Ram23

The Reds are continuing to surprise everyone. At 9-5 they are in first place in the NL Central, 2 games up on the Cubs and 4 games up on the last place Cardinals. They have a +21 run differential, the best in MLB. last night, Drew Storen threw an "immaculate inning" - 9 pitches, all strikes, for 3 strikeouts - to close out the game. He was just the 4th Reds pitcher all time to have such an inning.

The market has its own parking lot (partially under the building). They would be the ones hurt the least by a temporary loss of parking during construction (the garage would eventually replace the lost spots). It sounds like the market's concerns aren't really against the project, though. If those are the biggest concerns against it, they should be easy enough to address.

^ The auditor has some old photos from pre 1980's renovation, when it was still French-Bauer (the first one from almost the same angle): These photos also qualify for that "glass block" thread. They even blocked up the second floor - that's a rare sight.

Not to get too far off topic, but I once had a project that involved a new building in a somewhat rural area (near a highway offramp serving a rural area), and the owner wanted to pursue LEED certification. I was able to use a couple adjacent trailer parks to meet the requirements for housing density (Development density/Community Connectivity for those familiar with LEED), which got us a whopping 5 points, and allowed us to beat our goal of just "LEED Certified" and achieve "LEED Silver." I had never really thought about trailer parks having such a dense population until then. They had 12-15 units per acre, and 10 is what LEED considered to be dense enough to qualify.

^ And he's still on the loose. For those interested, the Daily Mail seems to have the most info of any of the sources I've read so far. I'm not going to post a link because it's pretty graphic. The murder was completely random - like he just stopped his car, got out, and killed a random guy who happened to be walking down the street at the time.

Complain about what, though? I think this article sums up the situation well: http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2017/04/11/real-reason-man-dragged-off-united-flight-stop-happening/ Fault here lies with: United for not having as many seats as they sold, although it wasn’t because they sold more seats than the plane held, it was because their operation became a mess and they needed to salvage that to inconvenience the fewest passengers overall. It wasn’t “to maximize their profits” although they certainly wanted to limit their losses by limiting passenger inconvenience. The passenger who should have gotten off the plane when ordered to do so. It sucked for him and wasn’t his fault, but refusing airline and police instructions unless designed to provoke a violent response for media attention to promote a civil rights cause is a bad idea. The Chicago Aviation Police shouldn’t have responded with the force they did. They’re the most to blame. If they hadn’t used as much force this whole thing would never even have been a story. Really the only issue here, IMO, is that the police shouldn't have been so rough with the guy. Even if someone is resisting, if they aren't actually a real threat it should be possible to get them into cuffs and off of an airplane without bloodying them up.

^ An update to this story, apparently the entire murder was recorded and the two suspects (one of whom is still at large) are facing life sentences: Deters on Urton's death: If I could've sought the death penalty, I would've http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/04/13/deters-provide-update-jamie-urton-death-investigation/100411564/ Deters said the video revealed a racial element to the killing. Deters said Baber can be heard on the video, which will not be released, telling a passenger in Urton's car, "get out of here, you're black." "It is disgusting to see something like this happen. It is, for somebody to be targeted – and I’ve had it the other way, where I’ve had black people targeted because of their race, and I don’t care which way it goes ... it's disgusting," Deters said. "People may ask why we haven’t charged ethnic intimidation in this case. It's very simple, it’s a misdemeanor. We’ve charged him with murder. He faces life in prison. If there was any way I could’ve sought the death penalty, would’ve done it..." ...Killings was complicit in the crime, Deters said, which is why he's also facing a murder charge and a life sentence, although it was Baber, the "real bad guy," who shot Urton five times. "First of all, after the 4-year-old was struck -- and at no fault to our victim, his view was totally blocked -- the father, Killings, you'd think his first instinct would be to run to see the 4-year-old. No, his first instinct was to run to the car and start beating the driver," Deters said.

After about a week and a half of baseball, the Reds are off to a great start. They have the best record in baseball right now at 7-2, having just swept the Pirates. They went 2-1 against the Cardinals and the Phillies in their previous two series. The last time the Reds won 3 straight series to start off a season? 1990.

Their stock dropped fast this morning and then creeped back up all day. It is still down a bit day to day but this morning around 10:00 would have been a good time to buy up a bunch of stock on the cheap. This was one of the quickest social media PR disaster recoveries I think I've ever seen. Usually this kind of thing lasts a few days or so, but this one was only about two hours long.

The Daily Mail is from the UK and they are undeniably the best at what they do (though Heavy.com has been gaining on them recently). Blame the Brits, not us. That said, I don't think anyone is looking at this guys background and making the assumption that he deserved to be dragged off that plane (I know I'm not). It is possible to simultaneously believe that United/airport security should have handled things differently, and that this guy has quite an interesting background. I'm mostly interested in the absurdity of the entire story. Did you know that the guy is also a successful semi-professional poker player? If only he would have played is cards differently on that fateful day in Chicago none of this would be newsworthy...

^ I can assure you that I do not work for the Daily Mail, and did not do any of that research.

