KJP

Where's my eyeroll emoji??

RTA's transit plan 15 years ago was to have two downtown transit centers -- one on the east side of downtown (STJ) and another on the west side of downtown (as part of a Forest City Enterprises development on the Warehouse District Superblock where Sherwin-Williams HQ is rising now). The buses from the west side would turn back at the East Side transit center and the buses from the east side would turn back at the west side transit center. The objective was to have extremely frequent transit service across downtown, using East 17th/18th as one-way pairs to Superior which would become the non-HealthLine transit corridor across downtown. Then came the Great Recession of 2008 which destroyed GCRTA's sales taxes revenues and ridership at a time of high fuel costs. Over the next few years, GCRTA jacked up fares and slashed bus and rail services by 20 percent. Ridership fell even further than that. I recall STJ being heavily used when it first opened in 2010 but that didn't last long. I occasionally greeted friends at STJ because they took Megabus there. I rode the #55 once to STJ to catch Megabus in 2016. But by then it was already barely used. I recall only the #55, Megabus and the Euclid trolley serving it by that point.

Lots of construction permit apps going through for Irishtown Bend in recent days. Interesting that one includes "demolition" work as the only thing left to be demolished is the old Royal Castle building owned by George. That property hasn't transferred yet, so I suspect that the day it's transferred, it's coming down.... That permit is titled: Irishtown Bend Stabilization and Rehabilitation. Demolition and earthwork for slope stabilization and 2400 feet of new bulkhead on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River.

They do pay taxes, Eric. They start out right away paying sales taxes. And as soon as they get a work permit, they get a social security number. Four months after she arrived in America, my wife got her work permit (a picture ID with an SSN) and a month later she got her first job making Christmas gift baskets at Rozi's Wine Shop in downtown Lakewood. She had all taxes withheld. This tax-paying situation is repeated with everyone who goes through the refugee program at USCRI, too. My wife also signed up for English language classes through Tri-C. The nearest classes were located at Lakewood's Taft School, a 20-minute walk down Clifton from us. One benefit of being enrolled in Tri-C ESL classes is that you get a free monthly bus pass as a Tri-C student. And, remember @E Rocc that my wife had been paying sales taxes for a while by that time so she had already been paying for RTA! 🙃

When my son came to America seven years ago, he was only three but we got him into Lakewood's child care program at Roosevelt Elementary School right away. Turns out Lakewood has teachers that speak 45 different languages (or did at that time) including Russian and Ukrainian. Martin became fluent in English in about eight months.

When I take calls from out-of-state investors, one of their concerns about investing in the urban core is the property taxes. But I remind them that new construction and renovations are eligible for property tax abatement, which seems to calm them. A friend of mine is moving here from Albany to be closer to his family after his wife died. He also was concerned about the property taxes but he's a disabled military veteran and over the age of 65 so I expect his property taxes will be next to nothing. You're always paying for a new or rehabbed sports facility. The sin taxes are never going to go away.

OurBus is starting service to Cleveland in October to Buffalo, Rochester and Ithaca. https://www.ourbus.com/

Mind-blowing

Someone suggested to me it might be a defense contractor.

A saw building permit applications for tents to be put up at the entrances to CBS from May 23 to June 10 for Monster Jam.... https://www.ticketmaster.com/monster-jam-tickets/artist/1542376?venueId=40971&brand=monsterjam&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw04yjBhApEiwAJcvNoX76le3DB6LDdK6Pr2hSzAaQfRMJfQrMBCXDf1-2V2iyEeOodVUMahoCE6cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds So it is getting used...

Only the 55 route services STJ. Easily. STJ used to handle dozens of buses per hour. Now it sees an hourly maximum of 4-6 buses during rush hours only. Greyhound/Barons has only 30 buses per day. This was STJ in Sept. 2022. This is how it looks for most of the day and all night.

From Walker Evans at Columbus Underground Let's say there are 2 fruit barrels and 100 hungry people. A government program fills 1 barrel with 100 apples and puts nothing in the other one. People are asked to pick a fruit to eat. This is done this way every day for 80 years. This process leads to the 3-part conclusion that: 1. Everyone loves apples, and it's been that way for generations. 2. No one likes bananas, and it's been that way for generations. 3. The idea that the government would ever spend a dime on putting even just 5 bananas in the other barrel would be a huge waste of taxpayer dollars because of points 1 & 2. This is the logic behind the main argument against building rail-based transit in America.

Working on the 15th floor in terms of steel. Not even halfway up and it's already a commanding presence near Public Square and at the end of Euclid Avenue.

Population changes are ultimately economic changes, but I posted the article about Greater Cleveland's newfound "Brain Gain" in the population thread....

A local angle to the NYT story Cleveland is seeing ‘brain gain’ – for a change By Ken Prendergast / May 16, 2023 For decades, Greater Cleveland has suffered from the loss of its college-educated citizens primarily to star-studded cities on the East and West Coasts. Now, for a change, this former industrial powerhouse on the North Coast is enjoying a net in-migration of more brain than brawn. And while the region is still seeing net outmigration of those without college degrees, the results are at worst uneven. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/16/cleveland-is-seeing-brain-gain-for-a-change/

One thing about University Circle, bad news doesn't hang over a property for long. There's always a new use waiting in the the wings somewhere.... CWRU institute replacing BioEnterprise By Ken Prendergast / May 16, 2023 After announcing last month that it will join others in acquiring BioEnterprise Corp.’s assets, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) has developed plans to remake a portion of the nonprofit business incubator’s University Circle property into a home for a nascent research effort for improving human-machine interaction. Called the Human Fusions Institute (HFI) and founded in 2019, the national effort based in Cleveland at CWRU to advance socially responsible innovations in prosthetics, robotics and even gaming could see renovation work start later this year. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/16/cwru-institute-replacing-bioenterprise/

I think their commercial spaces are all fully leased now. And that's the only part of the leasing situation I was "concerned" about.

The usual hotspots. But there's some certain addresses within those hotspots that I think would make for great development sites, especially for high-rises.

Some real estate developers from out of town have called me in recent weeks to ask me about certain areas to develop in and what to develop. I need to start my own consultancy! But I asked them, why the interest in Cleveland? Most said the economy seems to have changed for the better since about 2015 or so, and they like the income-to-population numbers they're seeing. Perhaps this is what they saw? This is from today's New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/15/upshot/migrations-college-super-cities.html

It’s a big mystery, project By Ken Prendergast / May 15, 2023 Mystery guest: will you enter and sign in, please? In borrowing that phrase from the long-running television show What’s My Line, NEOtrans has learned who the guest is and where they want to be. But we haven’t yet learned the “what” in terms of what they intend to bring. But according to permit applications filed last week with the city of Cleveland’s Building Department, it appears to be a very large project. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/05/15/its-a-big-mystery-project/

You're assuming someone is trying to promote the stadium as a place for non-football events.

Officially official....

Updated the article. County officials have joined the fray and will attempt to keep Greyhound downtown.

This is exactly the type of conversation the Cleveland Browns want to be hearing from someone other than themselves.