urbanlife

east 4th also has some nice "loft" style apartments, and with only 1 car, the cost should be in your range. each unit and building is a bit different. this would put you in the middle of things, a short walk to the red/blue/green lines in tower city, or numerous buses that head toward university circle. there is also an abundance of things to do and the area is getting better by the day with new restaurants opening. the buckeye building has some nice units that might meet your needs. http://www.east4thstreet.com/properties.php

i wish that map was of rail options, but enhanced transportation options are always good.

the retail market is much different in the US than europe or asia. even if product demand overlaps, the cost structures and business climate of operating a stand alone store or selling into a department store chain, have much much different economic realities. it doesn't surprise me that mexx (the brand) isn't successful, even if it is owned by liz cliaborne. if the company is focused on profits, it is probably doing much better and has better margins in these other locations.

don't we have 2 intercontinental hotels? the suites and the regular one? they are at different locations and are different products, but both "luxury" offerings, no?

this is just the sort of reason that the region's leaders should be traveling and becnhmarking themselves against the competition - both in the region, and the US. i'd expect people at city hall to have "top 10" lists of metrics - for instance, approval of building permit - and where Cleveland ranks now, and operated based on how Cleveland will continue to either hold an existing advantage, or make steps toward becoming a top contender in the category.

^ you might try using just the http://clevelandfilm.org link. when i went to the link, it pulled up an old page which didn't have the film festival info linked.

cleveland does have a law on the books requiring property owners to provide a 5' cleared walkway on their property. is it enforced? ummm, i don't think so. perhaps another call to the councilman? if frank wants this to be a city of choice, there has to be some accountability for basic things like cleared sidewalks and streetlights. also, everytime i call CPP about lights, they seem to blame it on the construction. well, OK, but then string some wires above ground for the 3 weeks that you are working underground. it is unacceptable and unsafe to have so many circuits off downtown, not to mention the other burned out fixtures. the lights on e13 and the area around the greyhound station has been off for a week. pitch black. wouldn't want to walk that area, and feel bad for visitors around playhouse square. anothe issue: why aren't the crosswalk signs activated on euclid? i know they are changing some of the lights over for construction, but the city/RTA should make sure they hook up the crosswalk signs as well. it is sort of a slap in the face that only the cars have priority on downtown streets.

hopefully i am reading this statement wrong, and the committee is only discussing the interchange and not support for it. why would RTA want to support an interchange in lorain county? from the agenda for tomorrow's board committee meetings: Committee of the Whole Board Strategic Issues – Proposed new interchange for Interstate 90: Discussion of RTA support for new interchange on Route 90 in Lorain County.

density could equal - less obesity - less air pollution - less water runoff - less traffic sounds ok to me.

to really bridge this digital divide, the basic service has to be free. you can get pretty cheap dial up and even lower tiered dsl or cable now, and this isn't helping in getting broadband penetration in many neighborhoods. the trick would be to have a basic level for free and a competitively priced option for those who require more speed, and can afford it.

why do announcers continue to say "so and so from downtown" when attempting a 3 point shot? this made sense when teams played (or continue to play) in the suburbs, ala richfield coliseum. but when the arena is downtown, a 3 point shot is really from the suburbs. so, "lebron james from downtown" doesn't make any sense to me. lebron james from downtown should be a layup or a short jump shot, not a 3. what gives?

i like edgewater a lot, but imho, it is a little rough along the edges, especially the area by the beach and lower pavilion. maybe it just needs a coat of paint, some uniform and well placed trash cans, or new signage. but, after spending time on other lake erie beaches/parks and seeing what other large cities that have a nice park on the water, it could use some work. perhaps if metorparks actually took over edgewater and e55 it would improve and be consistent with their parks, which i think are very well run.

according to new schedule starting april 1, cleveland will get 3 trips daily to/from chicago, 2 of these continuing/starting in pittsburgh.

here is an example of what i think should be at the major RTA stops - including the silver line. apparently the silver line will have... ZERO recycling containers incorporated into the design and construction. maybe that is OK for a city living in 1960 smokestack world, but RTA is hardly being a steward of the environment for their lack of recycling options at all facilities today. does anyone have a connection to get this topic on the table? i'd really like to see recycling incorporated along the euclid corridor and the city and RTA should be working together to make this happen. Jackson wants Clevelend to be a "city of choice", but at the same time there are very limited choices to recycle within downtown and around transit facilities, including the airport. a major missed marketing/attitude shift opportunity, not to mention the reduced disposal fees and potential for an income stream from the recycled materials. here is one from toronto: or this, also from toronto and similar to what exists is 1 location downtown: in front of city hall.

the strange thing about the RTA TOD strategy is that they aren't that concerned about increased ridership, they seem more interested in getting revenue from their property. although i understand that each ticket bought only pays for roughly 1/3 the cost of transit and it certainly makes sense to maximize revenue from existing property, it still seems they should be focusing on increasing ridership - through prudent operations (which they are doing now to some extent), innovations to run more efficently and to attrack new riders, and longer term land use strategies such as TOD. an additional million rides a year without any service expansion would seem to help the bottom line as well.

