urbanlife

any updates on the columbia building? June 9th is coming up quickly for landmarks to consider demolition again. have any meetings taken place? has anyone seen any alternatives suggested?

there is another pad framed in with rebar in the lower left of the photo. unfortunately that photo is over 200k and I can't attach it and don't have opportunity to upload to a hosting site.

Here is a photo from 6/1/200111:

1 large concrete pad has been poured and another framed out with rebar for pouring.

the heat issue could be partially solved by installing a few vents or operable windows in at the top of the atriums - this would allow the hot air to flow out. they could also install a film that either had some white lines or dots that would reflect a lot of the energy away from the structure, but transparent enough so that you could still see inside.

the developer's key argument has been time for construction and "safe and proximate" parking, which by their definition means a walk of less than 200 feet. there are a number of open questions, and the real reason they aren't proposing tearing down the stanley, imo, which makes a lot more sense if a building has to go, is because they don't control it. they thought they did, or had at least 51% of it, but there is a dispute about who controls the building. now, they are using that to their advantage to say "hey, we're saving the stanley isn't that what you wanted?" i'm almost positive if they controlled the stanley, they would demolish it, and in the whole scheme of things, it probably is gone - the floors are rotted through, roof in poor shape, bricks are falling off, etc. - the fire department won't even enter the building. the developer wants the parking constructed asap, so instead of waiting out the stanley control decision or exploring the may garage, or the hole on huron, or expanding gateway north, or a dozen of other plausible scenarios, my feeling is that they think this will take too long by their definition. the quickest way to build this garage is to tear down every building they do own and start new construction. but i'm not convinced that the quickest construction is the best solution long term or short term for the city, and it seems that there is a better solution out there, even if that might involve a delay of a few months.

any idea what is going on in the grassy area between the ticketing area and the short term parking lot? they have the area all dug up, with what looks like conduit for electrical. redoing the floors to terazzo inside the terminals is coming along. Terminal C is looking much better imo.

K-Sonic, those are all valid points under present circumstances. I'm thinking of a bigger picture, and coming from the standpoint that Edgewater, in its current state, is grossly underutilized. It should be the most attractive, most desirable space in the city. Yet, as in something out of bizarro-world, it continues to be a financial drain on the city and state. I've had the luxury of living in some of the best coastal areas in America. Now, I live here, and Edgewater Park is my beach and Lake Erie my ocean. I can tell you that as much as I love the place, it is probably the most disappointing, neglected, trash-filled, uninspired beach in the U.S. The reality is, however, that with some good planning and selective development, all of those negatives could be erased. With the shoreway project, any measures that make that stretch of highway a less hostile environment are a great first step. Making the street itself more amenable to cyclists and pedestrians should be encouraged. i agree 100%. making this beach what it can be would, imo, lead to increased demand for more waterfront development. as it stands, it is really lacking. this place should be a jewel. it is certainly "ok" in many respects, but having visited and lived on beaches around the world, a few in colder climates, this beach and park has a long way to go.

+1 I want to see an exhaustive look at the entire approved casino area, with walking radii, existing parking, new parking, etc. If this is the only option, then, reluctantly, I'd be OK. However, it doesn't seem that any of that information has been shared with the public. I think the city dropped the ball by enthusiastically embracing the higbee building for a renovation (even though it was starting to fill up with other uses already), without fully researching and understanding (or ideally demanding) other proposed elements including parking, covered walkways and demolitions. Now that construction has started, the City doesn't seem willing to challenge the developer for a better deal. The city has a lot of power here as the ballot issue restricts the casino location. If rock wants to change that, they'd have to go back to the voters. Instead, the city appears to have rolled over.

neither. currently cash and magnetic strip cards. new fare vending machines and ticket machines on buses support smartcards, but it hasn't been implemented. was supposed to be a 2009 project, but i don't think there is a timetable now. perhaps when all transit agencies are using the next technology (smartphones, biometrics, something else??), RTA will implement the smartcard system.

