LifeLongClevelander

LeBron is on the downside of his career. All of the minutes playing basketball from the playground and pickup games as a youth, through all of high school, long NBA seasons and Olympics have added up. He turns 37 in a few weeks. He has been extremely fortunate that he hasn't suffered a truly major knee or ankle injury requiring reconstructive surgery. Plus, being nearly 37, he is OLD in NBA terms. The "fairly minor" nagging injuries will become more frequent and longer to recover from. He can only cheat aging for so long. More importantly, I agree with @KJP on this. This is a wonderful team that has come together. It has taken years to assemble a cohesive unit out of the shambles he left the Cavaliers TWICE. The first time he came back, he was still at the top of his game. If he were to do it again, he is far from his peak and going down. Worse, his presence would probably destroy the chemistry and trust that has developed. Kyrie Irving is definitely not all there "upstairs", but Kyrie forcing his departure was due to LeBron's control of the team. If LeBron came back, how many of his friends would he try to get to come aboard to further mess up the team. He is also a known coach killer. In the end, LeBron felt that he was bigger than the NBA and has attempted to put together super teams. It works for a bit (twice in Miami, once here and once with the Lakers), but then it falls apart. When if falls apart, LeBron the opportunist bails out on his team and looks for his next chance. Over the summer he stated he wanted to retire as a Laker, so what changed? He said this type of thing before as he wanted to retire as a Cavalier. How long did that last? His super team building that was supposed to get him more than six NBA championships has failed again. Per Charles Barkley, the Lakers are comprised of a bunch of old, aging veterans and Anthony Davis. Davis is now hurt and will miss at least a month. They were struggling with a healthy Davis and with him hurt, the season could be over for the Lakers in January. The clock for LeBron is quickly running out and he knows it. If he were to come aboard again, he would leave the Cavaliers in shambles again. When his playing days are finally over, even if he gets to see himself play in the NBA with Jr, I don't even want to see him sign one of those "1 day" ceremonial contracts to retire as a Cavalier. Besides, he did say he wanted to retire as a Laker anyways.

RTA dragged their collective feet on the whole rail car fleet replacement process. They should have been getting specifics together about 15 years ago. With requirements in hand, by 2009-2010 it would have been the ideal time to work with the area's congressional delegation in seeking funding to replace the fleet. Back then, nearly all funding requests for everything were being rubber-stamped and approved. By 2015, that new fleet would have been in service. RTA's action: nothing. The current rail fleets date to the early 1980's and are each one-off orders that are unique to Cleveland. Off the shelf parts are unavailable. RTA must cannibalize parts off of other rail cars to keep their dwindling fleet operational. There are only so many times this can be done, so they must go the expensive custom part run route to get replacement parts. Even for "standard" parts like replacement wheels, they cannot place timely orders, so they run out of replacement stock and were forced to put rapid transit cars out of service as the wheels were worn out. Fewer operational cars meant overcrowding and reduced service. Finally within the last few years, RTA has slowly started the replacement process. They have been cobbling together small grants to be able to add a few more cars to an order. The nearby Laketran system was able to gain support from Senator Brown and Representative Joyce to secure funding for 10 new battery powered electric buses along the supporting charging and support infrastructure. Yet for RTA, we hear nothing about their working with the area's congressional delegation regarding rail car replacement. To further screw up the process, RTA was being so inflexible and the whole bidding process was so bungled, it gathered little interest in prospective builders. That botched attempt was scrapped and the Federal government needed to get involved to monitor the next round. It only delays replacement further. Expect more break-downs, fires, failures a further dwindling of the operational fleet. Service will continue to degrade and with it, the rider counts.

Lake County voters also have to deal with a sales tax rate of 0.5% to support their system in the form of an initial 0.25% with renewals and then in the form of an additional 0.25% increase. In Cuyahoga County, that rate is 1.0% for RTA. When Laketran has to go back to the voters for reaffirmation to get their sales tax renewed, they know very well if their service declines they will be held accountable with a sales tax renewal defeat. In the case of RTA, their 1.0% sales tax was voted in in 1975 and has been in place ever since. No renewals required; they have that sales tax revenue forever unless there is an initiative to repeal it. In the current state of affairs and management, RTA's trustees know that a sales tax increase or new property tax increase to augment RTA's funding would fail at the polls (and have stated as such). By making that sales tax permanent, it removed that major tool to hold RTA accountable for service, quality and management decisions. Laketran provides a desirable service to its residents and has had no scandals linked to it as well.

