clvlndr

I'm just glad a classy restaurant went into this space. A couple years ago, some UOers were doubtful as to the positive use of this space due to the number of pillars, but Chinato appears to have pulled it off quite nicely.

Great editorial, and addressing something 327 mentioned earlier, I don't mind the comparisons to Milwaukee-Chicago... Sure, railroad wonks like those on UO would know the difference, but to the general public, esp those Harris is trying to persuade? I think not. It's great to keep up the attack on the 39mph overall speed with the poignant observation that a large number of people, if not the majority, will not ride from end to end, but engage in regional travel (ie Cleveland-Columbus) where 79mpg trains ARE competitive with autos... Editorials like these, highlighting Ms. Molitoris' excellent 3-C defense (so nice to have ODOT on board w/ rail w/ an ex-Fed. Rail chief, at that!), paint Harris into the corner; to the extent there is no logical reason not to build this railroad, not even folks neutral to the 'choo-choo.'

So rare a bird, he should have been in a museum.

As partisan as I am, I agree with the sentiments that we must reach across party lines to Republicans with reasonable questions. Dems can't simply throw darts at repubs as tempting has it may seem, because they hold the power to kill the bill. So Dems should seek those Repubs who may be open-minded enough to break free of the orthodox conservatives. If it turns out those Repubs aren't reasonable, then Dems and 3-C advocates can't be tarred with the argument that they totally stiffled debate trying to ram the train through.

I think part of the increase is the "new toy" factor of the HL. It "looks" cool and the stations... well, different. Hell, I rode the thing up to CSU just to see what the fuss was about. It's different and slightly faster, ... but not worth the cost and certainly, in no way, comes within an ocean as being as effective as the original planned subway in that corridor. And no where near as fast -- the subway gets you to U. Circle in about 10-12 mins. I would also say an increase is the growth in that corridor, at both the Clinic and CSU ... especially CSU... And I wouldn't at all say that growth was/is tied to the Health Line. These trip generators were growing already.

Bottom line is, as some have said all along, we were sold a bill of goods with ECP/BRT. And as Grumpy said, let's compare the Health Line with the No. 6 in 2004 before Euclid was torn up for BRT, not those rosey RTA "huge jump" figures RTA is feeding us from the #6 during the height of construction.

It's typical of this town to hire a transit chief from a small, bus-only city like Syracuse to run a major bus/rail system like RTA. Meanwhile, the real chief (Tober) we had that we sent packing, with our typical cheap/small-mindedness, goes to Charlotte to build brand new light rail and commuter rail. And, of course, as the smal-minded PD notes, we the transit public are supposed be dazzled by penny-ante Calabrese schemes like "ride free or ride on us." Big friggin' whoop. Maybe next we can hire Grafton's transit chief. Sounds like a good fit for Cleveland.

Nope. RTA is only making a request for an earmark. Even the few projects that win earmarks don't get all of the funding their sponsors seek. Wonder why RTA has has taken so long on the L'il Italy project? ... more in the RTA thread, later.

True that. Though there are other projects w/in Uptown other than the Euclid/Ford project.

Probably Uptown, the large mixed-use development at Euclid-Ford-E.115 will announce... On top of the condos (Coltman & 118), along w/ CIA and MOCA (across the street) moving forward, we now, finally, have the Little Italy-Red Line stop getting Fed funding. I just hope some of the other TOD projects, like Mayfield Lofts,moves forward too... U.Circle may finally be on the verge of reaching its true potential as a great college/museum town +

I'm on it.

Can't blame this one on RTA. I used to think Berea was one of the more progressive, historic, college town West Side burbs... no more. RTA carefully studied expansion, but Berea killed it with the tired old close-minded bigoted excuse =traffic congestion around new rail terminal... funny, now, how a number of Bereans are now moaning for an interim stop on the 3-C line. My answer: to hell with them.

“We’re focused on community transportation — we have not been as focused on a rail line that would go out as far as Sandusky,” FitzGerald said. “One the one hand, I could see some advantages to having commuter rail to downtown Cleveland and to University Circle. On other hand, the biggest beneficiaries would be Lorain County and Erie County." What always gets me in this town is how, on so many potentially positive development projects, people are so damned preoccupied with the advantages to someone else. It'd be nice if mayor FitGerald touted the benefits of rail travel to his dense downtown Lakewood rather than the benefits of Lorain and Erie Counties ... thus giving reasons why Lakewooders should be against it; or at least, not strongly for it.

