KJP

The West Shore communities' agreement with NS has no expiration. The agreement is also silent on commuter rail, and therefore has no affect on limiting commuter train traffic. That scares a number of city officials in Rocky River and Bay Village who want the agreement amended so that it will include commuter rail in some way. I don't have a problem as long as it recognizes that not all trains have the same impacts, both positive and negative, on their built and natural surroundings. Anyway, I need to get back to my European vacation. Talk later.

The port relocation is VERY relevant to the Stark-led development. In fact, it's essential. The entire third article of my three-part series last year on Stark's plans dealt exclusively with the relevance of relocating the port. I am going to try to learn what the major announcement is. I have some stuff on Stark's rationale for moving downtown... Businesspeople don't do PR moves unless there's a sound business reason behind it. But I need to know what the announcement will be since Sun doesn't come out for another week and I will be on my two-week trip to Europe starting late Friday.

The United States’ lack of investment in public transit, airports, railroads, roads and bridges will compromise the ability of the nation’s cities to compete globally, according to a report recently released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Ernst & Young. “Infrastructure 2007: A Global Perspective” reviews the status of current and planned infrastructure investments in countries worldwide, and discusses the evolving infrastructure market. “America is more of a follower and no longer a world leader when it comes to infrastructure,” the report states. “Too often in the U.S., projects focus on restoration rather than rethinking the model and finding possible efficiencies. There is a tendency to invest in the infrastructure we have instead of the infrastructure we need.” For example, Japan currently operates 1,250 miles of high-speed rail and will build about 185 miles more by 2020, and China is planning to build more than 1,500 miles of high-speed rail by 2020. In comparison, the U.S. operates about 185 miles of high-speed rail and currently is not building any more. Also, as of 2000, there were more than 750 cars per 1,000 people in the United States; 500 cars per 1,000 people in the United Kingdom; and less than 50 cars per 1,000 people in China. Also included in the report is a ULI survey of 30 state transportation planning directors, which found that 83 percent of those responding to the survey said the nation’s transportation infrastructure is not capable of meeting the country’s needs during the next 10 years. The planners also said that 97 percent of roads, bridges and tunnels, and 88 percent of transit systems will require at least moderate improvements in the coming years. The book can be purchased from ULI at http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Bookstore&Template=Ecommerce/ProductDisplay.cfm&Productid=1675

And then there's this.... _________________ All: Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair reports that Congresswoman Betty Sutton has forwarded a request for federal funding for the West Shore Corridor Alternatives Analysis to the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. The request is for $1.5 million in each of the next two federal fiscal years, or $3 million total. Hearings will be held by the Appropriations Committee starting within the next two weeks and are expected to be done by July 4th. Please contact these two members of the House Appropriations Committee to express