JoeL

dmerkow's point is really important for discussing UC. As a whole, the university is basically a 2nd tier regional school. However specific colleges are top-tier nationally. In particular, DAAP and CCM have a really great reputation. So it's a bit of an odd dynamic because of the huge gap in quality between different programs. Also, as someone else mentioned, UC's co-op requirement makes it pointless to compare 4-year grad rates. 6-year is more useful.

^ The article says he'll probably declare bankruptcy, so I'm assuming it's pretty much over. Very sad story, and really interesting to read about this guy's passion and resilience. That being said, you have to acknowledge that he opened up a luxury boutique gardening store in a transitional neighborhood where most resident don't have yards. So these things happen. And it seems like he's pretty open about the fact that he knew this could happen going into it. Obviously, promoting OTR sounds like the primary reason he got into Outside in the first place; however, part of me wishes that he'd have given his business a shot in Oakley or even East Walnut hills. I bet he could have found much more success.

Of course it's a generalization, but the demographics trend toward single white professionals.

E. McMicken is where there's a huge concentration of buildings owned by Over-the-Rhine Community Housing and other social service organizations. In my opinion, this area is NOT going to receive the kind of dramatic gentrification and improvement that will happen in the Gateway Quarter and (eventually) Findley Market. There are just way too many social service organizations who have a vested interest in keeping low-income housing in that specific area. Consequently, if you can make the numbers work for today and you are comfortable with the demographics of the street today - you will be fine. If you are expecting a Gateway Quarter type resurgence to justify your investment, I think you should look for areas in OTR that are further South or adjacent to Findley Market.

^ Yup. It's a negative consequence of P&G moving an extra 700 workers from the 'burbs to downtown. Parking is going to get insane down there in January. A lot of P&Gers have been grumbing about this one for a few months now. I can't even imagine what's going to happen during the Casino construction when even more hundreds of parking spaces will be temporarily displaced. Hopefully it won't promote the demolition of any non-protected buildings in the area. Parking pressure can lead to some really ludicrous decisions in terms of tearing down beautiful buildings.

I believe that's a misstatement by the enquirer. The former owner had HUD waive the HAP contract for the building. (This is why the tenants are suing HUD only. They have no conceivable grounds to sue 3CDC). 3CDC is now helping the tenants switch over to modern Section 8 vouchers from their current building-specific HAP subsidies. It's my understanding that there's zero obligation to give them a year window or really any assistance at all. I'll admit that my Ohio specific knowledge isn't perfect, so don't hold me to this, but I believe this is where they stand: - The old owner got a HUD waiver already. 3CDC buys the building without any obligation to continue the HUD contract - Consequently, 3CDC is not beholden to previous leases. The tenants are officially considered "month-to-month" and 3CDC can kick them out with 30 days notice. Period. Same as any other apartment that's sold to a new owner. - As others have mentioned, the Metropole is supposedly so nasty on the inside that 3CDC could probably have it condemned immediately anyway. So they could probably get people kicked out even faster. But again, 3CDC is doing none of this. They are being quite proactive and frankly, in their effort to be nice, are going to be giving a lot of assistance to criminals and people abusing the system, as well as the deserving folks.

^ diaspora. You are incorrect. They are going above what is required by law.

Actually, it kind of does. Tenants only have rights to the extent of their lease, and even those are quite limited when the building changes ownership. Bottom line: if 3CDC wanted to, they could just wait 1 year until all the leases expire and provide ZERO relocation assistance. 3CDC is being amazingly generous with their current plan. They are doing far more than they have to. Frankly, given the undisputed evidence of a criminal element among the tenants, I think 3CDC is being too generous with their relocation plan. I wish they'd implement some strict oversight to ensure that problem tenants are not granted relocation assistance.

^If not for massive public involvement (highway policy, housing projects, section 8, etc. etc.) Over-the-Rhine wouldn't have declined in the first place.

Ouch. That is a depressing article. But it's hard to take much from the narrative about "Outside." As others have pointed out, it's such a weird concept for a neighborhood like OTR that it might eventually fail in the best of times. Obviously, I have no desire to disparage the owners of the store, because their enterprising spirit should be praised and celebrated. But sometimes a business model just doesn't work.

Probably. But it's a term with decent historical context, and it's not like all of the Midwest is included in the rust belt either. For example, few if any people are going to be putting Indy, Kansas City or Minneapolis in the Rust Belt. Even Chicago tends to escape the label. So it's not just about bias against Midwesterners.

Nice photo series. That picture of the weeds growing around the parking meters is just bizarre. Apparently the meter maids are too lazy to call code enforcement?

The term "rust belt" is just a negative replacement for the "manufacturing belt." Although Cincinnati often escapes association with the rust belt, I have some old planning texts which show Cincy as part of the manufacturing belt. So I think it's perfectly fair to lump Cincinnati with the rust belt. If you want to look on the bright side, I guess this just shows that some rust belt cities are still kind of growing.

