Michael L. Redmond

With 19 and 27 months of inventory, sellers in Indian Hill and downtown must either be aggressive on price or willing to wait for the housing market to turn around, said local Realtors. From another local/downtown Realtor... Not true at all John. You and I usually agree when it comes to things for OTR and the CBD however this is very inaccurate and not what the article says. Those condos that are being subsidized in Downtown and OTR are selling faster than they can be listed in MLS in some cases. Look at the sales, downtown and OTR is one of the only places in Cincinnati that is still selling strong. And OTR is the strongest of the two. Out of 22 closed sales in the first 2 months in "city" which is CBD, OTR and Mt. Adams,-- Gateway represented 11 / half of all sales and and almost every single one at list. Do not make the mistake of pitting one project that clearly will help us against another project that clearly helps us. Without places like the condos, Lavamatic, Metronation, Mica, Park and Vine, and the increased safety that is achieved by the redevelopment of these spaces, the streetcar is not as viable nor is any other proposed initative. We can work together and achieve both.

We have some hill slippage right now. Seitz will probably be closed down this weekend.

There are a lot of things that do make and will make OTR a great community. The streetcar is one, but so much is happening everyday that is just as important and so many people are doing their part to make this the pride of Cincinnati. I hope people come down tomorrow, or any day for that matter and see the shop owners, condo owners, bar owners, theater and gallery owners who are investing in this community and show them the support they deserve. If we help build the businesses, help fill the condos, help put people in the seats and through the doors, then the streetcar will come, the crime will go, and Cincinnati will get back its greatest historical community.

Agreed.

^financing

I would like to invite everyone to a tour of Trideca tomorrow, Sat March 29th between 11-1:00. It will start at the front of the Duveneck and will go next door from there. Location: 1232 Vine Street Units: 9 loft style units As part of the expanding GATEWAY QUARTER, Trideca Lofts is located in the center of an urban renaissance designed to further home ownership, retail, services, and business in Over The Rhine. Situated on the corner of 13th and Vine, Trideca Lofts is the latest addtion to this exciting and popular area. Here is the map showing where Tideca is relative to the rest of the Q.

Create another thread and I will discuss how it does work and has other applications way beyond just a sewer system.

I bit my tongue on all of my sewer jokes and there you go....so disappointed. :wink:

Purely a function of money in vs money out.

^No creativity. We could keep the streetcar free and finish the entire line if we follow Akron's lead. Akron mayor wants to sell sewers, use cash to give free tuition Posted by Patrick O'Donnell February 07, 2008 22:35PM Categories: Breaking News, Education, Impact Akron -- Mayor Don Plusquellic wants to sell the city's sewer system and use the money to send residents to the University of Akron for free. Plusquellic said Thursday that his plan is to create a scholarship fund by selling the sewer system, which the city values at $100 million to $400 million. That would give the city enough money to cover tuition and fees for the university or a trade school in the city. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/02/akron_mayor_wants_to_sell_sewe.html

Park and Vine are selling T-shirts that I recommend anyone wear to IKEA (I like IKEA by the way) DOWNTOWN west chester SCARES ME!

^New, expanded or duplication. And it is two pronged. Pressure on the service and incentive for the recipient. This goes to my point that I have been trying to make to several groups who have initiatives on the table. Be careful that if your initiative goes down, that you can back out of your rhetoric, otherwise you leave a real mess in your wake.

Let me say this, we have to make it a positive step. Alone it is not and will send the wrong message and reinforce the perception that we are a dumping ground down here. Lets put out there that we are pleased because it will allow for consolidation of the 1 per block social service problem here in OTR into the giant, 11 million dollar, 5 acre social service mall. No need for any other expansions, no need for funding outside of Citylink, no reason to stay in current locations when it is services are being duplicated only a half mile away. There should be accompanying comments about this at every site that discusses Citylink. Even the West enders should support this. By doing this and forcing not just the social services, but convincing the recipients of the service that they should go to this site, then this becomes a zero sum game as opposed to what the anti-citylink group said about busing in homeless from the entire region. Lets help fill the place up.