I'm really disappointed that the 2 RTA officials on this board, who normally give interesting RTA answers and insight, have not responded to this issue (that I've seen, anyway). Why are they refusing to deal with issue? And yet, RTA shut down off-peak trains last year (forcing Cleveland Film Festival weekend, evening travelers to take buses while they do "trackwork", and yet these creaky bridges continue to slow service... ... Yeah, I'm tired of the constant RTA advance of the BRT agenda. Cleveland's transit mantra has been to take an advantage and throw it away... btw, I also agree that BRT with its "tool shed" stations, could wreck one of the more beautiful wide avenues in Greater Cleveland (while, at the same time, it seems the parallel, worthwhile West Shore commuter rail proposal is dying on the vine -- par for the course in this town) ... At least RTA is moving forward with plans to extend the Blue Line .5 miles which would help to create TOD near the terminal as well as, finally, moving forward with the critical Mayfield-Little Italy Red Line relocation and the Brookpark Red Line rebuild that could, possibly, encourage TOD... ... hey, I'm a Clevelander. In this town, I'll take whatever transit victory I can find, however small.

It's interesting to hear Cincy talk about the difficulty at Union Station in dealing w/ heavy freight traffic. In Cleveland during WWI, the Van Sweringens sold the public on their Public Square Union Station over the Daniel Burnham plan to crown his famous Mall, in large part, because the Mall RR tracks were choked by ... freight traffic.... ... fast forward to the late 20th/early 21st Century, and because of a lack of vision, planning, coordination and leadership (<-- should be Cleveland's post WWII moto, actually), Cleveland's forced to abandon any plans for its Union Station/Tower City -- the best located (center of town) and a specially, passenger-only built egress/ingress ROW (on top of being at the city's central Rapid Transit station) primarily because we stupidly built a Federal Courthouse building (we really didn't need) blocking the westbound entrance to the station area... so that, now, almost a century later, Cleveland is building its 3-C terminal in an area of busy freight traffic a good distance away from the (Tower City) transit/accessible, center of town. I suppose Cleveland's planned North Coast terminal has more track space than Cincy's Union Station, but obviously, the City by the Lake doesn't win any genius-planning awards either.

Committee of the Whole RTA Board highlights . . . . . . . Joe Calabrese, CEO & General Manager, presented RTA’s federal legislative priorities. RTA is seeking four earmarks in the 2011 appropriations cycle – 1. $5 million for the construction of the proposed Mayfield Road Station rehabilitation in Cleveland near Little Italy. 2. $4.5 million for the construction of a new Red Line station on Brookpark Road on the Cleveland-Brook Park border. 3. $1.5 million to prepare the final design of a proposed .5 mile extension of the Blue Line in Shaker Heights. 4. $5.0 million to construct the final design of the Clifton Blvd. Transit Enhancement Project in Lakewood and Cleveland. http://www.riderta.com/nu_newsroom_releases.asp?listingid=1401 Expanding on on noozer's earlier post w/ the general grant to RTA... these projects, esp. the "Mayfield" station, contain the most impactful and positive for the rail system in many years.

I find myself becoming more and more apathetic about this rail plan every day. I think I'll just keep up on the Cincy Streetcar developments. I can't help but feel the same way some time. It's really sad when UOers start thinking this way. This is supposed to be the site of progressive urban thinkers. If you can't see through the petty, political, backwards small-mindedness of Republicans who will skew anything about this progressive project negative in their efforts to defeat Democrat Ted Strickland while continuing to stroke fat-cat auto and gas interests and fanning the flames of anti-social, often bigoted, Libratarian nihilsim, ... then we're completely lost in the mental thicket.

The point isn't about continuing to cry over spilt milk. It's not about just taking shots at the Health Line. I've learned to live with it and (while holding my nose), er, love it, well, maybe not that... It's not about this particular project; it's done... The point is: when are we going to stop making the same stupid mistakes. Fact is, we dragged our feet with Dual Hub until the winds were unfavorable in Congress to the point where, oh well, (thrown hands up) what could we do? ... Ditto with Flats East Bank, where, instead of just building the thing, we had a protracted court fight until the economy tanked and, well, 5 years after Jane Campbell and Scott Wolstein cut the ribbon on FEB, nothing has been built yet... on even the scaled down version... Then MMPI ... and County Admin HQ (7 years and counting, ... and nothing)... and... and... It''s the same stupid-azz, small-minded, backwards attitude that threatens to kill the wonderful, Fed Gift 3-C Amtrak projecdt in this state... When will we learn KJP? We don't learn and are therefore poised to BRT ourselves into complete irrelevance. And with each such failure we continue to lower our standards of what Cleveland as a city should be... As we've noted, in the "What other cities/states are doing with rail" Pittsburgh has caught and past us, and are probably not going to make the BRT mistake in their main corridor (and downtown-wise, Pittsburgh has past Cleveland by generally anyway)... Next we'll be thumping our collective chests because we're better than Dubuque, Iowa... ... wait, is Dubuque now planning rail transit?

