shs96

Nice post Map Boy - couldn't agree more. Did you walk past the fencing to go in there? I walked my dog over that way the other day...kind of got as far as the fencing and decided I got the idea. Just wondering if you could see any of the progress of infrastructure work...i.e., did it look like new sewer lines were being dug, electric, etc. PS - thanks for posting the pics!

Thats fine. I just have a problem with people praising Solon, but blasting places like Euclid and Parma, which not too long ago were in the same postion Solon is presently. Im just saying if things don't change, then one day Solon may be envying the new burbs springing up in Geauga County. I understand Euclid and Parma were once thriving and are now not what they once were. However, they were not in the same position as Solon is today. They thrived under different conditions and for different reasons. Sure, you can say it will dip a little just like those cities. Or you can argue it has learned from those mistakes, has positioned itself and has the resources to prevent that from happening.

I'm frequently amazed at the offense a lot of people take to a lot of things, but that doesn't make it unoffensive. I mean, the sh!t storm that happened after Fuzzy Zoeller jokingly said to the media to tell Tiger not to have fried chicken and collard greens at the Master's winners dinner...just as harmless and non-voilent as any of this...but it was still a problem. And the idea that since it pisses people off it must be genius? I mean, I'm sure we can all start telling jokes here that will really piss people off if we want...I guess we're all geniuses.

It represents the student body at the school and based on the 2007 graduating class, I would say it is accurate. Source: http://www.solonohio.org/PDF/plStats.pdf Parma and Solon aren't remotely comparable. I would say its OK to be a city where 98% of the kids graduate high school, 99% of those go to college, 20% of residents have a graduate degree, 56% have a bachelors degree, the population (in a county bleeding residents) grew 17% in the 1990's and 2% since 2000 with a 20% property value increase during that same period. It has little to no crime, a thriving industry base, and a city administration that takes care of things.

Is that a breakdown of Solon or the Solon School District? If for the school district, what cities are in the School District? It's a representation of the Solon School District which includes Solon and Glenwillow, although Glenwillow is basically 500 people.

Since it was brought up: Races in Solon, according to the 2006-07 School District Report: White Non-Hispanic (74.3%) African-American (12.9%) Asian (9.5%) Hispanic (0.7%) Multi-Racial (2.6%) I don't know % Jewish, but the school system has off on Jewish Holidays.

I don't think the station in the airport itself needs to be improved. I think what would help is if A) The RTA person in the window could give you change (and sell you a ticket) rather than having to stick the smallest bill a person might happen to have in the change machine, get a bunch of Sacajawea coins in return, then put your coins in the machine and carry around a bunch of extras or... B) They had vending machines where you could buy your ticket (like most all other subways/rails I have seen)...especially at the airport station if not at all stations. In general, I think the ticket buying and ticket using process could be improved...it needs to be at least consistent.

How about federal money to extend existing rail lines or build new ones :) :)

Thanks to the 24 bus driver who stopped for me this morning outside of Wendy's on Wanrrensville Center. The blue line was late arriving at Van Aken (issues with fare boxes delaying the train along the way), hence I was late catching the 24. I ran off the train as it was pulling away. I waved at her while waiting at the light and she motioned at me to run across the street and she would grab me. Granted, it was a nice day and the 2 mile walk to work would have been fine with me (who needs to be at work on time?) but it was definately nice of her to wait for me.

This happened one fall weekend when I first moved in...not sure how someone misses the big ole garage door they are parking in front of. It was a Browns Sunday though so I imagine they weren't in the proper state of mind when parking. But the security guards slapped one of those big, hard to remove notices on their window, waited two hours, then the car was towed. I laughed at the thought of some guy, plastered out of his mind barely remembering where he parked in the first place, returning in an attempt to find his car with it nowhere to be found. Strangely, they always were attracted to the vehicle's wheel as a spot to pee. Even more strange, I seemed to not be paying much attention when they would start to pee on the car and by the time I noticed, it was too late :?

