KJP

Interesting data from The Brookings Institution. Immigration was responsible for 100% of Ohio's population gain over the last year. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/immigration-drives-the-nations-healthy-post-pandemic-population-growth-new-census-data-show/

Cleveland zoo rainforest is on fire. Renovation work was being done and may have sparked the blaze.

Social media is causing the collapse of Western democracies. It's as if Ruzzian or Chinese propaganda planes are dropping leaflets with misinformation over our cities. Every single second.

I'm starting to think that maybe the city should win the Modell lawsuit and force the Haslams to sell. Otherwise, how does this endless nightmare have a happy ending??

First Interstate to renovate UC apartment building By Ken Prendergast / January 8, 2025 This summer, an aging but well-located building in the heart of Cleveland’s booming University Circle will get a needed refreshing to help it compete with new apartment buildings nearby. The University East Building, 11308-11330 Euclid Ave., will get that attention now that it is under the long-term management of a prominent local real estate developer. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/08/first-interstate-to-renovate-uc-apartment-building/

Workers were inside there today, appearing to open up the back wall. All of the exercise stuff had been cleared out.

Depot on Detroit arriving, traffic calming next? By Ken Prendergast / January 7, 2025 In two weeks, the board of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) is expected to approve the sale of land for a planned apartment building just west of the West Boulevard rapid transit station in Cleveland’s Edgewater-Cudell neighborhood. But that development is renewing interest in a neighborhood plan for redesigning streets next to the station to make the area a more comfortable place to walk and could avail more development sites. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/07/depot-on-detroit-arriving-traffic-calming-next/

I hope it's a full restaurant. The Bar 32 atop the Hyatt would get more visits from my family and I if it was a real restaurant. They won't even let my son go in there because it's just a bar and he's too young. Need more family-friendly places downtown, including a restaurant with a view.

That's stunningly bad. I've heard things are bad in downtown St. Louis but...wow.

Very rare for the federal government to give out operating funding for new/restored passenger rail service. But this program was developed for this and other service restorations. So might it be for something like restoring Chicago-Pittsburgh-East Coast services. And note that a GOP senator is the principal backer (hint: all politics are local).... Sen. Wicker: FRA to award $21M for Amtrak Gulf Coast rail https://www.progressiverailroading.com/amtrak/news/Sen-Wicker-FRA-to-award-21M-for-Amtrak-Gulf-Coast-rail--73616

They're actually still demolishing the neighboring buildings and removing their foundations.

Erieview Tower financing done, work starts ASAP By Ken Prendergast / January 6, 2025 Closing of financing for the $218 million redevelopment of the 38-story Erieview Tower and Galleria redevelopment in Downtown Cleveland was announced today by two advisors to the project. The momentous occasion signals an immediate start for residential construction, although some of the remaining office tenants in the building told NEOtrans that site-prep work is already underway. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/06/erieview-tower-financing-done-work-starts-asap/

Not dead yet. Nippon is suing.

New downtown office expansions, renovations By Ken Prendergast / January 6, 2025 At the start of the new year, employers are expanding, relocating, renovating and otherwise retrofitting their office spaces. Ironically, the current and former Oswald buildings in Downtown Cleveland are the addresses where most of these investments are planned, according to public records. As NEOtrans reported last week, 2025 may be the year that Cleveland returns to the office. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/06/new-downtown-office-expansions-renovations/

Costco is building apartments above its stores to address the affordable housing crisis, starting early this year. Walking downstairs and getting a $1.50 hot dog gives new meaning to “affordable walkability.” It includes free membership, a rooftop pool, fitness area, gardens/ courtyards, and a community space. Los Angeles is the first residential complex with 800 apartments and a built-in store. Another is planned in suburban Rochester, NY... https://www.rochesterfirst.com/penfield/penfield-costco-proposal-withdrawn-new-plan-expected/

Yup. I was going to write an article about it and forgot all about it!

Downtown’s Canal Basin Park design gets early OK By Ken Prendergast / January 3, 2025 Although Cleveland Planning Commission’s Design-Review Committee gave a unanimous thumbs-up today to conceptual plans for downtown’s Canal Basin Park, it wasn’t without some suggestions for improvement. The design team for the 20-acre park, located between turns in the curvaceous Cuyahoga River, will come back to the commission with refined, more detailed schematic designs in the coming months. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/03/downtowns-canal-basin-park-design-gets-early-ok/

Crepe and Drip is coming to 1385 West 117th St. on the Cleveland side of the street, according to a sign permit. No permit has been requested for a fitout of this space yet. There is a fitness center in this space now but it doesn't seem too busy. Perhaps it is moving to the third, smaller space to the right of the smoke shop? No building permits have been submitted for that, however.

Browns move a step closer to Brook Park By Ken Prendergast / January 2, 2025 The owners of the Cleveland Browns football team have completed the next part in the process toward building a new enclosed stadium in suburban Brook Park, officially executing a clause in a land purchase agreement to acquire the site. The site at 18300 Snow Rd. in the Cleveland suburb will not only house the new Huntington Bank Field enclosed stadium, but also a planned, adjacent mixed-use development. MORE: https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/02/browns-move-a-step-closer-to-brook-park/

And FDOT had 27 years to listen to it. It takes two to tango. I know you hate Amtrak with a passion, and yes Amtrak can be a sh!tshow at times, but so can many things that are beyond our control. It's not worth getting our shorts in a bind. Enjoy the laugh and move on.

I can understand the crew time concern as well. There is no train turning track at Miami Airport and the platforms are still nearly twice as long at Hialeah. Still no large waiting room, ticketing, baggage and train servicing facilities. FDOT could have restored the wye at MIA to turn Amtrak trains and provided a servicing facility on vacant land just east of MIA. Amtrak is often dysfunctional, but not always wrong.

The only other routing west from the Phoenix metro area, and the only line directly into Phoenix proper, is the former Santa Fe now Genesee & Wyoming's Arizona & California RR https://www.gwrr.com/arzc/ which links up with the BNSF mainline at Cadiz east of Barstow and goes into LA via the busy Cajon Pass.

The USA has the best job growth among the G7 and yet has the least amount of workers returning to the office. What we do have the most of is urban sprawl and long commutes. Address that and you address WFH/RTO.

The sources I quoted are not prone to self-serving in that manner. Coyne is, when it comes to his "Look at me" approach, but not when it comes to pretending the market is doing something when it isn't just because he doesn't like it. he tends to be pretty sober when it comes to market trends. I found some of their comments very interesting about why America has been so loathe to return to the office vs the rest of the world. And a big reason why is because of urban sprawl and the long commutes it subjects us to (in addition to having larger homes). If corporate America truly believes there is a corporate benefit to having people back in the office, then it needs to start doing something about having more comfortable offices AND urban sprawl which may be adding a new set of ills that corporate America can appreciate -- starting with reduced productivity and innovation, loss of corporate culture, loss of control, etc. I would hope that major office employers consider financing mixed-use developments with housing at their core within walking distance of their offices as a means to get more people into the office.