clvlndr

Very exciting. Originally I only thought this tower would be 16 added floors, at most. 24 plus the parking deck is awesome and will add tremendous density and street activity to an area of downtown that's growing by leaps and bounds, already. Can't wait till the RNC ends and this project gets started.

^Very nice article; great history with facts I didn't even realize ... One slight correction, when Terminal Tower opened in 1930, it was the tallest building outside New York, period... It was only bested, height-wise by a non-NYC town in the late 60s: first, I believe by the Prudential building in Boston, and then various towers in Chicago, especially the (rather ugly imho) Sears/now Willis building, which then indeed made TT "... the tallest between New York and Chicago." The Key Building, originally the Society Building, became the tallest between NYC and Chicago until Philly built its Comcast tower around 2009 (and now Comcast is building a mew. super tower a few blocks away that will be the tallest in the U.S.). <-- pretty sure all this is right, but if not, someone will correct me.

It's not a matter of blaming a particular highway from taking funds away from transit, it's about blaming our leaders for their priorities, especially in starving transit literally to near the brink of its death.

But the Valley View bridge is not an emergency repair. I grant you, Cleveland and the country have serious infrastructure issues, especially our highway system that I don't take lightly (if I-480 collapses in Valley View the way the W-35 went down in Minneapolis, there would have been many times more casualties). But 480 is not anywhere near that point; our trsnsit system is; and maybe even worse, but nobody in powere really seems to care... and, oh yeah, let's not even get into the goo-gobbs we're spending on the super superfluous Opportunity Corridor highway.

^Of course Kasich, the governor who could care less about transit or Cleveland, for that matter, had to run up to get his photo-op making the "repair" funding announcement with the gigantic bridges over his shoulder in the background; quite naturally not explaining that this expensive funding for 480's VVB is more for long term maintenance repair work and not of the emergency nature ghat was needed to literally save the Inner Belt bridge. Meanwhile it was reported last week that RTA, the state's (by far) largest transit agency, will suffer a "catastrophic loss" in funding next year by RTA's losing its ability to collect sales and use taxes from Medicaid managed care organizations. And yet, in the nearly week since this dire news was reported, not one local or state pol, especially Kasich of course, has uttered a peep about this... What a joke.

^I think a petition is a good idea. I've always thought the through buses arrangement was a major flaw to an otherwise and obviously excellent redesign... One thing is for sure, the longer people contiue to fall in love with the new Square and the longer RTA delays in running its Superior Ave buses through the middle, the more the public will object to their arrival. And the citizens should have the last word; it's PUBLIC Square, after all.

^Very nice, McLovin. That fountain makes me want to be kid again.

^OMG, take a cellphone photo of Mr. Norton and frame it, for a Cleveland area politician to actually RIDE the Rapid, let alone give a public damn about it, is as extinct and rare as the Dodo Bird.

^^Another good move by Griffin. I like the Birdman. Tough big man who played well with LeBron in Miami.

I agree with your last sentence entirely. Over the years, I have debated this point with my non-Cleveland friends who presume that I'm just pumping up LeBron by downgrading MJ and his 6-ring, 2 three-peat heroics. Jordan deserves every plaudit possible as, perhaps, the best NBA player ever, but clearly the comp was down during Mike's big runs because it was sandwiched in between the Lakers/Showtime, Bird-Celtics and Bad-Boys Pistons era of the late 80s and the Kobe/Shaq Lakers and Tim Duncan SAS era of the early 2000s -- remember that it took MJ 7 seasons before his first title in 1991 and Jordan's teams couldn't get by Detroit until the '91 playoffs when Isiah Thomas was injured and the Pistons were in decline. The Rockets (who won 2 titles during Mike's "retirement" to play baseball), the Ewing Knicks, the Reggie Miller Pacers and Stockton/Malone Jazz were nice teams, but not on the level of those aforementioned in the 80s and 2000s. And I believe the gauntlet LeBron has had to face to earn his rings was tougher than what the Bulls faced during their incredible 90s run; but that's just me. Btw, in that 90s era group, I specifically didn't include in that group that Rick Adelman coached Portland team that the Bulls whipped in the finals as it was peopled by a bunch of underachieving individualists, save Clyde Drexler who, happily, escaped to Houston and his old UH mate Hakeem Olajuwon and won the 2 titles -- I also feel Adelman didn't do his best coaching work either given the natural talent on that team... I'll bet if, somehow, we could cross eras, a solid LeBron team would make short work of those Trail Blazers as well.

Dude, you stole my thunder. 2 Saturdays ago after the Cavs Parade, I was over in OC and noticed that HHB still hadn't opened and I wondered: what the hell is going on? I'm still looking forward to it's (eventual) opening, but somebody with the City obviously is dragging his/her feet --- to the tune of umpteen lost $$$$ while the owners wait.

How is the new PS with the Superior Ave buses going through the middle? Do they disturb what, otherwise, is a great re-do of the Square?

^Just Google/street viewed these addresses. This is good news; looks like a solid area (just from photos)... I just thought this was the Edgewater neighborhood, not Cudell (but obviously Cudell Improvement, Inc. knows where it's neighborhood is).

Your last line is my point... Yes, it happened in the olden days, but now it's almost the norm. It's almost strange, now, for a Kevin Durant or LeBron, the first time, to opt to stay, when the prospect of putting together the Super Team is ubiquitous these days...

Part of this is due to the stability of teams and dynasties of the 80s and 90s eras. With the exception of Philly's 1 title in 1983, all of those teams listed during 1980-2005 won more than one title, with LA, Boston and Chicago, especially Chicago, having dynasties -- LA had both Showtime in the 80s and Kobe/Shaq during the 2000s. But realize that, until O'Neal left Orlando to join Kobe, superstars rarely left teams during that era and, when they did, it was only Michael Jordan: leaving the Bulls dynasty at the end of his career futilely trying to recapture his glory days with the sorry Wizards. Now with the salary cap and free agency going berserk, superstars are moving every off season -- as we painfully know here in Cleveland in 2010, but as we happily know in 2014, when a certain local megastar boomeranged. The 1st "Super-friends" team was the Boston "Big 3" in 2007-08, where 3 superstars were put together on a team that won it all its 1st season... Hence we now have a bizarre form a parity has been created... As for Durant to Golden State, I know everybody here is upset and feels the Cavs are major underdogs to repeat. I'm not one of them. GSW was (and I emphasize past tense for a reason) a unique and special phenomena because they drafted a couple guys: Steph and Klay, who developed over the course of years from promising draftees to superstar shooters. Then they peopled the team with a number of misfits: like Draymond Green, who was viewed at the draft as a "tweener" who just didn't have the size of a 4 or the speed of a 3 to be successful: Dude was earning $700K until last year's title. Harrison Barnes was an underachiever since UNC, allegedly. Andre Iguodala was an athletic hard worker who couldn't shoot; Shaun Livingston, the injury comeback success story, and NBA vagabond Mo Speights, a poor defending big who can fill it up from outside, both did time here during the dark days in between LeBrons... and etc., etc... But Steve Kerr, building on Mark Jackson's model, developed this wacko, selfless, passing, 3-point shooting gunslinger team from the 2-developed star guards and a bunch of role players who neatly fit in... ... Now the Warriors have brought in a future HOFer in Durant who is a ball-dominant guy and, obviously, a great shooter, but who also can hurt his teams when he goes cold and over-handles the ball. KD is not a misfit who couldn't fit in; he's always been the center of attention. He is also not a prototype Golden State, pass-first, run-and-gunner... Now also comes slow-moving, spot-up shooter in David West who is old now but demands attention. On top of that, despite their gaudy 73-win regular season, we have the Cavs which flipped the script on them; came back from the brink and beat down their so-called "Lineup of Death" with a harassing defense that mostly stayed Big with quick, spot-on guard play that totally flummoxed the Splash Brothers. The fact that GSW couldn't close the deal on the title after 73-wins, the unanimous MVP while kicking the Cavs' asses all over the floor from Game 4 in last year's finals through the regular season up until Game 3 in this year's finals, has thrown the Warriors into doubt, scratching their collective heads searching for answers, with Steve Kerr returning to the drawing board trying to make all the pieces work. Meanwhile LeBron, in that spectacular, unprecedented finals comeback 3-weeks ago which, by the way, erased 52 years of Cleveland sports title misery, just moved into legendary status, while his Tonto (aka Kyrie Irving) stole the spotlight from MVP Curry while thoroughly kicking his a$$ in the process. Point being that GSW just had it's ego popped while suddenly adopting title-chasing KD, a top 5 player who likely demands teams play to his system rather than subordinating to theirs... ... good luck with that against our brimming-with-confidence Cavs.