did they display any maps showing the areas for TOD? It also seems that a developer could buy land next to RTA and use that land for development, potentially leveraging the RTA owned land for structured parking or greenspace to support the development, if financing was an issue. i'd be curious to see a graphic of where all of this RTA land is - and why they still own any of it if it isn't necessary for the operation of rail.

the one missed opportunity was more skylights and an insulated roof. it still amazes me that northeast ohio has not implemented some basic zoning/building codes. OK, allow a big box, but at least require some basic things to reduce power consumption and reduce heating/cooling cost. it looks like the walmart may have skylights, but these could also be cutins for the HVAC units, depending on how the ceilings are finished on the interior.

there was a carjacking in the parking lot by GLBC. two guys were getting out of their cars at 9p sunday night and were jumped by 3 people - 2 of which pointed semi-automatic weapons at them. the carjackers took the jetta, phones, wallets, etc. no one apparently saw it. this has happened in this lot before. too easy to quickly get away south of lorain or in west ohio city side streets. surprising that GLBC or wine bar or parking lot doesn't at least have a couple of cameras here.

^ but suburban shopping is a highly subsidized product. i wish that more of these suburban developments were transparent with the costs associated with development (hwy interchanges, parking, water runoff, etc). most of america is addicted and doesn't remember any other way than "free" parking and this ultimately hurts denser, pedestrian and transit friendly developments. If developers passed on the true cost of this parking, then maybe downtown retail would have a better shot of success for non-downtown residents. as it stands now, tower city has to offer parking validation for just about everything - from a movie, lunch or $25 purchase. a store like target or walmart or home depot, or even the traditional department store retailers are not going to willingly locate in a hard or pay-to park area, except for a few exceptions along the coasts, chicago - especially if they end up having to comp parking to successfully compete in the market.

so, the example of an outside hosted site was the Dogs that were mapped to Cleveland: http://www.tagzania.com/user/stu_spivack/yearofthedog?map=1 and using google earth interface, could take advantage of existing models and also create models for new developments. google sketch up is pretty easy to use and free.

what we should do is have a shared google earth file plug-in that could be collaborately updated and then applied to google earth. could include new construction sites, descriptions, photos or even mock-ups using their free modeling tool. we could also do a mashup on traditional google maps site like - well, i don't have the bookmark on this computer and of course, can't find the site now - but there are a bunch out there. we could either do it as a wiki type environment where anybody, or maybe a list of trusted users, could add these ohio based projects. could also create a plug in where each theard/post could be geocoded and automatically added to the map - so that a user could access by clicking on a map, and be linked to the thread, or so that a user reading a thread could quickly determine where the project was taking place. could be linked to UO or imbedded. so instead of the "shoutbox" maybe there would be a map of ohio with links. something like this for the maps: http://www.housingmaps.com/ isn't the backend of UO all database driven now? if so, this should be relatively easy to create these queries.

^and along those lines, a significant sherwin williams store. similar to the design district, SW should have a store and portion of their research open to the public near the square - highlighting new technologies, colors, trends, products, etc. a place where developers, designers, engineers, end consumers, etc. would convene to see what is going on, and purchase product. as is, the only presence noticable is the flag flying in front of landmark tower and the tech center on the river. downtown desperately needs flagship stores - especially from the locally based companies.

^Continental flight#47. No other news on Paris. Tickets are supposed to go on sale this summer (for summer 08 service). Rumors are that there will be a Continental expansion announcement as the CO execs have been quoted saying that CLE was underserved and could support more connecting traffic. But, this will probably only be more small jet/prop service and perhaps some more west coast direct flights as CO takes delivery on their new 737NGs. Still, if we could get SAN back, establish SEA year round, maybe add an OAK, that would be a good start. it's unfortunate that the only big planes CLE seems to get are from diversions for weather or maintenance. it didn't used to be this way...sure beats seeing all of the ERJs everyday... Here are some shots of 747s in CLE: Air Force One, Northwest, El Al, PeopleExpress, Air Canada: http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=Boeing+747%25&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=-+Cleveland+-+Hopkins+Int.+%28CLE+%2F+KCLE%29&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=&range=&sort_order=&page_limit=15&thumbnails=&calccount=1126259&truecount=false&engine_version=6.0

Did anyone see the direct flight from Amsterdam land at Hopkins today? Not only did CLE have a direct flight land from AMS, but it was a 767-400 ... in CLE... unfortunately, only for 45 minutes to empty toilets on its normal route AMS-IAH. i also heard that continental has/will shortly take over the northwest gates on concourse C.

graves is next to sincere building on east side of e4. it has the newly boarded up front. woolworth, is on the west side of e4, next to the HOB restuarant entrance. it is a yellow brick building with no upstairs windows iirc. there is a display in the street level windows with local art.