Ram23

The subway tunnels probably are the best way to market mass transit to the Cincinnatians who actually vote. Since you'd likely need a county sales tax to fund any major rail transit for the metro, you have to win over the hearts and minds of people in places like Colerain and Sharonville in addition to urbanites. People love the story of the subway, but they view it as the prime example of Cincinnati's inability to get things done. If marketed correctly, the notion of finally finishing the subway would bode well with enough people to get money to fund it, and even more. Even if the subway tunnels might not be the best route or most efficient use of dollars, using them is key, IMO.

That Ridge exit only lane is one of my favorite shortcuts in Cincinnati. You can save yourself a few minutes in traffic by using that lane and merging just before the offramp - there's always a big enough gap to merge at some point.

That's an interesting block. There's a bar on 9th and Race that I had never heard about until walking by recently. Shooters, on the other end of the block, closed awhile back, so I'm told. And of course, halfway between those two is Yum Yum, one of the most hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the city.

'Revive Cincinnati subway,' mayoral candidate says http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/08/revive-cincinnati-subway-mayoral-candidate-says/98874356/ Mayoral candidate Rob Richardson Jr. has added four intriguing words to his campaign website: "Revive Cincinnati's subway system." Forward-thinking? Pandering? Unrealistic? Maybe all of the above. Regardless, the progressive Democrat wants to jump start the conversation about what – if any – role Cincinnati's unfinished and abandoned subway system could play in improving one of the nation's worst public transportation systems for connecting people to jobs.

^ I don't think it's bad, though that could depend upon what the development is. If the person registering the LLCs is the same one who owns them, he seems to have a retail portfolio, which would make sense given the proximity to and visiblity from I-75. Hopefully any development here would add some density, though, and not be along the lines of drive-thrus and budget hotels like what exists further north on Central. If you head over to CAGIS or the auditor and look at everything 1008 Marshall LLC and Marshall at Central LLC own, you can see how significant an amount of land we're talking about. Everything north of Straight to a few hundred feet south of the Talbert House, on both sides of McMicken, for the most part.

^ The same lawyer registered a few LLCs that bought up the Credit Union and several other plots all around the intersection of Marshall and Central. It looks like some plots were consolidated, too. Something does seem to be going on down there.

That doesn't make sense. After the left arrow finishes, wouldn't Hopple go green both ways, with the I-75 NB offramp all red? So the only time Hopple WB would see a red light is when Hopple EB has a left arrow, or when the I-75 NB offramp has a green left arrow/ball/right arrow or however it's signaled. Besides, there's tons of intersections where opposing traffic gets a left turn arrow and right on red is still allowed. If it was a double left turn, then maybe, but even then I still think it's ok. I think we're talking about the same thing... the 60+ seconds I mentioned is the time that WB Hopple has a red light (when EB has an arrow and when the offramp is green). Given the traffic at this intersection, most of that time people could be using their best judgement to safely turn right on red.

^ I've never looked but assume there's a standard that says whenever an oncoming left-turn lane has an arrow, there has to be a "no right turn" sign on the opposing right turn lane. The results are dumb about 60% of the time - this is a situation that should be gauged on a case by case basis instead of a standard. In this particular case, the left turn arrow is probably only green for about 20 seconds per cycle. The other 60+ seconds people could be safely turning right on red, but they can't because everything is designed to accommodate the dumbest drivers.

Enquirer making front page news out of the fact that Yvette Simpson was booed at Bockfest for shaming a Sausage Queen competitor: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/06/yvette-simpson-booed-bockfest-dont-believe-we-should-get-naked/98800294/

I know a guy who found out his girlfriend of several years (who he was about to propose to) was using whichever one of the escort apps/websites that's most popular right now (the name escapes me, maybe "Seeking Arrangement?") to make cash on the side. He made a fake account and found her and texted her from someone else's phone a few times just to be sure it was real - I was surprised the going rates in a place like Cincinnati were so high, especially because these young entrepreneurs are sidestepping the whole pimp aspect. I felt really bad for the guy but he sure as hell dodged a bullet just in the nick of time.

You can go to CAGIS Maps and use the labels option to turn on owners: It's little bit tough to read when you're zoomed out, though. Bace Properties owns quite a lot of properties on those blocks.

^^ Likely the result of numerous focus group sessions. I'd be surprised if one of our many local branding experts weren't involved in his rise to fame in one way or another.

