Friday, June 27, 2014

UPDATE on pothole and street status, City of Cleveland, Ward 14

In response to the many calls being received at the Ward 14 Council office, this post attempts to inform and document for constituents, the work being done to hold the Division of Streets and the Mayor's Administration accountable for the lack of service response in repairing the City of Cleveland's streets.

Since the last snow fall on March 19th, the Ward 14 Council office has attempted to inventory, track and report streets as well as specific locations that need potholes and street repairs. On Monday April 28th, Council's Public Works Committee held a four hour hearing in which Council was told that residential streets could be expected to be serviced by the end of June.

Although there was significant work completed in servicing primary and secondary arterial streets, a very small portion of residential streets have been serviced to-date.

In an effort to hold the Administration accountable for the lack of service and communications about the process and expected times for completion, I've asked for a meeting with the Director of Public Works as well as other responsible staff for next week.

As stated in our Committee meeting in April and most recently, constituents have the right to expect a reasonable response to service requests.  A reasonable response should include an expected time service should be rendered.  This has not been the case for the vast majority of pothole service requests.  Without an estimate of when a repair will be made, constituents lose faith and confidence in our City government's ability to carryout services for taxpayers.

Note, constituents are encouraged to report pothole and other related streets issues to our office as well as the Division of Streets and the Mayor's Action Line using the information below:
Currently our office has reported the following streets and locations as needing service:
  1. W. 17th St, from Buher to Valentine Ave
  2. W. 30th St, from Sackett to Clark Ave 
  3. W. 38th from Archwood to Mapledale Ave
  4. W. 39th from Archwood to Mapledale (to be resurfaced).
  5. W. 41st St, from Archwood to Mapledale Ave
  6. W. 42 St, from Archwood to Mapledale Ave
  7. W. 47th St, from Denison to Storer Ave (reports of three accidents/damage).
  8. W. 48th St, from Denison to Storer Ave
  9. W. 49th St, from Denison to Storer Ave
  10. W. 50th St, unsealed and failing utility cut between Denison and Carlos Ave.
    a. 3207 W. 50th W. 50th St, large hole, orange barrel placed in mid-June, also another orange barrel 50 feet away from this hole as well as a metal plate placed to cover a cave in.
  11. W. 52nd, W. 54th St, Denison Avenue to Clark Ave
  12. W. 56th Street, from Denison Avenue to Clark Ave
  13. W. 58th St, from Denison to Clark Ave
  14. W. 61st St, from Barberton to Storer Ave
  15. W. 62nd St, from Denison to Clark.
    Specific large pot holes
    a. Front of 3382, 3428, 3466 W 44th St
    b. Front of 3525 W 45th St, two extremely deep pot holes.
    c. Front of 3567 W 46th St
  16. W. 65th St, from Denison to Clark Ave
  17. W 67th St from Denison to Clark Ave
  18. Almira Ave at w. 82nd St
  19. Archwood Ave, multiple utility cuts that are not seal-coated and are showing cracking and deterioration.
  20. Brinsmade Ave, intersection at W. 86th St, including an large unsealed and deteriorating utility cut ajust west of W. 86th St
  21. W. 86th Street, from Denison Ave to Brinsmade Ave
  22. Bush Avenue, from Fulton to W. 46th St
    a. Also several street failures. i.e. several cave-ins around sewer grates and catch basins.
  23. Castle Avenue, from W. 25th St to Scranton Rd
  24. Carlos Avenue, from W 46th Street to W 52nd St
  25. Carlyle Ave at Fulton Rd
  26. Clark Avenue, entire street – potholes are occurring in locations where pothole Killer initially patched in April.
  27. Daisy Avenue, from W. 25th Street to W. 34th St
  28. Dearborn Ave at 7100 block
  29. Denison Avenue at W. 47th St
  30. Eichorn Ave, from W. 46th to W 52 St
  31. Erin Avenue, from W. 25th St to Fulton Rd
  32. Hannan Ave, from Bush Avenue to W 47th St
  33. Holmden Ave at Scranton Rd
  34. Library Ave from W. 25th Street to Fulton
  35. Mapledale Ave, from Pearl Rd to W. 34th St
  36. Marvin Ave, from W. 25th to W. 44th St
  37. MetroHealth Main Campus area [HIGH PRIORITY]
    a. Aiken Ave; Englindale Ave; View Rd
  38. Meyer Ave from Scranton to Fulton Rd
  39. Neville Ave, between W. 73rd  and W. 82 St, large unsealed and deteriorating utility cut
  40. Poe Ave from W. 32nd St to Fulton Rd 
  41. Riverside Avenue, from Pearl Road to the cul-de-sac.
  42. Sackett Ave, from W. 25th St to Fulton Ave
  43. Scranton Rd, from Pearl Rd north to Wade Ave
    a. Large hole (emergency repair), at 3211 Scranton Rd
  44. Seymour Ave, from W. 25th St. to Scranton Rd.  Includes a cave-in and several large spot-resurfacing areas
  45. Valentine Ave from Innerbelt access road to Scranton Rd
  46. Walton Ave from W. 25th St to Fulton Ave, multiple unsealed utility cuts.

