clvlndr

The Pacers' game was a nice and very needed win but, truth be told, if that George 3-point shot had not been nullified, I feel we'd have probably lost the game despite a very spirited late defensive surge. That was a gigantic referee correction... Thompson was obviously the man at both ends, and Delly drained the go-ahead 3 on LeBron's dish... It seems Love had a crisis of confidence late. Not only was he passing up 3s with his man 5-10 feet away from him, he twice in a row fumbled the ball; once leading to a turnover. Lue pulled him late. I just don't know about Kevin sometimes. Just when you think that he's pulling it together... The team needed this extra-day's break. We have the talent to win it all, if we can keep our heads together and play hard... Just over a week ago, we destroyed an OKC team that, this past Saturday, had the Warriors by the neck until they blew the game in the closing seconds. This should give us at least a little confidence.

Stephen A. Smith is reporting that he's been told that Kyrie wants out of Cleveland, and has been unhappy hear since last year.

Curry's ridiculous and so was his shot that won the OKC game. It's hard to see the Cavs even winning one game vs. the Warriors at this point. But this is the regular season. Anything is possible in the playoffs. A week ago, the Cavs went into OKC and blew out the elite Thunder; the same Thunder team that had GSW on the ropes Saturday night - and should have won had they not stupidly passed on calling time out near the end of regulation when OKC had both the ball and a 2-point lead. The OKC game shows me that the sky is the limit talent-wise on how far the Cavs can go; but the biggest problem here is between the ears. At the moment, this team's a mess having lost 3 of 4 since OKC. LeBron is pissed because he feels put upon in that he has to do EVERYTHING in order for the Cavs to win: Exhibit A: yesterday's debacle vs. the Wiz (Frye - 0 pts, Thompson 2-pts, Love 12), where LeBron departed the game then the locker room midway in the 4th quarter... I wonder if there's some simmering anger of LeBron's toward Kyrie. Last year, in true LeBronian style, LeBron made a veiled comment hinting the Kyrie didn't man-up and play through pain in Game 6 against the Bulls... Then last Saturday, in speaking about Kyle Lowry's amazing performance, LeBron noted: "That's what All-Stars do." Ouch! ... anyone who doesn't see this as anything but a direct shot at No. 2 is living in La-La land.

Well, you certainly come with a good attitude toward transit which too many don't have in Cleveland. If you ignore the "it's too slow" and "the Rapid doesn't go anywhere" crowd, you will realize Cleveland's rail network can be quite useful to getting you a lot of important places, esp Cleveland's hot spots... but you already know that. ... and yes, has TPH2 notes, the more our leaders and developers understand this as well as our younger generation's desire, indeed demand, for more urban experiences and quality mass transit (as the Cleveland Magazine article noted), there will be more of a concerted effort to develop TOD like Uptown, Centric and FEB.

^It appears to be moot, now, as the most recent reports has Johnson signing with Miami.

If that's what it takes to get some Buckeye fans to support light rail in Columbus, I'm all for it! Yeah, it would be kinda silly if the U-M rivalry is what motivates the entire city of Columbus to get moving where it should have been so motivated decades ago but, as you said, whatever it takes . ... Ann Arbor is so much different than Columbus: it's a small, though dense, college town (with a highly walkable core) at the edge of the Detroit metropolitan area as opposed Columbus, which is a substantial metropolitan area of over 1.5M. The largest uses for Ann Arbor's planned system is to a) move students and faculty between UM's Central and North campuses and b) moving large numbers of visitors from A2's circumferential freeway, as well as students from the 2 aforementioned campuses, to the Big House in the Athletic campus to the south on football Saturdays.

Joe Johnson could work here but he, like Kyrie and LeBron, will have to give up the rock more and be willing to run and play within the team concept Lue is promoting.

And people wonder why I distrust Joe Calabrese when it comes to rail transit in this town.

I hope someday, these apartment could be replaced because those dreaded vacant lots with a guardrail and/or wooden posts blocking encroachment is the hallmark of blight, which is something you don't want just a half block from Shaker Square.

I'm generally in agreement with you. My only beef with the old design are the the 2 mega-wide streets, Ontario and Superior, cutting the Square into 4 little square-lets. The new design only partially fixes that allowing buses and "special" vehicles to traverse the Square. Even though it's congested, I'm not sure the current temporary bus terminal next to the casino is the worse thing in the world. I'm not for sticking bus riders out of sight, out of mind, but at least at the casino location riders are still very accessible to the Rapid. I actually thought a similar bus terminal on Prospect behind Terminal Tower would be even better ... it has more space and is directly at the entrances to TC and the Rapid ... on both sides of the street. They are almost like subway entrances; but a lot more classy.

