KJP

No, the arch was temporary (lasted for the three-day celebration), as was the much larger one built for city's centennial in 1896. The lamps in the picture with the arch are likely gas lamps, as Charles Brush didn't demonstrate the outdoor electric arc light until eight years later, on April 29, 1879. Do I get 1,000 points? KJP

Yes, that's the Midtown Tech Center. John Ferchill is developing it. The Midtown masterplan is still "under construction" as is the TOD zoning code. I got the impression they were further along with the latter, as the former is the more complicated, politicized part. But when the TOD zoning code goes to Cleveland City Council for possible adoption, that's when the politics will surely come into play. Hopefully council won't water it down. Sorry about the bum steer on the meeting this evening. The Inner Belt public meeting is next Thursday, Jan. 20! I hope to see you then. KJP

What I question is that the RTA Board has made TOD one of its 10 priorities in its long-range plan, but RTA has only two staffpersons who have TOD as one of their many planning responsibilities (three if you count RTA architect John Goodworth). If RTA is serious about TOD as a priority, they need to hire at least one, preferably two staffpersons to carry out this mission. I would think that RTA could front the cost of hiring two people to handle TOD projects, but that these staffers could pay for themselves over the long run, as most development and ridership revenues come in. By the way, the two TOD articles were published in the West Side Sun News today in their entirety, with four of the five submitted illustrations included. You can find copies of the paper at the Tower City newstand next to the Renaissance Hotel, the Amtrak station, or at convenience stores from Ohio City to West Park. KJP

Below is what was proposed in 1990 to fill that hole along Ontario at Huron. And, the picture below that is self-explanatory (also from 1990). KJP

That's the problem: lack of anything around the station for it to connect to. It's not TOD, but the construction of the parking garages is a step in the right direction for RTA. Now if only RTA could program the gates at the parking deck to spit out an all-day transit pass as a proof-of-payment for the parking deck, so that someone doesn't have to pay twice -- to ride the Rapid and park their car. KJP

Go the public meeting on Thursday in Tremont and tell ODOT you want it (see my message at the top of this string). These meetings could be the last opportunity to make it happen, as the Inner Belt project will go to final engineering later this year. ODOT may even claim it's too late to change the planning as the alternatives analysis is done, but until ODOT starts letting contracts for construction, it's never too late. Would they actually turn their back on $90 million to $150 million from selling the land if such a new idea suddenly came along? We'll see, but only if enough people start making noise about it. KJP

Probably. But how often do they run and how late into the evening? Do they go right up to the front doors of the mall or, as often happens, serve the mall from the nearest busy street which is on the other side of a huge parking lot that's not safe or attractive for pedestrians? That's the case at Legacy Village, but not at Crocker Park where the buses go right down Main Street in the middle of the development. It's pretty interesting to see the 50-foot buses negotiate those narrow streets, but the smaller Community Circulators do a lot better. Mall owners say they don't want the buses on their properties because of the damage they can do to the asphalt pavement. But many contend there's racism/elitism at work in that anti-bus thinking. KJP

Board RTA #32 bus at Legacy Village (runs every 15 minutes during rush hours, 30 minutes off-peak; first bus is 4:30 a.m., last bus is midnight); Transfer to RTA #66X Rapid at University Circle Station (runs every 15 minutes, from 3:44 a.m. to 12:12 a.m. from UC); Transfer to RTA #46 bus at Triskett Station (runs every 30 minutes during rush hours - 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., with evening service every hour until 10 p.m. Midday service provided by the #808 Community Circulator every hour from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. to the Westgate Transit Center where transfers can be made to the 22, 55, 326 and other routes to reach the Rapid or go downtown). Total travel time from Legacy Village to Crocker Park for the 32-66-46 routes, with maximums allowed for just-missed connections, is one hour, 23 minutes -- not bad considering it's a 30-mile crosstown trip. :wink2: KJP

