gottaplan

Took a couple photos yesterday of the progress in Battery Park. The latest development of the Parkside units have sold 7 of the 8. Supposed to start closing next month in May. Construction also started on the last "H3" building in the vacant lot beside Reddstone. I think 7 units total there, only 1 remains. The Shoreway building, the existing 4 story brick warehouse building, is going full speed ahead. Leasing team is taking people through, they have a model unit ready and new windows are going in. Tried hosting on imageshack but apparently they no longer allow free uploading...

I walked the dog over to this site late the other night & peered down into the trench. They are close to making the final connection of the old sewer/new sewer right at the volleyball courts of Battery Park. The old existing pipe is excavated & exposed in the trench and the new trench comes in at about 30-45 degree angle. The sheet piling operation is done for the time being thank goodness. The cranes are still on site though, I'm guessing they will be pulling much of the sheet piling back out when the sewer relocation portion is done. Railroad crews have been out this week also.

Not everyone wants to live on a street that connects directly to a main commuter artery. An argument could be made that most prefer not to. - West Blvd ties right into the Shoreway and & Edgewater. No new development there & some lots still sit there vacant for the last decade or more. - W 65th has an amazing pedestrian tunnel for the last decade & looks pretty much the same (lousy) as it did before. - W 49th & Tillman ties into the Shoreway & has the 1 development that was done about 15 years ago. The rest of it looks terrible. - W 73rd will be the main connector for Gordon Square but it will be open next year. No new property transfers, development plans or projects announced there. So tell me again what makes you so sure that at grade intersections is a gold mine? The entire argument is irrelevant anyhow. The only reason the intersection at 73rd was possible is because of all the vacant undeveloped land for Battery Park which allowed the massive sewer line to be relocated south about 75 yards. The same thing couldn't be done all along the proposed locations for connections. Not to mention the barrier posed by the RR tracks which would require incredibly expensive bridges. Or the barrier of the 60-70' grade drop which would require massive excavation & grade changes. Edit: I forgot to add that the easiest proposed intersection was at 54th. Didn't involve RR tracks or the sewer connection. It was scratched from the plans because the businesses & neighbors there told ODOT they didn't want it. They didn't want the added traffic of having a direct connection to the Shoreway. And now there's several major projects in the pipeline for this area of 58th, which has no direct connection.

Hold your judgement till the project is complete before you say it isn't really changing. I think the end result is going to be pretty dramatic. Lowering the speeds allows them to remove the concrete barrier and replace it with a landscape median. THere will also be multi use paths that come up closer to the roadway. Again, something you can't do with cars traveling at 50+ mph. Is it the same as a street with intersections? No, but it's certainly not a highway either.

^can't please everyone For everyone dying for "at grade intersections", just look at the cost of the 73rd intersection. About $40 million. Now there's already access a half mile up at 49th/Tillman and a half mile down at Clifton/Lake. Nothing is gained by adding more intersections. It won't create more development, it will just waste money

no at-grade intersections or new traffic signals. timeline for the conversion is on the link I posted. I'm sure the road will remain open during the conversion, it's 6-7 lanes wide so it can safely be reduced by 2 lanes during construction/conversion to a boulevard

Answers to all things related to this project are contained here: http://www.dot.state.oh.us/projects/ClevelandUrbanCoreProjects/LakefrontWest/Pages/default.aspx From the front section of that page: The Lakefront West Project will increase access to Lake Erie, improve green space, biking and pedestrian facilities, increase development potential and simplify connections along the now limited-access freeway. During Phase II of the proposed project, this 2.5 mile freeway will be transformed into a scenic, tree-lined boulevard.

North side of the tracks is completely clear cut where this interchange is going. Looks so bare.

This is an interesting thread for sure but it seems odd to insinuate that public housing should be comprised of some sort of high quality architecture. It's supposed to be temporary housing, not permanent. Having said that, I've built & renovated thousands of units of public housing. The stuff here in Cleveland that dates back to the 1930's like Lakeview Terrace & Woodhill is built like a bomb shelter with thick masonry exterior walls, concrete floors & plaster interior walls. These units have lasted for 80+ years but have outlived their useful lives. Families of 5 or 6 used to move in with a suitcase of belongings for all of them. Now they move in with 2 u-haul trucks for a single mom & 2 children. New units are cheap drywall, 2x4 construction that won't last 15 years until they need complete gut & renovation

^pretty damn sure

storm water runoff retention. Gradually flows back into a filter bed. Same thing with the northern lot

The one street I mentioned in my post above, West 117th along the Cleveland/Lakewood line, is concrete. It was rebuilt 2000-03, using watered down concrete. ^allegedly

Ironic that all the trade unions have gathered together to support this sin tax. The sin tax is regressively paid for by the poor & uneducated, and benefits the wealthiest 1%.

