Ram23

More like a Lifestyle Center than a Mall, I suppose. "Streets of OTR"

Agree. I wouldn't be surprised if they replace the three cities they dropped this fall with three new cities in the spring. They already got everyone in Cincinnati who was willing to spend a week in Iceland to do so, now it's on to Des Moines or some place where the Iceland tourist well isn't dried up.

^ Aftab's getting desperate. NBC originally tried this angle, before retracting it: NBC issues correction after Trump’s Robert E. Lee comment https://nypost.com/2018/10/14/trump-says-robert-e-lee-comment-was-actually-a-grant-shoutout/ The gall it takes to take Trump out of context and claim he was praising Lee is pretty shocking. I had watched this speech live and Trump was clearly praising Grant, an Ohio native. He did so by pointing out that Lee was a "great general" which is an objective, historical fact. His tactics and strategies had a significant influence on military strategy. Saying someone was a "great general" in no way makes a judgement upon the cause they fought for. Find me a historian that would be willing to argue that Rommel wasn't a great general. I suppose when you're trailing in the polls by 10 points, attacking your opponent by using an out of context, misleading quote uttered by a third party seems like a road that must be taken.

I rarely watch TV, but I did catch Jeopardy! the other day and every single commercial break flip flopped between all D adds and all R ads, with a few medication ads in between (with one notable D ad sort of being both - something about Rs wanting to take your medicine away?). I saw one Brown ad and one Renacci ad over the course of about 20 minutes. Notably, I haven't seen a single yard sign for anyone other than Purvel and Chabot.

No - for several reasons, the most obvious among them being the fact that Aftab's transgression is illegal. As the article points out, there are no donation limits for county races (not to get off topic but I did not know this and am surprised this is the case). He used the county campaign account to circumvent this, which allowed his mom (yes, really) to donate $30,000, which paid for the polling. His mom also maxed out her contribution to his Congressional campaign. One big issue here is that the poll was done early on, and helped form the narrative that OH1 might be competitive. This angle is what led to an influx of donations to Aftab from all over the country. This seems far too convenient to be a simple mistake. The fact that they repeatedly attempted to cover their tracks is another telltale sign that this wasn't just an error. Another issue is the blatant and unabashed lie Aftab told after initially being caught. His campaign has consistently claimed the polling was for the 2020 Clerk of Courts race. It's obvious now that's not true.

It looks like Aftab is in trouble - his defense thus far has been that the polling in question was done for the 2020 Clerk of Courts race (yeah, right buddy) but the poll itself was clearly for the Congressional race: Aftab Pureval's secret poll obtained by Enquirer https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2018/09/26/aftabs-secret-poll-obtained-enquirer/1430234002/ The Enquirer has obtained the poll at the center of a campaign finance spending complaint against Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval – and it's unquestionably a poll about his current congressional race. The poll itself – which until now has been held secret by the Pureval campaign –undermines repeated claims by them that it was for both a future clerk of courts run and an exploration of a congressional run. The poll is headlined, "Polling in OH-1 shows opportunity for Aftab Pureval." And there's not one question about the 2020 clerk of court's race. That's a problem because if the poll was for both races, the spending would be permissible under Ohio campaign finance laws. But spending from a clerk of courts campaign fund solely for the purpose of a congressional run would be a violation of those laws. The spending must be kept separate because in the federal race, donations are capped at $5,400. In the county race, there are no donation limits.

^ What a goofball. The redacted checks totaled about $30,000 - nearly all of which his mom donated to the campaign. So this whole ordeal was set into motion because mommy wrote a check to the wrong campaign, but he used it for his House race, anyway.

Great news: Alabama Fish Bar: Over-the-Rhine restaurant's building to be redeveloped. Can you still get your fish? https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2018/09/18/alabama-fish-bar-could-get-new-neighbors/1337062002/ Developers say they have no plans to uproot the fried fish hot-spot, known for its steamy thick-battered cod, whiting and ocean perch dinners served with white bread and fries for just under $10... Representatives of the redevelopment group are slated to appear before Cincinnati City Council on Wednesday, seeking approval for a long-term lease on the empty top floors of Alabama's building at 1601 Race St., as well as the vacant building next door at 124 W. Liberty St. Though, I love Alabama's but I'm not so sure I'd want to live upstairs. I think you'd end up smelling like fried fish all the time.

^ At $25 million it sounds like FC is paying Tri-State Wholesale Building Supplies not what their existing building is worth, but what it would cost to build their new building. They probably said they aren't moving unless FC gives them a new building, and that's the price they arrived at.

That place is the best!!! Did the business close?? Alabama's is my favorite restaurant in OTR. I hope 3CDC doesn't try to pull a Smitty's with it.

^ It looks like it was Union County.

Not to get off topic, but do all local governments use NDAs as frequently as Cincinnati does? Aftab is wrapped up in a lawsuit right now regarding his use of NDAs (specifically the disparagement clauses, I believe). This is common in the corporate world but seems wildly out of place in the local government world. It's not like these folks are dealing with classified info - the only reason for these agreements seems to be keeping political secrets.

