KJP

I'd love to see a 10- to 15-story mixed-use building rise between Innovation Square and the rapid station. Unfortunately the zoning allows for only a 60-footer. But I'd bet this is a location where a variance could be justified.

So they're about halfway up. The concrete podium is three floors.

More... https://fcr.ca/properties/ontario/toronto/2150-lake-shore-boulevard-west/

Thanks. I have a lot of the material already.

Go Cleveland! Beat Pittsburgh!

They are not the only one. I was thinking about doing an article about all of the projects that aren't going to happen or are delayed because of high construction and/or financing costs.

CentroVilla25 project starts By Ken Prendergast / July 14, 2023 A $12 million project to redevelop a vacant warehouse as the cultural and business center of Cleveland’s Latino community got underway today after many years of planning and fundraising led by the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development (NEOHCED). Their unceasing efforts were rewarded with a groundbreaking ceremony at the former H.J. Weber warehouse, 3140 W. 25th St., that is due to reopen as CentroVilla25 in Fall 2024. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/14/centrovilla25-project-starts/

The data is not looking good

Talking about the Loooovvve Shack, baby?

I still haven't heard from the developer yet. But I've heard from others that they are over budget. Who knows, maybe they still need a TMUD after all...

Norfolk Southern issues ESG report, welcomes Piedmont service expansion 7/13/2023 Meanwhile, NS, Amtrak, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Railroad Co. this week “welcomed” the start of a fourth daily frequency of the Amtrak Piedmont service, according to a press release issued by NS. Coupled with existing Carolinian service, the expanded Piedmont now offers riders five daily round trips between Charlotte and Raleigh, with intermediate stops serving seven cities in between. The launch marks the second such expansion of passenger service in the state in the past five years, railroad and state officials said. The expansion results in 10 daily options for intercity travel across North Carolina and beyond via connections to other Amtrak services, they said. Plans for the service expansion date to 2012, when the railroads and public partners reached agreement on the Piedmont Improvement Program (PIP), a nearly $500 million public-private partnership aimed at eliminating chokepoints, increasing speeds and improving other infrastructure that supports more efficient and coordinated operations across the state. MORE: https://www.progressiverailroading.com/norfolk_southern/news/Norfolk-Southern-issues-ESG-report-welcomes-Piedmont-service-expansion--69656

Port Board OK’s $60M Irishtown Bend stabilization By Ken Prendergast / July 13, 2023 Today the Cleveland port authority’s board of directors approved the hiring of an Ohio construction company for nearly $60 million to stabilize and rehabilitate the Irishtown Bend hillside, a project that is being done foremost to maintain the Cuyahoga River shipping channel. But the work also must be done before any construction can start on the 23-acre Irishtown Bend Park in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/13/port-board-oks-60m-irishtown-bend-stabilization/ Be sure to check out the video simulation of the hillside collapse -- link embedded in the article

Small building coming down at 1300 Carnegie Ave. No recent property transactions here since 2000 unless it was an entity sale. https://www.loopnet.com/property/1300-carnegie-ave-cleveland-oh-44115/39035-12202009/ The property has been owned since 2000 by a guy who lives at this lakefront mansion (although the mansion sold in 2018 to Tiki LLC which traces only to an attorney at Walter Haverfield): https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2018/06/avon_lake_mansion_house_of_the_week.html Additional info: Contact info for the demolition goes to 1240 Carnegie, The Parts Authority https://partsauthority.com/ (owned by Maloof & Maloof, with tax info going to the mansion in Avon Lake). So same guy.

BTW, it's very hard to find out where the money is coming from for the Rock Hall expansion. An undisclosed amount is coming from the Gund Foundation and $1.75 million in state money is for the new park between the Rock Hall and Science Center. The rest? 🕵️‍♂️

If you include Dike 14 (now Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve) which was created by sinking two large, old barges, then there was a significant amount of land added to Gordon Park. But the highway cut off the park from its reason for being -- lakefront access -- moreso than the old Lakeshore Boulevard did.

Are we condemning ourselves to repeat history? Our state constitution was *specifically overhauled* in 1913 to let the people amend it through a simple majority. Why? Because rampant corruption caused a disengaged state legislature to ignore the will of their constituents.

Republicans remind us how much they hate freedom

@Boomerang_Brian To clarify, the proposed direct connection to the St. Charles Airline is part of the concept of using the South Shore and adding 2 new dedicated tracks from Kensington into Chicago. What's really cool is that there are 2 track spaces along the east edge of the IC/CN route almost the entire 10 miles from Kensington into Chicago. That includes existing available bridge decks and underpasses that are available for the 2 additional tracks. Limited-stop South Shore trains from Michigan City into Chicago take about the same amount of time as Amtrak trains from Michigan City into Chicago via NS. And that's running over the Metra-IC line which would be paralleled by the dedicated passenger tracks Amtrak wants. So that routing should be faster than the current NS route.

