Foraker

I agree that maintenance is a bigger issue locally, and our maintenance would be greatly simplified with lighter vehicles and a single fleet of vehicles. But we are stuck until we can get the money to lower platforms. So some high-low vehicles are almost certainly in our future, even if just to manage the transition. And with any luck, the seemingly reviving interest in light rail in the US might lead to the development of some new rail technology by the time we get our act together here in Cleveland.

Part of the plan is to make the pool more accessible to the community rather than just a pool for the high school students: http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/2013/10/02/heights-high-tour-shows-facilities-that-bond-issue-would-renovate

And what did they do with Times Square in NY? They closed the street. Huron between Prospect and Euclid could be the next E4th. Let's hope that all the workers coming into the area via the county building and whatever spinoffs develop (firms wanting to be close to the county) spur development along Huron. I'd suggest an incremental approach, starting with a bike lane and one-way traffic (north). Then sometime in the future add bollards mid-street to prevent through traffic. And narrowing the roadway. And then down the line just close it to through traffic permanently. With the Wyndham and its garage on Huron, along with the other building across the street that has been converted to parking, it might not be practical to close the street entirely, but taking out the through traffic would certainly make the street more pedestrian-friendly. We can dream.

I vote for #1 and making the waterfront line loop around downtown near CSU and CCC.

Yes! An ACE Hardware or something would be perfect. When I started moving in I was surprised there wasn't already one there. Perfect for people moving in, and realize they forgot simple things like tape measures, hammers, nails, etc. Check out Sutton Hardware on Prospect not far east of downtown. 3848 Prospect Ave Cleveland, OH 44115 Open 7:00 am – 5:30 pm suttonhardware.com One of my favorite hardware stores in town.

Spot on. :clap:

I understand that concern, as well as the other concerns expressed here about activity on the street. Let's hope the space is designed to accommodate future conversion to street-level retail.

Not exactly true. Lots of federal money went into the national road (US40), canals, waterway regulations, and financial incentives for railroads. To say that there weren't "regulations" may be technically correct, but there were strings attached to the funds that allowed these transportation projects to proceed.

I just saw this interesting interview with a guy who makes simulation transportation videos. You can change point of view, add a lane, take out a lane, add a bike lane, widen sidewalks, etc. Simulations like this would be very helpful in any street reconstruction where you want to get a feel for how a street would "feel" in different scenarios and from different points of view (pedestrian, driver, cyclist). http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2013/11/19/sidtv-interview-with-spencer-boomhower.html#.UouqT-KKhy0 And here's one of the simulations you can manipulate yourself: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3329542/Marmoset_Street/Marmoset_Street.html :clap:

I agree with KJP. And I disagree that creating MORE parking at that intersection is going to help streetlife or bring in more businesses. As for parking, the parking lot on the southeast corner, at the strip mall, is never full. Maybe it's not used to get to Melt because people don't feel safe walking from there to Melt. What can we do about that? Slow down the traffic and shorten the crossing distances would be a start. Traffic problems are a legitimate concerns. But I expect that what makes the traffic so bad is not the street parking (there is street parking on Lee Road, but the Cedar-Lee area is not hard to navigate). I usually have trouble getting through that intersection because I never know whether there are cars parked in the outside lanes or not. If there are, then there are probably other cars like mine trying to merge there that didn't expect to have to merge. So they drive all the way up, come to a complete stop behind the last parked car, and then have to stop the rest of the traffic as they merge into a gap in the traffic. In case there was any confusion, I didn't mean that we necessarily needed to or had room to widen the sidewalks -- just that the sidewalks already aren't very wide for pedestrians to hang out there. By narrowing the street I meant just at the crosswalk. Lee Road in the Cedar-Lee business district does this with sidewalk bump-outs in what could otherwise be an outside lane, while still allowing for plenty of parking. This allows pedestrians to get out past the parked cars and see oncoming traffic, and for traffic to better see the pedestrians trying to cross the street, while also shortening the crossing distance. Going back to the Cedar-Taylor intersection. On Cedar, sometimes there are two westbound lanes, and sometimes one westbound lane whenever a single car is parked on the street. A bumpout at the intersection would make the crossing shorter and safer for pedestrians and provide more consistency -- everyone would know that the road narrows there all the time. That would eliminate drivers crossing the intersection and stopping in the crosswalk while waiting to merge to get around the occasional parked car. Narrower lanes would slow down the traffic, and more consistent designated street parking would provide a more consistent buffer between the moving cars and people on the sidewalk (whether there are any parked cars or not). A center turn lane would be helpful, but I don't recall whether there is room there. I would like to see traffic that moves through the intersection and neighborhood more slowly but I think that if the traffic pattern is predictable the traffic will move through that intersection more smoothly. I think that is the real traffic problem -- that traffic does not move smoothly through the intersection. There probably isn't room for a roundabout either... So if the parking lot at the southeast corner of the intersection is never full, building another parking lot on the KFC (northeast) corner is not going to bring in more customers to the businesses in the area. I would like to see a mixed use office building with ground floor retail or small shops, built up to the street with parking in the rear. I think that would really help that intersection more than another parking lot. If it had offices, it would provide some pedestrian traffic at lunchtime -- since they just walk across the street to Melt or any of the other restaurants in the area, no additional parking would be required for the lunch crowd. If it was apartments/condos, there would be more pedestrians during non-working hours, and again, those additional potential customers would not require added parking, beyond whatever is provided for the new building anyway. It seems that making parking at the southeast corner more convenient and safe-feeling would give the property-owners (and the city) more bang for their buck than another parking lot. Cleveland Heights probably cannot count on more people driving to Cleveland Heights to spend their money as the way to revive Cleveland Heights (there will always be a better Walmart being built somewhere, or a nicer Legacy Village, and even if Severance were redesigned to be a destination like Legacy Village is now, it would not last long before the next new thing is built somewhere else). Cleveland Heights needs to make it easier for Cleveland Heights residents to meet most of their needs in their neighborhoods, within walking distance. The most successful parts of Cleveland Heights -- Cedar-Lee, Coventry, and Cedar-Fairmount in particular -- all seem to follow that pattern. The one thing those neighborhoods are most lacking in my view is more office space -- so that there are more people working there during the day and frequenting the shops at lunchtime. Still, these areas of the city seem to have survived various downturns better than the more car-reliant areas of the city, and that kind of development should be repeated throughout the city.

