KJP

I started to checking to see what was going on when someone said an Aer Lingus flight landed in Cleveland. Thought it was a bit early for our new flight to Dublin to start. :)

Someone who lives in a 7,600-square-foot house at 10500 Edgewater Dr. bought the Valley View Alcoholics Anonymous Club, 2394 Professor St., last fall and just submitted an application to tear it down. But for what?

Same station, different names. The high-level platform was added to the existing low-level platform for the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit station in 1955 for the new CTS Rapid.

An infill station at Fulton makes a lot of sense, IMHO. Metroparks could fund the ADA overhead access from Fulton to the Greenway/station platform and thus provide the 20 percent local funding match to 80 percent federal grant for a new station. The stretch between West 65th and Ohio City stations is the longest between any two stations on the Red Line. A station here would also boost prospects for redeveloping the Scrapcom and Caraustar properties, both of which have attracted significant developer interest.

Entire US domestic aviation system has been shut down all morning. No flights anywhere....

An artists district is forming along and north of St. Clair from the Inner Belt east to MLK, but south of the tracks. As I've often written, artists create the conditions for their own eviction. They stabilize a neighborhood and make it attractive for investors with deeper pockets to come in and provide higher-rent offerings to the point that artists can no longer afford to stay. That has happened in the Warehouse District, Ohio City, Tremont and now the Superior Arts District. The St. Clair-Lakefront strip is happening next. And in a pocket north of this strip and the tracks, where the First Energy Lake Shore Plant was, the site is being cleaned up so they can sell it off. Once cleaned, this spot is perfect for development. It's on a bluff overlooking the lake and the spot of Gordon Park where the Metroparks and the port authority are about to make some significant investments in lakefront recreation. It's a perfect site for 10- to 12-story high rises along it which will actually seem taller to those passing by on I-90 because of the bluff they would be built upon. That density would provide a nice ridership anchor for a rail transit line that's right next to the site. And whether transit is provided to it by a diesel-powered rail car on the existing tracks or by an extension of the Waterfront Line, this area could be primed for redevelopment around transit stops. I hope RTA will consider this corridor in its upcoming TOD corridors study. I also hope they consider the NS line through Lakewood which NS has stopped using except for weekly local service.

From last April.... https://neo-trans.blog/2022/04/30/food-biz-feasts-on-east-side-expansion/

Treatment center to vacate St. Mary’s Seminary By Ken Prendergast / January 10, 2023 It’s a place where few women wanted to go. And after their experiences at the Hitchcock Center for Women, many say they never wanted to leave. While each person tends to enter the center facing an abyss wrought by addiction, many leave feeling loved and hopeful. The Hitchock Center hopes their new home will be able to provide at least as much care as the old. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/10/treatment-center-to-vacate-st-marys-seminary/

Don't know. They've not responded.

I believe it was up to 300,000 sf E&Y is on the move too but may want something sooner

It's only three years before Rocket Mortgage's office lease at the Higbee Building expires.

NOACA will pursue funding for a service development plan for Chicago-Cleveland and Cleveland-Pittsburgh, possibly as an extension of Pennsylvania's planned expansion of Keystone West service.

I'm confused too. But I'm also thinking that this may be part of a long-term play involving some very large chess pieces. Thanks! Untrue. Then you're not following the Risman family, the Geis family, the Maron family, Elie Weiss, Steve Rubin, Jim Doyle, Zac Ponsky, Ned Huffman, Nathan Wynveen, Michael Panzica, Bo Knez, Graham Veysey, Ron Leonhardt Jr., Jon Pinney, and others I'm probably too tired to think about right now. But the reason why stuff is getting built here is because of them and friends from Chicago and a few other cities. Very unlikely. Stark & Dessler's partnership of Gateway Huron LLC purchased 20 parcels in 2014 for $18.25 million. Separately, Stark paid $1 million for the Herold Building which wasn't part of the sale to Bedrock.

Bedrock buys Gateway megaproject site By Ken Prendergast / January 6, 2023 Bedrock and Stark Enterprises today officially announced the acquisition and sale of the former nuCLEus development site, adding 3.17 acres to Bedrock’s growing downtown Cleveland development portfolio. Situated at the intersection of East 4th Street, Prospect Avenue and Huron Road, the site is comprised of a large surface parking lot, a parking garage, and a two-story retail building containing Mr. Albert’s Men’s World. MORE https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/06/bedrock-buys-gateway-megaproject-site/

It will be posted in the Gateway megaprojects thread.