^This is a downer. Can we move it to the demolitions thread, because this certainly isn't about SS's development?

But it's an apples-to-oranges comparison as both systems were designed for different purposes. By nature, the N.O. streetcar system, like most streetcars, is designed for short hop riding and not longer distance commuting into downtown as is the Shaker Lines were designed for. The only roughly similar portion of the 2 systems, is the surface Shaker Square/Shaker Hts portion of the Blue/Green lines, and really only portions of the Blue line which does have retail/residential density massing around Lee Road (and Avalon/Ashby) and Farsnleigh/Lynnfield. And I stress the word roughly...

Actually, these before & after photos are off by a few blocks, but I still get the point, and I agree with the idea.

But he did such wonderful things for mass transit. </sarc> Belongs next to Porter, Kucinich, and modell in Cleveland history IMO. Perhaps not as destructive as Battisti, but close.[/sarc] Nobody, but NOBODY (not even Modell) approaches Al Porter in the entire annals of Cleveland history. In terms of the sheer (and ongoing) destructiveness to Cleveland, Porter's a whole library unto himself.

So when is Fairmount/Woolstein going to announce Phase III?

When it comes to transit and smart-growth, why can't this town get it's head out of its arse? I always have believed E. 105 is not the real projected terminus of this roadway, and let's stop pussy-footing around with this silly Opportunity Corridor name and call it what it is: a freeway which will facilitate typical Cleveland sprawl.

No, he was not. But he was the major figure who reversed the strong momentum and fortunes of rail transit in this town. He stated that downtown was "dying" and that rail transit was old fashion. He felt that cars, freeways, suburbs and malls/shopping centers were the way to go for cities. His hero was New York's infamous Robert Moses. Porter's influence and impact were extremely wide ranging, stretching to today, with the CPC's foolish NCTC recommendation being the latest in a long string of anti-transit moves. Local leaders have since generally considered the Rapid as a negative with the only perceived positive being the building of the airport Rapid -- 48 years ago.

Barkley was saying the same thing last night and I agree with him too. I'm going to date myself here but the Bulls would have eight titles had the late 80s/early 90s Pistons not played a completely different style from the Bulls. It wore down MJ and then Pippen. They're not going to out Golden State, Golden State. I worry that's the plan with this trade. They're going to run, fine, then they're going to need to score. If the Cavs were effective last night, that game would have been over way before halftime. A lot of bad shot selections and offensive sets. If that's Golden State they lose that game. Bulls were throwing up a lot of bricks last night. OKC at OKC will be another great test for this team. Let's hope they play better. You're right about last night. Even though Rose looked like the old Rose in the 1st half, he had way too much load to carry with the absence of Butler, Mirotic and Noah, not to mention the fact that Dunleavy obviously neither has his legs nor timing back yet -- have you ever seen Dunleavy shoot that poorly? ... With all that, we still struggled much of the game to put away the Bulls, now 1 game over .500. We walked the ball up too much and played a lot of the dreaded iso ball last night, with Kyrie dribbling way too much at times and sometimes getting in trouble as a result. It will be interesting, Sunday, to see what effect Frye will have on the Cavs vs. OKC.

No question, RJ's minutes will be dropping, probably significantly. Frye is taller (nearly 7'); a 4 (unlike RJ who's a 3), and will draw 4s and 5s away from the rim. Frye is a little younger and a little more athletic than Jefferson, as well. Right now Frye is slated for the bench, where more offensive punch is badly needed (I don't know what's wrong with Shumpert these days), but in the heat of the playoffs, he could easily shift to a starter, probably for Thompson, when we decide to go small... Frankly, though, I hope we continue to work on gaining our D strength back so we can grind teams down like we did to all the Eastern teams and started to on GSW. I still believe our best chance against Golden State is to play big, control the tempo and guard the rim (with Mozgov)... I just don't believe any team can beat Golden State at their own game, which is playing small, running and gunning to try and outscore them. Even with our depleted roster, we wore them down and had them down 2-1 and on the ropes, when 2 things happened: Kerr removed Bogut and featured Iguodala, and we simply ran out of gas (Delly checked into Cleve Clinic for dehydration after Game 3 and we were forced to use (totally wrecked) Mike Miller and spot-shooter, Jones in crunch time)... We have significantly more weapons this time around, but must develop and use them wisely if we're to have a shot at the title. Golden State is playing with much more confidence, now, but this is still the regular season and the playoffs are a much different animal, particularly with other teams improving (ie LAC acquiring Jeff Green). We have challenges, but the opportunity to achieve the gold is there ... this year.

