audidave

^^^ Watched the splashy video for the University Park Alliance. Some interesting fun helicopter footage at the beginning. Towards the end I slowed it down and paused their ideas of where they see there needs to be new development. I don't see a lot of it as very likely. They might get pieces of some but I don't see a "legacy village" development taking over the zip strip. With all the variety of venues available in Akron, I think it will be a hard sell to put a venue in the place of lock 3 park, the caveat being if EJ Thomas Performing Arts is going to be scuttled. Some of the buildings around the hospitals look doable. Some lofts along the canal I suppose is doable. But I don't see the canal being THAT big of a draw that people want "canal-front" property.. That seems a little over the top. I kept my eyes peeled for any transportation suggestions. It looks like they didn't really focus on that at least from the video. I'm curious to see what they may have put into the report. I'm guessing since they released that on Wednesday, maybe it will be in the Sunday BJ? It just seemed more like at least in the video's case that where they saw an open space they visualized a big building that might be able to fit in that space.

^ That might be a touch excessive for a railroad bridge in Akron.. In other news, someone mentioned about the Nervous Dog being shut down on W. market. Well, walking by the new Nervous Dog on S. Main it is now named Cuppa. So I would wonder if the other one in Stow has been shut down or name changed. Perhaps Nervous Dog renamed them all to Cuppa? I did a google of the name and saw there was a Nervous Dog coffee in SF that seemed very unrelated. I'm surprised there isn't anything in the paper about that.. Since I'm discussing local coffee shops that seem to be no more, I noticed that the former Arabica in Boston Heights as well as the driving range are about to be knocked down for apparently a new Paychex regional office. That was probably the first coffee shops in Northeast Ohio to be a fully stocked bar as well as a coffee shop. Then there's EuroGyro.. EuroGyro is undergoing big makeover May 12, 2011 by Akron Beacon Journal Leave a Comment Filed under: Dining, Featured, Featured 2 Tagged with Katie Byard Beacon Journal business writer EuroGyro — a longtime carryout in a converted old house across from the University of Akron — is changing into a sit-down eatery. Workers from Butcher & Son Inc. of Akron demolish the EuroGyron on E Exchange St in Akron on Wednesday. Owners hope to reopen in a new 5,000-square-foot building this fall. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal) Workers with Butcher & Son Inc. of Akron demolished the two-story house Wednesday to make way for a bigger two-story structure at 444 E. Exchange St. EuroGyro owner George Istocki hopes to reopen in the new 5,000-square-foot building sometime this fall. http://the330.com/featured/eurogyro-is-undergoing-big-makeover/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the330+%28The330+Main+Feed%29

For the typical student, I think this is mostly nullified by the Roo buses that circulate around UA and through the city. Also, if its bad weather and someone is over by the College of Business its fairly easy to take the skywalk over to Polskys or even the garage. I would say that your statement is most true for the Exchange st and Grant street dorms or even the typical near campus housing.. I would include the Exchange St bridge over the tracks as an inhibitor by its tight sidewalk and how exposed one is to crosswinds. Maybe they should create a polymer pedestrian bridge near there.. Looking at the map, I would say a pedestrian bridge connecting Folk Hall parking lot and selle st over the train tracks would be a fairly easy path into the city from the Grant/Spicer st neighborhoods..

In the latest board meeting packet from their January minutes Metro Rta mentions how they need to fairly immediately("Dire") replace a railroad bridge. Location isn't listed. I'm presuming that the bridge is south/east of Northside station as CVSR is not mentioned, only that there is freight and passenger traffic that is hampered by this The cost estimate to replace the bridge this year is $625,000. http://www.akronmetro.org/SharedFiles/Download.aspx?pageid=44&fileid=157&mid=95 Hopefully, AMATS planners will see that the rail line owned by METRO makes a very nice spine to build transportation services off of instead of the very simplistic hub.

Wouldn't they want the center to clear some of their traffic off of Public Square? I would think that would be one of the ramifications of any serious alterations to the flow of traffic within the Square that have been contemplated on here..

