Paradox24

GAH! It is just me or in the rendering does it appear that the combined height of the parking garage floors is almost half the height of the occupied section of the tower itself. Looks like some poorly planned monstrosity you would see in DT Miami.

Thank you so much for *all* the kind responses! I didn't expect such a response so soon, so I'm kind of overwhelmed. I am definitely motivated to start working on a Part 2 sometime soon. Caseyc:Wow. You must be right! I did take that picture in Newport back in mid-February. I saw a bunch of stuff on the porch, but I didn't think it was a yard sale. I'm not sure whether you recognized the dog or the balcony, but that's almost a scary-good level of recognition. OTR:I'm a moron. Apparently my flickr ADDRESS is www.flickr.com/aarondavidson, but my flickr SCREENNAME is aaron.davidson. Although I'm afraid to change either now because I fear I might break all the links. So in short, my *real* flickr name is aarondavidson. I'll change addy on the photo above to reflect that in a few minutes... UncleRando: I appreciate that...I was lucky to catch that picture since tripod broke as I was getting it out of the car to run up Carew Tower with it. I had to balance it between my chest and the wall to get a steady shot...I know I know...coolstorybro. lol REK: Ha ha...My pleasure! I believe #14, #40, #121 were taken in Beautiful Belly View, as well. I do have some more shots of course, but I'm saving those for a future thread. City Blights:Thanks, FYI I used a Canon Rebel T1i (with a variety of lenses) for nearly every shot with the exception of the winter "series" from 2007...I used the earlier Rebel model XT for those. eastvillagedon:Me too! The animation and flute flourish in the video you posted was pretty classy too. Ah, the days of network TV that will (unfortunately) never return. I could go on and on... Keith M.: I definitely need to hit up Columbus sometime this spring and give it my proper respect...I'll be sure to shoot you a PM before I do.

We all have to start somewhere, right? Even though I’ve been an occasional lurker (and infrequent poster) on this forum since the days of “cincinnatiuprise” I’m a little embarrassed to just now finally make my first legitimate photo thread on UrbanOhio. I’ll admit that I’ve felt a little insecure about my ability to add much to the discussion with so many aggressively well-informed individuals knocking their heads together in these threads. I don’t carry around as many statistics and data points in my head as some others, so that leaves me feeling a little intimidated about adding my two cents at times. Also, I tend to be a self-flagellating perfectionist. Especially when it comes to the photos I post. I like to take pictures as much I can…or at least as much as I feel like doing so. And I’ve taken tens of thousands of images of places both near and far from home over the past ten + years, with the vast majority of them just collecting dust on my external hard drive. So, because I realize life is too short, I’ve decided to finally make a concerted effort to start posting my photos online to share them with others. I wanted to start off my first UrbanOhio photo thread by featuring my humble hometown of Cincinnati. Even though there are aspects of the area that aggravate me to no end, I do take a lot of pride in the place, and I feel like it is often underrated. The photos that make up this Cincinnati (area) thread are *not* meant to be a “best of” representative collection of my photos from the last decade-- Just a random sampling of photos –mostly taken within the past ten months or so-unless otherwise noted. There are well over 100 images here, be warned. You may have to reload a couple of times to get all the pictures to show up. Hopefully you enjoy them. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. This picture was taken just days after Smitty’s, an 84-year-old retail institution on the corner of Vine and 15th St burned to the ground. Fortunately for the neigborhood, the owners decided to rebuild and relocate into a larger space just a few steps north at 1501 Vine. They reopened in March 2011. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. Linn St. mixed use buildings under construction in October 2006. This is the primary north-south commercial street in the West End neighborhood, The part you see under construction is part of the “City West” development. This $200 million project, which began in 2000, (and is still currently unfinished over 10 years later) replaced two of the city’s oldest public housing projects – Lincoln Court & Laurel Homes with mixed income housing and a smattering of amenities. The reviews on the project are very mixed. Fun fact – Laurel Homes was the second largest PWA housing project in the country. 55. Linn St. streetwall in 2011. 56. 57. 58. The magnificent tiled mural designed by the late local artist Charley Harper in the John W. Peck Federal Building (I wasn’t happy with how the colors came out in my original image so I freaked around with this picture in Photoshop until I was happy with it.) 59. 60. 61. Even though spring has officially sprung, I thought I would shove these next few pictures in here anyway - if nothing else, but to serve as a reminder of what we recently managed to endure… Well, maybe not quite so recently. The following series of pictures were actually taken following an ice storm on Valentine’s Day 2007….BETTER LATER THAN NEVER DAMMIT! 62. (BTW, all the night photos in this series were taken in the hours between midnight and 3:00am) 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. SMITTY’S! (The closest thing Over-the-Rhine had to Times Square) (The two smallest buildings towards the right of the image were completely destroyed by fire in April 2010). Because I occasionally like eyesores, I hope that the owner will install those gaudy fluorescent lights at his new location after he settles in this spring. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. My father worked in this building for many years. 89. Look above the awning. For a sign that looked kinda old to begin with (check out the late 1950’s-era NBC peacock rip-off, BTW) this sign has taken a terrible beating over just the past few years…Check out the same sign in Spring 2010: 90. Weird. Now you can resume your ’07 flashback: 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. My doctor used to be in this building. Yep. Thought you all needed to know that. Let me shut up now. 101. 102. 103. 104. Now, you can set your time-traveling coordinates back to the present: 105. 106. 107. Bonus points if you can guess where this sprawl is located. (Hint: Not Cincinnati) 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. Yes, you read that correctly. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. For some reason, I enjoy taking pictures of people taking pictures. 145. 146. 147. Corryville houses, undergoing demolition, February 2011. 148. The promise of spring. 149. I’ll leave you with all with a panoramic postcard from an uncommonly seen angle, shamelessly emblazoned with my flickr calling card: 150. Flickrfriend me or something. Eventually I’ll figure that crap out. Anyway, thanks for viewing the thread! -Aaron

