KJP

^ See my post above at http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4504.msg91860#msg91860

The idea wasn't generated by NOACA or RTA. But NOACA didn't have to approve funding the grant for the transit study. And if stakeholders along the route, including the city of Cleveland, say this is something they ultimately want to build and secure funding for, then RTA officials I've spoken with said they would have to do it. Who knows, it may end up being what's called a turnkey project -- everything is studied, funded and built by non-RTA stakeholders, then the whole thing (except for some or all of the operating funding possibly) is turned over to RTA for them to operate. Also, keep in mind that, as Musky noted, the Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Services (a cosponsor of the grant request) and the Old Brooklyn Community Development Corp. are in the process of merging. The president of the OBCDC board is Maribeth Feke. She's also planning and programming director for RTA. So RTA will be involved.

I've had several experiences like that in the last couple of weeks. There was a really old guy who got on one bus I was on on Saturday and the driver waited until he was seated until he started the bus rolling again. I was on another bus heading out to the west end of Lakewood, and the driver was pleasant in greeting everyone and he also called out all the stops along Detroit Road. When I headed back east, it was the same driver. He remembered me and that I had an all-day pass, so he waved me by the fare machine and just pressed a button on it to record my boarding. But, on the downside, I was on a Red Line train heading west out of Tower City a couple of days ago, when some gangbangers were playing some loud rap "music" on their cell phones. They started in the Tower City station and continued while on board the train. I don't care if the music is on a portable radio/CD player or on a cell phone -- riders aren't supposed to share their tunes with everyone. No RTA employees said anything to them -- not the cop strolling around in the station or the operator on the train. They were still playing that shit when I got off at West 117th.

This was on my Cox-Cleveland home page today.... Convention Authority Loses Money 04-19-2006 8:52 AM (Cleveland, OH) -- The group charged with finding a site and financing for a new convention center in Cleveland will have less money to work with. The Cuyahoga County Commissioners have slashed the Convention Facilities Authority budget to eight-thousand-dollars a month. The cuts follow the authority's suspension of operations earlier this year. The county commissioners will send the remaining 25-thousand-dollar monthly payouts to the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland. Copyright 2006 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

This was on my Cox-Cleveland home page.... Wal-Mart Supercenter Planned In Suburbs 04-19-2006 6:19 AM (Bedford, OH) -- The largest Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ohio, and possibly the nation, is being planned in Bedford. Officials with the discount retailer unveiled plans last night for its store at the Middlebrook Market Square project. The store would encompass 200-thousand-square-feet, with room for a grocery store and service businesses along with Wal-Mart's usual wares. More than 450 people would be hired to staff the store when it opens next year. Copyright 2006 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

They turn at a spot on the river just south of I-490. From GoogleEarth, it looks like one of those T-shaped paved areas on a really long, one-lane residential driveway. As for the destination of these big ships, there's a number of them -- they include the large Mittal Steel complex that Independence Road goes through (I highly recommend that drive/bicycle ride!), plus a number of aggregate dumps along the way.

I suspect they are. The study refers only to new infrastructure. Once a transit right of way is built up to the Ohio City rapid station, the transit service can then access Tower City Center on the existing right of way (assuming it's a rail service). The grant request's text specifically mentions that this new transit infrastructure would allow linkages with the Red, Blue, Green and Silver lines. Here's something else I was thinking about... Building light-rail in this corridor should be much more affordable than rerouting the Red Line via the Euclid Corridor was estimated to be. With the Euclid Corridor, a 1-mile subway was needed to access Euclid Avenue from Tower City. That's not the case with the Cleveland-Parma corridor. It would actually be relatively easy to have a rail service from that corridor access Tower City. That would be the case with a routing via the Detroit-Superior bridge too, since the bridge's lower deck might be used a local equity share to leverage a federal construction grant. How much might that be worth? Who knows -- $20 million? Less/More? Lots of things to consider here.

That's my own little contribution. :-D The solid yellow line is actually what represents Phase One of study and what would represent Phase Two of study according to the approved grant request's text. Consider the dotted line as my suggestion of a Phase Three. That could mean a couple of things -- continuing a light-rail line to the Tower City Center station via the Detroit-Superior Bridge, or a light-rail line/bus rapid transit route looping through the downtown area.

Get ready for a big surprise.... At this page ( http://www.noaca.org/fy07tlciproj.pdf ), NOACA lists recipients of this year's Transportation for Livable Communities Intiative (TLCI) grants. Among the 16 requests that received grants, the following was mentioned almost innocuously... Sponsor: Cleveland Co-sponsor: Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Services Project Title: Transportation Study of Pearl Road/West 25th Street Project Overview: Planning study to examine potential alternative modes of mass transportation along Pearl Road and West 25th Street Funding Amount Not to Exceed: $75,000.00 (ie: NOACA's share of planning funds) I heard rumblings about this grant request, but didn't pay much attention to it. I asked the two Cleveland city councilmen from that area -- Brian Cummins and Kevin Kelley -- about it and they said I would probably find it very interesting. So, earlier today, I requested and received from NOACA a copy of the grant request that was approved by NOACA. Needless to say, I was shocked. The grant request is for a preliminary analysis of building a light-rail line or bus rapid transit service in the aforementioned corridor. First phase of this analysis (which was funded by NOACA with about $18,000 coming from Cleveland and Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Services) is for the segment roughly between the Ohio City Rapid transit station and Brookpark Road at the Cleveland-Parma boundary. Phase Two could include continuing the analysis farther south along Pearl and Ridge roads to Parmatown Mall. I will have more about this in an article in Thursday's Brooklyn Sun Journal and the West Side Sun News. I will post the article Wednesday evening, which is when the first Brooklyn Sun Journals are delivered to subscribers of that paper. But I will need to write a more detailed article in the near future since I didn't have much time to delve more into this. In the meantime, for those unfamiliar with this corridor, I prepared these graphics earlier this evening. Stay tuned for the article and for some more information I would like to share with you.....

