Michael L. Redmond

Quick word about this Thank God we are 21 and up and his son wouldn't have been allowed anyway. On behalf of the Main Street Entertainment District, we commend his strong stance against underaged drinking!

Just to be clear, you are talking about Grammers and not Martins, correct?

you and I are going to have to disagree in this specific case. A CPS neighborhood school is not a draw for those families in the 'burbs' a magnet school is. I just really feel that we have focused our efforts in the wrong direction here. Does it help Vernon Rader? Does it help North Main? Does it help Doug Spitz? Are those people with children in the burbs going to move to OTR so they can put their kids in Rothenburg? Will current families with children on streets such as Mulberry put their children in Rothenburg? I seriously doubt it. Rothenburg existed as a school before, and to what benefit? Vine St. Elem exist as a school now and to what benefit? The system yes, a specific neighborhood school that will be as lack luster as the rest of CPS's neighborhood schools is not. Otherwise, how is their curriculum going to differ, how will their teaching methods differ? They will not and the "system" will stay the same. We were trapped in a mode of thinking that was firmly 'in the box.' This is where the uphill battle is in OTR. We say we are the creative class but can not visualize anything other than the stated obvious--a school has to be a school. And this happens beyond just this one building, we repeat the same line of thinking because it is generally coming from the same people over and over again and to what avail...change? progress? not in my opinion. How much longer do you think the delay will be now that one levy has gone down, and how much longer when the next goes down as well? GBBN was the one who stated that it was cheaper to build new than renovate, and if it were true that CPS recommended the demo then why would "Rosa Blackwell recommended renovating historic Rothenberg School (instead of demolishing it)" Rothenberg was never going to be torn down. These are fear tactics that "we" put out there to get "our" way. Am I wrong? So was Bloom but the way Rothenburg had been explained to me was the "neighborhood demanded it" and stepped on its own foot in the process by missing other opportunities that they did not care to entertain.

Well, that could be the next jean ro's, who knows.

Welcome to Cincinnati. It is distressing when you look closer at who funds or makes possible many of the social services here in OTR, it is in many cases the last person or group who you would expect. Keep in mind that they justify this as "balance", a give and take that does nothing but interfere with the evolution of area.

Martin Wade, but same thing.

agreed, and that is certainly one way to look at it and if this is the way it pans out than I will jump on the bandwagon but I see the following: 1. A Great Non-Profit that was considering the site has decided to build a new building instead and leaving downtown. 2. The 200 plus people they could have brought will not A. Have lunch on Main at places like Kaldi's or Courtyard or the soon to come Martinos B. Go to Happy Hour at Miltons, Mr. Pitifuls, or the soon to come Speakeasy C. Purchase a home or rent an apartment in the general vicinity D. Go to any art gallery on Main or Pendleton, or spur any new boutique shops 3. A historic building would have been saved under this senerio as well 4. An empty building would have been reocupied while retaining a business in the downtown area But as I said, this ship has now sailed so yeah school! The general economic impact that Cincinnati neighborhood schools have on their surrounding communities are......well never mind, yeah school!

I am way late on this conversation so if someone else brought this up forgive me. I and my wife are friends with the Sturkeys, and to say that the close of Encore had anything to do with them is not telling the whole story. The Sturkey's have nothing to do with the Encores and haven't for a couple of years now due to a dispute with a partner. They even had to sue to get their name removed from the Wyoming location. Mesh is a successful, and completely separate restaurant whos location was picked due to a meeting with Jim Huff at the Mulberry Hill Tour for Life press party. Although I am generally quick to jump on something that shows a upswing in downtown and a downfall in the burbs, this one was an internal dispute with partners and the Sturkey's ultimately won.

depends on how you define victory.

I just heard that the bar at Grammers could be open within the next month or two. I am trying to find out more but I just saw work being done on the front windows.

I was amazed that I heard this story on national news.

The fact you even had that thought process makes me want to come to one of your parties.

Something about two wrongs making this guy get exactly what he deserved pops into my head.

not yet, it was open for new years but it is still a month or so out. then Harrys Pizza, to be named Pizza Bar will follow.

