Pugu

^I thought they were a smart company, but not sure why they thought "NYC" 3x/week and all trips requiring an overnight stay on both sides would be a sellable thing. ANYONE would pay $100 more and fly into LGA and be able to fly in and out the same day---that's what they were competing against. I'd love to see BKL-LGA---but it must be done right to be enough of a market differentiator if they're trying to take from UA/DL/AA--and maintain schedule flexibility for the passenger.

What will become of the land where the power plant formerly stood?

^announced, but didn't begin yet. supposed to start on 3/20/17. Morristown, NJ service from BKL was supposed to start in January, I believe, but as far as I know, it didn't.

Don't know anything about him. Why is he bad?

Try Hodges at E 6 and Euclid -- great food and they have a bunch of rooms they can configure.

^Its actually less and less common. Companies used to have such polices, but now lots of companies make the majority of their staff fly coach regardless of distance....there are still some of the good old companies, but it is certainly less common than say ten years ago as a way to run a business....

No--it's always the case. Given a choice, businesses want direct access to cities. So say you're a company in China or Germany--and you want a US operation--an office in LA or NYC, PHL, BOS, SF, Chicago--is far more likely to get that business than a city without direct access.

Yes. Without question.

^ 1. My point was 8M or 9M is nothing to celebrate--and it is presented improperly. 2. CAK or not, CAK was there before 2013. It didn't suddenly appear in 2013. 3. To compete globally, we have to stop comparing ourselves to Buffalo, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and other rust belt places. No one is dying to get into those places, but they are into Chicago, NY, Atlanta, etc. Its a substitute for action: Lets compare ourselves to Buffalo, and feel good, rather than cities we want to be like or to the US as a whole.

That's great, but that's not true for MOST of the world when it comes to Cleveland--especially anyone in Europe who is considering a Cleveland operation or office. That lack of direct flight, means that job, or office, or contract, goes to people in other cities. Cleveland no longer even has directly flights to major (for CLE) US business centers anymore, such as Albany or Kansas City. Its not about numbers. Its about service frequency, number of seats, and destinations. And without them, our numbers drop. Numbers are only indicators to demonstrate something is very wrong. My point is, using numbers, but only starting in 2013, instead of 2000 or 2005, is VERY MISLEADING and dishonest. Further, its worse--it makes everything seem fine, like all is rosy, when in fact, we're falling farther and farther behind other US cities every year. Another LCC route to Florida isn't going to grow or help employment in CLE one bit.

Our airport numbers are atrocious. Don't read such data out of context. The article says: "The airport served 8.42 million travelers in 2016, an increase of 3.95 percent over 2015.The number is still lower than 2013, the last full year that United operated a hub in Cleveland, when 9.07 million passengers passed through Hopkins. But the gap is closing..." Was there no life before three years ago, 2013? CLE is still WAY below where we were when Smisek decided to begin killing the CLE hub. In 2015, Hopkins ranked 46th in the US. 46th! are we're around the 20th largest metro region in the country. Give 2-3 airports for NY, Chicago, etc. we still should be higher than 46th. In very RECENT times, we ranked around 35th with about 11m passengers per year. 8.42 million is nothing to celebrate. If we set the target as the one second before UA killed the CLE hub--which is what we're doing--we setting our goals and standards well below where we should be. We should be fixing things, not telling ourselves everything's good now. Here are recent passengers counts and ranks: Year US Rank Passengers 2004 35 10.8M 2005 35 11.1M 2006 36 10.9M 2007 35 11.1M 2008 34 10.8M yes, there was a recession--but since then all other cities have regained--and then surpassed--their pre-recession numbers. We haven't.

More food and drink....I'd prefer to have a Target (or Target Express), hardware store, office supply store, clothing store, etc... plus, I'd rather have 30 little stores (not that Target is little) than one big place--as that will allow for more stability if that one venue fails...

^They prefer to be called "US Lite".

The Cleveland Clinic doctor is back in town. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/sudanese_cleveland_clinic_resi.html

Cleveland ranks 84th in U.S. News & World Report's annual Top 100 Best Places to Live. Thank God we're not in the bottom 15! http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/02/cleveland_ranks_84th_in_us_new.html

BKL to Atlanta (PDK) service (with a stop at Cincinnati Lunken) is now official and begins 3/20.

"one of the nation's most prominent transit consultants" ?? really? never heard of him. He's fundamentally wrong. Cleveland as a city is wholly-pro-transit. Mayor Jackson is as well. He's not some state legislator. Closing Public Square is not about undervaluing transit--its about creating a nice public space in the center of Downtown---something that every successful city has---but Cleveland didn't.

Horrible. So much for re-making the neighborhood. Where's all the street-level activity like shops and restaurants? its the same old-buidling surrounded by parking lot and green like this is some lowly suburb or something. If parking is to be provided, then put one or two stories underground in a garage. Absolutely crap.

Clearly 3-4x per week is no comparison to 1-4-x per day of the legacies, so for many, Frontier doesn't work. But it does have the effect of helping break some of the monopoly pricing.

Frontier to announce tomorrow CLE to SAN, IAH, CLT, and MSP.

CLE-HAV would be incredible. However, the US-Cuba bilateral allowed only 20 daily flights on US carriers; F9 applied for 14 routes and was awarded only one, Miami-Havana. They also applied for MIA-SCU, MIA-CMW, MIA-SNU, Saturday ORD-VRA, and Saturday PHL-VRA.

^Thanks for that insightful explanation!

Many years ago, I remember, the mayor of cinci was just a figurehead and the actual chief executive with real authority of the city was a City Manager. Is that still the case?

A thumbnail photo from a WSJ article on the dying mall business caught my eye as it looked like Tower City---and it was. http://www.wsj.com/articles/mall-owners-rush-to-get-out-of-the-mall-business-1485262801 Mall Owners Rush to Get Out of the Mall Business Surge in store closures prompts some shopping-center owners to walk away from troubled locations "Mall landlords are increasingly walking away from struggling properties, leaving creditors in the lurch and posing a threat to the values of nearby real estate. As competition from online retailers batters store owners, some of the largest U.S. landlords are calculating it is more advantageous to hand over ownership to lenders than to attempt to restructure debts on properties with darkening outlooks. That, in turn, leaves lenders with little choice but to unload the distressed properties at fire-sale prices...."

^I just saw it the other day. I was also a little disappointed in what could have been a better film. I also didn't really like the ending. Some of the audio seemed under-level as well (such as the when the Greek spoke). Overall, though, always great to see Cleveland in firm (even though they gave the credit of the Old Coast Guard Station to being 2 hrs away by Toledo....). I just received on DVD---The Land--another cleveland film. Haven't watched it yet. On DVD only, Netflix doesn't stream it.