KJP

You can now register online with a credit card for All Aboard Ohio's Fall Rail Cocktail & Buffet, to be held Nov. 18 in Lorain. Check it out! http://www.allaboardohio.com/cms/index.php

Most newer/larger grocery stores have banks in them and those keep non-bankers hours. I think you'll find the choices pretty abundant. Very much an acquired taste. I don't have any experience with credit unions, as those tend to be offered through employers. I used to have Huntington Bank, but I've also liked Charter One and Third Federal (local banks). Some family members have National City and like them. I don't know many who have KeyBank so I can't comment. Can't say I've heard of Virgin Mobile. Sprint is a decent service, but has too many gaps in coverage away from major highways. Verizon and Cingular have good coverage and all three have many stores in the area for servicing/equipment/upgrades. Those are the only three I have experience with however.

Nah, gambling just creates new ones...

I wonder if that trip planner is based on the old schedule, before the Fulton Road bridge was closed for replacement. The new timetable shows five minutes was added to the #79 trip, which will detour from Fulton via Memphis, Pearl and Denison. The #79 is a decent service, running every 15-20 minutes during rush hours and 30 minutes off peak. It makes a counterclockwise loop downtown on Superior, East 6th, Lakeside and Ontario. So you can catch it right out in front of the Justice Center, on Ontario. Print out this schedule/map and take it with you... http://www.riderta.com/pdf/79A-B.pdf Another alternative is to catch the 51X at Biddulph and Pearl. It gets on I-71 at Pearl for downtown, making it a little faster (unless I-71/I-90 is a mess), and runs every 15 minutes during the rush hours. Unfortunately, it runs only every 45 minutes off peak. But, when you're leaving downtown, you can choose between the 79 or the 51X. If you miss the 79, or want to improve your chances of catching of either the 79 or 51X, walk south on Ontario to Public Square. You'll see on the 51X map (see link below) that the 51X crosses the 79's route at Rockwell and Ontario. But the 51X's map seems unreliable since its route is being affected by the Euclid Corridor construction (it normally runs on Euclid rather than Superior). Print this out and keep it with you, too... http://www.riderta.com/pdf/51X.pdf Try different routes and experiment. Some routes and schedules work better for different people.

Nah. I've got a lot of catching up to do with my mother. She's the real gypsy. She's moved 62 times in her 76-year life. How'd she accomplish such a feat? She was an Army brat and and her first husband was in the military too.

East Harbor Park gets funds for park trail Port Clinton News Herald, 10/31/06 Thirteen Ohio community trail projects have been recommended to receive a total of $928,928 in grants from the federal Recreational Trails Program, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The grants support a variety of projects to create new trails and enhance others. Locally, the East Harbor State Park will receive $9,928 to be used for the park trail. The U.S. Federal Highway Administration and a portion of the federal gasoline tax support the Recreational Trails Program, which is administered in Ohio by ODNR. The department reviews local applications and recommends grant recipients for final federal approval. That approval is expected in the next several months.

Ottawa church campaign raises funds for roof, school improvements Putnam Times, 10/29/06 SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Ottawa aims to raise $1.4 million to help repair its school on Locust Street. The campaign, tabbed “Honoring the Tradition by Building for the Future,” is part of a two-phase campaign that will look at the parish’s long-term needs. It is the first campaign of this size since 1967. The school at 307 N. Locust Street currently houses pupils in fifth through eighth grades. It also is used for the parish’s school of religion program and is a meeting place for many ministry groups. “We see that a lot of these systems are operating at their limits,” said Denny Recker, campaign chair. “We want to get them replaced before they exceed their limits and before we reach any type of crisis situation.”

From the 11/2/06 Toledo Blade: Bowling Green downtown library moving ahead on parking BOWLING GREEN — After more than a year of controversy, Wood County District Public Library trustees plan to meet next week to award a construction contract for a parking lot at North Church and West Court streets. The library plans to build a 49-space lot to address patrons’ complaints about the lack of parking at the downtown library. Neighbors and historic preservationists contend that the lot is unnecessary. The board will hold a special meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in the board room at the library, 251 North Main St., to award the contract. More at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061102/NEWS17/61102008/-1/NEWS

Yeah, but I lived for 26 years on the East Side, and only 13 years thus far on the West Side. So in terms of tenure, I'm still an East Sider. But I consider myself multi-cultural and geographically balanced since I've lived on the northeast side of the metro area (Highland Heights), southeast side (Chagrin Falls/Bainbridge), way-southeast side (Kent), southwest side (Berea) and now west side (Lakewood). And while I've never lived due south, my sister does (in Parma) and so does my father (Brecksville).