At this point we have to say we lost the fight of stopping this but how can we either limit the damage or use it as a tool to stop future social services. Bottom line, and I know this flies in the face of the rhetoric that was coming out of the anti-Citylink group, this will absorb some, not all, social services in OTR. Look at who is part of this, some are groups who are here in OTR. If they are being pressured to relocate, which many have now for a couple of years this could give them a way out. Others who are asking to expand when arguing need, will have this to 'compete' with. Every social service here that goes to the city, or is fighting for donations now will hear a giant sucking sound emanating from the West End. We now have the task of backing out of our own rhetoric and saying that the West End and OTR by extension, is not doomed because this is being built. The realities of Citylink will have to be accepted and hedged in other ways. I am afraid that over the next few days or weeks we are going to hear horror story scenerios put out there that will only make things worse. Lets everyone try and take a different route and say that this does give other social services a reason to relocate or be absorbed by this social service mall. I say hit the blogs, write to the papers etc, put this scenario out and put pressure on the existing social services.

So no one rebut him from here on? Ok, I will bite my tongue, let him say whatever and as much as he wants. Not generally how I do things but I am willing to take one for the team.

If we are not to confront attacks, just let them go, and let these boards be filled up with baseless accusations and falsehoods, then what is the point? Either he discuss the issues that he is throwing out there or ban the guy. I prefer to discuss. And channel 19 needs to be confronted as well and have to present a REconsider this. We have one of the lowest crime rates of all 5 districts and with landlord accountability act now in place, this is just misinformation. It should not be dismissed, it should be confronted and corrected.

Hit and run, as opposed to stand and fight seems to be his tactic. It demonstrates how little he knows.

It is funny that he still wants to make the gentrification argument on here and will not debate me one bit when I throw facts in his face on another thread.

It was being done with the prisoners and I do know that individual property owners of especially low income properties will pay or otherwise incentivise a tenant to do this. When OTR was its cleanest was when Brantley Services had crews cleaning OTR and hopefully we can get them back. Its a good idea and if an existing, not a new, social service mobilized some of their people then I would be all for it.

me either, we fight these preconceived notions daily

Well there is a lot of truth to it however. I would not say that they are totally monolithic but it is what it is.

The same could be said for OTR and Mt. Auburn.

This has been underway for almost a year now and known as Vitality OTR. We are preparing to talk to the stakeholders now to work out a service plan, legal is already complete. We also have been talking to Ginsburg about the possibility of DCI expansion however their renewal is 2009 and efforts are already underway to renew their stakeholders without an expansion meaning our next opportunity to expand DCI (if they could get the vote) would be 2014. Vitality could be up and running in 18 months. Vitality Over-the-Rhine to create incentive district BY KEVIN LEMASTER | BUILDING CINCINNATI October 29, 2007 OVER-THE-RHINE - Vitality Over-the-Rhine has launched an initiative targeted at clean and safe issues and long-term development along the Main Street corridor. The working group, which is composed of professionals with a stake in the neighborhood, is investigating the feasibility of creating a special improvement district (SID). SIDs (sometimes known as Business Improvement Districts) are public-private partnerships in which property owners agree to a special tax assessment that will be used for anything from development projects to maintenance to additional safety personnel. Any additional services gained from the assessment are in addition to normal public services provided by the city as a whole. The most visible local SID, the Downtown Cincinnati Improvement District, has been in operation since 1998 and consists of over 300 property owners. So far, the group has been measuring the assessed value and frontage of property owners within the proposed SID and have drawn up a draft services plan. They have also teamed up with the law firm Coolige Wall, LPA, who wrote the Ohio Revised Code statute providing for special improvement districts. Vitality Over-the-Rhine now hopes to work with two of its partners, Downtown Cincinnati Inc. and the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, to gather input on the proposed services plan. After gathering input, the group will work to form a final, comprehensive public services plan that they can submit to City Council for consideration of the SID's creation. The Vitality Over-the-Rhine District Coordinator explains that to effect the greatest amount of change in the shortest amount of time, the geographical scope had to be limited to a highly-visible part of the neighborhood. He hopes that this will be a sustainable model which can be duplicated in other parts of the neighborhood. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SID is only part of the answer though. We still need to adopt the principles that I stated in the past page or two on top of the SID. In a way, the SID can help facilitate that but I do not think that you will see the language in the Service Plan that would call for the commercial lease changes. Urban Sites was trying to do the same thing in the old Lawyers Title building and so far unsuccessful. I would be all for it and is certainly an appropriate fit for an entertainment dist. And as for the Exchange, you do realize that is no longer there right?

When I grew up in Amberly it was almost entirely Jewish. Now with Rollman Estates and Rollman Reserve it is a mix of everyone.

Perhaps of the city, but I do not believe the county plus you may be correct in real numbers, but not necessarily percentage voter turn out in that election cycle. I to would like to see the real numbers as I heard much of this information by way of seeing the amount of negative campaigning primarily in the suburbs and hearing the view points of the suburban vs urban circles I am in.