Ram23

There are a lot of sources that will confirm various buildings in Cincinnati used Bedford Limestone (Carew Tower being the most notable). I don't know if there are any sources about the various smaller buildings that used limestone but I'd be surprised if it wasn't quarried in the same area - that limestone was used all over the country.

So if I ran the numbers for those cities and they didn't have the same density issues, what would be the excuse then? I guess we'll find out, because I am doing them and will post them here. I think you're using the word "excuse" when you really mean "logical explanation." There's also the fact that downtown Cincinnati sits on a state border, meaning at least 1/3 of the densest part of the urban core is in another state. I'm pretty sure this conversation has been had on this website, perhaps even in this thread.

^ Exactly. It's sad to see the most exciting pitcher in the game go, but honestly I don't see why the Reds would spend that much money on a closer for one more year when they're probably only going to have a lead in the 9th inning about 60 times.

At the end of the day this building is far better for the city than if a developer had plopped something like The Banks or U Square on this site, which in Cincinnati's case seems to be the only alternative. The facade is, at the very least, unique. At street level it's almost entirely transparent, which is probably the easiest and simplest way for a building to engage the street successfully, yet very few buildings in Cincinnati do this. Above that, aesthetic taste comes into play but personally I love the color. The parking garages entrances are probably the most unobtrusive in the city - I have walked by the 5th Street entrance 4 times already today and the entrances are one of the things I noticed - they're subtle enough that you know they're there, but they use the same material as the sidewalk, don't have any pavement striping, and don't have big ugly pay boxes and gates in your face (they are tucked back into the building). The garage itself is a problem but not one of architecture. Cincinnati is not a city in which a company is going to spend millions on a building that doesn't have parking. If we want new construction we seemingly have to live with parking garages, and this is far from a bad garage.

I was taught, though haven’t been able to find many sources, that a lot of the building spacing in Cincinnati (particularly the inner ring suburbs atop hills like CUF, Mt. Auburn, Walnut Hills, etc.) was a result of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It would appear that if requirements in the city changed, they lagged a few years behind because you don’t begin to see houses/parcels spaced in the way you describe until you get into the 1880s and beyond. Though there are definitely wealthy pockets where the yards and setbacks were done by choice. Parts of Mt. Auburn and Clifton obviously fit this description. Cincinnati hillsides are notorious for landslides – either rotational slumps or slow moving earthflows. They typically occur toward the bottom of slopes, where vegetation has been removed above, and natural drainage patterns have been altered (like pavement or buildings atop the hill dumping gutters or downspouts onto the hillsides). This makes foundation work prohibitively expensive, so much so that I doubt the hillsides will ever be developed(again). However, if you walk through the woods that cover most of them, you’ll find plenty of remnants of old limestone foundations, and even streets in places (around Mohawk Street). You can see the Sohn Street houses at the very top of the photo below. The concrete stairs that were put in in the second photo have since been removed, as have all of the houses between Sohn and the concrete wall.: The Emming Street steps, a block north of Klotter, had a very isolated abandoned house (more of a shanty) halfway up the steps until 2010 or so. It was demolished at some point in 2010 or 2011 – I have no idea how they got equipment down to it.

^^ It's where the closest Home Depot is to downtown/OTR, so my chances of going there are closer to 5% than 0%. Currently Richie's is my go-to chicken place, edging out The Eagle and the Hitching Post (the one by the junkyards near Lunken Airport).

Just set up some folding chairs and hang a curtain between "classrooms". That wouldn't be too far a leap from the trailer park campus that sits where Wilson used to be.

They'll complain about the tax subsidies to build the parking garage, and then complain about the $6 it costs to park there.

This is no surprise that Cincy has a higher percentage of under 2500/sqmi density. This number from ParkScore still does not include all of the area in Cincinnati that has hilly unstable soil that is unable to be, or is costly to develop. Spend any time driving around, and you'll see there is a lot of it, especially in the western portions, and along the arms of the city that stretch along the river. Your numbers only serve to reinforce that the city is a series of pockets where development can occur, as opossed to a city that develops on what was essentially an open field. Yeah, Cincinnati has pockets of dense, walkable neighborhoods but also has huge swaths of land that are virtually undevelopable given current real estate prices. This area around Delhi Avenue is a prime example. The neighborhoods all around are pretty dense by typical suburban standards, but the hillsides aren't developable as many of the foundations needed would cost more than the buildings set atop them.

It would be 32 seconds but it can't get to 60 due to the governor. Just like Kasich to get in the way, again.

^ You could throw in an occasional ad from sponsors in order to pay for the projection. It'd be like a scene out of Blade Runner, which is fine by me.