^ I remember those houses. I vaguely remember someone, probably on this website, talking about the guy who lived in the house farthest back - he didn't take kindly to strangers. Here's a picture of that spot before 65 West was built - the Auditor website has older aerial photos back to 2008 or so:

^ Ties are rare in the NFL. Somehow the other Ohio team - the Bengals - have had 3 ties in the last ten years. The last, fittingly, was in London in 2016. In 2008, the Bengals and Eagles tied and Donovan McNabb made headlines when he was all suited up and ready to keep playing at the end of OT because he had no idea teams could actually tie in the NFL.

^^ The Dispatch's paraphrased headline is interesting. The full commentary by Renacci is much more poignant.

I was in West Chester and nothing happened. Not a drop. I've got a small rain gauge I use to determine if/how much I should water my vegetable garden. Just over 3 inches of rain yesterday, all in the course of an hour and fifteen minutes or so. It only measures up to 5 inches of precipitation - the post you made up thread about the August 16 storm caused it to overflow. That was a first. On a related note, I've got a few extra pounds of hot peppers if anyone wants any. I've never had plants get this big this early in the year.

Downtown Cincinnati is now about 50 minutes into an absolute deluge of a downpour, complete with intermittent hail (I took a hit to the arm by a nickle sized piece) and a few lighting strikes every minute. I'd be surprised if we don't end up with over 2 inches of rain over the course of about an hours time. About 20 minutes into the storm I spotted a guy leisurely scooting down the sidewalk on his Bird.

LOL - Great assessment! From https://www.cleveland.com/osu/2017/10/torrance_gibson_former_ohio_st_2.html: "Gibson redshirted in his first year in Columbus after being moved from quarterback to receiver in the first week of training camp. He was suspended by the university prior to the 2016 season, and after a quick detour at Cincinnati State (with the expressed intent of eventually transferring to Cincinnati) Gibson then ended up in junior college in Mississippi." From https://www.landof10.com/ohio-state/ohio-state-football-torrance-gibson-signs-cfl-edmonton-eskimos: "Unfortunately, he disappeared from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for a stretch in October 2017, closing that chapter of his football career." Then the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos announced in March 2018 that "We have signed WR Torrance Gibson." Now check out his awesome 2018 CFL Edmonton Eskimo stats(!): https://www.cfl.ca/players/torrance-gibson/163807/ Seems like this young man squandered a lot of talent. It's a shame. Reminds me a bit of Gunner Kiel, who also struggled with apparent off the field issues. Hopefully Gibson can pull himself together and live a fruitful life, and hopefully OSU's railroading didn't start the decline. It's always sad to see something like this, no matter what's going on...

^ UC was supposed to suck too. They (along with UCLA) are among the top couple of teams in terms of percent freshmen. UCLA was a 15 point favorite, mostly due to the Chip Kelly hype, I imagine. Which, by the way, was at unreal levels even towards the end of the game. When UC lined up to kick a field goal toward with a few minutes left, UCLA had 12 guys on the field. The announcers actually pondered for a few minutes whether or not Chip had done that on purpose to bait UC into going for it instead of kicking the field goal. When UC waltzed into the endzone on the next play they quickly concluded that Chip would have never done such a thing.

It goes a step further than just not wanting to paint - people just don't have imaginations. When we sold my wife's house earlier this year, we moved everything out and consolidated at my house so that it'd be easier for us to slap a coat of paint on everything and replace the kitchen floor tile. It sat for a couple months even though it had almost daily showings the entire time. We took it off the market, had it staged with furniture for about $1000, and relisted it at the same price. It got multiple offers and sold in 3 days.

Aftab's entire platform, so far as I can tell, is "I'm not Chabot." That's not good enough. As a lite Republican who rarely, if ever, votes party line I don't really have much of a reason to dislike Chabot so that's not going to swing me. I had a similar conversation with an Aftab volunteer who knocked on my door a week or two ago. Her only talking points were about Chabot and Trump, in the few minutes we talked there was no discussion whatsoever about the candidate she was trying to get me to vote for. Now, you can say a lot about Chabot but it's not like he's Hillary Clinton - people aren't going to line up to vote for anyone but him. I don't think that's a winning strategy.

Is that "Matt" guy serious or is he just Cincinnati's version of Ken M? I could never really tell. Not to get too far off topic, but I've been in 3 car accidents in my life, none of which were my fault, but all of which were caused by folks driving what you might call "hoopties" so maybe he's on to something there. None of the other drivers had insurance, which was a pain. Only one guy bothered to show up to court - wherein he refused to testify, did not cross examine me, and based his case entirely on a bizarre and unfruitful cross examination of a sweet little old lady in her Sunday best who surprisingly showed up as a witness. His argument hinged on the nuance of who had hit whom, though he slipped up by admitting he had run a red light.

It's TGI Friday's by any other name. These quasi-local restaurants are all unique in exactly the same way. Chains like Skyline and Gold Star are fixtures and borderline ubiquitous around Cincinnati, but they're far, far more unique than places like Senate and Bakersfield, which have parallels in every city in the country.

^ That info on the Auditor's website doesn't read off of the scanned ownership cards under the "Images" section. Looking at those cards, it looks like it had been in the same family since 1945, but had different owners prior to that transfer. That's still a long time - and it does make you worry about the condition of the building. Not to get off topic, but this seems like data that wouldn't be all that difficult to digitize - it's all already been scanned, you'd just need software to run OCR on what are pretty standard forms with clean handwriting.

^ A vertical wall that supports a dome: