Michael L. Redmond

Lets fill this blog up! I will put one in tomorrow and I hope to see dozens more from here posting on there.

"So if crime is down 25% then for every 4 shots that are fired, i only have a chance of getting hit with 3 now" Hummmm? toughy. Did you see Brian's remarks? District One, which includes downtown and OTR, has had 18 consecutive months of double digit decline in crime. When you compare 2007 to 2006, crime was down 25% and when you compare 2007 to 2002, crime is down 41%. In fact, District One now has the lowest crime statistics of Cincinnati's 5 districts. That means that downtown and OTR are now the safest neighborhoods in our city. What I find most offensive is that the one voice that should be supporting our city is instead perpetuating the perception based entirely on hearsay and talk when clearly the facts demonstrate otherwise. To date, private investment in the last two years totals nearly 80 million dollars in OTR. That investment, along with the hard work of the CPD, the Hamilton County Sheriff, and our entire community, significant positive changes have occurred in the lives of everyone who live, work, shop, and play in OTR. Clearly, we have more to do to make our entire city clean and safe, however, now is the time to embrace the significant changes and positively reinforce the progress we are making together.

The goal is to see an economically diverse community in OTR and this is the replacing of an already existing level of low income housing but at a much reduced overall percentage. We can absorb low income housing so long as it is properly managed, and is not at a disproportionate amount of the total. Bortz has it right when he says "We have to be very, very careful about creating additional subsidized housing in Over-the-Rhine," Bortz said. "A neighborhood can only sustain so much of a single demographic, especially if that single demographic is a high-risk population." Now with Landlord accountability, hopefully the management will be better than in the past.

Ok, found it. Here is the direct link. Everyone jump in and give your two cents. http://www.city-data.com/forum/cincinnati/261119-over-rhine-looking-good-3.html

Does anyone know anything about Wikipedia? I looked up OTR and under the revitalization efforts section, it is somewhat thin. Can we get more info put into this section and pictures? The revitalization section is about the same size as the Riots section yet it is the revitalization that is most dominant in todays OTR. Even the attractions could have more info on bock fest etc. and community organizations has the DIC and chemical dependency but doesnt mention the OTR Chamber, OTR Foundation, etc. Anyone have any suggestions on how to add to this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-Rhine Community organizations In April 2006, the low income housing organizations ReSTOC and the Over-the-Rhine Housing Network, merged to create Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. This organization works to develop affordable housing in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is also home to the Drop Inn Center, a homeless shelter which offers chemical dependency treatment.[6] Also is it possible to do one for each section of OTR? Ie Findlay that goes more in depth, Main Street, Gateway, Brewery Dist? We should have enough information just on here to pull from to have one of the most comprehensive wiki pages out there. But I need some help.

You are missing my point. CPS is sitting on assets that could be liquidated to help their financial problem. This goes beyond OTR, and is not about the development side, but on the disposition opportunity that they do not seem eager to do. I do not see this as being much different from someone asking for a handout with a Rolex dangling from their outstretched arm.

Thanks Max, I think this will be helpful. It will allow us to proactively advocate for OTR and change a few opinions here and there. Unfortunately, I am afraid we are going to have a long, long list but we will take it one at a time. Both of your post were great, and I think that specifics like these with the links directly to the information is very powerful. Also having several people backing up the information and adding to, lends tremendous credibility to our side. Good work! I am having to go back and forth with this person on here that keeps on insisting that it is not safe and somehow irresponsible to say otherwise. Fortunately, we have the truth on our side and a recent news story to help prove it. "Not good advice from you to them. But, now, that said, travelers, just ask your hotel. Be careful of first time posters." http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60993-i402-k986562-o30-O_T_R_your_opinion_please-Cincinnati_Ohio.html and this in response to facts, not opinions. We have been on the defensive too long, time to confront everyone with the facts, figures, and honest data that is proving us right more and more everyday.

Thomasbw, I, like you, feel that it is very important to offer the best education possible to the children of Cincinnati and I as a former student of Walnut Hills certainly benefited from this. That being said, this is less about the children's education, as they are the goal, but it is about the financing that gets us to this goal. I truly believe that we may indeed need a levy, but that levy should have been gap financing of the difference between the sales of the properties and the estimated needs of the system. But they are using this as sole financing and in my opinion, are not aggressively trying to liquidate these properties. Rothenburg, just sitting there. CPS can't work out a lease, let alone a sale to 3CDC for the Washington Park Elem. site. 9 schools up for sale and from what I hear there was an offer on all 9 that just fell apart. These empty buildings cost money to maintain and as long as they do not sell, that is capital that can not go to work for those children. My point is get this done first. If there is still money that is needed by the system then I believe that very few will have a problem with paying. But until then, I am filing for my abatement.

