Evergrey

Well, I obviously didn't edit it out, KJP. I was just concerned that that inflammatory comment would be the only thing people on here would focus on, rather than the real message that there should be much better rail service for the Pittsburgh-Cleveland corridor.

He meant that leaving Pittsburgh at midnight to arrive in Cleveland at 2AM is ridiculous.

ah... so it's a Firefox problem... interestingly, my Firefox doesn't have this problem for long photo threads posting at SSP or SSC

I had contemplated editing that quotation out of the post so that it wouldn't distract from the message of the column.

clvlndr: your posts on Philly are spot on... do you live there? Basically, Philly is much larger than any Ohio city ... and it runs the gamut... from the worst of the worst in urban American to incredibly functional, beautiful, affluent urban neighborhoods... and the booming Centre City is a huge asset that few cities are blessed with. Philly's got major problems that won't be cured any time soon... but it also has incredible promise... and has accomplished a lot over the past decade. Metro Philly also has one of the lowest foreclosure rates of any major region in the U.S. Here's some numbers from February: http://www.forbes.com/realestate/2008/02/12/rates-foreclosure-housing-forbeslife-cx_mw_0213realestate_2.html PHILADELPHIA, PA: Foreclosure Filings: 16,246 Properties With Filings: 7,899 %Householes: 0.492 %Change from 2006: -32.09 CLEVELAND/LORAIN/ELYRIA/MENTOR, OH Foreclosure Filings: 49,071 Properties With Filings: 27,848 %Householes: 2.972 %Change from 2006: 112.43 CINCINNATI, OH Foreclosure Filings: 21,392 Properties With Filings: 13,119 %Householes: 1.469 %Change from 2006: 104.38

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08204/898525-155.stm Midnight train to Cleveland? C'mon, get rail! Tuesday, July 22, 2008 By Brian O'Neill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The recent boom in passenger and freight traffic, spurred as so many things are by the soaring price of diesel fuel and gasoline, makes me happy. I love trains. My boyhood home was across the street from a Long Island Rail Road line. When cousins visited from out of state, they could never figure out how the O'Neills could sleep through the trains either roaring or rattling past, but they were lullabies to us. More at link above:

"Soda" is a St. Louis word.

I disagree. You guys tend to ignore the many quality neighborhoods, old line/gentrifying, outside Center City that house upper mids to millionaires: Mount Airy, (uber-tony)Chestnut Hill, East Falls (home to Guv Rendell and Sen Specter), and Univ. City (a much stronger, activity-wise Philly version of University Circle), and the far Northeast (like Torresdale). Outside of the narrow (barely) 1-mile stretch of Edgewater, areas hugging Shaker Sq at the Shaker Hts border and, I guess, parts of West Park, how much real wealth is inside Cleveland's borders? Cleveland's East Side is in comparable to worse condition than North Philly, which is gentrifying big-time in many areas -- RE in North Philly is a red hot ticket; no, Philly hasn't had the foreclosure crash Cleve has had... Plus, poor Philly neighborhoods at the very least have both solid brick row housing that can be, and is being, rapidly rehabbed -- and people!. Vast stretches of Cleveland are wasteland/ghost towns; we’ve torn down entire neighborhoods inside large areas like Hough and are left, often, with building up from scratch, not rehab. And serious, stubborn decay is spreading to near the border; like Mt. Pleasant and swaths of Glenville. Yes, if you say Philly is dirtier (by far) and meaner ... I'd agree. OH I disagree. The mortage and foreclosure curtain has creeped into every city. Can you give me some stats? Philly is known as the "armpit of America" for a reason. Those area going north and along the river and the cities on the Jersey side make Hough look like paradise. Really? The "armpit of America"?

thanks, man!

Philly is awesome.

That's my kind of town!

