SixthCity

^ D*mn that was a cool building.

Cleveland is bad and should be avoided. Nothing more can be said on the subject. Do not challenge the authority of Answers.com.

^ Wow, the W. 73rd underpass is looking really nice.

KJP posted the link to this story above. But I love these pictures:

I think the peak was actually in the 1970s. In at least one year that decade, the number of murders in the city was over 300. In the City of Cleveland, yes, the murder rate peaked in the 1970s. But that declined soon after because of the population loss that followed. For the Country, the per capita homicide and violent crime rate peaked in 1995 (pretty sure about that). The Country's per capita murder rate rose from the 70s through the 90s before beginning to fall to its current levels.

^ Can you elaborate on what those plans may be?

^ But a lot of that assumes that the City of Cleveland (government) has much ability to make life better at 93rd and Union (and all similar areas). I for one don't believe believe they do. I think every administration would like to make life better for the 93rd and Unions of the City if they could.

^ They should retain full rights over their property. That is, the property that they have rightfully purchased. Not other people's property. When you purchase land, your title is to the land you have bought - you have not purchased the right to control everyone else's land use decisions (barring nuisance)....at least not under our original conception of property rights which has all but been destroyed at this point.

^ Aaaahhhhhh zoning. Sometimes it's a good reminder to see an institution used for exactly the reasons it was created. See Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. Justice Sutherland: With particular reference to apartment houses, it is pointed out that the development of detached house sections is greatly retarded by the coming of apartment houses, which has sometimes resulted in destroying the entire section for private house purposes; that, in such sections, very often the apartment house is a mere parasite, constructed in order to take advantage of the open spaces and attractive surroundings created by the residential character of the district. Moreover, the coming of one apartment house is followed by others, interfering by their height and bulk with the free circulation of air and monopolizing the rays of the sun which otherwise would fall upon the smaller homes, and bringing, as their necessary accompaniments, the disturbing noises incident to increased traffic and business, and the occupation, by means of moving and parked automobiles, of larger portions of the streets, thus detracting from their safety and depriving children of the privilege of quiet and open spaces for play, enjoyed by those in more favored localities -- until, finally, the residential character of the neighborhood and its desirability as a place of detached residences are utterly destroyed. Under these circumstances, apartment houses, which in a different environment would be not only entirely unobjectionable but highly desirable, come very near to being nuisances. Monopolizing the rays of the sun!!!!!

I guess I really doubt the crime rate in Tremont would be any different if robbers had to take City streets as opposed to freeways.

^ I'm a little more nihilistic about the City's role in stopping this kind of stuff. Random and gang related crime is actually really east to get away with. Even cops on the beat can't stop most of that stuff and when you have a city as big and as unruly as Cleveland it becomes very hard. I think there are two options. 1. The City goes full military mode and installs cameras and vastly increases police presence (think in multiples more). This is likely a pipe dream because there just isn't the resources to do so. or 2. We disaggregate information collection to help catch criminals. On the latter point, I think car cameras, lo-jack systems, security/surveillance cameras on homes and businesses give us the best chance to gather information on people committing crimes. For the first time in human history, nearly everybody has the ability to capture images/video of people and use GPS to track things - I think this can go a far way in preventing/arresting criminals and you don't have to directly rely on a overworked and/or disinterested police force to do much of the legwork.

CSU and the PD have reported a story very different than the one presented by WEWS. CSU and the PD has made it sound like a gunman just fired on the Langston Building as the target. The WEWS story claimed that it was a shootout between 2 cars that incidentally hit the Langston. Both situations are bad but they have some different implications.

Whoa! That went from 0 to Certifiably Insane, real quick. The vast majority of crime in Cleveland exists on the east side - which has little to no freeway access. Highways are not the problem here.

^ WTF dude!!!

This is a terrible picture taken at dusk so forgive me. Anyways, it looks like interior demo has started on the old Jewish Federation site. The back of the building has some signs of work and there is a boom lift and multiple dumpsters filled with debris in the parking lot on the Prospect Ave side. Today I noticed workers doing something in the front bay of the Playhouse Square building as well. This is the first sign of legitimate work being done since the redevelopment plan was announced.

