KJP

White started off decently, but the divisiveness he soon created at City Hall prevented anything from getting done. He played the game of Personality-based Politics and lost (as did Cleveland). Voinovich deserves much of the credit for getting the city out of the mud, but Kucinich gets too much blame. There is some excellent research by CSU on the mayoral administrations of Perk, Stokes and even much earlier (going back into the 40s) which shows the corruption, pettiness, and idiotic insanity that went on which politically gridlocked the city from getting anything done.

Noozer & Gildone: I'm surprised you're continuing with this experiment to see if an impermeable stone can absorb a new substance. I hope you realize by now that it cannot. Time to end the experiment, and leave the stone alone where it lies.

Check out www.clevelandmemory.com if you haven't already. There are more historical pictures in there than you can look at in a month (and I mean non-stop viewing).

Damn! Administrators?!?! Whack this thread!!

The runway extension is needed so 747 and 757 jets that fly to international destinations, such as China, can land at Hopkins during certain weather conditions, Smith said. This is a generalized sentence only to get a point across as to why the runway extension is being sought. It's not so much about specific aircraft or destinations. Reporters have to do this all the time in order to keep articles short.

St. Louis gets ready to start service on it's latest light-rail route, the Cross-County Line. Check out the route's website at http://www.crosscountymetro.org/ Here is a press release about the new LRT line... ____________________ http://www.metrostlouis.org/ Dianne Williams Director of Communications 314.982.1440 (office) 314.565.7048 (pager) 2006-051A UPDATED For Immediate Release August 7, 2006 Metro Announces August 26th Grand Opening Date for Cross County MetroLink Extension Today, Metro officials announced that regular passenger service on the new Cross County MetroLink Extension begins on Monday, August 28, 2006. Prior to opening day, Metro will celebrate the grand opening with a Welcome Aboard Weekend on Saturday, August 26 and Sunday, August 27 2006. Citizens are invited to enjoy special ceremonies, a community festival, and two days of free rides on the new extension. The grand opening celebration will kick off at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday with a progressive ribbon cutting. A MetroLink light rail vehicle will cut through a ribbon at each station to officially open the station. A train with elected officials, community leaders, members of Metro’s Board of Commissioners and other Metro officials will arrive at each station for a brief five-minute ribbon cutting ceremony. The public is invited to attend any of the ceremonies (see attached schedule for exact times). Citizens attending the grand opening ceremonies will have free access on MetroLink from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere to Shrewsbury Stations. Passengers will be required to pay the regular fare between Airport Main and Shiloh-Scott Stations. Metro staff will be on the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station platform selling tickets for passengers who wish to continue beyond the Cross County Extension. “The opening of Cross County connects seven municipalities from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station to Shrewsbury, and will provide more access to jobs, schools, medical facilities, shopping and entertainment destinations throughout the region,” said Larry Salci, president and CEO of Metro. Construction of the Cross County MetroLink Extension began in the spring of 2003 and was funded 100% locally from the Proposition M sales tax passed in both St. Louis City and St. Louis County in August of 1994. The Cross County Extension will add 8 miles to the existing rail system, which currently spans 38 miles from Shiloh, Illinois (at Scott Air Force Base) to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. For MetroLink and MetroBus schedules and route maps, call Metro’s Transit information in Missouri at (314) 231-2345 or TTY (314) 982-1555, or from Illinois call (618) 271-2345 or TTY (618) 875-1200, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Customers can also visit Metro’s web site at www.metrostlouis.org

A new David Hasselhoff music video, from Europe, and VERRRY bad!! Still funny though. He can't seem to accept he's getting old... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibEdNCLyirE

On "why cant the movie The OH in Ohio come to cincinnati ????"

Also note that the Richard M. Burton Main Avenue High Level Bridge (Memorial Shoreway) wasn't yet built. It was built in the late 1930s as a WPA project, but it doesn't look like construction (or demolition for that matter) has even begun. Also visible... the pedestrian promenade built over the lakefront tracks for the 1936-37 Great Lakes Exposition (just to the right of Cleveland Municipal Stadium) is still in place.