your support for the funding request (consider fax or e-mail given the time-sensitive nature of this request): Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur 2186 Rayburn Building Washington, DC 20515 Tel: (202) 225-4146 Fax: (202) 225-7711 Congressman Tim Ryan 1421 Longworth House Office Bldg Washington, DC 20515 Tel: (202) 225-5261 Fax: (202) 225-3719 e-mail: [email protected] TALKING POINTS: Use any of these, or some of your own.... Procedural Points: - There is federal funding authority for this request. A federal appropriation was authorized, but no dollar amount specified, by the most recent six-year federal surface transportation program reauthorization under the title "Lorain-Cleveland Commuter Rail." - The same surface transportation program authorizes a discretionary Alternative Analysis Program (49 U.S.C. 5339), for which $6,100,000 remains unallocated for the last two years of the program (Fiscal Years 2008-09). - Lorain County has agreed to be the project sponsor, with the non-federal funding share pledged by a mix of public and private sources. The Strategy Subcommittee of the West Shore Corridor Stakeholders is identifying specific dollar amounts totaling $600,000 over two years. Qualitative Points: * Enhanced transit service is all about increasing access to jobs, be they in downtown Cleveland, in Lorain or in the suburbs. For many work trips, not enough alternatives to driving are available. That's especially true for reaching available jobs in outer suburbs, where few or no reasonable alternatives to driving exist. * For motorists, commuter rail or express bus options would provide a fast, no-stress trip in all types of weather, meanwhile commuters can work or rest while they travel. These will enhance the region's marketability. * Improved regional transit would reduce the region's transportation costs, which are higher in Greater Cleveland than they are in much larger cities like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles. Reducing those costs will allow Northeast Ohioans to spend more of their money on housing and the local economy, rather than on the rising cost of foreign oil. * Quiet zones will be an essential part of a commuter rail option, as will carefully planned station-area redevelopments. Both will increase the tax bases of cities along the route without increasing taxes. And the grade-crossing improvements associated with quiet zones will also increase safety for pedestrians, motorists and the railroad. If federal funding is approved in full, the alternatives analysis will -- + Provide extensive information to regional decision makers so they can choose a preferred alternative of route alignment and transportation mode (commuter rail, express bus, or transportation system management, possibly with optional local feeder/complementary services like bus rapid transit, streetcar, bike paths, etc); + Measure the impacts on natural and built environments and identify potential mitigation; + Determine whether a public investment is justified based on the locally preferred alternative's potential to address economic, social, environmental and other quality-of-life needs. Those are just a few talking points to consider including in your communications to Reps. Kaptur and Ryan. They're probably more than can be included in a concise letter, fax, e-mail or phone call. But my modus operandi is it's better to have the information and not need it, than to need it and not have it. The most important thing is to contact Reps. Kaptur and Ryan as soon as possible. Write a letter in crayon if you have to! Thanks so much for your help and support.