The CPC's decision is just plain stupid. It's damning to both passenger rail and RTA... I really just don't get this town's total indifference, even disdain, toward mass transit -- and please, don't give me the tired old: Norm Krumholz created this problem with some social service agency mentality. ... Cleveland obviously has made great comeback strides in the last decade, but why can't folks see that killing mass transit threatens to undermine much of it? Cleveland Rapid rail system is dying a slow death, esp the LRT, but nobody seems to care: KJP's exposure of the dire situation of the deteriorating rail fleet, with no funds to replace it (along with Joe Calabrese's testy/tepid and unsatisfying response) and scant planning for the future, got scant media coverage and now seems all but forgotten. The powers that be here obviously believe mass transit is trivial and Cleveland can get along, and thrive, without it... Obviously they don't study history -- Albert Porter's killing of the subway and forcing a freeway/car-first approach to nearly everything urban nearly killed downtown, especially PHS, for which we are STILL picking up the pieces despite all the progress downtown. Porterism also damaged many in-city neighborhoods as well... A properly done NCTC certainly won't solve all RTA's (and local Amtrak's) ills, but it should be a serious shot in the arm. I've already emailed Freddie Collier and plan to shoot one to Valerie McCall. I hope AAO is on this, too. Maybe this stupid idea can be reversed.

This!

Tom Heinen said that downtown doesn't, yet, have the population to "truly support" a downtown supermarket. They knew this going in, but are committed to the long haul. I'm confident they'll get there. It was savvy thinking to put the food court inside the great Rotunda. As Heinen said, they wanted to make going to Heinen's an event, not just food shopping.

^ This suggestion is my fave: Stop badmouthing Cleveland: "We're doing really great things in Cleveland," Zimmerman said. "We have to start telling that story more and more often. Too often we're our own worst critics. We have to get over that. We're moving forward. Things are happening and are actually getting done."

Even though I don't live downtown, I try and make it a point to stop by Heinen's to pick up a few things or simply soak up the atmosphere. The buzz about this place, esp the rotunda food court, has been non-stop/off the hook by out-of-towners. As for regulars, everybody seems satisfied with the ingress/egress. I'm always on foot, cab or public trans (and there is the HL plus a bunch of trolleys as well as the East Side buses a block away on Prospect), but I've seen people getting their parking passes validated; everybody is smiling. And as much as I love the sheer awesomeness of the food court, I enjoy the supermarket part as well... It's got that tight New York-ish kinda feel to it, which is really cool. In fact, the supermarket part would be right at home on Broadway in Manhattan's Upper West Side. The only thing missing is the outdoor fruit and flowers bin ... and I wouldn't put it past the Heinen's to install this feature at some future point. Query: is Constantino's still holding up or has there been any discernible drop in their patronage? I hope that's not the case and that downtown is now big enough that it can handle both places, esp since Constantino's has built up a loyal customer base and is more of limited-item more specialty type food mart.

I was holding my breath but, actually, these proposed cuts are not quite as bad as I thought (I feared the newly expanded hours for the WFL would take a hit ... oops; better not say it too loud. And I figured the bus cuts would be more draconian, even though I realize a lot of people will be hurting because of this. I am pissed about the #37 cut south of Severance Ctr. That sucks, as this will cut off the Rapid connection as well as a fairly dense neighborhood along Taylor Rd. And those cute little shops/restaurants at Fairmount & Taylor will now have no service at all. I also don't like the #34 cut south of Green Rd. What about commuters, including Green Line transfers, who want to get to shops and jobs along Green Rd. in Beachwood and Warrensville Hts? Cross my fingers: the good news, for now, in this proposal is: 1) No Rapid reductions, and 2) the #45 section along W. 65 between Lorain (near the Rapid station) and Detroit (Gordon Sq) has survived -- it was proposed to be on the chopping block previously... When I travel to Gordon Sq. from the East Side, I will usually walk from the W. 65th Rapid station-- it's a pleasant .5 mile walk; I always enjoy checking out the (extremely diverse-interesting/typically Cleveland) neighborhood, which is constantly improving. If the weather is funky, I like having the #45 fall-back option, however. Sometimes upon exiting the Green Line at TC, I will head out to Public Sq. and hop the #26 for the direct shot to Gordon Sq.... However, there are times when me or a friend will already be at Ohio City and, then, wish to head over to Gordon Sq., in which case the Red Line is the most viable/quickest 1-stop option.