gottaplan

Don't get fooled by the 33% tax rate. It's all in how that number is applied... to gross revenue (income minus operating expenses) or to gross wagering.

Ohio's deal bases the taxes on casino REVENUE, other states base the taxes on total WAGERING. HUGE difference

While I'm not happy to see the work stoppage on the casinos, I am glad the tax issue is being revisited. When Issue 3 was put in front of the voters, it was so obviously written FOR the casinos and BY the casinos. It's a shame nothing was done back then to amend or correct it. "In 2009, when casinos' one-sided deal confronted Ohio voters, then-Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, seemed to develop laryngitis. But last week, Republican Gov. John Kasich said,"I think the taxpayers of Ohio got a bad deal." He's right. They did. And though Kasich didn't create this mess, he's duty-bound to clean it up." http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/04/ohio_needs_to_rework_one-sided.html

I think the title of this thread is a little misleading.... you ask why artists are overlooked in revitalization... as opposed to whom? Are you indicating that artists should be a major stakeholder early on when cities are targeting areas for redevelopment? Maybe the city should partner with artist groups and give them incentives to locate there? Don't mean to speak for you, just trying to understand your point...

I don't know why KJP gets so defensive when his ideas are challenged.... whatever. I'm not going to go into my background or credentials but safe to say I mastered planning concepts awhile ago. I also know enough about basic planning concepts to realize they are rarely implemented. Everyone talks about mixed use, more density, access to tranit, etc but why do they all buy large free standing single family houses in places like Medina on culdesac streets? Why isn't Public Square a hotspot for new high rise condos and why is Tower City mall dead? Comparisons to Europe are a moot point as well. Totally different government, transportation funding, land use system, and even personal values. A better comparison would be other midwest cities. Like Columbus. Which had an already huge outerbelt for it's size and doubled the lanes during the 90's and the city has continued to gain population quickly over the last decade. Or how about Chicago, which already has a great light rail system, yet still LOST population in the last census and continues to sprawl...? I'm interested to hear your application of urban planning fundamentals to these two situations

^again, your logic is flawed. Seemingly, if you can make it "inconvenient" enough, and congested enough, that somehow that will reroute traffic to public transit. It won't. All it will do is reroute passenger and freight traffic to other cities and routes with better infrastructure & less congestion. What will increase usage of public transit is increased population & density. Cost & convenience scales are tipped too far forward in favor of the car. America consumes 25% of the oil with 5% of the people because of our WEALTH, not because of our infrastructure. And I'd really like to see your source for the 80% of innerbelt traffic number you cited.

^you must be one of those who enjoy seeing 18wheelers slow down to 5mph to navigate I-90... There is a cost to that inconvenience KJP. Straightening the curve makes Cleveland a better place to live, a better place to have a business, it makes the drive safer. We all know you love trains and hate cars, but sometimes your skewed viewpoint that "anything which improves auto traffic must be bad for the inner city" is really beyond logic.

Looking a bit closer, this project is so much more than just the bridge... the straightening of Deadman's curve, all the work on I-77, all the new connections through downtown.... http://www.dot.state.oh.us/projects/ClevelandUrbanCoreProjects/Innerbelt/Documents/CG%20large_10-21-10sm.pdf

Some sort of bicycle shop looks to have opened up at the old laundramat building on 76th & Lake. Some type of a hipster, single-speed place if you're into that sort of thing... Anyone know what ever happened to the renovation of the building at 74th & Detroit, the "Cheerios" building? It was supposed to house a cleaners or a flower shop or something as I recall? That was over a year ago, but it still looks the same.

I can't comment on the job opportunities in either city, esp since I don't know your background. However, I prefer alot of aspects of the city of Pittsburgh over Cleveland. But, I prefer the people of Cleveland. Pittsburgh people seem too "backwoodsy" or redneck. Cleveland people, even younger people, are more urban minded, more open minded, more cultural.

