clvlndr

No, you missed my point ... entirely. Where did I mention RTA in my post, other than to say the problem is bigger than Joe C? My post stated the community has an anti-rail mindset, and that it goes beyond 1-man (or agency in this case). I addressed you statement about "without private philanthropy," noting that private philanthropy has been the route some cities are going with the shrinking public dollar, esp in a stingy state like Ohio toward transit; but that unfortunately you're not going to rail expansion, not even with private dollars, unless this community changes its mindset. Please reread my post. Which community has an anti-rail mindset, specifically? As opposed to a general skepticism towards public transportation. You raise a good point... I was wrong. It can't be the whole community, because more and more citizens are riding rail (Cleveland has one of the fastest growing rail ridership); and a developer here and there (Ari Maron, for one) are actually motivated to build TOD -- hopefully Intesa will be the next TOD... ... better stated would be too many leaders in our community are either anti rail or, more commonly, just plain indifferent to it; and that's a problem.

No, you missed my point ... entirely. Where did I mention RTA in my post, other than to say the problem is bigger than Joe C? My post stated the community has an anti-rail mindset, and that it goes beyond 1-man (or agency in this case). I addressed you statement about "without private philanthropy," noting that private philanthropy has been the route some cities are going with the shrinking public dollar, esp in a stingy state like Ohio toward transit; but that unfortunately you're not going to rail expansion, not even with private dollars, unless this community changes its mindset. Please reread my post. ... and btw, I also disagree with your last (tacit) point that capital money spent toward maintenance is somehow comparable to expansion. It is not. RTA must make most of the repairs you just highlighted to merely be able to run the rail network and run it safely, or it cannot rut it at all. Other money is for station rebuilding where, in some cases, if RTA does not come into ADA compliance, the station must close, like the 2 E. 79s and 34th Street. If closure of rail lines because of costs is an option in Cleveland that people are comfortable with, ... especially in a town with, still, severe economic problems but, also, where we're seeing some TOD development and fairly robust ridership growth, then this city, and this State, has far worse issues than even I can contemplate.

Hope you're right about that. We first have to get these private individuals to buy into transit. The same Dan Gilbert who owns the Horeshoe casino that sits on a rail terminal but has shown no interest in rail expansion here is the same Dan Gilbert who is the chief financier of the M-1 LRT in freeway-crazy Detroit... go figure. In reality, the problem here is bigger than 1 man, like Joe Calabrese, as there's an anti-rail mentality that permeates Cleveland... I'm not sure what the root of this is; perhaps the decades long derivative effect of the 50s subway failure and Al Porter's subsequent actions that institutionalized highway growth and sprawl while simultaneously hindering rail growth... I'm not certain of this, but it could be the cause. As has been noted by others, businesses, like the Aloft Hotel, for one, do every thing they can NOT to promote the Waterfront Rapid rail line whose station stop sits about a hundred feet from their hotel. Aloft guests are much more prone to bitch about the noise of the Rapid trains and the ringing of the Main Avenue crossing gates than they are to actually, like, riding the trains themselves... Likewise, if you look at the promotional web info about the new exciting new FEB Phase II apartments about to open across the parking lot, you'll be hard pressed to any mention at all of the Rapid. In other cities developers would be drooling at the prospect of owning or building next to a rapid transit station, but here in Cleveland ...? Entrepreneurs and financiers will not advance a penny toward transit here until the collective mentality toward transit is changed. Otherwise, look for more BRT proposals, Opportunity Corridors, non-Convention Center-NCTC connections, surface parking, strip development sprawl, etc, etc, etc...

So what are you saying: you're satisfied with RTA and it's approach? Apparently so, since you'd rather spend your time attacking someone who is hard on RTA when they appear retrogressive and helpful to expanding transit options .... And for the record, until today, I've not negatively commented specifically about RTA's decision to study only BRT down W. 25. I have commented that RTA has had an anti-rail attitude, and W. 25 corridor is just the latest... So perhaps you, yourself, are an anti-rail individual who just likes to sit back and take pot shots at those of us who desire progress (which is a big reason why Ohio urban transit is the backward-looking mess it is) ... and perhaps you're too lazy to notice, I've praised RTA on many occasions (like with the new Little Italy-UC station)... when they deserve it. Either way, people like you add nothing to intelligent discussion, so ... Oh please....So when someone calls out your CONSTANT bashing your first reaction is to go off the deep end? Grow up. One positive comment doesn't make up for the hundreds and hundreds of meaningless rants you go on weekly. If you really cared about "intelligent discussions" you would be writing about the lack of funding and resources dedicated to the RTA, not Joe C's anti-rail crew. Maybe you don't read to well, but I have, indeed, commented on the lack of funding by the state... and applauded Joe C for his activism on increasing Ohio's public transit budget. So it seems like you're the one who needs to "grow up" ... and learn how to read, as well; thanks.

