KJP

I can't find an old picture of it specifically, but I'll bet it's in general photographs of Lower Prospect. A Sanborn map shows the building whose lobby entrance is at 700 Prospect (building covers addresses from 636-716) was built as the Electric Building in 1900. County property records say it was built in 1899.

@CleveFan You'll have to ask @Geowizical. He knocked it over. 😉

Ohio is ranked so low because it's Ohio. When he says "Will Ohio finally step up with matching funds? Will 'Ohioans really love their cars' continue to be a cop-out? Feds will be very cautious with real funding here." It's because Ohio has earned the "Lucy reputation" -- as in Lucy from the Peanuts cartoons who pulled the football away seconds before Charlie Brown tried to kick it. After a while, you just don't want to play with Lucy anymore.

Cuyahoga County nears a courthouse decision By Ken Prendergast / January 10, 2024 Cuyahoga County and its real estate consultant are getting closer to making a recommendation for a Consolidated Courthouse proposal in downtown Cleveland. NEOtrans has learned that one or more proposals were eliminated from further consideration in part because the timeline for delivering a new or renovated/expanded courthouse facility is apparently an overriding factor for county officials. In this era of high construction costs, the aphorism “time is money” couldn’t be more true. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/01/10/cuyahoga-county-nears-a-courthouse-decision/

It's a hard sell because GCRTA doesn't have enough operable LRT trains available to run service that frequently. Here's the 1960s Cleveland Heights rapid transit plan including closing Coventry Road in Coventry Village to traffic and building a roadway around it....

And I encourage Bedrock, the city, GCRTA, AECOM, NOACA, CVSR et al to consider this ROW to access Tower City Center since Bedrock wants a de-emphasized Canal Road on a new alignment below Tower City and no rails through there. There is an unfortunate tendency of the consultant to look at only historic rail rights of way for CVSR and not any new ROWs to accomplish the goal of connecting to people, amenities and other transportation modes. The 2007 diagram was for an exploration of how to get commuter rail into CUT from the east/south.

If a shortline railroad company or the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority can get involved here, it would greatly simplify CVSR's extension to downtown Cleveland. The short line or port authority would probably need to acquire CSX's CT&V Subdivision (Valley Line) north of Independence, the Cleveland Subdivision north of CSX's Parma Yard and Short Line Subdivision (near Brookpark and West 130th) and Norfolk Southern's Cleveland Belt Line Branch from a railroad location called Knob down into the Flats via Big Creek Valley. See map below....

@Ethan That’s pretty close to a route Cleveland Transit System was near to building in the 1960s that would have used mothballed streetcar tracks down Euclid Heights Blvd and then run on a dedicated line east to Warrensville Center Rd ar Oakwood. It would have cost $16 million to build.

Cleveland seeks urban core tax-increment financing district By Ken Prendergast / January 9, 2024 Cleveland’s biggest source of tax base is its downtown which supports services and infrastructure in the rest of the city. City officials are seeking to leverage investments in its urban core to create a feedback loop to support downtown and other neighborhoods. But not everyone is convinced this is a good thing for the rest of the city and cynics are seeking more information and research before deciding. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/01/09/cleveland-seeks-urban-core-tax-increment-financing-district/

You're right. The CleMag article was very good. I'm late to the party.... Blue Abyss lands next to NASA Glenn By Ken Prendergast / January 9, 2024 A Cornwall, UK-based company called Blue Abyss Diving Ltd., has acquired land in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park for a $250 million commercial astronaut training facility and hotel, according to public records and a press release from the company. According to an economic impact study commissioned from Kent State University, the British company's investment here after 30 years could create or support up to 21,800 jobs, add $1.5 billion to residents’ incomes and increase total economic output by $3.6 billion. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/01/09/blue-abyss-lands-next-to-nasa-glenn/

SHW HQ is pretty bright at night now with all of its construction lighting. Maybe more so now than when it will be done. Looks great from my balcony (too bad I can't get an in-focus zoom cell phone photo from here).

Article updated with a BRIEF comment from the city of Cleveland.

A lot is working against this, including CSX and Bedrock. More later.

