Litening

It's state law. Any continuous street that's more than a mile long, not in a business district, and within a single municipality, is designated a "through highway". (ORC 4511.65) And the designated speed limit for through highways within a municipality is 35 MPH. (ORC 4511.21). There are provisions for municipalities to do appropriate engineering and traffic studies to raise or lower the standard speed limit. I'm not certain if this current effort is going to be used to request a speed limit change for Franklin. If this was happening, you would think they would mention it on the project website, and I don't see it there. I'll just mention that folks already routinely ignore the current 35 MPH speed limit. It seems logical that if the speed limit is lowered, and nothing else is done to calm traffic, that not much will change in this regard. Speed limits need to reflect conditions -- they rarely work to impose them. (See the West Shoreway for a great example of this.)

I'm surprised that people are praising this botched job. We will be spending $3.2MM to basically take out the traffic lights and resurface the street. As others have noted, this design is unlikely to calm traffic; it seems like it might even allow speeds to increase. Most of the proven calming techniques that were on the preliminary proposals have been removed from the final design. The roundabouts will just be low rounded concrete bumps that can simply be driven over instead of forcing cars to slow way down and go around The lanes will remain at their current speed-encouraging width, instead of narrowed to make drivers less comfortable There will not be curb bump outs at intersections to calm traffic and provide a shorter crossing distance for pedestrians The sides of the street used for parking will not alternate to cause the road to seem less like a drag strip Crosswalks will just get the easily-ignored flashing signs instead of being raised into speed tables There will be no additional safety features for bicycles -- just the same useless "sharrows" that are there now Extremely disappointing. As the project website states, "some adjustments from the TLCI plan are necessary as the design advances from conceptual to engineering design standards". My guess is that any design elements that did not strictly follow the MUTCD were simply removed by city traffic engineers. I've written to Councilman McCormack expressing my extreme disappointment that yet another community engagement effort has been derailed and ignored by the city.

I also agree. My biggest peeve with this one -- and you can't see it too well in this photo -- is that the façade almost lines up with the building next to it, but doesn't quite. It's a couple of feet off. If they couldn't get it to line up for some important reason, it would have been better to come nowhere close.

Dental Clinic: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/09/how-ohio-city-residents-fought-for-one-property-to-be-used-for-the-greater-good-and-won.html

Been saying this for years. It will soon be time to replace the Main Ave Bridge. It's been rehabbed on an increasingly regular basis in recent years and was improved only from "Poor" to "Fair" condition by the last big rehab in 2013. It also has a "fracture critical" design which means that the failure of a single member can cause a portion of or the entire bridge to fail. To give some idea of the potential cost to replace the bridge, just its deck replacement in 1992 cost $62 million (with inflation, would be $115 million today). And as something possibly comparable that's happening now, the project that's building the new Valley View Bridge is $228 million. (To be clear, it's not a clean comparison: In addition to the new third bridge it also includes deck replacements on the two existing bridges -- on the other hand, each of the Valley View Bridges are about 2,400 ft. shorter than the Main Ave Bridge.) In other words, the high cost alone dictates that we should not just automatically replace the existing 6,500 ft span + 1,500 ft of ramps. And as we all know, there are many other issues with the current bridge. We should look for a better solution. Here's what I think would be much better: From west to east: Have the Shoreway replace Ed Houser (Whiskey Island) Drive as a four lane 35 mph boulevard. Maintain two intersections on this section of road: The first would be for the Treatment Plant and Old River Yacht Club. The second would go to Wendy Park and the Ore Docks. Then as low and short a bridge as we can get away with. My preference would be a medium height (50 ft?) drawbridge that would only need to open for the tallest boats. After the bridge, the boulevard would continue across the south side of the Port. Reconnect with the East Shoreway at W 3rd by widening the ramp that currently provides Shoreway access to the Port parking lot west of the stadium. Since it was just rehabbed, I'd probably leave the section of the existing West Shoreway between the Westinghouse curve and W 45th as a route into Ohio City or an alternate route into Downtown via Detroit Ave. (For example, when the drawbridge is open signs could route traffic onto Detroit.) Just have a merge at W 45th or at Dogbone park. Could be modified to include KJP's intersection/transit suggestions at W 54th and W 45th. Upsides: Could mostly be built without disrupting the current route. Eliminate a significant number of twisty/unsafe sections of road and oddly designed ramps. Free up acres of "lakefront" or "riverfront" property in downtown, the flats, and the near west side. Get rid of the "Berlin Wall" between Lakeview Terrace and the rest of Ohio City. Create a more direct western route in and out of the Stadium/lakefront area. With some added access over/under the rail line, add another needed route in and out of the Flats East Bank area. Possible improved development opportunities at the south end of the Port property. Rework of interface to the East Shoreway could include a better road connection to the Amtrak station. Seems likely to be cheaper overall than replacing the long high-level bridge, especially if traffic disruption is taken into account. Downsides: It's a tight fit on some sections of the road out to Whiskey Island. The bridge over the tracks that go to the ore docks would need the be rebuilt. Construction would likely significantly disrupt access to Whiskey Island - although building the eastern portion of the road and the bridge first would perhaps allow access from that direction while the western road is being built. Would likely interfere with the new pedestrian bridge over the rail line at Whiskey Island. Brings more traffic closer to Whiskey Island, possibly making it less peaceful. There's a warehouse at the Port of Cleveland that would have to relocate north. Depending on route there is possible interference with both the RTA tracks and the W 9th St. extension at the Port. If a high-level (90') bridge is still required, long ramps would be needed and the financial advantage is reduced. A drawbridge would likely enrage some motorists (and sailboaters with larger boats), but I say, "Screw 'em" 🙂.

