Report from the trench-world... only in the blogsphere

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 03/18/2006 - 19:03.

I was thrilled to stumble across these notes on a blog called Cleveland vs. The World, posted live from the Tuesday, February 21, 2006 hearing by ODOT supposedly addressing public concerns about the I-90 "trench" route through Cleveland, and the replacement of the existing I-90 bridge across the Cuyahoga... the ending comments (below) are revealing:

Ed Hauser
-back to public process
-i am looking for answers
-i take the lack of answers as an insult personally
-there is a 14 step public process that has been broken

FHWA:
-the person you need to reach is Kappka in DC
-I am aware of your concerns
-we are trying to address your concerns
-you asked about the documentation, we are addressing it
-the decisions are not final until we have finished going through the process
-the January deadline will be extended (wow)
-please do not feel like you are being ignored

Hauser:
-the bridge has been decided on and that is the part that has been decided on.

FHWA:
-that desicion has not been finalized (wow, again)

Terry , Business Owner
-question about timeframe for property aquisition

Craig:
-case by case until

 

See all the notes at: http://clevelandplanner.blogspot.com/2006/02/live-blogging-from-cleveland-innerbelt.html

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Cleveland vs. The World

Submitted by Martha Eakin on Sat, 03/18/2006 - 20:58.

    I found my way to this blog via a link on CoolCleveland that led first to Gloria Ferris's blog on the trench meeting. http://www.gloriaferris.net/2006/03/odot/  Clearly there are a lot of people who are not at all pleased with how ODOT is running over us.  My question is, how are these people coordinating their efforts?  Ed has submitted document requests etc. but at the rate ODOT responds, they'll be building the bridge before Ed gets his answers.  Proctor had an aside at the Myers U Club meeting about someone or group that sued ODOT and lost.  And who is going to fund a citizen law suit?

 Now the Midtown group's Haviland presented at the Cleveland Planning Commission meeting on 3/3.  According to CLE v. the World's 3/11 posting regarding this meeting, the dialogue re: the trench was mostly negative to ODOT, but there was also this comment of Coyne's:

Coyne: We need to wrap this up for today, but let me add, we may be done with public input. We are going to have to lock some people in a room and not let them out until this is resolved. (italics added)

And I wouldn't be reassured by the FHWA rep's comments.  He did say it wasn't over yet, but he also "cautioned" that crashes/accidents trump just about every other consideration, so I would bet that is what ODOT will hide behind.  Come on, if there are fewer businesses/destinations in Cleveland, there will be fewer cars trying to exit into or from Cleveland and thus the number of crashes will be reduced.