mu2010

I'm trying to put aside my biases here, but I admit my very strong bias against Donald Trump. Political speech on a billboard is the essence of the first amendment, is it not? I drove by a bunch of Trump billboards on the turnpike, sometimes at business establishments, and I didn't like it, but I wouldn't say it's inappropriate. Is it the profanity that bothers you? I don't think the guy could've made his point without it, and he censored every letter.

They over-complicate it, I think they are trying to make it easier to people who aren't used to them but it has the opposite effect. As far as I know most of the British ones are one lane, and I don't recall any in Italy that have lane lines at all. The one in Cleveland by Steelyard Commons (Quigley and W. 14th?), I am spending most of my focus trying to figure out what lane to go into instead of watching for traffic. Last time somebody honked at me but I don't know if I even did anything wrong.

In Cleveland they should rework MLK/Cedar/Carnegie/Stokes/Stearns area by the rapid stop. And also the part in Cleveland Heights as you head up the hill and it crosses Euclid Heights. Whenever I drive over there, I have no idea where I'm going to get spit out. I just leave it to the fates and course correct after I get through it.

Yes it is LOL. Sure it's not the 60's-90's version, and is called a "Lifestyle Center", but come on. It's still a shopping centered anchored by large format retailers with some residential on its own isolated property. Lifestyle center is just a real estate term meant to make people think they are getting something new, when all they are getting is a repackaged mall. In the Cleveland area most of the malls in the stable middle class areas are doing fine. That includes the two mentioned above as well as the three others in the area. So we are down to five or six, when as late as 2001 we had around 10 malls. I almost didn't put Crocker, but I don't know anything about the other west side malls so I couldn't comment on them lol. Is Great Northern still going or is South Park the main one? I heard Parmatown is like the West Side version of Richmond. Never been to any of them except Crocker so that's why I put it. I recognize that even if it's a mall, it's not the type of mall that's going "dead."

^ That's pretty crazy. A lot of these other malls which have been closing have been nearly dead since I was a kid, but I remember Tri-County was always busy, new, and nice when I was in college at Miami ten years ago. For all the hubub about dead malls, there are plenty of malls doing fine, just that each metro area can support fewer malls than in the past and the losers lose big. In Cleveland Beachwood and Crocker Park are good, in Columbus you have Tuttle, Polaris, and Easton all are fine, and in Cincy it seemed Tri-County and Kenwood were doing well. Then again, I visited none of them this year so maybe my ideas are dated...

It was fine until he got to the part about the bite mark.

I would say the same thing about Renacci. The idea of a politician who openly wants to be more like Trump is appalling. Trump didn't even choose to be Trump, he just is Trump. If that Trump inauguration day tweet from Dennis Kucinich is real, that'll be enough to sink him in the D primary if his rivals just get the word out about it. Dems aren't going to be in the mood for anyone who has that kind of praise for Donald.

It'll be interesting to see if Cordray or whoever wins the D nomination can make education a big issue. That seems to be the big thing that the suburban Republicans I know dislike Kasich for - "He's destroyed the schools." Referring to underfunding, overtesting, and ridiculous teacher evaluations which don't account for the students at all.

It's quite early. I'm not saying it will turn out to be a passionate race, but I think it's too early to say it isn't one or it won't be one. I think the campaign specifically for governor will be relatively calm because I think we're going to get Dewine vs. Cordray who are two calm, measured people in this era of chaos. But I also think that due to it being Trump's midterm, there will be high turnout and lots of energized Dems, that it'll be very close and the best chance for Dems in Ohio in what feels like forever.

I just spent a few minutes poking around their website. It's an interesting idea to use blockchain for flight logs, but I don't get why it has to also be a currency. They explain it in their white paper but I still don't get it. They are treating the currency sale as some kind of way to raise capital except you don't own any actual shares of the company, you own a currency that isn't really related to what they do.

Maybe we'll be treated to a free Willie Nelson concert as part of the campaign

Portman is inoffensive, but the past year has made me really dislike him. He seems to just want to hide away, never wants to open his mouth at all let alone take the lead on a key issue (except opiate crisis which while important, doing something about it is pretty noncontroversial). We never get any town halls, he never comes out strongly for or against anything, we never have any idea what he's thinking. The headlines always say "Marco Rubio wants x" or "Bob Corker wants Y" or "Ted Cruz said Z." And McCain, Collins, Flake, Murkowski etc... but never, ever Rob Portman. Maybe he's working it behind the scenes but it appears that he isn't. It's like we aren't even being represented at all. I noticed this behavior with the Obamacare repeal saga but truthfully, it's how he always comports himself. At the end of the day, I'd rather have him than a Trumpublican, but seriously, do something man.

Did not expect that this afternoon.

It probably only needs a sprucing up, they can get rid of the parking lot that takes up half the block and focus on business development around the park. Still not exactly sure what the 200 ft thing is (fountain? Statue?) but they are probably trying for something distinct... A symbol.

The technology is for real, that doesn't mean there's not a bubble in all these currencies.

Longform article on the subway today in NYT Magazine. I've only skimmed it so far but it gets into the history and future of the system and some great photos as well. The Case for the Subway It built the city. Now, no matter the cost — at least $100 billion — the city must rebuild it to survive. By JONATHAN MAHLER AN. 3, 2018 Long before it became an archaic, filthy, profligate symbol of everything wrong with our broken cities, New York’s subway was a marvel — a mad feat of engineering and an audacious gamble on a preposterously ambitious vision. “The effect it is to have on the city of New York is something larger than any mind can realize,” said William Gaynor, the New York mayor who set in motion the primary phase of its construction. A public-works project of this scale had never before been undertaken in the United States, and even now, more than a century later, it is hard to fully appreciate what it did for the city and, really, the nation. Read more

Given we have a shortage in 21st century office towers, and that historic tax credits are disincentivizing new construction for apartments and hotels as long as we have dozens old office buildings to convert, you'd think more office space would be the ticket for NuCLEus, but maybe that just isn't what Stark wants to do... he wants this to be the hot spot to live/stay/play.

How can you make a legally binding lease for a property that nobody knows when it's going to get built? Does Stark have some kind of provision where he pays for you to break existing leases?

The parade/protest is bush-league trashy bull**** that embarrasses our city like bottlegate. On Jackson I don't know. On one hand the Browns fired way too many coaches way too soon over the past two decades. I'm tired of all the regime changes. But on the other hand, Hue has managed to do worse than all of them. We should have kept Mangini, Pettine, and/or Chud.

It's interesting to see him say that the tax bill benefits urban development and apartments over suburban single family construction. I'd welcome that, but I'm not sure I buy it. As he says, $750,000 can get you a lot of house in NEO.

Those Appalachian/Ohio River Valley areas did flip and they are exactly what gave Trump his victory

I would have said OU and Miami are the next "best" to OSU though it depends on what exactly we are evaluating... OU and MU prioritize their undergraduate programs over research output. OSU is the opposite, they are a national research powerhouse but their undergraduate program has become an assembly line with sophomores teaching freshmen at Friday afternoon "recitation" sessions.

You would think he would want to build physical structures given his history building skyscrapers. However, his ignorance of public policy combined with his general laziness means he defers to traditional 'swamp' Republicans on all actual matters while he runs around trashing the media and campaigning.

Do you mean that it is just a suburban style shopping center too close to downtown in general, or that it is specifically bad even for suburban shopping centers?

^^Yeah, I think gerrymandering gets us nuttier Rs, not necessarily more Rs.