audidave

^It has come forward fairly quickly as they just received their patents in April, I believe. It is fairly incremental change which isn't terribly sexy. It hasn't totally been proven or independently tested and vetted and no specific numbers have been released, just generalizations. They have not made brash claims that there is a seismic change happening. It is a very small operation right now and no need to get ahead of themselves. Until they have working units hot off the manufacturing line, no need to hype the product. They already have many contracts signed with the military and automotive companies, so they need to get production going ASAP. i would expect the automotive press to pick up on it shortly once they decide on a location. It's always good business to have 3 choices to decide on as then it is possible to fairly evaluate value. I expect Cleveland is the preferred choice but if Michigan comes up with a sweetheart deal, is it worth it to still go with a Cleveland location?

The whole business advisory team are all Cleveland guys. They are moving very fast to get this to market in a mass scale. They want production by end of year. They pinpointed the Ford engine plant as where they would like to go or would be appropriate. I expect that is where it will go. The advantage is that it is right by the airport. Since they are making a fairly small component it would seem likely that air freight to Japan, Korea, and Germany would be the best method. They are talking about a potential redesign of vehicles because of this invention. The heat of the engine from this would be much less, so engines can be aluminum. There will be less need for emissions equipment as the fuel will burn at a much lower temperature. So it isn't just better gas mileage it is also greater horsepower being created allowing for smaller much more efficient engines which therefore reduces the weight further.

^I mentioned this in another thread - rust belt ideas. It does seem that this is going to be a "game-changer" of some magnitude. There are some plasma spark plugs out there that currently get approx 3-5% improvement in mpg performance. This is expecting to get 20%-30% and possibly up to 50% or more if things work out. No one is putting numbers down but the basic technology for spark plugs has been around for 100 years. The problem has been the air-fuel mix needed to fire off a spark plug. If they can use half the fuel like they are saying that is world changing.

I would imagine that the purpose is to revisit all thoroughfares in the city and figure out where they can be improved with these new guidelines. Figure out how much it will cost per street and let the powers that be figure out which streets will give the community the biggest bang for the buck to implement.

I see it as any other transportation option. It will enhance the walkabillity of the neighborhoods it serves. I consider the gondolas like moving sidewalks at an airport. People will find a way to use them. Its a tool but it will also be an attraction as its going to provide amazing views.

Welcome to UO! From your requirements and "walking to a cinema" being the main limiting factor in my mind, you'll want to look at Gordon Square area, Cedar-Lee area, and Shaker Square. Those are the main indie cinema areas. I guess you could also include downtown for the tower city cinemas. As far as walkable neighborhoods with great coffee shops, bars, parks, and restaurants I would say hands down it would be Tremont. The quality of everything in that neighborhood is really off the charts. It is fairly walkable or bikeable to the breweries in Ohio City. Ohio City is good if one wants to feel they are more in the hustle and bustle of a city. It also has a great mix of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops with the brewery district as a bonus. Not sure about parks around there except maybe edgewater. I think Lakewood would also be worth a look as it has a great mix of everything either on Detroit or on Madison. There is a very big music scene in Cleveland and clubs dot throughout the region. Happy Dog in Gordon Sq and Beachland Ballroom in Collinwood have some of the better small and eclectic shows. Have fun house hunting!

An article last week in the PD hints at a "gamechanger". Doing a smidgen of research on this, it could be that they have found the holy grail in that they use a plasma charge with a microwave zap to maximize the fuel in the the cylinder. They give no official numbers but they seem to want to scale up fast for production. Literature suggests a magnitude of improvement at least. That essentially would mean doubling gas mileage. Depending how efficient they could be it could also make catalytic converters irrelevant. There would be a lot of global changes from this. Even if it only gets to 20% improvement there will still be international ramifications. All business advisors are in Cleveland for this so it would make sense it will likely end up at Ford engine plant no. 2. http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2017/04/cle_chatter_bridge_to_nowhere.html Eyeing idle Ford plant: Cleveland-based American Plasma Energy Group (APEG) is a company that hopes to change the world, or at least how the combustion engine works. The company recently announced an exclusive licensing deal with Plasma Igniter, LLC, to make the Coaxial Cavity Resonator Ignition System (CCRIS). The CCRIS is a fancy title for some pretty cool technology that replaces the traditional spark plug in car engines. The company's technology uses two signals, a microwave radio frequency and direct current, to ignite a new spark plug that uses much less fuel.

