urb-a-saurus

W28th, thanks for telling it like it is! You are right on target. As for the FEB project, what it reminds me of is a diminutive version of what I would call a "secondary urban center". Something like a Crown Center in Kansas City or South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. FEB is all by one developer mostly done at one point in time. It would be very difficult to give it the look of a true urban core developed by many designers over a century or more. I know they actually tried something like that at the aforementioned Legacy Village, parcelling it out to different builders to try to fake the diversity one would find in a naturally evolved town center, yet it still looks like what it really is. (Although I lovvvve that cheesecake, lol). I continue to wonder what will happen to the areas of FEB adjacent to the redevelopment.

Excellent juxtaposition

Jersey Boys was fun to watch (warning for kids: F-word employed at least 100 times, LOL). We have the Broadway Series. Need to liven up the area after shows. Even Starbucks was closed. Bricco, Star, and Hamiltons WERE open for our dining and imbibing pleasure, but the main action is in the parking garages where people jockey for position to stream out of downtown. I guess you could walk to E4th, sigh. Playhouse Square with it's big screens, electric news signs, and angular urban spaces could be an incredible outdoor space for events or even just for sitting at a hypothetical outdoor cafe and people watching. I do not know why it has not taken off.

Quote from KJP "But there is a much less obtrusive way to do it, and Dayton did it with its electric trolley bus routes, such as this route to the north side...". The suspension of the powerlines from wires is what I remember from my "youth" of the trackless trolley buses here in Cleveland. I hope it is not dementia setting in, but I do remember that.

Sorry about messing up the name. West Shore Rail! West Shore Rail! That project seems to me to be the biggest no brainer for commuter rail in the Cleveland area. The right of way is not isolated from the user community by a barrier of industrial uses. You could WALK to downtown Lakewood and Rocky River from stations along the route. Shuttles or a circulator could server Crocker Park and/or Avon Commons from stations along the route. It has the potential to support commutes to downtown Cleveland but also serve shorter trips with different purposes, ie entertainment and shopping. I am all for it. I used to look at the NEO Commuter rail study site from links on GCRTA.ORG from time to time, but it never got updated.

Ahoy there. Last night I had the pleasure of a glorious dinner-sunset-fireworks cruise on the Nautica Queen. The announcer/tour guide stated that construction was to start on the FEB project within two months. Hopefully, he was correct. Looking at the desolate east bank from the river made me hope that the Spinnakers building, if it remains, and the mostly abandoned venues south of the FEB project will receive a shot in the arm* from the new construction. It was a bit sad to remember the life** that area enjoyed in the 90's. May it rise from the ashes into something greater! * Not necessarily as bars. **PS one good sign, Shooters on the west bank was packed to the gills.

Do they need an additional park n' ride further south near, or inside Brunswick or could they negotiate with a shopping center for some parking space? As for Avon Lake: North Shore Rail! North Shore Rail! North Shore rail has the potential to string together so many cool places along the route! Westlake, Bay Village, Rocky River, Lakewood, etc. Detroit Shoreway/Cudell, and finally Downtown Cleveland. All Aboard!

They are just recently doing site preparation

Chagrin Highlands, originally the Figgie project, appears to be getting (fanfare and drum roll) a FITNESS CENTER! across Richmond Rd from the new UH construction site. Be still my heart, at least until I mount one of the new cardio machines, lol. So much excitement for one day. Hey maybe its a corporate headquarters too :laugh:

Does RTA compile or acquire true origin and destination data by zone or tract within the service area?

Thanks, Jam, you got the meaning too! The Clark Freeway (I 290) was nixed over 40 years ago, but the demand that spurred it didn't completely disappear, although I am sure many would be Clarkers are jamming I 480 making for that awful pileup near Warrensville and Northfield so they can go north on I 271. Some of them might switch to the OC to get to Shaker. Anyway, the OC, if built, would be as much a commuter alley as a neighborhood stimulus. I do have to say though, even a paver like me would have cringed at the destruction of the Shaker Lakes. I suppose we could tunnel under Shaker Square (just kidding).

Quote from Boreal: Well that's a bit much. I lived at three different addresses in the Heights and always wished that I could proceed down Mayfield or Cedar and get on a freeway to Berea or Cuyahoga Heights where I had business. Now, Carnegie and Chester function as eighty-block-long freeway connectors. Precisely, Boreal: YOU got it. :clap: By the way, even though the proposed roadway iteself does not come within 1-2 miles of the Shaker Line, if it connected directly to the Woodhill, Buckeye intersection with Shaker Blvd, it would potentially send considerable extra traffic down that venerable boulevard. If so, the project WOULD affect Shaker Hts. That would not likely be popular there. The barricade reference was of course a joke (with a grain of truth), to when Shaker barricaded a number of its streets touching Cleveland to to try isolate itself from the city (I mean, limit through traffic :wink:) many years ago. Tough Room! :-D By the way, I vaguely remember that when I worked at NOACA in the 70's, the "Opportunity Corridor" was referred to as the WECO project after a local community organization that was trying to resurrect the area. The more things change......

