clvlndr

But Ohio's miniscule transit funding has been an issue for a number of years. To his limited credit, Joe C has talked about it for years, most notably regarding rising diesel fuel prices for buses although I haven't heard him talk so much about state funding for Rapid infrastructure maintenance. But the point is, it goes far beyond Calabrese... Where's the mayor? City Council? GCP???? As Angie Schmidt notes, the Rapid is very underappreciated local asset. ... and what's galling and paradoxical, is all the hoopla to clean up/fix up the Rapid for the RNC, where Republicans, led by most notably our guv-turned-(failing) presidential candidate, are the prime culprits for urban transit starvation ... and highway overspending and construction.

Plan to give RNC visitors better first impression Tom Beres 6:48 p.m. EDT October 29, 2015 The effort will use graffiti-busting and repellent product from Sherwin Williams. CLEVELAND -- About 40,000 people a month ride the RTA Rapid Transit Red Line between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and downtown. Many of them are visitors getting a first look and first impression of Cleveland by their ride along the route. And there's plenty of trash, graffiti and dilapidated old buildings to see. Carl Mixon was riding the Red Line, a first-time visitor from Georgia. http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cuyahoga-county/2015/10/29/plan-to-give-rnc-visitors-better-first-impression/74827206/

^The new Lee Road station is now in use, though not fully completed -- there are still barricades, the elevators don't appear to be in operation and finishing touches, like roofing and lighting, aren't complete.... It is, however, pretty impressive compared to its predecessors and esp in context with the most beautiful, TOD/transit friendly aspect of the whole neighborhood: the Roaring 20s, Tudor-style Kingsbury mix-use building on the Lee-Van Aken corner where the shops appear to have had an upgrade/makeover in recent years. Too bad all 4 corners don't have Kingsbury-like developments on them... ... And yet, maybe some positive change for the area is afoot with the fairly recent appointment of a new Shaker Hts Devel. Corp chair, Nick Fedor. See: http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2015/03/shaker_heights_development_cor_1.html

The Blue Line already has Chagrin-Lee-Avalon (Shaker Towne Center or whatever you want to call it). It's not necessarily a ped-friendly area, but it does have a lot of retail and trip generators, and is a major bus/rail transfer station. The Blue Line also a number of apartment clusters which generate rail traffic. The Green Line has none of this, with the exception of the giant parking lot a Green Rd which is a regional draw for downtown, rush hour commuters.

This: Angie Schmitt 7 hours ago "My comment on this is blaming the state: yes. But also, regional leaders in NE Ohio deserve blame. Because NE Ohio has gotten money from the state for transportation projects when we've asked for it. We got $10 million for a pedestrian bridge (Thanks, GCP!) and we got $260 some million for the Opportunity Corridor, plus another huge boatload for two innerbelt bridges. Our leaders, the real power brokers, haven't pushed for this because they don't care. Incredibly shortsighted and irresponsible. More than 30,000 rides a day on this rail system. Even though we don't appreciate it, it is a gem."

Sounds exciting ... can't wait.

I'm not an expert, but I would AT LEAST allow for 30 extra minutes, counting the transfer time. My guess is that, from Puritas, buses will head down W. 150 to Brookpark Rd, then West to the Brookpark Station, then to the airport on Ohio 237. That trip alone is probably about 20-25 minutes where the normal train time is probably just under 10 minutes, ... and that includes the wait for westbound trains that allow Brookpark passengers to clear the grade crossing at the temporary station there. This may be a conservative estimate, but ... Also, my experience on the East Side with Shaker Heights bus replacements for the Blue/Green Lines is that the bus coordination is often poor, so you may want to figure this in as well.

I'm not surprised by how we looked and, in fact, am encouraged that we were able to pull it together and darn near pull off the win. We're obviously shorthanded with injuries, including Kyrie and Shumpert, who still aren't with the team. Even then there were so many guys didn't play some or most of the preseason games, including LeBron. And of course, there was the Tristan Thompson holdout which was only settled a week ago... You could see Tristan struggled to find his mojo in the 1st half, but settled into tough Tristan play (12 rebounds) in the 2nd... Chicago is still a very tough team when they have Rose healthy and Hoiberg's style, esp playing more of the younger talented players, than Thibodeau's.

