audidave

I have no thoughts about the economics. Obviously you want it priced right to provide incentives. I'm not sure how or why streetcars would significantly reduce wait times vs. buses. As far as ambitiousness, Akron has shown that its able to tie in various institutions to work together for the common good better than all the other cities in Ohio. If ODOT is changing its stripes and is seeing streetcars as a serious option for downtowns throughout Ohio, I can see with cooperation from the University, city, county, Metro, Goodyear, and obviously ODoT something could be running in 4-5 years especially if the Metro tax levy is passed even if a testbed. I don't see the point of a streetcar going all the way out to Medina, perhaps to Summit Mall. There's also track that goes from downtown Akron to Medina, the same track that goes on to Kent. I have no idea of the ownership of the track or its current usage. This would seem to be able to relieve a lot of emissions since it occurs to me route 18 is a significant contributor as clearly seen on a hazy day over Montrose.. UA is very aggressive. The next big phase after the stadium is Spicer village which is another half billion dollar project by some estimations. What better way to tie that in with the overall expanded campus than with the permanency of streetcars.

My initial reactions when reading this thread were that Akron is so spread out it would be pointless to attempt to re-establish a streetcar system mainly because I know I wouldn't use it. But thinking about the concept of a streetcar a little more it does seem like a streetcar system could be established without it being redundant to the bus system. To me the primary factors for choosing a streetcar path is guaranteed passenger volume and/or building for future growth or to spur new growth. The UA is looking at having constant bus service from Quaker Square to the Business and Law School colleges. I think they also have some service on the periphery of UA. Since there's been so much expenditure of money on the new UA footprint and closing roads I think it could be possible to make streetcars a part of the permanent grid to connect it even better to downtown Akron. Perhaps better connecting UA to the Akron General campus, Akron City and Children's hospitals for their Nursing program. The other idea that came to me was running a streetcar up and down E. Market St. from downtown to the new Goodyear World Headquarters. Tie that in to the UA and the hospitals, then you've got a sweet little system. I know its been contemplated in the past linking UA to Kent St. via rail. The bulk of that line still exists and this could be better tied into as part of a Neoucom thing. Future lines could be running Howard street up to Cuyahoga Falls which would complete the Hospital system connections by adding the Summa Hospitals of St Thomas and Falls General and perhaps a line going down Main St. to the hopefully new Firestone tech complex and maybe the Portage Lakes. The easiest way to figure out which lines to build would be to look at the best performing streetcar lines before they were ripped up. Akron neighborhoods haven't really changed much in 70 years or so except of course the ones that were obliterated for highways or the innerbelt.

Thought of a super insanely creative meeting space further afield of Cleveland by Pittsburgh's airport. Thought I'd mention it since I'm sure practically no one is aware this place exists. http://www.inventionland.com/ Its a pretty impressive facility more for heavy duty designers of consumer products.

If you're willing to travel a minute you could do the meeting at Radisson in downtown Akron. I'm sure its less expensive than equivalent space in downtown Cleveland.. Here's the website: http://www.akronradisson.com/pages/floorplans/19thfloor.html

I think the issue is the people in Newark don't want to be left out if there is money to be spent. It comes down to who in Pittsburgh really wants to travel to Newark? There's still other massive city highway projects besides the "big dogs" of Columbus 70-71 and Cleveland's Innerbelt. I believe Dayton is still working on their I75 project and I recall Cinci needing to do something with an Ohio River bridge at 71. Plus there's Akron's 76 that needs to be upgraded from the 1950s and perhaps tied better to the innerbelt. I'm guessing in Stricklands new system we fix/replace critical highways that are at the end of their lifespan before we move on to making non-critical ones.

I like what Rockandroller and dmerkow have to say. What I personally like is the easy access to parks both Akron and Cleveland metro and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I like being able to have a full time job and ski/snowboard after work. I like the music scene of Akron thats lately given wings to Black Keys and realize there's a lot more talent in the Akron area. I enjoy that there are inexpensive flight options out of CAK and Cleveland Hopkins to get out of the state. So for me only Seattle or maybe Portland would be a comparable or better place to live, but I have yet to visit either to know for sure.

For you West-siders tonight at Buckeye Beer Engine is a Bell's Brewing tour. Here's the info: BELL'S BREWING PROMOTION 2.13.2008 DRAFT EXP. STOUT BLENDED W/ DOUBLE CREAM BARREL AGED CASKS: TWO HEARTED ALE, PORTER, DOUBLE CREAM STOUT DRAFT: CONSECRATOR DOPPLEBOCK, AMBER, HOPLSLAM, BELLS LAGER, TWO HEARTED ALE, JAVA STOUT, EXPEDITION STOUT Join us Wednesday, February 13th as we feature treats from Bell's Brewing, MI. We will have at least two cask conditioned ales pouring as well as other Bell's drafts. Open to the public, tickets NOT needed.