^ Is that near Cleveland? :-D

...Wow... :-o I now know why I gave up booze! :wink:

The Port Authority can try eminent domain, but is it really in the public's interest to take the property if there's another conceptual development plan in place for it -- especially one that has been approved by the development corporation overseeing that contested property? I question if a jury in the first part of an eminent domain proceeding (to determine need) and a judge in the second part (to determine fair price) will agree. I've reported on eminent domain actions in Fairview Park for a multi-property redevelopment zone in which some properties were declared blighted while others were not. But the city was able to argue successfully that inclusion of the non-blighted properties was essential to make the redevelopment zone large enough and therefore attractive enough to potential end users. Yet, in that situation, none of the property owners had a development plan that was officially recognized by the city approvals process. I guess the question ultimately may come down to how good your lawyer is. And I sure hope it doesn't come to that!

I was at the Nautica Stage for the Cleveland Indians playoffs in 1995 (they had huge screens for the crowds that couldn't fit into Jacobs Field). Anyway, while there for a night game, one of those big ships eased by and someone on the ship was aiming a searchlight around the crowd. As the searchlight's beam fell on sections of the floor seating or the bleachers, the crowd would stand up and wave their arms. It got to be like a rock concert! BTW, cool pics MayDay!

A number I've often seen is that 20 percent of residents in a development designed around a transit station typically use that transit daily. That figure also works as a good round number to use when estimating transit's modal share of trips bound for a given destination that's similarly designed around the transit station. I believe that's about the percentage of visitors to Cavs, Indians and Browns games too, for example. Steve Strinisha, consultant to Wolstein, told me he expected about 500 new residents to the Flats East Bank's 340 housing units. And, with 228 units proposed for Lighthouse Landing, you're probably looking at upwards of 300 residents there. So, figure 800 residents x .20 and you may be looking at about 160 new riders to the Flats East Bank station. As for inbound trips on the Waterfront Line to FEB station, I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess. Here's two reasons why the ridership may not be that high: 1. I suspect many of the residents of FEB/LL probably already work downtown. The rail transit system doesn't effectively serve as a downtown distributor since only one, possibly two of stations (Tower City and North Coast/East 9th) are near major employment centers. True, West 3rd is near some employment centers, but are you going to pay to ride somewhere that you can walk to in just a few minutes more time? There needs to be more development along the Waterfront Line, and the WFL needs to be routed around the east side of downtown to create a downtown loop to provide that downtown distribution capability. 2. Outside of downtown, there are few stations on the rail system that have significant land uses within an easy 5-minute walk of them. Most stations are surrounded by parking lots, are in old industrial areas, next to busy freight railroad tracks, or are in such bad neighborhoods that the once-significant land uses that had surrounded them are gone. This is why I keep harping on RTA and others to relocate rail lines (such as the Red Line in the Opportunity Corridor Boulevard) and to make Transit Oriented Development a much greater priority -- not just with a little project here or there, but by hiring at least one full-time staffperson dedicated to overseeing its TOD mission and by marketing the full weight of RTA's sales-tax/bonding authority to developers as a draw to get them to build vertically around stations. Without these, who's going to want to build more rail transit in this town when the examples we have are performing so poorly? They they create such skepticism and fail to inspire leaders in communities not served by rail to stand up and say "I want that too!" Instead, they say "why should I want another white elephant?" Fix the rail lines we have and we will see a groundswell for more rail lines throughout the metro area. I will bet my life on it. Now back to the Lighthouse Landing discussion.....

^ Glad to hear we have more converts! I suspect you had just a little something to do with that?

^ The Gulf Coast better pray they don't get hit again before those barrier islands can naturally rebuild themselves. Can you imagine what Katrina's 30-foot storm surge would have done to the Gulf Coast if those barrier islands weren't there to take some of the beating? It would be like walking through Baghdad without wearing body armor.

"I think it's a preposterous argument," said Dorgan. "It has to do with the OPEC countries organizing a cartel, larger oil companies and an orgy of speculation." What an ass. OPEC can no longer control oil prices, as they are pumping flat out. Oil companies do not control wholesale prices and their margins haven't changed from the 10 percent profit they desire -- the rest is taxes, distribution and administrative/marketing expenses. As for the speculation, price is set by the market. Yes, there's a premium or a mark-up in bidding for future deliveries due to political instabilities in certain oil-producing nations -- but why is that we now have to rely on them for supplies? It's because we've already grabbed the low-hanging fruit. Thus, the price is set by what the market will bear and demand is the ultimate price-driver and the balancing variable between flat (and possibly declining) supply and rising demand.

