LifeLongClevelander

Exposing the ridiculous union rules and eliminating them is one thing, but this not the reason why they are threatening to strike. It is coming down to those workers wanting the same pay raise as the police department.

One reason that I would take RTA's rapid to get to/from sporting events or concerts at RM Field House. If that service is not going to be reliable and results in some round-about substitute replacement bus service, I won't bother using RTA. Then again, the geniuses at RTA's scheduling department were behind having the last Green Line departure from Tower City at 9:00 pm. So out-of-touch with reality. No evening baseball game, basketball game, hockey game or concert ends before 9:00 pm. It only took them a year to see the foolishness of that scheduling. New management and equipment cannot come soon enough. Then again, with damages inflicted over many years, it may already be too late.

Definitely a bad week or two for Bibb. It started off with the hecklers protesting the composition of the police review board. Then came the uproar with the stopping of the leaf collections that came about out of the blue. Finally the road/plow personnel threatening to strike. Regarding the leaf collection, one of his top-level advisors used the excuse that this is still a new administration when talking to a news reporter. Very lame. First, 10 months into his time in office and it should no longer be considered "new". That is almost 1/4 of his way through the term. Second, Bibb is from Cleveland. He should very well know that every October, leaves start to drop and the pickup services happen every year. One would think he sees the budgeting for various service department activities. To drop the leaf pickup once people expect it to be started is poor timing. It may not matter to someone who lives in a downtown apartment as Bibb does, but it does matter to people who have yards to maintain. As for the threatening of a possible strike by the road workers/plow drivers, that will blow up in Bibb's face if it does occur. People were quite angry with the road clearing efforts for that big January snow. In that case, using the reasoning that it was a new administration and he only had been in office for less than three weeks was justified. If the unresolved labor situation carries over into a big snow event, excuses won't cut it. Again, Bibb is from the area and he knows that once November comes around, major snow events are very likely to occur. It no longer is a new administration, the additional equipment, the "improvements" to routes and revised priorities won't matter to people who can't get around for an extended period of time. People will be angry with the drivers if they strike, but Bibb will be blamed for letting it occur. Running for cover and avoiding news reporters won't help his situation.

Michael Dean Perry was already in his fourth year with the Browns by the time that Belicheck took over head coaching. The last "hurrah" of the late 1980's run was in 1989 when they made it to the AFC Championship game under Bud Carson. In 1990, age caught up with the team and they fell apart. Carson was fired halfway through that season.

Belichick inherited a old team. It was filled with fan favorites where many of them were past their prime and nearing retirement. Due to the poor decisions of Marty Schottenheimer by basically thinking an offensive line could be built with low round draft picks and journeyman, Bernie Kosar paid the price. He still had a good football mind, but his body took a beating. The success of the late 1980's was due to draft picks drafted years earlier (Clay Matthews, Hanford Dixon, Ozzie Newsome), the USFL dispersal draft (Frank Minnifield, Mike Jackson, Dan Fike, Sam Clancy, Kevin Mack), supplemental draft (Kosar), veteran pickups (Bubba Baker, Carl Hairston, Matt Bahr, Bob Golic) and draft picks (Webster Slaughter, Brian Brennan, Mike Baab). By the time Belichick took over, it was basically a team in need of rebuilding.

A huge factor in residential sprawl came about as there really wasn't more available land for significant residential growth within Cleveland. Between 1940 and 1960, Cleveland's population was basically unchanged (878,336 to 876,030, peaking at 914,808 in 1950). In the county, the population grew by over 430,000 (1,217,250 to 1,647,895). There simply was not enough land available to accommodate over 400,000 people. Over the same period of time, Lake County's population grew by about 100,000. Cleveland may have seen more population growth if the dominant form of housing continued to be built (duplexes and non-apartment multi-family structures), but that type of housing had fallen out of favor in the post-war years.

Responsible parents and their children care and know what kind of education environment they are dealing with. They won't dismiss it as being "anecdotal". If the learning environment is poor, based upon what they feel their observations and/or what their children tell them, they won't "write it off". If the parents are being responsible adults, they will take that into account. The same holds true if they feel if the schools are considered unsafe. They will take actions to insure finding a better and safer learning environment. Some are fortunate. They can find, get into and afford non-public school academies. If public schools do offer advanced schools with top-notched programs, maybe they can be lucky enough to get into them. If they aren't, as being responsible parents, they will find a way to find a better education for their children. Word travels among parents. Involved parents know what is going on and make the best choices for their families as well. If it doesn't align with what others think, well that is too bad. Being crime victims or knowing what is going on where they live will matter. Being a "walk-able" neighborhood or living in a beautiful house will be mean nothing if they fear what may happen when they go for their walks or partake in everyday activities. "Anecdotal" won't matter to victims or for those who fear becoming victimized. Aside from all that, somebody can have really strong feelings for their lifestyle of choice. If their spouse or partner ends up having a different opinion, what wins out?

