KJP

Use your irritation as motivation for positive action. Write letters/e-mails. Hold a meeting to form a transit riders union/association. Keep researching the issue. Form a vision plan. And, by all means, read what the other side has to say so you can go on the offensive and avoid the defensive. Be positive and confident. Change is already happening and, one way or another, change will continue to accelerate. The only question is will it be a gradual, productive transition or one borne from desperation? Help the masses avoid the desperation as best you can, but if the desperate times can't be avoided, then be ready to serve as a resource for them when they start their wandering search for a new direction.

It's the Ohio Constitution that needs revising, not the ORC. And there are some gas tax and vehicle registration fee funds not generated by highway users or not essential for the legal operation of vehicles. Those funds might legally be used for non-highway transportation in Ohio.

Now I really need to fix my scanner and scan the maps from the 1982 HSR tax hike proposal. The proposed HSR line would head southerly from near Campbell along the Mahoning River, tunnel into the south hillside and gently rise up out of the valley. The tunnel would have been several miles long. The HSR line would have cut across open country south-southeasterly until it reached the right of way of the Turnpike, then followed the Turnpike to near the Beaver Falls area. But I came up with a different way of doing it that would keep to the Mahoning and Beaver river valleys, yet not have to meander its way down the valley. The secret is that the valley walls "step down" twice from the surrounding hills. The first "step down" is to a wide, flat plateau. The second "step down" is into a narrow valley through which the rail lines and rivers run. I would keep the HSR on the plateau -- something the freight railroads could do because to ascend/descend to/from it would require grades that freight trains couldn't handle. And, when the high-speed rail planning was being done in the late 1970s, tilt-train technology wasn't advanced enough for practical HSR applications. Today, it could allow fast running through such countryside.

Awesome letter JT!

By trotting out a five-year-old plan from Mineta probably did more good than harm to the cause of better passenger rail. To me that tells me that Amtrak is no longer a priority target for them and may care less what happens. Opponents have nothing of substance to rally around, while supporters can simply dismiss the regurgitated Mineta plan as dusty rhetoric.

The last line in the article sure was uncalled for!

That's a staff editorial, the official stance of the newspaper.

I'm not surprised. I've used the Dupont Circle station frequently over the years -- when I attended the high school/college radio station convention in 1985, when I visited my cousin while attending NARP meetings several times in the early 1990s, and in later visits to DC.

The same!

Yep, including construction of a sewage pumping station to get the crap out of the valley.

Fagan's is owned by Russ Khouri and Jim Kassouf (as are the parking lots north of Front). They are among those fighting the port authority.

I hope people in the Bush Administration don't have children. If they did, I would expect them to say "I will make my children healthy and strong adults through malnutrition, abuse and neglect."

One of the things I didn't have time to add in my previous message is that there is a magic number of park-and-ride spaces vs. square footage for station-area development. The problem is, that magic number differs at each location and requires a market analysis to find that number.

One of the things that was said at the TOD seminar last Thursday was that when there is a mix of parking and transit at a TOD site, the TOD performs better. But as long as the parking is in a deck and not some sprawling lot.

Probably a bigger factor is that there were more people living closer to downtown back then. That photo looks like it was taken in the 1960s. Even then, Cleveland had more than 750,000 residents and the ring of poverty around the central business district was much narrower. Back then, places like St. Clair-Superior, Buckeye and Clark-Metro were still working-class/middle-class areas.

I saw no rentals available along Van Aken. Either they weren't listed at apartments.com or apartments in that area are in real high demand! And as you know, there's lots of them!

They certainly could, and should.

