LifeLongClevelander

Supposedly, Dave's will be providing shuttle bus service from their soon to be former location to the Dave's supermarket in Euclid.

It is very alarming that these facilities see such a short life. The Georgia Dome lasted only 25 years (1992 to 2017) It cost $214 million to build (about $400 million in current money) and had a $300 million renovation in 2007 only to be torn down in 2017. Its replacement, Mercedes-Benz Stadium cost $1.6 billion to build. The Super Bowl "gets awarded" to cold weather cities about maybe once every 5 years. The reasoning that a domed stadium will bring a Super Bowl here discounts the competition from other northern domed facilities. Quite honestly, the NFL prefers to hold that February event where it does most of the time to support all of the other associated activities where the weather is warmer and better. If other northern cities eventually get domed stadiums, the competition will get worse. A domed stadium will never have a return on investment to justify its cost.

Lake County Executive (though to many, it will always be Lost Nation) doesn't even have a tower. As for the people protesting any expansion of Cuyahoga County Airport's runway, who could blame them? Off of White Road, a plane came down well short of the runway, though fortunately there were no fatalities. On Bishop Road, there is a foundation of a house that was destroyed, killing the residents and anybody in the aircraft when it crashed near the runway. On Highland Road, a twin engine aircraft lost one engine shortly after takeoff to the southwest. Either due to the lack of the engine causing it to veer sharply to the left or the pilot trying to return for an emergency landing, despite the pilot's efforts, it crashed into the deep back yards and missed hitting any houses. Through the pilot's actions, he was able to miss the houses and avoid any other loss of life. There were a number of houses removed from Richmond Road, but the Scottish Highlands subdivision is not that far away. When those expansion plans were announced, at least one house in Scottish Highlands was going to be demolished to expand the clear zone. That airport is an area with a lot of houses. These types of incidents tend to not sit well with residents.

The only runway at Cuyahoga County Airport and the longer of the two at Lost Nation Airport are both over a thousand feet shorter than the main runway at Burke; in fact they are shorter than Burke's other runway. At least a decade ago, there were plans to expand Cuyahoga County Airport's runway to handle larger aircraft and expand bad weather operations. It would have meant re-routing both Richmond and Bishop Roads. All of the surrounding communities were strongly against any runway expansion. The runoff area near Richmond Road was a safety feature that came about when the runway could not be expanded. Furthermore, there are flight operations limitations when the airport cannot be normally used (11:00 pm to 7:00 am)

The moving of the zoo would never happen. In the last several years, they have expanded and added new habitats. They just formally announced a huge expansion of the Rain Forest which was underway for quite a while before the announcement. Too many improvements and money spent for a relocation to ever happen.

Via the county-wide sales tax, RTA receives significantly more money than the Port Authority of Allegheny County receives with the combination of state funding and county support. The problem isn't money; it is how the system spends it. The entrenched leadership is unresponsive to riders and is incapable of enacting change. Management is blind to internal problems. As @KJPstated, too many of the old guard that have been in place for many years under Calabrese are still in major positions under Birdsong. Birdsong has had 2 1/2 years to establish her management team, clean out the dead wood and hasn't. Problems developed and festered where bus availability sinks to a point where downtown loop trolley style buses are pressed into regular route service. Other expensive assets get purchased only for most of them to sit unused or sold for a tiny fraction of what they are worth. Bidding processes for vital replacement equipment are so bungled to where quality builders are driven away, the process gets halted and must be re-bid, delaying acquisitions longer. Even simple standard part replacements (Red Line rail car wheels) get botched where the system runs out of usable wheels. Shut-downs and sub-standard alternative services drag on for extended periods of time, driving away passengers. Tiny transit systems are able to run circles around RTA in obtaining major funding grants and awards. The board of trustees appears to be no more than a bunch of rubber-stampers with a number of them concerned about their own gain. Former trustee and long-time board president Dixon mis-used the agency cell phone for personal use to the point where RTA had to expand the plan. He defrauded the system by not paying for medical coverage. Internal audit controls completely failed to discover these large thefts. McCall double-dipped when not entitled to it. Former trustee Trevor Elkins (2016-19, Newburgh Heights soon to be ex- mayor) used campaign funds for personal expenses. The downward spiral goes on for years, yet trustees continue to get re-appointed for term after term. These trustees are the same ones who rewarded Calabrese with contract extensions, pay raises and bonuses. The city, county and suburban mayors haven't held their respective appointees accountable for their actions. Hopefully Mayor Bibb's efforts to name people who actually use RTA will yield results in shifting the direction of the board and agency. Unfortunately, it will take time to cycle through appointments. Even then, the appointees from Bibb will not be a majority of the board. We still have to deal with the appointments made by Buddish and one of which dates to Fitzgerald.

