Jeffery

Looking at the other states/regions, if they couldnt afford a full Ohio system there are places the money could have went to upgrade to true high-speed service, especially Chicago/Milwaulkee or Chicago/Milwaulke/Madison. It seems like the money going t Illinois will buy true 110 MPH service between Chicago and St Louis. Another route would have been Chicago to Indianapolis, which would be a great high-speed connection. Looks like California was the big winner in this.

U still see the big hang-up being the state legislature. If I recall right that is where the big political opposition will come from, if they vote down an operating or capital expenditure apporporation for it. I guess Strickland can get it going with just the quick start money, not having to go to the statehouse???

bump, since there seems to be some interest in my old Dayton posts. One of my favorites...

Wow, I forgot all about this one, with those Ben Katchor references. I guess you all see what I sort of like about inner city/fringe of downtown areas. The one city around here that still has that feeling is Cincinnati, parts of it do.

The guy who is restoring the Edgar mansion is now mayor.

Apparently the recent Ohio Poll (conducted by UC) shows lack of support in investing in 3C Do you favor or oppose investing money in the 3C Transportation Corridor Plan? Favor: 41% Oppose: 52% Not Sure: 6% This was asked in the context of other budget/economy questions so might indicate that those polled think we cant afford it in the context of the dire condition of the state budget/economy/tax revenue.

Yeah, front page story in the Dayton Daily News. They also break it out by region. Once again, the Peoples Republic of the Western Reserve (AKA NE Ohio) is the supporter of the Democrat.

