musky

Thanks for posting that KJP. I also spoke with the District 12 Public Information Officer, Laura Hummer last week on an unrelated topic, but we briefly discussed the misinterpretation of the earlier report regarding the 2 year delay. She basically told me something to the effect of "Everything is moving forward as it was before."

^You can use any company you want for drop and/or pick up. Find a driver you trust, get their card, and use him/her. You will always have better luck if you give the driver a few days notice and let them know when you will need to be picked up from the airport. When you need picked after your trip, I suggest you ask the driver to pick you up from the upper level (the departure level) and at a predetermined place. This way you will not get any hassles from other drivers, the starter, or police. Next :speech:

Nice shots. Just spent the last week in Fort worth. The city is smaller then Cleveland, but similar in scale. I'll post my shots at a later day as I will be spending most of the weekend catching up on chores, homework, painting, family and Urban Ohio posts... not necessarily in that order.

I've been out of town for a week and I just finished reading 95% of the post this week. As far as the taxi/airport issue, here is my take. Having been one of the drivers who would occasionally sit st the airport for two to three hours waiting for that golden ride, I can tell you the taxi stand has been a problem in the making ever since they got rid of the starters (and for quite some time before). Not only was there drivers refusing to take visitors to the nearby hotels like those on Bagley (where there is no transit) they would refuse to take home residents that lived in Brookpark, Berea, Parma, Fairview, etc. This would cause arguments by drivers of competing companies as well as those from the same ones. There many heated arguments. (Note: After 9/11 you would rarely find Yellow or Ace at the airport except for known special events: holidays, conventions, major sporting events, etc., when there would be lots of out-of-towners coming in or families coming home from visiting relatives. Another good time to be at the airport was when college students came to town for the start of classes. The best time to go was when there was a snow storm. The "foreign" and old timers did not like driving in the snow and there would be lines of people waiting for anyone to take them home. I would make so much money on those days.) The influx of drivers from places other then the United States added to the problems, particularly the Somalians that came from Columbus to start there own company. They did not know how to get around the city. All of of this was quite an embarrassment for, not only the few drivers whop cared, but for the industry and the city as a whole. What else: piles of trash in the taxi waiting area; restroom vandalism (the airport finally gave the drivers a port-a-potty and closed the restroom they had access to); disregard for new safety regulations; double/triple parking during busy times - the list goes on. These are some of the reasons why Smith needs to take charge and offer the reforms proposed. There will not be a monopoly because each of the cab companies can bid on the package (as was previously stated). Although I do not drive anymore, I welcome the changes and hope council passes the changes as quickly as possible

Ed Hauser, although thorough, has a stigma about him when he shows up at meetings with his video camera. Plus, he comes off as if ODOT (City of Cleveland, County - whoever is in charge of whatever subject he is addressing) is doing everything they can to piss him off and make only his life miserable. I cannot think of a professor at the Urban College who would passionate enough, or charismatic enough to pull it off (can't speak for the rest of the university) Tom Bier has made some god observations, but I do not think freeways are his forte, he's more of a housing guy. KJP would need somebody like Mike White (not Mike White, just somebody like him) to pull it off. I've heard Guv speak in public before, he's pretty charismatic. And of course, there is always Cimperman. :|

Utterly amazing. I never heard about the "running out of oil" rationale before. Maybe Cleveland should start a rumor that we will run out of salt soon, start charging stupid amounts for it, then use the revenue to start our own construction boom. riiiiggghhtt

Whoooaaa doggy. Did I miss the "Pick on Musky Day" in the calendar? Anyway, I was using the store locater on the Whole Foods website based on my zip code: 44111 http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/StoreList.html?zip=44111&state=Select...&searchBtn=Search So I'll take the helicopter. I forgot about the new one opening here.

Also not Cleveland related, but there is an Ohio connection. From Reuters: There is a store in Columbus, but the nearest to Cleveland is in Troy, Michigan

You did read that they are trying to enhance/correct this problem? And, the proposed entrance is only two blocks and less then a mile from a lot of housing. Granted, it's mostly low income...

Good thinking. Thank you.

^And you are correct to state that. I did not mean to imply they were the architects for those projects. I stand corrected. Browns Gund CSU MTS - I also misspelled your name... apologies.

This isn't completely thought out, but what if there were a tiered abatement? The longer you wanted an abatement, the lower the yearly abatement would be. If you wanted the full abatement, you should get it for, let's say five years. But if you wanted the full time period of 15 years, you would only get something like 20% of the abatement. Does that make sense?

The conceptual design was approved by the Cleveland Planning Commission at their July 7 meeting From Cleveland vs. The World: http://clevelandplanner.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_clevelandplanner_archive.html Robert P. Madison International, Inc. (Cleveland Browns Stadium, East 9th Street Rapid Transit Station, CSU Science and Research Center, Gund Arena, Associate Architects - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum) is doing the project. http://www.rpmadison.com/ As MTC stated, it is not considered exhibit space. It will mostly house their archives and and have class related programing. The public will be allowed limited access. They wanted to visually connect with the Rock Hall, thus the glass pyramid look. If my memory serves me correctly, the campus is undergoing a master plan revision that will address connections and the lack of a "front door." The hope is this new building will assist in that.

Grrrr... it works for me. Maybe it's because I am on campus. I have uploaded it to my yahoo briefcase - try this link, let me know if it works: http://us.f13.yahoofs.com/bc/44efcda3me2517cd3/bc/My+Documents/Cleveland+vs.+The+World+Files/CSU+Strategic+Plan.pdf?BClF3RFBs8T4MZWL

Link is back up. http://www.csuohio.edu/uspc/ Or to go directly to he pdf: http://www.csuohio.edu/uspc/VisionUnlimited.pdf

From Crain's:

Hmmm, I wonder what happened. It was working this morning. Edit: I called the office. Nobody knew about it - it will be fixed shortly. Thanks

From the PD - Out and About: I never had a proble mtaking people from the airport to places like Parma or Berea. The way I saw it, it would let me get back to airport sooner. Plus, the customers were always greatful to have a driver who would not complain about the short ride. I once had a fare to IX Jet Center from the airport. He was so surprised by my positive attitude, he gave me $35.

^Replace all of the "Or's" with "and/or.

I imagine there second option would be very expensive do to implementing earthquake resistant construction.

The same could be said about passengers. I was only a part time driver (weekend warrior), but I quickly established a regular client base that supplemented my income greatly. Occasionally I would pick up random passengers in various parts of the city (including the airport) and you never knew which way it would go. I was never robbed, but I did have people skip out on me three times... twice were pickups from the hospital. :?

This could have gone in a number of threads... maybe even its own. Regardless, I thought this was interesting. From the New York Times: