LifeLongClevelander

I believe that the city's leaders feel that the number of apartment units are putting disproportionate demands on the city's services. The Drake (formerly Marsol Towers) and Coppertree (formerly Plymouth Park) have quite a few problems and regularly see police. Gates Mills Place (formerly Gates Mills Towers) has gone significantly downhill and within the last few years have seen at least two homicides. At one time, Gates Mills Towers was the "exclusive" complex in the city. The crime and associated problems with those complexes have clouded opinions. The city does have quite a few other complexes: the garden-style complexes on the west side of Golden Gate Blvd, Mayland Towers (behind the old shopping center), Hawthorne (just south of Mayfield Road), off of Ranchland (north of Mayfield Road), the low-rise complex next to Coppertree, the complexes off of SOM (north of Eastgate), behind Eastgate (next to Gates Mills Place) and the ones off of SOM (south of the hospital). With all of these other complexes, perhaps some think that the balance has already been reached. Within a few years, there may be a tipping point reached with housing stock in Mayfield Heights. As the community ages (the signs are visible already), it may cause a dramatic shift in housing. There could be a time where many of the older homeowners (or their heirs) will cause a large number of these older, small, minimally improved homes on small lots going on the market in a short period of time. It may cause a significant drop in market price and open up more properties to become rental units. If it happens in too a short period of time, Mayfield Heights could be going the same path that was taken by Euclid. As for the city's leadership, at least the situation isn't like it was going into the 1980's. At that time, term limits were passed that restricted the mayor and council members from serving no more that 3 consecutive 4-year terms. Old names of a newer generation still linger on however. The city fought the development that turned into Costco. The residents west of that property didn't want it. The land was zoned residential. Before I-271 was constructed, that area was going to be part of a housing subdivision. When the initial construction work was being done, they uncovered some of the work done in the 1950's for that subdivision. It didn't matter. As for a city fighting developers, a developer wanted to come in and develop a huge stretch of the north side of Wilson Mills Road in Highland Heights. The developer was from western New York (Buffalo area?) and was going to buy up all of the houses from Miner to Lander Roads and eventually go all the way to Bishop Road. Most of the houses are situated on big, deep lots and the plans called for massive strip-style shopping centers. The city was completely against it as they felt that the infrastructure and Wilson Mills Road could not handle the expected traffic. The city also knew they could not fight and win. The developer attempted to use strong-arm bully tactics to threaten property owners. They told the property owners that if they decided to hold out and not sell, the development would occur without their properties and they would not be able to sell later. The property owners decided to band together and not sell. Eventually, the unified effort caused the developer to abandon the plans.

Understand the reasoning concerning the city not desiring another apartment complex. The rest of the redevelopment is bland, run-of-the-mill stuff that is so common everywhere. A super-sized gas station/mini-mart? Another fast-food outfit? I think the city lost its backbone when fighting the developer for the development of the land that became Costco. Every turn, the city lost in court and by the time the city threw in the towel, it amassed $750k-$800k in legal fees. Considering Ottino has long ties to Mayfield Heights, it is curious why the city and developer couldn't come together with an innovative project. As for the city wanting to attract young families, the city's leaders are living in the past. A huge percentage of the housing stock is dated. The large numbers of bungalows and ranches, if they haven't seen significant changes or improvements, really don't appeal to young families. If a young family does purchase one, it may be no more than to serve as a "starter home". The city's leaders view apartment residents as transient type residents. Even without the addition of new apartments, the housing stock has trended towards more rentals. The tenants of those rental houses or those purchasing what may amount to a starter home can be grouped with the apartment residents. The downfall has been going on and it started long before the Mayland project was even proposed.

What a load of nonsense. I didn't even hint at that. Maybe you would prefer for the ones who robbed and shot someone to get away to repeat the act over and over again. Eventually somebody is going to pay the ultimate price and I would hope that it isn't somebody who happens to be going to the gas station to fill up their car. Then again, when robbing someone and shooting their victim, the first victim gets one or two bullet holes and their family members aren't worried about a Honda, but a casket instead. If somebody is perfectly willing to shoot someone during a robbery, I don't think they are anatomy experts that knows exactly where potential non-fatal injuries can occur.

There are also those who are unfortunate to get caught up in the cross-fire of two gangs like that poor girl who was eating ice cream in her mom's car when her mom went to pick up her older brother. Those gangs and the drug trade have a way of causing innocent victims through their robberies and burglaries. As for these teenagers who commit adult acts like homicide and violent acts, they need to lose the "protection" that is afforded them under the law. They know EXACTLY what they are doing and the consequences their victims will face. Since they have decided to commit adult acts, they needed to be treated like adults. Stop coddling and protecting them.

The vast majority of police officers are good ones, yet due to a few bad ones or incidents that don't even happen near here, they get lumped together with the bad ones. The good ones will second-guess themselves, hesitate or due to the need to "follow orders", it empowers the criminal element all the more. It Cleveland or the suburbs, if individuals commit crimes and flee, they pretty much know if they run, they will get away to do more criminal acts. If the suburban officers decide to not pursue or if they do and the perpetrators cross into Cleveland, they are have reached safe haven. Wonder how that guy who got shot twice and had his car stolen feels about things? How about the others who were victimized? At least in this case, it appears that nobody lost lives because of supervisors decided to not let a pursuit happen. Curious to find out if the anti-police/blame all the police crowd for all that is bad would feel if they were victimized by these thugs who were allowed to get away.

