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^I absolutely think a new station with the relocated justice center on top and adjacent multi-unit residences is a great idea... A surface, WFL loop connection?... not so much.

You're right, there are many signs of life in Tower City, retal-wise. I will say that some of the retail there, however, is of low quality, like that God-awful dollar store which needs to be gone yesterday... I defintely agree with you that the Waterfront Line should be given a chance. RTA just extended it's hours back to 12 Midnight last fall and now they want to cut it back to 7p when adjacent Flats East Bank and the Lakefront developments are still not even completed and just rising from the ground, respectively? Makes no sense.

Instead of reporting on the East Side rail outage, the PD instead has a story by reporter Mark Naymik advocating that Waterfront Line service to be "the first to go" in terms of service cuts for our financially starved RTA transit systems. In that piece, Naymik talks about the Flats East Bank development that has sprouted, and still is sprouting, next to a Waterfront Line station... More development at North Coast harbor will also be accessible to the WFL station there. Why hasn't someone suggested that these 2 developments, particularly FEB, invest in the WFL simily to out the Clinic and UH invested in the Health Line (bus), and CSU has invested in the #55 BRT Lite (bus)? The WFL is a rail rapid transit line which should be the premire transit service (sadly, it's not viewed as such locally), and it DIRECTLY serves FEB... In return, Fairmount/Wolstein could promote the WFL in its literature as a preferred method to accessing their red-hot property (all that abundant, cheap parking nearby, surely won't be around much longer anyway). And even Naymik admits, in his convulted way, that Millenals themselves desire to use public transit more than past generations... If this subgroup is so interested in transit, esp rail transit, query: why does it catch so much hell here in Cleveland, including from naysayers like Naymik? And please, let's not get into how people may flock to the WFL if it were free. The service is fast enough, quality enough and direct (to the FEB) enough so that people should be willing to fork over a few dollars for it... Even though RTA probably wouldn't want rebrand the WFL ast the FEB Line, it sure as heck could note that the WFL goes "Via the FEB."

That other stuff isn't sexy enough for the PD. And the PD today is run by GOP patrons. They couldn't care less about the little people that depend on RTA's buses and trains before and after the circus leaves town. Talk about how poorly tranist in this City is run and reported on, consider: - on Thursday, the PD reported that services on the entire East Side Rapid system was out due to a "fire" in the "overhead power system." (<-- that's it, no more detail than this). The PD, however, reports that all service will be restored by the Friday morning rush. - at halftime during the Cavs late game I was listening to while driving into town late last night, WTAM reported (once) the same story as the PD; again asuring service will be restored Friday morning (today). Not so, as we all know by now... after that one WTAM news report, WTAM goes silent on RTA instead reporting on the Bay Village fire tragedy (a very sad and important story, no question) and the presidential primary, focusing on the Republicans. ... of course. - Friday morning, a family member calls me while I'm in bed upset because she's at a Green Line station stop where she tells me, there's no service and a sign inside the shelter about buses (she doesn't take the rapid much so she's not hip to Joe C's cool new R-bus system service; but she had a morning appointment downtown near TC and decided to take the Rapid). I throw on my clothes, still groggy from the late night arrival, and drive her into downtown and loads of traffic. At the Rapid stops, esp at Shaker Square, riders seem totally confused, and wandering around. Just as we were passing through the Square to North Moreland, we see an RTA cop car hustling toward the Shaker Sq stop, apparently to "alert" riders. - Once back home, I go to the RTA website. Initially, it stated that services was out Thursday and will be restored by Friday a.m. Rush. Then, by the time I'm up around Noon, this had been revised to state that East Side Rail service would be: out "until further notice" but then, the alert states that service will be out "through Sunday." -- the PD: No story or update at all on the Rail outage. Instead, the aforementioned goofy article by Mark Naymik advacting that, since RTA must make cuts, the Waterfront Line should be the first to go (why is that? Why should a RAIL LINE serving the hotest, up-and-coming part of town DIRECTLY be the first to go when, even by the articles estimate, RTA will save a whoping $300K/year by cutting off service after 7p after they'd just extended it from 10:30p to Midnight!? Esp when RTA could have saved $300K (or more) by, say, NOT making expensive metal temporary R-rail replacement bus signs when most cities, including RTA in saner days, merely stapled paper temp signs to telephone poles when rail services is out. It's as if RTA EXPECTS rail to be out ... frequently (which it sadly is). -- and, of course, Naymik quotes the same, tired-old inflated $70M price tag for the WFL, when in fact, rail construction itself was somewhere in the $50M range -- much of the bogus, quoted "rail" expense, was discretionary road rebuilding by the City for what they saw as promoting better traffic flow around the WFL. So in other words, the Plain Dealer cares more about jumping up and down to KILL off the Waterfront Line, a high-capacity RAIL system as the Flats East Bank development (only Phase II), when Phase III is planned, and even Phase II is still brand new, and not even fully online... funny, I didn't see any Naymik articles (or any articles from the PD) questioning in anyway, the $330M Opportunity Corridor highway being shoved down the taxpayers' throats... Oh yeah, the PD's former chief Terry Eggar (sp) was chair of the OC, committee, and we'll never know how deep into somebody's pocket he was in using his newspaper (the only game in town) as an OC platform... And at the same time, the PD has zero updates about a REAL problem for rail transit riders: that the entire East Side Rapid system is totally out-of service, with scores of confused and angry riders, until "further notice" --> see God knows when... Such is the state of mass transit operations (actually, the lack thereof) and its coverage and interest by the local media. It's why that, while I'm thrilled about all the development and promise in Cleveland and many of it's neighborhoods, I'm not "All In" since to many in this community seem content to just piss away such a valuable service as the Rapid -- which many other cities (including Cincy and Columbus IN Ohio) would crap on themselves to have -- with little questioning or complaint by pols and the media -- while, oh yeah, crack reporters like Mark Naymik are All In for reducing rail servcie! ... Yikes! :drunk:

