Michael L. Redmond

Thank you. It is good to be back. OTR has had many such frustrating articles that were not only ill informed but simply had the wrong information. This is why it is so important for us to respond and set the record straight. That helps a reader who may just stumble on the article see both sides of an argument and help them make a more informed decision as to what is truly happening here and it puts the writer on notice that they will be called on journalistic negligence. The Cincinnati Beacon had done the same thing with 3CDC regarding a building they claimed had kicked out people. When delving further into the information they presented as fact it turned out they only sourced a Street Vibes article and made no effort to speak to anyone on the development side at all. The only explanation I got from Justin Jeffre was they did not have the staff to adequately research a subject before they trashed it. This particular reporter at the News Record is probably going to end up at a paper like Street Vibes that is interested in only pushing an agenda rather than reporting accurate information.

Yet another "exposing gentrification" article by a misinformed college student. http://www.newsrecord.org/sections/spotlight/exposing-gentrification-1.1726446 Please tell this "reporter" what is truly going on in OTR today.

The free market directs a property owner to put their property to the highest and best use in order to maximize price. That use may be to cater to a low income as that is what the neighborhood and property will bear. Section 8 has historically distorted that by offering a higher price for less than best use and fundamentally changing the dynamics of neighborhoods thereby destroying it. Not all low income properties have to accept Section 8 yet they still exist and always have. That is due to a recent change to vouchers in 2000 due to the failure of project based that preceded it. It is over simplified in only that it doesn't distinguish between project based and vouchers. The failure of project based was not in the housing itself but rather the motivations of crime and poverty containment that it sought. The Housing Authority has a fundamental conflict in goals to the free market forces that naturally drive a neighborhood up or down. Public housing was a tool for social manipulation rather than a benevolent means of providing a home to those who needed it. Thankfully, today we are moving in a direction that is seeing choice introduced into a system that oppressed families into living in both crime and dilapidation for generations. This is allowing for natural movements into market places that have been artificially protected for 40 years from those that have been artificially depressed for the same amount of time. Even this is not the full extent of the manipulation of the market as we are now seeing some building rehabs funded by low income tax credits that keep a building low income for a period of up to 15 years regardless of market demand. So we do have price controls in effect dependent on the funding sources. Some would say this is good in that it keeps low income inventory (in places that have an over abundance of low income inventory) yet what does that do to adjacent properties that used private monies to fund a rehab for the purposes of market rate rental or ownership? One move of manipulation has countless unintended consequences so the choice comes down to who do you trust more, local market forces or centralized bureaucracy?

well there is the tourette building and several others in and around OTR and the West End. As was mentioned above, historic does encourage a certain differentiating between old and new and as was also mentioned above, when old is replicated, it is rarely replicated well (although we all appreciate the effort). Trinity needs to be different. Consider it a new anchor on Vine that needs to stand out, and reestablish a new footstep on the path to total redevelopment of that street. Also, it provides a different product type that appeals to an even broader demographic who like the old, but prefer the new. Trinity is a statement building but keep your eye on Mottainai (Republic St) as well as that has one of the most inovative interiors to date and is LEED certified as Blue Line wanted. Holds have already been placed on multiple units in this building.

95 Mulberry would be a huge loss to the street. Plus it would be a difficult teardown as you have two occupied buildings on either side of it on. This is the house that originally attracted Holly and I to Mulberry. Tear down Larry, not 95.

Yeah? I think you slightly misread that in that it is part of phase IV but not necessarily part of Mercer Commons (which itself happens to be part of phase IV) but like I said, who cares. I was just found myself jumping all over the place looking for 'Gateway' but you break it up as you see fit and I will gladly go along for the ride.

I am glad someone can keep track of it then. So why is the Barn on Mercer and not part of Gateway if it is actually part of the Model Development on Vine? Ahhhh, who cares.

The one next to the red is where their son lives. But there has been some action on the red one as well but I do not know if that is them or not.

Definitely the top. I don't know if the red one is theirs or not.

Then can I get a mod to merge the Mulberry/prospect Hill thread here. Or just updates on my personal home can go on here. :-o

^I am not holding my breath. There is movement by the Fielers (developers of the Ft. Washington and 2 homes on Milton) on their properties to the East of Vernon Raders at Liberty and Hughes.

And they just seem to overlap. Even parts of the Q are spread out into at least 4.

Is the breaking up of the Gateway Quarter of 4 or 5 threads supposed to make this easier somehow?

it was a restaurant at one time. I would say it went up sometime in the '80's. It has approx. the same historical significance to OTR as the Kentucky Fried Chicken building on Liberty.

well buy it from model and get building. YES YOU CAN ! (is this a going to be a cash deal?)

and even a parking lot is better than a big red chicken barn

I did not say that, I said it would be a parking garage. What the specific design plan on said garage is, I don't know.

I can't imagine it would have a retail component.

^it will be a parking garage. That space is also owned by Model.

You and I had two very different experiences in the same neighborhood. I and my wife walked right in. No line whatsoever.

^ :x We had the new york dry cleaner on Main but they retired about a year or so ago. I would lobby for these things to Kathleen Norris by sending in emails to the Gateway office. This is the surest way that we have a retail/service mix that best reflects the residents or hopefully soon to be residents. Never assume they have thought of everything. [email protected]

Someone else brought that up either here or on another thread. Randy Simes had a good follow up point about that in that OTR may not be a "draw" in and of itself, but when people do come to Cincinnati for conventions or any other reason, OTR is on their must see list. There are any number of reasons to go to OTR and there always has; Findlay, Music Hall, all of the theaters, Final Friday, Second Sundays, specialty shops, the architecture etc. but we were never short on that. The big thing will be the removal of the reasons not to go to OTR; Crime, blight etc. The latter is what will free up OTR to realize its full potential and we are well on our way.

I don't know if that is necessarily naive or insightful as to what it will take to get some to reconsider OTR-product familiarity (but I don't see that ever happening). Slowly but surely I am hearing a chorus change that once said "who would ever want to live in OTR and Downtown" to "I hear OTR is doing very well" (and then they temper that with a "I would still never live there") but I see a softening in the hardline position that OTR could never make it. Part of this is a perception change with the constant good news that is coming out of both Gateway and the CBD and the other part is a reality change that no longer hears of another shooting on the streets of OTR every morning on 700 WLW. One day people will forget what OTR was for the past 50 years, just the same as they forgot what it was the previous 50 years before that. The problem is just getting to that tipping point but I truly believe that the hardest work is behind us now and there is enough of a foothold and enough results from the sales team that OTR is going to be the next hotspot for Cincinnati.

Many already are. Unfortunately, at the same time some building mat. suppliers have gone out of business in the interim which had caused a hold up at Trinity Flats.

Correction for above... Bremen has 17 and is fully sold out, Centenial has 8 and 1 sold.