KJP

Maybe Bedrock will be followed by Bridgeworks? 😜

I believe a boardwalk is planned along there. And while that concrete bulkhead doesn't look pretty, it's still pretty solid. It was designed to support an an iron ore yard with hundreds of thousands of tons of stored ore for the Republic/Upson steel mill that was on the other side of Carter Road. Removing that bulkhead might be destabilizing to the Silverhills development. I suspect the Thunderbird partnership (who owns the skinny strip of land along the riverfront) will find a way to pretty it up and maybe reinforce some of cracked portions as part of the boardwalk.

As seen from the new Breakwater Lofts on West 58th 😉

Built on the site of a school building. site of the former Buckeye-Woodland Elementary School

Denzel didn't play in the Halloween game last year and the Browns still blasted the Bengals 32-13. 24-3 is a nice blowout and I loved the defense and running game. If Deshaun can stop throwing at the feet of wide-open receivers, this team will be tough for anyone to beat. On to Pittsburgh.

Welcome to RTA. A friend posted this on Facebook What a clusterf*ck on RTA'S Waterfront Line this morning. First the first train was scheduled out of Tower City at 0930. It didn't depart until 0954. Then, it broke down at Setters' Landing station. Still waiting for its follower. You would think that RTA would have set up trains that were fully inspected.

I would love to go car-free

Bingo

Sorry I couldn't make it

The amount of Cleveland companies listed here shows that CVSR isn't just an Akron-centric operation. We may finally have a strong enough constituency to make it more of a Cleveland-oriented service.

Retake the photo now. Sun is coming out, just in time for the weekend! 🌞

Browns: clock ticking on stadium deal By Ken Prendergast / September 8, 2023 Two sources, one a city of Cleveland source and the other a Cleveland Browns source, acknowledge that the clock is ticking down to a deadline that the Browns source termed as “a matter of months, certainly less than a year” for working out a deal that will keep the Browns in the city rather than turning to the suburbs for a new football stadium location. And they both acknowledge the city is offering no direct financial assistance to make major renovations to the city-owned stadium MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/09/08/browns-clock-ticking-on-stadium-deal/

And Circle Square, although the portion that would benefit most from it -- the retail/parking podium for the hotel -- hasn't started yet. And while I'm sure there are banks giving loans to some real estate developments, we're increasingly seeing the city/port authority taking on this role through TIFs. Bridgeworks is an example. So is Stokes West.

It's not negotiable because the users don't pay for it and its societal costs. If they did, it would be unaffordable to all but the wealthy. Then the urban-rural divide would become a classist struggle, which is what the apologists (in addition to the direct beneficiaries -- carmakers, oil companies, suburban developers, etc) of car dependency want to avoid. They can live with the urban-rural divide, for now.

Pittsburgh also has an extensive system of dedicated busways. Milwaukee's streetcar is becoming a system as is Kansas City's. And while Detroit's streetcar is relatively short, it does provide the last-mile connection from the Amtrak station at New Center into downtown. I'm hopeful those systems will help encourage and support more density and be available as links to additional intercity trains operating at higher speeds. It's an evolutionary process.

Banks aren't giving loans to real estate developments in Cleveland, unless you're a Fortune 1000 company. Governments typically get paid back from the loans they make. I know Cleveland's former development director says the default rate is too high but I'd like to see that in a context.

It will be considered a violation of Ohio Constitution, Article XII Sec. 5a. Many other states have a similar prohibition including Michigan but it considers railroads a form of public road. In Ohio, as long as the road-derived revenues are spent for highway purposes, such as improving traffic flow or safety, it can probably be used for rail legally. Federal funds do not have such a prohibition. So if the feds imposed a toll on interstate highways, the revenues from the toll could legally be used on non-highway purposes. There will be other legal challenges however, including by those claiming "double taxation."

The development team leading this project is top notch. Until the pandemic, the Cleveland market was already marginal for large, new developments to get off the ground. The recent increases in construction costs, material costs, reductions in available material and staffing, and higher interest rates have made it difficult if not impossible for new projects to move forward, absent large subsidies. I know we want projects to sprout out of the ground like so many weeds. But we don't live in that city or in that time frame.

I'll believe it when I see it. And being in the 50-plus crowd, I don't trust such technology any further than I can throw it.

I was just in Barcelona last month. While Spanish cities are obviously much more dense than Midwest cities, there is no rationale to go from the incredible level of service Spain has to what the Midwest offers, which is basically nothing. We certainly deserve something more than that.

How do you define what is more viable? And if another project is more viable, why would it need government assistance?