When I say Cleveland's growth and progress has been stunted by its complete lack of vision and leadership, obviously, I'm not making it up.

While I do think RTA's lines are a bit on the short side, the Shiloh/Scott branch of St. Louis Metro is a bit ridiculous. It serves mainly sparsely populated, even rural areas of SW Illinois. The initial section serves East St. Louis, which is every bit as troubled as East Cleveland... St. Louis would have much better spent the Shiloh/Scott branch $ on a line in the city, perhaps serving the economically troubled areas of North and South St. Louis.

Amen to that!

^ Downtown, you're right, St. Louis has very skillfully used the old frieght tunnell as well as access to SW Illinois over the ancient-yet-majestic (136-years-old to be exact) Eads Bridge and, yes, there are multiple downtown stations whereas we mainly have only 1 in TC (I actually count 2, including the much underappreciated E. 9th/North Coast WFL stop)... I was mainly talking about Metro in the nieghborhoods -- it actually puts riders farter away (that RTA does) from core mix-use walking districts like Delmar Loop (in Univ City) or Central West End or the St. Louis University/college-town area near the Grand station. Even in downtown, a core of St. Louis' retail and entertainment area is in its NW quadrant which is away from the Metro tunnel and route. Compare the RTA Rapid viz-a-viz Shaker Sq and Larchmere, Ohio City or even University Circle and Little Italy, (where the problem is as much the low-quality, dangerous nature of the E. 120 station as it is its relatively poor location, even with some development now growing up around it). And even our 1 Tower City downtown station lies wthin very easy walking distance of our core entertainment areas: E. 4th and Warehouse Dist... and things of course will get even better, rail connection-wise once the Flats East Bank development gets going.

To me, it's no-brainer, the only logical site is the East Bank behind Tower City. I sure hope we don't muddy this worthwhile plan up with our usual protracted site-selection nonsense as we have with the proposed County Admin office and the new MMPI Convention Center -- to name only a few... I think Dan Gilbert's approach of not puting hotel rooms immediately on-site makes sense. So if you come to Cleveland and want to gamble, you at least have to leave your hotel area and travel (hopefully mainly on foot) to get to the slots & tables. And along the way, you can enhance downtown with your presence and $$$.

I'm dislike the current RTA administration, also, because of their small-minded approach to planning. But I do enjoy using the system when it works -- and I mean, being relatively on-time and clean. A tight operating dollar is 1 thing, I understand that, but there is absolutely no excuse for dirty buses, trains, stations and right-of-ways... That said, RTA can never be fully successful so long as officials of the Mother City seemingly don't give a schidt about it. I mean, aside from the new flava-of-the-month-- the Health Line, of course -- how much do you really see or hear local officials really talking up RTA, or considering utilizing what we have, esp the Rapid, in worthwhile city-building program, ie TOD? We constantly gripe that our rail lines don't go close enough to population areas, but if you look at a newer system, like the St. Louis Metro, which is constantly expanding, it's connectivity to high population density areas, at least from a walk-ability, is worse than the RTA Rapid. And, yes, St. Louis Metro does, like our RTA Rapid, mainly utilizes frieght rail right-of-ways for its high-speed cooridors. But you don't hear the complaining and excuse making as we do around here. It's all a state of mind. I do get this sense among power brokers in this town, more and more, that RTA is for college students and poor people. Even in Shaker Heights, home of the original Rapid lines, I'm hearing people talking about not wanting to deal with the Rapid to go to work-- even though, to Shaker Height's credit, they are about the only entity in the county these days that is at least talking and planning in TOD terms related to the Rapid -- Avalon Station (whatever its current success level is) and, of course, the massive TOD plan for the end of the Blue Line (see that related thread)... Until local leaders take some degree of pride in the system we have and actually talk in terms of using it to enhance development and movement, I don't see things getting foreseeably better in the near term.

Overweight car potato, ouch! (truth hurts, even if its a lady)... Seriously, though, this is all so sad and so pathetic, that so many jugheads have, somewhat successfully, turned something so potentially worthwhile, into a political, anti-Ted Strickland campaign, we should all collectively hang our heads as a state... ... then schedlue the moving vans to pack up and GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE if these fools are successful!!