Vincent_G

No one has called for a moratorium on making comparisons. I am arguing that the comparisons are not valid. There are many reasons why the comparisons between Chief Wahoo and the mascots of University of Notre Dame and the College of Wooster are not valid, some of which I wrote about above.

The comparisons between Chief Wahoo and the Fighting Irishman of Notre Dame and the Fighting Scot of the College of Wooster are not valid. The Notre Dame and Wooster mascots are truly rooted in the schools' histories. Irish Americans have played and continue to play major roles in the culture of Notre Dame and the broader culture of Catholicism in the United States. The College of Wooster was founded by a Presbyterian minister, a religion that has roots in Scotland. Its sports teams used to be called the Presbyterians. The mascots primarily represent sports teams, so it makes sense that a fighter would be used in such a representation. The mascots don't suggest--at least not in any negative way--that Irish people or Scots are always fighting. In the case of Notre Dame, if a negative stereotype of Irish Americans was used in the university's branding system--a drunk Irishman being loaded into a paddywagon, for example--then I am sure there would be some people calling for a change, but, because Irish Americans have great influence over and involvement in decisions made by the university, it is unlikely that a mascot or logo depicting Irish Americans in a negative way ever would have come about. There is no significant connection between Native American culture and the Cleveland Indians, and there is not a large presence in Greater Cleveland of people who would fall into the census bureau's "American Indian or Alaska Native" demographic category. It is easy to argue that Chief Wahoo is an insulting depiction of Native Americans, regardless of whether it was consciously intended to be. It's unfortunate that some people have grown tired of this controversy, because it will go on.

It is past time to retire Chief Wahoo. The image makes Cleveland look not only backward but resolutely backward. The leprechaun of Notre Dame is an honorable figure, drawn from the folklore of a people who are very much a part of Notre Dame, past and present.

Thanks. I have always liked that Triskett station.

Thanks. I have sometimes wondered what Cheyenne looked like.

I spent last week in Salt Lake City. It had been probably eight years since my previous visit, and I was amazed at how the rail transit infrastructure has been built out over that time. In less than 20 years, an entire rail system has been put into place, with three light rail lines, a commuter rail line, and the S-Line streetcar. The streetcar, which runs on a single track with a passing track in the middle of the route, is not really a streetcar. I think the vehicle used is the same as the low-floor vehicles used on UTA's green and red lines, and it is routed along a former RR right-of-way, which it shares with a popular multi-use trail. As it is, the streetcar only connects the rail network to the outer edge of the burgeoning Sugar House commercial district, so it competes with bus service that has 15-minute headways during the day (the streetcar runs dependably every 20 minutes) but the planned phase 2 will take it down 11th East to 17th South, giving it much greater utility. The tap-to-ride UTA fare card is also a great innovation. What a difference from the Midwest, where getting starter streetcars into place requires years of struggle.

The fact that the streetcar was even able to get built gives me hope for the future of Ohio's cities.

Amazing!

I've seen several people who I think were here for the convention on the train between downtown and Ohio City. Most of them looked like delegates to me. I don't know if my impressions were correct. I gave directions to a media person who was taking the Red Line downtown from 25th. As someone else mentioned, I think the falloff in ridership was due to many Clevelanders deserting the city for the week. Today I notice that the WSM parking lot, usually overflowing on Fridays, has many open parking spaces.

I don't want to extend the discussion about RTA's performance on the day of the parade, but I am tired of the endless bashing of a system that I think is well run with limited resources. As previously noted, I took RTA to work that day and had a reasonably good experience. Anyone with even the slightest bit of sense would know that RTA would be strained that day and would not, say, show up at Green Road at 9 a.m. and expect an easy trip to a downtown event scheduled for an 11 a.m. start with an expected attendance of anywhere from 500,000 to more than a million people. RTA has reported that it provided 500,000 rides on that day--more than three times its usual daily passenger count. Imagine if even half of those riders had decided to drive downtown. I wonder what transit systems are set up to handle more than three times their average daily load without showing any signs of strain or without any delays. Let us know if you know of one.

It is not true that only Cuyahoga County residents fund RTA. Its main funding source is a dedicated one-percent sales tax, which is paid by anyone, regardless of where they live, who buys any taxable goods or services in Cuyahoga County.

