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Maybe it's me, but kinda makes my skin crawl in the main RTA board member quoted about these cuts/fare increases is the Mayor of sprawl-burb Westlake.

Fare increases and service cuts coming to RTA in August By Ginger Christ, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 07, 2016 at 1:11 PM, updated June 07, 2016 at 1:50 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority will raise rates on fares and reduce service by 3 percent, beginning in August. During a special meeting Tuesday, the RTA board voted to increase rates on all fares, a move it expects will generate an additional $3 million in revenue for the cash-strapped authority. RTA is facing a $7 million budget shortfall and expects to shore up at least $6 million of that deficit through the fare increases and through service cuts it estimates will save $3 million. The fare increases are the first by the authority in seven years. "This decision is not easy," Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough said. "We recognize that we can't meet the needs of everybody." http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/06/fare_increases_and_service_cut.html#incart_2box

^We'd probably be right where we are; maybe slightly better. Wiggins is obviously a great athlete with an amazingly high ceiling, but the kid's still green. I do believe, though, it these Finals end the way they seem to be heading: with the Cavs losing in anywhere from 5-to-7 games, I think Love very well maybe dealt. We still won't have a ring and Love still is struggling to fit in... I know Chris Bosh had similar issues in Miami, but ultimately he meshed with LeBron and Wade and, let's face it, Bosh is simply a better athlete and more reliable shooter than Love. Bosh actually developed further with Miami and got stronger; he can now shoot 3s reliably and play the 5. Love is either stagnant or regressing. He's still very attractive to a lot of teams, although his max deal may make him hard to move. I wonder if Boston still wants him?

^You're right, it would be a pipe dream... Cousins has been a head case, but as we've seen with JR and a number of other headcases over the years, a winning environment can bring out the best in guys... the upside is that DeMarcus is one of the most athletically gifted and talented centers in the game today... Put Cousins on this team and the Warriors would be toast.

I'm huge believer in a one Terrance Francona. Though he isn't always the best Xs & Os guy, he is a master psychologist who has a knack for getting the best out of players, especially pitchers, over the course of a season (Exhibit A: Ubaldo Jimenez). And if a guy truly can't cut it, Tito quietly 'disappears' them... It's why his teams tend to get stronger during the course of the season -- every season he's been here has followed this trend. And this year, the Indians have actually started strong through early June -- the 1st time since 2007; you know, the season that we were up 3-1 in the ALCS and should have made the World Series ... accept for who? ... Oh yeah, Tito. We've got a nice mix of hitters this year, but the key seems to be that Napoli is anchoring the middle of the lineup along with pop Lindor is delivering... I know the Tribe has been doing this without Brantley, but I wouldn't hurry him back until he's absolutely ready... We hurried him back earlier in the season and he actually hurt us because he still wasn't right... The offense is clicking right now so, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

^ Would you do DeMarcus Cousins for Love? (assuming Griffin could make the contracts work)... this is strictly hypothetical as the Kings are close to dealing Cousins to the Lakers for their No. 2 + Julius Randle.

What rail would I extend? - return to dual hub, but less extravagant. I'd convert the HL to LRT, eliminate at least half the HL stations and use the rest for the LRT (those stations are LRT ready); I'd tunnel at E. 17, dogleg up Huron and use the grade-separated Huron subway to connect with the current Rapid at Tower City - extend LRT along the West 25th corridor to Parma - extend the Red Line to Euclid Square (as planned) - and extend the Red Line and/or commuter rail along the NS -- with the Red Line ending somewhere in West Lake but with diesel commuter rail extending to Lorain or Sandusky. -- I would extend rapid rail (LRT or HRT) SE from E. 55th along the NS to Bedford... -- I would also extend the converted HL LRT through TC west, using the Detroit-Superior Bridge subway using the extant station at W. 25, rising along Detroit Ave. through Gordon Sq, angling NW along Lake Ave to Edgewater Park...