The newer TGV services like the Atlantique and the line to Marseille, plus the Eurostar/Thalys seemed to have learned from the experience from the first TGV to Lyons. The newer lines appear to enter new trackage must sooner after leaving central Paris. Even so, the running time from Paris to Lyons was fast enough to cause airlines to virtually abandon serving this market. BTW, I have the early 1980s plan for Ohio high speed rail showing how the lines would enter and leave cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh (I need to scan its maps someday). Cincinnati was to be accessed by putting the HSR tracks on an elevated right of way past Queensgate Yard to enter CUT. And Pittsburgh is actually pretty easy -- the plan was to use the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie right of way. The P&LE is relatively straight, and was mostly four tracks coming into Pittsburgh along the Ohio River with numerous small and large rail yards that no longer exist. Today, the P&LE (now CSX) has 1-2 main tracks left.

Here's some examples of the kinds of apartments that are available now in the Shaker Square area.... http://www.apartments.com/partner/summary.aspx?property=157748.001&srank=1&lookup=157748.001&mode=18&partner=fcl&page=summary&prvpg=7 http://www.apartments.com/summary.aspx?property=144544.2&srank=2&subarea1=y&area3=y&state=oh&rgn1=36&rent_minimum=0&rent_maximum=99999&twobdrm=1&page=summary&prvpg=7&srt1=0.85&srt2=0.20&srt3=0.15 This next one is in Cleveland Heights, but it's a short bus or bike ride to the University Circle Red Line station and an easy walk to the Cedar-Fairmount area (lots of night spots, shopping and restaurants, including the famous Mad Greek restaurant) and a short jaunt by car or bike and a healthy hike to Little Italy and the Coventry district (has more "stuff" than even the Cedar-Fairmount area)... http://www.apartments.com/avsummary.aspx?page=avsummary&model_name=Model+3A&rent_maximum=99999&rent_minimum=0&srt3=0.77&srank=17&srt2=0.91&state=oh&prvpg=8&srt1=0.19&rgn1=36&property=114117.1.3&threebdrm=1&area3=y&subarea1=y&pg=2

It used to be a city-run park, but the city could no longer afford it by the 1970s and turned it over to the state. That bathhouse became a vacant derelict. I have a picture of it in its later years with the beach in front of it clogged with dead trees, branches and other debris that had washed up in storms. Very sad. What you see today is an improvement from the 1970s, but still down from the scenes of 1900-1940.

It certainly ranks right up there. Trailing right behind it is: Um, it already is a destitute, barren piece of land. Apparently Phillips hasn't been to the Flats East Bank in about 10 years. Ranking a close third in the "Brain's not connected to the mouth" category is this one: I think Wolstein wants to tear down the buildings on the land he owns because I heard a rumor that he supposedly wants to build something else where they stand. I think that's how the rumor went...

You must've been reading tomorrow's Sun Newspapers!

Sounds like the train blew a tire. Oh wait, that vehicle has a steel wheel? Must've cost $100 million per mile to build! Better replace it with an RTA bus because those things never catch fire....

OK folks, give me a minute here to rant.... I learned today that the Aldi's grocery store on West 117th just north of Madison will, in fact, not be built "on the sidewalk" or for that matter, anywhere near it. Instead, the grocery store which is typically a favorite for low-income shoppers will be far back from West 117th and a bank will be built in front of it, but still not on the sidewalk. Worse, when Lakewood city officials said to Aldi's officials that they should build next to the sidewalk and have the bank in the same building next to it on the sidewalk, Aldi's officials threatened to sue the city. When I heard that, I said "so let them sue." City officials apparently weren't in the mood for legal action. So here's my suggestion to all who read this: boycott Aldi's, write a letter to the editor of the PD, Lakewood Sun Post and Lakewood Observer. If you'd rather try something else, how about this: let's say you're a pedestrian coming over from the Rapid station and you get tagged by a car in Aldi's parking lot -- consult an attorney about legal action against Aldi's for not following the wise suggestions of city officials. The only way we can improve this site is for the Aldi's to fail, close its doors, get demolished and start over. And take the friggin' bank with you. In the meantime, how crappy is it that a grocery store marketed to lower-income customers has designed its site to be as inaccessible as possible to transit? I encourage you all to act against this stupidity.

Now we all know your name Joe!! (nice letter BTW)