clvlndr

I really wish Cleveland would get serious about TOD. Finally, at long last, Centric is actually rising next to the UC-Little Italy rail station. Yet, Mayfield Station, a small-ish, yet important, 6-story, 45-unit building is under attack from the LI neighborhood -- at least, certain important residents... Why? Over in Ohio City, while I'm thrilled at the veritable explosion of building -- both planned, built and underway -- on the north along Detroit in/near Hingetown, it's troubling that, although nearby Market Square is thriving, the area in/around the W. 25th Red Line station is open fields and warehouses. In the Hingetown area plans are underway to begin building an 11-story substantial mid-rise apt building, and yet all we can get for Market Plaza is talk. There was one nice plan about 5 years ago (and even here, the buildings were short -- no 11-story building like what's going in along Detroit that has only buses), but now it appears to be a no-go for any project involving Market Plaza now... Again, why? A similar situation exists in Detroit-Shoreway. Edison and Battery Park on the north are exploding, but as someone noted, neither of these projects are particularly transit friendly and, in fact, are much more geared toward individuals with cars. Meanwhile 13/14 years after the W. 65-Lorain/Madison Red Line station was built, no major commercial or multi-unit residential building has been built adjacent to the station since the small row of Eco Village town-homes were built contemporary with the station -- Waverly Station is 3 blocks away to the NE. There is the small affordable housing building which looks to rise next to the Red Line station, so that's something. Before this, a historic building at W. 58 and Lorain, just 1 block from the Red Line station, was actually torn down a few years ago, leaving an empty lot... For the most part, none of the urbanized Red Line stations are seeing any TOD growth... Not W. 25, W. 65, West Blvd or W. 117...On the East Side, again, happily Little Italy is seeing some TOD growth -- at least when they're not fighting it... How can this backwards situation be addressed? Are banks adverse to financing TOD (at least in Cleveland, not so in any other major transit city I can think of)? Are city officials, including council people (ie Matt Zone) oblivious?

Lue sent a message to Kyrie on Thursday: No. 2 can be replaced -- I don't mean permanently, but during this playoff run. If he has one of those funky games where he hogs the ball/kills the offense, misses shots, lollygags on D and makes a bunch of turnovers on lazy passes, Lue has a viable point guard in the wings in Deron Williams who is battle/playoff tested and who is starting to mesh with LeBron. Kyrie is a great ball player ... one of the best pg's in the league, but he's not LeBron -- who obviously cannot be replaced by anyone in the league... I put that miserable first half in Indiana primarily on Kyrie's shoulders. Kyrie ran the offense and ran it right into the ground ... Lue must have seen it that way too and banished him to the bench early in the 2nd not to be seen again.

^... and of course we'll never forget after Draymond Green's 'hard foul' of LeBron with 10 seconds left and a 3 point lead in THE GAME, LeBron promptly split the free throw pair. Fortunately it made it a 2 possession game so that, if Steph had have sank his desperation 3 we still would have had the lead. Obviously, though, LeBron's hitting both FT's would have allowed us all to breathe a bit easier. LeBron usually hits just enough FTs to win in big, close games.

I'm also excited about the volume of people this will bring to the core. This will likely be the largest residential building in the immediate area (I'm not sure how many units 668, across the street, has but I suspect the Beacon will be substantially larger). With Beacon, Garfield and 668 in such close proximity -- along with nearby E. 4th street, this area is morphing into a substantial apartment district. And, as you note, Beacon's bulk and height, as well as its modern feel, brings added potential.

Jose Ramirez is one of the most clutch hitters the Indians have had in recent times. Just love this guy. With him and Lindor anchoring our hitting attack, it's giving space to guys like Encarnacion to get power hitting swing together. Being tied for 1st, a game over .500 is right where we need to be.

I had this dream that the Cavs were getting blown out by 26 by Indiana (25 at halftime), but came back and won going away... No, wait ...

^I think there's a place for these 'grungy' cig/lotto/beer, etc. places right in the neighborhood. When stores are selling 'high quality' food and are located along the main drag in the trendy strip, it's usually for the foo-foo crowd and usually smacks of gentrification. I think some gentrification of OC can be good, but I'm not in favor of totally driving out all blue-collar working people. And as we see with places like Family Dollar in Market Square, young professionals along with lower-income folks frequent the small brown-bag joints as well. Many of them think these places are 'cool.'

^Yeah, I hate losing stores like these too. I don't know this particular area that well, but in many older neighborhoods these numerous little corner stores are part of Cleveland's charm.

This is both good and bad. Good because it demonstrates the demand for rental housing in OC and here the neighborhood is getting a viable 4-unit apt from a rundown looking commercial building. Bad because this demonstrates the need for substantial multi-unit housing isn't being met, leading to numerous conversions of commercial properties and single family homes into small multi-unit dwellings. While the several multi-unit dwellings have been, and are being built in OC's northern flank along Detroit, the Market Sq. area to the south, as well as the area south of there, hasn't seen any new apt construction at all in recent years. The loft conversions at WSCH and the Jay Hotel have been the largest area apartment developments in the last few years, and yet these are relatively small projects. As for possible new construction, the Market Square Plaza mixed-use TOD proposal a few years ago was hopeful, but has gone dark apparently for financing difficulties, among other reasons. The planned infill in Duck Island to the west of the Red Line station can fulfill some of the need, but Market Square clearly needs substantial apartment growth to meet demand. It's Cleveland's most popular entertainment district outside of downtown.

^Cool.

