JDD941

I may not agree with some of you on other topics...but when it comes to public transportation and light rail, you all have some great ideas..ideas that I have thought about myself. The question is, can you(we) somehow get the general public involved? get opinions by potential riders? And most importantly, get these opinions and ideas to RTA in a way that they have to address our concerns and thoughts? You should all bombard RTA with your plans and ideas, your concerns....keep hammering them with these thoughts, the ideas, and the things other cities are doing...until you MAKE them respond. Maybe we should all go to their public forum meetings and hammer them there. Also, it would be nice if you would send these ideas to the ....gulp....PD by either letters to the editor or just as a story that would have public backing.....maybe I am just dreaming, but it would be nice to see these ideas brought more public than just on urbanohio.com.com. Keep up the great work people!

Well...I guess ANY rule that has ever been written is, in essence, has been written in stone and should NEVER be challenged or changed. Hell...why not over turn the law making slavery illegal? With all the obvious one way thought processes I seem to be reading, there is obviously no way to make any of you look at any other way of thinking. I have loved some of your points of view on other topics...developement, trnasportation.....but when it comes to this subject...your opinions are all about YOU...not what other people may think..the people that are forced to abide by this rule. You have your thoughts, I have mine. And as far as having Police, fire, and EMS recalled quickly for emergencies...it has never happened in modern times in this city. During the Woolen Mills fire on Broadway Ave in 1993, the largest fire in Clevelands mordern history....not one firefighter was recalled....there are enough firefighters on duty to handle the situation. I wish more people knew the REAL inner workings of their safety services...and the REAL truths for residency and the REAL reasons that fire and EMS have not merged......it seems most people just listen and eat the pile of crap that the city likes to offer as reasons...but when you have a direct pipeline of information from city hall...it becomes eye opening. LOL..you won't have to deal with my rantings anymore on THIS blog subject, I hate to argue with people that I admire and listen to on other subjects...but this one is very personal to me...I can listen to others on this...but until people walk my path, it'll be hard to sway me.

You are absolutely on target with something you stated Mytwosense...."by CHOICE"...you have, so should I! What you don't know is that certain people are exempt from the rule. Teachers do NOT have to live in the city, council aides do not, certain city hall employees do not. No place in the "carter" does it say that residency rules onlyapply to certain employees. Not only does it take away from my personal CHOICE, but it is also enforced unfairly by the city of Cleveland. The funny thing is, the two investigators, hired by the city, to check on employees to see if they live in the city...are NOT residents themselves! Sounds pretty fair. All the people that seem to want residency requirements aren't bound by it. I wish the private sector would try the same thing. If a business moves to a city, then the worker for that business should have to move to that city as well, right? Like I have stated before, there are MANY reasons why this rule needed to be changed. Marriage between workers of different cities with residency rules, special needs for children that can only get that care in another town, safety for police and their families NOT having to live in the same neighborhood they arrest people, etc, etc As far as property values go...Do you really think a property owner is going to sell their $200,000 house for $150,000 just to get out? The only thing that might happen through this is property values won't be artificially driven up like they have in the past, they will just level out. If a city employee moves out of a city, they will still pay taxes to the city. Being a city employee, trust me, not everyone is going to leave. There are plenty of people who like the private or catholic schools their kids go to, or they love the neighborhood they live in because they grew up there. Non-city employees have a choice where they live, so why can't I? There are many more issues going on here than just wanting to move out. For those of you that are so quick to want to impose residency (and aren't bound by it), you should have taken the time to have heard the months and months of testimony from workers all around the state, that state many more reasons why residency restrictions aren't fair. It's very easy to pass judgement when you don't know the facts, and when a rule doesn't restrict YOUR rights

I see that most people didn't take the time to read everything I wrote earlier... I never stated I didn't know, all I am saying is that I don't think it is the right thing for a city to impose. It has nothing to do with "pride"....trust me, I am very proud of Cleveland as a city, and before I ever moved to the city proper I was proud of the place. If I moved out of the city, it wouldn't make me work less harder on my job. And as for the person making the statement "lazy city workers"...you can go screw yourself...sorry to have to go to that level, but until you walk in my shoes and do what I do and see what I see...you can just keep your mouth shut. I see things everyday I go to work that would amaze you. You have no real idea what happens in the part of the city where I work. Just because something isn't on the daily news, doesn't mean it isn't out there happening everyday. You people are very uninformed on this subject, because YOU don't have to deal with it. I guess the city has the right to tell me who I can and cannot marry....or my future family where they must live. Did you ever think about the idea of a time frame...maybe 5 or 10 years, then you can move out? Wouldn't that be a fair deal? That way there would be an influx of new people in the city, but you aren't bound there for 25 or 30 years? I love the idea that people that aren't affected by the rule are so for it and love to tell the lowly public employee what is right for them. Just because it is a rule, doesn't make it correct. PLEASE reread my earlier post and think of a few of those situations....how would YOU feel? I wonder how in the world other large cities WITHOUT the residency rule haven't crumbled into ruins? How can a city operate without forcing their employees to live there? How did Cleveland survive pre 1982? Maybe if you work downtown, and your business is part of the local economy, you should have to live in the city as well. Just think how nice it would be for all of you when you would no longer have to commute from Lakewood, Parma, North Ridgeville, North Olmstead...all of which have NO residency rules......Hmmmmm