Interesting article in Crains Cleveland editorial, making the point that local budgets should've been slashed 2 years ago, except for the lifeline they were thrown via the Stimulus bill. Even so, they had ample time since to make plans for drastic cuts, but haven't, and those cuts would've come even if Strickland had been re-elected. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20110425/SUB1/304259983 Back in February 2009, state Rep. Bill Batchelder of Medina warned that the use of stimulus dollars to cover the state's operating expenses “is dangerous to taxpayers, as it creates a structural imbalance that will only put off and exacerbate our budget problems into the future.” Well, the future is here, and as Rep. Batchelder correctly predicted, the consequences of filling budget holes with temporary money will be severe, both for Ohio and for many of its towns and school districts. The surprise with which mayors and school superintendents are reacting to the cuts they're about to see in their share of state general fund money is hard to understand. They could have used the last two years to evaluate their operations and to draw up contingency plans for the inevitable reduction in state support that was bound to occur once the stimulus money vanished. It appears many did not — and that's not Gov. Kasich's fault.

That is a terrible stretch of road. While on the topic, I've always felt like the heavy truck traffic along the W. 25th corridor is going to be a limiting factor to development in the area. Ohio City area continues to grow with new developments, but having semi's and such grinding past really kills the pedestrian experience.

^lol. Reality is that there is ZERO development of any kind in Cleveland without major contributions from "free money" sources, in the way of subsidies, tax abatements, infrastructure assistance, etc. Even Ari Maron will tell you that.

^some times it takes an outsider's perspective to see things for what they really are. A pile of crap. And if you went back & read the article on National City's failure, he's the first to admit they were over exposed in real estate investments...

From Cleveland Magazine's interview with Interim Port CEO Peter Raskind, talking about the plans to relocate the port to E. 55th... "The relocation plan was a $600 million gamble that Cleveland could attract a business that had never evolved on the Great Lakes because the biggest ocean freighters can't fit down the St. Lawrence Seaway. The containers would have had to be offloaded and reloaded onto smaller ships. Everything Raskind learned made the plan look worse. The new port would've been built on an expensive new island made of dumped dredge material, and there was no easy way to get railroad tracks to it from across Interstate 90. So last May, his final month on the job, Raskind wrote an opinion piece for The Plain Dealer that deserves to be required reading, a lesson in how to end a yearslong, communitywide debate with a single paragraph. Raskind called the East 55th Street plan "ill conceived," "built upon layers of questionable assumptions," and "never viable." The port didn't have to move because it had plenty of room for more business, he wrote, and if it ever moved to make way for development, a new port needed a less expensive site.

^at this point, the city is so broke they cannot even afford to demolish the building. The only way that place will ever get redeveloped is with massive subisidies. Even then, what would it be? It's surrounded by nothing. - when I was living in Detroit a few years ago, there was talk that Michigan Ave was going to be "narrowed" through the Corktown neighborhood to reduce the huge expanse of pavement and make it more pedestrian friendly. Not sure if those plans are still in the works or not. - one other little tidbit of trivia - if you look at the Book Tower closely, on the first 6 bays of windows to the south, you'll see the masonry has been cleaned of all the soot & stains. The contractor was originally hired to do the entire building, but never got paid for that work and pulled off without completing any more. Sad when you look at how amazing that building actually is.

I disagree. I know a number of people in my neighborhood who are low income and take the vouchers to send their kids to private schools. They love it and some families have even enrolled their kids in different schools to take advantage of different programs that fit their individual children.

I think people are much more prepared this time around for higher gas prices. Total miles traveled never really went back up even after gas prices fell down to $2/gallon. The automanufacturers have much larger supply of fuel efficient cars and the trend of large SUV's "because I can" seems to have gone away since 2007.

Another video news segment on the Detroit Shoreway area last night, focus on housing options, also a little blurb at the end about the tunnel from 76th to Edgewater Beach http://www.wkyc.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=186458

Way off topic now, but keep in mind that Burke is built on reclaimed lakefront built with dumped spoils, not native land. Building anything with a sizeable footprint would quickly add up due to additional foundation costs...

Nice feature on Gordon Square Arts District & Detroit Shoreway in their "On Location" feature. They said it's the hottest area of the city. http://www.wkyc.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=186119

You are correct. There was a discussion not that long ago about having a pedestrian bridge to walk over from the Browns stadium side across the water to Voinovich park and the plans were axed due to the height of a bridge being tipped up & interfering with planes....

I like it. Anything that does more to attract people to downtown & utilize the waterfront. Create more of a destination with Voinovich park and increase the traffic on the E. 9th Lakefront RTA stop...

I wish they would wrap the upper facade around the sides somehow. It looks great when viewed directly from the front, but looking west down Euclid, you can see it's a false front and the lateral supports in place... kinda cheesey

I need a better camera, but I thought this was a cool image