As do I. Then I won't try to. I need to hear your lone voice, calling out from the wilderness, so I can refine my teachings and preachings to draw even more from your side, from the darkness of the woods into the light of the city. Let the healing of the huddled masses continue! Back to being serious, and the topic of this subject ... hopefully! 8-)

Wolstein may yet find it within Shaia's project. I think I can spill the beans now, since a letter written by Shaia is sure to have reached its various audiences by now. If they don't open the letter and read about it here first, then that's their problem... Shaia has sent a counteroffer to the port authority with copies to city officials and to Wolstein's people. Instead of asking for more money for his property, Shaia offered to provide additional public parking for the Flats East Bank project while retaining development rights to his own property. As an aside, Tom Starinsky at the HWD said if a fifth level was added to the Lighthouse Landing parking deck, that would avail a total of 250 public parking spaces. And if more parking is desired, a sixth level would increase the total to about 380 spaces. But then you start to eliminate views out the back windows of the residential units on the lower floors, so you probably don't want to go much higher than 5 or 6 parking levels. City officials I've spoken with are very hopeful about Shaia's counteroffer and want Wolstein and Shaia to cooperate. When I heard on Friday about that counteroffer, it was what ultimately convinced me that Shaia is dead serious about his Lighthouse Landings project. That's what people with deep pockets do. The world is their canvas. Always has been. Always will be.

My assistant editor asked me last December if I thought oil would hit $70 per barrel again (as it did when Katrina was pounding the Gulf Coast). I told him it would probably hit $70 sometime between April and June...which caused his eyebrows to raise. He didn't think it would hit that high again and if it did, it wouldn't be so soon. But I wasn't done with my prognosticating... I then said I believed oil would hit $80 per barrel sometime in the period from August to November. Both of those periods are when oil prices typically peak for seasonal demand -- in the spring as the summer driving season approaches and in the late summer/early fall as home heating oil reserves are filled in preparation for the coming winter. None of my so-called clairvoyance includes special circumstances, like a crisis involving Iran, or another devastating hurricane in the Gulf, a terrorist strike against a major oil facility like Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia or some political instability like Hugo Chavez tightening the spigot to piss off George W. If any one of those happens, adjust the price of oil upward by another $10/barrel. Unfortunately, the blame game has begun, with anyone and everyone being blamed but the two people most directly responsible -- you and I.

No apologies needed. Stable farming areas around metro areas can mean less sprawl and thus, stronger cities.

^ Well, let me put it this way: Stark continues to meet, greet and beat the drums for more downtown development with anyone who will listen. As you may know from reading the Cleveland "Pesht" thread, Stark and Tony "TJ" Asher are trying to hash out the gory details on developing the Powerblock in the Warehouse District. The Asher Family doesn't just develop projects (he owns the massive Tyler Village site on Superior in the East 30s). He also owns a ton of parking lots downtown. So here comes Victor Shaia, who owns even more surface parking lots downtown than Asher does -- including lots in the Playhouse Square and Gateway areas. I just learned tonight that, not only are Shaia and Asher partners at playing cards in regional bridge competitions, but they are also brothers in law. And, of course, Stark and Wolstein are buddies from boyhood. Can you see the connections emerging here? Certain city officials do, and they are trying to get all these players to not just play bridge together, but to start building them together (in a manner of speaking!). These four guys (and possibly others) could become the movers and shakers for downtown for a number of years to come, assuming good health persists for them and the economy. It will be interesting to watch.

Thanks for the info Rob. I found this quoting of Thomas Edison, who spoke of the folly of relying on internal combustion engines for converting stored energy into motion. Instead, Edison was an advocate of alternative energy sources like solar energy, wind energy etc. Just an interesting piece which gives a peek into the mind of the great genius. He was way ahead of his time..... http://www.energybulletin.net/14927.html Published on 1 Jan 1970 by Roycrofters (via Proj. Gutenberg). Archived on 14 Apr 2006. Edison on renewables by Elbert Hubbard Source: Interview in Elbert Hubbard's Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great (Vol. 1 of 14), now in the public domain and available from Project Gutenberg. The interview apparently took place in 1910. The original has much more on Edison. For the full article, visit http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12933/12933-h/12933-h.htm#THOMAS_A_EDISON

For RTA, it would've been much better had they caught the suspect -- like the guy who recently molested the woman waiting at the East 55th station. RTA cops were all over that one. With this trolley stabber still on the loose, that creates a bigger worry for potential riders.

To the best of my abilities, which means writing about it -- here and in the newspapers. While I do champion return-to-the-city movements, I don't "champion" peak oil any more than I champion the sun passing the middle of the sky. But I do encourage people to understand why it is happening and how we can best cope with it. The question is, why aren't you championing the return-to-city movement? I still haven't figured out why you're here....