That other stuff isn't sexy enough for the PD. And the PD today is run by GOP patrons. They couldn't care less about the little people that depend on RTA's buses and trains before and after the circus leaves town. That really sucks for the riding public. RTA has its cloak 'n dagger ways and the only major newspaper in NEO, our so-called "watchdog" doesn't really give a sh-t.

^I kinda like it: plain but hip and cool at the same time... Not totally unlike the feel of the B-Spot at Eton, though a little more open/less cramped. It is a barbecue joint and not Lola, after all.

That other stuff isn't sexy enough for the PD.

Greater Cleveland RTA chief expects more customers, closed roads and bridges, during Republican National Convention By Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on March 09, 2016 at 5:06 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio — The RTA is preparing for an influx of customers resulting from road closures and other temporary changes during the Republican National Convention, the public transit agency's chief said this week. Greater Cleveland RTA Executive Director Joe Calabrese said his agency is preparing for the closure of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge that connects Ohio City to downtown Cleveland, as well as the Lakefront Municipal Parking Lot and other parking areas throughout downtown. The convention, scheduled for the week of July 18, is expected to bring 50,000 people to the area and result in heightened security restrictions. Calabrese said the bridge will be closed, as will access to the surrounding area, because roads surrounding Quicken Loans Arena, the main convention hall, also likely will be closed while the convention is in session. The closures likely will begin on the Friday before the four-day convention, he said. The U.S. Secret Service, which is working with Cleveland police on setting the RNC-related security restrictions, has not publicly discussed its plans, which likely will not be announced until June at the earliest. http://www.cleveland.com/rnc-2016/index.ssf/2016/03/greater_cleveland_rta_chief.html

The run up has been extremely fast. Even though this project is a ground-up new build, the E. 9th Breuer Building/Ameritrust/Heinen's/County Admin project was the fastest (from announcement-to-opening) I've ever seen. When the Geis brothers announced the project with a projected opening in a little over a year, I didn't believe it, especially given the scale and complexity of the project, ... but they did it and, of course, its quality and impact on downtown is spectacular. The Cleveland Trust-to-Heinen's converstion took a bit longer, but was still pretty quick in its own right... I'm very excited for One University Circle. It ought to be a game-changer.

Cleveland's Kimpton Schofield Hotel welcomes first guests, including four-legged ones (photos) By Susan Glaser, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on March 08, 2016 at 3:40 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio – Downtown Cleveland's newest, hippest hotel opened its doors Tuesday, with yoga mats in every room, bicycles and guitars for guest use, and complimentary treats for the dog. The Kimpton Schofield Hotel welcomed its first guests about 11 a.m., following a five-year, $50-million renovation project at the high-profile corner of East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue. The first to check in: Bratenahl residents Tom Roulston and Doreen Stark, longtime Kimpton customers who brought their yellow lab, Roxy, for a one-night staycation in downtown Cleveland. Roulston figures he's stayed at between 20 and 25 Kimpton hotels over the years, in cities including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh – and now Cleveland. http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/03/clevelands_kimpton_schofield_h.html#incart_river_home

... and directly to Little Italy and Univ. Circle, too.

Absolutely. They're well aware. But sometimes I think they feel like they're merely overseeing a once great city and transit system in hospice care. But in RTA's defense, if there were developers waiting in the wings for redeveloping existing station areas, let alone the Noble/E152nd area, as well as Euclid Square Mall, projects like the Red Line extension would be easier sell. Then again, I think Calabrese could organize and lead a transit-oriented development task force to undertake station-area and corridor-specific redevelopment master-planning. RTA could pledge its superior bonding capabilities (they offer a lower interest rate than the development-minded port authority does!) plus property acquisition and clean-up of environmentally troubled real estate near transit stops. In so doing, RTA could achieve their mission of improving access to jobs and services. If extending transit services to reach jobs is in their mission, then surely bringing jobs to existing transit routes should be, too. I feel like the key to expanding TOD in Cleveland is to start from the popular areas and work our way out. How are we going to renovate Euclid Square mall when the HUB of the system at Tower City is lacking retail and amenities? Let's start there, followed by 25th/Lorain, W65th and West Blvd. Get people interested, and maybe then they will put pressure on Joe, ODOT and our other leadership to make sure the existing rails keep running, and hopefully expand in the future. You make a valid point. The thing with Cleveland's quirky growth, esp in terms of TOD, is that it's historically unpredictable. I would prefer a more systematic planning approach that you suggest, but that's not how things happen here, and because of this, I think the best way to mentally wrap our heads around growth here is to take it when and where it occurs, and run with it. For example, even though relocating the Red Line's Euclid-E. 120 station just .3 miles south to Mayfield-Little Italy had been talked about for 3 decades or more, the sudden relocation, Uptown and now, probably, Intesa/Centric (and probably others) just dropped out of the sky (really, it's traceable to Chris Ronayne grabbing control of UCI and turning that unwieldy, politically-dysfunctional beast into a productive entity of change and growth). Ditto with FEB-- the old FEB along with owner, old-man (Bert) Wolstein, died in the early 2000s. Then in 2005, son Scott proposed the new FEB but it too became (by some) pretty much left for dead after the 2008 crash coupled with the big Old River Road property fight. But FEB was revived (with dogged work and an intricate financing package) and suddenly, the new FEB (now headed into Phase III) materialized as one of the hot TOD's in the area... ... All of this has been with, as you note, a Tower City/CBD TOD that still sucks retail-wise (but I don't agree that TC is "lacking in amenities" as you say, because it has tons as well as the immediate area surrounding TC); but promises to get better with the nearby planned developments like Weston, nuCLEus, 515 and others. Point being, Cleveland's shown that steady, piecemeal, systematic planning usually only results in one thing ... dusty blueprints... We don't know what could develop along the Red Line corridor or at Euclid Square. It's looking like light industrial or even office or medical development (along with some retail and mulit-unit housing), might be the better option, esp at Euclid Square. There's no law that says Euclid Square has to be reborn as a retail development especially since retail has largely failed there anyway.

