City Blights

The rationale here seems to be a bit rigid. Why can't Federal and barebone Italianate go together? Your expectations, and the expectations of several others are unrealistic. There are standards, and there are things you have to live with. The brick on that Chicago structure has quality to it. You have to live with the railings and failings here and there unless you have a time machine and can go back to 1887 when labor, poverty, international tariff, and a lack of an electronic revolution made the ability to construct a detailed structure a normality as opposed to a formality. As for the rear of the building, I don't think most of us, if any, are intimate with the background of that particular street corner and immediate vicinity. In many midwestern cities, you see corner storefronts with an attached or sealed structure behind it, often for purposes of industry or storage. Hard to see exactly what's going on in that picture, but the criticism of the rear may be too strong. That building would fit in a few historic areas of Columbus despite its flaws. Let's be realistic.

As much as I want to praise that fine-looking structure, I've seen too much awful, Parquet-brick infill in Chicago to not be objective. I agree with some of the other regulars, once the Streetcar is in the ground and running, property value will shoot up, and developments won't be as basic. Just as we all have to live with the fact that even with downtown revitalization, Cincinnati as a whole will still be one of the more blighted cities in the country, we will have to live with some disappointment in city accomplishments.

Boston will never be as beautiful as Cincinnati, but it's still pretty quaint.

We're from a strange city, but I think most of the frequent posters on this thread do a good job of not being resigned to failure in hopes of 5% intellectual vindication and 95% financial repercussion as so many others are like Smitherman, Winburn and COAST.

What exactly is the purpose of rehashing falsehoods that are spread across 700WLW airwaves daily?

John Boehner's district. There's your answer.

^Nice analysis, OC. The aluminum Euclid development is a travesty, but Stetson filling in and the other projects may hide that embarrassment. Every city has some awful infill, but at least we're getting infill in Cincinnati after many years of enjoying an urban core that resembled southern France after the Second War. MLK has come a long way, still irked by the ugly office bldg by UDF and all the surface parking/suburban apts on the UC side though. There's always Taft to make MLK look good, which wasn't quite Nero in the womb but represents everything wrong with early 20th century Cincinnati planning. Unnatural boulevards stunt the potential of Walnut Hills and Mt. Auburn.

I too have read old texts about Cincinnati and old editions of the Post/Enquirer, and even as far back as the 1880s you can read people complaining that the city wasn´t moving fast enough. By 1920 Cincinnati already had a remarkable reputation for corruption, filth and a lack of vision, of course partially explaining how the Subway project went in the tank.

Because the mainstream media is dying, preceded in death by the passing of journalism, and followed by a vacuum filled by hyperbole, entertainment and ignorance. Mainstream media was always hyperbole, entertainment and the proliferation of ignorance and ideas of the powerful. Technology has made it easier to locate like-minded individuals and complain in unison so society notices more.

I feel most on this thread agree with your point, but i'll rehash something I've already said: The Eastside is the money side. There is a defined pecking order in society as we all know, so once they get theirs, then I believe the city will get hers b/c people will want rail just like the far Eastside. A major obstacle with rail in Cincinnati is that the locals just don't trust that downtown will ever get a decent return on an investment due to decades of evidence, causal or otherwise. There will also be more support from elected officials if some form of the Oasis comes to fruition. Putting use to the Transit Center cannot be underestimated when considering the future voting climate of rail in Cincinnati.

Who are his people?

Cincinnati's 19th Century collection is as fascinating and handsome as any city in the entire world and it's nice to hear on this board. One thing to remember about downtown though, many black shipbuilders and port workers, some of the only jobs black men could obtain at the time, poured in the labor that built the Italianate buildings that used to rest on streets like 3rd, Broadway and West 4th. They certainly weren't equal citizens. I suppose every city has a closet and a graveyard to match.

You either have been listening to me, or you crawled inside my thoughts and took a nap there. Hope that bed is comfy for you. FANTASTIC, stupendous post.

Mound St. and City West are two examples downtown of developments under the umbrella of past+present.

