mu2010

In Burnham's defense, there was supposed to be a train station where Mall C is which would have made the place always busy. Still though they were too preoccupied with building grand structures and underestimated the value of mixed uses in getting a place to be busy. If all you have is courthouses and board of education buildings, it's never going to be a happening place. As far as the pedestrian bridge, I support something in general, totally capping it off with a land bridge would be nice, obviously ridiculously expensive. I don't remember what the current plans are, there's been so many iterations, but I just hope the thing isn't a rickety piece of junk.

That's all I was referring to. You do in fact see human beings there. They are far underutilized otherwise.

The malls are probably busier now than they've ever been (at least in the past fifty years) due to hotels and convention center. It's kind of 'tourist' turf though, locals don't go there. Which is a shame because it's nice over there.

^'Slave' is over the top obviously and you knew that, but I agree with you. My mom is an elementary school teacher and we were talking about those "fundraisers" they make the kids do where they put the kids in assembly and guilt them into guilting their friends and family to buy junk and also they give them all these equally junky prizes for doing well, which the kids go crazy for. It's all kind of icky to me. The kids don't even understand what they're doing.

Hopefully also to the trains. If they don't mention their proximity to the rapid often in their promotional and marketing materials, I'll be disappointed.

Southern newer-growth cities just can't compare to the rust belt/legacy cities in terms of the built environment, beautiful building and housing stock, especially Cincinnati which is one of the best. They've just been eating our lunch in economic development in places like the NC, ATL, TX. If Ohio could succeed at attracting industries of the future instead of always looking to industries of the past, we would have that vitality. I don't buy weather excuses. Our state is mismanaged.

Never been to Nashville, but when I think of it I picture a relatively cool, small, central city area surrounded by an entire metro area which looks like Polaris Parkway, except with even more megachurches. Doesn't appeal to me. But I highly doubt this link is a fair representation. I could find plenty of streets like that in any city. Five minutes of googling east nashville reveal other, more interesting main drags. It does seem, however, that the housing stock is nearly all blah postwar suburban.

In fairness, rents are typically higher than mortgages anyways. I've seen houses like that in uncool CLE suburbs with decent schools renting for a grand. Maybe they have 3 BR instead of 2.

To add to the above, when Clevelanders bemoan the state of the lakeshore it's almost always followed by Chicago comparisons. Chicago, however, also has a massive highway separating their street grid from the lake, so that's not even an excuse. It's probably a bit easier than in Cleveland, but getting to the lake from Downtown Chicago isn't a picnic either. And they even prohibit development between that freeway and the lake. The area between Browns Stadium and Voinovich can be our Navy Pier area, but other than that, we should just give as much of it to the Metroparks as we can, and try to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the Shoreway. If Burke is ever closed it should be a park... That's the actual Chicago model. What has been done by Edgewater is pretty much what we should be doing.

I'm a bit skeptical to open up massive parts of the waterfront to development, especially Burke, just because we don't have population growth in our region and I'm worried it would cannibalize revitalization in existing neighborhoods. I'd prefer to focus on using the waterfront for public parkland for now. Focus on Edgewater and also Gordon Park which could be way more than it is. The CEI power plant that was torn down over there is a huge opportunity for Gordon Park. Perhaps there could be some limited development by the Browns Stadium and the museums but we are better off focusing on existing neighborhoods with aged buildings. A new neighborhood on the lake will turn out to be like Crocker Park.

That drove me nuts as a bartender. We had these paper coasters for people to sit their beer on and people would rip them into a million pieces. I was told it's a habit people have when they're experiencing social anxiety... something I'm sure is very common when people are going out to eat and drink. Still was really annoying. I've always peeled the labels off ketchup and beer bottles and the like, though I don't think I usually tear up napkins. I don't think it's social anxiety because I do it at home too, but who knows.

Theoretical question - say Democrats won supermajorities in both houses this coming November, and say Trump was squeaky clean. Democrats move to impeach and remove from office just because they don't like him... as a check on his power. No "high crimes and misdemeanors" are proven - is that impeachment legitimate or can it be challenged in court? Because that's a pretty key distinction. Is impeachment simply a congressional override or does wrongdoing have to occur? Obviously I know the PA constitution might be different than the federal one in how it's defined.

I've always heard it was a well paying job... is it the over-the-road guys who make far more?

Yeah, I think the better thing in Cleveland would be a commuter tax and/or a parking tax. Rideshare is an improvement over private cars.

My first instinct is to hate this idea. At first glance it looks like a woeful public entity penalizing a private successful one. There are loads of external costs to society involved with private transportation though. Congestion, fossil fuel consumption, etc. To me these types of taxes are the best way to fund public transit. In NYC when you drive over the bridges into Manhattan and pay a toll, it goes to transit. Makes perfect sense. Due to overbuilding of road infrastructure, we might not have the congestion problems in Cleveland necessarily so you could make an argument against it there, but fundamentally it's sound.

And I'm just going to elaborate on Marxism. I assume that the insinuation is that this type of expenditure redistributes wealth and is therefore Marxist. Redistribution of wealth is not Marxism. All governments redistribute wealth with every penny they spend. Even a hardcore libertarian state has redistribution of wealth when they form police services. There are wealthier citizens subsidizing police services for poorer citizens. So how do we tell if something is Marxist? A couple of things come to mind: Marxism is a)rooted in class distinction or "class struggle" b)involves total government control of an economy and c)is revolutionary. Federal spending on transit is none of the above.

That is Marxism, not freedom. Marxism is unsustainable. Crying about that won't change it either. We have to learn to live in the real world. Public investment is not Marxism. "Crying" and pretending that it's Marxism won't change that fact either. Learn what Marxism is.

Anyone ride the HL lately? The drivers checking fares is going pretty smoothly these days. Now that everyone knows to head to the front when they get on, it's not so bad. I just rode a rush hour bus from Public Square to the Clinic.

Oh I always do but I feel bad if I don't. Self checkout I don't have to worry about it. It's just a personal preference.

I always go to self checkout haha. I find I can do the job better and I enjoy not having to make small talk.

How long has Chabot's district stretched up into Warren County? Is that part of the 2010 redistricting? I actually remember in 2006-2010 fitting quite nicely in most of Hamilton County, am I mistaken? I had thought it was one of the least gerrymandered in the state until I just looked at it now. I can't find old maps online.

It's good to keep some of those dumpy old buildings though, gets a good diversity of businesses in there who can't afford new construction.

It's not about the health inspections haha. Chains destroy food culture. I used to work near the Polaris area in Columbus if you guys know it. Plenty of decent places to eat but it's just so dull and uninspired after a while. We would go travel to rural Ohio towns for work and there'd always be interesting random local places to eat because the chains hadn't crowded them out. It's good for Downtown Cleveland to get chains, and they aren't going to put the local restaurants out of business. It's really the suburbs where chains just suck the life out of the place.

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the message was not politics, it was Larry Nassar.

Lots of girls from out of town on the dating apps, to the point where I've been surprised.