urbanlife

the issue with the TWE seems to be that RTA doesn't have the expertise or willingness to do this inhouse. they are looking for a consultant of some type,maybe they have hired them, but i haven't seen any announcements. Then, they are going to decide how to implement the TWE report from a few years ago. the mentality seems to be about always be about costs (certainly important) and providing basic service, not attracting new riders and making the system work for "choice" riders. again, RTA is good at operating, but not innovating. one thing the city can do here is to change a local ordinance that prohibits 3d part advertsing on RTA shelters in the city of cleveland. although cleveland might not be a huge market, this is where other cities are gathering money for shelter upkeep, schedules, signage, etc. so, let's focus on city hall changing the local ordinance, and maybe we'll see improvements on shelters and stops in the city of cleveland.

each RTA stop does have a GPS code that you can call, unfortunately it isn't the same as the shelter number and it isn't posted anywhere - you have to go online and figure it out or call. so, it ends up taking 10 minutes to figure out when the next bus is coming. new 2007 bus maps are out (none were published in 2006). don't expect to see any in shleters anytime soon, although there is some renewed interest in the adopt-a-shelter program, which might result in more prominent community stops having additional amenities - lighting, maps, schedules.

^this idea has been floated before, along with color variations, etc. it seems that RTA is more interested in operations improvements and cost cutting that thinking through expansion or major retooling of route number/operation. most of the routes seem to be from historical trolley lines (1, 6, etc), and some like the 326 are a combination of the old 3 and the 26,into a crosstown route. historically, operating this way may have made sense if you knew the old trolley lines, but I agree that renumbering/reorganizing the route naming would be beneficial.

anybody have the pics of the roundabouts on euclid?

i travel 30 weeks a year and i think cleveland is BAD. but i also think it is *where* you experience each city. when i experience cleveland it is walking downtown to all events, i rarely take a cab or drive. i don't think the CLE suburbs are bad, and i've never had any problems in shaker square, but downtown proper seems to be a breeding ground for this behavior. i was hit up 4 times today downtown - when downtown was empty. i was walking on euclid and st.clair and all of these occurred between noon and 9pm.

in a lot of cities, the business owners would be doing the work of the downtown ambassadors. i think this says alot about the commitment of business/building owners. in addition, you rarely walk in a successful suburban downtown or strip mall and find trash, dirty windows, etc. but downtown, and in many ways all over cleveland proper, it has become OK to not care about the windows, the blowing newspapers, the trash from the homeless person who slept in the doorway the night before.

so are we continuing the panhandler discussion here? this has been a hot topic in the past, and we don't seem to have resolution on what the next steps are.

^that's why i'm split on the elimination of the 3d district. i don't see any police on patrol downtown (apparently 2 cars are assigned, but often get called to other areas, are out sick, or even if working 2 cars isn't a lot to cover an area as large and dense as downtown). jackson promises to increase the presence of officers on the street, and i'm all for that. get the bike patrol, horses, and foot patrol back on the downtown streets - at all hours.

^ this happened a couple of weeks ago. staying in renaissance hotel and walking to RRHOF for a concert. walked into a group of people congretating near a bus stop on public square and were apparently attacked. i'm surprised there was no video of the actual attack as there are plenty of buildings around there.

i had a reservation too and got a call. i didn't realize that the fire was that serious. maybe an excuse to do some other updates during the slow season?

the latest release talks about "colorful signage", so i guess they got the overall impression that world class was a little over the top.

well, i will ask her the next time i am around there to please put up a large sign. what good does this space do if no one knows who/what is in the "tech hatchery"??? she might as well be working in her basement.

can't you just look at the log file for the site and figure out who is using what? if not, there is a small script that can run and log this info. there are probably a number of guests that find the site from a search or otherwise and they won't comment here, or people using punlic computers, etc. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

^ i haven't seen anyone in here for a while, although i guess there is a computer in there. are there any markings about cityprowl? it seems like a waste not to at least get a sign up with the web address, or have some of the audio on a loop, or sell (or give away) downloads to mp3 players on the spot. it is a highly visible space, if only from the number of cars that enter and exit downtown each day.

i don't think zaremba has the experience for a tower. 10-12 story concrete construction is much different than 20 story concrete or steel frame. i think this is why we're seeing a lot of 10-12 story developments downtown from most suburban developers (stonebridge, avenue, townhomes in various areas, district park if it happens, etc). we need to import some tower expertise and get a few 25 story residential buildings on the table.