Why, yes we do have news to report! First, here's the summary of the most recent meeting, held May 4.... __________________________ All: A brief summary follows of the May 4, 2007 West Shore Corridor Stakeholders meeting, held in conjunction with the Lorain County Community Alliance's annual Transportation Day. Thanks for the accommodation! At the bottom of this summary is a report by the Local Contributions Strategy Subcommittee, which was the principal topic discussed at the full stakeholders meeting. They are scheduled to meet again May 9. I gave the following presentation (a 1.5mb download), a first-year progress report on the WSC stakeholders process: http://members.cox.net/neotrans/West%20Shore%20Corridor-YEARONE.pdf Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair noted that Congresswoman Betty Sutton has requested federal funding for the West Shore Corridor Alternatives Analysis from the House Appropriations Committee. Commissioner Blair asked that all of us send letters or other expressions of support to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Congressman Tim Ryan, both members of the appropriations committee. Please see separate e-mail for sample wording and contact information. The following report (see below) by the Local Contributions Strategy Subcommittee generated the most discussion, including ideas of additional sources to reach out to for potential support. Note that the subcommittee is scheduled to meet again May 9th. One last note: I will be on vacation May 11-27. Our next stakeholders meeting will likely be in mid-June. I hope to be able to pass along a date/location for the meeting before I leave. ___________________________ MEETING SUMMARY West Shore Corridor Stakeholders Local Contributions Strategy Subcommittee 3:00 p.m. Thurs. April 12, 2007 Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins’ Ward 15 Office Present: Subcommittee Co-Chairs Hon. Brian Cummins, Rick Novak/Lorain Port Authority, Will McCracken/Consultant, Maribeth Feke/GCRTA and Richard Enty/GCRTA The group reviewed and affirmed the subcommittee’s purpose from the West Shore Corridor Stakeholders Feb. 23rd meeting notes: 1) Develop a strategy for local share contributions for the proposed Alternatives Analysis; 2) Develop a scope of work for the alternatives analysis 3) Examine oversight structure(s) for a demonstration commuter rail or express bus service. The group discussed the earmark request amount of $3 million earmark request and considered the timing of its availability within FFY 2008. At the earliest, a decision would be made by Congress in late Fall 2008 with funds becoming available most likely in early 2009. This would also likely mean only $1.5 total available for the first year of the study, which should be designated into a Phase I effort and a Phase II effort, each costing $1.5 million. The minimum local share percentage required would be 20% and it was pointed out that the Federal government welcomed an overmatch of local share dollars; some cities have contributed up to 50%. Agreeing that entities that would directly benefit should be among those asked to contribute to the local share, the group brainstormed the following list of beneficiaries with existing resolutions in support of the Alternatives Analysis: Cities of Cleveland, Lakewood, Lorain, Vermillion, Westlake, Greater Cleveland RTA Lorain Port Authority, Lorain County Commissioners, Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC Executive Director & Chairman letters of support) Other potential beneficiaries either considering a support resolution or that perhaps should consider adopting one include: City of Avon Lake, City of Bay Village, City of Rocky River, City of Sheffield Lake, Cleveland- Cuyahoga Port Authority, Cuyahoga County Commissioners, NOACA, ODOT, ORDC, Sandusky, and Sheffield Village. The group then identified other potential stakeholders whose support would help advance the study including foundations in Lorain and Cleveland, NE Ohio mayors and city managers, major employers (e.g. Cleveland Clinic) and large corporations, Fund for Economic Future, Greater Cleveland Partnership (in a subsequent conversation, Ken Prendergast suggested including W. Shore Corridor track owner Norfolk Southern. West Shore Corridor Stakeholders Local Contributions Strategy Subcommittee Meeting Notes Page 2 Following discussion of beneficiaries and stakeholders, the group discussed the enormous challenge of simultaneously conducting the alternatives analysis and commuter rail demonstration, agreeing that each would be costly and require significant resources. All agreed that it was too early to decide on conducting a demonstration. The perception is there isn’t enough buy-in across the region for commuter rail, making it difficult to fund a demonstration without federal dollars, let alone find local share dollars for a demonstration. The group decided it would recommend to the full West Shore Corridor Stakeholders group convening a meeting with key civic leaders not already involved in the process. To seek their buy-in on the concept, a commuter rail briefing session would be held, featuring a guest speaker from one of the new commuter rail services (e.g. Nashville). This would help the region decide whether to fund the study, the demonstration, or both. There was brief discussion on the AA study itself, including cost, timing and what options were there should the $1.5 million federal earmark request be denied. The decision on earmark would not likely occur until Fall and funds would not become available until early 2008, the group expressed interest in exploring an option to fund the study with state, local and private sector dollars. It was agreed this option could be discussed as part of the key leader briefing, where support could be gauged for pursue the AA with or without federal dollars, and for simultaneously pursuing the demonstration. The group decided to meet again on Wed. May 9th at the same location and agreed on the following. ACTION ITEMS Cummins – Contact Cuyahoga County planning and development officials (Alsenas, Oyaski); contact Dave Abbott strategize on involving corporate leaders and foundations. McCracken – Follow-up with Fund for Economic Future/Voices and Choices. Novak – Speak with Commissioner Betty Blair about asking Lorain County Foundations to invite participation by Cuyahoga County Foundations. Feke & Enty – Get copies of AA work scopes for similar commuter rail projects; prepare meeting minutes. NOTE: Re: the subcommittee’s task on researching institutional arrangements, NOACA’s Neorail Study provides information on this. See attached Neorail report. Respectfully Submitted, Richard M. Enty

