audidave

What power does the new Cuy County admin have over RTA? Could there be a push to improve the rail infrastructure in the county?

Great Recession delayed ground-breaking soon for Goodyear HQ.. http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/112051484.html Goodyear's headquarters moving along Developer says progress made on financing for delayed project; construction may start in spring By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal business writer Published on Friday, Dec 17, 2010 Construction of the years-delayed Goodyear global headquarters could start this spring, says developer Stuart Lichter. Lichter and his company, Industrial Realty Group, are negotiating a private and public financing package for the recession-delayed East Akron project. With the economy improving and credit access increasing, private money has become available to pay for the headquarters, Lichter said. Lichter declined to give any specifics on timetables, discussions and what the financing involves other than to say that the project will not involve using millions of dollars in what are called federal ''recovery-zone bonds'' as proposed this summer by Akron public officials.

^^That's what I was thinking! So they want to yank out some parking garages and put in their place some dirt single tracks that roll past scrub brush and weeds along railroad tracks. Very innovative!! Well at least that is what it looks like from the "artist" rendering.. :weird:

^^I'll slightly agree.. Most of those buildings were built on parking lots that had been there for 20+ years, if I recall. So anything was better than that.. That said, I think it was priority to get housing in there quickly and not to think about future planning. Hopefully they don't replicate that building going towards Exchange which were/are the plans. News story on a public/private partnership with I think nicer buildings along Grant st and Exchange by the other newish Exchange st. dorms: http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/111983339.html Public-private partnership to house 520 students By Carol Biliczky Beacon Journal staff writer Published on Thursday, Dec 16, 2010 The University of Akron is moving ahead with a public-private partnership to build a residence hall for 520 students. Trustees agreed Wednesday to finalize contracts with the Signet Development Group of Akron for a 167,000-square-foot student dorm east of the Exchange Street Residence Hall and south of the Greeleaf Family Center on East Exchange Street. The total project cost is $40 million, including furnishings.

I would love the multiple levels of irony there if Metro was to oversee this! Owners of track, but have no service. They have not even put a notice out that they will look into running rail service in the foreseeable future. 3C will not go to Akron. The positive is that it is in a solid Democrat base. The upside would be that it would obviously force a more train-centric administration into Metro instead of thinking of everything as bus only thereby getting them to think outside the bus..

Who cares about the disabled or the elderly?! Clearly not kasich.. Today is another day that taking a train would be much faster/safer than driving I-71.

The idea may be a shot in the dark but Cleveland doing it certainly isn't. I agree with Toby that the worst case scenario is you have an updated convention center and another new building next to it. The convention center obviously needed massive renovation, expansion, and updates. This will make it a far more usable space to actually attract more conventions The $20 million dollar building next to it shouldn't be hard to re-purpose.. If anything, Cleveland is juicing up their Convention center by having an industry focus. Since that is the juiciest of all convention industries that might make other cities a little envious. But with backing from Cleveland Clinic it should do very well.

^A Tower City Marina on the island would be a very viable option with freighter traffic re-routed. But if they don't pursue that, then they would not benefit.

I'll agree with some of the comments on Cleve.com. This needs a bigger picture viewpoint. Its about not just navigation of ships but also will have affects on roads, rails, bridges, the towpath, green areas, and how they all link together. If it can be done for $30 mill with both public and private money it should be a bargain. A port question will be how does this affect dredging going forward with faster moving water. Another consideration is this should allow larger ships up the Cuyahoga. With larger ships and easier/cheaper access of the interior river valley this should have more positive repercussions for all. Might this not belong in the Scranton Peninsula thread since this would appear to be steered by and for FCE?

I still think you should use Padmapper.com. I'll tell you a little about it since it doesn't sound like you looked at it.. Its pretty elegant. Go to the bottom where it says address and type Cleveland, oh. You'll see hundreds of markers. Then start using the filters on what exactly you are looking for based on price, animals, bedrooms, and such. Many of the apartments have pictures and much more detail about the apartments. There is then additional helpful information in the "walkability" score. It identifies for you how close markets, drugstores, or bars by how many miles they are. I would recommend Padmapper to anyone that is looking at moving anywhere for a short to medium amount of time. Its amazing how well you can get a feel of the neighborhood based on google maps and padmapper.

^^^Definitely a cutie with a very nice head on her shoulders...

Wow KJP that was fast! :evil:

I'm sure it makes sense to most people on here. That's why its called Urbanohio.com. I would guess the majority of the people on here have decided to live other places than where they grew up. It's never a bad thing to reconsider your place in life. I wish more people gave more thought to that at least to the question "why do I live here".. A good answer to that question is NOT "because I always have".

If you are looking to have a total life change and expect to get a new job as well, then you might want to describe what you are looking for in an urban lifestyle.. We are mainly suggesting things closest to Lake Co that are accessible to maintain that job. Whole other areas open up on the western side of Cuyahoga Co like Lakewood and others. If you are seeking to avoid big snowfalls that might be a good place to go.

My new fave website for hunting for a place to stay is padmapper.com since they grab data from a variety of sources.

I'll take the first stab even tho I'm not in Cuyahoga Co.. I would think the Collinwood area should be a top choice for you. My reasoning is you have a nice art district, its fairly safe, good options with Beachland Ballroom and other very nice restaurants in walking distance, and finally if you're keeping your job in Lake then it is still a fairly easy commute. You didn't say how far west you were wanting to go in Cuyahoga or how far south for that matter.. If you want a bit more livelier area then I would look at Cleveland Heights/Coventry.

Thanks, i was asking two separate questions. I feel akron metro rail could be on that list. In the latest board meeting report they note that they are buying land in the merriman(cuyahoga) valley for a new train station. Once metro really gets in the rail business it should take off since most of the line is for tourism. Instant tod possibilities all along the route.

