metrocity

RPM should just be torn down...that place is dying the slowest death of any mall I have ever seen. I worked there '91 - '94 and it was a mess then...I honestly can't believe it is even still open. I think Sears does a good business, but isn't most of the viable retail in that area around Southgate USA just south of there? Last I heard Southgate was doing pretty well...which is interesting because RPM kinda killed it in the beginng. MayCo and Penny's abandoned and went to RPM for example. Here is some exerpts from an interesting(but long) historical article about RPM and DeBartolo's insistence on building it...and how beautiful it was going to be. I should also warn that some of the quotes on the area are pretty racist. http://www.clevelandmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=586CA122EB394032BD4AA3B686FF03D9&nm=Editorial&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=1578600D80804596A222593669321019&tier=4&id=DF861FC8AEA54F84A19FC6983DF22451 From Cleveland Magazine, July 1976 "Ladies and gentlemen, you might think there won't be a palm tree left in Florida," says a fiercely smiling Bill Richmond, slick as a sideshow barker. "Because there will be 82 of them planted in this mall . ..." Richmond, oozing charm he bottled and brought up with him from his native Tennessee, is squiring representatives from some 50 of the country's leading newspapers who are in Cleveland for a national gathering of real estate editors. At this moment they are getting a firsthand preview of a $175-million undertaking billed as "the world's largest and most beautiful shopping complex": gargantuan Randall Park Mall, 2.2 million sprawling square feet, suburbia's most spectacular new temple for the mercantile arts. This self-contained, climate-controlled colossus sits on a 144-acre plot that is bounded by Emery Road to the north, Northfield Road to the east, Miles Road to the south and Warrensville Center Road to the west — a sizable hunk of the tiny village of North Randall in southeastern Cuyahoga County. It is scheduled to open for business next month, on august 11.

What a landmark, it's too bad.

They are called 'Tower City', 'Theodosius', 'Cantious', 'Rockefeller', 'key', 'Fenn' and 'Jones and Laughlin' Take a look at the site, these are all the exact same building with something different taped on the outside. http://bergenvillagehomes.com/elevations.html The rendering shown above is the 'rear elevation' of these. The front elevation or 'drive elevations' all have 2 two car garage doors across the bottom. I don't care if the gate is 'swinging' for peds, it's still a gate and a psychological barrier. And this is all going up in front of one of the best views of the city? This project is apocalyptically lame. Tremont deserves better and so does that prime real estate.

I think a lot of Illegal aliens use them to actually cash their paychecks. Since they are illegal, they can't leave a bank paper trail...or get an account without documents. They seem to be everywhere these days no matter how sketchy or not the neighborhood is.

When I read this I was thinking...get Zaha Hadid that did Cincinnati's! She did a great job, and put Cincy in the limelight as her first commission in the US. She's done some excellent work in Europe.

All I can say is be careful what you wish for because it might come true. I went to Salt Lake City with a friend of mine that grew up there. Driving into the city I was amazed at these huge overbuilt 10 lane freeways that started well outside of downtown. My friend said it was not like that growing up, it was all built for the Olympics. Many of the main arterial steets have been widened to ridiculous proportions as well, mostly for the Olympics. There are other white elephant arenas around the city also that they have no idea what to do with. SLC is a sprawling western city anyway, but I wonder how much the overbuilt infrastucture is going to contribute to further sprawl in the future. I talked to a lot of the locals too about how bad the pollution has gotten there. It is not uncommon for a brown haze to hang over the city and actually make it seem gloomy outside...until you go up in the mountains and it is sunny. I saw that haze first hand driving into the city...it looked like LA in the 70's. One bright spot of all that new infrastructure is a token train line that runs downtown and out to University. I have also been to Olympic Village in Montreal which is also a white elephant there. They managed to turn the velodrome into a rain forest thing, but a lot of those other cool buildings and grounds are in pretty bad shape. Although their metro system was also built for the Olympics. My point is that if Columbus gets the Olympics, they may finally get a token train system than runs from point a to point b...but they will also end up with a hugely overbuilt infrastructure that might furher encourage sprawl and become a burden to the taxpayers after the games are over. After seeing some of these places, getting the Olympics doesn't seem like such a win for the host city.

Oh yeah sorry, the Eichlers weren't prefab, but were an attempt to bring an affordable, progressive and modern home to the middle class....similar to the goal of the others. Yeah, those Beverly Shores homes are cool. Last time I was out there it looked like someone had done a lot of work to the 'Florida Home' and the 'RoseStone Home'. The train station is cool too...and I think you have to flag down the train for it to stop...which is kinda funny. Love the good modern stuff! It is hot everywhere right now, including 60's high rises. Euclid may regret tearing those things down someday.

These attempts at pre-fab homes are really interesting...especially compared to the blandness of today's subdivision colonials and big box stores with taped on 'details'. Even though the Lustron was kind of ugly, it was at least forward thinking for the time. And you could hang pictiures with a magnet! Anyone interested in this type of thing should also check out: Eichler homes of Southern CA http://www.eichlersocal.com/ Or closer to home...visit these in the Indiana dunes...5 homes from the Chicago Century of Progress fair are still there (mostly rotting). They were brought to Beverly Shores by a developer to stir interest in a new development there. http://webpages.marshall.edu/~brooks/HOT/

I have the simple metal bed that I ordered from the internet about a year ago, and was wondering how the quality was going to be, and was pleasantly surprised. It's really sturdy. However, I also visited the store in DUMBO(Brooklyn) and thought the wood furniture did look kinda cheap...but the price was in line with what you get. It's not expensive, and sturdier than Ikea. Might be a good fit in Tower City.

