Ram23

To this day, I still wish the Freedom Center would be converted to a theater. Its a cool looking building, big enough, and at the center of The Banks, perfect. The subject matter in the building is definitely important but the location sucks and interest is very low. That sounds like a good idea. The Freedom Center should be a wing in a museum somewhere else in the city, not a standalone building on such prominent real estate. Hell, the Creation Museum gets 3 times as many visitors.

New York Eyes Bike Registrations Pol pushing ID tags By SALLY GOLDENBERG and TOM NAMAKO You may soon need a sticker to ride. In a bid to rein in rogue cyclists, all adult pedal pushers in the city will be required to get an ID tag affixed to their bikes if a city councilman has his way, The Post has learned. Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) says he is floating the proposal -- which would require a small fee -- because "there seems to be a double standard when it comes to enforcing the traffic laws. Bicycles are involved in accidents, unfortunately, across this city." ... One biker saw an upside, saying lost or stolen bikes could be identified. "Right now, [recovered] bicycles just get auctioned" by police, said audio engineer Chvad Bernhard, 37. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/sticking_it_to_bikers_QkNdSzrRAbj6rrmCtW4zoM#ixzz1BRPqaxkz

I went to Keller's all the time, but only to buy beer or wine. They had a great selection... now the closest place I can get my usual poison is Party Source.

I think the newer streets in OTR (the Gateway for instance) are almost sterile compared to their historical counterparts. Pick up a book and look at any image of downtown/OTR in the early 1900's, and you'll see signs, stalls, etc. crowding the streets everywhere. Even in this image from 1973, there appears to be a lot more going on by the presence of historic and new aesthetics mixed together: So, in other words, I'd welcome new, attractive streetcar shelters :) I also wish we could bring back more of those huge old signs, instead of the tiny ones the new places in the Gateway put up.

I assumed it was for all state government employment. I wouldn't be in support of a statewide mandate, for the reasons Gramarye pointed out above. If a private employer really passes over the best person for the job based on sexual preference, they're going to shoot themselves in the foot. If the executive order really just applied to positions the governor appointed, isn't it really just symbolic?

It shouldn't be an executive order, it should be legislation. I think it'd have to be one of his key issues (it was with Strickland, probably not Kasich) in order for him to sign an executive order that overrides what should be the legislatures power.

87% of Ohio's population is white. 24 appointees so far, out of how many total? Not to mention we're talking about Republican appointments; really, there aren't a whole lot of black republicans for Kasich to pick from. There would be outrage if Obama chose two dozen black cabinet members, as it would be clearly motivated by race. What Kasich has done makes sense, statistically; it's clearly not racially motivated.

I'm hopeful that the organization which runs http://www.soapboxmedia.com/ (they also have media operations in Cleveland and other cities but with different publication names) will grow into this role. How are they on the streetcar? I have a feeling Gordon Bombay may be right, and it's part of a bigger picture. Unless the way we access the internet fundamentally changes (which I really, really hope it doesn't - or we can likely kiss sites like this one and most of our blogs goodbye) it'll be tough to have any type of online, trusted, legitimate news source. There just isn't a funding model that will work. Soapbox isn't anywhere near as large as the Enquirer, and if they ever hope to be some day they will need a lot more advertising dollars. Once they have the ad revenue flowing in, they'll be in the same back-scratching business the Enquirer is in.

It looks like if you have Google Earth Pro, you might be able to, but I've never tried it. There might be some urban planners in here that would know more, I only use GIS to get localized site plans, not to really study data: http://earth.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=22373&topic=23748

Do you have access to any form of GIS? That would make for some interesting maps / diagrams. The online version of CAGIS has some infrared maps in addition to the aerial images, that probably make spotting the steps a lot easier.

^ I put it on my blogs link list as well.. hopefully all 5 of my readers will check it out :)

I've been to most of the homes games. UC has dominated everyone they've played, mostly because of the depth. I wouldn't be surprised to see them trail the Big East powerhouses early on, but hang on and come back in the end. They've played an easy schedule so far, but they've destroyed everyone that was on it.

