Vulpster03

In my opinion its all about marketing. We need to creat a better image, not just for new people, but also current residents of Ohio, because image-problems and lack of excitement has infiltrated everything in Ohio. I honestly believe that if economic growth is only possible if we get people excited about living and working here. Making people more satisfied and happier will push people to work harder and be more productive. The gloom and doom about economic growth is extremely threatening to economic growth. If we live in a culture where it is assumed there are no good opportunities or decent places to live, why would anyone (government, corporations, the common person) ever bother trying harder to make it work in Ohio?

^I said you'd see "a lot less" people taking cabs. Obviously, people are going other places than downtown and there will and always should be cabs at the airport. But to be sure, there are a lot of people who are heading downtown and not taking the rapid because they don't know about it. I know this from personal experience and talking to people already staying downtown or people coming into town. "RTA" with the arrows is still too nondescript for visitors. Another indicator that the rapid link between downtown and the airport is not fully maximized is the fact that there are numerous "airport" hotels with shuttle busses, as opposed to more hotels downtown or near rapid stations.

I don't even go so far to say "city OF". There is one true "city" in Northeast Ohio, and that's Cleveland. When you say city, people should understand that to be Cleveland proper.

Ohio City and other Cleveland neighborhoods are not 'downtown', they are in the 'city' as opposed to the suburbs. The general populace refers to Edgewater, Tremont, Ohio City, University Circle, Detroit-Shoreway, Westpark, and Little Italy as 'downtown'. Whenever someone asks me where Tremont is, "like is that downtown?" I say "No, it is in the city. This is a pet peeve of mine and I try to break this ingrained habit out of Greater Cleveland speech whenever I encounter it. Bust anyway wimwar; living in the 'city' is just as commendable as living 'downtown'.

I don't know. I think females get their share. In the North East quadrant of Public Square over the summer, I watched a man say this to every female that walked by, "hey pretty lady, how's your day going? I've seen you by before. Hope your day is going okay." I guess its pretty harmless, but I'm sure the manner in which he said it made a lot of people uncomfortable. I think I saw him doing this more than once during the summer.

hey. you don't live downtown.

I got hooked on coffee as a junior in high school. I would go to Arabica to study before work and I thought having a cup of coffee while reading my books made me look more mature and less like the four-eyed geek I was. I got hooked similarly. I started drinking specialty drinks like mochas, lattes, and cappuchinos my freshman year of high school on occasion. A trip to Italy when I was 14 also introduced to me to coffee and help get me started on it. But my coffee drinking got serious when I made the decision that I wanted to be a "coffee drinker," which was shortly after I got my drivers license my sophmore year of high school. I started going to Carribou Coffee on Detroit in Lakewood before class. I looked especially young for my age, and I must have looked kind of funny standing in line with all the business people on their way to work dressed in my own shirt and tie and about a foot shorter than them. The lady behind the counter asked to see my ID, and I remember getting so nervous; thinking maybe I was breaking the law. She told me she was just joking and everyone laughed. I couldn't think of anything clever to say, I was so embarrassed. But I kept going there before and after school and since then there have been very few days in my life that I have gone without coffee.

Start drinking coffee in the mornings with lots of cream and sugar, and then you will develop a taste for it. I made my friends become coffee drinkers when sunday brunch in the dining halls i would bring a tray of coffee with cream and sugar even though they didn't like coffee. Soon enough they all became coffee drinkers because of that.

HA! I agree. I mean, I love good coffee, but if you don't like cheap coffee I don't think you are really a coffee drinker. People I know who go to Starbucks all the time, don't seem like real coffee drinkers.

That was my idea, and emailed the pitch to a number of people. Someone stole it, but I'm glad it is picking up speed.

Well there are some institutitons in jepordy, but The Cleveland Museum of Art is in good shape. The CMA and Smithsonian are the only two museum institutions in the country that have the highest credit rating. Many cultural instittutions in Cleveland are heavily endowed.

I don't think people know about the rapid link to the airport. Inside the airport you see the signs for RTA, but that doesn't really say anything. If there were signs like "Train to Downtown and University Circle," I bet you'd see a lot less people taking cabs

^I actually interned at the CVB over the summer. That was exactly the pitch I made to my boss. They liked the idea a lot, so we'll see.

