Foraker

I suspect that those walkways did not like the salt in their gears and the cold and moisture every winter. A maintenance headache indeed.

Even if that were the case, you're still talking about a big spend to build the new highway (even if you can get 90% from the Feds) and higher maintenance costs -- forever. 31% of Ohio's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. https://tripnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/TRIP_Fact_Sheet_OH.pdf The percentage of roads in acceptable condition has dropped from over 96% to 83.69% as of 2020. https://stacker.com/stories/ohio/how-road-conditions-ohio-have-deteriorated-2000 But sure, let's build more roads. Are there ANY fiscal conservatives overseeing ODOT?!?

Also, WXZ's Taylor Tudors project in Cleveland Heights has begun construction. Other proposed projects that have received approval for construction include Cedar Center and John Carroll Gateway.

Building more highways when we can't keep up with maintenance on our existing roads and bridges is -- what's the word? Certainly not "financially responsible."

Little Italy is having similar problems with fewer Italians in the area. (Damn sirens in the suburbs lured them away!) The city could come up with some design guidelines and zoning codes for these neighborhoods to try to preserve/create a cultural identity in the built environment. What physical attributes would make the neighborhood feel more "asian"?

Ready for the next phase!

Absolutely. Trump doesn't care about blue collar voters (but he'd like you to buy his TrumpCoin!). And some Democrats can be condescending, but mostly voters in Ohio are Republicans, and they believe any lies that they are told about Democrats -- "Sherrod Brown is a socialist!" There has to be a better Democratic candidate than Amy Acton. But there is hope that the bumbling government destruction of the national party creates a backlash in the midterms that benefits the Democrats in the statewide election.

Inflation is real -- "Twenty years ago, a new electric locomotive could be had for 1/4th or less of that amount ($20.3 and $23.4 million)" = (1/4 x $23million ~ $5.75mllion). $5.75 million 20 years ago (2004) is equivalent to $10 million today. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ Plus there is a price premium for electric vs. gas cars -- currently 42% https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/average-price-electric-car-vs-gas-car.html That same difference applied to electric locomotives vs. diesel would get you to back to $20 to $23 million. 🙂 But all joking aside, the article actually seems to suggest that that cost is for multiple engines -- So if we're dividing that $23million by 13, that's only $1.8 million per locomotive. (Yes, the article could have been clearer. Journalists, eh?) That seems to be reasonable. https://www.trainconductorhq.com/how-much-do-locomotives-cost/

While I generally agree that the national Democratic Party shouldn't put "too much" into Ohio, they shouldn't abandon Ohio altogether. I think it's important to spread the Democratic Party message to all 50 states -- it's not like the media is going to do it. They're still proclaiming that Republicans are "fiscally responsible" and "the party of law and order" and "family values" -- despite national Republicans demonstrating again and again their actions to the contrary.

My first choice would be bike lanes in both directions, with limited parallel parking between the bike lane and travel lanes and a hard curb between the bike lane and the parking lane. Second would be a two-way bike lane on one side of the street with the curb separating the bike lane from traffic. Will a two-way bike lane in the middle of the street with traffic on both sides seem unsafe? I guess we'll be finding out.

Mass is usually about an hour, more or less, so 10am

That's why we have so much cheap ... corn syrup.....

MAGA coming for CA high speed rail https://www.planetizen.com/news/2025/02/134357-federal-funding-california-high-speed-rail-under-review

If Cleveland had a downtown loop, I'd be in favor of congestion pricing (and/or higher parking tax) inside the loop. But yes, we have other priorities -- After a bunch of TOD to increase potential riders, and a downtown loop and Cleveland Clinic connections to increase access to workplace/school/health destinations, then we could revisit the idea of congestion pricing (congestion in Cleveland?!? LOL) or just creating some areas where cars and delivery vehicles are prohibited during certain times.

Sorry, MAGA says that is bad.

