Foraker

If they have gone begging to the state for money this project is in real trouble -- highly unlikely to be successful. Maybe they could say it's for a coal plant off the coast?

This is a big boost to the neighborhood. https://www.crainscleveland.com/finance/fifth-third-bank-commits-20-million-revitalization-clevelands-buckeye-neighborhood

Just speculating, but giving the bus a lane doesn't eliminate traffic lights, just eliminates the traffic up to the light. Having the buses trigger the traffic light would help speed things up, but would screw with cross-traffic, which is probably why the Healthline never had signal priority implemented.

Do you think Welty plans to use the building for offices during the construction?

I must be missing something, but I've been in a lot of parking garages downtown and rain does get in in that center gap -- parking garages are often not watertight. I know this issue was raised at a city council meeting and they are going to be "looking into it" -- but this didn't look nearly as bad as was described.

It should be criminal to not consider long-term maintenance costs as part of any governnment-funded construction -- roads, schools, etc. Because we're going to have to pay for that too!

Remember this? https://neo-trans.blog/2021/09/17/cleveland-indians-may-buy-garage-for-ballpark-village-development/ Maybe the Cavs and Guardians ownership should buy Stark out.

Smaller towns in Ohio used to be connected by a network of interurban lines -- timely article in Bloomberg CityLab, Ohio gets a prominent mention https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-06/long-gone-interurban-trains-could-signal-a-rail-revival

Absolutely. Transitioning to all-electric cars without any other change is not going to solve all of our pollution or petroleum product problems (see oil spill off California coast, and the millions of miles of asphalt roadway that will tempt continued oil production). For efficiency and better quality of life, I would like to see most inner-city trips being taken by transit (or on foot or by bike) rather than personal vehicles. The only way to make that happen is to make transit just as fast or faster than driving. Narrow the roadways, make cars take a more circuitous route, block cars from parts of the center city, increase transit frequency -- in other words, make driving more painful than taking the bus/train. There will be political reluctance to make those changes, however, and so it will be a long fight to get there. This video is really good. "Do Your Buses Get Stuck in Traffic? Traffic solutions & the Downs-Thomson Paradox" -- Not Just Bikes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQY6WGOoYis

Pickup supposed to be out soon, SUV next year. Recently read that the pickup weighs close to 9000 pounds due to the batteries. Good grief -- don't get in its way! But that's probably true of a lot of EVs, that they could be a lot heavier than their ICE counterparts. Weight not only impacts safety but also road wear. Might be a good idea to tax vehicles by weight and mileage as the gas tax continues to wane.

Not terribly surprising given that (i) it's behind a wall, so not immediately visible, (ii) it's on a stretch of Euclid Heights that is not frequented by many pedestrians (it's next to a roadway with fast-moving cars heading to University Circle and downtown), (iii) it's student housing (low-cost construction) adjacent student apartment buildings, (iv) city inspectors seem to be in short supply -- for example, the planning commission required them to keep more trees than ultimately survived pre-construction activities, (iv) the historic building on the property was "saved" so the historic preservationists didn't complain, and (v) Top of the Hill across the street was getting a lot more attention (ironic that complaints about this "cheap" housing sit along side the complaints about the "expensive" housing at Top of the Hill). No, it's not particularly attractive but I think it is better than what it was, just not nearly as good as it could have been. I'm hopeful that the property will look a lot better once we have a year for the landscaping to develop, but it is student housing and I'm glad that they kept the wall to keep it out of sight.

I didn't know that. Point taken. Let's hope they quickly expand beyond one model.

Not any more surprising than that Ohio returned a huge pile of free money for passenger rail or that surrounding states are investing in expanding their rail networks and the speed of their rail networks while Ohio continues to invest in tax cuts and highway expansion. Or that Ohio continues to slow walk any transition away from coal toward renewables or take any.other.action to address climate change. The biggest car manufacturers in Ohio (Honda, GM, Hummer) are not leading the charge to EVs, so of course Ohio is not eager to move away from ICE vehicles.

Which also means a large number of people driving 50mph -- not much hope for pedestrians at that speed. Might as well build a sound wall and keep the peds out. (Sorry Peds -- Cars Rule, Peds Drool!) Why would anyone want to live in such a place?

Looks like the button is not only close to that 24" limit but the wheelchair user would be on a downward-sloping ramp. Tough to navigate. Instead of dropping the sidewalk to street level, they should raise crosswalks to sidewalk-level so that wheelchair users don't have to worry about the ramp down and getting back up the opposite ramp. That would slow cars through an intersection too. (I know -- BUT what about our snow plows!?!!)

And that's huge -- because most Ohioans don't know what they're missing, the highway lobby's job is a piece of cake. But I think people are starting to see that three busy lanes of traffic are miserable enough and four won't change that experience. Plus, a lot of Ohioans go to Florida and will have the opportunity to experience Brightline trains in the coming years. Particularly as Ohioans grow older and have more trouble driving, I'm hopeful that they'll fly to Florida, take the train, and come home wanting that same convenience here. Overly optimistic, perhaps, but Brightline's operations in Florida could become the last grain of sand that causes a cascade of train-positive sentiment in Ohio.

Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights jointly manage Horseshoe Lake. The opposition to dam removal is alive in well to the north. Cleveland Heights hired a consultant to confirm the cost of dam removal and repair, but with this vote from Shaker I think that Cleveland Heights ultimately will follow Shaker's lead.

So, KJP, given the apparent evaporation of our hopes for an Amtrak 3C+D, how do we spark interest from Brightline? Would the Republicans in the legislature be happier to kick them some "tax breaks" because they're a private company and not Amtrak?

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2021/09/24/port-authority-nextransit-long-term-plan-t-light-rail-north-hills-pittsburgh-buses-east-busway-strip-district-carrick-overbook/stories/202109240090

At this point, I just want to finish above .500 -- which is still doable!

That's why I said "generally" and every general rule has exceptions. I think we agree -- as you noted some crimes, like aggravated robbery of motor vehicles, can be greatly reduced and even eliminated with more police presence -- at least for a while. But even then, new groups of knuckleheads come up that think they can get away with it even after the police have been successful in incarcerating previous groups of knuckleheads. More police means more deterrence, but police don't solve the underlying problems. So the police are helpful but only one part of the solution. If we had a neighborhood with a lot of crime and high poverty we could coordinate police action to tamp down the crime, make infrastructure investments to improve the public space, and provide intensive job training and job creation in the neighborhood to change its trajectory. This is very difficult and expensive. We don't often do it well.

We didn't get an August update from Taco Slayer Aerial. Hopefully a new video at the end of September. https://www.youtube.com/user/brodie1976/videos

Generally, more police means more investigations and more arrests, but not less crime. Because, as KFM44107 said, crime follows poverty not the number of police on the beat.

George should now be on notice that his land is unstable and that experts have weighed in that the potential slide risks river traffic. I don't think there's anything he can do to stabilize it that wouldn't be very expensive. It seems highly unlikely that he would even make an attempt. That should be another nail in his coffin -- your property isn't worth much because it's about to slide down the hill and you haven't taken the necessary (and expensive) steps to save it.

Eminent domain is now almost impossible for governments to use, the courts have really narrowed the exceptions. But this is one of the rare cases where I think government actually has a good case to make for eminent domain. If the hillside slides down and blocks the river, it will block a critical transportation link and could also take out a sewer line. George's property is located at the point that is most likely to slide -- he may have an argument over what the fair value of his property is, but I don't think he's got much of a case that the government can't take it. A judge could be persuadable to move the taking quickly given the facts, and leave the valuation to work its way through the courts as fast (or more likely, slow) as most civil litigation. The various government entities involved should get together and move quickly to take control of George's property.