Madisonville suffers from a bit of a perception problem. A lot of kids who grew up on the east side of Cincinnati know it as the outermost "ghetto" place in Cincinnati, and it was where the richest kids from Indian Hill always went to get their coke. These are the people now in the market for apartments like those proposed for the drive-in site. Hopefully some of these "Oakley-ish" sites can start to chip away at some of that over the next few years, and open up the more walkable areas of Madisonville for development.

^ I wonder how many confused people will end up at the wrong Melt should this one open. I already feel bad for the vegans that end up in Liberty Center, and the 400 pound guys who end up in Northside looking for that 5 pound sandwich.

You got my house in the second photo, and I'm pretty sure I was standing about 10 feet from you if the picture of the patriotic fellow is in Northside Tavern during the 4th of July Parade this year. It's a small world! Great photos all around.

^ The NFL reimburses the team and pays them what they would have made for a home game sellout, so the Bengals themselves don't lose any money, they just lose the home field advantage, but gain some exposure which I assume they think is good for marketing overseas. The city/county is the biggest loser in all of this, since the stadium that the Bengals let the public into for a few hours 10 times a year will only be open 9 times next year, instead of 10. This just illustrates that once again the Bengals organization has little respect for the taxpayers, but I wouldn't expect them to given how much of a pushover the county has been for decades now. The new lease signed last year actually allows the Bengals to play 2 'home games' in other countries every year, so I guess we should be happy it's only one (for now).

I always thought that the city could shut people up by giving quick, cheap, and dirty tours of the dead-end tunnels that end at Hopple Street. They aren't locked up, there aren't any stations, but there is about 300'-0" or so of tunnel that simple dead ends. It wouldn't require shutting down the water main, and there'd be virtually no liability because there's no climbing involved. It actually wouldn't be difficult to create a small park there and leave them open permanently (they currently aren't sealed at all, you just have to walk down a gravel drive from Hopple to get there).

I've always wondered why I've never seen the tunnels on any of those shows. Seems like they'd be perfect subject matter. Besides your book and website, it's hard to find good, comprehensive info about them. Did Moore indicate what the reasoning for his annoyance is? Maybe they think the show would encourage people to try to sneak in and see it for themselves. I have a section of my webpage with about 20 subway pictures and I get a few emails every month from people asking me for instructions on how to get into the tunnels. Just seeing the images isn't enough, people see them and it makes them want to go take a look. That said, given how much interest there seems to be on sneaking into them, they do a very good job of keeping them locked up.

Has the proposed development at Grammer's been put on indefinite hold at this point? That could be a blessing in disguise, it would have been awful if they had the design completed and were ready to go, only to see the street to move 20 feet away from the building.

That would make for a good tenant for a first floor of a larger building. I'd hate for that site to be a low density, standard grocery store. The only way to make the scale of Central Parkway seem appropriate is to line it with tall buildings. I'd hate to see another one, or even two story building there. Something closer in height to the building at the northwest corner of 14th and Central, or the southeast corner of 12th and Central would be ideal.

That's a cool website. This would be me preferred layout: http://streetmix.net/-/297489 Concerning a center turn lane, my suggestion would be to make it dedicated, not shared, and replace it with a short landscape buffer between intersections. Turning left onto side streets like Moore, Republic, and Pleasant should be made impossible (that's where I've also seen a head on collision jmicha described - a car merging to turn left onto Republic, and a car merging to turn left onto Vine).

^ I didn't know they had a cafe in there until I read that article, and I've been in the building twice before, and walk by it at least 3 times a week. Hopefully this restaurant gets a significant amount of exterior exposure - be it outdoor seating, awnings, storefront, etc.

^ Failure to enforce trademarks can actually result in losing said trademark, or at the very least hurt future cases. OSU probably doesn't actually want a legal battle with the casino, but needs to at least attempt to enforce their trademark. By filing now, they won't really have to battle in court, but they get the credit for pursuing the infringement, which will help them in future cases. Trademarks are very much so "use it or lose it," which is why you see some absurd cases from time to time. If you don't aggressively defend a trademark, others can slowly chip away at it.

My point in this thread has been to assure refugees are properly vetted before being granted asylum in the US, something a majority of state governors, and even a large number of Democrats have done (Cranley included). If that is all it takes to be called racist and xenophobic, the majority of the country fits the description. By the way, you can easily look like a doofus if you resort to ad hominem without knowing anything about the person you’re attacking. My partner of about 5 years now is not white, and her family immigrated to the US to raise her.

This exact description apples to the majority of Syrian refugees that have been/will be granted asylum in the US, doesn't it?

It's not that anyone is afraid of being killed by a terrorist, it's that they don't want millions of taxpayer dollars supporting people who may actually be enemies.