archangel

Cavs are pretty useless without Varejao and Irving.

I always thought that was a power plant. Good to know.

This is an amazing discovery, and key to prolonging useful life. And this is one of my personal fears. Alzheimer's is cruel and unforgiving. This seems like Nobel caliber work.

Varejao is better than Deng, but the Bulls (and the Heat) are unquestionably the strongest teams in the East. It would be strange to have the Heat's Terrible Trio there but only Derrick Rose from Chicago. I guess the argument is that Varejao has the opportunity to get the minutes and boards he gets because of an overall weak roster, but I'm not sure I buy that. Irving didn't deserve it - not sure why anyone thought he'd be in there. He isn't there yet. Varejao was definitely a borderline all-star, though. If he has another season like this one, maybe he'll get a look. Irving will be in there in a season or two.

Pretty interesting point, Biker. I'd expect it to be a little lower than Vinton County because of the massive difference in population density, but it's certainly more distorted than it should be. And nobody can argue that Cuyahoga County doesn't need it. Roads in Cleveland and suburbs alike are in dire need of major resurfacing. Would love to see more data on that.

The money comes from different sources. The Cleveland International Fund is probably not liable even if Zai is personally. No problem for FEB.

The amount of discussion these provoke justifies them continuing to publish them. Someday, they may even be an actually useful metric of...something. And we're moving off the list this year, because it ain't snowing, and the Cavs are better...right?

I think an open/close dome would be fantastic. But I think it should be left for the next iteration of Cleveland Browns Stadium. This one is already a staggering 12 years old...by NFL standards, they'll be arguing for a new one around 2025. The expense is considerable, given what Randy Lerner will require the city to contribute...I'd rather we not tax ourselves any earlier than we need to. Maybe the benefits of the dome would justify moving up new construction, I don't know. Another option would be to model it after CenturyLink Field in Seattle, which has a roof that covers most of the seats but not the field. CBS cost 373M in adjusted dollars, Lucas Oil (retractable dome) cost 735M, Cowboys Stadium (partially retractable dome) cost 1.3B (!!!!), Ford Field (non-opening dome) 525M, CenturyLink was around 400M. So, we got a bargain, but maybe not the one that would pay for itself in the best way.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that CSU abandon the commuters. In fact, I think the main argument worth hearing from more CSU students on is whether the South Garage is really as much of a PITA as Clevelander is suggesting. A relative commuted to CSU, but by bus, so I don't really have any perspective except as someone who commutes to my own school and doesn't mind swiping my card and would happily walk a few more minutes if it meant my parking would be as cheap as CSU's. Given the distribution of population in NEO, there is good reason to welcome commuters to CSU. I just don't see how that has been horribly compromised by what is honestly a pretty small shift towards residential.

Sounds good, thanks for sharing. And I agree that this has a lot of synergy going for it. Is 'Building 5' just that one low building facing the river, or that one and the taller one to its upper left? This would definitely go on my list of places to live. I may even have money by 2014.

I agree that to some extent, we 'should' have thick skin when dealing with the challenges of moving into an area that may have been depressed for awhile or is not racially integrated, but that doesn't mean we 'should' accept unacceptable behavior. In fact, rejecting it assertively and effectively is one way we change places. Block clubs and other neighborhood organizations can and should fight threatening and illegal behavior and make it clear to perpetrators that they will not be welcomed and that the law will go after them if they make trouble there. I'm not going to go into who 'should' and shouldn't feel threatened and when, because it's all subjective and not something we can really debate. But what we do know is that it's possible to make it work, but that we cannot force anyone to do it. It has to be based on self-interest and be beneficial. Cities aren't going to be changed by masochists who secretly want to live in the suburbs but torture themselves - they're going to be changed by people enthusiastic for urban environments. If people from the suburbs eventually move in too, hey, great. The abandonment of the city was white flight, and later wealth flight, and now it's changing to just general flight of the poor and, interestingly, african-americans (see: http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20120131/BLOGS03/120139954). It's likely, I think, that Cleveland in 2020 will be more diverse, but have lower overall proportions of people who identify as 'white' or 'black'. More Asians, Latinos, Indians, and Middle Eastern people are likely based on immigration patterns. And I think that's a sign of a maturing city - historical barriers fall, and new neighborhoods emerge where there is economic opportunity. Cleveland is a bargain right now, and isn't a bad job market - so there's reason for optimism, if people are willing to move in and take a stake in the community. Doesn't have to be much - not everyone can volunteer or donate to charity, but just living in the city is a contribution of its own kind. None of this really requires making up or exaggerating bad things about the suburbs. I grew up in a stereotypical white bread suburb and I still like the place. I would consider living there - schools and safety are huge reasons. But I think I can make a bigger difference in Cleveland itself, and I think raising kids in the city is doable, but to each their own.