In addition to our office requests for pothole and street repairs, the following is the City of Cleveland's 311-Call Center report for Ward 14 for all pothole and street service requests made from 1.31.2014 through 6.23.2014.  Click on the document for an enlarged view.

In addition, here are my notes from the Public Works Committee meeting held on 4.28.2014 that dealt with resources, processes and expectations for street servicing.

In addition to this report on pothole and streets servicing, I'll be posting under a separate article the Ward 14 resurfacing plan for this summer.

In the media:

Counclimans Corner - Be a Concerned Citizen 
[Public Works and related lack of city services]
by Michael D. Polensek, 6.19.2014, The Collinwood Observer

Some potholes are more than 6 feet long
Joe Pagonakis, Newsnet 5 Jun 2, 2014

Straight from City Hall
News and Information from the City of Cleveland
[search results for pothole]


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Lessons from a Gig City

Cleveland leaders travel to Chattanooga, TN, 
to discover what makes a “Connected City”


By Will Tarter, Community Engagement Specialist

What does a city of the future look like? How can such cities leverage fiber optic network infrastructure to benefit businesses and residents? What kind of companies do they attract? What do they do differently than anyone else? Most importantly, what can Cleveland leaders learn from these cities?

These questions are the motivators behind OneCommunity’s “Connected Cities” Public Officials Fact-finding Missions, a series of field trips to cities that have implemented next-generation fiber-optic-based networks.

For the full article visit OneCommunity.

The Cleveland delegation was led by Lev Gonik, CEO, OneCommunity, supported by a generous grant from The Gund Foundation and included Kevin Kelley, Cleveland City Council President; Councilman Brian Cummins; Joanne Hovis, President, CTC Technology & Energy; Valerie McCall, Tracey Nichols and Jason Wood, Chief of Government Affairs, Director of Economic Development and Chief of Public Affairs, Department of Public Utilities respectively for the City of Cleveland; Felton Thomas Executive Director, Cleveland Public Library; and, Alesha Washington, Senior Director of Policy, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.



Monday, June 16, 2014

Connect your Community (2.0) computer training center to open in June



On June 16, the Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center and CYC 2.0 will launch a five-month demonstration of our “Next CYC” approach in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood of Cleveland.

Sponsored by Ward 14 City Councilman Brian Cummins, the Brooklyn Centre program will offer disconnected neighborhood residents free basic computer and Internet training, and help in finding affordable home Internet access and computers.  It will also offer special short courses designed to help participants start using the Internet immediately for access to health care information, bank services, job opportunities and other high-value purposes.

The program will occupy a storefront at 3800 Pearl Road, just north of Denison Avenue (next door to the Brookside Food Center).  Classes will be offered most weekdays through October.  ASC3 and CYC 2.0 hope to serve between 200 and 300 local residents during this demonstration period.

A special emphasis of the demonstration effort is helping residents who are MetroHealth patients to start using the hospital’s MyChart patient health portal. The center is six blocks south of the MetroHealth main campus, where many Brooklyn Centre residents go for care.

REF: Connect Your Community Blog

Wednesday, June 4, 2014