Ram23

It was 59 degrees in Cincinnati today. I wore shorts and had all my windows open, which was great because I was ripping out old drywall all day. I agree that the humidty/temperature during August is awful in Cincinnati. The lack of wind is what makes it miserable in most places but I'm lucky enough to live atop a steep cliff of about 100 feet or so, so my house gets a decent breeze no matter what, but I still can't get away with opening windows - the breeze just feels like it came from a giant hair dryer.

^ We talked about this a few page back, but I don't know where these sources keep getting 11" of snowfall as Cincinnati's annual average. The average is just over 22" per year using the 30 year average, and Cincy has only had below 11" of snow 3 times in the past 30 years (though this year could be another). It's a lot better than up north, but we're not quite Kentucky.

Meanwhile in Cincinnati it hasn't snowed at all since one 6" event in November - it's been a bit colder than average, but dry.

^ That may work in Canada, but I don’t know if the climate supports it in enough places to make it trule catch on. I do agree that roller rinks are going to make a comeback in the not too distant future. If I had the money, I’d invest in one. The key would be getting a liquor license, and the hiccup would be finding insurance on an establishment that had a bunch of drunken people falling down on roller skates. I imagine some sort of liability waiver with the skate rental could take care of that.

^ Agree, they had time for three plays given they had one time out left, but at least one play would have had to be a pass play. They should have called a running play on 2nd and either scored or taken a timeout. They'd still have at least 16 second left after the timeout, enough to call a pass on 3rd, followed by a run on 4th if need be. If they tried to run 3 times in a row I don't think they'd get to the third one, even with the timeout. If they run it on 2nd and don't get in they have to use that timeout or else they'd be snapping right around 10 seconds or so by the time the offense got reset, cutting it way too close. Losing the game with an expired clock and a time out in your pocket is a far bigger botched job than calling a pass when you should have called a run. The best argument in favor of the pass I've seen so far is that it was called to purposely waste a down and 5-10 seconds, because Seattle was so sure they'd run it in for a score on the next play, and any time they could run off the clock would help their cause. I don't buy that though.

The Pete Rose Skechers commercial was the highlight of the evening for me. Very underrated, and unlike the vast majority of the commercials, it actually made me want to go out and buy a few pairs of Skechers for the first time in my life. I don't want new insurance because of dead kids, I don't want sanitary napkins because of girls running in place, and I don't want a dad-car, but Pete Rose can sell me anything.

I bought 3 pounds of pork yesterday at Findlay market and spent the rest of the day roasting so I could have some pulled pork to pack for lunch the next few days. Talk about bad timing. Maybe I'll stop by Eli's in a couple weeks, hopefully it's BYOB but I don't know how that would work since most of the seating is out in the beer garden area.

This link may or may not work (if not, just Google "Terrace Plaza Thesis" and you'll find it): https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=ucin1243361231&disposition=inline It has a lot of good photos, including one on page 151 (actually 155) of the former department store space as it exists today. Spoiler: it's incredibly dreary now.

^ You’re still not accounting for one of the most important factors when it comes to density: geography, which Edale pointed out above. There’s also the simple fact that half of Cincinnati’s densely populated urban core is actually in Kentucky. There’s a perception that much of Columbus is sprawl, because physically it is. The density may still be higher despite that, as there is little in the way of the physically unoccupiable places like lakes, rivers, hillsides, etc. that Cleveland and Cincinnati have. For instance, even some of Cincinnati’s densest tracts would be denser if they didn’t include unbuildable hillsides. The misconception may be that sprawl = low density, which is not always the case.

219 Wade just hit the market (I was wrong, it's $530K): http://m.cbws.com/property/details/256362/MLS-1434338/219-Wade-St-Cincinnati-City-Downtown-Area-OH-45202 Urban Sites is selling 208, 212, 214 and 215 Wade St. If it sells for that price, or even close to that price, it'd be a big statement. It isn't a condo on 12th and Vine, it's a home in a somewhat isolated spot (at least for another year or two) and the actual investment in the renovation is probably half of what the asking price is.

Not sure if I like that as a restriction as it precludes a lot of large institutional buildings from adaptive reuse (like Woodward). I think any restriction should just be on combining plots; basically limit the street frontage a single building can have. Most buildings in OTR are on plots that are 20’ or 30’ wide. New buildings should follow that precedent. There are a handful of buildings that are double or triple that, but they are few and far between. The new apartments being built today are some of the widest, flattest buildings in OTR. Even if done well, they don’t fit the context of the neighborhood. Trinity Flats is the only new construction I can think of off the top of my head that is a proper scale for the neighborhood.

The northernmost streetcar stop (and thus Findlay Market) is definitely within walking distance for most of the residents living on the far south end of CUF (really most anything south of Warner). I think the reason you don't see a lot of people make that walk, aside from the simple fact it's a large hill, is the condition of the Race Street steps. The steps themselves are in great shape, but the brush and weeds around them quickly grow to several feet tall, and become completely covered with litter. It occasional looks like someone lives down there, as well. It would be a good place to organize a cleanup and try to encourage more UC students to utilize them. As development at the north end of the streetcar continues, it will be interesting to see if there’s any interest in adding more steps where they have been removed. There were once steps at virtually every block – Klotter to Ravine, Stratford to Mohawk, Stonewall up to Hastings, and Elm up to Clifton. It wasn’t until the 90’s that the last of them were removed.

