KJP

I suspect it's an average occupancy rate. I don't know what the magic number is, but I thought I saw a number that the current average occupancy for downtown hotels is somewhere in the 50s? Maybe 70 or 80 percent is close to the magic number when building an additional hotel is warranted. This all just guessing on my part. Anyone know? This discussion is starting to get into something that ought to be posted in the Business section of the forum.

Yeah, I also oppose energy conservation, along with my opposition to breathing and eating. :-P

I interviewed a real estate insider yesterday for an article I'm working on and specifically asked about the parking lot on Public Square. Understandably, he noted the high real estate value of the property and that it would take a large mixed-use building to make developing the site feasible. He said it would probably have to be something what Jacobs originally proposed for the site -- an office skyscraper and a neighboring hotel. But he pointed out that a hotel isn't likely right now, considering the hotel business downtown (and citywide) isn't healthy enough yet. Maybe mixing offices and for-sale housing would work either in the same tower or in one small tower for one use and a taller tower for the other (ie: Ameritrust and Hyatt as Jacobs proposed). If the mixed uses were in the same tower, would you put offices on the lower floors and housing above them, or the other way around?

Discussion of Cleveland Union Terminal (Tower City Center).....

Absolutely! Any towns as large as Warren and Niles had train stations -- especially with the number of once-busy railroad lines through those cities. And the Erie RR line was the busiest, offering 20 passenger trains a day as recently as 1950). Fourteen of those were between Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Six were between Chicago and New York City (Hoboken, NJ) via Akron, Youngstown, Jamestown NY, Binghamton. Warren and Niles each had several train stations for each of its railroad lines owned by different companies. The Erie RR (later Erie-Lackawanna), Baltimore & Ohio RR and Pennsylvania RR all had separate stations in each town. For those routes that didn't lose all their passenger trains prior to Amtrak's creation in 1971, the railroad companies' buy-in to Amtrak allowed them to eliminate all remaining passenger trains that Amtrak and the USDOT chose not to take over. A rare exception was the Youngstown - Cleveland commuter train run by Erie-Lackawanna. It kept operating until Jan. 14, 1977 (30 years already!). I've posted more pictures of stations along this route at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=11674.msg154561#new Niles Pennsylvania RR station was at east end of rail yard, off Water Street. Service ended in 1964 (had trains to Chicago, Cleveland, Akron, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City and many other cities enroute). I cannot find a picture of this station. Here's the Erie RR station (Mahoning Ave at Pratt St)(foundation is still visible) in the 1980s (service ended in 1977, with trains to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York City/Hoboken, Washington DC/via B&O and many other places enroute): Warren I cannot find a picture of the Erie RR station, but it was at Park Ave south of South St.)(no visible remnant of station and the tracks were removed in the 1980s) Pennsylvania RR station, East Market St. at tracks, (replica of station): I'll keep looking!

How do you keep cars and other unauthorized vehicles out of the bus lanes in Manchester, UK? You pole (not poll) them! Let this be a lesson to you if you visit Manchester!! Actual surveillance video (but set to music): http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/flvplayer.swf?file=http://media.biertijd.com/movies/200610/onderen.flv&autostart=true&fs=true You can tell several vehicles got really screwed up! Nice to see the UK has its share of dumb-ass drivers too!

Moonville was still an Amtrak route up until the end of 1981. It was the route of the overnight (what else in Ohio?) Shenandoah between Cincinnati and Washington DC. The Haydenville shot looks like an ad for "How Highways Won Over America, and How America Lost."

Maybe I'm thinking of a different place? It's in a former house at the north end of West 10th or 11th street.

KOOW-ish? Wazzat? Polite? Yes, most times I am. But you have to develop an asshole to work (and survive) in the media.

I was just thinking recently why doesn't downtown Cleveland have a 24-hour Denny's, or Perkins, or IHOP, or Bob Evans or -- for that matter any restaurant that's open 24 hours ? ? ? ? A friend of mine was coming in from Chicago on Amtrak at 4 a.m. on a Saturday. He asked me what restaurants were open 24 hours downtown. That way, he could get breakfast and kill some time while waiting for the first outbound bus to my neighborhood at 6 a.m. After all, I have three 24-hour restaurants in my neighborhood (Gold Coast/West 117th), so I figured there had to be at least one downtown. Not according to Cleveland.com's restaurant listing. The best option for him would have been to head over to Starbucks on West 6th and wait for it to open at 5 a.m. It was rather embarassing for me to tell him we don't have a 24-hour restaurant downtown. As it turned out, the train was four hours late and the point became moot! So, I ask, if we want a 24-hour downtown, wouldn't it be helpful to have at least one restaurant open 24 hours? And, I figure, why not try to get a brand of restaurant that is typically open 24 hours in other parts of the metro area like a Denny's or Perkins or....whatever! That's my question of "Why doesn't downtown Cleveland have.... ?" What's yours?

I forgot that I owed you all some images. The first two of these were included with the story. The other two are bonuses because we are all urban geeks here and will appreciate having more than one angle shown. I took Stonebridge's plan that was released last fall and used a graphics program to emphasize the next phases shown in that plan...

That makes sense why, among the residential proposals I've heard, an atrium would be cut into the center of the building and topped with a skylight.

Proposed response #1: "I get plenty of practice looking at you all day, don't I?" Proposed response #2: "Well maybe if you worked harder you wouldn't be such a bum." Proposed response #3: "Why not, they have better manners than you do." Proposed response #4: "Fuck off, you suburban elitist."

Is this a ploy to squeeze money out of Cleveland or Ohio? What the hell good is it to have companies spin off from the Cleveland Clinic only to land in other cities? If we can't keep the spin-offs here, then that's a major embarassment.

Because we deal in concepts and they deal in details. And where does the devil lie??

That would be the Big Dig.

Think of what Stark has to do just for his $1 billion phase one in the Warehouse District. Extending the street grid north of the railroad tracks (and deciding the route of the Waterfront Line) is a ways off. He's probably a decade away from that. The fact that he didn't even account for the location of the Waterfront Line in his conceptual masterplan shows it's not a priority for him. Wolstein's plans may complicate Stark's, as FrqntFlyr notes.

That last picture looks like something out of Germany, circa 1944. :-(

Stark has discussed seeing the Waterfront Line rerouted, but admitted he didn't have an answer for how to do that. I don't know if that's a battle he wants to fight yet.

Here's my reverse attempt at conserving bandwidth...

I ate at Fat Cats last June. I found it overpriced with small portions of only OK food. And the service was SLOW on an evening when the restaurant was half empty/half full. I'll go back only if someone else pays the bill.

Or a prison for UrbanOhioans who utter such frivolities! :whip:

Not much, I suspect. I guess this business wasn't large enough for Warrensville Heights to force a revenue-sharing agreement?!?! It does seem a bit hypocritical. But maybe its employees will hop on the Blue Line for their new digs at Tower City Center? On another thought, I'm surprised more forumers haven't responded with joy at the report by CB Richard Ellis that downtown office vacancies for Class A space have dipped below 10 percent for the first time in more than five years. That's great, positive news!

Um, that's nothing short of an awesome setting and scene. On the other hand, the accomplishment they were returning from would eventually become a factor in this building's demise. Ain't life ironic?

Super shots! I love cities on hills and in valleys.