http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2009/11/rtas_euclid_avenue_healthline.html

As for the comparison to Detroit it seems like that is part of the answer. The People Mover was built to fail and discourage further rail development. While Americans typically have the notion that monorail is a joke, the citizens of Wuppurtal, Germany (pop. 360,000) and visitors of the city ride their monorail which had a ridership of approximately 25 million in 2008 and is 8.3 miles long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn

If Detroit had built a similarly substantial line we may have seen more rail, not necessarily monorail, under construction in Detroit and attracting development. Still, that’s an interesting question and I’ll have to do some research. On the surface they faced pretty much the same problems (losing half their population, an economy heavily dependent on industry, etc), but Cleveland is not like Detroit, not to say that Detroit doesn’t have a good amount to offer visitors. It still has some stately neighborhoods like Boston-Edison which no one would guess was in Detroit.

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,11318.0.html

As far as Downtown Cleveland it seemed to face the same problem as ours with mostly empty streets and a few pockets of activity. The most bustling street there is 4th, which is pedestrian-friendly. If Columbus were to tackle the problem of our one-way feeder streets we could see more investment Downtown like we do on Gay St.

As for BRT in Columbus the only street that comes to mind would be Broad since it has so many lanes. Of course, that could harm or kill businesses on Broad and the #10 only needs to be more frequent on weekends and cut out stops that are too close together (in Franklinton there are two stops one block from each other, I mean really?) to be improved.

A note of caution, however: The Cleveland RTA is experiencing very serious budget problems leading to major cuts in bus service and staff. Many Clevelandites blame this on the costs of building and operating the Healthline BRT system. In fact, Cleveland area Democratic US Congressman Dennis Kucinich recently wrote an op ed letter in a Cleveland area paper regarding this issue:

http://www.cleveland.com/sunpostherald/index.ssf/2010/01/save_the_circulator_restore_me.html

Let’s just hope that things get corrected before things get worse in Cleveland.