RTA facing "catastrophic" revenue loss in 2017 By Ginger Christ, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on July 07, 2016 at 2:00 PM, updated July 07, 2016 at 2:51 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The already financially-strapped Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority stands to lose as much as $18 million annually in sales tax revenue starting in July 2017. The loss comes as an expected change in state sales and use tax revenue – RTA's primary funding source – goes into effect. At that time, the state of Ohio will lose the sales and use tax revenue it is collecting from Medicaid managed care organizations. Mike Daugherty, manager of budgets for RTA, characterized the change as a "significant, catastrophic loss of revenue on an annual basis for the authority." "It would be a catastrophic loss for every county and every transit agency in the state," Daughtery said Tuesday during an RTA board meeting. Ohio projects that it will lose $558 million in state fiscal year 2018, which starts in July 2017, and $578 million in fiscal year 2019. The counties will see a $195 million loss in revenue in fiscal year 2018 and $202 million in fiscal year 2019. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/07/rta_facing_catastrophic_revenu.html#incart_2box

^Oh OK, thanks.

The Rebol bar/restaurant's opening was pushed back to yesterday. Has anyone been there? Reviews? Patronage? etc...

Absolutely. As Staphanger laid out some time ago, the OC was originally an adjunct add-on to the necessary Inner Belt bridge rebuild-- a so-called Inner Belt "connector," and it was largely ignored until Toby Cosgrove the CCF honchos got into the ear (and pockets) of John Kasich and the Republicans. This road was, is and will always be about the egress/ingress ease of Cleveland Clinic docs and executives.

I understand your points, but I'd rather not resurrect Albert S. Porter from the grave by talking up the so-called, manufactured "demand" for his baby, I-290 aka the Clark Freeway. People in the Heights area, esp the lower (Shaker) Heights/U. Heights/Beachwood area have 3 choices to downtown: head in over city streets like Buckeye, Woodland (where I'm sure, many will shortcut on the OC once it's built) or through UC via MLK; loop around the the outerbelt freeways system (I-271, 480 and 77), or, of course, the Rapid... There is absolutely NO NEED to ram a wide, ugly, concrete neighborhood-splitting/destroying giant moat through the beautiful Shaker Square and Heights areas... This area has done well, and continues to do well, with the options we already have.

Big gaffe... The writer should have said the steep population losses of a decade ago have significantly declined per recent projections and that downtown and some trendy neighborhoods have had population growth (but are sadly offset the heavy losses of the more blue collar neighborhoods).

Where is the pressure on state Republicans like John Kasich and his fellow GOP transit-haters, that have reduced transit aid for operating expenses to peanuts; likely the lowest for any industrialized states? Kasich, whose only interest in Cleveland was manifested in his helping ram through the Opportunity Corridor highway along the only rail rapid transit ROWs in the state, gets a free pass in Cleveland as 'Mr. Reasonable' for some reason.

Also, most gentrification is not happening off I-90, it's in urban neighborhoods like Ohio City, Tremont, Shaker Sq and UC. That I-90 is adjacent to Tremont and near Ohio City is merely incidental. Many of the gentrifiers there are walkers, bikers and transit users.

I disagree with most of your points. I do agree that, until a few years ago under UCI and the Marons, UC suffered from poor urban planning-- it wasn't a direct fault of the highways, though this regions thurst for more and more urban highways like OC is symptomatic of the problem. But of course, UC is not the only greater Cleveland district that has suffered under this suburbanized thinking. U Circle has not suffered for a lack of highway access; that's just a widely perpetuated myth. The fact UC is now thriving without the OC pokes holes in that premise. In fact, the urbanizing effect of high quality mass transit has led in part to UC's success with both the Red Line and HL directly serving the area... Now that planners, like Chris Ronayne, Ari Maron and others have had the good sense to capitalize on this advantage and develop high-density and multi-use housing to accommodate it.

That's got to be the fastest shovels-to-opening of a substantial, free standing restaurant I've ever seen.