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/07/bottleneck_at_the_border_aging.html Bottlenecks at the border are taking a toll on U.S.-Canada trade Posted by Frank Bentayou July 20, 2008 00:06AM Don McArthur/Associated Press fileScarcely adequate bridges and worn roads already stressed growing cross-border truck traffic between Canada and the United States before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the days afterward, when this scene unfolded, backups extended for miles. Now, delays are less severe, but manufacturers and shippers fear slowdowns in June 2009, when the next wave of Homeland Security rules are scheduled to go into effect, possibly stifling trade between the neighboring countries. When Henry King drove back to Cleveland from Canada recently, he spied the jumble of semis queued up at checkpoints at the border. With each trip he makes, the international law expert at Case Western Reserve University said, the backup seems longer. "It's costing us," he said about the old, overburdened bridges and the post-9/11 border security measures. All that puts a crimp in U.S.-Canada commerce. SOURCE: Canadian Consulate, Detroit; Migration Policy Institute; Buffalo-Niagara Partnership; U.S. Department of Treasury

Forest City revamps proposal for riverfront convention center Posted by Sarah Hollander July 21, 2008 13:57PM A redesigned riverfront convention center could shave up to $100 million from the cost and keep it in the running for the project, according to Forest City. The company decided to rethink the building's design after realizing that updated estimates would push the price past half a billion dollars, said David LaRue, chief operating officer of Forest City Commercial Group. The new proposal still won't meet the county's $400 million cap, he said, but will keep it within the ballpark. He wouldn't put an exact figure on the new estimate. More at http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/07/forest_city_revamps_proposal_f.html#more

I've never understood why "soda"-speakers get so violently angry when somebody uses the word "pop". I used to encounter these types of reactions from the Philadelphians on Penn State's campus. "Pop"-speakers never seem to react similarly to the use of "soda", in my experience... I think we regard it as a quaint variant.

Taken a couple weeks ago: Great to see these pics again, Rob... and they look AMAZING! It's great to be able to look back in time with such high quality photography. I took Rt. 30 from Wooster to Pittsburgh every 2 or 3 weekends from Fall 2005 through 2006. Being a PA native, I always started to feel like I was "home" once I hit Lisbon... a charming little hamlet nestled in the emerging wooded hills. 1985 was a strange and remarkable year for Metro Pittsburgh. In many ways, it was the absolute nadir for the region economically. The early 80s vaporization of the region's steel industry pushed hundreds of thousands of people out... and 1985 was the height of the exodus. The dramatic exodus of 1985 has had lingering demographic and economic consequences to this day, despite the relative cessation of significant out-migration around 1990. Ironically, 1985 was also the year Metro Pittsburgh was named "America's Most Livable City" by PlacesRated Almanac, an honor it would receive again two decades later. This designation bestowed upon a region traditionally viewed as a hyper-polluted industrial nightmare... that was now experiencing the most severe regional economic contraction in modern American history... elicited incredulous bewilderment from many in the media. But despite the doom in the heavy industry sector, Pittsburgh strived to become a world-class city (as opposed to just a world-class industrial center) in the 80s through a campaign known as "Renaissance II" (first Renaissance was in the 50s, which reduced water and air pollution, built Point Park, etc.) Knowledge-based economic sectors emerged to avert disaster. The skyline exploded with signature towers hosting corporate headquarters. Seedy sections of Downtown were redeveloped with theatres and cultural venues. The city was greened and beautified. While I cannot even imagine the trauma of 1985 (I was 3 at the time, living in north-central PA), I believe Pittsburgh has emerged a much better city through the trials of the steel collapse and its associated negative externalities.

great panos, Florida Guy!

that sucks about the St. Clairsville location :(

KJP: How does the proposed bus fare compare nationally? ($2.25-$2.50) How much passenger volume will be lost with these cuts?

keep the Youngstown neighborhood tours comin'!

i was there once

heavy industry is awesome

The Daffin's flagship store in Sharon, PA claims to be the "world's largest chocolate candy store". Thanks for Girard... drove past it on 80 many times... but never stopped. http://www.daffinscandies.com/

if you see a panhandler coming your way (you can almost always tell)... panhandle them first! it leaves them dumbfounded btw, I love the panhandlers that request bizarre amounts of money... like 18 cents!

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/07/solon_is_flush_with_money_and.html Solon is flush with money and amenities Posted by Laura Johnston July 14, 2008 21:00PM Solon boasts a golf course, a state-of-the-art City Hall, senior and arts centers and three swimming pools. It paid off its City Hall loans eight years early and earned the lowest interest rates for borrowing money. And it has never faced the kind of nail-biting budget cuts that some Cuyahoga County communities have made this year.