DM4

Makes no sense. Why are we wasting so much money on a highway beautification project? Lowering speeds seems complex pointless

Haven't been over to this area in a while until today when I passed through! Wow is it ugly! That whole demolished lot looks terrible. And the buildings across the street seem to be in far worse shape than before. Also is that gas station on the Cleveland side new? I don't remember it being there. The whole street just looks very sad and terrible.

^Then that means workforce population is way down.

"more than ever before in the city’s history" How can this be true? How far back do these numbers go?

Old but Conan with a negative joke. Start at 1:38

I saw on the news that Superior would only be left open for bus traffic. RTA needs to just reroute. Keeping superior open, even if just for bus traffic, is a HUGE mistake. It will make it nearly impossible to design a good space when the center is a bus lane.

Cleveland crime statistics show uptick in homicides, armed robberies, drop in other crimes: interactive graph CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Homicides and robberies with a gun in Cleveland are at longtime highs so far this year, but all other crimes are down, according to police. A little more than a week after City Councilman Zack Reed publicly decried the city's homicide totals as "out of control," Cleveland Police Thursday released statistics comparing several categories of crimes spanning through March 15 in each of the last seven years. According to the numbers, Cleveland police tallied 19 homicides through March 15, a 29 percent jump over the six-year average of 14.1. The uptick surpassed the 16 homicides in the same time period each of the last two years, and the highest since 2009's 21 killings. Robberies with a gun are up with more than 56 percent - 191 times this year, compared to 126 last year and a six-year average of 122. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/03/cleveland_crime_statistics_sho.html

The numbers do show largely that by the time people hit 30, the population of that age group drops significantly downtown until about age 50 when things pick up a little . You also see the number of kids drop as age increases. The numbers do show that people generally are comfortable living downtown with a child up to age 5. After 5 though the number drops significantly as well. This is most likely nearly 100% to do with schools. Parks, youth activities, etc, also probably play a part but I would guess schools are the biggest factor.

I wish!....my question is when they do replace them will that choose a different company? These busses don't seem to hold up well to heavy usage. I think RTA helped designed them and Joe really loves them.

I think the brt vehicles are breaking down so they temporarily use a normal bus to replace a broken bus.

Surface routing would perform better and cost FAR less than going into CUT. my plane would to distribute the Streetcar through downtown eliminating the need for a Circulator in downtown Not that any of this is going to happen in the near future, but ignoring an extant, unused transit lower deck on the Det-Superior bridge doesn't make sense, esp. since the Campbell adnim wisely narrowed the bridge roadway to widen sidewalks and increase bike traffic. Also, routing the streetcars off the bridge into the old, open-ended TC/Shaker station makes the most sense... At some point, Biker, this town is going to have to stop planning and building transit on the cheap for, like the HL, we're not going urban impact and development we desire -- forget that phony $5 billion figure of alleged HL-inspired development. I have to disagree. What is the benefit of using the bridge? It would be extremely costly to build the streetcar ramps to get the trains down under the bridge and then back to the surface. And what for? Just to cross a relatively short span? Also the ramps are extremely ugly and take up a lot of space. The bridge could be useful if we were to build a complete subway system, but for a surface level system, detouring to under the bridge makes no sense other than being able to say "we used the bridge!"

I think you have a point about the connection from SS to UC, that would be best Accomplished thru an extension of the Blue line into UC. How to connect Coventry to UC is a different issue there is a large commute shed there with pockets of high density residential surrounded by low density residential. The funding model for streetcar is based on Value capture, or using the proceeds from property tax from new development surrounding these lines to fund those lines, whilw there is an opportunity for increased development within the Coventry area, I don't know how much development would be allowed to happen in the area. Would Cleveland Hts. allow or even if its possible for those high value low density neighborhoods to be converted into higher density neighborhoods? With the Blue Line extension you have Regional Transit interest with the need for access to UC from the Southeast of our Region, the same Argument cannot be made for a circulator from Coventry to UC as easily. The high density pockets are decently large and are home to a population that tends to either work in, go to school in, or hang out in University Circle. Coventry and Cedar Fairmount are also places that many people who live and work in University Circle like to visit. I think there is more development potential than what one would expect. Cedar Fairmount has a lot of room to expand on the western end of the neighborhood and smaller possibilities spread out elsewhere across the neighborhood. Coventry has less room, but still has infill that could happen on several lots. The route could also have the potential to drastically change the coventry triangle north of Mayfield. This area is already seeing demolitions take place and could use many more. The gas stations could also be relocated creating the potential to create a truly urban Mayfield/Coventry intersection. Costs could remain somewhat low by using the greenspace on Cedar Hill and then the Euclid Heights Blvd median.

The arcades have always been somewhat busy during lunch time, due to the food court, pjs, and vincenzas. They look a lot better though with filled storefronts and signs! I am somewhat nervous though since the stores seem pretty empty everytime I walk through.

Cleveland.com said 10,000 http://www.cleveland.com/st-patricks-day/index.ssf/2014/03/northeast_ohioans_brave_cold_t.html#incart_maj-story-1 I believe that number is just for people IN the parade, not AT the parade.

Its still a shame the city/county got $0 for the naming rights.

The crowd this year was really small compared to the recent years weekend crowds. Have they released an estimate?

Wouldn't the lack of elevator access basically kill any plans due to the Americans with Disabilities Act

^ I feel that a University Circle, Coventry, Cedar Fairmount, and possibly Shaker square route makes the most sense. Not only would they serve dense populations, as well as tourist destinations, job centers, etc, they would run through areas where development is more likely to occur since there is already something to build off of, and in this case, a lot to build off of. Running a line through solid areas makes far more sense than running it through highly declining/struggling areas with lower density.

Would be interesting but who would want it?

It makes no sense. We allow for athletes to get paid ridiculous salaries because we make the owners pay literally nothing for their facilities. If every athlete was paid between $100k-500k a year (still a crazy amount of money), there would be plenty of money left over for the owners to pay all of the costs themselves.

Go ahead and argue that the Terminal Tower complex should be demolished and replaced with an East 4th-type district and see what the public's response is. I don't believe anyone is arguing for that to happen. But I think it goes both ways. Argue to demolish everything between Euclid and Huron from Ontario to East 9th for a massive complex with todays architecture, with mostly one style/building material. And make it have very few storefronts. Everyone would be freaking out.

That's where the casino is now.

^ Im sorry but Ill have to disagree. Buildings like that are found in the BEST part of nearly any city. Even Cleveland with the little that remain.

RTA should implement some sort of Family pass where $10 gets you an all day pass that is good for four people. It could be good all the time, or it could just be good weeknights and all day during the weekends. Currently the cost of transit forces families to drive. What family is going to spend $20 to drive to the train station, take the longer trip downtown, and then walk a decent distance to their destination? Especially when driving can get you much closer to your destination, at a much quicker time, and at half the cost? At $10, families might be much more likely to take the train.

The SW corner was the biggest loss in my opinion!