Wanted to make sure this didn't fall through the cracks...with Hebebrand's boss gone, I wonder if there's any chance he's on the way out as well! :wink:

 

Strickland signals for change at ODOT

GOP-appointed district heads replaced

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Aaron Marshall and Sarah Hollander

Plain Dealer Reporters

 

Columbus -- Hit the road, Jack. And take Bill, Mike and Dave with you, too.

 

Such is life under a Democratic regime at the Ohio Department of Transportation, where incoming Gov. Ted Strickland, who took office Monday, is replacing all 12 district directors who served under Republican Gov. Bob Taft...

 

To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:

 

[email protected], 1-800-228-8272;

 

[email protected], 216-999-4816

 

End the gridlock

ODOT must demonstrate more flexibility in its plans to close Inner Belt ramps in the Midtown Corridor

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

 

Six years after public debate began about how to ensure the safety of the stretch of Interstate 90 that curves through downtown Cleveland, only the Ohio Department of Transportation seems to like the entire $1.5 billion Inner Belt plan.

 

So far, compromises by civic and business leaders, politicians and ODOT have produced broad agreement on many parts of the project...

 

 

 

© 2007 The Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/116894053039640.xml&coll=2

But rejecting this mammoth project is not an option. Local leaders can't afford to let this fight cost the region $1.5 billion in improvements that would lead to..., if done right, enhanced development in Cleveland.

 

While I agree that some changes need to be made to the Innerbelt, the best way to really enhance development in Cleveland is to think more outside of the highway box. 

 

Wanted to make sure this didn't fall through the cracks...with Hebebrand's boss gone, I wonder if there's any chance he's on the way out as well! 

 

Strickland signals for change at ODOT

GOP-appointed district heads replaced

 

I'm glad Strickland is doing this.  If there is a state agency that is in dire need of an enema, it's ODOT.

 

 

I'm glad Strickland is doing this.  If there is a state agency that is in dire need of an enema, it's ODOT.

 

 

I really like the way you put that.  :-D

Wanted to make sure this didn't fall through the cracks...with Hebebrand's boss gone, I wonder if there's any chance he's on the way out as well! 

 

Strickland signals for change at ODOT

GOP-appointed district heads replaced

 

I'm glad Strickland is doing this.  If there is a state agency that is in dire need of an enema, it's ODOT.

 

 

 

At the urging of others, I've developed some cost estimates of the proposal I put together and showed on the previous page. Yep, it's more expensive than ODOT's plan for the same portion of the Inner Belt project. But it also can be done in phases and would put roughly 1.2 million square feet of ODOT-owned land on the private, taxable market. This proposal also requires that the Opportunity Corridor be built first. It does not address the trench or Dead Man's Curve.

________________

 

INNER BELT REMOVAL

 

Opinion of capital costs (engineering and contingencies included in each line item)

 

$ 3.68m = 2300 ft wb ramp 90/77 add lane

$ 4.80m = 3000 ft eb ramp 90/77 add lane

$14.00m = 2,500 ft widen 77 over 490 from 6 to 8 lanes

$47.00m = 2,400 ft widen 77 from 490 to turn of Orange ramp from 4/6 to 12 lanes

$92.40m = 5,500 ft of new I-90 - 6 lanes

 

 

$47.52m = 8,000 ft of new 6-lane Tremont-Downtown blvd with median less bridge

$10.64m = 4,000 ft of rebuilt Orange Avenue (7 lanes)

$ 8.55m = 4,500 ft of rebuilt Woodland Avenue (5 lanes)

$ 4.75m = 2,500 ft of new Broadway Avenue (5 lanes)

 

$18.24m = 4,000 ft of I77 removal

$60.80m = 10,000 ft of I90 removal

 

$500.00m = new Central Viaduct (six lanes, hike/bike path, NS RR on lower deck)

 

$75.00m = East 30th Park/rec ctr = 600,000 sq ft (13.77 acres)

$25.00m = Replace recreation center building

$12.50m = Cedar Estates Park = 100,000 sq ft (2.3 acres)

$25.00m = Allowance for additional 200,000 sq ft of highway caps

 

$949.88m subtotal

 

1.7 million square feet of Central Interchange vacated by ODOT

less 500,000 square feet for restored street grid

Sale of 1.2 million square feet x $40/sq ft = $48 million

 

$949.88m less $48m

 

$901.88m subtotal

$ 50.00m less NS RR contribution

 

$851.88m total capital cost

Couple questions:

 

1.) Why do you have the Opportunity Corridor as a prerequisite for the project?

 

2.) Do you reconcile the current tiff between Midtown's desire for status quo with the onramps and ODOT's stance that some need to be removed for safety?  It seems that this is the major reamining sticking point, and a way to sneak in a plan that does something so different elsewhere is to resolve the existing dispute.

 

3.) Are there any examples in recent history that show the possible effects of unloading such a large swath of undeveloped land in the city center?

 

Ambition this plan doesn't lack, but I fear the logistics in a town governed by intertia sometimes.  I assume the existing bridge stays up as long as possible while the new stretch is constructed further east and eventually joins the existing trench. Then you have what might be a painfully long time while the existing bridge comes down and the new one goes up.  And while maybe Midtown is happier, I think the CBD would throw a fit.

1). Because a large part of the problem with the Inner Belt is the heavy traffic entering/leaving the highway at Chester and the short ramps on I-90. This traffic would be significantly reduced with the OC. For ODOT is basing its decisions on which ramps to eliminate based on conditions which may not exist after the OC is built.

 

2). Partly. The close spacing of ramps in the Central Interchange, East 22nd and Carnegie are alleviated with my plan. The ramps north of Carnegie are not addressed by my plan but by the OC and a possible lowering of the highway's speed limit.

 

3). Yes. See Portland, which removed a downtown riverfront highway for park land and development.

 

Also, most of the new bridge which I've proposed could be built while the existing Central Viaduct is being used for downtown access (my assumption is I-90 traffic would already be rerouted). For the final segment of the new bridge, I would preassemble it as railroads do to minimize the lost business. Pick the Friday night before a three-day holiday weekend to implode the old bridge and set the pre-fab section of the new bridge in place. Open for downtown access Tuesday morning.

Lots of things happened last Friday during Cleveland's Planning Commission meeting with ODOT. WCPN reports on just one part:

 

Inner Belt Bridge Design Missing Bike & Pedestrian Lanes

 

Aired January 22, 2007

 

The Ohio Department of Transportation's latest proposal to build a new westbound I-90 inner belt bridge still doesn't include the bike and pedestrian lanes requested by the city and its citizens. The Cleveland Planning Commission says ODOT has to stop ignoring this request. ideastream's Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports.

 

Listen to the MP3:

http://www.wcpn.org/mp3/2007/01/0122innerbelt.mp3

 

Proponents of bicycle and pedestrians lanes for the $300 million Inner Belt Bridge say the ability to provide safe bike/ped lanes on high speed bridges has been proven by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina. Among those advocates are Cleveland City Council, the Cleveland Planning Commission and ODOT's own advisory board. But ODOT says without planned lanes leading onto and off the bridge, it doesn't feel bike/ped lanes are warranted. But Planning Commission member Lillian Kuri says that's no excuse for ignoring the requests of the city.

 

    Lillian Kuri: I'm not willing to budge on this. To be honest, it's almost silly the we have to continue to debate this issue. Multiple, multiple groups have said this is the way they want this city to be built.

 

Kuri says even Federal Highway policy requires ODOT to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists on its bridges, advocating for up to 20% of a projects total budget to be spent on the feature. For the inner belt bridge, that could mean up to an additional $60 million. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.

 

 

I want to add, seeing Norm Krumholz on the commission made me happy. The person he replaced was a lump (for lack of a better term). Krumholz brings incredible experience and insight for the board.

3.) Are there any examples in recent history that show the possible effects of unloading such a large swath of undeveloped land in the city center?

 

Aside from Boston's Big Dig, much of which is slated to become parkland, there's San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway.  It was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.  Rather than rebuild the freeway, the city tore it down.  People predicted massive, never-ending gridlock.  Oddly enough, people found other ways to work, and traffic was actually *reduced* in the former freeway corridor.  Since then, the area has become an attractive location for new development.

