JDD941

I believe it happend a little farther West off of Kinsman Ave. From what I have been told, it was closer to where approx E68th and Kinsman would be. Right around where the walkway bridge crosses over the rail area just Southwest of Kinsman. And a sidenote, that walkway bridge is the only suspension bridge in the City of Cleveland.

I work on the CFD, and one thing that amazed me about that extention.....there are NO fire hydrants! How did the city let that slip by? Also, from what I understand, the eastern part of the street is to be realigned as well to get rid of the two 90 degree turns.

Hello Jax and welcome! I wish I could help you out a little more and send you the right direction, but I too seem to have a hard time finding up to date stats Sometimes I wonder if Cleveland doesn't spend more time burying the info than getting it out there! I think it is about time that Cleveland council stops getting its yearly 6% raise and focus on getting more police on the streets! We need the gang and drug task force back to full strength, we need the helecopters back in the air, and now, with the emergence of new urban neighborhoods and increasing population dowtown, it would be nice to to foot patrol officers on the streets. Presence is deterence! Most of the cops you see at the clubs downtown, are hired by the clubs to protect the inside of the clubs. I want to see downtown foot patrol...either walking, on horseback, or on bicycles...or...all three! I would love to see the petty thugs, destruction of property, fights, aggressive panhandlers, and homeless crapping on the sidewalks...STOPPED before it gets out of hand. Just a thought.

I would love to see it built...right here in Cleveland...we need more tall buildings...oh yeah, bring some jobs to fill em! :)

I can't speak for other urban areas in the state, but I can put my opinion in for the city of Cleveland. Being a firefighter for the City of Cleveland, I can say that Cleveland FD most likely responds to the most structure fires in the state (does NOT include car fires, dumpsters, brush, etc....I am talking structures). Winter definitely sees a spike in fires due to the fact people seem to come up with interesting(but dangerous) ways to heat their houses...gas grills, ovens, stove tops, even burn barrels. NOt only that, bt some people even choose to dry their clothes using similar methods. Oil space heaters and electrical space heaters on overloaded extention cords are also culprits. I think that there have definitely been a decrease in fires throughout the country due to many cities aggressive fire prevention programs. (fire education, free smoke detector and battery replacements, etc) Even with such aggressive programs, it is still harder to prevent fires in the "traditional" older parts of the country. Regarding older Northeastern type cities, there are typically more older wood construction type buildings along with older industrial buildings. Many of these buildings are not up to code when it comes to wiring and suppression systems. In fact, older buildings are "grandfathered" out of the codes. For the case of Cleveland, we have the largest concentrated area of poverty stricken population compared to any city in the state. Combining factors of poverty, lack of education, drugs, and violence...it keeps a fire department busy. You would be amazed at how many things happen on a daily basis in an urban setting that do NOT make the nightly news, and that includes fires. It seems only on slow news days, or if there is a major monetary loss or death do fires make the news here in Cleveland. The city of Cleveland has seperate EMS and Fire Departments (another story in itself!). The CFD does respond to medical emergencies when needed by EMS. Last year the CFD responded to over 65,000 emergency calls, roughly 60% being somehow medical related, the other 40% being somehow fire related( I do not have the number of responses for the city's EMS). The Cleveland fir department counts its calls by incident, by this I mean no matter how many units respond to a call, it is counted as one call(incident). Some cities give each responding unit its own run number, but in the CFD gives every responding unit to an incident the same run number to THAT incident...in short this means we do not pad our run numbers. I do not have the exact number of actual structure fires we responded to, but you would be surprised as to how many there actually are. If anyone is interested, I can get the actual numbers for 2005. I hope this bit of information was a little helpful.

I believe there is(was) a skyline chili in Brooklyn (OH)....haven't been to the plaza by Ridge and I-480 in a while..the stuff IS good.....but we make it at the fire station once in a while....always better that way! Look online for the different recipes.....enjoy

I admit I jaywalk on occassion myself....but I have one HUGE complaint. My complaint is to all the people (it seems to be mostly one group of people) that seem to not know there are sidewalks in the city of Cleveland. I can understand using the streets when the sidewalks are snow covered, but what is the reason to walk down busy streets when you have perfectly fine sidewalks to use? There have been numerous times I have come close to blasting someone because they were in traffic for no good reason, then the real kicker is that THEY look at YOU like they are supposed to be there! Useless ranting...I am sure the guilty as charged are not home reading Urbanohio.com......

