Foraker

The Towpath is a great way to get scouts and other youth out on foot or on their bikes in the national park, but it is very difficult to find campsites anywhere nearby (even outside of the park). I would really like to see that change!

https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/future-of-transportation-bus-bike-elevator.html

Even that view includes some improvements on the CSU side of the street. Progress is frustratingly slow, but Cleveland and PS are really looking good!

Every Cleveland neighborhood should have its own "downtown" - commercial district/gathering place.

Where is Hough's "downtown"?

Just as a reminder, the state transportation budget is around $3.6B, so that $70M the State of Ohio provides for transit is less than 2% of the transportation budget. https://budget.ohio.gov/Budget/operating/doc/fy-20-21/FY20-21 Highlights Book-Final.pdf (see p. 14) How does that compare to our neighbors, Indiana/Michigan/Kentucky, WV, Pennsylvania?

Well, the lower level of the garage, yes. But that image is too dark to see the depth of the retail space (if that is going to be retail space).

I drove through this area the other day and wasn't able to stop and take pictures, but it looks like they have built some block walls a short distance in on the ground floor of the garage. Maybe 10 feet -- I assume this is going to be the promised street-fronting retail space -- can someone get pictures?

Quite possibly -- hopefully someone can shed more light on that. It looks to me like the city is feeling pressure from residents to "do something" about Severance and this is an attempt to take some action. But Severance is privately owned, the owner does not care, and the city has few levers. Even if someone highly qualified comes in and develops a plan, this whole project looks like a waste of time and money until Severance has an owner who is interested in redevelopment. That is likely years down the road, at which time arguments will be made that the study is outdated and Severance needs a new plan anyway.

Is any of this even possible without a significant increase in funding? How can we possible improve reliability, frequency, or scope of service without a significant funding increase? I fear that we are on a trajectory toward inevitable collapse, but I hope I am wrong.

No doubt, without additional funding there will be no RTA in time. And many of Ohio's bridges will collapse. Both are the result of state transportation funding priorities. I would encourage our state to rethink its priorities -- maybe revisit what transportation assets should be maintained, put money into such maintenance, and increase funding to projects that benefit the most people (many of those projects should include support for public transportation, which is much more efficient for moving people within cities). I would also increase fees for users who put the most strain our our transportation assets -- particularly heavy trucks. Ideally we should apply tolls to our interstates based on weight (and thereby capture service fees from those heavy battery-powered vehicles as well) -- and shift the gas tax funds to air quality and gas station environmental cleanup efforts. That seems unlikely unless we ask for it. But it's not impossible.

With the increase in downtown population, I hope that one of those baby steps is extending the Waterfront Line to loop around downtown!

U.S. Air Quality falling after years of increases. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/467067-new-study-air-pollution-in-us-rose-resulting-in-premature-deaths

That's a nice article. Protected bike lanes really are necessary if we want little kids and the elderly to be able to cycle safely. And yes, cars are a problem even in Cleveland -- I don't bike to work because I'm not comfortable sharing the road with cars in the dark and bad weather, even with lights and reflectors.

Completely disagree. With the current system, much of the downtown business area is not within a 15 minute walk from a rapid station. If you think people will take the Rapid to Tower City, walk 10 minutes to the bus stop on Public Square and wait for a bus, then why aren't people already doing it? A transfer from the existing Rapid onto a loop line train at Tower City to a stop on the loop cuts out that 10 minute walk from Tower City's Rapid station to Public Square and makes it far more convenient to take the Rapid in the first place.

Take a look at the hybrids like the Toyota Camry Hybrid -- batteries are not catastrophically failing at 10 years out, even with hard use as a taxi. I bet most drivers will not notice even a 20% decline, they'll just keep on driving until they can't afford not to replace the battery.

Maybe, but maybe not. That's a post-tensioned concrete slab. If the beam broke any of the tensioning cables they've got a problem. They might be able to repair the hole without tearing out an entire section, but that's a job for specialists ($$) that they will likely be calling in to try to stay on schedule. If not, they may have to tear out an entire section and repour the concrete, which requires time for curing, which means more delay.

