City Blights

We're Cincinnatians, we have no choice but to believe our own echo is the smartest and most rational voice in the room. Just look at the Banks thread. There's a complaint about the building materials about every fourth comment. The Smale thread is starting to sound like a neighborhood council meeting. Cincinnatians, the laziest perfectionists you'll ever know.

You need an education, the motivation to seek facts independently of your studies, and an environment that motivates you to do something, anything other than sit on your porch or call into talk radio every day. Basically, knowledge isn't going to become contagious all of a sudden. The world and its inhabitants disappoint from time to time.

I met a woman from Loveland yesterday with a group of people. I told her I was from Cincinnati, she said, "like downtown?" and I said yes. In Cincinnati circles, downtown is anywhere from the CBD to Avondale or Northside.

A $10+ dollar burger and fry doesn't take it out of the general American Sports Bar chain genre. A #3 at McDonalds is gonna run you $8 dollars, and that's not really eating. Still happy to see a place with decent burgers coming to the Banks.

I'm afraid if police faced the same level of noncooperation in wealthier neighborhoods, they wouldn't do a good job of policing them, either. The main investigative tool police have is gathering testimony of eye witnesses. Even in the age of DNA evidence and whatnot. It's a chicken-or-egg thing, with a definitive answer: racist policing came first. But knowing the cause doesn't help bring a solution. Police could be busting their balls but they won't be able to provide a high level of detection without community cooperation. That's why the most important thing the police need to do that they aren't doing enough is developing human rapport with the communities they serve -- not sleuthing. They need to prove to the community that they each have a personal investment in the betterment of that community, gaining the trust the lack of which leads to noncompliance. If the officers actually don't care, then we need new officers, since no amount of outreach will prove their authentic devotion. If these officers exist, it should be a priority to weed them out, or give them desk jobs if that's all labor contracts permit. I agree that having a relationship with the community is principal, but that takes time, possibly generations. Every low-income urban area in the country is populated by folks that don't like the way law enforcement conducts their business in their neighborhood as well as in cities they've never even visited. There is a social divide that will not be broken down by extending olive branches. There has to be systemic change in how active casework is managed based on race and economic status in order for the poor to feel as if they aren't being targeted. One of the biggest sticking points for people in desire of Zimmerman seeing prison was that he got a $150k bond, when Hamilton County judges routinely give black males in lower-profile circumstances $500k or even a full million. People coast-to-coast responded to this perceived injustice, not just frustrated Floridians. Until the inner city feels more comfortable with the American justice system, sleuthing is how they will catch their criminals. That and targeting sloppy crooks that have to roll over to avoid being charged with a crime of their own.

There are many reasons people don't comply with law enforcement, mostly out of fear of their own community which police don't really protect, but also out of the fact that police are compensated to do a job, and they should do it. Sometimes police have to do policework, they are sleuths after all. We also should be careful assuming negatives when people don't volunteer info. Just because the police come on television to humiliate poor communities for not doing so doesn't mean it's deserved.

This outrageously discriminatory philosophy Florida introduced is just that, in addition to being ineffective at identifying potentially violent individuals or the circumstances that stimulate violent acts. Let's try to treat the poor as if they're citizens and not experimental slaves, which is how the poor live in America's inner cities.

The adage "unless you participate, you're unaffected" is asinine, I'm sorry. It's patently false whether considering street crime, economic policy or anything else. Cincinnatians are so used to violence that they could care less about why people engage in it. It's truly sad that so many people feel that way about their neighbors.

Having a higher percentage of jobs in the health/education sectors may actually suggest a.) less jobs and/or b.) a less diversified economy. I've long felt the Ohio community didn't quite understand how much of a manufacturing town Cincinnati is and has been throughout its history. Sometimes people don't think it's manufacturing if it isn't a vehicle or metal alloy. Strangely enough, Ford makes transmissions in Cincinnati and Toyota has a large presence in northern Kentucky.