Nice crisp shots! I can definitely feel the chill...lol. I always wanted to go up and admire the view from the B.I.T. in person...nice to know it's still"open!" ;)

I've lived in Columbus for 5 years and I'm sure I've probably only seen half the neighborhoods that you've already done photo tours of...I don't even think I've *heard* of many of these areas either. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this...I'll probably have to set aside a whole afternoon to look them all (lol), but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Oh, by the way...I think the link for the "Old Town Columbus neighborhoods & Iuka Ravine" tour is broken.

Nice to see an area with so much potential finally getting some sustained much-needed attention. Great photos as well, ink!

A quick comparison with this photo, and any equivalent aerial view from Google Maps/Bing Maps/Mapquest, etc. will show that the majority what you see was wiped off the face of the earth. However thankfully, most of the area of Over-the-Rhine & Prospect Hill (sub-neighborhood of Mt. Auburn) seen in this photo has remained intact. I could probably lose a lot of time getting lost in this photo. Can you imagine if the West End remained wholly intact (without the construction of Laurel Homes & Lincoln Court) and the slummy areas were allowed to gentrify to an extent? Sometimes I think the destruction of the West End as seen in this photo might have been as great of a loss in the history of this city as the unfinished subway. Possibly greater.

I originally planned to create this thread back in October of last year, but life sort of got in the way…oh, that and I am a master procrastinator....and I am stricken with "forum phobia" that Chris (ColDayMan) can probably shed more light on if he chooses... Anyway, this thread, along with my ambition to make it, burrowed deep into the memory hole inside my mind… Unlike a black hole in which nothing can escape, occasionally I am able to retrieve lost projects from the memory hole, and shine them up like new again, so you never know the difference… For those who may be unaware, allow me to introduce to you some of the work of Chilean-born sociologist and photographer Camilo Jose Vergara: Read.... Camilo Jose Vergara has documented the decline of the built environment in the United States since he arrived in the country in 1965 to attend college at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. As he began to document the physical environment around the city, Vergara found that he was instinctively drawn towards the more dilapidated and economically impoverished parts of town. Not only did Vergara find a bit of his own childhood in those type of areas, but he also felt more connected with the people there and became fascinated with how they interacted with their surroundings. In 1977, following his graduate studies at Columbia University in New York, he first began to undertake a comprehensive effort to document the largest ghettos in the United States. His collection of over 20,000 color slides includes extensive coverage of urban decay in New York, Newark, Chicago, Gary, Camden, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Vergara has also compiled a “sizeable” number of slides from Philadelphia, Oakland, Cincinnati, Boston, Trenton, Atlantic City, Washington D.C., Richmond, CA, Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, and Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. This particular thread is focused on Vergara’s photographic documentation of Camden, New Jersey. These photos and more can be found on an interactive online gallery, hosted by Rutgers University, Camden and funded by the Ford Foundation. The website, http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.html features photographs that capture the devolution of the built environment and the interaction between the environment and the residents who dwell in there; specifically the cities of Camden, New Jersey and Richmond, California. I found the photos of Camden particularly compelling and I think some of you may as well. 101-105 Linden St., 2005; 2039 Arlington St. 2003: 2121 Mt. Ephraim Ave. 2005: Camden, New Jersey, originally conceived as a suburb of Philadelphia, is known among other things as the birthplace of the color television, drive-in movie theater, Campbell’s Soup Company, and RCA Victor (formerly the world’s largest phonograph manufacturer). 