TraderJake

Why that would be St. X High. Name this unincorporated town: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.268743,-84.662983&spn=0.011536,0.019834&t=k&hl=en

When I lived in Clifton Heights, we got on 471 at Liberty and got off at Memorial Parkway. Getting on a Liberty allowed us to be in the left two lanes which are more often than not uncongested, and no one knows that Memorial Parkway turns into E 10th St. Add in free side street parking, and it can be a nice drive. Personally, I think they could do a better job in informing drivers that Grand Avenue and Memorial Parkway lead into Newport, and are effective and sometimes quicker alternate routes into the city. Additionally, getting off at those exits make it easier to navigate into the side streets and park for free. I wonder how many drivers actually know that Memorial Parkway, Grand Avenue, and US27 all lead into downtown Newport. Making that known could releive congestion slightly, or give people a more visible alternate route.

^ Parkview, what an interesting market, and look at what it has turned into now. Good ol' Lake Hills, I remember living there, and playing in "the woods" as a kid. I also remember living across the street from you and hearing you practice the drums in your garage. That was some time ago. Now the houses do look quite shaggy. It's a pity, as the oldest houses are only 20 years old.

^ Nope, I live on Daleview, although Mullen is in my backyard.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.122636,-84.641762&spn=0.015615,0.030770&z=2&t=k&hl=en Name that Golf Course

I live in the lovely township of Colerain in Hamilton County, Ohio, and about 500 feet from Green Township. I can get to the dysfunctional (road-wise)area known as Harrison / Rybolt in about 3 minutes, and I can make to 74. 275 or SR126 in no longer than 5 minutes. I live on top the Taylor Creek Valley, and at the top of my driveway I can hear the noises of I-74 in the valley below. I only wish I could see the highway from the house, as the interstates made me interested in my field of study, transportation engineering. My house is a lovely late 70s ranch, and I live in with my parents and five brothers, which allows me not to spend money on utilities, rent, food, or internet. I love where I live, as I can get to any major road fairly quickly from where I live, and it does not take that long to get to either Miami Whitewater or Winton Woods, which have nice paths to run, and excellent frisbee golf courses.

The article makes some good points. Development on the West Side does seem to follow the sewer lines, and the pace of development of the West Side relies a lot on infrastructure improvements. It's very easy to tell where the sewer lines have been recently laid, look no further than to Harrison Avenue. While development does seem to follow sewer lines, sewer lines appear to be placed at a rather sluggish pace. I remember reading an article in the Northwest Press about the cost overruns with the addition of a sewer line on Wesselman Road, which had amounted to over a million dollars. The other thing about Development, at least in Green Township, seems to be around the Harrison Avenue corridor, or collector roads that lead to Harrison Avenue or North Bend Road. As such, both roads have become or in the process of becoming severely overloaded. Traveling either the North Bend/ Cheviot Rd corridor or the Harrison / Rybolt Area during rush hour can be an especially frustrating experience. I am still waiting for them to place a light at Harrison Avenue and Sheed, as during rush hour there is a ton of stacking on Sheed. I look forward to when they make the roadway improvements for both corridors, since I live a stone's throw from either of them. The last thing I'll comment on is about the development himself. The development director made a lovely comment about Legacy Place about how the tenant mix did not seem to be upscale. Kudos to him for noticing that. As a West Sider, I find it slightly irrating that Mr. Silverman would think that Target and JCPenney are upscale to West Siders. Truth is that there not, and the West Side is becoming more and more affluent. It's appalling how many 250K-300K houses are going up in the area, and those houses definitely suggest that West Siders deserve something more upscale than Target or JC Penney. If I want to go to Target, I'll go to Colerain or Glenway Crossing, and if I want to go to JCPenney, I'll go to Northgate, or just skip JCPenney altogether since Northgate has become a rather frightening place. In addition to the Legacy Place Development, Mr Goetzman mentioned the other Developments going on in the township, which are quite a lot. The interesting thing about these developments is that the vast majority of them are in the Harrison Avenue corridor, and when you drive the corridor, there is site development everywhere. Condos, outpatient centers, restaurants, banks, and offices -- they're all there, and they will all add to the Traffic Volumes in the corridor. Those who worry about the volumes that Legacy Place would create should be weary of all the other development as well, as they will put their own volume of cars on there. Harrison Avenue is destined to become a rather congested, major road, and we are only beginning to see this happen.

