealthiest-country-on-earth that we were in the 1950s and 1960s, we can look back and see how the over-indulgence in sprawling suburbs was excessive, particularly from the 1970s through today. Were any new cities created in Cuyahoga County since 1970? Here is a snapshot of where cities were "growing" in the postwar period. Excerpted from: https://case.edu/ech/timeline#1900 (Personally, there are not many places I would want to live that achieved city status after 1951.) While there is still a strong presumption for single-family home ownership, that is no longer a universal goal. The return of housing to the city center is one sign of that change.

Fighting sprawl might be a losing battle in the short run, but sprawl is a losing battle too. There are limits to how much we can continue to increase the infrastructure and its maintenance (hidden debt) without increasing population. And a more efficient, higher density city does not have to mean returning to 1930s tenement housing.

American "tolerance that doesn't always imply acceptance" -- I like that. The Republican Party, however, vehemently disagrees with tolerance of views that they don't accept. Consolidation in the media and unregulated social media isn't improving our ability to communicate. (That does not mean that social media needs to be regulated by the government.)

That's a problem, certainly. But removing the maintenance, scheduling, security, and tax burdens have to be pluses for the Class 1's as well.

Let's do it.

I'm still disappointed at the way the last game played out, but give me a few weeks and I'll be happier looking back on a surprisingly successful season. Assuming that the Game 5 roster represented our best lineup, I'm happy enough with our pitching and our defense but I really want to see some improvement at the plate. The leading three in the lineup, Kwan, Rosario, Ramirez, played decently and got on base at a good clip (over 0.300 OBP in the playoffs, against the best pitching). The last spots in the lineup are traditionally weak, and are filled with players who bring something else to the table -- typically defensively (Hedges and Straw in our case). It would be nice if they could find more ways to get on base, but expectations are low for batting average and slugging at the back of the lineup. But the middle of the order was a real disappointment in the final game (in 16 at-bats - 1 hit, 0 walks, 6 strikeouts) -- Gonzalez (playoffs OBP only 0.250 with a 0.226 average), Naylor (playoffs 0.194 OBP and 0.194 average), Arias (playoffs 0.273 OBP and 0.273 average -- actually better in the playoffs than expected), Gimenez (playoffs 0.207 OBP and 0.179 average). The Yankees weren't significantly better in BA against the Guardians' pitching, but made up for it with 4 players over 0.500 in slugging percentage to the Guardians' 1 (Ramirez). If just one of Gonzalez, Naylor, Arias, and Gimenez had had a postseason BA over 0.250 or a slugging percentage over .700, I think that would have been the difference we needed to overcome the Yankees. We're so close to being the better team. Regular season, the Yankees had 4 players with a BA over 0.250, the Guardians had 5. Of the players with an on-base percentage over 0.300, the Yankees had 7 (almost 8), and the Guardians had 7 (almost 8). I like our pairing of quality pitching and deep ability to get on base with singles/doubles/walks -- small-ball is fun. We don't have to be a team of home run hitters like NY, but over the course of the regular season they had three players with slugging percentages over 0.600 and we had none. Ramirez was the only regular player with a slugging percentage over 0.500 (Will Brennan was the only other). Just one better slugger, one better hitter with men-on-base, and we reach the ALCS and have a chance at the World Series. So close hurts today, but the future is bright.

Shouldn't USDOT be planning and regulating interstate rail? I know a lot of small communities like the taxes from rail lines, but it seems like interstate travel would be better planned and regulated by a national body that looks at all options (roads, trains, planes) for freight and passengers and regulates and maintains the routes. As with roads, let the operators be private, but nationalize the right of way and maintenance of that right-of-way, regulate train length and have a national rail scheduling system (like the air traffic control system). The 19th century ended awhile ago, past time to upgrade.

Is Is there any requirement for Red Line trains to be heavy rail because they operate on/near freight tracks?

The gist from those of you more expert than me seems to be (1) RTA needs a complete fleet replacement, (2) for maintenance and service efficiency RTA should buy an off-the-shelf rail car rather than a custom vehicle, (3) RTA should buy rail cars that could operate on both the Red Line and Blue/Green Lines, and (4) RTA will do none of the above. Correct?

For years, OPEC was careful not to let the price of oil get too high so that we remained dependent. But the writing is on the wall that the world is moving rapidly to use dramatically less, at the same time that oil production is falling due to depleted stocks of easy-to-get oil. The oil producers will now take steps to maximize their profits in the time that they have left -- prepare for higher and more chaotic oil prices and supply disruptions. If that is a correct assumption, US stability would benefit greatly from dramatically reducing its dependence on foreign oil; and individuals would benefit by dramatically reducing their dependence on internal combustion engines and gas appliances. Even if this assumption is a gross oversimplification and oil will continue to be produced for decades, the big oil companies have stopped investing in new wells, so even if that were to change there will be a years-long lag until any new fields can be exploited. The poor will suffer either way.

It's been a while since I have been to a Trader Joe's, but it did not seem like a low-cost, full-service grocer. Aldi would be a better fit. But maybe fewer people have experience with Aldi or think that it is too low-class? I am a regular at the Aldi on Mayfield, and it's great for the basics.

I've heard that the Dave's at Cedar-Fairmount has its storage space in the basement and they use a conveyor of some sort to bring replacement goods up to stock the shelves. It sounds like a clunky way to do business. And it's carved out of space in an old building. The new building at Zagara's has to be attractive because it does not have those issues. That might mean that a smaller grocer, like an Aldi, would fit better in the Cedar-Fairmount space -- maybe they can reconfigure the store so that they don't need to consistently access that basement storage.

Tim Ryan's dig in the debates was something along the lines of "Ohio needs an ass-kicker not a ass-kisser." What does this say about the Browns' ownership? LOL

Adding passenger rail between Columbus and Cleveland also would take cars off the road and make the drive a little easier. Definitely something that should be added to the transportation options.

What do you suppose the difference in pay is for med school professors compared to elementary school teachers? (Or even college education professors?)

Aldi would be a better fit than Trader Joe's for everyday groceries -- what about a Lucky's Market?

Agreed. Agreed; there are few signs that Amtrak's executives are demonstrating the "talent" and "success" that would justify those bonuses. (And yes, this is true of executives at a lot of large corporations as well.)

Zagara's grocer sells out to Dave's; Dave's to abandon Cedar-Fairmount location. https://www.cleveland.com/community/2022/10/zagaras-marketplace-bowing-out-daves-moving-in-but-closing-cedar-fairmount-store-in-cleveland-heights.html Hey, Aldi! I've got a great new location idea for you....

I agree, the pay seems reasonable -- it's the bonuses that are ridiculous.