I highly reccommend attending a minor league game, especially if you have little kids or are simpy a baseball fan. The intimacy of the park is great and while these guys aren't big leaguers, they're still pretty good (and some may be superstars some day). Plus there is a lot of other "fan experience" type things going on. I haven't been to any Lake County games, but Grovewood is great as is the Willoughby Brewery - about 2 miles past (east) the park. Lots of other cool places in Willoughby too.

Ha! When I would be walking my dogs and cars would come by they would look at me like "get the F out of the way". It's a dead end bridge...where exactly are you going in such a hurry? And I have noticed more people out there...a couple was sitting out there enjoying the evening just now. Speaking of dogs, if you have any influence, I think they need to put some doggy bags outside there (I think they have a thing outside the Towers). I always take bags with me, but apparently other dogs owners aren't as courteous...which is unfathomable to me how you could let your dog crap and just walk away, but maybe that's just me.

1. I agree - generally not an issue. 1 thing to add - if you're working somewhere off Rockside in Independence, you may be able to get off 77 at Brecksville Rd and avoid any 77/Rockside backup. Honestly though, if I worked in Independence and lived downtown, I would look into taking the bus - the 77F goes from downtown into Independence/Brecksville. 2. As people said, be careful and don't make your car a target by leaving things out. 3. Probably a matter of personal taste, but you can get between the two areas very easily - just a 1 stop train ride - so I don't think you can go wrong either.

Officer kills bank-robbery suspect after chase on West Side Posted by Sarena McRae and Patrick O'Donnell July 10, 2008 08:52AM Categories: Top Story A 35-year veteran Cleveland police officer known by neighbors as "Supercop" shot and killed a man suspected of robbing a KeyBank branch Wednesday afternoon on the near West Side. The officer, James Simone, 60, was off duty when he happened upon the robbery, chased the suspect and shot him as he attempted to escape. ... http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/07/cleveland_cop_shoots_and_kills.html#more

Last week they roped off the end of the bridge (past Ponte Vecchio) so there is no longer parking there, which I thought was good.

Because that's their job. The RTA is providing a service. Customers are required to not be jacka$$es while using the service; they aren't required to assist the RTA in providing the service they are getting. It's not up to the public to regulate this sort of thing...what if those people were the only ones on the train? Then that behavior is OK? No, it's not OK and the only ones who are always there to prevent that are the RTA employees. That line of thought is why there are so many run down parts of Cleveland - the people whose job it was to regulate that type of behavior: police, city officials, local government, etc didn't do their jobs. The general public is not equipped to regulate other people's behavior. People expect a certain level of respect from fellow citizens and should they not get it, they expect those others to be dealt with accordingly. Self regulated public behavior leads to disaster.

Yes, spend more money not solving the problem... ---------------------------------------------------- Get reimbursed for driving to work? Posted by Stephen Koff July 02, 2008 14:05PM You don't need a politician to know that gas prices are high. But maybe you want one to do something about it. With Congress on its annual Fourth of July break, lawmakers across the country are touting their proposals for bringing down fuel prices. Sen. George Voinovich has been going around Ohio telling folks that this country needs to drill more and build more nuclear power plants. Sen. Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada has been saying the answer is more alternatives. http://blog.cleveland.com/plaindealer/2008/07/get_reimbursed_for_driving_to.html

I think RnR's point is... When she points it would be foolish to paint a picture of public transport in Cleveland as entirely rainbows and butterflies - even coming from someone who would prefer public transit and uses it as frequently as possible - that she doesn't need to hear it from the peanut gallery because it's a valid point. If I was going to write an article about the RTA, I would talk both about how great it is to ride it everywhere - the benefits, experiences unique to public transport, etc - to encourage people who can (and might just be afraid to try) to ride it more often. But I think it would be prudent to also discuss there are people out there who want to use it but can't...and I'm not talking about someone who lives in Strongsville and wants to ride the bus everywhere. I'm talking about someone (like me) who lives downtown, works in an inner ring suburb, and attends Cleveland St but instead he's driving because getting between the 3 places is not practical using the RTA - even in the nice summer months. Between Point A and Point B - it's good. Add in Point C and it doesn't work. Most lives have more than Point A and Point B in them. We, as a community, need to figure out a way to address that and maybe an article informing the public - who would likely want to make this change but are either afraid, simply can't, or don't know what to do to help create change - would be a good start.