Cue is much more of a lounge type atmosphere, not so much a dance club and speakeasy will be even more laid back. the two are connected in the back so you can go from one to the other.

Officially, I do not believe so but I will try and get a date. They were open for New Years and so was Speakeasy (which is where I was) and they were packed. I hope that everyone here will go down and see Cue, help support Paul and prove to him, and everyone else that Main Street is the right choice.

And I do not disagree, however here in OTR it makes perfect sense to relocate some to a Westwood, Price Hill, etc. but I doubt that the other communities will see, perhaps the logic, but certainly not the benefit. But the bigger question is, does the social service see the logic or the benefit. I personally believe, and I could be wrong, that the reason of continued concentration, throughtout downtown is more of a social statement than anything and the more we fight them, put them in the paper, try and pay them off to relocate, the better off they are, both financially and message wise. To me, this is a complex problem.

Perhaps, or perhaps not--depends on where it goes. And even if this is the case, should that be the primary concern of OTR, that we do not want to export our problems to another community. We have to clean up our own back yard, and other communities have the same responsibility and for the past 50 years have been exporting their problems to OTR. We have to do what is best for our own community first, but as Max said, Queensgate is a win win. I said that with you in mind, happy new year Max. :wink2:

I think we are speaking to the same thing. First, OTR has to dry up as a homeless magnet, and with fewer vacant buildings, tighter policing, market rate redevelopment, and filled store fronts all lends to residents moving in and not putting up with the loitering, public intoxication and vagrancy. To me, this article was asking the question can one exist next to the other and I say yes, for a while, until you hit the tipping point where as you said, one puts pressure on the other. Right now we are going in a positive direction.

They sleep not in sewer grates, but in great parks such as Washington Park. I would love to see the drop inn center move along with several other social services to a place with less of an impact on the surrounding community and there are plenty of possibilities. That being said, Downtown, and OTR are unique communities in that you can have something like this and one block over have the Duveneck. Every street and every block is almost a community within itself. Mulberry and all of Prospect Hill sits within a stones throw of one of the biggest drug corners in all of Downtown, it affects us of course, but it doesn't stop us. The surest and quickest way to make places like the Drop Inn center want to relocate is the continued development and success of the Q. It is in their best interest to be where the homeless are and historically that has been right where they are at, but that is now changing.

I second that! However this is only the beginning. We will see spikes here and there but with a combined effort of both effective policing and aggressive development, we have turned a corner towards the positive.

Great article by Geoff, he is a true go getter who is also very involved in Main Street issues as well.

Main Street is in transition, but not as it sounds in this article. This oversimplified the realities on the ground here. The old Main is struggling but a new Main is on the verge of taking over. New restraunts, new bars, new condos and the old stuff, if it does not change to meet these new realities, will struggle. Everyone ask yourself, is Main Street better now, is there more activity then this same time last year? Are there more or less bars announcing on Main, are there more or less galleries on Main, are Final Fridays better or worse attended than a year ago? Look back on this thread from 1 year ago and see what everyone was saying, it wasn't Main is struggling, it was Main is dead. This is one of those statements that is blurted out with any real thought. Crime is down throughout all of OTR and this is directly attributable to developments such as the Q. I am the Captain of the Main Street Safety Sector and I can tell you, with reports in hand, crime is also down on Main. We have had problem venues, and we took care of them- we now have a problem location (hotspot) in front of Kaldis and we are taking action on that as well. Main Street will have problems along the way, all redevelopment does but to say "once trendy, now struggling" simply suggest that they have not been paying attention for the past decade.

I need some clarification here, I may have missed something..... ."..One thing is for sure my kids will never step foot as a student in a CPS School." "I am a Walnut Hills grad so I take some exception to that but I understand your point in general." I do not believe we are saying anything different with the exception of Walnut Hills High School. Or am I still missing something?

Actually it is CUE. Great place, more layed back than your typical club and there are two pool tables up front. This is the first in a series of new openings including SpeakEasy and Pizza Bar. The rest of the clubs and bars on Main are very different from both Red and Dream. These were the last two of the bad apples on the street.