KJP

Boy, this thread sure trailed off in activity prematurely! I see this as a potential business or similar opportunity, but am having a hard time in getting others interested in it. The way I see it, this business would use advertising to attract interested persons from other cities and our own suburbs, and refer those wanting to "Come Home to Cleveland" to a select list of preferred realtors whom the business deems to be urban savvy. If they buy a home or rent an apartment, then the business gets a referral (standard is about 15% of the realtor's commission). The business would also offer urban relocation expertise and transitional assistance to help customers find an area that's right for them. This can be based on their career/educational activities, transportation accessibility, cultural amenities and provide professional collaboration resources like the 20/30 Club, RealNEO and others. The best part is, such a business venture can be done in our part time (unless we get really busy, which isn't a bad thing either!) and requires little start-up capital. I think this site needs to be a place to spawn some urban-centric business ventures, and not just be a place to share news items or gossip about the goings on. If anything, this "Come Home to Cleveland" concept may be one of those untapped ventures waiting to happen. If you agree, drop me a personal message or just reply on this string.

By the way, Grasscat, I really like your new avatar! I wished I'd thought of using that logo.

I'm amazed there isn't a string here about what has often been touted as the "best band in the land." So, I'm starting one after hearing the Cleveland Orchestra earlier this evening perform selections from the "Lord of the Rings" movie soundtrack. Classical diehards may deride this music as something less than time-tested pieces by composers like Mozart, Vivaldi, Wagner, Rachmaninoff and so many others. I do not claim to be an expert on classical music. Far from it. After all, it has been more than 15 years since I have attended a concert at Severance Hall. I have a few CDs of music by the above-named composers, but my main "classical" music love is for movie scores. And the Lord of the Rings soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard. My sister, who graduated with bachelors degree in music/theater and whose musical opinion I respect, is the real fan of Lord of the Rings. She went to Columbus, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and now Cleveland's Severance Hall to hear orchestras in those cities perform LOTR. I joined her in Pittsburgh for that orchestra's performance. All of these cities have accomplished orchestras. But after tonight, I now understand why the Cleveland Orchestra is so highly touted. The music that poured forth was powerful, hitting you right in the chest. It gave me chills and even caused tears to well up in my eyes a few times. Each section of the orchestra played so well in balance with each other that none dominated the other. After the concert, I said to my sister in my novice voice that the performance sounded almost exactly like the CD. She responded that's a huge compliment, since the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra had the benefit of sound mixers and could record multiple takes until they performed it the way composer Howard Shore wanted it. And, to my knowledge, the Cleveland Orchestra had one dress rehearsal before tonight's LOTR opening. I also asked my sister what she thought of how the Cleveland Orchestra's performance of LOTR compared with the other cities' orchestras. She was impressed with Columbus' and Pittsburgh's orchestras, though Atlanta's was merely OK. When I asked her what she thought of Cleveland's performance, she said with a deep breath "wow!" I asked her to elaborate. "I heard things tonight that I'd never heard before" like various percussive instruments, or the brass and string sections in "perfect balance." That meant a lot to me, considering she knows the LOTR soundtrack backwards and forwards. Coming from her, that's a huge compliment. She also acknowledged some of the sound quality came from the improved accoustics of Severance Hall, which was just renovated for $31 million. I noticed a few musical mistakes, like the young boy soloist sounding a tad nervous or the man performing the "Aragorn solo" with a bit too much vibrato. But those things are often expected on a first night. My sister will be attending the other two LOTR performances (all sold out) this weekend by the Cleveland Orchestra. And, after what I heard tonight, I regret not joining her for at least one more of those. I will, however, make amends for my not going to Severance Hall more often. I will be watching their website for upcoming performances I'd like to hear. In case you're interested, their website is: http://www.clevelandorch.com/html/index.asp

^ Then tell them to turn the air conditioning off.

...Which also includes most of us newspaper reporters! All the more reason for him to be more sensitive to more people.

Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it. Ironically, at noon today, I was at a junk car shop in Old Brooklyn that has strange objects make from junked cars. It's for a story in next week's paper.

