Comment Re: Chapel Hill/ Carrboro North Carolina (Score 1) 654
Actually I think Cleveland still has very decent transit for a Rust Belt city. Arguably Pittsburgh does a bit better, but that's arguable, and they have a much larger funding base. Detroit definitely does not, but its funding situation is even worse than ours.
Regarding the recent crime spree at RTA stations - mostly on the West Side - these have not been heavily publicized for obvious reasons, but there has been some news coverage that you can Google for. Cleveland cops rounded up something like 70 members of this group maybe half a year ago, but without noticeable effect because, like other gangs of its nature, its roots are in the prison system, and it is designed to operate both inside and outside. Publicity and flaunting the risk of imprisonment is exactly the point of their initiation rituals. They think it proves they're b*d*sses. RTA cops do a good job considering their numbers and the political mandate that most of them have to be at Tower City, but anyplace else, they really can only respond to crimes after the fact, not intervene while they're happening. The stations between West 65 and Triskett have been especially targeted, enough that I will no longer use them to bring my family downtown; we can always take the slow but relatively safe bus instead. I have friends who have been robbed and/or beaten repeatedly at 98th and 117th, and I have to use the West 98th station to change buses if I take the bus to work. I don't do that anymore unless I have to.
I don't see any of this as a reflection on RTA, so much as the decline of the surrounding neighborhoods and the battle between gangs to establish dominance. Some formerly very scary stations such as West 25 and East 120 (now being relocated to Mayfield) have improved greatly, reflecting development and/or gentrification in their surrounding neighborhoods.
Nonetheless, using RTA for anything other than a downtown trip usually involves transferring, typically in less than safe areas, and typically between buses that run only every hour. It's just not something most people choose to do if they have some other reasonable alternative. Not RTA's fault, just the way things are.