KJP

I hope there at least was a hot babe driving the damn bus

Here's an interesting piece from the Cleveland Heights Historical Society about how the eastern suburbs stopped Albert Porter's plans for three freeways from being built in their area. Plans included a 67-acre freeway interchange to the northwest of Shaker Boulevard and Lee Road. By the way, much of the credit goes to Sun Newspapers for killing the freeways.... http://www.chuh.net/chhistory/features/freeways.html

How about no city. The approaching storm and its predicted impacts on Detroit (if it comes to pass) will be the death-knell for another Super Bowl in the North. How ironic... the region has seen less than 5 inches of snow since before Christmas and one of the warmest Januarys on record. But tomorrow, on Super Bowl Sunday, Detroit looks to get perhaps twice the amount of snow in one day than what they received in the last 40 days or so.

This is partly a shameless bump, and partly motivated by what I saw in a photograph posted at MayDay's www.ClevelandSkyscrapers.com In this photograph, you can clearly see the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Confined Disposal Facility on the north side of Burke Lakefront Airport. This picture was taken in 2004. When I interviewed the project manager for the Corps a few months ago, he noted this CDF site has about seven years capacity remaining and will need another CDF (such as the new port island)... http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/cleveland/cleskyrichardwyner.jpg

Here's a little article... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/feed/2006/02/are_you_an_oil.html Spotting An Oil Addict: A Crude Guide By Emil Steiner In light of President Bush's declaration in the State of the Union address that "America is addicted to oil," here's a list of warning signs that a loved one may have a problem: Keeps saying, "I can stop my SUV anytime I want."

This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest new homes I've seen in a very long time... By the way, visit my photo thread from the Ohio City Home Tour last May and you'll see what some of these places look like, inside and out... http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3513.msg34162#msg34162

I was hoping someone could tell me what they mean. I could always call down there, but dammit, I'm on vacation -- or at least I was! I go back to the ball and chain on Monday..... :bang:

Are those two buildings on either side of 1021 Euclid new, or are they merely new facades on old buildings? I ask because most of the older buildings (pre-1920) are in the 4-10 story range, and the only time you see one of them demolished is either for a parking lot or a much larger building. You usually don't see a new building that's similar in size to the older buildings in the area. If they are merely new facades, I would hope the developer strips the facades and either refurbishes what's underneath, or restores it as close to its original style as possible.

Note the second item on next week's agenda.... _______________ CLEVELAND -- The Board of Trustees of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) will meet in Committee at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at RTA's Main Office, 1240 W. Sixth St. Planning & Development Committee • Euclid Corridor Transportation Project: Update on project design, construction and real estate activities. • Joint Development: Discuss potential joint development projects near rail stations at West 25th St. in Ohio City, and Windermere in East Cleveland.

^ You're fired.

Yet that project carries something like a $50 million price tag (at least that's the ODOT contribution). I suspect the total cost may be double that. Even so, there's another $650 million out there. OK, so Battery Park is about $100 million. Gordon Square Homes is $16 million. The Zone Recreation Center is a big chunk of money, though I can't remember how much ($10 million? $20 million?). And we're not even half-way there.... Well I'm stumped!

It's a huge figure. What in the world can be included in all of that? Does the Shoreway's reconstruction figure into that?

The following is from LightRailNow!, and has links to more information about the new Music City Star commuter rail service that started operations this summer... http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_nsh_2005-01.htm Nashville: Bargain-Priced Regional "Commuter" Rail Starter Line Project Under Way Light Rail Now! Publication Team • January 2005 More and more US cities are finding various forms of regional passenger rail – so-called "commuter rail – a viable option, under the right circumstances, for introducing rail transit service on a relatively low budget ... and Nashville, Tennessee is a case in point. Beginning this past November, workers started re-laying about 80,000 feet of track as part of the rehabilitation and infrastructure improvements needed to implement a 32-mile, Nashville-to-Lebanon "commuter rail" line. More trackwork is expected to take place within the next two months.

That's what happens when you have shit-kickin' nitpickin' fearin' God like the dickens hicks running the State House.

A front porch (or two, up and down, like in traditional Cleveland style) would do wonders for these places. I wonder why more new housing doesn't incorporate this traditional design?

We also have I-480 connecting east and west in Cleveland, but that road and I-90 are still too recent to overcome the nearly 200 years of this east-west rivalry. Plus, Greater Clevelanders usually don't travel too far from home for work etc. so they don't tend venture far from home. You wont see many people commuting much amongst the quadrants of the city -- west, southwest, southeast, northeast. If you live in Berea or Strongsville, you probably aren't working in Westlake or Rocky River. If you live in Mentor or Willoughby, you probably aren't commuting to Solon or Bedford. I think I read somewhere that the average commuting distance in Greater Cleveland is just eight miles. People here tend to live close to where they work, so the chances of them crossing the "Great Divide" of the Cuyahoga Valley is pretty small -- save for entering downtown or going to the airport.