^^^Absolutely, 327. One would be crazy to think that a shrinking city like Cleveland (shrinking much more slowly these days, thankfully), is going to build rail lines to every point on the compass. But when you already have a very good rail transit system, given the city's size and density (and one with an envied airport connection as well as an off-street, grade-separated entry into downtown), it's simply foolish to rule out rail options out of hand and not even study it ... like what has been done along the crowded, underserved W. 25 corridor.

So what are you saying: you're satisfied with RTA and it's approach? Apparently so, since you'd rather spend your time attacking someone who is hard on RTA when they appear retrogressive and helpful to expanding transit options .... And for the record, until today, I've not negatively commented specifically about RTA's decision to study only BRT down W. 25. I have commented that RTA has had an anti-rail attitude, and W. 25 corridor is just the latest... So perhaps you, yourself, are an anti-rail individual who just likes to sit back and take pot shots at those of us who desire progress (which is a big reason why Ohio urban transit is the backward-looking mess it is) ... and perhaps you're too lazy to notice, I've praised RTA on many occasions (like with the new Little Italy-UC station)... when they deserve it. Either way, people like you add nothing to intelligent discussion, so ...

^I think KJP's comments are buttressed by the Flats East Bank itself... In the 80s and 90s it was a pure destination neighborhood -- few people lived there and they only thrived on Friday and Saturday night -- otherwise, it was dead. Chain bars and fly-by-night clubs opened cheaply in warehouses often with little adornment-- not all of course, like the Watermark or Fagans, but it was still not a neighborhood... and of course, it died... The reconstituted FEB seems sterile to some, but planners learned their lesson, or so it seems, because residents, both in apartments and the hotel, and permanent offices have developed around much more substantial buildings with clubs and restaurants. As Gertrude Stein might say: there's more there, there... Hopefully people will want to live in FEB and even more high-density developments, both commercial and residential, will spring up in future FEB phases ... And as we know, Ohio City is so popular right now, there's no room to fit all the people who want to live in the neighborhood... Apartment, condo and townhouse buildings are springing up left and right and more are on the drawing board. A great formula for a truly hot "urban" neighborhood, is one that is attractive to both visitors and residents. And yes, E Rocc, people with cars just have to deal with limited parking ... or try transit, bikes, cabs, of foot-power ... or, if you're really indifferent about the urban thing and see parking as too much of a hassle, there will always be malls, strip malls and big box stores where the auto is welcome. But for people looking for urban excitement, a neighborhood's scarcity of parking has it's own cache'.

You're right about that. It would be served by rail if there was LRT of some sort down W. 25 into Parma... oh right, the Calabrese crew scuttled that idea in favor of more BRT studies.

I'm glad for the new station, but that name sure is a mouthful (I cringe at the thought of train engineers calling out that name). UC-Little Italy (as in University Circle-Little Italy) seems to flow off the tongue a bit easier... but I'm still happy for the new station, anyway.

This is a great idea, it never occurred to me to go below grade. It could also incorporate a tunnel to the W. 25th Rapid stop. I don't know about a tunnel to the Rapid, but the previous design of the old RTA stop (prior to 1992) with the platform going under the street allowing for entrances on both the north and south sides of Lorain Ave was much better, with the north side entrance adjacent to the WSM. The new stop with only the entrance on the south side of Lorain is much less convenient forcing OC visitors to wait for the light directing heavy traffic then schlep across the wide street (6-lanes I believe) to reach both the WSM and the core Market Square entertainment district.

Wow!