So will getting all of those abusive police officers in line or kicked out. That and the passage of Issue #24 will make all of the crime and violence issues go away.

Current off-the-shelf in production LRV's already are commonly available that serve both high and low platforms. Being able to serve high platforms meets one extremely critical element of any new rail vehicle: conforming to meet Americans With Disability Act requirements. Aside from the cable cars in San Francisco and the St. Charles green streetcars in New Orleans, the only current newer light rail vehicles that have been grandfathered into being able to operate without meeting those requirements are the Kawasaki LRV's that operate on the 5 subway-surface streetcar lines on SEPTA in Philadelphia and the ones on SEPTA's 2 suburban former Red Arrow Lines outside of Philadelphia. Boston's Type 7 Kinki Sharyo LRV's are not ADA-compliant, but they are no longer operated as single cars or trains comprised of just that group. They now operate in trains with other ADA-compliant LRV's. For a system like RTA that always is calling for more money, preserving the current high platform Red Line stations that many have recently been extensively and expensively rebuilt, preserving this aspect ends up in not having that money go to waste. Raising tracks is a far easier and less expensive option should different floor/station heights be an issue.

This is the real problem, not only in Cleveland but in suburbs and elsewhere. Early teens and pre-teens committing more and more violent crime. A 91-woman who was everyone's friend is killed and left in bushes. It is getting worse. Yet, to see it play out in the media and in the government, especially in certain segments, the focus is on a relative handful of bad police officers or unfortunate incidents. We keep on hearing about those incidents over and over again while in less than 8 years, Cleveland has seen over 1100 homicides and counting. Last year, there were 190 homicides committed and that was the highest rate based upon population in the city's history, eclipsing the rate in 1972 when 333 homicides were committed. This year, Cleveland is on pace to see another 180 to 200 homicides. In future years, will Cleveland's homicide numbers ranging from 180 to 200 be the new normal or will we be wishing for a return to those as being lower?

Per a cleveland.com article posted today, a 29-year old man was shot to death Wednesday in the Collinwood-Nottingham area of Cleveland. Now that Issue 24 has passed (something endorsed by that publication), all of a sudden the homicide count re-appears in an article. It now stands at 152. Last year at this time, it was 157. The count was somehow "omitted" for quite a few weeks.

Give a team of 5-6 receivers like Jarvis Landry and they won't fare badly. Evidently in the case of Odell, continuing to be on an NFL team with his best friend wasn't enough for him. He got his wish and got out of Cleveland and probably won't ever be on the same NFL team with Landry ever again. David Njoku found a way to get his ego in check after kicking up a fuss last year. With regards to Reggie Rucker, his ego did get him in trouble, but that happened long after he retired.

Last that I checked, Mahomes isn't having the same success this year as in previous ones and Wilson is out hurt. Even those players can do only so much if they don't have the line support to protect them.

Last year, it was stated that the "disconnect" between Baker and Odell was due to the lack of a real training camp. When things came together for Baker and the Browns had to do with having the bye week to work on schemes. The timing of Odell getting hurt and being out of the lineup just happened to be at the same time. Now, it will be interesting to see with Odell's departure if the offense is better. Based upon some "off the record" statements, Odell being open had much more to do with him running whatever he pleased regarding pass routes (as he also did with the Giants). When the quarterback has only so much time to attempt to make a pass (especially having to face an increased rush due to offensive linemen injuries), he doesn't have the time to try to figure out where his receivers might be instead of where they should be. It also helps if the receiver actually catches the ball.

When RTA replaces their current fleet of heavy rail and light rail vehicles, it should be of one common vehicle that can serve both high and low platforms (as what is hopefully going to be part of specifications for the soon to be re-bidding process). Any system expansion would operate with that new fleet and any future add-ons.

RTA's money was generally intended for use to replace lost revenues and provide money for various protection efforts. As RTA received a few hundred million of their own, the city and county are not going to give up part of their funding. The city has its needs and so does the county.

Realistically, how much money will Cleveland be willing to pass on to RTA? The city has quite a few needs to address of its own (EMS Rescue Squads, staffing, patrol cars--they still have Crown Victorias in service that are at least 10 years old, etc...). The city will also probably be losing income tax revenue, either by the challenges made by people who have been working from home due to the pandemic or post-pandemic by people who will continue to work from home.

RTA is dealing with the lack of foresight in seeking Federal money going back for years. In 2009-2010, they should have been seeking money for rail vehicle replacement then. The replacement vehicles would have been in service by 2015 and RTA wouldn't be saddled with trying to keep dwindling numbers of obsolete rail cars in service now. It just adds to the Federal money they need just to keep the system operational, let alone capital system expansions. Realistically, that $50 million would be more like $500 million at least to do the expansion you propose.