That's not correct that an hour has been added to the schedules of the Lake Shore and Capitol limiteds because of congestion between Chicago and Porter, IN (a distance of only 40 miles). I refer to New York Central schedules from 1957. There were 11 passenger trains in each direction between Chicago and South Bend (the latter being the first station stop out of Chicago for the Lake Shore and Capitol), ranging from locals that made stops in every little town (taking 2:18 to travel CHI-SOB) and the 20th Century Limited which made only two passenger station stops between Chicago and New York City (plus mail/servicing/re-crew stops). Back in 1957, South Bend was still in Central Time. The fastest eastbound train (other than the Century which didn't stop in South Bend) was the Commodore Vanderbilt which traveled the 85 miles from Chicago to South Bend in 1 hour, 20 minutes. Most trains -- Pacemaker (1:26), New England States (1:28), Chicagoan (1:33), Fifth Avenue Special (1:35) -- took a little longer and made 2-4 station stops between Chicago and South Bend. Westbound, the trip times were pretty much the same, albeit a few minutes slower. For example, the fastest train, The Commodore Vanderbilt, took 1:27 to travel South Bend to Chicago. The New England States (1:39), The Iroquois (1:40 made only 1 enroute stop), Chicagoan (1:41) and the Prairie State (1:47) all were slower westbound. Apparently New York Central also had some schedule recovery time for its trains into a terminating station, like Amtrak, although not as much. Both the eastbound Lake Shore (#48) and Capitol (#30) take 1:29 to travel from Chicago to South Bend. In the opposite direction, you can see Amtrak's typical schedule padding/recovery time come into play. The westbound Capitol (#29) takes 1:54 and the Lake Shore (#49) takes 2:05 to travel from South Bend to Chicago. Both schedules are based on recovery time typically based 8% of the raw travel time for a given segment, which is why the westbound travel into Chicago is slower. The recovery time is added between the second-to-last stop and the last stop for a given segment. Toledo-Chicago is the westernmost segment of both routes over which recovery time is calculated. There are lots of places where Amtrak can shift over to the South Shore, starting with South Bend for the Lake Shore and Capitol and in Michigan City for the Michigan corridor services. They don't even need any trackwork at Kensington to switch from the South Shore to CN tracks into downtown. Of course, constructing a 10-mile double-track passenger-only line from Kensington-Chicago (near McCormack Place) that allows 110 mph service into Chicago would be preferable.

And is has the potential to foster more development than the Snake Hill alternative. BTW, in the state budget, the North Coast Connector lost out to projects like this: Of the foregoing appropriation item 195503, Local Development Projects, $22,500,000 in fiscal year 2024 shall be allocated to the City of Mason to support the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament. I'm sure it's a wonderful project too. But I think $22.5 million directed to the North Coast Connector would have leveraged a ton of private and federal money and gotten a greater long-term return on investment.

Here's an alternative to the proposed, snaking East 18th ramp that would have a slope of about 4-4.5%. This option preserves the East 26th Street Rail Yard and allows development of the Municipal Parking Lots with vehicular and pedestrian access from either the boulevard, the port access road/South Marginal Road, or the new connector roads between the boulevard and the Port Road. Here, East 18th Extension would provide direct access from downtown to Burke Lakefront, whether it's an airport or a park. East 18th Extension would have concrete retaining walls supporting its elevated roadway so new structures can be built immediately adjacent to it. North Marginal Road would slope up at 2-3% from an elevation of about 585 feet to about 610 feet to intersect with East 18th Extension. East 18th Extension then slope up at about 5% to cross over the NS tracks at a roadway surface elevation of about 637-640 using a truss bridge so that the bridge deck thickness is minimized. Of course, the North Marginal slopes could be raised by 1% each so the East 18th Extension slope could be reduced and have a higher bridge over the boulevard. BTW, it's OK to have roadways with right-angled intersections. They slow traffic down. Not every new roadway needs to be designed like a highway. So in this option, the access to the Port Road has intersections that are wide enough for extra-large loads to make turns. A couple of the curbs could be pulled back a bit to provide a better turning radius. I hope the Port Road can also be used by Greyhound and other buses to serve the new Multimodal Transportation Center.

In my opinion, that completely changes Public Square. It really brightens up the northwest side.

Ohio leaders only take action when they are paid (er bribed) to act.

Some states are making it happen. Ohio isn't one of them. Cleveland may get a couple of extra trains thanks to local partnerships with neighboring states or maybe some federal funds might allow an extra long-distance train. But that's about it. Ohio is going to make it very tough for itself to compete with other Great Lake states (except every place in Indiana but the NW corner) for climate refugees. And that's our best shot at enjoying Toronto-scale growth.