Map Boy

Thanks! I enjoyed taking them! Still working on the next segment...too much going on these days, though!

This dormitory thing is very weird. The sketches are...well, sketchy...and the prospect of housing 600 students on the other side of the Innerbelt is a crazy idea at this point (if you ask me!). Plus, I lived in a 600 student dorm and it was 12 stories high...is he giving everyone 40 square feet of living space in that little structure pictured above? Or is he taking out all the exisitng uses? I just don't follow... I'm still going to assume that this guy is just positioning himself for an Innerbelt takings battle.

I know... you'll have to come out of your bunker eventually!

A few more from random days... The recently rehabbed Circle East building is owned by University Circle Incorporated and is conveniently located adjacent to the CWRU campus and just down the hill from Little Italy on the corner of Euclid and Ford/Mayfield. This intersection will soon be the site of major new developments in housing and retail, as well as the proposed new home of MOCA Cleveland! The first Meet me on the Mall (www.parkworks.org) Movie Under the Stars was in early June. It was a hit in my book, with about 60 people attending. There are more to come on Malls B & C Thursdays and Fridays throughout the summer! Get there early for some badminton and croquet...who knew you could do this any day of the week? Seriously, you can borrow the games at the Convention Center and take them onto the Mall! Dusk: Families! Batman! Stay tuned for a booze cruise and more!

Parade the Circle was a huge hit again this year! CIM construction in background: Peep the CIM crane: The Western Reserve Historical Society: Loads of people! CMA construction through the gardens: Heading over towards little Italy, via Cornell & Euclid Avenue: A block of houses on E. 115th that miraculously avoided demo as UH expanded: Looking up towards Murray Hill and the Heights on Cornell: Up on Murray Hill @ Cornell: Sadly, vacant...any takers? Ditto this one! Stay tuned for more action from Cleveland!

I've been saving up some photos from the past month or so and have now decided to put the highlights together in a sequential series of posts on this single thread... enjoy! We'll start at the beginning...the Subway Tour! (pan right for this last one!) Next up: Parade the Circle!

wow...you're a magician with that camera! this thread is going to put the crappy one I'm piecing together to shame...

^Hey, thanks for that! I swear I searched the entire site and found squat! So, as I suspected, there's a 2-bike limit. That may be an issue every once in a while, but this would so clearly have been an acceptable time to let the guy on. Every seat was taken, but I was the only one standing in the door areas. I really felt for the guy...not enough to offer to get off the train, though! (I was late enough as it was...really!)

I'll tell ya, the first thing I noticed when it got warm out around here wasn't the mass chaos and upswing in crime that people warned me about. it was the large number of strollers and new babies! That, and dogs...everyone has a dog (even me!).

I've been wondering the same thing. There are so many projects, large and small, currently underway and even more on the horizon. What is the impact on the local employment market? I know there are often requirements attached to public dollars in regard to a % of local workers and minority owned contractors and things like that, but how many of the workers are actually from here and how many are brought in? Things like that. Good question, Jamie!

on a side note, who knows what the rules are for taking bikes on the Red Line? I got on a single-car Red Line train yesterday at University Circle and had to wait for about 12 people to board before me so that I could squeeze into the little space at the front of the train. (the conductor closed the door before the last three of us could get on...I guess he was tired of waiting for everyone to get their change in order before we could pull out!) So anyway, I'm on and I'm out of the way and there's another little dirt bike on the other end of the train (how he got down there, I don't know) and we pull up to E. 79th, where there's a guy with a bike waiting to board. The driver tells him he can't get on... "come on man, I'm trying to get to work and I've been waiting here for this train." Nope, no dice. What's that all about? There was ample space next to me or if the driver would open up one of the other doors on the train. What gives? Is there a two-bike limit? It's not like they post this information anywhere in the stations...or the web site, for that matter! I thought this was a really shitty situation and one that would prevent me from ever trying to take my bike on the train again if it had happened to me. I felt bad for the guy...

jamie, I think you summed up a lot of what I feel about taking the rapid. I have other options, sure, but I like riding it for a number of reasons...convenience, affordability, and yes, the geeky thrill I get of riding the rails! I think that you're right about the common perception of the system by Clevelanders, but I think that is also changing. The next generation of adult riders have been to other cities and enjoyed riding transit and I think that will help. And hopefully, with potential TODs and other transit improvements (BRT, etc) in the works, it will become a more functional, and more attractive system. But it's true...some people look at you funny and kind of feel bad when you tell them you take the train...but don't you kinda feel bad for them sitting in traffic and chugging gasoline and trying to talk on their phones while they're getting on the highway?

very welcome news, indeed! i've watched this coming together only since the fall and it's one of my favorite places to walk to with friends, girlfriend and puppy!

The renderings don't tell the whole story, but it looks like the townhome portion of the project may go all the way from Jay to Bridge...which would necessitate all of these coming down. As they've already started knocking them down, I would say that's the case!

So cool, I love it!

Nice! I've been accused of being too negative about this project lately. Maybe I just needed some news of progress! Well, that, and maybe some indications that the development isn't going to be an island unto itself. Anyway, great news on the agreement!

Yes, indeed! Though, I don't know which uses occupied the building simultaneously... I went by the site yesterday morning and evening and there didn't seem to be a lot of progress on the demo. It seems odd that they started in the middle, too. Whatever...as long as they're coming down! Word on the streets, though, is that they didn't have proper permitting to start the demo. I don't know if that's true, but it would seem to me that after all the delays to date, they would at least have had enough time to get their permits in order! Maybe it's the fault of a subcontractor or something... we shall see!

Great news!

Many of the bedrooms in the loft units I've been in around Cleveland are on the interior of the unit, but have windows or cutouts at the top of their walls that allow sunlight from the rest of the apartment to spill in. I can see this in some ways being ideal because of the quieter, more cozy setting, but I like having windows in my room from which I can look out onto the street or city...

i get off at UC station in the morning with about a dozen other people who are all walking to hospitals, institutions, etc and we walk through little italy, peeing on porches and throwing empty bottles of boones farm into the road. I can't blame them for not wanting a station closer to them! seriously, though, if this myth exists, it's a ridiculous one. but i have my doubts that it's all about the Little Italians...I think it's more about the RTA and ODOT.

How many are actively being built right now? There are likely hundreds, with Battery Park Woodhaven, Stonebridge, and many scattered site homes being constructed during the first quarter. I think the real big numbers will hit this summer and fall when a few other big ticket projects break ground (avenue district & valleyview, to name a couple)

great news! I may just be able to venture out to westlake for the cause of promoting rail transit!

wow, good one!

A well-written review of the situation and the meeting, via Green City Blue Lake: http://www.gcbl.org/blog/marc-lefkowitz/costly-icons-of-clevelands-industrial-past

that isn't a "sure thing" yet, but the process is moving along!