Then today's your lucky day -- Fulton and the Franklin Circle roundabout are open.

Lots of good info on the Circle out there. Cleveland Historical Encyclopedia of Cleveland History Cleveland Historic Maps From the above we can see that It was the first park on the west side -- 1836. The street around the circle was paved with brick. There were no plazas around the old circle - the street was indeed where the brick areas in front of the church and hospital are (and, until very recently, where the new apartment building is). The pavers currently in front of the hospital are not original, though. However, the street was not as close to the hospital because that wing had not yet been built when the circle was functional. The old circle had a radius of 140' to the outside of the street. The street itself was 30' wide. But the circle was bisected first by Franklin Blvd itself, and then later by several streetcar lines, so by the time it was removed it really didn't function much like a traffic circle or park anymore. From the plans for the new roundabout, here, it has a radius of about 70' to the outside of the street. (The circle itself seems to have a radius of 45'.) So nothing like the original Franklin Circle.

The roundabout is under construction. You can see the new northeast and southeast curb lines in the photo. The dirt area in the center left of the photo is where the splitter island in the middle of Franklin will go. Franklin is scheduled to be closed between W 25th and W 29th until October. And at the moment 29th is also closed in Hingetown. Take Detroit or Bridge instead.

The Rhodes Mansion was discussed at a later meeting: http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/2019/04112019/index.php

The plans, including colors, were brought to Landmarks: http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/2018/10112018/index.php http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/agenda/2018/10252018/index.php (Probably posted up-thread as well.) TLDR: They are keeping the back section and the porch is pretty close to the original one.

NOACA's posted the info from this meeting at http://www.noaca.org/index.aspx?page=7580 Lots of mini-roundabouts and lots of raised crosswalks. I don't believe that any traffic lights remain. Looks like the preferred design has full-sized roundabouts at both Fulton and 65th.

The US Bank branch at the corner of Market Ave. closed in January. And the former Orale space between Bridge and Jay is currently empty, but an outpost of Cleveland Heights' Rib Cage Smokehouse was just announced as moving in: http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/03/the_rib_cage_smokehouse_and_ba.html

PM Foundation is the controlling non-profit for UCS. ("PM" stands for "St. Patrick, St. Malachi", the two parish schools that merged to form UCS.) So between the school itself and the Foundation, it sounds like they control much of that block between 47th and 48th.

Metro's McCafferty Health Center is just two blocks away, so why build another clinic? (SSSB is the law firm Schneider Smeltz Spieth Bell, BTW. Just playing legal agent for the company, I'd guess.)

Plus a bunch of new infill housing going into long-term empty lots (such as at John & 44th, along 41st south of Lorain, and along 29th between Franklin & Clinton).