LifeLongClevelander

The state has already devised a way to make up for the lack of gas tax revenue for electric and hybrid vehicles. They have added a surcharge on registration for them. As for adding toll roads and increasing the cost of tolls, when they can, people will choose other routes. Pennsylvania has found this out.

We should be doing lots of things, but we aren't. When the government is adding express lanes down I-271 to Macedonia, widening Route to Lake County, widening the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge, adding a third bridge to I-480 and the proposed widening of I-77 are all being done as a response to what the majority of the public wants/chooses. There have been mass transit options for all of those routes yet the majority of the public isn't interested in using them. I believe that offering rail options into Lake, Summit, Medina and Lorain Counties are far more desirable options, but the interest by the public is not there. Even with the existing options and employers are willing to foot the bill for the entire cost to use mass transit options, people don't want to use those services. Here is an example. In 2016, RTA decided to eliminate the express highway coach service from its Euclid Park-n-Ride facility and replace it with a less-direct route that traveled on regular streets. Many riders, but not all, transferred to the nearby Laketran Park-n-Ride facility in Wickliffe. The Laketran service, even though it used the same type of highway coaches, was in many ways better than RTA's highway coach service. In 2016 and 2018 Laketran replaced its entire fleet of 22 highway coaches with 20 brand new coaches (same length and capacity). Granted the 2016 buses were already on order when RTA made its decision, but the 2018 buses were not. If the interest was there, the Laketran fleet would have expanded, not contracted in size. I would love to see some sort of rail rapid transit service from Lake County. The corridor is already there. The former New York Central/Conrail now CSX mainline that parallels I-90 at one time had four tracks. Two have been ripped up and a third serves as a passing/storage/alternate. The cost to put down new rails and add stations on ready-to-use right-of-way is fairly minimal in the big picture.

If more money is allocated to mass transit from the motor fuel tax, it will be from a tax increase on motor fuels. If money were diverted from road projects without increase that tax, there would be more than enough complaining coming in when the condition of the roads starts getting worse. Even as things currently stand, there is a huge amount of road and bridge work needed already throughout the state. Take money away from that and there will be failures or more deterioration.

Where is the money going to come from for the state to give more money to mass transit? By the state constitution, the state's budget must be balanced. What is going to be cut to funnel more money into transit? Or, what revenue stream is going to be increased to permit higher state transit funding? Increase the gas tax? Increase the tolls on the turnpike or add more toll roads? Increase taxes by some other method? Pennsylvania (for example) does fund mass transit better on the state level. Where the transit agencies do get more money from the state, they don't have funding sources like are present in Ohio such as sales taxes funding mass transit. A big chunk of Pennsylvania's funding source comes from toll roads. Do you know how much it costs to drive a car from Ohio to New Jersey, one-way, without E-ZPass? $95.30 With E-ZPass it is $47.00. Six years ago, it was about $45.00 without the pass. The state is not just going to give out more money without finding a way to get more money first.

Purchase anything in Cuyahoga County and 1.0% of that 8.0% sales tax rate goes towards funding RTA. To deal with revenue troubles, RTA has discussed increasing that sales tax rate at most by another 0.5% or trying to pass a property tax increase. If either one of those revenue enhancements goes into effect, the highest county sales tax rate becomes even higher or the county with collectively the highest property taxes only sees those go higher. Either way, it goes to fund a transit agency with historically low ridership totals for three years running as of 2019, not even taking in the ridership hit due to the pandemic in 2020. As a side note, for any other transit system in Ohio, the maximum sales tax component is 0.5% in those counties.

This is the incident that you cite: There was a significantly intoxicated teenager on a HealthLine bus. Near CSU, RTA police boarded the bus to remove the intoxicated youth. At CSU, there was a large conference being held about certain past "events". A large number of attendees from the conference converged on the RTA police officers DEMANDING they turn over the youth to them. They refused (imagine the uproar if something bad happened if they turned him over) and the crowd started to converge on the officers. The RTA police officers pepper-sprayed the crowd to keep them back. When EMS arrived on the scene, the youth was taken into their care (believe they transported him to a hospital). After this incident, a certain pathetic excuse for the only large Cleveland printed "news" publication on their website used the picture of the child who was shot by police at the Cudell Recreation Center and compared that incident with the one involving RTA police. After a massive backlash on the usage of that photo, the website administrators replaced it with some sort of mosaic. RTA does have significant security and policing issues, however when they do their job in a responsible manner they get blasted by a certain part of the media. One thing to keep in mind is that security and safety issues are a significant cause for people to not use RTA. Eliminating RTA police will not improve the transit system in any way and further cause ridership to plummet.