^Yes, it would be very nice if Mayor Jackson would follow Mayor Slay's lead in advocating rail expansion... Frank's total silence about rail expansion in his long tenure as mayor has been very disheartening especially since his home district is largely low/mod income individuals many of whom are transit dependent. Instead our Mayor jumped on-board the Opportunity Corridor bandwagon which will favor people with cars who live in the West Side suburbs... Puzzling indeed. I don't think there's a city in the United States that is so totally indifferent (and often opposed) to expanding a substantial rail system that it already has. It's part of the City's backwardness that still holds it back.

^Yes, St. Louis' downtown subway distributor is a significant advantage over the Cleveland Rapid... I've never ridden it, but it does appear that much of it is geared toward Park 'n Ride like the Rapid given it's long lines deep into the burbs.

Neither is St Louis and its rail lines attract more riders than Cleveland. This isn't a population issue; the culprit in Cleveland is sprawl and the WFL's limited and badly planned route. Ummmm.......St. Louis itself is only 10% of the population of its metro area, Cleveland is 19%. Sounds like it's even more sprawled there. Ummmm....St Louis has better planned light-rail system so, even with its sprawl, it's serving more riders than Cleveland's. Cleveland's rail lines were badly planned, for the most part, since the get go. The Green/Blue lines were designed for Shaker Hts. residents 100 years ago, a time when people there went to work downtown. The Red Line, for the most part, runs in out of the way rail beds and on the west side, the 1960s extension from W 117th-Brookpark were designed as commuter stations with large parking lots. This has gone the way of the light-rail lines, people don't work and commute downtown like they used to. The WFL, well, that speaks for itself. The WFL's latest introduction in 2013 has attracted a whopping 387 riders/day. Bad design. Poor fare structure for use between Tower City and Muni Lot; restricting this may bump ridership but the WFL needs to connect or loop directly through the CBD and head to the west side as well. Otherwise, the WFL will continue to be an embarrassment. You're not making sense. How was St. Louis' rail system 'better planned' than Cleveland's? The Shaker Heights rail system was planned and built when the automobile was still new. It was built into farmland. As a result, 100 years later, we have still one of the finer, planned and accessible suburbs in the nation. Shaker Square, meanwhile, is a model TOD for the nation. I don't get your constant negativity. The Red Line was indeed built on the cheap. It was developed along a route that was planned and partially built as an extension of the Shaker lines by the Van Sweringens. Cleveland got a loan in the late 1940s to develop the Red Line. Had it not been partially pre-built and been cheap to build, Cleveland would never have gotten the money... When when the Red Line was conceived and executed, there was only 1 freeway in the region: the roadway we call the Shoreway that only extended, at the time, from Gordon Park on the East to Edgewater Park on the west through the north side of downtown. Are you saying Cleveland should not have accepted the loan and not built the Red Line?.. You're a broken record. St. Louis Metrolink LRT was built after the St. Louis metro region has sprawled and its freeway infrastructure built out. Their LRT in a sense, then, was chasing sprawl whereas Cleveland's was built more to develop land and create TOD... Shaker was farmland when it was built. The West Park and Puritas areas were largely undeveloped at the time, too. Again, how does this make St. Louis better? It is bigger and, yes, Cleveland's Rapid should be expanded, but how is St. Louis better?

^The station is beautiful and apparently well maintained. The shame is that it isn't being used as a train station anymore.

It's like Minnesota has a hex on the Indians... weird.

Of course it would count, in fact there are only three championships that could be won that would technically break our drought. IMO, the Crunch, the Monsters, Stipe Miocic, etc. are all feathers in our city's cap, but they don't end our 52 year "curse." But I'm actually forming a new worst-case possibility for the Indians: They'll win the AL Central and get to the World Series, giving everybody in this town a new hope. Once in the World Series, they will meet the Cubs, and you guessed it, that series will go 7 and we'll have front row seats as another long streak that isn't ours is broken. I mean, that's the only way the Indians success this year can logically play out. Obviously I hope you're wrong (well, not about the Indians in the WS of course)... Don't forget our manager is the ultimate curse buster: Terry Francona broke the Curse of the Bambino -- the BoSox hadn't won the WS after trading Babe Ruth in, what, 1918? On a more mundane level, the acquisition of Mike Napoli has been HUGE. His bat in the middle of the lineup has stabilized our hitting attack by taking pressure off of other guys... And obviously Lindor hitting and speed on the bases has been another major lift to the offense... ... It's all good for the Tribe. Just keep on mowing down AL Central opponents... even maybe the (worst in the MLB) Twins once and a while.