Most of the poorly performing school districts end up providing breakfast and lunch for their students. Even if they don't eat well at home, the school districts provide meals for them. It is not anecdotal evidence when parents who are INVOLVED with their children and their school districts they attend see and pay attention to what is going on. It is not "anecdotal" when going to conference night in certain school districts and few to no parents are present. It is not "anecdotal" when going to conference night in other districts and parents are waiting in lengthy lines. I have personally witnessed both situations multiple times. Guess which category each district falls in. When my spouse and I attended conferences when both of our kids had conferences on the same night, we split up. Even if single parents are involved, they can make provisions so they can attend. If they have more than one child and cannot see or talk with all of their children's teachers, districts do have conference nights on more than one night. Even if that is not enough, any teacher worth having that title will make accommodations to meet with CONCERNED parents. When our youngest expressed concerns our youngest was having about a poor learning situation in the classroom, we met with the teacher. When people fall back on the "anecdotal evidence" argument, they frequently do so because they are in denial about the statements. Furthermore, there is nothing that locks in the next generation from the same things encountered by parents. Adults who take the time to realize their successes and failures can at least change the course of the future. Yes, from certain perspectives, it may be considered "anecdotal", but when they want better for their children than what they had, the proof is in the actions taken and one personally witnesses what occurs. For all too many, it is far easier to blame everything that goes wrong on everybody else, instead of looking in the mirror or denying reality.

Do you have children in school or have been in school recently? I have seen from my children and the schools they attended what DOES occur. For many reasons, "holding back" children from advancing to the next grade does not occur. In our old district, one school principal refused to hold back any student from advancing regardless of how poorly they did and not knowing the material. Standards are inconsistent. Also in our old school district, extra credit opportunities abounded to the point of being ridiculous. Things like bringing a box of tissues to a classroom or presence at some event was awarded with extra credit. Opportunities to earn extra credit were excessive. Twenty to thirty percent of the class total could be extra credit. Kids who failed classes were given a short essay to covert a failing grade to a passing one. There are little to no consequences for not studying or doing homework. Teachers' aides witnessed kids taking tests in an open book, open note environment. From the statements of those aides, it was very obvious that the only time books were opened came at the time of the test. In a time-limited environment, there is no way material that is has not been learned will yield passing test results. For small districts, they may not have student numbers to support having multiple classes at the same grade level to teach students based upon ability. Students who are above average get bored very easily when a teacher has to present material at a level for students who need more help. Honors-level courses need to have a uniform standard. The weighted GPA assigned to an honors course waters-down the whole system if the the material is at the same standard. There are issues with state testing. However, when students have been advanced to higher grades when they haven't learned the material they should have learned for those grades, it is reflected in the testing results.

I have had neighbors who weren't of color who were problems. One neighbor was a tolerable nuisance. A second was becoming a problem and whose property was an eyesore. A third was a big problem who made living nearby awful. If he didn't leave, it would have been enough to make others do so. In the case of the first and third neighbors, when they moved the people who moved in are wonderful and it doesn't matter what group they fall in. As for school funding, there are school districts that are money pits. No matter what the source of the money, the performance of those districts is awful every single year. The funding sources can be made legal constitutionally, but the outcome will be the same. Using the excuse that Ohio's school funding is unconstitutional and devising a plan that will make in constitutional will not solve anything.

One can be happy with their community and satisfied with how it is run, but what does one do with those who live in the community who don't care? How does one deal with people who don't bother to raise their children properly? What do you do when people move in who don't care about the neighborhood or treating others with decency? How about waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of gunshots, seeing shell casings strewn around or seeing where bullets have struck their house? These actions could very well be carried out by people who don't even live in the community. No matter how well a community is run and having a well-staffed police department, those police officers cannot be everywhere all the time. People move on all the time. Many cases have nothing to do with sprawl. They pass away. Health deteriorates to a point where they cannot live alone. Taking care of a house can be too much. Job changes force them to leave the area. I can go on and on. In the cases of elderly or those who pass away, their former homes may not be in the best condition. People can be foreclosed upon due to circumstances beyond their control (extended unemployment, large medical bills, inability to work a job they once had, etc...). Those houses can frequently be bought up as "investment properties" for rental income. People can move in as renters to those houses and be wonderful tenants or they can be the cause of others moving. In the latter case, they can be enough of a nuisance to drive people away, but not enough of a problem to be a concern of city officials. If the words "dangerous" or "crime" aren't used, terms like "poor schools" are also commonly used. Yes, there are excellent private schools and academies. The top students can be lucky enough to go to a public school with advanced or specialty programs. Unfortunately, many others cannot get into those private schools and academies. Other students aren't quite good enough to get in the top public school in a larger district. Other school districts aren't big enough to be offer advanced programs. I know of school districts where the "honors" program is no more than the level of regular classes for the same subject in better school districts. The lesser school districts end up watering-down GPA's due to lower standards. If education is important enough to the parents, they will find a way to seek out better ways to learn. If they cannot get into private schools, academies or advance public school programs, they will find away to do so elsewhere.

