LovesIt

^^Where exactly on Detroit or Lorain?

Can we please get a non-stop flight to Honolulu? I'm sick of stopping in Salt Lake City all the time.

So Cleveland's losing the most in jobs but growing the most in per capita personal income? Interesting.

Someone really NEEDS to shut that mall down. It's worse than Randall Park.

Philadelphia.

I'm still scared about turning left on Euclid. It's probably just my awful driving skills but that looks really complicated.

Why do those shots look like they were taken in the Nevada desert? I had no idea that area was so desolate.

I've been to Lenox Square and the Galleria in Dallas, and both I've found kind of underwhelming. I'd rather see something closer to Honolulu's Ala Moana Center. It's got the likes of Jimmy Choo, Tiffany's, Bvlgari, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Dior, Fendi, Bottega Veneta, Emporio Armani, Burberry and a lot of others. Aim high!

Asian-Americans are probably the most socially mobile in the US. That is, they are able to move from the lower-class urban areas and out into the suburbs relatively quickly, which I'm sure contributes to the slow growth in the city proper.

There are some claims that easy and cheap transportation out of the airport would hurt some of the local transportation businesses that deal with tourists. Getting around the island is a nightmare but it's also a huge industry here that has a lot of power. That's also why the route avoids Waikiki, the biggest tourist destination on the island.

It has taken decades for this to come through but finally the city and county of Honolulu has decided to build a light rail transit system! Except the dumbasses in charge of this whole thing decided AGAINST putting a stop in the Honolulu International Airport (where they would've gotten an insane amount of riders) and they also omitted the option of connecting it to the University of Hawaii, which is basically 20k+ kids with no cars who would've been riding that shit all the time. Oh well. Vote clears way for initial transit work After decades of dashed plans, Honolulu is closer than ever to building a major mass transit system to link West O'ahu with the island's urban core. In the wake of yesterday's 5-4 City Council vote approving the first phase, Mayor Mufi Hannemann said he was "very confident" that construction would begin by 2009. "The key to this was to be willing to compromise, to be able to give something to get something," Hannemann said. The council voted to retain a controversial route along Salt Lake Boulevard rather than immediately link the system to Honolulu International Airport. The 20-mile route selected yesterday would begin near the planned University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu campus and end at Ala Moana Center. A route backed by Hannemann would have included those starting and ending points, but would have dipped south to the airport instead of following the Salt Lake path. "We didn't get our first choice; we got our second choice," Hannemann said. The vote cleared the way for engineering and environmental studies to begin, Hannemann said. The council and the mayor said they expect the system to eventually stretch from West Kapolei to Manoa and Waikiki. Also still to come is a decision on what kind of technology — rail, rubber-tired vehicles or other options — the transit system would use. Hannemann allies unexpectedly had swapped the airport link for Salt Lake Boulevard last Wednesday to win a crucial swing vote from Councilman Romy Cachola that kept the project alive. Salt Lake residents were thrilled that yesterday's vote upheld the earlier decision, but others said the city was rapidly creating an expensive mess that would benefit few. "I'm absolutely elated," said Grant Tanimoto, chairman of the Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board. "For a while there, it was touch and go. But the process played out, and the right decision was made." Wai'anae resident James Manaku Sr. said he did not believe the system would ever help the Leeward Coast. "It's not going to benefit us in any way, shape or form," he said. "It's just going to benefit those who develop property along the way." POLITICAL REALITY Voting in favor of the route last week and yesterday were Cachola and council members Todd Apo, Nestor Garcia, Gary Okino and Rod Tam. Voting in opposition were Donovan Dela Cruz, Charles Djou, Ann Kobayashi and Chairwoman Barbara Marshall. The decision capped a wild week of political maneuvering as supporters of other paths scrambled for votes, and angry constituents bombarded council members with phone calls and e-mails. Apo had tried to steer the route back to Hannemann's original proposal of going past the airport by tacking on promises that later links to Salt Lake and UH-Manoa would be top priorities. Djou, Garcia and Tam joined him yesterday. But the vote fell short when Okino, who had come up with the Salt Lake compromise last week, refused to abandon that route. Doing so would have stabbed Cachola in the back, and someone else would then almost certainly have switched his or her vote to kill the route anyway, Okino said. "Obviously, the airport is the better route, but this is political reality," Okino said. "I think we got the best of what we could have gotten." Cachola said he was "ecstatic" that the Salt Lake route had held up despite the attempts to alter it. "I'm on cloud nine," Cachola said. "Salt Lake is the best route, for the greater good." He said an airport link should be built only if the system is later extended into Waikiki. HARSH CRITICISM But Djou called yesterday's decision a "train wreck" that would doom the entire project. "This system will be a failure from the day it starts, because it has dropped UH-Manoa and the airport," he said. "We're clearly on the wrong track." Djou had joined Dela Cruz in calling for an alternative that would have stretched from Fort Weaver Road to University Avenue and King Street via the airport. The move was defeated when Kobayashi was the only one to join them. Dela Cruz said he still supports the overall project, but was very frustrated by all the politicking. "Some people want to build a train, but it looks like we're trying to build a roller coaster," he said. "It goes up and down, and we don't know where it will end. I hope the public doesn't start to lose confidence in the project." Hannemann conceded that trying to break ground on the project by 2009 was "aggressive" and "ambitious." But he blasted Gov. Linda Lingle for publicly doubting on Monday that such a schedule was possible. "The governor should really jump on board," Hannemann said. "She's really out of step and out of touch." Yesterday's decision "takes us another step forward in erasing the image that the Honolulu City Council fumbled 15 years ago, and I think that's very, very important," Hannemann said. A previous council killed a similar project in 1992 by voting against a tax hike that would have helped pay for it. Former Mayor Frank Fasi had tried since the late 1970s to build a mass transit system.

Me either with clothes like this: :wtf:

Loves It, where have you been? I've been stuck on this island for FAR too long. But luckily there are a few places that sell MUJI products here, mmm.

Muji is hella tight. They have the best stuff.

There goes my 3 year warranty with CompUSA on my computer ;\

I've seen a lot of coverage over this project on the local news. The media is really responding well to it; even calling it a "shopping mecca", although I'm not sure what kind of retail-starved people would consider Wal-Mart and Target a shopper's paradise. I'm glad it's got a lot of buzz surrounding it.

^^Both Tokyo and Seoul are a lot more overwhelming and dense than NYC.

Cleveland is definitely the most internationally known from my experiences. Everytime I've been to Japan and South Korea people immediately know what I'm talking about when I say where I'm from, if only because of the Indians' popularity in Asia. But when I described my (former) university as an hour outside of Columbus they had never heard of the city.

I'm very excited to see how Asia Town Centre is coming along. It's great to see developers taking an initiative in this part of town. P.S., A great Chinatown recommendation is Koko Bakery on Payne and E. 37th. I'd venture to say it's one of Cleveland's best bakeries outside of Little Italy. Yummm :)

It doesn't???

Criticise big-box retail as much as you want but this project seems like it's being put together really well. It's unique and pays homage to the area's heritage which is the best thing we could ask for when it comes to a shopping center like this.

Haha, a poor man's Golden Girls >;[

The difference between Atlanta and Cleveland/Columbus/Cincinnati is that Atlanta is sheer image and perception. It's not worthy of its "capital of the South" moniker but for some reason people buy into the image. Unfortunately perception is becoming reality with the rapid growth that's projected for the city >;[

But what about the growing downtown population? Doesn't it make just as much sense to give them retail choices so they don't have to leave the city to go shopping?

EEE, PR jobs moving to Cleveland, how fun for soon-to-be PR graduates ;)