urbanlife

well, a $10,000 limit seems pretty low to ask for approval, when you are running a large operation. if anything, this should be increased to 25 or 50k or something to give a little flexibility in operating the business.

it's a start. if we can get a bunch more of these projects at RTA sites, the airport, CSU, etc. we can not only showcase the technologies, raise awareness, but hopefully in the longer term, develop a significant and efficient source of energy and jobs. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1175157170286060.xml&coll=2&thispage=1 New game in town: Wind, solar power Thursday, March 29, 2007 Tom Breckenridge Plain Dealer Reporter Cleveland Indians hulk Travis Hafner won't be the only power display this summer at Jacobs Field. Solar panels will go up soon at the ballpark and at Great Lakes Science Center, allowing throngs to view and learn about renewable energy. Cuyahoga County commissioners, meanwhile, have named an energy-conservation specialist. And Cleveland plans to spend $100,000 researching wind power for the city. It's all part of an effort to green up the rusty region and grow jobs, by melding manufacturing and engineering assets with renewable energy, particularly along windy Lake Erie. "Cleveland is about to become the greenest major city in Ohio," said William Spratley, head of Green Energy Ohio. "There's an industrial base in Cleveland that can be redirected to this effort. We see city and county leaders articulating policies that can drive this forward." Green Energy and the Cleveland Indians will erect 50 photovoltaic panels on the upper concourse at Jacobs Field, along Carnegie Avenue. .......

it seems that the CPD has upped the downtown patrolling for the NCAA final four. i have seen more police driving, directing traffic, on horse, in the pas few days than i have seen in the past 3 months downtown. it is a nice, and for me, noticeable change. now, if we could get the construction crews (or DCA) to hose down their dirt and sidewalks or at least cover exposed areas, that would be great. euclid has been a dust bowl. it may work on e79 since the wind isn't as concentrated, but you can't just leave piles of dirt near e9 and euclid and not expect a dust storm to erupt.

does anyone know what the construction is on I-71 between/around w150 and w130? lots of stakes on both sides of the road. at first i thought drainage work, but it looks like they have cleared brush and are pouring footers for sound walls. i didn't see anything about this on the ODOT site though...

Ridership Update - February 2007 Numbers Feb 2006 Feb 2007 Chg YTD 2006 YTD 2007 Chg Bus RTA 3,634,500 3,139,100 -13.6% 7,505,000 6,781,900 -9.6% Circ. 197,700 166,200 -15.9% 405,300 359,900 -11.2% Tlt Bus 3,832,200 3,305,400 -13.8% 7,910,300 7,141,800 - 9.7% Rail Heavy 392,200 383,600 -2.2% 829,700 828,000 - 0.2% Light 193,400 197,400 +2.1% 409,300 429,000 + 4.8% Ttl Rail 585,600 581,000 -0.8% 1,238,900 1,257,000 +1.5% Para 35,800 33,800 -2.0 73,400 71,500 -2.5% TOTAL 4,459,600 3,926,300 -11.9% 9,234,800 8,482,700 -8.1% some of the decline was blamed on the bad weather and a few days of schools being closed, but that was only suggested to account for 75000 rides.

i have been on the phone with them all weekend. basically, their "excuse" is that it was supposed to be a simple switch with minimal downtown so they didn't notify anyone, which is very unacceptable seeing as they bend over backwards to warn me when my dvr or on demand service might be out for upgrades. unfortunately at least a couple of the servers that were switched over do not work properly. i have credits coming, but they also promised service restored by 8am today. and ... still no internet. not that i can tell. there is some utility work going on along superior behind the signage, but no major excavation or other work on this site to my eye.

i have some photos of the foundations of the townhomes and the work (or lack thereof) of the the condo site. i'll post tomorrow once my 3 day time warner migration from adelphia internet is over and i have internet for more than a few seconds at a time.

how about smaller signatures? there seems to be a recent trend in adding larger graphics and lists to the signature lines, which formerly consisted of a couple of quotes, or links to web pages or other threads. on a couple of threads today, it seems there is more signature space taken than the actual text of the posts.