Well, I've been pleasantly surprised to see the HealthLine become more successful by most measures than I expected it would be, particularly given that it still suffers from inadequate signal prioritization and a few other nagging issues. And looking back on it, I think it was the right decision (even though I hoped for light rail in the beginning). We were never going to get more light rail in the short to medium term; it was simply too expensive. It was either this or nothing. And I'm glad we have this. The obvious limiting factor with regard to BRT is capacity. Not really a problem for us today, but I continue to hold out hope that U.S. cities including ours will rebound eventually, and if the density of population and employment along the Euclid Ave. corridor were to increase sufficiently, we could find ourselves struggling with this same issue again. Rail projects typically take a very long time to build. As an admittedly pathological, but instructive example: the 2nd Ave. line in NYC, the need for which has been known for nearly a century, and is only now being built, while the Lexington Ave. line struggles to carry more traffic than the combined volume of the entire Washington Metro system. If there is ever to be rail, it will likely require years, perhaps decades, to gather the necessary funding and political will to make it happen. We will not have the luxury of waiting until the need is already upon us. We'll have to anticipate and plan for it well in advance, which of course runs the risk that density, demand, etc. could shrink again and leave us with what some might deride as yet another "rail line to nowhere." It's a tough call, well beyond my pay grade. But I'm guessing that, at some point within the next generation or two, someone is going to have to make it. This sounds defeatist. Sure building rail is difficult and expensive, but that's not a reason to reject it out of hand when rail is the best solution for rebuilding your city, creating jobs and high-density Smart Growth. Yes executing rail transit construction is a long and tedious process. But that's not a reason not to do it. Conservatives like to harp on bad transit examples to negative future transit development. Just because New York's 2nd Avenue subway has been a long, drawn out and poorly executed project covering decades, doesn't mean that all rail transit development isn't worthwhile. (and I'm sure once the 2nd Ave line is built, it will have a huge positive impact on the section of Manhattan that it will serve) Heavy rail subway construction is difficult, no doubt, and New York's plan is to build a long HRT through a heavily built up area in 21st Century New York is not nearly as easy as building elevated and subway lines in a turn of the 20th century New York of 3.5 million and a lot of undeveloped rural property in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens. In Washington, its taken a lot of hard planning, negotiation, construction and, yes, gazillions of dollar to build the DC Metro, but can anybody say it wasn't worth it? The Health Line is an improvement over the No. 6 bus it replaced, but it's not what it could have been had it been rail, as the article KJP highlighted above. The article highlights what we (really) already know. BRT systems like the HL are more similar to the buses they replace: that is, they are for short hop trips; and those relying on them for longer end-to-end type commutes, tend to be frustrated. We've heard the horror stories about slow the HL is from downtown to University Circle where the Red Line is twice as fast even though it does not give the door-to-door service the HL does (although the new UC-Little Italy will given the Red Line a much stronger hand)... LRT and HRT are used (and relied upon for much longer trips than BRT, which is the ultimate bus operation. Had the Dual Hub project been built as even light rail, it's impact on travel and high-density development in the Euclid corridor would be much more pronounced than with the HL. Maybe LRT someday will replace the HL; we can only hope... I'm just glad to see some well researched studies that disprove the bromide that BRT is just the same as Light Rail only cheaper.

To me, what you reported about NOACA is news both positive and negative. At least it lets people know the project is still alive, and work is being done to make it a reality, regardless of how slim that probability is. So many important Cleveland projects die quietly... Then again, when a major public works project is deemed important to some in the community, like the Opportunity Corridor, we get periodic updates throughout the process, even when it seems there's little news. It's just a matter of the community's priorities.

It's still on hold until NOACA can update its work trip data. They made lots of progress on it, but there was a big problem and they had to redo it. I'm glad progress has been made, but why is this project so hush-hush? It's like a big secret.

mrnyc, I was just on NJT into Mahnattan this weekend, and noticed that the famed open-well (sunlight) portal from the Hudson River tunnel into Penn Station has finally been darkened/covered. What is/has been built over top of it?

Rockandroller is right, if you want to see Shaker Heights, best to pick out a few areas to check out because the suburb is 6 square miles. Since you'll already be riding the Rapid and HL, you should have a $5 all day pass (great bargain). Of course Rapid stops are all over Shaker and put you within 1/3 or quarter mile of anything you'd want to see... From Shaker Square, after checking out Larchmere, I might suggest walking east on Larchmere to Coventry then north a block or so to North Park where there's a nice park area with benches and a 5-6 year-old rebuilt bridge over Doan creek which leads into Lower Shaker Lake. This is a highly scenic and active areas with families, bikers and joggers. You could also take the Green Line Rapid over to South Park and walk north to the equally scenic Nature Center where there is a self-guided tour on the extensive boardwalk over the swamp areas. Then you can stroll eastward along S. Park to the Shaker Historical society, in a restored mansion overlooking Horseshoe Lake across the street, where there's a nice exhibit of the North Union Shakers who settled the area in the early 1800s. The staff there is very attentive and friendly... Meanwhile, as you're walking, you can take in the beautiful mansions and natural areas along the Lake -- again, this is a stroller, biker, jogger haven. When you're done at the museum, you can walk a block south to either the Eaton or Lee Road Green Line Rapid stops for the quick ride back downtown... ... there's a lot more Shaker than these areas, of course, but these are probably best in terms of matching things-to-do with sightseeing.

