ClevelandOhio

Thanks! I wonder why they dont do the average weekday ridership numbers

I think the restaurant component has been reported all along, so it's not a total surprise, but I too reacted pretty strongly when I heard Fishman mention it on the radio program. What do people think- will FEB be able to sustain 5 or 6 restaurants as part of Phase I (so before the apartments), given the long winter and relative isolation from the rest of downtown? The hotel and office building definitely aren't enough by themselves to keep that many seats filled. Will certainly be interesting to watch it unfold. I can see a few restaurants surviving at the base of the hotel and office tower. The one on the boardwalk im not so sure about. They will be a great spot during the summer, but during the winter it should be tough for now. Especially since they will be extremely isolated from everything else. Even in the summer it could be hard. The office tower and hotel arent too far from west 9th and west 6th so they have a greater chance at survival in my opinion. Plus they have the hotel and office tower to always have some flow of people down there.

Thanks! Is there raw number ridership numbers out there?

They now want to build a new science building here.

Except that the Shoreway descends from the bridge over West 3rd and points west, to below East 9th. The descent could stop midway between West 3rd and East 9th, then ramp down gradually east of there. And I agree that a lot of Shoreway traffic turns at East 9th, which is why East 18th needs to be extended to the Shoreway to take pressure off it. That might also encourage more residential and office development farther east along the bluff. East 18th is where the rapid loop should go! They could build a CSU/Playhouse square rapid station on that useless grass lot next to the Urban Studies building.

^ You mean financing wont be found and the project wont be completed by next year?! WTF! Business as usual. Thats the reason Cleveland sucks! :-P

I took the waterfront line so it was running. Nobody knew it was, and it seemed to not be running very often. No rta worker at the station either.

Maybe union staffing issues precluded it. Or perhaps RTA wasn't confident that they could get enough drivers willing to work overtime. If they cannot mandate their drivers to work overtime, then it is clear to me the union runs RTA, not RTA's managers. But to not run a weekday schedule on the busiest transit riding day of the year -- one day -- tells me this was a decision borne out of inertia. Overtime requires extra money, and RTA had previously announced that it has a little extra cash to play with this year: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/11/rta_wants_to_bolster_bus_and_r.html Could a CMAQ grant be had? Could sponsors be found? We're talking the potential for reach a huge number of riders and the corporate goodwill gained from keeping lots of drunks off the road is worth something to major sponsors (Budweiser, Miller, even the automakers). Ford: "We normally want you to drive our cars, but on St. Patrick's Day, if you're going to be out having a good time, ride RTA instead. We'll see you back on the road tomorrow." As for bus operations, since buses no longer operate through downtown anymore, turn back all bus routes at the edges of downtown and run two connecting, cross-downtown shuttles using the extra-long, articulated buses on designated transit-only routes to be kept clear of pedestrians. Perhaps these could be St. Clair or Huron and Ontario/Huron. That's my two cents. They could put an advertiser's logo on the green all day passes they were selling as well.

On the far east side RTA was not running the usual 39F which stops at shoregate in Willowick. Since st patricks day in normally on a weekday, that bus is running and is pretty much a direct route downtown on the highway. I grew up over there and I know tons of people use it to get down to the parade. Peoples only experience with RTA. So since it was not running, a lot of people just drove over the the green line making that route even more packed. People who didnt know ended up getting on the 30, which runs on weekends, and got dropped off at Windermere probably confused as hell. Then they added to the crowds on the redline. Using the saturday schedule was a huge mistake.

An aerial perspective. Cleared site and demolition beginning on the arts building to the right.

We had a time slot as well.

^New coast guard station.

^ Yes the middle one will have the retail

Great set of pictures from all over the place! Thanks for sharing. And thanks for the picture updates on several projects going on throughout the city.

You mean more than just the total which includes County Jail inmates?? :-P Yeah I knew I did the math before and came up with a more true downtown population stat. I got 6,817. 668 was not included in the census, so you can add another 400 to that getting you at 7,217. But that number still includes section 8, and public housing, which aren't the usual numbers people want to brag about, and not the population critical in gaining retail downtown. This is my original post describing where the number came from and why we often hear 10,000 and 12,000. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26665.msg592170.html#msg592170

WOW, amazing, thanks for sharing. Looks to be in great shape. Its such a shame this amazing/beautiful space is locked up everyday and nobody gets to enjoy it. I really hope someday it will be open for the public to enjoy. While I hope it gets occupied, I would hate to see the wrong use go in. Looks great though, like its ready to move in today.

This is crucial. I hope the Casino doesn't just ignore the fact that they have a great connection to public transportation, and that RTA doesn't miss the great opportunity of having a casino connected to their rapid hub, and next to their bus hub. I havent seen much, and maybe they are waiting till it opens, but RTA needs to start getting their name out and promoting themselves to Casino goers.

How long has the Calfee sign been up? Just noticed it now when seeing your pics for the second time.

I think I heard they will be closed for about 5 months.

Agreed! Thanks for taking pictures and posting them here!

66. is Lakeside and East 13th

I still think we need to crack 10,000 true downtown residents.

It is a college version of Barnes and Noble, so a large section will be devoted to college text books. But this one seems like it will be much larger than the one at CSU, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Thanks for sharing!

Here was my experience. There were three of us and we got on at the Green Road station at a little past 10 am. Good crowd already at that time, but the ride was smooth. On the way home, it was a whole different story. We entered tower city at about 4:45 I believe, and the crowd was massive. The lines were nearing the main entrances of tower city, a little past caribou coffee. Extremely packed, no order or instructions, and appeared to be very dangerous. I decided we should walk down to East 9th and see if we can hop on there and bypass the crowd! When we got there, there were only about 5 other people waiting. We were waiting for over 30 minutes and the train had yet to come. By that time, the station crowd went up to about 30 people. Very nice compared to the thousands of people at tower city. Also the group seemed to be more mature, and less drunken teenagers. Tony Grossi was waiting with us too, HA. Anyways we began doubting the train was going to come, but it finally did. Unfortunately it was the Blue line, but we hopped on anyways. When we got to Tower City you could see the massive lines on the station platforms. That part of the line seemed to be well organized and under control. We decided from seeing that to just stay on the train and get off at Shaker Square and transfer to the Green Line. Looked to be about 20 others who did the same, and were waiting at the Shaker Square station. Train came about 5 minutes after blue line left and was packed as hell, but we found some standing room on the last car of the train. So overall since I knew the system, it wasn't tooo bad, but for those who didn't, it was a nightmare. I heard the lines were up to 3 hours long. My brothers friends arrived at the green road station at 12:30 to head down there and was told it was a two to three hour wait. I told them to go early but they didnt listen, and paid the price. I would suggest that next year they promote the use of the waterfront line, and let people know those stations actually exist, and also man those stations. They need to do something to stop the extreme, dangerous crowds at tower city.