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Take a look at the University Circle-Little Italy rapid station opening soon (photos) By Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 12, 2015 at 10:00 AM, updated June 12, 2015 at 10:03 AM CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Riders getting on and off Red Line trains in the University Circle-Little Italy district will find a more welcoming, light-drenched station come mid-August. RTA is wrapping up a $17.5 million project to build a new rail stop on Mayfield Road at East 119th Street, with an entrance-way sheltered by a semi-circular canopy, floor to ceiling windows on the train platform level, and outer walls wrapped in ribbons of stainless steel mesh that will be lit at night with multi-colored LED lights. "If you're at the restaurants on Murray Hill at night you'll be able to see the glowing," said RTA's Matthew Marotta, construction architect. "Even in the daytime it will be dynamic, with the sun shining on it." http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/univuniversity_circle-little_italy_rapid_station_opening_soonersity_circle-little_italy.html#incart_related_stories

Most older rail systems are less efficient as they lack the funding to modernize. But none of the contextual issues are raised in pieces like this. That makes them hit pieces, intended to guide readers toward a desired outcome such as raising public doubt regarding the efficiency of rail and thus causing euthanistic ideas to be seriously considered. If an asset under your charge is neglected and malnourished, you don't kill it. You look for ways to restore it to good health. And for the editor of a newspaper that calls itself championing Cleveland development and in a city with a very good rail system, articles like this are inexcusable. Btw, although it was great that KJP quickly and eloquently responded to Crain's ridiculous anti-rail rant, wouldn't it be nice if Joe Calabrese, as RTA's transit chief, stand up for his rail system albeit diplomatically? ... Of course, that presumes that Calabrese supports the rapid rail system and isn't actually in agreement with Suttell's/Crain's sentiments, and those are presumptions I'm not prepared to make.

Thanks for the info... They should ALL have been 2-car trains during the peak travel period before the game. If RTA was running 3-car trains on the West Side Red Line, they should have had 2-car trains on the Blue-Green Lines...

I was waiting for a westbound train at Shaker Square at around 7:30 last night. With 100+ people waiting at the platform, an already-full Green Line train passed by without even stopping. Another train was supposed to arrive less than 10 minutes later, however didn't show up for probably 20 or so minutes. Several people had left in the meantime, just deciding to drive or Uber. Some others said they had been waiting at the Green Rd station for 30+ minutes before trying their luck at Shaker Square. Cavs fans getting on board the packed trains gave a new meaning to "all in." 1 or 2 car train?

When I last took the Green Line into Tower City over the Memorial Day weekend, a number of the fare machines weren't working properly. Some weren't taking cash while others weren't taking credit cards. People were frustrated, but the crowds weren't that big. I can only imagine what it was like during the mob scene prior to last night's Cavs game.

Very disappointing... I hope, at least, they were using 2-car trains on the Blue and Green Lines.

Most older rail systems are less efficient as they lack the funding to modernize. But none of the contextual issues are raised in pieces like this. That makes them hit pieces, intended to guide readers toward a desired outcome such as raising public doubt regarding the efficiency of rail and thus causing euthanistic ideas to be seriously considered. If an asset under your charge is neglected and malnourished, you don't kill it. You look for ways to restore it to good health. And for the editor of a newspaper that calls itself championing Cleveland development and in a city with a very good rail system, articles like this are inexcusable.

The photos of both JR and Shumpert should be on milk cartons. Only Mozgov showed up big time, esp offensively. Tristan continued to fight, but when nobody is pickup up the King offensively, what are you going to do?

^ They're making progress. It still looks like the station is several months away from opening... RTA has now moved it back to "Fall 2015."

