KJP

By comparison, Nashville spent a grand total of $300,000 to refurbish the double-decker commuter rail cars they bought from Chicago's Metra for $1 each. The shipping costs were in the thousands of dollars, however.

I dunno, that sure sounds like the Stephan Louis I know of. If he made those remarks or even if he didn't but still agrees with them, then why not own up to them? If he believes he is right, then he should stand up for himself. But if he's afraid of a backlash, then maybe he should sit down and take a hard look at his beliefs to measure who benefits from public policies that would result from them -- the privileged or the many. Stop hiding in the shadows, you discriminatory seclusionists of privilege!

Good article, but I'm not sure I understand why this is posted in the Peak Oil thread. There's a number of threads in the City Discussion section where this article could have been posted to keep the discussion on topic.

Along a direct path of I-80, our competition for "between New York and Chicago" includes South Bend, Toledo, Youngstown, DuBois, State College, Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Shroudsburg. If that's our measuring stick, then ranking highly compared to anything "between New York and Chicago" ain't impressing this fella.

Even so, the Inner Belt has 160,000 cars per day, and ODOT said a majority of that traffic was exiting at downtown ramps (some going downtown, some to UC, etc). That Fairmount Properties statistic is way out of line. I'd love to hear their explanation of it. Even if you include all the sporting events, CSU students and various conferences, it still doesn't add up.

Well said and well reasoned.

I think the convocation center is the best site, along the former PRR (now Norfolk Southern) right of way. The best part of this is that Ohio Hub trains can reach the NS right of way from multiple rights of way. An introductory level of service can access the NS from the B&O on both sides of downtown (or the B&O station could be used). For a fully built-out service, the NS can be accessed from the abandoned P&LE on the east side of the city and the intact portions of the LE&E to the west.

Interesting. Stark also claimed credit for lowering the Shoreway to street level through the Warehouse District. I told him "that was in the Lakefront Plan." He looked at me kinda funny! I don't care who gets the credit for this stuff as long as it gets done.

There's been enough monstrous suburban designs plunked down in Hough. A little imagination and a lot of care in good urban design can go along a way to revive a once-great neighborhood.

Same deal with Cleveland Union Terminal. You'll never get a passenger train in there again, at least from the west. The new federal courthouse tower was built on the right of way of the west approach. We've lost the best location for a station in Youngstown -- the former Erie Station, located on the YSU side of downtown. The Erie right of way has been filled in and stuff built on it, including the Museum of Science and Industry. The next-best right of way through Youngstown, the Lake Erie & Eastern, is steadily being sold off piecemeal and its right of way excavated and developed for new uses. Cincinnati Union Terminal is a difficult place to get more passenger trains into, what with the physical and traffic growth of the adjacent Queensgate Yard. Not the best site for a train station anyway. The construction of highways and urban renewal has eliminated the once great city neighborhoods CUT was built next to, and has separated CUT from downtown a couple miles away. Steadily, we're losing our options for rebuilding what we never should have lost.

12/6/2006 Light Rail Sacramento agency set to open half-mile Amtrak/Folsom Corridor extension On Friday, the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) will open the final leg of the Amtrak/Folsom Corridor — a half-mile extension to the Sacramento Valley Station. Expected to serve 2,000 passengers daily, the extension connects the Sacramento region to the Capitol Corridor regional rail system and Amtrak. In October 2005, SacRT opened a 7.4-mile Amtrak/Folsom extension from Sunrise Boulevard to the city of Folsom. ###

I like that idea.

Which Thursday is Corner Alley opening? Is it tomorrow? If so, that will coincide nicely with MayDay's book signing in the Arcade (just across the street for the geographically challenged!). I will be at MayDay's book signing at about noon with another forumer and Ohio expat Markymark48.

Which one was Mueller Lofts?

I sure wish I covered the University Circle area. Thats some great fodder for articles!

I meant to say "residential" not "retail" but could be to any uses that remove it from the office vacancy inventory. Thanks for the correction w28 on the Southworth Building.

I don't know enough background about this, but I suspect it was a matter of expediency. The Pink Line already existed as a non-revenue track to move dead-head CTS trains. The CTS saw activating it for the public as a way of simply linking up two existing rail lines outside of the Loop but without spending much, if any money. Adding a station may come later for CTS, which like many other transit agencies, is facing tight finances.

But how far north and how far south? That gets into a value judgment, and the more you get into a value judgment, the less you can call something a fact. Like the old saying from my law classes -- a law goes from being bent to broken when someone, using their own set of values, decides it is so.

Redirecting a discussion here from: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=10517.msg145407#msg145407 I was just thinking about that today. You've got a nine-story Park Building, and a four-story Southworth Building (at minimum it's four stories -- I think the building wraps around the Park and is taller on the Public Square side). I don't know the combined square footage, but it's gotta be at least 100,000. That's a decent amount taken out of the calculation for office vacancies. What other office conversions to retail are pending? Likely?

I was just thinking about that today. I'll comment on it at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4266.msg145409#msg145409

Think about this... Why did the administration feel the need to have City Council pass a LAW to name an exclusive outbound taxi service? Isn't that what the city's existing bidding process is for? As one of the options, Council's ordinance created a framework for determining how the outbound taxi service provider should be decided. I hope my article will make this clearer than the PD's article did.

Not very well worded, it's true. The lift is for wheelchairs.

The constitutional amendment in Ohio (and as Gildone notes, in dozens of other states) was sought to ensure a better bond rating and interest rate on highway construction bonds. The federal government has no such restriction on gas taxes however.

Well said. There's a parking deck at 200 Public Square (BP Building), the former May Co. garage that has Fat Fish Blue in its ground level, plus another (I believe) that's between that deck and the Southworth Building that Howells bought. I'm surprised Howells didn't request a variance to reduce or eliminate the need for parking within his development. I guess he felt he needed the parking to market his residential units. I wished he wouldn't though.

He told me his market was from Toledo to Erie to Canton.