Luke_S

The city is changing it's approach to policing ATVs Cleveland’s dirt-bike strategy dramatically altered course over the weekend, evidenced by arrests before riding began Cleveland stiffens penalties, increases fines for dirt bike riders

Cleveland ahead of the curve on pothole patching, grass-cutting, illegal dumping efforts, mayor says Published: May. 24, 2022, 3:26 p.m. "Potholes -- City crews, which began patching potholes on residential streets April 4, have already completed 60% of their scheduled work. At this time last year, they’d completed 26%. By mid-June, Teeuwen anticipates the work will be complete. Grass-cutting -- City crews have already completed grass-cutting on vacant lots in wards 1, 8, 16 and 17, and are now getting to work on lots in wards 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Rather than the past practice of one shift per day, Teeuwen said the city is using two shifts per day, with crews working “sunrise to sunset” and essentially doubling productivity. Some employees are working overtime, and in other cases, more staff has been added, she said. To get extra staff, the city retained temporary snow removal workers that usually only work in the winter, she said. In past years, lots were cut three or four times per season. But Teeuwen hopes to add one more round this season. Illegal dumping – The city has dedicated several crews, trucks and other equipment to tackle dumping. To date, 444 dump sites have been cleared, yielding 360 tons of trash. At that rate, the city’s on pace to clear 5,000 sites in 2022, compared to the 2,200 it cleared last year, Teeuwen said. Bibb added that he’s working on a potential plan to place security cameras at some of the worst sites to catch dumpers, and may pursue higher penalties for violators." https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/05/cleveland-ahead-of-the-curve-on-pothole-patching-grass-cutting-illegal-dumping-efforts-mayor-says.html

I'll be busy that weekend, but see what I can make if there is something during the week.

Not sure, the article didn't say. But I'm guessing its 1080 River St.

Fenn was a private college that CSU acquired. Its not starting a university from scratch so it helps, but I'm not sure how much the legacy of Fenn helps CSU as a public university. Also, Fenn wouldn't have received any public funding from 1923 - 1964.

I think it's probably worth noting that Cleveland State is relatively young as far as universities go. It was founded in 1964 and didn't merge with the law college until 1969. For comparison OSU was founded nearly 100 years earlier in 1870, University of Cinci 1819, Kent State 1910, Akron U 1870. That means they don't have the legacy and reputation to sell, though they are working hard to move up in college rankings. It also means they have a smaller and younger alumni base. Cleveland State alumni would only recently be getting to the point where they have lifetime earnings to be able to make substantial donations to the school to help improve its standings.

May 22, 2022 04:00 AM Demolition set to clear land for development near Akron's East End DAN SHINGLER https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/demolition-set-clear-land-development-near-akrons-east-end

Could downtown Cleveland’s parks and public spaces be more fun and better programmed? A new survey seeks answers Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H859CRZ Link to article: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/05/could-downtown-clevelands-parks-be-more-fun-and-better-programmed-a-new-survey-seeks-answers.html

Akron plans to party with expanded outdoor drinking downtown https://www.crainscleveland.com/akron-news/akron-plans-party-expanded-outdoor-drinking-downtown

That makes sense, I guess my point was do we expect these vehicles to require the acreage of Burke to serve their landings and take offs? I hadn't considered the implications of flying cars on the use of Burke and it is intriguing and could position us to be a leader if the VTOL technology advances. Just wondering if it would maybe make sense to transition Burke to helipads instead of runways to open lakefront land to public use.

Presumably for flying cars/uber drones to be viable they will have to operate without large-footprint, close-in airports though, no? Not a pilot and haven't done a lot of reading up on this myself so could be way off base here, but I would think for these to be a truly viable form of transit you would want several "airports" around town and any developed city wont have available land for these and so these airports will have to look and function much different than Burke does now. But, again, may have the wrong vision of how the flying car industry will actually function.

Who won?

Ken gave a response to this in another thread:

I figured using the lakefront plan was intentional, but thought you might be on another story with your comments in the "Cleveland: Transit Ideas for the Future" thread earlier today. Thanks for the follow up though. Fingers crossed on the state coming through.

Was there any indication of where the Cleveland station would be? And does this news give you any more optimism that Ohio might take a step forward on passenger rail?

Reasonable, but I'm surprised they even took this step.

Thank you for setting the record straight on that, always appreciate your insight.

Stricter enforcement or new solutions? Cleveland City Council debates tackling crime in the city I've hit on this before, but I think this is too often lost in discussions of crime. Though we've seen increases, nationwide, the past few years that is from historic lows and rates of crime are still generally below the crime rates in the '90s. The article goes on to quote Mooney who claims "[we] have roving bands of lawlessness, with loaded firearms, going through our neighborhoods, terrorizing people" when talking about the dirt bikes and ATVs driving through the city, even though there has been no shootings or violence connected to those gatherings. Baseless claims like this are irresponsible, and unnecessary when I think everyone agrees we need to address the ATV issue even though they aren't riding around armed. On police pursuit: https://www.ideastream.org/news/stricter-enforcement-or-new-solutions-cleveland-city-council-debates-tackling-crime-in-the-city

A bit of Akron history along with some live music this weekend. Take a musical 'Sentimental Journey' to Akron's Summit Beach Park https://www.ideastream.org/news/take-a-musical-sentimental-journey-to-akrons-summit-beach-park

Should also be considering the new abatement proposal in conjunction with this proposal as well. Allowing existing residents to improve their homes will hopefully help with retention in neighborhoods while improving the aesthetic of these neighborhoods. Cleveland to establish home repair fund with $4 million left over from decades-old program https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/05/cleveland-to-establish-home-repair-fund-with-4-million-left-over-from-decades-old-program.html

Right, and that's what this tiered abatement proposal is trying to do. The thought is the "hot" neighborhoods don't need the additional incentives in the forms of abatement, while the "opportunity" areas do. And do you know that the administration didn't do any sort of analysis to come of with the 350k cap? I would guess that they did and it wasn't a number pulled from a hat.

From the article there was no other cause to pull these kids over than not having a license plate visible. Not exactly anarchy in the streets. Even at 1a a chase will likely lead to property damage or death. In this case only property damage, thankfully, but even that doesn't seem worth it for this violation.

Is this sarcasm? Someone could have died and all for a license plate that wasn't visible...

I can understand how the Cleveland market would keep you busy! 😂 Hopefully it stays that way.

Good reporting, Ken. As always. Are you aware of any projects in Akron that might submit an application?