LifeLongClevelander

Access to the space between the former exterior windows (all of which were replaced) and the interior of the new exterior windows is gained from the interior office space for cleaning purposes. No interior office space was lost with the replacement of the original exterior windows. A lift system is used to clean the outside of the new exterior.

Actually, they did do all 4 sides, but 2 were one style and 2 were another. For example, there is enough space for workers to stand between the inner and outer windows. On the east and north sides, the "cavity" is only major post to major post. On the west and south sides, the cavity has the same depth, but workers can travel from one corner to another. Have no idea why two distinct styles were used. In that way the inconsistency is baffling. It is a matter of preference, but I do like it better than the old sheathing. The air gap provides far more insulation than the old exterior.

Maybe a solution like what was done for the Anthony J Celebrezze Federal Building would work here. They addressed many of the problems with the leak-riddled metal "skin" of the building and replaced the windows. Then they built a frame on the outside of the original structure. The building was encased with glass. Drafts and leaks were corrected and the building's appearance was greatly improved. The Federal Building had a lot of asbestos as well and it is being dealt with.

Actually during last night's game, the NBC crew was discussing how McVay was able to make things work based upon what Mayfield had to offer (as compared to what Denver's now-fired head coach did with Russell Wilson). They also said that under the circumstances on how he arrived at the Rams, Mayfield's third game (Sunday night) would start to reflect his learning the playbook and teammates. Compare this with the Browns. Game after game, Stefanski has made questionable play calls after questionable play calls. There have been questions this season (as Mayfield himself brought up last season) about having certain players not on the field when it was crunch time. Jeff Schudel of the News Herald called the deep route ran by People-Jones on 4th and 2 that Watson overthrew was a bonehead call that was a questionable one even in good weather conditions. Schudel, everyone in the press box and obviously the Saints knew exactly the play that was going to be called with Hunt getting the ball on a 3rd and 1. He was stopped for a loss. A few games back, he had Brissett throw the 4th down pass that went incomplete. There was the awful clock management in the Jets game. In Watson's four games back, the Browns offense scored three touchdowns. Based upon the NBC commentators's comments, Watson should be in tune with the offense. He has played 4 games and practiced with the team for another month. Stefanski has been the head coach here for nearly 3 seasons. He was an assistant with Minnesota for 14 seasons. Between his time with the Browns and Vikings, he knows what cold/bad weather games can be like. For 2 full seasons at Minnesota, the Vikings played in an open-air stadium while Stefanski was an assistant, plus there are the games the Vikings played at Green Bay and Chicago. Didn't that give him a cold-weather game perspective and how the game plan should be designed for such games? Finally, what is going on with the team in general? Why did Stefanski bench Garrett to start the Saints' game? Overall team discipline is severely lacking. There is something seriously out-of-alignment with this team. The excuses for last year are not on the team this year, yet at best the record is going to be no better than last year.

And a coach that is supposed to be a great play-caller who repeatedly makes the same questionable play calls, does not properly utilize the best offensive talent and does not adjust the play calling based upon weather conditions. As for Watson, he has not shown much of anything to justify a $230 million contract and surrendering 3 first round draft picks. Four games have yielded two wins against teams that had significant troubles scoring. Four weeks worth of actual game play and another month of practice have seen offensive output significantly decrease.

RTA has made itself mostly irrelevant. It has become a system of "sponsored" routes. What would happen if the HealthLine, CSU line, MetroHealth line and the Strongsville park-n-ride routes lost their sponsorships? Service would be drastically cut back or eliminated. That is what happened when the downtown "trolley" routes lost their sponsors. Most of the "trolley" routes were eliminated. When those sponsored downtown "trolley" routes were mostly sponsored, the one that operated from the Muny lot wasn't. Even though they had ample "trolley" style buses to operate that route, it saw the oldest junk standard buses operate that route. Without being sponsored, those routes would not have the levels of service to see the frequency and/or the type of equipment for those routes.

If reporters do manage to ask questions (if they manage to get them in), many political and agency leaders have become masters of deferring/deflecting or running and hiding to avoid answering the tough ones.

It is interesting to note that Laketran's funding for its battery powered bus project and the infrastructure improvements was secured by Republican David Joyce and Democrat Sherrod Brown. Laketran actively cultivated congressional support from both sides of the political isle to get money it needed. I think that little effort is expended by RTA's leadership for its rail car replacement. As for Kucinich, he didn't give a darn about banks. He showed that by doing nothing regarding National City Bank and by doing nothing regarding the take over of Charter One Bank by Citizens Bank (Royal Bank of Scotland). He didn't care about the fallout of his personal vendetta against banks, even though it cost his home base of Cleveland many thousands in jobs, the lost headquarters and the resulting tax revenue losses.