While the idea for the new Cuyahoga Valley viaduct was proposed by the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission a year ago, the proposal for incorporating that into removing/realigning the Central Interchange to create a huge redevelopment zone was advanced only in the past week. So, it's too soon to say how the local politicos feel about it yet. As for the other features -- better/fewer ramps and a more gradual Dead Man's Curve -- are likely to be recommended for final engineering. KJP

Maybe I could take a light-rail train there? Oh wait, I can't -- it's COWLUMBUS! :finger: KJP

While the first of two Sun Newspapers articles in the TOD series was posted at the top of this string, both articles with graphics can be downloaded at: http://members.cox.net/corridorscampaign/SUN_TOD_2005.pdf (a 244K download) KJP

Check out this idea for realigning the Inner Belt, including a beautiful new Cuyahoga Valley viaduct, to add millions of square feet of developable land for downtown Cleveland.... http://members.cox.net/corridorscampaign/Inner%20Belt%20presentation.pdf (707K download) If you like this idea, make your voice heard this Thursday at a public open house, which you can visit at any time between 4:30-8:30 PM Thursday, January 20, 2005 at the Greek Orthodox Church of Annunciation located at 2187 West 14th Street in Tremont. It is accessible by RTA routes, 23, 81 & 807. Or, you can attend the next Inner Belt Advisory Committee Meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday February 24, 2005, to be held at the NOACA offices, 1299 Superior Ave. downtown. For more information, contact ODOT's Craig Hebebebrand (216) 581-2100. KJP

The Great Depression didn't sink to its worst until 1933, and buildings like the Terminal Tower were proposed in the late teens, with construction starting in the early to mid 1920s when the economy was humming along. One can only imagine what Ohio skylines would look like if the Great Depression hadn't happened. In Cleveland, it wasn't until the late 1950s before another 20+ story building went up (The Illuminating Co. building), and by then, architectural philosophies had taken a turn for the boring. KJP

Part of the reason the industrial sector in Cleveland is declining is because there's little land to retain businesses seeking to expand. This is a site that's ideally suited for manufacturing. Problem is, Cleveland doesn't yet have a city-wide development masterplan backed by a zoning code that hasn't been updated in decades, nor a revolving loan fund to assist in land assembly, environmental remediation, etc. Given the lack of the above, the city didn't have much of a say in where desperately needed inner-city retail should go, nor did the developer have meaningful options of where else to put a retail complex. All that being said, since half of all Cleveland households do not have a car (and those that do often have only one), I hope RTA will reroute some nearby bus lines to serve Steelyard Commons, so that inner city residents can shop there. But I suspect the huge parking lot will be larger than it needs to be, and fear it will become a trash-strewn, windswept eyesore. KJP

I noticed a transmitter in one of those pictures. Is that part of their facility? If so, I wonder what science they're going to beam out to their followers? And why did they choose Greater Cincinnati? I apologize if this has already been asked/answered but I didn't see it in the other messages, if it has. KJP

That's disgusting. On a lighter note, if we dropped ourselves down into each of those red or yellow areas, I doubt we'd be able tell one from the other -- certainly not enough to realize where we are. KJP

Possibly, by putting a measure only on the city of Cincinnati's ballot, where the last measure actually passed. That would mean building it only within the city limits. Perhaps if light-rail were built in Cincinnati-proper, other surrounding communities would adopt a me-too attitude. That's how Cleveland's Red Line got built, when West Siders wanted their own rail line (the route they selected left much to be desired, however). KJP

Unfortunately, the Midwest High Speed Rail Association doesn't have enough money for an advertising campaign. MHSRA has issued press releases, however, but I haven't seen the media pick up on them yet. If you would like to support MHSRA, join them by visiting http://www.midwesthsr.org/ -- and if you do join, please tell them you heard it from Ken Prendergast, as that will keep 85% of your financial support in Ohio to promote rail here! The remaining 15% will go toward administrative support at their Chicago office. KJP

Consider State Route 43, which parallels the rail line between Cleveland (from near East 93rd) east to Aurora. East of there, Pioneer Trail Road and State Route 82 parallel the rail line all the way into Warren (Leavittsburg, actually). For the Cleveland portion of SR43, does Miles Road need to be as wide as it is? Or can it be narrowed somewhat to have a dedicated bike lane cordoned off with those concrete parking "curbs" or whatever they're called that you see at places along the Metroparks' roads? As a cyclist, I would feel safer biking around people, rather than along an isolated rail line that runs behind businesses. Farther east, a bike path could easily be built next to the rail line through North Randall and Bedford Heights, where the old North Randall rail yard used to be. It's plenty wide through there and would avoid the deviations that SR 43 takes in that area (plus having to cross busy roads). Once you get to Solon, the bike path could return to SR 43. It could be built next to the road, which has an easement for widening it to four or five lanes (if you have commuter rail, you may not need to widen the road!). See SR 91 in Mayfield Village and Willoughby Hills for a good example of a bike path along a state road. East of Aurora, using Pioneer Trail Road might make sense as it is a lightly used road and would bring you into Mantua. From there, the trail could use the abandoned portion of the rail line to hook up with the existing trail that links Hiram and Garrettsville. While commuter rail wouldn't likely extend that far out, high-speed rail would, but might need a new right of way since the old Erie-Lackawanna corridor is very curvacious here. East of Garrettsville, return the Western Reserve Trail next to SR 82 for the rest of the distance into Leavittsburg. Between Leavittsburg and Youngstown, there are multiple abandoned railroad rights of way for both the bike path and high-speed rail. I just would like both the rail and the trail interests to coexist so that neither squeezes the other out. With the "peak" in Peak Oil forecast to occur in the next 0-30 years, we need to make smart choices rather than take the path of least resistance (literally!) that fail to take into account long-term repercussions. KJP

Punch & X, I think you're correct, that industrial TOD would be difficult, since the current trend in manufacturing is to have a single-level plant for the ease of movement of goods and materials within the structure. However, technology parks and incubators are another matter. I alluded to this in my article, in which Midtown Development Corp. and the Ferchill Group are redeveloping a building on Euclid Avenue near East 55th with the Euclid Transitway in mind, and more facilities like this are part of Midtown's masterplan, including live-work spaces. I wish I could have gotten into more detail in my article about their exciting plans, but the article was huge enough as it was. There also is an effort to redevelop a former industrial site at the East 79th Rapid station on the Red Line, but I'm concerned that this is being considered in a non-TOD manner that will not lend itself to transit usage. I hope I'm wrong. And, like you both said, there may not be much that can be done to develop transit-friendly industrial locations. I think the Pierre ice cream plant on Euclid Avenue is an example of what not to do with industrial plants. At least it could have been built next to Euclid to better facilitate pedestrian access. KJP

Technically, the E-L service wasn't a true commuter rail service since it didn't offer weekly or monthly "commutation" discounts or passes. And, on that score, no railroad offered such a service in Ohio. There were, however, trains on many routes out of Cleveland (to/from Euclid-Painesville-Ashtabula, Berea-Elyria-Oberlin-Norwalk, Bedford-Macedonia-Hudson-Cuyahoga Falls-Akron, Bedford-Hudson-Ravenna-Alliance) that operated on what could be called "commuter schedules." Cincinnati also had some railroad services like this, but surprisingly Columbus did not. KJP

