clvlndr

^I don't want to cast aspersions at this point because we've seen both irresponsible pedestrians and RTA drivers (remember the cellphone chatting driver who killed the man leading to those annoying, but probably necessary, audible bus turn announcements). Apparently this accident occurred in from of Key Center which is the lighter side of the Square in terms of foot traffic crossing the PS roadway. Again, I just hope this lady pulls through.

Finally, honest to goodness, no doubt about it, high-density TOD (if anyone doubts this, consider the building's name). Fantastic... I do agree with KJP in disliking the driveway right across the sidewalk connecting the Red Line station to the dense/crowded LI retail/residential district but, then again, perhaps a side or rear entrance car access is not available... If I were planning this area, E.119th's entrance onto Mayfield would disappear. I would seek to fill in that space with yet another mixed use building and force everyone to accees the remainder of E.119 from the rear...notwithstanding, Mayfield Station will be a great leap forward which highlights even further why the UC-Little Italy station relocation was RTA's finest project recent times.

I've been aware of Gary Norton when he was completing his urban planning studies while working with the County commissioners. He seemed an engaged, bright guy who really was interested in moving EC forward for its own sake (as in, he wasn't deep in someone's pocket). He partnered with UCI about upgrading the buffer areas with University Circle -- and he championed the Circle East town homes at Lakewood & Euclid. He also moved EC toward merger with Cleveland because it is in the best interest of both cities even though a merger would have cost him his job... Gary Norton was the last best hope for EC. Stupidity.

^That's just terrible. I sure hope the lady survives.

Detroit-area's regional transit tax proposal fails. What went wrong? Advocates seek answers http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/11/09/rta-millage-failure/93553464/

This is another one of these weird clashes which underscore that Trump, in large part, has no real hard 'n fast political ideology-- grew up and New York so it's not surprising he likes trains and mass transit so, you'd think, the GOP's desire to ax all transit funding would be DOA -- not to mention the paradox, as noted in another thread, that conservatives in a number of Sunbelt and western urban areas are building, and enjoying mass transit... BUT Trump has proven to be totally obsequious; he'll climb into any conservative or right wing bed of individuals or groups who would help him gain the White House (wacko conspiracy theorists like InfoWars, anti-science climate deniers, white supremacists ... you name it). Now that he's achieved the presidency, the question is: will he, and to what extent, will pay up on these IOU's? If somehow Trump leaves office prior to 2020 -- for whatever reasons -- you'd suspect the more ideologically-driven, rural Indiana, hard-right Pence would be the president more likely to agree with, and indeed lead an effort to kill of federal mass transit funding.

Joe Calabrese is not sufficiently supportive of the rail system here even though, I would agree, the term "anti-rail" may be too strong. But just spending largely federal monies to keep the system in federal compliance and to fix decades of deferred maintenance, like the S curve, the Airport tunnel and the Tower City tracks shouldn't prove to anyone that Calabrese is a champion of rail. What's his alternative, let the rail system die? Hell it's struggling to stay alive as it is because of the lack of adequate public operational funding and not enough immediate capital project funding -- we've gotten some, but go back and review KJP's line-item budget of spending needed for rail to keep it viable over the next several (really next few) years... As has been pointed out time and again, not by me but by AAO and others more knowledgeable than me, that RTA under Joe C has failed to present a cogent, workable comprehensive plan for rail and other future transit expansion. Just saying that RTA is in a financial crisis is not, nor should not be a sufficient excuse for not planning for growth, especially in a city that has seen, is seeing, substantial urbanized growth of its own that should be supported by its transit system. Other older metro cities have their transit systems plan for rail growth, why not Cleveland? This idea of a referendum on Joseph Calabrese -- whether your for 'em or agin' em, is superfluous... It's not a matter of being too hard or too soft on Joe, it's about what's in the best interest of the transit system which should be a critical element of our city.

^But that's the point; if there was more strategically expanded rail, the system would be more structurally and cost effective over time. Most major capital costs, like the station rebuilds, are heavily subsidized by the Feds; 50% match at last check. I would just like to see at least as much concern about future operating funding, principally from by the stingy state, as there is about the monies purportedly lost by closing Superior through Public Square...a move I agree with btw. ...and according to today's PD editorial, Joe C has quieted his initial opposition and is looking for bus routing alternatives... Good for Joe.

Your comments are enlightening and surprising since Joe Calabrese frequently (politely with a smile) gripes that RTA's rail expenses way outsize the actual service it provides viz RTA buses.

