jim uber

^ Yeah, but you're just dying to get to Pies and Pints. ;-)

^ yeah but the contrast between the W 15th street buildings and Towne is illustrative. These projects are happening at the same time, the price points are basically the same, but one is a development that is literally copy/paste while the other has strived for a degree of individuality at the unit level, even though they are being built at the same time. And W. 15th is completely sold out, while Towne has apparently sold one unit, and will probably struggle for a little while to sell the rest. I'm also not a screaming fan of the W. 15th, but I do think they will look really good together, and have a totally different feel than Towne. And the market has told us this is what people prefer. And, no, it doesn't cost significantly more to do it that way, or at the least you can say that it's possible to make a decent profit - especially when you factor in the lost revenue from having millions in construction loans on your books until the crappy designs finally sell.

^ commercial - historical configuration. But it's not under the current occupancy certificate. Will need permits, HVAC, interior finishes.

Thanks jmecklenborg[/member] - paint is a wonderful thing sometimes. Wanted to also say to anyone redoing these old storefronts - check out Art Woodworking in Cincinnati. They built custom 9' tall 2-1/4" thick solid mahogany entry doors for us, for less than what it would have cost to buy prefab aluminum clad 7' tall doors (and so allowing restoration of the original transom configuration, instead of having to add a 'filler' transom above the new door). Amazed me - we are lucky to have places like that still in existence.

We've finally got a certificate of occupancy for the Schmitthenner building at 1527 Elm. Got a lot of good advice from some folks on this forum over time (and actually incorporated it into the design, best we could). So, wanted to invite you all to drop by for an open house this Sunday, Feb 26, Noon-2PM. Basics: - 3 500 sq. ft. 1 BR apartments - 2 700 sq. ft. 1 BR apartments - 1 1300 sq. ft. 1 BR Loft - 1 700 sq. ft. storefront - Federal and State historic tax credits - City property tax credit - LEED (Silver or possibly Gold; still being certified) Here's a few pics. Look forward to seeing anyone who drops by.

^incidentally isn't it annoying that, still, you can't get on Cincy MLS and actually do a search for "downtown" or "over the rhine"? I mean, I can restrict my search to Oakley, or Hyde Park, and literally any of the suburbs. Just another example of anti-city bias, IMHO. Irksome.

It does look like the W 15th homes are doing really well. But I only see that one of the Towne Properties homes have sale pending; do you know otherwise that the others are sold? I just had the impression that those units were going to go slowly.

I saw this program where apparently all of us on the Eastern US should be eating dogfish. This is a seriously ugly fish but apparently very tasty and it's most of what is being caught right now on the east coast. The thing is that our country has never even heard of this fish and wouldn't know what to do with it, but it is loved elsewhere in the world, particularly (I believe) in parts of Asia. So we are all sitting here eating Tiger shrimp from Thailand, and they are sitting there eating our dogfish. Crazy. There is a test program where we are fixing dishes made with dogfish for college students. They've been receptive and generally liked it. I actually asked at Whole Foods about dog fish. They'd heard of it, but had no idea if they'd ever sell it. I guess the obvious thing is that someone needs to come up with a better name than dogfish. Who does that? <edit> Sorry I know this is a great abuse of this thread. But seriously nobody wants a dogfish thread, even though I find the thought of one hilarious. Really, these guys are super ugly:

I just learned that the Liberty and Elm (a.k.a. "Freeport Row") project approval was appealed to the Zoning board of appeals, by the OTR community council. Not sure if this will appear at the February meeting. This evidently happened January 20 but I just heard about it a couple days ago. If anyone has any specific information about scheduling of the zoning board of appeals decision, please let it be known. My take - L&E is not a fantastic example of great infill architecture. But, annoyingly, the forces against the development bear significant responsibility for that, because they caused the entire project to be shortened/downsized. Instead of joining forces to make buildings smaller, we should be cheering density. We should be asking developers to put an appropriate portion of their revenue, which benefits from higher densities, toward high quality materials and design. The OTR Foundation "Infill Committee" has organized opposition with the OTR community council on this. In my opinion, they are dominated by a romantic notion of OTR that is not practical. They complain about this building being out of scale with the neighborhood, while ignoring examples to the contrary -- notably the Streitmann building that is more massive while fronting a street about half as wide (12th). http://www.citybeat.com/news/news-feature/article/20851474/neighborhood-groups-are-concerned-about-the-final-version-of-a-big-new-development-coming-to-northern-otr The hypocrisy continues to amaze. "Community groups" argue for and obtain a reduction in density, leading to a reduction in profit, and then they complain about not getting the good design or the parking garage or the income-based units they think should be a part of this development. Did they not ever think about using those items as a bargaining chip prior to taking the increased density (and the revenues) off the table? Let's call this what it is - certain members of the community, including the OTR foundation, who want to push their romantic notion of an OTR built for tourists, and who are grasping for any straw they can get their hand on in order to push for that, whether it is affordable housing, or parking needs, or the scourge of density, or - the new one - the lack of engagement with "the community." And to the OTR foundation "infill committee" I'd ask, just where are these "infill guidelines" that you are supposed to be so expert at. Quit hiding behind them and make them public, if in fact we are supposed to believe that you represent some sort of advanced thinking in that realm, compared to the rest of us ordinary citizens.