having eaten from this truck many times around town, i don't think it necessarily takes business away from other entities, but actually grows the overall eat out crowd, at least during lunch. the truck service is slow, there are no tables, and there are 6 or 8 items on the menu. many people i see who show up to check out the truck ultimately end up eating someplace else - perhaps with a shorter line for a limited lunch break, or a table to sit at, or inside, etc. It also isn't particularly cheap. everytime i have eaten from this particular truck, i have spent over $10 on food + drink. There are plenty of alternative options where someone can find a meal and drink for $6 or 7 downtown, and some for less. with the proper licensing and permit restrictions/fees, i don't think the city loses anything here revenue wise. the truck pays for permits and licenses, and does rent a local cleveland kitchen to prep and store food. i guess sales tax isn't charged as everything is takeaway, so RTA loses that 1%, but no different than driving through a mcdonalds in the city and not paying sales tax either. He presumably pays all of the associated state, federal, and local income and withholding taxes for his employees, and local shops to maintain his vehicle. and, in my mind, the "oportunistic nature" of the business - ie, only showing up for the busy hours each week - is no different than the club on west 6th that only opens on thurs, fri and saturday night. what are they doing for the city at lunch on a tuesday? or a wednesday evening?

I also don't like the idea of zones. Why should 3 or 4 trucks NOT be able to park in the warehouse district or near public square ala portland, or the recent success of the tremont meet up? If the the city wants to put limits, they should do it based on days and not zones. For instance, not being able to serve more than 2 or 3 days a week downtown, with exceptions made for dinner and/or latenight as the selection of food significantly decreases after 2pm downtown. not allowing this type of service and innovation to occur in your city's fastest growing census tracts makes no sense to me.

there are numerous examples of medians/plantings that are less than 10 feet. - tree grates downtown are usually 5x5 - parking lot edges downtown are just a few feet, perhaps 2 or 3 - most suburban parking lot medians have a small space for trees why the large median requirement?

RTA's TOD policy can be found here: http://www.riderta.com/tod/guidelines/ They seem supportive of the concept, but at the end of the day, i don't think RTA plans to develop projects themselves, so it is really up to private enterprise to do the actual development.

this would be tough to do based on how the new station was re-built. however, with the new proof of payment setup, there should be renewed interest in making this station more accessible from the north side of lorain. basically, a number of stations which used to have access on both sides of a road, now only have 1. the reason for the red line station rehabilitations has been ADA accessibility, and having access on one side eliminates the need for another elevator.

i'm pretty sure all demolitions in this general area are related to the new i-90 bridge and not the casino. there aren't really many (any?) structures that need demolished for the new casino.

I have 2007 data, during the construction: 2004 - 2,941,560 riders 2007 - 2,597,767 2010 - 4.1 million

imo, his position has softened somewhat. i think RTA is open to being a community partner on this project, but certainly has reservations that closing any of the roads completely is a good idea. at the end of the day rta needs the support of numerous community and business partners day-to-day to make their service a success. if the community and business partners agree on an approach that involves closing ontario, i don't think rta will protest.

East 4th has heated sidewalks/roadway with glycol filled plastic hose/pipe run under the sidewalks and roadway section, so there is precedent for using this type of technology downtown.

Were there any ridership estimates released by RTA?

I'm surprised there isn't more data available on traffic counts. ODOT does the state routes and Cuy County Engineer has done some roads downtown, but not many. From this NOACA document, looks like 36,000+ cars use Ontario - more than the Shoreway each day. You can't really tell where the traffic goes though, or how much of it goes through the square itself. http://www.noaca.org/trafficcounts.html Without seeing more counts for the city streets it is hard to draw conclusions, but you can see that the east side counts are spread out over numerous roadways. There are limited N-S connectors downtown to handle traffic flow.

Luchitas Express in University Circle was empty today with a for lease sign in the window. Any idea what happened here?

A few weeks back I brought it up and a few commenters agreed, but yeah, there doesn't seem to be any conversation about what to do with the Northeast side of Huron. Unfortunately the infrastructure doesn't look like it can be altered (at all?). I wonder how many of those freight doors are used and how frequently. If they could be consolidated perhaps some innovative engineering could be used to make those multipurpous. I think an easier change would be turning the 6 lanes into 4 (or 5?) which, if coupled with some sort of re-use of the landmark building's bottom floor, could make for bigger lots. At least 2 of the doors service indoor parking. The remaining doors and docks appear to be used for deliveries of all types and removal of interior construction waste. One hope would be that the casino construction might provide some below grade connections for deliveries that could be used for this building as well. Between all of the deliveries, mega bus stop, people double parking to pick people up from tower city, random dumpsters taking up parking spaces, etc., this stretch is one of the worst roadway experiences downtown for both pedestrians and vehicle traffic. Although it is far too wide, it effectively operates at 4 lanes for much of the day (3 east bound, and 1 westbound)

not a TJ, but it is a company that already operates a few stores in NEO.

Here are the proposed route maps for the C-Line, Rock Line and Campus Connector services.