Look at how they are cobbling together a few million here and a few million there at a snail's pace for the rail car replacement. They "think" they are big players in rail car purchases, but reputable manufacturers have their plates full with orders from other agencies. Those cities have agreed upon standard, off-the-shelf designs and will make multiple orders and add-on orders over many years. Maybe, RTA will make a single order for one rail car design of 75-80 units tops. If not, then expect they will continue make the same stupid mistakes with two small orders of 35-40 units. That draws little interest to begin with, but to make it worse, RTA's incompetent leadership will make manufacturers jump through hoops to conform to unique non-standard designs. The reputable manufacturers have already shown no interest in conforming to these outrageous limitations by a minor player in the industry. These builders won't care as they know they won't need to worry about another order from RTA for 35-40 years. RTA will then settle on some builder nobody heard of with no experience with rail cars with some unknown suppliers providing components. The resulting "product" will be junk that will run way over budget, face long delays, be plagued with massive problems that will drag on for years if they ever can get resolved. In 15-20 years, the builder will be out of business and so will many of the suppliers. If the fleet(s) will even be worth maintaining, they will be forced to once again to pay for custom expensive parts runs to keep the replacement rail cars operational. Even though RTA has a vastly diminished presence in transit, just for the fact that there have been four members of the House of Representatives and the two Senators (with Sherrod Brown being from the area), they seem to be nickel and diming their efforts to secure funding. We hear little of any solicitations for Federal funding grants and assistance to get the funding nailed down. It should not be that hard. Just up I-90 with Laketran, a system that is less than 1/10 the size of RTA, is always securing major grants of millions for facilities, improvements and setting up the first battery-powered bus fleet in the state. They have been able to do so by seeking out assistance from Ohio's congressional members, so why cannot RTA do this? Bibb was once a member of RTA's board of trustees. We have heard little from him on this subject, even though the residents of Cleveland are major benefactors of RTA's service. Ronayne hasn't stated anything about RTA since winning in November. This whole rail car purchase has been bungled mistake after bungled mistake. Supposedly, RTA will address the purchase next year, but that should have been addressed more than a decade ago when the fleet was still somewhat decent. Will the fleets even be operational once the replacements arrive?

Into the late 1970's and early 1980's, the people in charge of the rail division knew how to get ready for a snow storm. They had multiple pieces of equipment that could clear snow from the rails. They would get as much equipment as possible stored under the Terminal Tower to protect them from the elements. The Shaker lines could store at least 3 dozen if not more of their PCC's in storage tracks. The CTS heavy rail had 3 long station tracks and one could store at least 20 rapid transit cars on one of those tracks. Even if service did not warrant with a light number of riders, they would run "sleet cutter" trains with extra cars to keep ice from building up on the wires. The old blue heavy rail cars had a group of 14 married-pair sets where one car had a normal power collecting pantograph with carbon inserts and the other had a special one with steel inserts to slice through ice. Even as that group had cars removed from service permanently, they salvaged the sleet cutter car and paired it with a unit where its former mate did not have one. The creation of the joint station of Tower City basically removed almost all of the under cover rail storage. They could stash some using one track at the Airport Station. The Breda LRV fleet has a number of cars equipped with sleet cutting pantographs. A 65-ton diesel locomotive is the sole piece of equipment that can clear snow and it is due for replacement. RTA has advertised for a replacement, but that will take time to deliver. Still, it will only amount to one piece of snow removal equipment for the entire rail division.

Sadly, the lack of greater frequency during rush hours along with express and flyer service is due to RTA losing the working commuter rider base. The routes no longer support the number of riders to offer more frequent or limited-stop service. The ridership has basically been reduced to people that for whatever reason, that have no other means to get around. I recall the #9 express with limited stops going downtown from basically 6:00 am to 6 pm. #9 flyer service operated with the direction of rush hour flow with even fewer stops. Peak service frequency was every 7 minutes spanning at least an hour. Routes like the #7 and #7A would go downtown as express and flyer service during rush hours. Branches like the #9A offered additional suburban services and #9B would run during rush hours. This degrading of service has been going on for years, long before remote work became more popular.

Typically, a quality rail car fleet will last about 30-35 years. Planning should indeed start about 20 years before that projected end-of-life is expected. Some systems may be able to get extra years by phasing in new fleets and relegating the older fleet to peak-service times only. They can also add years by adding in major complete overhauls to the fleet. SEPTA has maintained its 141 Kawasaki rail car fleet where 112 streetcars and 29 Media-Sharon Hill rail cars received excellent complete overhaul extensions. This is also an example of the benefits of basically having a nearly unified fleet. Though the two groups, due to the nature of each operation and carbody differences, cannot be exchanged between the rail lines (2 completely separated networks), they are otherwise mechanically identical. Instead of having a more expensive purchase of two separate fleets, they combined as much as they could to make it basically one fleet. Unfortunately for RTA, the only 20 year scheduling was done by Calabrese and his retirement date. Though he left with about 1 1/2 years remaining on "his schedule", there was nothing in place to replace the rail fleets. The cleveland.com article states the rail car replacement program has been going on for about 3 years. Translated, Birdsong became general manager with nothing in place regarding the purchase of new rail cars. I believe that this project was far above her head as she did nothing to fast-track the securing of funds to replace the rail cars. Calabrese knew when he planned to leave RTA, even though that came a bit quicker than his intent, there was nothing in place to get the replacement in place. He did not care and was perfectly willing to leave the rail fleet situation in shambles and an overall transit system falling apart. He bolted early when he saw things falling apart internally at RTA.

Thank you for the information, even though it is bleak.

No, those were my questions. However if Fox 8 did ask any of those questions, the police officials ran away from Ed Gallek when he asked about how CPD was going to deal with the loss of officers and hiring more, those questions would not have been answered if they were asked.

Fox 8 ran a story today concerning CPD being down 299 officers. The current academy class only graduated 17 new officers and the next class starting up has only 14. Last year, @KFM44107mentioned that about 425 were eligible for retirement. How close to that 425 number actually retired (or will by the end of the year)? How bad is the attrition as compared the the academy's graduations and transfers into CPD from other departments? What does the retirement situation look like for 2023?