I hope that when these rail cars are ordered, they will learn from other mistakes of the past. First, they need to go with a proven design that is used by other cities already. They don't need to design everything new from the rails up. Go with something that has had all of the design flaws already worked out and corrected so the system doesn't have to spend years, lots of money and deal with unreliability getting new problems fixed. Then, with common rail cars already in service, the replacement part situation will be far easier to deal with. Instead of having a relative handful of unique rapid transit cars where parts are no longer made due to low demand, they are far more likely to be available as more cities will need them. Currently for RTA, they must pay a premium for special part production runs or strip parts off of other rapid transit cars to keep an ever-dwindling fleet operational. Finally, the equipment design needs to consider the environment they run in. The old yellow (before they were repainted) Shaker Rapid Transit Cars were called the PCC cars (President's Conference Commitee). The group purchased new in 1948 was a streetcar-based design and the second-hand cars purchased to completely modernize the fleet in the 1950s were actually streetcars in Minneapolis and St. Louis. This in itself proved the benefits of commonality. All 3 groups shared the same parts and could operate together in trains. The original blue rapid transit cars on the heavy rail line (1954/1955 & 1958) used many of the same mechanical parts; they just used different car bodies. This type of equipment was in service in many cities so parts were available for a long time. Running in snow was not much of a problem. Air intakes for the motors were mounted on the roof. Snow didn't get pulled into the motors. The 1967/1970 Airporters on the heavy rail line and Breda cars in 1981-1983 on the Green/Blue lines had air intakes directly on the motors. Snow got pulled in, it melted and shorted out motors. RTA was forced to retain old equipment and press them back into service when the newer cars were out-of-service due to burned out motors. RTA maintenance workers spent a lot of time designing a filter system to keep the snow out of the motors to correct this problem.

Not KJP responding, but to answer your question: yes it was. The Green Line of RTA was originally slated to continue eastward to the traffic circle for Shaker Blvd, Gates Mills Blvd and Brainard Road. At the traffic circle the line would have continued to the northeast in the median of Gates Mills Blvd. In one of the local transit history books, near the end of Gates Mills Blvd, there is a picture of an overgrown bridged culvert for that never-built rail line. I have an old Forman-Bassett Map (eventually became the Commercial Survey Company) which has another branch heading to the southeast from the Shaker/Gates Mills/Brainard traffic circle. There was a plan for a "mirror" of Gates Mills Blvd called Chagrin Falls Blvd. It would have been halfway between Shaker Blvd East and Brainard that headed to the southeast and the median would have had a rail line as well. That rail line would have connected with an extension of the now-Blue Line that would have been on from Warrensville on South Moreland Blvd in a median as well (before that section was renamed Chagrin) at Lander. That map booklet refers to extension along Shaker Blvd, the branch along Gates Mills Blvd, the branch in Chagrin Falls Blvd and the extension on South Moreland Blvd all as "proposed rapid transit".

In a few years, I wonder how the condition these of properties will decline. I see numerous instances where the tenants really don't care about the properties the live in. No matter what kind of improvements were initially done, the work won't last forever. If the residents don't care about doing even minor things now, will they care when more needs to be done later, especially since the property isn't theirs to begin with? If the conditions go down enough, the tenants will just move someplace else.

I cannot draw conclusions from others, but can share insights based upon my own observations. Following the last real estate market crash, out-of-state "investors" were buying up houses by dozens and dozens, usually in older/inner-ring suburbs and Cleveland. In my own area, there are at least 6 that went this route. They all sold in the range of $45k to $63k. These were all foreclosures or sold by the owners/surviving family members for the "best" price they could get. From a realtor friend, he told me these "investors" weren't buying up properties for gains when the market rebounded. They were purchased for rental income and no intent of resale. For at least for some in my area, they have "guaranteed" income courtesy of the government. At least when they did purchase them, they did fix them up and made improvements. At least outwardly, they don't detract from the neighborhood. Can't say that for some other rental properties owned by individuals or owner-occupied homes.

Agreed, Mike White was neck-deep in troubles. The city's finances were a mess. The finance department was a revolving door. Jane Campbell's administration could not make sense of the whatever information was on the books. It didn't help when he over-extended the city when it went out and purchased the IX-Center. Finances were so bad that the city could not even afford to collect garbage from trash cans (remember Campbell's infamous "adopt a garbage can" pitch). He systematically alienated backers left and right. Ultimately, he knew everything was falling apart all around him. That is why he abruptly bailed on running for a fourth term and hightailed it out to Newcomerstown and raise alpacas.