Lake Gloria

While I respect ODOT's decision to work within the budget, I thoroughly disagree with their decision to pick an alternative that would only secure a level of service of D-F. If cars remain the dominant mode of transportation in the next 20 years, and I am sure that they will for Cincinnati, we shall see people complaining about gridlock shortly after the reconstruction is completed. I hope this implies that ODOT cares about some sort of mass transit, since this alternative will not make the gridlock go away. Upon closer inspection of the article, it could be interesting to see how much the plans diverge from the poster boards presented on the site. I think it would be wise to complete the RR interchange, given the confusion involved in traversing local roads to get onto the highway if travelling south on 75.

Working in their downtown, I applaud Mason for taking the initiative to make their roads sufficient in carrying traffic in the current term, and making them look extremely nice. It's nice to know that my earning taxes are used to make a rather beautiful community. I only wish that other communities in Warren County would see the future, and not fight the growth that is to come, but rather accept it as reality and work to make sure that the infrastructure will accomodate it. Fighting the need for roads will only lead to gridlock, and I am sure that most everyone really does not want that.

^Agree You know what would be a good way to keep Wal-Mart from developing the parcels under contention? Redeveloping Manchester Plaza, which would include razing K-Mart and the old Kroger's, and building the Supercenter right there. I'm sure Wal-Mart wants to develop on the corridor, it's heavily travelled, high growth oriented, and their current Wal-Mart in Western Hills is a cess pit. Why not placate them by redeveloping a lagging commercial center, much like what was done with the K-Mart Plaza on Colerain Avenue? It makes sense.

I don't know if the residents deserve it so to say, but I don't think this person from Groesbeck has any authority to say anything about this project. I bet that if it was to have been built, all the amenities that Legacy Place would have offered would also have existed on Colerain Avenue, which is the main thouroughfare that bisects the neighborhood of Groesbeck. JCPenney and Target sure were upscale retailers, weren't they? I am sure that they would be better suited for a redevelopment of Manchester Plaza, and not an "upscale establishment" such as Legacy Place. I know for sure that I don't view either store as being upscale. In fact, I believe I'd go so far as to say that Target is a nice 'discount retailer.' As for the project itself, while denied I am certain that it will comeback in someform. Perhaps smaller, perhaps a larger barrier, perhaps a sprawling residential subdivision, I don't really know. But I seriously doubt that the developer is going to let this fall through. They know very welll what Harrison Avenue will be like 20 years from now, and will do their best to help increase the traffic volumes. I'm sorry to say it, but even if Legacy Place becomes only a residential development, which is unlikely, traffic volumes will only be a little fazed, and the infrastructure will still be gridlocked 20 years from now. West siders can thank that to the building boom occurring in the townships, and all the proposed developments in addition to Legacy Place along the corridor. As I've said before, the chances of this property remaining pristine land is virtually nil. Change is going to come to the corridor, whether residents like it or not.

It's a shame that both Cedar Point's and Geauga Lake's Attendance are both not up to expectations. I'm utterly shocked that Geauga Lake's attendance may not even pass a million this year, which is extremely surprising since they spent so much money on a waterpark expansion, which generally drives attendance and season pass sales way up. I suppose it could be the ripple effects from when Six Flags owned it, or it could be the economy, but I seriously doubt it is the latter as admission prices for Geauga Lake are ridiculuously cheap compared to other Ohio Parks. I don't know what to expect in the coming years for Geauga Lake, as they will have completed their waterpark, but they still have to deal with the image effects that Six Flags ownership had. As for Cedar Point, while yes, they did add MAXair this year, the park is very much for most people a destination park, and as such they billed themselves as "America's Rockin' Rollercoast." Two years have passed since they added a rollercoaster, and as such people are less likely to show up at the park as they have already rode the latest and greatest attraction. Additionally those parks that have been posting gains year after year don't cater to the same crowd year after year. Since 2000, the additions at Cedar Point have been Millenium Force, Wicked Twister, Top Thrill Dragster, the new splash complex in Soak City, and MaxAIR. With the exception of the Soak City expansion, all those rides cater to the same group of people. What about all the other demographics, what has been added to bring them to the park? There really hasn't been anything added to draw those people in. Cedar Point really needs to start thinking about the other demographics as well, the best way to bring them into the park would be to add attractions that cater to them. If they begin to make those additions, then perhaps they would begin to see more gains.