Thanks. Is that work only for programming? I ask because detailed designs for the tower already exist and were approved by the city -- unless Stark doesn't like them and wants to go back to the drawing board?? They have gone back to the drawing board.

Alright - just got permission to post this... This weekend, I got news from a very trustworthy source within the architecture/engineering world that the 515 project has been recently bid out to architecture firms and one such firm has been awarded the work. I cannot name the firm but they are very high quality. So, this thing is really starting to happen.

The old ClA site (120-27-001) has officially transferred to 11141 EAST BOULEVARD LLC for $9,200,000.

^ It's worth repeating - no one interested in population statistics can maintain a shred of credibility if they compare figures taken from municipal boundaries because those boundaries are wholly arbitrary. Metro-level comparisons are the only way to get meaningful comparisons and even those come with their problems.

So there appear to be 2 distinct yet often muddled concepts here. First, there is an affirmative general duty to do good unto society. This can fulfilled by volunteering and giving back your community as 327, Hts121, and BelievelandD1 provided examples of. This is commendable. I would guess that 99.99% of society agrees this is a good thing and people should be encouraged to do this. But the second concept that gave rise to this initial discussion is the false charge of generalized guilt. This conversation started by people claiming that "Cleveland (us) needs to get its act together," that we must "accept shared responsibility," that this is an issue that requires us to be "called out," because we are "washing our hands" of "our tragedy." That language of the statements above cannot be interpreted any other way but to imply "we" (undefined) not only owe a general duty to do good but "we" are responsible/culpable for the existence of the bad itself. But this is a false charge. "We" as individuals did not create or will the bad. If I or anyone else on this board is responsible for the creation of the ghetto and violence within - I would like someone to level the charge. In short, the general duty to do good (volunteer, etc.) is a very distinct concept from "accepting responsibility" for the existence of the ghetto and societal dysfunction. The former encourages one to do good where he may and the latter is flimsy accusation of an affirmative harm. The former is a necessary element of a healthy society while the latter is a naked moral power play.

But what does "accept some shared responsibility" and "the ghetto can no longer be some else's tragedy to bear" mean in practice? Are you looking for people to swear to a formal apology (for what?), pay reparations, self-flagellate, move to the ghetto? Until you can actually articulate what those vacuous statements mean in action of which we can then debate the merits and practicality, they will remain.....meaningless self-righteous non-statements.

Oye....fine, I'll play. The middle class white family in Westpark who's parents both work full time and have 3 kids and play by all the rules of society. They are Cleveland aren't they? The upper middle class black family in Beachwood who have 2 kids and who's parents raise them with impeccable morals and duties. They're Cleveland too. The struggling single mother in Warrensville who is sucessfully raising her son to avoid the bad path his father took. She's Cleveland. The 70 year old retired couple in Lakewood who are peacefully living out their last couple decades after 50 years of work - he was an engineer and she was an elementary school teacher. They're about as Cleveland as they come. The folks I just mentioned are Cleveland as much as the gangsters in Hough. But you have bravely "called them out" and demanded they accept the region's crime as problems of their own. Now please, tell me what you would say to them so that they will buck up and take their fair share of responsibility. Tell them what exactly they need to do, how much of their time and money it will take to stop the gangs in Glenville from bangin' it out every night. Time to show these slackers how to "get their act together."

I don't mean to pick on you. I'm always amazed when I hear statements like "Cleveland needs to get its act together" as if Cleveland is a monolithic entity that, in its entirety is even remotely capable of "getting its act together" or whatever that means. cities are loose collections of millions of people all doing different things. Within cities are people doing amazing things, people sitting on the couch doing nothing, and people blowing each others heads off. No city in a free society is an exception to that.

I think this is pretty huge news actually. Meh. Except that we don't even know what/if anything is going to happen. This is literally an announcement that the County is talking about it. Being excited for this is like getting worked up that the Sun is going to burn out eventually. Sure, it will be a calamitous event but we and everyone we know will probably be long dead.

I hope this isn't what Freddy Collier was talking about when he mentioned something "very exciting" for downtown. Got my blood pressure up for nothing.