jamiec

^ Even if we concede that downtown Cleveland looks like hell, I don't see what that has to do with the 2008 presidential election. The reason it looks bad is because everyone fled to the suburbs years and years ago, and now we're trying to convince people to come back. There are more than enough jobs and businesses in the greater Cleveland area to occupy and create a 100% vibrant downtown. We as a community just choose not to.

^^ Interesante! What about the CVS on Clifton and W. 117?

I believe that's the place. My sister is doing a school semester in New York and is staying in a dorm setting there. Good thoughts! I think I will just do the bus route. I don't have a lot of money and am not anxious to blow $60 on a taxi to and from the city.

Hmm. So, I'm landing at around 10 a.m. on a Friday. If I got MTA, how long do you think it'd take...90 minutes? A taxi takes something like 30, right?

ESPN says the Browns signed Eric Steinbach. Apparently this is a blockbuster deal. I don't understand football, unfortunately. Can anyone translate this to basketball??

Well, why don't you ask Detroiters how well all the hype for Super Bowl XL worked out for them. Madison Avenue doesn't build cities. PEOPLE build cities. I lived in Detroit during the ramp up to the Super Bowl, and the goal for Detroiters was not creating delusions that they had transformed into this magical place overnight. What they were trying to convey was an optimistic image. The idea being: Yeah, we've had and have problems, but we're working through it. Unfortunately, media outlets like to come back to Detroit and beat the $h1t out of the city because it's an easy target. Here's the fundamental problem with what this woman wrote -- it's not a fair portrait of what's happening in Cleveland. As a columnist, she is as guilty as a marketer who stretches the truth when advertising a product. What she did was take a certain set of realities and arrange them in a way so that they would work with her view of the world. For example... The reality: The Theater District is torn to shreds because we are in the middle of a massive road project. Her take: Disarray is a symptom of Cleveland's desperation and why Ohioans on the whole are clinging to the allure of Democrats. So are her "facts" correct? Sure, Euclid Avenue has a lot of vacancies. Sure, E.9th is devoid of pedestrians in the middle of winter. But as a journalist, she should be committed to finding out why these things are how they are. Context is important.

I couldn't disagree with you more. I missed this gem. Now Dan's got me as mad is this dumb Obama beat writer. Words are EVERYTHING.

So, can we set a day and time for our march with pitchforks and torches on the Chicago Sun-Times office? I'm busy next week, but I can probably do Tuesday.

She parachuted in here on a Tuesday without the historical context of what happened on Monday and the effects of what happened on Wednesday.

^^ Of course not, Mayday, because nobody works in Northeast Ohio, duh! You know, what does 4.X% unemployment work out to around here, at least everyone, right? ;)

Lovely. It's nice people bash us to make larger points on politics. They should leave us out of their catfights.

Yeah, I think these sound like great tours. Why was Lakewood taken off the list? Although I nitpick the city sometimes, Lakewood is a really terrific, really urban community, and it's great for young people, especially in the dense apartment areas. I agree with MTS, especially when it comes to marketing Cleveland just generally, not just tours.

^ Why would they; what a *dump* that neighborhood is! ::sarcasm!::

I like how he's killing 'em softly with regionalism. Not too much all it once.

Thanks, everyone!

^^ haha, that's hilarious

Hi all! I lived in NYC for three months, but I only went to LaGuardia airport twice, both times on a taxi. I am heading back later in March, and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth trying to take a bus from the airport to a hotel near Madison Square Garden on 34th. Too bad NYC isn't advanced like us in Cleveland :wink: Thanks for the help!

This is the most unintentionally hilarious line ever.

^^ Points well taken.

^ What's wrong with Edgewater Park? I went there all last summer, and it seemed like good park...

I meant cities like Middleburg Heights. I live in Lakewood. Most of the outer-ring suburbs on all sides are nasty. I don't want to live in a ranch house with no trees. edit: I should have used an emoticon. My bad.

Pope, the "diving" line? Where people so distressed to move to the west side they dived into the Cuyahoga instead? Or does Cleveland have an underground cliff diving history/following and this information didn't make it into the Cleveland Memory Project archives? :evil: I too have always thought the "divider" was the river. My dad lives on the east side in Lake County and thinks that Slavic Villiage is the west side! The whole east/west thing in the Cleveland area seems to break down to perception--especially from those sheltered in the suburbs for too long. On the converse side, I once dated a girl from Middleburg Heights whose father feared her going to the east side with me. He was convinced that there were no white people "over there." I hope his daughter helped to change his mind. That's funny because the west side suburbs are so gross, imho.

This is pretty interesting. Best subways around the world: http://www.virgin-vacations.com/site_vv/11-top-underground-transit-systems-in-the-world.asp Holy crap, look at Moscow. Man, why do we live in America again? Oh yeah, Moscow ain't that great, but man, look at that station. GEESH! Beautiful.

^ OK, so how is this guy qualified to be a transit boss? He always sounds like he went to the Debbie Downer School for Public Works. What a drag. Honestly, I think the existing lines are so valuable and underused, we almost don't need more lines anytime soon if they did a real, honest push for TOD along the stops.

The "preference" is due to the fact that auto-centric, open air shopping centers are the only thing that is built in most of the nation. You're not going to convince me that someone would prefer the environment of a big box shopping center to say, Georgetown, Michigan Avenue, or the Back Bay. When I lived in Port Huron, a guy wrote into the newspaper and said he would never shop in downtown Port Huron because he wanted to be able to drive and park his car at each store rather than leaving it and walking to each store. A lot of people love downtown shopping, but to others it ain't that big of a deal. In my opinion, market forces created the suburban mall taste. It's a product people like.