That real estate agent should be flogged!!

True grit! I especially like the multiple bridges shot from the Flats.

I've posted a few of them. Here's some of my favorites... http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2327.msg21836#msg21836 http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2047.0

I think you hit on it. One feature which this city seems to "excel" at is its number of leeches. They exist both in the private and public sectors, and they all seek their piece of the action. Enough of them come out to feed that it bleeds the project to death, or at least causes it to be scaled back. In my job, I see a lot of these leeches around, but I think there used to be a lot more of them back 20-50 years ago. Lots of them were mob connected, and many of today's leeches are still connected to some remnants of nefarious activity. Sadly, you'll find a concentration of them in the Flats, as well as along West 25th, Carnegie, and a few other places.

I don't have a problem with that since housing, more often than not, is an appreciable asset. A car, more often than not, isn't. Rising gas prices will increasingly cause people to put their money into housing -- allowing them to build equity and wealth. Too bad there's a large number of Americans who own their car and rent their housing. Ass-backwards -- a result of subsidized, artificially low gas prices. An upside of rising gas prices is that it will steadily cause more people to reallocate their resources and assets in a smarter way.

The PD didn't get into it as much as my article did (HA HA), but it was lining, or casing of the sanitary sewer that showed serious deterioration. It could not be seen during an inspection from the inside of the sewer. Only when the water main was replaced could crews see what the casing looked like. The water main and sanitary sewer were buried in the same trench (a bad practice, but that's the way they did it in the old days). I hope my article conveys that this sewer project is not as big of a deal as the PD and some forumers here make it out to be. Yeah, it's going to be expensive, but RTA had planned to complete the downtown portion last. They did that just in case something unexpected popped up in the downtown spiderweb of the city's oldest, most complicated infrastructure.

Zaremba, who normally shies from the limelight, went the heavy PR route to stimulate sales with the Avenue District. But he already had much of the needed property in hand when he bought the parking lots from the city. Some interesting differences and similarities there. Stark tried to quietly work some behind the scenes stuff with downtown parking lot owner Tony Asher, but some nosy reporter sniffed that one out. ;) Still, for the prior year, Stark was quite the high-profile operator when it came to his desires for building downtown. I tend to think developers are egoists by their very nature, simply because of what they do. They build stuff that changes the landscape, possibly for hundreds of years. Their creations are, in some ways, monuments to themselves. So the PR blitzes go with the territory. I found Zaremba to be very different breed, though. I don't know how he or other Cleveland developers compare to their colleagues around the country. Having said all that, I don't think the love or hate of PR makes one developer more or less effective than another.

Dammit! The PD beat me to it! But my sources told me the delay will be a minimum of six weeks, though RTA says it will be 3-4 months.

Or even surprisingly pleasant! ;)

We're missing the fact that him and one of his roommates are going to CSU. So an ideal place would be somewhere between downtown and the Lakewood-Cleveland line. Affordable homes might best be found in the Detroit-Shoreway area, especially around the up-and-coming Gordon Square arts district near West 65th. There's a grocery store a couple blocks south at Franklin and West 65th, and a few specialty grocers farther east along Detroit. Check out some of the apartment buildings around there (Gordon Square Apartments has some pretty affordable units), as well as some of the duplexes. Since the area is still up-and-coming, there's still some down-and-out homes and streets here are there. So choose carefully. Ohio City and Edgewater are booth good options, too, like the others said.

Cincy-Rise -- Your avatar is awesome. Very appropriate for this thread!

I can't wait to see how the Euros do it, starting this weekend!!

Interesting stuff and good ideas, JDD. But bad diplomacy. I think the joke with my article is that your union leaders didn't return my calls to get their take on the city's proposals. They usually do return calls, and are often helpful. But by their silence they let the city officials do the talking for them. Sad for them. And if they're as effective in the PR battles as they are negotiations, sad for you.

Gatwick? I'll let you know!

Good stuff!

New fare system on the Red Line comes on-line in the next year. Red Line trains are slowing because of NS track resurfacing/tie renewal gangs. And, yes, RTA had a number (several?) of Red Line trains rear-ending another train on blind curves. I can't remember details, but the early 1990s addition of the cab-signal/automatic train-stop system was the result of the accidents.

Thanks for the visual update of Youngstown. I haven't been to downtown in a little more than a year, so it was good to see it's getting cleaned up. I just wish there were some traffic -- vehicular and pedestrian. Granted, the day/time may not have been the best for that, but it seems everytime I'm there, even during a weekday, it's pretty devoid of activity. It hurts to see it like it is today, when I can remember what it was like before the bottom fell out. But I keep cheering and hoping for Y-town.