The Ohio State University is superior to the University of Pittsburgh academically and on par with the University of Cincinnati. OSU is an excellent school and people know that around the world. The amount of significant research OSU does even exceeds Carnegie and Case. Cincinnati also has Miami University, an original Public Ivy with an amazing reputation on the East Coast, specifically. The Cincinnati metro has the greatest growth potential in Ohio for the next 10 years because of the flexible job-sharing climate of southern Ohio's two major cities. Live in Dayton, work in Cinti and vice-versa is something Columbus can't enjoy. The performance of the market as defined Cleveland-Akron already has empirical evidence as it's already a CSA. Cinti-Dayton has not maxed out in the least.

We are in accordance with poverty not equating to violence, however, this makes my point about Cincinnati. There are some poor cities in the world, and the majority of them don't have the violent crime Cincinnati has. Most of the ones that do are in Third World nations or in the United States. Even cities in developing countries are typically less violent than Cincinnati. willabro, You make a valid point, but there isn't a whole lot that scares me outside of the way Angela Merkel is handling the global debt crisis. All the clowns, vagrants and other bored individuals that stand on Cincinnati's corners all day long just give me a laugh, not much else.

Clifton Heights near Vine Street. I am downtown almost daily and walk most places I go. I was asking CityBlights (he was who I quoted). He seems to think Cincinnati is out to get him. Look OC, there is more than enough evidence to show how much crime there is in Cincinnati and that you don't have to be a criminal to be victimized, it's an incredibly ignorant statement. No murder = Mayberry is also clueless and shows how complacent you are with the ramifications of institutional poverty and societal ostracism. When evaluating public safety, appearances also have to be considered seriously, and Cincinnati appears to be more unsafe than most cities one could visit in the United States. OTR scared off the region's middle class for decades, but it was blight in Avondale and crime in Clifton that did just as much to widen the divide between the urban dwellers and the suburban crowd. To address your condescending comments that lack pulp, I'm not bothered by your opinion, don't be bothered by mine. I was born and raised in Cincinnati and know more about the bad areas than you could dream up. I live in Europe and am fortunate to have been many places. That gives me perspective, and Cincinnati still feels less safe than most places around the world not at war. Work to change the city, don't deny what's been obvious to others for a long time. Cincinnati's decline isn't just tied to wartime and post-War city-making. The stagnation of the past 20 years has done a bunch to keep the City from competing on any level. I was in Cincinnati in 2011 and it still felt unsafe. Why do you think the success of the Streetcar and the Gateway Quarter is so critical? Because they look to reshape the worst slum the US had to offer. If you don't feel that way about the realities of Cincinnati's socioeconomic climate, I won't be surprised at all.

What do your eyes tell you about Cincinnati? Mine tell me that it's is one of the more dangerous cities in the country with very few short-term solutions for its systemic cycle of poverty. The beauty of Cincinnati in 2012 is that it has several long-term solutions for its economy and lack of localized integration on the cusp.

Ghettowear? It´s okay to not like the store´s selection, but to classify one´s socioeconomic status based on the fashion (not cleanliness) of their clothing is discriminatory to a terrifying degree.

Did someone say that somewhere? My argument still stands, there isn't much architecturally to be fond of regarding that building. For what it cost per square foot, it should be beautiful, but it isn't even close. It's a hodgepodge of bad ideas and poor execution. As for the "interior use of space by a non-profit" is exactly what the building should have been designed for. Most museums built in the last 30 years or so integrate exhibits flawlessly. The Freedom Center doesn't have the basic necessary provisions for that. That's beside my original point, though. I was mostly speaking of the volume of the interior; it's cavernous for no real reason at all. It takes close to six hours to see everything the Freedom Center is exhibiting at any given time. Their operating hours are from 11am-5pm. I feel they have quite a bit in that building, and we haven't seen what could be done with the space if the Center were to experience a little financial relief. Better attendance will relax the financial burden the City has been under while supporting one of its landmark cultural assets, just as it should have.

