Jeffery

Yes, they are planning on filling that parking lot with these new units. I was in the corner model unit during one of the urban nights over the past few years. Heres a link Litehouse Living Theres also a conventional townhouse developement going up across the street, by local multifamily developer Simms.

More on the new mixed use development at the I-675/Wilmington Pike interchange: Development Similar to The Greene ....since The Greene is so popular it seems these new developments want to ape it.

^ Why dont the re-open it as a German restaurant? When I was up in Milwaukee they have two Grammer-esque places, on the edges of their downtown. As it is its a tragedy that this place can't stay open. If the interior is as I remember it from the 1970s its a great space for gemutlichkeit. If the interior has been destroyed or heavily altered, well, machts nichts then.

Yes, for the industrial side of the economy, production is up: Industrial Output in US Climbs Key paragraph giving the details: "Part of the jump in manufacturing reflects a rebound from the supply shock caused by the earthquake in Japan, indicating it will be difficult for factories to maintain this pace of output as consumer spending and exports cool. At the same time, companies have kept inventories lean, limiting the need for large-scale cuts that could trigger an economic slump. "

Signs of the Times Wal-Mart Warns of US Weaknes ...from the UK buisness paper Financial Times.... Walmart, the biggest US retailer by revenues, warned on Tuesday that persistent weakness in the US economy was putting pressure on its low income consumers who are increasingly worried about unemployment and becoming more reliant on government assistance. The struggling US economy is continuing to take its toll on Walmart’s domestic sales as it reported its ninth consecutive quarter of falling sales at US stores open at least a year...

I'm not saying anything its what the authors at the links are saying...I just like colorful charts. I don't really care if they're accurate or not.

Mixed signals on the consumer economy from Bloomberg. The headline says Consumer Sentiment Drops to Three-Decade Low, but the article also says: A report from the Commerce Department today showed sales at U.S. retailers climbed 0.5 percent in July, the most in four months, indicating consumers are holding up even as employment slows. Purchases excluding automobiles rose more than forecast. ...meaning? Meaning the great unwashed are expecting things to get worse? Since consumer confidence is maybe more foreward looking?

Final comment on the food article: Note that it's from a survey commissioned by a food bank, so just as suspect as Heritage Foundation research (or whoever) on the poor owning X-boxes and having cable TV access. @@@ Back to the recession. Nate Silvers 538 blog, while usually more about the numbers behind politics, has a pretty good post on the recession, on how its >not like< the other postwar recessions. He puts a political spin in the headline but the data behind it is long term and not about politics... Double-Dip or Not, Economy is Falling Further Behind Siliver discuess long-term patterns in the economy, dervies a trend, then graphs how the GDP operates above and below that trend, with a nifty chart: The Great Recession, however, is highly visible. G.D.P. had already been a couple of percentage points below the long-term trend before it began, as the recovery from the 2001-2 recession was not particularly robust. But things got much worse in a hurry. Looked at this way, in fact, not only is the worst not yet over — the situation is still deteriorating. Every quarter that the economy grows at a rate below 3.5 percent, it loses ground relative to the long-term trend. Although the economy grew at a 3.8 annual percent rate from fall 2009 through summer 2010, over the past year growth has averaged just 1.6 percent, putting us farther behind. Right now, gross domestic product is about $13.3 trillion dollars, adjusted for inflation — when it “should” be $15.7 trillion based on the long-term trend. That puts us more than 15 percent below what we might think of as full output, by far the worst number since the Great Depression. Someone who is well to the left is Doug Henwood. He also took a long-view look at the economy on his "Left Business Observer" site. He takes stock in this article: What A Damn Mess Using a different way of comparing GDP than Silver Henwood has these GDP numbers showing how the 2000s GDP was fairly low for the postwar era...so we had a weak economy going into the recession: Then he looks at change in employment: "The graph above shows the ten-year change in employment—a running score of job growth over the previous decade. From 1949 through 2000, it averaged 24%. It got to as high as almost 50% in the years just after World War II, and to a low of around 12% in the early 1960s. But that same combination of weak expansion followed by sharp recession took this measure below the zero line for the first time in late 2009. " Oy Vey!

Meanwhile, somewhere near you... One in Four Ohio Families Couldnt Afford Food Last Year More than 1 in 4 Ohio families with children did not have enough money to buy food in the past 12 months, says a new report that shows growing despair in the sinking economy. Ohio ranked 20th in the nation for food hardship and is home to seven of the 100 most troubled metropolitan areas; only one state had more. The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman area ranked 3rd in the nation with a third of its households with children responding “yes” when asked: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” Following Youngstown was Dayton at 20th and Columbus at 31st. It doesn't mention singles or couples, probabky because it doesnt seem so Dickensian as it would if you just address families. I guess the social welfare term for this is "food insecurity"? In Rome they had bread and circuses. I guess here people have opted for 'circuses' over 'bread', since the poor all have cable TV and X boses now...so we're told....and decided to skip a few meals to pay the cable fee?

