CMH_Downtown

Long story short, don't expect this to last longer than 3 quarters; a year at max. It's doomed to failure.

The story plus video from NBC 4: Concept Of Street Cars Moves Forward Public Meeting Set To Include Public Opinion POSTED: 5:10 pm EST March 22, 2006 UPDATED: 6:09 pm EST March 22, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Could there soon be a new, yet old way to get around downtown? Mayor Michael Coleman first brought up the idea of rail street cars in downtown Columbus in his State of the City address a few weeks ago. Columbus could end up with a street car system on Broad and High streets, NBC 4's Elizabeth Scarborough reported. Coleman announced Wednesday that the Streetcar Working Group -- made up of about 40 area leaders -- will be investigating the viability of street cars in Columbus. http://www.nbc4i.com/news/8191945/detail.html

Rumor, speculation, and inuendo is the name of the game in this industry. I wouldn't put a lot of worry into this until word comes straight from the airlines' mouthes. I would imagine that IF (big if) Continental were to enter into some kind of merger agreement with another carrier, that Continental would be the airline buying the other carrier, which could be in Cleveland's favor. I cannot really see Continental making a bid for Northwest, especially since their fleet types are very different and there is a good deal of overlap in their combined networks. However, Continental and Northwest have been very close partners for a long time, and if Continental wants Northwest's vast Asian network bad enough, an argument could be made in favor of a complete merger between the two carriers. The effect on Cleveland would probably be pretty drastic, given Northwest gorgeous new McNamara terminal in Detroit, which would undoubtedly absorb the capacity currently held in CLE. At best, given that situation, I could see Continental keeping a sort of "focus city" operation at Hopkins, only flying high density and specialty routes such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Orlando. At worst, a complete pulldown would occur, with service only to the combined carrier's remaining hubs. A merger between Delta and Continental would, in my opinion, by a little more plausable, especially given both carriers fly similar fleet types and are already in the same airline alliance. However, there is a lot of overlap in their route networks, and taking on Delta's enormous debt would be a big challenge. Cleveland's stance in a combined Continental and Delta would be a toss-up between them and Delta's behemoth of a hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. While Delta has cut back in CVG in recent months, Delta and Delta Connection still operate nearly twice as many flights as Continental, Continental Express, and Continental Connection fly from CLE. CVG's facility are also far better equiped for hub operations, with 3 parallel runways spaced far enough apart for simultaneous takeoffs and landings and a large, spacious new terminal. However, CVG's achillie's heel is that their origin and destination traffic (on which airlines thrive) is piss poor at best. Cleveland's O&D traffic trumps Cincinnati's, and could pose well for consolidating hub operations in Cleveland instead of Cincinnati. Again, this is all just speculation on my part. Take it for what you will.

Yup, 3 terminals. Terminal 3 is comprised of 3 concourses: A, B, and C. Quite frankly, there is more than enough room in Terminal 3 to consolidate all the airlines currently serving CVG. If anyone has traveled through Terminals 1 and 2, you know the dismal state they are in. With Delta's downsizing in CVG, they could easily fit USAirways, American, and United into Concourse A, where Continental and Northwest recently relocated to when they joined the Skyteam alliance. T1 and T2 could then be demolished and Terminal 3 could be built out for future airline expansion. Not to mention the vastly improved environment United, USAirways, and American customers would experience when traveling through the Queen City.

Hooters Air's decision not to return to LCK has been known among aviation circles for some time now. The airline also will not be returning to RFD, BWI, PIT, NAS, or LAS. The mere existance of the airline itself is in question. I completely agree with Mr. Boyd that it was fun while it lasted, but now may be the time to pull the plug on Hooters Air.

Ooops, forgot this topic is in a photo forum. Oh well, there are some photos in that URL I posted...

That would definitely be Betty's in the Short North. 30 beers on tap, all of them regional. Plus they carry my favorite beer, La Fin du Monde, for only $4.50 a bottle :-D. It's a small bar, but the atmosphere is awesome. The theme is taudry and fun, focusing on pin-up girls of the 1940s. The place is lively and packed any day of the week. The food there is incredible also...best spinach & artichoke dip, ever! http://www.bettysfoodandspirits.com/index.html

Great Southern gets Marcus as new owner Business First of Columbus - March 17, 2006 by Kathy Showalter Business First The company that owns historic hotels in Kansas City and Milwaukee plans to buy and renovate the historic Westin Great Southern in downtown Columbus.

Good stuff. I've meant to check out the parcel of land on Starr. Victorian Village keeps getting better and better. This could be exciting. It's amazing how development has been spurred in this area in 5-6 years.

The security concerns are more than justified, but I don't think that necessarily precludes the complex from being a multiple-use development. Given the enormous size of the block to be developed, this would seem like a good option regardless. Maybe the actual courts and necessary fuctions could be housed in one building, while offices, along with residential/retail could be housed in another, and connected either at ground level or by an elevated connector. Either way, it's good to see more news on the project.

There are already several shops and restaurants located in between Battelle Hall and the newer section of the convention center. There isn't enough space to put an entirely new mall with anchor stores and all, but there is already a retail element established. City Center is, for all intensive purposes, dead. It's not even on life support, since no one is actively trying to recusitate it. Whether this is part of some grander scheme or not, I think they (the city, developers, whatnot) are doing the downtown area a disservice by distancing themselves away from retailers that might have had an interest in setting up shop in whatever replaces the space where City Center currently sits. I just find it odd that with so much planned for the entire area surrounding the mall, that it remains a black hole. Personally, I would have the CDDC buy the mall from Mills Corp and let Georgetown Co. and the other developers that are in charge of River South have at the mall. Maybe then something would happen.

Not sure...the parcel is maybe 1/4 of a block, and at 200,000 sq. ft., maybe 10-12 stories max?

Grange HQ project getting more help Business First of Columbus - 1:32 PM EST Friday The state is sending a combined $160,000 toward the project that will yield a headquarters expansion for Grange Mutual Casualty Co. The Department of Development this week OK'd $150,000 to the city of Columbus for road widening work and traffic light installment around the building's Brewery District site. At the same time, the agency agreed that a $50,000 grant should go to the company for costs associated of acquiring equipment for the project. Grange plans to build a 200,000-square-foot mid-rise tower and 1,000-slot parking garage next to its operation at 650 S. Front St. The $73 million project would retain 853 jobs and create 73 positions. The project last year also received a state and local tax breaks.

Hopefully some rendering will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Pizzuti picked for courthouse job Business First of Columbus - 5:21 PM EST Thursday Franklin County commissioners have chosen Pizzuti Solutions LLC as the lead candidate to manage construction of the county's $100 million Hall of Justice in Columbus. The commissioners said Thursday they plan to negotiate an agreement with the Pizzuti Cos.' division to serve as owner's representative in the construction of the downtown complex for the county Court of Common Pleas. Columbus-based Pizzuti beat out two other finalists.

While I guess I can accept their excuse for the move, and the fact that the vacated space will be filled in, still...bad AEP :whip:! AEP building operations center in New Albany, will move 115 jobs Business First of Columbus - 2:27 PM EST Thursday American Electric Power Company Inc. is building a new operations center in New Albany, which will result in 115 jobs moving from downtown Columbus. The Columbus utility said Thursday it expects the 83,500-square-foot center on the eastern edge of New Albany to be ready in 2007. It expects to break ground on the $44 million project by late summer. The operations center will house transmission operations employees who work at AEP's downtown headquarters at 1 Riverside Plaza. Michael G. Morris, AEP's president and CEO, said in a press release the new center was necessary to comply with transmission reliability standards. More at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/

Franklin County is lucky to have even seen any growth in 2005. With Ohio's less-than-stellar economy, the future population growth in any of Ohio's urban counties is probably quite grim. I would expect Franklin County to loose population in 2006. However, here's hoping that with the recent uptick in downtown and near-downtown living in just about every major metropolitan area in Ohio, the population drain will be mitigated.

^Agreed. There's just too much beauty in this area (as ColDayMan has aptly shown) to let it whither and die. Thankfully, a large chunk of the area has been cleaned up, and hopefully more is on the way. Again, thanks for the great photos of some of Columbus most intricate old homes.

I remember you posting that image some time back, I meant to comment on it back then. The planned midfield terminal is definitely needed. CLE's current concourses aren't bad, but they've essentially maxed it out, and in the post 9/11 world we now live in, the needs and functions of parts of the terminal complex are obsolete. Also, the FIS and naturalization area, where all international arrivals must deplane, including Continental's LGW flight, are located in the A Concourse. Continental's hub operations are in C and D. I definitely am a fan of that proposed layout, however the main airside complex ("airport terminal" in the rendering) would be inadequate to handle both Continental's hub operations as well as other airline operations. Probably a set of linear concourses, similar to Atlanta, or an elongated "X" terminal, similar to Pittsburgh, both connected by people movers, would be a more ideal set-up for a new terminal at Hopkins. Sadly, for some reason, the airport planning section of the Cleveland Airport website is password protected. I would imagine though that when an update to the airport's master plan is completed, the specific will be made known to the general public.

And...what that last photo does not show is runway 6C/24C, the current 7,999 ft. runways that completes CLE's current runway setup. Again, this industry changes literally overnight. The plans made in 2000-2001 quite frankly are not always applicable now. The 11,250 extension may very well happen sooner rather than later, but take my word for it, you will not be seeing a large influx of international carriers into CLE merely due to an expanded runway right from the get-go. Getting AeroMexico to fly twice weekly to MEX in and of itself is a big step. I don't doubt that more transoceanic flights are in CLE's eventual future, especially to AMS and CDG, but like I said earlier, don't expect flights to HKG, GIG, or MXP anytime soon.

Hey, I can't help it if I'm good, and I'm going to get even better :-D On February 6, 2001, Cleveland Mayor Mike White and Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne signed an agreement clearing the City of Cleveland to eventually raze the International Exposition (IX) Center and build a third runway at Hopkins International Airport (KCLE). The agreement entails a land swap in which the City of Cleveland takes over the land on which the IX Center sits, and Brook Park receives the land on which NASA's Glenn Research Center sits, in return. In addition, Cleveland gets the right to purchase 300 houses on land just south of the IX Center so that they can be razed for runway expansion. Brook Park will also get the following: continued tax monies from the IX Center and several other parcels of land purchased by the City of Cleveland; payments to cover the cost of the lawsuits filed in the airport litigation; and assistance to continue development of the Aerospace Park, located southwest of the airport. For further details, follow this link: http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/pd/c07ix.html Time to put more smudge marks on my wallet photo :-D

Nope, hasn't started, and won't start until the IX Center is demolished. You figure out when that wil be.

This is old news (well, for me at least). The runway extension/reconfiguration project has been on the books for some years now, and is essentially half complete. The first portion I believe included building a new parallel runway (6L/24R), which is currently 9,000 ft. long. However, I was under the impression that it would be the center parallel (runway 6C/24C) that was to be extended to 11,250 ft. Either way, the plan, forged by then Mayor White, was not to extend the runway to 11,250 ft. until 2014, and as far as I know, the project has been shelved indefinitely. As far as the excerpts given, I would not put a lot of weight on a model forcasted prior to 9/11. Given that this proposal was drawn up 6 years ago, much has changed since then. For example: In addition, during the winter and spring seasons, unscheduled fueling stops on long-haul domestic air service (Los Angeles, San Francisco) have occurred due to strong west headwinds. This is most likely far less likely to occur now, for two reasons. Prior to the third parallel's construction, Hopkins' longest runway was 7,999 ft. The 9,000 ft. runway, completed in 2004, has most likely aided in giving transcon flights the necessary length to complete their journey without fuel stops. Also, Continental has equiped a good portion of their 737NG fleet (the aircraft that do most of the transcon routes from CLE) with winglets, which reduce drag and decrease fuel consuption on longer haul flights. I'm sure it still happens every once in a while, but my guess is that those occurances have dropped signficantly since then. The Boeing 767-400ER is Continental’s replacement aircraft for its DC10-30 aircraft now serving international markets and it is reasonably foreseeable that the Boeing 767-400ER would serve current European markets from Cleveland in the future. Markets? Currently, it's just one. Also, the 767-400, which Continental has on site and has since replaced all DC-10 aircraft, has been a gigantic flop and production will be phased out in favor of the new 787 line. Given the small fleet of this oddball aircraft that Continental has, I think the aircraft will stay based in Newark. In addition, with 35 BusinessFirst seats, the premium market between Cleveland and London had better grow fast if you want to see a 764 on the route.

I had the same reaction when I finished reading the column and placed the Metro section back on the table Sunday morning. It read like a paraphrased excerpt of some old history text, and was of no value to the reader whatsoever. I want my two minutes I wasted reading the column that Sunday morning back.

I couldn't agree more. I've always wondered why COTA has not spearheaded any kind of movement to creat such an all-encompassing system with the local governments in Union, Delaware, Fairfield, and Licking counties. The reason is pretty clear now, but hopefully with the planned street car project being forged without them, it will give COTA some incentive to continue lookin outside the box, and outside the county for new revenue streams and ultimately a better transportation system.

Ummm...yeah, good luck with that, New Albany. People locate there for the white picket fences, the golf courses, and the million dollar homes, not for the village.