City Infrastructure

How the Van Aken District Brought New Life to Shaker Heights: An Illustration Essay

My anti-morning person disposition requires that I have at least one iced coffee to start my day, and while Starbucks or Dunkin suffice, I...

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur Has a New Committee Position. What Could That Mean for Toledo?

In post-industrial cities across the Midwest, the struggles of population loss, low wages and aging infrastructure remain as barriers to the economic revitalization of...

Ohio’s Transit System and the Path to an Intermodal Future

Read Part I here. About a century ago, Ohio was covered with an extensive system of electric passenger railroads called interurbans—a short-lived but well-loved era...

Summit Street a Century Ago

As Summit Street currently undergoes a multi-million dollar transformation, now is an opportune moment to look back on the history of one of the...
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When Ohio Was the Future of Public Transit: The Interurban Era

Midwestern rail transit tends to evoke imagery of rusted steel and graffitied cargo cars—not exactly the picture of the speedy, sparkling passenger rail of...

Madison Avenue a Century Ago

As we see Toledo’s downtown changing in the midst of its revitalization efforts over the last few years, take a look, street by street, at the Toledo of 100 years ago—brick roads bustling with pedestrians, ornate architecture and all.

Mobility in Crisis, Part III: Can Amtrak Midwest Ride Out the Pandemic?

The pandemic has halted progress for public transit systems nationwide, but Amtrak’s Director of Government Affairs for the Midwest discusses why the region was struggling with passenger rail long before COVID-19 and how we might move forward.

Mobility in Crisis, Part II: Could Disaster Transform Toledo’s Bus System?

Read Part I, "Public Health, Transit and Investment," here. COVID-19 has decimated public transportation in cities nationwide; the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA)...

Mobility in Crisis, Part I: Public Health, Transit and Investment

From airlines to subways, mass transit is particularly ill-suited to the social distancing practices that help stem COVID-19’s spread, so it doesn’t come as a shock that the transportation sector has struggled to navigate the pandemic. And for transit systems nationwide, it’s a bitter pill to swallow: where public transportation was most successful, it now seems most threatening—and threatened.

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