^ TMI (too much information)

Awesome stuff. Mind if I pass this along to my partner in crime at the West Side Sun? Or is it too soon?

Here's my optimistic thought about the bridge issue.... "ODOT, go ahead and build your northern alignment, five-lane bridge with breakdown lanes on each side (total of seven equivalent lanes) for westbound traffic only. Go ahead and rebuild the existing bridge for eastbound traffic only to buy you a couple of decades. Just don't undertake your Act II of Downtown Demolition to accommodate your short-sighted ramping/arterials plan. We'll just have to find it in our non-ODOT souls to endure what we've endured for lo' these past 45 years. "Go ahead and build the Opportunity Corridor to take some traffic off the Inner Belt, just as long as you put the Rapid lines down the median of the OC Boulevard so that this project has value to the 56-70 percent of the households that do not have a car in the affected areas. And, so that the OC Boulevard/Rapid consolidation can build pedestrian-oriented, energetic urban neighborhoods along the way. "Once those pieces are in place, tear down the old Inner Belt viaduct. And where does the eastbound traffic go, you ask? Over the Northern Alignment bridge. After all, it's seven lanes wide. If you fine folks at ODOT put a temporary median-barrier down the middle of it, you can offer three lanes in each direction. Won't traffic be a nightmare? It won't be as fun as with five lanes offered in each direction, I'll grant you. But it won't be as bad as it would have been without the Opportunity Corridor. With the Opportunity Corridor boulevard in place, all those downtown commuters who can still afford to be addicted to oil can have a fluid ride over the Inner Belt's Cuyahoga Valley span, even if reduced to three lanes in each direction. No interstates are shut down for two years, as ODOT earlier told us to fear. "So, now you've got the traffic comfortably detoured on other routings and the old bridge removed. What does that give ODOT? A wide-open site to build a new Inner Belt bridge on the southern alignment. The new east-west trafficked bridge can be built starting from where the old one started in Tremont, without demolishing anything more than ODOT already has. "OK, what does ODOT do with the northern alignment bridge that it built? You sell it to the city for $1 to rebuild it as a street arterial from downtown directly into Tremont. That's something Tremont hasn't had since the old Central Viaduct was demolished many decades ago. Ironically, the northern alignment bridge would be situated exactly where the old Central Viaduct was. It was a viaduct that built Tremont then, and can enhance its value in the future. "This wide bridge can be kept to two lanes of traffic so it can have broad pedestrian/biking promenades, with historical displays and features on it like those on the Detroit-Superior Bridge. It could even offer little kiosks where people can get a cold pop in summer or a hot chocolate in winter. And it could have optical viewers to see long distances or show historical pictures to compare with what's there now. So, how do you like that, ODOT? I know, the pedestrian part stinks almost as much as the concept of urban neighborhood enhancements. But give us a moral victory, at least. OK?" Anyway, that's my optimistic view of things.

By the way MGD, I have not sent that graphic to anyone other than posting it here on the forum. I drew the graphic Wednesday night (Feb. 8 ), so I haven't had any time yet to distribute it. But feel free to print it out and attach it to a letter to folks like Councilman Cimperman, Mayor Jackson, RTA's Joe Calabrese, NOACA's Howard Maier and ODOT's John Motl. In fact, if you have a color laser printer, could you save an extra printout for me? I've not been able to afford replacing the toner cartridges in my printer for a long time and it will be a while before I can swing the expense! I know, very pathetic....

^ Yeah, I suspected, but I'm just in a wiggin'-out mood. Lots of little things have not gone well today.

Staff writer Tom Corrigan? Did it really say that? Tom Corrigan quit Sun Newspapers and moved to Seattle last October! I replaced him on the Cleveland beat...

Given the amount of land, I don't see why it all has to become industrial. In fact, the area where Orlando Bakery is would stay industrial and have triple the area of industrial land for them to expand onto under my scenario (that's the brown area to the upper-left of the TOD). There is plenty of land for industrial/commercial AND for high-quality neighborhood uses. With the Opportunity Corridor shaping up as a low-density commercial corridor and the Inner Belt eviscerating the east and south sides of downtown, I sense the city is losing a major opportunity to remake itself. It can become an urbane 21st century community of brains, not braun that was Cleveland's hallmark of first half of the 20th century. And all the mistakes we made in the last half of that century, that eroded a dense and diverse city, are being repeated merely because that modus operandi is familiar to us.