I think there's something like 31st through 34th streets in Oakley. Hope that helps ;)

You can't possibly be serious. Monroe will mostly be competing with the existing Jeffersonville outlets (and at worst, the Cincinnati suburbs) not Cincinnati itself. So like I said, it is absolutely deranged to be complaining about an improvement of 40+ miles closer. Listen, I'd be thrilled if new retail were being built in Oakley instead. But it's not. So I'll gladly take the 80 mile round-trip reduction in driving time. Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of you complainers are married? I think it's really easy to spew a bunch of trite cliches about a facility specifically intended to cater to women in an internet forum that appears to be overwhelmingly single or gay men.

All this whining about the outlet mall is deranged. And I think that's about the most diplomatic way I can put it. 29 miles away is damn better than 70 miles away, which was the previous alternative. Get over it.

This statement is true. If you took the most urbanized 50 sq. miles of Jacksonville Florida, you'd probably get a % very similar to Cleveland. It would be more useful to see a list based on metro area. City limits are rarely helpful for any ranking. However, that's hardly an excuse to dismiss the obvious problem. American center cities have high rates of poverty. This is an artificial condition created by America's policy of cramming public housing and social services in our urban cores. In most other countries, the poverty is in the suburbs, not the center cities. As this relates to Ohio, I think it would be interesting to see if Ohio has a history of more centralized public housing than other American cities (which have occasionally placed some of their projects in the burbs). Certainly, Cincinnati used to have a stunning concentration of public housing in their downtown basin. It's been dispersed a bit in recent years, but I think most of the poverty has stayed within city limits.

That's a good point. This is one of recycling's dirty little secrets - it's not always environmentally friendly in the first place! Another example is paper recycling. Paper is basically a renewable resource (go visit a pine tree farm in the Southeastern US. Saving those trees is like saving the wheat stalks). Yet the paper recycling process concentrates a lot of nasty chemicals into the ecosystem. Consequently, some people argue that it's more environmentally friendly to NOT recycle paper. If one is going to promote recycling, I'd stick with things like plastic, batteries, and "environmentally friendly" lightbulbs which are actually quite toxic. I don't think it's frankly worth the time to concentrate on natural products like paper (trees) and glass (heated sand).

^ Sounds like it will be the best of both worlds then. Outdoors (does that mean free?), but included as part of a larger exhibit of information.

I'm guessing that Cincinnati is getting something that looks almost exactly like this: In my opinion, a museum installation is much better than an outdoor monument for a piece like this. A solitary monument would be disconnected and underwhelming. It's far better to include something like this as a supplement to a thoughtful museum exhibit.

I'm glad to hear about this exhibit, and that it is permanent. I agree with Gordon - it gives more people a reason to actually go to the museum. Since the people of Eastern Europe were essentially slaves to the Communist Party puppet governments set up by the Soviets, I think it's a real shame that the Freedom Center doesn't place more of a focus on it. Especially since Cincy has such a large ethnic German population.

Very true. The language is extremely broad and will completely destroy the funding process for anything remotely related to a rail-car. But just to be clear, "the gray area" is NOT about how far reaching this will be. That is very clear. Based on the ballot language, issue 9 WILL cover the streetcar, WILL cover 3-C, WILL cover Amtrak, WILL cover high speed rail to Chicago, WILL cover commuter rail, WILL cover light-rail, and WILL cover the Zoo's train. COAST can try to deny it all they want, but the courts will have to require a public vote for all these projects - even the Zoo train. This will pretty much destroy chances of ever getting federal funding. The biggest irony of the whole damn process is that issue 9 will just make rail MORE EXPENSIVE for Cincinnati whenever it happens. Eventually, voters will approve some form of rail in the future, whether it's in 2 years or 25 years. If issue 9 passes, Cincinnati will have an impossible time getting federal funding, which means that Cincinnati's future rail projects will cost citizens twice as much!!

Great photos! I agree with Sherman Cahal - I'm not really sure what's so negative about some of the infill projects posted. I think they're pretty good overall. In particular, those four craftsman style houses are a reasonably accurate representation (minus a few slightly busy rooflines) of one of the more relevant vernacular architecture styles in the American South.

LOL ... well considering the fact that Vanderbilt is literally an arboretum, I think that might explain part of UncleRando's ambivalence to the campus. The conscious focus is on the landscape of the trees, and the architecture tends to be very contextual and muted. Anyway, I visited Vanderbilt for the first time this year. I was fairly impressed. I think it's one of the more attractive campuses in the country. I also think that the area immediately surrounding the campus is a fantastic example of a neighborhood that is slowly shifting from suburban to urban. You can tell that Nashville must have implemented a form-based code near Vanderbilt, because all the new development has a noticeable urban character.

I share your confusion. But trust me, If you had met these protesters, you wouldn't be making the mistake of presuming they had any logic to begin with. One of them was even telling passers-by that 3CDC was going to tear down all the historical buildings in OTR ... which should give everyone some indication of how disconnected from reality they are. I presume they were just some washed-up old culture warriors. Part of the distressing group of people (on both sides of the political aisle, I might add) who insist upon the forced concentration of poverty in the urban core.