On 5/15/2025 at 4:26 PM, KJP said:

After a year or two of Cleveland's Transportation Demand Management program going into place, which is a program developers can employ to reduce their amount of parking below the city's parking mandate, it will be interesting to see how many projects take advantage of it. I recall that a number (a dozen or two) of projects have already done so -- some before the program was finalized.

I wrote here about some of the constraints on investment from requiring too much parking to allow deals to get done....

https://neo-trans.blog/2023/07/22/city-considers-re-legalizing-the-city-again/

And yet we have a sitting councilperson trying to actively circumnavigate zoning rules to put a gas station a little over a block from a Red Line Station...

On 5/19/2025 at 2:03 AM, Cleburger said:

And yet we have a sitting councilperson trying to actively circumnavigate zoning rules to put a gas station a little over a block from a Red Line Station...

And in Ohio City, the closest thing to the station could soon be a Starbucks drive thru exit...

Learn from others......

from Michael McLean on LinkedIn:

This morning, Illinois lawmakers introduced legislation that would allow Chicago's transit agencies to develop real estate around their stations—a proven strategy used worldwide to make transit systems financially sustainable.

Here's how this value capture model works: When transit agencies build housing, offices, and retail around stations, they directly capture the economic value their service creates. In this model, the agency directly profits from the increased property values and foot traffic around their stations.

Transit agencies in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore use real estate revenue to fund operations and expand their networks. Instead of relying solely on fare revenue and government subsidies, they become self-sustaining through smart development.

Tonight I mapped the zones where transit agencies would have the authority to develop real estate, if this bill becomes law.

https://misterclean.github.io/people_over_parking_2025/transit_supportive_development_map.html

Absolutely love this!!!! Not only would it help the RTA be self sustaining, but eventually allow it to grow without being a financial burden... and potentially expand into areas ahead of growth and incentivizing the growth of said area.

I think this is amazing and should be the path every governmental agency should take..."looking for ways to be self sustaining if at all possible"

@KJP I think it would be great if you could write and article about how the RTA should do this, and what it would look like for Cleveland. Then send all that info and data to any RTA contacts, City/County public servants and any other locally influential people!

Playhouse Square is a role model, right here in town.

This is how many electric interurbans were profitable -- they were syndicates and trusts that combined transportation, electric utility generation/transmission and real estate all under one roof. But rural interests hated these trusts and united with the automobile lobby to form fake grassroots organizations to bust the trusts in the New Deal era. A Supreme Court decision circa 1930 forced the dissolution of these trusts, requiring their pieces to be sold off. The Northern Ohio Traction & Light which linked Cleveland, Akron, Canton and New Philadelphia with 80 mph electrically powered trains (on what is today Ohio Route 8 north of Ohio 303) was among those split up. Its transportation operations were acquired by bus operators and its electric utilities later changed its name to Ohio Edison.

So, in our nation's desire to return to the Gilded Age including all of its excesses, abuses and instability, perhaps a bright spot might be the restoration of these trusts to actually build rail transit again as part of a conglomerate. On the intercity transport side, that's what Brightline is doing.

California isn't always ahead of us. The fact that this vote had to take place at all says they aren't...

17 hours ago, KJP said:

California isn't always ahead of us. The fact that this vote had to take place at all says they aren't...

It pains me to the soul that this literally had to be voted on

California is full of NIMBYs. If it wasn't there would be multi-story residential buildings all down the coast like Florida.

16 hours ago, Rustbelter said:

California is full of NIMBYs. If it wasn't there would be multi-story residential buildings all down the coast like Florida.

Are hurricane-resistant buildings as expensive as earthquake-resistant buildings? Either way, the taller you go, the more expensive the engineering and materials.

5 hours ago, Foraker said:

Are hurricane-resistant buildings as expensive as earthquake-resistant buildings? Either way, the taller you go, the more expensive the engineering and materials.

Housing in CA is NOT an engineering problem. We know how to build for earthquake prone areas. Look at Japan. The housing crisis in California, and so many other resulting challenges (homelessness, residents moving away, etc) are primarily the fault of zoning codes which are a primary tool of NIMBYs to prevent more housing from being built.

On 6/5/2025 at 7:38 PM, Boomerang_Brian said:

Housing in CA is NOT an engineering problem. We know how to build for earthquake prone areas. Look at Japan. The housing crisis in California, and so many other resulting challenges (homelessness, residents moving away, etc) are primarily the fault of zoning codes which are a primary tool of NIMBYs to prevent more housing from being built.

I'd have a hard time believing engineering is what holds california back from building high rises and dense housing, when we have literally made sprawling cities in the desert the most rapidly growing areas in the country, with said engineering.