It's official. Bedrock bought Stark's nuCLEus site. Article coming.

The 18, 000 population figure for NW Neighborhoods came from a transit-oriented development study which showed that 25-35 housing units per acre was the minimum population density needed to be a transit-supportive neighborhood. https://neo-trans.blog/2022/09/06/greater-cleveland-tod-initiative-on-track/ Cleveland City Planning Manager Matt Moss said that Cleveland’s zoning makes most transit-supportive land uses illegal. In a new TOD report, he zeroed in on the city’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood for an example. Despite significant development since 2015 that added more than 1,200 housing units to this stable west-side neighborhood and that has 86 percent of its land area within a five-minute walk of a stop on a high-frequency bus and rail transit route, it still falls well short of being transit-supportive. He cited Federal Transit Administration data which considers a density of 25-35 housing units per acre as supportive of high-frequency transit. Cleveland uses 30 units per acres as its threshold.

Ukrainian refugees usually go where their relatives or friends live. It appears more so that a Jewish refugee is coming to live with a Jewish family member or friend. Or a Catholic/Orthodox refugee is going to live with a Catholic/Orthodox family/friend. @LlamaLawyer You can also contact USCRI here in Cleveland... https://refugees.org/uscri-cleveland/ They have more refugees willing to come than sponsors available to vouch for them. Basically as a sponsor you're signing a document that the refugee is not a terrorist, criminal or other threat. Surprisingly, few people need housing. At worst they need housing for a short period of time. Many Ukrainians already have money when they come here but they don't have a credit rating here so they cannot easily get an apartment or other housing until they get a work permit. Refugees usually get a work permit in about 6 months but many do some work under-the-table in the meantime. USCRI and the government offer rental assistance and food stamps, access to English classes through Tri-C which gives them access to free RTA passes, donated clothing and furniture, plus other assistance.

A great thread on why providing affordable housing is less expensive than criminalizing homelessness. And most homeless aren't drug users. For those that are, they became drug users AFTER they became homeless...

Next Woodhill Homes phase starts By Ken Prendergast / January 6, 2023 Marous Brothers Construction is moving equipment onto the site today and are quickly beginning construction on Woodhill Center East, a $33.4 million development located at 11305 Woodland Ave. This phase of the Buckeye-Woodhill Transformation Plan will create 77 quality affordable apartments for families and help revitalize the Buckeye-Woodhill community, according to project backers. MORE https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/06/next-woodhill-homes-phase-starts/

My Ukrainian wife works for USCRI and his handling the cases of Ukrainian families here. USCRI is directing nearly all incoming applicants to its Cleveland office. Unfortunately they are not directing all families to locate here. That depends more so on where the sponsors are. But the Cleveland office is handling almost all of USCRI's Ukrainian refugee clients. As for where they are coming into Cleveland, it is funny to hear my wife talk about the Russian-Ukrainian Facebook page for Cleveland. There are often some very intense debates on where people should locate in Greater Cleveland. It's usually a debate between East Side vs West side. So they are quickly picking up on at least one of Cleveland’s cultural components... 😁

Shoreway Tower clears another hurdle By Ken Prendergast / January 3, 2023 One of the most important remaining hurdles for a proposed high-rise apartment building overlooking Edgewater Park was finally cleared after multiple postponements. But today, Cleveland’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) unanimously approved four variances to the city’s zoning code necessary to build the project on a parking lot at the north end of West 78th Street. Today’s action puts the project a big step closer to construction. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2023/01/03/shoreway-tower-clears-another-hurdle/

13-story Shoreway tower variances including for height were approved unanimously by BZA. Article coming.

No regular passenger service ever used this Baltimore & Ohio RR line north of the depot at Carter/Canal roads, and north of the switchback connection to CUT below the food terminal/post office after the early 1930s. All B&O passenger service to Cleveland was ended in 1962. This looks like a company inspection train. Each year, railroad executives roll out the executive inspection train to ride their system, sometimes with shippers, government officials and/or major shareholders, etc. After their trips, it is often followed by various infrastructure improvements. But not back then. Railroad depots, old signal towers, unneeded siding tracks, etc. would often be removed within a year after these trips. Sometimes the lines themselves would disappear. And that's what happened to this portion of the line within the year.

Nice to see that he took the train to his first day on the job. To talk with constituents? To make a statement on the importance of transit?