clvlndr

Maybe someone mentioned it; if so, sorry... but it seems like that rectangular surface lot bounded by E. 4th, Prospect and the View night club would be a better site for a mixed-use parking deck surface parking lot. It's only a block away from the Casino site. Not only that, such a project could build on the expanding synergy of E. 4th (and it sure would be a nice place to install a supermarket on the Prospect side... Also, this could be a good place to expand a temp controlled skywalk a la Minny's Nicolette Mall... Talk of demolishing the Columbia building for parking is absolutely absurd and irresponsible and needs to be squelched by Jackson, Cimpermann and other city officials IMMEDIATELY. As for the PD piece, I was fearful that, once again, the obvious rail transit hub tie-in would be ignored in the PD's seemingly never ending quest to get Clevlelanders to drive! drive! drive!... Thank goodness that (way down in the article), someone actually had the balls to state the obvious: why can't the rail access actually LIMIT the need for the parking lot hysteria Gilbert's people seem to be stoking... thank you Joe Marinucci, of the Downtown Alliance.

Hate to see Lelolai go, but hoping SoHo's a success. Hopefully, it'll add to the feeding frenzy that's Ohio City/Market Sq., which is on fire right now...

Thats pretty funny.... No actually it was because Michigan had the tax credits in place, when Ohio hadnt yet moved on them. Now Michigan has done away with the credits and Ohio finally has them. So now the tables have turned and Clevand won a movie over from Detroit (The Avengers) Yes, but you can't discount that Detroit was very proactive in getting movies and TV set there. They've had many, many more than Cleveland and most people would agree that Detroit is more distressed than Cleveland (although you wouldn't know it by our latest Census numbers). The fact is, "The Avengers" was headed to Detroit had not the tax credits been revoked by Michihgan. And, yes, docu-drama movies are sometimes set in different places than where they took place. But the fact is, with Cleveland's unfortunately/unfairly fragile image, the last thing we need is Detroit, of all places, hosting filimings of projects based on events, like "Irishman" that are actually a part of Cleveland lore.

I'm indifferent to Clifton BRT, and am in simpatico with the letter writer on most of his points. I do disagree with him tossing in the Waterfront line as a failure because: a) it's a drop in the bucket cost-wise to Euclid's BRT (some $200M to about $70M), and b) the Waterfront Line is and will draw development, like the Flats East Bank project, which ultimately will make it successful. Clifton is well served by buses and a beautiful street without those futuristic/ugly (depending on your POV) Healthline-type shelter-stations.

... that, in real life, actually took place here.

I heard a producer saying "Kill the Irishman" wasn't filmed here because Cleveland had gentrified too much, unlike gritty Detroit... yeah, right... Fact is, Detroit and Michigan's film bureau have been very aggressive about getting films and TV shows filmed in Detroit... I wonder if, as usual, our lack of aggressiveness and organization isn't hurting us.

Sorry, but I'm getting antsy again, and the "if they're doing it, why not us?" bug is biting me. Similarly sized, though less dense (even with our severe population losses)-- but growing, Denver is now adding 3 electrified commuter rail lines to its arsenal of it brand-new and sharply growing LRT network -- yes that beautiful and amazing (esp for America) budding mega-rail network called Fastracks... But is it just me? ... Again, Denver is building something we already have in Cleveland: a downtown rail terminal with fully electrified ingress/egress to/from both sides of town. And I know we've discussed the big costs, but with this asset Cleveland is sitting on that, btw, has ample track/platform capacity for sharply increased traffic (remember the extant yet dormant Shaker tracks and platforms sealed up in Tower City's bowels... [oh, and did I mention that Tower City has the natural advantage over Denver’s historic Union Station in being right at the hub of downtown/ the traffic/transit crossroads of downtown and the entire region, while Denver’s Union Station sits at the edge of their downtown -- its almost really not downtown at all, but in a kind part wasteland, part Warehouse district-y type area—Denver planners hope the rebuild will pull downtown toward the terminal and be rebuilt around it as the new direction of growth] Yeah, I know extending electrified rapid/commuter rail out the West Shore corridor and southeast to Aurora/Bainbridge or maybe Akron Canton will cost a ton... but it would be a LOT MORE if we had to build/rebuild our central rail terminal, like Denver, to accommodate electric rail while suppressing is surface tracks. My reason for revisiting this now are these: 1. Oil, once again shown to be both finite and beyond our reasonable control, is shooting sky high at the pumps again (and with the increasingly unstable Middle East, who knows how high we're going to go -- and NO, no wildlife preserve American drilling or tapping deeply into our reserves just for the usu short-term fix. 2. we've been clearly lied to by kasich and other republicans in killing 3-C... Why not stick such a sensible, reasonable plan like building a Cleveland electrified, Tower City centered commuter rail network in their face and FORCE them to tap dance... now, with added scrutiny. 3. Because of 2, Obama/LaHood would jump at the chance to raise this Cleveland plan up on a pedestal to the nation. 4. the electric rail base, power supply and maintenance facilities already exist. 5. Cleveland has a wealth of lightly used to partially/fully abandoned rail routes radiating from downtown feeding directly into our electrified rapid rail trunk lines directly into downtown, 6.. Downtown Cleveland, esp with the Med Mart and casino, is on a serious roll and bucking to be a regional attraction once again. 7. Cleveland's 1st in the nation's heavy-rail, airport rapid would directly tie into this regional commuter network adding further viability. There are surely more, but my fingers are tired... Yeah, I know what the response will be… it'll cost… a lot! But as we know, the potential benefits would be gigantic (surely Denver understands this, that’s why the city fathers, and their excited citizenry, are putting down the big bucks to, in their words, solidify the long-term growth of their region... but damnit, for once can't we have the attitude that you've give something to GET SOMETHING.... If Denver can do it (with little more going for it than a few nice looking mountains in its background, but surrounded by a bunch of bland and scrubby looking suburbs, compared to Cleveland's gorgeous, character-rich and diverse towns, ... why not us?

edale, maybe you should go the dean and demand this yeahoo's class be renamed: Rich Fatcat suburban/ex-urban libertarian sprawl economics.

Noozer, you're preaching to the choir. Too bad the Republicans that a running things are totally adverse to such things as FACTS or LOGIC or REASON.

Love riding the T when visiting relatives in Boston. In terms of effectiveness, in my mind it's America's 2nd best system behind NYC in terms of coverage (of its compact city/close-in metro area).

OK, MurrayHill. I thought that was for the University Circle Station rebuild, which appears to be moving forward, not the E. 120 relocation... Nevertheless, it's a very impressive list. Thanks for posting.

btw, here's a pretty good link to Cleveland's LTR (Blue & Green) Rapid, and some other selected systems. It is posted by by a Toronto pro-transit individual unhappy with the lack of progress in upgrading that city's streetcar system to modern rail. Despite a few factual glitches here and there, overall, it's pretty good. http://lrt.daxack.ca/Cities/Cleveland/index.html

Thanks for the stats, Nexis4Jersey. I think your Boston stats may be too high, at 90 miles. Most books and websites that measure the great "T" system, list metro Boston's combined light & heavy rails system at just under 65 miles, total.

I notice this list does not mention the rebuilding/relocating the E. 120 Rapid station to Mayfileld, Little Italy. Is that project now dead?

Here's another take on Rick (knuckle-dragge) Scott's HSR cancellation... however, the article cites 2 sources of encouragement: 1) Scott legally may have overstepped his bounds (ya' know, there's this little thing called a legislature, ya know, for that drafting laws thing?), 2) LaHood (my new hero) and affected cities' ;mayers may cut a deal to do an end run around the State... not a pleasant precedent... but, in this case, needed. Gov. Rick Scott rejects funding for high-speed railBy Janet Zink, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau In Print: Thursday, February 17, 2011 TALLAHASSEE Never mind that the federal government was willing to pay nearly all the cost to build a high-speed rail line connecting Tampa to Orlando. Never mind that private companies were willing to cover any additional construction costs and operating losses. Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday rejected the federal government's offer of $2.4 billion to build the line — prompting cheers from his tea party base, and harsh criticism from leading Florida Republicans and Democrats — squashing a project that has been decades in the making. "The truth is that this project would be far too costly to taxpayers and I believe the risk far outweighs the benefits," Scott said. Reverberations from the stunning announcement were swift. State legislators questioned whether the governor has the authority to unilaterally kill high-speed rail, and members of Florida's congressional delegation http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/gov-rick-scott-rejects-funding-for-high-speed-rail/1151937

gottaplan, don't know if you were around in the mid-late 90s when the Flats hit its peak. There was no parking anywhere, and driving in and out of the River Road area was an absolute nightmare... AND PEOPLE LOVED IT... I think (also to answer 327, too) that RTA would definitely bring back daily service because the Flats East Bank station will let of riders diagonally across the street from the Fairmount development... (that is, unless ODOT has starved RTA out of business by then)... I have to believe that developers have their finger on the trigger and are just waiting to see how much interest the tower re-draws to the East Bank... imho, it'll be huge folks will once again realize that this amazing riverfront property, which has a romantic past in many Clevelanders' (and non-Clevelanders'), is one of the best addresses in town... with rail transit at its door, to boot.

So Bob Stark's change-the-world plans for the the Warehouse District has been reduced to an annoying, un-neighborly LED sign on his little building at the edge of a gigantic surface parking lot he doesn't even own? My my.

I agree with ColDayMan, any list without NYC on top is not credible in assessing what's important about transit. More than any system in this counrty, or in the Western Hemisphere, the New York subway not only built the city and allowed for it to maintain amazing population densities, it has the most pervasive impact on it's city's way of life (as in the majority of adult citizens do not even own cars; and it has nothing to do with net worth or income level)... btw, I agree that the D.C. Metro has to be on the list: it would be #2 on my list.

Here in Philly, it didn't take until sundown before a local, radio, idiot-right wing nutjob to trash "Obama's Choo-Choo" and belittle LaHood as "Everybody Loves Raymond". ... with this kind of intellectual discourse, you'd think it won't belong before this seriously fractured, Palin-loving country rediscovers the horse & buggy... and, mind you, this is in Northeast Corridor Philadelphia...

In the Kaisch era, things are only going to get worse... one thing I will give Calabrese is his tireless advocacy for increased operating funds.

I like it. The Celebrezze is not ugly, but out of date. It was beautiful and state-of-the art when built, but the stainless steel frame often seems rusty and dull these days and the upgrade will perk it up... at least, if the rendering is true to form.

That's great news! And note that one of the co-chairs of this rail project is Dan Gilbert, who is building the $600 million casino at Tower City Center. Hey Dan -- include a railroad station in the basement of your casino for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the WestShore Corridor commuter rail and for Amtrak! You'll have up to 20 trains arriving and departing each day AT YOUR CASINO! Amen... most important quotes from the Detroit News article: "We have to have this if we want to be even a mediocre city, let alone a world class city," said Page, who lives on Woodward near Grand River. "Real cities have rail systems. Even people who don't use them want to live near transportation systems. If we don't build this now, I don't see much hope for Detroit or the state of Michigan." I wish I could be more optimistic about Dan Gilbert's astuteness and awareness that his new casino will be sitting nearly on top of Cleveland's rail transit hub which, as you note, could become even greater with the reestablishment of our intercity and regional passenger railroad terminal.

NOTE: quick aside for a Metromix Q&A with Danielle DeBoe back in June before her current plans for Dredgers Union on E. 4th ... her passion for Cleveland is palpable. Wish her great success; wish there were more like her... Danielle DeBoe. The name sounds familiar, right? Well, she's the owner of the art-centric lifestyle boutique, Room Service, located in the Gordon Arts District. She's also the brainchild behind the bi-annual event, Made in the 216. And ... she's been profiled as one of most interesting people in Cleveland as well as hosts the "Dinner with Strangers" social event. Basically, she's one of Cleveland's biggest cheerleaders. http://cleveland.metromix.com/events/article/q-and-a-danielle/1980701/content ... back to E. 4th development news...

I really wonder how serious RTA is about improving transit in these corridors, or whether it is just drawing a pretty map. I mean, what improvement is needed in a Kinsman corridor that, parallels the Green and Blue line rapids and doesn't pierce the City limit? Kinsman, as it is, has some of the best bus service in the City -- one of the few 24-hour lines with frequent daytime service. What's to improve? I guess asking a city so deeply in the throes of a financial crunch and losing population to expand transit (just as it has removed many services in the last couple of years), may be asking a lot. But if RTA, as it expresses in it's comprehensive transit plan, is serious about using transit to expand economic activity, esp BRT and rail, then it couldn't have asked for a better or more needy laboratory than Greater Cleveland. I just wish we were more proactive and comprehensive about planning for rail, for example than being our usual reactive selves -- ie, the herky, jerky plans for extending the Rapid to the east, southeast. In the late 70s, Green Line expansion to the innovative Mode Mixer terminal concept at I-271 was in the bag, until RTA got weak kneed in the face of opposition of largely one man: Norm Krumholz... then we experimented with a Railbus commuter rail pilot program in 1985/6, and then never heard anything again. Then expansion of the Blue Line to the Highlands was planned, then died when Dick Jacobs decided he wasn't interested in shaping his development to TOD (and despite the Eco-City Cleveland report noting that the City of Cleveland had the power to force the issue, it was, after all, City land) ... but said nothing; ... then now, RTA, is suddenly interested ... again ... as Shaker Heights took the bull by the horns and decided (for itself) to call on the short Blue Line expansion in tandem with a comprehensive TOD plan for the Chagrin/Van Aken, Northfield/Warrensville intersection.... I'm glad it is moving forward and we may get expanded rail (along with a potentially great TOD working model in the process)... but this is tail-wagging-the-dog type of planning, which just shouldn't be. Give me Denver and its Fastracks any day.

... and we're just smart enough to have elected a zealot, dogmatic Guv who campaigned on killing a $400M gift to create a new (actually rejuvenate) a statewide Amtrak line ... and then follow through... ... you said it best: Oy.