A few Louisville oldests. The oldest city house (there might be a few older farmhouses) is, unoriginally, The Old House, on 5th Street between Walnut and Liberty. It was the one of the cities better restaurants (with celebrity diners like Rocky Marciano and Walt Disney) but has been closed and empty for years. Yet it is still maintained. It was built in 1829. The Princeton Architectural Press Louisville Guide notes this has original wrought iron work in front and that the half Doric columns in the entrance indicate incipient Greek Revival influence on a Federal style structure. The house has been attributed to John Rowan, lawyer, politician and the master of the Federal Hill plantation in Bardstown, made famous by cousin Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home” song. Rowan kept a townhouse in Louisville as his law practice was here (the courthouse was two blocks away) as were business interests; Rowan was active in real estate, operated a quarry, and actually owned a part of the Louisville wharf. But that’s another story. But the question is if this really was his townhouse. It may not be as a nearby one, just a few doors south, across from the cathederal, is listed as belonging to a Mrs Rowan in the 1876 real estate map. The urban fabric in 1876, showing the Old House (in red) in context; a street of townhouses and single houses around the Cathederal of the Assumption: The house was actually raised a bit with a shallow basement. These basements would eventually become notoriously vile tenement housing in central Louisville, noted in a slum housing report from the Progressive era. The side wall has heavy reinforcing as the place is, apparently, having structural issues. The Old House’s neighbor looks like one of those smaller commercial buildings, actually more akin to what one used to find in downtown Lexington, sized to fit on the small lots. But from above maybe not! Behind the street façade are some clues: gable end perpendicular to the street, shallow pitch and L extension indicating a vernacular houseform. Taking a closer look at the 1876 map one can see the neighboring house to the Old House having a similar form, including the L on the north side of the lot. So this was an old neighbor of the Old House, perhaps built around the same time, 1829 or after? The Old House here shows as being owned by a Mr Canine. According to the Louisville Guide Canine was a dentist, who introduced some medical innovations to the city. Comparing 1876 to 1907, the Old House (and, surprisingly, much of 5th Street) remains intact. One can see the Courthouse, in blue, at the top of the 1907 map, a short walk for Mr. Rowan. The Old House and its context gives a hint on how dense antebellum residential Louisville was back before the advent of the horse car. Another example is this set of rowhouses on Walnut Street between 2nd and 1st , about 3 blocks east and a half block south of the Old House. They are said to date to the 1820s but I think they are later. Again, a good example of Federal/Neoclassical styling vs the Italianate. Perhaps akin to what one would find in Pittsburgh (or early Cincinnati)? It’s unclear exactly where on this block these were. But one can see the entire block built out perhaps as small rows, in the 1876 real estate atlas By 1907 the Sanborn shows not much change. …but these were gone by 1959 as they show as vacant lots in the East Downtown urban renewal report. The entire area was mostly cleared for parking, institutional expansion, and freeway construction, so it looks like this today (from the air). One can see the old lot lines in yellow over the aerial: One of the more infamous incidents in Louisville history involved a row perhaps similar to this. Quinns Row, on Main near 11th, was built by an Irish immigrant to house fellow Irish, and was burned down during the Bloody Monday election riots of 1855 The fleeing inhabitants were either shot or beat to death, The victims included women and children. There are no surviving images of Quinns Row as far as I know. Quinns Row was very close to the first Catholic parish in Louisville. This was St Louis. The parish was founded in 1805 and the church built in 1810, in a brick gothic style. It must have been small as accounts refer to it as a “chapel”. The structure was between Main and the wharf, on 10th Street, an area that would become home to Louisvilles’original Irish settlement. Perhaps because an early priest was a Fr Quinn, brother of the builder of Quinns Row. St Louis relocated to a new church on 5th, beteen Walnut and Green (AKA Liberty) in 1830. In 1841 the Bardstown diocese was moved to Louisville and St Louis became the site of the new cathederal. The cathederal was reportedly a much larger copy of the new St Louis and was literally built around the old church, which was disassemble and taken out the front door, brick by brick, timber by timber. The cathederal was built between 1849 and 1852 and is todays Cathederal of the Assumption, one of the oldest buildings downtown: The early Catholic churches were associated with early immigrant communities, which initially settled to the east (German) and west (Irish) of the city, and then moved further out. Catholics were buried first in the church yard of Old St Louis (and apparently not disinterred because bones were found on the site during later construction). Later there was a Catholic section in the Western Cemetery and in the Portland Cemetery. The first Catholic cemetery was out in the country west of the city and south of Portland. The second Catholic parish was for the Germans, St Boniface. The parish was founded in the 1830s and the church was built between 1837 and 1838, actually in a “suburb”, Prestons Addition. This church was replaced by the present one in 1899.-1900 Here you see it from the Liberty Green redevelopment (this church used to surrounded by the Clarksdale housing project) Illustrating the German movement eastward is this other surviving antebellum church, the magnificent St Martin of Tours. It was built in 1853 and the tower was competed in the 1860s. The interior contains the full skeletal remains of Saints Magnus and Bonorosa as holy relics. Interior items were imported from Europe (stained glass, carvings, etc) and Cincinnati. St Martin of Tours, dominating a Phoenix Hill streetscape: …and a mural of an event during Bloody Monday, were St Martin of Tours was spared by the mob due to the intervention of the mayor of the city Apparently it didn’t have the limestone façade yet. The third Catholic parish was a bit unusual, but interesting as it illustrated the importance of river commerce. Notre Dame du Port (not to be confused with the great French basilica), also called Our Lady parish, was founded in Portland for a community of French immigrants and Louisiana French traders. Portland was the head of navigation for downriver/upriver trade to New Orleans, so apparently attracted commercial venturers from the Crescent City. The parish was founded in 1837 and the church built in 1841 and later modified, and stands today as a local landmark in this unusual neighborhood. The final example is not the fourth oldest parish or church, but it is the first Irish parish in the city (despite the bloody early history, Louisville has a strong Irish presence). This is St Patrick. The parish was founded in 1853 and this church built just before the Civil War in 1862, in the early West End, about two blocks from the site of Quinns Row. One of Louisvilles surviving antebellum churches. The Irish would go on to found additional parishes in Portland, as well as in their post-Civil War neighborhoods of Limerick and Irish Hill. To recap, the places I’ve shown you, on a 1850s era map of the city There are some old Protestant churches, too. Maybe we’ll look at those later.

The expanded "part II" of this Butchertown look was posted on another forum: In Depth Look @ Louisville's Butchertown ...the thing to know is that closing is at 4PM so it's a late town. Things get hopping after 10 PM

C-Dawg, are you noticing evidence of declining incomes...like store and food/drink place closings, etc....