I believe its part of a reliever corridor NOACA had in an old long range plan; sort of an outer innerbelt. I like the idea of getting the straight shot from I-490/E55 right to the west end of Shaker Blvd, and then on out. No doubt Shaker Hts will barricade Shaker Blvd at the Cleveland line :wink: They have a knack for that. PS Why is the innerbelt named as such. It does not go all the way around like a belt does. I propose "Innersash" or Innercravat"

Is there still a bowling alley on Superior between 13th and 17th? What about the Ambassador Inn? Then there is the Crazy Horse catty corner from the block 1 site (yeowza). There is also whatever there is in Reserve Square and the Galleria. You are correct: slim pickins in the area. Maybe it just needs the proverbial "critical mass" of pioneers to initiate retail growth. The area also needs some neighborhood gathering spots where the neighbors can just drop in and get to know one another

Need a location? Cleveland Browns Stadium is empty 355 days a year. Put a lid on it, lol.

You do have the fast fooditorium across 12th at the Galleria, at least during its business hours. There were other fast fooderies downtown on Euclid, when I worked down there, but strangely, they are gone, along with most of the old retail. How fascinating was that square burger at the first Cleveland Wendy's across from the old Woolworth's. But I digress. For The Avenue District, my money is on a deli, with mediocre pizza but good pierogies. One thing that would be cool would be a watering hole, "where everybody knows your name" where the Avenue-ites could gather and swap their prices per square foot. Also the "Central Perk" concept from the Friends TV show would provide another venue for the new neighborhood to congregate and make friends. eek

Yes, webinars are the rage now, but I would miss the hors d'oeuvres. Actually, I am lucky I got my conference in two weeks ago.

I'm a boring drywall kinda guy, exposed brick says commercial space to me, but I know exposed brick is favored by many.

In that picture, the garage is a "horizontal" in a row of "verticals", to the north, so it changes the look, doesn't sandwich in the new building - I really am not sure how to say what I mean. They could put a heck of a pool or running track on top, or maybe a par 3 golf course. lol. I have to confess I have parked in it countless times for when visiting our downtown office. From the top you can see a little into the Jake or the Prog,whatever. Adaptive reuse of part of it would be excellent.

From that southwest angle, the old Ameritrust garage kind of detracts from the harmony between the proposed building and the Tower (in my opinion), making it harder for me to judge how they would really look next to each other. One thing I was wondering is if the Tower needs to be cleaned or if it really was so dark to begin with, a grim fortress indeed!

Is that the 4 or 5 story building east of the old Carter Manor that used to be an eyesore but is being rehabbed? Apartment could be an art studio - very classy. A little stark/cold though, needs funiture, lol.

Before writing off the suburbs as dead, please check out the following. :wink2: http://world.honda.com/news/2008/4080616First-FCX-Clarity/ Not sure to what thread this fits

I love the median lighting and wish it went at least to 18th. The planter is way cool. Keep 'em weeded.

Actually, if oil prices rise high enough to spark $10 gasoline, I suspect we will have other major concerns. Anyway, I would like to hear the rationale for the supposition that a city like Lyndhurst, which actually has jobs, a large variety of shopping, schools and services in a concentrated area nearby (meaning short car trips), would empty. Where would everyone go? Also, there is RTA's trusty number 9 bus for downtown and University Circle or Eastgate trips, which by the way I used to use when I worked downtown and would use if I worked downtown now, because it creates a real benefit relative to driving. The 94 on Richmond goes to Chagrin via the Shaker/Green station (wish that rapid line went at least to Richmond: probably wouldn't cost that much, lol), so we are definitely not disconnected transit-wise. By the way, this is not to promote Lyndhurst in any way. It really is more of a response to a previous point. If it really gets to the point that people are forced to "concentrate" into a denser population distribution, the concentration just might occur around multiple centers of jobs, shopping etc. throughout the region, not just one. These could be connected by robust transit service, hehe

Aside: I was just in Orange County California last week and gasoline there was 4.59-4.69 per gallon of regular; but it sure is beautiful by the ocean, sigh. Anyway, I am curious about one statistic that was mentioned above. If I remember correctly it was that RTA ridership was up 10% since this time last year, when gasoline was about 2.60? Does that mean that a 50% increase in the price of gasoline produced a 10% transit ridership increase? Does that say anything about the effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of RTA's ability to serve commuters etc in general across the region. What is the expectation if gas continues to rise in price? At what point does ridership max out, because additional potential riders cannot reasonably take advantage of the bus or rapid? I commute from Lyndhurst to Beachwood, not very far. I could take the 94 bus down Richmond which does some weird stuff around Chagrin Bl, but the endpoints of that route are not really that close to my house and would require a drive, a significant walk, and/or a transfer, compared to a car ride of 15 minutes. The headways on the 94 are not stellar, which makes one schedule dependent, when by car and can come and go with no waiting. Gasoline could go to 10.00 and I don't think the bus would really work for me, not to mention that RTA would be hurting as well, because they use fuel too. My inclination would be to buy a Prius, as some of my environmentally conscious colleagues have already done, hoping that electric cars are not that far off. At one point we were rumored to be moving to the southwest suburbs. In that case we would be inclined to carpool I 480 in the short as opposed to using transit, which would force an odyssey through downtown cleveland. I am sure there are many in this situation.