KJP

It's so easy to fall in love...

Are you kidding? I would be in seventh heaven if this were happening to Cleveland. Heck, I'd be happy if what's happening in Niagara Falls, Ontario were happening in Cleveland!

Got a prediction for the future? Maybe one from the past that was prescient? Or do you have one of your own about the future that you want to make today? AT&T had the future nailed 30 years ago in 1993. Of course they didn't say anything about the unexpected $200 "phone" bill. But you will, and AT&T is the company that will bring it you...

There is a suitor but that's all I can say at this point.

A few renderings from my archives....

Hulett Hotel plans make a comeback By Ken Prendergast / April 22, 2023 Six years ago, Mark Raymond planned a 25-room boutique inn called the Hulett Hotel with a mix of new construction and renovation at 1452-1468 W. 25th St. in the Hingetown section of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood but the plan faded into memory during the pandemic. Today, he’s raising some eyebrows in the neighborhood by going bigger at a time when many real estate developers are putting construction plans on hold. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/04/22/hulett-hotel-plans-make-a-comeback/

At the groundbreaking ceremony, City Club officials suggested that their second location in Cleveland probably wouldn't be downtown. I'm guessing University Circle.

Yes, or some other incentives become available and improve the returns to the point that investors will want to put money into it.

Cars as a public health issue... Watch: Video shows vehicle crashing into Hola Tacos patio in Lakewood, several people taken to hospital https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cuyahoga-county/video-crash-hola-tacos-patio-lakewood/95-b9f7fd09-2b3f-441d-b1d2-36e72f097262

This is the kind of thing that made us the butt of jokes in the 1970s and 80s...

If you love sprawl you adore government and hate people

The West Shore also rises By Ken Prendergast / April 21, 2023 In the coming weeks and months, the continued metamorphosis of land uses along Cleveland's West Shoreway from industrial to residential will yield some new features that will show just how much Cleveland is changing. Several projects along the Shoreway-turned-Edgewater Parkway will be under way at roughly the same time and offer some lofty symbols about Clevelanders' evolving regard for its often-ignored lakefront. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/04/21/the-west-shore-also-rises/

This is absolutely stunning. Can you imagine any major, modern North American city doubling its population in a mere decade? It's one thing for a booming 19th century manufacturing center like Cleveland to add 30% to its 300,000+ population in a decade. But to add millions of people in a single decade? That's crazy!

Don't respond here. Go to Twitter and please comment there...unless you're responding to what DeWitt has to say.

@Foraker They have, by identifying a STragegic RAil Corridor NETwork or STRACNET. Some rail corridors were preserved because they were part of STRACNET but not all -- if they could access a military facility by an alternative route. For example, the Camp James A. Garfield (previously the Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center, previously the Ravenna Arsenal), was served by two different railroads so one was allowed to be abandoned. The CSX access was retained and continues to be used for delivery of heavy armored vehicles for training.

I know it's shocking, but the people who are charged with the responsibility of moving as many cars as fast as possible through cities have no idea how to design cities.

So are Canadians

Not my best work, but America loves mediocrity, so...

This is one place.... The $1 billion push to remove highways dividing communities https://www.axios.com/2023/03/06/highway-removal Akron received some money already for planning that will make the project eligible for capital/construction funding.... https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-02/RCP Fact Sheets 2022.pdf Planning City of Akron, Ohio - Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant Program City of Akron Ohio $960,000 City of Akron, Ohio - Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant Program City of Akron, Ohio Planning RCP Award: $960,000Estimated Total Project Cost: $1,200,000 Funds will be used to create a community-based master plan to guide the transformation of a vacated mile-long section of Akron's Innerbelt (State Route 59) into an asset that benefits all Akron residents. The master plan will look at short- and long-term strategies to address the challenges posed by the Innerbelt, which was never fully completed and is underutilized. Sometimes referred to as “Akron’s Road to Nowhere,” the Innerbelt never saw the promises of revitalization that came with its construction. Once a booming community thanks to the rubber industry, this highway split several existing Black neighborhoods in half, displacing thousands of residents from more than 700 homes while closing or relocating over 100 local businesses. The City of Akron has already created a thirteen-member Innerbelt Advisory group, which meets monthly, and has hired a contractor to conduct dialogues with the affected residents, some of whom are members the advisory group. The application mentions that seven census tracts in the affected area are low to moderate income. The application also includes 11 letters of support from businesses and community organizations, including financial support from a private foundation. The application describes multiple ways to improve the mobility and community connectivity in the area, including reconnecting the street grid, promoting multi-modal transportation, providing infill housing on the site, removing roadways, and calming traffic on frontage roads. It also discusses including trails, green space, and public art. The project intends to create a master plan rooted in community visioning to promote equitable development, possibly including infill development on the vacated highway, including affordable housing and local business development with attention to the area’s history

While the General Services Administration is technically the tenant, the GSA handles real estate, construction, leases etc. for all federal agencies. I'm looking at the floor plans for this tenant and it has 10 interview bays with glass between the interviewers/interviewees. There are also about 20 tiny office cubicles for employees. No security station is identified although there are three offices identified with acronyms -- SSR, DCR and DM. I see no other information as to what their purposes are. A reception area with seating shown theater style is in the middle of the office space. I'm thinking an employment services-type user or perhaps even a customs/immigration processing center. I visited the immigration center at the federal building and this floorplan reminds me of that. EDIT.... It's for the GSA itself. A specifications manual was included with the permit application but separate from the floor plans. In it is this sentence..... The new build-out will contain the Cleveland operations for the General Service Administration’s public and private activities.

There was. Seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Nearly 20 years after this forum started, I'm starting the first Philadelphia transit thread! I drove the Roosevelt Boulevard in 1989 out to Torresdale when my sister lived in Philadelphia. I wondered why this busy area didn't have at least a trolley if not a subway. Hopefully this can happen.... #167 APRIL 2023/FEATURED/TRANSPORTATION Roosevelt Boulevard subway could slash congestion, save lives and bring investment to the Northeast https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2023/04/03/roosevelt-boulevard-subway-could-slash-congestion-save-lives-and-bring-investment-to-the-northeast/