Per the Lake County News Herald on October 20th regarding Laketran's electric buses: "With support from Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Congressman Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township, Laketran secured several competitive federal grants through the Federal Transit Administration to fund the Park-n-Ride renovation, charging infrastructure and its battery-operated electric fleet conversion to bring modern electric bus technology to Northeast Ohio." “I would like to thank Sen. Brown’s office, the Ohio EPA, NOACA and our local community partners for their letters of support that helped Laketran provide competitive grant applications to support our electric bus conversion program,” Capelle said." Yes, Dave Joyce had a hand in securing the funding for the buses, but so did Senator Sherrod Brown. Part of Joyce's district includes Cuyahoga County. Why didn't RTA seek out their assistance as well as that of congressional delegation for Cuyahoga County of Marcia Fudge (as she was still in congress when Laketran's funding was secured), Marcy Kaptur and Anthony Gonzales? Four members from the House of Representative and a U.S. Senator should have had even better success than just Brown and Joyce. That wasn't achieved as RTA didn't put much or any effort into it. With that regard, what has Cleveland's congressional delegation done, be it Kucinich (when he was in office), Fudge and Kaptur? Due to their party's stance of helping the economically disadvantaged, especially those who must rely on mass transit, they should have had made the effort to do more. They haven't, even when they were part of the party in full control of Congress and the Oval Office.

Lake County was one of the last, if not the last created in Ohio. Prior to its creation, much if not all of Lake County was a part of Geauga County. This is why Geauga's county seat, Chardon is so far north in that county. When Chardon became the county seat of Geauga County, Chardon was in more in the center of the larger area.

Thank you for the correction. Even for this forum, Laketran falls within "Ohio's Small & Rural Transit Systems". How can a small transit system be able to secure major funding for such a project when the large management staff of Ohio's largest transit system cannot? Prior to the acquisition of the battery powered buses (10 of the 17 received this year), Laketran operated 16 diesel buses (12 35-foot models and 4 30-foot models). The 12 35-foot buses were the ones replaced by the 17 new buses. The remaining 4 buses are slated for replacement in 2022. Laketran has maintained regular equipment replacement schedules. Even nearing retirement, one wouldn't know the age of the equipment without having that knowledge. Even when their buses were retired, they are operational and have been pressed into service when warranted, such as what was done for the 2016 Cavaliers victory parade.

I understand that changes suburban car acquisition habits have caused declines in rider needs. Maple Heights and North Olmsted continued to run successful suburban operations while having operating agreements with RTA. Calabrese forced the termination of those agreements. Per a former employee of the NOMBL (North Olmsted Municipal Bus Lines, a logo applied to all buses they operated under the agreement), those operations made RTA look bad. Their buses were clean and well-maintained, while buses that RTA operated from the exact same groups were not. Even older, pre-RTA buses were in excellent condition on those suburban systems. They maintained relative stability in rider counts when they retained a matter of autonomy with those operating agreements. Once those systems lost control and RTA fully took over, that is when the spiral started. As for operations in the denser areas of Cleveland, with the fragmentation of service and route re-designs that look like a child's scribbles, how will RTA's future rider counts look? There are people who have experienced the NextGen changes and it has served to discourage their future use of the system. A big rule of marketing is to make your product appealing to use, especially when other attractive options exist. There are differences to Pittsburgh's PAT and Cleveland's RTA, but not to the extent where RTA's ridership has fallen off a cliff. It doesn't matter if it is in the city or using a route from the suburbs, circuitous non-direct routes that use surface streets will not be attractive for anybody to use. Continued route changes that defy logic and only lengthen commuting times will be the route cause of RTA losing riders and having them turn to their cars instead. Laketran's commuter operation continued to thrive. They had a pricing structure commensurate to the services provided, yet rider counts did not suffer. In fact when both RTA and Laketran offered the same type of service and equipment in nearby areas, there were people who were willing to pay extra just because of what better security and reliability provided. When RTA significantly downgraded their service, Laketran was the beneficiary. Concerning obtaining funding for new services, how does a small operation from the state's smallest county by way of population able to have the success that they do? Laketran was able to gather significant funding to create Ohio's first electric battery powered bus system in the state. That not only allowed them to receive money for those battery powered buses, but money for new transit center buildings, charging systems at those centers and support equipment at their garage. Considering that for now, RTA is still the largest transit system in the state with all of its "well staffed" headquarters, we have heard nothing about even attempting to secure such funding. RTA has difficulty in obtaining money to meet equipment replacement needs and has had this problem for many years, even when Federal money was flowing freely.