Cleveland, Berea construction firms unite By Ken Prendergast / January 8, 2024 The Albert M. Higley Co., a Cleveland-based provider of construction contracting services since 1925, announced today it has merged operations with T. Allen Incorporated of Berea. The parties said that they consider this to be a strategic union which marks a pivotal moment, consolidating two esteemed companies into a formidable force within the carpentry industry. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/01/08/cleveland-berea-construction-firms-unite/

Courtesy of @KevinMoss216 for his upcoming Burger King property listing at Detroit and Lake avenues. SHW HQ fills in a nice void from this angle. The downtown skyline looks dense and symmetrical from here.

I was thinking more along the lines of Humber Bay. 😁

One of Cleveland’s largest lakefront sites is now in play By Ken Prendergast / January 8, 2024 Turns out the sale of a large Cleveland lakefront property could be good news for a more livable shoreline, after all. The 62-acre former Lake Shore Power Station site just east of Downtown Cleveland, along with the 167-acre Eastlake power plant property and another in Oregon, OH near Toledo were sold last month by Energy Harbor Generation LLC of Akron to a firm that specializes in cleaning up and redeveloping former coal-fired power plant sites. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2024/01/08/one-of-clevelands-largest-lakefront-sites-is-now-in-play/

This one coming up is a little 💣 But could lead to a huge one someday.

And here's the loop CircleTram idea I came up with a generation ago, which also had the Red Line rerouted down the middle of Euclid and the then-called University Circle Access Boulevard (today's Opportunity Corridor).

This was the routing suggested by my friend Marvin. He used county GIS housing (and possibly commuting) data to come up with this. It would probably get a ton of use by CWRU students going to/from dorms and apartments and shops at the Top of the Hill. And it avoids constructing any flying junctions with other rail lines. All rights of way are public, and in some cases grassy medians. The Adelbert bridge crossing could be made as a streetcar (which the other option could not). This routing would involve shifting the Cedar Hill roadway onto the former streetcar ROW and thus putting the Blue Line on the north side of Cedar on the hill.

Hope they're getting the construction site secured for the windstorm starting tomorrow. Gusts up to 80 mph are forecast.

Balaton is dead to me. And I used to live in Bainbridge! Marie's is great. A Ukrainian restaurant with a waiter is Olesia's Taverne of Richfield but we need more with 30,000 people of Ukrainian birth or descent just in Parma. You can order Ukrainian food from the counter and eat it there (or get take out) at State Meats in Parma. EDIT: I also found Mama Marie’s Ukrainian Kitchen deli on State Rd. Plus there's Kolos Andros Ukrainian Bakery, also on State (appears to offer only counter service). Another place with counter service is Perla Pierogies, a Polish spot also on State.

So the Browns-Texans game is on Peacock exclusively? Welp, this is going to be the first Browns playoff game I've missed since I was 5 years old in 1972. I hope the rating suck.

Here's the detail of the Shaker Connector. According to the Dual Hub Corridor Transitional Analysis, Final Report, November 1995, the Shaker Connector would cost about $73,612,000 just to travel from the Shaker-East 116th area to a new junction with the Red Line. So traveling beyond that would cost more. The cost estimates for the transitional analysis were done in January 1995. The $73.6 million in January 1995 would be $150.36 million today, according to the BLS inflation calculator. For infrastructure projects, it will be even more. It is possible that my proposed extension to Cleveland Clinic could cost twice as much as the Shaker Connector that GCRTA proposed in its Dual Hub plan. The length of the Shaker Connector in the Dual Hub plan was about 6,700 feet long. My proposed routing going north out of Shaker Square to the Red Line junction at Stokes is about 9,300 feet long. Then I add another 6,700 feet from the Red Line junction at Adelbert to Cleveland Clinic. So we're probably looking at something in the neighborhood of $300 million to as much as $400 million to extend the Blue Line from Shaker Square to Cleveland Clinic. Is it still worth it?

Haven't heard issues specific to this project, but most projects have had supply issues unless you're willing to pay more. This developer isn't one who would pay more. Weather has been pretty mild here too but it's going to be a return to reality starting next weekend.