Here's an interesting piece I found on the subject... __________________ These are excerpts from an article found at the following location... http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/research/nagaming.html ....The Federal-State-Tribal Triangle Federally-recognized Indian tribes are grouped under the legal status of "defeated nations." (Several non-recognized tribes, including some thought defunct for almost two centuries, are currently seeking official recognition, for a variety of motivations. Without such a designation, constitutionally they are little more than private associations). These tribes, both as collective units and their individual members, are wards of the federal government, which has a legal responsibility for their protection and the promotion of their welfare. As such, they enjoy rights, or suffer restrictions, not applicable to other Americans. For example, reservation land is not owned by the tribes or their members but instead is held in trust by the federal government. And reservations are virtually off-limits to state and local laws and authorities, even though reservation members vote in state elections. This triangular relationship between individual tribes, the respective states, and the federal government forms the center of the debate over Native America gaming, and is never absent from any aspect of it. ...As part of this contest, the image of reservations for many has changed from being places in which the residents were involuntarily confined to being places of protection from outside forces, especially against the several state governments, traditionally seen as hostile to Native American rights (The federal government, despite all of its possible benign neglect -- and the Hollywood image notwithstanding -- has traditionally been regarded as their protector). .... Creating the Industry The Supreme Court, in the so-called Cabazon decision of 1987, in effect removed virtually all existing restrictions on gambling on Indian reservations. What had previously been a relatively small and isolated phenomenon suddenly began growing rapidly. In response, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988, which in effect authorized casino gambling on Indian reservations and provided a regulatory framework and oversight body for the industry in the form of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). .... Gambling as a Panacea In addition to purposes such as regulating an industry recently brought into existence and beyond the reach of state regulators, IGRA's proponents wanted to use gambling as a means of providing money for financing tribal governments, which often had little or no tax base, and also as part of a general effort to promote the economic self-sufficiency of the tribes. .... State-Tribal Conflict Under federal law, the individual states have little or no authority over Indian reservations, including the ability to tax or regulate gambling or any other activity. For example, state officials, including the police, cannot exercise their authority on a reservation without tribal permission. Although in theory the several states can ban any form of gambling throughout their territory, in practice the lack of authority of state officials over reservations makes enforcement difficult there. Because the Supreme Court's decision in Cabazon threatened to create islands of virtually unregulated gambling throughout the U.S., IGRA included the provision that tribes wishing to conduct Class III gaming had to sign a "compact" with the respective state (or states: reservations often overlap state borders) which typically includes measures for state regulation and for sharing of revenues. Other issues may be included. For example, states have typically required tribes to surrender any outstanding land claims in return for approving the compact. ... The Power to Regulate Indian gaming also directly concerns both the legal and actual power of the federal and states governments to regulate economic and social activities. States may be powerless to prevent gambling activities on reservations that the citizens and legislature of the state have decided to ban or to regulate, and the federal government may be unwilling or unable to assist this effort.

But that should make the land ideal for development. At least that's the case in Ohio, which loses more farmland to development than any other state in the union (and possibly any place on the planet)! What happens if this disingenuously marketed Issue 3 fails? Does that mean no casinos in Cleveland? I've heard that an Indian casino could come in, and the local or state governments couldn't do a thing about it since Indian reservations are federal issue. Can anyone here comment on the legal viability that?

Oh, and by the way, there's a lot of fill dirt that would be created from this concept. Some would come from digging the new alignment. Some would come from the elevated portions of the abandoned Central Interchange. Some would come from the elevated highway segments in Tremont or along Orange Avenue. What do with it? ODOT could sell it -- to developers who might also wish to acquire the land on which the fill dirt sits (they could re-use it elsewhere, such as for the northern part of the Pesht project to gradually bring the street grid down to the lakefront); to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority for the port island; or for any number of other construction, remediation or hill-stabilization efforts. A 1,001 uses!

That will be a while longer before that happens. Given the federal funding situation, RTA is preferring to rebuilt its existing rail fleet. Maybe in another decade or two they'll replace the fleet with standardized, dual-platform equipment. Or maybe they'll just retrofit all the stations to offer platforms for high-level boarding.