His destiny was to flame out, however Jimmy knew better.

Certain elements of society contributed greatly to the demise of two of the malls. As problems grew, the customers left. Richmond Town Square got a reputation of it being a hang-out for unruly youths. Large fights were regular occurrences. Same thing happened to Euclid Square Mall. Randall Park Mall got the reputation of being unsafe (fights, muggings and theft). The last time I was at that mall, for no reason somebody in a group of 3-4 wound up and was ready to give me a roundhouse hit to the head. As he swung, I ducked, continued in the direction that I was heading, didn't look back and never went back. Now, the same sort of reputation is building with Beachwood Place. Shoplifters even use RTA buses to try to get away with stolen goods at the South Euclid Walmart.

It should have gone beyond Garfield/Maple to Solon. The Red Line should have been extended to Berea as well. As for the school kids riding the system, I have seen comments in the past that stated there was no quicker way to kill a shopping mall than to have RTA terminate a route at a mall (such as the #1 St. Clair at Euclid Square Mall) or route it right next to a mall like Richmond Town Square and Severance.

If Ron Tober had been permitted to do what he wanted to do back in the 1990's without receiving push back from those like Krumholtz, I think that RTA would have never faced the massive decline that it has seen in the last 20+ years. Extensions to Euclid, Lakewood and so on would have happened. When he didn't fall into line with the Mike White and kicking in a massive amount of money to pay for the stadium plus those who had a different agenda, Tober decided to leave town.

The real problem starts at the local level. Despite all the rhetoric, RTA's leaders, both current and past, haven't been acting at a real sense of urgency to replace their rail car fleet. The bus operations are a joke. The county's leadership has been sloshing around in the mud with incompetent leadership and numerous scandals. If they cannot even handle current operational needs, how can we expect any sort of cohesive vision for the future if the agency and local level cannot provide it?

The space for capacity on the CSX line is there. Norfolk Southern recently has done some track removal in Lake County. Considering the number of trains that once used the former New York Central mainline, at most it may take is laying down some track that has been pulled up. At least all of the other infrastructure is place, aside of the connection between the two main lines.

When Anthony Giunta was mayor of Euclid (and one-time RTA board member), he was a major proponent of an extension of the Red Line to at least Euclid. The current Red Line heavy rail cars came with Mentor destination signs. As the mainline railroad traffic has declined, especially since the loss of coal traffic for the Lakeshore and Eastlake power plants, there would no big issue shifting the Norfolk Southern traffic to the CSX line. Even if traffic is heavier than the single mainline and siding that CSX has through much of its east side right-of-way, it wouldn't be overly expensive to restore a track. Within the last few years, one storage track on that line was ripped up and the original right-of-way accommodated four tracks. The then former Norfolk Southern line could be a two-track rapid transit extension. On both the CSX and Norfolk Southern lines, the infrastructure is already in place for the number of tracks that would be required.

Calabrese jumped ship as the problems were brewing all along while he was at the helm. After over 18 years on the job, all or nearly all of the top managers rose or were hired into their positions did so while he was in charge. He knew of problems with Dixon, yet blamed the HR director, even though Calabrese himself stated he was aware of issues before that HR director took the position. His bogus "investigation" on the Dixon fiasco never publicly released the results. Calabrese knew what they were and they were not going to make him look good. Birdsong has been on the job for 2 1/2 years. Yes, she inherited a mess, but there comes a time where accountability falls in her lap. The botched rail car bid process occurred when she had been on the job for over 1 1/2 years. NextGen was implemented after she was on the job for nearly two years. The bus situation has been going downhill for a while, so why wasn't something done in the last two plus years to rectify it? It is one thing to blame the predecessor(s) when someone is new to the job or has been at it for 6 months to a year. When on the job for 2 1/2 years, that is more than ample time to bring in new people if the ones on the job aren't doing it and institute procedures to improve problems. The rail car purchase is the most significant purchase facing the agency in years, yet by all descriptions (many by @KJP), it was very poorly handled.

