Avogadro

As a Tremonter, we actually have pretty decent public transportation access, given the existing connections. It would be wonderful if we had an east-to-west connection from Lorain across the neighborhood to I-490 and out east.... Except... with the potential closing of the Innerbelt Bridge, the traffic patterns along I-490 are such that drivers (including buses) getting on I-490 via the W 7th St. entrance ramp have to cross two clogged lanes of traffic waiting to get on I-77 north and south, and then immediately cross into one of the left two lanes that clip along at or above the speed limit. Biking to downtown has also become a lot more dangerous since the very same folks that cut across the neighborhood to access downtown (and miss the Innerbelt Bridge) drive at breakneck speeds along 14th and Abbey with little regard for cyclists. Keep in mind that sometime soon, the W 3rd St. bridge will need to be closed for painting since that job wasn't finished by ODOT due to their lousing-up the length of cables during the rehabilitation.

The fact that this involves that shameless toady Charles Scaravelli (the same lickspittle who managed to default on his marina mortgage on Scranton Road but who tried to save the project by naming elements of his "plan" after various local politicians) being interviewed by the Weekly World News of local "news" television makes me doubly-ill.

Well done, Columbus. Keep it up! We have a lot of bike racks installed throughout Cleveland as well as every single bus, but I wish that we had more abundant (and less expensive) motorcycle and scooter parking.

Nice prejudice, people.

I was born and raised in S.A., until I left for college, moved to Cleveland, and never looked back. Every time I visit, I'm a little more aghast at how much it is sprawling. For example, the tenth photo in the series, taken from the plane, is of Loop 410. Just twenty years ago, it was a six lane highway. The neighborhood that I lived in was on the northwest outskirts of the city, fronted by a two-lane Farm-to-Market road (state highway). It's now six lanes, not including two-lane frontage roads on either side. Moving to Cleveland, it was a wonder to live someplace where one could actually walk and bike to work or for daily needs. Even in the poorest neighborhoods in S.A. (where sidewalks still don't exist and where flooding takes place at least once a year), folks drive EVERYWHERE. But, the food is great, the people are really nice, and if you are looking for where the locals hang, head for Southtown or North St. Mary's Street. This is the thing, though: places that look "ghetto" (*ahem*, edale) typically include AMAZING restaurants and bars that the tourists will never get to see unless they're with a local. While the out-of-towners are eating mediocre Tex Mex downtown, folks in the know go to places like Jacala off of I-10 or places that look like dives from the outside but contain beautiful spaces within.

It sounds like if you have a farecard that you purchased elsewhere (say at a Dave's Market), you would need to activate it (and thus have the correct date and time stamped on the back), but if you purchase a fare at the HealthLine station, it will be pre-activated with the present time. I think. It's not really clear. This instruction: "3. If you do not have a pass, you need to purchase one before you board. Use the fare vending machine." should state whether a second swipe is needed, or if you are set to board. EDIT: Looking at the HealthLine website, it appears that folks who arrive at the station and purchase a pass there need not swipe the card a second time.

Seems like now would be a good time to begin talking about the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's exploration of how it would create a regional stormwater management program that would directly tie sewer rates to the impact of the property on the stormwater system, especially considering this statement from KJP regarding the possible move of Eaton Corporation from Downtown Cleveland to suburban Beachwood:

Actually, conventional tree lawns with grass would not count as a credit for a property owner. And, there is a lot more nuance to this than I could possibly express in this off-topic tangent. I'd be happy to describe this elsewhere. EDIT: Okay, I've continued the NEORSD/stormwater utility/sprawl discussion here along with links to the new program being explored by NEORSD.: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,10106.msg326312.html#msg326312

Sorry, MTS. The Sewer District right now pegs its rates to the amount of water a customer uses. This makes sense for households, but not for offices and retailers that don't use a lot of water, but make heavy use of the storm sewers due to runoff. They are looking at charging commericial customers for the amount of runoff (from rain, snow, etc.) that comes from their properties. So, if you have more paved area (parking spaces, rooftops, etc.), you get charged more. This could help put a limit on suburban development that has a metric crapload of surface parking spaces, such as the proposed Eaton relocation. (back on topic)

^^ The Smart is not really for folks with families and lengthy highway commutes. Also, check out how it does in a collision: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is presently moving towards a watershed-based stormwater utility model, which could include some of the above incentives so that there is a fiscal connection between the amount of impervious surface a commercial property has (with the attendant increase in runoff and stormwater volume) and what a property owner is charged.

^^ Cities or regions must apply in order to be placed on the LAB's Bicycle Friendly Cities list. So, Carmel IN is on the list because the city submitted an application and they have sufficient facilities, programs, staff, and systems that support bicyclists. It is possible that Pittsburgh and Indianapolis have applied but only received "honorable mention" designation, like Cleveland did in its application last year. Also, more than trails or bike lanes are needed. The LAB looks at how communities provide a wide range of support, referred to by the LAB as the "Five Es": Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation/Planning.

The Firefighters' Museum can be really great (and there are some splendid views of downtown from its roof), but it would also be cheek-to-jowl with the fly over ramp to the Innerbelt bridge (if and when it is constructed).