This picture was taken in December 1937, with the snow cover making this aerial view look almost as if it were of a model. Look at how much the then-new Cleveland Union Terminal complex dominated the downtown area. The image comes from: http://top20cleveland.com/

Here's the unedited article... ___________________ Federal platform regulations may not be on the level May have serious impacts on the viability of some train services By Ken Prendergast Should access to passenger trains by disabled persons be ensured through better train design, or by uniform station platform standards? According to new, more specific “level boarding” federal regulations, the answer is the latter. A number of rail industry officials, state officials and advocacy groups said that choice poses operational and financial hardships that could affect the viability of some commuter and intercity train services, both current and proposed. The end result is that disabled persons, for whom the regulations are intended to give greater access, could become less mobile if fewer stations or train frequencies can be afforded, said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. He and other critics of the federal regulations stress that they fully support the need for level boarding, but that it should be achieved with greater emphasis on better rolling stock, rather than by changing fixed facilities. But federal regulatory officials say that critics of the regulations are overreacting and should note that there are numerous, flexible ways of adhering to the level-boarding standards. Critics counter that meeting and maintaining the federal definition of level boarding on a consistent basis is virtually impossible. The more specific regulations -- 49 CFR Part 37, Appendix A, §10.3.1(9) -- were issued Sept. 1, 2005 at the behest of the Federal Transit Administration’s Office of Civil Rights, which oversees disabled passenger access to all common-carrier modes of transportation. They made more specific rules adopted in 1991, which followed the passage of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990. The level-boarding definition specifies a horizontal gap of no more than 3 inches between the edge of the platform and the train’s doorway, and a vertical gap from the top of the platform and the floor of the train’s doorway of no more than 5/8 inches (or 1.5 inches for existing trains serving new stations). Also, the clarified rules are more expansive, by requiring that every car on a passenger train be accessible to disabled patrons -- called full-length level boarding. Under the old rules, at least one rail car had to be accessible. Lastly, there must be a 6-foot clearance between the trackside edge of a platform and any obstruction, such as a stairwell, elevator shaft or seating. Michael Winter, director of the FTA’s Office of Civil Rights did not return calls seeking comment. Paul Griffo, FTA’s associate administrator for public relations, referred inquiries about the regulations to the FTA Web site. “Level boarding for all cars of a train is significant because, if passengers with disabilities are unable to enter all cars from the platform, the passengers will have access only to segregated service. This would be inconsistent with the nondiscrimination mandate of the ADA,” according to a written statement by the FTA. Ironically, the FTA acknowledges that it won’t always be feasible for affected parties to meet and maintain level boarding. “Freight rail track sharing, ballast compression and tamping, track and wheel wear, and/or rail car sway or roll contribute to this infeasibility,” the FTA statement said. But another factor complicates matters. “There are also different boarding levels for different types of (passenger) cars which can operate on the same track, or even the same train,” said Jonathon Hutchison, a planner with the Oregon Department of Transportation. He is chairing a committee of multiple state departments of transportation and Amtrak to design the next generation of single-level passenger cars. “True level boarding isn’t operationally feasible. What is the happy medium?” The current standard for platform surface height is 4-8 inches above the head of the rail. Doorway floors in Amtrak’s Superliner cars are 15 inches above the rail and, for Amfleet/Horizon cars, it’s 51 inches. FTA’s regulations do not allow for a passenger to step down, or for a wheelchair to roll down from a station platform into a rail car. “The regulations are written in such a way that no car complies with it,” said John Roach, president of Roach Consulting Inc. in St. Louis, who prepared the bid specifications for the new Gateway Transportation Center. Those specifications had to be changed with more expensive ones to meet the more detailed regulations. Getting the waiver from the FRA also delayed the station’s opening by months. Other projects have experienced similar delays, given the sheer number of station projects that must be reviewed and the limited FRA staffing to review them. Critics noted that there are far fewer types of train