On October 4th Ed Galleck of Channel 8 had a story where Cleveland's mayor stated that the homicide count this year was down by 12%. That substantial drop was questioned and eventually the police chief stated that as of October 4th, there were 130 homicides in 2022 as compared to 132 as of the same date in 2021, about a 1% drop. Here is the link to that story: https://fox8.com/news/i-team/i-team-questioning-mayors-claim-about-murder-rate-after-operation-clean-sweep/ In 2020, Cleveland had 193 homicides while the rest of the county there were 48. Remove East Cleveland's 19 homicides from 2020's count and the rest of the county had 29. Even with East Cleveland's homicide count as a part of the overall picture, Cleveland had about 9.6 times the homicide rate of of the rest of the county. Remove East Cleveland from the equation, and Cleveland had 15.7 times the rate of the rest of the county. (Note - Originally stated Cleveland had 170 homicides in 2020. That was the count for 2021, not 2020) Yes, there is no place safe from gun crime. It knows no borders. Victims can be in downtown Cleveland, live neighborhoods like Mount Pleasant, Cuddell and Collinwood, work in a gas station in Chesterland or be on rural farms in southern Ohio. People can suffer the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are going to be "perceived safe" communities having "bad" years that will have per capita homicide rates that make Cleveland's rate look good. One terrible event can skew numbers in the wrong direction. Hearing gunshots at 1:30 in the morning is extremely unnerving, especially learning how close they were to one's home. It doesn't change the harsh numbers that since 2012, there have been about 1440 homicides in Cleveland. Anybody can be a victim anywhere, but there are places that historically are significantly more dangerous than others. I don't like it in the least, but it is an unfortunate reality.

When I mentioned the personnel decisions, I was referring to the players that he has on the field at specific times, specifically the lack of Chubb being on the field. Even if he doesn't get the ball, the other team must be aware of what he can do. Also, there too few times when both Chubb and Hunt are on the field at the same time. It is beginning to appear that he will stick with Brissett too long. He also goes to the three tight end sets quite often, even going back to his days as offensive coordinator in Minnesota.

Stefanski was questioned about personnel usage last season and he is making the same types of decisions now. On top of it, he successfully used the strategy to have Chubb go down short of the goal line to allow the team run out the clock and win a game. When presented with the same situation this year, he doesn't call for it. Stefanski refuses to hand over play-calling duties. His statements about the blame falling upon him are getting very old. He could be very well over his head and making the same sorts of poor calls over and over again are a strong indication.

Based upon the way Chubb has been used, by the time week 11 rolls around, it may no longer matter.

No, there is no requirement due to the proximity to the line being near freight tracks. It was built to heavy rail standards in the mid-1950's due to extremely lofty ridership projections for the line that never materialized. High platform operation was in vogue in that time frame and it was felt that loading rapid transit cars would be faster if steps were not involved in loading the cars. Originally, the rapid transit line was planned to use PCC streetcars operated in trains. The outer segments of the streetcar lines would be utilized and when those lines crossed or approached the rapid transit right-of-way, the streetcars would then use it. Due to the forced transfers from buses to the rapid transit stations and lack of downtown stations (aside from the Terminal Tower) made it less desirable to use. The decay of the area on the eastern end of the line only contributed to the decline in ridership for the rapid transit line.