I live along the Harrison Avenue Corridor, and I also worked for a company that performed a corridor study for the area. It's extremely impressive the amount of traffic that will traversing the corridor in only 20 years if only low density development occurs on the road. The developers of Legacy Place are very much aware of the projected volumes, and by placing themselves at a prime intersection, they guarantee visibility. Add to that future interchange improvements (Rybolt Rd is atrocious), and it will make it even more attractive for some large development to take over this greenspace. One of the things I found to be interesting from the article, other than it being the headline, was how many people were complaining about how they were going to lose the precious greenspace in their backyard. While I understand that could be a source for heart-ache, they can't really sit around thinking that if they curb the mall project it would protect the green space. I am certain that if Legacy Place falls through that another project will rise up and gooble up the space, whether it residential or commercial. It's happening all along Harrison Avenue, and it is sure to happen there. I think the only person that could have had a valid argument was Trustee Grote, who is worried about infrastructure stresses, such as traffic and storm water runoff. The site is extremely hilly, and will require a lot of earthwork before construction can begin. Stormwater retention is a real thing to think about; an inadequate retention system would cause runoff to take sediment towards the properties on Hutchinson Rd. That would not be good. I understand their concerns on the project, but I think like it or not some form of development is going to happen in this area. The primary land owner tried to sell his land to the township, and nothing ever came of that, and so we have this development instead. Add this development to the multiude of other developments and proposed developments, and it will make Harrison Avenue a very different road in 20 years. It is almost destined to become another "Colerain Avenue." "What does he think we do on the West Side, eat out of troughs?" That's funny.

I agree that it would be wise to expand some type of mass transit into Butler County, but given that the majority of funding for SORTA comes from the city of Cincinnati's earning taxes, I don't see how Metro could be expanded into Butler county without a funding referenum being placed on the ballot. Until then, we're likely to see the same services currently being offered in those regions, in which communities pay for routes to come to their little towns. Just for fun, the 2004 operating budget for SORTA can be found here: http://www.sorta.com/aboutMetro/funding.html

Personally, I think they should look at the possibility of HOT lanes as a method of funding the express lanes. Looking at the display boards shows that every option with the exception of express lanes would only give the highway a Level of Service of D-F. Four lane continuity, at 153 Million Dollars would fit with this. Alternatively, Alternative 4B (At-Grade Express Lanes) has a estimated cost of 221 Million Dollars, and brings a level of service of C-D. Making the express lanes HOT or tolled would allow bring in some of the funding not there, and would give 75 a more acceptable LOS.

I believe, as one of my professors, stated, ODOT, as well as most Ohio organizations, is on a four year schedule. Once the four years is up, it is some other administration's problem. The Paddock Road Bridge is a good example of the "forget about the future planning" sometimes seen in ODOT. It saddens me to know that if any drastic expansion to 75 occurs, which is probable given Cincinnati's dislike of mass transit, it would probably destroy the most beautiful feature associated with 75 between the beltway. As for I-75 specifically, it will be interesting to how the highway is rebuilt. Time will tell to see if ODOT cares about the future of the infrastructure networks, or only cares about current dilemmas.

That's Somewhat of a shame. As it stands right now Harrison Avenue is well backed up at all times of the day, but especially during rush hour mornings. It's a good thing I live on the less developed side of the interchange. Something really needs to be done with that interchange. Traffic seriously backs up on Harrison Avenue in the morning and on the Rybolt Road Off Ramp in the Evening. Often times there are long merging delays at the 74/75 interchange for 74 traffic. Traffic is only destined to become worse on 74 in the future; something really needs to be done to preempt that. While traffic meters may not be a viable answer for this problem, political leaders will have to realize that what once was the underused 74 isn't quite that underused anymore, and to ignore that may cause some expensive needs in the future.