But wouldn't this be incredibly close to where they are wanting to place the RTA's west-side transportation center? Seems like they could maybe work something out there..

^^ Yea, sorry no ghetto areas to go play in.. The worst areas generally speaking are Elizabeth valley where Lebron grew up underneath the Y bridge. But the development he grew up in I believe was knocked down and rebuilt recently. I don't think that area is anywhere near as bad as it once was although maybe the reputation of finding dead people from the jumpers from the bridge above increased the threatening-ness.. Another area that is pretty rough still is by Summit Lake. But maybe it looks too scenic and placid to be ghetto? The towpath goes right alongside it and over summit lake. Otherwise, there are just a variety of rough neighborhoods throughout that could easily be nice neighborhoods again.. Definitely a few neighborhoods I wouldn't want to walk around in after dark.. Thinking about that, the city is incredibly spread out as is the strata of society which certainly seems to prevent ghettos..

I'll concur as well.. I'm hoping that the reason they tore down the diner on S. Main St last month finally is there is a more serious plan to put an arena there. I can totally visualize a skywalk from Polksy's parking deck over to it.. But I'm very dubious that there is anything afoot. Unless the UofA administration has its heart set on building an arena, I don't see this having any other backer except for Lebron perhaps wanting or having financial power to push this forward. I say Lebron because he has those summer tournaments and he might want a bigger, more king-like showcase than the Jar can afford... It will likely take a lot of coordination between the various levels of government to get this project off the ground and I'm not hearing any buzz, although I'm pretty much out of state. ..and Tom doesn't count..

In the previous beacon article it mentioned the ones grocers that didn't win this round being offered a chance at a downtown location.. I don't think there are many places a store could go downtown.. Intrigued by the milk too mentioned by gramayre, better than the glass bottled ones from hartzler?

I'm expecting this to go in by the Turbine research facility(building with the stealth fighter slapped up alongside it) it looks like its called not too far from the College of Business. I agree it sounds like a project that could deliver a lot of impacts. This could tie in well with the various technology incubators around downtown... Isn't the law school rebuilding over by there too?

Richland is the name of the developer/leasing company. The article referred to the building that is currently standing aka 22 exchange as the the richland building. So yes lux is going bye bye. With a new address and name zar as is stated on the corner of 22 exchange it will open in the summer. As far as the 2 story thing i believe there is room on the second floor at the corner. I don't know the floor plans but i suspect it could just be a balcony area. I wouldn't expect the bulk of the club to be upstairs.

Thats awesome yanni has some inside information. Can't wait to read ohio.com tomorrow! Thx

Went by the former Parrish tire site last night and it was totally leveled with the excavator on top of it as victor.. I noted there was a construction trailer not too far away. Reading the tea leaves, I wouldn't think a trailer would be set up to simply knock a building down or expand a parking lot.. So barring any news releases, the next sign to look for is construction fencing going up around the site. It would make sense that a stipulation of buying the land from Akron is for Akron to knock the building down. Also noted that the parking lot next to it is owned/ran by Ampco. With the available sea of parking around Spaghetti warehouse and around AES, there shouldn't be a need to aggressively expand parking in the area.

I can't see this being the case at this point. Those two blocks are solidly being used for parking for 22 Exchange. They put up their wrought iron fencing around the lots that they paved. I don't see the city involving itself in paving lots for developers unless there was some crazy arrangement. But even if the city did set up the parking lots to be paved, landscaped, and have controlled access the developer would likely have to buy the property at some point. I'm just thinking of the arrangement that was made with either the city or county to build a parking deck for Goodyear. Paving a parking lot isn't that complicated or expensive so I can't see the need for that arrangement.. They certainly could've been leasing the building but I can't see why if the city owns the building, the city would be so eager to knock it down so quickly after it was vacated. Property records aren't the most fleet of records to be updated. A building that is in fairly good condition that is less than 40 years old is not going to be so aggressively knocked down in Akron unless there is a serious plan going forward and it is in the way of progress. My bet is sometime in January the land ownership changed hands. A developer that is 99% sold out after build out in a bad economy is certainly going to be interested in expanding the vision and perhaps doubling down.