^ I'd take that poll with a grain of salt as it came from Simpson's campaign and was conducted before her Bockfestgate scandal - not to mention the "pale male" debacle.

This story keeps getting better - breaking news from England's finest publication: Doctor dragged off United flight was felon who traded prescription drugs for secret gay sex with patient half his age and took them himself - and he needed anger management, was 'not forthright' and had control issues, psychiatrist found http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4401980/Dr-dragged-United-swapped-drugs-secret-gay-sex.html The troubled past of the doctor who was dragged off United Airlines in an incident which has plunged the company into crisis is revealed - including his felony conviction and need for 'anger management'. Dr David Dao has past of illicit gay sex with a patient, and tested positive for drugs, official documents reveal. The medic, who specializes in lung disorders, was accused of refusing to give up his seat on Sunday's United Express flight UA3411 flight from Chicago to Louisville for the airline's staff.

The part that surprises me most is that the guy was let onto the plane and then removed. I've flown hundreds of times in my life and I've seen a lot of people bumped (and have been myself) but never have I seen someone let on the plane and then taken off. The bumping always happens at the gate, when your boarding pass is scanned. You either have a seat, or you don't. That said, I fly Delta 99% of the time and their customer service is light years ahead of United's, so maybe that's why I've never seen a circus like this.

In the US I think health codes generally make it so that the cats are kept in one room, and the food service is in another. So you aren't really eating with the cats, it's more like a big cat shelter with a coffee shop attached. In Taiwan there seemingly aren't any rules at all and the cats are just all over the place. So far as I know no one has ever died as a result of this. I'm heading there in May and while looking for hotels found a hotel that apparently has cats. I'm not sure how that works but needless to say it's absolutely on my short list of places to stay.

I remember this being in the news about a year ago. They wanted to be in a location closer to downtown but Hamilton County's health department was not willing to work with them regarding their interpretation of laws about animals in food service establishments. Warren County must have been more flexible. These have been around in Asia for awhile I think, Taipei has a cat cafe on pretty much every block.

There's also Tina's, on the northeast corner of Walnut and Liberty. You can get a pack of gum and a cell phone and chicken by the piece (the flats and drums aren't separated if I'm remembering correctly).

A lot of the Opening Day crowd aren't actual baseball fans, they are just there because it's a prestigious event and they want everyone to know they went to the game. The 5th inning is right around when people who don't care for baseball start to get bored with it and give up. They realize they've been sitting around for about 90 minutes and they are just barely past the halfway mark. The rain didn't help, but most of those people skipping out early would have left whether it rained or not.

I'm surprised this story isn't national news (especially given the updates that came out last night): http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/father-of-4-year-old-struck-by-car-says-he-doesnt-condone-violence-of-driver In the interview above, the father of the boy who was accidentally struck claims to know nothing and says he doesn't condone violence. CPD waited until late on Friday evening to release this 911 call, during which a voice who is clearly the father openly admits to committing the murder: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/2017/03/31/man-wanted-walnut-hills-shooting-mason-driver/99868450/ This witness account is insane. This murder was a straight up execution over an accident that the father of the boy who was struck seemingly set into motion: http://www.wlwt.com/article/witness-murder-victim-shot-dead-as-he-begged-for-mercy/9216105

^ I wonder if some new regulations about storage of materials under overpasses will come out of this. There are codes that require sprinklers in warehouses, parking garages, and canopies of a certain size but we have cars parked and other flammable materials stored under overpasses all over the country. As we saw here, a fire can smolder for a long time in a setting like this before anyone notices it.

If you look at the Streetview under the bridge, there are a bunch of huge coils of pipe (PVC according to the article) stored there. PVC is not really all that flammable compared to most building materials (and has a pretty high ignition point)... but if that was indeed PVC it's pretty clear that once it gets going it definitely does burn! There's a photo here that shows the early stages of the fire: http://www.ajc.com/news/local/things-know-about-the-fiery-bridge-collapse/Rtw9PdbyFBoWchJPESywzJ/

^ Prioritizing and even preempting signals from 11 to 2 shouldn't even be debated much. There's virtually no traffic downtown during those hours. It'd be interesting to see traffic counts broken down by time of day but I bet it would show that aside from the usual rush hours around 8:00AM and 5:00PM there's not really much traffic downtown at all.

ODOT owns the property. The demo permit states: "MASS DEMOLITION ONLY - FUTURE PARKING LOT UNDER SEPARATE PERMIT AND REQUIRES ZONING HEARING EXAMINER APPROVAL"

The only hope for the smokestack is a cool million from the wealthy owners of the soccer team. If the Hudepohl site is where they build their stadium, it'd be a travesty if they don't save it.

^ We have a $500 million capital budget this year in Cincinnati. Some of that is going to have to find its way to the Viaduct. Any proposed fee would offset the amount that needs to come from the taxes we all pay already. I think this fee might be a big uphill battle. The argument is going to be that we built the streetcar without new taxes or fees, why do we need fees now to build this road? I could see something like this waking COAST up from their slumber.