City Blights

It is incredible how many people in the Cincinnati area want to re-enact the Subway failure of the 1920's. The lack of vision by not just the City, but the people of the City, are at the central core of why I don't live there anymore. I'm relatively young now, but I could live to be 95 years old and there would only be 2 streetcar lines and one heavy rail that serves the Eastside, not even the airport. Cincinnatians need to come to Europe and check out what transport has done here.

The Freedom Center is one of the finest cultural exhibits I have ever been to. To say that a movie theater should replace it, which Cincinnati has dozens of, or that it should be moved, or shrank, are some of the most ignorant comments ever uttered on UO. Cincinnati needs the Center. Whenever I've been there, the attendance was steady. It isn't the Center's fault it was launched in the epicenter of Cincinnnati's second largest boondoggle, its riverfront. OTR/West End being the biggest of course.

I would not consider the rowhouses @ City West suburban, particularly because the development is nowhere near complete. Many of the buildings in the original West End were single-family or dual family anyway. The fact that Cincinnati's central neighborhoods were built for a million people has something to do with the death in the air that sweeps through the inner city.

City West has done a tremendous job in reshaping a nice chunk of the West End. Unfortunately, as has been touched on, the commerce in the area is limited at the time. Linn south of Liberty going west is where any potential big payoff for the City would be if Cincinnati ever pursues redeveloping that chunk of land due to the wide space available for molding. The area surrounding Union Terminal is abysmal in almost every sense.

I know and its terrible

what is it with a few of these cleveland forumers and their vain attempts to diminish Cincinnati?

its pathetic they don't have the signage completed.

Good Points. In the 1870's, sensationalist newspaper writer Lafcadio Hearn wrote stomach-turning accounts about the virulent, crime-infested slums located near the riverfront that were derisively called Bucktown, Rats Row, and Sausage Row. It was a ramshackle district of flop-houses, cheap hotels, brothels, opium dens, gambling establishments, and constant violence. This was where those residents of Cincinnati on the fringes of society lived in the 19th century. Few locals mourned the loss of these derelict slums when they were cleared out in the first decades of the 20th century. Many of these former riverfront slum residents immediately fled to the poorer areas of the West End which, in turn, quickly acquired a similar negative reputation with increasing calls for eradication of the "blight" by local business leaders who feared the growing impoverished population was encroaching on the downtown. Predictably, much of the West End and former neighborhoods like Kenyon-Barr were wholesale bulldozed for the Queensgate development, new public housing projects, and Union Station. (still later, the I-75 Freeway construction) These displaced poor folks had to relocate yet again to other neighborhoods and this cycle of displacement has been repeated and is seemingly never-ending. The best urban policy solution is obviously one that addresses the social issues stemming from generational cycles of chronic poverty, not trying to bulldoze the problem away. Talk about hitting the nail on the head! Bravo good sir. I will add that the City West project has been successful in making it clear that historically-inspired renewal is the only way for Cincinnati going forward in the West End. I would like to see Liberty and Ezzard transformed and the street grid reconnected, naturally making way for more prominent development and commerce.

how about a first-class arena to put US bank in the grave?

Excellent point that I never thought of. Definitely helps explain Hamilton's unique and self contained atmosphere. To me, Hamilton doesn't feel like greater Cincinnati at all. There are restaurant and store chains in Hamilton that are no where else in the Metro, the look of the core neighborhoods almost reminds me more of Columbus, and there's the aforementioned self containment. I always thought Hamilton was kind of like a mini Dayton growing up, even though I know the two probably aren't very similar now. Hamilton's core neighborhoods hold quite a bit of street presence a la Cincinnati. The German influenced styles don't really resemble Columbus or Dayton to me there. C-Dawg, There certainly has been a dramatic drop-off there. Post 70's how it has survived economically this long without filing for bankruptcy is a mystery to me to be honest.

what about 4th and plum? stretching the skyline will help it the most immediately. that or a 250m on walnut lol

If the tiara is supposed to be so damn prominent, why in the hell would they construct an invisible crown? The tiara is a massive blunder and an outright embarrassment to Cincinnati. They need to stop cutting corners and get creative up there.

Yes, nevermind the permanent obsolescence of routing from Dixie Terminal to the Suspension Bridge. Turned a transit hub into an office mall, and a bridge into a tourist route. Give it time. Shortsightedness is a gift everybody possesses!!! Gotta agree with Blue Line here - though for a slightly different reason. The Freedom Center is way too big for its purpose. As it is, the complex needlessly occupies an entire city block. The museum and its amenities could have been housed in a building half its size, for how little interior space the actual exhibits take up. It's just a lot of wasted space (and money), in my opinion, for something that in all honesty isn't the tourist draw some might have intended it to be. Good idea, wrong location. Right location, wrong situation. Once there is a reason to meander on down to the dustpile between the stadiums, I feel the Freedom Center will become that cultural draw Cincinnati sorely needs.

Hamilton was slow to embrace the value of 75, thus they missed the boat way back when. It cost the city and county untold millions in development and investment, not to mention actually constructing the damn connector and all the people Butler County missed out on b/c of poor access to Hamilton. Looks like we are facing such shortsightedness in this region as we speak based on Cincinnati City Council's stance on the Oasis line.

I would wager that Pittsburgh has an advantage with towers, but geographically its a wash. I might even give the nod to Cincinnati in that category.

I sure hope they thicken up that tiara somehow. It was billed as a mesh crown, not a series of see-thru arches.

^ that certainly looks like a hot mess placed in the back of the freezer, Cincinnatus. I'm all for monuments of our famed sports history taking up that space.

^ Precisely, I'm just hoping that our next tower will fill that void. It's going to be difficult to build anything there that will look stubby.

How big would this building feel if it were built in the Cincinnati Crevasse shown here @ 3rd and Walnut? The complaining would still likely be off the charts and into space, but being on the lowest ground in the CBD does make an impact.

haha, well we were ignoring the obvious...we all know this and all towers are temples of corruption

the complaining and monday morning quarterbacking of this tower is deafening. its intended to add balance. BALANCE

Kenwood is a decent mall :wink:

Having large buildings on every north-south streets would certainly help the skyline. Main, Race and Elm all lack a giant to loom large. Main in particular leaves a gap, and if Race and Elm had big buildings, you could put almost anything downtown. Except that Sears building, hehe.

Hillarity! Fountain square west would have been a big lift for downtown.

Man would our city take on a different character...