Great, I will go read it here in a minute. Someone needs to start a topic that is a tip sheet of sorts so we will know to go to these sites as soon as they pop up and rebut either false information or even overly negative information like was found on this site.

It is much more than a few acres. It is multiple unused school sites (some of which are not yet on the market) and land that they are sitting on. These are non preforming assets and needs to be liquidated first before going to the taxpayers.

Everyone on here should post there opinions and views of OTR on that site.

I was at Grammers on Tuesday and received the full tour. If you go into the back room, down the stairs and to the back of that room there is a door (it is locked) that leads through a basement and to a set of steps that leads you throughout the entire building. It looks like old, abandoned apartments upstairs. There are several bathtubs sitting around but otherwise very empty. Grammers is so much bigger than you would think.

Unless I misread this, they are saying they have a written lease agreement, but it only came up in a discussion about the reversion? If it isn't in the lease, then they do not have the right, statute of frauds. It says that 3CDC should have known, and then says it "needs to be a provision" does that mean that it was not a provision previously? It is either in there or not. I say make the reversion option only in the event of a default. I would like to see how this law was written because if it is just a flat out right, then 3CDC is absolutely correct and no one would ever invest a dime.

I guess its time to apply for my abatement.

^I am hearing primarily speculation about that, but I have not seen anything definitive that this is actually the case.

I am sitting down here right now and this is what I am hearing also that it was a warrant.

And I gladly give it to you! I as one of the little people, would just like to say thank you Randy. In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see how things progress through spring and summer. With this much momentum building through the winter, I feel pretty good.

I have initiated a scorched earth policy with this lady. She also said that Gateway is "(no longer OTR you should note)". When talking about Gateway or anything to do with OTR she never wants to speak in specifics, only generalities that have no grounding in fact. Now I think Justin Jeffre has stopped me from posting questions to him on the Beacon regarding him answering some of the rhetoric he is putting out. That is the most bizarre site I have ever seen with some of the most unreasonable, hypocritical people in this city.

I have always said the same thing, but when you look at some of the people who are going to Lavamatic, those were the people who I never thought would step foot in OTR yet there they are.

They helped, no doubt. But no one group is entirely responsible for the resurgence of OTR. It was the enforcement of both Dist 1 and the sheriffs, it was the development of 3CDC and all of the developers under them and individual rehabbers outside of Gateway. It was the people who looked beyond the negativity associated with OTR in the past and invested in the area by purchasing condos or renting apt. It was the shop owners who also took a chance by putting there business into the empty store fronts. It was even the media who has given OTR a fair shake and has begun to help change the image of OTR and downtown as a whole. Without any one of these groups or individuals then we would not be where we are. It is a perfect storm.

We used to say that about 12 and vine, then 13 and Vine, so 14 and Vine is next and on and on. It is a different OTR already but we do still have some hurtles to jump over and there will continue to be some challenges, but we are moving in the right direction.

I hope nobody minds me hopping on here and venting, but Energy Audit is exactly what I need for my house. I have been rehabbing a house and have not lived in it since Novemeber. The furnace is not hooked up, and I keep 2 lights on. The hotwater heater is turned almost all the way down. That is it, I don't even have a clock radio plugged in. So what is my bill for 1 month? $680 If anyone has any advise on what steps to take with the electric company, please advise away.

^and a revitalized OTR!

As a general statement sure, but things have happened historically that has permanently changed those demand cycles. Market rate demand took 50 years to return to the inner cities, it wasn't magical, but it was extraordinary. Could there be a shift from suburban to urban? If so, with a finite, or shrinking number in at least the short term who are seeking homes, does demand return to the same levels in the suburbs? So demand in general will return, but where does it return to?

I agree with JSkinner, this isnt a pricing issue, it is an enforcement issue. Those additional eyes in the windows not only put pressure on the drug dealers, but also on the drug buyers. Does that mean they go somewhere else? Yes, and probably to a place that currently is in the situation that OTR has historically been in. No one is trying to push out the poor, we are trying to push out a criminal element that exist both within the poor and the rich, I do not care which you are. As for the pricing, much of the continuing increase in demand will be offset by the next phase of supply. Is the demand gone here? Not last I checked, as a matter of a fact it is stronger here than it ever has been. Will that continue? I have reason to believe so. Throw in a streetcar and it is a done deal. The mixed income I do not believe will be as hard as you think. OTR and the CBD both are unique from most other neighborhoods in that individual streets are almost neighborhoods in and of themeselves. This allows for a 365,000 condo at the Duvenek to be across the street from ones in the low 100's and both being only blocks away from countless social services. I think that we will be able to have a tremendously diverse community, not just in Gateway, but neighborhood wide.