Nice suggestions from all. I'd like to add a time and money saving suggestion that I think is also green. Online Bill Payment via your banks(its free from First Merit and I think many other banks). I'm surprised at the amount of people that do not take advantage of this. I haven't started using E-billing but I probably could look into that. The benefits of Online Bill Payment is far fewer trips to the Post Office to either buy stamps or to send off checks to pay bills. Thats the main green part.. There's also the benefit of less stamp usage and therefore that saves money. The main benefit to me is just Peace of Mind. You can see the bills that you paid the previous month everything is set up to pay again for the next month. You control when and how much you want to send off and the bank takes care of it. This saves me: Approx. $50 a year in stamps. Countless hours in driving and waiting at the Post Office. Countless hours of worrying or having to remember if I paid a bill. No late fees.

In the latest Brew News it states that the Brew Kettle was voted the best brewpub in the US in 2007 by ratebeer.com and it will be expanding. They will move their primary kitchen preparation and new 20 barrel system a mile away from their current location. They will add more taps to current location as well as more Brew on Premise kettles. They will then look at adding more Brew Kettles locations as well as catering. I'd say Winking Lizard has some competition...

Just found this thread.. Its kind of a topic near and dear to me.. :drunk: Anyways an excellent source of information is via the free paper called Brew News. The current issue lists all the breweries in Ohio and gives a nice update on whats happening in the next 6 months. Here's the Ohio chapter's website an excellent source of beer news: www.ohiobeerguide.com Also for those who missed the "Winter Warmer II" there is the "Ogre Fest" happening at Brew Kettle. This is all week long and has lots o high alcohol beers from around the country on tap. www.thebrewkettle.com

New theater on E. 4th http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/15488956.html?page=all&c=y Growing with a Bang: Cutting-edge Akron theater company opening second location near Public Square in Cleveland's East Fourth Street district By Elaine Guregian Beacon Journal arts and culture writer Published on Sunday, Feb 10, 2008 They're urban pioneers who live for the theater, and they're gaining the kind of momentum that Hillary or Barack would love. At first, word of the free beer and wine given out at performances might have enticed audiences to check out the unprepossessing (OK, makeshift) theater upstairs in the Summit Artspace building in downtown Akron. But people keep coming back for more of the raw, unpredictable drama that co-founders Sean Derry and Sean McConaha began producing at Akron's Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company in October 2005...

Looking over the Forum renderings I'm a little struck at how very similar if not exact the street layout is especially under the Main Ave. bridge. Other than that the other pictures could've been anywhere in the world. If River St. is going to still be there then Wolstein should try to keep some of the buildings mentioned earlier in the thread to keep some character in tact. I'm more confused as to why bother to build a suburban campus on a spot that would seem to call for a single building. I can't see a company like Eaton taking full advantage of the WaterFront line. Perhaps I'm wrong on that account. I doubt they run enough trains for peak rushes. Say 200-300 Eaton employees at 7:30am want to take the train on a snowy day from Tower City. Would the Waterfront line be able to accommodate that?

I really don't see this being an issue with any of the cities of Summit Co. unwilling to be the location for this arena. I'd be quite surprised if any city was approached by Wolstein. Again he happens to own the wetland that wasn't worth a whole lot. Thats where he'd like to build it. He could make a deal with Cuy. Falls to build his soccer stadium on a redeveloped State Road shopping center. That way it will have a unique attraction to it and thats where they want retail anyways. Or he could tie it in with the big Goodyear retail project. We already have insane amounts of retail options in Summit County and there are 2 major retail projects about to be started as stated above. Plus there's various retail/office projects in development alongside Rt8 where he wants to build the stadium. One thought that just occurred to me just now is the Wolstein Group declaring that a major hospital was going to have a facility in his complex. Akron General or maybe it was Summa just announced they are adding a new hospital in December on Rt8, South of the Turnpike. I wonder if they were going to be that hospital. I would bet that was it, since every other major hospital group in NEO has already built or is building in theTwinsburg/Hudson/Stow corridor a new hospital. We'll see if Wolstein has a Plan B because I'd say Plan A is cooked.

Here's the latest article for everyone. This was linked to a few days ago. Basically Macedonia is stating that they won't allow Wolstein to use public funds to help build on the wetlands that he owns. That should kill the idea of a stadium in Macedonia. CHOPPED I didn't have the link for it..