2865 Van Buren Ave. 2005: 401 Broadway, 1982: 519, Bailey St. 2004: Based on statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Camden has been ranked the nation's most dangerous city in 2004 and 2005. "Most dangerous city" is based on crime statistics in six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft. In 2004, Camden was declared "America's Most Dangerous City" by the Morgan Quitno Corporation, up from third place in 2003 and topping the 354 U.S. cities studied. The city was named "Most Dangerous" again in 2005 out of 369 cities ranked nationwide, with Detroit, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri in second and third place respectively. 603-607 S. 4th St., 2005: However, in 2005, homicides in Camden dropped significantly, to 34 — fifteen fewer murders than were reported in 2004. Though Camden's murder rate is still much higher than the national average, the reduction in 2005 was a drop of over thirty percent. 613-619, York St., 2004: 619-623, Bailey St. 2004: In several instances, we can see the toll that time has taken on the built environment, as Vergara often returns with his camera to specific locations... THEN, 623-627 State St., 1979: NOW, 623-627 State St., 2004: 705-713, York St., 1980: Overgrown weeds overtake sidewalk, forcing pedestrians into the street: 827 Broadway, 2004: 828-824 Bailey St. 2003: THEN, 900 Block of Fern St., 1979: THEN, 900 Block of Fern St., 1988: NOW: 900 Block of Fern St., 2005 Broadway,1980: South 9th St., 2004: South 8th St. 2004: THEN, 937 West Fern St., 1979: THEN, 937 West Fern St., 1988: Carmen Diaz’s Living Room, 937 Fern St., 1996: THEN, 937 West Fern St., 1996: ( Carmen Diaz can be seen out from her porch): THEN: 937 West Fern St., 2004 Ablett Village, on Pierce Avenue, 2005: Blana & Spruce St., 2005: Broadway & Line St., 1982: Broadway & Mt. Vernon St. 1979: Broadway & Mt. Vernon St. 1979: Broadway & Pine, 1982: Broadway & Washington, 1994: Broadwayb & Cherry, 1992: Broadway & Kaighns, 2004: Broadway & Newton, 2003: Broadway, south of Pine, 1979: Broadway, south of Whitman, 2005: Camden County Jail, 1992: Camden Free Library, 1992: Camden Free Library, 1997: Clover St. & Kaighns Ave., 2004: BEFORE, East along York St. from N. 8th St. 1979: AFTER, East along York St. from N. 8th St. 2005: 2nd St. and York St., 2005: N. 4th along Bailey St. 1993: Elgin Diner, 2005: 10th St. west of Elm St. 1982: Gas station from the 1920s, Ferry Ave., 2004: N. 9th St. & Grant St., 1982: Higher Ground Temple Church, 2003: Iglesia Penecostal, 2003: Erie St., 1980: Kelly Miller Circus, 2nd & Federal Sts., 2004: Memorials, Louis St., 2004: Mickle & 26th St. 2004, They sell barbeque chicken & school supplies here, and read the Bible when no one is around: BEFORE, Morgan Village Middle School, 2003: AFTER, Morgan Village Middle School, 2004: Mt. Ephraim Ave & Carl Miller St. 2004: Mt. Zion, 295 Chestnut, 2004: Mt. Vernon & S. 6th St. 2004: N. 5th & State, 1993: Broadway from Walnut, 1982: NW corner of B'way & Chelton Ave, 2003: New Gospel Freedom Church, 2004: Between 3rd & 4th Sts, N. of Erie, 1993: One Port Center, 2005: Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, 2005: Pastor Edward Young: THEN, Point St & Wood, 1981: NOW, Point St & Wood, 1996: THEN, Broadway towards Cherry St., 1982: NOW, Broadway towards Cherry St., 2003: Ships dismantled, to be sent to the far east for recycling: Relatively stable neighborhoods in Camden (See, it's not a complete urban wasteland!): Looking over Westfield Ave., 2003: Mt. Ephriam 2004: Norris St., NE of Browning, 2004: Tan Phat Noodle House, 2005: Victory Baptist Church, North Camden: Back to the hood.... THEN, View east from Northgate, 1992: NOW, View east from Northgate, 2004: View east along Gordon St. from Broadway, 2004: THEN, View along Broadway from Division St. (now Ramona Gonzales) 1982: NOW, View along Broadway from Division St. (now Ramona Gonzales) 2004: The next three images were taken looking north along Linwood from Vine & Elm, 1980: View along Linwood towards Vine, 1981: Looking north from N.10 St. West of Elm St., 1981: THEN, View from Northgate,looking SE, 1994: THEN, View from Northgate,looking SE, 2000: THEN, View at State & 4th St., looking SE, 1980: NOW, View at State & 4th St., looking SE, 2004: This block appears to have weathered the last 25 years much better than others, with a noticeable improvement in condition. View of Philadelphia skyline from Kennedy Towers, 2004: View from Penn near Rutgers, 2004: Northwest along Broadway from Walnut, 1982: Walt Whitman's House: Camden Ward Center for Children, 2005: THEN, York St. from N. 4th St, 1980: NOW, York St. from N. 4th St, 2005: FIN.