I would think the Councilmen see anything with the word transit to be RTA's responibility. The councilmen are there for their myriad of reasons. Some want to be the defenders of their district. They may see some big shot developer trying to do something different as not aligning with the current residents so therefore it must be bad and rejected. If the councilmen were smart they would zone the areas around rail stations for TOD so developers wouldn't have to go to city government to do this for each location.

Don't forget most of the Federal jobs in West Virginia are because of Senator Byrd. I see this as a worthwhile direction to explore. Anything NIH related would be a boon to Cleveland.

The Skylift is not about taking money away from RTA. It will be a privately funded operation. I don't see any value in arguing that RTA is going to have to foot the bill for this. There will certainly be some linkages to RTA but it should be on land use and maybe some pass programs. This program has nothing to do with the need for new trains or expanding rail. This could harm the expansion of the waterfront line. If this is successful, it may curtail the waterfront line altogether. That may not be a bad thing if RTA is able to put the rail money to better use in other places.

It will be easy enough to bring a bike on board or luggage. People could park at the Muni lot and hop on the gondola from there. They would get great views with many options of places to visit. Not everyone wants to ride a bike to get around especially if you are socializing after work which is 90% of people at the bars. A gondola system would make Cleveland much more walkable and mellow out the downtown workers.

The gondolas can move 3-4000 people an hour. They probably need to move 1000 people an hour to be efficient. It would certainly be great for big events downtown. It would likely improve the flats walkability in the winter and draw more people during a down period. I don't see this affecting RTA's role. I see it as enhancing it. It would be mainly be a tourist draw but i would think people that live downtown and in surrounding areas may find it useful to go car free. Why be limited in where your location is? To link together most of the main social gathering spots, it would be good for the employees of these restaurants and customers. One could conceivably go from Coastal Taco and 8-10 minutes later, maybe faster, be sitting at townhall. Try doing that on a busy weekend in the flats with a car and then hope to find a parking space in Ohio city.

It isn't an aerial tramway. It would be a gondola system should the pols decide they may be interested in this for Cleveland. I personally think it would be a boon. It would be super cool to be able to park at say the west side market and take a gondola down to the flats. Then be able to take a gondola to the casino from there. It could save a lot of car movement in downtown.

I've managed to never to have visited a tgif. I can't imagine library decor being a hit.

Ah jersey barrier = k-rail. Good times adding more concrete to a public area.

I don't see much more happening development-wise downtown until all these big construction projects are done on I76, innerbelt, sewer project, updating main st which includes State st bridge, and this exchange and Cedar update. The innerbelt project/road diet will give First Energy the option to build a new HQ on reclaimed land should they want to. That decision is probably a year or 2 away.

So people from a once Democrat controlled area of Ohio should move to Republican controlled states for a better life, makes sense.. There is a name for these type of people, people that just want a job to support a family, they are called deplorables. I was pointing out that government policy at the state and federal level could have played a bigger role in affecting the economy of Youngstown instead of letting the market decide. The Republican dominated state government was ok seeing that city cratered. It is not self sustaining building suburbs further out of a dying city. State and county governments were happy to reward growing rural towns as they were needing more infrastructure funding and bigger schools. Granted there are not many tools available for when a cataclysmic event like the steel mills shutting down in Ytown for state government to roll out. A meeting of area leaders to figure out the infrastructure needs maybe could've helped.