I have Verizon - I have no complaints. I've previously had Sprint and found service patchy. My g/f has Cingular and is often using my phone b/c hers is not getting a decent signal.

Thanks :-D I decided to just wear it with pride (as oppose to scurry out to may car with this ridiculous thing).

Texas is certainly the definition of a monster sprawl grid. In Dallas, pretty much all roads are 4 or 6 lanes with 8 lane highways everywhere. It doesn't matter what actual suburb you are in; you can't really tell them apart. Every corner has a strip mall; there's pretty much any type of store you might need anywhere. Not to mention the "access road" - the feeder roads onto the highway that are also home to stripmalls, etc. I think for several years in a row a North Dallas suburb was the fastest growing city in the US...Plano, Frisco, McKinney, etc. Growth was clearly noticeable along the highways and new highways were being built while others were extended. That's exactly right. There are a lot of major corporations headquarterd in Dallas, many of which are not located in the City of Dallas. The cities of Plano and Richardson spent a lot of money advertising in California newspapers in the early and mid 90's for Silicon Valley companies to relocate their headquarters to their more attractive business environment and it worked. Many large technology firms have a substantial presence in Dallas suburbs, not to mention Frito Lay, Mary Kay, Yum Brands (Pizza Hut/Taco Bell, etc), Blockbuster, American Airlines, etc. So there are a lot of smaller city centers scattered thoughout the Metroplex.

I remember where I was too - and when the verdict was announced. Still, I would put Sept 11 as the date equivalent to "where were you when JFK was shot" ahead of anything OJ related. In a long term relationship...

30, today which I don't think many at work knew until I just received the most ridiculous flower/balloon gift delivery ever...pretty funny...

In both cases, I wouldn't take any action immediately. #1) Wait and see what the police say. They may not come at all, they might just stop by and talk to parties involved, you never know. It depends how far this other guy wants to take it - he would need to press charges and, perhaps once out of the heat of the moment, nothing may come of it. #2) Ultimately, a discussion needs to be had with the woman constructively about her poor rating and what she can do proactively to ensure her rating improves. But I would wait until she's less emotional (tomorrow perhaps). And while that breakdown is a bit much, just keep in mind when speaking with her about it to focus on what she can do to get better rather than why what she did was wrong.

I saw a few comments in regards to this and I have to say, from my experience with living in Dallas for 5.5 years, this wasn't the case. Now living in Cleveland proper, public infrastructure and services are worse than anything I ever saw in Dallas. For one, it doesn't snow so that's big difference - snow plowing is expensive as is the damage winter does to raods. Public construction projects were completed in significantly less time. Granted it's easier to work year round but I see some rather simple construction jobs in North East Ohio (street repaving, sidewalk repair, etc) take forever to finish around here whereas in Texas, construction crews were incented to get the job done ahead of schedule. The 635/75 interchange (high five interchange - google it) was an extensive project completed in 3 years. I have no idea what they are doing at 480/77 but it doesn't seem to be adding lanes or reconfiguring the interchange at all yet it seems to be dragging on forever. Secondly, at least in Dallas, there are a lot of toll roads. One major north/south highway is simply called "The Tollway" and there is also the outer-outer-belt - George Bush Turnpike. Plus other services are privatized, like trash pick-up, which you have to pay for out of pocket. There are difference is public services, but I wouldn't say they are worse. Compared to the more upper class suburbs, they might not be on par, but comapred to Cleveland they are better.