seems like a post pad to me. if you don't know who is passing out the food, then why question my question asking who was passing it out? if you must know, i took a hundred pics this morning and only felt compelled to post these AFTER i was asked for money 12 times, long after i was lingering on public square. my original question still stands though: does anyone know the groups involved?

the city and the community faith based organizations that participate in the weekly food drop offs have to organize their efforts better. this morning, i watched as multiple tourists, people from the suburbs coming to the city with their children, downtown residents, etc. had to put up with another poorly planned food drop off in front of tower city. i applaud the efforts to pass out food, clothing and other essentials. I strongly disagree with the location of the drop off - as much for the homeless and needy as for the visitors and residents. there is no toilet or wash facility, there is no place to congregate and socialize, there is no place to evaluate health issues, etc. these organizations (mostly suburban) NEED to work with the city and the churches to provide a better place for this distribution. by the way, i was also asked for money 12 times today and i purposely crossed the street to avoid a few more. this is not good for the city, and it is not good for the homeless. does anyone know the exact names of the groups that are passing out this food? this guy was helping with the food handout but was strongly panhandled to give some more: does anyone recognize this car? part of the problem, not the solution: i can't wait for all of the final four visitors to encounter this crowd next sunday. i'm sure they will leave cleveland with a very positive impression.

good luck getting financing for this. i'm sure a lot of people would like to, but you can't get a residential loan to do this type of work (at least not in cleveland). it is one thing to buy a 200k house and put 50k into it. a bank will do this. a commercial building? no way. please share if you've succeeded in finding a bank that will, as i've exhausted a number of sources to do this exact type of project in cleveland.

since CPP can't keep the lights on on Euclid, i like how corner alley took it upon themselves to install 4 lights on their building. it is the brighest section of euclid.

the stations were originally slated to be stainless steel, covering the entire platform. there has been a lot of "value engineering" on this portion of the project, but i think that they are using painted steel now. i haven't seen a rendering of the new stations, and the ECP site is VERY out of date. there appears to be 9 holes in the ramp area which will support steel posts i assume (could just be for handrails), but i don't see any evidence of substantial supports or bolts for the actual station platforms. i just hope they cover the ENTIRE platform. on another note: the traffic light masts (all steel, painted silver) have been delivered to e69 and euclid - behind the red and white fence. also, does anyone know why they haven't posted some of the big signs advertising ECP downtown - not the federal transit signs, but pictures of what the corridor will look like when finished? i've seen these in other areas on the corridor, and i think this would make a big impact downtown as everyone walks past the construction - they could hang one on the rotunda building and have some mobile type signs as well.

i'd alsp consider the frequency of RTA service to your desired area. during rush hours and somewhat during "normal" hours, you can get from the airport to anywhere on RTA relatively easily. However, many of the community circulators and other routes that connect with the red line to the airport do not run or run infrequently enough that if someone is arriving at 8:30pm on a friday night or leaving on a 7am flight at hopkins, you may have a hard time connecting on RTA. i'd recommend you stay close to red line stations (tower city downtown, ohio city) or perhaps shaker square (blue and green lines). i'd also recommend you consider downtown. downtown offers a central location, with access to both the east and west sides of cleveland, easy transit access to university circle via rail or bus, and easy access to the airport by rail or cab. From downtown, you could then explore the different areas of Cleveland and see if there is a particular area that better suits your needs, without eliminating any options off the start by living in beachwood, for example. As for specific buildings, Reserve Square is probably the most professional with pool, grocery store, workout area, etc. there have been a lot of complaints with new management, but i think it is just change. some of the tenants were probably used to the old management. there have been a lot of improvements to the building, and they should do short term leases as well. bridgeview in warehouse district is also nice, but you'd want to make sure you got a unit on the corner or top floor, as the walls can seem thin depening on where your location is and who your nieghbors are. there are also 2 buildings attached - one has thick cement floors, the other has post and beam construction. much more noise between floors on the wood side. units in bingham are nice, but can be loud with wood floors and wide uncarpeted hallways. i think Statler Arms on e12 and euclid is very quiet and offers good combination of convenience, price, amenities. you'd want to look for a unit with a courtyard or lake view to avoid some of the noise associated with the euclid corridor construction that will be going on for the next year. the couryard units are probably cheaper, but they also have newer windows (the exterior facing windows are restored original 1912 windows). The statler is also more of a traditional (ie non loft) style of apartment construction.