This is what they are doing (it's a job description for a position that has since been filled)... Real Estate Manager Job Description The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) located in Cleveland, Ohio, is searching for a detail oriented Property Manager to join its Engineering team. RTA currently has 6 properties that the team is actively marketing through our broker, 19 tenants and the team currently process 3-5 permits for use of the property. The Property Manager will assist in obtaining permits for shelters from both public and private entities - at least 1 a month. RTA does not have any large scale projects that will require any acquisitions of property. However NOACA is undertaking a TOD planning process this year and will seek to invite one or two pilot TOD projects at locations to be determined. OK, your post above indicated Calabrese could do these things, not that RTA is actually doing them... If they are, great; more power to them. ... but let's start seeing some results, i.e., at least getting some stakeholder buy-in/support for the Red Line proposal.

Your 3rd paragraph is what Calabrese/RTA should be doing. Sitting back and waiting for companies to come forward with TOD proposals in order to make rail transit extensions, like the Red Line's Euclid proposal, viable, is a recipe for failure.

GCRTA is lobbying. Joe just doesn't trust his riders and allies enough to encourage them to lobby, too. Now this... This game of cat and mouse is getting more than absurd. I mean, how many excuses are we going to make for Joe C and his band of transit-men? Q- Re the Red Line extension, $914M was tossed out as sum needed to extend the current rail line past Stokes-Windermere to Euclid Sq. Mall... That's is a lot of money, but relatively cheap these days for a 6-mile, heavy-rail transit extension (IIRC a BRT extension is btw 1/3 to 1/2 this expense). Shouldn't RTA move forward with the Red Line extension as their LPA? A- No extension will happen. RTA has too much red ink and too many expenses ahead, esp replacing Blue/Green rail cars and not enough money to do so. Q- So what's the current LPA? A-It probably should be a combo of Red Line to, say, Coit Rd, and then BRT from there. Q- So is that the LPA for the Euclid extension? Rail? BRT? Nothing? A- No, RTA now is preferring to have no LPA. Keeping its options open (maybe?) Q- But in terms of holding rail-extension costs down, didn't RTA's planners state that the Red Line extension could be covered with currently unused/underused Red Line cars? A- Yes they did, but it full expansion is still too expensive to even consider. B – Wasn’t it determined, from multiple sources, that the Blue/Green cars will wear out by 2020 and with no source of money to replace them, the Blue and Green lines could close? A- Joe C. (emphatically) denies this. Q- But is RTA planning transit expansion to meet future needs, esp given the extremely low percentage of Greater Cleveland workers who use transit to get to work? A- RTA isn’t planning any rail extension because they're too expensive and the system is broke. Q- Well, given the Red Line extension’s (relatively reasonable) expense, and looking at other cities around the country building and planning rail transit expansion, why aren't the stakeholders (corporations along the route that would benefit from the expansion) involved in, say, P3 (public-private partnership) discussions? A- That’s reasonable. Q - You mean, the stakeholders weren't even at the Red Line extension planning meeting? A- They were at the last planning meeting, but nobody seriously lobbied them. Q- Really? Why the heck not? A- (direct quote) "GCRTA doesn’t know how it to ask for help anymore. Joe & friends used to know. I don't know what changed." Geezomighty, when will it stop!? Cat 'n mouse, big time...

^Then maybe transit leaders in Ohio, esp from Cleveland, the largest and only multi-modal system, just aren't lobbying Columbus effectively enough.

Must be nice to live in a city where transit leaders actually decide to build rail, and move forward with it, as opposed to here, where it's, let's see, even though rail is the OBVIOUS choice, 'let's save money and go with BRT.'

^^^^Good to see SEPTA pushing ahead with the Norristown HSL extension to KOP and Valley Forge. I hadn't heard anything about it for a long time and presumed it dead. ^^^The Johnston-Altoona-Pittsburgh commuter line makes sense. Amtrak's paltry 1-round-trip-per-day Philadelphia-to-Pittsburgh "Pennsylvanian" is extremely scenic and well patronized. And both times I've taken it, it was right on time despite the fact the route is extremely busy with freight runs. ^^Insult-to-injury... I guess we should be proud that an Ohio rail car division could be the builder of state-of-the-art DMU cars for the Pittsburgh commuter route... Too bad we're too dumb and backwards here in Ohio to develop any similar kind of regional or commuter passenger rail.