All true. There has been recent interest by RTA in operating park-n-ride express buses from a new location in Independence to downtown and, when the Opportunity Corridor opens, to University Circle. ... as in Joe Calabrese's plan to run express buses on the OC in direct competition with the Red Line Rapid?

A real kick in the teeth to any (potential) Rapid rider wanting to check out downtown, Ohio City or Univ. Circle/Little Italy.

Dueling pianos bar to open in Cleveland Flats project By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on July 15, 2015 at 11:46 AM, updated July 15, 2015 at 2:16 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Soon enough, you too can sing us a song. Because, come August, you too can be the piano man – or, ahem, the piano woman. The Big Bang is coming to Cleveland. On Aug. 5, the Nashville-based dueling pianos bar will open in the new East Bank Project. The 4,700-square-foot club will feature two grand pianos onstage played by a rotating group of entertainers who mix audience song requests with comedy and audience participation. "I'm looking forward to bringing our concept to Cleveland," says Big Bang owner Sam Leatherwood. "It's going to be fun coming back." Leatherwood, you see, used to live in Cleveland – when he worked as the entertainment director of Howl at the Moon, the long-running piano spot in the Powerhouse on the west bank of the Flats. "I remember people telling me that Howl at the Moon wouldn't last six months," says Leatherwood. "It went for 19 years." http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/07/dueling_pianos_bar_coming_to_c.html#incart_m-rpt-1

^^^This really sucks... I was in Pittsburgh on business a few years ago staying at the old Wm. Penn Hotel and, one afternoon, went over to Macy's, a block away. It seemed a little dead, but the locals were proud to have a downtown dept store, unlike Cleveland of course... but it'll soon be history. I guess we're moving to the point where only New York and Chicago will have major downtown department stores ... and even that's not certain.

Brookpark Rapid Station construction will close pedestrian tunnel for a year By Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Construction begins next week on the replacement Brookpark Rapid Station, and with it, some changes for passengers getting on and off trains there. RTA contractors will begin demolishing the tunnel that connects the rapid stop's east parking lot to its west lot on Monday. So starting next week, if you park in the east lot you'll have to walk around the building and along Brookpark Road to get to the stairway and elevator to the rail platform, which are off the west lot. RTA has installed stairs, underpass lights and a wooden barrier along the sidewalk to protect customers from vehicles and highway splashing as they walk around the building to get to the west lot. The new sidewalk will be in use throughout construction, which is scheduled to wrap up in mid-2016. Handicapped parking will be removed from the east parking lot but will remain in the west parking lot. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/brookpark_rapid_station_constr.html

Nope. Grade separation has nothing to do with it actually. There are Heavy Rail systems at grave and Light Rail system above and below grade. Actually, in many ways mu2010 is correct. Most heavy rail system are totally grade-separated from street traffic while LRTs are not. There are a (very) few exceptions, and those are all in Chicago, to my knowledge, where the outer ends of the HRT Brown and Purple lines actually drop down off their elevated structures and have protected street-grade crossings, which is highly unusual because the hazardous, electrified 3rd rail is down on the ground, close to pedestrians. But most light rail systems (which almost always have caternary wire (power) systems ... except Philly's Norristown Route 100, which is neither, or both, fish nor foul, which some consider a 3rd rail-using, high platform LRT... go figure!) have some or frequent grade crossings and even stop for traffic lights in places. Our (Shaker) Blue and Green lines are more typical LRTs because they are low-platform boarding and cross many streets although they have significant grade separation too.... Then therre are all-high platform boarding LRTs, like those in LA (which actually have many sections that ride in the street mingling with auto traffic like streetcars and St. Louis, where cars cross streets at protected crossings; or Pittsburgh where the LRT is both high and low platform boarding... So really, one of the most reliable distinctions between heavy and light rail systems is the grade separation aspect ... except in small parts of Chicago.

What's the latest status on the Phase II opening? I thought July was the target date, but from the looks of the most recent photos, they've got significant work to do, and we're at mid-July now.

^Strange opening date. Summer will be well over by then and, in Cleveland, the cold season may or may not be in full gear; you never know in this area. They might as well bag it until Spring. The roll out for the service sounds like it was botched.

That would be interesting. Hopefully such a project will get past the fantasy and talking stages. It's good to see a potential rail transit city talking about an LRT subway into or through the downtown area rather than those slow, dreaded transit malls.