Has Playhouse Square gotten the Keith Building's owners to agree to add lighting? My understanding is that PS doesn't own the Keith. Unfortunately.

Well by far the biggest challenge for me has been lack of parking in the neighborhood. I think the spaces would have been leased out long ago if there was better parking. I always park in the shopping center lot to go to Melt. Maybe you need more residents in the area rather than more parking. Can you build up? I expect that the dead space across Taylor isn't helping the neighborhood. The sidewalks aren't particularly wide in that area, so there isn't much opportunity for sidewalk cafes. Plus the traffic is pretty heavy and fast (around 40mph) -- none of this is conducive to an enjoyable place for pedestrians. Should narrow the street to one lane each way plus a turn lane, with curb bump-outs for pedestrians to make the street crossing shorter. And narrow the lanes to 10' to slow traffic. Then someone needs to build up the east side of Taylor... if only I had the means! I'm sure you have your own wish list. Best of luck and thanks for improving the storefronts!

Unfortunately, it also says construction was to start in early 2013, and no construction seems to be happening. So the project seems to have hit a roadblock of some sort.

I hope the new slate of leaders coming in to city hall next year will compare Severance to the traditional shopping and dining centers in Cleveland Heights, such as Coventry, Cedar-Fairmount, and Cedar-Lee, and find a way to push Severance in that direction rather than continuing the exurban development pattern currently "thriving" at Severance. Has anyone compared the city tax revenue per acre along Severance Circle to the revenue-per-acre of the traditional business districts?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=410288239071530&set=gm.167699603423632&type=1&theater I don't see any attribution on the image, presumably from RTA.

Resurfacing of Ontario Ave. cited in a national article about how having a Complete Streets ordinance is by itself insufficient to actually building to complete streets standards. http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/07/11/passing-a-law-is-the-easy-part-the-challenge-of-building-complete-streets/#more-141604 I can think of several reasons for why this is so, county or federal funding for the resurfacing for example putting control out of the city's hands, but I hate to see Cleveland cited (again) as an example of what not to do. I hope our city leaders see this article!

It increases their landscape maintenance costs to be more in line with Kent State's. :-)

LOL -- "Gravel roads make us look bad with our campaign donors, we can't have that!" Strange to see Republicans complaining that more money isn't being spent to keep roads looking pretty for industry. The problem is, where is the money going to come from? I don't see Texas raising taxes, so prepare to see school or welfare funding cuts. But wait, there's more, the state is also looking to unload some of its maintenance obligations: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/TxDOT-takes-flack-for-plans-to-cut-back-on-roads-4772725.php Meanwhile, an adjacent news article reports that road expansion in other parts of Texas continue... http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Loop-1604-between-Bandera-and-Culebra-to-expand-4772526.php No indication of whether Texas will have the funds to maintain the newly expanded Loop 1604....

Agreed, this road is not likely to improve the tax base sufficiently to pay for its construction or ongoing maintenance. That should be part of the decision on whether or not to build it. As others have pointed out, however, building this road is an excuse to clean up some contaminated properties for which funds for decontamination are otherwise unavailable. So there are some gold nuggets in this plan. It's unfortunate that we won't spend the money to clean up these properties without building a new road.

http://www.word-detective.com/2010/03/shoo-fly/

Thanks! That clears things up -- rail is cheaper to operate per passenger-mile .

I will grant you that rail is almost always more expensive to build (capital cost) than a new bus route. Partially because someone else builds and maintains the right-of-way. But are the operational costs that much greater? I would expect rail to be less expensive to operate. Fewer operators required to move more people, using less fuel, and less wear and tear. Can you provide numbers?

http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2013/07/sustainability_consortium_seek.html Report presents different regional development scenarios, with business as usual running a huge deficit. (As a whole, Northeast Ohio is heading in the same direction as Detroit.) Just one of the questions this article raises for me is the following. Assuming the regional population remains fairly stable (although the trend is a decline in population), just how many miles of roadway can we maintain? And in follow up, how many miles do we already have? Parallel questions arise for water lines, sewer lines, communication lines, etc. We also increase our costs for trash collection, police, and fire services when we spread the same number of people further out. We are going to be receiving a lot less help on road maintenance, along with funding for other local needs, from the state and federal governments in the future, so it's good that someone is looking at these numbers now.

I wonder if they decided to put the patio as far north as they could to give the patio a little sunshine. The theatres cast a big shadow there. If that decision has even been made. These renderings could be just preliminary mock-ups.

Are they expecting everyone to park in the Playhouse Square garage? That's the only adjacent parking. There is a small lot across Chester, but Chester is too wide for pedestrians to cross easily. How many will walk down to the crosswalk at 17th? I hope to see additional plans for this area soon (between the 13th and 17th from Chester north to Payne). Other than the Greyhound station, there isn't a ton of activity, mostly a sea of parking lots.