I have to agree with punch to a point. I too think he is a politcal figurehead put into power by business leaders. I still DO, however, think he sounds like an idiot when he speaks. I don't think he understands the city as a whole. I think he tends to lean towards "his" community a bit much, the central neighborhood. Unfortunately, Cleveland has become a city of handouts and freebies. We seem to want to continually coddle those who could have, but did not, and forget about those who could have, did, and DO! Instead of doing as the federal goverment does, we still have the wonderful "quota" system in place, and our city gambleswith a "cut off it's nose to spite it's face" attitude with federal money by conctantly trying to use the stupid "Fanny Lewis Law" inevery project. There has to be a time that all these handouts have to end! Why not put emphasis on parent(s), emphasis on education, and emphasis on becoming a productive human being in society. Instead we just keep giving and giving, and it STILL isn't enough. Is our society trying to say that the recipients of the handouts are a lost cause? Tryig to say they are not intelligent enough to do for themselves? It would seem that way. Plain and simple, at some point people need to take control of themselves! Public assistance was setup as a safety net, not a way of life. I am not Democrat nor Republican, I am for leadership that will get things done. Unfortunately, we have had weak leadership in Cleveland, and it seems that the trend will continue. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, and the soup just isn't right. I HOPE I will be proven wrong, I hope at the end of Jackson's four years I can be made fun of for spouting off. A gut feeling tells me not much is going to change. :) Maybe we could get Richard Daley or Rudy Guliani to run this place! lol ......just a thought

Frank Jackson is an IDIOT! I am sure his decision making skills will be about as good as his command of the English language.....

I can't believe I actually read every post in this!! You all had some great points on the rappers...but we all know when D Ali G breaks it down, you can't compare....and my sources tell me that he was conceived in a Denny's parking lot in Parma....I guess the Cleveland area wins!

Would somebody please forward this WHOLE thread to Cleveland RTA leaders!!! Maybe they would realize that todays rail is pretty useful in an urban area....and progress has been made since the days of the coal burning steam engines! RTA's mantra...."bigger highways..more buses"

KJP, Is all this a possible reality in the Cleveland area? I am a rail freak, and would love to see this stuff happen! I am not even a fraction as informed as you about possible projects when it comes to rail in Cleveland and NE Ohio, but reading this stuff made me pretty excited! (maybe I need to get laid more!) Is there anyway RTA and there anti rail attitude will somehow screw all this up and turn it into another highway that only allows buses that LOOK like trains on it!?!?! If the NEohio rail thing happens, I hope it spurs more light rail lines around the city(region)....

My bet is that Cleveland wil get a curling team....if not....all of you can buy me a 40 of Laser Malt Liquor!

Does anyone know if any of the cancelled projects have ever been talked about as being resurected? It would be nice to have a few more major buildings in the downtown skyline gaps.

I agree....I think that part of MLK is gorgeous.....I guess if you knew nothing of the area, you would think that part of the city is great! Too bad that junk looms up the hill!

Thanks for saying "thanks"... I don't want to disappoint...but I am CFD..not CPD.....hope that still makes the cut! lol

Parts of MLK are actually pretty nice. The area where it goes through Rockefeller park is very nice, and south of UC MLK has some stretches of stately and decently maintained homes, although the intersecting streets sometimes aren't as nice. Not sure how to do the paste in the box thing that so many do, but this was my attempt! lol Being a firefighter for the city of Cleveland, and working on the east side, I know the MLK area pretty well. The Rockefeller Park area seems nice, but if you go up the hill to the West side, it becomes VERY dicey! I have been to a number of shootings in that area. I think many of you would be amazed to what goes on in our city on a daily basis. The majority of things that happen don't make the news unless someone dies or it is a flashy story. During my last shift, we went to a shooting and two stabbings, and that was on a Tueday night! These incidents were in the area of MY station (on E116th between Kinsman and Buckeye ...station 41). Sometimes the police calls are backed up due to the high call volume. I bothers me when people think the Police in Cleveland aren't doing their job because they aren't there immediatley when you need them. These men and women are very busy... as well are the members of the FD. Contrary to popular belief, we don't sit and watch TV all day, we too are a very busy inner city FD. All I am saying is.....some people might think that certain areas are safe, or may think that not too many bad things happen because you don't hear about them.....trust me, they do! If you find yourself in a "bad" area....use your head, be safe. Some of the ideas stated earlier about how to drive are actually very good ideas. Okay..enough of my soap boxing! Stay safe people!

Homey...those are some GREAT ideas! We need to think of a way to make these ideas more public (other than this site).....maybe people and potential developers might take heed!