Is there any state that allows gas tax revenues for transit? IIRC Pennsylvania has a similar problem to Ohio in this regard, and both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have major transit systems, with Philly having a gigantic but badly aging rail infrastructure. The freeway lobby of these states -- which often seem to be conveniently centered away from major transit metro areas, are usually very selfish and stingy when it comes to allowing gas taxes utilized for any other purpose but roads... I believe they put these tax provisions in their state constitutions which makes it even more difficult to change them.

^^Very good news.

Like most, I was shocked and saddened by this. Apparently Flip had only been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma only a few months ago. Cancer's a bitch.

Very nice set. I love Pasadena and Santa Monica and really like what LA is doing with rail transit expansion and TOD growth ... and with the older districts, building upon the similar growth the old Pacific Electric interurban cars did a century ago.

^... and modern scholars also realize that FHA's programs systematically perpetuated racial segregation as well.

As someone who uses the Green Line and the HL on occasion, I hate not only having to come up the long escalator then walk through TC then outside, but also having to cross the Public Sq roadway and come up to the HL station a distance from behind... not a few times, I've had to run for dear life (nearly getting hit by a cabbie) just to hop aboard a departing HL bus... The more you research the HL, the more you realize it was less a viable alternative for Dual Hub, for which it doesn't come close to duplicating, as it was a leverage federal funding for road/landscaping improvements along Euclid Ave.

The West Shore route through Lakewood is the best potential upgrade esp because of the high density, walkable neighborhoods it traverses, esp downtown Lakewood and the Gold Coast as well as Cleveland's Edgewater neighborhood. Lakewood is very similar to Evanston just north of Chicago which the transit article focuses on. Lakewood's the 2nd densest city between Philly and Chicago. In truth for these reasons, Lakewood merits extending the Red Line through it, which was the Van Sweringen's ultimate plan... I just wish officials could have followed the plan you put forth a decade (or so) ago to reroute freight trains off the close-in lake shore and off West Shore route freeing it up for transit. Is there any chance this could still happen? ... Note: IIRC you noted NS actually moved backwards by increasing freight runs on this single-track route. ..... anyway, back to Nashville... I'm glad to see they are planning for the future and seriously targeting LRT routes and, unlike Cleveland, going with rail as the locally preferred alternative (whereas we know Joe C will go with BRT)... The Music City Star, which has had small numbers, but is growing slightly if memory serves, will be a building block for Nashville's future rail transit network.

From Wikipedia re Nashville's Music City Star commuter rail: Currently there is only one line, with six more planned to other satellite cities around Nashville. The current line is 32 miles long with 6 stations. The line is mostly one track, so this limits arrivals and departures to how long each train has to wait for the other to pass. The first "starter line" cost $41 million, or just under $1.3 million per mile, which made it the most cost efficient commuter rail start-up in the nation. $41M for a mostly single-track starter line. That seems awfully inexpensive. With the wealth of railroad lines radiating from downtown Cleveland, why can't locals identify such a cost-effective commuter rail route here?

Hogan's torpedoing the Red Line was very painful, but I'll at least give Baltimoreans credit for getting the bat off their collective shoulders and taking a cut at the ball... They had a federal green-lighted rail project that was shovel ready... Unfortunately they didn't finish the job in that they stayed home in record numbers for last year's gubernatorial election, so they let a Republican slip in (that's how Republicans win in urban areas) and it ended up costing the locals bigtime... So really they only have themselves to blame... Here in Cleveland, we can talk about lack of a budget to support day-to-day operations as the excuse du jour, but the fact is, Cleveland never even gets rail extension up for federal consideration ... at least, not for the last 50 years. Our "ideas" for rail expansion always die when officials lapse into their usual paralysis-by-analysis mode. So nothing concrete even gets to the feds... Baltimore at least has us beat in this light.

I'm not buying this article... The headlines and first few paragraphs make it seem that the casinos are a failure in Ohio while, in actuality, all it presents is one pissed off/bitter barista in some unknown coffee shop (the article neither names the shop or its owner) and quote him like he's some economics expert, and then they state that gambling ballot booster's claims of employment were overblown ... duh? Isn't this usually the case? But the article goes onto state the casino's have netted $700M while the racinos, $450M, which the article concedes is a lot of cash for the state. It also notes that, in Cleveland, the Horseshoe has boosted tourism -- despite the claims of some angry guy slinging coffee at an unnamed shop downtown. And even though it said Phase II hasn't been built, it didn't say that Phase II was dead; indeed, the writer notes that Phase II is still being studied. I think reality, esp in Cleveland, is not nearly as bad as this article paints it.

Hogan only doing this as a defense posture following wide Baltimore-area condemnation after scuttling 10 years, and $200M+ in planning and spending for the Red Line LRT subway/surface plan that had won federal approval. Trust me, if John Kasich was Maryland guv, he'd have done the same thing. Like most Republican govs these days, Big John has a major transit kill on his mantlepiece: the 3-C's Amtrak rail plan that had won federal approval (money which is now funding Cali's very-worthy HSR development. These Republicans are absolutely horrible on urban and transit initiatives... I'll give Hogan this much: it took some serious gonads to punk a major transit initiative like the Red Line in Baltimore which is THE metropolitan city in a considerably state smaller-than-Ohio ... unlike in Ohio where Cleveland is only one of 3 major state metro areas and is in the far northern corner and generally irrelevant to downstaters like Kasich. I know, I know. Was more a tongue in cheek comment. Gotcha...

Hogan only doing this as a defense posture following wide Baltimore-area condemnation after scuttling 10 years, and $200M+ in planning and spending for the Red Line LRT subway/surface plan that had won federal approval. Trust me, if John Kasich was Maryland guv, he'd have done the same thing. Like most Republican govs these days, Big John has a major transit kill on his mantlepiece: the 3-C's Amtrak rail plan that had won federal approval (money which is now funding Cali's very-worthy HSR development. These Republicans are absolutely horrible on urban and transit initiatives... I'll give Hogan this much: it took some serious gonads to punk a major transit initiative like the Red Line in Baltimore which is THE metropolitan city in a considerably state smaller-than-Ohio ... unlike in Ohio where Cleveland is only one of 3 major state metro areas and is in the far northern corner and generally irrelevant to downstaters like Kasich.

Sounds like National City Lines circa 2015... ... Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, who is also the chairman of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, called Hogan's plan "window dressing."

Love the views. This place is going to be stunning on all levels.

We have the highest payroll, with lots of injury-prone players. I'm already biting my nails for another chapter of Cleveland sports.... But the beauty of the off-season signings is that we're considerably deeper than last year's club ... which was already deep and allowed even that beat up team to make the finals and go up 2-1 in them. Mo and Jefferson are talented and will spell Kyrie and LeBron, and I'm all but certain we'll keep Jared Cunningham, who's an athletic, versatile wing who can handle the ball and run the point. Right now, we're perhaps the deepest team in the NBA which should well equip us for the playoffs gauntlet.... I'm not so concerned about the payroll. All the teams in contention for the title are locked up payroll-wise which is why it was incumbent on the Cavs to lock up Thompson because our Bird Rights allowed us to pay these big bucks on him whereas we'd have been shutout of bringing anybody else in save the Haywood-exception which only lasts 1 year.

Great news... the Cavs are so stacked, it's hard not to see them winning the title if they can stay healthy.

... and throw in the confusing Blue/Green Line pay enter eastbound, pay leave, westbound, (where the train often sits while people line up single file to pay the driver ... the honest folks that is, unlike the westbound cheaters leaving prior to TC who bolt out the back door w/o paying) and you've got an even bigger mess.