Both of RTA's fleets are well past retirement age. It is really coming into question on just how much longer they can keep the rail operation going, in particular the Red Line. They most certainly need to operate one common rail fleet for all lines. They have to have practically double of everything to maintain two distinctly different fleets and it offers no flexibility for operations. As for the Red Line, even though it was built for heavy rail standards, the ridership doesn't warrant a heavy rail operation. From what I understand, those behind Federal funding do not want to build a fleet of heavy rail cars with complete control cabs on both ends of heavy rail cars as it adds significantly to costs. As @KJP previously stated, the current preference is to build heavy rail cars that are semi-permanently joined together as a married pair sets joined via a drawbar. Married pairs can be separated, but it is highly intensive in labor and time to do so. The transfer table at RTA's Central Rail Maintenance facility can shift a rail car that is around 80 feet long. The Breda LRV's are 77 feet long. The Tokyu HRV's are 75 feet long, but they have couplers at both ends of all rail cars, even though 40 of the original 60 were designed for paired operation. Just as long as a train has an operator's cab at both ends, both the single units and individual units designed for paired operation can operate in multi-car trains. To modify the maintenance facility (not only the transfer table but the building structure as well) to be able to shift 150 foot long car sets will substantially add to the acquisition costs, something that the ridership doesn't justify. Also, the car body lifts are embedded in concrete floor at the maintenance facility. The jacking points are different for a Breda LRV and Tokyu HRV. A married pair would have to have double the lifts to lift the set. Anything that does not share the common jacking points would need to be lifted with a pair of the concrete embedded lifts and a pair of portable jacks. If a common rail car design is selected using the LRV body style, all of the unique servicing needs can be eliminated as well as two sets of unique parts.

The Airport station can also be modified one track at a time. The amount of service that the Red Line sees is not heavy or frequent enough where a single stub-end track terminus would be a problem. Multiple times in the history of the station, one track at a time has been taken out-of-service so that work could be performed either for repairs or rebuilding. RTA also has no qualms about taking significant portions of lines out-of-service for extended periods of time for major work.

The suspended quarterback hasn't been presented to a grand jury for that sort of act....yet, but based upon how things are going, that sort of action could be added to his list of perverted things. Just think, it has been stated that when he comes back in December, he will assume the role of "leader of the team". Wonderful, somebody who should be put on a predator list being anointed with that title. This is what you get with an inept owner trying to run football operations. This is the same owner whose influence caused Johnny Football to be drafted and put in eventually as a starter. Looks like the Texans will be getting a nice high first round draft pick for that awful deal where they duped a fool to pick up a player who they did not to ever play for them again.

Here is the magnitude of RTA's rail car need. In 1980, the current fleet of Breda LRV's started to be delivered. At that time the PCC fleet that operated on the former Shaker Rapid Transit Lines was 32 to 34 years old. When the first group of new PCC's arrived in 1948 (additions to the fleet were purchased used that were slightly older), they started to replace former Cleveland streetcars that were 34 years old in 1948. Those former Cleveland streetcars were relegated to peak-service runs only at that time and the last ones were retired from that service in 1959. The PCC design was excellent and highly successful. By the late 1940's nearly all of the design problems had been discovered and corrected in later production runs. New PCC cars would be delivered in a morning, tested and put into service by the evening rush hours. That is an indication of how well they were constructed. The current heavy rail fleet of Tokyu HRV rapid transit cars started to be delivered in 1984. The original Bluebird rapid transit cars on the former CTS rapid transit were delivered new in 1955 and 1958. The Airporter fleet was purchased new in 1967 and 1970. When the Airporters entered service, the Bluebirds were relegated to peak-service runs. In addition, only 18 of the 88 Bluebirds were single units while all 30 Airporters were single units. So, when the Tokyu rapid transit cars were placed into service, they replaced all of the earlier rapid transit cars that were 29, 26, 17 and 14 years old respectively. At the current time, the Breda LRV's are 44 years old and the Tokyu HRV's are 38 years old with no replacements ordered as of yet. It takes several years for the bid(s) to be placed (which RTA has bungled already), build the rail cars, have the bugs worked out and for the new fleet(s) placed into full regular service. By that time, the Breda fleet will be nearing 50 years old and the Tokyu fleet not far behind. If RTA decides to continue their stubborn ways, they will go with fleet(s) that will have their own unique designs which will add to the bugs and time to resolve them. Aside from the age of the rail fleets, they are both unique designs with no similar models in service anywhere. Breda, in particular, has a bad reputation for LRV equipment. Being unique and old, off-the-self parts are not available. Cannibalizing out-of-service RTA rail cars can only supply parts for only so long. RTA then must resort to having custom expensive spare parts produced to keep the fleets operational. To add to RTA's problems, as @KJPhas previously stated, the HRV's are deteriorating faster than the LRV's. This is due to RTA not having enough operational single unit HRV's to provide off-peak service (when new, 20 of the HRV's were single units and 40 were intended to run in a minimum of 2-car trains as they have operators' cabs on one end). When CTS received the Airporters and into the first years of RTA, the 30-unit Airporter fleet provided single-unit operation during off-peak service (service outside of rush hours, nights and weekends). They were more than sufficient to provide single-unit operation even with significantly higher ridership numbers than the current day. The low numbers of the current single-unit HRV's force RTA to run two-car trains that are basically empty. It doubles the wear-and-tear on the equipment and power consumption. The LRV's have fared somewhat better as they are all articulated single units. When the PCC fleet was in operation, parts were common as they were still operated in several cities. The Bluebirds were mechanically similar as they were based upon PCC streetcar technology applied to rapid transit rail car bodies, also used in other cities. The Airporters, though they were unique, were "youngsters" in comparison to the other RTA fleets. As the current rail fleets get older, maintenance problems of non-standard rail cars will intensify. Should we have harsher, prolonged and colder winters that haven't happened in a few years, expect the problems to be much worse. This is the magnitude of RTA's rail car need.

