Cleveland, OH
NOACA Study Details Dangers of Downtown Cleveland Streets, Paves Way for Solutions
Mark Oprea
Cyclists downtown last summer. A recent study by NOACA teased bike lanes in Cleveland’s future.
Last Friday, in a boardroom at the Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency, a team of transportation consultants from Columbus detailed the culmination of three years of studies done on the streets of Downtown Cleveland.
The results, in a 45-slide presentation, clarified the area’s need for a makeover: To put roughly 80 percent of its streets on a road diet—shortening their widths. To build center medians on those like East 9th. To link bike lane pathways already in planning stages.
“You can see a little bit of a network forming, but not a lot,” Steve Thieken, a planning specialist at Burgess & Niple, the firm responsible for the study, said at last week’s meeting, according to Cleveland.com. “Compared to peer cities, many have a more completed system.”
What the end product of NOACA’s three-year Downtown Livability and Transportation Study does, besides acknowledge Downtown’s gaping lack of safe bike lane infrastructure, is two-fold.
Besides laying foreshadowing framework for the City Mobility Plan, NOACA’s downtown overlook—which cost a quarter of a million dollars—will enable the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, and other departments, to pinpoint and better apply for state and federal funds that could, one day, pave way for actual construction.
Which, the study pointed out, carries both elements of contemporary design and a glowing need to remake streets into safer transportation routes. Along with a meaty proposal for, say, throwing a center lane and bike path onto the four-to-six lane beast that is East 9th St., the study found that 40 percent of those surveyed regularly felt unsafe riding bikes or scooters.
NOACA’s notch in Cleveland’s pursuit of more modern street design contributes to a growing narrative for what the city itself could look like in the next decade, as more gradually come further in line under a principle becoming more obvious: we need to right the wrongs of past planning decisions.
Or, as a slide labeled “Untapped”in Friday’s presentation put it: “Many downtown streets are designed for rush hour and special event traffic, which can lead to higher vehicle speeds during non-peak hours.” In other words, infrastructure drives behavior.
“People have to remember that streets aren’t only for automobiles,” NOACA President Grace Gallucci told Scene in a call Thursday. “And that’s how you have to discuss this with people for [these plans] to make sense. And I mean, people who are driving want to be safe too.”
Burgess & Niple
Where bike lanes are—and are not—downtown, in teal, blue and pink, a slide from NOACA’s presentation last week showed.
Burgess & Niple
Where bike lanes and shortened streets could be or will be in Cleveland’s future.
And just as long as NOACA’s been developing its study—and much, much longer in Greater Cleveland lore—ideas on which Downtown streets to overhaul have been gathering.
As its study teased last Friday, those ideas are wide-ranging: six total cycle tracks on Downtown’s east side; a bike trail that runs from Public Square to Progressive Field; an East 9th Greenspace Corridor that links Downtown’s front door to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“Oh, that’s such an unpleasant experience,” Audrey Gerlach, the VP of economic development for Downtown Cleveland, Inc., a partner in NOACA’s study, said. “I don’t want to push a stroller, or a wheelchair [down East 9th], even as an able-bodied person.”
“To me, this is definitely not an if but a when,” Gerlach added. “Consultants in town to study this is important—but we all instinctively know that East 9th is dangerous.”
As for actually making East 9th safer, and not just more aesthetically pleasing with tree lines and median refuges (resting spots in the middle of crosswalks), only City Hall itself is in the jurisdiction to bring Downtown’s streets into the 21st century.
Calley Mersmann, a senior strategist for transportation and member of the city’s Mobility Team, told Scene that the study she helped steer over the past three years has real world applications as far as bankrolling projects to enhance Downtown’s walkability. Mersmann suggested that the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects, along with other departments, could leverage said study into grant funding from—ironically—NOACA’s own Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative. (Up to $2 million a year, though.)
“Because this plan exists,” she put it simply, “we can tap into that.”
As for the Mobility Plan, which could include a network of unified bike lanes across the city, that should be released to the public by early 2025.
NOACA’s study …
“This plan kind of took those ideas to the next step by instituting them as recommendations,” she said.
Her colleague, and active transportation planner, Sarah Davis agreed. “It’s helpful to have that zoomed in perspective as we’re going into this citywide,” Davis said. “And to be able to focus in more specifically. That this is out there, and people are thinking about it.”
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/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/RCSLPZHLQRBMVGGGH22D3V2IKA.jpg "Disturbing display found at Cleveland construction site")
Cleveland, OH
Up to 15% of Ohio residents benefit from this federal act signed into law 34 years ago today
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Whether they have hearing, vision, cognitive or ambulatory difficulties, disabled Ohioans are protected through the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed on July 26, 1990.
Signed into law by then-President George H.W. Bush, the ADA is the nation’s strongest measure protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities, barring discrimination based on disability and guaranteeing equal access to public buildings and businesses, employment opportunities, transportation, telecommunications, commercial facilities, and state and local government services.