Drawings can be found here: https://www.clevelandheights.com/1184/ABR-Case2018-514 and here: https://www.clevelandheights.com/988/Top-of-the-Hill

Cars and air conditioning, and despite its potential, likely the smartphone. Technology that isolates.

Keep beating that drum KJP. We need train service back in Ohio. I would pay a higher fare than the cost to fly to take a train between Cincinnati and Cleveland rather than drive, even if the travel time were the same. Why? Because I could work, read, sleep, and get up and walk around, instead of paying attention to and stressing over traffic for four hours. (And I was rear-ended on I-71 in an accident caused by a texting teen two cars back -- take your texting to the train and save money!) And my parents can't drive any more, so a train at any speed would be a huge plus for them to keep traveling.

I would think that the best measure would be like the UN's World Happiness Report, which based on multiple factors like per capita GDP, social services, life expectancy, freedom, corruption, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report Or the famous WalkScore, which also looks at multiple factors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_Score X is right, looking at the number of doors alone is probably insufficient and in some instances may be misleading. For "Good urbanism" we might look at the number of storefronts; number of pedestrians, whether there are places where people congregate, percentage of area devoted to pedestrians (wide sidewalks vs. narrow sidewalks), separation from traffic, average vehicle speed, etc.

If you think that the Democrats will do nothing at all about student loans and it's only pandering, then we aren't in agreement. They will do something, just as Trump's administration made it easier to mine coal, the Democrats will do something to lesson the burden of student loan debt, they just won't make current student loans disappear.

On the other hand, the pool will see more sunshine to the south, where it is spaced further from the shadows cast by the Hanna (and the Lumen itself).

Actually, I did listen to the Democratic debates. I heard the same words as you, but apparently I understood them differently. As you noted, a President cannot unilaterally issue an executive order canceling privately-owned debt. That means that "wiping out" student loan debt will require legislation of some sort. Can we agree on that point? So the candidates' intent is clear, to find a way for the government to ease the population's student loan debt burden. The exact mechanism employed, whether it is the government buying and retiring the debt or writing checks to those with student loans or something else, will require Congressional action. Surely you're not taking every candidate's promises literally, are you? Let's remember that despite candidate Trump's promises, coal mining is not making a comeback in the US. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-21/trump-promised-to-bring-back-coal-it-s-declining-again https://www.nbc4i.com/news/state-news/no-bidders-for-coal-leases-inside-ohios-wayne-national-forest/ But the intent -- to increase reliance on US-based rather than foreign-originated natural resources -- surely was supported by many and helped candidate Trump win the election. (and helped to support state initiatives like Ohio's plan to subsidize two coal plants and two nuclear plants.) And while Trump failed to deliver on the literal campaign promises, I don't think the Republican party is surprised or disappointed that the Trump administration has reduced the number of mine safety inspectors and relaxed Clean Air and Clean Water rules to try to help the industry. Similarly, Democratic candidates' promises of "wiping out" student loan debt surely will not lead to "elimination of all student loan debt," but likely will lead to new legislation and new regulations that will ease the student loan debt burden to at least some degree for at least some of the population. (In contrast, my understanding is that most Republicans think that government has no role to play in student loan debt.)

In my ideal plan for the airport, they would get rid of all the parking adjacent the airport and build a couple of massive parking garages and hotels next to the Brookpark rapid station (or to a new rapid station south of the airport) and make the rapid cheap or fee from there into the terminal. Move the "curbside" drop-off, taxi services, shuttles, etc. to that station and make the airport rapid station into a more welcoming gateway for all passengers and employees coming into the airport. That would immediately free up land around the terminal. Extend the building over the current roadway and put the ticket counters there, and reconfigure the security checkpoints to something more user-friendly in place of the current ticket counter lineup. Going further, how about a regional passenger train station connection near the airport as well, drawing potential customers to the airport from Pittsburgh and Columbus -- and a quality rail network to every major urban center within 200 miles. Yeah, yeah, I know. ?