I just learned that the Liberty and Elm (a.k.a. "Freeport Row") project approval was appealed to the Zoning board of appeals, by the OTR community council. Not sure if this will appear at the February meeting. This evidently happened January 20 but I just heard about it a couple days ago. If anyone has any specific information about scheduling of the zoning board of appeals decision, please let it be known. My take - L&E is not a fantastic example of great infill architecture. But, annoyingly, the forces against the development bear significant responsibility for that, because they caused the entire project to be shortened/downsized. Instead of joining forces to make buildings smaller, we should be cheering density. We should be asking developers to put an appropriate portion of their revenue, which benefits from higher densities, toward high quality materials and design. The OTR Foundation "Infill Committee" has organized opposition with the OTR community council on this. In my opinion, they are dominated by a romantic notion of OTR that is not practical. They complain about this building being out of scale with the neighborhood, while ignoring examples to the contrary -- notably the Streitmann building that is more massive while fronting a street about half as wide (12th).

Not the one at race and liberty, at least. The one I just took said 20 minutes when the car arrived.

wow - I'm really not sure what to think about this. I wonder what they are planning to do with the 3rd floor windows that are obstructed by the steel?

^ Yeah, this is the type of structure that 3CDC refers to when they argue that it costs $250-$350/sq. ft. to renovate.

^ and two that show how modern infill with high quality materials can fit beautifully within the existing OTR fabric. I hope that the OTR Foundation Infill Committee is taking careful notes.

^ You can't make a reasonably priced, excellent, basic hamburger; you can't run a diner.

That's disappointing. I thought it was OK based on only the liberty and elm stop by my house. On the plus side (since having things make sense is always a plus), at least this can explain why we can't have accurate tracking displays using the same source dataset at bustracker.

^ interesting to know. I agree that's pretty much what I want to know too, although I clearly see the use for arrivals at the stops for visitors etc. I guess the GPS drops are part of what they are trying to fix, as mentioned by taestell[/member]. If it drops out for a short while but then comes back, I can account for that when visualizing on a map, but I can see how that could create a few problems for an arrival time calculation.

Interesting thing is that the GPS data is already accurate. Distinct from the "real-time arrival" data, which would seem to be a function of the GPS data but would also need to account dynamically for vehicle speed, anticipated conditions, etc. So I think the point is that a value added app would consist of simply the existing (accurate) GPS bustracker data on a map, optimized for mobile. Which is what the "do-gooder" did.

Not. :-( A great idea, though. And straightforward - would think that this would be very much within SORTAs ability to do and support internally or through existing contracts. I'd imagine that a nice simple mobile app like that would be very useful for bus riders, too.

FYI the bus tracker is currently the only way to accurately know the streetcar locations (and estimate, for yourself, their arrival time). The transit app will be really nice, but it's currently not being fed accurate real-time arrival info driven by the GPS signal data. You can see that for yourself by pulling up the bus tracker site as well as asking transit to plot a streetcar route. There is no correspondence. Personally I find it really frustrating to have transit app tell me to "leave now!" for my 1-minute walk to the stop, when the next streetcar is on the other end of town. While that doesn't make any sense at all, it does make sense that transit couldn't actually have real-time arrival information on the streetcar, while they are currently working to fix the real-time arrival screens at the stops. I mean, if you could have accurate arrivals on transit, then you'd of course have solved the problem of arrival information at the stops.

^ nah, I don't think so. Such statements reflect more than the state at the moment; they reflect the caustic effects that a lack of accurate real time arrival info has had on people using this mode during the business day. I've had many people tell me that the uncertainty of when the cars will arrive has made them stop even thinking of using the streetcar for getting around M-F. Personally I use it, but I'm employed at my own small business and so can have more flexibility. So anecdotally, what is said in the article seems accurate to me. Also, I'm very encouraged that the SORTA board clearly recognizes the seriousness of the problem, and is actively pushing the vendor for fixes. That only happens when things are clearly recognized and accepted as being problems.

Yeah but Jake I think that misses the point by a mile. Seriously, that video was pretty amazing. John London got Cunningham to say, on camera, that he wants people in Mason to come down and ride the streetcar.

I can't tell - are you being sarcastic, or is this crazy idea something that you actually believe?

"The Courier’s research confirms what supporters and planners of the project long have said: The streetcar is stimulating development along its path, playing a role in at least $25 million worth so far." They also are very clear that their analysis is extremely conservative (only properties directly on the route; only permitted $; only owners - nothing for market factors affecting rents, etc). Also, agree with bfwissel[/member] on the value of a subscription.

Regarding the traffic study, I asked for some clarification through the Fix it Cincy app. Amazingly it was routed to someone who could provide a clear answer. It's not the one I wanted, but here it is for those interested; it would be good if someone with good press contacts would be able to get a piece done on _why_ the traffic study is not moving forward, especially since all of the reporting strongly suggests that it is. "Mr. Uber, My name is Andy Carter and I received your request concerning a traffic study for the downtown area. Currently there is not study [sic] underway to investigate downtown traffic patterns. There is a request for proposals prepared to study downtown traffic volumes and patterns but a decision has not been made on whether the study will move forward. The proposed study would look at existing traffic volumes and make recommendations for improving balanced movement through the downtown area for all users. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks. Andy Carter, P.E. Supervising Engineer City of Cincinnati Department of Transportation & Engineering Traffic Engineering, Traffic Signals 801 Plum Street, Room 450 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Phone (513) 352-5272 [email protected]"