^ What COAST wants you to believe:

Rather than limiting height, the focus should be limiting footprint size. No more superblocks should be allowed, we need more 1-6 unit single plot wide buildings.

tell me about it. those damn old people that never bought anything, but used to take over these malls to 'powerwalk' in the 80s drove me up the wall. Actually, Randall had a really good solution to that. They'd open the mall itself well before the stores were open, like 8am or so. Mall walkers (old people powerwalking) are still typical everywhere, and most malls open by 8:00am at the latest, I've been to some that are open at 6:00am (I used to do some work that involved surveying stores in malls) and was always amazed at how many old people there are just walking around.

^ Little did he know that city hall, built shortly after the Courthouse Riots of 1884, was designed to impede such attacks.

I lived on Walnut about a block north of Biff's for a couple years. I'm all for bringing back the name ironically, but I'm glad that place is gone. The catfights that spilled out into the street every Friday and Saturday night at about 4:00, despite the sheriff permanently camped out in front of the bar, got old pretty quick, though the stuff being yelled was occasionally hilarious. I never got to check the place out, sadly, as I think the age limits were 25+ for women and 30+ for men, amongst other reasons.

That name is on the liquor license permit application. PDF: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/41592.pdf;jsessionid=87605A04C9A1A1FD0B01E70FD0CFFF83?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201500072%27

This wouldn't surprise me, with Dillard's pulling out of Tri-County, Macy's sees the writing on the wall. It's really hard to stop the bleeding of a dying mall. Much of Tri-County's demise was due to the $75 million pumped into Forest Fair Mall by the now defunct Mills Corporation and Springdale failing to invest in the shopping district by sprucing up the area. I went to a Springdale Zoning Board meeting last fall and one of the people on the board said, "I just got back from Boca Raton, Florida and it gave me some great ideas for Tri-County. I think we should look into condo towers. Can we mandate minimum building heights in a PUD?" I kid you not, they are completely clueless about what to do with that mall. Give it fifteen years: they can add some residential, a hotel, and call it an indoor lifestyle center - for those people who love lifestyle centers like Liberty Center, but hate having to be out in the cold, heat, rain, or snow.

No beer should ever be colder than 44 degrees Fahrenheit. Even the run of the mill stuff like Coors Light should be this temperature. Most refrigerators are set to 35-40 degrees or so, with 40 being the high end for food safety reasons. A bar that has coolers specifically for beer should never have them set below 44, though. Lagers should be a maximum of 48 degrees, ales 52, stouts 55, and some specialty beers at room temperature. If I keep beer at home I typically pour it into the correct type of glassware, and let it sit a minute before drinking. Even if you start a beer that is about 35 degrees out of the fridge, it will warm significantly within the first few minutes of being poured into a glass. If you’re drinking a 33 degree Coors Light, you’re not getting very much of the already limited flavor out of it. Though, for a beer that doesn’t taste good that may be the intent. Drink it before you can taste it and you’ll have one fewer thing to regret that night.

My theory is that he was down between the I-beams with the scoop and somehow started turning left or right, flipping one or more of the I-beams sideways. They don't have any strength when they're flipped over. It also looks like the concrete had been removed from the beams to the east of the span over the highway, but the beams were still there (I think they are piled up twisted in the east lane just south of the collapse, but I haven't been by this bridge in awhile). That would detract from the lateral stability of the bridge even more, not to mention the fact that what was previously a pretty uniformly distributed load of was no longer such.

I can't even eat at places like Cheescake Factory. That's not food. It's awful, msg infested crap. I've been three times for friend or family related events, and I'll never go again to eat. I'll attend, but just have a beer or cocktail. The food gives me "the trots". I've never been to a Cheesecake Factory, but don't hate on MSG. All of the hate it gets has been based on a small amount of anecdotal evidence. None of the supposed side effects have ever been observed in controlled studies. I keep a shaker of it and use it often when cooking. It actually allows me to use a minimal amount of salt, which is good because most people get several times the recommended value of sodium in their daily diets, which is actually unhealthy.

I like the name. George Remus is one of my favorite historical Cincinnatians.

I would like to see the floor plans for that house. The photos make the interior spaces look quite awkward. It looks like there's a massive hallway on one of the floors, which I agree with Jake above is a waste of space in a narrow house. My house is 16'-0" wide but the space works out because there aren't any hallways and utilities/closets/etc. are tucked into one corner so there aren't random bump-outs. Maybe it's personal preference, but other than bedrooms and bathrooms - you don't really need to waste space on partitions in compact, urban homes. In remodels, that's not always possible because many walls are bearing walls, but in new construction there's no reason not to just span structure from one side to the other and be smart about where your partitions go.

Despite missing Cronin, UC is doing pretty well. They are 11-3, and 2-0 in conference play, which is enough to get them a 39 RPI ranking. They are giving up just 54 points per game on average, 7th best in NCAA.