clvlndr

You're sooooo right, I am thinking of a different spot all together... That's the trouble buildings as numbers... oh well.

I hear what you're saying... Filling 668 has been slow, no doubt, but I thought they did get that Environment 4 Business (IIRC) firm as well as the Potbelly's sandwich shop on the corner... I guess I'd rather the retail space be built in, even if it sits empty for a while -- yes, I know Clayco is resisting this, but businesses and/or restaurants will eventually come. I'm not a huge fan of pop-up businesses, but at least they keep a space active... Having no space at all makes a permanent wall...

I'm surprised and disappointed by this. This is a substantial development that could serve as a transition/bridge between the campus and PHS. A large building of this kind could serve as a barrier and not a bridge if it becomes a large 1st floor dead zone, despite the very positive aspect of 500 student residences. This will be especially true during the substantial periods where CSU is on brake and during the summer when there probably will be few students living in housing... Let's hope that, since this is just a concept plan at the moment, that with additional comment on this issue developers can "fix" this retail aspect. CSU is doing so many things right, and they really have an actual "college town" with foot traffic along Euclid that didn't exist even a year ago... Let's hope they take their time (but not too much time) and get this important project right.

I agree with Jason Lloyd and Sam Amico in their columns of last week: Start Bennett!... Well, I can see sticking with this current lineup as long as it keeps us winning/competitive -- this team needs some continuity and consistency in its rotations... I do think Mike needs to get Bennett in more than 10 mins per game. He finally is showing a slight degree of comfort on the court, and the more time he gets, esp time on the court with quality players like Kyrie and Bynum who can "protect" him, can go a long way toward boosting his confidence. ... that one instance where he went off for 16 in the 4th quarter in that Orlando preseason game shows me that the kid isn't the total waste some think he is. He's got talent, he just needs to get a comfort level with the NBA. With most players, it takes time.

While I like much of what Denver's doing -- it's aggressive expansion in building a rail network generally suited to its frontier sprawl (despite missing some key close-in walking districts) -- I'm puzzled why their building their huge Union Station terminal/transfer facility as open-air given that Denver's a cold-weather city.

Excellent point.

^Very frustrating. You would think that (some) SA officials would pull their heads out of their arses and look down the highway at their Texas neighbors in Dallas, Houston and Austin to see the positive benefits of their expanding rail transit systems. SA has so much potential with it's beautiful Riverwalk downtown, you'd think they'd be working on ways, like LRT, to quickly get large numbers of people to/from the area.

Absolutely.

It is the latter train, as it is single-level equipment. Two of the trains that come in between 2-3 a.m. are double-decker trains. So in the middle of summer (when the photo was taken), the sun was up at 5:50 a.m. If you note, if the sun was higher/brighter, you would not be able to see inside the convention center or would the light at the right be bright enough to cast reflections on the train and tracks. Aha! Thanks for clarifying.

^^btw, I've long thought the scene from Shaker Square with the midrise apartment overlooking Michael's Diner and the RTA station is the most attractive, urbanized TOD shot in the entire system.

^It must have really be late b/c (the 2 round-trip) trains are scheduled to come and go around 2 and 3a, in both directions... the latest is the Eastbound Lakeshore Limited to NY state scheduled to leave at 5:50a.

University Circle, Ohio City and the new Little Italy station, which have/will have, substantial ridership have no parking.

I'm trying to figure out how you got a daytime Amtrak boarding shot in Cleveland; the large windows of the new convention center indicate that this shot was recent.

Indeed, the absence of leadership on this critical Cincinnati issue should be noted by backers as much as the obviously regressive hegemony of John Cranley.

In terms of placing rail where the population is, Denver’s rail (both existing and planned) is more poorly placed, in terms of being near walkable areas, than Cleveland’s. That dense, south (and East)-of-Denver's downtown neighborhood you speak of is completly missed by RTD rail, FasTracks or otherwise... At least Cleveland’s serves Shaker Sq/Larchmere, Ohio City and Little Italy, lower Detroit-Shoreway (and soon a built up FEB). Denver’s rail, while attracting some TOD, is strictly regional commuter rail, esp the actual commuter railroad lines (all of which are mostly single-track lines, meaning frequency will be restricted even during rush hours). Denver’s system fans out and covers wide swaths of the metro area and is geared toward park N ride commuters, not walkers or bus transfers. It’s similar to the Dallas system – not surprising, since age-wise, growth-wise and density-wise, Dallas is a warm weather Denver, and vice versa. Let’s quit all this pointless, silly whining about how bad RTA rail is and make the rail we’ve got work. That is, keep working on TOD and creating density and getting more people, esp young people, onto the rails – which is happening given the constant rider increases… Denver’s new system is far from perfect, but that hasn’t stopped them from pushing forward.

translation: Horseshoe is too small... Phase I that is.... bummer.

1. Where's the data? Is it currently in report form? 2. What about the costs of electrifying the NS tracks themselves concomitant with an obvious shifting away of most freight to other NS corridors?

I think you’re way off. Downtown Denver and some close in areas (E. Colfax, Santa Fe) have density, but the bulk of Denver is single family homes (including many ranch-style homes and shotguns) on roomy lots. Buckeye-Shaker, Clark-Fulton, Little Italy-UC, Edgewater/Cudell and Detroit-Shoreway, among a few Cleveland neighborhoods, trump all but those few Denver neighborhoods.

Awesome set mrnyc, especially those old MTA (Christmas cars), complete with wicker seats, no less...

This is very good news. Buffalo built a short, yet effective, LRT part-subway up the gut of the city, then proceeded (for 30+ years) turn its back on it. Though short, we know it’s far more effective than Cleveland’s LRT by a long shot, connectivity/passenger-wise. Let’s hope NFTA can get off the schnide and move forward with the extension into Amherst … which hopefully will lead to others, such as branch to Buffalo’s airport, by way of its beautiful though abandoned/crumbling Buffalo Central Depot.

Denver made a choice: it decided to build a high-speed, far-ranging, radial hub/spokes commuter rail system to connect wide areas of its sprawling, light-density, heretofore car-oriented metro area to its very strong, and still growing downtown. Does it miss some of Denver’s few walking areas, such as East Colfax, with its many old and new apartment complexes east of the Capitol dome? Yes. Much like other cities (see Cleveland), it punked out and decided not to tunnel under Colfax, it’s main drag. But I can’t begrudge it exploiting its grade-separating resources out of downtown: freeway corridors and railroad ROWs. Greater Denver does not have a wealth of dense walking areas, yet the new FasTracks network does reach some of them, i.e. the old 5-points neighborhood NE of downtown (from the looks of Google street views, is a transitional Detroit-Shoreway type district), and in the burbs: downtown Littleton and Old Town Arvada. Denver’s commuter rail network is not unprecedented among older systems of the world. It’s kinda like a smaller scale version of Sydney Australia’s City Rail, a huge, electrified commuter rail network connecting a sprawling, low-density metro area. Note: Denver, despite its strong in-city growth in recent years, is still less dense (by about 1,000 people per sq. mile) than rapidly shrinking Cleveland. I remain very much in awe of what they’re doing, transit-wise, out in the Rockies.

^Indeed this is extremely impressive for a mid-sized metropolitan area. It’s only slightly larger, population-wise, than greater Cleveland although it’s also slightly more compact – partly because greater Denver is hemmed in by the Rockies, especially to the West … I'm roughly figuring that this new contract will ensure Denver will have about have a system of close to 100 miles of LRT and electrified commuter rail. It’s also noteworthy in that, when the 4 line commuter rail system begins opening in 2016 (the East, Gold and North (stub) and Northwest (stub) lines) it will be the 1st new electrified commuter rail system in the country since the Depression when the last of the New York and Philadelphia area commuter lines were electrified… It’s going to be a bit of an odd fish, with the electric commuter rail lines generally on the North side of the city while the LRT lines are to the South – and with the bulk of the system converging at Union Station. This means that, without a dual-operating, through-routing LRT vehicle sometime in the future, all North-South through passengers will be forced to transfer at Union Station. This will particularly impact airport commuter rail passengers who will likely have luggage. The planned FasTracks maps have the next leg to be funded will expansion of the T-Rex LRT route north along I-225 to a transfer terminal at the Peoria station on the East commuter rail line to the airport. That will at least save some southern suburbanites the hassle of having to go all the way downtown to Union station to make the transfer. Despite the minor flaws, Denver’s bullish-ness on ail is nothing short of amazing. Hopefully many other cities’ officials will be watching Denver for inspiration and ideas, especially its innovative Eagle (P3) public-private partnership financing arrangement.

... and don't forget the future Red Line/Opportunity Corridor BRT to Stokes-Windermere ... perhaps it will be dubbed the “Calabrese Line.” Seriously, it’s always depressing to read how other cities are moving forward into the 21st Century with bold new LRT and commuter rail initiatives, while Cleveland remains stuck in the 1950s of urban freeway expansion, strip shopping centers, cul-de-sac housing, large surface parking lots and big box shopping areas. It's going to be a test of wills to see if RTA will even support the .3 mile extension of the Blue Line across the Van Aken Warrensville intersection. We have a deadly transit brew here: a bunch of either misguided or wrongheaded (Calabrese) leaders or those who don’t have a clue (Jackson) coupled with a lack of those strong enough to advocate for what we and the public knows is right: expanded rail, less highways and parking…

I can't disagree with you here, E Roc. Even though I share the same lefty politics with Angie and am in simpatico with her on a number of local projects (ie. the developments noted in her Rustwire piece along with her hatred of the Opportunity Corridor), I just can’t wrap my metaphorical arms around her. She’s one of those Lefties who would rather burn down the city to save it and, to that end, she comes off as hating Cleveland rather than caring for it. That she would (foolishly) lead off her otherwise reasonable blog post about Skylift with a ridiculous story about some wrongheaded friend of hers who packs up and leaves town for Minneapolis because of the Playhouse Sq. chandelier, coupled with Schmidt’s constant, absurd rants that Cleveland is just another Detroit, tend to prove my point. To Schmidt there is very little, if anything, that Cleveland is doing right. And the idea that developing a downtown, and other hip urban neighborhoods that are attractive to suburbanites, visitors and even tourist, is something to be scorned not praised, is ridiculous… Fortunately, as you can see in the Comments section to her post, many readers seriously take her to task for her side comments. … and yes, it is this Rebel Without a Cause mentality of Roldo Bartimole that Schmidt exhibits, that’s a major turnoff to me….

I would go that far. In point of fact, Cleveland already is a fairly strong regional tourist attraction. The Rock Hall and casino brings significant Midwest tourist dollars here. And other quieter aspects, like our expanded (magnificent Art Museum) and Ohio City/WSM are drawing some folks as well. When the Flats emerged in its heyday in the 90s, (coupled with the Rock Hall, which was new) tourist magazines nationally were touting Cleveland as the place to be… … Until the 1960s, Toronto was viewed as a sleepy, conservative backwater nobody had any real interest in visiting. Baltimore was that way until the 80s… What a difference careful and aggressive urban planning and execution has made in those 2 places. It can happen here as well, and to a considerable extent, it is already happening. To experience the up & coming Cleveland of today compared to where we were 10, even 5 years ago, is breathtaking. Given all the crap that was going against us, both large (major corps leaving, being ground zero for the national 2008 foreclosure mess) and small (LeBron leaving), it would have been very easy… even logical, for this town to have rolled over and died. That we are where we are makes Cleveland my hero!... … That said, we still have this old Cleveland/inferiority complex attitude that still motivates some to believe that our only hope is through gimmicky stuff like that crassly huge Skylift project (one line linking Flats East Bank to, say, Whiskey Island… OK) and that goofy chandelier over Playhouse Square – which is a visual travesty, I don’t care who is paying for us – still tends to hold us back as a city.