Per Fox 8 Cleveland news story that aired earlier this evening, the next Cleveland Police Academy had THREE applicants for its next class. The police union president cites the low pay, environment the officers have to deal with and pending change in the city's leadership as some of the causes. This does not bode well for the future.

I believe to plans for Deadman's Curve is to make it more gradual, but the east-west portion of the Shoreway will stay the same. That is why the support tower for the power lines on the east side of the curve has been set so far back from the current highway alignment. The west side is much closer.

RTA has to compete with becoming the preferred choice of the general public in Cuyahoga County. That public quite frankly has it rather well to own and operate a car. Fuel costs (as compared to other areas) aren't that high. Insurance costs are fairly low. Parking is readily available and really is not that expensive. When factoring in the cost difference of operating a car, most find the extra cost worth having the comfort and convenience of their own vehicle. The factors that make mass-transit a necessity in big cities where people don't have cost-effective choices (or where it is cost-prohibitive to even own a car) aren't in play in Cleveland. RTA used to and still can do things to increase the the speed of a trip. RTA has essentially eliminated express services. When they were offered, it was a regular sight to be riding an express/flyer bus and pass multiple slower local buses. If somebody truly needs to use an intermediate stop not used by an express/flyer bus, there is nothing that says they cannot transfer at a common stop served by all buses to board a local bus. For somebody who uses a bus to get downtown from an outlying area, having to deal with unnecessary stops just extends travel time. Laketran is able to provide a highly successful highway coach bus service to Cleveland. They charge a significant premium ($3.75 vs $1.75 for local routes), but their runs are significantly longer and their sales tax income in Lake County is 0.50% versus RTA's 1.00% in Cuyahoga County (5 times the population of Lake County). For those who think that hard plastic seats are a solution, have they ever ridden a bus that has them? Yes, plastic seats are easier to clean, but so are vinyl seats and they are a better option than cloth seats. With the changes in bus design, the suspension systems are far less "forgiving" than older air-ride suspension systems. Nearly every single bump and pothole gets translated to the rider on those hard seats. It may be tolerable on short rides, but if somebody has to put up with that two or more hours a day, it would be miserable and not be a desirable choice. As for safety and security, if people don't feel safe using the system, they won't. RTA's issues are multi-faceted. Some things cannot be controlled, but others can be managed and improved. RTA has basically de-evolved into a system that the only riders will be the ones that have no other choice. TOD and catchy slogans won't make a difference to the system if the experience is poor. RTA's service area of today is basically the same area that it had in its peak years or not long after in the early/mid-1980's. Some of the outlying areas like Strongsville, Westlake, Brecksville and Solon have seen significant growth, but others such as the eastern, northeastern and near southern suburbs were all developed by the 1970's.