Botched initial bidding process for rail car replacement (well documented). This has delayed the whole replacement process by months and the whole process had to be repeated. Deterioration of overall bus operations/availability to the point where RTA was forced to put surplus downtown trolleys into regular main line service. Look at the system map for NextGen. Frequencies on some routes were improved, but routes became more circuitous and in some cases transfers became necessary when they weren't before. Any "savings" due to increased frequencies are negated by the time it takes to transfer. A dozen new 45-foot highway coaches were received in 2020 at a cost of about $700,000 apiece. In June 2021 when NextGen was implemented, two of the three routes using them were eliminated. Some of those new buses that were in service for only 6 months became surplus and idled. The system already had a dozen of those buses on hand. Six of them with many years and miles of life remaining were sold for less than $7000 apiece. The one remaining highway coach route (sponsored by by Strongsville and Brunswick) has six departures each in the morning and afternoon/evening that would require no more than four buses for service. Fourteen "spare" buses for a route that requires only four to provide service is a waste in assets. As @KJPstated above, it took FOUR days for a statement to be issued regarding the fatal shooting on the HealthLine.

There are other transit agencies that are under the banner of "Regional". Based upon ridership, the Cuyahoaga County 1.0% sales tax does better of funding the system than the Port Authority of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh's system) with the county and state aid. As @KJP stated above, "Their finances thanks to federal COVID relief funds and improving sales tax revenue is the best that it has been in a very long time. Sales tax revenue is up 55 percent in the past two decades and RTA now has a four-month operating reserve. They've wanted to have a 3-month reserve as well as a reserve in their development to improve their credit rating and reduce their cost of borrowing. They've achieved some great things financially." The problem with RTA has nothing to do with its name, the banner that it operates under or money. Shifting the operation to be under the Port Authority banner here will mean nothing. When RTA was formed in 1975, Cleveland Transit System was the largest agency of the systems that combined and most of its management just shifted from CTS to RTA. The problem has to do with the people who have been running the operation for well over 20 years. They have been the cause of the system's death spiral. Calabrese jumped ship when the Dixon scandals broke and others, plus knowing the overall direction of the system. He knew where RTA was going and wanted nothing to with it. Birdsong has done nothing to reverse things and by many accounts, has accelerated the decline. The board of trustees need to be pressured by the county, the city and the suburban mayors to not renew Birdsong's contract and actively recruit competent candidates to run the system. It would not be surprising to learn that the obvious mess that RTA was in served as a major deterrent for potential good candidates in pursuing the general manager's opening that led to Birdsong's hiring.

The fall-back to using surplus downtown trolleys in regular service will carry things only so far. That fleet consists of 12 buses. Probably two are needed in downtown service. That leaves only ten "surplus" trolley-style buses to fill in. What's next up for fill in service? 45-foot surplus highway coaches (not designed for exclusive stop-and-go city service)? Any of the original operational HealthLine 60-foot articulated buses that were recently retired (though I heard they were pretty well worn out by the time they were being replaced)? Cobbled together buses pulled off the scrap line? Really, really sad state of operations for RTA. What happens if the high gas prices causes enough of rider surge where they need more buses that they don't have? This would have been one opportunity for RTA to gain riders with the hope making a good enough impression to keep them long-term. The way things are now, there is almost zero chance of these riders continuing with RTA once gas prices ease.

This is why I keep complaining about the snail's pace for securing the funding to purchase the replacement rail cars. The Red Line fleet is in worse condition than the Blue/Green line fleet. It is due in large part by being forced to run 2-car trains when ridership does not warrant it, causing double the equipment usage to stack up the wear and tear on the fleet. The Blue/Green Line fleet is not in much better shape. Those rail cars suffer frequent breakdowns and won't last much longer as well. If RTA decides to award a contract to replace the Red Line fleet, even if it is the beginning of the common fleet for the entire system, it will be a smaller overall total and raising the cost for each rail car. If the order as an option for the Blue and Green line fleet, the cost of the option is always higher per rail car than the original order. Another factor is that the option will be for another small order. One unified order for approximately 76 rail cars will cost less than an order and option of 40 and 36 rail cars (lower the cost = less money needed). RTA has more than enough yard space to store its current rail car fleet plus another 76 new cars when they are delivered. The Central Rail Maintenance Facility yard was designed to hold at least double the size of the current fleets (108 rail cars total) when they were initially delivered in the 1980's. It is vastly under-utilized. As a fall-back, RTA also has the basically unused rail yard at the old Brookpark Shop. As it is, there should be serious doubts that the Red Line fleet will last the approximately five years that it would take from awarding the bid to time of delivery. If the Blue/Green line fleet replacement option doesn't occur for 2 or 3 years, will that fleet be operational 7 or 8 years from now?

Actually, in many ways it is good that many of those highway sections were not built. The remnants of some of those are still visible today. The elaborate ramps for I-71 near Ridge Road were part of the Parma Freeway. The Broadway ramp of I-480 was for the Bedford Freeway (much of which would have been west of E.105th Street). I-490 was going to be part of the Clark Freeway through Shaker Lakes. There were lesser-known un-built freeways included the Lee Freeway (would have ended in the area of the Broadway I-480 ramps). The Central Freeway would have crossed the Bedford Freeway, ending at the Lee Freeway. The Heights Freeway would have roughly paralleled Superior, then Monticello and Wilson Mills. The only "benefit" of the Central and Heights Freeways would have been to shift traffic from I-90 and the Shoreway, but it still would have dumped traffic further down the Innerbelt. The Bedford Freeway would have plowed through part of what became the expanded Cleveland Clinic Campus. Tens of thousands of homes would have been demolished and countless neighborhoods and communities would have been carved up or isolated. If many or all were built, the Innerbelt would have served as a bigger convergence of freeways at too big of a social cost.

Old "habits" are hard to break. What sort of self-inflected mess will the Browns be in should Watson return to his old ways here?

Moves made out of desperation almost always end up working out very badly for the teams making them. I am sick and tired that moves are being dictated by the person who should not be making them. If indeed Haslem overruled the coach and general manager, then he should be held accountable. Unfortunately, that is never the case. It will be the coach and general manager will be blamed and get fired when things fall apart.

The woman interviewed in the Sports Illustrated article is not one of the ones with that attorney and she is represented by another attorney.

Trump's money made a lot of things go away. So can $230 million.

Let's see what other criminals and degenerates Haslem will bring to his team. In Haslem's mind, it obviously doesn't matter. As of today, I don't want anything do with them. I won't have anything to do with them until both pathetic excuses for individuals are gone.

The whole situation where OBJ was griping about not getting the ball was a load of B.S. OBJ did whatever he wanted when he wanted. He did it with the Browns and did it with the Giants. That is why the Giants were done with him. When any quarterback expects the receiver to be in a certain spot on the field and the receiver, even though he might be wide open, but is nowhere near that expected spot and is many yards away, he won't get the pass. For those so-called experts (if they are so smart, why aren't they coaching), it is really easy to call things out from above when they don't have 300-pound linemen looking to pound them into the turf, but it is quite a bit different when scrambling on the field. To further expand on OBJ's motivation, he was laying the groundwork on his exit from the Browns a year ago when he was telling potential free agents to not sign here as he was planning his own exit strategy. It is interesting that when OBJ had the success with the Rams, it was when he was no longer the #1 receiver, played the role as a #2 receiver and ran the routes he was expected to run. Now after having the same knee blow out twice in slightly more than a year and the second time it was due to a non-contact situation, what kind of a receiver will OBJ be? Due to the timing of the injury, the "best" expected time to return may be at the end of the 2022 regular season at the earliest. One has to wonder how many times will he plant a his foot and/or attempt to make a cut before the knee goes out again. Will he accept what may be a diminished role or will he be complaining about not getting targeted all over again?