It's funny to red how so many of you are "for" the residency requirements...why? I am a firefighter for the city of Cleveland, and for now, must abide by the residency requirements. What are your reasoning's for the requirement? Do you think that I should live in the city so YOUR property value will continue to be artificially overpriced. Do you believe that public employees should continue to make parochial/private schools rich because we don't want to send our children to the crappy schools our tax dollars pay for? Maybe EVERY employer, public or private, should impose residency. That would be nice if your employer made you live within a certain mile or block radius of your job. Then you would have no real choice of picking a community or school system. Does it make sense to make police officers live in the same community that they make arrests in? That just gives criminals the chance to more easily access their homes, family, etc for retaliatory reasons. Some people think that firefighters should live close to work for the reason of "emergency recall" reasons.....hate to burst your bubble people, but that never happens in the city of Cleveland. Not once in my 10 years as a firefighter have we ever been recalled. Even with the residency in place, the city has hired investigators to check on employees to make sure they live in the city...but guess what, those investigators do NOT live in the city. You would be surprised to hear how many people are given exemptions from this rule. No place in the city charter does it say this is allowed. Even our wonderful mayor, Frank Jackson, when asked why some exemptions are made, stated he needed to find the "best qualified person" for the job. Shouldn't EVERY job have the best qualified person? I wonder why Cleveland Public School Teachers do not fall under this requirement....they DO work for the city. I could go on and on, and cite many reasons to all of you about why residency is an unjust and archaic rule. I think the bottom line is, you people don't care about MY rights. It funny to me that before the residency rule was put into place, the city was more populace and better off economically. Since the residency rule has been put into place, the population has fallen and the economy has taken a dump. I am not saying that residency has caused this, I am just saying, don't use this rule to try and save the city. The city should be a place that people WANT to live or move to, not a place that FORCES you to live there. For those of you that are so for the rule, I urge you to go to some of the meetings in Columbus and listen to the testimony and reasons of why residency is wrong and how it has negatively affected peoples lives. You might hear some things that you never thought about before. Just think if I met and wanted to marry an employee from another city that also had a residency rule, that would mean one person would have to give up their career. Imagine if you had a special needs child that could only get the kind of care they needed in some place other than the city of their parents employment, but you weren't allowed to live near that facility.(this DID happen to a friend of mine...his wife and child moved and he HAD to remain within the city...which made it costly and inconvenient)And please..PLEASE do not tell me I should get another job if I don't like the rule! Number one, I love my job. Number two, just because there is a rule in pace, it doesn't mean it is right. If you remember history, at one time it was okay to own slaves, at one time it was okay to NOT let women vote, at one time it was okay to have separate drinking fountains. If home rule is so strong, then maybe we should just build casinos in Cleveland...who needs the state telling us what to do, right? Trust me on this one folks, this is a BS rule that has been struck down in other states already and the appeals were NOT overturned.

I am a HUUUGE fan of light rail for numerous reasons. I have posted on here once before about the topic and I am so happy to see many others share the same view. I too am sad to see that Cleveland lost Tober to Charlotte (and see what is going on down there!) The question is, what can WE do, as tax paying, transit using, citizens, to bend the ears of the RTA officials? I would love to start a committee, do surveys, talk to developers that are taking stock in our new "urbanization" of downtown and get something done. It would be great to know that WE actually were the catalyst to making a world class transit system. I know I may be reaching or thinking too big....but why not? I am not nearly as well versed or have the stats and knowledge of most of you on here, but one thing I DO know is that I have ridden transits in other cities, and I know ours could be better, and bigger. Lets face it, people prefer rail over buses, for too many reasons to list. So what do you guys think? Can we rattle the cage a bit, bend some ears? Can WE be pioneers for our city, and region?

I am new to this board, I am usually on the forum section of Cleveland.com I have to say I am excited to see, read about all of the potential projects that might finally propell Cleveland onto the scene as a great place to live or visit. I am all for making downtown a livable place, and finally making our downtown...actually look like an actual big city downtown. One thing I am a HUGELY in favor of (I have postings on downtown living and lakefront project on Cleveland.com forum) is a great public transportation system...and to narrow that down...light rail and trolley systems for downtown. the neighborhoods, and beyond to the burbs. With talks of an influx of downtown residents and the Ohio commuter rail hub (which would be in Cleveland), have the planners of these projects been influential about improving public transportation? I hope to have a watered down version of my thoughts printed in the PD editorial section soon, but I feel this is a very important component to make urban living work. Many cities are updating and expanding their commuter rail lines, but for some reason not here. You should see the things that Charlotte NC is doing with it's public transportation, and the funny thing is, the man in charge WAS in charge here in Cleveland. Why is Cleveland RTA so anti rail/subway/Trolley? In my opinion, these are things looked at by people relocating...not only residents, but businesses as well. Rail mass transit is cleaner, eases traffic and parking burdens, faster, and most of all reliable compared to the typical buses we rely on here in Cleveland. It would be nice to see a nice system in place through downtown, the more populated areas of the city, and eventually to outlying areas...a similar system to CTA in Chicago. I have had a good response from Cleveland.com, it would be interesting to hear viewpoints on this site as well.