Interesting list of transit-related levies and other measures on Tuesday's ballot in U.S. cities (and some statewide issues)... http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_lrt_2006-10a.htm

I would have loved to have seen Detroit in the 1910s and 20s. Must've been an amazing, booming, bustling, dense, dynamic city.

For a suburb, I love Olmsted Falls. The only suburb I love more is Chagrin Falls. Must be something about suburbs ending in the word "falls."

Here's a mix of aerial and street-level views of the area through which my concept of a new Inner Belt would be routed. We'll follow this from north to south. See my overview map from earlier in this thread: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2438.msg133212#msg133212 This is at the north end of the new alignment. Carnegie is along the top of the image, and Cedar to the bottom (south). The new alignment will go through the center of the image, from top to bottom. The view below is looking west on Carnegie. The buildings on the left (south side) would be demolished. Cedar is along the top (north) of this image. At minimum, the public housing in the center of this image would be demolished. But I'd rather see all of this crap (aka: people warehouses) cast into the dustbin of history... Below is a street-level view of the public housing units from the above image. These units are perhaps 60 years old.... These are on the north side of Central (the street along the bottom of the image). The Inner Belt alignment would go through the center of this image, from top to bottom... Northwest of the intersection of Community College Avenue (along the bottom of image) and East 30th Street (along the right). Just about everything would be demolished here, except for CMHA's Cedar Extension High Rise at the upper right... Here's a street-level image, from Community College Avenue, of those U-store-it facilities for people.... The center of the intersection of East 30th and Community College Avenue. The public housing at upper left and the recreation center at lower right would be demolished. Between the intersection and the Tri-C Campus building to the lower left, the land would be excavated for the Inner Belt with a retaining wall and then capped... Here is a street-level view of that intersection, looking to the northwest where the highway would go (below street level). The Cedar Extension High Rise is at right, but wouldn't be demolished. The low-level public housing would be razed, however... This view differs from the other aerials. North is to the right. At the center is a recreation center that would be replaced with a newer one close by and then this structure would be demolished with a park built on a cap over the highway.... Here's a street-level view of the recreation center, looking north on East 30th. The Cedar Extension High Rise can be seen at left in the distance.... This is the last image. I'm pretty sure that just about all the stuctures in this aerial view would have to be demolished. I count seven structures, but they are in two distinct groupings so that, from the ground, it seems like only two buildings would get demolished. Arbor Park was under construction at the upper right when this image was captured. No Arbor Park structures are threatened by this concept. Woodland Avenue is along the top (north) of this image and I-77 is along the bottom... That's all folks!

Looks like you're going to Troy in the meantime. Say 'hi' to Helen for me.

BTW, here's a link to the full report....... http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20061020_renewgreatlakes.pdf

From the fine folks at Greater Ohio... _____________________ Brookings sets state-federal challenge Renewing the Great Lakes mega-region With an eye toward the 2008 presidential election, the Brookings Institution and local foundations are calling for a 12-state Great Lakes campaign to renew the economy of the region, making it even greater than in the age of coal, steel and heavy industry. Authors of the study, The Vital Center: A Federal-State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region, recently wrapped up a tour of six Great Lakes cities where they met with leaders of nonprofit organizations to present the study. The meetings were organized by local foundations and featured often-surprising information on current strengths (http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=105169954&u=1001775 ) to be leveraged. For example, the gross product of the Greater Lakes region is third largest in the world. Major policy recommendations include: + Cultivating the region's human capital by improving educational and employment opportunities; + Fueling the economic engines by investing in research and development of clean alternative energy sources; + Remaking the social compact by providing better health insurance plans for workers; + Strengthening the economies in metro areas through better transportation policy. Read more on the Greater Ohio web page.... http://www.greaterohio.org/briefings/redevelopment/grlakes_initiative.htm

Cleveland students have the option of going to the school they want to go to. Forced busing no longer exists. But if you're neighborhood school is worse than the others, then you're forced to try to get your kid in another school. Rhodes is about as good of a high school you can get in the Cleveland public school system. But there are also some good parochial schools in Old Brooklyn (St. Leo the Great Elementary School, St. Mary Byzantine School, Corpus Christi School). When the kids leave those schools at the end of each day, many walk home unescorted by adults. I think that says a lot about a neighborhood.

I saw construction equipment working on site the other day and forgot to mention it here.

OMG

Too many acronyms, MGD!

No. I haven't pushed this idea much as most of my time has been invested in the Cleveland - Lorain commuter rail project. I'd like to push both (and more projects), but there's only one of me.