So Ken, are you saying that despite the tremendous high capital costs rail projects incur (new stations, rebuilt power facilities, new railcars but over 25-to-40 year spans), that the rail division is cheaper to run over time when factoring in fuel costs, shorter bus life spans, replacement costs, etc?

That would probably be possible, although they'd have to contend with westbound red line trains (at the crossover point) in addition to westbound waterfront line trains. Although, looking on Google Maps satellite view, it seems as if the first opportunity to switch back on the Waterfront Line is just before the West 3rd station, so it would have to be single-tracked all the way from there (unless there's a crossover under the Detroit-Superior bridge that can't be seen). You are correct. It's odd because on most rail lines where there's a branch line, there's usually a crossover just after the line branches off (ie both the Blue and Green Lines at/near Shaker Heights) for this reason. Don't know why on the WFL they waited until near W. 3rd.

The thinking seems to be Cedi Osman could be a young, replacement version of Mike Dunleavy with Cedi's improved/improving 3-point shooting. ... he's very young; he'd only be 22 if we landed him... I don't know if we'd need him to be a star so long as he could become a reliable catch 'n shoot 3-point weapon. I've loved Mike's career and was excited to obtain him from the Bulls even after his major injury last year, but unfortunately he doesn't seem to have much left in the tank. His legs have little lift which is why he's not hitting his treys and can't crack Lue's rotation.

Going strictly by recollection, it seems as though, upon entering Tower City, the eastbound Red Line track switches then veers away (to the right) from the Red Line's center TC terminal track and connects with the outer eastbound WFL track before the 2 lines/joint track enters the TC platform. I don't believe that interlocking has a connection that would allow eastbound WFL trains to switch all the way over to Track 8 to access the (normal) westbound platform. ... again, I could be wrong. TC track config anyone?

NBA Rumor Central: Cedi Osman to join Cavs next season? http://www.espn.com/blog/nba/rumors/post/_/id/40292/nba-rumor-central-cedi-osman-to-join-cavs-next-season

Cavs are playing 3 games in 4 nights, with the second of a home-road back-to-back in Chicago tonight. Normally I might expect Lue to rest LeBron as he did a few weeks ago, but given the LeBron-Wade reunion and the national TV audience, No. 23 will likely play. Plus given our poor performance in recent games, I doubt LeBron would go for sitting tonight; he's way too competitive. I look for him and the team to come out with a vengeance tonight.

Don't understand The elevator that serviced track 7, worked at best 50% of the time. Now without a station to service it can be shut down for good, or hopefully fixed so that when the next set of tracks are replaced there it wont be such a pain point That temporary station will be reactivated for westbound trains when money is found to rebuild the eastbound station track. Then, eastbound trains will be detoured over the newly rebuilt westbound track during reconstruction of the eastbound track. Boy that'll be fun. I guess when that happens, Waterfront Line service will suspended because there's no rail connection between the eastbound WFL track into TC and Track 8, right? If not, I can't see WFL single tracking into Track 7 and the temporary station because there would be too much opposing westbound Red, Blue & Green service to allow eastbound WFL trains to share that one track and temp station platform.

Would love the 9800 Detroit buff-brick warehouse to be converted to apts. There is a short row of brownstone apts and large K&D 60s-ish apt next door.. The RE market across Detroit from the Rapid shouldn't be flat. Lots of good bones there and east along Detroit across the bridge; solid density; many brick multi-unit dwellings (apts and old rows). I always here there are too many undersirables and drugs in that area. Gordon Square was like that, too, even a decade ago -- those beautiful row homes just south of GS appeared to have drugs and hookers and some were dilapidated and boarded up. Now they're fixed up, beautiful and probably hot rent-wise. All it takes is some investment to turn W. Blvd/Cudell around. I wished that dumb idea of a dog kennel on the factory site could be reversed. Even light industrial development on the spot would be preferable to a kennel. That old Italian restaurant seems to have been sitting vacant for decades. Why can't the city target this area for development and TOD. Couldn't they leverage funds to narrow Detroit from that crazy 6-lane configuration at the Rapid station? It took $50M to totally reconfigure Public Square into the great people place it is now -- it would take considerably less to reconfigure Detroit between W. 98th and Berea Rd. This area seems to be steadily improving even without the big investment, but it just seems the TOD/walkability potential of this neighborhood are being wasted. Can't RTA, the City and local councilman come together and hash out a plan? And if they're not, why not?