equipment, and they can be more effectively regulated and altered if they fail to comply. The new level-boarding rules acknowledge that all the real-world complications are causing their infeasibility and, that on a case-by-case basis, disabled access can be addressed by adding lifts, extendable bridge plates, mini-highs (sections of platforms that ramp up higher than the rest) or other components to the trains or platforms. In those situations, the Federal Railroad Administration may issue a waiver. “If someone files a lawsuit, it (the waiver) doesn’t fully protect you,” Roach added. “It also creates a situation where they (the FRA) are a potential defendant.” But, in mixed-traffic environments, where there are freight trains, including over-dimensional loads, the FTA and FRA recommend that level boarding be assured by other, more expensive options. Those solutions may involve building a station-only siding track or a gauntlet track that, when having interlocked turnouts at each end, could add millions of dollars to the cost of building or retrofitting each station. “In considering the facts at a given station, FTA and FRA do not view the fact that providing full-length level boarding may entail some disadvantages or additional costs, standing alone, as demonstrating infeasibility,” the FTA statement said. “I think it (level boarding) has huge implications for stations, equipment, tracks, signals and the overall planning efforts for the Ohio Hub,” said Don Damron, passenger rail planner for the Ohio Rail Development Commission. The Ohio Hub System, undergoing economic-impact planning by the ORDC, is a proposed $3.2 bilion network of 110-mph passenger trains and improved freight capacity on 860 route miles serving 22 million people in four states as well as Ontario. More than 30 train stations are envisioned. For the Ohio Hub System and other new rail services that will require stations to be constructed, the federal level-boarding requirements may make some of those stations too expensive. Depending on the projected ridership at those stations, some may not get built if there’s another station within a “reasonable” proximity, Harnish said. Other critics are even more outspoken. “All of the options for meeting level-boarding requirements are wholly and completely unacceptable for safety reasons,” said D.J. Mitchell, assistant vice president of passenger operations at Burlington Northern Santa Fe. “They create opportunities for mistakes.” Recently, a BNSF freight train went into a passenger siding at the Norwalk, Calif. station when a dispatcher forgot to line the switches for the main track. Other times, Mitchell said, dispatchers forget to line the switches for the siding and the passenger train takes the main track, requiring the train to either back up or board passengers from a wooden platform across the siding. “The way it used to work is that we would meet with the disabled community and ask them what is the best way to meet their needs,” Mitchell said. “We can accommodate them in a thousand ways, just don’t do it with the physical plant. But some guy in the federal government decides they know how to do it best.” “Unfortunately, people have chosen not to read the regulations the way they were intended,” said Richard Cogswell, program manager of railroad operations in the FRA’s passenger programs division. “Freight is not as big an issue as people make it out to be. There’s some routes where they’ve never had an over-dimensional load. Then we say ‘hey fellas, don’t waste your money.’ You have to look at each route and each set of circumstances.” He pointed out the need to evaluate each site on its unique characteristics, including the frequency that over-dimensional freight loads travel past a given station. Mitchell noted that, where mixed traffic is on the platform-adjacent track, platforms taller than 18 inches violate BNSF’s freight clearances. He was also concerned that extendable platforms can fail and be struck by freight trains. “The regulations interfere with interstate commerce. But if you go to the STB (Surface Transportation Board), you will lose. If that’s the case, we’d rather not have to deal with passenger trains,” Mitchell said. “It’s the kind of thing that’s done by a (presidential) administration who is not in favor of these things (passenger trains),” Roach said. “And they don’t bring any money with the regulations.” All agree that level boarding is desirable. But the critics are nearly unanimous in arguing that the new, more specific federal regulations should be revisited to address train equipment, not station design. To leave the regulations as they are, they further argue, may end up making less mobile a growing segment of the population for whom the regulations were intended to mobilize. Yet, the only thing mobilized thus far is the debate on how to best accomplish that worthy goal. END

I wrote an article recently for the Midwest High Speed Rail Association newsletter on this issue. I can post the unedited copy when I get home from work. It answers some of the questions posed here.

I've never liked questions like that. I've often been asked the same thing about other projects I've been involved in because they wanted to know whether they should invest their time in supporting the project. If someone is going to make their decision whether to support a project on that measurement, then I don't want their skittish backing until they've bought in. To me, a better question is, is this project doable? In that respect, this is a very doable project. It addresses public policy issues, has great route demographics, infrastructure quality, and there are available funding options (especially using private sector station-area developments as a primary funding mechanism). It is a comparitively easy and inexpensive project to do compared to others that have been built throughout the nation in recent years.

Meeting of West Shore Corridor Stakeholders 9:30-11 a.m., Wed. Aug. 30, 2006 Cleveland City Hall 601 Lakeside Ave., Room 217 Host: Hon. Councilman Kevin Kelley, Chairman, Aviation & Transportation Committee Purpose: Fact finding & stakeholder discussion on rail transit's potential to improve regional access, and boost economic development and mobility within the West Shore Corridor. Agenda: Welcome Cleveland Councilman Kevin Kelley Self-Introduction of Stakeholders/Attendees Overview of July 19 Westlake Meeting Ken Prendergast, All Aboard Ohio U.S. Major Transportation Project Development: "Traditional" & "Creative" Funding approaches Guest Speaker - David Vozzolo, HDR-S. R. Beard & Associates, and former deputy associate administrator, Federal Transit Administration, office of planning and environment City of Cleveland Staff Update: Status of Norfolk Southern negotiated agreement with communities Councilman Kelley Future Meetings/Proposed Topics: * Stakeholder Consensus on NS Agreement Interpretation: Hunter Morrison, suburban law directors; * Case Study of Economic Gains from Successful Rail Station Area Development (invited speaker); * NOACA NEORAIL Study Route 1 Lake West Corridor Station Locations; * Other Topics? (Attendee suggestions). Next Meeting Location & Adjourn ###

I believe RTA has some station-area development in mind for that location. I don't remember the details, however. In searching the web for something about that, I did find this little tidbit about the new station... From the Burton-Bell-Carr Development Corp. newsletter: http://www.bbcdevelopment.org/communityconnector/fall05newsletter.pdf Newly Redeveloped RTA Transit Station East 55th Street Bridge A plan that has been discussed since the late 1990s is finally in the works! The newly redeveloped RTA transit station at East 55th Street near the end of I-490 will accommodate more people and provide greater convenience and comfort for riders. Construction on this $8 million dollar project, designed by Richard Bowen & Associates, is scheduled to begin in late 2006, and is expected to be completed in 2 years. The station is located between two neighborhoodsCentral and Slavic Village. Plans call for an entrance to the rapid station and a small customer parking lot on the east side of the East 55th Street Bridge. The design, approximately 1,200 square feet, includes the building and bridge. It boasts a modernistic design in the warm organic tones reminiscent of some stone structures around the neighborhood. The bridge structure that leads to the platform reflects the historic Sidaway Bridge located in Garden Valley. The main entrance will be on the east side of the bridge and will be handicap accessible. The present entrance will be renovated to complement the architecture of the new station. This station will incorporate local public art and the design will maximize green building techniques and materials, required for LEEDs certification, which certifies that the station is environmentally friendly. One percent of the project will be dedicated to art. The transit stop is one of the few where the public is able to ride either the Red heavy rail line or the Blue/Green light rail lines. It is also the station that serves as rail headquarters and the rail service yard. Every train on the RTA system passes through this station on each of its trips. RTA remains committed to this project, and incorporating it with the plans of the neighborhoods they serve. Kim Scott

Wonder if the locals "removed" them?