The Cleveland-Youngstown commuter rail service ran until Jan. 19, 1977. It had been operated by Erie-Lackawanna until Conrail absorbed E-L and five other Northeast U.S. railroad companies on April 1, 1976. Conrail proposed to terminate the commuter service (plus lots of other commuter services in the Northeast) unless local or state funding was offered to keep it running. At the time, the federal Urban Mass Transit Administration (now the Federal Transit Administration) had a pool of funding for affected state departments of transportation to tap for continuing to run commuter services that Conrail wanted to discontinue. Since the Ohio Department of Transportation didn't have a rail division, the responsibility for applying for the UMTA grants (yes, free money) fell upon the Ohio Rail Transportation Authority, whose charge was planning a network of bullet trains for the state. ORTA said running commuter trains wasn't part of its responsibility, although it did want to reactivate Cleveland Union Terminal (beneath Terminal Tower) for a high-speed rail system. So, it didn't request the UMTA grant and the commuter service to Youngstown died. That death also meant the removal of the remaining tracks in Union Terminal and when the Tower City Center plan emerged in the 1980s, no consideration was given to preserving railroad service because there was nothing left to preserve. So the track level at Union Terminal was redeveloped with an extra parking deck wedged in where passenger trains once ran. In other words, ORTA's refusal to accept free federal money meant the loss of the rail station they wanted to use. If you walk farther back into the parking area, you can still see the rails in the pavement that were used for the commuter train service. This is what the commuter train to/from Youngstown (with enroute station stops at East 55th, East 93rd, Lee Road, North Randall, Solon, Geauga Lake, Aurora, Mantua, Garrettsville, Warren, Niles, and Girard) looked like one summer afternoon in 1972, as it departed Cleveland Union Terminal. Here's a 1951 timetable for Erie's passenger service out of Cleveland, which included the Cleveland-Youngstown commuter service, as well as other trains (most of which were daily). And, I'd thought some of you might get a kick out of this page from the same timetable as above. KJP

I oppose it as it would block plans for restoring commuter rail service between Cleveland and Aurora. It also would remove that route from further consideration for the Ohio Rail Development Commission's Ohio Hub System of 110-mph intercity passenger rail service between Cleveland and Pittsburgh via Youngstown. I suspect these would have a greater impact on economic development, reducing traffic to/from Sea World/Geauga Lake, and provide inexpensive city-to-city transport in an era of tightening energy supplies. There are only so many available rail rights of way, whereas bike paths can be built next to any road. And, despite what bike path advocates claim, such trails do no preserve rail corridors for the future. I've never seen a trail get converted back to a rail line. Once it becomes a trail, it will stay a trail, and be lost forever as a rail corridor. KJP

Current and future TOD developments, including those in Shaker Heights, will be the subject of a second article, to run this week in some papers. I'll post here after it runs in at least one Sun paper. As for NOACA and Howard Maier, they're being pulled in one direction, toward the "highways uber alles" policy of ODOT and FHWA and most suburban/exurban communities, since ODOT and FHWA provide NOACA with the bulk of their restributable funding and the suburban/exurban communities constitute the majority of NOACA's members, dues and trustees. Individually, NOACA staff realize what urban sprawl and ever-expanding highway capacity is doing to Greater Cleveland. But NOACA staff is like that flag attached to the middle of the rope in a tug of war between Cleveland/first suburbs and the other Cuyahoga County suburbs/other communities in the other four counties. And right now, the outer suburbs are winning the tug of war, backed by the fact that more funding exists for highways than for transit/smart growth. Admittedly, NOACA staff routinely piss me off as a wear my second hat in advocating rail/transit development. Staff can be condescending, obstinant and lacking in creativity. But I also understand the constraints under which they're operating. I just wish staff would express themselves and their policy expertise more fully (ie: "I understand your interest in wanting that highway widened Mr. Mayor, but my personal expertise in these matters is that the investment won't solve the traffic problems you're experiencing over the long term. Allow me to suggest some ideas and funding flexibilities that could provide some creative, longer-lasting solutions..." Now that would be refreshing. KJP

Actually, I find him to be a very intelligent man, but is pulled and punched politically in a lot of different directions. Unfortunately, a lot of the staff at NOACA have become gun shy from confrontations with people outside NOACA, and thus has atrophied creativity and boldness among the staff. But the Transportation for Livable Communities grant program is very un-NOACA-like in that it is creative and bold. Maier used to be the planning director in Cleveland Heights, where he oversaw the creation of a TOD-type of zoning. And, he was a political cartoonist for Sun Newspapers once upon a time, so he can't be all bad... KJP