KJP

Interesting.

You won't see any rail extensions anytime soon. RTA is beset with high (and rising) operating costs, to the point that it has their staff scared. Plus, there is a pre-disposition at RTA that rail always costs more than bus, which obviously isn't the case in high-density traffic situations. They will argue we don't have high-density transit traffic -- which bolsters the case for TOD to create the traffic. Unfortunately, while RTA says TOD is a priority, their actions show it clearly is not. There are zero staff persons dedicated to TOD activities. RTA has only two staff persons who do undertake TOD, but have other planning duties as well. So, the short answer is that you won't see rail expansions for many years. Even the concept of consolidating two rail routes into the median of the Opportunity Corridor is getting a cold shoulder at RTA, due to a kneejerk reaction against rail, prompted by their fear of rising operating costs (even though the rail consolidation would certainly reduce operating costs!). It's not a good time to be a rail advocate in Cleveland.

This was on MetroNetworks.... City Council Frees Money For Flats, East 4th Projects 11-29-2005 9:09 AM (Cleveland, OH) -- Projects to improve The Flats and the East Fourth Street corridor will move forward. Cleveland City Council approved the release of six-million-dollars to help fund building projects in those neighborhoods. Council members had to rewrite an earlier ordinance that left only two-million-dollars available. Housing and shops will be built on the east bank of The Flats, while a bowling alley is under construction on East Fourth. ######

Yes. But, they've had less than one day to chew on it. I believe the utilities you speak of is an RTA substation. For any of this happen, ODOT has to get the city's OK first. But the city won't push for something like this if RTA isn't. Thus, RTA must be the first public entity to embrace it (of course, some nudging by affected CDCs couldn't hurt!).

Dan has made arguments against trains in highway medians that I've also made before. Besides, we have so many abandoned rail rights of way, I don't think we need highway medians for tracks. In other cases, a number of still-active mainline railroads used to have more tracks than they do now, such as the former New York Central mainline through Cleveland, which was four tracks east to New York City and three to four tracks west to Chicago. You have the abandoned Erie/Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad from Cleveland through Aurora to Warren, Youngstown, New Castle and then on to Pittsburgh, or if you want, revive the Lake Erie & Eastern which is now a bike path south of Bedford and Hudson to Ravenna, then take another abandoned Erie mainline from Ravenna to Warren. See what I mean? There's lots of opportunities to reactivate old railroad lines, and perhaps in some cases, if we wanted 150-mph Acela-type trains or 190-mph TGV-style trains, we could build on a mix of new cross-country alignments, on old railroad alignments or even next to existing highways. But, whatever happens, these lines must go into downtowns, since pedestrian acess to high-density land uses is essential to the success of high-speed rail. Maybe someday. Of course, I could always move to Europe. Maybe after my parents have left this Earth.

By gosh, you're right! I just found a City of Cleveland neighborhoods map which calls the affected area part of the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood -- the southern border of which is Clark Avenue. The Stockyards neighborhood, according to the map, shows its northern edge at Clark, it's eastern edge at about West 49th, southern edge at Big Creek, and western at Ridge/West 73rd. It also includes the West Park Cemetery.

Begin rant... I hate those bastards in the Bush Administration. They are going to get their wish in killing off Amtrak with nothing on the ready track to replace it. Part of me wants to see peak oil arrive earlier and abruptly, rather than later and gradually, so that this oil-addicted country will realize just how short-sighted it has been on this and other issues. Apparently the devastation of our inner cities, isolation of the urban poor and our awful environmental record wasn't bad enough for them. Not until it starts hitting the corporate elite in the pocketbook might our leaders see the folly of putting all our transportation eggs in one basket. And, then again, maybe it will take a revolution by the former middle class.... Rant is complete. I feel a little better now.

Yes. ODOT proposes having the boulevard head straight east from I-490 at East 55th, which would requiring demolishing numerous homes on the east side of East 55th. In my first diagram, I have the boulevard veering a bit northeast, starting on the west side of East 55th to avoid as many demolitions as possible. However, that brings the boulevard closer to the rail station, but opens up some land on the southwest corner of the I-490/East 55th intersection for development. There are going to be some trade-offs.....

Potentially, there may be no impacts to recent/ongoing station projects. The only two stations that are affected by the realignment are the East 79th stations on both the Red Line and the Blue/Green Lines. To my knowledge, there is no active planning underway for renovating either. The most recent project is the new East 105th/Quincy station, which would be left in place under the scenario I proposed above. However, if the Red Line were continued in the middle of the new boulevard until the boulevard turns north onto East 105th, then that new station would have to be relocated. Instead, I turned the Red Line toward its old alignment before reaching Quincy/East 105th, but that could eliminate (or complicate) a potential development site. The East 55th Station renovation also wouldn't be touched since there is no need to realign the rail lines anywhere near the Central Rail Facility -- which would be hugely expensive to attempt anyway! Nor would I suggest relocating the East 93rd/Woodhill station on the Blue/Green lines in order to potentially save money. But if the acquisition of properties and the demolition of structures on the south side of Buckeye Road proves too expensive or controversial, then the rail line could stay on Buckeye at a low elevation as the lanes for Buckeye rise up the hill on either side of the rail line. In that case, the station might have to be relocated to the east side of East 93rd, between the lanes of Shaker Boulevard. But I'm not aware of major renovation plans for this station, either.

^What's the big deal? It's always that warm in Cleveland in November! :jo:

The area is quite poor, income-wise, and as I write the police news for that area, I've noticed an awful lot of drug arrests lately in the West 65th/Storer area. Of course, there's an upside to that, in terms of the police making a concerted effort to rein in the drug trade. They've been using a lot of undercover officers to make drug buys and arrests to hopefully get some of the drug dealers off the streets and scare off the rest.