^^Its not totally that hopeless. There are many surprising avenues in life as you are very aware. If i were to put myself in the scenario of growing up in Ytown now it would def be difficult. But then it has much less population than it did back in the 70s and 80s. So one has to figure out whether they want to stay or go first off. Akron wasn't far off in the early 80s. Many decided to leave Akron for western and southern states. I guess the crucial factor is if the resident feels that they are happy and content living in a small world or if they are eager to explore what lurks beyond. I would say those that are willing to push limits will be more successful than those that are fearful to move out.

I would say the issue is related to lack of upkeep for infrastructure and sprawl. Youngstown and Warren sprawled out quite a bit even while it was dealing with their steel jobs going away. It hollowed out the core of the cities. If there were a reason to be near the city centers like train stations that actually had passenger rail, they would still be viable places. If the main jobs of Youngstown are gone and the people that can move do move further away, then what is left but minimum wage jobs at walmart and dollar stores or driving trucks or trying to get in at GM Lordstown? There is not much value in being in or near downtown Youngstown in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s. I imagine there may be some kind of added value by now with urbanism creeping in. If there were trains to commute to Cleveland and Pittsburgh every day, there would be less value to live further out. One could then theoretically be a 1 or no car household which would save a lot of money. People in Pittsburgh with nice jobs could live near downtown Youngstown in their mansions for 1/5th of the price of one in Pittsburgh. That obviously would raise the land values which would be a good thing which would attract more businesses. Or people that found a job in downtown Cleveland wouldn't have to move away to Cuyahoga county.

I guess my point is that if one has to negotiate a lot of steps to go shopping in addition to the outdoor elements, it is not as convenient as you think. Not everyone wants to be parking in a deck, even if it is free per safety concerns. In the early 70s there was still a drug store of some sort by the theater with a big escalator to get into the store from 2nd street side. I believe that closed soon after the mall was set up. Most of suburbia wants to visit a one stop shop like walmart, target, home depot, marcs, or for my family it was the acme-click. There isn't any capacity for anything like that on front street. All the buildings are fairly small. Front street mall is a mix of businesses with probably half of it being offices. Hard to gain traction as a destination to wander through when there are maybe 3-4 restaurants and 5-6 shops that are open at any one time as all shops have their own unique hours, open some days and not others. I'm not saying it couldn't do better but chapel hill mall essentially killed any chance for it to succeed. The strip malls along portage trail and state road make it further irrelevant.

The density has never been there. There is nothing for anyone near there to be able to walk past there to a destination. Many retail shops have come and gone. If there was a population north there could be people now walking to the happening section south. But there are mainly just car dealerships on that section of front st. It might work if there were some tall apartment buildings on the mall. Supposedly a hotel will be built at the parking lot on the southeast corner of front and portage once this road opens. What kind of retail is there that can exist that has people willing to climb multiple sets of stairs to get back to their cars? Pretty much boutique stores. It also isn't convenient to be on the one side of the mall vs the other side. I suppose if portage trail had been raised up a bit it might be easier for the mall to succeed if the people would not have to cross traffic.

^Just because the newly built-up area is alive with activity doesn't mean the mall is. Notice that the area also has an active road through it. I see no issue with updating old decks. I'm curious if left hand turns will be allowed at the portage trail and front street intersection. That would seem to create an unneeded mess on portage trail if they are, as there is no real space for turn lanes.

I think to work it needs housing density near by. An example is the pedestrian mall in Boulder works pretty well. The problem to me is it is up against the river and the expressway. In the past 30 years maybe 100-200 people have lived within a quarter mile of it as the library, churches, and government buildings surround it. When one visits the mall outside of the events it feels desolate even on the weekends.

My friend's daughter will be starting at King elementary next year if she hasn't started already. They live a block away from the school, so there was no handwringing. I'm sure they'll see how it goes to figure out which middle school to go to. Its an amazing amount of choices to consider with Our Lady of the Elms, Hoban, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Firestone with school of the arts With Miller South, and the STEM school. I would expect that they will get input from her as they move along.

It could.be Cle to Havana. Frontier has been talking about adding Havana routes for several months. CLE would be a good gateway as the distance is probably appropriate to run that efficiently. Also there were the articles last week about the entourage from Cleveland visiting Cuba to gauge opportunities.