I thinkCincinnati has a T.J Maxx downtown as well as Saks and Macy's. It is a pretty good downtown mix.

I have some family in Northwest Indiana, which reminds me a lot of Lorain County. Similar rural landscape, similar sprawling development patters, and similar economic hardship from the loss of once prosperous manufacturing. It is really weird out there because you have all these places around Gary, IN like Valparaiso and Crown Point that are kind of booming with residential developments and homes of unnessarily large proportions. I always thought to myself, why and how is this happening? Where do these people come from and where are they are working? This is NOT sprawl from Chicago. After observing my own relatives and their peers who are pretty well off in that region, it became pretty obvious to me that no matter how depressed a region is it will still support proffessional people; doctors and lawyers. It is interesting because there isn't much of middle class in these places. The other thing about this class of professional people in depressed blue-collar/rural areas is how noveau rich their lifestyles are compared to professional people in metropolitan areas. They are way more superficial, stuck up, showy, and materialistic. Ridiculous McMansion houses, sports cars, jewlery, swimming pools, and even airplanes.

Hmm, I don't remember off the top of my head where the current police station or post office is located. The consolodtion of the police station, post office, and city hall on the land just east of the fire station is a nice attempt though to create a town center. The site for these departments is on the major commercial road; Detroit and directly between the historic commercial district (French Creek), and the newer strip malls and big box developments (Avon Commons). Still, Avon is in desperate need of smart growth for commercial and residential development. I'm from Avon lake, just north of Avon and it is painfully obvious to me what could have or what should have been done to prepare for "smart" development in Avon. But Avon is really on a death spiral right now. Even Avon Commons (a First Interstate Property) that was the first major retail/commercial development, wasn't that bad of a design. But since then, all these little strip malls and outparcels along detroit and now Chester of all places have been sprouting up in a very stupid way. It is looking more and more like North Olmsted - which I consider to be the poster child in the west side suburbs for pathetic planning and development, because everything has developed in a way that leaves little room to salvage anything if changes were to be made down the road. It screams blight in twenty years. But besides Avon's lack of proper planning, the development and growth here is really just a loss for Cuyahoga, and not a gain for the region.

I personally like college of "public policy and urban studies" but it is longer than urban affairs, which is kind of a disadvantage.

After you quit smoking it only takes a couple years for any health risks to be completely eliminated, so in the mean time I don't know why my insurance rates should have to be higher than everyone else.

Soviet Heights. heh

haha, oh the signs. you know, I've seen them. It is an interesting strategy, but a laughable one indeed.

I agree with Pope that we can agree to disagree. I do understand the health concerns in second handsmoke. However, I think the health and safety of people are directly compromised when they encounter a drunk driver on the road or put in an abusive domestic setting due to alcohol. In fact, the effects of this compromising health and safety issue are much more immediate - and direct - than the health and safety issues posed by cigarette smoke. Not to mention that it is easier to for an individual to curb their exposure to cigarette smoke; like avoiding bars or places where people frequently smoke, as opposed to avoiding roadways and households where drunkards can harm an unknowing individual.

right after you start paying for 100% of your healthcare. I guess so, but I never admit that I smoke when nurses and/or doctors ask me anyway to keep my insurance rates low. Maybe thats insurance fraud, but I think I will quit before it comes a health issue for me.

But that monument is kind of a modern Arc de Triumph. Same concept, different design. I kind of like it

I don't know. What about the west block of the civic center, or the east side of E.9th pier across from the Rock Hall, the land north of Brown's stadium, a ferry terminal, and a lakefront aquarium? I see more immediate spinoff possiblities there than at Tower City. and I see how a convention center is necessary at the mall site to make these things happen. Whereas with Tower City I don't see many spinoff opportunities. First of all the only spinoff is on Scranton Peninsula (which might not even be stable enough to build anything on). Second of all, I think Tower City's riverfront and Scranton Peninsula would better be suited for residential development - which wouldn't require a convention center to catalyze that. With a convention center at Tower City, I just see visitors trapping themselves in Tower City - their final destination, whereas the Convention Center on the mall site would make Tower City the visitors' gateway to downtown.

There is a possiblity that these audio tours will be available at the new walk-in visitor center openning in the Spring.