^^^ The lemonade I see is more localized passenger rail and freight rail projects. He will not want to look like he is anti-rail. He just wants to be known as anti 3C. So maybe an abbreviated 3C project. Perhaps a rail line connecting Cleveland to Columbus.. Many possibilities. Would he be able to renegotiate a Cleveland to Columbus line instead of 3C? He could still say he won which is all that really matters to him.

Its October and I'm in Buffalo. So I'll post here... I've been in Buffalo for a few days now.. I'll probably post pics soon.. I'm taking a different angle than Jeffrey since I'm not running about too much with my car. I'm trying to "live" downtown Buff without a car. I'm staying in a hotel and walking across the street to my worksite. So best commute of my life. But I'm finding that Buffalo is like Akron circa 1986. Desolate after 5:30pm. They don't have a bum problem downtown because there is no one downtown. I walked past the bus station the other night. There was one person outside on their cell phone. Probably a bus driver. I have yet to be asked for change after walking now maybe 5 miles of downtown at day or night. My focus is mainly downtown at the present and might likely remain that way.. We'll see.. The general layout of Buffalo grid and the intermixing highway system is a total mess. The downtown core has stifled growth with so many institutional government buildings(city, county, state, and fed) that there is barely anything else left except churches and parking garages they call ramps here. What makes things truly baffling are all the 1 way streets. There seem to be too many roads in the downtown core going different directions chopping up blocks and confusing drivers with 1 way rules. It seems more like a perverse game to drive downtown to figure out the correct 1 way path to get to your destination. You don't get much help from the lake figuring out your bearings since it can be pretty hard to see where the lake is with the highway blocking that view. I was really surprised how even out several miles from downtown 1 way streets are still the norm. To me it screams "locals only". It's confusing enough being in an unfamiliar place let alone having to pay attention whether you can turn right or left at any given intersection. The streetcar doesn't go anywhere unless you're a student at U of Buffalo and like hockey then you may be in luck since you can take that to hockey games at HSBC arena. Otherwise like Jeffrey said the street the streetcar is on is fairly dead. The bright spot so far in my trip is Pearl Street Brewing. Its stumbling distance to my hotel and its the oasis in downtown. There are actually a lot of people that gather here since it really is the only place in(this part of) town... Its a huge 4 story rustic brick place with belt driven fans on the first floor. The 2nd floor reminds me a lot of Southern Belle in Dayton. Very good food and some excellent pale ales. Several blocks north of downtown biz(gov?) district I found their chip strip.. It looks like 1 block of W. 6th in Cleve followed by 1 block of W9th.

You show your true colors there Jeffrey! East-sider! My2cents will say you barely touched the east side since you didn't hit up Shaker.. Actually, others will tell you that there is a lot on tap in what you saw lacking. They are going to add a new mayfield red line station there by Little Italy and it will be much nicer than it is now. I guess they just got the Tiger 2 funding for it this week.. I'm surprised you didn't take in more Cleveland Heights just up Mayfield Rd while you were over there. Maybe that isn't gritty enough? But I was really expecting you to hit up the west side instead of giving the east side all the attention..

It would appear purposeful that they are "pixelating" the building as a key design feature. As seen from pd graphics, clarity of pixels is not a design feature, it adds confusion. If you are seeing pixels clearly, it means focus is very poor. That is not a good attribute to bring into building design. It should not be an urban rohrshack of pixels to trip people out with as they get closer to the building. This is why Apple brought into being their retina display to pretty much eliminate seeing pixels to the naked eye. Some of the other features of the building seemed cool but windows getting narrower and slitted is just highly annoying.

Its modern cubist brutalism :-P

I'm going to be working in Buffalo very soon for several months. So I'm anticipating your photo spread of the city very soon.. My expectations of Buffalo are a smaller version of Cleveland. But I don't think anyone has yet suggested that on this thread.. As far as music, it looks to me the primary venue while I am up there will be Mohawk Place for traveling indie, punk, and hard rock bands. They do get the big rock tours at their arenas and their Darien Lake outdoor pavilion just like Cleveland stops have. A most excellent music website is www.pollstar.com and punch in the city and you will have a fairly good idea of what decent acts are playing.

I'd also say that is part of the Republican strategy. They want to make the polls look like there is no chance in important close contests that people will stay home. Plus there is a self-fulfilling prophecy to see someone pull ahead in the polls and people decide to vote for that candidate "because everyone else is, he must not be that bad of a guy". Yes, the republicans are charged up by the tea party. But I would say the progressive groups are as charged up but the mainstream media barely wants to talk about this since that doesn't jibe with the ongoing storyline of the year of "tea parties on the march." I saw a recent report that noted in 2008 how there was a 3-4% difference in the polling from actual voting due to lack of landline phones to reach likely younger voters(18-30 age group). I would say that is more pronounced today. I would say it now reaches (18-35+) as a difficult group to contact. So depending on the polling company and their calling lists, expected results could be off quite a bit on election day or not if the youth vote actually doesn't show up at the polls..

^^Seriously don't get your comment. If you mean insular, that we don't have droves of college students/grads that have experience riding high speed rail in Europe/Asia, what is that going to get you? Plenty of grad students have experiences outside of Ohio. Just not on high speed trains. Ohio already exports enough college students. People are not geese. Sorry. You're final comment is that we need people in Ohio that will be pro-rail. I believe we already do in northern Ohio. Cincinnati may be anti-3C since they aren't getting a bullet train to Cbus. But I feel most people elsewhere in Ohio get it. Also, I think there are many people that live in northern Kentucky that would be pro-rail and active users of the rail system but obviously have no voice in this matter..