Read: If you don't hate it like I do, you're clueless. Having a surplus of square feet in the museum's early years could be beneficial. The Banks, Smale and the Streetcar all figure to get more people through the doors. The Freedom Center isn't dead and there's no point in trying to kill it before it gets a fair shot at survival. Sitting on 2nd like an island up until now was not easy.

The 2001 Cincinnati riots led to more change in Cincinnati than has been seen in over 50 years. That qualifies as a riot, a stimulator of change, an instrument of frustration. Wondering why it doesn't compare to LA's riots is not comprehending the events involved in the discussion. If not for the riot, Vine still may be a jungle south of Liberty. It made OTR so bad that someone had to do something, finally. That included creating a private-interest-publicly-funded triangle like 3CDC to bail out the neighborhood from the wrecking ball that awaited it due to plummeting property values catalyzed by violence that spiked in the early 2000s stemming from the riots.

All this "faux riot" talk is off-base. Cincinnati's unrest and the aftermath that seen the city amidst a devastating economic boycott and blasted by the country's most prominent social activists made international headlines. No matter what country I'm in, people know of the 2001 Cincinnati riots and the prejudice that created such a disaster. The murder rate went up 70% immediately. I suppose an embarrasment of larger proportions would have been more suitable for the title 'riot'. I'm sorry to say, Cincinnati's unrest was more than dubious enough to be declared a riot. The daily violence downtown from 2002-2007 was damn near a riot on its own.

Would you like to suggest a topic of discussion, or are you just chastising?

I've seen municipal train companies in different cities advertise on cabs before, but it's always short-lived, say an ad for chewing gum may be on a certain line for a few days and then back to the car's color scheme. I don't think wrapping it is a good idea because Cincinnati is in need of visual exposure and its romance needs to be capitalized upon. There are ways of advertising on cabs without covering windows.

I thought the slideshow was very poignant. They gave the concept of transformation tangible evidence by showing no loiterers. They showed middle-aged white people in OTR that weren't passing through for Opening Day's Parade. They showed blue-collar white guys being put to work by OTR's renaissance. The pictures displayed rehabilitation, cleanliness and what downtown streets could look like if there was more investment. The slideshow said a lot to their metropolitan readership and individuals on the fence about what's really happening in OTR. I took a lot from those 8 or 9 photos. That was more impressive than the article to me.

This isn't the first time I've seen the skyline depicted backwards by the Enquirer or other organizations. Some people honestly may believe that having the Scripps featured more prominently makes the skyline look more intimidating. They actually might think they're doing the City's image and the project being examined a favor. Just a thought.

I've ridden the Zaragoza stock, the UOsphere should love them. They will be easier to enter and exit than Amsterdam's CAF stock. Jmecklenborg, With cars, you can just zip around the corner if you make a mistake. The public has been confused into believing that the ability to circle a city block in under 2 minutes diminishes the necessity for sound planning, as if the people doing the planning aren't being compensated handsomely to deplete taxpayer funds. MLK has to be the most damaging of all Cincinnati's unnattural parkways/boulevards. I cringe every time I hit the intersection of MLK and Victory and see nothing but open cornerspace, big-box office plots and an eggshell ranch home at the artificial dead end of Chapel street.

I've proposed this to the Mayor, hopefully he feels it's a good strategy as well.

Cincinnati's CBD is physically constricted by urban fabric to the north and used to be to the west before the demolitions between the 40's and 60's. The scope of office projects in 1925 is different from 2012. Concerning yourself with skyscrapers plopped all over OTR is just imagination. Cincinnati isn't Europe. The Central Parkway formerly known as a canal was a line of demarcation between the business district inside of Court and the commercial district north of 12th well before it was drained. If Central Parkway was lined with towers up for a few blocks, it would be an extension of the business district, not an infringement upon the residential districts that surround the CBD.