clvlndr

Very nice. I do wish there were a few more shots of U. Circle and some of the Heights and the Gold Coast. Still interesting, though.

... and thanks too for the hot babe photos, as well!

Nice thread, mrnyc... Asbury Park is just up the road from Philly and looks like an intersting place, even the seedier sides of it... I'll have to drop over the next time in Philly this summer.

The great news for everyone is that downtown, esp. the E. 4th Street area, is really picking up steam. On most warm nights, HOB, the Bodies exhibit, downtown cafes' al fresco tables and other activities are humming with activity, even on weekday nights when there are no pro sports in town ... The bad news is that it doesn't appear to me that the added people coming downtown are coming by rail. Coming and going on Friday evening on Memorial Day weekend, only a trickle of the crowds along E. 4th/Euclid made the easy 3-5 min stroll over to Tower City to catch a train. In fact, an informal survey of family, friends and associates, show that people are consciously avoiding it -- ready and able to pay parking lot attendants or expensive Valets like MVP over $10 (with tips) to park their cars). To me the main culprit is Joe Calabrese. He's made it easier for folks to shun the Rapid... This man has done everything to discourage/destroy interest in rail usage. People can attempt to protect him with underfunding from Washington/Columbus. I understand and sympathize with this problem and applaud Joe C with his outspoken efforts to persuade pols to increase operating funding, esp. for diesel bus fuel. But it doesn't explain such Rapid cuts like: - 20 min base trips over the Red Line, the main/heavy rail spine line for our system w/ the all-important Hopkins airport service... You simply don't do stuff like that; there's no excuse -- and the Puritas (one station) rebuild is no justification. - the practical killing off of the Waterfront Line. Yes, the Flats died and there were times there was a trickle (even a few empty cars at times) on the lines. But you just don't kill off a high profile rail transit line that does/did serve a purpose. It's very existence enhances downtown; encourages people families to come down to the North Coast Harbor and the several museums. If anything, you ENCOURAGE people in the huge Erieview complex (for example) to use the service -- and you try inexpensive construction programs, like extending stairs to near the Double-Tree Hotel/Public utilities building/Channel 3 area (at South Harbor); extend the (North Coast) stairway under E. 9th Street immediately adjacent to the huge North Pointe complex (you could even make an enclosed connection to that building from the WFL station. For one thing, it's a short line (2.2 miles) and a mere short extension of Blue/Green trains that already enter downtown/Tower City... Killing the service isn't saving all that much money -- at most $300,000/600,000 that even RTA publicly admits. That's not much money and I can point to (and have) a bunch of empty/near empty buses RTA keeps running to and around downtown that would more than make up that sum. (example -- the Muni Parking-Public Sq. loop buses that duplicate the WFL route that are empty/near empty even during rush hour), and that's only one... I don't care (in the true negative Cleveland tradition) how much of "mistake' people want to continue argue against the WFL, ... normal cities just don't kill off rapid transit service like this -- -- Then there's RTA/Joe C.'s proposals to seek Federal funding to run BRT buses to compete with rail -- like over the Opportunity Corridor and along Buckeye Road a block from the main Blue/Green trunk line... Jerry Masek denied the Buckeye proposal, but I've seen it written elsewhere and Karen Farkas, the PD reporter who reported it, is a competent writer who didn't pull it from the sky... There are other things have already been mentioned ad museum, like the dirty cars/stations/ROWs that I need not repeat here ... Bottom Line: Joe Calabrese should not be allowed to kill off RTA's most valuable service: RTA rail -- despite his new love affair with the HL and BRT in general. Sorry that this went a little long...

Yes, and imaging the ped traffic it would generate. Lower Euclid would start to feel like a corner of Manhattan.

^ You've got no more Shaker Rapid bona fides than me MTS!! :whip:

You're right, EC, it tends to look that way sometimes... I guess at the moment beggars can't be choosy and any way we can generate foot traffic (and we still have too many dead times/dead zones downtown) it is good. But we won't become that 24/7 city that we hope for unless we get some kind of retail as well as other stuff to do. I would even go for a nice 7-11 right near E. 4th.... and the CVS is, at the moment, too far removed from the center of activity to have much of an impact. 7-11? CVS? ... you laugh, but mundane as these venues are, they tend to bring in constant foot traffic that readily cures dead zones (plus they provide residents with needed stuff, ta boot)... I still believe E. 4th is prime for a grocery store. ... not that I prefer 1 over the other (because I want them both to succeed), but I believe E.4th/Gateway has more potential than the WHD, because E. 4th is much more compact/dense with much less annoying surface parking. Plus, lets face it, E. 4th is our traditional CBD; the downtown that most of us relate to as the traditional downtown. The WHD was Cleveland's CBD in the mid-19th century. 668 is a HUGE leap forward for the area and I think we're only just beginning to feel the positive ripple effects from that complex. Lower Euclid should be the corridor we continue to develop first before we lose focus and run to some out-of-the-way corner of downtown, because land is cheap and/or development is easier.

I've seen it on more than one occasion during rush hour esp. I don't know what your talking about re the old cars... I'm talking about the cars now in service. And, really, the issue isn't the cars themselves, but that the drivers do not have adequate training to run the cars. The way these drivers often (even usually) drive is comparable to the school kid jerking and jamming on the brakes during Drivers Ed... inexcusable for a major transit system... and, again, I see it NOWHERE but at RTA.

^frigging awesome, C-1979!

With the wacko-crazy rentals/waiting lists at 668, it sure would be nice if the banks can loosen up credit so developers can jump-start the planned residential tower on top of the new (few years old) parking garage at 555 Euclid. Since mortgages are hard to come by right now, it would be nice if they could consider a rental building with a possible conversion down the road... Obviously, 668 it showing how strong the downtown rental market is in the E. 4th, Euclid corridor... And this year, esp this summer, is the 1st time in about 6 years that Euclid is complete/barrier free from Public Square to E. 9th.

I really like the new Caddyshack and the golf simulators at 668 -- its always great to have something different and active (like Corner Alley's Bowling) rather than just the sit-on-you-ass drink and eat greasy spoons we have downtown (that aren't named Lola, Zinc, Johnny's, San Souci, etc...)... I am a little worried that the little bar, eating establishment may have trouble. Its a very large space, but even Memorial Day Saturday night, when it was warm and perfect downtown, and jammed on E. 4th, there was very low patronage in Caddyshacks' restaurant/bar (I forget the name)...

I am a little concerned that W. 6th street, in particular, esp btw St. Clair and Lakeside, is becoming very Flats-ish... I avoid that area like the plague on Fri/Sat nights. When I was there, about 6 months ago, there was fighting, public drunkenness (including vomiting on the street) and all those classy things. If you're anywhere near there, you see the CPD speeding in, lights flashing, sirens blaring... I can only imagine how this impacts the classy restaurants immediately adjacent to that area, like Blue Point and Metro... I much prefer West 9th, which is much more sedate and mature, while still being lively... E.4th is also very classy, which is probably why I've been spending more time there than the WHD in recent years, esp with nearby 668 and the Zinc restaurant there... Another aspect of W. 6th that is Flats-ish is that, during most any other day, esp during the daytime, its dead as a doornail... It's a totally one-note bar/party area -- and at least, the Flats had enticing aspect of being by the water.

As for training: I have long wished RTA would train its Blue/Green train drivers better, esp with regards to stopping... and even starting... I have never ridden a rail line where drivers, consistently, jam on the brakes so hard as to make their trains shudder. They race up to platforms way too fast, then jam on the brakes. Then there are times where, I'm assuming the automatic signals are stopping them, that drivers stop and start very harshly jerking passengers every couple feet. It's ridiculous. I've often seen people, esp elderly folks, thrown to the floor. It's inexcusable and has been going on for years. Does RTA have any oversight/retraining of these drivers? (I don't ride the Red Line enough to know if its a problem there).

... btw, kudos those smaller places that hang in there and open Sundays, holidays, like the the Flying Fig (across from dark/huge GLBC), Bier Markt, Waterstreet Cafe, Johnny Mangos and others... Its against huge odds, and probably a lot of lonely waiters/waitresses, thanks to their bigger, timid neighbors, that these places fight to give downtown a pulse that visitors and residents wish it had more of.

Don't get me started; the "closed on Sundays" is a pet peeve of a number of key Cleveland downtown/urban restaurants, among them: Lola on E. 4th and Great Lakes Brewing Co. (which kills Ohio City on Sundays) ... there are a number of Warehouse Dist. eateries close up on Sundays, too... ... and GLBC fans take a back-to-back hit on our more patriotic holidays like Memorial Day, last weekend, and the 4th of July... I'm not knocking anybody's religious observance or sense of patriotism, but it rankles me that, in a city begging for people to come to urbanized areas and create a buzz like Ohio City and downtown that establishments Great Lakes, Lola (and plenty of others that feature darkness and upturned chairs on tables every Sunday) go a long way toward perpetuating the "ghost town" feel we applaud these places for helping to eliminate... I just don't get it; it makes Cleveland seem so Podunk-y.

Amen brother!... I understand the expense of running Rapids 24 hours as well as the need for late night maintenance issues on tracks... But RTA did, before Joe C, offer late night Friday and Sat night service on the Rapid -- until about 2:30p. It was esp popular when the Flats was hot and the East Bank well served by the, then brand new Waterfront Line... Well, even though the Flats have seriously declined and the Waterfront Line (foolishly, I think) all but killed off, the growth of E. 4th/Gateway along with the continuing strength of nearby the Warehouse District more than justify the restoration of Friday/Sat late night trains... Tower City's platforms are a comfortable 4/5 min stroll from the heart of these 2 areas. There are few better justifications to public transit than to keep individuals who may have had a few too many off the road -- in addition to attracting even more people downtown: both would be served by adding this total of 5 hours of rail service. Heck, if RTA wanted to scale back the Red Line to half-hourly intervals for after-midnight runs, it would still be a great service (hell, the current 20-min non-rush intervals are practically the same!) ... To not have this late night service is penny-wise and pound foolish in addition to just being stubbornly ignorant/opposed to the riding needs of the public.

Promises, promises... We were told by RTA, the better part of a year ago, that the 20-min base Red Line schedule was due to the Puritas-W.150 Rapid stop reconstruction... first, it seems kind of absurd to whack service so significantly for rebuilding of one Rapid station and, now, I see the 20-min base schedule is even during rush hour, even when the intermitten Brookpark runs average every 10 min runs for non-Airport trains... A 20 min base is totally unacceptable for a major/heavy rail Rapid line (the previous 15 min. base was shaky, but acceptable)... Call me skeptical, but methinks this may have been yet another slick RTA way to save a few pennies at the large expense of Rail riders... and believe me, 20 minute intervals make a huge difference, such as to the extend, even I shun the Red Line for runs to Ohio City from the East Side... sometimes I use the bus but more often, I simply drive... Another promise, made by RTA on this board approaching a year ago, was that RTA was going to "work on" the GPS auto messages on the Rapid... HA! Not only have they NOT changed at all, from either the absurdly/annoyingly chatty guy on the Red Line, to the robot-like female voice on the Blue and Green Lines, Rapid drives have gone so far as to mute the mechanical voices out for their own scratchy/oft-inaudible motorman's announcements -- you know, the ones that are so bad that ... well, the automated voices were supposed to replace... ... and as for buses, why does RTA continue to run No. 81 buses past W. 25/Lorain where the Red Line and a bunch of buses into town run where, for the buses at least, you're never waiting for more than about 5-mins during the day for a Public Square run? Isn't this supposed to be fuel/belt-tighteing times...at least, that's what RTA tells us... ... And speaking of waste, why is RTA running big, regular-sized buses for the Shaker Square-to-Green Road (Green Line replacement) shuttle while Attleboro Road's street/tracks are being replaced... usually, only a handful of non-rush/non-sports (note: the Indians are on the road) hour commuters use leg... Wouldn't it have made sense to use the smaller circulator type buses (since Joe Calabrese rudly terminated those) rather than the gas-guzzling regular buses? Honestly, does anybody really give a damn at or about RTA, or are we so buffaloed by their crying-poor retort that we just must accept everything they say or do? This is really getting sickening.

I have a lot of respect and empathy for Jerry and JetDog. Unfortunately, they are part of an institution that has become as self absorbed and people unfriendly as any in Greater Cleveland. People have screamed that people like me are being petty, but when you have dirty buses and trains, filthy right-of-ways, even out in Shaker Heights, coupled with the bigger blunders like the bus-turning-honking debacle, HL pavement issue, the horrible POP Rapid fare machines, the lousy, totally annoying train station announcements (why we're having so much trouble with GPS-activated train announcements when much bigger cities have them and move right along, no trouble, is beyond me) and way-too-often nasty drivers and booth personnel, and much, much more. And then you plaster your vehicles with (now) 3-year-old, view-blocking "Best in North America" posters ... well, you understand the resentment and disillusionment of a riding public who, given the economic troubles of this city, should be extended the greatest courtesy by a public institution like RTA... Oh yeah, the money... it sure would generate a lot of public sympathy and good will toward our Transit Agency's obvious, and widely shared (with TA's around America) funding problems. The public relations wedge between it and its ridership, and public in general (including the distubringly growing number of ex-riders like rockandroller), may not be solvable, totally, but could be largely healed with a lot less than the hundreds of millions of dollars RTA continues to cry that it needs.

Jim Brown, love his legendary status and what he brought to the Browns in his day, is Totally off his rocker (literally); so let's not get sidetracked debating him... Actually, it's not about media or fan scrutiny that will move LeBron; it's which team is best poised to win a championship, period. Whether Peter Vecsey or Mike Lupica rips him as a Knick or a Net is irrelevant to him because, in these days of internet, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc, the sting of a Jim Rome comment, or Rick Bucher or John Hollinger or Scott Van Pelt or Jalen Rose or, Tim Legler or ... etc, etc, has the same impact as does some local wag like Terry Pluto or Brian Windhorst (who's the best beat writer in the NBA)... Forget all this NYC driven crap about how much of a big city LeBron wants... After the season, or during a long break, LeBron gets on a private jet and is anywhere in the country or world, for that matter... Quite frankly, Chicago looks like it has the pieces... But really, the fact is, had Cleveland had the right coach, we could; should be playing now. We had Boston reeling after Game 3 and, basically, but for poor personnel moves and an inability to inspire, Mike Brown let Boston up off the canvas and, well... forget Game 5 (which we may never have an answer as to why LeBron played the way he did), what about Game 4? If we take care of biz in Game 4, which we should have because, again, we demoralized Boston and they were ready for the knockout punch, Game 5 becomes irrelevant. All that to say (yeah, I know it's a lot), the tools are HERE for LeBron to win it. These guys know LeBron and, with the right coach, young guys like JJ Hickson and even Danny Green and Jawad Wms may finally get the nurturing/patience they need to, like Rajon Rondo, take it to the next level in the playoffs...

The question always is for major projects in Cleveland: do we have the "will" to move relocate the Riverview people. We constantly make excuses like: where will they go? when we know we can find somewhere... This case, like the Medical Mart, relocating the County Administration, a new aquarium, downtown retail/department store, building on Warehouse District surface parking lots, RTA rail expansion and so many others in this town, the question always comes down to: do we want it bad enough?.. and sadly, the answer just about always is emphatically: NO!!

Cleveland's curse? Continuing to hang on to that racist Chief Wahoo as one of our team's mascots. It's ridiculous and should embarass us all. Until we man up and get rid of it and come into the 20th Century, we deserve every painful season's end we get.

Halftime... we're behind by a bucket (thanks to a great dump down but blown bunny by Shaq), but I like our aggression. I'm afraid, still, that Mike may fall in love with Shaq again. We need more Andy, JJ and Z.

^Good points, gotribe, ... but in Philly, I think the "big city"/shopping street would be more like Walnut Street from around Broad west to Rittenhouse Square.... South Street was trendy/funky, but has had teen hangout/crime problems of late.

Accept for Game 4 and part of Game 1 against Chicago, (and really, much of the last month of the season), the Cavs have been sleepwalking on Defense, their Mike Brown hallmark. LeBron and the Team seem to be on a different wavelength from Brown and Brown, frantic to get Shaq going for Orlando (a series that, if we have one more game like tonight, will not materialize), even though Shaq is wrecking the flow of our office -- exactly what critics of the Shaq deal have, all along, said would happen... Tonight was just a complete manifestation of these problems. We'll see what happens Friday, but as much as Mike, Ferry and teammates are feeling heat, the very trophy that LeBron hoisted before his adoring (soon to be quieted throng), will become awfully small indeed. (my buddy also thinks our, Cleveland championship-paranoid fans came up really small, sitting on their hands, even booing, at the least little adversity). We can only hope this debacle finally awakens the team's collective manhood ... otherwise, as phony Republicans keep threatening in the US Congress, the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise will face the 'Nuclear Option'.

A temp casino in Higbee's also makes sense because it's already tied into the Tower City complex and would be advantageous to Gilbert's plans IF he can land a deal with FCE for the land on the most desirable spot (in my mind and his), on the SW corner of Huron and Ontario tying into the Walkway-to-Gateway, the Q, as well as (currently) downtown's greatest concentration of hotel rooms (Renaissance + Ritz) with indoor connections.