sparke

How about the old produce building next to The Cincinnati Fire Museum on West Court?

They land to the south about 90% of the time because the prevailing wind is usually coming from the south/southwest. You want to land and takeoff into the wind.

I remember hearing in 2002 the federal money that would be used to match local funds only comes available every five years. So I think it will come up again in 2007.

Just came from our HOA meeting and we were told PNC Bank will be the first tenant going into the retail space I was talking about on Linn St. A dry cleaner is also looking into going in as well. UDF is also talking about building a store across from the new YMCA on Linn. I know they are not the most exciting businesses but very nice places to have within walking distance on a daily basis.

There is actually one row of apartments on Linn St. north of Liberty that have retail space on the bottom floor and apartments above. Nothing has gone in yet but my wife and I would love to see a coffee shop go into one of them. We even talked about someday maybe putting one in ourselves once all the homes are completed.

David Gray " A century ends" Robert Randolph and the family band "Unclassified"

What I want to know is who gets fired for allowing a bar to run illegally for a year. This city is run by some of the most incompetent people.

The only row houses along Ezzard Charles I can think of are right across the street from Taft High School. I don't know if they are being renovated or not.

The Mayor lives in Betts Longworth which is divided from us by the old Hays-Porter school. We actually looked at a place in Betts Longworth which was across the street from him. With the school torn down I can see his place from our townhome. Construction on the new Hays school is due to start this spring. As far as noise we have no complaints. We have an end unit so we only share a wall on one side and it gives us three extra windows. I have never heard a peep from our neighbor. He seems pretty quiet though. He is a UC proffessor and lives by himself. Drees has one of the new models open off Ezzard Charles on Laurel Park. My wife and I feel like we have the best of both worlds down here. We live in a brand new community and have all the luxuries of a suburban home(driveway, garage, new everything) and we can still walk to all the wondeful places, events, and festivals downtown. Throw in a 15 year property tax abatement on top of all of it. Anyone interested in living in or around downtown I would really suggest checking out the new model. First time home buyers also can receive between 3,000 and 50,000 dollars (depending on income) worth of assistance that is forgiven completely over ten years.

I would say that homeowners and renters do seem to be seperated from eachother. You can see it just by the way the first part of the project was built. The townhomes all face Court or Cutter St. So far the apartments have all been built on Chestnut, Elizabeth, Linn, and Clark with a few on Court. Court street is the only street that townhomes and apartments are on the same street. We have gotten to know the other home owners through the HOA and little events such as picnics scheduled throught the HOA. My wife and I have a dog so we are walking around all the streets all the time so we have gotten to know many of the renters and the kids in the neighborhood. The kids in the neighborhood also come over often to play with our dog or borrow some PS2 games. As I said they are very nice people for the most part. I think we are the exception more than the rule when it comes to that. City West seems like it's own entity more than part of the West End right now. The developement is great but I hope it will impact the surrounding area more as it is completed. If you go two blocks west or two blocks north of what is completed so far it can get a little shady. I really believe the community can work. I think it is just going to take time to remove the remaining problems created by Laurel Homes. By that I don't meean kick out all the poor people but kick out the criminals and the people who have no respect for the community.

So far, I haven't heard of any trouble at City West itself, but, then again, I don't have any numbers and I don't know anyone who lives there. I know for a fact a construction worker got shot there about a year ago, but I don't recall any other problems. I don't know the exact percentage of rentals occupied but I can tell you there are alot of cars parked in the driveways and in front of the apartments every night. With only 44% of the apartments being put aside for low income I think the market rate must be doing okay since almost all the apts. look occupied on Elizabeth and Chestnut. I have lived atr City West for about a year. The only trouble we have had is with two apartments side by side on Chestnut. They are very loud and peolple are coming and going at all hours. Makes you wonder what is going on inside. I can tell you that the management is pretty pro-active. They have a HAMCO sheriff patrolling from 6pm to 2am every night. They also have assured us that they are aware of the problem apartments and that the people will be evicted within the month. The construction worker that got shot was the project foreman and he was targeted by a disgruntled ex laurel home resident from what I understand. My wife and I love it down here and we feel just as safe as we did in Oakley. Most people are friendly and respectful. It's always the 10% that causes 100% of the problems. If we could get some of the kids to figure out what a garbage can is and get the two troublemakers kicked out I would have no complaints. We are looking forward to having the other 176 for sale homes built so it does close the gap a bit between renters and homeowners.

I think the earliest would be the fall of 2007. I thought the federal funding for these projects came up every five years and the last vote on this was fall 2002. I don't think many of these rail initiatives pass on the first try. It was just dissapointing how large the margin of defeat was.

Just a reminder, The Diner on Sycamore re-opens at 9am tomorrow.

One of my favorites is The Cincinnati Crime Book by George Stinson. It covers thirteen of the more high profile murders in the city from 1896-1996. It includes the story of why the gazebo in Eden Park is supposedly haunted.

It sounds like on the second page of the article they were leaning towards The Banks. Maybe they were holding out hoping The Banks would actually start to progress. I can't imagine a better place for it. The Reds and Bengals games alone would pack the place 91 times(81 Reds 10 Bengals) a year. I know thats only 1/4 of the year but I think between convention business, US Bank arena events, and local poeple coming down to a place they don't have in the burb's it would do well. Most of the locations seem pretty urban (Chicago=near Michigan Ave. NYC=Times Square) so I can't imagine they would go to Kenwood or any farther suburbs. In Atlanta they are in Buckhead which is suburban but that seems to be the exception. Can you tell I'm desperate for a good sports bar downtown?