 

Too bad Albert Porter's ghost calls the shots at ODOT, huh?

Lillian Kuri is the former executive director of Cleveland Public Art - she spearheaded the Detroit-Superior pedestrian/bike promenade. Glad to see she's sticking to her guns about ODOT.

This is a really interesting situation..with once again ODOT as the rightful villan! FYI, I saw this article on the PLANETIZEN website...so its getting some national attention (especially from planners).

 

Shortcut To Tremont

Innerbelt Plans Ignore 25 Percent of Clevelanders

MICHAEL GILL / [email protected]

January 17, 2007

 

CLEVELAND - One Saturday evening in summer 2005, bartender and bicycle courier Daniel Clemens was in second place in an alley cat bike race, contending for the lead. In alley cats, the racers hit the streets, traffic and all, with a list of destinations. They can take any route and hit them in any order, but he who makes all the stops first wins. So Clemens known among couriers as Dizi was out to prove his skills. He and the race leader were near the Jake and pedaling furiously, destination Tremont, when Dizi made a strategic move: Instead of crossing the Lorain-Carnegie bridge, he pedaled up the Innerbelt entrance ramp and rode across the I-90 bridge with the cars. Illegal but not against the race rules, the move shaved more than half a mile off his trip. He won the race, and the ride was instantly legendary...

 

ODOT will discuss the Innerbelt plan at a public meeting February 1 at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation on West 14th Street in Tremont.

 

 

Thought you all should see some of the graphics that were shown at the Inner Belt public hearing held tonight in Tremont. These images, which I thought were the most telling of ODOT's plans, were extracted from a CD given to us mediafolk. Normally I shrink these to a size of about 100k, but I left these nearly three times as large so that you could see some detail. They're shown from west to east. "Enjoy"....

 

 

 

Looks like the un-took the furniture building on superior and the flatiron building hauser is fighting for. Innerchange still looks like complex shit. Minamly they should have exits in the trench on superior, chester, and carnegie. The service roads or whatever they are called, on the trech are a bad idea to begin with; but even the execution is poorly done, bring them all the way to the highway edge to maxamize redevelpable land, and on certain road segments they seem needlessly placed, and a long ramp could have the same function.

I never understand why ODOT plans highways with all the "land parcels" that are between highways, ramps, and access roads?  why not put retaining walls up and keep everything closer together?  You get more usable land in the long run, and less land to maintain (cutting grass, trash pickup)  Odot should look at rt 696 North of Detroit....it connects all the burbs and runs right to 75.  It was done trench style, but it is a true trench.  The exit ramps run right next to the trench  and the access road runs right along retaining walls.  No grass and maximum use of surface land.  Odot seems to like to tear all buildings down, build a park...then pave a nice super highway through it!   Look at all the wasted land on 71(especially that cluster f*ck of an exit on W65th), 77, and 90.  But hey, thats the way they have always done it, so why have vision and change now?  Freakin tards!

The I-71 ramp for West 65th/Denison was actually the first and only segment of the Parma Freeway that was ever built. That's why I-71's north and southbound lanes are spread apart there -- for a longitudinal interchange with the Parma Freeway.

I just had another thought about this design. Since it is inevidable that the shoreway will be eliminated, they shouldnt be making that elaborate crossover and transfer to the N & S marginal roads at dead mans curve.

I never understand why ODOT plans highways with all the "land parcels" that are between highways, ramps, and access roads?  why not put retaining walls up and keep everything closer together?  You get more usable land in the long run, and less land to maintain (cutting grass, trash pickup)  Odot should look at rt 696 North of Detroit....it connects all the burbs and runs right to 75.  It was done trench style, but it is a true trench.  The exit ramps run right next to the trench  and the access road runs right along retaining walls.  No grass and maximum use of surface land.  Odot seems to like to tear all buildings down, build a park...then pave a nice super highway through it!   Look at all the wasted land on 71(especially that cluster f*ck of an exit on W65th), 77, and 90.  But hey, thats the way they have always done it, so why have vision and change now?  Freakin tards!

 

I totally agree.  You'd think an interchange downtown would look a little different than one in Streetsboro or wherever.  It's like hammering over our head how cheap city land is and how little regard ODOT has for it.

I just had another thought about this design. Since it is inevidable that the shoreway will be eliminated, they shouldnt be making that elaborate crossover and transfer to the N & S marginal roads at dead mans curve.

 

Several of us were talking and wondering about that last night when we we're looking at the display boards.

 

I totally agree. You'd think an interchange downtown would look a little different than one in Streetsboro or wherever. It's like hammering over our head how cheap city land is and how little regard ODOT has for it.

 

It's cheap because ODOT already owns it (or at least most of it). My contention is that the land-gobbling Central Interchange does not belong adjacent to a metropolitan area's downtown. Hadrian's Wall might be less effective in keeping walkable urban neighborhoods from spreading south/east of downtown Cleveland than the Central Interchange.

Interesting thing came up at the Planning Commission meeting today.

There apparently is a policy paper making its round through the various stakeholders that would be impacted by the proposed Carnegie closing (Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Clinic, Midtown, etc) that states they would rather have the minimum build option used and have the money diverted to Opportunity Boulevard.

 

Also, Director Brown explained to the Commission that if they voted to oppose the plan, there i still the chance that state and fed DOT would proceed with the final plan. It has been done before and is very rare, but it could be done.

 

Just thought you would like to chew on that this weekend

KJP: Your .pdf of your proposal in your first post is not loading. 

I deleted it. The proposal is no longer relevant.

What is the latest on our innerbelt bridge?

 

Driving through Toledo I was impressed with the new aesthetic suspension span going up for I280.  Makes me sick that Cleveland is no longer the national powerhouse it used to be.  We need a statement!

How does a bridge make Cleveland a powerhouse?

What I meant was Cleveland, and the region as a whole, shouldn't allow itself to be sold short.  At one time the Terminal Tower was the tallest building in the world, albeit for a short time.  This came during the height of our industrial might.  We need another landmark to boost our civic morale.  If Toledo can do it, why can't we?

I think those Boost are only temporary(See: Jacobs field, Gund Arena,  Rock Hall, Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland browns Stadium, and even Tower city) The buzz is around for a while, then fades. If you don't have a cohesive city that has lots of things to do and a good quality of life, those "icons" are nothing but nice things to look at while passing by, like you driving thru Toledo.

True. As Jane Jacobs pointed out, cities aren't rebuilt with massive civic projects like a convention center, a stadium and certainly not a highway bridge. They are rebuilt with warm, touchable, human-scale things where people can see, use, stay at and be uplifted by spiritually on a daily basis. Things like a corner market where the unusual and the usual can be bought or just perused with a smile. A cozy cafe where the employees know your order before you do. A neighborhood park that allows you to unwind and be energized at the same time. A block of mixed-use buildings with a sidewalk presence designed to foster some friendly chaos.

 

A well-designed highway bridge is OK. But unless I can stand on it and admire the view from it, or at least have some places where I can stand and admire the bridge's beauty, then its impact on a city is less than fleeting.

 

Fortunately, the Inner Belt's new Central Viaduct bridge will likely be designed with a cable-stayed span, similar to the I-280 bridge. But I don't like the Central Viaduct's proposed location. Nor am I happy that ODOT is recommending that the bridge won't have a hiking/biking path on it.

 

Maybe when the new bridge opens, a bunch of us should get in our cars and drive out onto the bridge. At the midpoint, we stop our cars to block traffic, get out of our cars and take some photographs of a view we otherwise won't be able to stay and enjoy.

100% agreed KJP--I'm in Philly on business right now and love the Ben Franklin Bridge here.  I don't know the history of it, but I'd guess it dates to the 30's (maybe a WPA project).  I'm going to have to look it up now.  At any rate, the bridge is beautiful and has an elevated pedestrian/bikeway on either side, almost as if it were designed to have the option of a second vehicle or train traffic deck.  Cleveland could definitely use this kind of skyline signature, and seeing the Ben Franklin makes me hope for something the emphasizes our industrial heritage (read:  STEEL).  This with the existing railroad bridges prodding the skyline would be a thing of beauty.

100% agreed KJP--I'm in Philly on business right now and love the Ben Franklin Bridge here.  I don't know the history of it, but I'd guess it dates to the 30's (maybe a WPA project).  I'm going to have to look it up now.  At any rate, the bridge is beautiful and has an elevated pedestrian/bikeway on either side, almost as if it were designed to have the option of a second vehicle or train traffic deck.  Cleveland could definitely use this kind of skyline signature, and seeing the Ben Franklin makes me hope for something the emphasizes our industrial heritage (read:  STEEL).  This with the existing railroad bridges prodding the skyline would be a thing of beauty.

 

Isn't that how the Detroit-Superior and Lorain-Carneige bridges were designed and built?

 

I know the D-S bridge had street cars and the bottom portoin of the bridge is there, but the tracks are gone.  Wasn't the L-C brindge rebuilt with a subway?  I think I read that somewhere or saw that on TV.

Detroit Superior had streetcar traffic for sure.  I'm not sure the Lorain Carnegie ever had a second deck for this traffic.

L-C was built with a lower level for streetcar use, but was never utilized for such.  The fiber optic system connecting the entire country is now routed in a 4' diameter pipe on this part of the bridge.  You can see it if you know what to look for.

^country or county??  because thats pretty amazing

Country. I'm pretty sure it then diverts and travels down Euclid Ave. This is why Euclid Ave is such a good place to locate certain types of tech companies.

I've heard the same thing. It's a trunk fiber optics line that runs cross-country. You're not the only one, Zaceman. Lots of knowledgeable people like you in Cleveland don't know that. So does that mean tech people outside Cleveland don't know that the information technology equivalent of the transcontinental railroad or the Panama Canal running through Cleveland -- right down down Euclid Avenue? If not, that's a story the region's economic development marketing people need to tell the world.

 

What this has to do with the Inner Belt, I'm not sure!

seems like it needs a thread of its own, if it doesnt have one already heh

I just checked with my Dad, who works for AT&T here in Cleveland.  He said he was unaware of this fiber trunk (at least it's status as a national thruway).  He has plenty of fiber in Cleveland.  ATT/SBC invested nationally in fiber, including buying important carriers who had fiber in place.

 

On a related note--here's what he told me about the Lorain Carnegie bridge:

 

"Several weeks ago copper thieves cut a large section of 1800 pair cable which runs under the Lorain bridge. Needless to say they knocked out a lot of phones and data lines.  Both the phone and electric companies have problems with the copper thieves."

 

Haha!  I guess we should push for fiber...at least until they figure out it's value on the scrap market. :evil:

 

 

"Several weeks ago copper thieves cut a large section of 1800 pair cable which runs under the Lorain bridge. Needless to say they knocked out a lot of phones and data lines.  Both the phone and electric companies have problems with the copper thieves."

 

Yep, I had that as the lead item in my Second District police blotter in Sun....

 

http://www.cleveland.com/sun/westsidesunnews/index.ssf?/base/cops-0/1169747913227960.xml&coll=3

 

Burglars have a hang up for phone cables

Thursday, January 25, 2007

West Side Sun News

 

SECOND DISTRICT - Police are investigating the Jan. 18 theft of $10,000 worth of telephone cables from a facility at the west end of the Lorain-Carnegie Hope Memorial Bridge. The copper cables belonged to AT&T.

 

Recent high prices for metals, especially copper, have prompted thieves to take the metals, sometimes out of occupied buildings, and sell the metal for scrap. Police are still investigating this crime, but have made arrests in other metals thefts in the past week.

 

......back to the Inner Belt!  :bang2:

The Planning Commission and ODOT will hold a retreat tomorrow (Friday) starting at 8:30 a.m. in City Hall's fifth-floor conference room. The purpose is to try to reach a consensus on the Inner Belt project. Since the press was invited, I assume that others can attend as well.