If the following were implemented (see maps below), it could save RTA operating and maintenance costs by: 1. having the Red, Blue and Green lines share more right of way, thus reducing the track-miles and overhead catenary wires/structures that need to be maintained; 2. exchanging two or possibly three bi-level stations (with their escalators, stairs, more substantial structures, etc) with single-level stations; 3. eliminating the need to maintain substantial bridge structures on the Blue/Green lines between East 55th and East 93rd; 4. Only two existing stations, the East 79th stations on both the Red and Blue/Green lines, would need to be closed, replaced by one new, single-level station at the intersection of East 79th and the new boulevard. Plus, RTA should gain new ridership with: 1. safer, more visible station locations (rather than the existing Red Line stations in the railroad trench); 2. improved access for transit riders to existing and potential residential and employment locations "across the street" from, and at the same elevation of the new Red/Blue/Green line; 3. easier/faster to travel by rail between Shaker Heights and University Circle by bringing the transfer point a total of three miles closer to their point of origin/destination; 4. potentially massive TOD opportunies in the vicinity of Buckeye/East 90th as well as along and near East 79th Street; OK, here's the maps from west to east..... Frankly, my concern is that if the existing rail transit lines (especially the Red Line) are not rerouted down the Opportunity Corridor, they will be considered redundant to potential bus services that would use the Opportunity Corridor. Then, some in this town will rationalize that the rail lines are no longer needed. I'd rather see our rail services strengthened than be marginalized.

Maybe not, but it would allow them to tap federal transit funds to pay for some infrastructure while keeping more of their precious federal highway funds for other projects.

I mentioned to Joe Cimperman the idea of putting the Red Line down the middle of the Opportunity Corridor. Getting the Red Line out of that trench would provide people at stations in that area a greater sense of visibility and security while giving better access to new job sites. His response was that that sort of inclusive thinking is needed for projects of this type. We'll see how inclusive ODOT's thinking is.

Brian wrote that article before he left Sun a little more than a week ago. There now is no full-time Lakewood reporter for Sun.

I find it interesting that Sam Miller had an association with mobster Shondor Birns. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering his wife Ruth was good friends with the late Mafia capo Tony Liberatore. Now, I'm not saying that Forest City is mobbed up. But they do have a mobster's bullying approach when it comes to doing business in this town. I had no idea that Forest City bought Scranton Peninsula as far back as 1988. That's discouraging. Their lack of action on that project, and unwillingness to develop high-rise housing around and in support of Tower City is a pall on this city. What kind of message is Forest City sending to Greater Clevelanders who aren't sure if they want to stay here? Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? By the way, in the news business, we call a series like the PD's on Forest City "fluff and puff" or a "pimp piece" that's either intended to make the bed for more advertising or to curry favor between PD publisher (and expert bully) Alex Machaskee and Sam Miller & Co.

I agree with you generally, but some of those things I don't support -- like taking the streets out of the center of Public Square or building a new convention center. The park site for the Hulett unloaders would be part of the extension of Towpath Trail, and funding was secured for that only a couple of months ago (even then, not all of the funding is in hand for the trail). I think we can have streetcars downtown, but it will take creative financing (like what I proposed in another message) for that to happen. Actually, Chicago's waterfront did evolve over a longer period than 50 years. If a starting point could be targeted, it would be the Columbian Exposition in 1892. It wasn't until the 1960s when their waterfront became a true showplace. Pittsburgh's started in the 1950s, and it's still got a ways to go, what with the riverfront highways that block access. And Pittsburgh is way behind Cleveland when it comes to downtown housing -- most of our formerly vacant historic structures downtown have been renovated (or are underway) into housing or other uses. Pittsburgh has a great many historic structures that remain vacant but would make terrific loft-style housing. And, if you followed Cleveland city government closely (including the CDCs), I think you might be impressed with their recent innovations and progress on basic matters -- addressing complications to: redeveloping abandoned brownfields, removing lien/legal barriers to vacant/foreclosed properties, making live-work spaces legal, creating zoning overlays so that it's not against the law to build mixed-use places similar to Little Italy or the Warehouse District and numerous other basic things that have been left unaddressed for too long.

Thanks!

Cleveland's business leaders can either be agents of change, or barriers to it. Those who are barriers seem to base their views on trends (the past). Those who are change agents seem to look at the region's strengths and seek to build on them. The way I see it, the Forest City's look for places where growth is already occurring and then build. In other words, they wait for the risk-takers to do the heavy lifting, and then they capitalize on it. I think that's pretty weak.

Sounds like the same issues we are facing in Cleveland with the Innerbelt project. In other words, the more expensive options would promote economic development in the core city, while the ODOT-recommended option could cause significant harm to the core. It's time ODOT realizes they don't exist in a vacuum and that their projects don't end at the highways' berms.

Maybe so. But I hate to see anyone leave the Greater Cleveland market. Perhaps they're in the same boat as Forest City Enterprises, which seems to have unrealistically pessimistic views of local business opportunities.

I'm going to hide behind Mr. Good Day's house.

As promised, here's the live-work article, which ran last week (11-17)... </b1>By KEN PRENDERGAST Staff Writer When Tiffany Mosher and Rich Hall moved into their live-work space at a near-downtown warehouse last year, they thought they had found the perfect place. She, an artist, regularly works at home while he, a mechanical engineer, sometimes does. Plus, they love the view of downtown from their roof. Although they knew that they would be living illegally, they didn't realize what that would mean. They aren't alone, as there are more than 300 live-work residents downtown who are also living in buildings not zoned for residential uses.

Did anyone attend the RealNEO event yesterday at the City Club? I couldn't go since Tuesday is deadline day and is my busiest day in the office. I'm interested to hear what happened.

Well now, that's quite a downer!