I've been in the District 5 building a couple of times to pick up "No Parking" signs for and it's definitely a dated and grimy building. Of course, that doesn't mean it's dangerous or unhealthy at all - it just looks like it could use a bit of a refresh/remodel. I wonder if there's some jealousy in play here because of the new District 3 building.

^ Unless you've got a house full of people, some stuff is almost impossible to get through without spoiling. I can't remember the last time I finished a container of sour cream, for example. It's something I might use once a week or so but halfway through it, a month and a half later, it's spoiled. Other stuff, like tuna, you can buy a dozen cans of at once and get through it before it spoils. If I remember correctly, the old Corryville Kroger had them in the big, locked, plastic security boxes. So not only could you not go to U-scan, you had to endure the cashier fumbling about trying to open the box.

I think there's a little bit of "who cares if it will sell for $800k instead of the $500k it used to, we're still only going to spend $350k to build it" going on, too. Construction costs have shot up quite a bit in the last couple of years, but not as much as prices in OTR have. There are a few examples of new builds done privately, rather than via developer, that turned out much, much better than some of the developer driven ones. The project on Elm designed by Terry Boling comes to mind, as does the infill up on Liberty Hill designed by Michael McInturf. I think both are multi-family buildings.

^ OTR prices are at a point now where far better quality should be possible. Some of those new builds are going for $700-$800,000 https://www.trulia.com/property/3243587866-1511-Elm-St-Cincinnati-OH-45202 A few years back when prices were less than half of that, I'd agree that getting better quality wouldn't have made financial sense. I don't think that's the case anymore.

I remember that being a story. I forgot that the reason for it was not a potential soccer team - it was so that Cincinnati could pursue the Olympics: http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/03/01/loc_710_000_stadium.html How many soccer games have ever been played in PBS?

When I drive to work it's only about a 5 minute trip, so I can't be bothered to use my phone or even a CD because just getting it turned on and choosing a song would increase my commute time by about 20%. I don't think my radio has been set to anything but WNKU in years. I guess I'll just have to listen to WLW now.

Ohio and KY should agree to experiment on the Brent Spence and just add a toll to the current setup. Make it free off-peak, $2 at rush hour, and 50 cents during the day between rush hour. I imagine the traffic results would be similar to Louisville - Cincinnatians are cheap, and half of them would just find another route instead of spending the money, thus solving the problem of it being over-capacity. The money could be used for perpetual maintenance of the bridge, and to re-stripe it for 3 travel lanes, with a shoulder. The "government should be run like a business" people should be squarely behind this idea - the Brent Spence might even be able to run in the green.

^ I like that you have to mail-in your rebate form to get reimbursed. I remember doing that back in the early 00s when buying PC components. Nothing like wasting a stamp, envelope, and 20 minutes of your time to get that $10 check mailed back to you 6 months later.

It's a junk science way to put a seemingly quantifiable score on a list of cities the authors like best. It's certainly a list that is deserving of the title of this discussion thread.

The guy had a $60k salary and earned $160k worth of overtime. I think the real point there is that only in the public sector could something like that happen. Any private business would hire one or two other workers, for less money. I really doubt the guy was so skilled at his job that he was worth that much more than other janitors (though I could be wrong, maybe he's the Tom Brady of cleaning toilets). A lot of the people working nonstop seem to be doing it at 2 or even more jobs, not the same one. These types of stories always play well with the white collar crowd, too, because overtime is practically nonexistent for most salaried people. They might end up pulling a busy 70 hour week without seeing an extra dime. I'm a bit surprised BART actually hires their own janitors, though. Is that normal for transit agencies? Custodial services seem like a really easy thing to contract out.

The last two episodes of Ken Burns' "National Parks" documentaries touch on how intertwined the car was with the development of national parks. The relationship went both ways, the parks wanted as many visitors per year as possible and prior to the personal automobile they were pretty much out of reach for the vast majority of Americans. They quickly started to see the side effects, though, but a bit too late as they had already invested so much into scenic routes.

^ I once stuttered and came dangerously close to using a rather inappropriate word as an example for "P" - ever since I have kept this page bookmarked, and have a little printout of it at my desk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

^ The Saks is actually in the same building in Toronto as The Bay. ^^ The Bay stores are only in Canada, but the parent company also owns Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the US. Although the owner of the whole company is an American investment firm, so there's a whole lot of ownership on both sides of the border.