Tip of the hat to KJP for turning me on to this Brookings study. Brookings has been measuring the increase and distribution of poverty in metro areas and is reporting that poverty has been moving to the suburbs during the 2000s. They report for 2000-2008. Urban Ohio is in the US top 10 in this league. Big Seven box scores: Primary City rankings and poverty rates: #2, Youngstown, 33.5% #4, Cleveland, 30.% #8 Dayton, 29.2% Top 10 increase in primary city poverty rates, 2000 to 2008: #2, Youngstown, 8.7% increase #4, Toledo, 6.8% increase #5, Dayton, 6.2% #7, Columbus, 5.3% #8 Akron, 5.1% Top 10 increase in suburban poverty rates. 2000 to 2008 #2, Youngstown, 4.1% increase #8, Cleveland, 2.7% increase #10, Dayton, 2.5% increase Signfigant change in suburban poor as a share of all poor from 2000 to 2008: #2, Cleveland; 45.9% to 55.2%, 9.1% shift to suburbs #9. Cincinnati: 62.7% to 70.2%, 7.6% shift to the suburbs Brookings also forecasts a metro poverty rate increase based on recent economic trends: Youngstown; 3.6% increase Toledo: 3.3% increase Dayton: 2.8% increase Akron: 2.2% increase Cincinnati: 2.1% increase Columbus: 1.8% increase Cleveland: 1.5% increase (so maybe Cleveland is bottoming out) Poverty vs Lower Income The Brookings study aknowleges that the official poverty rate is probably set too low, and that other research indicates that the real subsistence living income is actually higher than the official rate, some say 150% higher, others say 200% higher. For a family of four I think the 200% rate would be around $40K, which is sometimes considered the “living wage income” (maybe a bit higher than that). Brookings provides info on the number of individuals at this 200% number for cities and suburbs, and percentages for both, but this isn’t that useful due to the nature of annexation and if cities take in more prosperous suburban areas (and city-county mergers really throw the numbers). So I added the 2008 city and suburb “lower income” numbers provided by Brookings and derived a percentage based on the census 2008 estimates for MSA. Here is the ranking of Urban Ohio by % of metro population making 200% of the poverty level: 1. Youngstown, 34% 2. Toledo. 31.5% 3. Cleveland, 29% 4. Dayton, 28.6% 5. Akron. 28.3% 6. Columbus, 26.7% 7. Cincinnati, 25.3% For concentrations of low income individuals in the core cities, the top (over 50% of city residents) are: Youngstown, 58.3% Cleveland, 56.4% Dayton, 51.7% For suburban low income, as a % of suburban residents metro-wide: Youngstown: 32% Dayton: 25.3% Cleveland: 23.1% Cincinnati: 23% Akron: 21.6% Toledo: 20.9% Columbus: 20.1% So one can see Dayton ranking up there for both city and suburban low income people. Just a poor place. And you can sense that driving around Dayton, the low level of economic activity, the frown of poverty. But Youngstown seems really hardscrabble based on these stats. You can read it all for yourselves: The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008

Growing discontent from gays over the Democrats' backing -off on LGBT issues:

From the op-ed: which would imply the parking is free since suburban locations all have free parking (or the parking costs are incorporated into the rents and the parking itself appears as "free").

^ ah, yes, Thanx, I know the place.

Good idea! Centre City Offices would be on my candidate for demolition or closure. I think about the only thing left in there above the first two floors is the state parole board. Presumably the building is still being leased but next to nothing is in there. Realistically it would be cheaper to tear down smaller and lower buildings, like the one at 3rd & St Clair that has Bingers in it, and that one thats for sale at 3rd & Jefferson. It would take millions to demo these taller ones and all you'd get from it are more vacant lots. I think it would make more sense to just take these off the market and pickle them. The ones I'd close are Centre City, Fidelity, and the 111 buildings. It would be possible to keep these empty indefinetly. Example is the Lindsey Building, which has been closed for offices since the early 1970s (35 years or so) and devoid of ground floor retail since the later 1980s. So maybe a half-measure of keeping the ground floor active and closing the upper floors. Office buildings along 2nd Street, say the blocks on 2nd heading east of Wilkinson probably are the best bet to keep as office use as they are close to the courts, thus are a good site for law offices. The banks are in this general area, too. So you could see downtown (private sector) office use contracting to a smaller area around 2nd and Main north of 3rd (but including the buildings at 3rd & Main) or so. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's dreadful.

