Foraker

I hope you don't regret that wish -- I'm afraid that we're going to get it. The feds are cutting their transportation budget. The state is cutting its transportation budget. Cities and counties are going to be left to fund their own projects. I don't see large piles of cash building up in any cities. You think the potholes are big now -- just wait. And hopefully I'm wrong about all that...

The County is Us. WE deserve to do our business in a place we can be proud of.

The preliminary reports suggest that part of the ruling was that the Diocese failed to follow the proper procedures for closing these churches. If that's the case I would not be surprised if only a few of these churches are ever reopened. They'll just start the process over and do it right the second time. They really do not seem to have the funds and the parishioners to maintain all of the churches in the city right now.

Does Canada have any refineries? I thought one of the arguments for the Keystone pipeline was that they needed to get the Tar Sands oil to refineries in Texas (where it is expected that it will be exported to the highest bidder on the world market).

That's Cleveland Heights city councilman Jason Stein, for those of you not from the area, not South Euclid. I agree that Severance does not need to expand its footprint, but would like to see higher density from more up-to-the-street construction, and better pedestrian access. Hopefully Severance stands as an example of what not to do at Oakwood.

New parking area for the Union Club?

"These" meaning the Amfleet I and Horizonliner cars would be replaced by the 904 car order or that the Amfleet II cars would be replaced by the 904 car order?

I'll third the motion. Since we cannot afford to maintain our current lane-miles of roadway, so we certainly can't afford to build more. Maybe if we built more TOD around these stations (if the neighborhood is in bad shape, the land ought to be cheap, right? Developers? Beuhler?) then in 20 years or so these neighborhoods won't be as blighted as they are now.

With limited lanes, some traffic (through trucks?) will have to be diverted. How long before the I-490 bridge has to be replaced?

Is this project complete? What is left to be done?

For what it's worth, I work in Playhouse Square and drive in to work. Where I live I'm a 15 minute walk to a bus station and a 25 minute walk to a rapid stop. The rapid only gets me to Tower City and then it's another 15-20 minute walk to my office. The bus requires a transfer. Neither method can get me to my office in less than an hour. I can drive in, park, and be sitting at my desk within half an hour. Driving wins, unfortunately.

Or maybe how screwed up things have been for a long time. Airlines are heavily subsidized and it seems that one is filing for bankruptcy on a too-frequent basis. Something has changed, however, and flights are fuller and more expensive, which might be what is needed to keep them solvent. It shows that short-hop flights really aren't cost-effective and flights under 2 hours ought to be served by rail.

Construction is proceeding on the north campus project. The parking lot paving has been removed, the ground leveled, and I saw cement trucks there this morning so maybe they're pouring footers in the mud pit today.

Exactly, we already have more lane-miles to maintain than dollars to do the maintenance. Out of necessity we will soon have to make decisions about which roads or lanes we will no longer maintain.

Perhaps it is time for the county to consider whether some form of land value taxation would be better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax My understanding is that in this kind of system taxes are applied to the value of the land and its location without regard to what's built on it. There seem to be a lot of variations, however. At any rate, if Jacobs's parking lot were taxed at a "public square" rate, which ought to be one of the highest in the city, it might finally convince him (and all the other parking lot operators) to build or sell. I don't know whether this is a good idea or not, but having recently heard a libertarian singing its praises in terms of encouraging development of empty lots, it does seem like something that the county council (and state legislature) ought to look into.

When I bought my house, at what we thought was a good price, the bank came back and told us it wasn't worth near that much and would only give us a loan of a far lower amount. So we had to renegotiate with the seller. Maybe something similar happened here. Cumberland and RTA thought they had a deal, but Cumberland's financing fell through. Maybe Cumberland couldn't raise enough money to do a rehab. So RTA is selling it to Dunham, probably for a lot less than $500,000. Who knows. A lot of "done deals" fall apart before the papers get signed.

More light pollution--Cleveland astronomers rejoice!

Occupy All Streets video -- cars create problems for pedestrians in our built environment.

http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2011/dec/05/frank-lautenberg/Lautenberg-says-federal-highway-spending-last-year/

Looks to me more like lousy or biased reporting by the PD. :drunk: Despite the headline, the only criticism seems to be about the likelihood of obtaining funding for the project. That has been a major problem for every lakefront plan proposed in the last twenty-plus years. I couldn't find anything in that article that suggested that Fitz actually didn't like what was proposed for the lakefront. The article seems to say that he criticized the current state of the lakefront, not the plan for the future.

That makes no sense. Isn't there already a glut of office space in downtown Cleveland? Class B office space can be had for $12-14/sf. $23/sf? Good luck! I hope they have a tenant lined up.

I'd say the time for trying to prevent this project has passed. We should now be talking about what can we do to make it as good as possible. There are already a lot of good features in the proposal, including the park and the reuse of the Oakwood Clubhouse. #1 on my list is incorporating walking and public transit access to this project to minimize the need for parking. I think one of the biggest failings of Legacy Village is that it didn't incorporate a bus station with direct pedestrian access to the shopping area. Walking around Legacy is a very pleasant experience; walking to Legacy is daunting.

Protecting pedestrians from falling clay tile. Other than that, nothing. Some of the worst of the clay tile was replaced several years ago, but I haven't seen any further work on the side of the building since then. Until the city or the Playhouse Square Foundation leans on the building owners, they don't seem to be motivated to do anything further. I agree, however, that it would be great if they would get whatever work done that needs to be done and remove the scaffolding already.

Is the sewer district still talking about the impervious-surface surcharge? I'm all for it -- hoping that it would actually help to cut down the sea of parking lots.

Biker--KJP and clvlndr might be right, but I welcome your seemingly well-informed additions to the conversation. Don't be discouraged. We all have the city's best interest at heart, want to improve transit, and we're all learning from one another.