About 20 years ago after Mike White abruptly decided to not seek a fourth term which resulted in Jane Campbell's election, Cleveland was facing a financial crisis (and is probably why White decided he didn't want to face it in a fourth term). The police department had layoffs and academy classes were canceled. Those events have probably contributed to situation of today.

Great proposal for lines. Unfortunately, this will cost a tremendous amount of money to implement (and I am strongly in favor of rail expansion). For this to happen, if the money for this type of magnitude of rail system expansion is to be made available, I am strongly of the belief that those behind allocating/legislating the award(s) will look at the current system's patronage. It will be a much more difficult sell to hand out the necessary money for a system in a significant rider decline. This is a basis for my position on RTA trying to lure more riders to the system instead of alienating them away.

Currently, the department is down at least 200 officers. As @KFM44107 has stated, 425 more officers can retire right now. Cannot envision that many retiring en masse, but what if a third decide to retire for whatever reason (Issue 24 passage, more stress/overwork, health, etc) and other younger officers decide to move to other departments. CPD has already cannot keep up with the pace of attrition, so how will it be able to deal with an accelerated and increased attrition? My concern is for the residents who have to wait for increased response times, businesses that could be negatively impacted and all of the good officers facing greater demands upon themselves. Even if it can keep pace over a fairly short period of time, the department will be very "green" with a lot of lost experience. For those citizens, businesses and officers, the long term may or may not be better, but for the near term it won't. @KFM44107- Your insight from the "inside" is greatly appreciated. Also, thank you for all you do!

Well a certain group of people got what they wanted. They use tunnel vision to group all police together even though relatively few fall into the bad category. Wondering how many who were calling for Issue 24's passage will be crying out for more and better police protection/presence that just won't be there. Imagine that the clearing rate for all types of crime will plummet as well. It will only allow more criminals who could have been caught now being able to commit more crimes. Concerning the homicide count, it isn't surprising that the number you cite could end up being the count at the end of the year. I strongly believe that the "agenda" to pass Issue 24 is the reason behind the omission of that terrible total by the supporters of that issue in the media (with one outlet in particular in mind). What is scary is to think that 200 could be low compared to what may happen in future years. Just hope that due to decreasing staffing, you and your fellow good officers don't suffer the consequences where you end up too burned out to continue or worse because there will be fewer and fewer of you to do the job.

From looking at RTA's schedule, it appears that there are two construction zones that affect that route and they have been in place since June. This is the sort of thing that supervisors should have some sort of flexibility. If a route is going to be impacted by long term construction projects, they need to adjust service accordingly. If delays are going to cause gaps in service, then extra equipment needs to be added. The only thing worse for your type of situation is to have buses grouped together such as another one a couple of minutes behind. For projects that have been going on for months, adjustments should be made or this is another reason why people will choose options other than RTA.

Agree, if positive change does come, it may take decades. With almost 20 years at the helm, Calabrese had a hand in hiring and placing his "people" in key positions. Birdsong needs to clean house of all of the Calabrese hold-overs. If she does have some sort of "grand vision" for RTA, will she be around long enough to get things moving or does she use RTA as a stepping stone for a better transit agency? At this time, there is little that I find compelling to see any positive changes to the system. I know people who either currently use the system or are familiar with the revised routes. To hear their opinions, due to the route changes they see no improvement or even a worsening of the system. Parking rates for normal days are fairly decent and plentiful as compared to other cities. Gas in the vicinity of $3.25 a gallon has been accepted as the new normal. As I stated, something drastic will need to happen to alter the mindset where driving is the preferred option. Right now, the majority of riders who use RTA are either the ones who have no other option or are ones who are completely dedicated towards using mass transit. Barring something that forces commuting changes, until RTA adopts changes that make using the system a desirable option to the general public, it will be an extreme uphill battle. Due to changes from the pandemic, there is another major change that RTA cannot overcome and that is the shift of people working from home.

RTA is rider unfriendly. Transfers, waiting for buses or trains, uncomfortable equipment, unreliability, lack of shelters, long rides and security/safety security concerns are all reasons why riders have abandoned the system in droves. Baring something drastic and unforeseen (oil crisis, sky-high gas prices over an extended period of time), people have become comfortable with the costs of commuting. For many, they have gotten accustomed to not using and not needing the services provided by RTA. With that mindset firmly entrenched, to regain the trust of the public is getting increasingly unlikely.

Don't know. The #251 to Brunswick is sponsored by that city (plus Strongsville). The terminus for RTA's #30 & #39 is due to not having a good place to end those runs on Lakeshore Blvd before crossing over to Lake County. RTA (and even before that, CTS) did have more Lake County service, so perhaps the provision dates back to the 1970's or even before.

No, RTA can and does run outside of Cuyahoga County. The #30 and #39 end at Shoregate Shopping Center in Willowick (Lake County). Shoregate provides the best terminus for those routes. The #251 runs to Brunswick. In its earlier days, RTA used to provide more service to Lake County. When it started to pull back, it was the beginning of Laketran. Those services may require an out-of-county surcharge. Laketran does provide service on East 260th Street and Euclid Avenue (Route #2), however most of the route they operate is within Lake County. The 3 highway coach routes to downtown Cleveland are the #10, #11 & #12.