America's 14-Most Ready to Riot Cities ...inspired by the recent unpleasantness in the UK. Cleveland and Cincinnati are on the list, as are some other usual suspects.

^ Would this be the same as that Kondretieff Long Wave Theory? @@@@@@ Here is something from Bloomberg: Growth Forecasts for U.S. Reduced Through 2013 on Limited Employment Gains Global financial strains, government fiscal austerity and a lack of jobs will hurt U.S. growth over the next couple of years, according to economists surveyed this month by Bloomberg News. The world’s largest economy will expand at an average 2.3 percent annual rate in the second half of the year, about a percentage point less than projected last month, according to the median forecast of 53 economists polled from Aug. 2 to Aug. 10. Gross domestic product will grow 2.4 percent next year and 2.8 percent in 2013, also less than previously estimated.... ....“We’re on a path that looks like persistent growth, but growth that is inadequate to solving our short-run problems,” said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “Markets are signaling to businesses and households the future is less certain. When your future appears to be out of control, it’s easier to pull back than it is to get aggressive.”

The "Golden Triangle" was a regionalist concpet that saw Cincinnati as the apex of a triangle of economic prosperity in the Bluegrass State that included Louisville & Lexington as the other two corners. And, as we've seen from previous posts Lexington is doing quite well and Louisville isnt doing too bad either, in terms of growth of metro GDP and population. Now a new regionalist concept that drops Cincy and looks at Lexington and Louisville as a super region, seeing a connection along the I-64 corridor (this would include the state capitol, Frankfort, and the county seat town of Shelbyville, which is or was still outside the official Louisville MSA. Louisville and Lexington propose marriage as path to prosperity In February, Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer joked that Louisville and Lexington were “dating,” eyeing each other as potential mates for an economic “super-region.” Last week came the promise ring, a loose commitment to a somewhat abstract concept. The official news was announced at the Clinton Global Initiative America event in Chicago. Fischer and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, also a Democrat, along with the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based think-tank, will work on a regional economic development business plan for the next 18 months. The focus? Make Lex-ville a hub for high-tech auto manufacturing. Cool! Yet another Brookings report to download!

The Beavercreek rejection of RTA is the basis for a civil rights complaint. But its being filed by a church coalition, not RTA Group Alleges Beavercreek Violated Civil Rights Act An attorney for Leaders for Equality and Action in Dayton Inc., or LEAD, held a press conference on the steps of the Tony Hall Federal Building in Dayton to announce that the council’s March 28 vote to reject the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority’s request for the bus stops near the mall constituted discrimination. The group is calling on the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Civil Rights and the United States Department of Transportation to conduct a Title VI compliance investigation into the denial and Beavercreek’s actions. Good! I hope they are sucessfull! Beavercreek is the heart of hypocrisy of the Miami Valley. The place exists because of defnese spending yet they are the most rabid righty anti-government tea-party Sarah Palin lovin' conservos in the region. Though this sounds implausible there was a sucessfull suit (out of court settlement, though) in Milwaukee over the very same issue. From an article on the politics around the proposed Milwaukee streetcar.... Synposing: Due to suburban political opposition the state opposed constructing a busway out to the suburbs, and , later, a regional light rail system, which resulted in the following: In frustration, Milwaukee community activists filed two civil rights complaints against the state with the U.S. Department of Transportation in late 1998. The complaints noted that many of the central city's African-American residents didn't have cars, but nearly all white suburbanites did. Therefore, activists argued, the state was discriminating against minorities by favoring freeways over public transit.... ...A year later, attorneys for the state and the activists quietly settled the complaints, with the state's promise to "fully cooperate" with the connector study and to ensure its recommendations "are fairly considered" for inclusion in state and regional transportation plans. Transportation projects must be included in such plans to qualify for federal funding. The settlement also called for the state Transportation Department to "use its best efforts to assist the Milwaukee County Transit System to expand and improve transit service within the Milwaukee metropolitan area to enable transit-dependent residents of Milwaukee to better access areas of job growth." ...which sounds a lot like the sitaution in Beavecreek, except its not a state highway department involved.

^ Thanks for the info! Yes, we are sort of digressing from that Walkscore discussion...but this is an interesting part of town, this northeast area. In fact I made a special point about visiting Milo- Grogan during one of my Cols visits based on yours and others posts on the place. Speaking of walkablity there was an attempt to create a walkable intersection with retail potential at the 11th Avenue/Cleveland Avenue intersection. I came across it by accident. They also incorporated a bus stop into the design. Seemed like a good attempt at rebuilding an interesection.