I am a minority in my Gold Coast neighborhood ..... I'm heterosexual

By the way, I called Congressman Kucinich's office today to verify whether he was supporting Mayor Jackson et al regarding ODOT's preference for the northern bridge alignment. His spokesman, Doug Gordon, gave me a half-assed answer after consulting with Kucinich transportation staffer/legal counsel Marty Gelfand back in the district. It was something to the effect of "We will continue to work with Mayor Jackson et al to ensure the best project is developed for the region." When I asked him about ODOT possibly not being above-board in their decision to build the northern bridge alignment, Doug soft-pedaled that one too, saying something that was equally forgettable. I have his response in my notes at work, but when I heard it, I thought "Why in the hell do people keep re-electing your boss?" I know the answer because I've seen it: Kucinich's opposition has been comprised of some of the most pathetic excuses for Congressional candidates I've ever come across. But I digress.... Rant complete.

I've posted the full commentary at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3697.msg76276#msg76276

Feb. 2, 2006 City missing chance to develop prime site Write of Way Ken Prendergast Cleveland would be a much better city if vacant land had a political constituency. Of course, vacant land cannot write letters or make phone calls to elected officials, or attend meetings to make its case as can the stakeholders of occupied land. That difference came to mind during the debate over how the Inner Belt highway (Interstate 90) through downtown Cleveland should be reconstructed. Consider, for example, the question over where to build the “Signature Bridge” across the Cuyahoga Valley. The Ohio Department of Transportation wants to build a westbound-only bridge north of the existing viaduct, bringing it even closer to Jacobs Field. The existing 50-year-old bridge would be renovated to carry eastbound traffic only. To accommodate the northern alignment for the new bridge requires demolishing four homes and four commercial buildings scattered from Tremont to the old Central Viaduct downtown. A fire station and the new Western Reserve Fire Museum will be impacted, but not fatally, by a ramp from Ontario Street being brought to their front doors. The alternative was to put the Signature Bridge for both eastbound and westbound traffic south of the existing viaduct. It would be entirely below street level and designed as an urban highway. No longer would its interchange ramps downtown look like some tentacled, land-gobbling monster transplanted from suburbia. The alternative would open up some 50 acres of prime downtown land for a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood on the southern edge of Jacobs Field. Cuyahoga County officials estimated a development totaling $1 billion could fit there. If vacant land could speak for itself, city officials would be jumping through hoops for it and ODOT might not have rejected the idea. It seems many ODOT officials don’t understand urban design. They argued that vacant land south of the Inner Belt could be developed just as easily. They fail to comprehend how much their Central Interchange dissuades pedestrianism, urbanity and a continuation of human-scale development patterns. At first, ODOT officials rejected the southern alignment because they didn’t want to demolish the Greek Orthodox Church in Tremont. That was disproved. Besides, when ODOT believes they have to take a building, they will make every effort to justify it, as we will later see. Then ODOT officials said the southern alignment would be too expensive, but only because eastbound and westbound traffic would be routed across it. ODOT’s plan throws good money after bad in rebuilding the existing viaduct for eastbound traffic for $50 million, knowing it will have to be replaced in another few decades. ODOT doesn’t include that future cost in its current estimate. Ultimately, ODOT officials resorted to scare tactics, saying if they don’t start the project soon, ODOT risks losing $900 million committed for the project. They also claimed the Inner Belt would have to be closed for two years. I suggested a way around that, posted at http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3697.msg61660#msg61660 on the Web. On Jan. 23, Mayor Frank Jackson, Senator George Voinovich, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Councilman Joe Cimperman met with ODOT brass and signed off on the northern alignment. No southern alignment proponents, including the Cuyahoga County Commissioners, were included to make their case. Thus, the dream appears dead for a walkable, urban neighborhood south of the Gateway district. For decades more will the sprawling pile of concrete spaghetti blight the south side of downtown with its elevated roar and wind-blown trash. What a waste of a wonderful opportunity. But the fight is not over. Threats to occupied buildings, and thus a constituency, remain farther east on the Inner Belt. There, I-90 descends into a trench, with entrance and exit ramps spaced closely together. ODOT plans to reduce the number of ramps and instead add parallel roads next to the highway. ODOT is probably correct that this will reduce the number of fender benders and sideswipes, but the accidents that remain will likely be more catastrophic with higher speeds. Further, ODOT’s highway engineering-only mentality seeks to make the traffic more fluid for traffic passing through downtown on I-90. Never mind that 85 percent of all vehicles on the Inner Belt are downtown-bound. In other words, ODOT is making travel easier for 15 percent of the traffic and tougher for the 85 percent. Worse, consider how many downtown buildings, including an emerging live-work district, will succumb to the wrecking ball if ODOT’s plans for the Inner Belt trench are realized. To gain an appreciation of the scale of this threatened loss, check out this photo essay by Justin Glanville, a Cleveland State University urban planning student, which he posted at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=7101.msg71018#msg71018 on the Internet. Here, Cimperman is fighting the good fight, with the help of affected community development corporations and others. It’s time that ODOT realizes that the “two D’s” — density and diversity — is what makes a city vibrant. Density of development and population energizes a community, as do diversity of buildings, architecture, people and transportation. Instead, ODOT seems to think the two D’s are demolitions and driving. Here’s hoping the city’s approvals process gives ODOT another letter — an F, and sends this project back to the drawing board. ######