In Ohio, 14.4% of the state’s total population has some sort of disability, or nearly 1-out-of-7 people, according to the most recent census estimates. This is above the 2022 average in the country of 13.4%, but not the highest overall. Almost 20% of West Virginia has a disability. The state with the lowest rate is Utah, at 10.6%.
The highest percent of disability types in Ohio is ambulatory disability, which affects a person’s ability to walk or move around, making up 48% of people with a disability in the state. This is followed by those with a cognitive disability, which affects a person’s brain capacity, at 41%.
In Northeast Ohio, a number of counties have disability rates higher than even the state average. In Ashtabula County, the disability rate is 15.9%. Cuyahoga County has a rate of 15.4% and Lorain County has a rate of 16.3%
Some disabilities make it difficult to work, and 30% of the state’s population not in the labor force has a disability. However, for those in the labor force, wages are significantly lower than state averages.
Men with a disability made an estimated annual wage of $31,432, compared to those without a disability at $50,306. Women with a disability made an estimated annual wage of $24,132, compared to those without a disability at $35,594, according to census estimates.
As a group, full-time, year-round workers with a disability earn 87 cents for every dollar earned by those with no disability. Additionally, people with a disability are less likely to earn a full-time wage.
Ambulatory, hearing and cognitive are the most common difficulties among workers with a disability, which may have an impact on the type of jobs they can get.
The most common occupations for people with a disability in the United States are janitors and building cleaners, who make up 11% of workers in this occupation. Other large occupations for workers with disabilities are truck drivers, retail, cashiers, and freight, stock and material movers.
The Midwest is the region with the second highest rate of disabilities in the country as of 2021, at 13.1%, following only the South at 13.8%.
Regional disability rates may differ for a variety of reasons. For example, disability is often associated with age, so regions that contain states with a higher proportion of the population age 65 and over may be more likely to report higher rates of disability.
Disability rates in the country, on average, were higher in rural areas than in urban areas, with the regions with the highest percentage of disabled people also having the highest percentage of people living in rural areas (24.8% of the Midwest).
Zachary Smith is the data reporter for cleveland.com. You can reach him at zsmith@cleveland.com.
Texas A&M’s annual recruiting pool party is just days away. New head football coach Mike Elko already has experience with the event during his three-year stint as the Aggies’ defensive coordinator from 2018-2021.
During former head coach Jim Fisher’s six-year reign, recruiting success was the norm, starting and ending with the pool party that continues to bring together prospects who have a chance to relax and discuss their potential playing future in College Station.
With 19 commitments in the 2025 recruiting class so far, Elko and his staff have their eyes on landing the top two safeties in the cycle, as 5-star safety Jonah Williams will announce his commitment on August 24. As of Wednesday, it was confirmed that 5-star safety Trey McNutt will reportedly visit Texas A&M this weekend, according to Rivals insider Landyn Rosow.
After moving his impending commitment announcement to August 3rd, this news seems significant. It provides Texas A&M’s coaching staff with a clear pathway to gaining his commitment and beating out the red-hot Oregon Ducks.
On the field, McNutt is one of the top defensive playmakers in the country, recording 61 tackles, two for loss, 12 pass breakups, and a forced fumble on the year while excelling as a wide receiver on offense during his 2023 junior season.
According to Rivals, McNutt is currently ranked 20th in the 2025 cycle, the 2nd-ranked safety prospect, and the third-ranked prospect in Ohio.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on Twitter: @CameronOhnysty.
This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: 2025 5-star safety out of Cleveland (OH) will visit Texas A&M this weekend
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns are reportedly set to welcome another assistant coach to Mike Budenhozler’s staff.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter/X:
“ESPN Sources: James Posey is joining the Phoenix Suns as an assistant coach. Posey — who had a 12-year NBA playing career — has had coaching stops with the Wizards and Cavaliers.”
ESPN Sources: James Posey is joining the Phoenix Suns as an assistant coach. Posey — who had a 12-year NBA playing career — has had coaching stops with the Wizards and Cavaliers. pic.twitter.com/ofEQpQiMn1
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2024
As a player, Posey is a two-time NBA champion with both the Miami Heat (2006) and Boston Celtics (2008). He played from 1999-2011 on seven different teams and notched over 4,000 points and rebounds, respectively.
Two years after Posey last played, he hit the coaching ranks and began with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ G League affiliate Canton Charge as an assistant before jumping to the Cavs as a full-time assistant from 2014-19.
In 2022, he joined the Washington Wizards as an assistant on their staff before now reportedly joining Phoenix.
Other reported coaching hires under Budenholzer are Brent Barry, David Fizdale, Vince Legarza, Mike Hopkins, Chad Forcier, and Chaisson Allen.
It’s safe to imagine Budenholzer’s staff is near completion, if not already full.
Phoenix just completed their Summer League run and next will take action when training camp begins a couple months from now.
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