KJP

That's the port authority's assessment as well.

It was a very enjoyable day, and I was glad to meet those of you who did attend. Thanks to MayDay for being a very good tour host. The city looked great amid changeable weather conditions, and was glad to see the crowds out and about in Tower City, Ohio City and University Circle/Little Italy. Even though a quick downpour soggied us a bit (including MayDay's hair! :-o ), a rainbow above the University Circle Rapid station was a nice ending to the day.

^ Nice! I didn't know. Bad UrbanOhioan. I hope some of you out-of-towners were downtown tonight (Friday). The rain moved out, the skies cleared, the crowds came out in force and the fireworks at Jacobs Field were great (I heard the game sucked tho'). See ya tomorrow.

^ Why, so we can keep you posted on what's happening in the world? :-D

Yes. And yes it will. We have a winner! Peabody spelled it out best, though. Corna is a partner with K&D on Stonebridge and is part of the partnership seeking the Flats West Bank development.

No renderings yet -- probably not until the formal announcement a couple months from now. But I have submitted to my editor a map and a rendering of the Stonebridge tower already under construction.

Remember my big tease leading up to the Stark/Pesht series? Well, I hate to do this to you folks all over again (yeah right), but here comes another big project. Since I'm posting this in the Stonebridge thread, you can tell it has something to do with this. I will give you all a better hints this time, than what I did with the Pesht thread... We should consider renaming this thread the "Flats West Bank" discussion, because Stonebridge is morphing into something much larger than its clustering around the old viaduct. How much larger? This Flats West Bank proposal looks to be several times bigger than what Wolstein is planning for the East Bank. The article should come out Thursday. It won't be as detailed or as long as the Pesht series, but I will have some interesting tidbits to share.

I'd like to see at least the rush-hour runs go into downtown, and for this kind of train equipment, that would mean building a track connection to reach the NS mainline to North Coast Harbor. Off-peak trips could still do the cross-platform transfer at West Boulevard, and perhaps a station could be built on the proposed track connection I just mentioned (still providing a link to Tower City). There's a half-dozen ways this demo (or permanent) service could be offered. A lot of it will depend on Norfolk Southern and what they might be willing to accommodate on their tracks. They may not want any commuter trains on their busy line from West Blvd to North Coast Harbor. Or perhaps a siding as part of the new track connection might be enough to assuage them. But until there's a significant effort underway, backed with some meaningful dollars, I wouldn't expect NS to pay any attention to this. We're still real early into this process.

I want one! How appropriate that they're "chasing" an SUV!

Better, of course, is always in the eyes of the beholder. I just think the waterfronts in Chicago and Toronto are more enjoyable (yet both are designed differently). It will be interesting to see which way Cleveland goes with its -- large areas of greenspace or more development built right up to a public boardwalk.

In covering the police beat, I've learned that undercover officers making buys or dealing drugs are very active in known drug areas. But I wouldn't have considered Public Square to be one of them. I'm there often, but have never been approached. I guess I just don't look like the druggie type or something!

Here's a little-known asset in Cleveland: The U.S. Coast Guard. Coast Guard? Cleveland is home to the second-largest Coast Guard command in the world. The USCG's district that covers the entire Great Lakes has its main office and administrative staff of some 600 people in the Federal Building on East 9th Street -- not in Chicago, not in Detroit, but right here in Cleveland.

He said he remembers seeing you.

A number of you have seen the PowerPoint presentation. This is a much shorter version. Some of you may have seen this before, too, but some additions have been made. More changes may be made soon, including a version showing different service options (ie: length of route, through service to downtown, etc) http://members.cox.net/neotrans2/WestShoreGreenwayReport1.pdf

True. Cool pics. B&W adds a journalistic feel the views.

^ Stop! :roll:

I'm no fan of the Bush Administration, but this article seems to single him out for the rising gas prices. True, he hasn't done anything to start us on a decades-long detox program and instead has only made things worse. But every administration since at least FDR has had a similar hand in making Americans the oil gluttons we are.

Why? Are you hot?? :-o Maybe your air conditioner isn't working right. :-D I have little interest in that world anymore. Watch all the movies like Goodfellas or shows like the Sopranos that tend to glorify "The Life" because that's as good as it gets. The reality is that these guys rob and cheat each other more than anything else. They are psychos with no so-called "honor among thieves." Most of the time these guys mooch off their friends when their schemes aren't "scoring" or times are tight (more often than not). Many are drug addicts and the rest are too stupid to stay out of prison. They have no idea how to function in the real world. Unfortunately, I'm very familiar with the mob side of Youngstown, having family members who have had unfortunate encounters with some of those bozos. I've also written articles about various hoods from Y-town. The sad thing is, the mob in our own city has made a small comeback in recent years, but is very quiet. I won't discuss details here, however. Perhaps at the meet on Saturday.

I will ask Corna tomorrow when I see him.

When I ran a Cleveland mobwebsite, I had a few things happen like that -- and worse (one time involving cars at high speed). Someday after the statute of limitations runs out, I may write a book about some of those adventures!

If I remember right, the bus station is also located where it could be served by commuter trains someday.

Was that the walk when one of the guys from Zaremba ran up to you like a celebrity and hollered "YOU'RE THE POPE AREN'T YOU!?!?" Soon you'll have paparazzi following you around I like your pics, especially the wig view

Unfortunately, at this point, it's not up to Wolstein. The land acquisitions are on auto-pilot, set by city legislation. No one other than Shaia seems to want to switch it off for fear of creating an opening for other, less well-intentioned property owners to get their land taken out of the physical area that City Council has determined to be blighted. I suspect what's going to happen is that the port authority will attempt to appropriate Shaia's land through eminent domain, and that Shaia could emerge victorious, still owning the land. That's not an enviable position for Wolstein, because Shaia could then pull his concessions to Wolstein, essentially saying "sorry pal, but you never even returned my phone calls." Another possibility is that a probate court judge could order the non-monetary settlement which Shaia has sought all along.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0530-24.htm Published on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 by the Seattle Times Forget Gas; We Need A Plan to Keep Passenger Trains Rolling by Alfred Runte Here we go again -- blaming everything on the oil companies for the spiraling cost of gasoline. How about we try something positive for a change, say, restoring our passenger trains?

He railed (bad pun) against the St. Louis light-rail system back in the early 90s when it was getting built, saying no one would ride it. Then he said only former bus riders would use it, causing transit system costs to increase with no net gain in riders. Then, when the rail system blew away its ridership projections with twice as many riders as forecast (45,000+ daily) AND ridership increasing on the bus system, he was marginalized in his own hometown. The rail system continues to expand. Cox has (had?) a charter bus operation and proposed to St. Louis and numerous other cities considering rail that they contract out bus operations instead. And, to whom? Why, to Cox, of course! Call him a modern-day National City Lines.