You're right, they should have something between those plans. 50 might make sense because after a car payment, parking(average $200 a month), insurance, repairs, maintenance and gas, it stills comes out cheaper than owning if you are going to use a car that much(think maybe an artist that travels to shows, or a massage therapist that does house calls and brings trhe table). Plus your cost is fixed monthly, can be budgeted and you have a new and reliable car, unlike owning a used car. I add the cost of parking because the locations are generally in neighborhoods where parking is a nightmare and you most likely will end up renting a space. As far as the 100...If you live in the city and depend on a car that much...you need to move because you aren't getting the urban lifestyle at all.

$100 doesn't seem too unreasonable to me, esp if there is no per mile charge. It is definitely cheaper than renting. Chicago has I-Go which I have thought about using, but don't currently. The main use would be groceries for most people, and I am lucky to have a full service Jewel/Osco store in walking distance...or I order delivery online with Peapod. If I didn't have those options, I'd probably join. Friends of mine really like it. 1. Pay-As-You-Go Plan $75 membership, $6 an hour and .50 a mile 2. GO 25 Plan $225 a month, includes 25 hours and 250 miles. Anything over this amount will be billed at $6 an hour and .50 a mile. 3. GO 50 Plan $425 a month, includes 50 hours and 500 miles. Anything over this amount will be billed at $6 an hour and.50 a mile. 4. GO 100 Plan $850 a month, includes 100 hours and 1000 miles. Anything over this amount will be billed at $6 an hour and .50 a mile.

^Don't forget going carless means carrying things also...last night I lugged home over 50 lbs of groceries. Those kinds of of little things make a difference.

^That is so insane in this country how utterly stupid it is that someone gasps at walking and is sore! Exercise in the US means driving to a gym and circling around until a close parking spot is found, then taking an elevator up... to walk on a tread mill and use a stair climber machine. It is almost comical, but I have a friend like that who won't walk anywhere, and thinks that the only exercise possible is a planned daily activity at a gym. BTW- I take a bus or train, takes about 15 to 25 minutes depending on traffic.

The home looks as cheap as the sign. If that is a dream..will someone please pinch the builder.

In the tower on the right

It opens today in a South suburb Bollingbrook http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0509280213sep28,1,1897945.story?coll=chi-news-hed

None of these companies will be around as long as Wal Mart runs the show. Hoover and Mr Coffee were 2 other Ohio companies that were brought down by their business practices.

Chicagoans are not happy about this at all...poll fro today's Tribune

Outlawing monster homes doesn't seem quite right...I can't stand them, but I am not for govt regulation either. What if people were taxed according to street frontage? It makes sense, the wider the lot, the more infrastructure burdan you are to the city...more street to pave, more utility lines. If that were the case, maybe people wouldn't be spreading out so much. Seems to make more sense than more annoying zoning regulations.

Anyone interested in taking a boat ride on a replica Canal Boat from that era, pulled by a mule along the Towpath? This section of the canal, about 50 miles south of Cleveland still has water in it, and they run this boat tour. It's in the village of Canal Fulton. There is also lock #4 nearby that is cool to see...even though it no longer works. Good destination bike ride once all of the pieces are connected of the trail. http://www.discovercanalfulton.com/

Fashion Mall Parkway...sorry but that is one of the hokiest, lamest street names I have ever heard. Did the developers 8 year old daughter name that street....it sounds like a Barbie Doll dream world street playset. What's next...Food Ct, Mall -n- Things Lane...

It's not even that cold in Cincy in the winter! Minneapolis makes sense as well as Canadian cities because it gets so damn cold. Most Canadian cities have their underground cities tied to transit, which makes them good urban spaces anyway. I don't like them either...sounds like they would stink like stale smoke anyway.

I was working at RTA when the Dual Hub project was basically shot down for the last time, and it was a sad day. RTA isn't totally to blame though, there's NOACA, the state and the feds as big players too. Aren't the feds pushing systems toward BRT these days anyway? Transit riders are second class citizens in this country, and it's really bad under the Bush Administration as far as funding cuts. The recent lack of support for Homeland security to provide funding to protect public transit is the most telling. At least if these BRT routes are in place, maybe they will be better suited in the future for conversion to rail.

Continental doesn't fly to Asia because it code shares with Northwest Airlines on those flights because that is NWA's niche (used to be Northwest Orient). Therefore, if you buy a ticket to Tokyo on Continental, you would be shuttled to Detroit or Minneapolis and fly the rest on NWA. Continental's niche is Central/South America and the Carribean(maybe?), so the same thing would happen for NWA fliers that go there. Getting direct flights to Asia would probably never happen from Cleveland given the proximity of the huge new NWA terminal at DTR and the code share agreement. Also, given that Continental specializes in South America, Houston makes sense....and for their European flights, Newark makes sense. It seems the niche for the Cleveland hub is domestic air travel unfortunately, so huge investments may not have paid off like they did in Atlanta. Cleveland is lucky to have one of the healthier airlines though...Continental's reputation is really good lately. I'd say, with all of the cuts happening, American and Continental have the best reps as far as still offering pretty good service. United is a complete mess and their reputation is in the toilet, and the employees are bitter from pay cuts. US Airways and Delta seem pretty unstable, and Northwest has always had a bad rep as a scrappy airline.

I thought that RTA had tried to propose rail down Clifton in the past, and the city of Lakewood wanted nothing to do with it. That also goes for the freight tracks that run down the middle of the city. Could be wrong though, but I seem to recall that scenerio about 15 yrs ago.