I can truly feel for your plight in Cincy! We here in Cleveland, have a rail system, but it leaves a lot to be desired! It seems that Transportation leaders in evey city in this state are so anti rail it makes me sick. There is no reason the big three cities don't have (or have better) rail systems within the city...and also...there is no reason that we don't already have a heavy rail system that connect the big three cities! I guess it makes more sense to our leader to keep tearing down houses and pouring more cement.....maybe one day we can hope to have ten lanes going in each direction on all of our highways! (If you transportation leaders are reading this....that was SARCASM!)

Ok..I'm in...I have no idea about how to start this (a citizens ridership panel), to gather people, money needed, logostics, etc. If anybody is truly interested I would be more than willing to do whatever it took to get this going. I know many of you are more knowledgable about the subject, but will a little research and guidance, I would love to be brought up to speed. In the meantime, I can offer my hard work and offer a meeting place. I live near Edgewater Park in a building that has a wonderful meeting room with a lot of space. If anyone is seriously interested, let me know and lets get the ball rolling! Thanks!

I ride the rapid more than the bus system. I have a few colaints about the rail system here (other than it not being expansive enough!) Not all employees announce stops (or they can't be understood) which would be horrible for out of towners, would be nice to have timers on the platform for ETA's, stops should be timed so employees don't sit and BS with other employees on the platform while I wait to go!, payment system sucks!!! When the booths are manned it is okay, but there needs to be a system like NYC or Chicago with payment machines in the station NOT on the train.....have turnstiles that go from floor to ceiling to stop gate jumpers for the stations that have no booth. Having to wait at each stop while people pay on the train is the dumbest thing I have seen.....and even dumber was one time I took the train to the Browns game, and they asked for my ticket when I got OFF the train!!! What kind of backward@ss system it that!?!?! If they can pay people to check when you get off the train.....try moving those people to the areas where you pay to get ON the train.... I LOVE rail systems in other cities...I would LOVE a more expansive rail system in THIS city/region, as well as many other people I would suspect! Let's get together and figure out a way to have OUR voices heard!!!!

Here are some stats for 2004 for...I couldn't find a complete list for 05' yet. These are for cities, not metro areas.... http://print.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921299.html

Hey...I feel slighted! Cleveland had 115 murders in 2005! Did that lead Ohio? Man, we're number one! Something to be proud of!!!! (sarcasm) lol

It's about time! I have been to cities in Europe and it seems they do such a better job of keeping the urban areas cleaner than their US counterparts. Cleaning streets at night, picking up trash, even using SCENTED water to clean the streets with! I hope this makes a difference in downtown Cleveland!

Being from the West side, I am of course partial to this side of town. I guess I like it for more practical reasons, such as close proximity to highways, the airport, more shopping malls(I know, malls suck), but for me...proximity to bars!! LOL I Live near Edgewater so I can be anywhere quickly with a short drive or cab ride..(Downtown, Ohio City, Tremont, and Lakewood). I think the East side has some cool places to offer, but it seems you have to drive a lot farther to change scenery when it comes to going out. The East side however has some great places to eat, some very nice arts and culture, and great architecture. As far as the West side being more suburbia, I have to agree, but there are reasons for that, at least on the Southwest side of Cleveland proper. After WWII many homes were put up fast and cheap for returning soldiers and families. It seems that trend continued, it was a lot cheap to build like that on land that was mostly undeveloped compared to the East side. I think it sucks to see places like that, but what can you do now, right? I wish there would have been a push to build nice east coast brick rowhouses instead. One exception to the West side being "suburbia" is definitely Lakewood. There are lots of street level store fronts with plenty of residential above, and there is a lot of pedestrian traffic which makes a city...a city. Plus it is the most populated city per sq mile between NYC and Chicago. (Wikipedia) It seems that Cleveland lost a lot of that feel through time on Streets like Lorain, Detroit, etc. Too bad Cleveland didn't maintain that feel on the major streets like Chicago did. I can say coventry has that feel, but it just isn't quite as extensive an area as Lakewood. As far as an earlier post stated that the river seperates East Coast between Midwest, I DID read that in Wikipedia as well. It gives a great breakdown on the subject. I have to admit, I think that the Cleveland area has much more of a Baltimore, Jersey, Philly type flavor to it than a Topeka KS! I guess the same could be said about the feel within our own state. To me, once you go South of Medina Co, it seems as if you are in a different state! But this topic is East/West...I guess North/South is another topic! :) When it comes down to it, BOTH sides of town have unique and enjoyable things to offer everyone. No matter what race, no matter if you are white collar or blue collar, this is Cleveland...it is our city/region...so lets just enjoy the whole area!