archangel

Having the bus stations by tower city is almost necessary so that there's a good, easy link between rail and bus. Then again, I don't know how many passengers transfer between them - maybe it's not that many, and we could have more cross-town buses that don't stop downtown.

That's hard to believe, unless there's something unusual about the features of the apartment and it's top-floor, and it has a roof deck...?

Yes. There's foundation work going on, has been for a couple of weeks, based on casual observation last week.

Hillis might not have the sort of season he had last year, but he is better than Hardesty for several reasons. First, Hardesty is less of a battering ram - optimistically, he's an elusive version of Hillis. But he has shown very little elusiveness and instead runs straight into tacklers - without driving them back, something Hillis can do fairly well if he's able to make upper-body contact. Second, Hardesty can't catch. Hillis can - very well. I understand he's having a rough season, but I would start him as soon as he's near 100%. I don't think he's as fragile as his unfortunate injuries this season make him seem.

A Cleveland Browns player, in a losing game, injures a quarterback and ends up sending two first round picks to our divisional rival. Unbelievable.

I'm curious, does anyone on here live in either of the Stonebridge properties or elsewhere on the west bank of the Flats? What do you think of living there? Is it safe? Do you feel like you can walk to local businesses in Ohio City or is it too far, especially in winter? Any issues with the building or management? There are a bunch of these properties on the market, many at fairly ludicrous discounts, so I'm curious if it's more the neighborhood or more the horrible housing market that's putting good apartments in my price range.

The amount of pending vacant space in downtown office buildings is pretty staggering. More than half of Eaton Center, a portion of the IMG building once IMG folds its office here, much of the Huntington Building...it's gonna take awhile to absorb that, even if there's a pent-up demand for quality new offices. Great opportunity for some apartment conversions in the older buildings, but things like Eaton/IMG don't really lend themselves well to that. Progressive would certainly want their own tower, as they had originally planned, but I doubt they'll ever leave their current campus.

The Raiders are a pretty good team, but the Browns are increasingly looking like a trainwreck. I have lost confidence in my 7-9 prediction. Feels like another 4-5 win season, unless we get handed games on silver platters (a la Miami).

Seidman is interesting to look at, but it's annoying in that when it's sunny, it's a powerful reflector on Euclid to the point of near-blindness. I don't hate it, though. I wonder what impact it has on the interior. For instance, I think the Peter B. Lewis building at Case is interesting from the outside, but the interior is just annoying, weird, and vacant and unused.

^ Triangle is stupidly expensive because CWRU owns it and is milking it for cash. You'd think it would be the other way around, but they deliberately want to limit it to students, including a lot of foreign students who are willing to pay for the convenience, and like you said, no other good options, so you get decent apartments renting for 1000-1100 there, which is 200-300 more than they 'should' be. Most people who live there are CWRU grad students, and predominantly but not all foreign.

Yeah, Shanker retired last year or the year before, I think. Never had the chance to take his class. Are you thinking of Dent? I don't find him very scary. In law school news, part of the 1b campaign, 2m for another endowed professorship. Combined with the one that will eventually replace Gabinet, and another recent endowment for Prof. Adler, the most prominent conservative voice on the faculty, that's three in the last year or so. Good stuff, would like to see more for the general endowment so the school can help more students with scholarships. I guess getting your name on a chaired professorship is too tempting for the donors. :) Burke Chair in Tax, Trusts, Estates (2m): http://law.case.edu/Support/HighlightsinGiving.aspx (first item, scroll down) Verheij Chair (Prof. Adler): http://law.case.edu/Home/News/tabid/251/vw/1/ItemID/196/Default.aspx Unknown 2m Endowment: http://thedaily.case.edu/news/?p=3153 (see bullet points)

If you view yourself as a top-tier development company, you don't do middle-tier projects except in special situations. That goes for many different types of businesses - big law firms don't take minor criminal cases, big design firms don't design small apartment buildings. That helps them maintain a consist 'portfolio', although it doesn't absolutely preclude them from having a 'community development' wing or whatever. I agree it would be nice for them to be more active, but don't expect it. If business conditions change substantially, anything is possible. I really, really, like MRN. They're making money, and they keep doing new stuff. Works for me.

Seconded.

That's encouraging. I bet it would fill up immediately; students/singles will find the area appealing once Uptown opens and there's suddenly stuff to do on Euclid again. Little Italy is still walking distance, and no hill to traverse in the winter for people going to work/class at CWRU. I'm personally trying to get a place at Uptown, so if anyone hears anything about that, let us know...

I think it's a good plan given the site limitations (they can't build on top of the parking garage without spending megabucks). It's very interesting, distinctive, attractive and preserves the open space on the corner. Is something planned for that space? I thought that was where it was going to go, actually. And the eco-theme and appearance generally seems in tune with the direction of CWRU.

Gold star, Ken. Yeah. It reads like a SAT Verbal question for which they picked the 'sounds right, but isn't' answer choice. There are a few good writers at the PD and I wish them well but very rarely do I read something in the Plain Dealer that makes me think, 'Wow, this is a well-informed person with a gift for writing.' I guess with the size of the paper and the change in audience demographic, there's going to be an inevitable loss of quality.

I posted the PD article; I could not find a hotel thread. Removing the brick exterior = good.

Wasn't sure where to put this. Crowne Plaza in downtown Cleveland sold; Optima, Sage plan $64 million overhaul as a Westin hotel CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Downtown Cleveland's second-largest hotel will close next month and be converted into a four-star Westin. An investor group closed a deal late Wednesday to buy the Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre from defunct financial-services giant Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Optima Ventures and Sage Hospitality paid $9 million cash for the 472-room hotel and parking garage, at 777. St. Clair Ave. In November, the partners will start a $64.5 million overhaul of the building, a money-losing property in need of dramatic renovations. The Westin would open in mid-2013, with a new exterior, a new roof, 481 remodeled hotel rooms, a restaurant, a fitness center and - possibly - a spa. The buyers hope to connect the hotel to Cleveland's historic Public Auditorium, creating an indoor pathway to a new convention center and medical mart complex set to open in fall 2013. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/crowne_plaza_in_downtown_cleve.html

All yours.

Most of these things exist on or immediately adjacent to West 25th, actually. There's a pretty good bookstore (Horizontal Books), there's a coffee place right by Market Square that isn't too expensive, you can get bakery in the West Side Market (not every day, granted), food - again, West Side Market, Dave's if you prefer a supermarket (I'll grant you this Dave's is a bit pricey), there's a Yoga place above Dragonfly, Elegansia is a clothing store (next to where Moda was/Mitchell's will be), and there was a pop-up clothing store across the street recently. Also, there's a bike shop, a little electronics store (anyone know the deal with that place?), and something will be going in the empty but now renovated storefront across from the projects/next to Lutheran. We do lack a good sit-down pizza place, and the neighborhood isn't terribly kid friendly, although it's not really hostile either. St. Ignatius students use Ohio City Burrito as an afterschool hangout, they seem like the best customers. They're always there when I stop in. There's a library walking distance, but it's pretty overwhelmed by unsupervised kids. They need other places to go. I totally share concern for the long-term fortunes of the neighborhood and I've commented several times that I'd like to see more affordable rental apartments, redevelopment of public housing, and I'm sure many people here would still like to see the RTA Red Line station on the 'better' side of Lorain, but things are pretty good. It's still okay to criticize. But we can enjoy what we've got, too!

Sports threads are not supposed to be nicey-nicey, IMHO :) The best way to judge Shurmur so far is how he does with what Heckert gives him. When his new defensive line gets zero penetration, that's bad, because we already know he has no receivers and a QB who may be Brady Quinn and may be Drew Brees. Jauron should be an effective coordinator in theory, but currently there are too many big misses to let him off the hook. And not using Hillis more, even if he's a step slow, was not the right call if they wanted Colt to throw to the RB - Hardesty doesn't look bad running, but four drops is beyond atrocious. I don't think Braylon ever managed that. 2-2 isn't terrible for this team. For the Browns to have a chance to be near .500, they have to steal a game from Balt and Pitt, and I'm not convinced that's possible. Seattle, St. Louis, Jacksonville, those are games we 'should' win, which means we'll lose at least one. Others? I wouldn't favor Cleveland in any of them. Mangini stole games he should have lost and lost games he should have won. So far, all we've done was steal a game we should have won to begin with (Miami) and lost one we should have won, although Cinci may not be as bad as people think.

Yes There is a potential for a late-season meltdown given how weighted the difficulty of the schedule is. Generally, the team looks like a slightly flashier version of last year's Browns. The thing that worries me the most is the failure of the defense today. I really have no idea what will happen the rest of the year. No way they have a winning season. I'd say 6 or 7 wins if Hillis gets back to full-time. If not, we're in big trouble.

^ That would be an appalling result. Who do we write to, other than Congress?

^ Agree that those are all issues, but aren't most of them primarily issues of insufficient resources as a result of pretty recent budget cuts? How is it Calabrese's fault that his budget has been hacked to pieces? I would LOVE to see the budget numbers of RTA compared to other mass transit organizations and compare the dollar-for-dollar expenses as compared to revenues and tax funding. My suspicion is that RTA is, in fact, doing well to maintain most of its system on the budget it has available to it. 200k is not chump change, but honestly, a 20k bonus is nothing. If he is in fact doing a good job, he should be retained, and you retain good managers by rewarding them. From what I've seen, many people object to bonuses because they think it's anathema to receive a 'bonus' during tough times. In the case of golden parachutes for the CEOs of failed banks or grossly mismanaged companies, I agree - nobody should have license to destroy either the public's tax dollar or shareholder value to the insane degree we saw during the post-Lehman collapse of many firms, such as Washington Mutual, etc. I don't think RTA belongs in that category. This hinges on whether or not Calabrese is doing the best job he can with the resources available to him. I am not in the know, but I'd give him a certain deference until it can be shown that Calabrese is even capable under the current circumstances of remedying the problems we all know about and recognize. The service level certainly isn't what I'd like, and I still drive rather than take the RTA (mostly), and I think station maintenance is a huge issue, but how much money do these guys really have? If Calabrese gets up and decides he's going to be an inspirational leader to his union employees, but he can't afford to give them a new contract, do you think their attitude will change? I know most of us here want to avoid the 'go along, get along' culture that has pervaded the public sector in Cleveland for many years, but I'm not sure that's what's happening here. The one thing I agree on - he shouldn't have caved to the NAACP/ACLU, but again, litigating costs money, and losing might cost a lot of money.

I've looked at the BLS stats, and they're encouraging in that it's manufacturing and services leading the way, while government shrinks. What I'd like to know (and perhaps some of you are more versed in the BLS website) is how many of these jobs are previously furloughed workers, and how many are actually 'new' jobs. And perhaps I'm mistaken about 'new' jobs being more valuable...