  I cannot attend the meeting tomorrow, but I really wish I could.  One big question I would love to ask (and maybe one of you who might be there would for me?) is why does ODOT have to take so many buildings adjacent to the project?  Instead of building the typical ODOT highway, using more space than needed, leaving long swooping grass landscapes that nobody can, use except for littering and extra cost to maintain...why don't they use a true trench through that area, build retaining walls, have the exits and access roads directly adjacent to the trench(without leaving acres of unusable grass) in order to save space for the buildings that already exist.  Michigan 696 is a great example of a newer highway system that connects the Northern area of Metro Detroit that did this type of construction.  Hell, while we are at it, why not suggest putting a cap over areas of a properly built trench in order to actually take land back?  I wish I could pose these questions...I hope if one of you are there, you would pose these for me (if you think they are decent questions that is)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_696

 

the part that ODOT should read in this article:  The portion of I-696 located between the Mixing Bowl and I-75 is known for its extensive use of retaining walls, and three large landscaped caps over the road

They could also use I-395 in DC connector as an example.  395 connects to 295.  IIRC, there are entrances/exits at New York Ave, I or K & Mass., which are similar to, Carneige, Chester, Euclid, Superior etc.

 

Most of it is buried underground , just west of the Capitol Bldg. keeping lots of land free for the mall and street level development.  The same thing should be applied to our "trench".

  I cannot attend the meeting tomorrow, but I really wish I could.  One big question I would love to ask (and maybe one of you who might be there would for me?) is why does ODOT have to take so many buildings adjacent to the project?  Instead of building the typical ODOT highway, using more space than needed, leaving long swooping grass landscapes that nobody can, use except for littering and extra cost to maintain...why don't they use a true trench through that area, build retaining walls, have the exits and access roads directly adjacent to the trench(without leaving acres of unusable grass) in order to save space for the buildings that already exist.  Michigan 696 is a great example of a newer highway system that connects the Northern area of Metro Detroit that did this type of construction.  Hell, while we are at it, why not suggest putting a cap over areas of a properly built trench in order to actually take land back?  I wish I could pose these questions...I hope if one of you are there, you would pose these for me (if you think they are decent questions that is)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_696

 

the part that ODOT should read in this article:  The portion of I-696 located between the Mixing Bowl and I-75 is known for its extensive use of retaining walls, and three large landscaped caps over the road

 

As i read your post all i could think is I-696. Then a sentence later you hit it.

 

The large parks are on the caps are due to the large Orthodox/Jewish community that voiced their concerns over the populace being split from their respective temples. Crazily enough, MDOT responded.

 

This is the best my lazy googling could come up with:

As i read your post all i could think is I-696. Then a sentence later you hit it.

 

The large parks are on the caps are due to the large Orthodox/Jewish community that voiced their concerns over the populace being split from their respective temples. Crazily enough, MDOT responded.

 

This is the best my lazy googling could come up with:

 

 

Pope that is very similar to the DC underpass

 

check this link out:  http://www.aaroadtrips.com/i-395_dc.html.    skip to the Interstate 395 - South pictures, this is the section which could work in Cleveland.

As i read your post all i could think is I-696. Then a sentence later you hit it.

 

The large parks are on the caps are due to the large Orthodox/Jewish community that voiced their concerns over the populace being split from their respective temples. Crazily enough, MDOT responded.

 

This is the best my lazy googling could come up with:

 

 

Pope that is very similar to the DC underpass

 

check this link out:  http://www.aaroadtrips.com/i-395_dc.html.    skip to the Interstate 395 - South pictures, this is the section which could work in Cleveland.

 

pope used to live DC, mang.

As i read your post all i could think is I-696. Then a sentence later you hit it.

 

The large parks are on the caps are due to the large Orthodox/Jewish community that voiced their concerns over the populace being split from their respective temples. Crazily enough, MDOT responded.

 

This is the best my lazy googling could come up with:

 

 

Pope that is very similar to the DC underpass

 

check this link out:  http://www.aaroadtrips.com/i-395_dc.html.    skip to the Interstate 395 - South pictures, this is the section which could work in Cleveland.

 

pope used to live DC, mang.

 

man you do get around.

