LifeLongClevelander

The tragedy on this whole sad chapter is how the mayor had the gang element at his own house. Two years ago, there was a photo of known gang member IN MAYOR'S DRIVEWAY with a big "fan" of money (several hundred dollars), an automatic gun sticking out of his pocket with an extended ammo clip in view and a Cleveland Police Department patrol car IN THE BACKGROUND. What is really sad is the grandson isn't the only member of the mayor's family that is running on the wrong side of the law.

Frank Q. Jackson killed. Sad for the Jackson family? Yes Surprising news? Nope, not in the least. The mayor's grandson had a well-documented history of being in and around trouble. It didn't help that there was a lot of enabling going around. Will there be "pressure" from the top in getting this solved? Big time. Almost certain that this killing will be solved quickly while many homicides that have important relations won't. Ironic that for a mayor who has seen such a drastic increase of violent crimes during his last two terms in office with a homicide rate much higher than most major cities in this country has it land so close to home. Perhaps if the mayor felt that the contraction in size of Cleveland's police department needed to be addressed would have made the city a safer place. Now the Jackson family will rely on the very same department that has been handcuffed in what it can do, demonized, severely over-worked, significantly under-sized and unsupported from the top will be called upon the solving of this killing.

Unfortunately, most of the Red Line's stations fall into that category. The only stations that are in walkable areas are Mayfield Road, Cedar-University Circle, Downtown and West 25th Street. That is what happens when a transit rail line is located along railroad lines.

Do these statistics count Cleveland State University dorm/student residents as well? CSU falls within the downtown district.

I just have to wonder. It has to be on the mind of every Indians pitcher. They can take the mound knowing that they may have another game of minimal hitting and run support. With the potential of every single run meaning the difference of winning or losing, in their mind they could have no margin for mistakes. Throw a little harder/faster. Put more break on the ball. Make sure that curve is just right. Do that regularly and too much, fatigue sets in with muscle and ligaments suffering. Being a major league operation, they should know how to have a proper conditioning program in place. It is harder to get inside the heads.

Agree on Birdsong, she has been very disappointing. Plenty of Calabrese hold-overs are still on the job; the same people who weren't paying attention, didn't care about what was going on, incompetent or more concerned about their own well-being instead of the system. She should have initiated a top-to-bottom complete review and house-cleaning to clean out the deadwood. After not being on the job for a tremendous amount of time, she goes on maternity leave. Nothing wrong with that, but she leaves the day-to-day operations and probably some big decisions to the band of mis-managers who end up being in charge. She comes back from maternity leave and not all that long afterwards, goes on maternity leave once again. The same people in control while she was on leave are back at the helm. They totally botch up the bidding process on the biggest vehicle purchase the system will make for decades. Decisions concerning the bidding for the rail car purchase and the necessary unification of operation with one fleet caused the bidding to be canceled. The eventual advertisement for bids delayed until sometime in the future. Unfortunately, the worn out and obsolete rail cars are force to remain in service even longer. There are only so many out-of-service rapid transit cars that can be stripped for parts. They will be, if not already, be forced to pay for short-run expensive custom part orders to keep rail operations going. It takes about 5 years to get new rail cars in service once the final round of bidding starts, so the rail operation isn't going to improve any time soon. As for Birdsong, she was hired with a five year contract and started as general manager on September 16, 2019. It appears that she will be in charge for at least another three years, unless the board decides to extend her contract with bonuses and raises like it did so many times for Calabrese, or she decides that RTA is only a stepping-stone to go to a bigger (and better) system. Maybe by 2024, they will have the bids awarded for those new rapid transit cars.

I should have added (my mistake) as the process that I used was for the 5-trip passes. I don't recall the last time that I used a single-day pass. The machine gives the option to activate those upon purchase. If somebody purchased multiple 5-trip passes, it would activate all of them at the moment. It didn't matter if one was purchasing for use immediately, next week or a few weeks down the road. Poor design.

There are two ways to activate the cards. One way is the first use when using a turnstile or putting it into the fare box reader. The second way (not advisable) is when you purchase the cards. If you do that right when you purchase the card, you have to use it within a short period of time or the the trip is considered "used up". If you purchase the card(s) then decide to not board immediately, that "clock" has started ticking. The machines are not clear on the activation instructions.