well, cleveland apparently wants to be the digital city. since they own the airport, it shouldn't be too hard to make free signals available throughout. vegas has free wifi, so does san jose. in the era of revenue generation at the airport, i guess the pertinent question is how much the tmobile or whoever is paying hopkins for the right to offer paid wifi is paying the city/airport (we already know that the aren't paying any taxes on the leased router real estate ;) ) . if it is a small amount, then the city should definately provide it for free.

imo, one of the other challenges is that these organizations seems to immediately set themselves up with many layers, each of which is paid. So, instead of working themselves out of a job, they view it as an entitlement and don't like it when new ideas threaten their paychecks or control. if money that was being spent on salaries at a number of the "promote cleveland" type of organizations was directed to a volunteer or near volunteer group of business leaders, community leaders, city, county, residents, whatever, i think more could happen, quickly. but, i don't see this happening, which is why we almost need to start a guerrilla marketing campaign outside of the normal channels. i don't know where i read it, but someone on another board suggested a similar problem with cleveland wanting to become the alternative energy leader. instead of promoting things we can do now - like increase solar and wind base, install 1 million compact florescents in the city of cleveland, etc. - the leaders are stuck with the big picture of having to set up an organization, get funding for the positions, etc., and everything is 5 years away. this isn't how other economic development occurs in other cities. similarly, i've suggested before, tie tax breaks or abatements to larger regional goals (besides just more housing), and in a few years the marketing will begin to take care of iteself when cleveland has the most LEED certified buildings, has reduced energy consumption by x%, has saved residents XX dollars which is now flowing back into the economy purchasing goods and services (instead of paying utility bills). obviously a lot of my examples are around energy, but i think the same idea can apply to a number of different initiatives across multiple disciplines.

has anyone eaten at the new la salsa on the clinic campus? if so, do you know what the hours are and where exactly M-18 is, it is at 9500 Euclid? http://www.lasalsa.com/

this is why there needs to be opportunities for young (or just new) people and ideas to join these organizations, as well as have an impact in other ways. i don't think many of the existing leaders know (or can learn) how to think differently, positively, etc. but then the airport didn't pick the digital city initiative or whatever it was called. so, it is hard to say. you can only run into a wall so many times before talented and motivated people will take their products and energy elsewhere.

i believe that the citizens advisory board presented the same conclusion regarding the airport signage to the full board of RTA. not sure where this stands, but there is a full board meeting next week, so that might be a good time for some people to follow up. the bottom line appeared to be that it was up to the airport, more than RTA as RTA does not maintain or establish the signage. so maybe write the airport as well.

i walked by last night after the MAC final and there were maybe 3 tables full at 10ish. i think they do OK for lunch, but many nights during the week they look pretty empty. hopefully they can pull together a good lunch crowd and catered crowd. so many of the restaurants in this area are lunch only spots, it would be nice to see a more good dinner options.

not sure which thread this is most appropriate as this theme permeates a few threads. here is an idea that denver has adopted for generating cash for homeless support; Denver Uses Parking Meters To Help Homeless The Plain Dealer 9 March 2007 Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has campaigned a new program that puts old parking meters to use raising money for homeless services. ... www.cleveland.com

i know it is only 2007, but maybe some recycling containers? i don't want to push the envelope too much, but maybe we'll see these in the next 20 year airport plan?

^it actually happens quite frequently - especially when the building isn't focused on renters who will eventually buy a house or condo. a completely different market is the long term renter who doesn't plan to buy a house or condo, and a few thousand to make the apartment theirs when they plan to live there for 5 or 10 years is nothing.

^ but the city's portion of ECP is different than RTA and the Feds. The city agreed to the vault work, repairing/replacing water and sewer lines. although the city *could* give this money for more improvements, i don't think it is the same fund that RTA has been cutting away at.

target is open now for a "soft opening." stopped in friday afternoon and was impressed. so you don't have to wait until sunday to check it out.