March 8, 2007

Write of Way

Ken Prendergast

 

Inner Belt offers lesson of how to cut up a city

 

As one of the state's oldest urban interstates, downtown Cleveland's Inner Belt harkens back to a dark era in the history of American cities.

 

During the 1950s, men like New York's Robert Moses and his Cleveland counterpart, Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, unabashedly sought to shred the nation's urban fabric.

 

For 1,000 years, cities thrived as meeting places — to conduct commerce, share ideas and make acquaintances. And as strange as it may seem today, much of that exchange happened in the streets where the pedestrian was king. There were sidewalk markets, stands, rallies and spontaneous encounters. The arrival of the electric streetcar (just a decade before the automobile) only increased the pedestrian activity.

 

To people like Albert Porter, that urban fabric needed shredding. He and others bought into General Motors' vision of "The City of Tomorrow" unveiled in 1939 at the New York World's Fair. In that same year, Paul Hoffman, president of the Studebaker Corp., was among the automotive titans who explained the need for the new urban vision.

"If we are to have the full use of automobiles, cities must be remade," he said.

 

Like his allies, Porter, the county's engineer from 1946 to 1977, went about the business of dismantling streetcars, blocking construction of a voter-approved downtown subway, tearing down urban neighborhoods and replacing them with a quilt of highways.

 

Nearly a decade ago, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced it needed to rebuild the Inner Belt and was prepared to spend handsomely to do it. Downtown Cleveland's portion of Interstate 90 remains as one Ohio's oldest, most congested and dangerous sections of interstate.

 

Planning for the project began with so much promise, but is ending as a symbol of all that is wrong with ODOT.

 

Then-Cleveland Planning Director Hunter Morrison said it was an opportunity to shift ODOT dollars back to the city from the suburbs and restore urban neighborhoods that were sliced up by the highway. ODOT said it was open to any and all ideas for redesigning the highway.

 

And, that's where the issue lies. Not all highway problems can be solved by highway solutions — especially in urban areas. Some concrete ideas were made. One was to reroute the Inner Belt via I-490 and due north from its I-77 junction to de-emphasize the highway. Another was the Opportunity Corridor boulevard to University Circle.

 

There were non-highway ideas as well, but none were included by ODOT. The exception was a cosmetic expansion of express bus services to suburban park-and-ride lots.

 

More transformative solutions like commuter rail service were rejected by ODOT as too expensive. A hiking/biking path across the Inner Belt's Central Viaduct was tossed aside, even though 25 percent of Clevelanders don't have cars. Making the dead-end, light-rail Waterfront Line more useful by creating a downtown rail loop also was rejected. It wouldn't affect the Inner Belt's dominant source of traffic — suburbanites commuting downtown.

 

And, at a brainstorming session when EcoCity Cleveland's David Beach proposed adding downtown housing units so more people could walk to work, ODOT officials appeared dumfounded. They stood silently as though Beach was an alien and spoke in his native tongue.

 

Furthermore, ODOT never considered massing all of the non-highway options into a single package to determine their collective impact on improving the city's economic, social and environmental conditions. ODOT embraced only the people who drove. Worse, it put greater emphasis on reducing access ramps to the central business district and pushing the Inner Belt's congestion to city streets.

 

ODOT won't be fostering a populous, walkable, 24-hour downtown laced with bicycle paths, looped by a light-rail line, fed by thousands of daily commuter-train riders and accessed by motorists from a rebuilt but de-emphasized downtown highway.

 

Instead, ODOT wants to spend $1.5 billion over the next 15 years so motorists can drive more quickly from one side of Cleveland to the other. The highway will be wider, have a more complex labyrinth of ramps along it, be a more significant barrier between urban neighborhoods and result in the demolition of 19 buildings.

 

Albert Porter is probably rolling in his grave, laughing his derrière off.

 

END

What a great read!  :clap:

Thank you!

I like the shared interests/community vision aspect of the article.  Linguist George Lakoff would categorize your writing in the "protective mother" frame.

So what can we do to stop this now?  I'd be happy for a signature bridge if it were a trade off for this monstrosity.