mu2010

A question for the board's resident Cleveland history experts. I'm doing some research on the West Bank of the Flats. Wondering about the history of the Nautica area. I can see it was the site of B&O rail tracks (adjacent to sycamore st. slip/docks) for a long time (hence the current jacknife bridge still standing near the Jacobs Pavilion) and I know that Nautica opened around the late 80s. Trying to figure out exactly when the railroad/railyard left the area and how long it was vacant before Nautica. Looking through the historical PD database now but having trouble coming up with good search keywords. If anyone has any clues to help me in my research please let me know.

I agree that there is tremendous unmet demand for condos. Unmet demand for condos means unmet demand for condo financing. Typically what happens with unmet demand is that a risk-taking, ambitious company arises or an existing company starts to look into filling that demand. So the question is when will banks start to lend on condos? When will one bank take the leap? Either an existing bank or a startup? If I were a banker, I'd be looking into this. Perhaps sale prices aren't high enough to justify, but nobody really knows what a new condo would sell for because it hasn't been done in so long. We know one thing though - the market today is totally different than it was when the Avenue project went south. Such financing would likely be at a premium but that's what happens when there is tons of unmet demand.

You are correct, it is noncompetitive from the point of view of the taxing authorities - what I meant though is that this new law will create a whole new class of investment and a whole new source of capital. Investors will be shopping for OZ projects, cities/projects will compete for those dollars, if not for the deduction itself.

The Treasury Department still hasn't released final guidelines for Opportunity Funds, so all the moneyed people are sitting on their hands, but I think it'll be a boon once things get up and running. Hoping it does a little bit to level the playing field between cities and suburban greenfields. But Cleveland will still have to compete with other O-zones nationally for funding.

Interesting, because in many downtown developments it seems to have been the opposite, no? Residential has been profitable while Heinen's, Constantino's, etc are rumored to pay low rents because the landlords view it as an amenity for residents. Not to say NuCLEus would be the same economics, Stark is obviously going much harder on the retail component.

Thanks, never noticed... I'll check it out this week.

Which building are you all referring to? I'm not familiar with this one.

That's so Euro of you! :) Or old-Cleveland, circa 1920's. Washington, DC

With the election in a few months, everything's on hold down there.

Not only is it the least disruptive tax, I feel it is the most moral tax because what you do on your land affects others, there is only a set amount of land and we all share it, we have to be stewards of it for future generations, etc. Libertarians don't like this idea because they say it means the state really owns all the land and we just rent it. If you want to put it that way, I guess I agree. I would say that I believe in a layer of common ownership of the earth for all humans.

It's TGI Friday's by any other name. These quasi-local restaurants are all unique in exactly the same way. Chains like Skyline and Gold Star are fixtures and borderline ubiquitous around Cincinnati, but they're far, far more unique than places like Senate and Bakersfield, which have parallels in every city in the country. Well, you picked the most unique fast food chains in Cincinnati (which, most cities have nothing like Skyline or Gold Star in terms of uniqueness) and put them up against two of the most formulaic 'hipster' restaurants in Cincinnati. I think the general trend still holds that people are eating at more unique/creative places than they were 20 years ago.

Aaron Renn published a great article on this topic today: He quotes from this New York magazine article: So, cities are getting better, and the public's tastes are getting better. Small businesses with some degree of uniqueness are thriving instead of everybody going to TGI Fridays? Sounds like a good thing to me.

I seem to recall a direct figure of about $5 million per year as to what GCRTA pays to collect and count fares. But don't quote me on that. What's also not calculated in collecting fares is the time that the vehicle is stopped waiting for passengers to board and pay their their fares. This delay is highest downtown and University Circle where traffic congestion is arguably the most severe. GCRTA, like all transit agencies, calculates its cost structure and analysis based on several metrics, one of the most prominent of which is "Vehicle Revenue Hours." All Aboard Ohio in the early 2010s rode RTA's ten busiest bus routes plus the Blue/Green lines to see how much trip time was lost to traffic signal and fare collection. We went into this analysis expecting to count only the signal delays, seeking to advocate for signal preemption for buses and light-rail trains. But the time lost due to fare collection was much higher. It constituted something like 10 percent of each bus and light-rail train trip. The signal delay was less than half that, IIRC. One could argue that RTA might make up a substantial portion of its loss from fares if it: + No longer had to maintain/repair/replace fare machines and retrieve/account for fare revenues. + Was able to cut nearly 10 percent of its bus/light-rail Vehicle Revenue Hours by no longer collecting fares. + Tapped federal Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ-- called see mack) funds to install emergency vehicle-compatible traffic signal preemption technology on buses and light-rail trains. + More aggressively pursued advertising revenue, which would presumably grow with more passengers riding free buses and trains that traveled faster. How's that sound? Why don't American buses follow the European proof of payment model? Makes so much more sense. Driver's don't have to deal with cash or fare payment at all, just have inspectors hop on occasionally and check everybody's ticket. (Obviously in Cleveland we have a legal issue with it for the time being but ignore that for the sake of discussion.)

We have the best projects, people.

I read the whole article waiting for the paragraph about their electric bills, which I assumed would be there... it never came.

Went, was awesome

What's this about the parking garage blocking it? The currently existing parking garage at Van Aken district is northeast of the terminus of the tracks, along Warrensville, not blocking expansion. Not sure about future phases.

My $0.02, but don't waste precious vacation time on unnecessary extra travel. You could spend a year in Italy and not come close to seeing everything...stick to that if you can. What city in Italy is the wedding in?

I've flown Wow - the money I saved on the plane ticket I spent on bottles of water during my ten hour layovers.... OK just kidding, while the food and drink at the airport (and the price of the blue lagoon) was ridiculous, it still was a great deal and they are a very pleasant airline.

Today, 25-30 on the train. Lots got on with me at E. 9. Many times more like 15 or 20. Not sure what was going on, tourists maybe. Usually 5-10 use E. 9, 5-10 use Flats East, one or two at Settler's. People that work at the EY building are using it, albeit in small #s.

Wanted to share with you guys - I have become a regular rush hour rider of the Waterfront line, believe it or not, and I have been surprised at how many people are on the trains. Today it was particularly crowded.

Are RedBikes run by the same company that does Columbus' and Chicago's bikeshare? They were the same with making people buy a 24 hour pass for $6-$8 at a minimum. The one in Cleveland is different - you can pay $0.10 a minute with no minimums so if I ride to work it's usually something like $1.50.

So I read the city of Cleveland sent a cease and desist letter to Bird the other day, but today people were riding the scooters all over town. Anyone know what's going on? Edit- apparently Bird just didn't listen haha.

I've never heard of Casper, but it sounds like Ron Traczinczki at 4930 State Road (right at the 480 ramp) had all this figured out decades ago.

The story of the TOD in West Chicago is very interesting. Really Cleveland has lots of examples of this type of organization - there are also dozens of CDCs and also Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. LAND is a great example as well. They all know how to develop in Cleveland neighborhoods. If one of those organizations, or a new organization altogether, took on the specific mission of supporting good land use around the already existing rail/BRT system, citywide (or countywide), we would be well on our way of knowing what to do from there. Gotta convince the Cleveland Foundation to write a grant for this.