mviski

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/14/18225001/hq-2-new-york-canceled-housing-impact This article explains why NYC, DC, SF, SJ, etc. are bad locations for this type of project (for everyone except Amazon). They have overheated housing markets, and bringing in more high income residents will make them more unaffordable for everyone else. The article also mentions Cleveland by name as somewhere that would greatly benefit from something like HQ2. Because average home values in Cleveland are below replacement cost, there's little incentive for homeowners and landlords to improve their properties.

The final step in the process would certainly be a statewide ballot measure outlining the borders and powers of the metropolitan counties/city states. Getting such an amendment on the ballot (and passing it) will require a big signature gathering drive, grassroots support in all corners of the state, and quite a bit of money. The first step is to get people talking about it and debating what it would look like. You'll need a steady stream of articles in the Plain Dealer, Dispatch, Enquirer, Vindicator, and Blade covering the debate and progress. The Cuyahoga County executive could convene a summit with the commissioners of surrounding counties and executive of Summit County. The mayors of Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, and Youngstown could do the same with their neighboring counties. As far as money goes, there could be an interesting alliance between progressive groups (who hate state-preemption) and business groups (who dislike regional fragmentation). Of everything, that seems to be the most difficult part.

I'd be more interested in merging counties to create "metropolitan" counties with special powers that are currently in the hands of the (rurally-dominated) state government. If you merged Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Geauga, Medina, Summit, and Portage into a single county, you'd have a government specifically designed to make decisions on the regional level, but the cities and school districts would still function independently. The scheme could also devolve certain powers that are best handled on the metropolitan level but are repeatedly pre-empted at the state level, such as minimum wage, labor standards, and transportation funding. You could even throw in the power to create an urban growth boundary and contain the sprawl. Lest Cleveland-Akron get special treatment, similar entities could be created by merging Hamilton/Butler/Warren/Clermont and Franklin + surrounding counties. Mahoning + Trumbull could be merged, and special powers could be delegated to Lucas and Montgomery counties.

Cleveland-Akron is one of 3-4 regions where the MSA is too small and the CSA is too big. The others are the Bay Area, the Research Triangle, and the Triad. The BART extension in the East Bay might finally push the MSA definition to match the common definition of the Bay Area, but I'm not sure what would need to happen for Cleveland-Akron to merge. Commuter rail between Cleveland and Akron? More sprawl in Macedonia and Twinsburg?

That's correct. In June, we passed a ballot measure increasing all of the bridge tolls in the region (except the Golden Gate) by $3, and the tolls will fund a bunch of transit projects, including new trains for BART. It includes $325 million for the Caltrain extension to downtown, but that's only a small portion of the total funding needed. They're still researching different alignments, some of which can open up a significant amount of land for new transit-oriented development. I believe he's correct. I'm not aware of any funding for the last mile into Transbay. Ditto for running Brightline into Orlando's airport station, which was built for $200+ million (mostly state funds). Just doesn't have any trains (or tracks) yet.

It reminds me of this article I read a while back about how cities manage public assets. https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2017/08/the-untapped-wealth-of-american-cities/536064/

I think the statistic you're looking for is "weighted density." Basically, it averages out the census tract density but gives higher weight to the tracts where more people live (e.g. if 10,000 people lived in 1 square mile and one person lived in 99 square miles surrounding that tract, the weighted density would be nearly 10,000 people/sq mi, even though the "average" density is 100/sq mi). It gives a better measurement of the density the "typical" resident experiences.

If there are thousands of unfilled jobs, why is our domestic net migration so terrible? The cost of living is dirt cheap in Cleveland, so unless these unfilled jobs pay terrible wages, you would see people flocking to Cleveland to fill them.

RTA's rail system has a huge last-mile problem because large sections were built through industrial areas. The city/county/RTA should really look into incorporating electric scooters into the network (possibly with fare transfers or docks at Rapid stations). Taking an electric scooter for the final mile of the trip sure beats waiting 30-45 minutes for a low frequency bus.

Exactly! The proposal actually pays homage to Cleveland's industrial buildings and isn't just "fast casual" architecture that you can find anywhere else.

I'm not sure if they've made the news in Ohio, but there's been an extremely intense debate about electric scooters here in San Francisco. Basically, three companies dumped hundreds of electric scooters throughout the city, and people can book them for $1 + $0.15/minute using an app. They've created a huge controversy because people have been leaving them in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking doors with them, and riding them on sidewalks and spooking pedestrians. They're supposed to solve the "last mile problem" by giving people a way to get from BART/MUNI stations to their final destination, but San Francisco's density and traffic (nobody wants to ride them in congested streets) has made them a nuisance. Not to mention, San Francisco's transit coverage is very dense and pretty much everywhere is within 1/2 mile of a bus/train stop. Growing up in NE Ohio and coming back periodically, I've always been struck by how Cleveland's rail network is so extensive for a city of its size, but many of the stations are *just* a little too far away from jobs/people/attractions (with some notable exceptions). I've also been following RTA's funding and ridership woes and really want to see the system turn around. I'm curious what you all think about electric scooters and whether they could boost the reach of the Rapid and/or ease the pain of recent bus service cuts. A lot of the neighborhoods are separated from stations by long quiet streets, which is an ideal setting for the scooters. Could RTA acquire its own fleet of scooters, or should it partner with one or more of the companies? What about geofencing Rapid stations and counting a scooter ride as a "transfer" if it originates or ends at a station? What about equity? Could scooter rides be included in an RTA monthly pass for low-income residents? Because they're battery powered, they can provide mobility to people unable to ride bikes (but who can still stand). And finally, they can provide supplemental income to people who pick them up and recharge them.

What about creating metropolitan counties and devolving certain state level powers to them? I could envision six metropolitan counties: Cleveland/Akron (Cleveland MSA + Akron MSA), Columbus (MSA), Cincinnati (Ohio portion of the MSA), Toledo (MSA), Dayton (MSA), and Youngstown/Warren (Mahoning + Trumbull). The metropolitan counties would have control over (proportional) transportation money and labor standards, which are two things that have created a lot of tension between the urban and rural areas of the state. Devolving these powers to the metropolitan counties (the rural counties would be subject to state law) would allow the cities to behave like cities and compete nationally and globally.

The Cleveland/Akron MSA/CSA debate is very reminiscent of the San Francisco/San Jose one. The Census Bureau splits SF and SJ into separate MSAs, but both are part of the Bay Area. Furthermore, the Bay Area CSA definition is more extensive than what anyone would comfortably call the Bay Area. Just as Stockton and Santa Cruz aren't part of the common definition of the Bay Area, Canton and Sandusky aren't part of the common definition of Greater Cleveland. In both cases, the most intuitive definition of the "metro" area lies somewhere between the MSA and the CSA.