The Detroit facing units are certainly more desirable looking than those fronting Wheat Ct, the "back" of this group.

^OK, thanks for the clarification. I never ride the bus only, but know its base fare is slightly cheaper than the Rapid.

"It's like everything else in Cleveland," City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents the neighborhood, said of consternation about the changes. "The sky is falling, and then you realize what's falling are gumdrops and jellybeans. The end isn't near. The beginning is near." Cimperman believes the changes are necessary to ensure that the market stays relevant and lasts another century.

I'm 99% sure it does. Yes. An all-day Rapid pass covers you system-wide and is $5.00. The all-day bus pass is slightly cheaper ($4.50?), but would only cover buses, not the Rapid.

A very different story... If you're going to connect, say, a future rail line replacing the HL up Euclid connecting to the abandoned streetcar through Cedar Glen and route up Cedar Hill alongside the roadway, you've got to build a subway. No way that a surface route would be effective navigating even today's traffic -- let alone, the future traffic with projects coming online like One Univ Circle and the other high-density housing planned.

^Wrong! There is a significant, mostly black work-class section in the southwestern corner of Shaker Hts. Shaker has historically promoted diversity and, in the late 1960s, it (and Chicago's Oak Park) were the first American cities to actually implement voluntary busing-- that is, Shaker leaders and wealthy Shaker residence, didn't like the fact that some schools were too white and some, too black, so they undertook busing throughout all the Shaker schools to achieve a balance... And did I mention that Shaker schools have always been seen as among the area's best. Yes, they've dropped a little in recent years, but are still near the top in Greater Cleveland, esp when you consider college placement, SAT scores and numbers of National Merit Scholars.

I don't in any way consider Crocker Park successful or a model Greater Cleveland should follow. Yes, it's better designed than the typical cul de sac + strip shopping. But CP was carved out of cornfields at the edge of metro area and is auto dependent/transit unfriendly. It's about the furthest thing from TOD one could imagine... I get KJP's proposal, however, to use CP-type housing at the Warrensville-Shaker Rapid station. It makes sense because there is plenty of vacant land around the Rapid station from where the Van Sweringens had planned a depressed super highway (out to their planned Shaker Country Estates) 90 years ago. KJP's plan is both TOD and and within the suburban context of a wealthy neighborhood not far from a substantial residential university with it's on small retail/services district. In the recent past we've gotten it bass-ackwards here in Greater Cleveland building strip and/or big box development along the RAIL Rapid Transit like Chagrin-Lee-Avalon and the W. 117 big boxes and high-density developments like CP away from population centers and transit. Recent developments like Uptown, Van Aken and Intesa/Centric, though, give me hope that the tide it turning. I liked KJP's plan a lot. Wealthy people aren't going to stop existing, nor are they going to stop wanting lavish abodes. Let's entice those abodes along the rails, and not out in West Geauga or Hudson. I think we all agree that Crocker Park is fine except for its location. So I wouldn't hold its location against it as a model for higher-end development in a better location. :P Wealthy people also aren't going to stop wanting some separation between themselves and those people who have radically different values. Indeed, people with options prefer that especially where they live. The location's fine. I don't know what you mean by "values." In the so-called Inner Ring suburbs like Shaker and Cleveland Heights, a lot of wealthy families opt to move there to be closer to more urban experiences and people who are different from themselves and their children. The hallmark of Shaker Heights, especially, is to provide people/families from the middle-income to the wealthy, a community that provides the best of all worlds... There will always be those folks who believe their ideal is to separate themselves from those who are different by moving way out to the homogeneous ex-urbs often in cookie-cutter McMansions... It's a free country. But you can't paint all wealthy people, just like you can't paint all of anybody, with such a broad brush. ... and btw, I can't kick about the quality of the Crocker Park development. It's just such a tragedy, and too typical of greater Cleveland, and indeed, Ohio, that such a development was designed without one thought given to transit... In fact, truth be told, there was thought given to transit: that is, Stark and his people wanted to build far away from transit whereby transit, and the people who rely on it, would be irrelevant.