But after what I heard about that site being preferred for an industrial park, all of this is probably just academic. It was fun doodling it, though. An industrial park...Another failure of local imagination like the Inner Belt!

That's funny that income list was started at $50,000... Gee, maybe one day my income will be that high. It's not even half that right now. :oops:

The Dual Hub Corridor envisioned the Blue/Green lines heading north from Shaker Boulevard at East 116th, then following Doan Creek/Fairhill/MLK to University Circle. Here's the beauty of running the Rapids down the Opportunity Corridor: 1. the Blue/Green lines stay along Shaker to its westernmost endpoint; 2. it offers a transfer point with the Red Line at Buckeye/OC Blvd to University Circle that involves traveling 3 less miles by rail from Shaker to UC; 3. it opens the possibility of a wye track at the location mentioned in #2 for some westbound Blue or Green line trains to make a right turn and go to University Circle, but that would probably be done only if a "sufficient" number of people are making transfers in the arrangement in #2 I hear a big industrial park is planned for the area where I've proposed the East 79th TOD. Too bad, cuz my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this TOD and another at Buckeye could generate up to 500,000 new rides annually for RTA. And that's a very conservative estimate!

What did you do? Walk to Kinsman or Woodland?

The Harris Poll® #14, February 8, 2006 Americans Would Like to See a Larger Share of Passengers and Freight Going By Rail in Future Safety and energy efficiency seen as top priorities for future of passenger transportation As personal travel and freight transportation grows in the future, the American public would like to see an increasing proportion of that traffic going by rail. Commuter and long-distance trains top the list of nine modes of transportation that adults would like to see "have an increasing share of passenger transportation." When it comes to freight, railroads top the list of six modes of transportation that adults would like to see "have an increasing share of all goods and commodities movements in the United States." These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,961 U.S. adults conducted online by Harris Interactive® between December 8 and 14, 2005. Key findings from this survey include: The modes of transportation which the largest numbers of adults would like to see "have an increasing share of passenger transportation" are: Commuter trains (44%) Long-distance trains (35%) Local bus service (23%), and Airlines (23%) The transportation modes which the smallest numbers of adults would like to see have a bigger share of passenger traffic are: Long-distance bus service (6%) Pedestrian travel (8%) Long-distance travel by car (10%) Local travel by car (11%), and Travel by bicycle (11%) Freight railroads (63%) come far ahead of all other modes that adults would like to see have an increasing share of freight transportation. They are followed by: Air freight (35%), and Trucks (24%) The modes which the smallest numbers of adults would like to see have an increasing share of freight transportation are: Inland barges (8%) Pipelines (13%), and Coastal shipping (17%) Of a list of six possible priorities for the future of passenger transportation, the top priorities chosen by the largest number of adults are: Safety (47%) Energy efficiency (44%), and Cost (29%) Responsibility for the Transportation System This survey also included questions on who should be "mainly responsible for maintaining and improving the transportation system" both, "in your community," and "in the nation as a whole." Overwhelmingly, the public thinks that these are government responsibilities rather than something the private sector should be mainly responsible for. However, the level of government seen as having this responsibility varies greatly for local and national transportation. Specifically: State government (36%) and local government (27%) are seen by the largest numbers of adults as having the main responsibility for "maintaining and improving the transportation in your community." Fewer think that the federal government (16%) or private companies (10%) should have this responsibility. When it comes to the transportation system "in the nation as a whole," two-thirds (68%) of adults believe this should be a responsibility of the federal government. Relatively few see this as the responsibility of state government (13%), local government (2%) or private companies (8%). These results show that for most adults, transportation is a "public good" for which government has the primary responsibility. However, that does not mean that they are opposed to the private sector providing much of the actual transportation; only that they believe that government, not the private sector, should make transportation policy. _______________ The Harris Poll® was conducted online within the United States between December 8 and 14, 2005 among 1,961 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents? propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample. These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

That is a truly bizarre design!

Thought you all might get a kick out of this little graphic I put together. This represents about 215 new single-family homes (in addition to the 50 or so still standing in the area), 630 multi-family units, 50 live-work units, roughly 200,000 square feet of ground-floor retail/restaurants and some 50,000-100,000 square feet of office/medical space. All of this is a very broad brush of course, but I developed this to get a handle on possible ridership from a TOD at East 79th and the Opportunity Corridor. Consider that about 20 percent of TOD residents and visitors typically use transit each day. My guesstimate is that the ridership at this station would be about 700 transit trips per day, or approximately 255,000 additional transit trips per year. (By the way, I envision the joint Rapid-NEOrail station would a part-time station, since NEOrail commuter trains would likely operate rush-hours only, at least for the foreseeable future, so having two stations so close together wouldn't slow down Rapids all day). But, a single station might be considered, between East 79th and the NEOrail route (which are 1,750 feet apart at that latitude).

And that was just their town home. Their country home is in Hunting Valley and called Daisy Hill, with its estate divided up into multiple properties with expensive homes built on them, too. By the way, here's the most/least expensive in Lakewood, which has different districts and neighborhoods (Gold Coast, Birdtown, Madison Village, Clifton Park, downtown, West End) but all have the same zip code. Given this diversity, I'll post the most/least expensive for multi-family and single-family residences. MULTI-FAMILY Least expensive 14567 Madison Ave Unit: 213 Lakewood, OH 44107 MLS ID#: 2252083 $24,900 1 Bed, 1 Bath 560 Sq. Ft. _________________________ Most expensive 12550 LAKE AVE. Unit: 1711 LAKEWOOD, OH 44107 MLS ID#: 2257086 $1,095,000 3 Bed, 3.5 Bath 4,983 Sq. Ft. http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1054118543?lnksrc=00045 NOTE: on the ground-floor of this building is an apartment-style condo that sells for $59,900--the same as the two least expensive single-family homes seen below... _________________________ SINGLE-FAMILY Least expensive (tie) 2219 ALGER ROAD LAKEWOOD, OH 44107 MLS ID#: 2253129 $59,900 2 Bed, 1 Bath 875 Sq. Ft. 0.11 Acres _________________________ Least expensive (tie2) 12217 Plover St Lakewood, OH 44107 MLS ID#: 2264003 $59,900 2 Bed, 1 Bath 1,048 Sq. Ft. 0.07 Acres _________________________ Most expensive 17869 LAKE RD LAKEWOOD, OH 44107 MLS ID#: 2256780 $890,000 6 Bed, 2.5 Bath 1.14 Acres