Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Nashville Learns from... the Most Ridiculed Plan in Cleveland?

Posted by Pete Kotz on Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 2:45 PM

click to enlarge Bus.jpg
Last week, city officials from Nashville traveled to the shores of Lake Erie to study the most incompetently run town in America. That would be Cleveland, Ohio. They arrived to examine the city's new rapid bus line, which consists of little more than a rebuilt street with dedicated bus lanes, a lot of expensive cement, and some newly planted trees. Total cost: $200 million. Among Cleveland residents, it's the most ridiculed project in town -- and this is a city with a lot to ridicule. It's literally just a slightly faster bus line, running 100 blocks or so from downtown to the city's east side. And at a pricetag of $200 mil -- which mostly came from the feds -- it's largely viewed as the latest, greatest monument to government waste. Nashvillians were likely drawn by Cleveland's claims of instant prosperity. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is estimating the project will generate $4 billion in economic activity, according to this report by Nate Rau in The City Paper. Others have claimed it will create 7,000 new jobs. How a simple bus line will do all this has yet to be explained. Worse, it probably wouldn't work in Nashville. A line from downtown to the West End might be the most plausible option. But the Cleveland project runs through roughly 50 blocks of abandoned ghetto, making construction easier and less disruptive. And it still managed to kill many a business. In the prosperous West End, elongated construction would be a death sentence to businesses and make traffic a nightmare for years to come. And at the end of the day, all we'd have for our troubles and our $200 million is a slightly faster bus line.

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Dammit Pete! That's my hometown your maligning!
Thank God I don't live in that hellhole anymore.

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Posted by Jack on November 11, 2008 at 2:55 PM

If you're looking for an explanation, this explanation seems to be pretty thoroughly sourced.

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Posted by Thomas F. O'Connell on November 11, 2008 at 3:58 PM

I live in Cleveland Oh, and I can't still believe that they wasted 200 million dollars on a bus line. Like the articule said, it runs through a broken down gheto!!!!!!
They should've used that money for JOBS. I'm 25 and i've been unemployed for 3 years. I've applied everywhere, Progressive Field, Live Nation, The Marriot, at Hopkins INternational Airport. I got an email from on of the hotels here downtown saying that I DIDN'T QUALIFY FOR THE POSITION OF DISH WASHER. I mean, really? i didn't know I needed a phd for that.
They could've used that money in a better way. That's why Cleveland is going to hell in a handbasket.

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Posted by Eliud Roman on November 12, 2008 at 10:38 AM

Don't worry, none of us here in the north would want to live in your redneck, hilljack sprawled out podunk excuse for a city.
The Euclid Corridor project was built to connect Cleveland's two largest job and cultural centers, and spur growth in the area between. Development between the two nodes has already begun in earnest. It obviously doesn't spring up over night.
For you Tenesee rejects who don't know what constitutes culture, here in Cleveland it includes the finest orchestra in the western hemisphere, one of the top five art museuems, hospitals, natural history museums, multiple universities, and the 2nd (behind only NYC) largest performing arts cluster in the US, and honestly too many other things to even name. Memphis, I mean Nashville (really, who even knows the difference), you have what, a hick singing venue that anyone with an IQ over 50 would hardly consider attending?
And the former Clevelanders that now live in your lame town can probably only take it because they had suburban sprawl training in Solon, Mentor, or Brunswick without ever trying to figure out what their former city had to offer. Thanks for taking our most ignorant.
Later hillbillies.

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Posted by Nashville Blows on November 12, 2008 at 12:50 PM

Also, it's hard to take this article seriously, considering its author is the former editor of the Cleveland Scene. I'd be pissed off too if I had to be shipped off to a hell hole like Nashville.

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Posted by Nashville Blows on November 12, 2008 at 12:56 PM

Funny you write that ill-informed piece, because my experience with those guests to Cleveland was different. When riding the HealthLine with them, they chose to rave about our transit system that they considered to be the model for mid-sized cities and how great of a system it was for the price that we paid.
In addition they further chose to explicate about their stay in Cleveland going on & on about our historic charm, great cultural institutions, entertainment & residential Downtown, and more.
Why aren't there any quotes from the participants?

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Posted by Jeffrey T. Verespej on November 12, 2008 at 1:00 PM
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