Here's my contribution to Sun's special section on regionalism. We had some photos and graphics to go with this, too. Sometimes the subjects for articles are interesting to research. This was one of them. _______________ http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-0/1178210659247860.xml&coll=3 City forging partnerships Cleveland works with inner-ring suburbs Thursday, May 03, 2007 By Ken Prendergast Cleveland safety officials already are lighting a fire under the idea of regionalism. Agreements are being sought to share fire services, manpower and equipment with its neighboring suburbs, while also trying to consolidate what they consider to be duplicate, disconnected safety services within Cleveland. Both are intended to save money, increase coordination, make more first responders available and improve response times. Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask said the city's fire division is seeking agreements with fire departments in eight inner-ring suburbs for mutual response protocols a more involved version of mutual aid. With mutual aid, safety forces from two or more cities typically are present at an emergency. Mutual response addresses communications, tactics, supervision and equipment so one city can respond to an emergency when firefighters or paramedics in another city cannot. Cleveland also provides more specialized equipment and trained personnel in dealing with hazardous materials, high-angle rescues as well as deep-trench rescues. "If they need our support, we would provide it and the support also goes the other way," Flask said. "I would fully expect to have all the agreements in place by the end of the year. It's our goal to have formalized agreements with all the inner-ring suburbs." Cleveland's first mutual response agreement was reached with Brooklyn; its text was used as a model for discussions with other suburbs. Most recently, agreements were approved by city councils in East Cleveland, Parma and Brook Park. Discussions are continuing with Brooklyn Heights, Euclid, Warrensville Heights and Walton Hills. The latter doesn't have its own fire service. Brooklyn is seeking its own mutual response agreements with other suburbs. Brooklyn Fire Chief Paul Duchoslav said he supports the idea of regionalization. "I think its a great idea," he said. "I think it would be a giant step in the right direction. It makes for much more efficient service." Baldwin-Wallace College is doing a study on regionalizing fire services among seven communities, including Brooklyn, Parma and Parma Heights. Duchoslav said it would be easier and quicker if the departments were regionalized because they would all have the same equipment and protocols. Problems from it, he said, would be dealing with each local of the International Association of Fire Fighters and to stem a desire to cut manpower just because the departments are regionalized. Duchoslav said that could compromise safety and service. An example of how regionalism would help was seen in a recent emergency. Brooklyn had three rescue squad calls at the same time. It had to call on Parma for the third call. Because Parma's paramedics weren't familiar with the area, a Brooklyn police officer had to guide them to the scene of the emergency, costing valuable time. Duchoslav said regionalization would create districts were all the departments are familiar with the area and can respond to calls more quickly and efficiently. "All of this is a big departure from just a few years ago," Flask said. "There's lots of opportunities to consolidate to become more efficient and improve our quality of service. We feel very strongly about that." Cleveland's Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, chairman of council's Public Safety Committee, said purchasing and procurement represents 57 percent of the city's Safety Department budget. Conwell announced that he will propose creating joint inventories of supplies and equipment for safety forces in conjunction with surrounding suburbs. "If we could work with other suburbs, we could keep our inventory down," Conwell said. "That's the good thing with regionalism economies of scale. Capital goods might be stored in Cleveland or surrounding communities." However, he said he's not yet ready to embrace the idea of combined fire departments and fire stations. "We have to get out of the politics," Conwell said. "People love their fire stations and the unions will have to fight for them as well. But if they realize that it's for the good of the whole, then that's a good thing." Bob Fisher, president of Local 93 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, did not return a phone call prior to deadline for this article. However, in past interviews, he opposed any efforts by Cleveland to take firefighters away from street duties. In fact, a proposal by Mayor Frank Jackson's administration to create a consolidated safety communications center for police, fire and Emergency Medical Service dispatchers met resistance by IAFF Local 93. Fisher said he wasn't opposed to the concept of the consolidated center. Rather, he didn't support having a mostly civilian staff take over fire dispatching duties, as was already done for police and EMS. The union wants more firefighters hired and put on the street. Flask said the consolidated communications center would do just that. City officials said there are 31 qualified firefighters working as dispatchers who instead should be staffing fire trucks. "We have three dispatch centers, three budgets and three command staffs," Flask said. "There are 201 employees at our existing center (at East 21st Street and Payne Avenue). There are 17 job descriptions, seven unions, differing technologies and three training curriculums to provide dispatching all at the same building. They're even on the same floor and they can see each other." That and other consolidations are being sought this year. In the early 1990s, there were serious discussions about merging the fire division and EMS. While that isn't on the table, other cost savings are, such as merging purchasing contracts for equipment and supplies, coordinating training, as well co-locating fire and EMS vehicles in the same buildings throughout the city, Flask said. Leana Donofrio contributed to this article.

Yes. I suspect they just tagged it with the wrong MSA. Let's put it this way: If Allen and Stark counties are in marginal non-attainment, I don't know how Lucas would not be.

How many restaurants have we all worked at where we said we would never eat there because of what we saw happening in the kitchen? Same deal, I suspect.