Ram23

Butler probably is more like 350k on the high side, they were 332,800 in 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Cincinnati#Statistical_information

While I agree many transit systems are aging and underfunded, it's extremely rare that anyone is put in harms way because of it. Deaths on mass transit in the US are rare enough as it is, and deaths that were caused by faulty equiptment rather than operator error are even more rare.

^ The only move that would help would be to numerous neighberhood locations that had a capcity of about 20 individuals each. However politically incorrect it may be to say it, services like those offered by the Drop Inn Center have a NIMBY effect, so that would be extremely difficult to ever pull off.

^ Not to mention that the stat of "violent crimes per head count" is pretty useless when there is such a high vacancy rate, and most of the offenders/victims are not residents of that particular census tract. Also, the claim that 1/4 of the residents will be victims is completely misguided.

^ This is good news. I personally hate wine, and prefer a fine beer paired with a dinner over wine any day. I've had friends and family over for dinner before, and get crazily surprised looks on their faces when I pop a cork and pour a beer into a chalice or tulip glass.. The Party Source in Newport, KY often has beer tastings/cooking demonstrations that pair fine beer with foods. I've caught a few and definately recommend it to anyone interested in this.

Yes, yes it has! http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3152.1230.html And a few Cincinnati bloggers have done an excellent job of shooting down the very poor methodolgy used by that website... UrbanCincy - http://www.urbancincy.com/2009/06/intellectually-dishonest-report-claims.html Queen City Survey - http://queencitysurvey.blogspot.com/2009/06/over-rhine-is-not-what-they-said.html 5chw4r7z - http://5chw4r7z.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-this-is-most-dangerous-place-in.html Queen City Discovery - http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-cincinnati-home-to-most-dangerous.html Essentially, the conclusions are based upon crime vs population, and the "neighberhoods" are actually census tracts, not all of OTR. The place they picked is mostly vacant, and is thus used by criminals for illicit activity quite often, and because there are few residents crimes per population = bad.

^ I'm not sure if we are thinking along the same lines, but I thought we were talking about more of a food stand/tables in the park with perhaps a few interior tables for when weather is bad... I was thinking along the lines of this: Is that something the Park Board would be completely against?

A park cafe type place would make great sense there. Similar to the cafe in Bryant Park in NYC.

^ You don't really have to. While LEED does encourage some good principals, the points systems are flawed, there are too many inside interests, and it's run by a bunch of CEO's of "sustainable product" companies, who have their own motivations for what they do. As an architect I'm fully aware of the need to make buildings efficient, both to lower operating costs and because I feel it's a basic responsibility, but LEED is for good PR and that's about it. In my eyes, it costs slightly more up front to make a building sustainable, but it pays off.. to get a building LEED certified it costs significantly more...

I dunno, $40 gets you about 80 Bürger Beers... in that perspective it is a tougher choice.

Nice. The city can't force them to move, but the Drop Inn Center has constantly been difficult to work with and bitter (to say the least), as well as generally running a sub-par establishment. Offering some incentive to move is fine by me. https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=5270 That is a competition for architecture students to re-design the Drop Inn Center. I was very, very tempted to either submit a design for something else on it's location, or re-locate it somewhere else. I'd be kicked out for breaking the rules, but I think people would get the message :evil:

Which theatres in Cincinnati serve beer? And I agree, the table service and cult movies would be a nice time. The menu you posted wasn't as badly priced as I would have expected, to be honest.

It looks like they are going to replace them eventually, as some places have nicer seating and landscaping elements already, and there was some work being done on more. Right now the streets are just blocked off with orange barrels (ah, reminds me of Ohio..) and people nervously wander around, not sure if they're supposed to be walking/sitting in that street or not.

I can't say anything about whether the traffic is better or not, but I spent some time with a friend here last night and enjoyed being able to have a seat and have a bit of room. My final judgement is that it's only slightly more Disneyworld-esque than it used to be, and only slightly more of a tourist trap.

I am definitely going to have to check that out. I've heard rumors of such a place in the past..

My biggest problem with Liberty isn't the street itself, it's the former (white castle?) turned Cricket, now vast empty parking lot, the similar building across the intersection, as well as some of the odd lot shapes that are created by the way Liberty cuts through the street grid. There's great potential there, though; odd lot shapes have often led to some of the greatest urban designs. With the City-Home project creeping up Pleasant St. I think this area will get some attention soon, and the long needed streetscape improvements in OTR can start to address Liberty.

I'm in NYC, and I'm really missing the $5.99 12 packs of Bürger... Although I did save room in my truck for cases of Little Kings, Moerlein, and Hudy Delight.

Yeah, the only used a faction of OTR, and probably the worst fraction of it... By worst, I mean most of the violent crime there is commited by outsiders against outsiders, and those particular blocks are very underpopulated. If you read the full methodolgy, they say it's based on crimes per 1,000 residents and crimes per square mile. Still smells of "gerrymandering" to me, though, as there's never a really clear description of how they arrived at their "sub-zip code neighbohoods." I'm sure I could cherry pick blocks of almost any city and get a completely different top 25 list.

Abandonments of Over-the-Rhine http://zfein.blogspot.com/2009/06/abandonments-of-over-rhine.html I made a blog post about some abandonments in OTR, as well as some of the renovations that have taken place and give hope to all the typical abandonments I normally photograph.

How long until Kentucky sues and claims that it was *actually* caught in Kentucky, not Ohio?

Are we sure there's no gap at that point? If you look at the first picture jmeck posted above, there appears to be a stub connector between 1 and 2 that stops at the top of the parking garage. it would seem to me like above that point, there is a gap between the buildings that is the width of that stub (maybe 12'). edit: the main rendering on the website http://queencitysquare.com/ shows that there is a gap there. Granted, the view will be 12' across and into another office, but that's still a lot better than views out of many old buildings around town.

Before, Wendy's took about 80% of the customers in TUC, now I think things will be a bit more manageable with BK and Chick-Fil-A splitting the bulk of people.

I would agree that I never saw anyone go in there, and I think that space could be used for any number of better purposes. The merchandise the place carried was only attractive to a small group of people, honestly. There are lots of examples of places on the same block that have appeal to almost everyone.

We need both a new bridge and a streetcar. If anything, we should point out to COAST exactly what the difference in the costs of the two projects are. In terms of a major infrastructure investment, the streetcar is cheap. I consider myself a supporter of small government, but infrastructure is one of the few things the government needs to provide. Roads and highways shouldn't be the only infrastructure.

Those spaces your talking about may not be office space. They are immediately adjacent to the huge lobby (which from the photos above looks to be 2 stories tall on the south of the building, and 3 on the north by the parking garage) and may be programmed for building mechanical or maintenance areas. I doubt they would design rent able space with no views to the exterior at all, that would make several LEED points unachievable, in terms of daylight and views... Although the adjacency and frontage to the lobby would make for a great bank or cafe.