The only reason that this team has been competitive over the years is that they have had some success in drafting talent and getting some decent returns when they do one of their regular "fire sales", especially in finding pitchers. When the time nears where bigger contracts are coming into the picture, the discussions start of when is <fill in name here> is going to be dealt. It also becomes tiresome hearing the Dolans (or their mouthpieces) are "patting themselves on the back" when one of their former players (either dealt or allowed to sign with another team) doesn't have success with their new team. For fans, why bother getting "invested" with the team or particular players when the owners won't do so themselves. Granted at this time, there isn't a reasonable hope for getting into the post season. A month or so ago, I wouldn't get caught up in the hype of that possibility. Too many holes to plug and there was little expectation of "pulling the trigger" on deals to get the needed pieces. It is very stale to keep on hearing ownership and management falling back on the "small market" excuse. Other teams succeed in "small markets". If they cannot play on the major league level, then they need to get out. They seem to be content in charging major league prices for minor league talent. The pandemic is also another excuse. The financial issues have gone back much longer than the pandemic. On a related thought, I'm wondering if some of the injury problems that pitchers have suffered is in some way related to the lack of hitting talent on the team. I know that pitchers do have their share of ailments, but with the Indians, the injury problems seem worse. One cannot help if mentally, pitchers realize they have to be at the absolute best to have a chance for winning. Do they try or push excessively hard to give the team a chance win? Is this leading to some of those injuries? How does it feel for someone like Plesac to be on the losing end of THREE no-hitters?

Any public access to reach areas north of Burke would mean pushing the runway east for whatever clearance that the FAA and security would require. It would appear that when EMAS was created, the option to add it on to the runway to the west was not permitted. Any extension of the landfill to the west would start to affect the Coast Guard access to their facility. As the Coast Guard recently made some major improvements to their facility, they aren't going anywhere.

In the early 1950's, many streetcar systems in the United States were eliminating their streetcar systems. Toronto eagerly purchased over 200 fairly new PCC streetcars from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Birmingham and Kansas City. Between the purchases of the used PCC's and the opening of the Yonge Street Subway, the TTC was able to modernize its system. In the postwar boom that started Toronto's phenomenal growth, building subways was the only way the TTC could handle more people as the traffic exceeded the capacity of the surface streets. The subways served to fuel growth in Toronto. The Yonge Street Subway was extended to the north and extended by basically forming a "U" to run under University Street. The Bloor-Danforth east-west subway opened in the mid-1960's making traveling much easier from the east or west to get into the heart of the city. That subway and more extensions fueled urban growth even more. In Cleveland, the rapid transit's single downtown stop due to the killing of the downtown distribution subway by County Engineer Albert Porter ended up never generating any downtown growth. In Toronto, some of the streetcar routes were trimmed back or eliminated by the late 1970's. Many of the postwar PCCs were replaced by the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) around 1980. By the mid/late 1980's the similar Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV) brought about the retirement of the remaining PCC car fleet. A new Harborfront Streetcar line opened and the Spadina route was restored. At the end of 2019, Toronto's streetcar system had service provided by another generation of streetcars built by Bombardier. As each of the Bombardier streetcars is double the length of of the CLRV and about 25% longer than the ALRV, the 204 Bombardier units have significantly more capacity than the 196 CLRV's and 52 ALRV's they replaced. New light rail lines are being built in the Eglinton area of Toronto that will eventually operate about 140 LRV's. In Cleveland, the long overdue replacement order for the rapid transit fleet that could number 70-75 units is so small and is weighed down by "politics". The bidding process has been bungled and so far has gathered minimal car builder interest. Toronto's CLRV's and ALRV's were basically contemporaries age-wise of Cleveland's Breda LRV's and Tokyu HRV's. In Toronto, the Bombardier units were ordered in 2009 and started entering service in August 2014. Due to many production issues, the final ones were delivered in January 2020. In Cleveland, the re-bid for RTA's replacements hasn't even occurred. Even if the bidding closes at the end of 2021, don't expect to see any new rail cars on RTA until the end of 2026 at the earliest.