A couple of RAIL videos posted about the RTA: A video of a walk through time of the RTA system (couple of good euclid ave shots, evolution of rail cars, etc.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khVkowqpSS0 These aren't as interesting, trains leaving station, etc. Anybody have any interesting video to upload? I'd love to see the video that they play on the detroit-superior bridge tour uploaded.

it just supports transparency. walmart doesn't want to pay taxes, cleveland clinic doesn't want to treat the poor, key bank doesn't give many loans in its headquarters city, the water department can't find equipment, the building department doesn't know where their handhelds are. i don't expect anyone to "do the right thing" on their own, but with the proper transparency throughout the process, it shouldn't come as a surprise to people later. it also gets back to accountability. if schneider wasn't going to physically own all of the land, how could he commit to the property tax? who was the city lawyer on this deal? competent city lawyer: "umm, well, you actually aren't going to own the 3 largest parcels, so you can't really speak for their property interests." cleveland city lawyer: "i'm underpaid, let's get this deal signed." i'm not convinced that it is a fleecing as much as incompetence and lack of accountability with the city administration.

but who are we mad at? i don't remember the companies ever representing that they were doing anything. they located at a site proposed by a developer. wal-mart has never said "we are paying taxes." (and actually the WSJ had a good article on their real estate lease-back structure this week showing how they were paying very few state or local taxes anyway). it was the developer and the city working out TIF details, perhaps in a vacuum from what the companies were doing, becuase my understanding of a TIF in operation is that taxes are paid normally by company and the taxing authority divides it up differently to pay for the improvements or other earmarked activities. so, the developer seems interested in holding to his agreement and i believe that he still owns 60% of the land but has leased it out, so although the tax break might follow ownership, are all of the stores really owners or just tenants? EDIT: so it appears that the 3 big boxes might actually own their land and exempt, but i'd like to see $$ associated. they will still pay income and sales tax.

does anyone know who specifically is in change of the ctix space? i'd like to get an update on why it has been empty for so long.

i want to see action. it seems like there is always this talk of studies, etc. i think part of this is a symptom of our legacy and our reliance on foundations to jump start our regional economic development. i'd like to see something started, evaluated, changed, etc. failure isn't always a bad thing, especially if we can learn lessons along the way. it just feels like we never get to the point of trying something because we are afraid to fail. on another note, does anyone know how much electricity the GLC turbine has been producing? is there a monitor inside the center?

^ i agree. if they are going to make reference to suburban lifestyle centers, they should put it into context, something like: "re-developing downtown with retail and other amenities that previously have existed downtown, but in recent years been primarily developed in lifestyle centers in the suburbs."

it seems difficult to implement in a city with multiple entries. obviously the highway exits could be done, but the cost (in cleveland, for example) to pick up all of the eastside feeders seems huge - Rt2, lakeside, marginal (n and s), hamilton, st. clair, superior, payne, chester, euclid, carnegie, chester, etc. anyway, this proposal doesn't really seem to help cleveland anyway as we are not that congested and don't have many alternatives as others have mentioned.

and the owners in the ED proceedings don't want any buildings torn down b/c ultimatley that hurts their case that this is not a blighted neighborhood, etc.

then they watch them in library, doing.....research well, 3 broke the library story courtesy of carl monday, but since he is recently departed from 3 after all of the publicity on comedy central etc., i believe he is now working for woio.

once for me as well. very strange experience that the server blamed on the "owner being at the browns game." ??