The orchard idea is pretty good. One thing I think we need more of is fruits to along with the vegtables. BTW, not Cleveland, but here in Dayton I just had my first urban ag produce. Used some tomatoes I bought from a homeless shelter that is doing raised bed gardening. Mixed it in with cucumbers grown here in Centerville by a CSA (yes, there is a CSA in hoity-toity Centerville...and they sell downtown at the market) and peppers raised by a co-worker who home-gardens and some basil from some growers in Yellow Springs for an all-local salad (except for the vinegar and oil and salt and pepper). This urban ag thing is something that is very slow getting started in Dayton. There are things scattered around but they are smallish-neighborhood based plots, with the product not available in markets. The only exceptions are the ones I mentioned: the CSA place and now this homeless shelter doing some minor sales. I should note that in Cincy the Over The Rhine people are having some urban ag going and they sell at Findlay Market. Does this urban ag stuff in Cincy make it to the West Side Market or are there other local markets where the product is available?

In the car: Leslie Spit Treeo (their old first album with that punkish version of Angel from Montgomery), for nostalgia purposes. Also, "Civil Wars" : Barton Hollow. Good sad songs.

The big union growth doesn't happen until at least '33 or most of it is focused on '34 to '38. ...in some cases there was even a lag into the 1940s, pre-war and WWII era. But even that 1930s growth was going on during that second dip, the 'Roosevelt Recession', where you'd expect unemployment to act as a damper on organizing. That this CIO organizing was going on facing a headwind of high unemployment would be sort of unexpected as you'd expect employers had a lot of potential replacement workers. Times were different back then, I guess. @@@@ Anyway, back to the here and now Our freinds at the Cleveland Federal Reserve have some new postings on the economy. Heres a good one: Why is Investment So Soft? "Three and a half years after the beginning of the recession, real GDP is still below its pre-recession peak. One reason is that firms’ investment (private nonresidential fixed investment) has not recovered. Currently, it is down 12 percent relative to its level at the start of the recession. While investment in equipment and software has bounced back and is now at pre-crisis levels, investment in nonresidential structures remains depressed." ...this chart is similar to others, showing how this recession is 'different' than some of the other postwar ones: "Whatever is hindering the capital spending of firms, it is not likely to be the financial conditions in which they are operating. After weakening during the financial crisis, corporate balance sheets have since strengthened...." (which we've noted on this board) The analyses goes on, but points out that a vicious cycle may be starting to operate.... "Another important reason why firms are shying away from investing is that they forecast slow growth and weak aggregate demand, which could make additional investment projects less profitable. Here, there is also a self-reinforcing mechanism at work, as firms’ lowered investment further depresses aggregate demand (since investment is also a component of aggregate demand), which in turn further slows the recovery and lowers growth forecasts."

CINCINNATI -- Opponents of a proposed streetcar line have generated enough valid signatures to put the issue on the ballot again, elections officials said. They need to be validated. Back in the late 1980s when the right tried to force a referendum on gay rights in Sacramento, it was found that while they did get enough signatures they didnt get enough valid ones and the referendum didnt make the ballot. The gay rights activists volunteered to help the BOE or whoever was vefying the sigs work on checking them, and they ended up disqualifying a bunch.

...well, it IS sprawled. But it does have a downtown and older areas.

The other Fulda The Fulda is a cool name. Definetly an Germanic influence for people in the know. It has this shadowy inner courtyard, too. ya, well in OTR 3CDC has only been acquiring empty buildings (or buildings with no residential tenants). The Fulda is Full...da. so I doubt they'll be buying it up anytime soon. ...this is probably a good policy in that it moots the gentrification-pushing-out-the-poor argument.

...heh...yeah...."infill", yeah, infil between Cincy and Dayton. It's ALL infill!

Yes, Balitmore. I think I see the Marriott I stayed at when I was there. You also got some good shots of that Mount Vernon/Charles Street area. Still looks good!

Is this and the surrounding shots that Fountain Square neighborhood? ...if so the place is looking better than I remember it. I think Aaron Renn, who runs that Urbanophile blog and posts here sometime, used to live there. Seems like this could be an interesting area to check out on foot. BTW, there is a neighborhood btw Fountain Square and Downtown called "Fletcher Park" or something that has some real old (pre- Civil War) housing stock, as old as Lockerbee Square. It's small "workers cottage' stuff, but still neat to know that this stuff still survives. Architectural Trivia....this red brick thing was the tallest building in Indy until the Bank of Indiana was built sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s: ...and you have to love that curving Art Deco baby high-rise on the Circle! Thats a fun building.

My broken record comment is that 'man they should do more with that street between the Capital and the Monumnet!" The neoclassical axis set-up between the two is almost like something in Europe.

From the Kunstler link... "However, I'm not the only one in America asking where do these S and P punks get off downgrading US bonds when three years ago they wore out their Triple-A rubber stamps on the cartloads of stinking offal that Angelo Mozillo and other mortgage rustlers were pawning off as bond-fodder on every Frankenstein "investment opportunity" pumped out of the Wall Street CDO mills. " ...yeah, I agree.