As @KJPstated, only 1/3 of the available jobs are within a 90-minute ONE WAY commute in Cleveland. So that turns into 3 HOURS spent in daily commuting on RTA. In having ridden some of that equipment that RTA uses to provide nearly all service, how is spending all that time sitting or standing in some of the most uncomfortable buses going to be attractive to retain existing or gain new passengers? Plus there is the time spent waiting for one or more transfers to complete that commute, hoping the bus is on time or the bus that one was riding hasn't run late causing the connection to be missed. At its inception, RTA's local bus fares were 25 cents and express/flyer/rapid transit fares were 35 cents, a 40% "premium". Even with fare increases, the extra charge for the faster express services remained for many years. People were willing to pay the extra amount if it meant the trip was faster and that helped RTA's service to be attractive to suburban riders. RTA currently offers little in the way of express/flyer services and those now cost the same as local service. The "premium" park-n-ride services have been basically eliminated. Even when they were provided, the premium was virtually non-existent ($2.75 instead of $2.50) and it helped make park-n-ride services a money-loser (however, all of RTA's services are money-losers). To be consistent, park-n-ride service should have cost $3.50. RTA's "solution" was to eliminate the runs and drive away passengers. Those suburban passengers mainly turned to their cars instead. As for transit oriented development, that is great. However, for people to want to use transit to get to the results of the development, it has to be desirable transit. If one has to spend an hour or greater on a one-way trip just to get to the destination, making transfers and riding a bus is as comfortable as riding rolling bricks on hard seats, that development will not achieve the desired results. Even when RTA did provide better suburban services, issues such as reliability and safety/security caused co-workers and neighbors of mine to not want to use it even when their employers paid the full cost of transit fares. They still preferred to incur their own driving and parking costs over what amounted to free rides. TOD is part of the puzzle, but the key pieces are the transit services provided. If that isn't provided, the desired goals will never be achieved.

One would think that RTA's so-called "experts" would have come to the conclusion that the fragmentation of service due to the breaking up of routes and the creation of unnecessary forced transfers that replaced one-seat rides failed miserably over the last two plus decades. Then RTA rolls out NextGen to somehow make the situation far worse. Regardless of social-economic background, people have increasingly wanted things faster and reduce waiting times. NextGen is rolled out that extends commuting times and it increases the number of jobs OUTSIDE the 90 minute one-way transit trip area. For people who have the option of using a car, it turns that into a necessity. Otherwise, if people don't have access to a car, it turns their transit usage into being nearly unbearable under ideal circumstances. When weather, breakdowns and traffic conditions become factors, it becomes impossible. With the decentralization of jobs, employers will are going to be tolerant only so far. Hearing the excuse "bus issues" for being late will wear very thin. Being proactive and leaving earlier is an option, but if somebody has child care involved, it causes those costs to increase. The final outcome is bad in the end no matter what happens. Tardiness or not being able to show up to work will cause people to lose their jobs. Increased costs could cause working those jobs as not being worth it. Losing or quitting jobs will do nothing to improve poverty numbers. If someone has the fortitude of sticking it out, as soon as they have enough money, they purchase a car. Either way, RTA loses more riders. RTA will be reduced to having riders who have no other choice. Companies that have made their investments in facilities in suburban areas aren't going toss those investments aside in response to a transit agency that has miserably failed the people who need it most.

Krumholtz's stance regarding suburban sprawl has caused this area to suffer. Sprawl was happening long before he became a major voice. He could do nothing to stop it and definitely not reverse it. Yet, his stance against rail expansion to areas that already experienced sprawl help kill rail expansion. People had already moved outward or decided to move to those areas regardless. They came to expect that they weren't going to have transit to meet their needs and incorporated the lack of it into their lifestyles. As such, his stance further entrenched populations's reliance on highways and their cars while diminishing the need for transit.