As I said up thread, Lue should get Mozgov into the game; if not starting early in the game if TT continues to get beat up inside... At this point, why not? Mozgov hasn't been the same as last year, I understand. But he was successful early on against GSW in last playoffs before they went small. ... I've always been skeptical about going small to defeat the Warriors. Why play their game rather than forcing them to play ours. Oklahoma City remained big and damn near defeated the Warriors. The only reason why they didn't is because Russell Westbrook and KD (but mainly Westbrook) tried to play Hero Ball, had offensive meltdowns in the crunch in Games 5-7 and started turning the ball over keying GSW fast breaks. OKC is longer and more athletic than the Cavs, but at least Mozgov can be a counterpoint to Bogut who had a field day over TT along with Green.

It's all over but the shouting... I'm totally flummoxed by tonight's performance by the Cavs; totally embarrassing. As Mark Jackson noted in the 3rd quarter, the Cavs looked defeated. Lue might as well use Mozgov early in Game 3, especially the way Tristan is being sliced and diced under the rim. We had early success with Mozzie last year and OKC's best success was with their big, long lineup. At this point, what do we have to lose?

^Beautiful station... damn shame.

the building on E 9 St pier is a two-story restaurant? I thought it was supposed to be 5-story mixed use condos, office, and retail. The two story restaurant (Nuevo) is what is currently being built. They will next build the larger multi-story building with apartments further south near the rock hall where the skate park used to be. It looks like Nuevo is moving very quickly. Are they planning an opening by the RNC?

Neither is St Louis and its rail lines attract more riders than Cleveland. This isn't a population issue; the culprit in Cleveland is sprawl and the WFL's limited and badly planned route. St. Louis' rail lines are also 14 miles longer than Cleveland's in total milage: 46 vs. 32 (un-duplicated) miles. St. Louis' system is also newer: first opened 1993; last major extension: 2006; vs. Cleveland: 1913, last extension major extension: 1968 (the 2.2 mile WFL opened in 1996). It's understandable that a newer system is still attracting growth vs. an older system like Cleveland's, where most of the areas the rail lines are built are either built out or decaying... This despite the fact that both cities are similar Rust Belt towns of similar size and density. Metro St. Louis is a bit bigger even though its central city is slightly smaller in area and population than Cleveland.

Keep RTA's Waterfront Line at full service for the Flats' continued vitality: Adam Fishman (Opinion) By Guest Columnist/cleveland.com on June 04, 2016 at 7:56 AM, updated June 04, 2016 at 7:58 AM Cleveland's Waterfront Line is shown at the West Third Street Station in this 2014 file photo from the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. RTA has proposed cutting the line's evening hours but Adam Fishman writes that would be a mistake given renewed economic activity in the area. Connectivity is one of downtown Cleveland's greatest assets, in large part thanks to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. As Cleveland continues to grow and prosper, this asset will only continue to rise in its level of importance as both an economic tool and as a need for the residents in the neighborhood. This is why maintaining full services to the RTA's Waterfront Line in the face of budget cuts is so important to the Flats and downtown as a whole. While we are aware that RTA is facing ongoing decreases in funding from the state of Ohio, maintaining public transit services to downtown's waterfront neighborhoods is absolutely necessary. Currently, the Waterfront Line exists as the only public transit connection from bustling downtown to the East Bank of the Flats and from the Flats to North Coast Harbor. The Waterfront Line operates every 15 minutes from approximately 6:45 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, and from 9 a.m. to midnight on weekends, connecting residents and visitors to entertainment and dining options. http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/06/keeping_rtas_waterfront_line_a.html#incart_river_home

Really!? ... Then this kennel is even dumber than I thought. Zone definitely needs to explain this.