Because the Republicans have held power in both houses for a long time. They are making a consolidated effort at consolidating everything in Columbus. Ending the local liquor tax (as JobsOhio apparently does) and income tax would go a long way to put Columbus in charge of everything. I think the answer is fewer, more consolidated municipalities delivering more efficient scalable sevices, and perhaps an end to townships, not the end of all local tax powers. All this will do, lacking serious school funding reform, is make property taxes and misc taxes (admissions, bed, other?) even more unbearable as cities look for revenue...

If only there was some sort of specialized road for carrying cargo across the country. Maybe we could design it to follow a fixed system of durable iron rails, to reduce friction and allow for tremendous shipping capacity for a single 'train' of cars, latched together...

Ridiculous! The self defeating attitude appears again! Ridiculous? I don't think it's about an 'attitude' when it happens twice. It's financial liability, delay, and doubt. Two concrete pour mishaps that could have killed people are inexcusable, period. I wrote off the parking garage thing as a freak accident, but having a portion of the actual casino collapse in Cinci is far worse and raises some serious questions. If you want some optimism, at least it happened now, and not after opening. Plus, Cleveland's is now the safest of all of them (because it's a good existing building :P) - but who knows what additional delays might be incurred as a result of these mishaps?

I emailed a while ago and haven't heard back either. Does anyone know when they're supposed to be done/start renting?

I agree, what a pathetic whine. At CWRU, we pay twice as much for worse parking. CSU has so many amenities by virtue of being a re-imagined campus, I can't imagine complaining about facilities if I went to CSU. Their gym makes ours look like a joke. Turns out I'm too busy going to school to care much. I actually checked where the South Garage was...that's two blocks, three max to 90% of the buildings? I could do that on crutches in winter without much of a problem.

Lakewood attracts a lot. For my part, I live in Ohio City and agree with tradition7.

Get an antenna, consider getting Hulu or Netflix depending on your favorite shows/movies. Way cheaper.

Cleveland has good (outstanding, really) quality water, and I can't recall any problems even while growing up, but their administration has obviously taken a nosedive in the past few years. Several of my relatives in the suburbs have had serious billing issues that took a long time to resolve, and customer service was unresponsive or rude. They hire people with serious attitude problems, and probably don't pay them very well. Apparently it's gotten better, and they (recently) tend to be apologetic and responsive to customers who have complained. I'm not sure it's worthwhile for Westlake to go through all this, and I hate to see more fragmentation. I think Cleveland can keep them, but I'm not sure absolute hardball is the way to go about it. Cleveland might get some money back, but they will certainly galvanize Clough and his supporters by being confrontational. Westlake didn't create the problem, and even though they may be adding to it, deciding to play hardball will just throw gasoline on the fire unless the lawyers for the city are very assured in their position. And even then, Westlake might just bite the bullet and pay to be rid of them.

That's what happens when you use a second-rate business wire service to write your PR. I cringed.

What's the great loss if the original building is demolished? What makes it outstanding or notable? And why, if the Clinic wants to get rid of it, shouldn't Cleveland let them? The Clinic is a forward-looking institution, and there's certainly little if any neighborhood to be disrupted when the building is already surrounded and dominated by a campus with a very different vision.

The water is a little cloudy, isn't it?

As I thought, recent drops in unemployment are primarily a result of large groups of discouraged workers giving up, and thereby being dropped from the pool of potential workers for statistical purposes... http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/01/unemployment_rate_in_ohio_drop.html Unemployment rate in Ohio drops to 8.1% as thousands drop out of work force Ohio's unemployment rate has fallen further as thousands of people quit looking for work or otherwise took themselves out of the labor force. The Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday that the state had joblessness of 8.1 percent in December, down from 8.5 percent in November. Department spokesman Ben Johnson says the decline primarily was the result of 21,000 Ohioans taking themselves out of the labor market. He says it's likely some were long-term unemployed who got discouraged and gave up their job search, but he says the number could include others such as workers who chose to go back to school.

^ I think that's the best, most realistic plan for an actual Cleveland subway I've heard. I could actually see that happening 10-20 years from now, assuming continued growth along Euclid and the Healthline becoming even more popular.

Design should be less grand/monumental and more functional and elegant. I like big stone structures but I think we missed the boat on that - aren't they prohibitively expensive now? And it doesn't really make sense for that area, since it's going to be over/around a highway. I liked the idea of 'capping' the freeway with something, and the comparison to the galleria is good.