To be fair to Mr. Bibb, George Dixon resigned from RTA about 7 months before Bibb joined RTA's Board of Trustees in October 2018. Calabrese resigned from RTA effective September 1, 2018 and received his "generous" payout prior to him joining the board as well. That being said, as Bibb has served on RTA's Board of Trustees, he has seen from the inside the agency and what damage all of the scandals and mis-management of the system from before his joining has done. Being a member of the board of trustees, he should have been one calling for a complete investigation of the problems of the agency, not the sham of one that Calabrese "conducted" before he departed. There needed to be a complete and thorough investigation of what happened, who enabled things to occur, what inadequacies permitted the problems to go unchecked and what was needed to be done to insure they never happen again. Dixon basically got away with no more than a legal "hand slap" and Calabrese got out of town. The scandals have been allowed to fade away. We have no idea what could still be going on within RTA and if internal controls and current management will be able to detect or stop it. The call to get to the root of the various problems deep with RTA should be something that all candidates should be calling for. Throwing more money at unresolved problems or haggling over bus routings isn't fixing anything.

The discussion on RTA that each mayoral candidate should be having goes far beyond funding (or running buses through/around Public Square). It should be accountability and the future of the agency. The mayor of Cleveland is responsible for naming 4 of the 10 members of RTA's Board of Trustees. In recent history, two of those four members were far more interested in what being a board member did for them. Dixon was initially appointed by White and continued to serve on the board under Campbell and then Jackson. He continued to serve terms on the board totaling 26 years with the last 24 as board president. He only resigned when his abuse of medical coverage and cell phone usage was exposed. One of Jackson's appointees was "double-dipping" by getting paid by the city and receiving a salary for being a board member. Four out of ten carries a tremendous amount of weight in votes. The board continued to reward the general manager with contract extensions, pay raises and bonuses. They rubber-stamped policies and decisions year after year. All along, the agency was eroding away its service, reliability, accountability and passengers. They never had the insight to start asking questions until the problems became so massive that the public took note. The system could not even put together a bidding process correctly for the next rail car purchase; something that will have long-ranging impact for decades. I want to know what the next mayor will do about this. What kind of people does the mayor want to serve on the board, what are their qualifications and will they held accountable? More importantly, what does the next mayor want to see happen with RTA now and in the future. More money, regardless of the source (state, parking meters, Federal, sale tax increase, new property tax or wherever), is meaningless if nobody is at the wheel of the bus and the bus is heading quickly towards a cliff.

Cuyahoga County's leadership is nearly as inept on the leadership level as East Cleveland's is on the city level. The county commissioners and the leadership system that "evolved" into the county executive position has been plagued with scandal, mis-management and personal "gain". The same thing holds true with those running East Cleveland.

About 2 1/2 years ago, we went to Toronto. It was our first time back there in quite a few years. We were blown away by the huge number of newer hi-rises in the western lake shore area. This is the area near where the QEW ends and the Gardiner Expressway begins. The traffic was unbelievable. On a Saturday afternoon, the streetcar traffic was extremely heavy with headways of a minute or two. This was the area of the Humber Loop where the Queen Street line ends at the end of the Queensway and the Long Branch line starts. We tried to drive into the downtown, but the street traffic was so heavy we just headed back. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to use their excellent mass transit system.

Fifty years ago, the difference in directions between Cleveland and Toronto was well established. However, up until World War 2, Cleveland and Toronto were basically the same size population-wise. As early as 1950-1951 Toronto started its massive growth. Cleveland, on the other hand, had reached its peak. A century ago, Cleveland had about 50% more population than Toronto.

It will be interesting to see what the long-term shake-out of office space leasing will be. When current leases are nearing expiration and if the tenants have decided to make expanded or full-time telework permanent, there may very well be considerations given towards reducing the amount of space leased. This will hold true in both downtown and suburban office buildings.

There have also been several of East Cleveland's top city officials, including multiple mayors, who have been convicted of felonies and have gone to prison. It goes beyond arrogance and ignorance. It is also greed.