Again, where is the momentum for rail expansion? RTA leadership doesn't have the energy for this for whatever reason. If RTA leadership doesn't have the energy to develop needed future rail services, surf, they are not acting in the public interest and should be removed from office. It's true, existing rail doesn't serve all the places Skylift is talking about -- as I said, I can go along with a line from, say, FWB to Whiskey and Wendy islands -- these are isolated places away from development. But the idea of lines to Ohio City, to/from FEB and along the waterfront (wait, doesn't RTA have a rail line with this name?) is duplication or rail rapid transit service. As for hoping down to the Flats or over the river to W. 25th for a beer or a bite before a Cavs or Indians playoff game. It's currently easy to do so by rail. The HL or the trolley's can zip you up to PHS. We need to appreciate and build up the wealth of transit that we already have and not allow it to deteriorate further. Significant development has sprung up convenient to these transit nodes and more potential such development is on the drawing board. GRT ... Gondola Rapid Transit, we don't need.

^I tend to feel the same way, but they can be fun. I would at most have one line like, say, from the Flats to Whiskey Is only because the island is isolated and not necessarily easy to find and navigate even with a car and the gondola cables and towers here could be built away from the more architecturally attractive downtown areas. But this idea of sky train/gondola lines all over downtown gives it the illusion of regular mass transit -- which it is not, and it also is visually unattractive. And in Cleveland, I can see local leaders really pumping this thing while continuing to watch RTA, especially the Rapid, fall apart.

OK I see it. It's almost like a small puff of yellowish smoke against the dark red building.

It's definitely on the small side for TOD but, hey, we'll take it. It beats an empty lot, even a pleasant one as this one with trees and grass and is free of trash. It will at least be a tight configuration hugging both the street and the edge of the open cut overlooking RTA's tracks. Sure wish other TOD around W. 65th/Eco Village would follow. The area has a lot of potential.

So we're getting a modern high-rise apartment building in the center of town, replete with indoor parking and ground level office/retail. This, in an area of older walk-up apts, fancy restaurants, shops and trendy hotels; a few blocks from a full-service supermarket and a subway station; on a street busy with pedicabs in the evening and a hansom cab every now and again.... What's up with all this? Is Cleveland trying to be New York or something?

^^I think the national attention is more driven by that horrible Facebook video than Stephens' hopefully specious claim of serial killings. While I wouldn't rule it totally out, what little we know of this guy's twisted psyche, points to his brutally executing innocent good-guy, Robert Godwin, because of doubts expressed by his coworkers that he was capable of such a thing. It follows that an unstable, insecure individual would puff up his notoriety by claiming to have committed murders that he really didn't commit. Of course he was also attempting to guilt-trip his ex, Joy Lane.

I haven't heard any recent proposals for office building -- or any building -- at the site of the old Hippodrome movie theater on Euclid at E. 8th Street, which is currently an ugly surface lot now used by Heinen's shoppers among others. This space is of substantial size for a building and, like 515 across (and down) the street, a parking garage could form the base along with street-level retail which would fill in the missing gap between Public Square and E. 9th. Is there any potential here? It's a great location on a number of levels including proximity to quality mass transit.

^Police are now saying it's highly possible that he's left the state... You're right though; people could go crazy with rumors. The Solon-ping report came from a Scene Mag reporter. However if this was accurate, it would make sense since a Solon cell tower could have pinged Stephens exiting the area down I-271 and 480 to the Turnpike. Police are now saying it's also probable that he's turned his cellphone off due to potential tracking... Despite being a violent sicko, the guy is obviously no dummy.

Just heard Stephens' cellphone was pinged by a Solon tower within last 20 minutes.

Tragic. Mr. Godwin was a beloved famuly man and neighborhood citizen who was taken away by a very sick and twisted man... Daily Mail has been the most comprehensive in coverage -- they specialize in crimes like this. They even posted the ex-girlfriend's photo which seems like a privacy invasion. She's an unwitting victim of this crazy man who likely will not be taken alive.

This is in tradition of the Van Sweringens who had a zillion holding companies for their construction and RR operations.

Plenty of cities have built densely without imposing height limits. I don't think Cleveland needs them. The only thing we need a limit on is anti-growth activism. There's no charm in telling others to go away. This city needs more people and this development will help bring them in. Also Perotti's presentation demonstrates that, even at 6 floors in height, Mayfield Station will be shorter than the cupola at Holy Rosary church just a block away due to the slope of the street (to go under the Rapid + train tracks) and the building's lower level foundation.

Now that's a gas station ... and mini-mart. This could actually enhance the look of the neighborhood, whereas most stations tend to detract; even the modern mini-mart/stations... My favorite service station in all of greater Cleveland is that old Tutor-style one in Cleveland Hts at Euclid Heights and Edgehill -- it was originally built by Sohio sometime in the 20s or 30s, I'd guess... Now it's a Marathon... See: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.50634,-81.5885392,3a,80.8y,14.07h,94.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDU9gzjirxP3P-hFcC2mEwA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 I believe there's a companion station building built on Lake Ave in Lakewood near the Gold Coast.

^Yes, I've long heard that Trivisonno views himself as a poor man's Howard Stern. I believe his co-host at the was Kim Mihalik, who, as you note, played the Robin Quivers role... Thing is, as crude as Stern can be, he is actually kinda funny ... to me at least. Stern is a classic shock-jock, but his big thing is sex, sexual innuendo. He's not mean spirited and bigoted like Trivisonno (of course, Robin is African American). Allen and Rado were mildly funny, especially Rado with his Art Modell shtick.

It does, on the surface, seem like a problem but people seem to adjust to trains. Keep in mind Centric is going up on the other side, which is adjacent to the freight tracks and away from the quieter Rapid tracks which will be across the street/driveway from Mayfield Station. Also keep in mind that renters are paying big bucks to live down at Flats East Bank which close to those extremely busy RR tracks crossing the "Iron Curtain" across the river -- and then there's the horns from both the ore ships and the bridge... it's extremely noisy down there, ... but residents deal with it.