Reality is that the sin tax may not even be enough for the maintenance & upgrades required to keep the stadiums looking good. The amount of upkeep they require will grow significantly in the next 10 yrs as they all reach the 30 year old mark.

^ brand new like 14 yrs ago? Heavy traffic at that intersection right off the freeway. Bus traffic, truck traffic, lots of turning traffic. Once concrete roads start to break up, they are very difficult to repair, need full depth replacement with rebar & such. Asphalt roads can just be milled & filled quickly

Road specs don't require asphalt to be sealed, like a parking lot would be. They are supposed to seal the joints of asphalt/concrete with tar, but that only lasts a few seasons before it wears away. Roads fail for a variety of reasons but mostly the concrete/asphalt starts to break up when the subgrade (clay surface below) starts to roll/heave. Pockets form under the pavement, the pavement breaks, and the freeze/thaw cycle takes over from there. Filling potholes with asphalt is only a temporary fix till next freeze/thaw cycle. Many of the worst roads for potholes in Cleveland are asphalt on top of brick below. Not sure what the deal is at 117th. The concrete pavement is horrendous.

^I guess but Caruso is going to be a dead end at 70th and won't really be affected by the tunnel excavation. Still a full block away from the planned excavation at 73rd. I would think the city/ODOT would be somewhat obligated to restore that street sooner than later. I know that 73rd is getting pounded to bits by all the truck traffic serving the project already. The street was already marginal condition and now it's going to hell. Can't imagine what it will look like next spring.

it's really not that simple. Tons of local businesses buy up groups of seats. They pass the ticket costs on to customers

Think of the real full time jobs that could be had if the same subsidies were applied to attract and build new office buildings in the same locations as these sports facilities ....

Considering the sewer is already backfilled at Frascati & 69th to 73rd, they should have that street put back together relatively soon, right? Has anyone over there gotten any sort of update from the Councilman or ODOT on when some of that will be restored?

That's true but at the end of the day, how upset would residents really be if civic leaders "opened the books" and said look, this is what we are paying for leasing, maintenance, police, lost costs on a facility that sits vacant 200+ days a year... I think people would understand.

The sin tax is crappy deal that's getting pushed off on the lowest common denominator, smokers & drinkers. It's really not even debatable anymore whether or not these stadiums are the best use of public resources, tons of studies out there indicate they are not. So now we have the wealthy team owners (Dolans, Gilbert, Haslam) who have sweet deals that minimize their long term liability in terms of stadium maintenance and maximize their profits. They've assembled a consortium of politicians who are throwing their support behind this sin tax because otherwise they have to raise taxes or cut spending on other programs. The part that gets me is this is a 20 year tax. That is really long. An argument could be made that all 3 of those stadiums will be ready to be replaced by then, as they will be 35 yrs old...

Did you notice any sort of sewage smell when they connected the old lines running north/south into the new line?

The marketing firm had real data they had gathered from interviews across the country, comparing a variety of cities like Portland, Austin, Nashville, Charlotte, etc. Those places all rated positively by people who had never been there. Cleveland was at the opposite end of the spectrum. The most striking fact in the presentation was that Clevelander's only had positive things to say about their city 30% of the time, compared to so many other cities where people had an average of 70-80% positive things to say

This is directed at tourism, weekend & business travelers. Not people relocating to the city from the 'burbs. I was at Positively Cleveland meeting & the presentation showed very clearly that they were targeting Pittsburgh, Columbus & Detroit. People looking for a 2-3 road trip type of weekend. The other part of the presentation that was made very clear is that Cleveland has an "image" problem, not a "product" problem. If you ask 10 random people who've never been to Cleveland what they think about the city, they don't like it. Exact opposite for a city like Chicago - people think it's great even if they've never been. Cleveland has world class culture, sports teams, architecture, transit, the lake, nightlife, accessible DISTINCT neighborhoods, and most of all, Cleveland offers an opportunity for a UNIQUE experience. To do something rare, have an adventure, and blend in with the locals. That is what creates a vibe, draws people back, makes them tell a friend about how great it was.