Aside from not bordering East Cleveland, Euclid is sliding down the same slope that East Cleveland has already taken. Euclid is just about 20 or so years behind East Cleveland. Between the crime, loss of income tax base, decline of the schools and overall lessening of quality of life, the parallels are already there. Based on everything going on, Euclid is in no way able to take on everything that East Cleveland would bring. As for Cleveland Heights, your assessment that it has a lesser ability to deal with the problems pf East Cleveland than Cleveland can is spot on. Also, Cleveland Heights is also starting to show some of the same signs of trouble that are plaguing Euclid. It just isn't quite to that point yet.

Maybe before making any statements about what bordering suburbs should take East Cleveland on, you should familiarize yourself with WHERE East Cleveland is at and WHAT communities SHARE borders with East Cleveland. There are TWO and ONLY TWO: Cleveland and Cleveland Heights. When somebody cannot even correctly state the cities that share borders with East Cleveland, your statement nails it.

By reading that article, it appears that GE Current management had already made the decision to leave East Cleveland and Nela Park. They were shopping for the best incentive package that would suit them and the company. GE Current's management already knew that East Cleveland is in no position to offer any incentives to stay. Even without factoring in any incentive package, the state of East Cleveland could have been big factor in causing them to leave Nela Park in the first place. At least GE Current is staying in the area and not moving out of state.

Stretching of services for other cities due to East Cleveland's problems is already happening. How many mutual aid calls originate from that city as they don't have enough operational equipment to handle calls? I believe that the Cuyahoga County Sheriff already (or has) done regular patrols. It seems like many within East Cleveland that are resisting a merger are doing so as it wouldn't "serve" there own personal interests. That resistance is not making living any better for that city's residents. Cuyahoga County has too many municipalities. Between the cities, villages and townships, there are 59 in total. There are municipalities that should not exist. They duplicate overhead and the costs to support that overhead would be much better spent on providing actual services. Right of the top, there are five that due to a combination of area, population and revenue that should be merged with others: Linndale, East Cleveland, Woodmere, Newburgh Heights and North Randall. When that city eventually loses its last major revenue producing company in what remains of GE, how much more financial support will East Cleveland require to exist? Even with state or county revenue/assistance, all it will do is to continue to exist but it really won't be functioning.

RTA being RTA, it has no vision or interest in doing anything, rail or bus system. The last truly innovative project was the Health Line and that has turned into a disappointment. The CSU and MetroHealth lines are basically sponsored bus routes. Other than that, it has been cutbacks, route eliminations and ad campaigns dressing up their same old basic services. I wonder if they really have an active long range planning department. I have seen stuff proposed, but nothing comes of it. I don't think they have enough in the way of in-depth documentation and information to put together presentations to go out and pursue funding sources or seek Federal funding. By the time they were to get their act together, the funding opportunities will have closed. Eighteen and a half years of "leadership" by Calabrese and his underlings that still remain in influential positions within RTA has sucked the life out of that organization.

The Laketran charging stations are situated at end-of-run layover points. Don't know how long a charging cycle takes or how long the charge lasts. For example, the charging station at the Lakeland Blvd. park-n-ride station can charge two buses at the same time. That stop is the layover point for Laketran's routes #2 and #3. Laketran is the first transit system in Ohio to utilize these types of buses.

I have heard where the sale of "harvested" overhead wires and other electrical equipment was the only way that CTS sustained itself as well. The Shaker Rapid purchased power for its operation from CTS. When that opportunity came to an end, it was forced to build a substation at the Van Aken yard. Up until the mid-1960's, CTS regularly purchased new buses annually. CTS skipped purchasing them in 1966 and 1968. The group purchased in 1969 were as basic as they could be and unpopular with riders (the 3000-series had hard fiberglass seats). Start skipping regular annual bus purchases and the upkeep of equipment only escalates in cost and reliability suffers. The same thing has happened to RTA multiple times with the situation getting so bad that used buses needed to be acquired from other systems. This only accelerates the death spiral. Unfortunately, I believe that forming a multi-county transit agency won't be the saving grace for RTA. I don't think that other agencies will want to become lesser entities under what would be the dominance that would come from RTA's leadership. They will point to what RTA did to dismantle the suburban operations it assimilated in 1975 to avoid that happening to them.