Ram23

Great to hear it's on schedule. I am moving back to NYC this summer unexpectedly, so I'll definitely be checking it out.

All----UC employees (staff/faculty) have to pay a membership fee to use the Campus Rec. So there might be a market for LA fitness. But it's part of the required fees, I don't think you can opt out of it, sort of like the technology fees. The fee for students on co-op is $80 / quarter, so it's not too pricey. $27/month is probably cheaper than LA I would guess?

If you were to calculate it, I'm sure commuters do in fact contribute a lot more to GDP than non-commuters. Just sayin...

^ I have had a few interesting talks about things like that. How program needs change and how architecture adapts to it. There are several beautiful old churches in urban areas, but most of the congregation has moved to the suburbs (don't know the stat off hand, but percentage wise urban residents are a lot less likely to attend a church). Meanwhile, the suburbs have a lot of unusable buildings, such as big box stores and and industrial spaces, that can suit the new needs of a church. It makes a lot more sense than building a new church on old farmland somewhere. The problem is then trying to find something that can fill the church for a different purpose. It's tough, but has been done a few times. There is a church in Denmark I believe that is now a bookstore/coffee shop type place, there are many that have been converted to homes, and even in Cincinnati there's an Urban Outfitters in an old church. Across the street is another old, beautiful, fire-damaged abandoned church that will someday hopefully house something useful. My blog post (link below) talked about this concept, if anyone's interested.

The Bearcat Transportation System is around for the sole purpose of transporting students only. The BTS is pretty good on weekend nights and gets good ridership, but its really annoying to get downtown. The route that goes out of clifton first circles campus, then goes to mt adams, then to newport, and then finally to downtown. so if you're trying to get downtown... Yeah, getting downtown is quite a trip, takes about 30 minutes. It's usually full on most weekends, too, by the time it makes the first stop or two on campus after returning from downtown.

In my experience, the speed limit change doesn't actually affect the speed of traffic much... As posted above, generally the traffic moves at a little over 70 anyways. Everyone just feels better about driving 70 when they're suppoed to be doing it :-)

There will be slabs that make up the parking garage, and then a final top slab that will actually become the new street level. This is in order to lift the buildings out of the flood plane. The top of what you see in the construction photos will technically be the new "ground level" of the buildings, and they will essentially be even with Second Street.

I don't know how I feel about this one. Short Vine is really not frequented by students, and this development would probably promote more student use, but there's already the huge vacant blocks along Calhoun, and the former Kinko's area on short vine that could use a face lift. Just strikes me as odd to demolish an entire functioning city block. I agree with the post above about LA fitness... it won't attract a single student/professor who can work out at the great UC Rec Center for free.

If my apartment building was on fire, you damn well better bet I'll be grabbing my 52" LCD and backup computer hard drives.

I know it's a terrible thing when parents have to experience the death of a child, but this lawsuit is frivolous. A school can only do so much to stop harassment (most of which was probably done off school grounds, outside of school hours), especially when there's an underlying cause for that harassment that's as big as this one was. I'm also not sure why the lawsuit was brought upon the police, the girl was 18 at the time of the photo and I don't know what criminal actions were taken by anyone by "sexting" it (the infamous case in Mason involved minors, so it was child pornography laws that were being used to warrant criminal charges). Teens really need to learn that every photo they take or is taken of them will come back to haunt them. Have some respect for yourself whenever you get in front of a camera.

Me and a friend just tore through a 24 pack of little kings. The 7oz bottle is nice.

Cyclists on country roads aren't too big of a problem, i get pissed when I'm behind a combine or tractor that's too big to pass/see around. Makes a 15 minute trip into an 45 minute ordeal.

Me, Sherman, and Ronny (Gordon Bombay) were going to meet and head over to the game, meeting at Sherman's place and walking over.

Masters of Architecture I'm hoping to take a week-long trip back to Cincy next month, and I'll have to do some poking around within that area. Clifton would be my most logical choice based purely on location, but I'm slightly worried about ending up in an undergrad ghetto or next door to a frat house. I think Mt. Lookout is probably my #1 choice, although part of me wouldn't mind moving back to my hometown of Fort Thomas as well. I'm going to UC for a Masters of Architecture starting next quarter, and live in University Heights (adjacent to campus). If you don't want to be in lobbed in with the undergrads and frat houses, look up along Ludlow Ave. in what is actually "Clifton." A lot of professors and older grad students tend to live around there.

