urbanlife

actually, i believe this is the concrete deteriorating into sand. the mix that was used in this section for a sidewalk was meant to be temporary. i think the salt and rain has caused it to become sandy on the top. if you sweep away the sand, you will probably see ruts in the underlying concrete where it came from.

finally some innovation at the airport. don't know if this is related to the same group that bid on the overall advertising package, but lost. still it seems like good news. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1178700015128410.xml&coll=2 High-tech Hopkins: a nice ring to it Travelers, businesses can tap wireless service Wednesday, May 09, 2007 Susan Vinella Plain Dealer Reporter Travelers at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport soon will be able to use new wireless technology to instantly transfer information about local hotels, restaurants and attractions onto their cell phones. The technology, available to anyone who has Internet service on their mobile phone, also will allow companies to deliver video advertisements to passengers' phones. The high-tech marketing approach, which will include ads displayed on 70-inch flat-screen televisions and touch-screen information kiosks, is among the first of its kind in U.S. airports, according to Interspace Airport Advertising, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor. The company will cover the $750,000 cost of the equipment and will share ad revenues with the airport. Spokesman Scott Appnel said Cleveland will be used as a marketing model for other large airports. [email protected], 216-999-5010

the city is going to put an emergency on the contract, most likely will be able to use existing contractors to do the work (same ones already on this section of euclid, and perhaps a few others who have open contracts through a change order), so it would be a win-win, as RTA won't have to worry about paying the contractors delay fees. my understanding is that this COULD be as short as 2 months, but that the main section that needs replaced on lower euclid is 20 feet below ground - below all of the new gas, sewer, waterlines, etc. so it could get pretty tricky to get down there, and they may have to rip out some of the work already done. in addition, the portion between e4 and e9 that is only being relined, will have to be completely dry - meaning pumps and hoses above ground, similar to what they did on e9 last summer when they relined that sewer - and that work took forever.

here is a link to a photo of the smokestack (from the Q), not a great photo, but for should suffice for our urban ohio design competition.

who owns the smokestack by the Q and tower city? i think it is the steam production, but it always has a small trickle coming out the top, and it is also always in the "live" shots of downtown during events. i've always wondered why this isn't covered with something - painted with "Cleveland" from top to bottom, or perhaps an advertiser. or paint it various shades of sky blue or something. lit at night with multiple colors. something.

maybe this should be cross posted in the cleveland air quality thread? lets make our own future in this region and not rely so much on the past. times were good, they aren't so much now. it has been trending this way, in manufacturing, for quite a few years. lets not act surprised, but view this as an opportunity to retrain and retool 1200 employees to help local cleveland companies take it to the next level. there are a lot of smaller manufacturing/technology/bio/whatever companies that are growing. they may not have a union, or 500 employeees, but this is the future for the region. not suggesting this isn't a blow to a lot of families and workers, but i think we are long past the employee for life mantra. lets enable these workers, and require our leaders, to make new opportunities.

jamiec, i agree. i think the biggest thing missing in cleveland is "pride". cleaning up in front of your building, painting, eyes on the street, banners, lighting buildings at night, etc. some of this isn't multi-million dollar new construction. it is basic nuts and bolts details of how successful cities operate. i walk by so many buildings whose owners or operators obviously have no pride in their space in the city, but instead rely on someone else to "fill in the blank". i'm not sure when this was lost, but i think it is the biggest thing to fight to get back.

well, if building owners won't wash the side of their dirty brick buildings and no one is actively building on the numerous surface lots downtown, this could be a step in the right direction - provided that they are showcasing assets in large picture form. i'd like to see a large photo of the CVNP while walking down euclid instead of the side of the 668 building or the Cleveland Athletic Club building, for example.

well there is also the free trolley (and other rta routes) that connects all of the downtown, and depending on the time of day or activity, it is usually not hard to find street parking for a while to run errands. the best attractions on e12 seem to be - it's proximity to both theater and e4 areas - grocery store - easy in and out of city on highways, if needed. plus, you can always spend the saved rent money on cabs around in bad weather. i just don't think you will find a place in that price range downtown unless you consider e12 (statler, reserve square) or huron rd (huron square, osborne). ohio city and tremont are both nice areas, just very different than downtown living, imo.

i don't think CLE is going to see much from continental in the near term until CO gets the 737-900 and 787 deliveries- CO just doesn't have planes to spare, especially when they are running high load factors. CLE could potentially support shifting one or 2 of the other 752 flights from EWR to europe, as long as there was significant connecting traffic that could be routed through CLE, but seeing as they have taken a very slow rollout of the CDG flight, i doubt we will see any direct flights to europe until that launches and customs improvements are completed. my take on the situation is CLE's best bet is to get its house in order, make improvements where necessary, and remain competitive for CO and other carriers. as CO brings more planes into their fleet, CLE should be a beneficiary of improved air service. I do thing that CO should be shifting much more traffic to CLE to avoid the headaches in the NYC airspace. hopefully the city and airport chief are working to make this happen (eg, the new state of the art baggage handling system installed this spring for COs operations in CLE). in the meantime, bringing back more direct and year round flights to the west coast is good for originating traffic and also helps to build the future feeder routes when people in LAX, SFO, PDG, etc. may fly xxx-CLE-CDG, xxx-CLE-AMS instead of trying to connect in EWR. i'd be curious to see the arrivals / departures for the past few years. my feeling is that CO has been adding frequency (both daily and on prior non-service days) to existing markets. the one thing i don't like is their situation with expressJet. i much prefer the single operator of the connections on erj 135/145 aircraft. now, there are CRJs, Dash8, ERJ and Saab planes in the mix for some of the short hops with 3 different regional providers all dba "continental".