More from City Bleat: "Back when The Gannett Co. owned The Idaho Statesman, and while Washburn served as that paper's executive editor from 1999-2005, it became embroiled in a controversy involving conflicts of interest and journalistic integrity that caught the attention of The Washington Post and media watchdog groups. The Statesman was criticized for being too deferential to Micron Technologies, one of the largest employers in Boise, Idaho. As Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) wrote in 2001: “The Idaho Statesman has a curious definition of 'fact checking.' The business editor of the Gannett-owned daily, Jim Bartimo, resigned when he was told that a story he had worked on about Micron Technologies, the area's largest employer, had to be sent for pre-publication 'review'... to Micron Technologies.” Previously The Statesman's business news practices were examined by The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, in articles from January and February 2000. Kurtz's article revealed that The Statesman reporter covering the Micron beat was married to a Micron employee. When Kurtz asked Washburn about the paper's Micron coverage and whether it was afraid to be too critical, she replied, “It's not that it has anything to do with their being the biggest employer. What we write can affect a lot of people in this community. It can affect the stock price.”" http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-1652-a-bad-omen-for-news.html They also mention: "Last year, in another move that raised media eyebrows, the newspaper (Enquirer) named Josh Pichler — the son of Joseph Pichler, Kroger's retired chairman and CEO — as business editor. The elder Pichler remains fairly influential in business circles, including trying to drum up opposition behind-the-scenes to the city of Cincinnati's proposed streetcar system." I have not heard anything about Pichler & the streetcar. Seems like kroger would like another neighborhood to sell to. The Enquirer is often a joke. City Beat is consistently a joke. I'll start with the completely unsubstantiated claim that Josh Pichler is trying to stir up anti-streetcar sentiment. The only eyebrows he has ever raised are those at City Beat, who have to raise their eyebrows at anything and everything the Enquirer does in order to remain in existence.

If he can pay a few intelligent people to save the state billions on the end, I have no problem with that. That article really seemed to nitpick a few key salaries that were raised, as opposed to a ton which were probably cut or even eliminated entirely. I'm surprised no one is questioning that blog at all.. I guess anything that has the word "progressive" in the title gets blindly trusted.

^ One of the reasons I can't stand LEED. They could salvage and reuse 80% of the building, or invest in bike racks, and achieve just as many points.

^ ha, agreed. I really wish it looked better, the data and research is all there, it could be beautiful. I almost want to volunteer the next four hours of my life to make something attractive in Illustrator and send it to the guy.

The east side has been pretty disconnected from the city center for awhile, but it hasn't stopped growth there. If anything, this project will imrpove the likelihood of far-eastsiders coming to places downtown. Right now, depending on where you are, it's an awkward drive up to 71 in order to come down, or down to Columbia Parkway. Hopefully, whatever bridge ends up going over the Little Miami flood plain has accommodations for light rail.

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#LargeMap This is a pretty interesting evaluation of the accents of the entire country, Ohio in particular as it falls right in the middle of quite a few different major accents. The map itself is an ultimate fail in terms of graphic design, and it'll take awhile to figure it all out, but the amount of data and research is impressive nevertheless. Particularly the island that is Cincinnati, which apparently has a lot of influence from the New York City accent, which makes some sense as Cincy likely saw a lot of migration from NYC during the early and mid 1800's, and a lot of those families likely never left. Anyway, I can't stand to look at it much more because it hurts my eyes, but thought some others here might like to see it.

The pic of 1920's Cincy is clearly a lot, lot more dense than those pictures of Cleveland. You just have to look at it.. While it looks like an amazing amount of density, it had to be miserably overcrowded at the time.

I almost had a run in on I-71 between Cincy and Louisville, where the woods are only a few feet off the shoulder. Deer darted out onto the shoulder, and luckily got some sense and stopped suddenly. I was probably doing 75-80, but it was back when I had my giant Dodge truck with a 4' high grill. It still would have been a hell of a hit. We really need to start allowing a lot more hunting. These giant hooved rats are everywhere.

Between the 3C's college basketball teams (UC, OSU, and CSU), there are 40 wins and 1 loss. Good year to be a college basketball fan in Ohio!

From now on you should get a glass of water, and then stand in a door frame for at least 30 minutes. Just to be safe.

I've seen Cincy to Cleveland flights via Atlanta before. And of course, they're cheaper than the direct flights. Sort of like how my rail option from Cincy to Cleveland is via Chicago, yeah? ;)

And CPK is a very plain, boring beige cat.

A girl I dated shopped there all the time, and she looked pretty good (I mean, I dated here right?! ;)) I don't know anything about the men's clothing though.