A TEST IN CREATIVITY AND SKILL: SITE IN ST. LOUIS CHOSEN FOR 2006 ULI GERALD D. HINES STUDENT URBAN DESIGN COMPETITION For more information, call Trisha Riggs at 202/624-7086 or 703/927-5357; or email: [email protected] WASHINGTON (January 31, 2006) -- A 102-acre parcel in the city of St. Louis has been chosen as the site for the fourth annual ULI (Urban Land Institute) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, an ideas competition for university students created to honor the legacy of urban development pioneer Gerald D. Hines, chairman of the Hines real estate organization and a former laureate of the Urban Land Institute J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The competition, now underway, is open to graduate students who are pursuing real estate-related studies at a North American university, including programs in real estate development, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture. Through the competition, interdisciplinary teams of students have been challenged to offer a practical, workable scheme for the design and development of a 102-acre parcel that spans the proposed Chouteau Greenway. The parcel would act as a bridge connecting the northern and southern edges of Saint Louis University, serving the university's neighborhood as a point of entry into the greenway system, and to the multimodal transportation corridor that parallels the greenway. Each team is required to design a master plan for the site and supply financial projections to support the master development plan. A $50,000 prize will be awarded to the winning team; and an additional $30,000 will be split among the remaining finalist teams. This year, applications were submitted from 93 teams comprised of more than 450 students representing 30 universities in the U.S. and Canada. The ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition strives to encourage cooperation and teamwork -- necessary talents in the planning, design and development of great places -- among future land use professionals and allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, psychology and law. "This competition aims to give the next generation a better understanding of the challenges involved in urban design, and how the different elements -- such as various land uses, public areas, and traffic patterns -- all interact to influence how urban areas grow," said competition jury chairman John Bucksbaum, chief executive officer, General Growth Properties, Inc., in Chicago. "It's a major part of ULI's ongoing effort to draw the best and brightest young minds to our industry." The location of the 2006 competition site intersects with part of the proposed Chouteau Greenway, a development project spearheaded by McCormack Baron Salazar in St. Louis on behalf of a coalition of public and private sponsors in the city. It involves creating a greenway from Memorial Park on the Mississippi River westward to the city's 1,300-acre Forest Park, over a course set to include 195 acres of public space and 2,000 acres of mixed-use redeveloped space adjoining the greenway. The potential for the Chouteau project to become a major city asset was initially recognized by Richard D. Baron, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of McCormack Baron Salazar, and, like Hines, a former laureate of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize. "We are most excited that the ULI Hines competition has selected the Chouteau Lake and Greenway site and anticipate that the work product of these outstanding students will provide a great addition to the work that has already been done over the past few years," Baron said. The Chouteau Greenway is being developed as a $400-million public-purpose project expected to include up to 10,000 units of housing along and adjoining its entire length upon completion, anticipated in seven years. The actual greenway will parallel existing railroad tracks and Interstate 64, which lead downtown and traverse several established neighborhoods. The Midtown neighborhood, centered along Grand Boulevard, contains the competition site, a light industrial zone along the boulevard that borders both the northern and southern sections of Saint Louis University's campus. The development challenge is to propose a series of projects that will connect the two portions of the campus, taking advantage of existing transit access points, and creating one of many entry points to the regional greenway system. In addition, students are charged with the task of connecting the university and various neighborhood institutions to proposed new residential and mixed-use developments, essentially weaving new and old developments to create a thriving neighborhood. "Saint Louis University has worked diligently to create a lush, urban campus, so we welcome the opportunity to be part of this prestigious design competition," said Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J. "Personally, as someone deeply committed to urban redevelopment, I am very eager to see the innovative designs created by this new generation of urban planners and architects." The ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition has been funded in perpetuity through a $3 million endowment from Gerald Hines. A legend in the land use industry, he is widely known as a leader who pioneered the use of high-quality planning and architecture as a marketable feature of development in office, residential and mixed-use projects. "Real estate development is a very exciting, imaginative field. It involves many disciplines and interaction with so many parts of our world - finance, politics, science, psychology -- it affects the lives of so many people," Hines said. "Through this competition, we are raising awareness among the students of the key role high-quality urban design plays in creating not just beautiful buildings, but whole living environments." Teams have received project briefing materials, including a comprehensive problem statement; background information on the site; market information; relevant existing design proposals; and other details, along with a list of requirements for team presentations. The competition is designed as an exercise; there is no guarantee nor intention that the students' plans will be implemented as part of any revitalization of the site. Four finalist teams and up to four honorable mentions will be named on February 27, 2006. In the final stage of the competition, the student finalist teams will have the opportunity to expand their original schemes and respond in more detail. During this time, a member of each team will be brought to St. Louis, and they will have the opportunity to tour the site and revise their presentations. On March 31, 2006, finalist team members will present their schemes to the competition jury members during a public forum at SLU. The event will culminate with the announcement of the winning team. Led by John Bucksbaum as chairman, the competition jury consists of renowned experts in urban development, planning and design: Denise A. Gammon, senior vice president, Forest City Development, Denver; Bill Hanway, managing principal, EDAW, Inc., London; Mark W. Johnson, president, Civitas, Inc., Denver; former Pittsburgh Mayor Thomas J. Murphy, Jr.; E. Staman Ogilvie, executive vice president, Hines Interests Limited Partnership, Houston; Evan Rose, principal, SMWM, San Francisco; and Thomas L. Safran, owner and president, Thomas Safran & Associates, Los Angeles. The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide responsible leadership in the use of land in order to enhance the total environment. Each year, the Institute recognizes extraordinary achievement in urban design and community building through the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. The prize, awarded to Hines in 2002 and to Baron in 2004, honors legendary Kansas City, Missouri, developer Jesse Clyde Nichols, a founding ULI member. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 28,500 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. For more information on the ULI Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition, visit www.udcompetition.uli.org. ###

True, and not every one wants a family when they get older, either. I have several coworkers who have been married (obviously not all to each other!) for number of years and have no desire to raise a family. He is considering buying a live-work unit in Cleveland's Chinatown with his wife of 15 years.

Since only one out of four households in this nation have school-age children, the issue of making the city more family-friendly is pretty overblown. Think about how many people at your workplace have school-age children (a better sampling can be had if you work in a large office, of course). Market your city first to those who can move without fear of the schools (even then that can be overblown, as there are some terrific magnet, parochial and charter schools in Cleveland). You repopulate and stabilize the city, provide jobs for parents, opportunities for more community activism and serve as better examples for young people. The learning environment is likely to improve as well. Off subject, but you folks are killing me in your use of the word "intercity" -- "Intercity" refers to something that is between two cities (eg. "intercity bus service"). "Innercity" is something that is near the center of the city (eg. "an innercity neighborhood"). And, in the interest of prevention, the opposite of "intercity" is "intracity" meaning something that exists entirely within a city (eg. "an intracity rail service"). So endeth the lesson!

Yep. When I lived in Bainbridge, very few people could say they were born there. Most came from the east-side heights areas (Shaker, Mayfield, etc.). We moved from Highland Heights (and my parents moved to Highland Heights from Shaker Heights and East Cleveland). They and my neighbors still considered themselves east-siders, as did I.

Cantonese, thanks for the information. I wasn't aware Amtrak bought the old station shortly before its demolition. That's a shame Amtrak couldn't wait (or put up a temporary shelter) for a little while to see what the city could do to upgrade the station.

But even if you live in the suburbs, you're still either on the west side or east side. And that goes for places like Independence or Seven Hills. Yeah, they're south of downtown. But the river is the defining geographical barrier, so those areas are "west side"!! :box:

^ Go to a railroad flea market some time. I saw two guys at one of these argue over whether a locomotive whistle was actually from a steamboat or not! Very sad...

Cantonese, The Broadway and Capitol Limiteds weren't rerouted out of Canton (and the other cities on the former PRR main via Crestline, Lima or Fort Wayne) because of a station issue in one city in the 1970s. In 1989, Conrail wanted to downgrade its Fort Wayne Line by deactivating the lineside signaling system, and turn it into a 49-mph, Form-D radio-dispatched route. That meant Amtrak could no longer operate at competitive speeds on the Fort Wayne Line. Amtrak held its trackage rights agreement over Conrail, which specificied certain operating conditions had to be maintained. Conrail countered they would pay Amtrak's capital costs to reroute their trains over other routes across across northern Ohio and Indiana. In November 1990, the Capitol Limited was rerouted over Conrail through Cleveland and Toledo and the Broadway Limited over CSX via Youngstown, Akron and Fostoria. That's what ended service to Canton. I'm not sure about the other part, however. I don't think Amtrak ever owned the former PRR station. I suspect that was owned either by Conrail or Penn Central's real estate division, which continues to this day, even after Conrail absorbed P-C's railroad operations in 1976. I suspect Conrail (or P-C) likely demolished the PRR station because it became a financially liability. Conrail had a nasty reputation of demolishing beloved stations when people weren't looking. I recall the story of how the Aurora, Ohio station almost got razed. The city had a pending application to buy it so it could renovate it, but Conrail wanted it demolished. A Conrail bulldozer showed up in the middle of the night, but a neighbor heard it being unloaded. That neighbor knew the mayor, called him and told him what was happening. The mayor rushed over with the police and ordered the bulldozer operator to shut it down.

I was saving this story for the right moment in this string, and responding to StrapHanger's message seemed as good a time as any.... A few years ago, I was getting on the elevator in my building here in Lakewood. A black woman was buzzed into the building by someone and she didn't seem to know her way around. I figured she was a new resident, so I wanted to make her feel at home: "Are you new here?" I asked. "No. I'm just visiting," she said. "Oh, well welcome anyway." "Thanks. It's my first time over here," said said. "Where, here in the building?" I asked. "No. On the West Side." The woman was probably in her 50s.