Passing the blame on a lack of funding from the government is a cop-out and excuse that RTA tries to pass on to try to cover up for their decades of mis-management. Information that is readily available shows that by receiving the 1.0% sales tax revenue for Cuyahoga County, RTA proportionally receives more money based upon ridership than Pittsburgh's PAT system with their state subsidy and Allegheny County match. Federal money has been available, but RTA did little or nothing to pursue it, while other system have. Transit systems across the country have sought out and received money to invest in electric battery powered buses. Lake County's Laketran has the state's first such fleet. Why has RTA not done so? As an aside, Laketran offers a very successful commuter operation to downtown Cleveland and has "young" fleet (5 years older or newer) to provide service. RTA bought a dozen virtually identical models purchased in 2020 that mostly sit unused in a garage (their only commuter route is sponsored by Strongsville and Brunswick). RTA cannot even do simple things to make itself a better operation. Maple Heights and North Olmsted purchased air conditioned buses at the same time that CTS purchased their last fleet just before the creation of RTA. They were basically identical models by the same manufacturer. The suburban systems installed builder-supplied winterization covers in the fall and removed them in the spring. On RTA, they were left open to the elements. After a few years, the RTA buses had non-functional air conditioning while their suburban counterparts units worked fine. It was too much "effort" for garage employees to latch engine compartment covers. As a result, the covers would flap on the roads. The suburban operations kept their buses clean and well-maintained. Hot, dirty and unreliable equipment does nothing to keep and attract riders. Eventually, RTA gained greater control over the bus fleets, even under the operating agreements. New buses were assigned under RTA's rules. Money to maintain older equipment was drained away. When the operating agreements between the suburban operations ended and the operation was taken over by RTA, the local bus garages were closed. If the mechanics who meticulously maintained equipment transferred to RTA, they were forced to follow RTA's rules and maintenance lessened. Routes that favored the local communities and commuter runs were slashed. People who once relied on buses to get them around their towns or get to work downtown could not. That is why the suburban ridership plummeted. Now, the elimination of fast and direct bus service from the suburbs has been eliminated. Most people have no interest in riding slow, indirect routes on city streets in uncomfortable equipment that double or triple their commuting time. Decisions such as this only contribute to rider loss. Passenger counts would have dropped across the system due to various factors, but not the precipitous drop as has been seen on RTA. Many of these decisions fall upon poor management that plagued the system for decades. Fraud, theft and waste went undetected. That directly falls upon management and many of those managers are still in place today.

Sprawl was coming, regardless. With sprawl came the necessities to support it. The "urban" area, comprising the already developed former streetcar suburbs like Lakewood, Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland along with the city of Cleveland physically could not support much more in the way of a surging population. They went to areas that could support population growth. That population would not tolerate unimproved and narrow roads. The troops coming back from Europe had been exposed to Germany's highway infrastructure. People can gripe all they want about how this came about and how it was funded, but when so much of the population had seen it in place elsewhere, the word got out. As for the postwar housing boom, the developers of the 1940's and 1950's built what the populace wanted. If people wanted duplexes, they would have been building them. People did not want that type of housing, hence they weren't built. It is no different than today. The split/multi/bi-level designs that were the rage of the 1960's and 1970's aren't desired in new construction. Those types of designs are simply not being built. Force a lifestyle upon the general population that doesn't want it won't yield the desired results. Builders who would have refused to build nothing but duplexes would be out of business. As for RTA and CTS before it, they have basically destroyed suburban transit in the county. Maple Heights, Garfield Heights, Euclid and North Olmsted all had excellent local transit operations that were integral to their communities. Brecksville was pretty much a commuter operation to Cleveland. Once RTA obtained full control of those systems and the operating agreements that kept those operations semi-independent ended, those systems were dismantled. RTA was the only game in town and took control. In the 1950's and 1960's, CTS bought out Lakewood's bus system, Berea, Broadview Heights and Redifer. They eliminated the competition hand could do whatever they wanted. When the east side rapid was opened in 1955, they refused to have a rapid transit stop for Mayfield Road (even though provisions already existed) because they weren't interested in making things better for Redifer's riders. It took 60 years to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, with RTA's current management, they have done nothing to entice suburban riders to using the system. If somebody wants to really do some good, instead of beating the sprawl and freeway infrastructure subjects to death (a waste of time as they won't change), they should focus their energies making RTA a better system to use for everybody. Transit oriented development is fine, but if the transit isn't worth using, it is meaningless. Unfortunately, RTA is well on the way of destroying what little transit remains in the county.

It is quite simple. In the 1950's, the population of Cuyahoga and Lake Counites grew by nearly 375,000 people, over ten times the population loss of Cleveland of about 38,750. Considering that many of those leaving Cleveland at that time were probably the result of children growing up and leaving their parents' homes while the parents continued to live in them, Cleveland could not handle an increase of over 300,000 in population. There just was not enough land available to build the needed housing. The expanding population moved to areas in both counties where land was available to build houses. Euclid, Mayfield Heights, Lyndhurst and western Lake County were all built out or had developments planned long before the freeways which came significantly later. The same holds true for the suburbs to the south/southeast like Maple Heights, Garfield Heights, Bedford, Warrensville Heights and so on. Parma just continued grow in population to its southern area.

When that land was sold by the farmers of Strongsville, it wasn't due the government "releasing" more land as some sort of campaign to open it to benefit a certain group of people. The farmers owned the land, realized they could benefit quite nicely if they sold it and they did. The only "color" that was involved was the color of GREEN (the color of money).

@DEPACincy States: The first sections of what would become I-90 were built in the 1930s. Without it, the east side suburbs would not have developed. The section of the Shoreway that extended from Gordon Park through Bratenahl and ending with Lakeshore Blvd near E. 140th Street was completed around 1952. By 1952, almost about 90% of Euclid had been developed. The interstate through Euclid wasn't completed until the early to mid-1960's. By then, Euclid was nearly completely built out and had been for years. That development had been completed long before the freeway ended up on the map. I have an even older map dating to about 1940 with the Shoreway ending at Gordon Park and even then probably about 70-75% of Euclid was developed or planned to be developed. Nearly all of Lyndhurst, South Euclid and Mayfield Heights was built out by 1960. I-271 wasn't constructed until the early 1960's. The map I cited from 1959-1960 doesn't even have a proposed or under construction freeway on it (like later maps published by the same company years later did--on those maps, some freeways were built and others weren't). That 1959-1960 map had more residential streets laid out (with some work started) on both sides of Mayfield Road at I-271. That in itself shows housing development was happening without future freeways being planned, in fact I-271 caused some of it to not occur. How can all of these suburbs be the result of freeways that didn't even exist? Definitely, development was happening without freeways. The curbs and sidewalks that were "discovered" in later retail construction weren't leftovers from an old movie set. @DEPACincy States: When the government took on a campaign to open up new land for cheap, mass produced housing available to whites only, it has everything to do with color. How can you even argue otherwise? Tell us, in reality how do farmers selling their land to developers have anything to do with the "government took on a campaign to open up new land". After the 1800's, this wasn't land in the government's control "to open up". It was due to farmers wishing to sell their land to developers to make money. That land wasn't opened up as it wasn't the government's to control. You make it sound like some sort of Oklahoma land grab in the 1800's. By the mid/late 1940's into 1960, the area's population was still growing. Most of the land in Cleveland had been long since developed. It largely consisted of higher density housing, much in the form of 2-family duplexes, 3-family triplexes or small apartment buildings. Short of leveling of sections of the city to build even higher density housing, where in Cleveland are 375,000 more people going to live? Please try to rationally explain where the space was going to be created for people to live with an increase in population of 375,000 people and not evade the answer by deflection. Finally, by using my stating that have nothing to do with linking convoluted statements, you totally ignore reality. There was simply no place for my parents to even consider raising a family in half of a duplex. That was the case with quite a lot of people Since you are such expert, try providing an answer instead of tossing out an irrelevant comment. Living in a duplex has nothing to do with I-90.

Probably all of that and more. They are getting younger and younger. Aren't even young enough to drive? The killing of a 14-year old in Maple Heights last month was committed by two youths: a 12 and 13-year old. Many of these teenagers are the ones behind the carjackings. This becoming so commonplace. I don't want to know what is going on in the heads of these kids. I also wouldn't want to be a police officer making split-second decisions that involve these situations either. Many of violent teens, especially the earlier teens, are not jailed. When they are awaiting trial, they are kept under "house arrest". There have been judges that will loosen restrictions if the teens basically "promise" to behave to let them go to school (like the ones who are committing carjackings are worried about missing school). They use their new "freedom" to commit more crimes. Sentences that amount to no more than scoldings or hand-slaps make it easy for these would be repeat offenders to do more of the same.