You seem to be disregarding the cost to run the ticket system. Saying that the blue/green trains already have onboard scanners disregards the cost to buy and maintain those scanners in the future. It costs money to have a fare system -- those ticket scanners weren't free. We know what revenue is generated from tickets -- what does it cost to have a ticket system? Does anyone else remember the Xerox ticket machine debacle? https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2012/06/rta_says_fare_machines_dont_me.html What if we assume that the costs of having a fare system significantly exceed RTA's fare revenue. In that scenario, please explain what would make a fare system necessary, and how it would make the transit system better.

I agree that the cost of the fare is not the biggest barrier to choosing public transit for those who choose not to use it. Better service would surely be more important. But how much does the fare collection system cost? This isn't a left/right debate, it's a does-this-make-financial-sense debate. If it costs 10% of the overall budget and collects 10% of the revenue, it seems like it would be a wash -- except that it's taking time and attention away from other tasks. And what if the fare collection system costs more than it brings in in revenue? The barriers being discussed here, the card readers, the ticket dispensers, the fare-jump chasers, the software "consultants," and so on (the delays on the bus while tickets are collected or fare is collected during boarding, the damage to the system's reputation by bad software or crappy ticket-dispensing machines, etc.) -- I bet those costs are a significant fraction of what ticket sales brings in in revenue, if not actually losing money. If that is the case, then we absolutely should have a fare-free system and focus on improving the experience of taking transit. Other people have reported that even with fare collection there are more significant issues likely keeping people from taking RTA -- RTA will always probably need to police bad behavior. But it needs to do more policing to make this kind of thing more rare. The discussion about needing barriers at stations to keep the homeless off of transit is kind of cruel. Being homeless by itself is not a problem for my fellow travelers, and having the homeless riding the trains shouldn't be a problem that RTA needs to solve. (Our society does not do a good job of helping the homeless; the community really needs to put more effort into finding ways to help the homeless not be homeless and the mentally ill get the help they need, and neither of those issues are RTA's job to solve.) Homeless people riding the train and not bothering anyone shouldn't be a problem, and those who are bothering people should be talking to RTA security officers.

Are the bollards are too far apart or did the car run over them?

Unfortunately, I hear that that building is now empty. Basement flooded, damaged the elevator equipment, among other issues. If true, that suggests that the building is overdue for an overhaul.

I'm 100% in favor of this development. That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't advocate for crosswalk improvements!

Nothing says "Pedestrian at your own risk" like 90-foot cross-walks, multiple turn lanes, long sight-lines to the intersection and beyond, and large radius curbs that enable higher-speed turns. The Van Aken businesses should not get too excited about additional customers from this housing project (planned for the upper left in this screen capture).

Great news! Shaker should invest in some pedestrian improvements to help those residents cross the Warrensville traffic sewer. A pedestrian refuge island in the middle perhaps.

Yes; someday in the future, under who knows what terms. For now, the City is a bystander. Namdar owns all the property inside the ring road (except the Home Depot parcel). MPACT still has to convince Namdar to sign on to a redevelopment plan for that property, which is what MPACT is planning to present to Namdar later this year. Namdar could still decline to participate and send MPACT packing. Until MPACT presents its plan to Namdar and Namdar signs off on it, it's a concept awaiting a plan. The City's role in all of this is down the road.

Just to be clear, this is not a City of Cleveland Heights project. Severance is owned by a national mall slumlord, Namdar, and they have a partnership with MPACT. (Namdar already sold a parcel with a Home Depot on it and recouped their purchase price. I say they are a slumlord because they are doing zero maintenance on the property -- it is slowly returning to nature on its own.) MPACT has about 18 months to come up with a plan for redevelopment that Namdar likes, and if MPACT passes that test then MPACT will apply for zoning changes to begin implementing the plan. The presentation to city council was just a courtesy for this private development (although there is a local controlling board for the entirety of the Severance property that will have some say in the matter and I think some city officials are on that board); likely because they will want the city to endorse the development plan once it is released. The city isn't doing anything, which is what you seem to be recommending.

Cedar-Lee fire -- The city has issued a demolition order. I heard a rumor that the fire marshal's investigation of the site is complete (except the final report). Speculation locally is that they're probably waiting for the insurance company to sign off before demolition can begin. Local businesses are not happy about Cedar Road closure and closure of the parking garage.