- ODOT
In its meeting Monday night, City Council green lit the first two phases of construction of the Opportunity Corridor, the $331 million, 3.2 mile roadway linking I-490 and University Circle.
The legislation passed by a vote of 12-3. Councilmen Brian Cummins, Mike Polensek and Jeff Johnson, who spoke out yesterday afternoon against the OpCor and Council President Kevin Kelley’s maneuvers to fast track the vote without committee hearings, dissented.
Community Development folks who aren’t yet fully in bed with the Greater Cleveland Partnership have resigned themselves to the view that this project would have been forced to completion with absolutely zero regard for community opposition anyway, so the best thing to do at this point is make the most of all these millions of theoretically available dollars.
(Check online tomorrow for an interview with the OpCor’s new Civic Liaison and Project Director Marie Kittredge).
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2014.
I can’t help but think this plan was hatched by people who comment on PD articles pertaining to RTA expansion.
It totally works against UC’s stated interest of easing congestion and parking problems by improving RTA access and ridership. Terrible planning.
There really does need to be an easy, quick way to get from the freeways to University Circle…I’m just not sure that this is the best way to do that. But hey, I hope they prove me wrong.
Every successful metro area in the nation has one thing in common that Cleveland does not have…extensive rail that links the suburbs to the city. Why do we know rail works? Because most of us use it when we visit those metro areas. Relief of congestion, no potholes or snow emergency,access to downtown on weekends without worry of DUI, cheaper way to visit downtown…the list goes on. This plan goes against the grain of what succeeds everywhere else.