OTR is probably the most talked about little piece of urbanity talked about on this site, so why would it be odd it's the one discussed most in the Cincinnati Crime thread? Like it or not, the amount of crime there (at very least, the perception of the violent crime there) is one of the biggest problems. There are a lot of potential investors/visitors/residents that don't consider OTR at all now, that might if crime weren't as big a problem as it is now. You can attack the Enquirer and local news for exploiting the crimes commited there, you can attack suburban citizens for their somewhat exaggerated perception of the danger of OTR, and you can dismiss them all. Or you can try to make OTR a really safe neighberhood, jail the criminals, and push drug activity out. The change in perception will follow shortly thereafter.

I'm still going to blame the Orange Bowl. Now just think if Huggins came back, enrollment would probably double. :-)

That's the reason I'm going to have to go see that place... Probably dressed as a superhero.

Hamilton county does need jail cells and/or a better system of deciding who needs to be incarcerated and who can be punished/rehabilitated in other manners.

Just got this email, I may be heading down there Friday! Lots to do this month of May! Visit the Over-the-Rhine Biergarten at Findlay Market, open weekends from now until Labor Day, with special Happy Hour Grand Opening May 8th. Second Sunday on Main begins on May 10th, Mother's day weekend and May 15th is our Moerlein Lager House Keg tapping at Germania, with a preview of our new commercial. Over-the Rhine Biergarten at Findlay Market Saturdays - 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Sundays - Noon to 4:00 pm Grand Opening Ceremony Friday, May 8, 2009 from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Short ceremony at 4:00 pm. Our friends at Findlay Market have partnered with the Over-the-Rhine Foundation and the Brewery District to open a weekend biergarten on Essen Strasse in Findlay Market! It will be open every weekend from May 2, 2009 through Labor Day weekend. Featured beers on tap include Moerlein Lager House Original and OTR Ale. Hudy Delight will be available for our light beer friends. Tap Beers will be poured in 22 oz. cups for $5.00 and 16 oz. cups for $4.00. Hudy lovers will delight in $2.00 per can cost. Proceeds from the sale of beer will benifit the Over-the-Rhine Foundation and the Brewery District Community Urban Development Corporation.

While the streetcar will help the development that's already going on in OTR, and spur some more, there are underlying problems that directly and indirectly affect all of OTR, and will do the same to the streetcar. A lack of jail cells in this city/county, and the large amount of social services and homeless shelters located in OTR are two of the biggest. I can understand why people are against putting money into solving one problem (lack of decent fixed transit) when there are a few other problems that are potentially more damaging to development. We need to emphasize the efforts to fix those two things (at least) along with the streetcar. Someone should create a hierarchy of needs for Cincinnati. Would the streetcar be at the top??

I doubt there's a conspiracy behind it. I think what we have are a bunch of people who just don't like the idea of a streetcar, or really any form of mass transit. It's a very popular view around Cincinnati, sadly.

Yeah, I was always under the impression the fountain pop was a biggest money maker. Something like $30 for one bag, that in turn makes almost 400 pops. Cups are maybe 5-10 cents ea.

In the criminal justice system of Cincinnati, the people are represented by three seperate but equally important groups, Chief Striker who investigates crime, Joe Deters who prosecutes the offenders, and the goddamn Shadow Hare. These are their stories.

I'm looking forward to a debate between him, Mallory, and The Dean...

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090430/NEWS01/905010335 GOP has mayoral candidate By Howard Wilkinson • [email protected] • April 30, 2009 As its candidate for Cincinnati mayor, the Republican Party will turn to a political novice with a resume that includes more than a year as an Army surgeon in Iraq. Brad Wenstrup, a 50-year-old podiatrist from Columbia-Tusculum will be announced as the GOP's mayoral candidate in a press conference Monday afternoon at Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine.