Foraker

I agree. Railroads don't like paying taxes on their right-of-way, and the states won't like giving up those taxes, but it's past time to have a national interstate rail plan for both passenger and freight routes. The lack of coordination of our transit systems is a limitation on our efficiency.

I mentioned to my own son that he would need to buy a car when he graduated from college and he laughed at me. He and many of his friends have recognized that cost of a car and say "I can just Uber everywhere for less." And "I'll rent a car when I need one." That might still represent a small slice of society, but that sentiment is practically nonexistent outside NYC or Chicago for my generation. Hopefully that signals a changing attitude about trains as well.

That's a great graphic. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there is a lot of space for a turn onto Euclid between 9th and 18th. If you built a station within the Cowell&Hubbard footprint and a tower above, that would be great. Seems unlikely. But hey -- this is why we need RTA to do the study!

From the recent Downtown Cleveland Alliance newsletter -- KJP -- have you gotten the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on board with urging RTA to do a loop study? They may some influence here.

Argh, there's always a catch... Still waiting on signal prioritization that was promised on the Healthline.

Would be really good to get an RTA advocate in charge of signal prioritization at the city.

According to the Mayor this morning MetroHealth at Severance expanding. https://www.clevelandheights.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=370

So from the first pic it looks like they're working on the 9th floor, and the tower is about ten stories, so almost there!

A fast train from Cleveland to CAK would help....

My understanding is that the FAA's control stems in part from their regulation of interstate travel (ensuring that there are airports where visitors from other states can land) and from past money given to the city to maintain and upgrade Burke. If the city wants to close Burke, they may have to pay back some of that money from the FAA, money that Cleveland does not have. (At least, that's my basic understanding from what others have said in this thread, I'm not an expert in this area). The FAA also wants airports for civilians to learn to fly, which probably includes lots of takeoffs and landings without big commercial jets nearby. (Although to me it seems like one major commercial airport (Hopkins) and one reliever airport (County) should be sufficient.) I don't disagree that the lakefront by downtown would be better as a public park than a working dock or airport, but I don't think we have the money to do either right now.

Which suggests that public access improvements also should be considered for land by the lake both east and west of Burke. I don't fully understand the obsession with closing Burke, although I agree that it could be a nice park if the city doesn't auction it off to a developer for Bratenahl II. Also remember that while the city might own Burke, the FAA has a lot of say in whether the airport stays or goes. The state of Ohio also might have a say as Burke is beyond the natural shoreline. Further improvements to the county airport could be made to make it a better airport than Burke, and that might make Burke easier to shutter. (And a rapid ride to the county airport would make it more accessible as well.)

Those names sounded promising, but based on past comments you've made and a little research it does not appear that either the Brandywine Valley or Cleveland Works lines provide a gateway for the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad to connect with an RTA station. Dang.

Gentleman, scholar and ‘roll model’ Richard Wong retiring as Cleveland Heights planning director https://www.cleveland.com/community/2020/11/gentleman-scholar-and-roll-model-richard-wong-retiring-as-cleveland-heights-planning-director.html

No, it was approved back on February 21, 2019. https://www.clevelandheights.com/DocumentCenter/View/8544/ABR-project-index-11032020?bidId= and the drawings do not appear to be online. Has construction started? I would email Richard Wong, city planner, and ask him if he could send you a copy (should be public record). But hurry -- Richard is retiring at the end of the week!

Although the product is called "mass timber" it's not solid wood. It's a laminate, like plywood. So there is a lot of adhesive in their binding smaller pieces of wood together in layers to build up to a thicker "timber" beam. I suspect that because the layers are thicker than the thin layers used to make plywood, special equipment is needed in the manufacturing process that isn't yet available in the U.S.

Multiple studies have shown that test scores reflect a school district's wealth and are not predictors of future success. And yet those school report cards drive the population away from poor schools and the state punishes those poorer-population, lower-test-score schools with LESS state funding, increasing the have-have not divide. (Also note that some of the state report card data is "massaged" to give a better "apples to apples" comparison between schools, but while the state admits this the formula is not public.) The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled several times that the state's funding system is unconstitutional because it is too heavily weighted to local property taxes. There is a bill in the Ohio legislature to address it, but it's been going nowhere for six years and it won't be an issue until it impacts more than just the poorer districts. Short of boarding schools (and further increased cost -- a LOT more adult supervision would be needed -- so much so that I don't see that ever happening), some improvements would include: further reducing class sizes, better programs to address bad behavior without punishment, extended day care/supervision so that kids aren't home alone unsupervised (check out Open Doors Academy for an excellent after-school program), and a lot more wraparound services to support both the kids and their parents. All of that costs, a lot. (But in my opinion it's cheaper for society in the long run.) All of that is an uphill battle, however, because rural state conservatives control the legislature, and they don't think that a high poverty public school should cost 2-3x the average of what the state spends to educate most kids.

That doesn't make it any less disappointing! 🙂

"Look closely" indeed -- the pillar and regional/core express corridors appear to bypass Ohio. Looks like a lack of support for rail in our state government is diverting interest toward a Chicago-Detroit-Toronto as a main route rather than Chicago-Cleveland-Buffalo-Toronto. C'mon Ohio!

Once you narrow down your list of neighborhoods, try to find some locals to talk to about the schools. The state report cards are not an accurate picture of the quality of any school and should just be scrapped.

Maybe a little less parking, but unless shift start times were spread evenly across the 24-hour day (not going to happen) there are still going to be surges and a lot of idle time. Plus few people will want their self-driving Uber-Tesla to be picking up people until all the seats are full. And like you said, we'll still have a lot of road infrastructure to maintain.

Good idea re: CSU. I would run it mostly up E 17th and convert E17 to pedestrian/deliveries only to reduce delays from traffic. I don't really think it's that far of a walk from CSU to E.9th. Maybe ten minutes. I could use to walk more anyway. And the JCU to CSU route should be less than 45 minutes, an hour is ridiculous when you can drive it in 25-30 minutes. More frequent service on Cedar should help.

I've seen the future, and it's electric.... Greensboro, NC chooses electric buses. Not to be "green" but to save "green." https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/04/greensboro-n-c-invests-in-electric-buses/

Nice radiator fins. How do they isolate those from the floors?

Yet downtown parking lots and buildings are still a long way from capacity.

Financially, suburban sprawl is inefficient. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/10/11/the-numbers-dont-lie