Also, who has the "insight" to say that when a gun is pulled during the commission of a crime, the trigger won't be pulled or the gun accidentally discharges? For all that anybody knows, the person who was carjacked might have been shot if they did one thing different. The thieves get away with the car, cameras don't help enough with solving the crime and the thieves get another chance to do it again (and again and again). It is well documented that these carjackers don't stop with just one theft. They do it over and over again, sometimes multiple times in one day. It has become a game to these criminals--real life Grand Theft Auto. They don't care who they impact. They also know there is a good chance they won't get chased and if they can get into Cleveland, they are home free. They also don't slow down their high-speed escape as soon as the light bars of the police cruisers are turned off. Stopping pursuits will not stop terrible accidents caused by these thieves and it will greatly increase the number of people who are victimized by crime. Crashes will occur and guns will be discharged.

Back then, the freeways did not exist, not even on paper. In some of the outlying suburbs, even in Lake County, subdivisions were already planned. If it were not for the Great Depression and World War 2, some may have started construction earlier. I have a map dating to the later 1950s where there were streets planned where I-271 is located at Mayfield Road. When they were building Costco, they found remnants of curbs and sidewalks that had not been disrupted by the interstate. As for my parents, they had ZERO desire to live in any duplex, regardless of proximity. The people who bought homes in their area in the same time frame also did so without the freeways being drawn up. They came later. Back then, it had nothing to do with subsidization. It was all due to young couples purchasing starter homes where they could have families of their own. In the area where my grandparents lived and in many other neighborhoods in Cleveland, there simply was not enough available housing to meet demands. Not everything has to do with color. Between 1950 and 1960, Cleveland's population dropped by about 38,750 residents. During the same time span, Cuyahoga County's population increased by about 338,400 residents. It is not unreasonable to think that during that decade, much of the loss came from children moving out of their parents' houses in Cleveland, yet the parents mostly stayed in their houses and maybe even becoming empty-nesters. Cleveland did not have the ability to handle that sort of population growth of 300,000 people needing houses. During that decade, Lake County grew by about 73,000 residents, mostly in the western portion of the county. Aside from the Shoreway (between W. 91st and Bratenahl) and Willow Freeway (ending at Granger Road), there wasn't yet the presence of the "massively government subsidized" freeways in the area. The only areas that could absorb the increase of about 375,000 in total population was in the undeveloped suburbs of Cuyahoga and Lake Counties.

How about charging the individuals who stole the car with a gun (a crime with a weapons specification) with homicide and assault? Sentence: Multiple counts to be served consecutively with no chance of parole. Cameras can only do so much. Even if police do break off pursuits almost immediately, there is no guarantee that the fleeing criminals will slow down. Lots of cases of people getting hurt or worse when that happens too. A certain line of thinking only fuels the rise in violence and gun-related crime. Maybe this is why carjackings are starting to increase in cities that share borders with Cleveland.

It was the rise of automobile ownership that was the biggest contributing factor to the growth of suburbia. My grandparents never drove a car. Their neighborhood offered almost everything they needed. They lived close to where they worked, shopped and went to church. If something wasn't close enough, they took the streetcars, later the trackless trolleys and buses to get to where they needed to go. Transit options met their needs in routes and frequencies. When my parents moved to the suburbs, they did so as they were not forced to either be close to where their work, church or shopping was located. Having a car allowed them to move out to the suburbs. They wanted their own house with a yard and not a duplex on tiny lot. The suburbs accommodated what they wanted with an ample selection of new, single family houses. When my mother worked, bus service was good enough so she could rely on it to get to work. If they wanted to visit parents, siblings, other family members or friends, all they needed to do was get in the car and go.

The problem with people who think they know better is they are in complete denial of reality. The residents of places like Cuyahoga Heights, Brooklyn Heights and Valley View want nothing to do with being annexed by Cleveland. :Boomers" or not, those residents will fight it. Anybody who just "thinks" they will have their way won't be in a position of power very long.

Cuyahoga Heights was definitely not built up due to "boomers". If one feels that "boomers" would be holding up an annexations, tell us how "boomers" have held up the annexation of Linndale and East Cleveland.