Would Seattle's planned subway been anything like this? http://transitmaps.tumblr.com/post/88695820653/seattle-1920

I'll admit, transit-wise Seattle wasn't, and isn't, as well developed as Vancouver with the latter's excellent, automated SkyTrain, which was recently expanded. Seattle was the last West Coast metro area to develop rail transit which opened recently with the Central Link LRT to SeaTac international airport and the N-S Sounder Commuter rail line to Everett and Tacoma; and LRT is expanding... But Seattle was one of the few cities that held onto and expanded it's trolleybus network and the very weird 5-station, 1.4 mile trolleybus tunnel through downtown provided the infrastructure to build the LRT in a subway through downtown a few years ago, which is much more preferable to those surface "transit malls" cities build because they are too cheap and/or politically unwilling to build subways.... ...Seattle has maintained it's walkability and areas like Pioneer Square and Pike's Market have always been ped friendly, plus there are tons of walkable neighborhoods with sidewalk stores and cafes, like in the Queen Anne neighborhood or the University District near UW, which will soon be getting a subway LRT station.

^It's funny how, with road-based transportation, pundits like to point to the growth they created. Like with all the chest-pounding about how many billions of dollars of growth the Health Line, here, allegedly created, when it is well documented that most of the growth along Euclid (esp at places like CSU and Cleveland Clinic, for example) were already planned and even budgeted and would have been built anyway... ... in anti-rail hit pieces like Crain's, you'll get no hint at the significant TOD that has sprouted (and will continue to sprout) along our Rapid rail lines: projects like FEB, East 4th, Intesa and Uptown (MRN's Ari Maron stated in Cleveland Jewish News that MRN specifically chose to develop properties within walking distance of the Red Line, including rehabbing the United Bank Building in Ohio City a block from the Rapid)... But you'll NEVER hear about this in media like the PD or Crain's since we know they have an anti-rail agenda ... at least Crain's actively does... The PD is just indifferent to transit and Allison Grant the transit reporter is very weak imho.

I totally disagree. This is a typical anti-rail hit piece. People like Suttell know full well that rapid transit is rarely, if ever, "profitable" and hasn't been in this country since, at least, the 1920s and 30s. That's why cites across the country created taxpayer-funded, municipal agencies to bail-out and run previously for-profit-run transit systems; agencies like CTS here in Cleveland, and CTA in Chicago. The City of Shaker Heights took over the Van Sweringen-built and operated Blue and Green lines from a group of banks which had foreclosed on Van properties during the height of the Depression. The banks had run the rail lines (even extending the Green line to Green road) for nearly a decade, but were very close to liquidating them, meaning the Blue and Green lines would have been abandoned... ... So all this rail transit profitability claptrap is just a rehash tired old anti-rail smokescreen. Nobody ever demanded that the federal interstate system be "profitable."

Very nice... I love Seattle and Vancouver - clean, cultural, diverse, liberal, walkable with great street presence, good public transit (including trolley buses in both). Even though they are in different countries, they have more in common culturally with each other than, say, Seattle has with most other American cities.

^I'm not sure LeBron and Delly weren't merely trying to hold each other upright.

... which is why Blatt needs to use more "bodies" to eat minutes earlier in these last few games before their in doubt. He's used Miller lately and, although he hasn't scored, his presence proved valuable (esp last night in his being able to successfully inbound the friggin' ball in the last few seconds when the team, esp Iman Shumpert, were literally imploding before our eyes.... I'm surprised we haven't seen Marion, who despite retiring can still play some pretty good defense (which is what we're all about in post Love-Kyrie World). I also might throw in Harris, with his size and young, fresh legs. Conventional wisdom is that young Joe would be overwhelmed by the big stage, but I think the kid could handle it. We would only be using these guys to eat minutes to give the starters a blow and have them ready for the 4th quarter close-out, not become junior Matthew Dellavedovas.

That was my question as well. First there was talk of extending the Blue Line to Chagrin Highlands, and that was knocked off the table. Next the talk was of extending the Rapid through the intersection about about 2,000 or so feet to a new inter-modal transit center with an express bus to University Circle down Van Aken through Shaker Square. That plan is apparently now gone too... Now we have this newer "plan" that, not only doesn't extend the Blue Line at all (like any other rail extension talk, undoubtedly got Calabrese-d), but has a supposed inter-modal center station featuring the train station enclosed by buildings, and thus can never be expanded, along with a new station combining the Farnsleigh and Warrensville stations... and oh, by the way, this newly enclosed "inter-modal" station on the can't-be-extended rail line won't even be completed for another 10 years... ... makes sense, right? Somebody needs to ask one simple question of the Van Aken development planners as well as RTA ... WTF?

^Excellent stuff... I'm kinda surprised Brookings would use this phony double-standard to attack rail transit. I always perceived them as center-left leaning.

I'm not surprised. Crain's anti-transit mentality is long standing. They attacked the Dual-Hub subway-surface rail plan as "extravagant" while going All In on the Opportunity Corridor damn-the-taxpayers money pit. This article on transit, like others by Crain's, could have been drafted by the Buckeye Institute or the Heritage Foundation. Awesome response, KJP, in coming strong with the statistics. I'd love to see Mr. Suttell (Crain's managing editor, no less) try and tap dance a rebuttal. I also love Mark W. Schumann's response where he raises Crain's strong support for the OC... a man after my heart.

It's all about lock-down defense. We now have held GSW to 98 points in regulation in Game 1 and 93 points in regulation + OT in Game 2. Our bigs simply mashed theirs, and Mozgov totally befuddled Bogut, and even though Tristan struggled to score again, he neutralized Green who didn't have a bucket until OT. We frustrated their frontcourt players so much, they fouled continuously... Big props to David Blatt. He came in with a great game plan to win with this severely shorthanded team.

^As I noted after Game 1, our starters soundly beat their starters. The difference tonight is that we kept their bench in check. We very easily could be coming home up 2-0... but I'll take 1-1. We now have homecourt advantage and, perhaps, the psychological advantage as well.

Wooohooo!!!!!

I'm not giving up yet. Our starters slaughtered their starters and we led practically the whole game. When the Iguodala-led Warriors did take a slim 4-point lead with less than 5 minutes left, we quickly caught them (Kyrie's D-technical foul shot + LeBron's 3), and had the ball with 24-seconds left in regulation; we clearly ran out of gas in OT because of GSW's long bench ... It was ours to lose and, unfortunately, it did... The odds are against us, no question, but I think the cracked open window for us to win rests on 4 things: 1. swing the ball and hit the open guy 2. lock down D with our bigs, 3. pick n' rolls to the hoop and crush them in the paint (I'll take Tristan and Mozgov over Green and Bogut any day), and 4. stretch the bench... at least get guys like Marion, Perk and even Harris on the floor for stretches -- not long, but spell our starters, and focus them on D... Good defense doesn't rely on talent so much as it does, effort. ... We've obviously got to get more points from other guys like JR, Shumpert, Jones and Tristan, who scored the opening bucket for the series and then, never again. LeBron, Kyrie and Mozgov were the only Cavs who scored in the 2nd half and, obviously, we've got to spread it around if we're going to have any chance with Love and, now, Kyrie gone... but there IS a chance.

It's bland in design, turns it's back to the Rapid station and puts distance from it with a surface lot. What's to like about that? It's somewhat better than what exists now, I'll give it that, but for the amount of money and reconfiguration that is going into this, I expected more in the TOD sense, and that's what was promised-- strongly promised by planners. What Phase I provides, at it's core, are a couple squat, bland, mixed-use office-over-retail buildings in a campus-like configuration with a considerable amount space around them. The multi-unit building Phase I brings will be separated from this across busy Farnsleigh (which promises to be even busier with the road reconfiguration). This apartment building will be situated over the residents' garage -- not unlike its neighbors down the Van Aken toward Lynnfield Rd. Any new multi-unit building Cleveland or it's inner-ring suburbs is a plus, esp near a Rapid line... I guess that's one major plus Phase I will bring. The Phase 2 buildings sited at the current Shaker Plaza strip are, indeed, close up on the Rapid station are listed as "future mixed use." However, a) we don't know what kind of mixed use this will be (will it include multi-unit residences?) and b) we can't be certain if or when it will even be built.

LeBron should have driven the lane at the end of regulation, score or get fouled and go to the line to win it.... and save Kyrie, who was nearly heroic tonight with his defense and, potentially, game-changing block on Curry inside 24 seconds. But it's hard to criticize the King with 44 points... Our bench really blew tonight, even JR in the 2nd half when we needed him... ... we still can steal Sunday, hopefully.