I am a frequent park-and-ride passenger on the Red and Green lines, and yesterday I knew that RTA would be a better bet than driving from Cleveland Heights to Ohio City. I had to park at Superior instead of Windermere and, on the way home, had a long wait for an eastbound train. The trains were much more crowded than usual. I think RTA did a good job of moving people around, especially considering that buses could not even travel on downtown streets and that a majority of the day's passengers were people who were not frequent transit users. All the RTA staff I came in contact with were friendly and made a point of thanking people for their patience. I also got the impression RTA was continuously assessing how to deploy its strained resources throughout the day. For example, I tried to beat the system by walking to W. 65th St. to catch the eastbound train for my trip home, because I knew there would be no crowds waiting there. When I got on the train, though, the operator said she didn't know if she would go through to Windermere or be turned around at Tower City to help with the crush of passengers headed west. Ultimately, the train was turned around at Tower City and my wait there for a through train to the east side was the only unpleasant part of my travels yesterday. My RTA experience yesterday, which was not so bad, made me appreciate how pleasant and uneventful my RTA experience is on most days. The whole event of yesterday was something I had never experienced in the 20 years I have lived in Cleveland. It was a huge crowd downtown, and it seemed like all of Greater Cleveland was represented. It was not a drunken mess like St. Patrick's Day. It would be great if we could tap more continuously into the regional unity that we have indulged in over the past week.

It doesn't look like a building that would age very well.

I like the riverfront. I have always been curious about Wichita and would like to see it in person. From these pictures, I would say some of the newer buildings are not that great looking, though I do like the Century II building.

I think it's reasonable to expect some benefit for residents of the neighborhood. A difference between the Clinic and its affiliated development and University Hospitals is that the Clinic seems to be in the middle of a blast zone, while UH is fit into a neighborhood. Of all the new development of late in greater University Circle, Innova is by far the least inspiring. It looks like a dorm.

It differs significantly from Crocker Park in that it is a public place, not a privately owned space that is accessible to the public.

I have always liked University Square as an alternative to traditional suburban development, and all of Cedar Center has always had a transitional layout, in that the main buildings are close to the street--not as close as in a traditional commercial development but not as far back as in the kinds of development that are more typical today. In both Cedar Center South (University Heights) and Cedar Center North (South Euclid), both of which have been rebuilt during the past dozen years, much of the parking is in back, and the Whole Foods in Cedar Center South even has some rooftop parking. Wrapping the retail around the multi-level garage at University Square was a good idea, but the garage was poorly designed and the pedestrian connections between the various retail components, while they exist, are awkward and hard to figure out. Some of the retail space has never been occupied, and I don't think any of the original tenants who have left--JoAnn, Tops, Famous Footwear, etc.--have ever been replaced. The Macy's and Target stores both seem to do a good business, though. Fixing the garage and adding a residential component could add to the odd appeal of both this particular development and Cedar Center overall.

One thing that can always be counted on is that cuts at RTA mean cuts to Cleveland Heights service. I see that the lower half of the 37 is once again on the chopping block.

Yes, the student housing along Main Street in Akron is another example. One reason I like Uptown is that it has avoided the busy look and false ornateness of this other stuff--no white vinyl windows or simulated muntins. At Uptown, the facade is broken up subtly without any strained attempt at making what is obviously one building look like a row of buildings.

I agree with everyone who has expressed concern about the wave of cheap-looking development that seems to characterize this era--a lot of busyness with multiple materials that don't seem to hold up that well. This criticism applies to all the new stuff that has gone up around Cleveland State.

The Independence office district, in its present crude form, makes sense only if we have completely given up on universal accessibility and have accepted that the only way we can move around, even across small distances, is within personal appliances weighing close to two tons. There is no public realm whatsoever, no pleasant or safe place to walk, and the office buildings do not seem to be designed for long life. The architecture is excruciatingly unpleasant, and here and there you see evidence of a truly degraded natural environment. It's ironic that access to the Towpath Trail is nearby. From there, one can escape to our national park, which, if it had not been set aside, would probably be much like the visual misery of the Independence office district. The park provides evidence of what Denise Levertov once called "...the great body not torn apart, though raked and raked by our claws."

Because it is one of two Ohio counties with a charter government, Cuyahoga County is authorized to function as a full-fledged municipality with home-rule powers. This is set out in the county charter, which also notes the county cannot usurp the municipal powers of a municipality within its borders without that municipality's consent. There is no reason, though, that East Cleveland could not surrender its charter and then be governed directly by the county as an unincorporated community. Arrangements like this are common in some other states. There would be no requirement for East Cleveland's territory to be annexed by either of its bordering cities, though the county could presumably contract with those cities to provide services to East Cleveland.

People's experiences are all different, of course, so I can only speak for myself, but I am a white person who uses the park-and-ride at Windermere a few times every week. I walk from the parking lot to the train with a laptop in a shoulder bag and have never had anyone bother me.

I wouldn't expect RTA staff to block it. Their unions are a very different matter, however. University Circle, CWRU, and the Cleveland Clinic all run shuttles in RTA territory. Aren't they all open to the public?

For a city of its size and despite its many attributes, Akron is remarkably lacking in liveliness.