^ you're right...it was called the Grant-Deneau Tower when it was first built. I don't know who Grant was but Deneau was an architect-developer who designed it. He designed his own house too, in the Mount Vernon area. Though that building is out-of-the way it has good occupancy as I've been told one of the medical companies..Premier Health? One of those holding companies...they are in much of it. The main tenant.

The downtown plan has some realistic things, like doing things with the river for recreation, but I'm skeptical about the housing aspect of it, mainly due to the petering-out of adaptive re-use & infill efforts beyond a handful of projects. Im just curious what office buildings they have in mind as likely candidates for demolition.

^ yeah, they sure are. I get what Seth is saying about the WVA. Haunting. This part of the Ohio Valley was the locale for "Night of the Hunter". The Robert Mitchum character preached at a "tabernacle on Wheeling Island". In a way this reminds me of Kentucky, the same melancholy feel in Appalachian KY. But Wheeling has a suprising degree of urbanity for a smaller city, probaly due to being squeezed into a river valley. You get that a little with Huntington, too, but especially with Wheeling.

The Dayton Daily News had a good op-ed on the privately funded downtown planning effort. The editorial observes, in regard to office & business use, that they might have to demolish parts of downtown in order to save it: “The empty buildings downtown are hard to miss. The economy is, of course, part of the explanation for the vacancies. But real-estate experts also say Dayton has too much space downtown, and that some of it is the wrong kind of space. Companies have changed what they want in office space. As one real-estate leader puts it, “Some buildings have reached the end of their economic life” and aren’t even being marketed. For downtown to thrive, it needs attractive office space that can compete with suburban locations on cost and parking. To have a renewed downtown office environment, some buildings might have to be torn down. That won’t be easy in a town that prides itself on respect for its history. It’s possible that some office buildings can be converted to residences, but not all of them.” I had a laugh at this one: That won’t be easy in a town that prides itself on respect for its history. The neglect, devaluing. & ongoing erosion of Dayton’s architectural and urbanistic patrimony is one of the damning things about this place, the whole “who cares” attitude. But that’s old news and nothing can be done about that. The place is gone. Beyond the point of no return. “He’s dead, Jim.” But enough of that, back to office space. To put this in perspective, comparing Dayton office market to Louisville: In 2009 downtown Louisville had an office vacancy rate of 12% and a class A office vacancy rate of 5%. This is for a somewhat blah downtown compared to, say, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. And the suburban vacancy rate in Louisville is actually higher than in the downtown, indicating downtown remains a preferred location for office use. In contrast, Dayton had a downtown office vacancy rate of 30%-40% and the most high-visibility class A building, the Kettering Tower was reportedly around 20%-30% vacant. Just an illustration on how office use has departed the central business district. I figure this recommendation to demolish parts of downtowns office inventory is the companion concept to the planned culling of residential structures out in the neighborhoods. Both are part of a necessary downsizing of Dayton, the latest chapter in a long story that started in the 1960s. Anyway, maybe they can have a Downtown Dayton Demolition Day, like they used to have those Downtown Dayton Day sales, back when there was enough retail downtown to actually have sales. They can implode multiple buildings on one day as a festival of destruction. Devils Night on steroids. It could even be a national media event. ‘Rustbelt City Implodes It’s Downtown”. Or at least we can have a death watch to see what buildings may come down as part of this downtown right-sizing plan (or are recommended to come down, if it comes to that).

Its not an artificial market. The vacancies are already off the market. I guess one way to get rid of these without "taxpayer money" is by somehow encouraging a Detroit style Devils Night in Dayton. That could be kind of cool, going to the lounge atop the Crowne Plaza and watching the city burn while sipping a single barrel bourbon to some jazz tunes.

A commenter on DDN "CityDweller" got a lot of dittos for his remark: "Strip/Bulldoze all boarded up properties- make green space and let actual homeowners buy the lots next to them for $1.00 and keep the green space clean and mowed. Use $$ for landscaping these demolished lots. Give existing homeowners who have stayed and contributed a breather from the ugliness left by others. That was one of the best comments. I noticed this when driving around the various Dayton wastelands is that the last house standing is usually in pretty good shape, taken care of. So you have this scattering of hold outs while the neighborhood goes down the tubes around them.

Dayton and some nearby suburbs were recently awarded a big $29.4M grant (though they got half of what they asked for) to both demolish and restore vacant housing units. The city has a web page on it and a link to a .pdf grant application: link The Dayton Daily News covers the story here (with the usual entertaining comments…some are pretty good, though.). From the article: DAYTON — A Dayton area consortium has been awarded $29.4 million in new federal Recovery Act funds, the second highest award in Ohio, to help rebuild neighborhoods devastated by the housing and economic crisis…. …..The cities of Dayton, Kettering and Fairborn along with Montgomery County and the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority jointly applied for the Neighborhood Stabilization II funds to finance purchase of foreclosed homes for either demolition or rehab. These maps come from the grant application and demonstrate the dire situation in the area This is something called the “foreclosure index”, which picks up wealthy suburban areas like Washington Township, probably indicating this index has something to do with the value of foreclosures as much as the volume HCHL mortgages are “high cost/high leverage”, perhaps indicating risky mortgages that could go into foreclosure And a close-up of the city: Next two maps showing vacancy. One can see sizable areas going vacant. The report indicates tracts west of Main Street (Santa Clara area) is at 40% vacant and Five Oaks (area between Main and Salem) is pushing 30% vacant. This is remarkable, actually. A close up of the city, showing how much of the older east side, including Walnut Hills and Ohmer Park, as well as Old North Dayton…the city is dying… The situation is so dire that the grant application requests a waiver to limits on spending for demolition, as the contention is that the local housing market will never absorb the vacant units. According to the waiver request they need a 5% vacancy rate to reach market equilibrium. In order to do this over 5,000 units need to be taken out of the market. Montgomery Counties vacancy rate is projected to move to over 18% and Daytons to 22.8% by 2013. The waiver request also says “…that less that 50% of all residential listings, annually, have actually sold in the local market since 2000”(information obtained from the Dayton Board of Realtors). So I guess if the listings don’t sell they get taken off the market and go vacant.

^ Actually I have an anecdote about that. When I took my partners ashes to California I stayed with his sister and brother in law. They have a little house but they did some nice improvements in it, including new windows and a hardwood floor. We got to talking about this housing stuff, and the sister told me that on two occasions they had people seriously pushing these subprime mortgages. Gloria (the sister) told me that she couldnt figure out how these would work, too good to be true, but they just would lean on the hard sell...they would not leave, and she had to throw one of these morgage salesman out of the house...threatned to call the cops, If I recall right... Gloria and her husband are latinos, and they are working class latinos (he is foreman at an auto deal er repair shop and she works in a hospital and does housecleaning on the side), so I figure they were being targeted as unsophisticated marks for one of these bad mortgage deals. So figure that was going on all over the place.

Its not that simple since he talks about issues of class as well as race. And the issues of illegal or mass immigration from non-white places like Mexico. The book seems to be as much about the wealthy or upper middle classes cocooning themselves away from the rest of the population as it does about racial/ethnic issues.

A good chapter is chapter 6, the Geography of Homogeneity. This is where he discusses structural racism. A good quote, and relevant to Urban Ohio is (as part of a call to have a conversation about racial inequalities than about feelings): "So instead of asking Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? let us resolve to ask Why did Latinos and blacks, with comparable incomes and credit histories to whites, recieve a disporportionate share of predatory sub-prime loans leading to the home foreclosure crisis?"