In the last several years, it fits the pattern of being more difficult on riders. What has been done so "the system it needs to be easy, stress free, and (feel) safe"? Numerous prolonged major rail system shutdowns. Tower City track replacement that takes months to complete and forcing riders to use stairs when an old elevator was frequently broken down. Violence on buses. Schedules that aren't met. Homeless camping out in stations that reek of excrement. Worn out rail cars that frequently break down with replacements not expected for years. The NextGen fiasco. The elimination of almost all park-n-ride service with replacement service using stop-and-go city streets and turning park-n-ride stations into vacant lots. Add a messed up fare collection rollout to the list of failures.

Stefanski should have relayed to Brissett is if a play isn't there, don't force it. Throw the ball away and not try the heroics. By the 4th quarter, at least the putrid defense had settled down, it may have been able to hold the lead at the end of the game. A chip-shot field goal puts them ahead (granted, nothing is certain). In the Falcons game, they had questionable calls inside the 10 yard line and ended up going for it on 4th down and came up with nothing. Three points early in the game may seem trivial, but in the end it was the margin of defeat. Not having the best offensive play-maker on the field at a key time when an injury wasn't a factor falls directly on the coach. In the Jets game, not conveying to the offense to go down short of the goal line falls on him as well, especially since nearly the same scenario presented itself 1 1/2 seasons ago when he did call for that to happen is on the coach. As for the "bad decision making", Stefanski has already come out and admitted it in varying forms. The Chargers head coach got away with it on Sunday, but if that strange call to go for it in their own territory blew up in his face, Chargers fans would be ripping on him just as badly.

Brissett has shown why he is a journeyman backup quarterback. Yes, he can deliver in the clutch at times, but more often he cannot. Stefanski knows what he has in Brissett and should tailor the late-game offense to work off of the strengths of the offense, yet he has not. The bad management falls directly on Stefanski. There have been calls for him to give up play-calling duties, yet he refuses to do so. It appears that in clutch situations where he has been in those very same positions previously, calls that he has made seem to elude his thinking now. That is inexcusable.

Last season, it was questioned about the play calling and personnel on the field in crucial situations. More of the same this season. Obviously, the coaching staff is repeating the same mistakes this season and it is costing the Browns games. The highly touted defense has been a disaster. High-priced free agents, players signed for massive contract extensions and high draft picks all have not lived up to expectations. The post-game comments made by Stefanski stating that the coaches have make better decisions, put the team into better positions and manage the game better are getting really old really fast. This team could have been very easily been 5-0. York who was the AFC special teams player of the week and was a fourth round selection cannot even be counted to make an extra point. If he missed that last-second game-winning kick in the first game, they could be 1-4. By the way, I am tiring of hearing him making practice kicks without any pressure from 60 to 70 yards away.

The supposedly highly regarded defense has not delivered. Fourth quarter collapses in both games. The highly paid and high draft pick stacked defensive secondary has been burned on big plays. If it weren't for the kicker's long field goal against Carolina and a big penalty that could have gone either way, the Browns could have gone 0-2. As for Chubb scoring that last touchdown, both the coaching staff and Chubb have forgotten their own decisions from less than 2 years ago. In the November 2020 game against the Texans, the coaching staff and Baker Mayfield TOLD Chubb to not score when the Browns had a late possession and close lead. The Texans had no timeouts. After a 59-yard run, Chubb went down on his own at the 1-yard line. Three kneel-downs ended the game for a Browns victory. Top-tier coaches remember what works. Chubb should have remembered, too. Finally, after an epic collapse of that magnitude, the fans had every right to boo for what they witnessed. If the players don't want to be booed by angry fans, then the TEAM AND COACHES need to keep their heads in the game and play for the entire 60 minutes.