What cities overseas are you referencing? Let's go with Prague and Amsterdam. I'm sure some things slip by, but I think these cities have pretty high standards. I can't speak too much for the outer neighborhoods of Prague, but I think we are mostly talking about the urban core (considering the thread we're in). Not that you don't have a valid point but a number of Euro cities constructed some impersonal and hideous edifices in a postwar reconstruction phase. Instead of making their fringes look deplorable with cul-de-sacs like the States was in the '60s and '70s, many cities in Europe were disgracing their core with aesthetically unpleasant behemoths. I honestly believe it's just not a good business climate for nostalgic redevelopment. There is plenty to complain about regarding The Banks but there's Banks-esque apartments and mediocre infill from Warszawa to Milano, Marseille to Lisboa. The little guy was priced out of the speculatory business partially due to combat inflation in the '70s and all we have now are firms that can command a certain figure for disgusting work due to the lack of parity in the industry. Talent doesn't pay like it used to.

What cities overseas are you referencing?

Chicago has been in a rage of awful infill for some time now, Cincinnati can do better and has (Stetson Square). Transportation is much more key than architecture however. Improved transit leads to an increased occupancy rate, higher density leads to a more exciting and colorful city. Wouldn't matter if it was Boston or Houston.

MayDay, your disclaimer is halfway through the post bridged between images, I'm sure I'm not the only one who does more scrolling than reading when viewing photos. All the same, I'm sorry I took your post off-topic. I will say this though, it is interesting that it's okay to comment on certain contexts of images but not others, for ex, I could critique those red & blue postmodern apartments but not the individuals in the pictures who are being captured just the same. Seems narrow-minded. KJP, for all the good you campaign for, I'm disappointed that you're so willing to sweep ethnic cleansing under the rug. I enjoyed the images and said such in my original post. I won't speak on this anymore, I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my generalization of the celebration.

Anderson Twp residents should be tolled twice? Do you mind elaborating why they should be singled out as the only community taking advantage of expensive state projects? Because they're the ones USING those expensive projects to get to downtown and back. If they don't want to pay the cost of those bridges they travel over then there's always Columbia Parkway or Riverside/Kellogg. Maybe it seems unfair if they were charged twice, but on the other hand, why should they be given any special treatment either? A problem I foresee if tolls are implemented only on the interstate bridges is that Covington and Newport would get flooded with traffic heading from NKY to downtown Cincinnati wanting to avoid the bridge tolls. Since neither city wants to give up their interstate exits, it's unlikely that access could be restricted to prevent this. I-75 is where it is specifically because Covington wanted interstate access after all. It'd also be quite unfair to have a huge roaring highway go through a dense city or neighborhood and not allow the people who live and work there reasonable access to it. Walnut Hills and to a lesser extent Avondale got the shaft from I-71, which has no access to or from the south between Reading/Eden Park and Dana/Montgomery, yet those neighborhoods still have to deal with the pollution, noise, and blight caused by it. Can you prove only Anderson Twp residents use those two bridges?

Anderson Twp residents should be tolled twice? Do you mind elaborating why they should be singled out as the only community taking advantage of expensive state projects?

Most of the older streets could have been mistaken for a city like Cleveland, the rest of the older avenues and the commercial shots could have been Cincinnati. People in Ohio don't even realize how much the Three C's resemble the Eastern Seaboard. Cincinnati all the way:

Of course there are accidents/incidents that occur in/on NYC's municipal assets, however, from the events you detailed, NY is more prepared to save themselves the embarrassment than Cincinnati was when the gentleman landed in the Ohio. I don't think the Brent Spence saga going national makes the city of Cincinnati look bad as much as it says that places like Cincinnati among others need infrastructure upgrades without reprieve.

Let me know the last time someone was bumped off of a bridge in Manhattan and fell to their grizzly death because of a lack of emergency shoulder and I'll let you know. Still not sure why Brent Spence becoming a national story is a big deal.

For the last time, THE BRIDGE IS NOT SAFE. I never once said it was deteriorating rapidly, I said that it is not safe and that the space it currently requires could be used much more efficiently. There is no guarantee that the bridge will last the process of politics involved with constructing the new Brent Spence. We all know that nothing gets done without someone getting paid, no breaking news there.

I´d much rather have those forms of population control than an exploding birth rate with parents who shouldn´t have kids at all. Lazy parents are a drag on society. It seems that while downtown has seen momentum lately, surrounding core areas have been declining in population. Avondale, Fairmount, East Price Hill and Walnut Hills all come to mind. Most of that magnificent architecture of Walnut Hills is either sitting vacant, awaiting a wrecking ball, or both. A streetcar system is the only fighting chance for Avondale and Walnut Hills, areas Smitherman claims he serves. Can Cincinnati start importing politicians just to avoid our local brand of toxicity?