so could it ever get back to 20 minutes dowtown to the airport? it seems with the "new" cab signal system, it would allow the trains to operate closer to each other, and i assume that this isn't usually a problem unless the trains are running at 5 minute headways. at 15 minute headways, i would think it would be a rarity to run into the train in front, and with the cab signal system, the train operator should know. the recent construction on NS might be explain extra slow service, but if it was once 20 minutes, i'd love to see this service and advertising return.

it looks like the RTA Citizens Advisory Board webpage is updated. it has a better listing of meeting dates, membership, past resolutions and meeting agendas and minutes. http://www.riderta.com/CAB/

NOACA published a few reports this week regarding helping NE Ohio air quality this summer. Some of the info is interesting and actionable, some of it seems geared toward an enthusiastic 1st grader who likes playing outside. National Air Quality Awareness Week: What are Air Quality Forecasts? National Air Quality Awareness Week: Ozone and Particle Pollution National Air Quality Awareness Week: Keeping Your Lungs and Heart Safe National Air Quality Awareness Week: What Causes Poor Air Quality? National Air Quality Awareness Week: Ozone and Particle Pollution Links to the information can be found here: http://www.noaca.org/newsreleases.html It also never ceases to amaze me that no one seems to publicize the reductions in air polution that have taken place. there are some innovations and hard work going on. i wish people/agencies would publicize this data . Can anyone answer these questions? 1. Since the RTA began replacing buses with the new clean air deisel engines and ultra low sulfur fuel, the entire fleet has collectively reduced... 2. Since the City of Cleveland implemented its anti-idling policy.... 3. Since the Cleveland Public Schools retrofitted their diesel school buses with particle traps.... 4. Since the Port of Cleveland began participating in a pilot program to retofit diesel port equipment, ... I think people would like to know about the positives that are happening, while being reminded that more needs to be done. otherwise, it just seems like never ending negative focused articles are press releases.

does anyone have historical information on how long it took to get from downtown to the airport on the train in 68? 78? 88? vs. today? i was riding to the airport last week, and the train kept stopping, then starting, then slowing down, etc. there was only 1 stretch where it feels like the train gets up to a good, smooth speed closer to the airport. i am just curious if there has been any signal, track or other improvements that have helped to reduce the current 25 minute trip and if anything is planned in the future. it seems that the proof of purchase system may allow them to shave a few minutes off the schedule as the trains won't have to wait at unattended stations for riders to "dip" their farecards. if we aren't going to see an expansion of the rail system, i'd like to see some improvements on the total trip time.

Cleveland was part of the application for the Shanghai authority, but United was ultimately awarded this flight from Dulles. May happen again, but not in this round of China flight expansion.

yes. apparently starting this year. which means that continental will need to keep a good feeder schedule as well to make up for lost origination traffic in the non summer months.

the london flight started for the season.

the sad thing is that we could be doing so many smaller things to make a difference. for instance, i believe that all of the construction equipment is using 500ppm sulfur fuel on euclid ave. now, this is legal, but in an urban area where we have our buses running on ULSD it kind of defeats the purpose. plus the age of some of this equipment is quite old. maybe on a subdivision plot in medina county, but in the middle of the city? if everyone made some small steps to think differently about how we operate (fuel choices, idling, age of equipment) it would have a major impact, perhaps much larger than getting the "obvious" Mittal's of the world to clean up their act. we seem to have it backward, as this could be an area where Cleveland and the region innovates to find solutions. I rarely hear of this though, and I witness it even less (despite some initial attempts by the city to use B5 blends in some vehicles, anti-idling, a few token hybrids, etc).

and the deforestation in front of Reserve Square has started again. When adding the new signage for the street level stores on the west side of the building (fronting e12), they just clear cut about 6 trees at waist level. i don't think any of them are going to be saved.

and does anyone know why they took the building accent lights down? they were on for a month or so, but now all of the fixtures have been removed.

i don't think you'll go wrong living on e4 if you can find something in your price range. it is in the center of everything and a close walk/bus/cab/car ride to numerous other activities, and will give you a good opportunity to explore all of cleveland's other neighborhoods. and in my mind, it is one of the few place where you can eat or drink in laid back sports bar type places, hole in the wall places, nice restaurants and nice hotel restaurants/bars all within a 5 minute walk. the only negative i see is the construction on euclid, which will continue for the next year. i like to watch the progress, but it isn't for everyone.

apparently Cleveland Public Power, in addition to not being able to keep streetlights on in huge swaths of downtown (anyone walked down e13, superior, chester at night?), has been responsible for multiple delays on their work. there was a 45 day delay on their work in front of 1900 euclid, and it is now taking 17 weeks to complete each quadrant of public square (up from original 13 week budget).

just heard this afternoon that apparently the lower section of euclid has some serious problems. the main sewer (which is combined in this area), is located 18 to 20 feet below ground near the center line of the road. when it was inspected during water main replacement, it was apparently OK. now they are going to have to replace about 500 feet of it (from public square to e4) and re-line the section from e4 to e9. estimates are that this will delay this section of euclid by 3 to 6 months.

do we know who else shares the server? perhaps something that is taking bandwidth/processing power during weekdays, but not so much on the weekends or evenings. does the hosting SLA provide for a certain response time or transfer rate?

i think that they work with a core construction team for all of the work. so they work on the restaurants, then move to bang and clatter space, then move to the apartments, etc. but 2 years is a long time, especially with new restaurants opening. it may also be a risk averse strategy. east 4th is looking nice, but it has taken 13 years to get to this point and there are still empty storefronts. as for signage, i completely agree. what a lost opportunity, and not necessarily a lot of cost. paint the boards black, slap a temporary banner or paint the name on the plywood. this seems to be a cleveland thing though. we are good at lots of signage for potential projects and projects that never happen, but don't market the ones that are actually being built.