Whomever is elected as mayor in 2021--be it Jackson winning a 5th term or somebody else (either by Jackson not deciding to run or the electorate having enough of him), is going to be running a city with serious problems. The crime and violence problems have steadily gotten worse, especially going back to Jackson's third term. The city will be facing serious financial issues not only directly due to the pandemic, but also from the shift if working practices that gained momentum in 2020. The performance of the school district won't help either. Have a feeling that he will pull a Mike White-type move an decide to not run for another term. Just like White, he knows the looming fiscal problems and will bail as a result. Maybe the financial backers of prior mayoral campaigns won't be behind him as well. If he were to decide to run for another term, he will take tremendous heat for the state of the city. There will be questions about his "implied" promise to increase the size of the police department by hiring more officers. As another poster stated in a portion of the Cleveland crime topic that has been deleted, due to attrition and lack of new officers coming out out the academy, the department has around 1400 officers. Will he get called on 2017 campaign promises that have gone nowhere? As an aside, I fully expect that another issue will be on the ballot, either in 2021 or no later than 2022: An income tax increase, probably another 0.5% to 3.0%.

Correct on both points. Have read statistics (pre-pandemic) that stated the average life for a restaurant was 18 months. The profit margin in the restaurant industry is razor thin. The ownership of these chains will only hang on to them for so long. When they are no longer profitable, the tax benefits are no longer seen or significant upgrades are required, the doors will be closed and the employees put out of work. Even chains with better track records drastically curtailed growth and shuttered operations. As other changes are incorporated into the fast food industry along with fewer options available, future jobs in that line of work will be fewer and fewer.

True, the stock market isn't the economy, but the effects on the economy will be eventually be felt on the stock market. When the 2007-2008 downturn set in, it cut deeply into discretionary spending. That reduction in discretionary spending not only affected the local neighborhood shops, but the big ones as well. Starbucks alone closed over 500 establishments back then. Today, just look at the fast food operations. What do you see at those establishments? I see huge lines at the drive-thru's for McDonald's, Wendy's and Chic-Fil-A that wrap around the building or go to the street. Then there are other big chains like Burger King and Arby's have no lines. What will be the shake-out for those types of businesses? National casual dining chains have closed many restaurants. These chains have been closing operations pre-pandemic. This will not slow down and probably accelerate. It doesn't matter where these people who are now unemployed once worked or where they will be joined in the jobless ranks. They will have a lot less money to spend at other local small businesses or at bigger national chains. Also keep in mind, January is usually the month where many corporations look at how their operations fared in the previous year. It has been a bad year already in the restaurant industry. Many barely survived by offering outdoors dining options. They are now facing at least another 3-4 months where that won't be much of an option.

I wonder just how long the propping up of the overall economy can go. How far did those $1200 stimulus payments go? How far will the $600 payments, even if it does get increased to $2000, go? Back in 2008-10, the extended unemployment and increased benefits only went on for so long. I really don't think that we have seen the worst of the fallout yet.

Excellent point. With the foreclosure pipeline shut down and those knowing they were headed into foreclosure, they didn't have much incentive to try to unload their houses. They essentially have places to live without the cost of a mortgage or paying rent. How many new foreclosures will be generated by people who otherwise were not having big financial issues before the pandemic, but are now? To keep this on topic, I wonder how this will affect population trends once people are forced to move as foreclosures resume. Which areas will get hit hard and where will those who were forced out go?

I have no idea why the Cleveland area's housing market is behaving in the way that it has as compared to other markets. What I do know was shared by a realtor for a well-established, long-time agency. The area's housing market never got going like it normally does in the Spring. The effects of COVID-19 on the housing market put a damper on it and there are quite a few agents that share those beliefs. If there was no pressing reason for people to put their homes on the market, they held off. There is still demand to buy, but there just simply is not enough supply to meet the demand. It has been a textbook seller's market. By the time things started to ease, it was starting to get later in the peak real estate season and many just decided to wait until next year. I have a very good friend who's older parents who recently decided they needed to downsize and sell. Their agent reiterated the effect of low inventory on the market. It is a good house with improvements, has some highly desirable features and is located in a nice neighborhood that has better schools. When that house was listed, it received a lot of interest and sold for almost full asking price. There just wasn't much too choose from, so they received more than they expected.

Any sort of comparisons with this year should be taken with a very large grain of salt. Per statements by Cleveland area realtors, there is a big reason why the unsold inventory is down: many people who have wanted to list their houses didn't want to do it this year. People simply did not want have the possibility of showings bringing COVID-19 into their homes. The normal heating up of the real estate market that would come in the Spring never happened this year. Virtual showings helped some, but it didn't make up for it. The unsold inventory was down because they weren't on the market. For houses that were on the market, if they were decent, they sold fast and frequently above asking price.

When face-to-face collaboration has been deemed as needed, it has happened. Most of the time, it is not. Conference calls and zoom meetings frequently filled the need. Never stated that the office is dead or won't be needed. It has already been proven in our line of business pre-pandemic that downsizing our office footprint resulted in no loss of quality or service. It did save substantial leasing costs and the pandemic has further driven home the fact that things did not suffer. If top management saw problems with the way things were going, especially when some of the kinks had yet been worked out, they would have never started down the path of increasing teleworking when things do "return to normal".

Pre-pandemic, my employer was already moving towards more teleworking to reduce its office space requirements downtown. As the work-from-home situation has gone on longer and longer, there have been overtures from management to expand teleworking. We have been surveyed for what our teleworking plans will be once we return to the office. Co-workers who minimally teleworked have already stated they will telework significantly more or do it to the max. Our results and service has not suffered while nearly everybody has been working from home. Staffing for my company will not be reduced, but our office space needs will be. This situation is not unique and it will cause a big transformation in the business world.

If the Green Line is ever extended, at least the space is there to do so. It is owned by a governmental entity, not by a private developer. It will never be built out for some other purposes. Using no more than 50 feet out of median that is nearly 500 feet wide will still provide ample park space, recreational facilities, trails and wetlands in the unused area.

If any sort of extension of the Green Line is ever desired, there is still ample space to provide for a 2-track line through the Shaker Blvd median. That median is nearly 500 feet wide. It was designed to have 4 tracks plus two highway-type lanes on either side of of the 4 center tracks, not to mention the embankments that go up to Shaker Blvd. Shaker Blvd was intended to be a "marginal" type roadway. No more than 50 feet would be required for the two tracks and they could be shifted to be right next to one of roadways. I am curious what kind of usage that Beachwood park space sees.

I posted this response to another thread before seeing this, but it is very applicable here: Perhaps that proposed office building could be built with provisions for the Blue Line to run under it? That whole Warrensville-Chagrin intersection was redesigned to eliminate the diagonal Van Aken-Northfield component. To introduce a diagonal crossing for a rail line would sort of undo the improvements, though rail traffic would be far more manageable than the myriad of rubber-tired vehicles that passed through it. The potential location of the ramp to go under the building and intersection is the site of the former substation to the southwest of the station and storage track. Of course, tunneling would add substantially to the cost of an extension. However the line is extended, to have a rail station incorporated into the whole redevelopment project, especially one that would attract riders from two directions, would be a tremendous asset. RTA needs to have forward thinkers in the agency to look beyond the Blue/Green ending points that were established in the early-mid 1930's. The same holds true for the Red Line's eastern end from 1955 (and really, the east side of the former CTS rapid transit line was no more than the completion of the Van Sweringen project that was started in the early 1930's as well). Perhaps Ms. Birdsong is the forward thinker that RTA needs. With her history of being involved with Chicago's system, she may see the benefit of having a vibrant rail component, especially since the base is already there. If Calabrese would have continued on, it would have further withered away.

Perhaps that proposed office building could be built with provisions for the Blue Line to run under it? That whole Warrensville-Chagrin intersection was redesigned to eliminate the diagonal Van Aken-Northfield component. To introduce a diagonal crossing for a rail line would sort of undo the improvements, though rail traffic would be far more manageable than the myriad of rubber-tired vehicles that passed through it. The potential location of the ramp to go under the building and intersection is the site of the former substation to the southwest of the station and storage track. Of course, tunneling would add substantially to the cost of an extension. However the line is extended, to have a rail station incorporated into the whole redevelopment project, especially one that would attract riders from two directions, would be a tremendous asset. RTA needs to have forward thinkers in the agency to look beyond the Blue/Green ending points that were established in the early-mid 1930's. The same holds true for the Red Line's eastern end from 1955 (and really, the east side of the former CTS rapid transit line was no more than the completion of the Van Sweringen project that was started in the early 1930's as well).

A better picture of the police department would be developed by not looking at the number of police officers hired, but how many officers are in the department. I have a strong feeling that the department has not appreciably grown in size, but the increased number of officers hired did little more than to keep pace with attrition. In 2016 while campaigning for the income tax increase from 2.0% to 2.5%, he pandered to the residents of the city stating that 88% of the the increase would be paid by non-city residents. He promised that he would use the increased proceeds to hire more police officers. Technically, the city did hire more officers, but he knew that more officers had to be hired as the department was facing more retirements along with officers leaving for all kinds of reasons. In addition, the police department is handcuffed by policy. Under most circumstances, they cannot pursue. They are under intense scrutiny regarding the use of force. The criminal element knows the limitations on the department. Too few officers covering too large of an area. They have time to get away and even if police arrive in time, they can flee with the knowledge they may not be chased.