The Observation Deck

Will,

Here is a section of a cleveland.com story about the new line.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ss ... lifto.html

The Clifton enhancements "help Lakewood, no question," Summers said.

The new line has officially started. The new buses look great. I didn't see any Transit Police out this morning stopping all those using the far right lane with me...

Cleveland.com had a story today which quoted the mayor saying the following;

Nearly one-third of Lakewood residents rely on RTA for transportation, and that number will grow with improved service, Summers said.

Does anyone know where he came up with this number?

Link to the story
http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index ... cart_river

Did anyone see that 3 thugs used RTA as a getaway vehicle? Now that Clifton lines run so much faster maybe we will see an increase in unique riders...

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ss ... rt_m-rpt-1

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ss ... rt_m-rpt-1[/quote]

Ryan Salo wrote:Did anyone see that 3 thugs used RTA as a getaway vehicle? Now that Clifton lines run so much faster maybe we will see an increase in unique riders...

This story sounds like a combination of Woody Allens' "Take the Money and Run" and Kramer's "Bus Story" from Seinfeld.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8RoH-ky6Kw

As for the Mayor's estimate, it sounds very high.
The bus stops would be much more crowded if that were true.
Plus, they would need a lot more parking at the W. 117 rapid station.

[quote]Nearly one-third of Lakewood residents rely on RTA for transportation, and that number will grow with improved service, Summers said.[/quote]

It's probably one of those, "have you ridden RTA for any reason over the past 12 months" surveys. A third sounds incredibly high. Also, how near is "nearly?" And what is "rely?" When I take the rapid to the airport the dozen or so times I do a year, I "rely" on it to get me to the destination. But that's not keeping RTA alive.

Some of the signs are hanging loose over on the east end, around Beach or Hird. Maybe they are attached with biodegradable clamps that will simply disintegrate over time? How revolutionary would that be?

I had to laugh when I read the Mayor's comments about 1/3 of Lakewood's residents using RTA. There are 41 houses on my block, with 77 adults residing in those houses. (I did not count children). Of those 77 adults,there are 4 of us, myself included, who use RTA on a daily basis to commute to work. According the the Mayor's "guess" 23 of the adults on my street should use RTA.

Another classic example of City Hall fudging the numbers to quantify their logic.

Amy Martin wrote:Another classic example of City Hall fudging the numbers to quantify their logic.

Amy

I am sure the Mayor was working off of some form of study that RTA did to justify getting our
money in the first place. OR as you said they just made it up.

The sad part is that we even think that.

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of talking to many civic leaders that are friends and
we fell back into the same discussion that we have had for decades, and it goes back to why
we started the Observer Project.

Very hard making changes on national, state, even county levels but at home, in a community
if you can inform, engaged, and have honest discussions, perhaps you can move the a city
and more importantly the people in it forward. But this city fights the open discussion in favor
of small meetings letters about the future, and a whole host of vague comments and charades.
Until you get to the place we are at, you just don;t know anymore.

No matter, it is nice that the Mayor's favorite reporter finally came back from vacation again or
from reporting in another city he does not live in to let us officially now, "Some Lakewood
Residents Are Upset By RTA Signs" thank god because for the three weeks we have been talking
about it the ONLY person even remotely defending it has a straight connection to City Hall.

Which is another moment I stop and look back. 12 years ago when the smoke started again in
this project it was because a group of independent thinking city leaders that we needed a project
that would stop allowing outside media, that did not live here, define us.

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Ryan Salo wrote:
Did anyone see that 3 thugs used RTA as a getaway vehicle? Now that Clifton lines run so much faster maybe we will see an increase in unique riders...

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ss ... rt_m-rpt-1

A bus as a get away car? What's this world coming too? Your average criminal isn't all that smart but they use to be a lot smarter than that.

RTA ridership is still less than it was in 2009. RTA calls that success.

The Clifton project will test the current theory that all of that economic activity in Downtown Cleveland is the result of the reconfiguration of Euclid Avenue. It that theory is true Lakewood should be set to reap the benefits of billions of dollars in new investment.

How will the City accommodate all of those new residents who come pouring into the City because of the Cleveland State Line?

A while back one City official told me that he hoped the City would be able to quiet down the freeway aspect of Clifton Boulevard. Fat chance. Slim chance. No chance. It's all the same thing.

The new bus line is just another freeway through Lakewood.

The idea that a reporter must live in the city he covers is ridiculous. The dying print medium cannot afford enough reporters to make one live in each city, and living in a city won't ever replace talent in getting the job done. I think even city employees should be free to live in whatever place they like, as long as they get their work done. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I seem to recall that even some elected officials are free to live outside their districts. The morning paper is not trying to control Lakewood, or any other city. They are trying to be entertaining enough to stay alive as they lose valuable employees to other venues. The broadcast media is on the same slippery slope where their main objective seems to be selling adds and keeping up with the bloggers.

Clifton has always been a main artery, with some traffic from Lakewood, but a lot from other communities, even before they built the bridge. The most we can hope for is that when gas becomes seriously expensive, car traffic will drop, and public transportation will be there to pick up the newly carless. I think what they are building today is really getting ready for tomorrow.

I would not bet that Lakewood's population will increase, because our housing stock, while suitable for families in decades past is not what families want today. We have dining rooms, but people don't dine. We have living rooms that can be used for entertainment; We have basements, but who uses them. We have a serious lack of bathrooms, and those we have are too small. We have attics, unfinished and useful only for storage. We have yards that are not big enough to swing a cat. Our homes are generally well built, but dated. When many homes were built, they used lumber that was a different size. so if you need to replace a baseboard, you will find they don't make them that size. Our bathrooms were plumbed with iron pipe, which has a limited life. So Lakewood housing is expensive to live in.

The people who are enthusiastic about Lakewood today are largely non-breeders. If they become parents, they start looking for a more family friendly place, and I'm not certain that our schools are perceived as far better than those in other suburbs.

People who like Lakewood seem to stay here, but their children grow up and move away. In the years since we moved into our house, we have had as many as six people living here, but now we are down to two.

Immigration helped Lakewood. Immigrants move into Cleveland and worked in the mills; when they had saved enough, they moved to Lakewood. If they did very well, they moved to farther out suburbs. But those unskilled but good-paying jobs are largely gone, and we don't appear to be doing much to restore them

From Lakewoodites, creator Rob Masek.

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Jim O'Bryan wrote:
From Lakewoodites, creator Rob Masek.

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Masek nails it AGAIN.

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They must have started running out of nails on the east end ...

[attachment=0]20141209_174524 2.jpg[/attachment]

The signs are being repaired and Cleveland is getting signs today!


I was driving back from Lincoln this morning and noticed crews working on the signs.


I stopped to chat and take some pictures. It was a very nice crew of workers. They agreed that it seemed like an excessive amount of signs and one even said he didn't think many people even used the buses. I informed him that Mayor Summers said 1/3 of our city actually relies on RTA.

I guess I can only upload 3 at a time, here are a couple more.







The crew said they were repairing all of the Lakewood signs while another crew started putting up the Cleveland signs.

Ryan Salo wrote:I guess I can only upload 3 at a time, here are a couple more.

5.jpg

6.jpg

7.jpg

The crew said they were repairing all of the Lakewood signs while another crew started putting up the Cleveland signs.

Ryan,

R.T.A. doesn't appear to be all that bad:


Helping to spread the values of Lakewood.

Scott Meeson wrote:
R.T.A. doesn't appear to be all that bad:


Helping to spread the values of Lakewood.

Scott

I get it, so BP is not that bad because they destroyed Prince William Sound and The Gulf of Mexico?

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