dogsandcats

In Chicago. CTA does a Holiday Train each year that runs as part of regular El service in November and December. The entire train is decorated and also has a sleigh with Santa on a flatcar. Something like this would be a great way to introduce new riders to RTA. Even if it was just done one day, maybe in conjunction with the holiday decorations on Public Square. What would it take to make this happen here next year? http://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/holidaytrain.aspx

Maybe joining this effort could help RTA correct its confusing fare system Smart travel card to ease global travel Travellers will be able to ride the London Underground, the Paris Metro and New York's subway without ever having to stop and buy a ticket using new technology that could be ready within two years. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8046477/Smart-travel-card-to-ease-global-travel.html

The Washinton Post ran a nice piece on Ohio City and the West Side Market on Friday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092404092.html Their experience with RTA, while fairly typical, was not what you would want running in a national newspaper. In the morning, we took the Red Line of the light-rail system, the Rapid, to the main Tower City station downtown. After a frustrating wait there, we determined that the Waterfront line, which runs near the Rock Hall, no longer operates on weekdays even though it's on all the system's maps. Nobody had bothered to put up a sign on the platform, and transit employees were dismissive. It turns out that most service on the line, always underused, was discontinued this year for budget reasons.

Can someone give a few examples of other cities that use honor-based fare collection?

Who is doing this presentation? When is it?

ColDayMan--perhaps you could explain your definition of "Highrise district"?

"To be fair to Cleveland, most large cities did not build residential highrises circa-1920's/30's away from downtown. Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Diego, Washington DC, Columbus, Albany, Richmond, Cleveland, Los Angeles, etc all lack significant "older" highrise districts outside of their downtown. It was more a Midwestern influence with the grand scale ala Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Tulsa, (+ Dallas, Denver) and the other outliners include New York and San Francisco for obvious constraint reasons." DC does have a pretty significant number of older highrise buildings--just go up Wisconsin or Connecticut Avenue. There are also several cities other than NYC where co-ops are part of the real estate mix. Both DC and Chicago have quite a few. In DC especially, the tenant right of first refusal laws have been an important force in the development of co-ops.

We tried Roseangel last night. The space is beautiful and the service was very good. I think the prices are very reasonable. But the food overall was just OK. The homemade corn tortillas are fabulous and almost reason enough to go back. Even though I asked that my order be "kicked up a bit" after reading the comments that the food was bland, it still came out bland. The thing that makes Mexican food so good is the complexity of the flavors. Roseangel totally misses the boat on that. Several of the tacos we tried not only didn't have any heat, they didn't have any flavor. I think the near west side can support two modern Mexican restaurants but Momocho has set a pretty good standard. Roseangle really needs to put some serious work into getting close to being competitive. Hopefully this message gets to the chef.

Its a city, not a RTA, trash can. The number for the Director's office at Cleveland Dept of Public Service's Division of Wast Collection is 216-662-2231.

I've found the city really responsive to requests to empty overflowing trash cans at bus stops. Because this seems to be a frequent problem at the stop I usually use, I made stickers with the number to call and ask for trash pickup and put them on the cans by the bus stop. It seems to be working, the city apparently increased the frequency of pickups and the trash can rarely is overflowing.

Actually, the best first step to improving the bus stops would be to clean up the areas around them. The stops along Lorain Avenue in Ohio City are usually surrounded by trash. Part of the problem is that the City doesn't empty their own trash cans often enough. Calls to the Mayor's Office have been effective in getting someone out to empty the cans but those calls need to happen every few days. There doesn't seem to be any coordinated strategy for clearing snow from the bus stops either.

Also, there is no eating, drinking or smoking allowed in or around any Metro station or on any bus in DC. Its amazing how that cuts down on the trash. Both Metro staff and passengers are very quick to enforce this rule. There was a big uproar several years ago because a high school student was arrested for having a candy bar in a Metro station.

There are a few properties on Lorain just west of the West Side Market that might work. Ohio City Near West Development Corp (the neighborhood CDC) would probably have info on these and other properties. Lots of great places near by for lunch or a drink after work!

Maybe a student from CIA could do a series of T-shirt designs promoting RTA.

If you don't have money in your budget, how do you advertise/market? It's one of the first things cut. At a state run agency where you budget must be balanced, how would you affectively market? How would you formulate a plan? It's easy to sit back and critize but it's really hard to put a extensive omni media plan together with only X dollars and not a cent more. It's happening everywhere, not just at RTA. As a transit authority in a state with insanely low levels of state funding for public transit, increasing ridership/fare collections is a critical revenue stream. It doesn't take a marketing or management genius to know that. If RTA thinks that cutting or eliminating marketing costs is a smart or effective way to control expenses, they have bigger problems than they probably have the capacity to solve. And all marketing doesn't have to cost alot of money. American Airlines and Amtrak both have Facebook pages with 1000s of fans. My bet is its a pretty low cost but very effective way of attracting and retaining customers. A RTA Facebook page with just a few hundred fans would probably more than pay for itself.