I'm sure that there will be naysayers that will look to tie the restaurant closing into a greater narrative about how "downtown sucks and everybody wants to quickly abandon the sinking ship" but you're right Monte, this definitely appears to be more about poor management than anything else. In addition to letting their domains expire, the Queen City Restaurant Group has also let Bella's liquor license lapse weeks ago, for owing the state back taxes...(Not the first or second restaurant under their management to do so, mind you) ...and when one local TV station tried to reach QCRG President Vince Bryant for comment, he hung up on them. Class Act.

I don't know if anyone has posted this already on any other thread, but earlier tonight, I found out that Bella (located downtown on Walnut Street next to the Aronoff Center) has "closed for remodeling until further notice." Apparently, not even the employees knew about this until they tried to come into work today, and they have not yet been paid. I don't know too much more about the story, but hopefully there will be an article in tomorrow morning's paper about it.

Well, I didn't go to the Fountain Square District meeting, but I did receive an e-mail this afternoon from Kelly Fried of 3CDC regarding today’s meeting along with some renderings of both the LED video board instillation and the 580 building renovation. Here is a summary of some of the more notable announcements made during today’s meeting: -- Fountain Square construction is on schedule and is expected to be completed by early fall. -- A new website focused on Fountain Square is under currently under construction and will be launched at the end of this month. -- 3CDC has selected a new Mitsubishi Electronics board for the large LED screen that will be installed above Macy's to compliment Square programming. (It is the same technology that is featured on the Reuters building in New York’s Times Square). -- 3CDC shared plans for seasonal landscaping on the Square, in partnership with the Cincinnati Park Board, including plans for a new children's garden feature. -- The public is invited to share their views on progress downtown, including programming on the new Fountain Square, by participating in the 2006 Downtown Survey at www.downtowncincinnati.com. -- More than $90 million is being invested in the Fountain Square District properties surrounding Fountain Square. Here are some the images that were presented during today’s meeting... A skeletal rendering of the LED video screen to be installed above Macy’s: Four renderings of the soon-to-be renovated 580 building.: So, what do you think?

I will have to join the chorus and say that the rendering definitely looks very good. Much better than the renderings that were floated around among the public in early 2002. There are many things about this expansion plan I like, but I particularly appreciate the decision to preserve the stacks tower, an infamous OSU landmark. The renovation of the tower is also something to look forward to, considering that it has been a cramped, underappreciated space (with a killer view of the Columbus skyline) for far too long. I suppose Oxley would be proud: