urbanlife

the original contractor left the project and it was rebid. my understanding was that a new contractor was chosen and was supposed to start work this summer, with possible completion by end of year or early next year.

page 20 and page 29 both show magnolia reconnecting to east blvd. [EDIT} and page 45 explicitly calls for the closure of Juniper and reopening of Magnolia.

my understanding is that a real future possibility will be no movie theaters, especially when looking at the financials.

It might make sense if it was packaged in a way that also allowed beer and wine producers to offer free samples as well, including samples in stores. The Ohio law is a bit restrictive in this sense, and although there are ways around it - by charging a quarter, giving credit for a tasting toward purchase, or just looking the other way - it may make sense to amend. I could see a very targeted amendment that allowed grocery stores, wine and beer producers, and the casinos to offer alcoholic beverages without fee. Or a new category of liquor permit, or add on, that would permit this activity.

I don't think the whole mall is included in the approved constitutional gambling parcels. However, I think that all of the movie theater area is included. I would think that after a purchase the movie theater could be on the way out, providing a huge amount of new phase I expansion space and a connection to the eventual phase II. Anyone know what the lease details are with the theater?

RTA installed some new bicycle parking at Tower City a few weeks ago, on the ends of each of the rail platforms. This is a pretty good development, which provides a nice covered option to park a bike while downtown, or even to bike to TC and then park your bike and get on the train. There were apparently a lot of people who were locking bicycles up to trashcans and signs.

Here are a few from last night. You can see the roadway reconstruction near the water underway, as well as some sort of large concrete structure being formed, maybe a fountain or terraced planting area? I haven't seen good drawings of how this building will actually interact with the street.

wouldn't this type of alteration need to be approved by the city? where is the side? is painted particle board an acceptable material on public square?

The real time system is actually quite complicated and limited. 1. It is provided by Trapeze which is RTAs major data back end provider. The data is in proprietary formats and isn't easily accessible except for the vendor's software package, which RTA installed. 2. The software itself is pretty bad in terms of usability. There is a mobile version of the software, but it doesn't work with RTAs older version of the back end software. There was some talk that a mobile optimized version will be available within the next year if RTA upgrades their back end software. 3. RTA is the largest system in the US using the trapeze software. Other cities that have robust real time data available to riders are using a completely different scheduling/dispatch/tracking system. Other systems using RTAs version are in many cases worse than what RTA is offering because RTA staff spent a lot of time trying to get rid of inconsistencies in the software which the smaller systems using the real time portal apparently just accepted, even though the data was in error for many trips. 4. Real time only works when a driver/operator is actually logged into the computer at the front of the bus /train. Some high percentage of drivers are logged in, say 98%, but due to radio signal problems logging in, radio/computer/gps problems, and sometimes operator error, not every bus or train may be logged into the system. If 200 buses and trains are operating, this might mean 2 or 4 vehicles in the system aren't properly represented, for example. This is especially pronounced on the red line, where for a number of reasons the trains aren't consistently logging in. RTA can see the trains internally and communicate with them, but the real time software will not display the train if it isn't logged in. Software limitation that a fix has been requested, but to my knowledge, won't be fixed by vendor. 5. The system offers a real time estimate for the next 30 minutes, anything more than 30 minutes out defaults to the schedule time as it can't accurately be predicted. In cases where a bus/train isn't logged in properly, the system should default to displaying scheduled time for the next trip - but I think this is changing or may have changed, so it may not show the next bus coming if it isn't logged in. 6. Hopefully the local software community/students / transit riders will help develop a mobile friendly interface and apps in the coming months. No off the shelf apps exist for the trapeze system that RTA is using, so something will hopefully be developed independently or perhaps in partnership with RTA to provide some better user interfaces for riders. The best shot at this is using the text links on next connect which pass all data browser side and should allow a fiairly easy integration.

Anyone know what is going on the surface parking lot on the south side of St Clair between West 6 and West 9th? They've torn up most of the parking lot and have dug down to the original foundations of the former buildings. The workers on site wouldn't say (or didn't know), except that they were removing a bunch of old fill from the building and putting in new fill. Seems to be a pretty expensive project to just update the surface lot, but maybe it was seriously failing?

I posted these somewhere else, but RTA claims there were more than 3200 bus movements per day on public square that service thousands of customers. There is also a critical link to rail in tower city. The consultants basically are proposing that to route this many buses around the perimeter of the square will not work. Some routes would be changed, but for routes that continued through or around the square, some sort of accommodation needs to be provided - ie expanded bus loading area that could allow multiple buses to load at once. Basically add up stops G,L,I and M and possibly a few others, and this gets your existing bus movements North and South on Ontario that would be routed around the square.

All they told me was its a place to store tools and I asked "so nothing is going in here?" and the workers said no because no one purchased the space yet. they have always used one of the buildings as the tool and equipment storage. the storage building has moved around as other buildings have been developed, and now appears to be the smallest space left. they store hoses, saws, wheel barrows, and all kinds of tools that support the apartments as well as future construction (and I assume the current construction in Rosetta building).

When I moved to Cleveland I tried to get this sign to function again, talking with Tower City and Hard Rock to see what the problem was and why it wasn't being fixed. Basically, the gears are stripped and rusted out on the sign and it would cost $40,000 to fix (from a few years ago), nobody wanted to pay for it, so they locked it in position so people could at least get a photo in front of it from the restaurant entrance.

Well, likely he got that number directly from RTA, since they seem to like to take credit for all of it anyway. RTA's estimate was always much smaller, and didn't include a lot of already planned development. The Plain Dealer actually came up with the larger number, and that is the one that has stuck.

There is also movement in old water street / 6th city diner space on west 9th. Lease signs are down and there have been some meetings going on the last week in the space.

I believe it was mentioned along with the new trolly lines that are supposed to be coming online that he interiors were being refurbished. Not sure if this will provide an actual update to the color scheme (which I am absolutely sure is causing the "Yuck" factor). But I agree a change in color is much needed. I think the lights are a bigger part of the problem. They are older fluorescent tube lights. Newer trains are using T5/T8 with better kelvin temps make a significant difference, regardless of what the colors in the cars are. Take a look at the covers of the lights the next time you are on a red line train.

I think this is a bit misleading. IIRC, only 28 or 29 of the red line cars are actually operable and had mechanical rehabs done to them. It is a similar smaller subset of light rail cars that were rehabbed that are ready for operation as well. So when RTA says all rail cars were in operation, they aren't talking about 60 red line cars, but maybe 30. In the end it might not matter if the signal system wouldn't allow additional frequencies or 3 car trains. Jerry - can you provide data on the number of cars that are actually operable, not just "owned" or used for spare parts? At least a dozen of the cars parked at 55th don't even have doors anymore.

Oh, a little black paper on the windows never stopped a UO spy from getting secret photos. from the permits posted in the windows from a few weeks ago: this is the new potbelly sandwich place - http://www.potbelly.com/Home/Default.aspx

I'm I the only one that finds these to be a complete waste of money? If I'm westbound on the Shoreway heading into downtown, who cares the time to SR2 vs I 77? They make no sense. i agree. imo, it would be at least a little more helpful if there were some boards facing traffic leaving downtown before key decision points. it seems that they are mostly geared toward traditional AM rush hour traffic flows into the city. for instance, a couple weeks ago when I77 south was closed just past I490, there were no signs until well after a decision could have been made - either on city streets before entrances or before a key split, like I490 where there is a reasonable highway workaround back to 77 south. EDIT: I also think that having a map that shows the links and is color coded works much better for showing the status of the overall system. These are commonly found in Europe and Asia on their highway networks. Something like this: http://iainmasterton.photoshelter.com/image/I0000CE9jmbFbx1E (beijing) or this one from shanghai: http://www.traffictechnologytoday.com/news.php?NewsID=3624

Here are the numbers from a handout. I'm not sure why this PDF or the board packets aren't easily accessible online.

I agree. I went on opening day, and again yesterday, and had a much better experience with taste and portion size yesterday. My salad on day 1 had about 5 small pieces of lettuce in a very small container. I think their menu could still use some clarification - ie, does salsa come with an order of chips? It also seems that some of the toppings are missing from the actual menu listing. All in all, based on last night, I'm much more excited about the place.

Not sure, but with rumors of Chipotle circulating around here recently this would seem like the perfect spot for them. Actually is there even any work going on?? There is no permit posted. It does seem odd though to put this up if there were nothing happening. Maybe Ari Maron is just getting better about keeping everyone in the dark. Apparently there is a chipotle coming to uptown development in university circle. I wonder if this was the one that had been rumored for downtown.

they have some of the exterior lights installed on prospect ave. they have been on the last couple of weeks - not sure if it is a test or the actual lights they plan to use.

EDIT: I was just thinking that, as the Flats East Bank died out at the end of the 90s and early 2000s, maybe there was a ridership decline that resulted? Perhaps with the rise of East 4th and its proximity to Public Square and the continued success of the Warehouse District, restoration of late-night service would be worth investigating? I would also think that the casino - both patrons and employees - would provide added ridership, if not 24 hours a day on the trains, at least extended a few hours.

This is partially correct, however, municipalities and townships (can elect to, if a greater number) receive a share of the revenue proportional to the number of vehicle registrations. The actual distribution of gas tax revenue is fairly complicated, see an explanation at link below. Based on the data from 2009, each county received 2.4 million in an equal allocation, but after cities and townships were factored in, all entities in Cuyahoga received 40 million, compared to 4.5 million total for all Geauga county entities - see table 4 in PDF link. 2010 data http://tax.ohio.gov/divisions/tax_analysis/tax_data_series/motor_fuel/mv23/mv23cy10.stm http://tax.ohio.gov/divisions/communications/publications/documents/motor_vehicle_fuel_tax.pdf The % breakdown in presented on the web (and not the pdf) for the previous year: http://tax.ohio.gov/divisions/tax_analysis/tax_data_series/motor_fuel/mv23/mv23cy09.stm