No, nobody said that it needed to be a high rise or a skyscraper. I'm probably asking for a heap of trouble here, but exactly how would Moreland Courts be considered the "most architecturally significant building in Ohio"? Certainly it is beautiful and well-built, but I'm not sure how well it is recognized, nor what directly-attributable influence it has had on subsequent buildings. And, I'm saying this as a former Shaker Square resident. Heck, Shaker Square was what got me interested in urban planning as a profession.

Aye, that question needs to be better defined. To me, "most architecturally significant" means that the building should have had the greatest impact on the design of subsequent significant buildings. As a Clevelander*, I loves me some Terminal Tower, but there aren't that many Beaux Arts high rise buildings. So, I think that I'd vote for the Carew Tower**, especially with regard to its influence on the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. If the Roebling Bridge were a building, I'd vote for that instead. *(maybe folks could be challenged to highlight buildings that are in cities other than their own) **(see Design and Civic Identity in Cincinnati's Carew Tower Complex)

^^ Well, they haven't even begun convening a committee to determine what "new programming" would be used for the existing space. I cannot imagine that they would maintain the current building (and its four or five employees) without leasing some of the remaining space to CSU or others.

Well, I'm not sure that keeping four or so staff members in Cleveland really constitutes retaining a downtown presence, but whatever, man. Jewish Federation opts to move bulk of office to Beachwood Posted by Robert L. Smith/Plain Dealer Reporter September 11, 2008 23:21PM BEACHWOOD -- The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland will pull the bulk of its operations out of downtown and staff a new office in the eastern suburbs, ending a 105-year tradition of locating its headquarters in Cleveland. After months of fevered debate, members of the federation's board of trustees voted 77-37, with one abstention, Thursday night to buy an office building in Beachwood. More at http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/09/jewish_federation_opts_to_move.html

Hi there. I earned my MUPDD at Levin about ten years ago, but did not at the time have any planning experience (I was working full-time and a half while working part time on my Master's). Fortunately, my capstone prof. was the deputy director at the regional planning agency where I now work. I interned for about six months before being offered a full time job. Presently, I work on a wide variety of sustainability issues, from bicycle and greenspace plans to water quality and habitat restoration projects to working with industrial companies to reduce waste and pollution. Sometimes my work is directly related to my planning degree, and sometimes it isn't. PM me if you want more information, and good luck!

And the plaudits just keep on coming, this time from the Sunday Times of London. --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2008/09/london_critic_in_awe_of_the_cl.html London critic in awe of the Cleveland Orchestra by Donald Rosenberg / Plain Dealer Music Critic Tuesday September 09, 2008, 12:02 PM British music critic Hugh Canning, once a fierce opponent of Franz Welser-Most in London, is as high as possible on the conductor and the Cleveland Orchestra in his most recent review of these artists during their recent European tour. Here's the complete review from the Sunday Times of London: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article4669365.ece Cleveland Orchestra in Salzburg A star was born in Salzburg as the Cleveland Orchestra outclassed its European rivals Is there a finer all-year-round orchestra today than the Clevelanders? Having heard their rapturously beautiful playing in Dvorak's Rusalka at the Salzburg festival three weeks ago and two concerts under their music director, Franz Welser-Most at the Lucerne festival last weekend, I can't think for the moment which it might be. The Berlin Phil? Even that great orchestra has lost some of its "old-world" glow - which the Cleveland players astonishingly retain - under Simon Rattle's thrusting, modernist baton. The music-directorless Viennese? In Salzburg their form varied from the mediocre (in Don Giovanni) to the outstanding (in Bluebeard's Castle), but for a sound culture in a wide-ranging repertoire, they were no match for Welser-Most's American band. Even the fiercely chauvinistic Austrian press - who remain convinced of Vienna's position at the centre of classical music - acknowledged the supreme achievement of the Clevelanders.

Don't forget about the original Ameritrust Center thread.

D'oh! 1283 Riverbed Street, West Bank of the Flats

You can see about 40 of them on either side of the Cuyahoga, just downriver from the Center Street Bridge. To view the CHUBs up close, the best view is directly behind the Flats Oxbow offices. We're testing ten different varieties of native wetland plants. It seems that the broadleaved arrow arum are doing best, but it's only been about a week for most of the CHUBs.

Gee, where would you like to put them, w28th?

The report is fairly exaggerated in several ways. If there is a failure, we won't see a full slump of the hillside, but some local failures near the river's edge. And, the report made it sound like there is squabbling among the factions when in fact there is a lot of local/federal cooperation. The new city harbor master has really been working overtime.

I would admit that four-way stops combined with passing a statewide law permitting "Idaho stops" (also mentioned in The Great Bicycle Thread) would make cycling much more pleasant. However... I do not think that stop signs would be effective for multi-lane intersections (such as Broad and 5th). The "Traffic Control" publication doesn't address, as far as I can tell, situations where multiple lanes are regulated by a stop sign. I would also argue that the reason that intersections with four-way stops are so safe is because there is typically only one lane of traffic headed in each of the cardinal directions. The four-way stops that I've encountered with heavily-trafficked multiple lanes tend to be minor exercises in anarchy. I'm having difficulty imagining that 5th and Broad would work well with stop signs controlling four lanes of Broad in each direction, unless you traffic-calmed Broad down to four total lanes.