A good article on the world's most dominant oil field, Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, and its tenuous reliability... http://theendofcheapoil.blogspot.com/

Guess what? I like those things too! But I prefer to visit areas that have those features, rather than live in them. Nothing beats a great drive through the countryside in a cool car, with the sunroof open, windows down and the stereo up. But I always come back to the city.

Looks too "orderly" for me. I prefer a little messiness, grit and diversity of styles that come over many decades and even centuries of ebb and flow. When cities suddenly appear like this, too much uniformity results, at least for me. Give me a call in about 100 years and I'll tell you if I like Dubai.

As a six-year-old, I used to take my father's Commercial Survey maps (Clevelanders know them as the red-covered map books) and completely redraw them. Each new map book he bought, I re-drew it. Streets were extended, others eliminated with a dab of White-Out, freeways were built, rail lines connected, islands were built in the lake....on and on. I got so proficient at it that he once drove Cedar Road toward the Chagrin River valley because he thought it went across the valley to reach a short stretch of Cedar Road in Geauga County. Of course, it didn't, but I made it look like it did! A couple of years later, in the mid-1970s, my dad would take my sister and I from our home in white-ghetto, white-bread, sergrated-land-use Highland Heights to visit the family doctor on mixed-use, higher-density Lee Road in Cleveland Heights. While I was in to see the doctor, my dad would take my sister for a walk in the neighborhood. When it was sister's turn to see the doc, dad and I would take the walk. We strolled past storefronts and old apartment blocks along the sidewalk, and ended up at Cain Park -- a truly neat park with an outdoor theater, walking trails and a creek running through it. When we got back to Highland Heights, I realized I couldn't walk anywhere special. Every block was like the other. Richmond Mall was about as good as it got. Even at that young age, I realized there was a difference in land use and one did something for my ethos while the other did not. It has stuck with me ever since.

You had to bend my ear with that one. There was a kernel of truth in what you said, though. Don't stalk crashed aviators in fields, OK? Or the cops will have to cobb-le together some trespassing charges... AAGGGHHH!!!!

I always liked the title used by author Peter Jedick for his 1980 book "Cleveland: Where the East Coast Meets the Midwest" It describes the city's excellent location, its mixed culture/values between those of the East Coast and Midwest, and even suggests and instruction... If you folks on the East Coast want to have a business meeting with folks in the Midwest, meet in the middle right here in Cleveland.

Portland, Portable, Porter, Port-A-Potty... I hear ya! :-D

When the railroad right of way through University Circle was widened from four tracks to 10 for the Cleveland Union Terminal project, much preliminary work was also done for building the Rapid line. In addition to grading the right of way, erecting metal poles for the Rapid's overhead wires and installing bridges, some preliminary station work was done. However, not all stations were ultimately built in 1955 where station foundations were put in 1930. The Mayfield Road station was one such location. Cleveland Transit System decided to put the Rapid station at Euclid/East 120th. I don't know their reasons, but hindsight shows the Van Swerigens were smarter (big surprise!).

Also, along the Cardinal route, several cross-river stations serve Ohio cities, such as: Mayville KY station --> Aberdeen, OH South Portsmouth KY station --> Portsmouth, OH Ashland KY station --> Ironton, OH Huntington WV station --> Chesapeake/South Point, OH It did, but not anymore. Hamilton was dropped as a station because of low ridership. Think about that. Hamilton, with a population of 61,943 in 2005, couldn't generate as much ridership as towns in West Virginia having less than 1/10th the population. The reason? The Cardinal (operates only three days a week) serves West Virginia cities in daylight hours and served Hamilton between 3-4 a.m. in both directions. There is some interest in putting a station on this same at Oxford to serve Miami University, but the city, Amtrak, CSX, and the Federal Railroad Administration are haggling over platform heights to meet ADA requirements. Make the platforms level with the train's floor, and wide freight loads on CSX can't get past. Make the platform low, and it won't meet ADA requirements. Build another, passenger-only track at the station, and the city can no longer afford to pay for the station. Sometimes ADA regulations prevent access! Rant over...