Cavs have had 3 straight low-energy performances and been blown out 2 straight games, in Milwaukee against a young .500.team. That wide open Austin Rivers 3 late in the 3rd caused me to reach for my remote.. It hasn't been on one guy, but JR Smith seems like he's on another planet. The ugly, bad boy JR we all feared has unfortunately emergerd. Let's hope that JR's stay is short lived.

It's funny; absent their incident with the Lakewood woman at the W. 117 Street Red Line station last year aside, I usually find RTA's cops at Tower City to be very polite, esp those guys sitting around the info booth when I'm looking for a map or schedule -- now they often won't know anything, but they're nice. It's usually the regular employees and drivers who are truculent and otherwise rude. Occasionally drivers are cool; we had a particularly thoughtful Green Line driver earlier in the fall who assisted a wheelchair woman with a child at the ADA platform. This woman (driver) deserved a Gold Star...

Now that I recall, David posted his comments in response to a back 'n forth I had with rockandroller in the Flats East Bank thread about folks not using the Waterfront Line... It's gone now because MayDay deleted the comments as not relevant to FEB, but if David is out there and wants to reprise his thoughts here ...

As I posted above, I certainly hope RTA hasn't stooped to the level of shutdowns to save money, but ... Quite obviously, RTA has a serious perception problem among the public. UOer David had a thoughtful post elsewhere (couldn't put my hands on it) where he opined that, based on his experiences, Cleveland's RTA ranked 3rd among Ohio's Big C's transit systems in terms of service quality. Given that neither Cincy nor Columbus has an extensive rail network comparable to Cleveland's, that's really saying something.

The partisan angle is quite interesting... While it's very fashionable for Republicans in general, and in particular in Ohio, to hate on transit (it's 'social engineering', even 'communist' in some eyes; antithetical to the free/libertarian society the USA is... etc, etc), a number of big cities in conservative Republican states, most shockingly Salt Lake City, Utah, have quietly gone whole-hog into investing in -- and loving, rail mass transit... Go figure. Trains are an easier sell to Republicans and conservatives, I can't say for sure why. Probably because of the same reason why the average urban American ignores city buses but will ride trains. Trains are simply a superior means of urban mass movement and even many dogmatic conservatives can't deny a train's speed and comfort, not to mention the fact that rapid transit systems make their cities seem bigger, more important and sexy. It's similar to congressional pols and staffers in Washington... They can spew that right-wing, anti-transit crap to their small town and rural constituents back home while, at the same time, voting to authorize huge capital spending packages for expanding D.C. Metro Rail for their own convenience. It's totally hypocritical.

I'm not expecting much from any Republican SOT appointee, but Chao would have to be a step up from totally regressive John Mica.

Cool. I figured Crop's space wouldn't be vacant for long. Club/eatery turnover is natural in trendy districts, so long as it's not a massive stampede-exodus as the Flats experienced in the early 2000s. The latter signals the district is dying, which the old Flats was. The new FEB is just ramping up.

clvlndr, I have to ask, and I mean this sincerely -- given this incident, what more information, specifically, would have helped you and/or changed your mind about using RTA on that day, at that time? I'm asking because I can advocate for better information, if I know what that better information, from a rider's perspective, needs to be. Simply saying "more" or "better" isn't nearly as helpful. JetDog, I sincerely believe helps the public have more trust in the rail system if RTA is more transparent about the exact causes leading to rail shutdowns. I think this is heightened because of the frequency of rail service outages coupled with the public knowledge of funding shortages. All these issues raises the need for the agency to make people feel RTA is doing all they can to keep rail service safe and running. As you can probably sense from forums like UO, and even in comments sections of transit-related articles on cleveland.com, Scene Magazine and even Crains, the public confidence and trust level in RTA is extremely low. Just saying "mechanical issue" for a Rapid service outage, especially during Black Friday's Winter Fest which, annually, is one of RTA's highest riding days, has got to lower public trust even more. I have to believe that by saying service was interrupted due to say a transformer burnout or catenary problem or something specific would cause riders to empathize a bit more even in their frustration. There are some people out there who are so distrustful of RTA that they don't believe RTA's service outages are even legitimate. I've even heard RTA employees gripe (in Tower City) that they believe RTA shuts down rail service to save money... I personally don't believe this, because it would be huge scandal if it were true, but I'm just telling you this type of thinking is out there even among some RTA workers themselves.