Fine put the MLS stadium in Akron. To most Clevelanders its simply a suburb of Cleveland anyways. Akron takes up 55sq miles last time I checked which was many many years ago. So there should be plenty of space. Akron is the most central point in Northeast Ohio if anyone bothered to check on a map. It has multiple highways in all directions coming into it. One of the best soccer teams in the country is the UofA soccer team. Therefore Akron would gladly figure out a place to put a MLS stadium. Perhaps it could go next to their professional Softball Racers team in the Firestone area. Or maybe they could build one downtown near the Aeros minor league baseball stadium. Or perhaps work with the UofA to build one on campus. But we run into the issue that Wolstein doesn't own any land in Akron and can't control the whole deal. Let him take over the Rubber Bowl then. I'm sure UofA is willing to sell that for a song.

Here we go again!! :-o http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/15077966.html Bridgestone Firestone investigates new center; move possible By Jim Mackinnon/Beacon Journal business writer POSTED: 04:14 p.m. EST, Jan 31, 2008 Bridgestone Firestone wants a new, world-class technical center — and that could mean moving its Akron facility to Tennessee, taking 1,000-plus jobs with it. But the tire maker also may decide to renovate its existing technical center, now housed in a building constructed in 1911, or build a new Akron-area facility. The Akron technical center is where Bridgestone Firestone builds race tires and does design, technical and related work for its other tires. CHOPPED

Very interesting find. I don't think its likely to happen in that spot though. There are several buildings that would have to be torn down. One is almost renovated and another has been in various stages of renovation. I can't see an arena going on a prominent corner of Main and Exchange. Another factor with that spot is Main St is about 3-4 stories lower than High St. I would think that would require a lot of excavation and then a lot of support to prevent the rest of downtown Akron from collapsing on the structure. Across from that location, the South Main Square block is about to be flattened except where House of Hunan is for new apartments and retail. A rumor I had heard is there was some interest in looking at perhaps retrofitting the convention center as a potential arena.

That looks hella nice! Multi-story, mixed residential/retail is far sexier than an ancient one-level strip mall. Aesthetically, it should be a very good neighbor too. I'd say Coral has done a very good job designing that. It does look like it has a similar feel to the Eton plaza though.

VW will be announcing where they will be setting up a new US automotive assembly plant in the next couple months. Do you wish they would not select Ohio because we already have too much Automotive Industry? I don't agree that too much of a good thing is bad. Look at California they have insane amounts of Defense Industry throughout and they've never had issues with it. I'd rather have a company like VW set up a plant that uses the latest technology in Ohio. It sounds like they're looking at the Carolinas unfortunately, unless this really is the company Strickland was talking about last year to set up a large new plant. Anyways I totally concur with the article that things are very bright in the rust belt as the dollar diminishes.

I really didn't see the point of the lengthy 2 month long "investigation" of Cedar Center or this article/novel. Yea you knock down outdated buildings with well liked tenants still in them and you stand the chance of losing said tenants even if a nicer building is developed. Yes a neighborhood that got used to stores will now have to do without for awhile or maybe forever. For a front page "expose" I was expecting something with juice not detailed happenstance. There was no critique or outlook of whats to come just a lament at potentially perceived loss. Weird.

This should make Nance's job much easier in determining where the MM should go if Cuyahoga county only wants it downtown. Instead of doing cost/benefit analysis on 13 locations he can narrow that all down to 2. It seems like everyone is pretty much in agreement on here about this. Hell we're even agreeing with the County Commissioners! :|

Nooo!!! Not the Family Dollar!!!! :-o

A better example would be Pittsburgh I think. Pittsburgh's steel mills were also predominantly Slavic. But I'd say Pittsburgh had other industries besides steelmaking to rely on. PPG for instance or Westinghouse or Carnegie Mellon. Had those companies not been in Pittsburgh, it would probably be very similar to Y-town.

So no Canton installment? Hmmm They should've probably ran Canton and Ytown at the same time. Since they were running a city/day and they ran out of days. It seems that there is some new awareness in the governor's office. 1. The quality/state of the cities matter to the state. 2. Sprawl is not necessarily a good thing. As far as the chosen topic of this thread, I don't see how bigger cities can work together. Most have a hard enough time working with neighboring cities, villages, and townships. Working together presumes sharing resources or communication or pooling together something. Thats what the state is for.

^ I was also trying to imagine what they were trying to put in. I feel its going to be a lifestyle center ala Legacy Village. I looked up the size of Legacy in acreage and it comes to 67 acres. So they need a lot more acreage for their various GY buildings and parking. But I suspect they will place this around the poet streets. Thats going to be a massive chore in itself organizing various utilities and city services to redevelop that area: new sewers, streets, waterlines, electricity, and telecommunications. Perhaps they can land the Ikea... That would make this a destination at least for Northern Ohio.