I think you're right about Midland Steel contaminating this site. I just wonder: a) as with the Opportunity Corridor, do we have to wait for federal highway fund remediation to clean up such a site or are their other remediation funding mechanisms?, or b) couldn't there be a higher employment usage for this site and, at least, some street-level retail away from the contaminated portion that could have been built? Your terminology of the proposed kennel as "mediocre crap" that could have been built in Strongsville is pretty dead-on in my book. Not a lot different from the non-TOD recently built adjacent to the urban Rapid E.116 Rapid station: a small, 1-story Social Security Admin office, a relocated public library branch next to a 2-story Harvey Rice Elementary School (sorry kiddies, I appreciate public ed, but your school building out not be next to a rapid transit station!)... note: on the opposite side of Shaker Blvd are 2 filling stations, one of which was rebuilt within the last decade ... ugh! This kennel is just one more piece of evidence that Cleveland just doesn't get the urban thing or the TOD thing... I wonder if we ever will?

This is one of the higher-density, old walkable neighborhoods in Cleveland that has struggled, but is in transition for the better. So why are they putting in a foolish, 1-story City Kennel (surrounded by asphalt parking) in the middle of this type of neighborhood nearby a heavy-rail transit station? Is RTA's so-called TOD program lip service? Who is councilman from this district? We talk of TOD development around the Opportunity Corridor while we build suburban, office-park development around our train stations... Is this some kind of joke? ... if it is, the laugh's on Cleveland.

Lue went away from his rotations and it was mystifying. Channing Frye only played 7 minutes, took 1 shot and missed it. We finally gained control late in the 3rd with Love and LeBron, then Lue sat Love; the Delly-Iguodala incident jumped off inside 1 minute left in the 3rd, and we completely fell apart. JR Smith has won the love and admiration of Cavs fans for changing his attitude and play since he's come to Cleveland. That love will turn to hatred if JR lays another egg on the most important stage for the 2nd year in a row.

Awesome stuff... Saturday eve, there was a guy who came over to Coastal Taco boasting that he'd seen LeBron & Co. over at Alley Cat. Obviously, he wasn't lyin'... Btw the building is made of wood, not brick (I touched it), which further enhances CT's beach resort motif... Went by yesterday at around 4:30p on a lazy afternoon, and the joint was busy -- not packed like Saturday, but very busy, with lots of folks at the bar, some in the restaurant, and most out on the outdoor plaza -- others were playing games, like ping pong... CT looks like a hit already.

I go back 'n forth, but I think the Cavs can win this, but they must do it in 6 games or less. Game 7 in Oakland would be curtains for the Cavs. Here's why: I think the biggest intangible is LeBron James' fierce focus and desire. He sorely believed we could win it last year, and nearly pulled it off practically by himself, but the Cavalry just wore down: Delly was hospitalized at CC for dehydration. The rest of the "bench" consisted of a tanked Mike Miller, Shawn Marion who Blatt had given up on, and limited specialist James Jones. That 32-point Warriors blowout at the Q on MLK day was an outlier; we were mess then and it cost David Blatt his job. We just have to, as much as we can, wear them down by pounding the paint. Festus Ezeli and Andrew Bogut are good, but are not Andre Drummond in the middle. And when GSW goes to their small "Lineup of Death" LeBron and Kyrie should have a field day in the paint... But we MUST CONTROL TEMPO. To do so, we have to limit turnovers (the aspect that killed OKC), we must snag defensive rebounds and get a fair share of Tristan Thompson-like offensive boards). And if GSW starts a late run, Lue should follow Billy Donovan's blueprint of Hack-a-Ezeli/Bogut/and even Iguodala to control tempo... We also must hide Love, defensively. He's going to need help in the paint against Green. LeBron and Tristan are going to have to float but our guys must defend the pick 'n roll, because Draymond is a good passer, too. ... and in looking at the Christmas Day game where we only lost by 5 or 6, we MUST hit our shots; this is especially true of Love .... If we do these things, I believe we can win in 6.