It would seem they feel they have a successful product and are willing to tear down their own leasing offices in order to build a new set of these apartments. I believe they also own the block just to the east as well that includes a building that once was a First Merit bank/Akron area realtors association. I wouldn't be surprised to see this knocked down next but maybe not quite right away.. That would make a nice leasing office for the next complex that we're contemplating they will build. They may need to create parking garages in the mix of all this if they plan on building another 2 buildings. There is already a lot of dorms being set up for UofA students right now over the next 4-5years. Perhaps this will complement the progress the University is making. I would hope they would go 5-6+ stories. We should expect some kind of announcement soon as this is right within view of the Beacon Journal, so somebody must be sniffing this story out.. If they do what we're envisioning, that could have around 1000 students/professionals in 3 small blocks of downtown. The change currently to that area of downtown is that most every night seems like a low key Friday night and Thursday nights are never dead anymore. There was an announcement made earlier I forget if it was noted on UO that the dance club Lux is moving into the corner spot of 22Exchange. Therefore I think think almost all of the leases are accounted for..

Who's to say this wouldn't be the preferred method for US Mail to travel or for Fed-Ex or UPS to also take advantage of the speed and destinations. That is how trains previously subsidized their passenger service.. Why not again.. Certainly cheaper than maintaining a huge fleet of aircraft to move small packages around..

Since you captured the original photo with Rolling Acres Mall, I'm guessing this must be by Romig Square towards the border of Barberton.. Hawkins is one straight North/South road. So its definitely not west. I figured it wasn't N. Hawkins but I still thought something like that might work fairly well in the Wallhaven area especially with the styling of the new Swensons.. Still will have to check that out at some point..

Is that site considered part of Wallhaven? It would seem out of place otherwise I would think..

Well the biggest companies that would have serious interest in this would be the electric utilities. This is especially true if the high speed rail were "electric".. Maybe we will see a serious shift then in federal policy to allow electric utilities to move back into transportation services again.. I believed they are likely hampered by that in federal regulations.. If I recall why they had to sell off their rail lines in the 20s or 30s. That would bring more competition for big oil. We'll have more electric cars on the road and potentially a lot more electric trains. What other industry can really stand up to big oil except big coal alongside the electrical industry..

It would be condescending if my railroad company were far superior to CCR, alas it is not... My point is that such a highly capitalized company that's function is intrinsically based upon better logistics will not be particularly efficient with 3-4 employees wearing 3-4 types of hats unless there is some serious amount of outsourcing: I'm thinking payroll, accounting services, etf transactions, edi transactions, and legal services. If they have that all covered then I'll take back what I said. I wish them the absolute best. I just feel they need to employ some more people.

I don't recall seeing anything in the PD about this. I don't even remember seeing a rumor on UO that something like this might be stirring. Crazy we didn't get a chance to poo-poo the idea before they announced it.. Honestly the niche I see this serving is for smaller companies that may need help in creating a trade show exhibit. Otherwise I can't see the draw of random manufacturing companies displaying their wares. Hey those are some nice screws.

Sounds like KJP could be CCR's 5th or 6th employee..

and not a website developer among them! So at what number of employees does a railroad become a serious company and not a serious hobby? Personally, I'm thinking 5..

I would think this could get a lot of use especially if wind turbines start to be made in Cleveland to be shipped to other locales. I can't find much information on CCR on the web.. It looks like a hobbyist railroad company from what I can gather from Youtube videos. A couple of locomotives and a caboose and 23 miles of track soon to be 24..

Back to my original question before the little diversion. I only pose this question because it is such an obvious aspect of county responsibility the state of rapid transit system and how it works and could be improved throughout the county. It may have not felt like as strong a responsibility spread over three different commissioners when each could have a different viewpoint in how to go forward with anything.